Celebrity Sightings

If you have read this blog at all you might have guessed (I know I have not said it directly until now) but I love my life. Everything about it is perfect ... wife, kids, career, house, friends, etc. Don't envy anyone and am pretty happy.

One element of this is ... I think I lead a pretty interesting life (NOTE TO CRITICS - THIS iS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE POST). Even though I live in a nice country setting in what many would consider the sticks - I get out in the world and see things and people.

It helps that I travel alot and am privledged enough to usually get upgraded to first class. So this week I sat next to Warren Littlefield (if ya gonna name drop you need to add the bolds) -- I am sure you are all saying "who the heck is Warren Littlefield" (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0514716/) . Well he is the former President of Programming at NBC Sports -- the freakin' architect of "Must See TV". He left NBC in 1999. He was reading a script on the plane with character names Dixie and Harry (had to sneak a peak). I did not talk to him because 1) it is not cool to bother the other passengers (did you hear the commercial about the pirates) and 2) I did not have a TV idea to pitch.

Among the people that I have "run" into in my travels (and I won't even roll out the Superbowl lists - until some other time) :

• Another time I was sitting next to Willie McGinest of the Patriots. He has the longest legs around.
• Once out of Las Vegas I sat with half of KC and the Sunshine Band (including KC, the other half was in coach). They were really tired and spent the entire flight needling each other. I sat next to Rusty Hamilton the keyboardist.
• Whenever I walk off the plane I always look at the people holding the name cards -- every once in a while you see a familiar name. Well about 6 months ago I was getting off the plane in San Francisco and I saw a sign that said "W. Grousbeck". I said to the guy --- "no shit, your waiting for Wyc?" He downplayed it, so about 10 steps past him I turned around and it was Wyc Grousbeck owner of the Celtics. Turns out he was sitting across the aisle for the entire 6 hours flight from Boston. What is funny is when I was reading the papers I noticed the Celts were playing Golden State - I considered going for about 4 seconds.
• In 2003 I get stranded at in Denver when God decided to drop all of the snow we got here in Boston that winter in one day. They were calling this the Yao Ming storm since in some places they got as much as 7'5" of now. I had to spend 3 days there -- luckily I was in a "Heavenly Bed" (their trademark - not mine) at the Westin and not one of the 3500 people stuck at the airport terminal. They even had to move them all through security when the "tarp" roof of the airport ripped. So when it was finally safe to come out of my hotel - I headed to the airport. I arrived four hours before the flight - knowing that there would be chaos at the airport. This included a1 hour transaction at the ticket counter - the cheer this guy got when he finally received his boarding pass would the cheers that Brady gets these days. As in many of these "crisis" type situations - people that normally would not talk to each other become foxhole friends. So there is about 6 guys clustered together --- joking around about how absurd the whole situation is. Well the guy with the British accent points out the classic LA girl -- blond, enhanced, etc. Well I say that he has been in LA too long and we chat for a few minutes about LA girls, etc. Come to find out he is Sacha Grevasi (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0315065/) a screenwriter … he was hesitant to admit any of his movie's, "I've worked on some bad movies". Finally after some coaxing, he told us, the Big Tease, some uncredited stuff, an upcoming Hanks film The Terminal and (drum roll ……..) Simone. Well … when he said Simone … I said something like "I saw that on a plane and that was really a painful two hours", his response was something like "I spent 10 weeks on the set - now that was painful". Good guy - even went to get food for all of us.
• One other time I was going to Denver with Rick Clarkson and I was reading (what I found out later) was a draft of "Who's Your Caddy" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767917405/qid=1125080944/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-4694208-8840817?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated.
• Not sure I should even admit this one ... but I was waiting for a connection one time and notice some "dude" with trying to be invisible over by the pole. As it turned out it was CT / Chris (from Boston) from Real World Paris. He was alittle crazy on the show and this was right in the middle of the first run for the show (http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/realworld-season13/personality.jhtml?personalityId=1078).
• Finally the Mother of All Sightings ... back in the summer of 2003 I am in the line at LAX to get on a flight to San Francisco (you often see celebs at LAX) and I notice this blonde girl walking my way. As I am looking I am thinking - wow LA is just filled with these Britney Spears Bimbo wannabees - as I am thinking this ... I realize this is not a wannabee this is Britney Spears. She is with what I think is a sister and one boby guard. They are escorted right to the front of the first class line and they cut directly in front of me (I know -- why would I let her do that). I was shocked that 1) her entourage was only two people and 2) she was flying commercial. Remember this is in the peak of her popularity before all the craziness took over. BTW ... I was willing to bet anything that security was going to yell "secondary screening". Sure enough -- they pulled her aside and did all the extras (going to SB39 I was talking to a TSA guard at Logan and he says they pull celebs over all the time - he had recently stopped Brady and all he could say was "don't blow my cover" as I guess he had on some disquise.)

