New Year's Eve

Last night I hung out with friends until the wee hours of the morning.

Tonight I traditionally stay home however there is a tempting get together with a large conglomerate of friends attending so if I go I'll be sober.

Just not a good evening to chance it as I am aware of roadblocks being set up.

Well until that happens I have the Twilight Zone marathon on Scifi to pass the time. I am planning on going to the movies today with Beersnob. Got to see Alien vs. Predator: Requiem!!!!

Perfect Part 1

Yes the New England Patriots have not only completed the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history but they were setting records along the way.

Tom Brady set the regular season TD record with 50. Randy Moss set the receiving record with 23. The Pats themselves set the NFL scoring record topping the 1998 Minnesota Vikings in total points. They had a strong defense all year so it wasn't a lopsided achievement.

The next goal is 19-0 and will likely happen as the road to the Super Bowl goes through Foxboro, weather and all. The Indianapolis Colts have the best shot but as I blogged before they play poorly in cold weather. They have also been inconsistent in their play. At times looking less than average.

There has never been a team this perfect in every dimension of the game. Teams have been close but not this close. History will show that this team is the benchmark for what teams will strive for in the future even if they don't win the Super Bowl.

Closing!

I got great news yesterday, I'm closing on my house Monday at 10AM!
This means that the first two steps of the Dave Ramsey plan will be accomplished and half of the third step!

By sticking to a budget for thirty six months I'll no longer have a mortgage payment either! I can speed that up with just a little spending discipline! Not having any bills and being on a cash basis is a good thing.

Kicking in 15% on your retirement is a great thing! I can get there from here!
I'm excited!

The Christmas Spirit

YouTube - Angry Grandpa Ruins Christmas Yes the Christmas Spirit is alive and well. I usually don't post things like this on my blog however it is the contrast to my usual good mood and happy go lucky persona. What you see here is the exact opposite of what Christmas is about. I hope it repulses you. I hope that if you see this that you'll find it stomach churning and encourage you to be forgiving, to practice kindness, to practice compassion.

Friday!

It snowed a little last night but I got out and met Wendy at the pub for supper. It was cold but the roads were clear.
There is just a little snow on the roads now that will likely be gone quickly.

I don't have any plans today but I've enjoyed my time off. It is nice to have a week of no responsibilities and nothing pressing to do and I still have four more days off after today!

Pakistan is in chaos today which means that the control of their weapons is in doubt and should be questioned. Meanwhile we are a few days away from the Iowa caucus and the first step towards finding out who will run the country and the free world from 2009 to 2012! I don't think there is a lot on TV today.

Well I think the coffee is finished!

Turmoil

With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto opposition leader in Pakistan, a nuclear power slips into turmoil. It is too early to tell what the full range of problems this will cause.

India is very nervous at the moment, Iran is happy, Afghanistan is still too devastated by the Taliban to be effected. Al Qaeda hated her. She was a former Prime Minister and lived with these daily threats. Very courageous.

Today Bin Laden is smiling somewhere.

YAWWWN

I was able to sleep in until about 7:30 this morning!
Fixed some coffee and I'm drinking that now.
It is about freezing outside and I have no plans.

Was debating Bob last night whether Rick Deckard was a replicant or not. I happen to fall on the side of Deckard being human, Bob falls into the replicant camp. It is a debate that has gone on for about twelve years now. It really boils down to a definite maybe. There is evidence on both sides but not enough to prove it.

You can find a few sites that talk about the big debate if you have some interest so I won't go into it here.

I could use some breakfast, kinda hungry and I know that I don't have anything breakfasty in the house.

Philips has invented these color changing LED lights called Living Colors, just search for Philips Living Colors to see them in action on their site or You Tube. They look amazing! You can only get them over seas right now but hopefully soon they will be for sale here soon! I'd love to have a couple of these even though they cost over two hundred dollars apiece. They have a remote control though where you manipulate the color and intensity! I'm all about the remote control!

Life is good!

Merry Christmas!!!!

May everyone have the merriest of Christmas gatherings today!

Excellent Coffee!

Yesterday I went to the store to get some groceries and got a small bag of Dunkin' Donuts Cinnamon coffee! This is very very good coffee! Not over powering but still has a lot of flavor! This easily competes if not surpasses the Starbuck's brand and I'm not joking about that.

I am tied for first place this week in the league with forty six points. It would be nice if that held up! The other team I drafted for a friend, Crimson, is in the Super Bowl next week! I feel pretty good about that despite my team failing to do as I expected. Oh well, there is always next year!

The Patriots Masterpiece of a season continues as they are now a regular season record 15-0 and have surpassed the 1984 Dolphins for season scoring. They have one game left this coming Saturday against the Giants. Look for the starters to play the whole game and go 16-0!

They are simply the best football team to ever take the field. I used to believe that the '85 Bears were the best team ever but this team would destroy the Bears. They have come from behind to win so they believe they will win every single game. They have been challenged this year and they have won games by half time this year.

Even if they don't win the Super Bowl they will go down as the greatest team ever as 16-0 will always be remembered. The playoffs go through Foxboro and the Colts are not a cold weather team. They have a very tough time playing at Foxboro. It really isn't a sure thing that the Colts will make it that far. If they get Marvin Harrison back they have a good shot at being competitive if not then they will likely lose a close game.

New England vs. Dallas is the odds on favorite for the Super Bowl and probably who I would pick right now. New England has beaten the toughest teams in the NFL so far, walking through the NFC East and beating every AFC team that could challenge them. The only team that the Pats have not faced is the Packers and that is possible in the Super Bowl but I think Dallas has the edge.

Blizzard

We had thirty mile per hour winds and a driving snow yesterday. I went to get groceries after I saw the radar and saw what was coming and got back inside. We have about five inches of snow. The roads were kind of slick but not bad. They should clear up today.

Bob and Wendy canceled hanging out last night while I went to pick up Weezy to hang out anyway and Sass showed up as we had planned the previous night! So we had a pretty good time sitting and talking at the pub.

No less than two people came up to Weezy and said they saw her in the TV show House getting onto an elevator. She talked about the WGA strike with them and how she is still getting work but not as much.

It was a really good evening overall and it was good to get back out after the storm after being inside all day.

Operation: Rescuefy Sass Is Canceled.

Yes she no longer needs rescuing. Turns out her sister had to make an emergency run to the border and brought her back Thursday.

She and I hung out last night to catch up and going out again tonight with Bob and Wendy. Sass will be the surprise guest.
We have snow moving in so that should be fun today! We might just have a White Christmas!

I'm off work now until the second of January! How cool is that?

The Ultimate DVD Set

I purchased the four DVD set Tuesday. I posted about it and my personal feelings for the movie as well as some history.

Yesterday after work I purchased the five standard definition DVD ultimate set. I was planning on putting this purchase off until I made the jump to HD DVD and Blu-Ray and then deciding which version of that to get.

I have decided that when I do eventually make the jump I'll stick to my original plan and just own two sets. I plan on giving my four DVD set away.

This is by far the ultimate DVD set ever thus far. It comes with five cuts of the movie:
The Final Cut
The Theatrical Cut
The International Cut
The Director's Cut
The Work Print Cut

I am partial to the original theatrical cut. That was the first version I was introduced to and the one I fell in love with even though many purists prefer the director's cut or the final cut.

There is a letter from Ridley Scott. A origami unicorn. A replica spinner vehicle. A lenticular film cell. Storyboards. Practically everything you could ask for in a movie package.

This is simply the ultimate DVD set constructed for any movie EVER! There are sets that are close, the Lord Of The Rings: Extended Edition Sets that had the miniatures with it. The Matrix Set would be close. The Alien Set would be close.

The thing though is that all of those were for a series of movies, this is simply one movie. For single movies it would be tough to approach this kind of detail.

Ben Hur would be a decent comparison. Perhaps The Searchers or The Ten Commandments. Those movies though are considered epics. This set is more comprehensive though than any of those.
Don't tell me Titanic, if I have to argue why that isn't a good movie then you just wouldn't understand anyway and you deserve to wallow in ignorance.

Blade Runner stands as the undisputed king of all DVD sets, without question.

Man Hall Of Fame Part 11

Today's inductee into my Man Hall Of Fame is someone who is familiar to nearly every generation of movie fan. He is the main character of the longest series of movies in modern history. He always gets the girl, saves the world, and does it in style.

James Bond 007 is the man! Whip and debonair, he knows fine wine and fine women. No matter who Bond is played by the character comes through.

Sean Connery - To many the real James Bond.
George Lazenby - A one shot bond but probably one of the best Bond movies plus it had Diana Rigg in it!
Roger Moore - To me this man is Bond. I grew up in this era. He could be a bit campy but he was all out suave.
Timothy Dalton - The weakest of the Bonds but he still had a good run. He had a bit of an edge to him.
Pierce Brosnan - The modern resurgence began with Brosnan's Bond. Bigger budgets, bigger story lines, bigger effects.
Daniel Craig - With only the modern Casino Royale to his credit so far Bond is in good hands. He is very edgy and has a bit of a mean streak. This is the Bond for a future generation.

James Bond will be around for many years to come as well. This franchise is simply one of the best!

Blade Runner And Filmmaking

Roy Batty - I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

This is one of my all time favorite films. Here is a little history about me. We used to live in Missouri and we had a small video rental place. This was around the explosion point of the VCR, about 1980. So I was into movies at the ripe old age of ten since I had more of them to watch than anyone else in school and one of the only kids to have a VCR at home.

