Fall Break....

I'm doing my normal routine this morning. I get up and shower, take Zip out, and then let him in and turn on The Date's light to get her around. Zip jumps up and down on her which helps wake her up. Then I go up stairs to turn on Things one and two's lights.

I tell Thing 2, "Let's go!" as she is always the first to get up anyway after me. "Where are we going?" "Wake up," I reply back.

"It's Fall Break..." They should really tell me these things sometimes.

I did not know this so I go back down and check with The Date who confirms that none of them have school today. Go figure. I'm all alone this morning enjoying the aroma of coffee I won't have time to drink before going off to work.

It is still drizzly outside. I found an old Coast to Coast AM show in my archives that featured a guy who tried to crack the Jack the Ripper case. Thought it would be great listening as I was dozing off in this weather. Very Rippery weather for sure over the past few days.

It Passed

The Baucus bill passed the Senate committee yesterday. Now Harry Reid will combine elements of it with another bill that got out of committee and that bill will go to a vote on the floor.

Meanwhile the House bill will be assembled in a similar fashion and sent to the floor to be voted on. Once there is is a Senate and House bill passed they will go to a conference committee and hash out the differences and produce a bill to take to the President to sign.

The House bill will have to have a public option, the Senate bill will have to have penalties for people who refuse to get insurance and tax plans that cost over eight thousand per year (a number that is sure to fall to pay for this behemoth of a bill, along with a possible VAT, and windfall profit tax on all insurance companies).

I'm all in favor of a VAT (Value Added Tax) or a national sales tax in lieu of income tax. Naturally you'd exempt food and clothing so it isn't regressive but that isn't Speaker Pelosi's plan. She wants the VAT AND the income tax to be adjusted up a bit to pay for the ultimate bill that Obama wants.

The weird thing is that the taxes won't start for two years (after the midterm elections) and the health care plan won't start until at least 2013 (after the next Presidential election) very shrewd moves on the liberal sides. As a sitting President he has a good chance of being reelected, I believe he will be more Carter like and go down as one of the worst Presidents ever though. Regardless he would stand a great chance of NOT being reelected if his plan kicked in while he was in office in his first term.

Since Congress is up for election every two and six years they have timed the tax increases to start just after their elections, again very shrewd political move. They are banking on short memories of the public.

Even though I don't like what is happening I am marveling at the adeptness in which they are exhibiting in doing it.

Important Vote Today

The soon to be very infamous bill which will make and break many career politicians in D.C. will be voted on. One of the center pieces of Nobel Peace Prize winning President Obama's agenda, health care reform.

No one disagrees that the insurance system needs reformed. I stand on the side that America doesn't need a Canadian, or UK style of government run health care. Senator Max Baucus disagrees. His bill is expected to be voted out of committee today and head to the Senate floor.

I couldn't break it down here in a hundred years as it is so densely written so I'll make it black and white as many issues in Washington really are. Do you believe it is moral to tax someone who earns insurance now to pay for those who do not? Keep in mind that the government isn't in any kind of business to pay for anything, their only business is tax code which produces their revenue.

The Baucus bill does tax "Cadillac" plans which really is most health care insurance plans as far as I can tell. You can bet they will only say it is the plans of the upper 1% of earners who have these plans. I disagree as I have one of these plans and I'm far far from one of the top 1% of earners. In fact everyone where I work has one of these plans and some of them barely make twelve dollars per hour. Actually it taxes the insurance company offering the insurance and those costs are then passed over to the consumer such as myself.

So is it right to tax someone who is making twelve dollars per hour and take that money to buy an insurance plan for someone who doesn't have it?

Most of you readers know me personally but for those of you who don't let me fill you in a bit. If you are hungry, come over, I'll cook you a meal. If you have trouble paying your water bill and I have the spare money, I'll give it to you or what I can. If you are stranded on the side of the road, I'll stop. What I object to is when someone tells me I have to give X to Y because Y doesn't have a job, or their job doesn't offer insurance.

I'd say change the tax code, let the business keep more of its money so they can do right by their employees. Don't tax them to death and penalize them. I'd say change the tax code so that you can buy your own insurance. Let the health care insurance businesses compete against each other as Geico and Progressive do for car insurance.

Yeah I know it is an oversimplification however it is valid nonetheless. For the money they want to spend they could BUY insurance plans for every single uninsured person out there and it would cost half as much. Instead they believe several layers of bureaucracy is the solution. More bureaucracy riddled with fraud like medicaid and medicare is the solution. They actually said that once that fraud is eliminated it will almost pay for the entire bill....if so then WHY haven't they done so already? Obviously they know it is there, so why not fix that first and then tackle it from there?

Because that isn't their goal. Their goal is the total single payer system and once that is in place America as we know it is on its financial death bed. This system has NOT worked in Massachusetts but that doesn't deter them from wanting to do the same thing on the federal level. They actually believe that more government intrusion into your life is the answer.

I've got lots of liberal friends, some of my best and closest friends in fact. I can't think of any but maybe one who would like to live under the nanny state our feds are proposing. Most of my friends are hard working and pretty independent. They earn their livings doing going out into the world as I do to pay their bills and mortgages. I really can't think of one liberal friend who is incapable of living their own lives, free from government interference.

They all know what is best for them and don't need anyone else telling them differently. The difference is that in D.C. they look at all of us as incapable of making the right choices for us.

Pay attention today, it is an important vote.

It Was A Mad Sunday

First of all my surprise was carried out flawlessly. She was amazed and very happy when she found out via my blog what was going on for the day:)

PF Chang's was very tasty! I'd recommend it:) I had turned in my week 5 lineup the day before. I believe I won third place in my first league and I'm bringing up the rear in my keeper league. The bye weeks are here and every fantasy owner hates it when they are upon us. It's the scourge on fantasy sports.

Then after we got back home I decided to grab my chair, a blanket, some Irish coffee, and a Padilla Signature 1932 and head outside:) The Irish coffee turned into three Irish coffees and the cigar eventually turned into a Bolivar Cuban. Again I was disappointed by a Cuban cigar.

My pallet has been refined since I started enjoying premium cigars and it seems that every time I grab a Cuban I don't enjoy it as much as a Non Cuban. It was a very enjoyable time outside in the cool air:) I need to get a snuggie though for the upcoming Winter.

Then it was time to start Mad Men. I watched the first three episodes. First of all it is a very atmospheric show based in 1960 at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue. I felt like I probably reeked of smoke and I'm not positive but I might have caught a buzz from all of the alcohol they drank.

This is a show where men treat women as objects and women are content to stay at home and cook. A divorced woman is a social albatross and the other women henpeck her with how are you going to live without a man? Now I readily admit that I laugh at the WNBA as a sport. It is frequently a punchline but by no means would I treat a woman as they are treated on Mad Men.

Overall I'm really pretty engrossed with the show though. Don Draper, the main character, appears to have had a previous life. He is married and so far has been increasingly disenchanted with his home life. He has a lover in the city and nearly started another affair....and this is three episodes in!

I'm looking forward to seeing where this show goes. It has started its fourth season now on AMC and I'll be able to catch up quickly as the third season will be on DVD soon.

Big Day

IT took some planning but I pulled it off. I finally asked T to find out what place in the city The Date would enjoy eating at since I knew T was going to see her on Friday to pick up part of a science project for her son. Turns out it is PF Changs so today we will be driving to PF Changs for her bday lunch:)

Funny thing is that the way T did it, she said she was going and would she like Changs or another place. T texted me back and then forwarded her message to her, she was very excited, LOL!

Then I nagged her to death on Friday to get new tires on her car so it would be safe to drive today. I know she was just thinking I was nagging but today's trip is the reason for it.

All in all it was successful since she didn't have a clue. I laid it on really thick last night as we went to Hastings. I picked up the first season of Mad Men and told the man at check out I was stocking up for the weekend so I wouldn't have to get out, picked up a few candy bars too.

At this point I believe she thinks I may have forgotten:)

I Could Talk About

The Nobel Peace Prize joke that was played on the world yesterday but I won't. It'll be talked to death by other bloggers. Both pros and cons and they'll cover way more angles than I could possibly think of.

Instead I'd rather talk about Rocky Horror last night at the local college. They had a showing. A group of the friends I know and love went out there to witness the show. It was enjoyable even though it really wasn't what we were expecting.

First we got there and they started Young Frankenstein. We all loved that movie as well so we watched it and laughed with the sparse audience. A few more people came in for Rocky. Between the movies they drew for door prizes and it's really funny! There were five of us there. Four of us won out of six prizes! I was the only one to go home without a door prize. The Date did win a Halloween themed drink shaker with two shot glasses though!

We left a couple of songs after Time Warp as the chairs were uncomfortable and we had been there a good while. We had fun, I wish the audience had been bigger though. I was really wanting the whole Rocky Horror audience experience and Witchy (who won a Halloween snow globe) was the only one in the whole show who knew all of the audience participation lines.

We had fun, it was a good evening:)

Woohooo!!!!

This is one of the rare occurrences during the year where I have a payday and a three day weekend! Amazing! I love it when things line up like that, means there is a good weekend in store:)

Yesterday it seemed like it rained a foot, all day long and usually only a brief shower separated long periods of hard driving rain. Everything was soaked. Even though I wasn't I felt like I was soaked to the bone.

I've always wanted to experience a hurricane. I figure that the rain we had yesterday would be what it's like after the hurricane has left and you just have some storms to deal with. Speaking of hurricanes, it appears that this hurricane season is really pretty quiet. Chalk one up for nature over the socialist green freaks who want you in a horse drawn carriage while they lay out a different set of rules for themselves.

I know a lot of liberals, not one of them is attempting to leave the cushy lives they have in favor of moving to a socialist country though. In fact I can't think of one of them who would want to live under the marxist government restraints that seem to be on the horizon either.