This is a picture of Sponge Bob that Franky did yesterday for Isabella (he misses her). Notice how he wrote "Bella" on the bottom right - that's my boy! 

The clubhouse is progressing. The second floor is taking shape. Alittle bit of cape cod in Grafton 

This is the first batch of Pumpkins from our garden. Seems alittle early for then - I guess I am not a farmer yet. 

Franky's First Patriots Game

Last night was Franky's first Patriots game. He did pretty good staying up. He made it to about half time before he started to doze off ... but then the cheer leaders came out at the the 2:00 minute warning - his eyes opened up and he said "cheer leaders" (according to Frank, mom is still prettier). After that he started to close his eyes again up about 2 minutes into the 3rd period the Italian Ice guy came by, he opened his eyes again and said "Italian Ice".

Two things were Franky's favorite parts of the game:

1) the Revolutionary War guys with the guns that fired when the Patriots scored.
2) the Schedule Magnets that Dunkin Donuts gave away before the game. I kept putting it into my pocket so he would not lose it and he would ask every 5 minutes "where's my thing".







Snuggled in with the Italian Ice and some cheerleadering.

The Big Blue Truck

This is the Big Blue Truck (BBT) ... it is getting alittle old! In fact we had a scare this week --- it would not start --- Franky was quite concerned (he kept asking me ... "what is wrong with the BBT). We got it started and then he kept asking "How did you fix the BBT".

Well it is back in busines -- as you can see from this picure - Isabella does not exactly like the BBT - she thinks it smells. Whenever I say ... "we're taking the BBT", she whines and says "do we have to .. it smells". Though she does like riding around with the Tunes cranking and her and Franky singing in the back.

Well I kinda love the thing ... it has been great for us:

1. Leave it at the beach house all summer - filled with beach gear.
2. Take it to the Patriots in the fall - filled with tailgating gear.
3. I call it the shed since it is great for storage - in fact I had some used furniture Liz bought at a flea market stored in it this week.
4. Tow boat/jet ski
5. Leave it at airport when traveling - no need to worry about those little dings
6. Moving building materials - when I moved I had the thing almost hitting the ground with cobblestones.
7. Used it to move to new house - many many trips

So the big issue -- do I replace it as it gets older or keep it ... I am kind of attached to it.

this is the life ,,,

Another day of soaking up the sun in Brewster ... gotta end soon but gotta enjoy it while I can. BTW - that is Isabella sitting with her back to the camera.












Saw this great styrofoam cooler being thrown away at Linnel Landing beach today - with these free returnables inside. I thought it would be a lovely addition to Nana's Gift (for my B-in-L Jeff) and it reminded me of Superbowl's past ... but I was so weighed down with beach gear I could not pick it up. Jeff, it is probably still sitting there - if you want to go grab it!

Test

Test

don't doubt the power of the wh*re

Steve Smith was complaining at Mike Smith's bachelor party that he was the only person that read Nick Manzello's column and he was in freakin' Turkey. So I said don't worry -- I'll hook you up!

So though a series of back door dealing (including help from another Telegram that is kinda related to the family) I was able to secure Steve the headline in this morning's Sports Street.

