It’s July, so that means it’s time for my Tour de France predictions. After the debacle that was the ’06 Tour I vowed to never again follow the race. All I’ve proven by doing that is that I am weak; I still love le Tour. In 2006 I predicted that Floyd Landis would take the final yellow jersey - which he did, until he was officially stripped of the title for the final time last week.

The ’08 Tour would’ve been a lot more fun to pick had Astana been given the opportunity to race. Plus, with some of my favorite riders like Boonen and Mayo out for ’08, this year’s Tour de France is a tough one to call. Add to that the fact that I am horrible at picking winners and you have the recipe for failure... until this year!

It is without hesitation that I make the following predicitons for the 2008 Tour de France.



Overall: Cadel Evans / Lotto
2nd: Carlos Sastre / CSC
3rd: Alejandro Valverde / Caise d'Epargne
11th: George Hincapie / High Road

KOM: Yaroslav Popovych / Lotto

Sprint: Thor Hushovd
2nd: Fabian Cancellara
3rd: Mark Cavendish

Team: CSC


During the next few weeks, I’ll be following the tour from a few sites:
http://www.letour.fr/us/homepage_courseTDF.html
http://www.versus.com/tdf/
http://twitter.com/DailyTour

If you have an opinion, I’d love to hear it. Feel free to make a comment on this post or send me an e-mail. Come back on July 21, 2008 and see how I did. I’m sure Cadel Evans will be wearing the maillot jaune in the end.

April in Stockton... you know the routine. Asparagus Festival! This, the 23rd one, was held in beautiful downtown Stockton on what felt like the hottest day of the year. Emily and I arrived at 6:45 in the morning to register for the 5k Spear-It Fun Run.

This was the first organized run either of us have ever did and felt good out there, not stopping or walking at all. When we approached the water station Emily even suggested we slow down a little and let the group ahead of us go through and get their water. This way, we would miss the mess of the bunch and get our cups without stopping... what a smart idea.

We completed the 5k in 33:35. I've ran faster but haven't ran at all since December. It sure was a far cry from my first attempt at running a mile in 2006.



So, besides the 5k run, I tried deep fried asparagus for the first time, we saw some amazing frisbee dogs and met Martin Yan from Yan Can Cook!

Check out the pics here.

Check out last year's Asparagus Festival.

Mike and I went to game three of the ECHL playoffs last night to watch the Stockton Thunder square off against the Las Vegas Wranglers. The Thunder took an early lead with the first goal and then even got up to a 0-3 advantage. The cheers were quieted by the end of regulation when the Wranglers scored three unanswered goals of their own. We played a tough OT period but just couldn't score, even with a couple of power plays! The Wrangler finally put us out of our misery with less than a minute left on the clock. The Thunder are now down 3-1 and need another win to stay alive.

Check out the pics here.


I also took a couple of videos. The first one is the of the first goal scored of the game, the second one is one of a flying puck (not sure how well that comes across on YouTube).

That's right, folks... Roller Derby is alive and kicking! We joined the F&F family and went to root on Nicole and the San Joaquin Valley Vixens Roller Derby team in a bout at the Civic Auditorium. This was the first time the kids had ever seen Roller Derby and the first time any of us had seen it live. It took a while for Dawn and I to understand the logistics of the sport but once we did, we had a blast yelling at the players.

These women are tough and took a lot of hard falls!

During one of the intermissions, I was selected to join the corn-on-the-cob eating contest. I took second place but could have won if the judges gave me full credit for that last cob!



Check out the pics here.

Dawn, Makenzy, Emily and a friend went to the Stockton Thunder game tonight, a ladies night out, for the second annual Thunder Goes Pink night. This is such a great way to raise awareness and money for breast cancer. The ice was painted pink and the Thunder players wore special pink jerseys. The Thunder were victorious and the girls had a great night out!



Check out the pics here.

The Stockton Arena was rockin' tonight when we were joined by 8,640 or so of our closest friends for the first Thunder home game of the season. Tonight, our Thunder squared off against the Alaska Aces in a contest that saw not a single fight (boo hoo!).



Thunder scored first near the end of the first period and followed it up with a second goal that saw a few Aces players collide into the goalie. It was like a traffic accident being taken apart piece by piece. After a few minutes, when the officials awarded Stockton with the goal, the arena went psycho!

Neither team scored in the second period but Alaska did manage to get a couple of goals in the final period in regulation to tie the contest at 2. Rohlfs ended the sudden death match at 2:10 into OT with a sweet shot. We may be 2-3, but at least we won our home opener.

For tonight's game, we set in section 114, row 5. It was nice to be a little closer and see some pucks go flying as well as really hearing the glass pounding, but sitting this close made it hard to see down on the other end of the ice.

Check out pics here. I took a lot of video but no fights and no goals. I did manage to hit record just after the game winning goal went in... check it out on YouTube here.

If you want to take a retro look back... check out the 2006 Stockton Thunder home opener or check out all of our posts on the Thunder here.

