New years prediction

This happens to be a milestone on this blog this is #150 on my posts. It also happens to be another time for new years predictions. I just look back on last year's post on my predictions. I was really surprise that I got a lot of them right this year.

#1 I finally pay off the credit card on May 15

#2 Gov. Blagovich was removed from office

#3 Obama selceted Sonya Sotomayor as newest supreme court justice

#4 In late Novemeber the unemployment rate saw double digits

#5 stock market did dip below 7,000

Those were the ones I got right...the others were wrong or were judgement calls......look on January 2009 and see for yourself.


Now for this year's predictions

#1 A major world leader will get himself into some major hot water (I know this one is kind of vague, but trust me on this one)

#2 The San Diego chargers will win the Superbowl this year

#3 Kansas Jayhawks will win the National men's basketball championship

#4 Health Care Reform will not pass this year.....(with this being a mid term election year)

#5 On the TV show "the office" Pam's little baby will be a boy and Michael Scott will have to drive her to the hospital because Jim is stuck at airport because of sales meeting. ( It could happen)

#6 A major hurrricane will hit the east coast this year

#7 Commerical real estate is really going to get hit hard this year as you see even more empty buildings.

#8 The Jay leno show this year will be eithier cancelled or will be shown on a partial basis say like only one or two nights a week.

#9 The post office this year will finally stop delievering mail on Saturdays.

#10 The Kansas city royals will just be the royals a below 500 team again this year.

Chew on that folks for this year

Signed
Tim " happy new decade" Crippen

Christmas Day 2009 and a sad lost in the sportsworld

Well here it is Christmas Day 2009 and yes we had a white Christmas of six inches of snow and blizzard like conditions. Some of the snow drifts were about as high as my knee cap, but it is great to spend time with family. Here is a snow picture outside my parents doorway.

Then Stinky the neighborhood dog messes up the drift ......Ugh

Then here is me waxing on and waxing off my gift

Also, I hate talking about bad news on the holidays, but George Michael the guy who created the "The sports machine" passed away from cancer on Christmas Eve. This guy was an influence on me because the show started in Washington D.C. before the show was syndicated nationally. The sports machine was big deal because the show started before ESPN was household name. George Michael even made sports that weren't so popular at the time a highlight show like NASCAR and Professional Bull Riding. A great sports journalist and a classy guy.

Signed

Tim "merry christmas" Crippen

PS: To John and Kim Lovitt just be glad your in Africa and not in K.C. right now.

Plaza Lights 2009

Taste testing

Besides my love for sports one of my other things I enjoy is that I love to eat. With Thanksgiving just around the corner......I'll probably be packing on the calories. However, this past Tuesday for the first time I got to do some taste testing at a resteraunt called Noodles and Co. My friend Daniel invited me and four others to do some taste testing. Now, this was my first time testing so I really appreciate Daniel invited me over for this.....hey it was free meal so I couldn't complain.

Anyway, we started off with a Mediterranean and a Chinese chop salad. Both very excellent. Then came the noodles from Mediterranean menu as the Penne Rosa and the Pesto Cavatappi just literally pop out. The pesto cream sauce on the Cavatappi was like wow. The Penne Rosa was just as good as the spicy tomato cream sauce was the perfect blend of not too mild and not too spicy.

Next came the Asian menu of the Japanese Pan noodles and Pad thai. The pan noodles were my favorite as they were caramelized and came with a little bit of cilantro.

And last but not least the American menu of Mac and cheese and Mushroom stroganoff. The mac and cheese was much better than that blue box if you know what i mean. A blend of six cheeses makes this dish very unique and the stroganoff what can I say it makes hamburger helper beg for mercy.

This place is great for anyone who is on a budget, anyone who is vegetarian and anybody who wants to eat healthy without giving up on taste. Hey, if any other resteraunts needs a taste tester then I am your man.

