Super Bowl Media Machine

The overhype machine is up to full speed now. They actually did a 2 minute story on Sportscenter, complete with interviews of the players involved, about a van with several Seahawks players on it that, hold on, wait, it's impressive...
bumped into a post going 2 miles per hour... Apparently some of the players were shaken. As opposed to stirred? Forfucksake, let the game start already.

Let's see, what else have we learned about the Super Bowl?

• Jerome Bettis might be too distracted by "coming home" that he won't get his 4 carries for 3 yards and 3 td's.
• Seahawks owner Paul Allen gave the team one of his 757's to fly around in and they have many types of media the players can watch, ranging from tv to dvd. Wow...
• San Fran beat Cinci in the last super bowl played in Detroit (come on, do the Icky Shuffle).
• More to come as today is the official MEDIA DAY! Oh boy...

Enough on the super bowl.

Ok, this is something that made me angry this morning and that's not how I like to spend my 5:45 to 6am wake up tv watching... Mike Greenberg of Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio decided that Brett Favre's comments about retiring the other day were really meant to say that he wants out of Green Bay and wants to be traded or cut and go to a winning team AND that he thought that he and T.O. should go to Miami and they would win the Super Bowl. Man, talk about someone that's got his head up his ass. Does anyone (without his head up his ass) think that Brett would actually play for someone other than GB? No chance...

Speaking of T.O., looks like he's meeting with Denver trying to work out a trade. Again, Mike and Mike both commenting on how Shanahan would be able to control T.O. because he's a "strong personality". Likewise with Parcells and Saban. Ok, so what does that make Andy Reid? They're basically calling him a big puss...

And now it's time for *da da daaaaaa*, the 24 recap. Again, if you haven't watched yet or just plain don't give a shit, stop reading here.

Jack Bauer convinces CTU that he should meet with Mike Skovic of the President's staff to tell him about Walt Cummings plan. Cummings overhears and tells the Pres that he is behind the plan to steal the nerve gas and they plan on remotely detonating it from satellite when the terrorists get it back to their "hide out". Ok, the President surely wouldn't believe that load of crap would he? Yes, he would. He orders Bauer and Skovic arrested and detained until the nerve gas has left the dock.

Fortunately, Jack convinces the head of the secret service to take him to the president. Once there Jack proceeds to beat the tar out of Cummings with the president watching. Cummings insists he doesn't know where the gas is. Jack then whips out his trusty knife and informs Cummings that first his right eye is coming out, then the left, then his tongue. Apprently Cummings doesn't believe him until Jack actually begins to cut just below his right eye, then he sings like a canary.

CTU swarms on the shipping container but when they get into it the gas is gone and the guy Cummings thought was the inside guy is there, dead. The man with the yellow tie is a terrorist and is going to release the gas in the U.S..

It's gonna be a long week

That was one fast weekend. I don't think I really sat down for more than a couple minutes. Unless you count dinner, that is. We went out with the neighbors for dinner at Firefly on Friday night. It's some sort of Asian influenced restaurant, owned by the same people that own several other restaurants in the area. The food wasn't too bad, but the service and the cook time were very slow. We ordered appetizers and beers right away and it took about 10 minutes to get the drinks and about 20 to get the appetizers. The main course was slow as well. The capper came when the waitress was clearing our table and dropped some green vegie thing right into my half full Summit Pale Ale. She then had the nerve to put her hand into my glass to pull it out! She stopped and just mumbled something like "I'll get you another beer..." and left. We had a good laugh.

Saturday morning I got my only relaxing time of the weekend. We watched several tivo'd shows from the week and finally got out of the house around noon. We spent the next 4 hours checking out ceiling tiles and wainscoting and picking out new master bathroom light fixture and framed mirror. Then it was time for bowling. I continued my struggles, shooting a paltry 566, and as I go so goes the team. We lost all 7 points for the 2nd week in a row and fell to 3-18 for the 2nd half. Yikes!

I put the light fixture and mirror in on Sunday in between working on the basement. Oh, had to take the mirror back. Just so happened that the one we bought was the only one mis-labled. Instead of being a black frame, it was brown. 45 minutes later, after a quick run back to Home Depot, swearing the whole way behind some idiot in a beat up minivan that couldn't get within 10 of the speed limit, I had it hung.

I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then rushed off to hockey where we were throroughly trounced 8-1. The team we played got a new player right before we played them last time. He played division 1 college hockey and does NOT belong in our league. He scored 6 goals both times against us and I swear he was just coasting half the time. We did have a short lived 1-0 lead after one of their defensemen deflected a shot into their own goal. I managed an assist on that one.

