Time for another update....

Wrestling Season Wrap Up

This was a very exciting year for the King High School Wrestling team.  With our 2 new coaches, a returning core of wrestlers and some athletic additions to the squad we had a very successful season.  This year we had 1 wrestler, who lost only one match during the regular season and has since moved on to represent King at State this weekend in Lakeland.  Jacob Wasserman is our Sophomore 103 lb. wrestler who placed 3rd in County, 1st in Districts and 3rd at Regionals.  My son Joseph took 2nd at Districts.  He went 1-2 at Regionals.  His 1 loss was 11-10 to a Senior from Charlotte High School.  His final record for the season was 34-9 for his Sophomore year.  We were very proud of him this year and he worked very hard.  Now that the season is over, he sure has been a little happier now that he can eat whatever he wants; however, he would much rather be waiting one more week to eat if it meant he was competing in State.  Oh well, it is what it is and he can just begin working towards next year.  He is taking this week off and next week he is going to begin his weight training.  The following week he will begin his club wrestling.  He decided to skip track this year (Sorry Coach D.) and concentrate fully on wrestling.  Several of the other King wrestlers are going to be joining him in the club wrestling.  Another person has decided to get back on the mat and start up the club wrestling again.  Joseph's little brother Jarrett is going to start wrestling again in March.  

I would like to to thank the coaches for the great job they did this year with the team.  We are really looking forward to next year and really think this team will really be doing some great things next season.  

We are planning our end of the year party next Friday night for the entire wrestling team.  We are going to have the entire team over to our house for a Steak and Potato cookout, followed by the team staying the night.  The next morning I will be cooking pancakes and egg sandwiches.  Some of the wrestlers mentioned there might be some special goodies donated to the party by some of their classmates.  Anyone wanting to make some cookies, cup cakes or anything a hungry wrestler might enjoy, let me know.

Getting Fit

Working out at Youfit has been going great for both Jennifer and myself.  We have been going pretty regularly over the past few weeks.  The club is very nice and I would strongly recommend visiting one in your area.

The Prince of Darkness Cometh

I am so excited tomorrow night I am going to go see Ozzy in concert.  Ozzy is one of the FEW groups my wife will actually go see so I am really excited to have my wife and son go with me to see the Madman himself.  Yeah, he is pretty old and not quite the same as he used to be; however, he is a legend and you never know when it will be the last time you see him.  He has been rocking for a very long time so he must be doing something right.  LOL  It has been a very long time since I last saw Ozzy in concert as most of his shows over the past several years have been on the East Coast of Florida.  So happy he is coming back to Tampa.  Below is his setlist as posted on http://www.setlist.fm

1. Bark at the Moon 
2. Let Me Hear You Scream 
3. Mr. Crowley 
4. I Don't Know 
5. Fairies Wear Boots 
   (Black Sabbath cover)
6. Suicide Solution 
7. Road to Nowhere 
8. War Pigs 
   (Black Sabbath cover)
9. Shot in the Dark 
10. Rat Salad 
    (Black Sabbath cover)
11. Iron Man 
    (Black Sabbath cover)
12. Crazy Train 
13. Encore:
13. Mama, I'm Coming Home 
14. Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover)

PLAY BALL and Cheer

This weekend kicks off the Spring Baseball season at Temple Terrace Little League.  Jarrett is looking forward to playing again and I am looking forward to NOT BEING INVOLVED and just watching and keeping score.  Julia is not playing this season.  She is getting ready to being doing Competitive Cheerleading. She decided she wanted to do that this week.  She has been going to some tumbling and stretching classes at the Brandon Allstars.  They fell in love with her as soon as they saw her and saw her ability.  The already have her tagged as a "flyer".  We knew that was going to happen.

Going Social at All American

I am in the process of having my website at work remade.  The site was very old and had not been updated in YEARS.  A guy came by and made me a really good offer to redo the site.  I have seen some of the work he has done on it already and it looks so much better.  I also set up a twitter account @aasleeper_tampa.  I also created a page on facebook under All American Sleeper.  I am gong to working on promoting our business more on the internet.  Even with my old site I have gotten some business out of it, but I am looking forward to seeing an increase in traffic with the new site and search engine submissions.  We also have a Facebook page for our shop in Orlando under All American Truck Center.

Odds and Ends

One of my favorite times of the year is when the fair comes to town.  I always say that I was either a Carny in my past life or will be in my future life.  Some of you may know, but I spent several years working at the fair in various places, the Giant Slide, Cheese on a Stick and Sky Glider to name a few.   The food and people watching are two of my favorite things to do at the fair.  What is better than eating an Elephant Ear and People Watching at the same time.

One of my favorite things to do at night when we are not running from one place to another is to sit out the couch with my kids and watch Flipper.  We recently subscribed to Netflix and searching through all the movies they have to offer, I stumbled across the TV section and there I found Flipper.  I used to LOVE watching Flipper as a kid.  I downloaded 3 seasons and my kids love watching them with me.  We have made it through 1 1/2 seasons so far.  

The 2011 NASCAR season kicks off this weekend at Daytona.  The Daytona 500 is the biggest NASCAR race of the season.  I was not very happy last weekend when I found out Dale Jr. won the pole; however, the cry baby put his car in the wall during practice on Wednesday.  Of course, after crashing, he cried saying that he didn't want to go out and practice and blamed his crash on someone else.  This guy is so over rated it isn't even funny.  If this guy had any other name instead of Earnhardt, he wouldn't be anywhere near the track.  He is on a great team, with great sponsors and great crew but he just doesn't get the job done. 

