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Travel OWOH
All this talk about my upcoming trip on my One World One Heart post is fun. But the reality is that I am grossly unfit for my trip. You see, it’s a skiing trip! And I who have never skied in her entire life know how dreadfully easy it can look but how awfully difficult it can really be! How would I know? Because I have tried roller skating before and no cushion could protect me!
My only recourse is to hit the exercise equipment between now and the trip, and hope for the best! The countdown begins!
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Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. 5/1/2010???
Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have agreed to terms for a welterweight super fight, Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe said Friday.
Although the contracts are not signed, “all of the deal points have been agreed to,” Ellerbe said. “We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to. It’s with the lawyers. Shane is a great fighter, one of the best of his era, and so is Floyd. It’s going to be a great fight. It’s a fight fans have wanted to see for a long time.”
Assuming the paperwork is signed, Mosley will defend his welterweight title against Mayweather on May 1 on HBO PPV at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Ellerbe said that he expected the paperwork to be completed in the next few days with a formal announcement likely next week.
The fight came together after an unexpected turn of events.
First, Mayweather became available for a fight three weeks ago when negotiations with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao disintegrated. They had agreed to all terms for a March 13 fight that loomed as the biggest in boxing — except for a drug testing protocol.
They had agreed to random urine testing, but Mayweather also wanted random blood testing, even though that is not required under the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Pacquiao agreed only to three blood tests, but none within 24 days of the fight, and the third one immediately after the bout.
Mayweather has alluded to Pacquiao using performance-enhancing drugs, even though he has never produced any evidence, and Floyd Mayweather Sr. has outright said he believes Pacquiao uses.
The rancor over the drug testing issue caused the fight to fall apart and Pacquiao moved on. He will defend his version of the 147-pound title against former titlist Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Then Mosley became available two weeks ago. He was scheduled to meet Andre Berto in a title unification bout at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Saturday night. However, Berto, a Haitian-American, withdrew from the bout after eight members of his extended family were killed in the earthquake in Haiti.
Immediately after the cancellation of Mosley-Berto, Mosley and Mayweather — the former welterweight champ and pound-for-pound king until giving up the mantle during a brief retirement — began negotiating.
“The negotiations were very cordial and went very smoothly,” Ellerbe said.
Mosley has agreed to undergo random blood and urine testing, as has Mayweather, Ellerbe said.
Mosley has admitted to using PEDs and was connected to the BALCO scandal. Although he publicly denied using PEDs for years, Mosley admitted during grand jury testimony, which was later released, that he used designer steroids “the clear” and “the cream” and injected himself with EPO, a blood oxygen enhancer, during the lead-up to his 2003 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley said he took the steroids unknowingly.
“Floyd only wants to be sure of an even playing field no matter who he fights,” Ellerbe said.
Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs), a five-division champion, and Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs), a three-division champion, have seemingly been on a collision course since the late 1990s, when Mosley was lightweight champion and Mayweather was junior lightweight champion.
Although their careers took different paths, talk of a potential fight heated back up in 2006 after Mosley’s two knockouts of Fernando Vargas, but talks never got too serious.
However, Mosley stepped up his call for a fight with Mayweather, 32, last year after Mayweather ended his 18-month retirement. After Mayweather easily beat lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez in a lopsided decision in September, Mosley crashed his post-fight interview in the ring and called him out to his face.
It didn’t look like Mosley would get the fight because two months later, Pacquiao knocked out Miguel Cotto and talks began for Pacquiao-Mayweather.
Mosley, 38, hasn’t fought since last January, when he upset Antonio Margarito to win his title via ninth-round knockout.
Dan Rafael is ESPN.com’s boxing writer
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Therapy for the Soul
I have started and stopped, started and stopped all my life. Dieting has been a constant. I am either constantly on one or constantly going off of it. In all of my starting and stopping I am now morbidly obese, luckily with no co-morbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. that comes along with my weight.
In fact: until recently, I felt great.
There was no use to “diet” like I meant it. After all, I felt great.
Until Christmas. When my husband bought me a new desk and we carried the 75lb glass desktop up two flights up steps only to find out it was the wrong damn top. So, the next day, down the steps again, back with another glass top. With packaging it weighed just shy of 100 pounds.
What in the hell was I thinking? Obviously that I am as healthy as a horse and strong to boot with unlimited back muscles, blah, blah, blah.
Out goes my back–or something. I noticed it when I was standing doing Christmas shopping. One section of my back kept going numb and it hurt like hell to stand too long. When I would sit, ye old back would normalize and I would start to feel better.