Went to bed at 10:30 and fell asleep quickly but woke up at 11:30 and with visions of drywall in my head, I never got back to sleep until 3:30 and was awoken again at 5:15 by the dogs... so, here I sit, one 16 oz cup of coffee down, barely able to keep my eyes open. It's gonna be a long week...

Scoop or Scrape?

I wasn't going to blog today but I'm leaving for home in 20 minutes (my short day) and I have a dilemma. Do I take advantage of a 50 degree day in Wisconsin in January to start scooping up all the poop in the backyard (I have 2 dogs) that I have been avoiding ever since our first snowfall back in November? Or do I start mudding over the screw holes in the new drywall in the basement? I love my dogs but man, they can produce enough methane to power a small city... Guess I better get started on that. It's probably going to rain tomorrow anyway, I can do indoor work then. Really I should be out playing golf and probably would if it wasn't so damn windy.

Drywall hanging should be done by the time I get home and my brother is probably already working on the mudding and taping of the joints.

Have a great weekend!

Badgers Rebound

Ok, Bucky came out firing against Penn State last night, quickly answering my question about how they would respond by jumping out to a 40-18 half time lead enroute to a 29 point victory. Case closed...

Anyone have DirecTV or thinking about getting it? Just read some interesting news. Starting March 1st, DirecTV will start leasing their receivers, much the same way cable companies do. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Current customers won't have to pay leases on receivers they already own, so that's good. They will be a little cheaper than buying but you'll have to pay $4.99 per month to lease so in the long run do you save? Probably not. But, maybe you can upgrade more easily and you won't have to worry about it breaking down. You may, however, get a used box... that's not cool. Anywho... should be interesting to watch.

Bowling went horribly last night for all of us, except gerks who managed his career best with a 595 (just missed the 600 needing a 175 3rd game, I know he's broken up about it). We got smoked all 3 games, in large part to one guy shooting a 737. We bring out the best in our opponents. I still say we need to be meaner, distracting, whatever... I struggled with my wrist in the 3rd game and shot a paltry 155 with 4 splits to only shoot 586. Just didn't have the strength to throw it hard enough when the oil went away. Oh, and I got a blunder for bowling out of turn. For some reason I went up early in the 2nd frame of the first game and threw a strike to go with my strike in the first, yay... oops, not my turn. Ok, I get a 9 instead and miss the spare then open the next frame and finally spare in the 4th before throwing 7 in a row for a 235. This will drop us out of first place for sure...

On the basement front, the drywall installation is still continuing, should probably be done today or early tomorrow. I posted some pictures from last night.

Super Mario

For the 2nd time, Mario Lemieux retired yesterday. He's been suffering from an irregular heartbeat for about 6 weeks now and realized his health was more important. He first retired after the '96-'97 season because of Hodgkin's disease. He returned in 2000 but was never able to play a full season. He saved the Penguins franchise by putting together a group that purchased the team in 1999 when it was facing bankruptcy. He is 40 years old and was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in 1997.

What is with the Red Sox and Theo Epstein? He quits in November but just comes back and takes over the same position? I've never heard of such a thing... Speaking of baseball, not long now before pitchers and catchers report for spring training. One thing to keep an eye on this spring - the ongoing showdown between Jeff Bagwell and the Houston Astros. Bagwell insists he is healed and can play and will play while the Astros want him to retire and are trying to file an insurance claim on him. Can the Astros seriously screw with Bags and expect their fans to not riot?

Raise your hands if you have this Big 10 basketball thing all figured out. I'll wait... yeah, I thought so. Iowa gets hammered by Michigan State by 30 points Saturday, then they beat 13th ranked Indiana by 13 last night. Is there anyone in this conference that's going to step up? I thought Illinois would for sure but Dee Brown is their whole offense and he's had some horrific games and they've lost. Wisconsin loses a couple of reserves and all of a sudden they can't beat North Dakota State at home? They need to rebound tonight against Penn State to show they are for real. This feels like a critical game for them to me.

Reason number 1 why Midwest Airlines just lost my business... they will now allow those little stupid Paris Hilton dogs to be IN THE CABIN! I swear to god if I hear yipping on my flight I will take that miniature rodent and flush it into blue heaven.

