September 2003 Archives
Cool weather is the order of the day. Slept with the windows open last night for the first time since last February or so. “Open windows” is my favorite time of the year and not just for the energy savings although I can surely use that savings now. Here in Bush, we get a total of about 50 days a year to open windows and the let the fresh, cool air in. There are about 15 days where it is too cold to do so and about 300 days where it is hot and humid beyond reason.
End of a so-so month business-wise. I just do not understand the current business cycle. Almost everyone I talk to is just as mystified.
All of my teams lost this weekend. The Saints lost in the NFL. They were humiliated. Ragpickers and Erasers had tough weeks. Byes and injuries decimated both teams. Part of the game but I’m hoping for better luck this week. Doesn’t look like I’ll get it. The bye teams this week will hardly hurt anyone in our leagues.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “The Scene: Darling Baby Marissa sits in her booster chair, a bowl of applesauce before her."
Not much of a debate, really. Marissa wins easily. -Rob
This blog was spammed yesterday for the second time. The spammers are finding a way to put their junk in the comments. What purpose does that serve other than to annoy? I’ve banned their IP addresses but there isn’t much else I can do about it. Where it’s coming from and what it looks like is identifiable. Why can’t it be stopped? I'd settle for curtailed somewhat.
The Saints are a pretty bad football team right now. I’m not ready to write them off just yet but I’m one of the few. My fantasy football teams didn’t win yesterday but they were respectable considering all of the adversity they were faced with.
Had a good day with the folks yesterday. More here.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Gert: There's a bin just over there, you know... (points to bin ten feet away)
Man: I'm not frigging walking over there. Everyone else does it. Why shouldn't I?
Gert: Would I be justified in killing him right now?"
Yes. -Rob
Very nice here in Bush this morning. Sunny and about 70 degrees, low humidity, and a cool breeze. Could stand more of this.
Injuries and byes have decimated both of my fantasy football teams today. I expect two losses. Been doing league maintenance all morning.
The Saints sold out their game with the Colts today at the last minute so the game will be broadcast locally. If the offense shows up, they can handle the Colts. If it doesn’t, they can’t handle anyone. The Saints figure to be up and down all year. They do have the horses to have a winning record and even make a playoff run. I don’t think they’re a serious contender for the Super Bowl. They also have the capacity to post a 4-12 and finish last in the division. Most likely, this team figures to be somewhere between 6-10 and 9-7 by year end.
No change in dad this morning. Going to see the folks this afternoon and then head to my nephew’s birthday party. It figures to be a full day.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Would You Like Fries With That?"
Kind of a spooky picture. -Rob
Got home late last night due to inventory and went in early this morning for inventory. Got sweaty and dirty today (Our warehouse is not air-conditioned) but it wasn’t that bad. A period of back spasms a couple of weeks ago has my lower back stiff and sore at times. In addition, I have arthritis in my left knee that I know about and probably some in the right knee, too. The kind of exercise I got last night and today is probably good for both of those conditions if done in moderation. I went a little past moderation today and last night, I think, but not much. I feel pretty good now but a bit sleepy.
My mom and sisters took my dad to the hospital this morning. He’s having a rough go with chemotherapy. My sister, Angela, says a bit more about it here. My sisters are great.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “We tried to straighten it out when the waiter told us that he'd gotten the glasses confused."
I’ve watched Sex and the City a few times but it doesn’t do much for me. It has moments but it basically just passes the time. I don’t relate to it at all. The women in the show travel in circles I don’t travel in and I know no one like any of them. Not real enough, and at the same time, not offbeat enough. The source of it all or Exhibit A. It appears the author of the article agrees with me. I didn't know they had HBO in New Zealand.
The site that provided referrer statistics for CrabAppleLane Blog was having difficulty keeping up with the traffic he was getting from the many sites that signed up for that free service. His server was overwhelmed at times and this page took a while to load during those times. He may move it to a more robust server but that will cost him more. He’s asking subscribers for a small fee or to allow a small ad. Fair enough but I’m going to wait until it is up and running before committing. I’ve removed it for now.