Signed
Tim "love the potstickers" Crippen

What has happen to freedom of speech

I have come to a conclusion that we in this country are way to super sensitive when it comes to racial issues, slang terms and stereotypes. I will give you some examples.
Earlier this week, Larry Johnson of the K.C. chiefs use the word faggot on his twitter account and to reporters in the locker room. Now, I'm not defending L.J. because he use the word as slang term for a male homosexual. But, let's look back two years ago when former college basketball analyst Billy Packer in a interview with Charlie Rose told charlie that he was faggoting out. Now, packer when he use the term he was referring to the definition as being tired out. So, what's the difference the way it was used? Different generations? Or, it is the climate that we live in.

Another example is Bob Griese ESPN analyst was suspended this week for his comments he made about Juan Pablo Montoyo. They were looking at the Nascar leaders in the race for the chase and his partner was asking "Where's Juan Pablo Montoyo?" Well, Bob Griese said "maybe he went to get a taco." As a joke I thought it was funny ,but the higher ranks of ESPN didn't think so.



Folks, we need to get a hold of ourselves and not take life so serious. In this country we either need to restrict our freedom of speech so that everybody is protected or keep unlimited freedom of speech where everyone can say what they want to say and not get hurt.

Signed
Tim "proud of the first amendment" Crippen

I'm sorry but you have the wrong number

About a month and a half ago.....I decided to switch cell phone companies and got myself a new number. Well, since the switch I have had numerous calls, text messages, text pictures that were sent to me, but were for the wrong person. Here are just some examples:





Ring, Ring, Ring, : Hello this is Bank of America is Adrianne ***** here.....NO....you have the wrong number.





Ring, Ring, Ring: Text message........Why haven't you call me recently we need to get together and hang out Sara......Reply to text message Who is Sara? Reply Back: This isn't Adrianne **** Reply: NO...I think you have the wrong number. Reply: sorry



Ring, ring,ring: Picture message: whoa!!! I can't show that on this blog or even talk about it. This Adrianne must have some weird and freaky friends.



Ring, ring, ring: Hello this is the Orkin man we need to take a look at your house for termites is Adrianne home? No you have the wrong number.





So Adrianne ***** I'm asking you real nicely to take care of your bank statements, hang out with your friends, get that termite problem taken careof and for the love of God give them your new cell phone number otherwise I might look like this guy in another ten years.


Signed
Tim "just leave me alone" Crippen

Another year older and another first

Well here it is again folks another year.......another birthday. I am a 34 year old man who on some days feels like he's 44 or even 54. As usual my folks celebrated my birthday by getting me a cake. As you will see it is a Chiefs cake....and for people who know me well....I am a Bears fan....not that I don't root for the chiefs....that's just my team.

Also my folks took me to this wonderful great authentic mexican restaurant in Parkville, MO called Agave mexican restaurant and cantina. Very good food for family owned place. If you go there you should try the spinach enchiladas and to top it off have a mexican cheesecake. It has a dry corn husk that is used as a bowl. Inside is a cream brulee with a carmel topping and some raspberry sauce on the side.......YummmmmmmmmY.

There happen to be another first in my life as I got to go see the Nascar time trials yesterday...Now, I'll admit before I went to the speedway I wasn't a big racing fan, but I never had been to the speedway or been in the infield until yesterday when I got to do both.

When I first got there and I went to the grandstand area....the first words that came out of my mouth was "Oh wow".

Then I headed over to infield, but to get there you have to head down some stairs into turn one. You go underneath a tunnel that is under the track and it lead you upstairs to the infield. You can see in the above picture where victory lane and the garages are located. Here is just a close up area of the garage where pit crews are fixing their cars to meet the right specifications and where fans can try to get an autograph of one of their favorite drivers.

I didn't see any drivers except for Jeff Gordon, but that was because he just finish using the restroom and waved to all the fans.

It's one thing when you see these cars on TV run on the tracks how fast they go, but when you see it in person it gives you more of appreciation of how hard these drivers have to concentrate when your going 175 miles per hour. It was actually a really neat experience and I would recommend anyone to try it just once. I may not always come out on top, but this birthday celebration and seeing the time trials made me feel like a true champion.