Now, it’s the end of January and I am still having issues. They now include my right knee. After a handy dandy internet search, I realized that it probably was not my actual back, but my hips. So, this coming week, I am off to visit the doctor.
But she is in for a shock.
I have been in therapy for better part of a year. Different things. My weight, marriage, career…the usual mid-30 female issues.
Except I also needed to discuss my family. How my father beat my mother so horrifically in front of me and my sister that I am still scarred to this day. How my Paternal Grandmother knew what was going on, but didn’t say anything, instead she plied me with food. She was also horribly jealous of my Maternal Grandmother, who wanted me to be fit and healthy, yet PG new she could win with food as she kept a lot of junk foods at her house and MG didn’t. MG wasn’t much of a help either n that area. Where the other tried to bribe me with food, she tried to bribe me with clothing. If you lose 50lbs I will buy you a new wardrobe. She criticized me for not eating “diet” foods or by saying “now, that’s not on your diet”…this from the woman who has always weight 130lbs to her 5′7″ height.
Never once did they ask me what I wanted. Just one time I would like to hear them say, “What do you want?”
It makes for one fucked up Fat Gal.
I feel selfish if I truly want something for myself. What’s even more fucked up? I will keep myself from advancing, or sabatoge myself by doing it.
Who am I? Why do I do this? I feel like Charlie Brown screaming “uuuuuuuuuuuugghh”.
I cried on my husbands shoulder tonight. I realize for I think the very first time in my entire life that I want to be happy and do something for me. Not for him. Not for our son. For me. Then I look in the mirror and realize I am closer to 40 than 30 and feel like my body is falling apart.
I have to get it out of me. I have to put it here. Even if no one reads it. I have to do it for me.
Problem is, it’s a lot easier being a happiness martyr…
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To the foods I refuse to eat
Dear mushrooms,
You have an off-putting hue, a quease-inducing texture, and I suspect that you may have been touching poop for much of your life. I have studied you and I am confident that you do not provide any nutrients that cannot be found elsewhere, like Simpsons chewable vitamins.Dear olives,
Like mushrooms, you produce an unpleasant feel in my mouth when I chew you. It’s not a crunch, but it’s not a chewy chew. It’s something in between, akin to what how I believe eating a booger must feel. That’s not to say I have never eaten a booger, but it was long enough ago that I don’t remember the experience in much detail.Dear raw tomatoes,
As I wrinkle my nose as I peel you from my hamburger, put there by some thoughtless lout, I think about how my mom once told me that you are a fruit. Do you honestly believe that I would bite into you as I would a delicious apple? You’re crazy! Turn yourself into sauce form and lay down on an Italian dish this instant, or get out of my sight.Dear cabbage,
You sneaky devil. You try to make me think you are lettuce, but I am onto you. My grandma used to boil you and nearly force-feed me to you alongside corned beef for St. Patrick’s day. I am sorry grandma did that to you. She turned me against you and perhaps you deserved better. We will never know.Dear coconut,
Why are you considered a good accompaniment to chocolate? You taste weird and you are hard to chew thoroughly. You are out of place on candy. I don’t actually know your place. Anything that is as hard to break open as you should yield infinite goodness, yet you disappoint. In second grade, we drank your “milk” during a luau, but I quickly realized that adding strawberry syrup to you would not cause any improvement. Because of this, you fail any rational definition of milk-producing.Dear bacon,
You seem like you should be ham, but you’re not ham. You don’t even taste like ham. I don’t know what you are and the same goes for your Canadian brother. Got off my pizza and stay away from my eggs and toast.Dear meat of sheep or deer or any other animal that is not a chicken, cow, fish or pig,
Stay in living animal form, please. That is all.Dear English muffin,
Well, la dee da, you’re not just a muffin. You’re an English muffin. What makes you so special? Peanut butter doesn’t taste any better on you than on regular bread or a bagel. I don’t like prissy food.I realize that I have hurt feelings all along the food pyramid, but we are going to have to learn to live without each other. As my diet rotates among about ten different meals, I don’t foresee that we will have a problem. I hope you find many happy and loving relationships with others.
Sincerely,
Megan
http://scrambledmegsntoast.xanga.com/720997117/to-the-foods-i-refuse-to-eat/
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Throw In The Towel
Originally, the term was to “throw in the sponge” and it first appeared in “The Slang Dictionary” of 1860.
Back in the 19th century, sponges were used at prize fights to clean fighters’ faces. If a contestant’s manager threw in the sponge , it meant that the fighter had had enough and was admitting defeat. In admitting defeat, the sponge was no longer required as the win was awarded to the other fighter, thus ending the match.
