Monday, January 31, 2005

Cheeseburger in Paradise

I never thought I would see this, but my kids absolutely love my wife's Jimmy Buffet's Greatest Hits CD. They dance around and my daughter keeps saying "good song" and hopping around. This all cumulated with the whole family dancing about the living room.

On Sunday I went sledding with my son with his new sled. The previous inflated one got torn, so my wife got a nice, hard plastic one that motors quite well. After about 2 dozen trips up and down the hill, I was just plain tired. Long gone are those days of endless energy, plus I forgot to take my inhaler prior to leaving, so that added to it. Had a phenomenal time with him again though and can't wait until we can go again, but with the weather warming up to being in the mid 30's all week, not sure there will be much snow left by this weekend.

Sports notes
Edgar Bennett had a great week for the Packers. Not only does he get into the Packer Hall of Fame, but gets promoted to the head RB coach. Edgar had been an assistant RB coach for several years, but he mainly has run the area for the Packers on acclimating players from college life to pro football life. He was recognized for his achievements in this area by the NFL stating that the Packers had the best dept of this in 2003. 2004 is not out yet, but rest assured, he'll be at the top again. Edgar also has been praised by Mike Sherman and Bob Harlan for being an advocate for the players. Players can talk to him about any issues they have with management and coaches and Edgar does everything from lending a sympathetic ear to actually going to management. He keeps the clubhouse harmonious and generally keeps a great attitude in there as well. He was one of my favorite players when he played and I felt he got a little ripped off the end of his career with the Pack, but it's great to see him stay with the organization and have his hard work rewarded.

The Badgers had a tough loss against Ill and had the 38 game home winning streak ended in a tough contest. They had a great chance to win, but Ill proved why they are #1 by clamping down on defense at the end of the game and making every clutch shot. The Badgers rebounded nicely with a demolishing of Penn St. on Saturday night. They should still be in the top 25 in both polls today.

The Bucks are just a bad team right now. I have just a huge sinking feeling that Michael Redd is going to leave the Bucks after the season as he can be an unrestricted free agent. He is an integral part of this team, and if he goes, it's going to be a long time for any success for the Bucks. The Bucks have a lot of $ available for free agency, so hopefully they can convince Redd to stick around and bring in some quality help.

Friday, January 28, 2005

The Fab Five

Before I get into today's topic, I just want to give huge props to my 4 1/2 yr old son, Adam. He had his kindergarden readiness test yesterday, and scored HUGE! They go through vision, hearing, mental and physical tests. Apparently normal is a score of 14, Adam breezed through with a score of 23! One test was stacking 10 blocks on top of each other. They let Adam into the room where the blocks were on the table, and not even telling him what to do, he stacked the blocks right up. The tester said "Ok then, guess you can do that just fine", clearly impressed. Yep, future leader of the world I got going on here. He knows how to count just fine, holds a pencil perfectly, and this blew me away, knows perspective on drawing. He knows that things closer are bigger and those farther away are smaller and draws it as such. Boo Yah! I'd like to think that's a direct reflection on my superior genes, but I think it's more my wife staying at home and raising my boy right. Thanks Rachel!

Now, on to the topic of today's entry. You all see the buttons at the top of the page of the "next blog". It's quite fun to keep hitting that, you get some funny and wierd stuff and it's different everytime. So I thought I would help you all out and hit this 5 times and write what I found. I call this regular entry to my blog "The Fab Five".

http://calsetines.blogspot.com/
Woman writing from Spain. I know Spanish somewhat, but I don't have the time to go through all of what she says. The gist is that she lost her hamster to serious sinus infection and is distraught over it.

http://missywen.blogspot.com/
The first of the female teen sites. Quite a lot of angst here. I am guessing it is mostly due to the fact that she is a horrible speller. My goodness, I'm wondering what happened to today's educational standards. Apparently she is loving being dark and moody, her way of lashing out at the world.

http://--asphyxiated.blogspot.com/
Ok, another female teen site and she's like, "oh my god" and all, and you know like, loves dancing and more dancing for sure and like cool.

http://purplesquaresandkitties.blogspot.com/
I just could not get away from the female teen sites! This girl is in FFA and is a judge. Her latest entry is about judging meat cutting for the first time. She's in IN and hey, I got lots of respect for the FFA. Granted in high school, I made fun of them, but since then I have seen how important this group is, so big props to her. Keep it up!

http://portburyplayingstats.blogspot.com/
As the description of the site says: For Failand & Portbury Cricket Club, one of the leading cricket clubs in the Bristol and North Somerset areas. That's it, the individual Cricket stats for this league for the last 3 years. Not much, but hey, to each their own.

