Not quite up to the challenge

The Badgers B-Ball team fell to #22 Wake Forest last night 88-91 as they could not find an answer for Justin Gray (37 pts). Tucker (27 pts) and Butch (19 pts/ 10 rbs) played outstanding for the Badgers. The fact that the Badgers hung with a good program on the road is very encouraging. I did not think the Badgers would win the game, but they responded very well to two 10 pt defecits during the game and almost won it. The Big 10 is currently tied 3-3 with 5 games to go in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge which the ACC has owned for the last 5 years. Iowa and MI State should win their games, Indiana is going to be crushed by Duke (I f*cking HATE them!), MN will get spanked by Maryland and NW will probably lose to Virginia even though it will be the closest game of the 5. ACC will most likely win this series (again) 6-5.

Get that shit outta here!


The Bucks pulled off a glorious victory last night over the now 10-4 Dallas Mavericks at the Bradley Center 113-111 in OT. The Bucks were without Redd and Smith for the game and the rest of the crew came through big time. The game was sealed when Andrew "ROY" Bogut (19 pts 14 rbs) blocked Jason Terry's last second shot (see above photo from the JS). Comeback Player of the Year TJ Ford also was huge with 24 pts and 7 assists. An equally big contributor was Bobby "don't call me Russell" Simmons with 26 pts and 7 rbs. Unsung bench player Mo Williams dropped 16 pts to aid in the offensive onslaught. I talked about the depth the Bucks had at the beginning of the season and it showed in this game with 2 starters out. The Bucks are 7-6 and once again outrebounded their opponents. Like I said on Monday, they keep doing that and the wins will keep coming.

Hodgepodge

Thanksgiving at my parent's new place this year was a rather big affair. It was the first time in quite a while that all six kids were together with all of their kids as both myself and my oldest sister live out of state (she's in TX). So it was one quite full house, but a lot of fun was had by all.

We ended up staying at my sister Amy's house as her and her husband have a huge home, so there was plenty of room for all. They have a very nice dog that my kids just loved being around, and an evil cat that unsucessfully tried several times to kill us all in our sleep, but the dog took care of him each time.

Amy's husband Tom works for a construction company for his dad. Tom's pretty much in charge of the business and is the heir to the throne. So he used his power to take my son off to where the construction equipment is kept and had him sit in the cab with him of a huge excavator. Now, my 5 year old loves construction so he just about burst with excitement. Tom showed him how everything worked and even let Adam manuever the excavator around and dig a hole. It was awesome! No pictures unfortunately right now as my camera was at home and my sister had not sent me the pictures from her camera yet. Adam had a great time and was grinning ear to ear. Not too many 5 year olds can say they have worked some serious construction equipment. He even was saying that he wanted to stay and live with Tom and Amy so that he could work on the equipment all the time.

One of the highlights of the weekend though, was playing Texas Hold 'Em with Tom's friends. There were 10 of us total at the table and yours truly who has not played poker in about 1.5 years, walked away the winner and $100 richer. Once you find out who bluffs and how they play, your odds of walking away the winner go up tremendously. Winning the final hand with pocket kings (my first pocket pair of the night) certainly helped things out.

I had my 35th birthday on Sunday and it was good. I was given my gifts in bed by my wife and kids in the morning. My son had a huge smile on his face with the card and gift he got me, which was the game of Battleship. After we went to church, we came home, set the game up and played. After a long game, I ended up winning 5-4. Hey, I can beat my son at a game on my birthday so don't go crying about that I should have gone easy on him. You try intentionally throwing a game to a 5 year old and see how easy it is. Oh and Shane, I think we have our final event for the Backyard Border Battle to go with chess and bowling.

Packers
I totally disagree with Bob McGinn about his article on why the Packers lost the game. He states that the defense is at fault for not being able to stop a team at the end of a game. They should not be in that spot to begin with as I point out at The Frozen Tundra.

Badgers
With their win in Hawaii, they finish the regular season with a 9-3 record and the Capital One Bowl in their sights. The officials from the bowl have said that unless Ohio State gets screwed by the BCS bowls, that the Badgers get the nod. A January 2 bowl is a great way for Barry to go out.

Brewers
A great article by Tom Haudricourt over at the Journal Sentinel about Bud Selig, and what a great commissioner he has been. I could not agree more. He has his critics and has made some mistakes. But his successes have been outstanding and frankly the game is much better than it ever has been.