Enjoy:

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050816/COLUMN07/508160510/1009/SPORTS

look at this

you can even post from my treo! This reminds me of the time outside of yankee stadium before gm 1 of 04 alcs game and we were interviewed on fox25 ... I then used my treo to log in to my tivo from in a bar and told tivo to record fox. later I download the game to my computer, edited the clip and burned dvds

This is the kid's clubhouse when I started to build it to replace the old swingset that came with our house. This picture was taken May 10, 2004 - around the time I started it.







This is the clubhouse now - when I took the picture last week. What you can't see is the tower to the right and the swings. I have made some good progress this summer and hope to have all the structural work done before it gets cold. I am torn - I like to do it and don't want to finish it (what will I build then?) and wanting to get it done.





This is the new "front deck" I added last week. I think it needs a stair. Wish I was working on it right now.

the media wh*re returns

So Ken Bikoff is leaving Pro Football Weekly and he gave me a mention in his final column: http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Commentary/Columns/2005/bikoff080505.htm

For those who have not followed this, here are past columns I have been in:

http://www.google.com/custom?domains=profootballweekly.com&q=lapolito&sitesearch=profootballweekly.com&client=pub-5153435729228080&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A333333%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BLH%3A82%3BLW%3A324%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.profootballweekly.com%2FNR%2FPFW_Shared%2FImages%2Flogo_1_197X50.gif%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2F%3BFORID%3A1%3B&hl=en

The story goes something like this - Me, Jeff Mullan, Sean McCarthy and MikeR Smith are at Superbowl 36 (you know - THE SUPERBOWL) and on Bourbon Street. We somehow get up onto a balcony overlooking the street and having a good time. Then Ken says that we should not have wasted our time coming to New Orleans since the Pats did not stand a chance. Having spent some time in the French Quarter you might know the reaction that got out of me. I basically insulted him about everything in his life - him, his girlfriend, mother, Indiana, his relationship with Kordell Stewart (he said Kordell was better than Brady) etc. It was not meant to be mean - but I was pretty steamed after hearing and reading this all week - to finally have a member of the press "captive" I had to let out some steam.

You see the thing that Ken and all the other media experts that did not follow the team did not know is that the Patriots were a special team. The Rams did not know it either. The best thing was when the Pats were introduced as "A Team" (which was pretty shocking to all at the time whereas now it is pretty "yesterday") - even the Rams fans knew they were in trouble. The rest is history.

So the bet that night (while pretty one sided) was that if the Pats won - Ken would have to admit he was wrong in his column.

Who has more teeth. Isabella is the long shot this fall in the Bobbing for Apples contest.

We need to show Franky the difference between a boy and a shark. About 3 months ago Franky and Isbella were playing the "that does not hurt" game. So Franky decided to bite Isabella --- when the chaos cleared and everyone stopped crying - we asked Frank "why would you bite Isabella" and his response was "ummmm, I kinda felt like a shark". 

Isabella taking care of Franky. 

The "captain" was doing a wonderful job until the EP ( that is short for Environmental Police) decided to check out the license situation. They decided to cross my bow and the pirate in me decided to ram them (that's my story and I am sticking to it). Of course we had all the proper licensing - though everything was not all in order. Tom did get 15 lobsters --- 26 lbs. in all. 

We went on Tom Ertel's boat yesterday Lobstering. Isabella was so good - she was taking care of Franky the whole time.

This is the one who hogged the Appetizers and then insulted us at the Reef. 

These two women are part of the Appetizer Mafia at Ocean Edge. The one with the snacks tackled the waitresses at the Reef Cafe and took the appetizers for her table. The one in the Blue threatened to drown Isabella at the pool a few years back because she was yelling too loud at the pool (when she was 3). I thought for 3ms about having her banned from the pool but then I decided to handle it the Worcester way. 

This is an old picture I took in Key West ... I am scanning all of my old pictures (slowly). I think this is from the deck where our engagement picture was taken. 

the two hottest girls at the wedding ... Franky has good taste

Bella!