The big I: Inventory at work today and tomorrow. Tedious, but not terribly difficult. Working a long day today and a pretty long one tomorrow.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “It's inevitable; within two or three years, the majority of ATMs will be running Windows."
Heaven help us all. -Rob
The West Wing ran their season premier last night. It was a decent episode but it mainly caught everyone up from last season and set up the rest of this season. The real season starts next week. This is the only network show I watch regularly. I’ve also been watching the reruns on Bravo. I started watching the series midway through the second season and eventually will see the rest of them. I don’t think there are many episodes I haven’t seen now. I think I may have only missed the pilot. Some episodes are worth seeing several times.
Running a bit later than I would like today. Jana ran late yesterday. Her plight would mortify me but I’ll bet she did fine.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Anyway, the main point here is that my lil' bro' owns a vegetarian cafe in Leyton, East London, and he's opening up late tonight for the first time. Beer and plonk will be on sale, and yours truly will be getting slowly sozzled in the corner."
The Yankees won their sixth straight American League East pennant last night. Pardon me while I yawn. Do they win because they make the most money or do they make the most money because they win? It’s both and it sucks. Baseball is broke and it can’t be fixed because to do so would require the owners, the players, and the fans to set aside their capitalism. Some franchises unable to compete would have to fold or some revenue sharing would have to be implemented. The former is extortion. Only “kinda sorta” though. Accept and support a loser or no more baseball for you. Your team will always lose because your owner is a dork and your city can’t possibly compete with New York for players so the only baseball you’re allowed to have is losing baseball. Revenue sharing is un-American. Why should the Yankees share their revenue with Milwaukee or Montreal? The Yankees are making a buck trying to win a pennant. The Bucs and Expos are just trying to stay afloat. Winning is secondary to them. The solution is for the communities to say, “OK, take these losers elsewhere.” Come back when we get a fair shake. Of course, only New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have that kind of leverage. Any other community would lose professional sports forever. The major advantage the Yankees have over all other franchises in baseball is the ability to do whatever it takes to win. They can do that and still make money. For everyone else, it is a major gamble.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “As an aside, one measure of how non-seriously we take fraudulent voting is that we don't bother to make anyone show ID to vote, and we don't bother to rationalize the voting lists from county to county when people move -- apparently, anyone who wants to wander over to Dublin (California), where we lived for awhile in 2000, and vote under the name "Evan Kirchhoff" is welcome to do so. The practice of having enumerators go door to door before each election and rebuild the voting list by hand is looking better all the time, although it is wildly expensive; I believe Canada recently quit doing this."
In Louisiana, we get asked for ID. -Rob
Busy morning so a later than usual entry and a shorter than usual entry. No matter, I offer the following:
My Family Blog is stupendous. It has taken off and exceeded my wildest expectations. Could use a few more Y-chromosome types but I'm not complaining. We're having a blast.
Erasers did OK, Ragpickers did not. Both have problems this week. Tough opponents and Erasers have the added whammy of a bye week ravaging the team.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "There are 4000 starlings in my back yard. But I don't see Alfred Hitchcock anywhere so I think I'm safe."
The Saints stunk it up pretty good yesterday. There is something wrong with this team. They don't want to fight. They want to get ahead early and coast. I don’t think there is an ounce of heart on this team. There seems to be some effort but not much. If they can’t win on talent alone, they don’t win. As bad as the scores turned out to be in their two losses, both games were winnable. They just didn’t put out enough effort to do it. The coaching staff has something to do with this because this team has shown this trait the last two years. Either they don’t know what to do about it or they are causing it. That said, the season is young and they have time to right the ship. On offense, they have got to start spreading the ball around. They depend too much on Deuce and Joe Horn. Defense is not going to get much better. There is very little talent there.
SilverBlue is still down from Isabel or has gone on hiatus.