Bucks
After the great start, they have cooled off a bit. I am not too worried as they have played a rather tough schedule and are still looking good. They are outrebounding teams and eventually that will result into more and more wins.

One heck of a trip

The wifey and I were in attendance at the latest Packer debacle this past Monday night. It was a great time despite how the game ended.

My mother-in-law arrived on Sunday afternoon and Rachel and I were off to Sheboygan to spend the night with her cousin. They had bought a home there and we had not been able to see it as of yet (given it is 5.5 hours away, you can see why). They have a beautiful home on a 31 acre plot of land. It is heaven on earth for her cousin's nature-loving husband.

One quick note on the drive to Sheboygan. We were on Hwy 29 and there was a trooper on top of a bridge that went over the highway. I noticed him too late and thought I was busted. After passing under the bridge, I looked back and saw him start to go towards the ramp. I was doing about 73 mph (65 mph zone) and started getting my wallet ready for the officer and I even began apologizing to Rachel. We saw the officer turn on his lights, but as luck would have it, he was getting the guy who was 2 cars behind me! Whoooo!

On Monday we drove up to Green Bay and went to Lambeau Field to visit the Packer Hall Of Fame and have lunch at the stadium. Rachel was dressed to kill and looked gorgeous. There were at least a dozen guys while we were there who gave her long looks and checked her out as she walked by. It's so cool having a hot wife! The HOF is just a wonderful place to visit as I still get chills with some of the radio and TV highlights from days gone by. The food at Curly's Pub is a bit pricey, but it is fantastic. We split a fish fry plate for an extra $2 (which was still a lot of food) so that we could dive into the tailgate later on.

After both of us made our contributions to the local Native American tribe (aka losing money at the Oneida Casino) it was off the hotel to quickly change into gametime attire and off to the tailgate as part of our package from Fuzzy's bar.

It was a festive atmosphere at the tailgate, even though it was inside the Reusch Center which is a block from Lambeau Field. Brats, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, potato salad, baked beans, chips and cheese and cookies galore awaited us. They had a DJ playing and he was doing a contest as to who had come the farthest to the game, there were fans from NY, CA, FL and Alaska. But the winner was a soldier who had just come back from Iraq. He got a nice round of applause.

After a while we left our tailgate party to check out how the tailgating was in the parking lot at the stadium. It was incredible! The smell of steaks and brats was like ambrosia to the senses. There were Viking and Packer fans intermingling and having fun, it was great to see. There was a 5 piece band going around playing polkas and other songs for the tailgaters. One of the funniest things was that a guy was tailgating and had a deer he had killed earlier in the day on top of his car. What the hell?

Upon arriving at our seats in the stadium, my wife was simply in awe. Even being 42 rows up, you did not need binoculars to see the action. The views in the stadium are just outstanding. Needless to say, Rachel was duly impressed. The fans around us were fun and there were no problems between the Viking fans and the Packer fans during the game. The game did not end as I would have liked it to, but it was a great experience nonetheless, even though we could not feel our toes in the 4th quarter. A pleasant drive home ended a great 3 day trip with my wife.

I'll update the site next week as we are now off to my parents for Thanksgiving. Have a good one everybody.

Update: I completely forgot to plug my latest entry at The Frozen Tundra: A Tale of Two Cities.

Are you ready for some football?

This Sunday I'm off to the motherland to pay homage to America's Team at the Mecca of sporting facilities. That's right I'm off to Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI to see the Packers on Monday Night Football to do what I like to call: kick the holy hell out of the Vikings. It should be a fun trip with my wife as it will be her first professional football game that she has attended. We'll be staying with her cousin in Sheboygan on Sunday night, then having a nice leisurely drive to Green Bay on Monday and even go to the casino there and play what I like to call: a little blackjack. I'll give you all a recap of the trip on Wednesday next week.

Fun Links (and I don't mean the sausage racers)
Fun video about the Vikes from Packer Palace. These guys have way too much time on their hands.

Nasty NFL hits throughout the years. Some completely memorable hits like Earl Campbell running over defenders, Atwater's hit on Okoye and yes, Joe Theisman's injury is on there at the very end, so if you have a weak stomach just stop watching at that point.

My blog's worth over $9k, how much is yours worth? (Poor Shane gets the goose egg)

Michael Redd is a very classy person. He essentially built a church for his father's congregation. Cost him millions apparently. Many "experts" questioned the wisdom of the Bucks giving him such a big contract in the offseason. Something tells me they did the right thing as he may just be the best man in the NBA.