Oh well that's a blog post for another time;) And yes it'll happen, I've got time.

Storming Up A Storm!

It is very storming right now! A big, loud, noisy storm too. A quick glance at the radar shows me that it'll be gone in about an hour though.

It's Thursday. Watched Nostradamus Effect last night while flipping to Ghost Hunters, then a very interesting Destination Truth. Usually Josh finds nothing but sounds. Last night the crew found a tiny decaying corpse (about the size of a chicken but had feet that looked like hooves) that baffled scientists, saw lights in a dead end tunnel, and found a mysterious light outside in the sky that was brighter than anything else around in the Chilean desert. It was some compelling TV watching!

They were searching for UFOs and they definitely found some unexplained stuff. It was a good change from the usual blurry pictures and shaky video footage they take. Ghost Hunters was decent. Nostradamus Effect though was a real eye opener. I had no idea that Sir Issac Newton dealt in eschatology as well as being one of the greatest minds in science ever.

Now of course I am a partial preterist and believe that Revelation mostly dealt with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It was the classical Christian belief as well until the early nineteenth century when dispensationalism became what we commonly know today as the end times. It is the destructive end of the world stuff and sells tons of books, makes lots of money for churches willing to exploit that belief, and makes evangelists some major bank.

Newton had calculated the end of the world as 2060 but Solomon's Temple will have to be rebuilt, which I don't believe it ever will, well not without a massive war with Muslims when the Al Aqsa mosque is torn down. It simply will not happen in the next fifty years and change.

It was an interesting show though on History, one of my favorite channels:)

Ghost Lab

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and the narrator of The Deadliest Catch (one of my favorite shows) does triple duty narrating this ghost hunting extravaganza. Two brothers from San Antonio with lots of high tech equipment travel around the country and explore ghost stories and try to capture them on a variety of instruments.

Yeah you might think it is a Ghost Hunters clone. It really isn't. Ghost Hunters was first and to me by far the most interesting ghost hunting show on TV. You just love Jason and Grant and always pull for them.

The Klinge brothers are a little bit more gruffer, a little bit more heavy handed with the ghosts and up front. They seem like guys you would like to grab a drink with after work or guys you want in your fantasy football league because they are going to put on a big feed for you with grilled everything.

The show itself, well I'd say for a ghost hunting show its ok. It was only the premiere last night and they were in Louisiana at a music hall where many rock legends got their start and then a plantation where GH have already been.

I like the show but I like Ghost Hunters better. I'm just more familiar with that cast of characters like Steve, Tango, Kris, and of course Jason and Grant.

I Lost

Both games but I did have fun for an hour hanging out with Beersnob at a local wings place. Not BDubs either.

I found a flyer on a bulletin board about The Rocky Horror Picture Show this Friday night at the local college. I believe a delegation of my friends will be attending the costumed show. Unfortunately two of the ones who would enjoy it the most, Skate and Jassie will be out of town to celebrate their one year.

This should be quite an event as Beersnob is a veteran of the Greenwich Village showing of TRHPS. I'm looking forward to attending, it'll be interesting to see how it goes!

Week 4 Results

It appears that both my teams will be middle of the pack this season. I can't break out and contend through the first quarter of the season. Yeah it is a marathon but if you aren't a front runner yet then it'll be unlikely that you'll be in the lead later on.

For the most part it is my RBs who aren't clicking as I suspected. In my main league I'm losing 46-22 with Percy Harvin left. In my keeper league I've got Green Bay and Percy Harvin left and I'm losing 31-24. I've got a chance to win that game for sure but it'll take some defensive scoring and Harvin is going to have to have a good game.

Such is fantasy football. You run the numbers, read the inside reports, and maybe you wind up out thinking the room at times. I didn't out think the room so much as just rolled the dice on my RBs. It's ok though, the keeper league will have a good foundation to build on.

The main league is a tough league anyway. It'll always be better next season!

Week 4!!!!

In the keeper league I'm going to roll with Tom Brady, Darren McFadden, LenDale White, Calvin Johnson, Percy Harvin, and Justin Gage. Elam is on a bye so I'm rolling Matt Prater and the Packers D.

In my main league I'm going Matt Schaub, Pierre Thomas, Fred Jackson, Fitz is on a bye so it'll be AJ, Housh, and Percy Harvin. Prater, and the Giants D.

Pierre Thomas is off of his injury and announced last week his return with over one hundred yards rushing and two TDs. I'm looking forward to him being back today and in my lineup! Schaub and AJ should rip apart the Oakland D.

It should be a good day for my teams:)

SG:U Is Great

I was very happy with the premiere of SG:U. It did appear that O'Neil had packed on the pounds. We briefly saw Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson. No mention of Teal'c though. That was a shame as everyone loves Teal'c.

All in all the story breaks down like this: at project base Icarus they find the ninth chevron but can't encode or lock it. One of the doctors decided to put the problem into a video game (ala The Last Starfighter) for a kid to solve. He solves it and they beam him aboard the ship orbiting Earth.

Then they hyperspace over to Icarus base. When the base comes under attack by the Gou'ald they find a way to solve the problem to lock the ninth chevron. The stargate engages and they evacuate the base to an Ancient starship. The Ancients built the stargate system.

The ship is very old and heavily damaged. They have immediate problems of air leaks and the atmosphere scrubbers are barely working leaving air, food, and water as immediate goals of the evacuees.

Where the show will go from here is up in the air. They can explore planets when they near one with a stargate. I'm sure they will encounter different alien life forms, good ones and bad ones. They have limited everything now as they are billions of light years away from Earth and no way to dial home for some reason I don't quite understand unless it is just too far away.

I'm looking forward to next week and seeing how this show progresses through the season:)

Stargate: Universe

I'm really looking forward to the premiere of SG:U tonight. It appears that RDA at least makes a small appearance in the premiere. Maybe Teal'c will be on there too. I'd love to see all of SG:1 but I doubt if that'll happen for some reason.

Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this next Stargate franchise after the very successful Stargate: Atlantis, which was surprisingly canceled. It was consistently one of the highest rated shows on Syfy. LDP really isn't what I'd call scifi material but we'll see. It's good to see him working again.

The new franchise takes place in a far far away galaxy on board an abandoned ship of the Ancients I believe. The Ancients built the Stargate system. It appears to be a series without the fun of the previous two shows but I'll hold out until seeing a few episodes before making that call.

It looks promising and has been promoted nonstop so far. The Stargate franchise is really an anomaly. The first show ran for over two hundred episodes and might have had one or two more seasons in the tank since it added Ben Browder and Claudia Black to the cast. Instead they opted to quit and do direct to DVD movies. They wrapped up the storylines quite nicely too, still it is like revisiting friends at this point when you see a character again.

The Stargate ideal was to make faster than light travel possible and accessible to everyone. You can essentially go to work, travel to another planet, explore all day, come back, and go home for the evening in your own car. It was like being in Starfleet but more accessible.

Yeah, great series! Here's hoping the next series is just as good!

Down To Six

The good news is that over the past couple of weeks there have been no layoff rumors. It's October first and traditionally layoffs always happen today each year. So far there are none.

The bad news is that we are down to six people in my department now. One is out for a long while as he had a liver transplant. One went down Tuesday night with an appendix attack. He'll be back likely by Monday though.

By contrast when I went to work there we had seventeen in my department. They have cut and cut and cut out of my department over the years. I'm pretty sure they can't cut anymore as we don't have enough now to do the job as it needs to be done. I don't trust them far enough to say it will never happen again though.

It's a new day and a new month. 2009 is starting to wind down now. We are a year and a month away from the mid-term elections and a real turning point for the country. Hopefully all of the damage that can be done has already been done and it'll just take years to untangle the problems instead of decades.

For you Obama supporters out there I can't wait until you get your first electric bill because of his Cap and Trade tax on you. Actually that's not true. I don't want you to ever get that bill. I want it to be overturned by a new elected congress before that happens.

The weather seems mild outside. It feels good. I just put Zip outside for a few minutes. When I go and get him he'll run like a madman to the bedroom door and jump onto the bed to wake up The Date. It's pretty funny!

What If?

Ok I love this game! I remember a documentary on the History Channel (one of my favorites) about the mini ice age that happened in the middle ages. It was actually a natural occurrence and an effect of the ocean current. To the people living at the time it was devastating as they were totally unprepared for much cooler climate living.

That makes me wonder What If?! What if Obama had been alive and in charge during that time, how would he have handled that crisis. Well that is the first thing that would have happened. He would have called it a crisis. Provided he still leans Marxist as he does now he would seek to blame the people for the problem, apologize to the rest of the world for his countries' people, and change their behavior via the tax code while implementing a massive government program that takes over the lives of the peasants who are to blame.

Now if that is about as believable as one of our iconic symbols of capitalism celebrating say...oh something completely opposite of our beliefs.....like the 60th anniversary of the communist Chinese revolution. Yeah that's right. The Empire State Building will be red and yellow this week to honor communism?!?!?!

Talk about a world gone mad!!! Does anyone remember when communism meant bad? When communism meant death to innocent people? When communism meant crushing oppression and no civil rights? A mindless state controlled everything that ruled you with an iron fist or crushed you beneath it when the gears needed oiled.

How is this a good idea? I just want to know how in the world that it is a good idea to celebrate communist ideals and honor them?

Fading Cough

As long as I stay on Halls cough drops and Nyquil at night my cough doesn't bother me. Yesterday I actually had a small buzz working before work because of I had almost no food in my stomach and had already consumed two Halls. It was very unsettling.

By noon I felt like I could use a nap. I was so fatigued at that point I didn't know if I could finish the day. I did though. I made it and now I'm a little bit stronger today. Tomorrow I'll be a bit stronger still until I'm back to 100% again.

One of my coworkers who had the EXACT same symptoms and was off work last week as well had also made it to work. He felt just as tired and had the same cough. It was uncanny.