Tonight, we took Fred and Daniel to AT&T Park to watch the San Francisco Giants beat up on the Cincinnati Reds. It was a great game that went by very fast, with very little base hits and no scores until the 8th inning when Durham hit a single with the bases loaded, sending two Giants to home plate.



Check out the pics here.

I know very little about baseball but enjoy watching it live. While in the great state of Texas I went to watch the Texas Rangers play the Chicago Cubs. I didn't know that the Rangers weren't doing so well. I didn't know that Sammy Sosa was playing, I didn't even know that he played for Texas. Needless to say, I was the only one in our group of 25 or so that didn't know Sammy Sosa had 599 career home runs and that tonight, in Arlington, against his former team, he could do what only four other ball players have ever done: hit 600 home runs. Okay, I was the only one in the ball park that didn't know that.



If you follow baseball you know how this story ends. Sammy, on a 1-2 pitch in the fifth inning, blasted his ceremonious 600th. I, along with some others in our group, left our seats to hang out at the left field wall, hoping for our chance at history. It was a crazy scene with just as many Cubs fans and Rangers fans and police officers everywhere - for protection of anyone that might catch the lucky prize. Just as the ball connected to the bat the place went crazy! Camera flashes exploded everywhere and were barely drowned out by the firework display.

After his standing ovations it was time to get the souvenirs. It was very interesting and very festive seeing the park employees taking the commemorative balls and shirts out of the boxes.

Click here for the pictures.

What's the best way to spend a Saturday night in Stockton? At a hockey game! It was a sell out game so we were lucky to get nose bleed seats, well, some may consider them nose bleed but there aren't any bad seats in the arena. We lost the game but it was a great night of hockey anyway. As always, I put up a couple of videos on YouTube.



Videos:
Thunder's first goal to tie the game - from our seats in section 210.

Jeff Lang (Thunder) dukes it out with Greg Stewart (Cyclones) - from KW's seat in section 209.

In its second year, the Tour of California rolled through Stockton for stage three, starting downtown, on the waterfront and ending in San Jose.



What a great event for downtown Stockton. The girls and I went downtown first thing in the morning and walked around. With Center Street closed between Fremont and Weber, the area in front of the waterfront was filled with the greats like Hincapie, Leipheimer, Haedo, Basso, Rasmussen and O'Grady. I even had a chance to say hello to Johan Bruyneel and wish him good luck.

I also got a chance to meet David from The Fred Cast, the internet's premier cycling podcast. David covered everyday of the race and provided some great insight and interviews as he travelled with the race caravans.

Check out our pictures from the race here.

Dawn, Emily and I went to see the Golden State Warriors take on the Miami Heat (playing without Shaq). This was Emily's first NBA game (in a suite, nonetheless). Great game... if you are a Heat fan. Since I don't really follow the NBA I didn't really care who won (the Heat burned the Warriors 118-96).



Check out the pics here.

"The Broncos needed to win or tie today to get to the playoffs... and they did neither!" - TV announcer said at the end of the Denver / SF game!

From NFL.com 12/27


The Kansas City Chiefs needed a lot to happen to get to the playoffs. First, they must beat Jacksonville and then hope Pittsburgh could pull out an upset against Ocho-Cinco and the Bengals (Cincinnati went in as 6 point favorites)... and then the Niners have to upset the Broncos (10.5 underdogs).

Well, the Chiefs beat the Jaguars... check!
The Steelers beat the Bengals... check!
And the Niners pulled off the win, with less than 2 minutes left in overtime... checkmate!

Mike Shanahan said he's glad KC won so his team would have to win in order to make it to the post season. Thanks for the confidence coach!

GO CHIEFS!

The Stockton Thunder lost their first home game this season when the Alaska Aces scored a late third period goal to tie the game and eventually beat us in the first shutout.

There was not a single fight in the whole game so I put up a goal instead. Click here to see the third period score by Brandon Hodge on YouTube.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there (well, except this unlucky bird).

Check out the pics here.

Thanks to Larry Johnson and the Chiefs... even though I only got to watch the last 2 minutes on TV... it was a great game... now we're tied for second place... bring on the playoffs!

I love football... I love Monday Night Football... and I love to see the Raiders get shut out on national TV. As I flipped through the local paper this morning something jumped out at me and had me bustin' a gut!



9 - Time Oakland Faders Andrew Walter was sacked Monday night in Seattle. The Oakland Faders... ha ha ha... I haven't heard that one this year yet! But let's get real here for a second... don't blame Walter (isn't he the 5th string QB)... blame the line and blame Shell! Gotta love them Raiders... love to see 'em lose that is.

Our new October tradition... Stockton Thunder Hockey!

Early last year, when we heard that Stockton's new arena would be home to a minor league hockey team, we were less than impressed. Hockey was never a sport that we followed in our house and it didn't seem to match very well with our warm weather and culture. We were much more excited to be getting Arena Football and Major League indoor soccer.

