Traitor for a day ....

... Yes, I know this is REALLY late.  But I should really post about this little event we went to - Super Bowl L (errr, Super Bowl 50). The experience was awesome.  It was a lot of fun!  I can't bolieve we went!  It was as good if not slightly better as drinking under the bridge for game 5 of the World Series in 2014!

How did you get tickets you ask? First off, I had attempted to win the lottery for the tickets.  Unfortunately, I did not win (kinda like the H1B lottery). So, around the mid-late November, and the Patriots were doing well, I started looking online to see if there were packages available for purchase.  I came across the "NFL on Location."  This company is part of the NFL. So, I figured, might as well attempt to e-mail to see if they have packages available. Unfortunately, they were sold out around June.  So, in early January (end of the season), I reached out again to NFL on Location and asked if there were packages available.  Of course, they were none available and with each passing day, it becomes less and less likely there will be more available.

At this point, disappointed I still wanted to be a 'part of the Super Bowl,' there was a race called, 'Run the Road to Super Bowl 50.'  It was a 10k race. So, I ran it ... without any training.  The last time I had run was in August.  Here is an official 'Run the Road to Super Bowl 50' photos.  As you can tell, its one of my finest photos.

Finishing Strong!

After some recovery time

Looking back, it was one of my best races.  I felt really good (considering I hadn't ran in about 4 months) and I had a good pace. My official time was: 1:06:03.

Jets were practicing near our apartment!

So, Wild Card weekend passed. No news.  Divisional Playoffs passed. No News.  Friday morning at 8:30 am, before the Conference Championships, I got an email from NFL on Location.  There are packages available! A lot of people asked, how much was it?  Let's just say it was pricey. We got one of the better packages and with ACCESS ON THE FIELD after the game!  Once we secured our tickets, we went out an bought replica jerseys!  I figured, if you are going to buy SUPER BOWL tickets, why not just spend a little more on a couple of jerseys!

Traitor for the day!

Super Bowl Day!  We boarded the boys for a couple of days because well, apparently now all you know, Tucker likes to PEEEEEEE! We got up 'early' - 10:00 am and left the apartment by 10:30.  We took Uber to and from the stadium - $15 each way. Even Uber got into the 'Golden Super Bowl' by colouring the cars gold.

Jeffrey was an awesome driver!

So getting into the stadium took quite some.  Security was crazy! I had never felt more secure.

One of several national guard officers

As part of the package, there was a pre-game fancy party we could attend.  That's why we got up so early for the game.  The food was super fancy and I was hoping for game day food.  Nachos, hot dogs, fries, etc ... But it was crab, sushi, fancy cut chicken and roast beef (Zeroth world problems here).  They had a guest speaker ... SHANNON SHARPE!

Shannon Sharpe and me!

At the museum with the 49ers' Super Bowl Trophies

Queue the pictures of the game.

Blue Angels!

View from our seats

Fancy Bud Light

Half Time Show

Stunt #2!?

Yes, I'm at Super Bowl L

So much confetti! (Don't worry I got a bag full)

Congrats Peyton! 

Post game on the field!!

Post game on the field!!

Confetti Angel! - Needed more confetti :(

Lay down on the 40-yard line?  Sure!

So, while wandering on the field post game. I saw ARASH MADANI of Sportsnet! It was hilarious.  I shouted out, "Oh man!  Its Arash Madani!"  He had a real surprised look on his face.  I'm guessing he wasn't expecting to be recognized in Santa Clara.  He was a great sport and nice guy. Especially since he was talking to a some what inebriated guy on the field of the Super Bowl!

Arash Mandani!

Found us!

https://gigapixel.panoramas.com/superbowl/50/

So, that was our Super Bowl experience.  Was it worth the money? Yes. Would we do it again? Probably not do the package and just tickets.  The package tripled the cost of the tickets.  But man, the experience was awesome.


And yes, I will start to lock down my account.  Darn boys!

HIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111

PREHAIRCUT!

