The Inaugural Boley Awards - 2011 Version

Inspired by the ESPYs, the sports award show that airs during one of the most dead days of sports, I wanted to create the Boleys, a list of random awards that I will give to random categories in my life. I may add to this if there's enough interest in this piece, so stay tuned.


Best 2011 Purchase: Nominees: Brian Scalabrine Jersey, New I-Pod Classic, Big Lebowski mirror
....and the winner is: Brian Scalabrine Jersey.

This narrowly edged out the mirror as purchase of the year. The jersey has had more of a chance to be recognized- wearing it during the Bulls' extended playoff run definitely helped with that. Every time I wore the jersey out to a bar, I received at least one positive comment from a complete stranger, who seemed shocked that someone would waste spend $70 on a jersey for a guy who played less than two hours of basketball throughout the 82 game schedule. The mirror will carry more value when I get my own place and it has a featured place.

Best Song in My Head from the Past Year That You Probably Never Heard Of: Nominees: Nappy Roots "Infield", N*E*R*D - "Maybe", Local H - "Toxic"


...and the winner is: "Maybe". Sure, it's not a song that was released this year, but it may be the best song from a group that does not get enough credit in my opinion. It may have close to a million views on YouTube, but I know a lot of my friends have never heard it. Something about the lyric "Maybe the laugh's on me, and life was telling me a joke" that makes me consider this one of my favorite songs in general. I highly recommend listening to Local H's version of Toxic - a cover of the Britney Spears song.

Best Thing I Am Looking Forward to in the Next Couple Weeks: Nominees: Hosting Hot Dog Eating Contest, NFL Lockout ending, Guest Starring in my friends' show "Three Guys, One Room"

...and the winner is: NFL Lockout ending. As much fun as the other two things will be to witness, the impact of the NFL Lockout ending will have long lasting implications in the rest of my 2011. First, it will give me the chance to exercise my fantasy football dominance again after taking 2010 off. Second, I am looking to match/exceed my good luck gambling last year, which reaped me about a grand in profits. And most importantly, it will assure that my Sundays in the Fall and early Winter will not be spent searching for ways to fill the void of an NFL-less existence. Now the most important thing - the lockout actually needs to end.

Best Summer Drink: Nominees: Bud Light Lime, Summer Shandy, Sam Adams Summer Ale

...and the winner is: Summer Shandy. This should be no surprise to people who know me, but this was a close race in terms of my favorite summer drink. I haven't had Shandy in a while, mainly because the times I've imbibed lately have been situations where the bar either didn't have Shandy or people that I am with want to drink buckets. Most of my friends who are more wide-versed in beer would probably choose Sam Adams among the three, but I'd put that right behind Bud Light's Lime (even though BLL is not a specific summer beverage, it is more marketable during the summer).

TV Show that I've Taken for Granted the Most Until Watching in Syndication: Nominees: How I Met Your Mother, Yes Dear, My Name is Earl


...and the winner....wait for it.....is: How I Met Your Mother. Of all networks, I've been catching this show on Lifetime and feel like I'm almost caught up to the season that just ended. This will be the next TV show that I collect DVDs for. It is well-written and does a great job of connecting previous plot points into its ongoing story on how Ted meets his future wife. I think this show is featured on Monday nights (maybe that's changed), which is when I always watch Monday Night Football in the fall. In the spring, I'm usually watching something else or am busy in an activity where I don't watch TV.


Feel free to submit categories that I will award Boleys to, and I will add to this blog. Keep the suggestions tasteful, please.

Four Seasons, One Summer Shandy

Awesome signs of the summer ahead in the past 6 hours:

-Walking dog around the block: This may not sound like much, especially to those of you who walk your dog for a mile or more. But getting to walk the old dog for at least one more season, one more time, made my day worthwhile. It took about 6 minutes to walk around the block, since Buddy wanted to sniff every tree and urinate on about half of them.

-Summer Shandy commercial: arguably my favorite seasonal beer. I'll need to remember to store up on this when they phase it out in September. I think I'm gonna buy a couple of 12-ers and watch some sports and movies tonight. I hope to find a good bar for the summer that serves this on tap and calling that place my home.

-Donning the shorts: This is always a landmark day of any year- the first day of wearing shorts. This wouldn't mean much to my brother and Tim Wolf, who wear shorts all year round. While the shorts phase is by no means a staple throughout the year, its introduction into the wardrobe makes the pants prepare for their nearing hibernation.

-Softball/baseball/betting: While my mom was misinformed about my pre-teen cousin's softball game being today (it is tomorrow), the sign of games being played is a true sign of summer. Also watching the annually hyped Red Sox/Yanks game on the annually over-rated Joe Buck and Tim McCarver broadcasting network and betting on it (I bet the over, it came in with 4 1/2 innings to spare- first baseball bet won of 3 bets placed this year). And currently, watching the Sox winning with the slimmest of margins through 5.5 innings. Maybe this is the year I get back into baseball, because it's been slowly waning in my consciousness ever since I started watching/betting on NFL. I think going to 10-15 games (my goal) will help with that. If you are reading this, you are encouraged to get me off my ass to go to a game.

Feel free to share your own personal signs of summer.

I can't wait till the above scenarios are all in alignment with each other like an eclipse: a Summer Shandy on an 80 degree day, getting the 15 year old dog to sip the Fountain of Youth for a 5 minute walk, and ending the day at the ball park with a White Sox winner.

Time to buy the beer and get the Summer (Shandy) unofficially started.