Way Too Much Time on My Hands

I fully acknowledge that I have a pretty awesome job that I love. Fortunately or unfortunately it is impossible to do my job for 24 hours. Being away from the comforts of home I sometimes have a lot of time on my hands. The other day I was going through my DVD collection and realized that I never watched season 3 of 24. That was a huge mistake on my part because it was a great season not to mention an awesome show.

For about a week I watched the 24 episodes of the season. My teammates got annoyed at me and my idolization over Jack Bauer and how he is the man. So I asked them, who would you want to get you out of a tough situation if you were ever in one. That led me to think who I would want to get me out of a tough situation. Those of you who know me already know who I would trust and want but I came up with a great idea. I figured I could blog my Top 5 movie/television characters that I would trust to get me or the great US of A out of a jam.

There were a few criteria here. No super-heroes or people with super powers. So, while I love X Men and comic characters, they are not on the list. I also only chose shows that I watch or have watched. Some people may argue that their beloved character should be on the list but this is my list and not yours.

Here is my Top 5 people I would want to help me or America should trouble happen.

Horatio Caine from CSI Miami- I know he has not worked on a national scale but he always solves cases on CSI. It's amazing. The man is a genius and his one liners would just make me laugh. You have to love that and you have to love the mans glasses and his style. Horatio Caine ladies and gentlemen.

Batman- Here we go! This is the type of action guy I'm talking about. But wait, isn't Batman a comic book hero with super human powers. WRONG! My teammate Ross reminded me that Batman is a regular human being that just decided he needed to fight the evil of Gotham City. By the way, this is Christian Bale Batman and not the others. He is my favorite Batman and the one I want on my side if something were to ever go down. Maybe I could even get my own spotlight to shine in the sky if I were to get in a jam. Now that would be awesome! But in all seriousness, Batman is the man! He is a rich guy that fights evil for good. That's the type of guy I want on my side!
The A Team- I can remember watching the A Team as a little guy growing up. They had that really cool van and they had Mr T. Need I say more?
Jason Bourne- The Bourne movie series might possibly be my favorite move series of all time. Bourne speaks every language known to man and every fighting style ever invented. He is also ridiculously smart. He might have to be my European contact though considering all of the movies took place in Europe except for the third one to end in New York. There is the possibility that he might not help out the USA in a jam but I have to believe that he would because he has a good heart.
Jack Bauer- I think everyone saw this one coming. I think Jack could take every other person on the list by himself. This is truly a man that loves America. He is a patriot. After watching all the seasons of 24 I can say that Jack is the person I would want to get me out of a sticky situation. Once he has the Jack Bauer bag it's game over. Literally for all characters involved. I could keep going on and on about Jack but it might look like I have a man crush on him so instead I will just link a site here so people can know all the facts about the man.

http://www.jackbauerfacts.com/

So there it is. I hope you enjoyed the read and look forward to more pointless posts in the future because there are many more to come.

Until next time.........

Game Week

I really need to do a better job updating this blog but apparently I am too busy reading perezhilton.com, watching 24 and playing video games to do it. I guess it's just the life of a lazy person with way too much time on his hands. I promise I will try to update this a little more.

Anyways, game week is upon SAM Massagno. Yes, after one month being in Switzerland, we get to play our first Swiss LNBA basketball game against Fribourg. A little background information on Fribourg. They are the most successful Swiss basketball club over this history of basketball in Switzerland. In my 3 previous years in the league they have completely dominated 2 of them. In my first year playing for Lugano, Fribourg won the League Cup, Swiss Cup and the Swiss Championship. We lost to the in the League Cup by around 30 points (the picture to the left is me playing in this blowout) and lost in the Swiss Championship in 4 games. Two years ago they won the League Cup and the Swiss Championship and last year they won the League Cup. That's not too shabby.

All that being said though, Fribourg appears to be a different team this year. They only have 2 import players (American/non Swiss.) That's unusual because they usual because they are allowed to have 7 and they usually have the allotted number. They are definitely going to be a very good team though. They have great coaching and veteran leadership. It will be a good test for us as our first game. I would rather play them now rather than later.

As I said earlier, we are in game week. It feels good to be finally working on an opponent. I was out of action last week because of ankle tendinitis. It was extremely painful and not very fun to have. Coach kept me out of practice for about a week and half while I went to the physical therapist and rehabbed and got better. The physical therapist here is extremely good and while at times they use questionable methods, I put all of my trust in them to get me better. With an open mind, Swiss medicine is excellent.

So, I'm close to 100% right not and feeling great. I also have good news because my friend Dan Fitzgerald is playing with me again. It felt great to take the court with him in practice for the first time in years. He looked great on the court tonight and apparently we didn't miss a beat because Coach told me that we worked very well together tonight. So that's a good thing. I just want to play some basketball.

Is it Sunday yet? Ill try and write some more later this week. Until then........

Pictures against Nyon

This is me throwing one down before the game versus some German team.
AND ONE!!!!!! Bucket and the foul against Nyon. I made the free throw in case you were wondering.
Jump hook against Wisconsin's own Michael Southall of Nyon.
Team picture. Probably the weakest picture ever. We definitely need to take a new one!

Pre-season

Its been awhile since my last post. We have just been going through the grueling pre-season. Its definitely a change from last year. Thats good though. It is more of a professional environment and it feels like a job this year. I like it but I think my body hates it.

We finally have a complete team now. Our point guard Vernon Hamilton finally came. Its good to have all the Americans here. We are still trying to get a feel for each other. This past weekend we played in a tournament in Basel. It was my first game situation since March 21 so it felt really good to get back out onto the court in a real competitive situation. Our opponent was Nyon and they are going to be very good this year. They have some familiar faces from last year and also some nice additions. The game was a little bit of a blowout but I guess that is to be expected since it was our first game action as a team. By comparison Nyon had already played 5 times and 3 of those games were against Euro League teams. We definitely showed some promise at times though but we have a lot to improve upon.

As for myself, I played pretty well considering the circumstances. My body is going through the usual pre season aches and pains. In our second game of the tournament I only played the first half because I had extreme pain in my legs. It was no fun. The good news is that I felt fantastic in practice tonight. I hope Im turning the corner. I went to get a massage last night and I have been taking Magnesium. Thats what the coaches tell me to do at least.

Im really looking forward to feeling great and playing great basketball again. I think its just right around the corner.

This was just a post about basketball but in the next post I will post about the fun Liz and I have had so far here.

Until next time. Keep fighting the good fight......

Pictures of Lake Lugano

Okay. As promised, here are the pictures of our Lake Lugano boat trip from this past weekend. As much as I would like too, I can not take any credit for the pictures. All the credit goes to my wife Liz. The one above is the typical Lugano picture with San Salvatore on the right and Italy in the background. Its unbelievable!

This is what we were surrounded by on the whole trip. It was awesome!

This is a town that sits on the lake. There is a botanical garden running down the left side of the church. Its beautiful and we hope to visit there soon. And yes that is a cemetery on the side too.
This is a picture of us anchored going for a swim. Does life get any better than this?