In a sure sign that American's have given up on the whole "get in shape" thing and have embraced their chubbiness, McDonald's saw a 53% earnings increase in the 4th quarter of '05. I know I'm doing my part... (no, that's not me!)

In TV news, looks like the WB and UPN are no more. Both will be shut down this fall and replaced with a single network called CW, standing for CBS and Warner Bros. It will target young and minority viewers with outstanding programming like "Jerry Springer" and "Blind Date"... Maybe CB can fill us in more since he works for the local CBS affiliate.

Delivery Day

Yippee, my drywall gets delivered today for the basement. Cost me an extra $100 but they're going to take it straight down to the basement, saving my brother a days worth of back breaking labor. He figures about 2 days to install, then another week to mud and tape. I can't wait to see what it looks like with walls I can't see through.

Badger hoopster Marcus Landry ruled academically ineligible and is done for the season. My thoughts - school is hard...

New Packer head coach Mike McCarthy has been on board for 12 days now... discussions with Brett Favre? Zero. And no plans to speak with him. Can you all see where this is going? I hope Brett has the clubs cleaned up and is ready to hit the links.

Despite still having the best record in division 1 hockey, the Badger men's team dropped to number 2 in the polls behind Boston College after last weekend's sweep by Denver.

Does anyone think Kobe Bryant is a ball hog for taking 46 shots? All anyone talks about is 81, 81, 81. How about passing to an open teammate, chump? 2 assists. That's it...
<--- Way to get your teammates involved.

We've got a guy on our hockey team like that. He would rather try to skate through 4 guys than make one pass and give up the puck. Very frustrating, sometimes feels like you might as well sit down since he doesn't need you.

Warning: 24 discussion ahead... if you didn't catch it last night, stop right here.

Kind of an uneventful 24 last night. Most of the show was in CTU or at the Presidents retreat. I guess in a 24 hour day not every hour is exciting, even if you are Jack Bauer. Of course, Jack did manage to kill someone so it wasn't a total loss. It was a hit man sent by Walt Cummings, the President's chief of staff, to kill Jack. Jack caught sight of him just in time and a vicious battle ensued until Jack finally jammed a pair of scissors into the man's neck. Not before Jack suffered his first injury of the day. The guy stomped on his chest and broke a rib. Guess Jack should have stayed in Flank 2 Position...
What else did we learn? Ok, Spencer Wolf was the guy that let the hit man in but it turns out he was just a stooge for Cummings, working under the assumption that the white house was investigating CTU. Next up, Jack goes after Cummings. After Buchanan reminded him that they needed evidence before CTU could make accusations against him, Jack reminded Buchanan that he didn't work for CTU (hence making him a private citizen capable of committing all sorts of crimes).

I'm in the money!

By virtue of the Steelers winning yesterday I am guaranteed money in our super bowl picking pool. I am a bit torn however. If Pittsburgh wins I win more money of course, but I also lived in Seattle for 15 years ('83 to '98) so a part of me will be rooting for them too (of course, there's also a part of me that is still thinking there's no way the Seahawks are in the super bowl!). I guess all it took was for them to get the Packers coach and backup QB and they're in. :)

Things were not so great in Buckyland this weekend. First, with their goalie on the sidelines with a knee injury the hockey Badgers managed to get a great performance from the freshman replacement, only giving up 1 goal. Unfortunately, they managed to get 0 so they lost.

Then Saturday afternoon the men's hoops team did the unthinkable... they lost to North Dakota State (the Bison).... at home... by doing this:
FG% 1st Half: 5-29 17.2% 2nd Half: 11-43 25.6% Game: 16-72 22.2%
Yikes! Easily the worst loss in the Bo Ryan era...

Then Saturday night the hockey team managed to get a couple goals but gave up 4 and got swept by 2 time defending NCAA champs Denver (did I mention I grew up with their assistant coach, Steve Miller?). The Badgers still have a lead over Denver and Minnesota but what was a seemingly insurmountable lead before, now doesn't quite seem that way.

My hockey team managed to win 6-5 in a shootout last night, no thanks to me. I was on the ice for all 5 goals they scored. I don't think I could have played any worse. I was actually hoping to get benched and took myself out towards the end. I was setting the other team up all night, got burned twice for breakaways and actually tipped in a shot from the point into our own goal. I'm going to forget it as quickly as possible. Chalk it up to a learning process, it is my first year on D, those things are bound to happen I guess.

On the basement finishing front, great progress is being made and it's possible the drywall will be completed by the end of this week. My blog on that subject is getting lots of hits (more than this one over the last couple weeks). I guess basement finishing is a more popular google search than my random musings... haha.