TUCKER HERE!!

THIS IS AWESOME! EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! WHEEEE!! LOTS OF TOYS!!!
I LIKE TO PEEEE!!!  AWESOME AWEOMSE AWESOME!!

PEOPLE SAY I HACKED MY PERSONS ACCOUNT! AWESOME! TOYS!!!!! BUT MY PERSON IS AN IDIOT AND DIDNT LOG OF OUT BLOGSPOT!  AWESOME! I LOVE TO PEEEE!!!

I GOT A HAIR CUT!

I LIKE HANGING OUT WITH MY BORTHER AND SLEEPING ... BUT IM HYPER IN MY SLEEP!!!!! AWESOME!!! EEEEEE!!!!

TUCKER OUT!!!

woof

hi

man this is hard work

brodie here its been about 6 months since i moved out here and boy things are sure different down here. my persons are now in this tiny place but there are super big windows so i can look outside. they finally got a desk and setup this super big computer so now i can sneak on it to send you all an update. right now, they are still sleeping so i think i have some time.

so what has it been like? well, my fellow furry friends, warm. so very warm. there is no snow down here and as a canadian i really miss it. other then that, its like spring and summer all of the time

got to meet santa again

about 2 months ago my persons took me on a car ride. we went to this place where there were birds and other dogs. i met this little dog, they called him "brutus" and we seem to get along. my people seemed really happy about it. the strange thing is that after "brutus" and i met, we went for a little walk. my people talked for a little bit and then went back into the place with the birds. i thought this "brutus" guy was going to be left and we would go home. but he was coming with us!! i figured, well maybe he needs to be taken care of for a little while. so i just shook it off. we all piled into the car and drove to the place where all of the toys and food and what not. my people picked up another bed? why! i have a bed and its super comfy.  but you know, you can never have too many beds. we got back home but they didnt drop this other guy off. he WAS COMING UP WITH US!? i did not know what to think. my people were talking and asking each other things like, "franklin?" "lincoln?" "tobias?" "tucker?"  i did not like tobias or tobie for short, it confused me. eventually, they stopped using "brutus" and called him "tucker." i figure he would not be around for long so whatever.

apparently he may be staying

so tucker said he was born and raised in california which is strange because californians are supposed to be super laid back. i have really been trying to fit in here, so i have been super laid back, except when it comes to food and treats. tucker is not laid back. its a myth. almost all of my friends back home are way more relaxed than what he is. every little noise he is up and barking. i'm like cmon man, chill. i thought you were from california. he said that he did not get to come inside often with his other person so he had to stay outside. poor guy. he gets cold super easily and he really hates the rain. i cannot imagine if he ever saw snow.

anyways, its been 2 months now and i figured he isnt gone by now i should make the best of it.

our typical day

oh hamburgers .... i think someone is waking up! i gotta go ... peace love and happiness (thats what we californians are supposed to say right?)

Don't Try This At Home ... Seriously

So my last 2 posts were pretty delicious and awesome.  I figure that Oreo knew what they were doing, so I picked up a pack of this:

I didn't know what to expect, but they were pretty good.  I would buy them again.

So, guess what I decided to do ...

+

=

Needless to say, this wasn't a good idea.  It was pretty terrible.

Stick to the cookie form.

On the bright side, only 165 sleeps until Christmas!

Hallmark is on the ball!!!

And yes, I did watch several of these movies - all weekend long.

You know what could be more awesome?

... Well, I found this:

And it sort of looks like this:

It didn't really taste 'quite right'.  I was confused ... WHY would you replace the delicious Oreo-ness that makes an Oreo an Oreo

So ... I think you know what is next!

+

Real Oreo cookies

-

The stuffing

+

Yes, 'Premium Italian Chocolate'

=

Awesomeness + 2!

It was awesomely delicious.

Try it today!

Awesomeness ...

... made MORE awesome!

I went to Safeway on the weekend, to finally go grocery shopping, and I happened upon this.