Ok fast forward to moving to close to where I currently live. The first town we lived in when we moved to this state. I had a class of about fifteen people from a class of around a hundred. Simply put I did not fit in. They had been together their entire lives. Nope, I didn't fit in at all and they let me know about it every day. The next town we lived in I went through high school and loved it. There was a bigger class, friendlier people, I still keep in contact with a few of my classmates and wish I could locate a few more!

Anyway that is beside the point and just a nuance to the story. Suffice it to say it was about 1983 -1984 now. My mom worked in the big town around here at Southwestern Bell and had a lot of friends in town who copied movies for each other. Well that Summer we got Blade Runner. I had never seen anything like it. I was of course happy that Han Solo was in it.

It was a lot different than Star Wars, it was dark, rainy, gritty. There was a sense of doom and a future that was as far away from Roddenberry's future as you could get. You could describe this movie as claustrophobic, not like Alien but close. There was no hope in this future where even the animals are machines and the Sun rarely shines but shadows are everywhere. Neon, night, and violence.

This is a future you want no part of. I was pretty unhappy there and this appealed to me.

You have Han Solo doing his best Bogart imitation as Rick Deckard in a world that is a cross between a Raymond Chandler novel and scifi novel. A Blade Runner who caps rogue replicants. A story about humanity and what it means to be really human. About mortality and finding inner peace.

I watched the US theatrical version of Blade Runner at least thirty times that Summer. To me that was the only version there was until much later when I learned about Ridley Scott not being happy with that version and that was the one that the studio forced him to put out. It had the Harrison Ford narration and the happy ending. There was no unicorn dream sequence. That was the version I fell in love with.

So last night I watched the four disc set that came out. I wanted to purchase the five disc set but I'm waiting until I get a HD DVD player, a Blu Ray player, and a HDTV to get it.

This movie is a major reason I love film, why I enjoy making them and that is the history of me and this film.

As The Trip Looms

Ahead in the not too distant future I am going over everything I need to take to rescue Sass. We can't drive into Mexico since the vehicle we are taking isn't mine therefore I am not on the title. Sass says that you have to have the title with you to get across. Not only that but you have to be on the title.

So she is going to meet us in Brownsville with her stuff and we will load her up from there, relax a bit and return. I was considering taking a cooler to cut down on driving time but thought better of it, for one it is space that will probably be used by Sass and her stuff and the second is that I know I'd just like to get out of the vehicle some and eat, stretch, and walk around a bit.

So I'm taking a GPS unit, never played with one and it looks like it will be fun, my Sirius radio, GOT to have that! Money, birth certificate, license, and more money just in case.

This is going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to get going!

Football With Friends

Yesterday was a pretty good day! I went to Beersnob's house and watched football with Chianti, and Nick the boy intern.

We watched the Dallas game which wasn't very exciting at all but the company was good. I finalized plans to rescue Sass so that looks like it will be an adventure! I think it will be a lot of fun!

Looks like I'll finish about fourth place in my fantasy league this week. Not bad.

Week 15

I was put out of the playoffs in the first round, my team really tanked as I mentioned last week. I have nothing to play for now and due to that devastating loss I am no longer a contender to win any money at the end of the season.

In a season plagued by injuries and under achieving picks I did pretty decent. I got my season paid for by the wins I did have so it didn't cost me anything this year. That makes it a good year! At ten dollars per week over seventeen weeks plus franchise fees it is a good amount.

It is cold out and the streets should melt off today. I got some groceries yesterday when I got out. I decided to fuel up as well so I'm at the station getting fuel so while that is going on I decide to clean the windshield wipers. They had frozen up and weren't really cleaning the windshield anymore. So I thump it against the windshield to get the ice off and what happens? The blade breaks off in my hand.

Now the driver's side blade is no longer attached and I can't turn them on because it would really scratch up the windshield. Not to mention there was no longer a blade so it really wouldn't do anything.

I finish up the fueling, pay, and decide to go get it serviced and have the wipers replaced. I get that all done, finally get to the grocery store since I really didn't have anything in the house to fix to eat. I ALMOST get home when I get stuck on a decline around some railroad tracks.

Thankfully a guy who was out just towing people out of being stuck was behind me and offered me a tug up the hill! So within a few minutes I was back home and cooking!

SNOW!

Well sort of. There is less than an inch on the ground out of the nine inches they were predicting.
The radar doesn't really look like it is going snow for much longer. Maybe the day and that is probably it. It won't last long:(

I had supper at IHOP last night with Wendy to make our plans to rescue Sass. My brother is going to loan us his Suburban and GPS, I'm putting in my Sirius radio in for the ride.

We are driving straight through, swapping drivers and sleeping. Three of us will handle the driving on the way back.

We are set! This is going to be exciting!

Operation: Rescuefy Sass Part 2

So last night I secured a vehicle in which to rescue Sass. I'm going to use my brother's Suburban, the one I borrow occasionally when my Suburban decides not to run in the Winter time.

This will allow for two drivers one passenger on the way back and all of her belongings which she says are numerous.

Wendy is looking forward to the trip and I have to say I am as well. Not only is it for a good reason but again, I've never been to Mexico and this sounds like a lot of fun! I will be able to get free drinks out of her for months! LOL!

Operation: Rescuefy Sass

Sass, from previous blog posts, has been in Mexico for nearly a year now helping her missionary family members put together a coffee shop/cafe to help fund other missionary projects. Well she is ready to return and is stuck with no way back.

So Wendy and I have devised a plan to help deMexico her over the coming Christmas break!

It appears that on the 27th we will embarkify South towards Brownsville, cross the border, drive three more hours to her location, rest a few minutes, load up her and her belongings, and return to the States with Sass intact.

This should be fun! I've never seen Mexico and it has been a while since I've had a road trip this long! With company it should be a blast! Of course I'll keep you posted my friends!

Well Here

Is what happened last night. I'm almost done, well done now with Hemingway's short stories collection so I decided I would run a couple of errands I've been putting off since the storm hit.

So I need to get a stack of dual layer blank DVDs and I need to ship my bad monitor off to get it replaced. Well I thought I could also pick up another book while I was at it. So I went to Staples and took care of the DVDs and the monitor.

Drove to Hastings and went down the classic book aisle and chose Robinson Crusoe. I've always wanted to read it, it is a very classic novel, it fit my adventurous mood at the time, yeah my selection is done!

I go to pay when I see the rather annoyed look on the woman's face in front of me. I look at the kinda cute cashier and think....ah ha....another case of cute envy has just happened and I missed it. I give the cashier chick a quizzical look and she replies that the systems have just went down, apparently in mid purchase for annoyed woman.

So I go find a chair and start to read the book I was going to purchase, there is a pair of big green comfy chairs towards the back of the store and that really fit the bill. So for about ten minutes I read about Daniel DeFoe's extraordinary life of being a cheat, convict, insurer of ships, very fast writer, and journalist.

By that time I see cute chick in the aisle telling people that the systems aren't coming back up and they have to close the store now. So two out of three missions accomplished last night.

The Weather

Well it really appears as if we are in a very serious winter storm.
The radar shows that it will rain, yeah rain most of today and the temperature seems to be around 30 degrees!

I was just outside to warm up my suburban and there is lightning going on!!!! An inch of ice covers everything but our power is still up and going strong! After the last storm most of our infrastructure was replaced with new and it is very sturdy!

The city though isn't so lucky. I know there are thousands with no power this morning. It is crazy outside!

I'm going to work as normal but today is worse than yesterday!

I Lost

Out of the first round of the playoffs.
Yep I'm done. A season that has been busted up pretty badly by under performing picks. Mainly the first rounder.

The rest of the draft and my lineup I'm pretty happy with. They did what was expected. If I had the season Maroney had last year out of this year's Maroney I would have contended for the league title.

Well it is very icy outside, my suburban is warming up now and I'm ready to brave the cold and ice to get to work. I am taking off those few days between Christmas and New Year so I need to save leave, I've got enough but I'd like to have more when I get back from those days off.

ICK!!!!

I purchased a bag of Millstone Foglifter coffee the other day, pre ground. It sounded very good right?

So I get it home and last night was really cold and thought it would be a perfect evening for a cup of coffee. So I brew a pot drink a cup, go for a second cup, and go to remove the grounds in the filter and I see three half inch long worms in the grounds!!!!

I'm horrified to see this so I empty the contents into a clear ziplock container and look through the rest of the coffee and see nothing so I brew another pot and find another worm! They look like larva of some sort but I don't know what kind. This is pretty sickening and I've contacted the Millstone company via email. I tried to call them but the customer service line was closed.

So DON'T BUY MILLSTONE COFFEE!!!!

Friday After Work

I stopped off at the pub and got some supper, came home, and had a quiet evening.
Went grocery shopping this morning, we are expecting a big Winter storm either tonight, tomorrow, or Monday. It is unclear exactly when it is going to get here but usually it fizzles out before it does.

I'm supposed to drive to Alva tomorrow to go to Catina's graduation. It might be postponed though, we'll see.

Going to be a slow weekend.

Bad Monitor Blues

Yet again one of my dual monitors has gone bad. This time it just greeted me with a green blinking power light. I hooked it up to my laptop to see if perhaps my video card might be bad but nope, it was the monitor itself.

So I called Viewsonic told them that this was a replacement monitor that they sent me the very first time one of my monitors went bad back last July. They gave me a case number and said as soon as they receive the bad monitor they will ship another one to me instead of seeing if they can fix it as they did the last time a couple of months ago.

So here I am, one monitor and I feel so lost....sigh....

Man Hall Of Fame Part 10

My Man Hall Of Fame induction today is the Internet! I love the internet! This innovation has done more to revolutionize the way we live today since electricity was harnessed.

