These Hard Times

It's been a rough day. Mandi has had bad news about her car, and I believe that I pulled my hamstring tonight playing frisbee in an attempt at a D. At the moment it doesn't feel too terrible, but I have a feeling that tomorrow will be quite a bit worse. For the moment, though, it's sleeping with it elevated, and putting ice packs on it and attempting to stretch it. I've never really had a pulled muscle in all my years of sports, which is quite surprising because I am certainly not a very flexible individual. I've had all sorts of problems with cramping, but never a pull. I guess I just don't really know what to do, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe it'll turn out that I just tweaked it a little, and I'll be good as new tomorrow. One can only hope.

Being one of the 3 shows that I watch on TV on a regular basis, I was remiss in not inviting all who read this (I'm sorry if you're among those...) that House started again on Fox last Tuesday. Seeing as how it is once again a Tuesday, the second episode of the season aired tonight. It started quite promisingly last week, and for those of you (Paul) who failed to see the end of last season, you'll probably be confused at what is going on (but rest assured when you get back I'll hopefully have all the episodes from where you left off). But it looks like it's going to be a good season, and who can really not love the character of House anyway. Hugh Laurie is quite the actor, and I'm inclined to think that I should maybe see some of the other things that he's been in. If you're new to the show, let it be known that he's British, and if you hear him speak on the show, you'd never guess. In addition to being a talented musician, he's a skilled actor who really makes that show tick. Catch it if you have the time.

The UEFA Champions League continues with Matchday 2 today and tomorrow. It's unfortunate that ESPN2 has been stuck with some pretty boring games the past 3 broadcasts. Not that it's their fault, as Manchester United is a potent attacking force with some brilliant players, but they have failed to spark the imagination this term, and has led to some rather slow games. Tomorrow is Liverpool vs. Marseille, but I don't know if it will be much better given Liverpool's previous outing. Of more interest are the games on ESPN Classic that air at 5 ET that show Barcelona and Real Madrid playing. It is still early in the season, so it can only get better from here though.

In music news, today was the release of the matchbox twenty retrospective album "Exile On Mainstream". This is exciting for me since they were the first band that I actually bought an album of, and the fact that I like their music, and they haven't done anything new for 5 years (their last release was in November of 2002). If you head to their web-page you will get to hear the 6 new tracks that they've written for the album (including the track for the title of today's post). Of the 6, I probably like All Your Reasons the best, but all 6 are good. They are certainly different compared to their earlier songs, mainly due to the fact that the band as a whole is writing the songs, rather than their lead singer Rob Thomas writing everything on his own. I think the collaboration does the band well, especially since Thomas has a successful solo career as well after his 2005 release. At any rate, I'm excited about the new songs, and looking forward to what they do in the next couple years.

I got to see one of the funniest Sonic commercials to have come out for a while last night. It was the husband-wife team, with them enjoying the new ice latte's I believe. So they're drinking them, and the wife says, "Ha! I've got a mustache!" The guy casually continues drinking his while saying, "You can only see it in direct sunlight." The wife glares. And I can't stop laughing. Classic.