The School Girl and I had a few giftcards for Barnes & Noble that were burning a hole in our pockets. I needed to build up my book supply for the upcoming year. I bought something on Paul Revere and she got a Dave Barry book.
Here are a couple that grabbed our attention but never made it to the check out lane:
You just can’t make this crap up.
Back on August 30 I first talked about my fantasy football league that I was in with The School Girl, G-Man, Big D, La Hermana, Michael TD and few of his friends. It was brought up again in October about how well my wife was doing and that I was pulling up the middle of the pack. November brought the fiasco that I will not mention here anymore.
Yesterday marked the end of the season. The wife and I did rejoin our league and things only got worse. She finished the regular season in 4th place and lost her first playoff game. I managed to pull up the rear on our league and played a few meaningless post season games (like most college bowl games).
The championship game pitted G-man and Michael TD in what I was calling the WTFL Civil War. If this is truly the Civil War then G-Man was the North having been led by Sam Grant himself. It was a rout to say the least. I would like to congratulate G-Man on his great season and his first (and possibly his only) WTFL Championship! I don’t believe that the rest of the league thought he would do it except for a few of us. It must have been divine intervention.
I added a new page over there to the right —-> that has a list of all of the books I read in 2007. It was an all-time record high for me. My goal for the year was 22 but I blew past that and finished number 25 this evening. I hope to read at least that many in 2008. You have to keep the old mind sharp if nothing else!
Here is that list:
The Alibi Club – Francine Mathews
American Gods – Neil Gaiman
Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
Angels & Demons – Dan Brown
The Battle Of Britain – Richard Alexander Hough & Denis Richards
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
Grant Speaks – Ev Ehrlich
Hannibal – Thomas Harris
Hannibal Rising – Thomas Harris
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling
Insomnia – Stephen King
Is Paris Burning? – Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre
Just Americans – Robert Asahina
The Last Tycoon – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Life Of Pi – Yann Martel
Lisey’s Story – Stephen King
Live From New York – Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller
The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks
Red Dragon – Thomas Harris
Shout! – Phillip Norman
The Silence Of The Lambs – Thomas Harris
Tales From The Impossible Dream Red Sox – Rico Petrocelli & Chaz Scoggins
Tales From The Red Sox Dugout – Jim Prime with Bill Nowlin
I don’t think I read like Care or Lisamm does and definitely not like my mom, but I can pull my weight.
Walking through the courtyard between Vanderbilt Hospital and the VA Hospital on our way for another nutritious meal at the McDonald’s I peeped this little vehicle.
It reminded me of the carts they use at football games. The ones that Pops used to call (and still does) the meat wagon. I guess like in Holy Grail: “Bring out yer dead!“
Well, apparently this little guy is an ambulance…or that is what someone is leading us to believe. With my luck this would come to get me in an emergency.
I will make an exception this year.
1. I think that I have several things on my mind to work on for 2008. The most important of which is to get healthier. With the Great HBP Scare of 2007, I need to eat better and lose weight. I know, I am sexy enough as it is but I need to exchange this keg for a six pack.
2. Also, I need to be happier in general. I tend to let people piss me off and I think it would help my health thing if I could learn to relax more. This may help if I am able to…
3. Get a new job. I despise my current position at work and am working on moving someplace else in the building that could assist with me keeping my sanity.
4. Be a better friend/relative. I have tried in the past to keep in touch with friends and family members but always fall short. I think I will try it the old fashioned way, too…correspondence. I think I will mail out more cards.
5. One last thing. Last year I bet myself that I could read more than 22 books. I will be finishing #25 today. This is an alltime record for me. I think that I can at least match that in 2008.
Okay, so some of these are crappy but whatever. What are some of your resolutions or plans for next year? If you want to leave a link to your posts, feel free. It will be way easier.
Okay so the regular season has ended and all of the matchups for round one of the NFL playoffs have been determined. I won’t spend time breaking down the games too much here. I am going strictly on gut feeling.
Saturday, January 5
Washington Redskins @ Seattle Seahawks
I wish that the ‘Skins could ride their emotional high a little longer as Seattle bores the crap out of me but the ‘Hawks are too strong. Pick: Seattle
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers seem way too blah lately and the Jags are the one team I wouldn’t want to play in the postseason. Unfortuantely, I see them advancing easily. Pick: Jacksonville
Sunday, January 6
New York Giants @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
After what the Giants showed me against the Pats on Saturday there is no doubt in my mind who is the better team here. As long as Manning, Jr. gets his work done, it is a lock. Pick: New York
Tennessee Titans @ San Diego Chargers
The Titans haven’t forgotten their collapse at home against the Chargers a few weeks ago. I hope that Phillip Rivers king of the interceptions will be playing as well, and not his much better alter ego. This one is a toss up to me. I am rooting for a Titans/Pats 2nd round game so…. Pick: Tennessee
What do you think? Am I off my rocker? I am just talking about how I feel about the playoffs here people. Do you have a different idea of who will be winning? Let me know.