The internet has made the world a very small place to live now. I literally have friends in different countries that I talk to on a regular basis. I have friends in many different states in this country that I stay in contact with. I use this blog as a way to let others keep track of me in fact. Yes it is also my meager creative outlet.

The internet has matured quite a bit and people are now able to see the true possibilities for which it is really capable of. I bet someone somewhere is thinking up a good idea right now that no one else has to use the internet in another revolutionary way.

Yes my friends the internet belongs in my Man Hall of Fame!

Finished!

I have finished the Sword of Truth series. I only had about fifty pages to go in the final book last night, Confessor, and did that in no time at all.

It was a wild ride. Lots of twists, turns, ups, downs, sideways, you name it. I love the characters. Love how they progressed through the years and love their destination.

Goodkind does appear to be in love with the idea of individual freedoms, while good for most people in America I can see where it would gall a socialist who really doesn't have the desire to better themselves. Someone who would like a nanny state to take care of them instead of taking the responsibility upon themselves to live their own life.

Well that is just a theme among the series and part of a greater whole. If you enjoy epic fantasy then you would enjoy this series. Its got it all and then some!

I Lost

Yep, Laurence Maroney didn't score again leaving the final score set at 44-37. My team would be probably in first place overall after I saw the recent standings if he would have scored what an average RB would score this year.

Well anyway that is why fantasy football is so fun and an excellent challenge.

Last night was pretty quiet. I didn't really watch any of the game, I figured that the Pats would have won a bit easier than they did but the masterpiece season is still intact. They have been winning close games and blowing people out. My friends you are watching history with this team.
Love them or hate them, you have to respect them and marvel at what they are doing.

It was pretty slow at work yesterday, today will be about as slow. This time of year everything grinds to a halt before the holidays.

Losing

Yep this week I'm losing 37-44 right now. I have Laurence Maroney going tonight but since he has two TDs in twelve games I don't think I can count on him. I would have picked up another RB by now but the waiver wire is bare.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have your first round pick be your most consistent scorer for you. Yes it is always cool to find your third or fourth round pick doing a bulk of the scoring but if your number one isn't doing anything your team is in trouble.

Pretty quiet weekend. Went to the hanger and took measurements for the set, the build team is supposed to start getting a meeting together to talk over the build plans. Funding is in place for the set so materials will be purchased very soon.

I have less than one hundred pages to go on The Sword Of Truth series which is in its eleventh and final story if you count Debt of Bones. I'll be sad to see this series end. They are some wonderful characters that Terry Goodkind has brought to life.

So now I'm off to start another week! I'll have the time off between Christmas and New Year so that is a wonderful thing to look forward to!

BCS= Bowl Chaos System

The BCS has officially melted down and BCS officials have probably spent a very sleepless night trying to figure out what to do now.

What happened? The unthinkable has yet happened again. There is one team who has NO LOSSES although they have played in a weak conference and had a weak schedule and they have NO CHANCE to play for the national championship. They probably played tougher teams than Ohio State played this year who has one loss and will likely play for the national title.

Number one ranked Missouri was knocked off last night by number nine Oklahoma.
Number two ranked West Virginia was knocked off by Pitt.
Number three Ohio State hasn't played in a couple of weeks now.
Number four Georgia should then be the next team in line to play right? Well not necessarily, they play in the SEC and their title game was yesterday and guess what? They weren't in the title game!

Number seven LSU and Tennessee were who are both ranked lower than Georgia is!

So what is a convoluted, stupid system to do? Well having a playoff isn't an option because that is just too easy to figure out who the best team is.

Could a seven and nine ranked team jump ahead of everyone else and play for the national title?

Who knows but there is no doubt that somewhere someone is trying to make perfect sense of it and the rest of the football watching nation will be unhappy with whatever decision will be made since there is 100% certainty it'll be a bad decision!

I really don't even have a good guess at who will play the game but the logical choices are the number three and four teams which are Ohio State and Georgia but I wouldn't be surprised at any two teams they put in there and then try to sell the game to the public as the best game.

They have their work cut out for them in trying to defend this stupid system.

Do These People Have Nothing Productive To Do?!?!?!

Good grief! Who would have ever thought that one teddy bear would cause so much outrage!

Alright you can already guess what has happened. Yeah a Muslim group has been offended by something that is just meaningless and by golly someone is going to die! I'm usually shy away from politics, religion, well anything that doesn't relate to every day life and me however this is becoming insane with its frequency. You know how hard it is to get me angry?

Yes yes I'm sure that Islam is a peaceful religion, the most peaceful of all religions, no doubt blah blah blah. Sorry we've heard it. People bend over backwards to say how peaceful Islam is but who is it that always riots, kills people, commits atrocities in the name of this peaceful religion?

My friends these are not rational people. Apparently the war we need to be fighting is the war to find something useful for these idiots to do during the day instead of rioting and sitting around waiting to be offended so they can satisfy some kind of brutal thirst for blood.

Yeah I'm a infidel, love it, proud of it, sick of these people hating me for being me. You know something, you wouldn't be so offended if you had a job to be at during the day! Remember the Danish Muhammad cartoons? OH MY! Someone showed Muhammad in an unflattering light, gasp. Jesus is portrayed by idiots everyday in an unflattering light and you know something? You don't see Christians rioting in the streets, blowing people up, and burning down newspapers!

HHHmmmm......religion of peace.....riots vs. no riots.....jihad vs. no jihad....I'm starting to connect the dots here.
Yeah while there are some Christians who scare even me, some give Christians a bad name, and some are out and out frauds you don't see them telling believers to riot in the streets, kill infidels, sponsor barbaric punishments, and blow people up!!!!

Where is the condemnation from the leaders of this supposed religion of peace?!?!?! There is a microphone and camera in every corner of the world, even in the backwards, tyrant controlled countries these people call home and NO ONE is publicly condemning the treatment of this British teacher by a bunch of Islamic thugs....I'm sorry, ambassadors of this religion of peace.

For crying out loud people, knock it off with your fatwas, your jihads, your radical thugs, your keeping your women uneducated, and keeping yourselves uneducated. Step out of the middle ages, they ended like a thousand years ago. Come on it's OK to step into the modern world.

I have no doubt that there are very good Sudanese Muslims, salt of the Earth people just like you and I who would help you in anyway you asked. However this isn't just one country that experiences these kinds of violent demonstrations. Not an isolated event as it seems to happen all the time. Once again connect the dots here. Religion of peace.....hhhmmmmmm, you gotta wonder.

The Henry Rollins Factor

Last night a friend of mine asked me for my favorite quote, it changes often but for now it is from Henry Rollins. A renaissance man today who is a writer, poet, rock star, and actor.

“Somewhere someone is thinking of you. Someone is calling you an angel. This person is using celestial colors to paint your image. Someone is making you into a vision so beautiful that it can only live in the mind. Someone is thinking of the way your breath escapes your lips when you are touched. How your eyes close and your jaw tightens with concentration as you give pleasure a home. These thoughts are saving a life somewhere right now. In some airless apartment on a dark, urine stained, whore lined street, someone is calling out to you silently and you are answering without even being there. So crystalline. So pure. Such life saving power when you smile. You will never know how you have cauterized my wounds. So sad that we will never touch. How it hurts me to know that I will never be able to give you everything I have."

I admire Henry Rollins quite a bit. His discipline and work ethic are simply amazing. He has a style of communicating to everyone else that allows them to put their own thoughts into order and define them. When I've got the blues I will listen to some of his spoken word stuff or read something from him and that usually brings me down further.

Go figure.

I've enjoyed his show on IFC for quite a while. I don't know if it is still in production or not but I believe the reruns have changed over to Fuse now. He usually interviews filmmakers and indie actors, talks about their projects and such. That appeals to me and the interviews aren't your usual softball questions. Rollins wants to know. He thirsts for education and enlightenment.

What you see is simply what you get, like it or not. Parts of it I like and enjoy, parts I don't but he is honest and upfront about it and that I respect.

The NFL Network

Well tonight on the NFL Network there will be the second Game Of The Year!

Two one loss teams match up in what looks like a very very good game! The problem is that only a fraction of the homes of the NFL Network which makes everyone mad. Well everyone except for those who have the NFL Network such as myself!

Don't fret people, you have options! If your cable company refuses to carry the network as mine does, cancel them and get a satellite system. It is that simple. Before long your cable company will catch on by losing so much business that it'll have to relent.

I have to tell you, it was a very satisfying feeling I had when I brought in my digital converter to the cable office to tell them that I was canceling my service. They asked me why, I simply said that you won't get the NFL Network. Those were my exact words. She had heard it before and told me that is why everyone who cancels cancels! Not only that but she said her dad got a satellite system because of it too!

They understand my friends. They get the message. They haven't changed anything yet and I doubt if they will. I'm inviting some friends over tonight to watch the game, it'll be a great game!

If you can't see it, cancel! You have options.

Man Hall Of Fame Part 9

What do you get when you take James Gandolfini, Christian Slater, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Michael Rapport, Tom Sizemore, and Patricia Arquette and put them all into one movie?

My latest induction into the Man Hall Of Fame, True Romance, written by Quentin Tarantino. This movie has it all a man could enjoy.

A comic book manager, a hooker, mobsters, lots of gun play, even the ghost of Elvis himself! This is a wild ride that has often been forgotten or overlooked today even though it did enjoy a special edition DVD release a couple of years ago.

The writing and story are all Tarantino and you could tell he was refining his style before Pulp Fiction, another possible induction into the Hall. While most people enjoy this movie it is violent but in a comical way. Yeah I know that isn't like putting chocolate and peanut butter together that tastes great together, violence and comedy is more of a tightrope to walk. When done properly it is stunning to behold, when it isn't it is a catastrophe.