This figures to be a busy week at work. It’s inventory week.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Unfortunately, I did not get off the ground fast enough to tell you about the September 21 BookCrossing event for Banned Books Week. Bookcrossing.com, in case you're not familiar with it, is an organization that encourages you to leave a free book in a public place. The finder reads it, logs a journal entry, and passes it along in the same method. On Sunday, they planned the following special book release event:"
That's neat if it works. -Rob
In honor of the LSU Tigers great victory versus the Georgia Bulldogs yesterday and since their team colors are purple and gold, I present the image below taken just 20 minutes ago. This picture does them no justice. They are a brilliant, deep purple with a brilliant, yellow gold center, hence the flower’s name, Blue Ginger. They have never been blue in my garden and I’m not sure what color they were when I bought them. As I’ve stated several times, they have gotten bigger and better every year all by themselves. I do nothing to them. They are my favorites for their zero maintenance and their beauty.
My winter garden below. One of the sources of my stiff back this morning. Planted are carrots, Brussel sprouts, and collard greens (For Patsy).
The Saints have a tough one today in Tennessee. If the offense can play for 60 minutes, they’ll do OK. If they only play one half like they did last week, Tennessee will beat them easily. My defending champion, Erasers, fantasy football team which looked so strong the opening week now looks extremely thin, particularly at running back. With 8 weeks of byes coming up, I’ll need some luck to stay healthy.
I have received the same “Last Microsoft Critical Patch” virus at least 50 times in the last week or so. Enough already.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Fruits of Fall"
Another great photo blog. -Rob
Ponchartrain Beach. A real blast from the past for a native New Orleanian. The Ghost Train was a pretty cheesy ride by today’s standards until you got to the end. There, a laughing ghost pushes down on a detonator and you hear a thunderous noise and see a brilliant flash. The car bangs into the exit doors and you’re out. No matter how many times you had been on it, that last part still scared the hell out of you.
The plan was to get out early, do the yard, shower, and then watch the LSU-Georgia game. Got a late start, had two equipment failures almost immediately that I had to fix, finished the yard way later than planned, decided to prepare a winter garden today, planted said winter garden, showered, and caught the last 10 minutes or so of the game. I was listening to it on the radio while I was planting the garden so I did know what was going on. I still love to listen to a game on radio. This was a great game. Geaux Tigers!
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Anyway, I don’t care how famous you are, if you grab something off my plate without asking first, you will get bitten. I haven’t had my shots either, so beware."
Received Queen’s A Night at the Opera yesterday. I’ve been wanting a re-mastered version of it to replace my vinyl album but everywhere I looked had it in the $25-$35 range. Finally found one online for $13. Queen was a great band by any measure and “Night” is a great album. I’ll pick up their first album and A Day at the Races as soon as I see re-mastered versions of them and as soon as finances allow.
Isabel packed a wallop yesterday. It’s still around doing damage today.
Backed up all of the CrabAppleLane Blogs last night. It’s a breeze and I’ll have to develop a better regimen for doing so. I’ve only done it twice since moving over to Movable Type and I now have quite a few entries that I don’t want to lose. Two of the three should be backed up every day. The other less active one can go once a week.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Yeah, right, you say. Well, I just saw a movie making Navy doctors heroes, and then I thought, how many others are there?"
Go read the rest of that entry. -Rob
All eyes on Isabel.
Cool site.
And another cool site.
Busy at work, busy at home, reprieve in about 10 days. Shorter, uninspired entry today due to work and lack of inspiration.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “It is from a culture which feels there are no just limits to place on revenge."
1985: I'm 28 years old. I've been smoking for about 15 years. I started by "borrowing" my parents Kool filterless, then moved on to a variety of different cigarettes before settling on Winston for a couple of months and then, finally, Marlborough. I'm up to about a pack and a half per day. I don't actually smoke all of those. The guys at work who have quit smoke some of them. On weekends, I probably smoke 2 packs a day. Tonight, it is late and I'm tired. I want to smoke my last one before going to bed. I find my cigarette pack and I notice I only have one left. A last cigarette is sacred to a smoker. Do I smoke that last one and go out and get another pack so I will have them in the morning? Too tired and not dressed to go out. Don't feel like getting dressed anyway. Save it for tomorrow? I want it now. I went ahead and smoked it. It was the last one that ever touched my lips. That was 18 years ago today.