Regardless I'm going to work today. I've got to build my leave back up now and the only way to do that is attendance. A guy at work said this statement, "I have the ability to build my leave." I looked at him dumbfounded, "We all do." was my retort. Last week he took off four hours to go to the dump of all things. Personally I don't fault him. Its our leave and part of our pay. Something we earn for trading our working hours with that company.

We live in extraordinary times, historic times. The world is on the precipice of an upheaval the likes we have not seen in generations. Iran is quickly emerging as the preeminent threat to world peace, North Korea has a nuclear weapon and I'm sure is trying to fit it on top of one of their missiles. Afghanistan is as it has always been, a political mess. Russia is starting to get designs on Eastern Europe again and is thankful we will not deploy our missile shield in Poland and The Czech Republic, they aren't as thrilled about the idea though.

Our President doesn't believe in American Exceptionalism and instead insisted on apologizing to the UN for our successes. He is intent on having Americans live as if we belonged to a third world country while two industrial giants in India and China are pulling their citizens out of third world status and putting them into world class middle class status.

They are looking to raise their standard of living while our President is looking to lower our standard of living by punishing success. When you discourage how successful someone is allowed to be then it just breaks something inside of you. He should be out there encouraging people to be the best they can be instead he would rather redistribute the wealth of the successful to others out of some misguided and immoral sense of fairness.

I hope congress passes this monstrosity of a health care bill and a massive government take over of the health industry is attempted. The 2010 elections should send a clear message that what is going on right now is not what the people want.

Great Sunday Of Football Watching!

More people than expected showed up to enjoy the NFL Sunday Ticket at our home yesterday. It was a great time and everyone enjoyed themselves as we watched football game upon football game, comparing our fantasy team to others!

Food was plentiful, drink was abundant, and my scores sucked. It was irrelevant though as the day was enjoyed with wonderful friends and family!

I played the same team in both leagues, The Renegades. Amazingly enough this is a team who throughout the years I've constantly beat. He beat me in both leagues yesterday 21-54 and 18-39.

It really didn't bother me though as everyone had a fun time:)

Week 3!!!!

Well after a water pipe breaking last night under the kitchen sink and lots of cleanup including towel washing I'm awake and ready to blog!

I'm rolling with Schaub, Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and since Percy Harvin is questionable I'm going to insert TJ Houshmandzadeh into the lineup. Matt Hasslebeck is injured and won't play this week so who ever is throwing the ball in Seattle will need to lean on Housh today. My RBs are easy, Fred Jackson and Darren McFadden. Elam and the Giants round out my lineup this week.

In my keeper league Brady leads the pack along side Darren McFadden, Leon Washington, Calvin Johnson, Eddie Royal, and Justin Gage. Elam and the Packers round out this lineup.

Hosting NFL watching today so everything is in full cleaning mode right now. Still have to get nacho cheese dip going and a few other things. Going to be a good day:)

Yesterday Was Up And Down

I'd feel good for a while and then go to feeling bad for a while. It was weird. This morning I feel pretty good though. I'm drinking a cup of hot coffee made from Dunkin' Donuts beans. Amazing coffee. Maybe some of the best I've had!

I found it very ironic yesterday that the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh were actually protesting our President who largely agrees with the income redistribution ideals they do. Our President is not a pro capitalist, not one of his programs will lead anyone to that conclusion.

Yes there is a splinter faction of the protesters who are anarchists which is also funny. They are generally late teen, early twenties, skinny as a rail and likely anti gun vegans. Yeah they would survive a LONG time in a world ruled by Mad Max style anarchy....they better watch out for what they wish for.

Go look at Somalia, that is a country ruled by anarchy. They have no governing body at all. They should go live there for a while and see if that is a better lifestyle. Somehow I don't believe they would be conducive to that kind of environment. None of them really strike me as a Bear Grylls or Les Stroud kind of people.

Feeling Better

I believe I have just had a bad head cold over the past two days. Yesterday I came home from work early because I was starting to get congested. Later in the afternoon I started to develop a fever. It is gone, I can breathe almost freely now, I still feel fatigued though.

Staying home today to get rest and make sure I am 100%. I will still have over eighty hours of leave accrued so it isn't a big hit in that department. I'm in good shape:) I just feel like I've been ran over and fatigued now.

My throat isn't as sore as it was yesterday. My cough isn't as strong as it was yesterday. I believe I will miss The Big Lebowski event at Beersnob's house though this evening. I don't want to take the chance of making any of my friends sick.

The Longest Day Of Work

Yesterday was by far one of the longest days of work in the over seventeen years of my tenure there. The night before was filled with Nyquil to allow me some peaceful sleep. The next morning drowsy was the word of the day.

So I went to my normal quickshop to get some coffee or anything in order to help me wake up and shake the drowsy feeling. They were out of large coffee cups so I had to settle for the smaller size, not exactly what I was hoping for.

I picked up some Halls vitamin C and Halls cough drops and so began a Nyquil/Halls induced hazy day. The combination made every second longer than the last and the minutes stretched into hours. I couldn't shake off the haze in my head. My coworker had called in sick so I was alone in the shop.

Yeah I could have gone home and left the shop dark but it was only a cough and my own fault for taking too much Nyquil. I could and did tough it out.

Sure I came home checked my temperature (No fever) and crashed for three hours after work. Felt good too. I got up around seven, watched Tuesday night's Sons of Anarchy episode and jumped into the shower. That gave me a warm hand up and out of the haze filled day.

Now that hot water felt good. This morning other than a hacking cough I feel lots better. The hot shower is a miracle worker!

Great Substitute

The White Russian is a great substitute until my Scotch boycott is over with. It is directly from The Big Lebowski so I am not taking credit for anything. This drink has been around for decades, some sources date it back as far as the nineteenth century but that seems a little far fetched.

Vodka, Kahlua, and milk or cream. I prefer cream over milk. serve it over ice and it is a Summertime delight. Very satisfying as well. It'll be a great go to until my boycott is over with and Abdel Basset al Meghrahi dies in Libya, a free man.

I've got a scratchy throat, it started yesterday and really isn't letting up. I took some Nyquil to cut the coughing down to nothing before bed. Which was at nine as I was exhausted and the Nyquil effects had me craving my mattress and pillow.

I could very well go back to bed now and sleep another couple of hours as I feel sluggish, the cough is still here. I'll steer clear of people and get some Halls to chew on the way to work.

The Return Of The Rag Counting Inspector

Yes he returned today to show us the sizeable amount of write ups he accumulated over his stay with us. It struck me that this man is Captain Queeg from The Cain Mutiny but without the paranoia.

His arguments were brilliant but pointless as there was a lot of energy expended for such tiny things as rubber hose inspections.

The write ups read like a Steinbeck novel in complexity and citation. He steadfastly defended each infraction as if it were his own child overlooking the fact that none of these observations will cost any of us one cent in pay or one wink of sleep.


-- Post From My iPhone

Final Results

What was really funny last night is that The Date came home from work and asked how her team was doing then while eating watched the game. She kept an eye on Dallas Clark who the Road Dawgs had playing against her team. Da Broads pulled off the win though 50-49 and she will be thrilled to hear that.

She probably would never pay attention to a game but the cool thing about fantasy football is that you pay attention to many games because you have a stake in the outcomes. I kept my third place victory in my long time league placing me into the money this week:)

It was a quiet evening. It's raining now and looks like it might for most of today. I can handle that:)

Week 2 Results

In my primary league I am probably good for third place overall with fifty five points and a win, in the keeper league I lost and I'm middle of the pack.

Andre Johnson had an amazing game and if I would have started Schaub against the tough Titan's D then I would have likely been in the money as well in the primary league. He had over twenty points!

I didn't and took last week's results as an indication that he wasn't going to do well. I benched him and he did do very well. Go figure! LOL! That happens, it's fantasy football.

In the keeper league and unless Dallas Clark has an outstanding game the owner of the Road Dawgs will be cooking for the three owners of Da Broads this week. Side bets are so much fun! Overall right now it appears that Cool Runnings has taken first place with sixty five points while the dreaded Dodge City Legend has taken second with sixty four, third is a three way tie with fifty each.

I'm not sure which team has players going in tonight's game other than Road Dawgs and Quincy St. Carnage (who has the always strong and consistent Peyton Manning) but these places might very well stand this week.

Week 2!!!!!

Ok here we go with the week 2 lineups!
In my regular league I'm going to roll with: Matt Hasselbeck as my QB, Darren McFadden and Rashard Mendenhall as my RBs, Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and Percy Harvin as my WRs, and Elam as the kicker with the awesome Giants as my D/ST.

In my keeper league I'm going with: Tom Brady, McFadden and LenDale White, Justin Gage, Percy Harvin, and Calvin Johnson, then Elam and the Packers D/ST.

It is hard to tell if Brady will suddenly become the Brady of years past this week or not but I'd be very surprised if he didn't have at least two TDs. These WRs on both teams should be solid if not the best WRs this week.

I like my chances this week for some better scores than last week. We'll see how it goes!

Relaxing Friday Evening

All I did was get home, The Date had already gone to work. I decided to go outside and smoke a Camacho. I had Zip the dog with me and we just chilled in some very nice weather. Not too hot, not too cold, just nice.

Then I came inside and started to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and continued to play for four hours:)

Yeah that was cool too! I made it up to the Africa stage. This is a fairly long game in story mode! I'm really enjoying it!

Sometimes Work Is Worth Going To

So there I am at work. We were due for our quarterly inspection and by golly they came. In my line of work inspections and inspectors are a way of life. You can't do anything without an inspector being there to watch and grade you on it or write you up about it.

So there I was, just doing my daily routine work and in walks the two inspectors. One guy, our long time inspector (a good guy too) the other has only been there a handful of weeks and is new. He was like in charge of lots of inspectors in his last job.