So if you have seen True Romance you know what kind of movie I'm talking about, if you haven't then you should!

The Magical DVR!!!!

Last Thursday I finally got my first Digital Video Recorder or DVR, like a Tivo.
I have always heard wonderful things about having a DVR and really didn't think much about it since I had no problems programming a VCR back in the day.

However I have to say that in the digital world this really rocks. I have been recording Space Ghost and Dino Boy on Boomerang late at night and then again recording Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home on the same channel later!

It won't record any repeats and it will record the entire series for me!

I really enjoy the geek aspect of the thing. If I could get it to delete the commercials then I'd be happier but I guess it won't. I can fast forward through them though which is nice!

I'm not to the point of not being able to live without it like the internet but I do enjoy it quite a bit:)
Technology rocks!

I'm Losing

43-46 right now. My opponent is done while I have Big Ben going tonight. If he goes off and gets a handful of touchdowns then I could very well take the money in the league again this week!

The perfect team had their first really close game last night but beat Philly after it was all said and done with. Team of destiny, just watch.

Back to work today. The next big break will be between Christmas and New Year's Day. I take that off every year. Eleven days off for the price of four. Can't beat it!

I enjoyed my time off, the bedlam party was amazing! Chianti was very outnumbered in her alliance with OU even though the party was neutral. Most of the other OU fans didn't show up.

Cursed Again

The second ranked BCS team seems to be just doomed. Kansas had its unbeaten season come to an end last night as it fell to the third ranked Missouri. I believe they are fourth in the BCS rankings. They should leap frog over West Virginia to be the number one team though.

As the BCS crumbles there will be more calls for a playoff system this season as the top spots have become like playing musical chairs and rotated between several teams. This would be the ideal season to hold up the fact that several teams deserve to play for the national championship.

It is amazing to think that college football has been this slow to adopt needed changes. They aren't baseball. The sport that is notorious for not changing at all while their TV ratings experience all time lows. Oh attendance is up at the stadiums though, whoopee. Who cares in the rest of the country?

The top eight teams of this year's field would be amazing to watch in a tournament.

It'll happen someday.

Its Pretty Out And The BCS Is Melting!

It snowed last night!
It looks very nice out but the ground was too warm and it is melting, there is practically nothing on the roads.

Yesterday was really nice. I got out, ran some errands, got a trim, bought cat food, blah blah blah. It was nice out, a little cool out but nice.

LSU got beat yesterday in a triple overtime thriller with Arkansas which gives Kansas the best shot at a number 1 ranking and a shot at the BCS game if they can win out.
Missouri and Oklahoma stand in the way of Kansas playing in the national championship game.

The BCS is melting down and a post season tournament has got to happen sooner or later. People will not stand for the mass confusion that determines the champion in college football much longer.

This year has been a disaster for the BCS with nearly every top team being knocked off at one time or another. It has been an enjoyable season

There is a big bedlam watch party today. I plan on bringing chicken wings, there is a new place that has just opened up and they are supposed to be pretty good. Its been a great few days off and I still have two more!

Post Thanksgiving

Well yesterday was pretty nice. I got some great ham leftovers to eat today and lots of chocolate!

The parade watching in the morning was very nice! The football games were great! I got a new Directv DVR from dad which is cool and has been fun to play with! I recorded Space Ghost last night:)

I got to finally watch a documentary I've been wanting to see for over a year now and even did a blog post on it, Darkon!

You can find the trailer online but it is about a large group of Baltimore residents who have divided up their neighborhoods into make believe hex grids and fight over control of them. These are everyday people who develop characters and play them in real life. It is about being a hero when so many people struggle with their average everyday lives.

The doc itself has finally been airing on IFC this month. I am glad I finally have had a chance to see it. It was as good as I had hoped and it really gives a good glimpse into the struggle against being normal and average.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Enjoy today my friends, even though sometimes you have relatives that annoy you, uncomfortable family situations, ho hum football games, enjoy today you might not have another!

Thanksgiving Eve

Yeppers! Five full days off now!

There is a three game NFL marathon on tomorrow, a BIG bedlam party coming up on Saturday, number 2 Kansas is taking on number 4 Missouri which will be an epic game with the winner going to the Big XII championship ripoff game.

This is why there needs to be a playoff system. All of the top teams get to settle it on the field instead of having to play an extra game when most conferences don't have to do that and can get into the National Championship game.

I'm meeting a friend for coffee at three this afternoon, she is home for the Thanksgiving break from college this week!

Weird Dreams

Tonight I had some weird dreams and now I'm up early. I really can't remember what they are about now but I know that they were bizarre. They weren't nightmares, I don't remember any feelings of anything scary or threatening.

I do remember being in another town, in a hardware store no less. It seems that it also doubled as a grocery store....and then there was the juggling elephant....

Sirius has turned on its Christmas channels! I like to turn it to these channels once they come online at work. It makes the day a bit brighter and more lighthearted. In fact one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time, Bing Crosby's Do You Hear What I Hear is playing right now on Sirius Online! This is a great time of year! Good food, good friends, good football and other sports!

I took first place last night for the week, I'm now in fifth place overall with 429 points. Between last week and this week's totals the remainder of my season is paid up! If this trend keeps up and my team can keep scoring at this rate I'll be in first in no time!

Today is my Friday at work. I'm off the rest of the week!

Second Place But

I have my kicker, Jason Elam going tonight. I have won my weekly match up even though he has Vince Young going. I am up by thirty nine points, a difficult amount to overcome with one player.

First place in the league this week so far is the Magic with 73 while I have 69. He is done though.

If I would have started Janikowski I would have had over 90 since he put up 22 points yesterday.
Its alright though, at this point my season is paid for. This is how my team was supposed to play every week. Laurence Maroney finally scored his first TD of the year. He was supposed to get at least 1 TD per every two weeks, especially on the highest scoring team in NFL history.

I might have lost Brandon Jacobs for a while, he went down with a hamstring injury. Hopefully it is minor and he'll be back in the lineup soon.

Overall it was a very good day! I do feel that I'll take first place tonight with a few Elam field goals, if not it doesn't matter, second place money is still decent.

Well I've Got

A good chance at a win this week which would put me over .500 again. I'm currently sitting at 5-5.
I'm starting Big Ben, Maroney (which is killing me this year), Jacobs, TO, Evans, and Calvin Johnson. Elam is my kicker with the Tampa D/ST.

I'm facing the 4-6 Eagles. I'm coming off a good week, tying for first overall in points which gives me half of first and second place money put together. I'm still 154 points out of the overall money which makes it very difficult to overcome but with a few weeks left it is possible, especially if Maroney starts to score and gets on a tear.

As I said it is possible but it'll be uphill.

It Seems That

The second ranked team in the BCS poll has a curse. Five times now number two has been upset with the latest being Oregon State.

Basically it seems that the top few teams have been playing musical chairs with the rankings. This is great if you hate the BCS! It will encourage the playoff debate and add fuel to that fire!

Who is the best team in the nation? Who knows! That is why the teams need to determine it on the field instead of voters and polls.

LSU - Tough team but plays erratically, they are penalized by having a SEC championship game.
Kansas - High scoring team, good defense, the only undefeated team in the nation, has played a light schedule though so we really don't know how good they are. Penalized by having a Big XII championship game.
Oklahoma - Always a contender, solid offense and defense, can compete with any team, penalized by having to play in a Big XII championship game.
Missouri - Don't know how good they are either since they have played a lighter schedule, penalized by having to play in the Big XII championship game.

Oh wait! There are THREE BIG XII teams in the top FIVE!!!! They have to play a game at the end of the season to determine the Big XII champion! The problem with that in the absence of a playoff system where the tops teams are included, a conference championship game works against the conference and penalizes the teams in this situation.

Say LSU wins every game now except for the SEC championship game, they will be penalized by the BCS rankings and probably not get a chance to play for the national title. The same goes for the Big XII schools. While it would be fair if every conference had a championship game it is unfair for only two to have one while there is no playoff set up to level the playing field.

So to sum up BOOOOOO BCS, Hoorayyyyy Playoffs!!!!

INDICTED!!!!

Yes the walking disgrace to baseball was indicted yesterday on perjury and obstruction of justice charges!

Well as big a grease fire as Michael Vick is, today he can say, "Well at least I'm not Barry Bonds!"

You long time readers of my blog know my opinion of Bonds and how bad of a guy he is. He used steroids to put himself back into the spotlight, he is a well known surly individual who hates his fans, has few friends, and an ego the size of California itself.

The Giants wanted no part of him after last year so Bonds was forced to go shopping for a team as a free agent. Well now the teams interested in him are breathing a sigh of relief since those who might have been close to thinking about signing him have now saved themselves a lot of money that they could invest into a better player who could actually help their team win.

In the end Bonds will have no ring, a hollow record that ARod will break in less than ten years, and will probably be a convicted felon. So Barry, I have to ask, was it worth it?

Bonds Indicted! Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?

Man Hall Of Fame Part 8

This manly entry has to do with boxing. I blogged about these men before but that was before I founded the Man Hall Of Fame.

"Irish" Mickey Ward and Arturo "Thunder" Gatti are now members. Not only that but they are the bouncers too. Find some of their fights on You Tube. The Arturo "Thunder" Gatti trilogy with Ward were without question the best thirty rounds of boxing I have ever seen.

That is a legendary trilogy of fights that have no peers. Ali - Frazier? Watch them again and then watch Ward - Gatti.

These two men epitomize everything that is good about boxing. A sport that is tainted with scandal, neglect, and people like Tyson.

These are boxers, fighters, and good men on top of all that.