Browsing CrabAppleLane’s website statistics yesterday brought me to this item: Someone from an ISP in the Republic of Seychelles stopped by sometime this month. Seychelles is a hot spot of European, African, and Asian vacationers, apparently, but my high school geography (Sophomore year was the last year of geography for me) failed me. I was a bit disappointed in myself that I had to look it up. I never heard of it. That it came into being in 1976 (A year after my graduation and 3 years after my last geography course) is of little consolation. I have some interest in geography. Anyway, thanks to that person for stopping by.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “This is a close up picture of the grapes that were growing outside my hotel. I wish I could do scratch and sniff on the internet because they smelled delicious."
They surely look delicious, too. -Rob
Hurricane Isabel looks nasty. I doubt many of the people in its path have ever experienced one of these. What many don’t realize is that in addition to the horrific winds, there will also be tornadoes and torrential rain. Love the MSNBC headline: “Hurricane's impact could be costly”. Known one that hasn’t been?
A late fantasy football stat file has me scrambling this morning. My fantasy football website is still not working correctly but some of the bugs are starting to get worked out. It’s getting a little frustrating to say the least. To add to that frustration, both of my teams played terribly this week and lost.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Yes, it's hard for an overeducated someone to fake poor spelling and grammar unless he has a specific speech group in mind.
Which he does not, right now."
Watched HBO’s Carnivale last night. I must admit I don’t have a clue what that show is about yet but I found it compelling and quite dark. I’ll be watching it this season. The best reason to subscribe to HBO is its original programming. I also watch Six Feet Under religiously. Thoroughly original, these shows are nothing like what you see on network television.
Too expensive and too unreliable, this is not the solution for us broadband-seeking rural customers. I think the utility companies should enter the fray. They’ve already got the infrastructure. Adding broadband fiber optic to their already existing power lines should be a snap. The fact of the matter is the rural customers are hungrier for it than the urban and suburban customers because we have pretty poor telephone connections whereas the urban and suburban customers don’t.
The Saints turned in a pretty decent second half and came away with a win over the Texans. After yesterday, it is safe to say that no one in the NFL looks unbeatable.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Just wanted to remind all you firewall busters out there that this doesn't actually obscure your traffic at all. All this does is get around corporate firewalls with stupid restrictions. They can still see what you're doing and you still get fired for looking at porn."
They're talking about actually developing technology and websites so workers can get around their work rules. Apparently, some sites already exist but is that really a good idea? Who is in the market for it? Idiots? -Rob
For the second time, my driver’s side windshield wiper transmission broke free of the wiper motor in a driving rainstorm on the Causeway. What that means to the non-automotive person is I had no windshield wiper on the driver’s side. I drove the last 13 or 14 miles across that bridge leaning to the right and trying to look out my windshield where the passenger wiper arm was wiping. It was not a fun ride home. This exact same thing happened to me about a year ago at about the same spot on the bridge. I will try to get that fixed tomorrow. In the meantime, I am hoping for no more rain.
The second week of the NFL season just got underway. I hope the Saints put in a better game this week against the Texans. An 0-2 start would be pretty bad. There is already a lot of grumbling in New Orleans over last week’s pitiful and heartless performance. Ernie Conwell, in the great new tradition of Saints tight ends, dropped a pass on the Saints first possession but Deuce McAllister, the best player on this team, just ran for a 24yd TD to put the Saints up, 7-0.