I did not leave any blogs out, so tune in next time where we might get some really wierd stuff.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Conundrum of the Week

Here's a fairly popular riddle, but I figured I'd put it on here anyway. Enjoy!

Three friends check into a motel for the night and the clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. So, they each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bellhop sees this as an opportunity to make $2 as he reasons that the three friends would have a tough time dividing $5 evenly among them; so he decides to tell them that the clerk made a mistake of only $3, giving a dollar back to each of the friends. He pockets the leftover $2 and goes home for the day! Now, each of the three friends gets a dollar back, thus they each paid $9 for the room which is a total of $27 for the night. We know the bellhop pocketed $2 and adding that to the $27, you get $29, not $30 which was originally spent. Where did the other dollar go????

EDIT: The solution is in the comments section, SBG got it. Shane gets partial credit, but SBG explained his answer better.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Mr. Crankbutt Part Deux

He's back, everbody's favorite complainer. And they say sequels never live up to the original.

Anybody else here annoyed with how hip-hop artists just make up words, but provide no definition for them? Case in point: crunk. I was reading my ESPN magazine and here was an interview with T.J. Duckett of the Atl Falcons and Lil John, hip-hop artist and the "King of Crunk". In the interview, Lil John says "It's hard to define crunk. Atlanta is such a crunk town. Before a concert, you can just feel our fans get all crunk." WHAT???? Here he is, using the word to describe his fans, a town and some sort of actions they do, but his first sentence is that he cannot define it.

This is a rip-off of the Smurfs! Everybody remembers them. They would say things like: "Beware of the giant smurf that smurfs smurfs!" They just replaced any word, noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc. with "smurf". Sound familiar Lil John? One would think that Pepe would start a lawsuit for copyright infringement on his beloved creation. I could just see the lawsuit headlines now "Pepe smurfs Lil John for smurfing his smurf". Scary thing is, most people would understand it, unlike most of Lil John's songs. I think I'll just refer to artist as Lil Smurf now.

Another use of this was Snoop Dog's "izzle". You simply just put "izzle" after the first letter or 2 of a word and *poof*, you have a new word and can make a whole song on it. What a rip-off, anybody else out there thinking this is just like pig latin? Noopssay Ogday isay a okejay for shizzle.

Where have the artists like Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and BB King gone? Artists with actual musical and singing ability. Instead, it's all about a dance beat created by computers and marginal lyrics that usually talk about how great someone is or what they are going to do to their b*tches. And per the RIAA, is the internet that ruining music.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

The Bates of hell

As I have been clamoring for, the Packers signed former Dolphins defensive coordinator Jim Bates. This is a great move by Sherman. Bates ran the Dolphins defense for 5 years, never having a defensive ranking lower than 10. Now, I'm certainly not expecting a top 10 defense next season, however, I would not be surprised if a ranking of 15-18. The Packers went 10-6 with the 25th ranked defense (yardage wise) and 28th in points given up. If they improve these numbers, a 12-4 season is entirely likely. This also shows to me that Sherman is not afraid to admit a mistake, and that is exactly what Schottenheimer and Slowik were, and he is willing to go out and fix what he did. The defense should respond to his coaching style as he is enthusiatic and inspirational. It also sounds as though the LB coach is coming to GB as well. Bates' style is not blitz-oriented, and that works best with this team. Rumor also is that Bates has virtually total control of the defense, this will leave Sherman with just doing what he does best, working the offense.