So, I bought a pack.  Now, this is what they look like:

Its pretty good. And it looks mostly like the packaging.

It tastes pretty good too.  I give it 2-thumbs up.

But I had decided, it wasn't good enough ... so then, I did this:

I give this THREE thumbs up!

Yes, its that good.

Awesomeness ... made more awesome.

I can't wait to see what else Oreo does for the next "Limited Edition" cookie.

Yes, China ....

Well, that was an eventful week.  I travelled to the future and then came back to the past. I completed my only goal of the trip.

Things that I learned on my trip:

The Maglev train is only "fast"

Yes, only "fast".  I say that because if you want to go super fast, you need to ride the train from 1500h to 1545h where you go 468 kph.  The maximum speed is 300 kph after 1545h. But looking at the video now, I "guess" it seems really fast.

Food

Typically, I like to stick to food I'm comfortable with. But I decided to try different foods (kinda like here where I attempt to eat the vegan dish in the caf) ... up to a point.  I had some dim sum, pig's feet and some dumplings.  The dim sum was really good. I should have gotten 6 of them instead of the pig's feet.  That was less good. The pot stickers (or dumplings) were meh ... Yes, I've never had dim sum ... pot stickers (I've only had them Japanese style - Gyoza).

.

At least there was fast-food. Check out the 'McNugget meal.' But no 6-pack nuggets - but 5-packs!? I wonder if they would ever sell the 50 McNuggets for $10 (or the 20 McNuggets for $5 deal).

Public Transit

The subway system in Shanghai seems super safe.  Pushing people on the tracks is not possible since there is little wall thingy.  Also, there are x-ray machines you need to put your stuff through every time you enter a station. Driving in Shanghai is super scary, road lines are 'optional' and sometimes red lights are 'optional' too. Remember, cars and buses are bigger then you, so they pretty much have right of way.

Just Excessive 

There are some REALLY tall buildings in Shanghai.  I had no idea. Plus the stores are crazy. The Apple Store features the world biggest "curved glass" and the Louis Vuitton store sort of just speaks for itself.  I couldn't find a cheesy souvenir store it was all brand names, all of the time. I did get to go to an "antique" street with some merchants and tried my hand at bargaining - bring out them calculators!

Mayweather - Pacquaio

Even in China was I was able to catch Mayweather - Paciquiao I (maybe there will a II - Mayweahter did not outright reject a rematch).  I went to a sports bar called the Camel and there was NO cover!  It ended up being a fight I had expected to see, not the fight I was hoping to see.  I wanted to see a really offensive aggressive fight. Too bad it turned into your typical Mayweather match. Next up for Mayweather is probably my boy Amir Khan (unless he loses to Chris Algieri).  As for Pacquiao, well, surgery for one and then I believe 6 - 8 month recovery period.

Dreamliner

After a week of anticipation, the Dreamliner was not as awesome as I expected. It was only 1-level. The windows do not have any little blind thingys.  There is a button that dims the window, but it does not dim the window completely. Its made of carbon and what not, but that is sort of underwhelming.  Apparently, I should have found a flight that uses the A380 plane instead - that thing is massive.

Other details of note:

• The Internet in China is slow - also try living without Google if your carrier/hotel isn't 'sneaky'
• Apple Maps is better then Google Maps - it didn't put me in the middle of the river while trying to find my hotel (and considering it was the first time in the country, a good maps program is important).  I'm going to say that it was Matt P.'s doing.  Thanks Matt!
• Los Angeles (LAX) airport is one of the worse airports I've been to. It seems like I've been to a lot of them.  Normally there are those "Departures" screen thingy-doodles all over the place; but I didn't see one until I was literally at my gate. The airport is 8-ish terminals big.  I wasn't sure when I went through security if I had to leave and re-go through security again to get to my gate.

It was a good trip.  I learned a lot and got a lot of work done. That was the purpose of the trip (that and going on the Maglev train). Maybe I'll get to go some where more awesome next time - where there are some cheesy souvenir shops