Highlights from The Bucket List: Going to Seattle Anyone?

Yes, even though I'm only 43 years old, I actually made a bucket list of 100 things to do before I die. Some things are a bit more idealistic; some things are a bit more practical.

With that, I want to send special greetings to our blog-readers in Russia, China and Japan as well as those of you in smaller countries like Malta and El Salvador.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Take a Greyhound bus trip from Burlington, NC, to Seattle.

2. Go to Iceland, and take some photos of the volcanoes while you are there.

3. Watch "Breaking Bad" on dvd in its entirety (I have yet to see a single show of the series which concludes this weekend).

4. Write an article for "Mental Floss."

5. Wake up at 6 a.m. for six days in a row?! (I'm a night person)

6. Take a Varan bus trip (Varan is a Turkish bus line) from Istanbul to Van

7. Date a woman 20 years younger than you

8. Date a woman 20 years older than you

9. Visit the National Zoo in Washington, DC, take lots of photos of the pandas

10. Volunteer at a homeless shelter

http://www.greyhound.com

http://www.visiticeland.com

http://www.turkey.org

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.washington.org

http://www.homelessshetlerdirectory.org

Kudos to UNC on ACC Men's Lacrosse Title

The University of North Carolina (UNC) won its first ACC men's lacrosse title since 1996 when the Tar Heels held their home turf in a 16-13 win over the University of Virginia.

According to goheels.com, the game was played in front of 4,001 fans in Chapel Hill, NC, and both the 'Heels and the Cavaliers had to deal with the proverbial elements of mother nature as the game was played in the rain.

For the 'Heels, Davey Emala and Chad Tutton scored seven goals each. Their teammate Marcus Helman (pictured center, we believe) was named as the outstanding ACC Tournament Player.  To play UVa, the 'Heels first had to defeat their arch rivals Duke; Virginia had to upset Maryland.

For the Cavs, Matt White scored seven goals.

'Teels goalie Kieran Burke had 17 saves.

The 'Heels trailed 5-3 after the first quarter, but they took a 10-7 lead by half-time.

UNC now goes to 12-3 and looks forward to the NCAA tournament, but due to their disappointing finish the Cavs at 7-8 are not going to the tournament, a rarity for the school in Charlottesville, Va., for the sport.

SIDEBAR ONE: We saw that Link-TV, a non-profit progressive television outlet in America thanked Rick in Floyd, Va., for his support; we want to thank Rick too.....for no particular reason.

SIDEBAR TWO: Today's sponsors are Doomsday Dating, which we heard about from a female stand-up comedian from Winston-Salem, NC; she insisted she wasn't kidding about the existence of this Davidian singles group, and yes they do really exist!

SIDEBAR THREE: Since we completely neglected the Yale Bulldogs for the team's first ever men's hockey title as captain Andrew Miller lead his team in a 4-0 upset win over their cross-town New Haven, Conn., rival the Quinnipiac Bobcats....yes, we think that must be the NCAA's most difficult to spell school as well...at the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, but we are pointing it out now.

SIDEBAR FOUR: Tomorrow, we kick off Soccer Week (pardon the pun), and as a teaser, we will issue a SPOILER ALERT to the six people in America who were taping the English Premiere League game between two lower-ranking teams Aston Villa and Sunderland (perhaps Rick from Floyd, Va., was one of them). Aston Villa really kicked butt by a 6-1 score today.

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.dailytarheel.com

http://www.doomsdaydating.com

http://www.linktv.org

http://www.yalebulldogs.com

http://www.visitfloyd.org

http://www.visitchapelhill.org

The Weekly Grocery List

In the early days of our blogging ventures, we used to simply post grocery lists as we couldn't conjure up anything else back in that stone age era of 2005.

Today, there are simply too many things going on at once and we have more competition thanks to Facebook, Twitter and my friend Chris Knight, who reportedly has the most popular blog in the world (that is a joke, but he gets more hits than we get).

Hence, we are returning to the grocery list. And, these are items that we either need to get at the grocery store or we added to fill space; here we go:

1. Tomatoes (Our friend Bruce Piephoff from Greensboro, NC, has a great song called "Home Grown Tomatoes")

2. Oatmeal

3. Milk

4. Nutella (we went with an image of the Turkish equivalent Cokokrem to be original)

5. ice cream

6. bananas (America's favorite Costa Rican import, after coffee)

7. Sunday Washington Post (Love 'Date Lab' and Keith Knight's Comic Strip "Knight Life")

8. shaving cream

9. apples

10. cat toys

..........There you go!

http://www.theknightshit.blogspot.com

http://www.ulker.com.tr

http://www.facebook.com/brucepiephoff

This and That- Nerdy Pick-up Lines

First of all, my apolgies in advance to the late Fred Rogers, whom us Gen-Xers remember as Mr.Rogers while watching his children's show on PBS in the 1970s, but when it came to an image of a dorky guy I simply couldn't think of anyone else.