Can You Fight City Hall?

My dad has been storing his bus/rv behind my house for a while. Well the city passed this very intrusive ordinance a few months ago the prohibits an inoperable vehicle anywhere on your property.

Yes that is correct, no inoperable vehicle ANYWHERE on your property. It must be able to start and move at all times. So I come home the other day to find a sticker saying the bus is inoperable.

Well a few months ago the police came by and gave me a red tag for the same thing, I pointed out that it is operable, I don't know how to start it but it runs and moves as it was driven here. They gave me a green tag and said that the case was closed.

So I call them up and the inspector, well she doesn't return my calls for one after I had left THREE messages to tell her that I have a green tag from the police saying it was operable. Then Monday I see her driving by my house but she doesn't stop to talk to me about it which forced me to take off of work to clear it up!

AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

I maintained my cool while talking to her. It was obvious that she had the IQ of a cucumber but I played nice. It is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.

I can't wait until someone challenges this ordinance in court, I'm sure it will be shot down quickly.

Man Hall Of Fame Part 7

This weeks entry into my Man Hall Of Fame is the show 24.
When America is in jeopardy there is only one man I want running the operation, one man I can count on to go to any extreme to make sure that nuclear weapon doesn't go off!

One man who still knows the good guys from the bad guys even though some politicians have a hard time figuring it out. He is unstoppable, his methods are the kind of methods we need in today's war on terror. He does what it takes to do the job and nothing short of that is acceptable!

Jack Bauer is that man and 24 is his show. Simply put Jack is the man and as such deserves to be in my Man Hall Of Fame!

I Have Won

My heads up game this week 67-40 and tied for first place overall in the weekly payout! Not a bad week at all but I needed these kind of weeks all along to compete for the top spot in the league.

When your first round pick doesn't score your team tends to struggle. My league is very competitive and it is tough to put together a top flight team. If your first pick tanks you are in trouble.

Today is Veteran's Day, go out and do something nice for a Vet!

Week 10

Well the number one team in the country, Ohio State, got beat yesterday on their home field. The BCS is in disarray this year and that is excellent for those of us who want a playoff system. The amazing Kansas Jayhawks are 10-0 as they knocked off close by OSU. It looks like their football team which has basically lived in the muck of their tradition laden basketball team is finally starting to get serious and create their own tradition.

They remain the lone undefeated team with a chance at the championship now. They'll have to get past Missouri and Oklahoma in the Big XII championship game to get to the BCS game. The BCS is melting down so get out the marshmallows and sticks and enjoy the fire!

Today I'm starting Roethlisberger, Jacobs, Kevin Jones, Calvin Johnson, Lee Evans, and TO. My Kicker is Elam and the Broncos D/ST.

I narrowly lost last week but look to rebound today to climb back up to .500 again.

Highland Park 18 Year Old

Thursday evening after work I decided to pick up a new bottle of scotch to try out. While I was really wanting another Islay malt I still have the Caol Ila left. I have tried a bottle from every region so far except one, Orkney.

This is a very very good scotch. It has a honeyed after taste. I never thought I would be able to taste a lot of the flavors I read about however I am starting to! I am really looking forward to exploring this one more to see what other flavors are in there!

It doesn't have the very smoky flavor of an Islay but there is some smoke present. I still believe that the Lagavulin 16 is still my favorite but this is a very good alternative.

Man Hall Of Fame Part 6

The next selection by me to my Man Hall Of Fame is probably the greatest middle linebacker EVER. Yes I hear people talk about Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Mike Singletary, even Ray Lewis but to me the only man I would want as a middle linebacker is this man....Jack Lambert.

Jack Lambert, nicknamed Dracula in cleats, was an imposing force and was the mainstay of the Steel Curtain defense that dominated the NFL in the dynasty days of Pittsburgh in the seventies. Just take a glance on You Tube for some highlights sometime.

The man was awesome! No one dominated the position like he did. While Butkus was out and out mean on the field, Lambert was devastating. He was mean and intimidating. He could blow up any play at any time.

This was a man who stuck up for his team mates. If anyone cheap shotted them he was on them and I'm sure they didn't like the consequences of their actions. Jack Lambert played for eleven seasons. He revolutionized the linebacker position standing at 6'4 and over 220 pounds mixed with pure meanness.

Jack Lambert is in my Man's Hall of Fame, if you don't like it talk to him about it.

Do We Earn Happiness?

Now there is a question for you.

Other than a speed bump every once in a while I'm pretty happy. As I blogged about the other day I believe that things and people don't really make you happy. They might enhance your state of happiness but that really isn't what you strive for. I'm happy and at the moment I'm securing my financial future which will enhance my happiness! If I were unhappy I'd be just as unhappy then no matter my finances.

Everyone strives for the emotion of happiness and in our society, well in every society from history's pages, people tend to get it turned around. They essentially quest for things that they believe will make them happy while missing out on all of the opportunities around them that would give them the feelings they crave.

Happiness can be small everyday things, my coffee card for example. I'm very happy when it gets filled up so I get a free cup. Its not a mansion, a fast car, nor a massive yacht but a simple yellowish card with ink stamps on it.

I essentially earn those stamps by going into that one shop every morning. I do believe that when you earn something it does give you a better idea of happiness well along with accomplishment and self worth.

So why aren't more people happy? I do believe it stems from the idea that things make you happy as I said earlier. Once you have X then you feel Y, when the new wears off of Y you are back to getting X again.

Now this is kind of Pollyannaish but notice the small things around you. Watch the Sun rise and set. Notice the marks on the Moon. Look at the leafs on the ground. Walk around and notice the Fall colors. Simple but they will earn you a bit of happiness.

Sometimes there are people who are just happy being miserable though. They continually have a bad day and want you to know about it. Every detail of it. As if sharing their misery wasn't enough they want you to be just as miserable. I believe I've blogged about this as well but a while ago, they are just comfortable being unhappy. They feel maybe that they are unworthy of being happy or being happy is too much work. Who knows but it doesn't mean you have to follow their lead.

So take one part of being aware of things around you, add in some small action of some sort, stir and enjoy.

The Strike Is On

But will anyone notice? After reading many dismal reviews about this Fall season's offerings most people who don't watch the big draw shows will be happy to see what the studios have lined up next.

Perhaps this will give the writers a needed break to come up with something original and give the studios time to reimagine what entertainment is supposed to be. Originality appears to be nearly dead. Quality has been missing in action for quite a while.

Maybe this will be good if we can stomach the new round of reality shows that are bound to be coming our way.

Most shows will air their final produced show by the end of the year, you can bet that this will be a Winter in which people will find other things to do. Perhaps more people will turn to sports, reading, spending time together as a family, who knows what kind of crazy idea they will come up with. Perhaps by the time this is over we as a consumer will change the face of entertainment by demanding something better.

Roethlisberger

Scored me five touchdowns last night but I fell short of winning by four points, 45-48. It was a rain soaked game though and fun to watch.

My financial plan has now taken a very good turn! Looks like I can have my mortgage paid off in about thirty six months without a part time job! I'm very excited about this and I'll fill you in when I get it done! That pays all of the utilities, gives me a nice weekly budget, and pays off the mortgage about nine years early! It was only on a fifteen year to begin with so I've been paying on it for a while and have a sizable amount of equity.

Once that if finished I have options, lots of options!

You know, most people believe that you have to have the right job first and then you'll be happy, some thing you have to have someone in your life first AND THEN you can finally be happy, or a car, or some piece of jewelry and only then can you finally be happy.

I believe this firmly, with every conscious thinking cell in my head that if you aren't happy now those things won't matter one bit. It is nice not to worry about paying what you can every month but that doesn't make you happy does it? It might for a few days until you have to pay it all again. It isn't happiness, that is relief and delay.

Once you can be happy on your own THEN I believe that things will fall into place for you. You'll find someone to share your experiences with, you'll find more job opportunities, they won't make you happy but they'll enhance your happiness at that point.

Be grateful that you can read, that you have your eyes to see this, that you have people around you who care for you, isn't happiness the real goal after all and not stuff? I'm a pretty happy guy, when my mortgage is paid off I'll be super happy! LOL!

I'll also be just as happy if I paid it off on its normal schedule though. Do you see the difference I'm talking about?

Alone Most Of This Week

At work. My coworker, Picky Eater, is off until Thursday. These make for pretty good weeks. They tend to go pretty quickly.

My fantasy team chalked up another loss yesterday which drops me below .500 on the year.

In other news I feel good with the extra sleep! It feels like I'm sleeping in when in reality I know that it is just my normal sleep schedule that was interrupted by Congress.

I watched the second disc of Twin Peaks last night. It is definitely quirky and all David Lynch. I'll tell you all about it minus spoilers by the end of next weekend. This weekend was great! Yesterday everyone got together at Beersnob's house and we watched the game I blogged about last night! It is always a great time when you are able to get that many people together to watch a game!

I've got some great friends!

The Masterpiece Is Still Being Painted

The Pats recovered from a unstable first half to beat the Colts 24-20 in their quest for the perfect season. Tom Brady was merely mediocre at best and still won in a handily fashion.

This was the biggest hump in the Patriot's season so far and now only Pittsburgh stands in the way. The playoffs will now likely go through Foxboro and if the Colts should meet them for a rematch it'll be in the cold of New England now.

Normal Time Again!

I love this time of year, we are back on normal time and the dreaded DST has ended! I feel great now that I have gotten that extra hour of sleep back!

Today is the biggest game of the year as I've blogged about already. My fantasy team will be at full strength with Roethlisberger, Kevin Jones, Maroney, Lee Evans, Calvin Johnson, TO, Janikowski, and the Broncos D/ST. I feel I have a good shot at another win this week.