So there we were. I was doing my work and the inspectors start rummaging through our tool cabinet. Our long time inspector just kind of hung back and watched the new guy go about his rather thorough job. He pulls out the flashlight and unscrews the top of it.

Out slide the three batteries and he states that he always looks for batteries of different brands as they pose an explosion hazard. Now I've been around batteries before right and I know that I've mixed and matched brands before without explosive incident.

I so wanted to engage in debate with said inspector alas I saw the "look" from the lead who was entertaining the inspectors and discouraging debate and questioning. So shortly after that the inspectors headed back into the office and I shortly followed suit.

The new inspector has decided to look into the rag log. A written log in which we keep track of rags we really don't use at all. This log hasn't been used in a very long time but our thorough new inspector was undeterred and ventured forth into the rag drawer.

The log boldly declared that there were one hundred nineteen rags present and accounted for. The new inspector asks the simple question, "are there one hundred nineteen rags?" Keep in mind there are not rags in the traditional sense, they are more like paper towels, high quality paper towels but paper towels nonetheless.

The lead rose to the challenge and declared before heading off to a "meeting" that yes, "if you were to count them there would be one hundred nineteen rags present." again promptly leaving for previously mentioned meeting. He glances at me and says, "you can do this."

So there sat me and the new inspector. "I get paid by the hour." I tell the inspector before he digs into the box of glorified paper towels. He starts at one and counts semi loud to himself while glancing at me every tenth so I can say, "Ten, Twenty, Thirty, and so on." Before ten the good guy inspector poked his head into the office and saw what was going on. He smirked at me and quickly closed the door.

What strikes me most is the seriousness in which he pursues this endeavor. He is both professional and very interested in seeing how many rags we have for some reason. I barely contained my laughter and had to fake cough a couple of times during the count to one hundred eleven rags. Yeah we were short. He looked at me as if I had been the torch bearer at a Klan convention.

"Only one hundred eleven rags. You counted right?" Yes I counted and as he well knew I came to the same count...especially when he hit one hundred eleven rags and lifted the empty box up to show me there were no more left.

Gleefully he wrote something down and asked me about tech orders. "Do you want to pick one or should I?", he asked me. "I'm headed to the bathroom, the rag counting wore me out. knock yourself out", I replied. He was unaware of the dripping sarcasm present in my voice. He attacked the tech order cabinet with zeal and passion.

Rarely have I had this much fun at work. I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring when he finishes his inspection! I really believe that tomorrow will not be as eventful. Tomorrow he will deal with the temporary lead, a man who wakes up and finds a reason to be mad.

Now the new inspector seems like a good guy, just very very very thorough and very serious about his job:)

A Good Wednesday

Nothing spectacular happened. I got past Bullseye in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I had lots of router problems last night though and my internet was up and down. Weird!

Taking it to work today so Mandingo can look it over as he does IT stuff. It's just weird that it would work and then within the span of a few minutes it would stop working and then work again.

I picked up one of the few movies I don't yet own, The Big Lebowski. It's also one of the few Coen Brothers movies I enjoyed. There were a few, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Man Who Wasn't There, and No Country for Old Men were the tops in my opinion.

I was reading an article about how there is a subculture that has built up around this almost flop of a movie. It didn't make a lot of money, stayed in the theaters only a couple of weeks but has become more popular over the years. There is a Dudespaper, a documentary about the Dudes Convention, and a few other odds and ends things that have cropped up since the movies release.

I emailed Beersnob, since he hasn't seen the movie, to see if he would like to host a movie night. Everyone can drink White Russians and wear bath robes.

Thing 1 has got The Date to watch Angel (Thing 1 was ill yesterday and stayed home) and now The Date has come to love another TV show...LOL. It's really pretty funny!

Even Better Alliance 2

So there I was last week on pins and needles waiting for the premiere of Sons of Anarchy. I was ready for a let down from last season which started off strong and got better really without a clunker in the whole season.

This week rolled around and I was thinking for sure that the let down would finally start to happen but to my disappointment it didn't. Samcro was stronger last night than it was last week and last season. How is that possible?

How is it possible for a show to actually not let you down and fulfill your expectations? That's something you really won't find on the antiquish networks anymore. Yes there are exceptions, there always are. Lost for instance is a fine example but it even it has had its clunker episodes from time to time even though they are rare.

For the most part I never watch anything on the alphabet soup channels. They are bland and for the most part you have already seen it under a different name.

Sons of Anarchy though...oooohhhhh....there is something different. Something original. Something worth watching and it is no surprise that it isn't on the local channels.

Henry Rollins is absolutely phenomenal. I'm sure he will meet his demise by season's end if not sooner at the hands of Samcro and it'll be a sad day but I can live with it. I can't help it. I'm a fan of the man.

I've listened to all of his CDs, not so much the music ones but the stand up ones. No it really isn't comedy routines, he reads out of his journal, retells stories from the road, reads letters he gets, and things like that. Probably one of the best live story tellers this side of Kevin Smith. Very entertaining if you can find them!

Now onto the report on yesterday's hedonism. Yep a full day off with no responsibilities and nothing much to do (well until Thing 1 called me from school to be picked up because she was sick) but play video games.

I pre-ordered Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and it came out yesterday. I was out at Gamestop at 10:30 in the morning to pick it up! Console gaming is new to me again. It is fresh and vibrant. I'm really enjoying it once again!

MUA2 is an amazing game. It takes place before and during the Civil War storyline across many Marvel titles. It deals with superhero registration with the government. Half of the Marvel universe believes it's a good idea and the other half believe it isn't, they are the rebels.

You have some very heavy hitters on both sides of the argument too, leading up the rebels it is Captain America, Cable, Wolverine, and The Thing among others. On the law abiding side it is Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Thor, and SHIELD among others.

I, true to my contrarian nature chose the rebels. I really see how the game would play out very differently if you play the other side though. I'll be doing that next!

There is a ton of content here. I'm roughly 45% done with the story mode thus far and I'm itching for more. Gameplay is really easy and smooth. It doesn't require the twitch, Quake reflexes. It doesn't require the in depth chess thinking and planning of other games. It only requires a love of comics and a love of games. The graphics are outstanding and even on a non HDTV they are gorgeous. I can't imagine how fabulous they would look on a really good system!

Sadly I told Baker and Skate I'd play a character for them since they had to work, Baker requested Cyclops and Skate The Hulk. Cyclops isn't in the game thus far and I haven't unlocked The Hulk yet:(

Other than in that regard it was the perfect way to spend an unplanned day off work:)

Week 1 Final Results

In my keeper league I tied at 39 ponits with the Knights of Doom.
In my long time league I lost 53-27 to the River Rats.

It's alright, long season:) You make adjustments and your team will have good days and bad days but there is a certain potential you expect them to fulfill during the course of the season.

As I blogged about yesterday my long time league will have to fulfill that potential this season but I am building the keeper league's team and it is a work in progress so I really don't expect as much from it. I know it has weak spots.

So now the season has begun! It is really the best time of the year!

Week 1 Results So Far

In my long time league I'm down 27 to the River Rats' 46.
In my keep league I'm down 24-31 to the Knights of Doom.

In both leagues I've got Darren McFadden tonight and in my keeper league I've got my first round draft pick Tom Brady. Odds are good that I'll surpass the Knights tonight.

I was seriously hurt in my long time league by Houston being shut out by the Jets. I had Schaub and AJ and neither scored for me. They are a deadly combination when they get rolling though and believe me they will.

Arizona struggled against the 49ers which kept Fitzgerald in check most of the game but he did score a TD. That's all I can ask. If McFadden can anchor this group of RBs and have a breakout season I'll be just fine when Pierre Thomas returns, if not I'll have to do something.

In my keeper league I plan on building a dynasty. It won't take long as I see Tom Brady putting up solid numbers for years to come. He's my cornerstone as well as Calvin Johnson. My RBs will need to be upgraded in the upcoming seasons though. They aren't as solid as the other two.

All in all I know my team's potential in my long term league is much more than they showed yesterday and I know that my keeper league's potential is about what they have shown right now and is a work to build on.

WEEK 1!!!!!!

Yes! The bulk of the games are on today!!!!
The Predators of the long time WannaBe Fantasy Football League are taking on The River Rats from New Orleans, no kidding the guy really is from New Orleans.

My starting lineup is going to look like this:
QB - Matt Schaub
RBs - Darren McFadden and the already played on Thursday night Rashard Mendenhall
WRs - None better in this league Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and TJ Houshmandzadah
K - Jason Elam
Def/ST - The mighty Giants!
This should represent the best team in the league!

In the inaugural season of the WannaBe Keeper League it is more of a work in progress:
QB - Tom Brady (Solid here)
RBs - Darren McFadden and Leon Washington. The success of this team will depend on these RBs clicking during the season.
WRs - Calvin Johnson, Eddie Royal, and Percy Harvin. These are definitely boom or bust guys week per week. Not the solid crew of the above team.
K - Jason Elam
Def/ST - Green Bay

And speaking of fantasy sports, I'm STILL number one in my fantasy NASCAR league with seventeen teams in it. I took first place this week by two points making it back to back weeks of beating every single team for the weekly win! For the Fall stretch of the season I've got two top tens, two top fives, and two wins! For the full season I've got twenty one top tens, fourteen top fives, and six wins! The closest team to me in the win department has THREE!!!!

Since I took over first place overall during the Summer stretch I've not relinquished it and have dominated the points! If it continues like this I'll have the Fall stretch won AND the overall points championship won for a total of around fifty cigars in winnings! I can be caught but it won't be easy.

It's Always Sunny In Oklahoma

I rested, took care of Thing 2 while The Date was at work, and watched a new show that I should have started watching a couple of years ago.