There is a new and disappointing policy this year as regards to local NFL telecasts. They are no longer available to me on my DSS. I still can’t get local channels on my satellite. That means I have to switch back and forth between satellite and antenna if I want to watch a game that is being shown in my local area. Major pain in the arse.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Today I Am Officially Old
I asked my son to open a jar that I couldn't open and he did. "
30 years ago, I was a junior at De La Salle High School in New Orleans. De La Salle was an all-boys school then and we had a pretty good basketball team, led by Pierre Gaudin (Sixth team?) and Jordy Hultberg (Seventh team). Brother Martin had a better one, led by Rick Robey. On that night 30 years ago, De La Salle played their very best game and led for most of it. Robey hit a shot with 4 seconds on the clock to put Brother Martin ahead by one. De La Salle inbounded the ball to Pierre and he dribbled the length of the floor, with Brother Martin doing their very best not to foul him, pulled up to the right of the key and launched. In slow motion, just like in the movies, the buzzer sounded while the ball was in midair and as the buzzer finished sounding, the ball was at the bottom of the net. Everyone should experience that in real life.
Robey went on to Kentucky and a had a stellar career there and in the NBA with the Pacers and Celtics. Pierre had a good career at Tulane and Jordy had a good one at LSU.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Hot laundry is one of the most simple, yet most divine pleasures known to man. All fresh-smelling and mmmmm so nice and toasty."
Links only today. Hopefully, inspiration will come tomorrow.
Been here. You would think this place is a big deal in a city famous exclusively for its witch trials over 300 years ago. Not really. My impression of it was that it was just another business there. In fact, we found that almost all of New England was pretty nonchalant about their history when we were there. That was 1986. Maybe it’s different now. Would love to go back some day. That was a great vacation.
The music industry is on the offensive. Piracy is a huge problem no matter what their proponents say. So is this.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Here's hope for those who've lost jobs or worry they will. A better economy is unfolding right now, and the Great American Jobs Machine is about to kick into high gear."
Hope they're right. -Rob
Today is a day to ring a bell, reflect for a moment, say a prayer, or anything else you may think is right to commemorate a day when the most awful wrong was committed.
Some entries worth noting on that.
Brad Todd courtesy of FrankCagle.com.
Blog of the day here.
Health problems continue today. My mom got out of the hospital yesterday but she’ll be on IV antibiotics at home for a while for a nasty staph infection, my dad is dizzy from his daily medication cocktails, and my lower back is still giving me some grief. We’ll all get over it, though. We’re a pretty tough bunch.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Want to know why booking a hotel in Europe online can sometimes be smash-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating?"
You'll have to follow the link to find out. -Rob
Yesterday morning, as I bent down to pull up my socks, my lower back muscles clenched and never let go. I spent the rest of the day in various stages of pain and discomfort. Certain positions at my desk were OK but others were not. Just getting up and sitting back down, which I do a lot normally, was difficult. It’s better this morning but the pain and the clenching are not totally gone. Long periods in any position makes it stiff. My goal today is to work it out. It has been my experience that back spasms don’t go away with rest alone.
My fantasy football teams performed quite well this weekend. Erasers had a great Week 1 and Ragpickers were good enough to win. I was much more concerned about Erasers going into the season. It’s a long season but both teams are off to a good start.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Gullibility isn't in the dictionary"
I stumbled on a recipe for pretty good barbecue a few years ago. The secret you ask? Nothing! Add nothing. I don’t use BBQ sauce and I don’t use salt or pepper. The smoke is enough flavor all by itself. I’ve used this “recipe” on steak, sausage, chicken, pork chops, pork spare ribs, and hamburgers. If you cook everything on the lowest flame you have, even with no chips on a gas grille, there is going to be plenty of smoke. With steak, you cook on high for a minute or two, flip it, and then go to the lowest setting. Smoke and a little heat is all you need. That’s not to say that a good sauce isn’t nice to have. Just saying it’s not necessary.
I’ll be very busy with work the rest of this month. I have to work at least two of the next three Saturdays and possibly all three. Only Sundays will be free but yesterday’s Saints game tells me there won’t be much joy in them.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Yay, I love these nature shows! They just showcased an Australian spider that not only CHASES AFTER PEOPLE, but has fangs strong enough to bite its way through a boot!"