As the season started to get closer we decided that we wanted to be part of the hype of the new team and went to the second home game. From the moment we walked in the arena we knew this was going to be cool! When the game started we were on our feet, along with 9,000 other Stockton Thunder fans and we have been hooked ever since.

So, tonight we showed up, decked out in Thunder gear, ready to scream our lungs out for our hometown Thunder!

If you're a sports fan and live within an hour of Stockton, you have to check this out! Trust me when I say that hockey is meant to watched live; so many people have the same comment after watching their first game: "I could never get into hockey on TV... but this is awesome!"

What a game! The Thunder start the season 2-0 and right in the middle of the Pacific Division and end tonight's game being the only undefeated team in the ECHL.



The first fight of the night. The Arena went crazy when Huxley (Stockton) knocked Neilson right on his bum.


The Long Beach Ice Dogs scored an early first goal but the Thunder tied it up before the end of the first period (click here for the video from the first goal scored at home this season). The same pattern would continue for the second and third period with Long Beach scoring first and then Stockton getting a goal. The final shot in regulation came from Stockton with only 34 seconds left on the clock. The 5 minutes of overtime passed with no scoring so we were treated to a nail-biting shoot out. We tied throughout the first group of attempts so then we went into sudden death shoot out mode!

After 6 failed attempts by each club, Brendon Hodge slaps one in and the Thunder win a close one!

Congrats Thunder... you rock!

game stats

click here for pictures

Although I have ridden thousands of miles on a bicycle over the past few years, and don't even bat an eye lash at doing a hundred miles in a day, I have long thought that running was out of the question. That was, until recently, when Emily challenged me to a 1-mile race. I was pretty sure I could beat her... just as sure as she was she could beat me. So, today, we went out to her school for 3 laps around the field.


We went over what the course was, did a little bit of last minute smack talking, stretched and then headed out. When I asked asked her what the course was she smiled and just said, "Don't worry Dad... just follow me."


Here is a shot as we end the first of three laps and this is pretty much the way the whole run went... me trailing Emily and looking as if I might just die!


... and of course, my very athletic, very proud daughter beat me in my first attempt at running in probably 15 years. I did actually finish the mile... 31 seconds behind her. Great job Emily!

le Tour is here!

Landis portera le jaune à fin Juillet.

My original picks were, Basso, Vino, Landis but based on the dismissal of Basso I made a last minute change to:

FLOYD LANDIS

LEVI LEIPHEIMER

ANDREAS KLODEN

vive le tour!

Pictures, pages and videos are queued up and ready for the move. Pics from the Stockton Lightning game and the Brad Paisley, Sara Evans, Josh Turner concert are also up (go to 'pics' link). More to come soon.

Ok... I know... it's been eons since we updated the site... Matt's bad. Anyway, we're back... with over 800 new pictures and videos. Three birthday parties... two holidays... tons of soccer and even some cool pool shots and field goal attempts. Anywhooooo...... enjoy.... and GO CHIEFS.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! What a great Thanksgiving... great food, hanging out with the family. Some of the boys went over to the high school and tried to prove who could kick the longest field goal, even though none of us had any real experience kicking a football. Check out pictures here.
Some of the cousins... wow... these girls are getting older and older!

The Stockton Ports Opening Night.... Wow.... what a killer ballpark! Go Ports!!! Emily even got a baseball from one of the pitchers (she had to buy him a hot dog first but still a good deal).

Congrats USPS and Lance!!!! 


 

Ride Lance, ride!  Vive le Tour!  The Tour is back... and Lance is looking great... 5th overall with the team TT up tomorrow.  Look out Tyler and Jan... USPS is rollin' through!  
Maillot jaune coming soon!

Final results
i just realized that I didn't publish the ending results for our football pool... good job jim... .632 kicks butt!  i had a horrible finish... oh well... looks like you win the season tickets to the stockton cacks games! 
until next year!!!!  also.... sudden death pool 04 coming in july 04.

As everyone knows; every year I make a bold prediction of who's going to the Superbowl... I have never been right so I don't mind saying that my prediction for this year is: 
...sorry Ken and Joe, your Raiders just aint gonna do it this year... 9-7, but choke in the playoffs! 
as for my Chiefs... I still have faith in ya... just not foolish to think we're going all the way!my prediction: 7-9
Teams to watch...PHILLY, CHICAGO, MIAMI and, yes, even the TEXANS!!!
WEEK 1WOW... what did I say... watch those TEXANS and THOSE DOLPHINS!
What about that NYJ-BUF game... crazy!
UNDEFEATED AFC WEST
Thanks Dwayne Rudd Losing your helmet sure helped my team!!!

Who's gonna win the superbowl??? Who cares!  Yeah, I know... no one cares.  Well, there's one big reason to watch: to find out what the heck this MLIFE thing is all about... great hype!  I'll be watching... who knows... maybe it's a new multi-level marketing, pyramid-scheme cult that is going to take over the world !!! Well, we'll have to wait !!!