Happy Birthday Christopher Walken

I'm sure this won't last long, SNL gets pulled from YouTube all the time.

The absolute best part of the skit is Jimmy Fallon losing it and still trying to keep it going.

Easter

I'm not sure why it seems odd but it does. The Sopranos and Entourage don't really seem like top notch Easter shows. That doesn't mean I won't tune it for the premieres, it just seems odd.

Hardest part of being a parent

The hardest part, well probably the only hard part, of being a parent is when you can't do something or fix something. Sure it is expensive, sure it is difficult, patience gets pushed, and sacrifices have to be made but that is all nothing. I'd do it in an instant and will keep doing those tough things because of the rewards. Nothing is better.

The tough, hard stuff is when I can't fix it or I can't do something. The Little One has a decent run of bad luck as child. She had to have surgery twice before she by the time she was two. One of the surgeries was very invasive. She was in the hospital for a week at Christmas when two with a case of the rarest, hardest to fight form of meningitis. All of that and she bruises like Pretty Bird, looking at her hard will probably cause a bruise, and has my coordination, which is to say none.

My gift of coordination recently bite her pretty hard. Last week while was at the worst show ever she fell at school and did some pretty good damage. Pain-wise it was just some bumps, scrapes, and bruises but long term wise she took a good chunk out of her two front teeth. She has a few adult teeth in and those were two of them.

Today she got them bonded to take away the gap. Last week with the consultation was pretty traumatic for her so we were worried about today. She passed it with flying colors. She'll probably knock the bonding off more than a few times over the next 8 to 10 years or so the dentist says. So I'm sure we'll have to go through this again.

But like I said, other than that she did wonderful. She was even a little funny to deal with afterwards since she was on valium. It will be hard but I'll have to not remind her that her teeth cost me $300 a pop to fix, it isn't her fault. I couldn't stand it when you here parents bitching to their kids about braces costing a fortune, it isn't their fault. Besides how much did those leather seats or new kitchen cost? People are just weird with money and I don't want her to think it is her fault because it really isn't. I'm glad it is over and she is good to go, at least for now.

Silly HBO

Pretty Bird and I have been debating canceling HBO for some time now. We do enjoy but outside of some of the original programming we're not sure it is worth $10 a month. Since we joined Direct TV we've actually only paid for HBO the past three months but have had it for free since we joined. There was a promotion when started Direct TV, then I got it free for a year when I signed up for Sunday Ticket, then the next year I got it free for six months when I signed up for Sunday Ticket.

Sopranos starts on Easter and we decided (well I decided and she agreed) that we'll keep it through the final season of Sopranos. The problem came up with Entourage. Entourage is a show that both of us actually watch on a regular basis and we didn't want to cancel it before the new season if we could avoid it. We were worried HBO would do what they normally do and start Entourage after Sopranos is done so they have four months of fun, new programming instead of just two. Nope, they are going to start Sopranos and Entourage at the same time meaning once they are done we can cancel it. Thanks HBO for only costing us another $20 or so.

Fantasy Baseball (Team 1)

Overall I think I’m happy with the team.
The first of my two fantasy drafts took place last night. The commissioner told everyone it was set for tonight but apparently he can’t read a calendar. This is a non-average league, no WHIP, ERA, batting average, OBS, just total stats. It includes like 20 stats which I won’t list. Here is my team, it looks okay. My only concern is hitter strike outs which hurt and Holds which he using as a stat.

C – Joe Mauer
1B – Justin Morneau
2B – Robinson Cano
3B – Miguel Cabrera
SS – Troy Glaus (how cool is it that he qualifies at SS!)
CI – David Wright
IF – Dan Uggla
OF – Grady Sizemore
OF – Bobby Abreu
OF – Adam Dunn
Util – Julio Lugo
BN – Prince Fielder
BN – Scott Podsednik
BN – Bradon Phillips
BN – Frank Thomas
BN – Ryan Freel
BN – Orlando Hudson

SP – Johan Santana (whoa baby)
SP – Cole Hamels
SP – ChrisYoung
SP – Rich Harden
RP – Billy Wagner
RP – Jonathan Papelbon
RP – Francisco Cordero
P – Chien-Ming Wang
P – Octavio Dotel

I’ve already made some movies that need to be cleared from waivers first, like adding a second catcher, getting rid of O-Dog, stuff like that. One thing is for sure, not enough Braves.

Overall I think I’m happy with the team.

I miss Heroes

BSG was pretty damn good, I wish they could write the middle episodes. The finale was good but predictable. I wish we didn't have to wait until like 2065 for new episodes but it will be okay.

Jack smiled which was weird. This season wasn't as good as last year but still good.

I do miss Heroes though :(

Spring, I want spring damn it!

I wish we had spring but no. In Charlotte as in Atlanta it goes from winter to summer. No mild weather, cold to hot and humid. The only difference between spring and summer is all of the pollen for spring.

Top 5 CCG/TCG Cards

Just like everyone else I figured I would list my top five favorite TCG/CCG cards.

#5 - Unnamed Card - Unnamed upcoming TCG. Just like Girard I'm going to talk about a card that hasn't seen print yet, unlike Girard my TCG isn't even announced yet. This card is great to describe to people we're testing with because it just fits the property perfectly. Jdub and I were talking about a character in the property and I used one word to describe him and it fit. We then made that word a trait (loaded keyword, macro) in the game that fits the game well and the character perfectly. It is fun when it all works out like that. Like Girard I will fill this in later.

#4 - Goblin Scimitar - The Lord of the Rings TCG. When I volunteered and taught people how to play TCGs or even how to be better at TCGs. One of the first things I would tell people is when a card said "Draw a card" it was usually a good card, something worth looking at. Newer TCG players or TCG players who weren't good just didn't get that. This card was the backbone for Moria which made up about 75% of the competitive decks I played. In the south we were all about Moria, faster and stronger than the rest of the player community. I was unlike most players though, I usually used Moria to set up my Free Peoples, I was about the FP win.


#3 - Darth Vader - Star Wars CCG. Man this guy wrecked shop in my play community forever. I never really played in SWCCG tournaments, it was a group of about 7-10 of us for years that played every week or so. I pulled Vader in my first starter deck, the day SWCCG was released. I was the only one with Vader for a little bit, the only one who realized it was all about mains/toys for a bit. Even when I wasn't using him to destroy people, friends were using him to destroy other people. Very unbalanced for a cheap playgroup but man what a good bit of fun.




#2 Lightning Bolt - Magic The Gathering CCG. I love direct damage. I write cards for direct damage, I build decks for direct damage, I love to play it. It is just a lot of fun. This is the original direct damage card and the one everyone else tries to copy.











#1 - Aragorn, Ranger of the North - The Lord of the Rings TCG. I liked the tengwar version best, if you don't know what it says then how are you reading my blog. Anyways this guy was everything that was good and bad about LOTR TCG at the same time. LOTR TCG is probably my favorite TCG of all time, I just loved playing it. I spent much more money on SWCCG but that was more because I loved Star Wars than the game. Tom, Chuck, Mike, Tim, should be very proud, I just loved the game. Anyways back to Aragorn. How people could want to ban HttWC and not this guy, this guy was just busted but on the good side of busted. I played for the FP to win and this guy allowed me to double in situations that I probably shouldn't have because I knew it wouldn't be game. A lot of times those gambles resulted in no damage at all but without ROTN I wouldn't have taken the gamble.

