Joe and Jamie's Blog

After five or more years of not playing or having a video gaming console I broke down and bought an Xbox 360. Why? Well all of my friends play Halo almost every weekend and most weeknights so I got tired of waiting until the weekend to go to Andrew’s house to play.

It’s been great so far. I log on and play a bit after dinner and while Jamie is studying. I also purchased some other games to play with Jamie which was fun last night (finally received the second controller from UPS last night).

Now I just need to remember to take breaks from playing it so it doesn’t get boring and I don’t gain 50 pounds from sitting in the chair for 8 hours a night!

Since I’m a huge loser and actually track this stuff, you can check my stats for Halo here.

I finally got to cash in my birthday present on Monday. My parents purchased a 20 Mile Super Speedway Program, part of the Stock Car Racing Experience at Pocono Raceway. This program allows me to drive a 600hp stock car around the 2.5 mile Super Speedway for 8 laps, reaching speeds over 160MPH.

When my father booked it he got a free 3-lap ride-along for free, so we gave that to Jamie. She got to ride in a car with an instructor who went around 170MPH for 3 laps. She thought it was awesome and crazy fast. Around the first turn she thought she was going to slam into the wall.

Now I spent around an hour in class watching videos on safety, the track, and how to operate the car. We took a test run in a big van around the track so we could see all the markers we saw on the videos. After getting fitted in the racing fire suit and helmet, I waited my turn to strap in and drive one of those puppies. Well over an hour went by and of course, I was the last person to go. Not fun waiting in 90 degree heat and sun in a fire suit. Anyway, it was absolutely awesome to drive. It’s amazing how much damn power they have. The turns felt sketchy the first few laps, but I got used to them after awhile. I got up to around 8500 RPMs, which is over 160MPH, just amazingly awesome. Needless to say this is probably the best gift I’ve gotten so far, even trumps my first laptop and Xbox.

Click here for more information on the stock car that I drove.
Click here for more information on the driving programs they offer.

Enjoy the videos and pictures from the day.

Two weekends ago Jamie and I went camping with a bunch of friends. We headed up to the Taconic State Park area of Copake Falls, NY. This was the first time I went camping, Jamie has gone before a few times. We had a lot of fun on the trip. I enjoyed hanging around with no cell phone or emails to answer, it was nice to stay out of touch for a whole weekend.

We had to buy everything for this trip. A tent, sleeping bags, etc, etc. Our tent is the red one on the left in the second picture. Its a pretty good sized tent for two people, we had plenty of room to keep everything and more. We got everything discounted because my sister works at Dick’s Sporting Goods, man what a deal!

We all took a hike through the Bash Bish Falls trail which was really cool. Once you go down the large hill to the waterfall area you encounter the trail that takes you across the border into Massachusetts. We went pretty far down the trail but there was still more to go. Almost all the pictures below are of the trail. I couldn’t help myself, just love taking nature pictures.

If you wish to read up more on the campgrounds, here is the link to the NY State Parks website.

As some of you may or may not know, I play soccer.  I just recently joined a co-ed soccer league at Golds Gym. The competition is pretty tough, but I ended up being on a great team. There are a lot of talented men and women on my team.

The day before vacation I had a soccer game. The soccer game was going great until the last 15 seconds of the game. I went to kick the ball down the line and heard a crack when I put my foot down. I hopped around for a minute then went to the ground because I was in a lot of pain. My team was very supportive and helpful. They stopped the game and came to my side right away. Unfortunately, I could not walk this one off. I had to be helped off the field and into Joe’s car so he could take me to the emergency room. The referee came over and said “I think we’re just going to call the game because there is 15 seconds left”.  I cannot believe the day before vacation  I injure my ankle with 15 seconds left in the game when I have never broken or sprained anything on my body ever before.

Well as it turned out, my ankle was not broken. I had a sprain. They gave me an ace bandage, crutches, and some medicine for pain. Although it was not broken, it was still really inf lammed; my ankle was 3x the size it was normally. I did not get out the emergency room until 2:00 in the morning.

