START THE REACTOR

OK, I'm still not done with the Most Overrated Musical Acts in History list just yet, but here's something to chew on until then.

On Labor Day I was making a significant addition to the beer count at my neighbor's house when he decided to hook up his I-pod to the docking system he recently got. He told me most of the songs on there were put on by a friend of his. Anyway, most of it was recent tunes.

There was that "You're Beautiful" song by Jim Blunt (???) and "Bad Day" but I don't know who and some song by Shakira about shakin' her arse. Listening to those songs it dawned on me that 80's music is 100 times better than the shit being turned out today. Seriously.

I mean most of the pop music from the 80s is awful, but at least it's frigging music, meaning it's not hip-hop, overproduced, studio-magic bullshit, and it's not puss music.

Say what you want about Huey Lewis or Men at Work or Asia, at least it was lisenable. Music today friggin sux arse.

A few other thoughts.

-- I caught about 10 minutes of Dane Cook's HBO special last week and I have to say Saving Private Ryan was funnier. I know I'm old and out of touch with today's kids, but I know funny when I see it and I didn't see it.

-- Did anyone catch the Suri Cruise photo on the cover of Vanity Fair last week with the "baby" wrapped up in Tom Cruise's coat. My first thought was it eerily resembled Quato from Total Recall, where the alien actually lived in the dude's stomach. Hmmmmm. By the way, speaking of cruise, there's nothing a hate more than someone who wears a suit and tie to a football game. What a dueche.

CRAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Well, the no-beer till Halloween thing is already off. I had a few Saturday while doing some household chores and then taking Mrs. P out for dinner Saturday night. Our wedding aniversay is actually 9/11, so we usually go out a day or two before the 11th so we don't look like total deuchebags celebrating and saying "Happy Anniversary" on the worst day in the history of this country.

Some other thoughts from the weekend.

1. When did a hooded sweatshirt become a hoodie. What the f-ck is that? Why does everything have to have some cute name? It's a friggin hooded sweatshirt.

2. I got some crap from Sandman about me ripping his musical tastes and he actually challenged me to list my favorite bands. Well, instead of that, in the next few days I'm gonna post my list of the top 15 most overrated acts in music history. And believe it or not, William Joel will not be No. 1

3. Is it me, or are you tired of the NFL already. I mean, I love football, don't get me wrong, but from Pink's awful intro song on "Football Night in America" or shitty calls by awful refs deciding games or two hick brothers going head-to-head, I'm already tired of this crap. By the way, nice job by Tiki Barber doing a commercial for Dish Network, where it claims you get all NFL all the time. It's funny, they don't mention you can't get Sunday Ticket on Dish. I love to see the looks on Giant fans faces when they sign up for Dish - on Tiki's advice - and then realized they can't watch every game on Sunday and are into Dish cash wise for 12 months. Thanks dude.

4. Congrats to Jersey Girl for the whoopin OSU put on Texas Saturday night and the big Jet win Sunday. As for my beloeved Rams - HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE WIN.

Finally, my thoughts and prayers to all who lost family and friends on 9/11. We just have to hope it never happens again.

Beer count: 411.

Stay tuned for the big overrated list in a few days.

SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER

Well, as promised, here are the Pendleton Summer Awards.
Editor's note: Due to a high beer count, some good moments of the summer have been totally forgotten. So, If you feel slighted or left out, blame my lack of brain cells and don't take it personally.

Also, the only eligible day are from the Friday before Memorial Day to Labor Day Monday.

WORST DAY OF THE SUMMER: This one is easy. It's Monday, Aug. 14. Here's how the day goes. Pick up Todd at his apartment at 5:00 with the hopes of catching a 5:29 NJ Transit tain to NYC as a first leg to Yankee Stadium. Well, let's just say we got to Metropark at 5:15 and boarded a train at 6:50. 6 Friggin 50. Not only that, some family of five decided that I knew how to get from Penn Station to the Bronx and followed us the entire way there. We finally get to the House That Steroids Built around 8 and proceed to watch the most boring baseball game in history. The highlight of the game is a HUGE, CLUTCH sac fly from A-Rod. To make matters worse, two dopes behind me keep pointing out the Mets score, which was about 15-0 Phillies at the time. When Todd and I get back to Penn Station, we have some time for a quick taste, so we head to Houlihans, which only charges me $6.99 for a pint of Bud Lite. When we finally get back to Edison, we're both a little hungry, but of course, the local Taco Bell is closed. ONLY, ONLY the three cans of Coors Lite provided to me by the Sandman get me through the day.