I love TCG, I miss being able to play them for fun. I do like the game we're working on, it is fun again. I do have some honorable mentions though. Both of them are based on fun development stories.

Grond, Hammer of the Underworld - Lord of the Rings TCG. This guy just shows how good cards can get made despite of people wanting to throw it into the shitter. Tom had taken a lot of shit from certain people in the development team for whatever reason. Like most people that had read Return of the King Tom wanted Grond to be a great card and it was. The idiot in development wanted to change this card so many times, oh my god. It was a constant battle, over and over again. The look on Tom's face when he kept winning was all worth it. Siege was the first set I actively took part on development as well so for my part I helped where I could. The remote testers loved this guy, most of us in the office loved it, and when Tom won and it got printed man did the players love it. Great card.


Library of Orthanc - Lord of the Rings TCG. This is my favorite and least favorite card in print. It was the first card I designed (with a lot of help from Brad), it was designed before Reflections but kept not fitting into a product. I can't even remember the original version other than the intent. Basically this was a card that was supposed to bridge the gap between the FP and Shadow sides of the deck, to treat them as one deck and help each side. The same idiot who wanted to fuck with Tom with Grond basically destroyed this card. I remember it being pretty good and I remember testers liking it. The printed version however is shit.

Chuck probably would have been better than Hayden

I'm looking for images for my top 5 CCG/TCG cards of all time. Vader was in my first starter so he was going to make it, I search for him in google and I get this.













Yes that is a picture of Chuck, Chuck is the Dark Lord!

All Clean

The Little One and I washed the Mustang today. A week of sitting around and getting covered in pollen, it really needed it. I am amazed at how much The Little One likes to help but she really does like it. There are a few things that children provide to any process that must be understood beforehand. Patience is obviously the most important.

Today we're almost done, only the tire/alloy rims to be done. I walk inside to get the stuff for the tires and I come back and she had basically hosed the entire car down again. She thought she was helping, never mind that I had just spent 15 minutes or so drying it. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun and the car is all clean.

Casino Royale

Easily one of my favorite Bond movies. Daniel Craig does a great job 'relaunching' the Bond series. I'm looking forward to where they take the series from here. The only negative thing I will say about the movie is how horrible the poker scenes are, they are just downright awful.

TMNT

The Little One wanted to see the latest incarnation of the famed Ninja Turtles. I was a fan of the Laird/Eastman comic, my brother watched the cartoons, and we even played the RPG for a little bit. I loved the first live action movie, the other two, eh. This incarnation was pretty good, I couldn't complain. I'm not sure that we'll own it but it was worth watching. It also marks my first new movie in 2007. The end of March seems like a pretty long time but outside 300 there hasn't been anything I really wanted to see. Maybe I'll get around to seeing 300 before too long.

Rocky Balboa

On the plane out to Vegas I got to watch Rocky Balboa. It wasn't near as good the second time as it was the first time. I still think it is a very good Rocky movie, whatever that means. It pulls on the heartstrings in all of the places the original Rocky movie did.

Back

I'm finally back from Vegas. The traveling was brutal both ways and it was one of the if not the worst shows I've ever attended. I think I'm coming down with something because I've been dragging for the 36 hours I've been back.

I did have a pretty good time in Vegas. It was great to see Tuttle, Beal, Peiper, and the random other people I only see at shows like these.

Ick

I forgot how completely awful the Kim subplot was during Season 2, I mean ick.

Fun Stuff

Owning a house can be a blast but it also creates some interesting things. I get a ton of sales calls, I mean a lot more than I did when we lived in an apartment. Some of the are very inventive or at least hoping that I am a complete idiot.

"Hello"
"Yes Mr. McGregor this is Scotts lawncare, we are the people that take care of your lawn"
Now I live in a townhouse, someone else takes care of my lawn, I pay for it but someone else does it. Part of me is fairly certain it is a sales call and part of me thinks the HOA could just use Scotts and their setting up their first visit.
"Okay"
"Yes the previous owner ordered this process the last few years and we want to make sure your lawn looks the best in the neighborhood."
Well if the HOA does this why do they care about my lawn looking the best. Ordering something implies that it is a sales call. The previous owner didn't take care of anything, homeownership was not her strong suit. Also using the words 'previous owner' might work on someone else but to me it red flags you as wasting my time.
"Okay"
"Yes sir, it is an 8 part process, we'll go ahead and set you up for the time next weekend. Each visit costs $49.95."
Bingo.
"Let me stop you, we own a townhouse, the HOA takes care of the lawn."
"No sir, you need to purchase this. The previous owner did as well."
Um...yeah, I need to purchase a bridge as well.
"Naw, I'm pretty sure the HOA will take care of us. Thanks."
Trying to be nice isn't my strong suit when I've had enough of a salesman but I was giving him an out.
"Mr. McGregor, you really need to get this or your lawn isn't going to as good this year. Plus like I said before the previous owner was very happy with this service."
Now I was just going to hang up but I figure I will put him on the spot just a little.
"Really? Well the entire subdivision has the same basic looking lawns. It is a townhouse, I don't think $400 is needed to seed my yard. My yard is measure in feet, not yards, it is a townhouse."
"Sir, it isn't $400, it is 8 treatments at $49.95..."
Idiot
"Yeah, my 3rd grade math training tells me $50 times 8 is $400, I figured they'd go over that in salesman school. It is hard to meet your quotas without being able to multiply."
"Well if you look at the numbers like that I guess it is close to $400..."
What is this guy Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader is your father, killed your father, just depends on how you look at it.
"Yeah, I'm not interested. Sure $399.60 is huge savings from $400. I'm still not interested."
I think he was confused as to how I could get the actual figure, not hard. You save .05, 8 times, take that from $400. Math is hard. Now I'm having too much fun not to keep on for a little bit.
"Sir, the last owner..."
Now I interrupt him for the third time
"Really, who was the last owner? Did you deal with him?"
Let's see, he doesn't know the last owner obviously, maybe he'll bite. Most lawns are taken care of by the male...
"Yes sir, he was very pleased..."
Bingo
"Well only a woman lived here before us, nice try. Try some other idiot."
Still not wanting to give up he keeps talking while I hang up on him.

Really weird

Today was the first day of the Big Dance which I absolutely love. I'm not a huge basketball fan but I really do enjoy watching this tournament and the emotion involved with it. Just great. The weird thing is for the first time in 5 years I'm not in Las Vegas for the first day of the tournament. The only good news is that I will be in Vegas on Saturday evening. Man I love Vegas.

Let me get this straight

NCAA Men's Basketball can have not one but two championship type tournaments, the NCAA and NIT. This is addition to the full-on championship tournaments for almost every conference. All of this and Football can't get even a four game playoff. That is balls.

Killin' On

Finally Jack got some killin' on. This has been a slow season in terms of the body count Jack Bauer creates. He made up for it last night with more than a few dead guys. Everyone knows Jack is lethal, you can't enter a room with Jack Bauer and not get hurt.

Another year

Another year and taxes are done! I don't know why I waited this long, I guess the moving thing kept getting in the way.

The Last of the Jedi will you be

Today on HBO while we were unpacking the bedroom Return of the Jedi came on HBO. Like I've mentioned before when I was younger this was my favorite of The Trilogy. The good guys win, the finality of it all, a Jedi absolutely ravaging non-Jedis, what isn't to love. Another that I really enjoy is just how great of an ending chapter Jedi is, it has almost everything you expect out of an ending volume to a multi-part story. Save for maybe Return of the King nothing comes close to handling the end, from tying up loose ends to giving the fans everything they were looking for. Return of the Jedi just has it all.