Signed

Tim "in victory lane" Crippen

PS: For ten dollars it was worth it

State Fair 2009

As September comes the three F's come into place.....Fall Weather, Football and the Fair. This year's fair was more unique as far as weather wise. Cloudy and cool and in the upper 70's all weekend long. Sure, the fair has some of the old unique events like the pig races, the chainsaw artist and of course the butter sculpture.

This year it was a horse and a shoeman.

New this year was a comic hyponist.......very funny. He put these people in this certain state of mind. He made people lose their bellybuttons, use the restroom and made people think their chairs were cow utters as they were milking away. Wether it's fake or not I don't know, but it made me laugh.

(The power of suggestion)

Then I saw one of my favorite bands : Huey Lewis and News. The show was pretty good....I wish he would have played "Couple day off" and "I know what I like to do" but hey I got a good seat and good show.

Heuy rocking the stage

And to top things off a very nice view of the midway from the ferris wheel

Signed

Tim "enjoyed the fair" Crippen

Why I think August is a boring month.

It has been awhile since I have written a post, but I mostly did this on purpose for this particular month. I've alwalys felt August was the most boring month of the year because any other time of the year there is something to celebrate. Let's start with January you got New Year's Day, February you have Valentine's Day, March you have St. Paddy Day, the beginning of spring and of course March maddness, April is fool's day and the start of baseball season, May has memorial day and June has flag day and the official start of summer. Sure there is the fourth in July and september starts the fall as well as football season. October has Halloween....November has thanksgiving and at the end of the year you have Christmas.

Now, I know some people would say that because I'm single and I'm not a parent that I should celebrate August like any other month. That's true because if I was parent I would celebrate august because kids would be heading off to school and it's also the last month you can get family vacation before you send them back. I know that I'm getting old when they are starting to send kids back to school in mid august. I remember when school didn't start until after Labor Day....that just shows my age. However, until that day comes I will still think of August as a boring month.

Signed
Tim " ready for fall and football to get started" Crippen

A day at Schlitterbahn

With summer half over and also having a day off from work today, I decided to go the newest waterpark here in Kansas city. Schlitterbahn just open on July 16th and when I heard that.....I thought I have to go there the first chance I get......well today was the day and wow they did a pretty good job. It's not completely done, but for the portion that was done......it was great. All the rides or area is connected to a river system that you can get to by a tube. From the three water slides named bahnzai, wolfpack, and black night to the main attraction the uphill water coaster named the storm blaster. This place had something for all ages including a hot tub area named Henry's Hideout where you can belly up to the bar for a cool coke or adult beverage. It was nice day to get out there anyway sunny and 83 with a little wind. If you want to get your waterpark fix in before summer ends....I would recommend it, but if you can wait or year or two it will be much better.

Signed
Tim "enjoying a weird summer" Crippen

I am eithier getting old or time is passing me by

This past weekend I happen to see a promo on ABC for the game show "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" I guess in august the show will celebrate it's 10th Anniversary in this country. Ten years? Has it been that long.....I remember when it first premiere......even Regis looks like he's getting older, but then again aren't we all. This also happens to be my 15 year high school reunion, but I haven't heard if were having one. Where does the time go? It seems like the things I remember from yesterday are coming to the historic milestones. However, this year hasn't been wasteful...in fact you might say it has been productive so far. I mean....I'm officially debt free. I'm finally under 250 lbs.....it's still a long ways away, but were making progressive. I'm up for a promotion at work and hopefully this upcoming semester I hope to be taking a class in sports management. I have to say that God this year has truly blessed me and that he has much more in store for me than I can possibly even imagine. Even if I am getting older.

Signed
Tim "enjoying the moment" Crippen

Fourth of July in D.C.

After some long days at work this past weekend it was so nice to get away for the holiday season. What better time to see the fourth of July then at our nation's capitol. I pretty much got to see and do everything I wanted to do.