The big offensive keys are coming back in Favre, Green, Walker, Driver, Ferguson and most of the OL. Yes, Wahle and Rivera are big question marks and will be big losses should they leave, but their losses can be compensated for. Very little, if any, dropoff in the #4 offense for next year.

Some like to think that the Packers cannot compete anymore with the rest of the NFC, that Favre is on the downside of his career, and that the good players are going to abandon ship. I vehemately disagree. The Packers have gotten what could be the second coming of Ron Wolf, and a DC that has a great track record of creating outstanding defenses. The future is indeed bright as the Packers aren't rebuilding, they're reloading.

Time to unleash the Bates of hell!!!!!!

Monday, January 24, 2005

Sunny Days...

Sweeping the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet
Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street

Now that I have that song in your heads, have to tell you the source of it. On Sunday the whole family went to Sesame Street Live at the Target Center via free tickets from a friend. Now, I have to say that I have always been leary of these things as I figured my kids wouldn't remember them and that they would just be a ripoff of a poor show. Well, I was wrong. We got outstanding seats straight away from the stage and only a 1/3 of the way up on the lower level. Plus, our seats happened to have no seats in front of them, just an aisle, so leg room was no problem and our vision of the stage was superb.

My 4 1/2 yr old son and 22 mo old daughter had an absolute blast. They were clapping and laughing and yelling away, just like the rest of the kids. My wife and I had a ball as well and the 1 1/2 hours went by very fast. My daughter was especially cute, as she never let us forget where Elmo was as just giggled away. Needless to say, we will probably be doing something like this again. Thanks for the tickets Julie!

Badger Love
The Badgers impressed the heck out of me on Saturday by going into Ann Arbor and beating the Wolverines 72-61. The Wolverines lead the Big Ten in blocks but that did not intimidate the Badgers, oh no. They kept going inside and scoring. Mike Wilkinson is just a stud. He put up 28pts and 15 rbs in one of his best performances of the year. He could be the best player in the Big Ten as he has stepped up his game with Devin Harris leaving for the NBA. If Tucker can get his came back and get over his foot injury, these Badgers can certainly beat Illinois on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center. I forget who the color man was on the TV broadcast, but he made a great point: Nobody can guard Wilkinson 1-1, he's got too many moves inside and can hit the 3 at any time. This team gives me great hope for the rest of the season and March.

Friday, January 21, 2005

2 down...

Now that Kurt Schottenheimer has been fired as the DB coach for the Pack and Jethro Franklin has left for USC to be their DL coach, 2 of the poorer D coaches are now gone. Sherman has to be careful though, if he keeps firing people, his decision making and hiring ability are going to be questioned. However, with that said, Slowik needs to go. His schemes confused the players and during the season, he would practice one style of defense, then on game day, go to a different one. If Sherman wants to fire people, he should fire Slowik ASAP, then waste no time in going after Jim Bates, who was the DC at Miami. I honestly do not know what he is waiting for. He did not take this long to fire Donatell (which I have stated from that day was a mistake), for far less. Sherman needs to let Bates surround himself with whomever he wants for assistant coaches, he knows who will work well with him.

I'm still sick, not sleeping well, and generally in a bad mood. Hopefully the weekend will cure me.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Ahhhh Buck it

Well, the Bucks lost again last night, this time to the NJ Nets. I knew this team was not going to be as good as last year's squad, not without T.J. Ford (the little engine that could). He wasn't the best PG out there, but he was quick as hell, pushed the offense and played good defense, thus setting the tone for the entire offense. His style worked for this team, got other players looks, and gave them energy. They were 29-27 with him and are 25-38 without him. Their perimeter defense is awful as opposing PG eat them up. His status that he "might" play next year and the fact that 1 hard hit in the lane could put him out for good means that the Bucks have to either draft a new PG, or go out in the offseason and sign one.

The Bucks are going to be in great salary cap shape in the offseason with Van Horn's obscene contract going away along with other dead $ from players not with the team. They will have around $20 million or more to spend, and Mason and Redd are locked up already for several more years. I fully expect Van Horn to be gone and the Bucks go after a big name, tough PF (I'd love to get Fortson, although he will probably stay with Seattle, also Abdur-Rahim would be a nice inside addition). For a PG, McInnis could be lured away from Cleveland and this would bring a nice 1-2 punch while limiting Ford's minutes. The Bucks should be able to sign Gadzuric, he is really starting to blossom and he's one of my favorites on the team.