This also is the last of The Trilogy to be watched a second time in 2007. With so much TiVo to catch up on and so many other movies to watch I'll probably have to skip them on future HBO viewings. Well I haven't been able to skip them yet, 30 years later let's see if I can do it going forward.

Now I just need to watch Episode 1 (painful) and Revenge of the Sith (not that painful) to have all six watched in 2007.

It should be raining now

The first Saturday in the new house where I wasn't moving stuff into the house. This is actually the first Saturday since I've moved out of my parents house when I was 19 that I haven't live in an apartment. Mix that with a pretty red Mustang that hasn't been washed in a few weeks and it was time to wash the car. What nice things home ownership brings, one of them being a nice clean red Mustang.

Whats the point

Sorry Girard

http://movies.ign.com/articles/771/771046p1.html

I can see not calling the movie GI Joe, kinda. I can see including the Action Man character or any made up character.

No Cobra, yeah that doesn't make that much sense but it could almost partially be okay, maybe.

But no Snake Eyes, no Snake Eyes! If there is no Snake Eyes then really, what is the fucking point.

Green vs. Blue

I had a buddy IM me last night asking why Luke had a different colored lightsaber in Return of the Jedi compared to the other two movies. He was a fan of the movies and was watching Jedi on HBO. He hadn't seen them in a while and just forgot. For the longest time most of my peers were as big (if not bigger, yes I'm talking to you Troy) a Star Wars fan as I was. Recently, I guess getting older and the rather blahness of the prequels means I run into fewer and fewer Star Wars fans, at least to my level. The best part of the conversation was me explaining the history of both lightsabers, Luke built one and then Obi Wan gave him the other.

Obi Wan tells Luke that he has something his father wanted him to have when he was older, a lightsaber. What Obi Wan really meant was this.

After I cut off your father's arm and both his legs, left him to burn to death near a river of lava, even watched him catch fire, I stole his lightsaber. I figured it would be good to pawn on eBay but we don't get the internet in my hut and, well, here you can have it.

Love Is

It must take love, it is 11:04, two hours after Heroes started and I still haven't watched it. Waiting for Pretty Bird, its gotta be love.

Done!

We're now officially done moving stuff from our old busted rental place to our new hotness house we own. Of course it will take us a good decade to unpack all of the boxes. This is probably the worst move in terms of organization I've ever done. Because we were only moving 15 miles away and we had a month to do it, Pretty Bird and I were rather blah about getting things done. Of course with fixing/paining the new house it actually made it only two weeks to get things done. Eh, it doesn't matter, we're done and out of the shitty place we've lived since moving to Charlotte.

Back to unpacking, well as soon as I can start lifting my arms up again, man am I tired.

Almost done

As of tomorrow we should be almost done moving, at least to the point where we're going to be living in the new house. Two weeks of fixing it up and painting then about 10 days of moving and we will be done. Both of us working and then a ton of stuff for the The Little One has made moving/packing a bit more difficult than we anticipated.

Almost there, stay on target!

Fired!

I finally was able to completely fire my cable company. The new house has DSL hooked up and we have DirecTV so we're done with cable. Since we're still living (until Saturday) at the old place that means no net access on a regular basis. Sucks but it was good to tell cable company bye bye.

Pacman

If you give $81,000 to a bunch of strippers you shouldn't expect it back. Idiot.

M*A*S*H

Pretty Bird and I watched this Altman masterpiece the other night while trying to fall asleep. I hadn't seen this movie in a little while so obviously it kept me from falling asleep as opposed to something that helped me unwind. Jack Bauer's Dad, Viper, Odo, Elliot Gould, and Radar are all brilliant in the movie. I've enjoyed or at least respected every single Altman film I've seen but this is far and way my favorite. I love that the script writer wanting nothing to do with the film after he saw it, Altman apparently wrote most of it on site and then they ad libbed the rest. I'm sure he didn't mind picking up his Oscar a few months later or attaching Oscar winning writer to his resume.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Apparently I need to stop relying on the DirecTV search feature and use the internet or the much more reliable TiVo search feature. I was told Star Wars would be on at 10am yesterday and then not again until sometime next week. Well look what I found at 6:30pm in HD, the granddaddy of all movies, Star Wars. Sure I just watched it this weekend on DVD, sure it would be the same movie (Cinemax and HBO are using the 2004 DVD versions, Han and Greedo shoot at the same time, Stormtroopers sound like Jango Fett, ghost is Hayden, etc) I just watched. Sure I should have been packing, sure you're tired of me talking about Star Wars. Well suck it.

The movie looks great in HD, all three of us watched it and loved it, again.

If the dorky scale went to 11

then tonights Heroes absolutely blew through 11 all the way up to like 135 or something. Oh my god was it a great episode. All the geeky goodness plus a Stan Lee cameo.

14 years later

For fourteen years, ever since it was released, I've hinted to just about anyone that would be in position to buy me a gift that I wanted the Led Zeppelin box set, the complete studio recording one. Sure I could have bought it myself but when I've had an extra $100 I never really think about it. Now my lovely wife has given me the box set for my birthday. Last year Aerosmith in Vegas, this year everything Led Zeppelin has recorded. This is just greatness.

Few things

There really are fewer things in life I enjoy more than driving my new car. Man it was fun on an empty road to run through the different gears. This Mustang can get up and go when it needs to, I have no idea what the bigger one would be like, this one is fun enough.

The Empire Strikes Back

I guess Star Wars will not be my first repeat showing in 2007, Empire was. All three of us had a good time watching Empire yesterday afternoon after painting.

Star Wars

With all of the Star Wars movies I've been watching lately and with older movies not looking that great in HD compared to DVD I couldn't keep waiting for HBO to show Star Wars, I had to watch it. I'm sure this will be my first repeat movie once I can find it at a normal time on HBO HD.

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

With all of the other movies in HD I figured I would waste, I mean that literally, a few hours and watch EP2 when it was HBO HD. Unlike older films that don't actually look any better than the DVD copy or at least not much better a newer film does. Episode 2 looks incredible in HD, well as incredible as a movie that isn't very good can look. There are parts of the movie I enjoy but overall this was an absolutely awful movie. That said I'll probably still watch it another dozen times before I die. Crazy Star Wars.

This leaves me three more of the trilogy to see in HD.

A whole lot of wireless

We first got our wireless router about three years ago in Norfolk. In our neighborhood we were the only wireless network at the time. When we moved to Charlotte two years ago we were also the only wireless network at the time. I've helped my mother (no other network), aunt (no other network), and a friend (one network in range) all hook up wireless networks about two years ago.

Now in my neighborhood, which I'm soon leaving, my laptop can detect two other networks, progress I guess. Today I set up the wireless network in our new house. My laptop detected 28 other wireless networks. That is just a crazy number. This is a subdivision sure but that is a huge amount of people who are looking at porn without wires. Typical in a wireless home network about half of them aren't password protected.

Pitchers and Catchers

By Monday all teams will have pitchers and catchers. In fact most teams, including the Braves, will have their entire roster there by Monday. At least it isn't that long between the Super Bowl and Spring Training.