The first thing we did was to go to Harper's Ferry, WV. I did tubing for the very first time.....at first I was wondering what did I get myself into, but I realize eventually that your suppose to let the river do most of the work for you. Other than couple of times flipping over and getting a bruised elbow....I say for a first timer I did pretty good. Went to a Nationals game with Paul (Crystal's brother) and saw fireworks afterward....very cool.

Next day; Paul and I, went to the Baltimore Aquarium

This picture is just one of the examples of how colorful the place was....I thought the price was a little high, but hey you only live once. Also, went to Camden yards...hoping to get a public tour, but instead they weren't giving out tours so we just went around the stadium and did our own self tour. Afterward Paul and I went to Fort McHenry where the Star Spangled Banner was created. It was also a prison to people who were southern sympathizers. The museum was pretty cool with some artifacts like a silver punch bowl shaped like cannonball. This picture below shows how big the cannons were during the war. Although, my big gun arms are a close second just kidding.

Fireworks at D.C. on top of the hill at Fort Meyer

I should give thanks to my brother and my sister in law for putting up with me this past weekend. I know sometimes I don't show it or say it, but I really did have great time out there.

Signed

Tim "back to the old grind" Crippen

Will there be democracy in Iran?

This week has been very interesting on the other side of the world. About a week ago, Iran held their elections and the current regime won. Not happy with the results, the opposition in thousands protested the results saying the election was rigged. At first I thought these protest would only last maybe two or three days. Surprisingly, this has been going on for a whole week and there doesn't seem to be a let up. The younger generation having been wanting a change for such a long time.....and who knows they might just get it. Today, was no different as people still kept on protesting as a video revolution showing images that might be too hard to watch. I saw one woman who was wounded and died later on camera. Seeing these images just makes me cringe.......I think about what happen in Eastern Europe in the early 90's or Tinnamen Square in Bejing China where in both cases people were wanting change in their country.

In fact watch the movie "The Patriot" starring Mel Gibson. Even in our own country regular citizens died for their own freedom who weren't even participating in the revoluionary war. Maybe, just maybe we will start to see freedom in the Middle East like places like Iraq, Afghanistan and even in Iran.

signed
Tim "freedom isn't free" Crippen

The Hangover

What do you get when you put a groom, a school teacher, a dentist and one weird future brother in law in which they spend a night in Vegas. You get one funny comedy in the movie "the hangover". It all starts when doug who is getting married in two days decides to spend his bachelor party in Vegas. What looks like a typical bachelor party turns out to be a nightmare when all of them are so out of it they don't remember anything from last night. Their friend doug is missing throughtout the whole movie as they get little clues as they try to remember what all they did wrong. Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms steal this movie and even the future brother in law gets a few laughs as well. From a missing tooth to stealing a cop car to even a tiger being in their bedroom suite it just seems to eithir get weirder or funnier depending on your perspective. Mike Tyson even makes an appearance in the film and plays a part on finding their friend. If they had cut a portion of the language and all of the nudity......the film would have been really great. If I had to give a rating for the film I would give it two and half stars out of four.

Signed
Tim "really hungover" NOT" Crippen

A sad story and my thoughts on the last tonight show

When I got up from my nap this afternoon and tune into the news, I saw that Dr. George tiller the famous doctor from Wichita who performed late term abortions was killed in his church this morning. They even arrested the suspect. Now when this story came out my first thoughts are that the media is going to treat Christians as bunch of hateful people who are nothing on but getting venegeance. That is nothing further from the truth. I also find it ironic that a man who attends a church and calls himself christian can do such a horrible thing as killing life of the unborn. Now, I'm not condoning what the person did because I think about the time when Jesus was being taken away and Peter cut off the ear of a Roman soldier. he said to Peter "Have you come out against a thief with swords and with clubs to take me.....I was daily with you in the temple teaching and ye took me not the scriptures must be fullfilled (Mark 14:48-49). See, I think that no court sytem, no killing will bring justice to the situation. Only God will judge this man and we should leave it to him on what he decides to do with Dr. Tiller.