I'll just have to suffer through this season and wait for next year. With a couple of good additions, this team could easily be a top 5 Eastern Conference team next year.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

All about the Benjamins

I'm not feeling well today so this will be brief. I like the recent Brewer signing of Ricky Bottalico for the bullpen. He's only on a 1 year deal, but he could either be a good setup man or a closer. He has very similar numbers as Kolb did last year, and I seem to recall that that worked out pretty good for the Brewers. He brings a good deal of experience to a rather unproven pen.

Arbitration numbers were exchanged with the 4 players eligible yesterday. Spivey, Clark and Kieschnick should all be resolved rather quickly as there is not much separating them. Sheets may go all the way to arbitration, as they are 1M apart, but I doubt it. The new owner is a standup guy and the Brewers have not had to go to arbitration since '91. I just want to get Sheets to a big multiyear deal during the season. He's a 20 win, Cy Young winner waiting to happen.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

"Helen's gone, she left with the Trojans..."

Watching the movie Troy last night with my neighbors, this line was spoken when it was discovered Helen was gone. My sophomoric humor then started rolling in my head. "You mean the Trojan War was started over condoms?". I thought that people then wanted to have more children as so many died as infants. So now, of course, I have ideas of writing a parody of the Iliad a la Bored of the Rings. This would mean I would have to read the entire Iliad, but this could be some serious fun.

It was a good night overall, other than the movie, which was very good (my wife especially liked the parts involving Brad Pitt and well, his parts) we went to dinner at Fuddruckers. Shane owed me a hamburger of my choosing from an ill-advised bet (I am now 3-3 in bets with him). The wager was on who would win the NFC North, he foolishly picked the Vikings, and I took the Packers. The burger tasted that much better given it was free, topped with Viking misery. I even wore my new Packers NFC Division Champs t-shirt, just for spite. Both of our families also attended, and it was a lot of fun playing the games there with my son. He is just such a great kid that I cannot believe he has any of my genes.

Bucky Badger
I must also comment on the Wisconsin Badgers (12-3) men's basketball team. They have been outstanding this year. Their recent win over the #12 Michigan State Spartans, the 3rd time that the Badgers have beaten a top 12 team this year, only emphasizes how good they can be. Bo Ryan is creating a coaching legend at Wisconsin that will rival that of Barry Alvarez someday. They are currently #23 in the coaches poll, and not even in the AP poll. Being so low astonishes me. However, according to the latest edition of Bracketology, they are being projected as a #4 seed for the tourney and Lunardi knows his stuff. I know, it's waaaaaay early on this, but I love college hoops and these Badgers just make me all giddy.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

What a weekend!

DC Chargers
As I let you all know on Friday that Gabe was coming up and we were going the Dassel Cokato Chargers varsity basketball game. It was a blast! The pork patty feed lived up to its billing. The new gym that they were dedicating was quite nice. The games themselves were extremely exciting. The girls varsity team dominated the Howard Lake Lakers in the opener. The men's game was where the excitement was at. Trailing all game long, down by 14 in the 3rd quarter, being dominated on the boards, going 1-8 from the foul line, they put it all together. In a stunning 12 minute run, the Chargers came back and won 53-51. The crowd was cheering, yelling, and stomping on the bleachers for the entire 4th quarter. Shots started falling, they made their free throws and played incredible defense. The cheers were led by a surprising group, one of 30-40 grade schoolers. It was awesome! I was very impressed with the team. Dave installed a 2-3 zone for the first time in 4 years, and his team played it quite well given they had only a couple of days of practice with it. Dave made some incredibly great adjustments and shifts in strategy that kept the Lakers, and their Hall of Fame head coach, off guard. After the game, Dave hosted a party at his house that was very fun.

Vikings lose!
Sorry my loyal Viking readers, I'm happy.