Over the last year FX had a show on called Testees. Brilliant show but sadly it won't be around for a second season. The thirteen episodes that exist are all that will likely be produced as no other channel will probably pick up such a great show. It was probably the best comedy show on cable though, was...

As of last night there is a comedy show that I knew about. Have seen lots of previews for as I watched several shows on FX (The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, etc.) but now It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is at the top of my comedy list.

I was bored, was watching Thing 2 so I was browsing iTunes for something to watch. The first season was like ten dollars and the second was about fifteen I believe. Boy am I glad I pulled the trigger on this show!

The story of the show is essentially three guy friends own a bar in South Philly. One of the owners has hired his sister Dee to bartend. The first season usually involved some kind of trouble Charlie would get into. The second issue a woman makes Charlie believe her kid was actually Charlie's to pawn the responsibility off onto him. The result is that Mac finds out that women who are pro life are hot and so he attends pro life rallies to hit on women. Plenty of hilarity ensues.

The second season introduces TV veteran actor Danny DeVito to the mix after a long absence. His character definitely lends more credibility to the show and a misguided character who wants to be rid of his wife and experience his youth again.

This show is fairly low budget and on the gritty side. The bar is a dive, I believe the apartments are all the same set just dressed differently. It's likely a show that any of my friends could finance without a financial hardship if they knew of someone who had the equipment to produce it.

The show is well written, lots of character development, lots of edgy stories that poke fun at some modern taboos. It's everything a modern comedy should be and has the freedom to stretch it's wings since it is on FX, a channel known for edgy shows.

I'd highly recommend watching Testees...and if you can't find that watch It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia!

NFL Kickoff!

Yep! It is that time of year where the NFL starts it's season and it's about time! There is just way too much time in between the old season and the new season.

In my fantasy leagues I started one player last night in Rashard Mendenhall. He really didn't do much of anything against the tough run defense of Tennessee. I'll go over the rest of my starting lineups on Sunday's blog.

The game last night was a real defensive slugfest with Pittsburgh winning in overtime thirteen to ten. It was an exciting game to watch for being a defensive battle too, not really the boring game you would think with that many punts. There were several interceptions and both defenses made some really good plays!

I made this a short week and it's a good thing. I wasn't anticipating Thing 2 being sick (she has a strep virus) but I'll be able to watch her today. I've noticed at work that guys who have tons of leave built up, like over two hundred hours, aren't as happy as the guys who take off on a more regular basis.

I'm at the one hundred hour mark and I use my leave more frequently. Like when it gets to one hundred eight hours I take a day off. It's nice to do that.

Today is September eleventh, the eight anniversary of the attacks. Please remember the families of those left behind today.

Why Do We LIke Good/Bad Guys?

This is more of a spinoff of yesterday's post about the return of the show Sons of Anarchy. All of the characters are really pretty grey or good/bad guys. Essentially there is no difference between the two lead characters other than one has had some plans go wrong.

They both commit murder in the name of either self protection or biker justice. They both are people you wouldn't mind hanging out with and would feel safe around. Why were people more prone to like Vic Mackey over Shane Vandrell? They both were essentially the same character other than one wasn't as likable.

Wolverine is a madman. Batman is a sociopath. Cyclops is a punchline though, he is a good/good guy. Are there any characters left on TV that don't have any kind of super power that separates them from everyone else and are genuinely good/good guys? Is the antihero the real common denominator in a successful show in today's viewing world?

Is there one strong willed character who always makes the right decision in crunch time left? I'd say Jack O'Neil from SG-1 was pretty close but unfortunately that show has ended. I need another Captain Kirk in my TV viewing time. No super powers, always does the good thing for the noble reasons. Peace through strength and a willingness to project that strength to the enemy who hates you no matter what.

Yeah in TV you always have to have a bad/bad guy. Even though in the good/bad guy shows there really is no difference in them at all. In The Shield it was Forrest Whitaker's character Jon Kavanaugh who was brought in to take down the strike team. He was a good/good guy but we didn't like him because he was going to take down our good/bad guy. He stood for the law and for the officer that Vic shot in the very first episode but we didn't like him.

He just wasn't a likable character even though he wanted truth, justice, and the American Way. He wanted to take down the good/bad guy in Mackey. Eventually he had a flaw and that was pride so does that make him a good/bad guy too instead of a good/good guy?

See what happens when you blur the lines of the good white hat and the bad black hat?

The Return Of Sam Crow

Or Samcro, whichever. It matters not. What does matter is that Sons of Anarchy is back after last night's premiere and it picked up right where it left off. Last season took a lot of people by surprise as the show was gritty, tough, and explored a subject on TV that really hasn't been explored before.

Motorcycle gang life. Yeah if you watch the History Channel like I do you have seen the documentaries before about Hell's Angels, The Mongols, and the rest but this is the first series dedicated to the inner life of a fictional gang. And what a gang it is. I'd dare say that Sons rivals The Sopranos as far as intensity and surpasses it as far as storytelling goes.

I can't tell you how many times I got frustrated and angry over all of the dangling storylines that The Sopranos started and went no where. It's like the writers never talked about what they were going to do and would start a storyline and just leave it, it would be totally gone and forgotten two episodes later.

Sons doesn't do this. It is just as good as The Shield in terms of quality TV, it's as violent as OZ was when it was on HBO, and you have Ron Perlman as the lead character Clay. The good/bad guy and his step son Jax the vice president of the club and also good/bad guy. The difference between them is really paper thin and one could even argue that the only difference is their intentions.

Clay has had some things go wrong over last season and Jax is starting to question his leadership after reading through a journal written by his dead father. Drama ensues.

One of the great features about this season is the addition of Henry Rollins. The aging punk icon will hopefully be around the entire season as his white separatist character AJ Weston (the bad/bad guy) appears as the muscle behind a movement to rid Charming California of Samcro. It is really hard to tell the difference between Weston and the lead characters from a morality stand point.

They all are bad guys. It's bizarre from the standpoint of who to root for if you are looking for a good/good guy. That guy isn't in this show, no white hats here.
All in all it is a great show and I'm looking forward to this season, in all of its winding turns and twists!

The Walking Dead Compendium

The Walking Dead is a comic distributed by Image Comics. Most movies (Land of the Dead and 28 Weeks Later being exceptions) deal with the immediate after effects of a zombie holocaust of doom. TWD is different in that it deals with the long term effects of surviving.

Long term as in this is the way things are now and there isn't any hope of rescue, no hope of things returning to normal, there is only living in this world now. The survivors want nothing more than to contact other survivors or to have the government come and rescue them and make everything normal again. It doesn't happen, it won't happen. It isn't about being rescued and that is what makes this series so fascinating. It asks the question, "What would you do?" Hope has gone the way of the Dodo bird and civilization.

Surviving with you, your family, and your new found friends is all that matters. The "roamers" are everywhere and the places the survivors seek to find solace are always overrun with them. Sleeping with one eye open has become the norm while everyone is trained to use a firearm.

TWD Compendium collects the first forty eight issues of the comic series into one gigantic book. I mean it is massive as it is over one thousand full size comic pages. The series is into the sixties now in terms of numbers so there is a lot more to the story than where it left off.

I finished it over the weekend but it read really pretty fast for something of that size. I started it a few weeks ago and read it off and on.

This is the perfect medium for an epic zombie tale. It is done in black and white and that really has the effect of loneliness, desolation, and dread. I'm sure those were the intended effects of the stark landscapes presented. Overall TWD is a masterpiece of comic writing and art, very graphic as a world overrun by zombies would be.

Read it if you get a chance.

Rested Yesterday

Pretty much all day too. The only event that happened was when The Date's piano was delivered. After that it was grilling bratwursts and Lost.

I did watch the Atlanta race last night (which I extended my fantasy NASCAR lead by over two hundred points overall) for a while before The Date and Thing 2 decided to take over the couch and with their drug paraphernalia (the DVD remote control) undertook the penultimate episodic DVD of the second season.

Like crazed meth heads they got high as they mystery of the island deepened and took them farther into the Lost mythology. If they get up soon they can be on the third season by early afternoon.

This has been a really good three day weekend and it takes us all one day closer to the NFL kickoff on Thursday night which I'm very excited about! Come on Thursday!

Great Saturday!

The trip was really nice. My local fam got to meet my grandmother and aunt (mom's sister) and then we came back. It was a fast trip but nice. Then on the way back I turned on the Sirius and started to listen to the OSU game.

Those of you who know me know I'm really not much of a college football fan. I watch because it's football but I'm not as familiar with the players as I am the NFL. It just doesn't enthrall me like the NFL does. I don't play college fantasy football but I might occasionally wager on the college games to keep my interest.

So yesterday OSU is opening against Georgia and OU is opening against BYU in the brand new Texas Stadium. OSU gets down in the first quarter and it looks like the blowout is on but they come back, keep their composure and through defense and special teams destroy the mighty Georgia!

Then right after that game ended the OU game kicked off. They go up early on BYU but BYU hangs in there and before the half Sam Bradford gets nailed and injures his throwing shoulder. Out for the game, and then BYU through great defense and special teams does it! They knock off the third ranked OU.

Then I go to bed as I had been up since five thirty that morning and had two three hour long drives and a fifteen minute nap. I was tired.

So it was a really good day! Now it is also a three day weekend and I have tomorrow off as well and then Thursday is the NFL season kickoff!!!! Woohoooo!!!!!

Crackheads At It Again

So last night The Date didn't have school and so she and Thing 2 decided to have a five hour Lost marathon. If we weren't going to see family today then I'm sure they would be on the couch watching the rest of Season 2.

It was funny, they would pause it every time one of them had a bathroom break or had to do something. Then the other (usually Thing 2) would have to make sure that The Date hadn't unpaused it and watched something without her.

They would make horrible drug dealers as according to Tony Montana you never get high on your own supply. Yeah these two would be homeless and destitute if Lost were a drug.

