Kull's World

Passing Time on the Merritt...

So traveling back to Belmont from Stamford on the Sunday after Thanksgiving is always an adventure, it seems no matter what time we leave, we always hit traffic in Sturbridge and onto the Pike.  A couple years ago, Kristin and I decided to come up with an Over/Under on the number of Christmas Trees we saw on roof racks for the duration of the trip.  I don't recall the exact number we saw the original time, but it was pretty freakin high, and blew away the number we set.  So today, Kristin the odds-maker set the Over/Under at 50.  That was a gimme Over like a 32 Point over on a Colts/Bengals game!!!  Let the games begin...

We were at 5 trees before we even got up to 55MPH on the Merritt heading north, so Kristin revised her O/U to 50 before we left Fairfield County, no matter...I was still on it.  I then set an O/U of 75 total for the trip back to Boston, again taking the over on my own action.    In addition to counting XMAS trees, we decided to count Thule racks as well.  Why you ask?  Because when you see these fuckers coming from a distance you automatically think it's a XMAS tree, only to be denied.  Therefore we counted those just for kicks, without any action.  And while we were at it, we tallied up some other things as well.  And the grand totals were as follows:

99: CHRISTMAS TREES....yep, on a bathroom stop in Charlton on the Pike I saw my last batch of trees, THREE OF THEM on the roof of a Lesbaru.  Unofficially the first "3 for 1" in XMAS tree counting history!  Darkness set in from there, so I am sure the number could have been much higher, but the game was called due to darkness.  Oh, and the Fairfield County total was 69, there's always a dramatic drop off once you leave rich people territory.  But even in Fairfield, I never saw the "3 for 1"  special...plenty of "2 for 1's"...but never a trifecta!
73: THULE RACKS...at one point, I thought the god damn racks were gonna catch up to the trees, but they stayed in 2nd place.
3:  Kayaks....WHAT THE.....isn't it a little cold for that?
3:  Pit Stops...One for gas, one for Ben to eat, and one for me to use the latrine, after seriously contemplating the usage of a Poland Springs bottle while creeping in Pike Traffic.
1:  Dead Deer...umm, yeah that's kind of sad...no need for additional details.
1:  PIMPIN A$$ BENTLEY!!!   Holy shit it was one of the nicest cars I've ever seen.
1:  Tractor Trailer FULL OF XMAS TREES:  This threatened to cause major controversy to Vegas odds in this game, inducing this quote from Kristin "OH MY GOD HONEY....LOOK!"  However rules officials quickly determined this load of trees had no impact on Over/Under numbers.
1:  Busted A$$ EL CAMINO :  Didn't look as good as the one linked to here, made me chuckle.
4:  Hours to Get Home/Interceptions by Tom Brady:  Both higher than usual, one hour more than usual and well, 2-3 more picks than usual for Mr. Brady.

So that's how we passed the time from Stamford to Belmont.  Might sound corny, but it does in deed make the time go faster.   Much like the  the license plate game did when I was a kid!!!

10 Things I'll do with $182 Million...

UPDATE:  Of the five quick picks I purchased, I had a grand total of ZERO NUMBER MATCHES.  So none of the following things to do will come true, damn.  I really thought I was gonna win this time too (ho hum).  Maybe Barry won...any luck man?

About this time tomorrow, after I win Mega Millions I'll have a lot of decisons to make, so I figured I better start jotting down some thoughts, and what a better location than my blog, here goes. 

What I would spend all that money on:

1)  Pay off all my immediate family members' mortgages.  Even though I don't have a whole lot of cousins and such, its immediate only for this guy.  Not sure what the true definition of "immediate family" is, so just for legal reasons I'll say in my mind it means sisters, parents, in-laws, and step-sisters and step-brother.  That's as far as I go.  Well since I'm a nice guy I'll even extend it to my wedding party, if you were in my wedding...consider your mortgage paid for.
2)  Hmm...while I'm paying off existing mortgages, considering we don't have a mortgage to pay off, I might as well buy a house for Kristin, Ben and I too.  Not sure where though...well our lease runs through August anyway, so we'd have some time to decide...err something like that.
3)  But we'd be lonely, so we'd just buy an entire Cul de Sac, and build houses for all our good friends to live around us.  SO....I hope you've all treated us well of late.  Otherwise you won't be part of the Kull de Sac.  (corny I know but its better than saying you wouldn't be on Kull's Sac)
4)  Shit, just a few hours ago I told some guys on my basketball team I'd buy them all the car of their choice, so that's on the list.
5)  Speaking of basketball, I think I'd donate some money to the BSSC so they could buy some real freakin refs!  (but that's another story completely)
6)  Oh damn, I'd have to pay off my credit cards, student loans, and car loan too.  I'd probably round up to the nearest $10,000 as my way of thanking them for the years and years of porking me with outrageously high percentage rates.
7)  How much do golf courses cost?  I think they're expensive.  And Kristin is already warning me not to go too crazy at first.  But if I could afford one, I'd buy it.  Because after I give my two weeks notice to work, I'd need something to do with my time.  Imagine being a multi millionaire starter on a golf course?  Okay a course might cost too much, maybe I'll just start with a Country Club membership.
8)  I would upgrade the extent of Kevin's Gate, and make it "Kevin's Stadium"...but nothing big, the old powerhouse at LHS, they don't draw too big a crowd.
9)  While I'm feeling charitable I would donate a couple bucks to the Southside Film Festival ....HOLLA BLAUGRA!!!
10)  I guess I should hire a good financial advisor as well.  That is IF I have any money left after these first 9 things, maybe this should be #1?

5 Quick Picks Baby...its gonna happen.  Even though in my past 6 quick picks for recent drawings I have a grand total of one number, I feel it this time.  And a black cat ran out in front of my van while driving to the mini mart to get the tickets, there's some reverse luck karma happening there!!!

NHL 94

Boston.com has been conducting a survey for the past several weeks polling readers to vote on their favorite sports video game of all time.  Not surprisingly, NHL 94 won the title!

I don't wanna even start to think about how many hours my friends and I spent playing this classic on Kirby Avenue (both #6 & #14).  Naked runs down the street were required if you got shut out by a certain score, anyone recall the specifics?  Much trash was spoken on the regular.  But the best part of this game was you could create your own player, some of my personal favorites of my own creation:

Iam Thewall #1- French Canadien Goalie that minded the net for my Detroit Red Wings, the I AM THE WALL look of his name is purely coincidental...but he was tough to score on.
Julio Rodriguez #6 - Possibly the first NHL 94 player out of Puerto Rico.

And of course, the legendary Brickey Brothers:
GIL BRICKEY #95 - Burly RW , not as talented as his brother, had a ton of heart and a legend in the game.
GENE BRICKEY #96 - LW , this kid had all the talent in the family, a scorer.
GUS BRICKEY #97 - C , the youngest of the brothers, drug problems really held him back, never reached his full potential...but could outskate anyone in the league.

I know there were plenty of other classic names created by Smitty, Rivers, Gilly, etc.  Please share them boys and give me a good chuckle...