The next day I had a follow up appointment with the orthopedist. He agreed with the hospital’s opinion on the sprain and gave me a walking boot that he requested I wear for 3 weeks. I did not wear the boot for more then 2 days. After the second day, I took my pain medicine and hobbled around Miami Beach.

I am very happy that my leg was not broken and that I did not need a cast!

I got to go in the pool and the beautiful blue ocean!

We also ended up wining the soccer game!

This past Saturday we went to yet another MLS game, but with Casey and Andrew this time. If you are tired of reading these posts, don’t worry, I don’t have tickets from now until August!

We had a little joke going around that the Red Bulls only win at home when Casey and Andrew come. Why? Well they only did win one game at home and it was the last time they came to the game. Unfortunately that did not hold true as the Red Bulls lost again. It was another upsetting loss as they had many, many changes to score. They dominated the filed and once again had much more possession time then the opposing team, but they just could not put the ball in the net.

Oddly there were two penalty kicks, one for each time. Now if you know the game those are kind of hard to come across since you really must to something bad inside the goalie box for those to happen, and no one wants them to happen since its pretty much a guaranteed goal. Each team scored their penalty kick and it turned out to be the game winning goal for Colorado. The player Conor Casey from the Colorado Rapids scored both his goals with headers. All that guy did is head the ball all game, it was interesting to watch considering he took more shots with his head than his foot.

The Red Bulls lost this match 3-2. I’m going to try and nab some season tickets for next year. I’m trying to figure out where I want to sit in their new stadium. Not sure if I want to go to the second level front row so I have nothing obstructing my view or move down closer. Help me choose my seats by viewing them online in 3d here. I’m thinking dead center, mezzanine level, section 226, first row.

You can watch the highlights of the game here.

On Sunday Jamie and I went to our third MLS game. It wasn’t as hot out as the last time we went there, so we didn’t really come back as lobsters this time which was nice. The NY Red Bulls had possession of the ball for most of the game and had really great opportunities, but they never put the ball in the net. Right at the end of the first half, with only about thirty seconds left, the Chicago Fire scored the only goal of the game. Therefore the NY Red Bulls lost 1-0. So far they are 2-6-3 for the season. You can watch the video highlights from the game here. I remembered to take some pictures this time to share with everyone, so enjoy.

This post is a little late, but this week was actually pretty busy. Sunday 4/26 we went to our second MLS game. I really enjoy going down there and thinking about getting an eight game pack of tickets for next year. The ride is an easy hour and fifteen minutes and the seats I have are really great, midfield-ish on the isle.

The NY Red Bulls faced D.C. United. First half was dull, 1-0 DC at the end. The Red Bulls came out in the second half and scored two goals within twenty minutes, taking the lead. One was a really cool header goal off a corner kick. Unfortunately in the last two minutes of the game DC tied the game up on a stupid goal that should have never went in. The goalie just watched the ball bounce in the goal, it was truely pathetic for a professional. Now we went into three minutes of extra time due to game stoppage, and guess what, DC scored again on another lame goal, winning the game. I couldn’t believe it, it was like they didn’t even try to stop them.

Maybe the next game they will win, they aren’t so hot this year, 1-4-2 so far. Last year they were the conference champions, go figure. You can watch this game’s highlights here.

Saturday night Jamie, her sister Casey and her husband Andrew, and myself drove down to Giants Stadium to watch the NY Red Bulls play against Real Salt Lake in an MLS (Major League Soccer) match. This was the first any of us had seen live, we have watched a few on TV before. The stadium wasn’t really packed, only about 8,500 attended which is apparently normal for soccer in this country. The Red Bulls won 2-0. You can watch the highlights of the game here. There was one amazing play by the Red Bulls defender. He stopped a goal by leaping into the goal and kicking the ball out before he or it touched the ground, negating the goal. Truly amazing talent right there, I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.

Overall the game was a fun experience. Our seats where almost midfield and half way up the section, so we were able to see almost the entire field without having to move our heads much. I was able to nab the isle seats as well so we were a bit more comfortable. Glad I purchased tickets to four more games. If you want to read up on the match you can here.