Hope That We Can Break It Down, It's Not So Black and White

Congratulations to Mr. Andrew Tuegel for correctly naming "42" Coldplay as the Saturday Song of the Day.

I'm a bit late announcing this exciting piece of news, and hopefully my grandmother will not disown me, but I had to take time to congratulate my cousin, Ryan Andre, for winning (along with teammate Nathanael Kielt of Rutgers) the American Under-23 lightweight (under 160 lbs.) men's rowing pair event.
After winning the U.S. Under-23 championship, Ryan, who rows on the crew at the University of California-San Diego, represented the U.S. at the World U-23 Rowing Championships in Brandenburg, Germany. Although Ryan and Nathanael finished 5th in their first heat at the World Championships, I'm nothing if not incredibly impressed with his dedication and drive at one of the world's most unforgiving sports.
Also, it's official.

I'm never going to be the most famous grandchild.

I'm okay with that.

I think.

We Are But Men, Rock On

Congratulations to Mr. Dan Carlson for correctly naming "Tribute" by Tenacious D as the Wednesday Song of the Day.

I have a quick bit of news to pass along before I head to sleep for the night. I'm pretty sure that I don't have a large rowing readership on this blog, but I was really happy to see an email from my Mom earlier today detailing my cousin Ryan's recent crew triumph. Ryan is a member of the UC-San Diego crew team and with their victory over UCLA and UC-Davis this past weekend, they captured UCSD's first ever Cal Cup. You can read the story here.

Ryan is the 2nd team member from the left in the photo. I like to think that all of those wrestling matches that he and I had over the years during Thanksgiving and Christmas helped to steel him just a little bit more so he could endure the pain of crew, but I'm pretty sure he's just a beast in his own right. Well done Ryan, well done.