Some people

If you don't know something about a topic then please try not to pass yourself off as someone who does. If you do and then get called on it don't further dig yourself in the hole and add the problem. We have a new (old) idiot at work. This guy is a blow hard who pretends to be the foremost expert on everything. He talks all the time about how big a racing fan he is, how he knows this about this and that about that. This exchange took place yesterday.

We have a bunch of t-shirts from when we did apparel up until last year. They are all either directly NASCAR shirts or shirts based on the car companies themselves. I needed some shirts for painting and figured I would pick some up. The idiot walked into the room right behind me, not more than 2 feet.

There are three piles of shirts, two different red piles and a blue pile. There is also a box of shirts. The different piles are the different race teams, blue for Ford, shade of red 1 for Chevy, shade of red 2 for Dodge. Simple things a NASCAR fan would know. The box of shirts are car specific shirts.

As I walk in (with the idiot behind me) the guy sorting the box says, holding up a shirt with a 2005 Mustang GT on it, "Trevor, you should get one of these it has a Mustang on it".

About 30 seconds later the idiot goes to leave, without any shirts but with a load of hangers. Another guy goes to the idiot "Idiot (well they used his name) aren't you going to get any shirts? I thought you liked racing"

Idiot says "Yeah I like racing I'm a huge Ford fan and there aren't any Ford shirts"

There is a huge pile of blue shirts which all racing fans know are Ford shirts. Plus someone was holding up a Mustang shirt and mentioned the Mustang shirt to me. At this point the idiot just looks a little bad but I figured I would pick on him.

I then say "Yeah, its not like Ford makes the Mustang or anything"

At this point the idiot should have just left it alone.

Idiot says and I'm not kidding, "Are you sure about that?"

Now sure he could be a smart ass but he was trying to fight back and not look so bad. Should have just left it alone.

I don't know the first thing about hockey other than it isn't fun to watch on TV but sure is fun to watch live. Other than Wayne Gretzky I probably couldn't pick out a hockey player. But I don't pretend to know anything about hockey. Don't pretend, in Charlotte of all places, to know anything about racing/cars and not know who makes the Mustang.

Sleepover

This weekend will be our first sleepover at the new house. The little one is very excited, only a few more weeks until we're out of the hood permanently.

Updated the top 100 movie list

I think I need to update my movie list. First there are two movies that I completely missed, how I'm not sure but I did anyways. Pleasantville and Tombstone, how I can forget them I will never know.

There are also movies upon further reflection probably need to get added, Bullitt, The Magnificent Seven, and Heat.

Then there are the newer movies which might be difficult to add but I think Casino Royale might get added. I'll have to reflect on it and see about what to add.

I can create rain

All three times I've washed my new red car, it has rained within 48 hours only once on the same day though. Yesterday I'm using an old borrow pickup truck to move some stuff from the old place to our new house, rained all day. Anyone need some rain?

Happy Made Up Holiday!

I know, I know, all holidays are made. Some of them are just more made up than others. Sure the current American version of Christmas bears no resemblance to the religious holiday, Thanksgiving has almost nothing to do with Pilgrims, etc. This holiday however is truly a greeting card and candy company holiday. There aren't enough reasons for you to give gifts so it was time to create another one.

Of course I sound like an old man. I like Valentine's Day because I like giving gifts to Pretty Bird and I enjoy eating a nice meal as much as possible. I still think it is made up.

Only two volume settings

Did you ever notice Jack only has two volume settings, serious whisper or URGENT YELLING!

Painting is hard

Good lord, painting is a good bit of work.

Made with Real Girl Scouts

That's right, Girl Scout cookies are in! For the first time I've got the inside hookup for my fix. Not much better than cookies made with real Girl Scouts.

The Empire Strikes Back

On HBO HD...so good...

The only problem was not getting home early enough to see Star Wars in HD. I should have taken a half day.

NCC-1701

Talk about an absolutely great episode of Heroes this week. I think one of the things I really respect about the show is how they truly recognize their audience and appeal/market to them on every level they can. The NBC website is great, the commercials are well thought out, they just know what they are doing. Having spent the last four plus years of my life trying to make/sell products to the geeky side of our culture I really respect something this popular that really gets it.

One other thing they really get is guest stars. If you're running Friends and you want a guest star for sweeps you need to bust out Bruce Willis or Brad Pitt. Sure those are popular stars and actually pretty good actors, I'm sure they improve ratings and help promoting fringe fans to check it out. Those stars however cost a lot of money. Heroes however adds people like George Takei and Christopher Eccleston, much cheaper but makes the geeks just as happy.

Mighty Mouse Sucks

I've built PCs for a living before. I love being able to tinker with a Windows based machine, lots of fun. I'm not what one would call a Mac Lover. However I love OSX based machines, we have a G5 iMac that we just love. We want to get an Intel based Mac so we can run OSX and Windows on the same machine. Basically OSX is just better than Windows and Macs in general do things extremely well. In fact every single Apple based product has been great, iPods, airport, everything I've set up or used. Mark those piece of crap, hodgepodge machines at D don't count.

That is everything except the Mighty Mouse, this thing sucks. Their mouse is horrible and I hate using it but Pretty Bird loves it.

February 5th

I think we're going to make February 5th a holiday, the past two years have sure been pretty good to us.

Return of the Jedi

I got home early today because I took a half day to close on the house. When I get home what is on HBO HD but Return of the Jedi. Jedi in HD, OMG, good stuff. I won't even bore you with talking about the movie, if you're reading this you've seen it a good bit.

Homeownership

Pretty Bird and I closed on our first house this afternoon. It is a nice townhouse in Huntersville, a suburb north of Charlotte. It was built in 2002. We're very excited about owning a home. We got a great price on it because it needs a little interior work. Pretty Bird and I excited about painting it and stuff our way though, so that is going to be a lot of fun.

I will post pictures as I take them :)

Champions

Sure the Colts were great yesterday. Sure the Steelers weren't great at all this year (well they did sweep the Browns and keep the Bengals out of the playoffs). Anyways, so yeah it is living in the past but I just want to remind everyone what happened one year ago today.

Gators Suck

I guess I didn't take into account the fact The Football Gods wouldn't allow a Gator QB to win the Super Bowl. I mean The Football Gods were nice enough to allow them to win the National Championship but it was okay because it was against Ohio State. Too much Gator love would be just unacceptable.

Super Bowl

I love the Super Bowl, so much fun. I even like them when the Steelers aren't involved. This Super Bowl could be a lot of fun, I guess we'll see. Everyone and their mom is picking the Colts, hell I think the Colts are a much better team than the Bears. They have the best player in the NFL (sorry LdT but Peyton is better) at the most important position. I've spent all season saying if Peyton actually gets to the Super Bowl watch out. After two weeks of Peytonmania dampening my spirits about 49% of me still believes that. The other 51% of me however believes defense beats offense and that when everyone picks one team you should take the other.

Bears 23, Colts 17

2006 All Trevor Team

With the Super Bowl tomorrow and the Pro Bowl next week I figured I would waste everyone's time with the all Trevor NFL Team. I'm doing all players except OL, I don't know enough about the OL to pick the better ones over the not so good ones, well except Alan Faneca.