Bad News Badgers

Not a good day in Bucky land yesterday. First, 2 hoopsters (Stiemsma and Landry) can't make the trip to Ohio State for last night's game. They're saying Stiemsma's some kind of medical reason and Landry had an academic thing... then during the game Brian Butch sprains his ankle (he did return but looked unsteady). Shorthanded, they suffered a 10 point loss, their first league loss of the season.

Then I find out the Badgers hot shot goalie, Brian Elliott, suffered an ankle injury during practice and is now doubtful for this weekend's upcoming series with 2nd place and defending national champs Denver. I guess it was just a matter of time before they got hit with the injury bug. It's just a test. Unfortunately, the back up goalie has only played 1 game, and in that one he gave up 5 goals to a group of high school kids. Yikes....

Bucks lost too, but no one cares. I guess they couldn't concentrate with Eva Longoria in the crowd...

Lost was pretty wild last night. What's the deal with Sawyer changing his name after the plane crash? That's just weird... I thought we'd see more of the "others" last night too, rather than just that one guy. And how did Loch know that guy's name? Every time they give you an answer they just raise 20 more. Where did Michael go?

On the basement front, the framing is done. I posted a bunch of pictures for those interested.

NFC and AFC Championships

I was able to watch the first half hour of Monday's 24 last night and it basically showed me what I missed from Sunday's so everything's cool... phew.

Ok, let's talk football...
As you know, I've got the Steelers to win the super bowl. Just read an article from Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News who doesn't believe that Carolina or Pittsburgh can win this weekend because of how beat up they are from playing 2 road games. Can someone explain this to me? Do you get more beat up if you play on the road than you do at home? Are you kidding me, Pittsburgh rules the road. They're better on the road than at home. Denver was lucky last week to beat New England. They were basically handed the game and tried to give it back. I don't see anyway that Denver even competes with the Steelers, a team that completely dominated a loaded Colts team. The bus will roll over the Broncos, 28-13.

In the NFC, we have Holmgren and the Seahawks at home against another road-weary team in Carolina. Everyone talks about the Seahawks great offense and Carolina's great defense, but wait. Wasn't that Carolina marching into Soldier field and putting up 28 on the vaunted Bears D, led by the unstoppable Steve Smith? Yeah, I know that DeShawn Foster got hurt but Nick Goings carried a lot of the load last season so he's not an unknown. It's all about Steve Smith anyway. If the Bears couldn't stop them, what chance do the Seahawks have? Especially since I don't think Shaun Alexander is going to play. Holmgren is tippy-toeing around the issue but I think Alexander is still seeing stars from his concussion and I doubt the doctors will clear him to play. I may be wrong and the hawks fans better hope I am because without him they're toast. Last time the Seahawks lost a playoff game that they should have won was in Green Bay when Alexander was dominating the game early and they decided not to use him any more and they got beat. Without Shaun they are average at best. In a road-road win, Carolina sneaks by 23-20.

Now, the interesting thing. Only 1 team has ever made the super bowl by winning 3 road games to get there. That was New England in '85 and they were killed by the Bears. Now we'll have a matchup of not 1 but 2 teams that will have won 3 road games to get there. Who will be more exhausted? I still think Pittsburgh will rule in the end behind their hard nosed D and a QB who doesn't know how to lose.

23.9

I rushed home last night so I could get the rest of the basement prepared for my brother to continue framing today and when I pull into the driveway I hit the remote for the garage door and nothing. Over and over I try (I’m persistent) and nothing. I get out and try the keypad, nothing. Ok, now I’m a little pissed right off the bat since I spent so much time on that damn thing to begin with.

I end up taking the cover off (careful to not get hit in the face with it again), tighten everything up and it starts to work again. Sheesh… guess I’ll have to do this every couple months.

So, I go and finish up in the basement and sit down to watch Sunday’s 2 hour premiere of 24. I turn it on and I see football… oh crap. Football ends up eating 12 minutes of the 2 hours Tivo had recorded for me. So, I watch 1:48 of 24 and miss the last 12 minutes. What the hell happened???? Why doesn’t Tivo know the show started late and adjust automatically? That really pissed me off. I wasn’t home to know the game went long. Oh, and then I grabbed my laptop and went over to fox.com/24 to try to read about what happened and the laptop locked up on me and I had to shut it down. At that point I decided to go low tech and grabbed a book Cdubya had gotten me for Xmas, titled Marley and Me. It’s about a couple who have the world’s worst (and best) dog. No chance of the book locking up on me. I read that while she watched the Golden Globes. I’ll try to catch up with the 3rd and 4th hours of 24 tonight. Hopefully they’ll do that “previously on 24” part at the beginning and show me what I missed.