Family fun
Due to the Packers no longer playing, my Sunday's are suddenly much more free. Today, during the Viking game, even though it was below zero out, I went sledding on a nearby hill with my son. The hills are a little steep, so I had a little hesitation of my 4 1/2 yr old going down, but he got a new inflatable tube to sled on. I had nothing to worry about. He was large (figuratively speaking) and in charge. We had an absolute blast! We weren't able to stay out very long due to the cold, but what time we had was great.

Friday, January 14, 2005

Reason to be happy

Ted Thompson has accepted the job as the new Packer's GM, thus making Sherman just the head coach. This is a great move for all. Thompson has been very instumental in getting players during the Packer's SB runs and great teams in the '90s and also for getting great players for the Seahawks, his current employer. His 8 years previous here with the Pack give him an automatic head start as he is very familiar with the people here. Also, given that he was Ron Wolf's right hand man, and is getting obscenely great reviews from Ron, I could not be happier with this. He'll have a tough job this year getting the salary cap straightened out, but his drafting skills are impeccible. I'm giddy for not only next year, but the Packers have got themselves someone who will be able to keep this team in the upper eschelon of the NFL for years to come. Now, if the Packers can somehow get Mr. Bates from Miami as their DC, I might just explode with joy. Next year is not looking so bad. Read about Ted at the Packers.com website. http://www.packers.com/news/releases/2005/01/14/1/

Speaking of exploding with joy, great news that the sale of the Brewers has been finalized by the MLB owners to Mark Attanasio. He has made some incredible trades already and has gotten the better end of all of them. He's willing to give the fans an actual solid team worth cheering for, versus the previous ownership that would only use hype. Mark did the smart thing by keeping Yost as the coach as he is very good. For the first time since I was a kid, I am actually looking forward to the Brewers baseball season.

Chaaaaaarrrrge It!

I've been looking forward to this weekend for the past month or so. Reason why is that my best friend Gabe is coming to town. We are going to go the Dassel-Cokato Chargers high school basketball game. A good friend of ours, Dave, is the head coach and this will be our first time watching him in action. The school is dedicating the new gym tomorrow as well and having a pork patty feed prior to the game. Whooo wheee! I love me a pork patty feed! After the game, there will be some beer and poker, blackjack, craps and other fun card games with some other friends of Dave. Last time we all got together, it was a lot of fun, but I lost $, so this time I plan sweet, cold revenge. Hey, I've been watching some World Series of Poker, so I have a chance... yeah, right. The only downside is that it's going to be about -20, if not colder, and DC is about an hour away. Crikey! My wife had the great idea that I should be getting my winter emergency car kit together. I definately have to go shopping tonight.

There is Packer and Brewer news that I will touch upon later. Needless to say, I'm very happy about all of it.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Conundrum of the Week

Here it is, the 2nd installment of this week's conundrum. This one took me a while to figure out. Enjoy!

Adam, God made out of dust
But thought it best to make me first,
So I was made before man
To answer God's most Holy plan.
A living being I became
And Adam gave to me my name.
I from his presence then withdrew
And more of Adam never knew.
I did my Maker's law obey
Nor ever went from it astray.
Thousands of miles I go in fear
But seldom on earth appear.
For purpose wise God did see,
He put a living soul in me.
A soul from me God did claim
And took from me the soul again.
So when from me the soul had fled
I was the same as when first made.
And without hands, or feet, or soul,
I travel on from pole to pole.
I labor hard by day, by night
To fallen man I give great light.
Thousands of people, young and old
Will by my death great light behold.
No right or wrong can I conceive
The scripture I cannot believe.
Although my name therein is found
They are to me an empty sound.
No feat of death doth trouble me
Real happiness I'll never see.
To Heaven I shall never go
Or to Hell below.
Now when these lines you slowly read,
Go search your Bible with all speed
For that my name is written there
I do honestly to you declare.

What am I?

Edit: Answer is now in the comments section

Call now and receive...