QB
Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints (s)
Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts
HB
LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Super Chargers (s)
Willie Parker, Pittsburgh Steelers (home team advantage)
FB
Lorenzo Neal, San Diego Super Chargers (s)
Justin Griffith, Atlanta Falcons
WR
Chad Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals (s, it pains us)
Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis Colts (s)
Anquan Bouldin, Arizona Cardinals
Hines Ward, Pittsburgh Steelers (makes the team go)
TE
Alge Crumpler, Atlanta Falcons (s)
Antonio Gates, San Diego Super Chargers
DE
Richard Seymour, New England Patriots (s)
Jason Taylor, Miami Dolphins (s)
Julius Peppers, Carolina Panthers
DT
Jamal Williams, San Diego Super Chargers (s)
Casey Hampton, Pittsburgh Steelers
OLB
DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys (s)
Derrick Brooks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (s)
Joey Porter, Pittsburgh Steelers
ILB
Zach Thomas, Miami Dolphins (s)
Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears (s)
Al Wilson, Denver Broncos
CB
Champ Bailey, Denver Broncos (s)
Asante Samuels, New England Patriots (s)
Rasheed Mathis, Jacksonville Jaguars
Charles Woodson, Green Bay Packers
SS
Adrian Wilson, Arizona Cardinals (s)
Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers
FS
Ed Reed, Baltimore Ravens (s, it pains us even more)
Chris Hope, Tennessee Titans (this probably pains us the most but not the same as the others)
Return
Devin Hester, Chicago Bears
Kicker
Adam Vinetari, Indianapolis Colts

Obviously the list is slanted towards players/teams I like, to a degree. One thing does stand out, either I like the AFC a lot more of the NFC just isn't very good. There are 33 players, 22 of them are from the AFC. The only real homer pick is Hines Ward and Willie Parker. Joey Porter makes the team because we're playing a 3-4 instead of a 4-3. Starting someone over Troy makes up for any homer-ness though.

Nothingness

I decided one of the things I want to do is blog more often and the best way for me to do that was to pay attention to the monthly counter. I want the counter to be greater than the number of days in a month. I figure that way I will be able to hopefully average a post a day. It helps me keep in touch or just vent a little or offer my brilliant insight. I came up with a few different ways to help give me a topic and with a little luck and work I can keep those going.

Groundhog Day!

It seems the Groundhog decided to end winter a little early for us this year. I think that is probably a good thing since I'm really tired of having to wash salt off my new car. I guess I will go right from salt season into pollen season. Stupid stuff on my car.

Snow Days

Last night was probably the most it has snowed in Charlotte since we've lived here. It wasn't much more than an inch or so. Of course it made every school and business that could get away with it close. Our boss is a hard ass and he never closes the office so we were good to go. It doesn't bother me that much. The one thing I hate about snow/ice is the drivers, some people are just so dumb. One guy was driving about 8-10 mph, with no ice and barely any snow on the road. That is just asking for someone to run into you. Plus my Mustang doesn't go 8 mph, I think it idles faster than that.

Patriot Games

I'm a huge Tom Clancy fan and probably an even bigger Harrison Ford fan. I actually like Alec Baldwin in the Jack Ryan role better than Harrison Ford. This movie is pretty good, decently close to the novel. The movie was in HD but really not ready for the format upgrade, any special or lighting effects really suffered. Like I said I do like the movie and think its pretty good. How can you not like a movie with Han Solo, Darth Vader, Mace Windu, and Boromir in it?

Chess

The Little One's school offers chess class/club for the last half of the year. Last year she didn't want to do it but the almost her entire class did it so she was up for it this year. Like most gamers chess is one of if not my favorite game, it is hard to pick it over poker. Anyways I was very excited that she decided to join the class. Today she got her oversized chess set that was included in the class fee. This was her second class and she really wanted to play when we settled down for the night. Her teacher actually has them playing different variations so they can learn how pieces move. Last week they only played/worked with Pawns, this week they added Bishops and Rooks. So we played a game with just Pawns, Bishops, and Rooks. The goal of the game was to get one of your Pawns to your opponents side. Both of us actually eliminated each others pawns before either could win the game. Well played Little One.

Floor Mats

I'm not really sure why someone would buy a new car without floor mats. I'm in sales so I understand how you can sell a car without floor mats, high mark up items should never be free, at least not advertised as free. But back to buying a car without floor mats, at least a new car, I just don't get it. You can always, I mean always, convince the salesman to give them to you for free. They are after all a very high mark up item, a $50 item with $5 cost to close a $20,000 sale, please sign me up.

Some of you are probably wondering why they are important. Well in the case of my beautiful Mustang they look really good, they have a Pony on them and everything. But they can really help the resell value of your car. Barring an accident outside wear and tear on your car is expected, it is included in the depreciation value of your car. Inside wear and tear however can be avoided and will drastically lower you resell value and make your car more difficult to sell. Floor mats solve this problem, you wear and tear the mat instead of the carpet in your car. Worn spots, especially in a manual transmission like mine, will just absolutely hurt your car's value.

Now my Mustang was used, we're the second owners. The first owner who bought the car new from Ford didn't buy floor mats. She also drove a $21,000 car less than 2,500 miles, less than a year even, and traded it in for probably $15,500 or so, then bought a $40,000 full sized Toyota pick up. So obviously she wasn't the brightest bulb in the marquee but that is different story, it does explain the inability to know the need for floor mats. If you're going to take a $7,000 loss on a car for owning 6 months, I guess you don't care about floor mats or wear and tear.

Anyways, my Mustang. No floor mats, well Trevor why didn't you get floor mats from the dealership you bought the car from? It was a Toyota dealership, I'd already done research on the Mustang, I knew the options. I knew they made a very good looking floor mat and I wanted those. I convinced the Toyota dealership to give me some free oil changes instead, 6 to 1, half dozen to the other.

Pretty Bird picked up my floor mats today, don't they look great! Well I should have taken a real picture but it is cold and I'm not going back outside. This is the stock Ford picture.

iPod at Work

I use my Ipod all the time at work. Its most obvious use is to play some music and drown out the people I don't want to hear, production is way up with that technique. I've also used it as a portable hard drive on a number of occasions, our company isn't exactly the most IT advanced place in the world, sometimes it's easier to move large files around like that. I've also used each of the three times I've helped people transfer data in side projects, extra money is good. It is also great for traveling.

All of my use for the iPod is nothing compared to this. Just crazy stuff.

Jack's Dad

I like Donald Sutherland better but I still really like James Cromwell.

I also knew Jack wouldn't be able to fend off the terrorists without me. He let himself get caught by two bad guy henchmen with their mastermind who is a bad henchmen from RoboCop. I guess Jack has a problem with RoboCop bad guys. Didn't Jack see last season, everyone knew Graem was a bad guy. Jack should get the season on DVD and catch up.

How did Jack do it?

For the first time (I think) since 24 started I missed an episode the night it aired. I'm only counting the episodes that I was home for, days I was out of town or otherwise busy I don't count. I still watched those that week either first on the F/X replay or later during TiVo. Nights like that Jack would understand, I couldn't help it. Last night it was like I was cheating on Jack. Julie wanted to watch Heroes in HD then we watched Studio 60 before falling asleep.

Was Jack able to fight off the terrorists without me?

The Matador

This was actually the first new movie I've seen in 2007. Obviously it isn't a new movie, just one I've never seen. Netflix hooked us up and we decided to watch it yesterday.

James Bond is pretty good in it, which is about all the good I can say from the movie. It wasn't horrible it just wasn't very good at all. It was funny at parts but overall just blah.