Wait, it's Monday already?

Where did the weekend go? I don't think I sat down for an hour the entire weekend.
Saturday my brother and I started framing the basement. Quit just in time to grab a quick shower and head to bowling. I couldn't get into it, I wasn't ready and the other team was a no-show. Ended up shooting a horrible 515 and we got creamed all 3 games.

Sunday we had to run all our errands and by the time that was done it was time to go to hockey, where you could definitely tell we hadn't played in a month. We lost an ugly 3-2 game against the first place team that, with a win, would have put us in first place. Oh well... lots of games still left to be played. Only really bad thing was I took a spill and injured my wrist... on my right hand... my bowling hand... I'll have to make a decision tomorrow if I'll be able to bowl Wednesday. You reading this Gerks? It was so unlucky too. I was just skating hard to the bench for a line change and went to stop and my left skate went into a rut and launched me into the boards. Ended up putting my hand down to try to catch myself and jammed it. I shook it off and kept playing, as any normal hockey player would. I suck anyway, couldn't really affect my game much.

In the NFL playoffs my Steelers stayed alive beating the Colts, despite the ref trying to give Indy the game and Bettis fumbling. I think they'll stomp Denver and meet Carolina in Detroit.

The Badger hockey team took a little trip to Colorado to play CC in a rematch of a hotly contested series they played in Madison a month ago. Bucky came through again, winning a tight one on Friday and then a 9-1 blow out Saturday, firmly cementing themselves as the number 1 team in the nation again.

Well, time to get to work. Have a great week.

Lumber day

Today is lumber buying day for my basement finishing project. Meeting my brother after I get off work at 11 to load up. We'll probably start framing tomorrow.

I spent a couple hours last night covering up everything with plastic to keep the dust and debris off. Then I laid out the room and marked the walls and door ways on the floor so we won't have to spend so much time measuring later.

I did manage to watch 4 Kings, Earl and the Office last night. 4 Kings is ok, not really edgy enough. Earl was pretty funny with Jon Favreau as the fast food manager that was a total jackass. He finally got his karma handed to him... funniest part was at the end when he was in prison and his coffee mug said "Worlds best bottom". How come Favreau is pronounced Fav-row while Favre is pronounced Farv? Makes no sense.

Mike F'ing McCarthy?

Are you kidding me? What has Mike McCarthy done to earn the job as Packers head coach? Oh, that's right, ran San Francisco's offense. Dead last in the NFL. Is that really what was needed for a team in transition offensively? And what the hell is the rush? Didn't even interview Ferentz or Pat Hill from Fresno State.
Ted Thompson needs to GO.

On a more positive front, we went 5-2 bowling again to make us 22-6 for the 2nd half. We're coming on nicely. Jim is hell bent for leather trying to catch Grinder now that he's passed Korey. He shot a 592 last night, well over his average of 178. Won't be long till he catches him if Grinder doesn't pick it up some. I had a strange night. Blew all 3 chances I had to hang someone, missed a couple spares, had a 2 splits and picked them both up. The first was a 7-9 split on a pocket hit. I don't think I'd ever picked that up before, skidding the 9 pin over and just caught the back of the 7 pin. Ended up shooting 646.

With Indiana and Northwestern losing in men's hoops last night, the Badgers are left all alone at the top with a 3-0 record (13-2 overall).

Mike Fucking McCarthy... sonofa... Guess I'll go read some more and try to figure out what the hell Thompson is thinking.

Peace out

Escape from Minnesota

I know that every time I visit our neighbors to the west that once I am safely back across the border in Wisconsin I feel a sense of relief. I'm guessing the Badger hoopsters felt the same way last night as they scrapped and clawed their way out of the Barn with a 2 point win over the pesky Gophers (aren't gophers always pesky, the little varmits... gotta get Carl Spackler to take care of them next time).
After going 0-5 from the free throw line, Alando Tucker finally admitted the stupid mask he was wearing was causing the problems. This, just 2 days after stating in an interview that it has nothing to do with the mask, it was all mental. Ok, I get it, the mask was messing with your mind... He ended up taking it off and scoring the a clutch basket on a ridiculous shot between 3 defenders. Kam Taylor continues to prove he can't play ball in front of mommy and daddy as he had another awful game in his home town. He did manage to make his free throws down the stretch as well. But, the hero of this game was freshman Joe Krabbenhoft as he was all over the place and made 2 key free throws towards the end.