With the new track surface and some of the restrictions put on the cars, the Daytona 500 should be a very exciting race this year, or at least we hope it is.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of the restrictor plate racing and wish they didn't have the plates.  However, NASCAR is trying to keep the cars bunched up for long periods of time to make the racing more exciting for the fans watching, especially the TV audience as Millions of dollars are spent in advertising and sponsorships.

I just hope the Powers that Be at the Daytona 500 talk to Martina McBride to make sure she doesn't do what Christina Aguilera did at the Super Bowl.  Not only did she Butcher the lyrics, she also butchered the way the song was sung.  Why can't people just sing it the way it was supposed to be sung.  Probably because it is a very difficult song to sing and most of these idiots they put out there to sing the Anthem at these Sporting Events do not have the talent to actually sing it the way it should be.  It is really sad they just can't sing it the right way.  Last weekend, when we were at Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, one of the coaches for the wrestling team sang the Anthem and not only did he KNOW the words, he actually sang it the proper way.  Pretty sad that a so called "star" can't sing it but an amateur, high school wrestling coach can.  Maybe it is a wrestling thing, but the Head Wrestling coach at Chamberlain High School does a great job singing the National Anthem as well.

PLEASE MARTINA, sing it the right way!!!!!!!

the week in review....

Dog Gone It

Well the latest on our attempt to adopt a Greyhound has come to a halt.  It turns out Corey had some issues with her foot and will have to undergo some surgery so she is out for us.  They are going to pass our information on to another Greyhound Rescue so we will see what happens from there.  The nice thing is the rescue groups really go out of their way to make sure you are getting the right pet for your needs.  They go well above and beyond to have the dogs thoroughly checked out.

We are getting fit with You Fit
Jennifer and I finally decided to start working out and recently joined You Fit.  They have a brand new facility on Fowler Ave where the old Office Depot used to be (which is the Office Depot I used to work at for a few years).  The facility is huge, brand new equipment and very clean and neat.  All of the cardio machines have tv monitors and ipod connections as well as USB connections to save your work out data.  The real beauty of this place is the very low, no contact price.  The monthly fee is $10 per month, $10 down. No initiation fee or contract.  Their hours are from 5 am to midnight.  We considered other 24 hour clubs but though if we were not going to make it between the hours of 5 am and midnight, chances are very slim we would be working out at any other times.  Today we had our first workout and introduction.  If you see me hobbling around the next few days, that will explain it.

Living with a Wrestler

Well the King High Wrestling season has been going quite well.  The wrestlers are showing more and more improvement each week.  The coaches really have these guys progressing.  Currently we have 1 undefeated wrestler and several others with very good records as well.  Joseph went 4-0 last week improving his overall record to 28-4.  He has really been wrestling quite well and are looking forward to County and Districts coming up over the next few weeks.  The weight issues seem to have subsided for now.  He has really been doing quite well maintaining his weight in between matches.

His 4th win and 4th pin of the day

We are in the final stretch for the High School Wrestling season.  There is a huge County tournament this weekend where all High Schools in the county will be there.  I think there are around 27 schools.  It is a double elimination tournament so it will be interesting to see how far our guys go.  The following weekend is District Championship at East Bay High School.  The schools in our District are Armwood, Blake, Durant, East Bay, Hillsborough, King, Plant City and Sickles.  To move on from Districts you need to be in the top 4 in your weight class to move on to Regionals. 

START YOUR ENGINES

I am so excited the racing season is right around the corner.  The granddaddy of them all, Daytona 500 is just weeks away.  You can find the complete NASCAR schedule here SCHEDULE.  Those of you not into NASCAR here is a link for the NASCAR Jargon.  JARGON  

The front stretch of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Our seats are just before the flag stand.

INDYCAR season is right around the corner as well.  Even though I love NASCAR, I love INDYCAR even more.  The thrill of open wheel racing is just amazing.  Here is the schedule for the 2011 INDYCAR season.  SCHEDULE  We already have our tickets and our RV spot reserved for our 3rd trip to Indy.  This will be my 3rd trip in a row to Indy.  Those of you who are familiar with the whole INDY mystique would laugh at my 3 trips to Indy.  One of the best parts of going to Indy is talking with all of the fans there.  It is not uncommon to run into people in the 70's who have been going to Indy since they were my kids age.  The stories they tell are so interesting and it is a learning experience every time we go.  Looking forward to doing a lot of learning for MANY MANY years to come as I plan on attending this race for as long as I am able to.  Race fans are like no other fans.  They are some of the best people you could ever meet.  Even though you may have some STRONG differences in driver preference, we are all one big racing family.  The INDY 500 is more than just a race.  As a kid I always want to go to the Indy 500.  However, I only thought of it as just the race on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  After attending for the first time a few years ago, I realized the INDY 500 is MUCH more than just the race.  There is so much more to it than the race.  There is Carb Day where the drivers do the final tune up before the race.  The Indianapolis 500 Parade held the day before the 500 in downtown Indianapolis is the BEST parade I have ever been to in my life.  It is the definition of a down home American Parade.  There are no drunks, flashing boobs, throwing beads or urinating in front yards at this parade.  The parade is compiled of many civic groups, dignitaries, race officials and of course the drivers presented in reverse order of the starting line up.  Usually riding in a convertible or standing in the back of pick up.  The parade is a must see if attending the Indy 500.  There are also numerous opportunities to get autographs of all the drivers.  On Wednesday before the race is Fan Fest.  A lot of interactive games, exhibits and booths.  There are several autograph sessions to get signatures from all of your favorite drivers.  Here you can find some exciting rule changes for the upcoming season.  RULE CHANGES