As I was reading the June 2011 issue of "Wired" in a public library today, I came across three things that got my immediate attention. I made a note of them, and after some mental deliberation, I decided to shared them with the 13 people who read this blog.

For starters, apparently this is an actual pickup line that an Internet nerd used for a hot girl (who perhaps could have been Hulk Hogan) on Twitter: "Is your name Google? 'Cause you have everything I'm searchign for." Wow! Pretty forward.

Also, according to "Wired," there is apparently a book floating around called "The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed." The kicker is that the author is anynomous. Hmmm.....

Lastly, the parents of Luhe Vilagomez, 17, were probably not to happy with the young lad. In the same issue of "Wired," we read that he made the notorious 220-foot jump from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco 'just for kicks' (apparently, the boy has denied he was attempting suicide as most folks who jump from the bridge are trying to do), and he was in the two percent who survived!

Motto of the Day- Just Do Nothing

Here is our first entry in what we hope will be many "Mottos of the Day." We dedicate this one to 'our good friend' House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio):

"Do nothing_ it saves money, gas, and utilites."

(Of course, it also wastes time!)

While we want to take exclusive credit for suggesting that Republican is a 'do-nothing' organization, we must tip of hat to Jonathan Chait of "The New Republic" who illustrated how the GOP's idealism has pretty much held steady since the days of Herbert Hoover in a column he wrote a while back.

SIDEBAR: Not all things in Washington, DC, are political (well 98 percent of are) as one can see by "The Washington Post." Every week on Sundays, they have a Date Lab series in their magazine section, and this week they hooked up Ukrainian student Yuri Borovsky, 25, with Becky Strauss, 26. They met at the Persimmon restaurant in our favorite 'burb, Bethesda, Maryland. We wish them luck, but if things fall through for them Becky can always contact yours truly!

Top 10 Worst Ways to Break-Up

We are being tres lazy today, so we are going to use this Top 10 Worst Ways to Break-Up with Someone list from shine.yahoo.com

I would say from personal experience that one shouldn't take someone out to The Olive Garden and then tell them: "It's Over." Yeah, that sorta sucks.

1. By Cheating- Amazingly enough, Warren Beatty has not done this to Anette Benning!

2. By Doing Nothing- Whatever that means.

3. On Valentine's Day- Ouuuuch!

4. In Bed- Hmmm....we'll skip the commentary on this one.

5. At Your 'Special Place'- which is hopefully NOT the Olive Garden or that truck stop restaurant off I-81 in Toms Brook, Va. (two hours south of Washington, DC)

6. At a Wedding- Yeah, that would be bad and rude!

7. Around the Family- especially if it's a mafia family!

8. On Facebook- I left you for a guy in Mumbai....hmm, yeah I would really hate that. Amazingly enough, it hasn't happened to me....yet!

9. In a Text Message- I know someone in Greensboro, NC, who had this actually happen to them!

10. On Vacation- Hope the hurricane hits you while you're in Cancun!

SIDEBAR: Meredith Fineman, 23, of Washington, DC, recently told "The Washington Post" about her more pleasant experiences dating. Before taking a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, she decided to sign up for the Jewish dating service JDate.

She then decided after having some strange and unique experiences to post them on a blog called FiftyFirst-JDates.com (site was down at press time).

Fineman told the WP that she simply wanted other Jewish singles to know what might be in store for them:

"There are just so many little awkward intricacies of the site and the way it works," Fineman said in the story.

The last time I checked her blog, she said she was getting responses from as far away as Israel. And, Fineman told the WP that she isn't sure if she will actually get to 50 Dates or not. But, at least, she does not live in Welch, West Virginia, where we assume it would be a bit hard to find a 20-something Jewish single.

Alas, I am not Jewish (though as a Turkish-American, I'm most certainly ethnic!) and I am 17 years younger than Fineman. And, unfortunately, I do live in a place like Welch, West Virginia!

Perhaps, we should start a Turkish-American dating site, but then again, the pool would be rather slim....

NOTE: Since there was a glitch with a post on my other blog, today is "No Tag" day, but you can file this entry under Jewish, dating, Turkish-Americans, The Olive Garden, and.....?! Well, maybe we'll see if this works after all....

UPDATE: Hey, the tags did work after all!