Brian Calhoun, the Badger football MVP this season, will take his 2,300 all purpose yards to the NFL. Scouts have him rated as a late 1st or early 2nd rounder. He will be missed. Read an interesting story on Booker Stanley yesterday. He'll never play with the Badgers again. He's facing something like 3 felonies and 6 misdemeaners all related to his temper. He's not a nice guy, just ask his girlfriend.

On the Packer front, they still are searching for a new head coach. So far, Ted Thompson has interviewed 7 candidates: Jim Bates, Sean Payton, Maurice Carthon, Ron Rivera, Mike McCarthy, Wade Phillips and Tim Lewis. Still on the list are Russ Grimm and possibly Kirk Ferentz, the only college coach in the mix (Iowa). Are any of these guys really the answer? Are they any better than Sherman? Sherman's problem was trying to be a GM and head coach. He sucked at GM, no doubt about it. He did not suck as a head coach and every player on that team will tell you the same. Unfortunately, I think Thompson is trying to get Brett to retire and is going to pick a new coach with a completely new system in hopes that Brett decides he doesn't want to learn something new at his age (which he alluded to earlier this year).

In baseball news, Bruce Sutter was the only one elected to the hall of fame yesterday. He becomes the first pitcher in history to make the hall with 0 career starts.

Oh, and if you consider yourself a CSI type, head on over to Grinders Warehouse and take a crack at solving the Case of the Flying Fox. It's a head scratcher!

audible.com wins Adubya's "best of..." award for customer service

A year ago I got an offer to try audible.com for a couple months free. It's a site where you can download audio books to put on your iPod or whatever. I had recently gotten an iPod and I like to read so it made sense. I signed up (with my debit card to back it, I guess). I never did try it out and forgot all about it, until a week ago.

Cdubya was going over our bank stuff and asked me "what's the $21.95 every month to audible888?" I was like my usual "huh?" and then I thought, "is that audible? did I sign up for something?" So I log on and yes, I am signed up for a premium service which, for $21.95 per month, I get to download 2 books for no extra cost. Well, obviously I haven't been taking advantage of such, so I email them this:

"Ok, this is going to sound stupid but I had no idea I was getting billed $21.95 each month for my account here. I had signed up a long, long time ago with the intention that I would try it out. I never did and didn't think I was automatically set up to be billed each month. My wife does the bills and the checkbook so I never saw that it was happening and she didn't really know what it was for. She just now asked what it was and when I realized what it was I quickly looked at my account here and saw that that's what it was.
Now, the issue. I've been billed $21.95 now since March I think (about $219.50 I believe) and I have not purchased a single thing or downloaded a single thing. Would it be possible to cancel my service and refund all or some of that money? I don't think it was very clear that I was going to be billed or I certainly would have cancelled the service.
Thanks"

Now, I'm not a complete idiot, I know they're not going to just give me my money back for being stupid. The world doesn't work that way.... or does it?????

Here's the response I got today:
"Wow. I'm sorry this was not clear but in anycase I was able to go back and issue you the last 9 monthly charges made to your account. Total amount to be refunded will be 197.55. This amount will be credited to your card within 24-48 hours. The membership has been cancelled so you will no longer be charged going forward. "

How's that for customer service?

Only 349 shopping days left...

till next Christmas...
One of my pet peeves is people that leave their Christmas decorations up way too long. I figure the weekend following Christmas or maybe the one after that, everything should be gone and back to normal. Here at work they still have all the decorations up and if I still have to walk by the little electronic waving Mrs. Claus on Friday she's getting drop-kicked into next week.

Saturday was extended family Christmas day at my aunt and uncle's place in the boonies. Always nice to see my cousins and aunts and uncles, I have a pretty cool family.

Sunday my brother came over and we unloaded the basement in preparation for Basement Remodel 2006! Check out the pictures... I still can't believe it.

I tried spending Friday afternoon working on my taxes but after 2 hours and increasing frustration I gave up and played From Russia with Love on my PS2. I finished the game and am now going back and playing at the hardest level, trying to collect all the awards to unlock 2 more bonus levels. As for the taxes... looks like I'll be hiring someone for this first year of being self employed. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Badger hockey team was off but the hoops team kicked the living crap out of Michigan State on national TV yesterday! Couple that with Iowa dismantling Illinois on Saturday and the big 10 is a total toss up. Maybe Bucky has a chance after all? Maybe...

