It feels like Buffalo here in Phoenix

See for yourself. I believe we had a frost last night as well. Sheesh!

Interesting story if you are into "Prison Break"

It's one of my absolute favorite shows. I never miss an episode of "Prison Break" on FOX.

Over the weeks I have grown to really like William Fichtner's role as Agent Mahone. He's a great actor who mostly plays law enforcement roles, and this one has to be his best. He was most recently seen as Sheriff Tom Underlay on "Invasion"on ABC.

So, the cool thing about William Fichtner is that I learned today that he was one of my late Uncle's best friends back in the day. He (Fichtner) used to live in Buffalo, went to Maryvale High School, and used to hang with my Uncle Blaine (my mom's sister's husband, who passed in 1998).

In recent years, I have heard of this man from my Aunt Sue and family, about this guy who used to be my Uncle's friend, who was in "Armageddon". Apparently, Fichtner also used to frequent my Grandparents house in Alden, NY, as my Uncle would bring him over to hang out with him and my Aunt, who he was dating at the time.

Anyway, after becoming a huge fan of the show this past year or so, I had no clue that the actor they always told us about was actually Agent Alexander Mahone on "Prison Break".

I have no idea if he still has any ties to the WNY area.

Here are some recent roles of William Fichtner:

1. Armageddon (1998) .... Colonel William Sharp, Shuttle Freedom Pilot
2. "Invasion" .... Sheriff Tom Underlay (22 episodes, 2005-2006)
3. The Longest Yard (2005) .... Captain Knauer
4. Crash (2004/I) .... Flanagan
5. Black Hawk Down (2001) .... Sfc. Jeff Sanderson
6. Pearl Harbor (2001) .... Danny's Father
7. The Perfect Storm (2000) .... David 'Sully' Sullivan

As you can see, this is just some of his bigger roles. Check him out at IMDB and Wikipedia.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Don't eat too much Turducken! But watch plenty of football and drink plenty of alcohol!

The greatest Southwest-type soup EVER.

Ok, I stand corrected. It's stoup. A stew-like soup. And it's amazing.

I'm not one to post recipes. In fact, I never have, and probably won't ever again. But I just have to share this with you. It's quite possibly the greatest 'warm-your-soul' concoction my wife and I make. We have this at least once every 1-2 months. Thanks to Rachel Ray (she's such a hottie!)

So, here you go. Please make it and make it exactly the way I'm stating here. If you substitute anything, it will turn out like shit. Ok?


CHICKEN, CHORIZO, AND TORTILLA STOUP

1 pound chicken tenders
Salt and pepper
3/4 pound chorizo sausage, in packaged meats case near kielbasa
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
6 small red potatoes, diced
1 (15-ounce) can fire roasted chopped tomatoes (recommended: Muir Glen)
1 (15-ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained
2 teaspoons hot sauce
1 quart chicken stock
1 sack red or blue corn tortilla chips
2 cups shredded pepper jack or smoked Cheddar
Suggested garnishes: chopped scallions, chopped cilantro or fresh thyme leaves

Preheat medium soup pot over medium-high heat.

Chop tenders into bite-size pieces. Wash up, then season chicken with salt and pepper. Dice chorizo. Add extra-virgin olive oil and chicken to pot. Lightly brown chicken 2 minutes, then add the chorizo and garlic. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes, then add peppers, onions and potatoes. Cook 5 minutes, then stir in tomatoes, kidney beans, and hot sauce. Add chicken stock and bring soup to a bubble.

Preheat broiler.

Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender 10 to 12 minutes. Ladle soup into shallow bowls and top each bowl with a generous handful of crushed tortillas and cheese. Melt cheese under hot broiler. Garnish with scallions and herbs.

A great day to be outside.

It was 70 something today. We took a trip down to Tempe, visited "Hole in the rock" at the Papago park, ate some terrific Mexican at Guerrero's (our favorite) and played a nice round of mini golf and batting cages at Fiddlesticks in Tempe.

All in all it was a great day. So nice.

Timmy Ho's / New Diamonbacks Logo & Colors

It's been an interesting week. I've been personally slammed here at work, and with my boss gone to a conference the rest of this week, it's been even more hellacious. He left yesterday morning and that's when the fun began! I was slammed all day, nothing seemed to go right.

But anyway. I woke up this morning and made a fresh brew of Folgers Columbian roast coffee (pretty much my favorite store-bought brew). It smelled so good. So I grabbed my Tim Horton's cup, filled it up, put some creamer in, a couple splenda, and off I went to my office.

