More Random

Part of living in Mexico is appreciating and getting into the sports the locals love. One of them? Boxing. I didn't grow up watching boxing, and I didn't start watching it until last year, when an acquaintance did some explaining on the art of boxing. Now? I look forward to big fights. This weekend Pacquiao and Mosley will duke it out in Vegas. All I know about Pacquiao is that he's a scrappy, inventive, little firecracker who beats up on men taller and bigger than him. His last opponent was a Tijuana native named Margarito.

That didn't go too well for Margarito, and he came back to Tijuana with a pretty sad looking face. Pacquiao's style is well known, and it's broken down in this New York Times article, published today. One of his inspirations? Bruce Lee.

My manfriend reviews food (he's like... a real good writer and stuff). We spent a little too much time watching this kid review items such as Diet Mt. Dew, Fruit Gushers, and other similar items. It's entertaining.

And in more entertaining news, you can read My OB Said What? In case you didn't know (oh wait, you didn't know because I never talk about it), I'm really interested in natural childbirth. Not for myself (right now... for obvious reasons), but for women in general. So this website is both funny and tragic.

And for your heart's desire, just flip through the pictures of this house. You'll drool.

Sports Sunday

Run: 8.1 miles/1:20:25 (sometimes I find myself sighing a big sigh in the middle of a long run. I think it's a sign of boredom.)

So this can be like Sports Update Sunday, where I talk about anything sports related. Last night there was a huge fight between Manny Paquiao....

And Antonio Margarito....

We had to go down to a local restaurant to watch it, and it was pretty crowded. Margarito being from Mexico meant everybody in town wanted to see the fight, especially since Margarito is from Tijuana, which is not far from here.

Pacquiao is a little animal who fights like a champion. He was about 17 pounds lighter and 4 inches shorter than Margarito, but Pacquiao won all 12 rounds and basically let Margarito's face take it. Margarito still fought, and I thought he fought well, he just wasn't a match for Pacquiao, who nows holds 8 championships, two more than any other fighter.

Margarito's face was so bad that when they flashed to pictures of his wife, I felt bad that she had to go home to that Margarito's face. I won't post a picture of it here, just because I think most of my readers are ladies who don't want see Margarito's mashed face.

In other sports news, I officially stink at fantasy basketball. I do not have the time, interest, or inclination to be dropping and adding people from my team like boyfriends. My league has made it completely open, where you can add and drop as you wish, which doesn't really feel like a team playing. It feels more like cheating. I got an e-mail yesterday from a league member asking me why i dropped someone I dropped because he was my best player (or so this guy said). I wrote back and told him I didn't need him to rub my mistakes in my face. Boys. Geesh. 

Oregon Ducks beat Cal yesterday, 15-13, which means Duck offense went off on vacation somewhere. Maybe Fiji? At least they won, but those points don't help too much in the standings.

Beavers lost. Of course.

Blazers' record is 6-5, which makes me feel better than a Beavers' fan, but still. We had a horrible game against the Lakers last Sunday, wherein I felt embarrassed. Apparently Brandon Roy was pulled from last night's game due to knee pain.

Just great. Just what we need - more injuries. We've already got a ragtag team and now our star player has knee pain? Get real!

This has been your Sports Sunday with Meghan. I ran 8 miles this morning and I'm tahred.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

I gotta let someone go. That someone is one of my fantasy basketball players. I need a Center badly, and I have my eyes set on Luis Scola. This decision is not based on his looks.

But, this means I have to drop someone, and as clueless as I am, I don't think it should be Ray Allen. And as loyal and girly as I am, I really don't want it to be Rudy Fernandez.

Decisions are difficult.

Speedster

While trying to get back into running I've just run... normal. As in, not trying too hard. Just run the miles and see what happens. I've started building up my base again, but all on "normal" miles. Or "easy" miles as most runners call them. No extra exertion, no specialized runs, just running for the heck of it.

The training program I've picked out for my half-marathon starts the week of November 8th, so I'm trying to remind this tired body what means to do speedwork, to actually have to work for it. This morning I did one easy mile, two harder, faster miles, and almost a mile and a half easy on the way back. It's funny how your body gets used to easy! I'd be running those hard miles, and zone out for a little bit, and find myself telling my body "pick it up!". It was like one of those lightbulbs over your head. "Oh yeah! I'm supposed to be running fast. I forgot".

So I ran 4.4 this morning. Yes, the tenths are important to count. I did it all in 43:35 (yes, those seconds are important to count), and ended up with a pace of 9:55 or something. Which, isn't great, but considering I did my easy miles at about 10:30, that means I did my faster miles a little below 9:30 - which is actually what I ran my 10k at. So it wasn't great, but it also wasn't bad, either. Hopefully those times will improve soon.

In other news: I am horrible at fantasy basketball because I'm clueless. Having never done this before, I didn't know there was a bench status, and that you actually had to move players around every day! No wonder guys involved in fantasy leagues are so occupied all the time.

Sportastic

Not so much. We don't have tv here. My parents have an actual television, but we only watch movies on it. We don't have cable or any sort of other channels. Occasionally we drive to a local restaurant to watch sports, because they have a cable provider that gets every game imaginable, and we eat dinner and watch a game. It's not a busy place and we can usually watch whatever we want to watch.

Why is the baseball season so long!? Seriously - we're not into the World Series yet? I know, I know, it's close. And there are actually people who like baseball. So last night we got to watch the end of the Phillies/Giants game for nearly two hours. And when I say "got to" I mean "had to" while waiting for it to be over so we could watch the Ducks/Bruins football game. Yawn yawn yawn. Baseball is boring. I've been to a couple Mariners' games, and I'll admit that baseball live isn't so bad, but I credit that to hanging with friends, and eating stadium food. Yes. Stadium food. You know what the most exciting part of the baseball game was? When they replayed a bunch of pitches in succession. Bam bam bam. Well that was exciting, and then right back to the boring game. Giants lost, yadda yadda yadda.

By the time we tuned into the Ducks game, it was the third quarter and they were plowing over the Bruins like UCLA was a peewee football team. We tuned in right before the failed fourth attempt at about the 4 yard line, UCLA's possession at the 4 yard line that turned into a fumble, Oregon retrieved the ball. Then made a touchdown. That made it 46-6. So we headed home. And by the time we got home, the score was 53-6. Sorry Bruins!

The Trailblazers also won last night, beating the Nuggets in their last preseason game. Beating the Nuggets is fun.. Their official season begins on the 26th. I gotta spend some time studying our roster 'cause I don't know half these guys.

And a picture of Rudy, just 'cause:
Fact on the street is that Rudy doesn't want to play for the Blazers anymore, because he doesn't really like McMillan's coaching, nor does he like the atmosphere of the NBA. He wants to go back to España. So here's a picture of Rudy being yelled at by McMillan.

I joined a fantasy basketball league. My enthusiasm for basketball will help me stay interested and on track this time around. Last time I tried a fantasy league, it was baseball. You can imagine how that went.