Most of my friends have headed to Arlington to see the opening game of the new Texas Stadium and to Six Flags this holiday weekend. We are going to see family and will be back early this evening. Then it is two days of I'm sure crackhead heaven as I get to revisit the series and chuckle at how way off their theories are about the show.

They are doozies too. Aliens, the good guys are bad, the bad guys are good, nothing makes sense unless X happens. Yeah....they are in for a wild trip up until Season 5 comes out in December.

I believe that they can be caught up by the time Lost starts to air again but we won't watch it until the final season is done. Get the DVDs and watch it straight through, that's the best way with TV shows anymore. The commercials are longer and there are more of them. DVR is good but you still have to fast forward through them.

DVD is the way to fly now! Long live DVD and the shows that work best on that format!!!!

Outside The Club With The Velvet Rope

Ok so there I was as a kid, I was about eight maybe nine in the late 70's. My parents had just presented my brother and I with an Atari. The original system not the 2600 that came out a couple of years later.

The first game was Space Invaders! It was the hottest game in all of gamedom, the menacing doom, doom, doom noise as the invaders came one line closer to you. No it really didn't sound like that but if you were a kid with your very first game system it sounded like pure doom, doom, doom! I couldn't contain my excitement! I was the first kid I knew who had a brand spanking new system!

I put in the Space Invaders cartridge and started to play! Without exaggeration the screen went red about fifteen minutes into playing and the Atari quit working...for good.

It went back to Sears to be repaired and we got it back like six months later. Not kidding. Do you know how long six months is for a kid to wait on a system to be fixed? I'd draw the Space Invaders board on paper and pick off the aliens myself! It was miserable! Finally it was sent back to us and it worked well until it finally disappeared in a move.

Flash forward to earlier this week. My brother brings over a PS3. He had recently got a one hundred twenty gig size I believe and had no use for the forty gig that now resides on my living room floor. I was finally inside the fancy club that had the velvet rope up to keep me out!

I haven't been a console gamer in quite some time. Years in fact. I abandoned my Sega Genesis (and Sega CD. I did have brief flings with the Playstation, PS2, and Xbox before returning to my true love.) for the PC. I've been a PC gamer since as long as I've been online so going on fifteen years now and I've seen the 3D graphics revolution take over and push gaming limits again and again to new heights.

Meanwhile the console games have caught up to their PC brethren in terms of quality and immersion. While I lost myself in Everquest, Starcraft, and WoW, the console games have gotten better and better. It became a club I wasn't allowed to be in. I would walk the aisles of WalMart and skip the game aisle because I knew I wasn't allowed to be there since I was consoleless.

But that had now changed! A whole new world of the next generation console gaming had been opened up for me! I was gladly dancing down the aisles full of PS3 games! Gleefully reading about the latest and greatest game reviews! I had pre-ordered Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 so I could get the playable Juggernaut character! I purchased a used fishing game because I was so taken by the graphics at a friends house a few months ago!

I decided it was time for some fishing goodness on my new to me PS3 last night! I turned on the power switch in the back. The red light greeted me as I touched the front power button. It went to green, yellow, and started flashing red as it beeped at me!!!

It refused to turn on! It had been powered off since last night after I was done fishing, not just the front panel power, I mean powered at the main switch off! It hadn't overheated, it hasn't been roughed up, fallen over, or anything like that. It sat peacefully in one place just waiting to be played with...until last night.

It beeped at me!!!! So I call my brother and he looks up the warranty information online. I give him the model and serial number and it is out of warranty. It will cost about one hundred fifty dollars to get it repaired if I send it back in. I brand new one costs about three hundred and it is far bigger in storage size.

It is my childhood all over again! I'll be drawing Space Invaders at work today...

Random Observations

Chuck steaks make better roasts.

There is a guy who works at Gamestop at the mall that looks like Harry Knowles.

New video games really don't have that new car smell.

Watching someone watch a show that engrossed you is more fun than watching the show a second time.

Pennies in your pocket usually group together.

If you have a lot of dollar bills in your pocket and go to pay for something the cashier usually looks at you funny.

Charcoal is quickly becoming my favorite way to grill.

Some good shows aired last night. I was playing a fishing game though.

Twoguysagirlandatvset.wordpress.com is quickly becoming my favorite TV blog.

If you could know all of the answers wouldn't it ruin the journey?

Where Have All The Heroes Gone?

"Show me a hero and I'll prove he's a bum." Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington

I can't find independent confirmation Major Boyington actually said that but I'm going to go with it anyway for the purposes of this blog which is probably filled with more questions than answers.

It dawned on me today that finding a hero in today's cynical world is about as difficult as finding a spending cut in the federal budget. We exist in a media driven culture where heroes are written out for us. Filmed for us. Fed to us, heroes, anti-heroes, the latest hero de jour.

Is it that heroes don't exist in the real world?
Are we too cynical to notice a real hero? Are they not interesting anymore? At one time Neil Armstrong was the hero of an entire generation, now anyone under forty probably doesn't know his name. Winston Churchill helped defeat one of the biggest evils of the twentieth century and eventually the public turned against him.

Yeah when the world needs saving I'd like Jack Bauer on the case. When a perp needs roughed up and no one else will do the dirty work I want Vic Mackey. If a airplane is hijacked over Pennsylvania I want the true life heroes who brought it down, saving untold lives by the sacrifice of their own.

So why or how can a hero wear out their welcome?

I guess it matters what the definition of hero actually is to each person. To some it might be the caped heroes in the comics with extraordinary powers to stop super villains with equally extraordinary powers. Now they are all doomy and gloomy with dark origins and tragedy along the way. Is that how we can relate to our heroes? Perhaps they need to have something in common with us.

Everyone has had their share of misfortune. Perhaps it is to allow us a way to connect with someone we hold in high esteem such as a hero. If they can do X then we can certainly do X too. I mean everyone believes they would do the right thing when presented with a situation to be a hero, who has ever daydreamed about the day needing to be saved, the game on the line (usually accompanied by a free throw line and your team is down with no time left on the clock), and you aren't up to the challenge.

The daydream never goes that way. We always put ourselves in the role of the hero and really not the sidekick or the goat. Scott Norwood anyone? I mean did Mr. Norwood wake up in the morning and think to himself that if he had the chance to win the big game he would actually miss wide right? No! He visualized himself kicking it dead center.

I guess what this rambling post is about is what if I were faced with a bad situation. A situation that needed saving would I have it in me? I occasionally drink, I smoke cigars, I live a less than extraordinary life, quite boring actually. Would I be able to hold off a hijacker, would I be able to do X and then be able to live with myself after?

Would people hate me after if I failed? Would my friends help me rationalize my failure to make me feel better? Well I know they would do that anyway, I've got friends like that;) Would I? Would you?

Monday Night Football

Old Man River had a pretty decent three quarters last night. Peterson, my RB from last season who has moved onto other pastures this season, had the kind of game that frustrated owners last season.

He had a long seventy five yard TD on the first play of the game followed by about twenty yards on eight or nine carries. Still a great fantasy score but you wish he would be able to score at least one more time during the game. I know I know, it's preseason. The plays are vanilla, nothing is really shown to tip off the regular season play book.

I'm kind of glad I drafted Percy Harvin. It appears he might be an integral cog in the Minnesota Machine. He gives Favre a versatile player with speed to burn. It'll be an interesting season for sure!

On the flip side of last night's game I had Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson. Both looked like they were able to move the ball against one of the best defenses in the NFL this season. Slaton was able to get on track later in the first quarter and into the second quarter. AJ caught a couple of long balls but Schaub tweaked an ankle. He was fine and they taped it up and he got back out there.

All in all I was happy for some good football to watch and I'm looking forward to this season!

Draft Day Two

I'm not as happy with the second draft for the inaugural season of the WannaBe Keeper League. I have a stud QB but some of the other talent I drafted just isn't up to the level of Saturday's draft.

This draft was different as we decided to auction off the first round picks. Since this is a very inexpensive league I thought this was a good way to boost the pot and get some more playing capital. The auction brought in just over two hundred extra dollars that will go into the season ending fund!

Here is my draft by the numbers
R1P9: Tom Brady
R2P4: Calvin Johnson
R3P5: LenDale White
R4P8: Darren McFadden
R5P11: Eddie Royal
R6P2: Percy Harvin
R7P4: Green Bay
R8P9: Leon Washington
R9P5: Matt Hasslebeck
R10P8: Jason Elam
R11P12: Justin Gage
R12P1: Chicago
R13P8: Matt Prater

As you can see I picked up some of the same players from my other league. Darren McFadden, Percy Harvin, Matt Hasslebeck, and Matt Prater. I was really hoping to get a WR roster that rivaled my other league but it wasn't meant to be this season. We will be keeping three players next season to build a dynasty on. I can live with that.

It'll be fun as we plan on having this league for years to come and lots of continuity between owners. I'm sure that Ten (the former general manager of my beloved Oklahoma Storm and at one time the reviled Dodge City Legend), Baker, JDub, Beersnob, Hollywood, HarryBorg, Fergie, Skate, Knight, Chianti's Beau, and The Girls (which comprise a three headed team of The Date, Chianti, and TC) will have so much fun this season that they will love to be returning next season.

This is one league that no matter how far someone moves if anyone does that we can make sure they can draft a team. We had Fergie, Beersnob's friend, drafting from London today via Skype! Technology rocks!!!! It should also guarantee that this league will stay intact for years and years as we develop our individual teams over the seasons to come.

I'm not sure who really has the dominate team yet. It will be hard to tell right now.
a handful of teams will start to emerge after a couple of weeks. In the league I drafted Saturday I really feel like I'm in a more dominate position. The WRs alone should give me an edge. I don't have that confidence in my dynasty team yet. It might take me another season or two to get the team I really want.

Time will tell! It was great to hang out with everyone though! I love the drafts and the camaraderie that everyone shares! It is really special!