The Bounty

Yet another movie I watched on one of the various HD movie channels. I actually haven't seen the movie in a long time, probably 10 years or longer. This one was the 1984, Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian, not one of the 35 other versions of the story. Two things I remembered about the movie, lots of big name actors, at least now, and lots of topless native women. Both things were very true this time as well.

Anthony Hopkins
Mel Gibson
Lawrence Olivier
Daniel Day Lewis
Liam Neeson
Bernard Hill

Almost all those would headline a movie now, even Lawrence Olivier headlined Sky Captain after he was dead.

Oh yeah the boobs, lots and lots of them. This movie was rated PG, I guess native boobs don't count.

No Football

For the first Sunday in 20 weeks I don't have any football to watch, what exactly am I supposed to do?

NFL Network

They think they're product is more valuable than it is, they are pretty boring during their live broadcast and they have trouble getting advertisers. But I love the NFL Network, reshowing Super Bowls in their entirety, awesome. Plus if there wasn't an NFL Network how would get those incredible NFL Network commercials?

"All Rickey Williams has on his mind is winning football games"
"Ben Rotherlsomething or other, Cowher are you an idiot"
"I don't care if its pre-season, the Raiders are 4-0"

Great stuff.

Gas Prices

No I'm not going to bitch about gas prices, although we probably all could. What I'm going to bitch about is the variation in gas prices on my way to work. I live about 8 miles from the office and I drive by 8 different gas stations on the way to work. Here are the prices on the cheapest level of gas this morning.

2.09
2.09
2.21
2.14
2.19
2.11
2.19
2.20

The two $2.09 are right across the street from each other which obviously is why they're the lowest and the same price. However the $2.21 is less than a quarter mile from them, you can see both of them from it and vice versa. They are on the north side of the interstate and $2.21 is on the south side but only an interstate exit separates them. The $2.11 and $2.19 near the bottom of the list are right next to each other as well.

I don't understand a 5% difference in prices when you are right next to each other.

Anti-Trust

Didn't the US government spend a lot of money breaking up AT&T and the Baby Bells? There were eight Baby Bells in 1982. Now AT&T owns five of them again. Weird.

Just walk damn it

I really dislike the skating shoes that kids wear. I disliked them when they first came out years ago when I was at Toys R Us. I dislike them now that they are really popular even more. Kids these days...

Defense!

It seems the various (inter)national sports news sources got it wrong. Mike Tomlin isn't letting Dick LeBeau go, he is keeping him. It doesn't say what type of defense they will employ directly but it does hit at keeping with the 3-4 zone blitzing craziness that has defined the Steelers for the past 15+ years. They've actually used a 3-4 scheme since 1983 or 84 according to something I've read previously.

My biggest issue with the possible change was my belief that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. In the past three seasons the Steelers have finished 1st, 4th, and 9th in total yards and 1st, 3rd, and 12th in points allowed. I would say that isn't broke.

Lists

An upset stomach providing the inability to sleep allowed me to watch almost everything that was on TV last night, well at least the three hour long dramas. The two really good, addictive ones featured a list. I wonder if since Nathan and Jack's Sister in Law are the same person if Jack's Dad is on the Heroes list?

Heroes - What a pretty damn good episode to come back from break on. Nothing major happened except the Heroes start to congregate with each other. Hiro and Ando were just hilarious as usual. Mohinder is obviously On The List and it will be one of the huge plot points in the remaining 10 episodes to reveal his actual power. Next week, Sulu!

24 - Nothing much going on except some weird nuclear disaster issues that were handled not so well. In addition the response from the US, somebody would get their ass kicked and it would happen quickly. Nothing else seemed to happen, oh yeah, that bald guy brother thing was um, unforeseen to say the least. Now I need to watch Season 5 again to see if any clues are there.

Studio 60 - What can I say, the man can write TV even if I don't really like the subject.

Too much TV

I have a few TV shows that I watch. Right now in the TiVo queue for me is the following shows.

Heroes
Battlestar Galactica
How I Met Your Mother
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
24
My Name Is Earl
The Unit
Pardon The Interruption

When they return
The Sopranos
Entourage

PTI isn't important, I delete it usually about twice a week. I just like to be able to watch it and fast foward segments I don't enjoy. I'm not a huge fan of The Unit but I do watch it when I can.

As you can see the biggest problem is the concentration of the shows on Sunday and Monday nights. Sunday nights we usually don't watch much TV, it is a time to wind the weekend down. Sunday shows outside of The Sopranos or 24 or some sports event are usually watched later in the week. Now with four of my shows on Monday who knows when I'll be able to watch the Sunday shows. Why did you move BSG to Sundays, bastards.

That still isn't as bad as 24 being on the same day/time as Heroes, that is just plain criminal. We'll see how I handle the overload tomorrow.

Cover-2

I guess I will eat a little crow. With both 2007 Super Bowl teams being Cover-2 based teams I should give them a little bit of credit.

I also remembered that Tampa Bay wasn't the only team with the current Tampa-2 or Cover-2 defense to win it all, the 1999 Rams were a Cover-2 team. I still say that Indy and St. Louis don't count, they are more there because of offense than defense.

Anyways, I still stop giving the scheme such crap. Plus if the Steelers become a Cover-2 team I will probably become a huge fan of it :)

Mike Tomlin

Let me just say that I'm not very excited over the choice to replace Bill Cowher. I'm not a fan of the Cover-2 scheme and I am a huge fan of Dick LeBeau who also appears not to be a Cover-2 guy. Bringing in a Cover-2 guy in Mike Tomlin will probably mean the end of LeBeau with the Steelers. Obviously I'm not the best football mind in the world but looking at the Steelers roster it doesn't appear they have the best personal for the Cover-2 either.

Let me qualify things first. The only time the Steelers have hired a head coach in my lifetime I wasn't a big fan of the hiring at the time either. That turned out just fine though. Also I'm not a huge fan of the Cover-2 currently, it seems the defensive coordinators over Cover-2 teams (Tampa Bay, Indy, Chicago, Minnesota, KC) get too egotistical and don't change their scheme mid-game when it isn't working. I believe that is more than anything why only one of them have won the big game despite them dominating the regular season stats. I am a fan of the birth of the Cover-2 since Tony Dungy modeled it after the Steel Curtain Steelers of the 70's.

Only time will tell. The Steelers have a lot of talent, 2007 shouldn't be a rebuilding year.

The Illusionist

This is only the second movie I've watched this year on DVD. I still haven't seen any movies in a theater but with a 50 inch HD television and 5.1 surround sound system DVDs are still pretty good. Pretty Bird and I went to see this movie when it was released, mainly by accident. The Little One was staying over with my parents and we wanted to hit a movie. Whatever movie we wanted to see wasn't starting in the time we were there so we went and saw this. Both of us were pleasantly surprised, it was a great movie. It is even Pretty Bird's favorite movie of 2006. It is a little slow but overall very, very good. I would highly recommend it if you haven't already seen it.

Air Force One

What can I say, I really like movies in HD. Another movie I don't own, another movie I enjoy on one of the HD movie channels. This one was actually TNT but TNT HD is actually one of the better picture quality channels. I enjoy this movie a lot even though it really isn't very good. It is probably the last enjoyable movie that Harrison Ford has made. There is still hope that he can make another enjoyable movie but we'll see. It is 10 years and running.