In the NFL, Pittsburgh won over Cinci after Carson Palmer tore his ACL and MCL on the 2nd play.... I have Pittsburgh in our big super bowl pool. Here's how I'd like the playoffs to go next weekend:
Wash over Seattle
Chicago over Carolina
Denver over New England
Pitt over Indy
That would wipe out everyone in our pool but me. :)

Have a great 2nd week of the year... only 50 to go after this one!

End of the Holidays

Finally, it's almost over. Monday brings back a sense of normalcy I haven't had in about 6 weeks. The decorations are put away, the lights are out, and after tomorrow (extended family xmas) we won't discuss it again for another 11 months. Can I get a halleluah? Amen brother.

Badger basketball team crushed the lowly Iowa Hawkeyes last night to get off to a great start in Big 10 conference play. I still don't think they are at the same level as Illinois and Michigan State. They can surprise some good teams but they will also lose their share of games they shouldn't.

On the football front, you can cross one coach off the list of potential Packer head coaches. Brad Childress is going to be named captain of the sinking Viking ship today.

Also on the football front, everyone please root for Pittsburgh, they were my pick in our big super bowl pool... thanks! CB, put down the voodoo doll. :)

And on the TV front, I watched Earl and the Office last night. I had given up on these long ago. Earl only because the first episode was just ok and we had so many other things we were watching at the same time, so that was probably just a mistake. I laughed my ass off last night. That show is funny, and I don't think I missed anything by not watching the dozen episodes I missed. The Office is still painful to watch at times. I would like to put a bullet in Mike Scott's (Steve Carell's character) head and end his suffering.

Is ER ending this year? There are times when the show is still entertaining but shows like last night make me want to watch reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond instead...

Peace, out!

Young burns Trojans

Visions of smoking latex in the end zone? No, that's not what I meant... Vince Young single handedly brought Texas back from dead to steal the national championship by scoring on an 8 yard run on 4th and 5 with 19 seconds left in the game.

I want to rescind everything I said previously about Reggie Bush being the obvious number 1 pick. I think Vince Young is that guy now. Wow... Tall, good arm, strong, fast, moves like Vick... I don't think any team could go wrong drafting him. The question now is, will he forgo his senior year and turn pro? I think he'd be stupid not to, what does he have left to prove? Win the Heisman? Who cares...

That said, I still don't think it would be smart for Houston to take Bush or Young. They have 2 good young players at QB and RB in Carr and Davis. What they don't have is an offensive line. If they don't improve there soon, David Carr might not live long enough to tell if he's any good. The guy is getting sacked 5 or 6 times a game. They could trade the number 1 pick for 2 or 3 pro bowl caliber lineman and improve faster than if they picked one of those 2 guys.

Segueing from the Rose Bowl to league bowling... we got off to a horrible start last night and got spanked the first game by over 100 pins. We were crap, just awful... but, we regrouped and won the 2nd game by 40 or so setting up the impossible in the 3rd game. Lead by CB's 11 strikes in a row (4 in game 2, first 7 in game 3) leading to an incredible 256 game and my 247 game we won by over 200 pins to end up 5-2 for the night. CB managed the remarkable skill of improving each game by more than 50 pins with his 148, 205 and 256 for a 607. I was pretty similar in shooting 168, 194, 247 for 609. At least my 3rd game wasn't my worst game for once. I struggled to figure out where the shot was and it wasn't till I decided to play way outside in the last game that I finally found it. I hadn't been that frustrated bowling in a long time that first game.

Basement, nerves and no sleep

I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat... I can't get the basement finishing project out of my mind. All I keep thinking about is what I've missed, what to do with all the stuff down there, how long it's going to take, how to pay for it, etc, etc, etc. Each night I wake up thinking "oh no, I forgot about that!". This is no way to go through life... I prefer that I've planned every detail down to the most minute step so there are no surprises. I feel like Seinfeld after he had to spend the night in Kramer's apartment with the Kenny Rogers Roaster sign shining in there.

My biggest problem right now is figuring out where to put everything so that there's room to build. I have this big universal gym, see, and it took me 4 days to put it together, see, and it has approximately 400 bolts, see... but it's in the way. I can't build the room around it and even if I could how do I get the carpet down? It's got to come apart, but man, what a pain in the ass.