First Draft Roster

I had the eighth pick of the first round. I knew that three players I was going to target would be gone but possibly one might slip, he didn't. So I drafted in this order:
R1P8: Larry Fitzgerald
R2P5: Andre Johnson
R3P11: Pierre Thomas
R4P2: Darren McFadden
R5P1: TJ Houshmansadeh
R6P12: Matt Schaub
R7P8: New York Giants D/ST
R8P5: Jason Elam
R9P12: Percy Harvin
R10P1: Rashard Mendenhall
R11P2: Matt Hasselbeck
R12P11: Miami D/ST
R12P5: Matt Prater

I admit I have more Matts on this team than likely any real NFL team. Wasn't intentional but now I have two QB/WR combinations to score double points if they hook up. That's a ten point play when they do, twenty if it is over fifty yards. In my league that's a ton of points.

My RBs could be huge or less than average. With Oakland you are going to see McFadden slowly become the full time RB as they fade Justin Fargas out to the bench. He is the starting stud and he was draft high (and paid tons of money) for more than riding the pines while a average RB racks up one yard per carry. McFadden will be THE MAN in Oakland. Pierre Thomas will also carry the load in New Orleans. He is by far a better RB than super man Reggie Bust...I mean Bush. Proving he can't stay healthy more than a couple of games in a row he will promptly start off the season injured leaving all of the rushing attack to Thomas. With Drew Brees to keep the offense honest Thomas should rack up double digit TDs easily.

My WRs are deadly. Two from last year's team return to my team this season in Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson. I am expecting big numbers from both, at least fourteen TDs each and one hundred catches which would put them into the 1,400 yard category. That is where I am starting with their numbers, where they will end up should be higher than that. I also was able to get T.J. Houshmanzadeh and young rookie potential player Percy Harvin. With Favre at the helm he could be a breakout player and great insurance if one of the top three veterans go down for a week or two.

My QBs are serviceable as they aren't really the stud QBs like Brady, Manning, or Brees but they have quality talent around them. I am expecting twenty TDs from each and it won't matter which is into the lineup that week. I'll go with the hot hand.

Kickers, well they are kickers, all of the top ten are within a handful of points of each other and I got the highest ranked kicker on my list.

D/ST I nabbed the third highest ranked D/ST on my list and while I was really angling for a coup and getting one and two or two and three I just wound up with three and a good RB instead in Rashard Mendenhall. Fast Willie Parker won't be able to stay healthy all season. Mendenhall's season was cut short last year leaving owners to wonder what could have been.

Mendenhall is in the ideal situation. Great team, balanced offense, no pressure to carry the load from the beginning. He can work his way into the offense and if he takes over the starting job and one of my two RBs falter I've got a great replacement.

DRAFT DAY!!!!!

Yes it is that time of year I long for! Some people can't wait for Summer, some for new TV shows in the Fall, the kid year revolves around holidays like Christmas, some people anxiously anticipate getting their tax refund, me? Give me my fantasy football draft!

It is a time to get together with other people who study as you do and match wits. A time to exercise your strategy against their strategy and let the season produce the results.

Yeah, I love this day! Lots of food, lots of good guys to hang out with, and lots of football! It's going to be a blast and I'm going to walk away with a competitive team at the end!

This draft might be a bit more interesting than normal too. One of our owners in both drafts (today's and tomorrow's), his boss and his boss's boss got fired yesterday. It'll be interesting to see how the shakeup bothers him and how the other owners who work with him are effected.

Four and a half hours to go! I'm ready!

Day Off

Yep, I took the day off to spend with The Date and to do a couple of things! She doesn't exactly know it yet but she will in about a half hour when I wake her up and I'm not dressed for work.

I made lunch plans with Witchy and The Date at La Salsa, a great Mexican food place. Anyone else out there feel like joining it's at 11:30! We wanted to beat the lunch crowd:)

I've got some fantasy football homework to finish and then sheets to print out. It'll be lots of fun!

Lost has been rationed to Thing 2 and The Date the past week and last night it left them at a cliffhanger as it does so often. Hehehehehe!!:) It's so funny to watch them watch this show! It's an event all to itself!

Season 5 doesn't come out until December and S4 is shortened so once they get through S3, the last full season it is over half way done. I'll put that on the list today! Pick up S3....

Once again, lunch, 11:30, La Salsa!

Busy Weekend On Tap!

I've got two, count'em TWO LIVE DRAFTS this weekend! I love me some fantasy football and I love drafting! The friends, the teams, the food, camaraderie! All of it signals the start of the football season!

Two twelve team leagues this season, on is the same league I've been in for about a decade and a half, the other is a dynasty league I founded and hope to be in for another twenty plus years! We are drafting Saturday at Beersnob's house in my first league and Sunday at Skate's house in the dynasty league!

The homework is done, I'll have my sheets ready and printed by draft time. Oh...and one more thing. The Date and TC are splitting a team in the dynasty league:) I know JDub has been tutoring TC over what a fantasy league is and how it works. I skimmed over drafting and how the scoring works with The Date on Tuesday.

I know it might not make sense now but once the season kicks off and the scoring starts happening it'll all click into place! It's not rocket surgery. The season is usually won or lost on the merits of a good draft.

It'll be all kinda of fun and I can't wait until draft time!!!!

I'd Love To Live Here

Yeah, I'd so live in this time and place!! I'd go grab an Escalade or a Hummer, paint a big 24 on the doors and roof. I'd go and find a Darth Vader helmet and roll around town hitting zombies! Alright so this is an apocalyptic fantasy of mine, does that make me bad?

A few hundred people left on Earth, everyone I know of course and a few generations on out, an intact electrical grid (don't want to be inconvenienced after all) and me! Fearless Zombie hunter! It's my own Road Warrior sandbox except without the Aussie Gearhead Punks to harsh my buzz.

Yep, I know I know...."You shouldn't wish for everyone to turn into zombies just so you can hunt them. That's bad." But dadgumit sometimes you just look at people and start dividing them up into two categories. The smart survivors...Zombie Hunters....the not so smart, the idiots who drive with their blinker on for two blocks, the morons who screw up your order in the drive thru, the people who never strive to better themselves, the crackheads, well you get the point...yeah you put them into category two. Zombie food.

Alright I know this probably isn't healthy or anything but it sure would be fun!

It's All Good!

Everything was fine! Don't have another appointment for one year!
Woohooo!!!!

I have a CT scan next August and then possibly every other year after that!

Half Day

Yep, remember that test I took a while back as a follow up check up to the kidney stones I had over a year ago? I go in today to get the test results which I kind of knew already.

I believe that this will show what the last three CT scans have shown, everything is good and no stones present! In which case I'll only have to go in once a year instead of every six months to get things checked out.

So I get to take off half a day of work and come home early:) I'm always happy about that! It really helps getting through the work week if you take off early once in a while, it almost feels like the week was kicked into overdrive and it just goes faster.

Of course it is nicer to take off half a Friday but I'm not complaining, this is a good news day. I've drank so much water it would boggle your mind. I'm determined not to have anymore though. They hurt! It is not the kind of pain you want either. There is no comfortable position to get into, nothing you can do to ease the pain. They hurt bad.

I'm very excited about this weekend too! I'll tell you why leading up to the weekend:)

So What Would Happen

If you were suddenly filthy, lottery rich? It isn't as easy as you may think. Everyone has that fantasy which is why we play it. What is the goal of winning the lottery?

To not work anymore? To travel on your schedule? To do nothing because you can? To have all of your bills paid off...for good?

Yeah all of that and more, after all it is generational amounts of money. It would also come with problems. It would come with unique problems you haven't thought about because you have never been in that position.

First of all you would play by a different set of rules from that point on out, no one is going to tell you "No" anymore. Anyone close to you would be afraid of upsetting you and getting cut off of the gravy train. Not good. Eventually you would lose touch with reality unless you make a super effort to stay grounded.

Everyone has seen the stories of Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Marylin Monroe. Too much too quickly with no limits will cause you to lose your mind. Look around you, the friends you have now, better hope you can keep them close. All of the new "friends" that will be coming into your life wouldn't have looked at you twice now when you are poor.

Surround yourself with "No" men instead of "Yes" men.

I know I have a hard if not impossible time saying no to someone in need. It just isn't in me to do so. Can you handle getting a thousand letters a day asking for help? I'm sure that they will be the most heart rending stories you have ever heard too. Children with cancer, elderly with no money and no food, good people who have fallen on hard times. I'd be broke again in a week. No doubt about it. I'd also elect to take the annuity to prevent myself from being broke that fast.

I'm actually pretty content with the way things have turned out. Kids are raised better coming from nothing, they have that drive to achieve instilled into them naturally then unless their parents are very diligent in installing a work ethic into them.

Everyone has gone to school with the rich kid. I knew a couple and they were the laziest people I've ever known while I worked a paper route before school, afternoon route after school, and then restaurant after that. Doing pretty well now, I've earned the right to be content where I am if I want to be.

Security. That will be a tremendous issue to you all of a sudden. You have a ton of new assets to protect all of a sudden. Something you likely don't have to deal with now but just wait until people start showing up on your doorstep and asking to help them get back on their feet. Helping them get off of drugs. Help them eat their next meal with kids.

I don't know about you but it would be tough for me to turn them down and go back to watching TV after that.

Be careful what you wish to happen, someday, and the odds are stacked way against you, but lightning might strike you.

Good Saturday

First of all we started the day out with breakfast with The Date, Thing 2, Skate, Baker, and Beamer. What a great breakfast! It was so much fun we decided to grab lunch together as well at this BBQ place Beamer had been wanting to try. After breakfast we got home and I started to work on the bus.

I started it and let it run for a while. The perspective new owners called me and said they were about half way here and it would be a couple of hours yet. I turned the bus off then and let it rest a while. About an hour later I decided it would be fine to let it run until they arrived. I tried to start it again and it failed to start so I put the battery charger back on it until they arrived.