On a personal aside, I remember this as the movie that made me a take a slight detour in my Toys R Us career. I used Pretty Bird for a free ticket to see this and talked to some old theater friends of mine about coming back. It was a nice 14 month detour that really helped me realize I didn't want to work at a movie theater for the rest of my life and helped me get a good raise when I came back to TRU.

Anyways, the movie is a good bit of fun. Gary Oldman is as always great. Harrison is very believable as a President who can also lay the physical smackdown.

Glory

Yet another movie on one of the various HD movie channels, unlike the Back to the Future series I don't actually own Glory, not sure why. Anyways I'm almost always compelled to watch this one when I get the chance.

I'm 30 years old, how does a movie get me chocked up. Bastards.

First Blood

Rambo was on one of the HD movie channels and as I was flipping through them Pretty Bird was making fun of Stallone and Rambo. I've been trying to tell her that First Blood is actually a good movie. Based on my previous assertions that First Blood is a good movie she had purchased it for me last year at some random holiday that I should remember. Anyways I haven't watched it and in fact I hadn't watched in quite a few years. Being prompted by Rambo being on TV we threw First Blood into the DVD player.

It turns out I was remembering the novel as being very good. The movie isn't very good but the novel by David Morrell is one I'd recommend. They are both very dated but the novel doesn't make Rambo to be a very sympathetic character at all which obviously had to be changed for the screen. The movie isn't horrible but it isn't very good either. The acting by Richard Crenna (Colonel Trautman) if you call acting, is atrocious to the point of being painful. Stallone and Dennehy are fine. The movie is actually pretty short which I found odd but I guess doesn't matter either way.

If you haven't seen First Blood by now there is really no reason to now.

Back to the Future, Part 3

The Conclusion!

Like you didn't think we actually watched the third part. Sure we could have watched them un-edited from the DVD set we already owned but there is something subconscious about watching a movie you enjoy when it is broadcast, YOU JUST MUST DO IT!

This was actually probably The Little One's favorite of the three. She actually would watch each of them in stages, they weren't always her cup of tea. She did come back very frequently on each of them though. This one with the western theme was very intriguing to her. This one is probably Pretty Bird's favorite but I still enjoy the original the best. There are so many things about this one that are great, if only because it plays off the other two so well, my favorite being when Marty goes "Great Scott" followed by Doc's "This is heavy". Great stuff.

One thing, my buddy's and I spent the six months between 2 and 3 trying to figure out how Marty got out of 1955. We were blown away with how simple it was.

Championship Weekend

Tomorrow is an AFC Championship game without the Steelers, do they even hold them without the Steelers? I mean they have been in three out of the last five (well tomorrow will make it three out of the last six).

NFC - Saints at Bears
Everyone and their mother is picking the Saints, I think I even saw Lovie Smith picking the Saints. The Bears are favored and despite me really rooting for the Saints I think they are a better team. I think Berriman and the rest of the Bears WRs will take advantage of the poor Saints DBs. I'm not a huge fan of Cover-2 teams but it is a great defense when the other team has to pass a lot.
Bears 31, Saints 21

AFC - Patriots at Colts
Man I want to pick Peyton. I think the Colts are a better team, I think Peyton is the best player in the NFL (sorry LdT), and I think they're due. I can't pick against the Patriots in the playoffs however. Tom Brady is 12-1 in the playoffs, something dumb like 23-1 on turf, and 10-0 in domes. What does that mean, other than the Patriots being really good who knows. Every part of me says pick the Colts except that whole Patriot mystique thing. I know I wouldn't bet either way on this game.
Patriots 27, Colts 17

Back to the Future, Part 2

To continue on my movie list for 2007, The Little One and I watched Back to the Future, Part 2 on AMC this past week. I really enjoyed this movie when it was released and while it has since become my least favorite of the trilogy I still really enjoy it. Something new I noticed this week was that Elijah Wood is it, at first I wasn't sure it was him, even with the big Frodo eyes, but IMDB hooked me up.

2007 Movies

While reading Dr. Heimlich's blog I got the idea to keep track of how many and what movies I watch during a given year. This will also allow me a reason to keep posting on a somewhat regular basis. Most movies I will not give a full review because most movies I watch will be something most people are familiar with, some I will however. I'm also using some basic rules, they have to be movies that I start to watch not movies that are just on. Well I guess I have one basic rule.

I've seen five movies so far this year, three of them within in the last week.

First up, Back to the Future. I'm not really going to talk about Back to the Future. Everyone likes it, I love it almost every time I've seen. This time was even better because The Little One watched most of it with us. That meant that even with commercials on AMC is still great.

RIP Curtis

We miss you already Curtis, now who is going to help Jack get his killin on?

Jack is Back!

Welcome back Jack Bauer. I love watching the different ways that Jack kills people every year, very inventive.

Brady Does It Again

I picked against two different factors, both of which are pretty much written in stone. Picking against Tom Brady in the playoffs, he is now 12-1. Also picking Marty Schottenheimer in the playoffs, he is now 5-13. I know there are much to it than just mystique to either of those records but you can't win money in Vegas betting against 12-1 or with 5-13, it just won't happen.

I really feel bad for either the Saints or the Bears, you will have to face either Peyton Manning (who if he gets to the Super Bowl is going to throw like 5 or 6 TDs) or Tom Brady, good luck.

Of course I'm forced to point out that Julie picked all four games this weekend correctly. Silly.

One year ago today

What a great game, what a great savior of a great season. Thanks Ben.

Beauty in the differences

Watching the two teams that won today, Indy and New Orleans, it is a study in contrast. Both of them make their money with very explosive offenses but they do it differently.

The Colts run the same personal on just about every play. They might substitute their halfbacks but that is about it. They use a TE who can also play a 3rd WR and their other TE can also play FB. Basically they use the same personal for like 80% of their plays. They run those 80% of plays from like four or five different looks and that is it.

The Saints are very different than that. They use like 10 different skill players, 1 RB, 2 RB, 3RB, 4B (it helps when you have two RB who can split out wide), 3TE, 4WR, 5WR, it is just crazy. They have four running backs to bring, three different TE, and five WR. Even with all of the different personal they run a variety of different formations and looks.

These differences yet similar success is what I really like about NFL football. Well I'm 1-1 for picks today yet both teams I wanted to win won. Tomorrow I will go 1-1 again if both teams I want to win would win. Go Bears and Patriots!

Bathroom no-no

You should not talk to someone on your cell phone will in the bathroom. The past three trips to the public facilities in this complex has had someone talking to someone on their phone in there. That is just bad ju-ju.

Playoffs!

This week has four really good looking playoff games, well at least on paper.

Baltimore 22, Indianapolis 13
When Peyton loses in the playoffs it is almost never in a shootout. The finesse offense of theirs gets shut down, a physical 3-4 team (Patriots, Patriots, Steelers) just destroys them. That is what is going to happen this time. I want to pick them as an upset because I think Peyton actually likes the underdog roll but I just can't pick them. The good 3-4 teams, well Baltimore plays that 4-3/3-4 hybrid that New England players, the good ones just beat Indy. Yet another year with sub-par results in the playoffs should cost the Indy OC his job but it won't. Everyone wants to blame Indy's losses on the defense but it is all the offense. In Peyton's six playoff losses he's only needed to score 25 or more points once, when they were blown out by the Jets 41-0. The other five losses, 19-16, 23-17, 24-14, 20-3, 21-18 (what a fun game), it looks to me that the D is doing their job.