The Fab Five

It's back! My segment where I surf the Net (or actually just the blogspot blogs via the 'next blog' button in the upper right corner) so you don't have to. I'll also give summaries of the sites for your amusement. So, without further ado, let's see what's out there...

Voronha
A wonderful site from Uruguay (in Spanish mind you) where we see the life of a pimp partying with his women. Lots of pictures of him and his stable of lovely ladies partying in a bar. You can actually see money exchanging hands between the ladies and the Johans (that's Johns in Spanish). Next family trip, Uraguay!

Your Ants Resources
Quite possibly the oddest blog I have ever run across (and this includes the Greek ones). It's a blog about ant news, ant jokes and other ant-related items. The author is obsessed with killing and destroying them. He has even made an ant prison for them, but they keep burrowing out under the walls or just climbing over them and escape. This prompted a change in tactics and he just started napalming the little bastards.

Pouco Sozinho
A Ukranian site by a lady who lists all of the things you can buy her and places you have to take her to have her be your mail order bride. As an added incentive, she has a picture of her feet to titilate you into ponying up the goods. Ooo la la!

Life in a Tiny Pond
A teenager's blog in Malaysia. She offers her latest dream where things are wierd and she seems confused all the time. But, it's better than her real life when she wakes up, so she goes back to bed.

Stick and Ball Guy
Hmmmm, this blog looks familiar somehow. Anyway, it's this sports writer wannabe who writes about how he loves trains, sticks and balls (Freud is having a field day with all this by the way). He has this obsession with Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter and Kevin Garnett that is beyond healthy (again, Freud is salivating over this).

I like big Bucks and I cannot lie

The Bucks do it again. For the 3rd time in 4 wins they come back in the 4th quarter and pull out the win, this time Mo Williams with the cold-blooded 3 pointer at the buzzer to win 103-102 over the Indiana Pacers. The Bucks are proving all the pre-season doubters wrong so far with their incredible never-say-die play. They have a tough test coming up with a 4 game road trip and 3 of those games coming over 4 days. Should be a good barometer for the season as to how they do on this trip.

Badgers
They could not send off Barry with a W in his last home game, which was disappointing. The Badgers got outplayed from the 2nd Q on by the Hawkeyes. A win against Hawaii in 2 weeks along with some help from some other teams could still land the Badgers in a January Bowl game, which would be a great way to end the season.

Packers
My latest Packer musings are over at The Frozen Tundra, I call it: You Gado be kidding me.

She's leaving me (but coming back)

My wife is going to a Hearts At Home conference in Rochester tonight and tomorrow. It's a great time for stay-at-home moms to get together and have some Christian fellowship. My wife has always come home from this in a great mood and speaks very highly of the experience. She is looking forward to the 1.5 days away and she absolutely deserves it (and more). She's been working quite a bit lately and is needing this.

So this afternoon and tomorrow I get the kids all to myself. Not sure what we're going to do yet, but we'll have fun somehow, because after all, I'm a fun guy, just go ahead and ask me.

Bucky Badger
Barry's last home game as coach is this Saturday against the average Hawkeyes. It's going to be an emotional day not only for him, but for the fans as well. Even though the Badgers defense has been battered, I expect an inspirational game tomorrow, culminating with a big win over the Iowegians.

My "Ying and Yang theory" was destroyed last weekend when both the Badgers and the Packers lost. So this weekend they should both win then to help balance things out.

Good Old Shane
Well it seems that me calling him out and mocking him has paid off as Shane has decided that he does want to continue the Backyard Border Battle. We will be going bowling sometime in the near future so stay tuned to hear how I whip him in this event, thus solidifying what I like to call: the superiority of the WI side of the backyard.

Called out

I have heard from many a loyal reader of the Oracle the following question:

"What's happened to the Backyard Border Battle with Shane?" (Ok, they don't use a hyperlink when they ask, but you get the picture)

What has happened to it indeed. I have to answer these die-hard fans of the site that I really don't know what the status of this illustrious (and now famous) competition is. However, the fact is that I do know and today I must say something about it.

It's all Shane's fault.

Ever since I started winning events, including the last 3 of croquet, Stratego and mini-golf (oh, I'm up 4-2 by the way) Shane has been more and more reluctant to engage me in any sort of competition. He won't even rake leaves at the same time I do for fear he will be put to shame by my superior raking ability.