This post doesn’t really relate to last Saturday night’s football game, not directly anyway. I heard an interesting statistic while driving my wife to work this morning. (Yes, she is working a half day and I am on vacation. hehehe) Ever since the Red Sox were down 3 games to 1 to the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS, the Sox, Patriots and Celtics have a combined record of 49 victories to only 3 losses!
Let’s break it down:
Red Sox 7-0
Celtics 26-3
Patriots 16-0
—————————————–
total 49-3
This will only help fuel the fire of hatred towards my beloved sports town. Sorry people, I am not gloating just passing along the facts so that you can be more educated. Trust me, with jinxes and curses just around the corner I only brag AFTER the season these days.
Here are a few more shots from the Opryland Hotel several weeks ago.
Apparently, it was decided that since there was such a wide open space, Little Harry and Big D would compete in a foot race. It was close for a short distance but once Little Harry shed his shoes he was gone.
In front of one of the huge Christmas trees, SueBoo was nice enough to snap this LeBlanc family photo.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and don’t get too wasted for New Year’s! That reminds me, I need to find some good bubbly for Monday night.
I was visiting the nephews today when their dad, Michael TD, told me another story about the inadvertant antics of the eldest, Snake. I guess it was last week sometime and they were eating at Chick-Fil-A. I understand that with the kid’s meal they give little books or something. In this particular book it tells a story about a boy and his father. The father goes into the jungle, catches a fever somehow and unfortunately he dies. Real nice story for children, right?
Anyway, Snake is relaying the story to his dad but sort of gets it wrong when he tells him how the father dies:
He dies from jungle fever!
Yikes. I knew that sometimes it is looked down upon here in the south, but I never knew that it was fatal!
I came across a story today while pretending to do a little work that really disturbed me.
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Dozens of girls fought — possibly about a boy — outside a mall on Wednesday, and the brawl ended with mall security officers using pepper spray and police using Taser guns, authorities said.
It happened outside an Applebees at Independence Center and involved about 20 to 30 teenage girls, police said.
You can read the entire story over here.
The video of this story has one of the girls’ grandmother telling another story than the police. She claims that there were only 9 girls and the fight started when one officer handcuffed her granddaughter and banged her head (in front of witnesses, mind you) on a trash can until she lost consciousness.
Something doesn’t seem right here to me. This will be one of those cases that we will never find out the true story. The big question in my mind is this: Why did no one have the foresight to video a 20+ participant cat fight? I kid, really.
It is apparent that my beloved New England Patriots are detested by everyone who is not a Patriot fan. I get it. I harbor no ill feelings towards anyone about it. Heck, my best friends are in that group and I would be too if I wasn’t raised a Pats fan.
This Saturday evening, the Patriots play their final regular season game at the New York Giants to complete a perfect regular season. This is definitely a very big game. I must tell you, though, that the media coverage of it all is just making me sick. I am tired of all of it. It annoys me that the team has their own section on ESPNs ticker! Come on guys, give me a break.
The big conversation this week is if the Giants will play their starters or rest them for the playoffs. Okay, this is what I would do. Rest them. Why? Beating the Patriots this week means nothing. Beating them in the Super Bowl is another story. If one of your stars gets injured on Saturday do you think you have a legitimate chance at playing in the Super Bowl? Highly unlikely.
In the grand scheme of things, the Patriots going 16-0 is meaningless. Let’s talk again IF they go 19-0.
(Click To Embiggen)
Here is a screenshot of the current poll regarding the start/sit issue. Apparently, the fans want the starters to play and beat the Pats.
From my family to all of yours, I hope that everyone has a spectacular Christmas!
**UPDATE** – Apparently the facists over at YouTube pulled the embedding of this video. I have attempted to redo it in a clandestine fashion but I fully expect it to get pulled again. You can try going here to my YouTube page or if they pull it down completely and want to view this video I can send you the file. Just let me know. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and thank you for the well-wishes.
Super pooch Fandango likes to sit near, around and inside the Christmas Village that The School Girl has set up on the dining room floor.
Maybe it makes him feel good to be bigger than others since he isn’t bigger than anyone!
Here are a couple more pictures that The School Girl took at the Opryland Hotel.
I am not really sure what we were all up to or why the boy is on the verge of licking me.
A couple of pictures from last weekend’s excursion to the Opryland Hotel. One is very irreverant and one is not, you decide which one it is.
I bet G-Man is so very proud of his wife and her shenanigans in public.