You'll have go to the blog to read the rest of that entry. -Rob
I had recorded Hearts in Atlantis a few weeks ago but hadn’t sat down to watch it until last night. It’s based on a Stephen King novel which generally turns me off these days. Hope Davis, on the other hand, is someone I have enjoyed watching in every film I’ve seen her in. First saw her in the small film, Next Stop Wonderland. That one was surprisingly good. Hearts in Atlantis is a terrific movie. At a certain point in a film like this, I usually start wondering where and how it’s going to end. What sets this one apart is that I did not care where it ended or how it ended. I was totally absorbed in the journey. I’m a little younger than the characters in this film but the neighborhood scenes, the feel of that time, the summers from that era are done exactly right. Someone did their homework. Roger Ebert gives it 3-1/2 stars. I give it 4.
The NFL gets underway in earnest today with a full slate of games. For me, I’ll finally get to see what the Saints have been holding back and also what my fantasy teams look like. In real or fantasy football, it’s much more important to be playing well later in the season than now but all games are important. As usual, I am optimistic but uncertain.
In local college football last night, LSU trounced Arizona, 59-13, in a game that didn’t figure to be that big of a mismatch. That’s a real problem in college football and why I’m a NFL fan. In the NFL, who cares if a team of NFL players, who are getting paid handsomely in most cases, gets blasted by another team of equally handomely paid NFL players? Winning margins of 40 points or more do happen in the NFL but not as often as they do in the NCAA. There were at least 6 of this kind in the NCAA just amongst the top 25 last night. Some of them were quite predictable. Did McNeese State really stand a chance against Kansas State? Did McNeese State even consider their “student athletes” when they scheduled that game strictly for the big paycheck they would get? I doubt it.
19th in the mirliton series below. Probably the last unless it starts bearing fruit.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Oh, vanity... a double-edged sword if ever there was one. And here I've been so complacent and proud that I don't look my age... I have a sinking feeling that as I get closer to 40, all those wrinkles and such are going to gang up and hit me at once."
They do. -Rob
This is a day of paying tribute to some of my favorites in this fairly new and exciting internet activity, blogging. I discovered most of these after I started doing it, myself. Some are better known than others and all are quite readable.
Pitcherlady always has a great photo to go with her delightful entries.
Greg is a great writer and always makes me laugh.
Jana is busy getting married.
Jimbo always has something interesting to say.
Dooce is an original. Quite charming (In a way my mother and her generation wouldn't approve) and probably the best known of these.
Tequila Mockingbird generates the most comments on her great entries.
I found this fun blog just the other day compliments of SilverBlue. She’s since moved to another site and to Movable Type and offers up a sweet ode to her sister here. SilverBlue's site is also quite readable.
And, finally, my family is really getting into the spirit of blogging here.
Tried to make an entry earlier today but just couldn’t keep my eyes open. That unconscious entry might have been more interesting but will have to wait for another day. Probably Tuesday. In the meantime, enjoy the links that I mentioned today and the others you can find to the right. They’re much more entertaining and/or profound than this one.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “we've been fighting our geek side for years now. ok, angie has - i've embraced my geekiness. tonight we bought a wireless router. we have jumped up a level in being geeks."
As things were starting to get tense in Aliens, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley says, “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.” There are a few items in the news lately where this sentiment has crept into my brain. By the way, that’s a great movie. It was the second and, by far, the best and most intense of that series.
Great weekend in store. Hadn’t heard what the weather is going to do but I don’t really care. There’s a Saints game on Sunday. Yard work is postponed probably until the weekend of September 20. Three small areas of the yard were torn up this summer because it was never dry when I cut the grass. I’ve planted some high grade clover in those areas and it is coming up very nicely. I also like to let the grass grow until it seeds this time of year. I probably only have to use the tractor 3 or 4 more times this year. It will be hot stove weather before you know it. Not soon enough for us.
If they decided to hold a concert, “getting high” would take on a whole new meaning. Tickets would be astronomical. I have a propensity for finding the groan sometimes. I blame my dad.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “It's less than a week until the second anniversary of the attacks on the WTC. The media is slowly ramping up the commemoration - I haven't looked at next week's Radio Times yet."