I sat down, read through emails, etc. Then I looked at my cup. And I thought to myself... this is good coffee, but I wish it were Tim Horton's. And I remember getting this cup for Christmas last year from my Grandmother, filled with bags of Tim Horton's 'ffee. It was soooo good. But still not as good as a nice fresh, large double double from Tim Hortons (especially on Niagara St on the West Side of Buffalo, where Eddie and I would meet 1-2 times a week if possible for some brew).


I fricken really miss Tim's man. You don't even know. I used to get at least 2 a day. One on the way into work, at Transit Rd. and Broadway near Blockbuster, and one on the way home from work at the same location. Sometimes during the day I'd grab one from the corner of Clinton and Harlem (because my office was right near there). There's nothing like a hot cup of Tim's on a cold winter day. NOTHING. And it's always brewed fresh. I loved getting a cup right after it was brewed.

Anyway, soon enough, I'll have some.

So... the purple and teal are gone for the Diamondbacks. THANK GOD. The Diamondbacks unveiled their new look yesterday. It's actually pretty exciting around here. The Diamondbacks are the second-best team in this here city... if you can compare... The Coyotes blow, and we all know how great the Cardinals are doing. But the Suns and Diamondbacks are definitely the most popular in the area and I'm proud of the new c0lors. What do you think?

Haha, this is funny. Two INVENTION SEVEN reviews from years ago...

Ok so a few years ago I submitted a few songs off our studio album "My Life is a Movie" to this free song-review website called Gods of Music. And by god, it's still around. I stumbled across it this morning and low and behold they still have 2 song reviews I submitted from way back when.

The two songs I submitted were "Bent/Straight" and "Summertime". You can listen to each by clicking on them.

Anyway, here's the review of "Bent/Straight":

Invention Seven has the sharp clasp modern rock groups find attractive. And unfortunately, Jeff and Ken Partell have yet to find a voice that accommodates such an awesome pulsation.

With the song's solid romp, a gutsier vocal delivery (one that's as vengeful as their influences/predecessors) could certainly push bent/straight into a keeper. The Partell's seem to be drowning in a sea of distortion, where turning up the mic may help rather than harm.

If Buffalo, NY has embraced these 4 lads as rising soon-to-be's, it's with good reason.

Vocals aside, the track makes enough waves to expose potential. Recording quality and performance sound as they should, while chord chomps and jumpy energetics transform Inventionseven01 into possible ear candy.

Read the original review here

Wow, they ripped on our vocals right off the bat. But I guess they liked it.

Read the review for the punk-pop classic "Summertime" here:

This is Power Pop in the tradition of Blink 182 - Fast enough to dance to, with simple lyrics that are easily sung to, and overall, perfect summer music for everyone.

The musicianship is great, the guitars live up to the best of the genre, and the drummer knows exactly what he's doing. The lyrics, while simple, are perfect for the style of the song, saying everything that needs to be said about being a teenager in the perfect season, Summer.

"Summertime is the one place

We can remember what we had

Summertime is the place

Where the times can never last"


The vocalist takes the simple lyrics and turns them into catchy pop, in a way that when you sing along, the words drip off your tongue like candy. Smooth and grooving, you'll listen and wonder where the time went, for the two and a half minutes go by far too quickly, and then the song is over.

This is music for cruising; it’s perfect have fun, no time for worries radio anthem pop music from a band that knows how to take its influences and make a cohesive and coherent tune that people will love to listen to, and radio will love to play! Look out for "Invention Seven", one listen and you'll agree!

Read the original review here

It's amazing what you can stumble upon while just surfing the web.

Do you believe now?

Listen to Kotalik win it for B-Lo

Does anyone read this anymore?

Hello? I wish there was a way (or maybe there is, I'm just too lazy to figure it out) how many people read this blog.

I'm sorry it's been sorta blah around here lately. It's not like anything isn't going on in my life... I just feel like I'm falling off the blogging bandwagon...

Sabres VS Boston tonight, in Bean-town... go Sabres! And don't worry, when I move here in a few months, I won't be a Bruins fan... (I used to be a huge one back in the day). I'm Blue & Gold for life baby!



Oh - did anyone hear that the NHL is going to be streaming (well, I guess in a delay) FULL NHL GAMES! You can watch older games here now, but eventually I guess there will be games you can watch almost sorta-live. The URL to find this NHL goodness is http://video.google.com/nhl.html