I officially became a contributor to Southern California's smog problem, when I purchased a car on Thursday evening. I bought a 2006 Toyota Corolla with only 45,000 miles on it. I thought it was a pretty good deal compared to a lot of the other stuff I had been finding on the internet. I had been in a car pool to work every day since I moved here back in June. First with Joe Dooling and then with two guys I work with Todd and Jason. Since about September I had been leaving for work at 7 am and coming home around 7 pm, I wouldn't mind so much if I was getting paid for all those extra hours. The truth is I was clocking in at 9 and then clocking out at 6. Losing an Hour and a half of money in the morning and losing an hour in the evening. Between September and now that could have added up to a lot of extra cash in my pockets.
In about a month I will be leaving for London for a couple of weeks. I am really excited about it, because its still my favorite place, and I eventually want to live there at some point in my future. The flight from San Diego to London takes about 13 hours which will be the longest I have ever been on an airplane. The flight to London from New York which I have taken several times is only 6 hours and that usually drives me crazy.  ¶ 12:15 PM

  Lately ESPN has had a few articles that have left me amazed at the quality of the writing. There was a story about Michael Phelps last summer that I loved, which i think was written by Jerry Cransick. Then there was one about why no one will be better than Michael Jordan which may have been written by Bill Simmons. The one I read today talks about the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. I have taken an excerpt of just to show how good it truly is, this is the last paragraph.

"Spent, both men are in tears for the trophy ceremony. Only they understand why. Each is less without the other, though the other may destroy him. The legacy of one must now become the legacy of the other. Trapped, they define each other. Paris, London and New York still lie ahead of them. And ahead of us.

If we're very lucky, this rivalry between The Swiss and The Spaniard, this epic thing, may become the sports story of the year."

I was extremely happy that Nadal managed to win his first Australian Open, he now only needs the U.S. Open for a career grand slam. Roger Federer has been only one Major away from the career grand slam for about 3 years now. The difference is that Federer needs to win the French Open which is on clay courts. If Rafael Nadal is healthy during the French Open he is completely unstoppable on that surface so Federer may be waiting for a long time to complete that slam. The fact that Nadal has won on the hard courts in Melbourne gives him hope he can win on the hard courts in New York later this year. 2009 will be an epic year for tennis, I can feel it already.

The Super Bowl was played in Tampa Bay on Sunday and the Pittsburgh Steelers won, which wasn't a surprise. I think what was a surprise was how close the game was in the end. The Steelers have a young enough team that should be able to put together a couple championships in a row, much like the Patriots at the beginning of the decade.  ¶ 5:45 PM