The NFL season starts tonight. This is a day that most football fans and ALL fantasy football players have been waiting for. If you’ve followed along here at all, you know I’ve been counting down the days. I handle the stats and website for the CrabAppleLane Fantasy Football Leagues. I am commissioner of the Causeway Fantasy Football League (CFFL) and statistician for the other two.
This is my ninth year of playing fantasy football. I was car pooling with a friend at work back in 1994 and 1995. On our long commutes home, the conversation quite often turned to football. We’re both Saints fans. As mentioned earlier, he asked me if I would like to partner with him on his fantasy football team. He was in a league called Ya Boys. I knew nothing about it then but all of the people I kept up with during my Fidonet BBS days played and I was very curious about it. I said yes. We had a pretty bad year that first year but we made the playoffs the next year. In my third year in that league, I started looking for another league to play in. Partnering was nice but I wanted to have a team of my own where I could call all of the shots. It had to be a local league because the big, faceless national leagues are no fun. There were none to be found anywhere so I started my own. The rest is history.
We put up a little money to cover the expenses of the player selection party and the stat service and there is some prize money but it would be silly to think that anyone is in it for the money. We’re all in it for the Glory.
I’ll probably post a paragraph or two every Sunday morning and Tuesday evening here regarding the leagues. We’ll just have to see how that goes.
It says here that the Green Bay Packers will win the Super Bowl this season.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Some rookies who may make real impacts on their team include Minnesota's Onterrio "Steal of the Draft" Smith and St. Louis' Pisa Tinoisamoa. "Lesser-Known Rookies Trying to Make Impact in NFL"... "
Get well soon, Mom. That is about the only original thought I have at present. Readers rejoice. The other items come from elsewhere.
This one comes courtesy of Fark.
And Best of the web is back. Sorry to admit that I didn’t know it was gone.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Until I found the little post-it note I was using to remind myself of stuff I needed to post about mixed in with the mashed potatoes. I've always been told someday I'll have to eat my words. I just didn't expect them to be so fluffy."
Thanks to SilverBlue for this one. Made The BlogRoll instantly. -Rob
The American version of Coupling starts this fall. It is a copy of a distinctly British comedy of the same name and I can’t imagine Americans doing it very well nor can I imagine some of the language or situations getting past TV censors. We discovered it a couple of months ago when it came to BBC America. The British version is extraordinarily funny. British actors have a gift for deadpan that eludes most American actors. Without the deadpan or the language, the show is nothing more than just another version of Friends. I might give it one episode but I will continue to watch the British version on BBC America.
The American Coupling is undoubtedly destined to follow Amanda's, the Bea Arthur version of Fawlty Towers. It will suffer comparison. Bea Arthur actually can do deadpan very well but no one can do it like John Cleese.
The exhibition season is over (Good riddance) and the NFL season gets underway Thursday night.
Nine straight months of heavier traffic and earlier departures starts today. Could do without that part of "back to school".
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “We spend maybe two days in the London hospital, a repeat of my time in Lancaster. Mom works out the details behind the scenes while I continue to get some much needed rest. Antibiotics and platelets and blood transfusions have done wonders, and I'm feeling better than I have in weeks."
Not the ordinary read. -Rob
Got out last night with Patsy, her sister, and her sister’s husband and took another look at Mars. It’s always fun with others. This time, the weather was more cooperative but not much more. We had to fight dew and a slight wind. The neighbors were out of town so there was no light coming from across the street. We set up at the end of the driveway. Although the tripod was shakier than I would have liked due to the wind, we managed to steady it and the views were quite good. Actually, it was too bright but I didn’t feel like tinkering with filters to tone it down.
Found some interesting tidbits on Labor Day here. The blog of the day is not as enamored with the day as some.
Don’t forget to flip your calender.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “today, in what must be one of the greatest paradoxical statements on the calendar, we all take a day off in honor of the working man."