BEST DAY OF THE SUMMER: This is a no-brainer. It was July 15 - my dad's 80th surprise birthday. Not only were we celebrating the cat's milestone, we were also celebrating his recovery from cancer surgery. The only lowlight was I got snagged trying to get a free taste from a wedding in an adjouning room. Anway, a great day. If this party didn't take place, the Whale taking the Cup would've been No. 1.

BEST PARTY OF THE SUMMER (See how I got around this one pretty good.) AUG. 19. The big Localschill engagement party. It had everything - buckets of free tastes, plenty of schills, clowns and yahoos, attractive dames, the Mets 86 celebration and of course, the chocolate fountain. From what I remember it was a great time.

CONCERT OF THE SUMMER: OK, I only saw one, but the June 6 Allen Oldies Band show at Maxwell's wouldv'e beaten anything anyway. Getting called up on stage to sing "Peanut Butter" was the unquestionable highlight.

BIGGEST DRINKING DAY OF THE SUMMER: Believe it or not, the localschill party is not the winner, neither is the Pops Pendleton party. No, this day is Friday, July 7 It starts with a Friday night softball double-header with the SP K of C. I would estimate I had about 6-7 tastes during the game. Figure in about 6-7 postgame at the field. Then, we headed back to the K of C hall, where free tastes were flowing out of the tap - about 6-7 more. Then, the cat driving me home wanted to stop at the local watering hole - the same place I got in trouble for cursing at - and had about 3-4 more. So that's about 25 tastes in about a 6-hour span.

POST OF THE SUMMER: Despite him calling me a lazy piece of crap and ranking some of the worst bands of all time in his top 100, I gotta go with Sandman's Top 109 post. It's amazes me how one man could have such questionable taste in music and free time, but it was worth it.

BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THE SUMMER: I bought some cheap potato salad Sunday at the local super market. You can figure out the rest.

SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THE SUMMER: Getting hooked back on this blogging thing. It, like the potato salad, was finally out of my system, but Jersey Girl practically begged me to start blogging again. So here I am.

Believe it or not, the beer count has not grown since my last post yesterday.

If I think of anymore summer awards, I'll post them.

Go IRISH.

COUNT ME IN

I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.

For the record, I haven't blogged since 7/28. I think I lost interest for a while or just needed some time off for my other favorite activity - drinking.

Anyway, a quick update.

My last official beer count was 171 around the first of June. I figure after a Labor Day weekend that involved hardly any labor, the beer count is around 402. Yes, I more than doubled the count in two months. With wild engagement parties and my dad's 80-surprise party, it's amazing it's not at 500. The only thing that really stopped me was a kid's birthday party last weekend that featured my two most hated words in the world "CASH BAR"

However, if you had the over, you could be in trouble. My goal this entire summer was the keep my weight at about the same I started the summer at, which is around 219 LBS. Remember, when I started this deal on Jan. 2, I was at 240ish.

Now comes phase 2. The goal now is to get to the 205-210 range by early Nov. I think I can do it. On Mon, Weds and Fris, both Pendleton kids will be at school in the morning, giving me time to bike ride and exercise and do other heath-related activies. Also, my new goal is to avoid having any tastes until Halloween. There will be two exceptions to this date. I'm scheduled to go to a Penn State game on Sept. 30. and there will also be plenty of drinking when the Mets either win the World Series or get eliminated from the playoffs.

So, with those two dates in mind, we should be looking at a beer count of about 440 on the morning of. Nov. 1.

Now, on the morning of Nov. 12 expect the beer count to be at 500 after back to back Saturday weddings. Anyway, Stay tuned.

Also, in next couple of days, I'll post my Pendleton Summer Award winners with categories ranging from best shindig to worst day of the summer to everything in between.

Anyway, it's glad to be back.

I think I need a beer.