I purchased Twin Peaks the complete series yesterday. I've heard a lot about this show and over the years have caught a few minutes on TV but didn't watch it when it aired in 1990. This show burned out quickly but mustered a massive following that still lasts today, just do a search on it and you'll see many sites dedicated to the memory of the show.

I'm looking forward to seeing the entire series, it'll probably be my viewing this week. It clocks in at just 30 episodes with the pilot which I watched yesterday so with 29 left I can knock that out in just prime time viewing this week.

The pilot was quirky, enjoyable, and pure David Lynch. My visit to Twin Peaks will hopefully be a journey I'll remember for a long time!

Super Bowl 41.5

Tomorrow will be the biggest regular season game of the year and maybe of the past few years!

The Colts have a huge game, the Patriots have a big game and they play each other. The Colts schedule gets tougher and the Pats season gets easier and only have Pittsburgh standing in their way of the perfect season.

I really feel that the Patriots will win this game and probably win it easier than people expect. Probably by two scores. I think that the Pats are angry this year and won't rest their starters if a perfect season is on the line. Even after they have wrapped up home field in the playoffs they will still have their boot on the throat of the NFL.

I watched some of the Bear's 1985 season, they were a great team. I've only heard of the Dolphin's 1972 season. I'm witnessing the Patriot's 2007 season and I do honestly believe that once tomorrow is over with they will have the biggest season of all time.

I've blogged about this before but I don't think I can emphasize it enough, this is going to be a perfect season for the Patriots. Brady will set records, the team will set scoring numbers, and they will waltz through the rest of the season and the post season.

Wooohoooo!!!!

So there I am watching basketball and football on TV, it is a little after seven. A knock on my door!
"Come in!", I shout since I am expecting someone but then I think, "Usually Harry just walks in and yells knock knock so I don't have to get up."

I get up and who is it? UPS with my second monitor! I start to unpack it and plug it in when Harry shows up and true to form, and my wishes, he just comes in and says "knock knock".

So I plug in the monitor and reboot and after some color adjustments I have my second monitor back! I'm so happy!

Everything Is Good!

All of my numbers from the lab work were golden except for the blood pressure, which was lower than the last visit but still higher than it should be. My cholesterol and all of that was peachy keen.

I got a prescription for a medication that not only lowers blood pressure but also helps prevents kidney stones which I usually have one every two years or so since I was nineteen. I'm going to get the Y membership, my company has arranged for a monthly discount, so swimming will be a huge help.

I'm thrilled that everything is better than I had thought!

Doctor's Appointment

Yep today I have a doctor's appointment to get the results of my lab work that was done last week. I purchased another George Foreman grill for work to start making lunch there.

I'm serious about fixing the hypertension and not being on any medication. I'm also going to the local Y before long and starting to get in shape. I feel that swimming will be the fastest way to do that, I work all day so after work it would be pretty relaxing to swim and get in shape. Two birds and all that.

I've been eating healthy every evening, grilling a meat, slicing a veggie or two up and grilling that, drizzling it with olive oil and putting seasonings on it with no sodium.

I feel this is a very temporary thing and will be solved quickly. I have read about it online and done some research so I'm optimistic that it will go away soon.

Wow, can you believe it is November already? It is pretty cold out this morning, high 30's. The NBA season has pretty much half way kicke.....tipped off with about half the teams playing already. Next week the college basketball season opens!

It is a busy time of year!!!! I love it!

An Application

The owner of the restaurant was a bit busy yesterday but said we'd talk and gave me an application. He seemed to be an alright guy.

The cool thing about this time of year is all of the monster movies on tv. I watched Friday the 13th part III yesterday. It is hokey by today's standards but then again few movies stand the real test of time and don't become outdated. It was on AMC, a channel I don't really care for that much since it introduced commercials and shows movies that have been edited for tv. It used to be a great channel too, a serious movie fan's channel.

Friday the 13h was a good movie, in fact it was a good series until about the fourth movie. It had some good horror movie moments in it. Many movies today have been influenced by the success of that series. For an indie filmmaker it has the one storyline that always works. Take some teens, put them into a house, and chop them up. Many directors have gotten their start by such a movie!

I'm not ashamed to say that Locker was my version of that.

Anyway Happy Halloween my friends!!!! Enjoy all of the good monster movies!!!!

A Good Monday Night!!!!

It was good to me, I have a line on a small part time job to get my budget plan rolling. I am going to go talk to them after work to see if they are interested and I can get the hours I need and with them knowing it is only for maybe four months.

I only want to work about sixteen hours per week which might not help them as much as they need. If that is the case then I will look elsewhere. There are lots of people putting on their holiday workers now so if I get serious about it I can find work easily for the next couple of months.

The NBA season kicks off tonight or I should say tips off. This is a great time of year when all of the sports come together! With college basketball just a few days away and the NFL and NCAA in full swing, NASCAR is winding down, I even watch the occasional hockey game! I'd mention baseball but I don't think anyone really watches it anymore on TV.

Yep! A great time of year!

I'm Up

33-22 over Beersnob's team. I have Elam going tonight while he still has Donald Driver. With that kind of lead it will be hard to beat me and I'm middle of the pack in the weekly league standings.

I plan on going to Mickey's tonight to watch the game. I really enjoy it a lot but missed last Monday since I was at the theatre to watch the rehearsal and to give out a DVD of the doc.
Another week is starting and I'm sure it is going to be a good one as most are!

Actually I guess that they are what you make of them huh? I mean if you are dead set on having a "Monday" then that is what you are going to get.

If you are excited that another week full of opportunities is upon you then that is what you are going to get!

I purchased a George Foreman grill yesterday to start to eat a healthier diet. I am tempted to buy another one and leave it at work and make lunch with it everyday. It wouldn't take a lot to buy some meat and potatoes something simple to make. I have a first generation grill but this one has a temperature control and is quite a bit bigger.

I sliced a red onion, drizzled some olive oil on it and then added some sodium free seasoning then did the same with some sliced chicken breasts and it was done in under ten minutes. I could easily make some simple but healthier dishes at work and that would probably get rid of my hypertension.

Great Time!

Last night's party was very enjoyable! I got home around midnight but the party was still going pretty well when I left. The Exorcist: The Version You Have Never Seen and Them! were playing last night to add to the Halloween theme.

I have all of my main players going today except Maroney. He is questionable so I have benched him in favor of playing Kevin Jones and Brandon Jacobs as my RBs. TO is on a bye this week so Calvin Johnson, Lee Evans, and Issac Bruce start as my WRs. Big Ben is still my QB and I'm rolling with Elam and the Buc's D and ST.

New England continues on their march towards a real masterpiece of a season today as I'm sure they will pummel Washington. Very few times do we actually see something this perfect while it is happening and only in hindsight we appreciate it. I'm declaring now that even if you hate the Pats you should appreciate the perfection every week.

This is really something we have never seen before and possibly never again. Football played on this level with no one even coming close to challenging them yet, yeah this is a very special season if you are paying attention.

November 4th will likely be the last challenge for them until the post season as they line up against the Colts who are also putting together a great season but not quite as spectacular as the Patriots' s season.

Halloween/Cast Party Tonight!

It'll be fun and exciting!
Beersnob, the host, asked me to bring The Exorcist to watch until the party starts. This is a dual purpose party you see.
The cast for the new production is coming while the people who have seen the show already are coming to the Halloween party before that.

It'll be a great time!

My Suburban is now fixed and running on a reliable basis now! I have to return my brother's Suburban back to him today. They are having a b-day party for my nephew today so I am going to that.

There are some really good college football games on today. That always makes for an exciting day!

A Bad Wire

About six inches long is the cause of the Suburban's malfunction. One end had corroded and wasn't making good contact anymore. Not a battery cable type of wire, this is a very small wire.

So it'll cost me about three dollars to fix since I'll probably have to buy a roll of wire to do so.

I plan on going out tonight after the show is over with friends Bob, Wendy, and Sass who is back in town for a couple of days before returning to Mexico. I taped the show last night and it is very moving and inspirational. I'd seen quite a bit of it already in rehearsal but this was the first time I had seen the whole thing put together.

It really makes you ponder exactly how you see the world. If you can tell the difference between a problem and an inconvenience. Sometimes people around you might be annoying you but in reality they might actually be trying to help you, such as honking at you and trying to get your attention while driving behind you only to alert you that you had left your coffee and briefcase on the roof of your vehicle.

Yeah.

My friends sometimes things just aren't what they appear to be and all that glitters is also not exactly gold. My Suburban being down was an inconvenience, a temporary one at that and one that turns out is an easy fix. Finding out you have a terminal disease would be a problem and I feel I can tell the difference now.

Can you?

Not Fixed But...

It is close! I have a friend who had one of these and he believes that it isn't anything with the engine at all. He believes that the ignition switch relay has gone bad since everything that is powered up when that switch is engaged won't come on.

I replaced battery cables and ends last night to make sure that those weren't the problem. I turned on the key and everything came on like it should until I tried to crank it over and then nothing again. It all went dead.

It is a simple matter now to replace that switch. It sits on the steering column behind the dash. It won't take a lot to lower it out of there and check it out.

Tonight I am also filming the final dress rehearsal for the new production. It really looks like a good show! Saturday night is a big Halloween/Cast party and that will be a lot of fun! I know it starts around 7:30 and I also know it will wrap up probably after 3 or so. This crowd loves to go to parties.

Did I mention I have great friends?