I just realized I never touched on the Packers or Badgers yesterday. My bad...

First, the Pack. Brett's done, everyone knows it, he just hasn't admitted it yet. Especially now that Sherman has been fired (for what? going 4-12 with almost every key starter on IR?). Brett said he didn't want to learn a new offense. About the only thing that might make him reconsider would be if they hired Mariuci but that's not going to happen either. I'm just glad I watched the game and even if the Seahawks didn't play their starters in the second half, it was nice to see Brett go out with a win.

Badgers... what can you say? I thought they would get blown out in the Capital One bowl by Auburn. They were double digit dogs but they came to play and their big stars, Calhoun and Williams, had huge games. Looks like Calhoun will bypass his senior year to enter the draft. Can't blame him, he's a stud. Only bad thing to happen was Joe Thomas blowing out his knee. He's the anchor on the O-line and was playing D when it happened. Looks like that will force him to come back for one more year instead of going pro now.

Hockey Badgers. They won their little tournament against not so great competition. One interesting tidbit. They beat Northern Michigan in the final. Northern Michigan is coached by Walt Kyle, who I watched coach the Seattle Thunderbirds when I lived back there. Walt is currently coaching the US Juniors at the World Championships, which was coached by Mike Eaves 2 years ago when they won it all.

Basketball Badgers. They lost a tough one to Pitt. Pitt seems to have their number each year. They're getting better. I still think they are one really good player away from winning the big 10. They're close and should compete but until you see Butch and Steimsma start to dominate consistently they won't be better than middle of the pack.

Watched I Heart Huckabees last night. Strange movie about existential detectives that can be hired to help you find meaning in your life. Some funny parts and Mark Wahlberg is pretty good as the post-911 firefighter seeking to find meaning to his life and also to stop people from using petroleum products. Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin play the husband and wife detective team.

Get back to work!

Sorry for the delay, blogger bug got me.

Ok, with the holidays finally behind us, all you slackers should get back to work already!

Did everyone have a fun new years? We had our neighbors over for dinner, games and drinking Saturday night. We played a new game called Apples to Apples which is pretty fun. Check it out. Unfortunately we (and by we I mean everyone but me) decided to play Uno again. The last time we attempted to play Uno we had one hand last about 2 hours and I didn't want to go through that again. And wouldn't you know it, our 3rd hand lasted about 90 minutes and ended the game. I've never heard anyone else have a single hand of Uno last that long but now we've done it twice. If they ever bring that up again I'm leaving...

Sunday we watched what was probably Brett Favre's last game (especially now that Sherman has been fired). It sure looked like he was retiring from his actions and emotions. I'm guessing it's over but he probably won't announce it for a couple months.
After that we ended up watching a couple movies. First was the unrated version of The 40 Year Old Virgin. I laughed my ass off and I think I cried a little during the chest hair waxing scene... that was hard to watch! Be warned, there are about 1,400 F-bombs in that movie. Next was Cinderella Man. I really liked that one, a real "human story", starring Russell Crowe and Renee, yuk, Zellweger. Oh, and when you're looking at Max Baer and can't figure out where you've seen that actor before, let me help. He played the husband of the family that Dickie went to live with in Dickie Roberts: Child Star. It drove me nuts for a long time.

Yesterday was clean the damn basement day. We are in the process, as you know, of getting ready to finish the basement. Step 1 is to get rid of all the shit we've accumulated in 5+ years. Holy crap, what a nightmare. We filled 14 contractor size garbage bags with shit, ranging from old Christmas decorations to knick knacks from 10 years ago to old hockey helmets. I'm going to take some pictures tonight of the carnage we left behind. It's all waiting to go to the dump along with a ton of stuff for Goodwill (futon, chair, bookcase, etc). The entire basement is full except for the shelves which are now nicely organized and only have stuff on it we actually use.

When we finally quit it was about 6:30. Both of us were exhausted so we ordered pizza and watched another movie. This one was off the Cdubya queue at Netflix... The Perfect Man starring Heather Locklear as a single mom with low self esteem (ok, anyone see a problem with that? I sure did!), Hillary Duff as her daughter and the guy that played Mr. Big in Sex and the City. It wasn't bad but I couldn't get over Heather thinking she's anything but hot and actually going on a date with the slob guy from Yes, Dear.

Scrubs makes it's debut tonight with 2 episodes, can't wait! Also, 24 starts again Sunday night. Can't wait to see what Jack Bauer gets himself into this year.

Have a great Tuesday...