Some of the best programming on TV are infomercials. Seriously. When was the last time you saw one and weren't completely compelled to continue watching it? They are quite dangerous though, I mean, those happy, helpful people on TV pimping their amazing new product may just convince you that absolutely have to have their latest invention. Not only will it, through space-age technology (ooooo, sounds cool), remove the fat from your food (how healthy!), but can also be used to press your clothes to be wrinkle free (how helpful!), and help your children to read and get better grades in school (how happy!) . I am wondering how I developed into a quasi-normal, educated, happy person without it. But wait that's not all... they are willing to throw in bonus gift of a dog dandruff shampoo/car wax kit in for free, and it's valued at $50!!! Plus, if you call within the next 45 minutes, you can get one of payments for this progam knocked off. This is the dangerous part, as they always show the price for the monthly payment it costs, not the full blown price. I mean, who cannot afford and easy $39.99/mo (hey, most people spend more on gas). Sure, it's over a 5 month period, but that's conveniently forgotten by the free stuff that's added and hey, isn't happiness priceless?

Why do I bring this up today? Well, for the last 2 years I have been raving about the Ron Popeil Showtime Rotisserie Oven to my wife. I would even start talking like they do on TV to her. She has made fun of me often about this, however, this all changed on Christmas. Why? Because she actually bought me one! I could not believe it. I was so giddy that I almost wet my pants (I knew that Sylvia's Stain Remover would get the stain and smell out; after all, she was able to remove 21 different stains at the same time from a shirt during her infomercial, the secret's in the bat guano, which is world renown for it's cleaning power) . I was immensely looking forward to the first chicken that I was going to make. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. The chicken was just fantastic, just as good as on TV. My wife has even become a believer in it and loves it. We'll be using it for the 3rd time tonight for more chicken. It makes the house smell great (that was something they never plugged, what a bonus!). Moral of the story: Infomericals are not all that bad, in fact, people should buy more of the items they see on them.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Mr. Crankbutt

Here is another regular feature for my blog. Mr. Crankbutt will from time to time stop by and rant about something that pisses him off about life in general. I never know what topic he's going to rant about or what he will say. So, without further ado I give you: Mr Crankbutt.

You people who drive while talking on cell phones really piss me off. And no, I don't have one, why not? you may ask. Because I don't want or need to be that available. Things in life are not that important that you have to have 1,500,000 minutes of phone time each month. "But what about an emergency?" To this I respond, how often have you had an honest to goodness emergency in your life? That criket's chirping sound I hear answers my question.

What's the biggest use of cell phones? To call your friends while driving in your car. Here is a typical conversation:

Idiot #1: Hi, what are you doing?
Idiot #2: Nothing, you?
Idiot #1: Nothing, just driving home.
Idiot #2: Ok
Idiot #1: So what are you doing tonight?
Idiot #2: I don't know, you?
Idiot #1: Beats me.

This stimulating and necessary conversation goes on for 15-20 minutes. I am sick of seeing drivers swerve all over the road without using their blinkers being willfully oblivious to the existing traffic, go 20 mph in a 35 mph zone, and my personal favorite, realize that they were so busy talking to their friend about what they are going to do next Thursday that they forget where they are going, realize their turn or exit is fast approaching and then they need to quick jump over 2 lanes in 10 feet to make it. Then I see them with one hand next to their head chatting away about the latest episode of the "OC". You put my life and that of my family at risk for your "convenience". What is the first thing I see people do, more often than not, as they approach and get into their cars? Yep, call someone on their cell. It's like some Pavlovian response they have from getting near a car. "I can still pay attention driving while on the phone" No you can't. Can you follow a TV show, completely, and talk on the phone at the same time? No, either you can pay attention to the person on the phone or what's on TV. This is exactly like driving, with the windows and windshield as the TV screen, it's one or the other. If you HAD to make that call, then you should have planned your day better and made that call prior to leaving. I'd rant some more, but I see someone about to get into their car and they are starting a call. It's time to deliver a "hands free" beating with my size 12 shoe.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

I gotta have more bongos!

Last night, my wife and I went to the Timberwolves game with our good friends and neighbors, Shane and Molly. The tickets were free from Molly's brother, to which, I thank him. We were going to go out for dinner prior to the game and have a nice evening away from the trying riggors that is parenthood. There was of course the everpressing question that comes up when going out "What am I going to wear?"