Suburban Blues

Yeah it seems the past couple of days I've hit a minor speed bump on my happy little journey. The upside though is that I now have a 2001 Suburban to drive for a few days! Not that I don't enjoy my vehicle at all, I do, I like driving a diesel.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a point A to point B person. I spent a few years in a body shop and as a result looks of a vehicle just don't really thrill me anymore. If it runs and is reliable I'm pretty happy. I'll drive it until the wheels fall off.

I start up my Suburban at work and about half way home I notice it is overcharging. There's a problem! I don't know what, the alternator is less than two years old and I know it is good after that rash of having bad ones a couple of years ago. So I get home and turn it off. I was planning on turning it back on again to see if it would have fixed itself, that maybe the gauge was glitching or something. I turn the key back on and NOTHING. It is now doornail dead.

Now with a new mechanical mystery to solve I pop the hood and start to sleuth it. A diesel is a pretty simple engine. You only need electricity to start it, you happen to need quite a bit as the compression on this engine is about 22 to 1 but you need it. Now I didn't have any which is a problem. I turned on the lights, check! They worked! Ok I know that the batteries are alright. I put the charger on them anyway and they are good according to the fancy gauge! Ok I'm getting closer now! I have a suspicion that it might be the glow plug controller on the back of the engine. I push on it a couple of times to make sure the plug is properly seated and WOW the console lights back up and I start it again!

So within about a half hour of pushing, prodding, and doing mechanic things I think I have the problem narrowed down. I turn the engine off and try again.....NOTHING. So now I am pretty sure that is the problem.

I'll have to call my garage this morning after I get to work and tell them what is going on with it. I'm sure that the controller has gone bad for some reason even though it was new. No big deal it should still be under warranty now.

Hypertention Blues

Are you kidding me?
I haven't had the flu since sixth grade, rarely have a cold, have a kidney stone about every two years, I blogged the last cold I had in the post "Headcold Blues", and I'm generally happy and always healthy! I haven't been to a doctor in three years! I'm in decent shape, I could stand to lose about ten pounds.

So now I go to the doctor and I have hypertension AKA high blood pressure. How did this happen?!?!?! I guess it is just one of those things but dadgumit I hate being on any kind of medication. Just don't like it.

I'm researching dietary changes but that scares me.
Eating good food is one of life's true pleasures, I'm not a gourmet chef but I'm a good cook and can hold my own. I'm a fan of eating.

Well eating good food is a pleasure, I usually eat bad food though. I can't count how many times I've had M&M's for supper. When I was younger and bulletproof I had them for breakfast along with root beer!

Perhaps that could be a contributing factor. Perhaps I don't exercise enough....or at all anymore.
I guess I really need to investigate my options. I go back into the doctor for a follow up next week. Perhaps it won't be as bad as I anticipate.

A friend of mine swims three times per week. That would probably help with the exercise and the meds could be temporary.

3-4

I won my heads up match up this week so I'm slowly crawling to averageness.....ick....at least my team is starting to get off of the sidelines and play again. I left about 20 points on the bench which would have helped but only in overall point standings.

I ordered a all in one printer/fax/flatbed copier/salad shooter/ginsu knife today. It should be in late this week. I've needed a printer for quite a while, I don't know when I'll ever fax anyone but it might be handy to have around, and a copier is always handy.

Anyway it has been a pretty cool weekend. Did some grocery shopping, laundry, few things like that.

I've come up with a plan to pay off my mortgage in 2.6 years. It is on a 15 year note anyway so it won't be long since I've already put a little over 5 in on it. I have very low debt compared to my income. My utilities are fairly cheap. All of that adds up to me having a very cool HDTV in a couple of years if I crack down!

I kept running the numbers for a couple of hours and it is possible to get it done. It would open up a lot of options for me with that kind of disposable income! I could actually pay my actors on the next big project for instance! The problem would be to discipline my lifestyle in such a way to get it done.

Not eating out as much, not buying as much junk, not adding to my massive DVD collection, lots of small things like that really add up. I'll have to figure out on what I can live on per week and see where else I can cut spending.

It is something I'm really considering.

Filming Thursday

For the new production at the theatre. Terri Galer is directing, long time readers will recognize her from Locker and Drinkbuster Weezy's mom!

Even though she has long been involved in the theatre and has been the assistant director many many times, not to mention has scored many productions, this is her first time in the big chair. I have seen scenes from the show and it is a funny and touching show. It is called Everything I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.

It is comprised of vignettes and musical numbers. The set is minimal, similar to Our Town. Chairs, a blackboard, lighting, that's about it.

My fantasy team will be at full strength today which is little help since I'm sitting at 2-4 and last in points scored. Injuries have killed my team so far. After week two they kicked in and they have hurt a lot.

So today I'm starting Roethlisberger, Jacobs, Maroney (even though he is on the highest scoring team in the NFL, he has been a major disappointment) are my RBs, TO, Johnson, and Evans are my WRs, Janikowski is my K, and I'm rolling with the Bucs D this week.

The Last Time

I saw this movie I had to have been around eight. I was in my dad's semi with a tiny black and white tv trying to keep the signal going until the movie ended. I didn't see the start of it but it was easy enough to pick up on and get into. Last night thanks to Netflix and The Criterion Collection I was able to watch Robinson Crusoe On Mars in full!

What a great movie! It is pretty much a kid's movie but still it has a lot of appeal to it. It even has a monkey! Now what movie isn't made better with a monkey? Every movie should have a monkey in it!

The story is simple. A probe orbiting Mars with two men and a monkey encounters a problem and they are forced to eject. The struggle for survival begins. It looks amazing since it has been restored by Criterion. The effects can be a bit dated but overall this is about the story and not so much about the way it looks.

Can a man have paradise on Mars? From this movie I'd say yes! Watch this movie, you'll enjoy it!

Man Hall Of Fame Part 5

Today's inductee to the Man Hall Of Fame is a person. In fact she is was a unique combination of hotness and grace. One of the great directors of all time fell deeply in love with her and metaphorically killed her off in a later movie.

A man would never feel more manly than if this woman was on his arm. Grace Kelly could very well be the definition of hot in her prime. Hitchcock himself knew exactly what he had when he cast her and knew how to film her so the entire world would fall in love. He put her in jeopardy on screen and worshiped her off camera.

She starred in three films for Hitch, with respect to High Noon, the three best of her career were Read Window, Dial M for Murder, and To Catch A Thief. Hitchcock knew how to paint Grace Kelly with the camera. It has been theorized that Vertigo was Hitchcock's lament to losing Kelly to another man when she retired from acting in 1956. He recreated in Kim Novak a Grace Kelly look alike. It was by far his most personal film about love and loss. Not only in Novak did he try to recreate Kelly, he attempted the same with Eva Marie Saint, Janet Leigh, and of course Tippi Hedren.

Allegedly later on he unleashed his fury on Kelly in The Birds and Psycho, both with a platinum blond Kelly clones being killed outright in Psycho and taking a ton of abuse in The Birds. For the most part this is legend but there might be some merit to it if you read enough books about Hitchcock.

If you believe that she doesn't belong in my Man Hall Of Fame, that's cool but I challenge any man out there to watch all three of those movies (especially her entrance in Read Window) in a row and not love Hitchcock's image of her. Yes Grace Kelly might not have been the person in real life that she was on screen in Hitchcock's mind but that is the part I know I love.

What Is Sparta?

Alright so yesterday was VERY rainy. There is a big leak in the building I work in at the major intersection. It has leaked for years and years now and resists all repairs. It is probably the most expensive and least effective roof repair of all time!

Well my friend and fellow Drinkbuster Weezy had put this pic up on her My Space for a couple of days. I was struck by the idea of replicating the same sign at work to draw a few chuckles.

What happened was no less than bewildering. EVERYONE without fail asked, "What's Sparta?"
It had me screaming! Alright I can forgive not knowing anything about the Battle of Thermopylae and King Leonidas. I can forgive not reading history books or not paying attention in class. I can forgive not reading a comic. But come on people! EVERY trailer for 300 had this scene in it!!!! They ran for months before the movie premiered! Even if you have not seen the movie I know you have seen the preview for the movie!

Even a guy who has seen the movie TWICE asked me about it!!!! He thought that it had to do with the water on the floor and that maybe there was water in the pit that the ambassador was kicked into by King Leonidas!!!! I can't make this up!

I didn't know that I should have written out an explanation and taped it up above the sign so that people would get it and KNOW WHERE SPARTA WAS, NOT TO MENTION IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE SPARTA WAS, THAT WASN'T THE POINT!!!!

Ok so maybe I have a massive amount of pop culture junk rolling around in my head and things are funny to me and I just assume that everyone is on the same page that I'm on. I know I have a lot of inside jokes and subtleties in my head that is a bit esoteric. But this wasn't one of them.
This was pretty upfront and simple and still no one got it....

High and Low

This amazing Kurosawa film starring his favorite actor Toshiro Mifune is one of his attempts at making an American film noir.

The premise is simple, Mifune is an executive of a shoe company who after an argument with his fellow executives mortgages everything he owns to become the majority stock holder. On the same evening his son is kidnapped, he swears to pay the ransom which would kill his stock purchase deal and virtually bankrupt him. He finds out a few minutes later that the kidnapper has screwed up and that his chauffeur's son was the child who was taken.

Now he is faced with a moral choice, pay the massive ransom for an employee's son or pursue the deal which would vault him from rich to super rich. What transpires is two hour ride of angst and genuine film noir that only Kurosawa could pull off!

I'd highly recommend this as a Netflix rental! It is enjoyable and a classic.

Possible Projects Ahead!

With the fanfilm still in the works and moving ahead, it is moving slowly enough to leave me time to start another project. After I canceled the Chiller Channel project due to lack of a location I decided to hit up a couple of guys I know who have an interest in filming skit comedies.