Today however, I'm calling you out Shane. I will no longer accept the lame excuses that you give for ducking me. Such infamous excuses such as:

• "I've got to be a den mother for my son's scouting troop tonight, I'm teaching them how to make pretty dresses."
• "I'm in the middle of this really great book on how they made potpourri in the year 1656."
• "I have Bible study tonight, and I cannot miss how the book of Numbers ends!"
• "I have to go wash my mom's hair tonight, then after that I need to hold the yarn while she knits."
• "I had a rather rough encounter with a daddy-longlegs spider earlier this morning and I still have not recovered from that brush with death."

It's not going to work anymore Shane, you have to face me. Time for you stand up and be a man.

Packer Mid Season Review

I have a Mid Season Review over at the Tundra with 3 special guests giving their input. It's a bit lengthy but, overall a good read as we each tackle 6 different topics.

Broken Record

The title will take you to The Frozen Tundra for my latest Packer babblings, they are just depressing this year. It was bound to happen and long overdue.

The Badgers lost to Penn State and thus are out of the running for the Big Ten title. It wasn't surprising that they lost as the defense just cannot handle good offenses. A ranking of 19 is fair for this team and a 10 win season is definately achievable.

The Bucks are the best team in the NBA with 3 4th Q comebacks this season already. I have an official man-crush on TJ Ford.

Not much today, I got a lot to do.

Days of our Packers

The continuing stoooooorrrrry of Pack who's gone to the dogs.

Today over at The Frozen Tundra I have a Packers/Steelers preview with Mike Boyko who blogs for the Steelers.

Other Packer items of note:

• Joey Thomas gets cut from the Packers. Given he was their nickel back this was surprising. His attitude was his downfall as he simply would not recognize his flaws and refused to be coached did him in. I have no problem with a move like this and maybe this then lights a fire under Carroll that this could happen to him and thus forces him to improve his game.
• Brett Favre states that should Sherman go, that he would retire. His reasoning is that it's too far along in his career to learn a new offense. Frankly I agree with him, after 14 years there's no reason to start over. As I said at the start of the season, enjoy this year as I believe it will be Favre's last one, and now with him tying his fate to that of Sherman, who is likely gone at the end of the season, it seems an even more likely scenario.
• Al Harris should be a Pro-Bowler this year, he has been absolutely dominant in coverage

Bucky Badger

The Badgers have a game that is essentially for the Big Ten title this weekend at Happy Valley against Penn State. Penn State wins, they just have to win their last game at MI State for the title. WI wins, they just have to beat Iowa at Madison for at worst a co-Big Ten title with Ohio State. This game matches up one of the best offenses in the country (Badgers) versus one of the best defenses (Penn State). Should be an outstanding game. Badgers will win though, no doubt about it.

You can't stop the Bucks

You can only hope to contain them!

The Bucks started out the NBA season last night with a huge road win over Allen "I have to take 30 shots a game" Iverson and Chris "Not if I do first" Weber 117-108 in OT.

This season's Comeback Player of the Year, TJ Ford pushed aside all concerns about his health with a blistering line of 16 pts, 14 assists and 9 rbs; yes you read that right, kid misses a season and a half and comes back to nearly post a triple double in his first game.

Michael Redd was his usual All-Star self with 30 points, including a 3 pointer to send the game to OT with 1.6 seconds left. Newly acquired Bobby Simmons was spectacular with a double-double of 22 pts, 12 rbs.

The big men were certainly not silent. Jamaal Magloire provided a solid 9 rebound night and Rookie of the Year Bogut put in a line of 13 pts and 9 rbs.

There were some concerns about the Bucks rebounding coming into the season, so the Bucks made the big move of trading Mason for Magloire. This move seems to have paid off as the Bucks dominated, and I mean dominated the boards with a 53-39 advantage.

I am really stoked about this year's Bucks squad. Getting back The Little Engine That Could, TJ Ford is huge for this team as he is the key to their success. When he is on the court, this team plays at an extremely high level. This team is poised to not only make the playoffs, but to contend for home-court advantage in the first round, I kid you not. The Bucks have tremendous starters and a solid, deep bench. The only problem is that they are in arguably the toughest division in basketball this year.

The Bucks are no longer all about Michael Redd. He's still "The Man", but this year he's got friends to help him out, and they got game, big time.

This season's prediction: 49-33, 3rd in the Central, #5 seed for playoffs.