Now, this issue can be resolved in several different ways. One, simply pull out a pair of jeans and a decent dress shirt or sweatshirt and go. Or you can ask your other members of your party what they are wearing. The second option is by far the more amusing. Usually this degenerates to "I don't know, what are you wearing?". Now, let me just say that this second option is by far more common with those of the female persuation than of the testosterone gifted, as we simply don't care, unless it's for a sporting event of which we either have money bet on, or have sold our souls in an effort to help the team do well. Given the T-Wolves do not fall into either of the categories for me, the clothes were easy.

This leads me to the ensuing conversation between my wife and Molly:
Rachel: "Hi Molly, what are you wearing"
Molly: "I don't know, probably not something nice"
Rachel: "Why not?"
Molly: "Because there will be beer and hot dog juice flying around"

Wait a second, hot dog juice flying around? Now, I've been to college football games where spaghetti with red sauce was thrown around, but never anything like this, especially at professional level games.

Anyway, when we got to the game, Molly dressed in her hot dog juice repellant outfit and an interesting thing occurred. A Laker fan came to the game with a set of bongos. This guy was just having a blast, banging on the bongos when the Lakers did well. There were some that were annoyed by him and let him know. But hey, he wasn't yelling any profanities or being a jerk, just having fun and cheering for his team. At first I was annoyed a bit as well, but after about 5-10 minutes, I couldn't get enough of them. I had to hear more bongos! It was like the Saturday Night Live skit where Will Ferrell is playing the cowbell while ELO was recording "Don't Fear the Reaper". Christopher Walken was the producer and kept coming out saying "I can't get enough cowbell, I need to hear more cowbell". It helped make for a very enjoyable evening.

Oh, and there were no incidences of hot dog juice being flung at or near Molly. She claims that some came from the side, through her glasses, into her eye, ricocheted out, somehow hit her hand, soaked through the aforementioned hot dog juice repellant outfit, got her arm wet then went back through the outfit and then smudged the outside of her glasses. While she cannot provide any proof this happened, any liquid that did hit her was likely her husband's tears from the T-Wolves blowing a 16 point lead and losing.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

All Good Things...

Well, the Packers got humiliated by the Vikings at Lambeau. The Packers came out extremely flat and figured they could win by just showing up. As poorly as Favre played, I am putting this loss mostly on Sherman and the coaching staff. How the hell does a team come out this bad and spot their biggest rival 17 points in the 1st Q? The offense was lost and the defense was worse in the first half. The D improved a lot in the 2nd half, but the offense was worse. Favre had an awful game and I am not even sure what was going on in his head. Bottom line, the Vikings came out like they wanted to win and kicked the Packer's asses. Walker's injury was a big detriment to the Packers coming back as was Davenports, but injuries happen and good teams should overcome them. It almost seemed as though the Packers resigned themselves on offense that they couldn't do anything. This should have been Sherman's and the coaching staffs job to get this offense back on track. Favre disappointed today, games like this happen in the postseason too often with him. Realistically, I did not think the Packers were going to win the SB this year as their defense is too bad, but I would rathered they beat the Vikings first. There is always next season I guess... I'll talk about that another time though.

At this time, I would like to send my sincerest thanks to my wife, Rachel. She endures my Packer addiction and does what she can to enable me to watch the Packers games during the season. She has done everything from watching our 2 children to serving snacks and dinner for me and Shane (my neighbor) while the games are going on. She normally detests professional sports and is turned off by the $ involved and the ego-centric players. However she puts all that aside to make me happy, without any strings attached. She is there to console me after Packer losses and celebrates their wins with me. I could not ask for a better wife. Thanks sweetie!