Now, my thoughts on the last Tonight show with Jay Leno ......it was okay, but it felt like another show instead of the last show. I think it was because that Leno will back in primetime and is not leaving. When I saw Johnny Carson last show it felt like I was missing a late night friend with Jay it felt like .....I'll be gone but only for three months. Oh well....good luck to Conan as he starts tomorrow and good luck to Jay as he starts his show in September.

Signed
Tim "feeling allright" Crippen

I'm Debt FREE!!!!! FREEEEDOM!!!!

Twenty months ago, I took the course that many people have taken at least once in your life. The Financial Peace University hosted by Dave Ramsey. Now, while I was still in Wichita I had heard of him, but really didn't know much about him. After completing his course.......I started to realize why he is such a popular guy. For years.......I was spending money I really didn't have.....whether it was going to trips to New york City or Peurta Vallarta. Then eating out at the most fancy restaurant's in Wichita (and yes there are some fancy ones out there). It seem like everytime I got a paycheck ......I needed to spend it. Before you know it I was like Gomer Pyle saying "Shazam, where did it all go." No more.......yesterday I made my last payment to my credit card.......and now I'm officially debt free. I would have finished this last year, but I needed the car because my truck was getting old and beat up. How does it feel to be debt free? I don't think it will hit me until next month when I don't have to write a check to these snakes. I did celebrate this milestone......Yesterday at work it just happen to be employee appreciation day. I decided to pin a sign on the front of my shirt so that people can read it. It says " Today, I am debt free." Mostly, I got a lot of congratulations others seemed to be jealous and few people thought I might have been weird. Hey, if being debt free makes me weird so be it.

Sincerely,
Tim "feeling really good" Crippen

Baby birds in my dad's pick up truck

When you hear sounds of chirping baby birds acting like they haven't had a meal in awhile this isn't where you thought they would be.

Mass Hysteria over swine flu

I know that this blog post that people won't agree with me, but I'm going to speak my mind. This past week the local as well asthe national media has been starting out their newscast with stories about the swine flu. Now, I'm not saying that it doesn't exist. What I am saying is that it not a pandemic. Maybe in other parts of the world, but here in the U.S. only what one person has died. More people have died from measles or mumps back in the early 20th century. This is so much a scare tactic that people at my workplace have used it as an excuse to get out of work. You might have the flu, but your chances are not that of swine flu....unless of course you just recently got back from Mexico. I'm not so much mad at the disease then I am against the media who hype this thing up.....what was it a slow newsday at work....Come on this about as bad as that MSNBC report saying that global warming is going to cause the north pole to melt and oceans to flood coastal cities like NYC by 2013......we'll see these people need to be held accountable. Anyway, I digress......the swine flu hopefully within a few weeks we'll be an old news story just like bird flu and the west nile virus it will all be just another flash in the pan.

Signed
Tim " pass me the bacon" Crippen

Kansas City Tea Party 2009

My first ever protest or rally whatever you want to call it happen this past tax day here in Kansas City and around the nation. No, I didn't have sign ,but if I did it would have said this "If 10% is good enough for Jesus, it ought be good enough for Uncle Sam." This issue isn't a Republican issue or a Democrat issue it's a American issue of government irresposiblity. Here's a few pictures at the rally.

Signed

Tim "had fun at the rally" Crippen

Good Friday at the New K

I woke up on a Friday morning to some rain, but as my half day of work came to an end the sun came out and my cousin and I went to the home opener at the new K. I must admit the place was great. There were parts of that stadium that I didn't even recognize. From the sports bar with a party deck in the right field to the new fountain seats in left field it really was a sight to see, but don't let my words be your judge. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

In the end however the Royals lost to the yankees 4-1......oh well there is a lot of baseball left.

Signed

Tim "enjoyed my half day off to see home opener" Crippen