They are pretty good at improv comedy and have had no outlet to express themselves since they are a bit disgruntled with the theater right now.

This promises to be a lot of fun and I believe in this case that material will be easy to come by. I also believe that we can get a solid group of five individuals to take on the skits on a reliable basis.

In other news, DID YOU SEE ME LAY DOWN THE LAW?!?!?! I AM THE LAWGIVER!
Yes indeed!

A Predicted Outcome

My team, shorthanded from bye weeks and injuries, took the predicted beating of 69-14 yesterday. There was some good news though!
Had a great time at Beersnob's party!

There were close to ten people there and it was just a very good time! We cooked out at halftime, had some wonderful football conversation, enjoyed a pretty competitive game for three quarters, and enjoyed the nice weather which soon after the game was over turned into a severe thunderstorm!

It rained a LOT and hard too. After I got home it really started to rain! It made for some great sleeping weather! I had two windows open in my bedroom and never woke up once!

I have to make some more DVD copies so I can get them mailed out! I need to send a copy up North and another copy to Weezy in LA. Her copy was cracked when it got to her. So I'll be doing that tonight after work.
I have had positive feedback though!

A Great Day On Tap

Despite my fantasy woes this year I've had some solid play from my players that aren't injured. Injuries have kind of summed up the results the past three weeks.

Today I have two WRs off on bye weeks, Roethlisberger is off on a bye, my RBs will be at full strength though with Brandon Jacobs returning off of the injured list last week and posted a good day, the Broncs are off on a bye so that puts my D/ST and Kicker on the bench.

I'm anticipating a loss, no big deal at this point.

There is going to be a great game and some communal football watching at Beersnob's house today at 3ish. There should be people from the theater crowd and my fantasy league crowd there, it'll be a mixing of both circles for me! It should be a great day!!!!

A Good Friday Evening!

Went to a Italian eatery with about fifteen friends and then over to the pub to hang out for the rest of the evening!

Most of the cast for the most recent theater production was there and we all just had a good evening! I had taken off early yesterday from work since it was pretty slow and I had some errands to run and some bills to pay. I had been looking forward to last night for a few days and it was a great evening!

Man Vs. Survivorman Vs. Wild

Man vs. Wilds' Bear Grylls is a survival genius. Bear is to survival what Jack Bauer is to defending LA against the nuclear armed Chicom horde. Throw this guy into the harshest environments on Earth and he will come out alive and in good shape.

Heck even MacGyver would take lessons in rigging up something from a shoelace, branch, gum, moss, and a turkey baster.

Water, shelter, heat, food and he could live anywhere! While I require electricity, indoor plumbing, and the internet, Bear just needs air and a minimum of broken bones to survive.

Next up is Survivorman Les Stroud who actually does his own filming while genuinely being stranded in the wilderness. While Bear travels with a cameraman Les does everything himself....for seven days.
Bear usually goes for three days I believe.

What Bear is to surviving Les ups it a notch since he is genuinely alone. If MacGyver looks up to Bear then The Duke himself looks up to Les for shear toughness.

Both of these shows are on a few times a week in reruns on one of my favorite channels, Discovery!

Underachiever

I'm afraid it is true my friends. I'm an underachiever.

After giving things a lot of thought lately and when I measure what I know I'm capable of and what I'm successful at, well there is a gap there to say the least.

I have two friends who have moved off and are pursuing their dreams and enjoying some success at it! I have another talented friend who would enjoy the same success if he ever moved and devoted himself to the same acting dream although it is nice to keep him here since he makes some killer drinks!

I really enjoy my friends when they are here however I'm much happier for them when they fulfill their potential, the same potential that is becoming harder for me to fulfill. It boils down to contentment.

My life isn't perfect but it is pretty darn good. There are people in my neighborhood who don't have it as good as I do. I have friends that I value deeply, a good paying job that allows me the extra cash to pursue films and the making of such, and I've got a decent house to live in and I always have a good meal.

I'm content in many ways. I've got a great creative outlet. I do need a killer idea though that can be shootable with a smallish budget. Pursuit of that is part of the fun though isn't it?

Yeah I admit to being human and as such I do find myself to be lonely from time to time but I do have great friends to lean upon and hang out with!

The underachieving problem, if it can be called that, is one that can be overcome though. It is one that is a challenge and should be seen as fun and not some kind of insurmountable obstacle! So now since I've identified the problem and solution, once again it is all good from here on out!

Here's to hoping your day is twice as good as mine and mine is pretty good:)

Man Hall Of Fame Part 4

To go along with my three inductees so far I am going to induct into my Man Hall of Fame something that is a bit controversial. However after you read my explanation then I believe you'll agree that it is essential.

The fourth inductee is someone whom 99% of men dream about. Someone whom some fortunate men come across a few times in a lifetime. The person whom they might even grow up next to and embody everything they could ever want. When they walk down the street together women weep at the beauty and perfection while men want to be that man. Alright that might be a bit overly dramatic but The Girl Next Door is my fourth induction into the Man Hall of Fame.

I had a girl next door growing up. I even tracked her down a few weeks ago and called her. She wasn't home however she is doing OK! I had had a weird dream about her and wanted to make sure that she was alright.

We had probably seven Summers together and lived next door for five of those. Now it might not seem like a lot but when you are a kid a Summer is a long long time. We had many neighborhood adventures and she was a bit of a tomboy and one grade older than I was. No, nothing like that ever happened but she has always been with me as one of those friends you never forget.

So here is to The Girl Next Door who made growing up easier and more fun than it ever would have been alone!

14-33

Week 5 was a loss. So now my fantasy team is two up and three down. I am starting to feel better about it though since my injured players are now all returning! I believe I can start expecting week 1 and week 2 type of results again!

Watched part of the game last night at Mickey's. This has also been a weekly tradition and so far I really enjoy it! I could really get used to this!

I know sometimes my posts are a bit dry like this and occasionally I come across with a flash of everyday living brilliance, although they are brief, few, and far between. For the most part I write these in the morning before heading off to work, where I gain several good blogging ideas which are usually forgotten by the time I clock out.

I gotta learn to write things down!

Silent Running

I've finally had the chance to watch Silent Running, the 1972 Bruce Dern scifi/fantasy movie. A friend and I used to chat online while mutually watching Six Feet Under and in one season Arthur Martin and the mom were having a movie night and they were watching this movie. I have wanted to see it since! I have to say that once you get beyond the hippie/tree hugger influence it is a pretty good movie!

I mean Freeman Lowell does kill off his fellow shipmates to protect a forest dome but other than that he is a pretty nice guy. He reprograms two droids to be his friends, well since he killed off the other three and hijacked his space freighter he has to have someone to talk to.

Apparently the Earth is now pretty desolate so they have grown forests on these massive ships and then for some unexplained reason they have to jettison the forested domes before returning home. Got no clue as to why but that was the order.

So Lowell takes his brand of conservationism to a bit of an extreme. I guess this could be considered a bit of a kids movie. It is Disneyesque in a way.

Worth a Netflix rental though!

I'm off to watch the Monday Night game in a little bit! So have a good evening everyone!!!!

Looks Like

I'm going to be 2-3 after tonight after a fast 2-0 start.
I'm down 26-14 and only have one player tonight while he has two and a good lead. Now lots can happen and I could still win but TO would have to have a very good game.

I watched 3:10 to Yuma last night, the original with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin based on the story by Elmore Leonard. It was really good. I'd like to see the remake actually and I'm anti-remake guy!

This has been a pretty good weekend. Watched some good football, had some good food, it rained last night, all in all just a nice weekend:) I'm kind of hungry this morning but really don't feel like getting out just yet to get some breakfast. I guess I should have gone to the store yesterday.

A Great Saturday Night!!!!

The tradition that was started a few weeks ago now has reached its fourth consecutive week with friends getting together and cooking supper for each other!
We had a wonderful chicken and pasta dish cooked by my friend Wendy! We had a houseful as well with six people total!

Next turn is mine! I'll have to find something really good! Time to watch lots of the Food Network!

In sadder news I believe one of my dual monitors is going bad. It is acting buggy all of a sudden.

Should be a good day football wise. Brandon Jacobs returns to my lineup today!
So my starters will be Roethlisberger, Jacobs and Bell as my RBs, Johnson, TO, and Evans as my WRs, with the Broncs D/ST and Elam rounding out the lineup!

Neither

I had planned on watching at least one of two Netflix movies last night but instead I didn't watch either. I watched the Louisville/Utah game and part of the Red Sox/Angels game.

I took off at noon from work and that was a good way to start my three day weekend:)

There are some good games on the football slate today! Tonight Wendy and Bob are coming over to cook! I believe it will be an Italian dish! I can't wait!
This has been a really fun tradition! It gives us all something to look forward to every week!

This is going to be a great weekend!

Woohoooo!!!! Friday!!!!

I went out last night to help celebrate my dear friend Catina's completion of her comp finals!!
I had a great time with all of the people! I was able to finally get to drink Laphroaig which is an Islay malt. Very smoky like the Caol Ila or the Lagavulin, but not as sweet or as smooth as the later.
There were some very interesting conversations but mostly I got the vibe from her that she now felt accomplished and complete!

It was very satisfying to see her in such a happy state after the chaos of the past year!!!!

Today is also the Friday before a three day weekend!!!! These days are always great my friends!
The day seems to zip by!

I plan on watching at least one Netflix movie tonight but I'm not sure which one, Woody Allen's Sleeper or Silent Running which is a early 70's Bruce Dern scifi movie.

All in all I expect another incredible day!!!!