Over the years, towels have been substituted for sponges at boxing matches and prize fights. The term has followed suit and likewise, it was substituted the word towel for sponge hence the term to “throw in the towel.”
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oudin’s chance to bounce back
Melanie Oudin has been on our mind lately. First, she was one of the big stories at the 2009 U.S. Open, where her pink “Believe” adidas shoes look dangerously close to our own version of the custom-designed Barricades. And after a dismal post-Open slump that saw her go 1-6 (including an early loss at the 2010 Australian Open last week), Oudin’ll have a chance to regain her momentum at the upcoming Fed Cup tie against France. Finally, a silver lining to the Williams sisters buying a stake in the Miami Dophins.
Further reading: Our blurb on Ms. Oudin for The Moment. Enjoy!
(image via nytimes.com)
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The Bloody Anatomy of Albion
Here we go again. A couple of months back I wrote a blog post here called The England Shirt & The Invention Of Traditions. It was about how the recently released and very hyped England shirt was deliberately manipulating ideas of Englishness to… well, make sure it seems “English” (making sure it can be defined by what it’s defining, you see). Well, Umbro are at it again. They are beginning another process of teaser advertising for the soon to be released red away kit. Early signs are that an appropriation of circa 18th Century anatomy diagrams and imagery are being hijacked in the name of contemporary Englishness. Golly gosh. Albion will never have throbbed with such omnipresent mass-produced High Street vibrancy…
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Free Tennis Fitness Tips
Speed Training Drills Tennis eBook
This eBook contains great drills and exercises that focus on speed training. You will find all of these drills presented in an easy to read PDF eBook. There are clear instructions as well as easy to follow diagrams for every drill. Once you have opened your eBook please save the eBook to you own computer (save to “My Documents” or another folder of your choice) as this will allow you to have easier access to all drills as well as being able to print these drills when you want them. Click here to get your Speed Training Tennis Drills eBook……more>> Eight Steps to Developing Blazing Speed – Functional Training
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What is Functional Training? This is one of those terms that has entered the sports and fitness industry over recent years. It basically refers to performing exercises or movements that simulate a specific movement required by your sport. It is a training method that strives to enhance the performance of a specific movement or skill. By “copying” or “mimicking” the movement in an exercise we are increasing the transfer of positive adaptational changes across to our specific skill.
The ” 8 Steps to Becoming a Faster Athlete” Include:
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Conversations with my sister: Super Bowl tickets
Today, I found out that both my brother AND sister somehow got tickets to go to the Super Bowl in Miami, where they shall be cheering for our New Orleans Saints. I made a remark to this effect on Facebook, which solicited the expected chorus of “lucky bastard” and other such comments. This is the conversation that followed:*
HEATHER: Well we were going to be in Florida anyway.
ME: I know.
HEATHER: For the space shuttle launch. Because Will wanted to see one before they retired the program. And I talked him into spending a couple of days in Disney World, too.
ME: I know.
HEATHER: You should put that on Facebook.
ME: That’s not exactly going to make you sound sympathetic. “On the day we’re going to the space shuttle launch, we’re going to have to skip Disney World because we have Super Bowl tickets. Oh! And my diamond hubcaps are scuffed! Pity me!”
* Conversations with my family are not transcribed verbatim. They are altered for length, to provide appropriate context, and to make them funnier whenever necessary. Frankly, all you can count on in these posts is that at some point, I had a conversation with somebody about some subject.
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wages
I understand the significance of the dry baptism. I can see the victory, but I still find it hard to reconcile cruelty on the pages that I read. Sometimes I wonder whether there truly was favour or if it had just been a series of events, some good, some bad. All these stories only makes sense to me because they point to something better, they point to Him. Without Him, these stories retain the darkness and distortion that would normally be associated with such inky black crimes. An Old Testament story is incomplete unless it has a New Testament ending. Restoration is often the only torch I have when I am reading the stories of old. There is much that I read that reduces me to tears. How could we do all these things in the name of the One that created all things, all men. How could there be so much hurt justified? My only hope is that Hope itself knows no limits. That there is no mess or broken heart that Hope cannot restore. There is no damage that Hope cannot reconcile. If Hope is lost then so am I. This Hope is all I have to live by. It’s more than a song to sing, it’s more than a label to wear in societies classified list, it is more than a moral code, it is more than religious jewellery, it is more than making good choices or being honest. This Hope is more than living a faultless life, God knows I haven’t. I read these pages and I see story after story of faulted lives. Hope is the only faultless one, prepared to reverse the tide of human decay. That right can wipe out wrong. If this is the victory that Miriam and Aaron sing about, smashing tambourines and dancing then I too can join them somewhere outside of Egypt.