San Diego 44, New England 10
In the past year Bill Cowher and Tony LaRussa both won the Championship so maybe it is Marty's time. In this round of the playoffs 14-2 teams don't lose very often, if at all. I could easily see it going silly for the Chargers as well, in experience at QB and Marty as a coach, silly can happen. Plus I heard a rumor that Tom Brady guy can win some in the playoffs (11-1 I believe). Still I'm picking the blow out, first play, play action deep, Rivers to random SD WR on the side that Samuel isn't on, Touchdown!

Chicago 24, Seattle 17
This game's score will appear much closer than the game will be. Sexy Rexy or not, 13-3 teams don't lose to 9-7 teams in the playoffs. The Bears will throw some deep but just pound the ball on the ground in 3 wide sets because the Seahawks D is weak and even weaker against a 3 wide set. The Bears D is just been playing on cruise control since like week 8, they'll be fine. Plus the Seahawks don't have Steve Smith.

New Orleans 38, Philadelphia 14
Five wide, all the time. The Saints are going to come out passing and passing often. Then when you think they'll run they will pass again. The Eagles stop the run well but must blitz to stop the pass and Brees will shred them. The Eagles will then force themselves to throw too often thus eliminating their best weaspon, Westbrook.

I really want it to be NE, Indy, Chicago, NO but I think I might luck out and get half that. Of course The Football Gods could continue the year of spite and have the Seahawks and Eagles win, two teams I can't stand.

Crazy Driving

First let me say go me with my qualified prediction of a UF upset over THE OSU.

Now onto the crazy driving I've witnessed over the past 24 hours.

First the craziness.

Yesterday about 6:00pm on a rather busy, four lane plus middle turning lane, there was a crazy guy on a bicycle. I'm in the left lane heading north, the traffic is moving pretty quick but there is a good bit of traffic. The bicycle guy jumps out onto the road heading west (across traffic) directly in front of the truck to my right. The truck breaks then the bike goes north for about 20 feet then pulls out directly in front of me. I'd already slowed down at this point which is good, he goes north for about 10 feet then heads west again. On his trek he almost gets hit by a car heading south. Once he reached the side of the road he zooms back across the road heading east almost getting hit a few times. Once again when he reach the other side he went back across completely ignoring the cars. At this point I can't see him in my mirror anymore but I decide to call the police. I'm fairly certain he is on drugs, drunk, or just trying to get hit by a car. I just let the police know he is just zooming back and forth trying not to avoid traffic. I didn't read about a man in a bike being killed so hopefully he didn't get hit.

The second crazy thing was this morning. There is only one way out of my complex and in the morning there are these two girls who set up what can only be described as a lemonade or hotdog stand. We live with a lot of construction worker or daylabor types and I guess they buy whatever food they are selling. They set up about 25 feet from the end of the complex. It is usually very annoying because there is usually at least one car just stopped in the exit way of the complex buying some random food thing. Today there is no one parked and I'm the third car in a line of cars leaving the place, me, a huge white truck which I can't see around, and a car. Before we reach the end of the complex the truck breaks and then swerves to the left. I obviously slow down but eventually have to swerve as well. The car in front of the truck has decided to back up quickly to the food stand, with apparently no regard for the fact that there were cars behind him. He just stopped, put it in reverse, stepped on the gas, and wanted a hotdog.

Idiots

The fun things were just me enjoying my new Mustang.

Yesterday Jdub and I were out to lunch and we took the interstate back even though we didn't need to because I wanted to open the Mustang up a little. Not a lot of traffic, only 2.5 miles between exits. There was enough traffic and it being at 12:45 that I decided to slow down. We were up to about 95 or so, in fourth, at about 5500 RPMs so she had plenty more to give. Maybe when I don't have a passenger and not on a busy road we can see what she'll actually do.

Today after the I finally get on the road some guy wants to be a jerk. The back way I take to work is two by two lanes but eventually goes to one by one. At the light before it goes down to just two lanes total I'm in the left where the lane will still be in 150 ft or so and then there is a Honda Civic in the right lane. Apparently he was trying to get my attention, he wants to cut in front of me to avoid the lane disappearing but apparently I didn't look his way fast enough or he is wired wrong or something. He has his turn signal on and I look over after he laid on his horn, then he points towards me, indicating he wants to get over. Before I can even register what he is doing he flicks me off and honks again. Then he starts to rev up his circa 1995 Honda Civic. Normally I wouldn't try and take some guy off the line but was a little fun.

2006 Mustang 1, 1995 Honda Civic 0

National Championship Game

I can't really root for either team for various reasons. I won't be rooting for UF but I do like it when the press is wrong. The press and 'experts' have been so strong OSU and Big Ten this year. The SEC is the best conference in football, it has been the best conference in football for 10+ years. Winning the SEC is huge, I expect the Gators to give THE buckeyes a good game, maybe even an upset.

Newest Toy

I'm a person who really likes toys, be it an actual toy like the many on my desk or some new tech thing like an iPod or Xbox 360. Here is my newest toy and boy is she nice.














Since as long as I can remember I've wanted to mess around with this style of toy. I'm from the south, my family and friends were always into cars. Big muscle cars were the ones of choice. When I was actually old enough to drive however this type of car wasn't viable, I just never had the money. Now we're doing a okay, for the most part, and it was time.















The nice thing about a Mustang is that they aren't really considered a sports car. It has room in the back, well kinda, enough for the little one. We didn't get a GT/V8, we got the V6. She is actually used, a 2006 but only 2400 miles on her. We looked for new ones but saved almost $7,000 on the sticker by getting a used one. With only 2400 miles though she is virtually a new car, basically we got a new car without paying the 'drive it off the lot' tax.














As you can see about she is the best kind of new, fast car, mine. Sure Pretty Bird can drive it once she figures out how. Pretty Bird can't drive a manual so right now this beauty is all mine.

We actually picked her up on Wednesday but it has been raining all week so I couldn't get a good picture. We also didn't want to spoil the surprise to my youngest brother, he has a ~1991 GT 5.0 and like any good American just loves the 2005 and beyond Mustang.

The Corvette will have to wait. We almost bought a 1984 Corvette with only 78,000 miles on it instead but wanted to wait. When we get a house with a garage we'll buy a 70's style Corvette and fix her up. Right now though we'll be fine with this beauty. Not quite a sports car but she sure is worthy of the Mustang tradition.

Only One Week!

Thanks Bill

161-99-1 including ten trips to the playoffs, six trips to the AFC Championship Game, two trips to the Super Bowl and one Super Bowl win (not bad for an ex-Brown). It has been a great 15 years. During the last 15 years the term "Steelers Football" really meant something. The Steelers have rushed for the most yards and allowed the least amount of rushing yard in the entire league. As of last year no team had won more games but I'd have to add it up myself to figure it out, too much work.

No team played harder than the Steelers during this last 15 years. I've really enjoyed watching the Steelers for 15 years, most of the teams were exactly the same. Run the ball, stop the run, blitz the QB on 3rd and long, and throw deep some.

I know he'll be retired for about two years or so and I'm sure he'll coach for a team that isn't the Steelers when he returns. He'll always be a Steeler to me though.

McQueen

New Year, New Look!

Sorry I haven't been posting very often but Pretty Bird and I have been very busy the past few weeks. I'm simply haven't been in front of a computer with any spare time. Work is also really busy which means I haven't been able to update from work. Soon things will slow down and I will post on a regular-ish basis.