Friday, January 07, 2005

Conundrum of the Week

Here is one of regular features that I intend to post here. I love this stuff and used to do logic puzzles on a regular basis. Granted, I wasn't any good at them, but I still love the challange. I came up with this idea on New Year's Eve while hanging out at Shane's house. We were just reading cards from Mind Trap. It got me back in the mood for this stuff. I figured that this would be a fun way to infuriate those who care to read this site. I'll post the answer (and how it was deduced) in the comments field in a couple of days. Feel free to comment on what you think the answers are. Here is this week's conundrum:

A man is walking in the country and witnesses a murder. However, he continues walking on and does not report it to the police. Why not?

Edit : The answer is now in the comments section.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Idiot Box Bliss

Ahhhh wonderous TV. What else can satisfy so much and ask so little in return? Enter my favorite show: Alias. I have watched this show since it's beginning. The thing that keeps bringing me back is that it is essentially a Bond movie, except in one hour weekly blocks. Ok Ok, Jennifer Garner plays a big part of me coming back to the show. Ooooohhhh the outfits, the slow motion panning cameras, the... huh um... sorry, let my brain wander a bit there. Now then, where was I? Oh yes, it's like a Bond movie. Constant action sequences, stunts and fight scenes that are worthy of movies, all on the small screen. The characters are so well done on the show. They have all been given such great depth and they're addicting. My favorite, other than Jennifer... Jennifer... um, sorry about that, my testosterone and all. My 2nd favorite character is Marshall. His complete non-sequitors towards what is actually going on are absolutely hysterical. There seems to be no filter between his head and his mouth, much like me if you ask my wife. The first 2 seasons were outstanding, and last year's Rimbaldi and prophecy hunt was a bit out there, but enjoyable. This season's opener was quite good. I am looking forward to another wonderful season of the best show on TV.

Three for One

This coming Sunday is the Packer playoff game, and I am quite stoked about it. They get to play the Vikings in their 3rd meeting of the year. The Packers have, as many of you who care know, won the previous 2 by an identical score of 34-31. Overall the Packers have won 4 of the last 5 meetings. Now, some Viking fans have the fallacious logic that the Vikes are now due for a win. Poor deluded souls. This "rivalry" is starting to turn out like the Packers/Bears games, you know, how the Packers have won the last 8 of the last 9, dominating the poor Illinisians. The Vikes are a team without heart, leadership and confidence. All of these are essential for any type of playoff success. Sure they have talent, but that alone means nothing without the previous qualities.

Living in MN, I have heard much from the fans saying how NOW the Vikes need to come out and play with aggression on defense and a killer instinct on offense. The Vikings have not shown either of these qualities for the last 5 weeks, and very little of it since week 6. Just because they are playing the Packers, these traits are not going to suddenly appear. "Remember opening day 2003!" is the cry of desperation the fans shout. That team is long gone, get over it.

The Packers are going to win this game for the following 3 reasons:

1- They have confidence in themselves right now. They went 9-2 to finish the season strong and know they can overcome their shortcomings on defense.

2- It's at Lambeau. Yeah, the Packers are only 4-4 at home this season. But the Vikes suck outside, and it beats the hell out of playing at the Big Inflatable Toilet in MN.

3- The Vikings don't believe they can win. They went 1-4 to end the season and their only win was by a botched extra point against Detroit. The Pack get up early on this team, they will fold. The Vikings are just waiting for something bad to happen to give them a reason to quit.

That's this "experts" ideas on the game on Sunday. Tune in another time for more meaningless drivel.

If you want to get some Viking perspective, feel free to click on the link for "A blog much cooler than mine". It's my good buddy Shane's blog. He works for the U of M and is a webmaster there. So, he has the smarts to design his own blog (along with the blogs of the U of M UThink system as well). I visit his site at least 3-4x/day just to see what he has put up. He is quite a good writer in my opinion and was my inspiration to start my own blog, so you can blame him for me being here.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

The Oracle has awakened!

Welcome to my blog, ok you know this is a blog by the url, but hey, I need to have something of an opening statement. Basically I opened this as a way to improve my writing and to just muse, vent, analyze and other brainy-type things. Nothing earth-shattering here, just hoping to amuse and entertain those who stumble upon this. Many will say that this simply just clogs the web and should be deleted, but to them I say "True, but I'm not going away, so bugger off!" Anyway, enjoy yourself and happy surfing!