It didn't matter, he was interested and she was very rude and never said a word to me, the husband was nice and affable. Keep in mind I emailed pictures, gave accurate descriptions, and answered email questions ad nauseum from her.

She immediately said no, he at least looked it over some while I put in the effort to start it but after seeing her response it kind of ticked me off and I stopped and waited for her to leave. Oh well, maybe next time!

Then it was lunch time! I texted Skate to see if they were at the BBQ place. Turns out it was closed so Jassie picked another place and I took Thing's 1 and 2 with me while The Date had to work.

We had a great BBQ lunch! The food was good but not as good as Turkey Creek in a nearby town. That BBQ is nearly to die for! Unfortunately they have weird hours and aren't open all the time. They are semi retired and only do it to keep busy. Maybe I'll have to suggest that to the friends and find a time when Turkey Creek is open.

This morning I suspect Lost will be on all day once The Date and Thing 2 wake up. I added to my lead in Fantasy NASCAR with the race at Bristol last night. Nearly eighty points! It was a good race, Bristol is always one of the highlights of my racing season. I came in third for the Summer racing segment even though I had better stats. I just had a couple of bad races and scored poorly so I came in third while maintaining my overall lead and increasing it at the end!

Breakfast With Friends

I'm about to head to breakfast with friends at eight. I haven't eaten at this place in months! Love it, great food!

At ten this morning a family is driving down to see the bus. I hope they buy it. Spent a lot of time getting it to move last night but I believe the brakes are frozen and won't release. It goes into gear and tries to move but the brakes are holding it. This thing has a world of torque and no matter how long it has sat there it would break the tires loose unless it weren't for the braking system.

I'm unfamiliar with air brakes and how they are supposed to work and why they don't when they don't. I am somewhat familiar with diesels though and can do some minor work to them. This engine is massive probably a size and a half bigger than mine in my Suburban.

I hope we get the problem found and they drive it home! It would be so nice to not have it in my back yard anymore:) These people seem nice too, they want it for a swim team so it will be used and that is something Dad would have wanted.

Friday!

I'm thrilled it is Friday! Last night my brother and I cleaned out a lot of the bus I hope to sell tomorrow. Far less than my asking price but right now I just want it gone and I could use the extra cash.

Sadly the Trick My Truck guys never got back to me. That's alright, this guy is driving down from Kansas because he needs a bus for his swim team. Who knew?

That's fine, his money is just as good as anyone else as long as the check clears and I'm hoping there will be a check involved.

I've kicked around my Scotch Boycott idea over the night and yeah, I can do that. That means no more Cigotch nights for a while. I'll have to drink something else with my cigars. I can do that without a problem.

No storms last night, slept fairly well! Some weird dreams but that's to be expected with my head. It would be like getting that squeaky window on a new car, something just isn't the way it is supposed to be.

I Shall Not Drink Scotch

That's right. My drink of choice, the one that took me a long time to develop a taste for as I blogged about, will not touch my lips until Abdel Baset al-Megrahi dies from prostate cancer.

This is the only man convicted of the Lockerbie, Scotland bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. He was released today because he has terminal prostate cancer. Instead of dying in prison as he should.

This merciless killer murdered 270 people. Yeah the distilleries had nothing to do with his release and this is honestly more symbolic than anything else but sometimes you have to make a point.

This is mine.

Another Rainy Night

Yes that is the title to one of Queensryche's best songs outside of Operation: Mindecrime and it is true. Last night was a very rainy night....with lots of lightning and thunder. Noisy thunder that made it difficult to sleep for longer than forty minutes at a time.

I'm tired.

Sleeping started off really good though! It was just sometime during the night that everything started to erupt outside. Yeah, I'm tired.

The junkies gorged on two more episodes of Lost last night before Ghost Hunters came on. It was a decent episode. I'm still skeptical as I've never encountered anything like that. I do enjoy the show very much though and might be a decent show to write about in one of my new favorite blogs http://twoguysagirlandatvset.wordpress.com

Baker writes it as Mr. Feeny, yes the nickname of a nickname...go figure. We enjoy our privacy around these parts. Anyway Baker and his two friends write about TV and how some early twentysomethings see it. Baker is a TVLand addict but unfortunately TVLand has started to drift away from classic TV and has gone towards more modern shows as of late. Eventually they will launch a Classic TVLand no doubt which will feature the older shows.

Do they have a classic mystery channel? I think they might....not sure. One that would feature shows like Barnaby Jones, Vega$, Mannix, Ironsides, and McCloud? I'll have to look into that...

Crackheads

So last night I decided to go and by a slim chance see if Hastings had Lost season 2 so The Date and Thing 2 could get their fix.

They actually DID! And for only $25 dollars as a previously viewed copy! I looked the DVDs over carefully after purchase and they all looked like they actually were viewed once.

So I handed it to Thing 2, whom I took with me, and we headed home. She carefully looked over the DVD fronts and cover art to glean any kind of information she could and as I was pulling into the driveway she triumphantly held it over her head as Perseus with Medusa's head to show The Date her prize.

All that is really missing is poverty, a trashy hotel room, and a crack pipe. They were like a couple of drug fiends with a new score as they arranged pillows, popped pop corn, and giggled as they frantically searched for the remote control.

"Only two and then we have to go to bed," they promised themselves.

I swear....I feel like a drug dealer.

Unwritten Rules Of Thunderstorms

Rule Number 1: Never start a thunderstorm until you are about ready to clock out at work, that way you get the maximum amount of rain on your clothes, shoes, and socks before getting into your dry vehicle.

Rule Number 2: Never have a thunderstorm during the slow parts of the day. Instead always have the loudest parts of any planned storm in the middle of the night so it can be enjoyed in bed whilst sleeping.

Rule Number 3: If you refuse to start your storm before clocking out in the afternoon then consider the alternative of starting it early in the morning so you get to wear rain soaked clothes, shoes, and socks all day long.

Create An Addict In One Easy Step

Friday night rolled around last week and The Date's leg wasn't doing so well. It ached and hurt. So before I left for Beer Summit 2 I instructed Thing 2 to not let The Date up from the couch and made sure she was comfortable.

Then I created two crack addicts.

I put in the first two DVDs of Lost's first season.

Over the course of the weekend including until three thirty AM Saturday night they were getting their fixes with Lost. It'll be two weeks until I can get the second season here so they can't watch anymore seasons right now but they finished S1 and craved more!

Exodus, the two part last episode came up and all of a sudden something would happen and they kept asking if that was the cliffhanger. Both of them. Thing 2 wanted to watch an episode by herself while The Date wasn't home and she said no....quite forcefully. It startled the dog.

DVD is the best way to watch season long TV. You go, you buy it, and enjoy it as you wish. You finish an entire season in a weekend! In hindsight I should have used 24 as I have every season of that up until the previous season. They could have been in 24 heaven for quite some time!

I chose Lost though....the one TV show I only had the first season of and S5 doesn't come out until December while 24 has seven seasons out plus the movie Redemption, it is true DVD crack!

So now I'm going to listen to questions for the next two weeks while payday rolls along and they will try to get me to tell them what happens. Believe me this is one show that you don't want spoiled at all. It is magical and mysterious and something you want to experience with no spoilers!

Elvis, Charlie, and Woodstock

Today The King died on August 16, 1977. I was seven and remember it clearly. We had three channels and PBS. It was a sad day and the babysitter said, "Well, that's the end of that." How wrong she was. Elvis actually boomed in popularity as Michael Jackson's death has done to his career.

Woodstock....the fortieth anniversary of hippie lovefest. The Baby Boomer's crowning achievement. Eh....who cares. Baby Boomers and hippies have done so much to screw this great country up over the past forty years...especially when they get elected to office.

The Charlies. Into The Woods won every award they were nominated for, I did lights. As Broadway Bound won best female cameo, I did lights. I don't believe that Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus won anything, I could be wrong but I just can't recall it, I did lights. 12 Angry Jurors won best ensemble and I did a video presentation for that. I loaned my camera to Dinner Theatre but really didn't have anything to do with that show, Arsenic and Old Lace, Greater Tuna, or Shakespeare.

My friends all won awards and I was very happy for all of them!

Beer Summit 2 Or Fantasy Football Q&A

Last night at the Beer Summit 2 we found quite a bit more things to talk about that were a lot more fun than politics and I love to follow politics. I understand them, I grasp the complexities, I grasp the context of what politicians want to do and why but last night WE WERE READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!

We had four owners show up (Skate, The Baker, and Chianti's Beau) which was wonderful! We talked about how a live draft worked. We talked about how we are going to auction the first round picks. We talked about how the point system can be adjusted. We talked about the value of the Tight End position and whether it should be its own category or added to the receivers, we talked about how much fun it was all going to be! And it will be!

We talked for three hours and then moved over to BWW for some wings and trivia! I came in first one time and then Skate and I qualified for this sports trivia bonus round and it took us both by surprise!

Three of us answered some of the hardest sports questions known to mankind! At the end all three of us had over eight thousand points and were separated by less than five hundred. Thankfully it ended before I lost:)

Then Skate and I logged out as we were prepared to leave and this other trivia game came on so Skate and I helped Baker and Baker's Wife (not really but that's her name now since I can't think of a better one) through the first round thinking that it was one round and done.

We helped Baker to a commanding first round lead and figured out that it was the big five round trivia challenge Skate and I had once attempted! We liked that one! So we logged back in and took the challenge at a big disadvantage but we did it!

I won the next two rounds, lost the final two but came in fifth overall after being as high as third and down by over ten thousand points.

So I learned a few things at Beer Summit 2, don't schedule Beer Summit 3 during football season if we want to discuss politics, and its fun to make up nicknames for my friends for this blog:)