Hope Everyone had a Merry Christmas

Christmas has again come and gone for another year. It is amazing how fast it goes by after all the anticipation and planning and traveling. For those who traveled or are still traveling, I hope everything went well/is going well. James, you sir, are a trooper; twelve - fourteen hours in a car with your wife, mother-in-law, and dog. Man, I don't know how you do it. Cece and I can rarely go from Atlanta to Huntsville or Evansville without at least one little argument (the key is traveling late so the wife falls asleep for most of the trip).

I am thankful for the time Cece and I got to spend with James and Jen. You two are truly some of the strongest people I know. I pray for you both often and you are always in our thoughts. I hate that we didn't get a chance to visit with the Lowes (we were very happy to see our Christmas card featuring your three adorable chirren upon our return to Atlanta). The only saving grace there is that I know we will see you in about thirty-four days. I want to see if we can plan a dinner for one of the nights we will be in town. I hope it works with everyone's schedules. Remer...I wish I could have stuck around an extra day to see you brother. I miss you man. We did have a good time Christmas night over at Paige and Chad's house though with Paige and Jenny. They ALWAYS tell their favorite recent Remer stories. Those two absolutely love you (no jokes please) and the tales of your crazy escapades. They giggled and cackled when they told us your Supper Club revelation about not knowing the truth about Santa Claus until you were twelve years old. Good ol' Remer. I can't believe I missed a chance to party with Henley and Joe King as well. That would have been an experience. Phil, I heard about your and Amanda's Christmas present to yourselves and I gotta say...that sounds like the best Christmas present anyone could give themselves. I loved the idea and can't express how happy we are for you. Good luck with the next few months and getting ready for fatherhood. I feel so blessed that I'll have so many good role models as close friends to turn to for advice when the time comes.

Looking forward: we have about 20 or so work days left before the end of our employment. We're currently working out the itinerary for New Zealand and Australia. Any suggestions?

Quote of the Day

"A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas. After hearing about this extravagant gift, a friend of his said, ‘I thought she wanted one of those sporty four-wheel-drive vehicles.’ ‘She did,’ he replied. ‘But where was I going to find a fake Land Rover?"
- Unknown

Good wine, great memories

So, last night, after dinner I went downstairs to finish a glass of wine and watch a little TV. Then, for whatever reason, I decided to put in the state championship game against Vestavia. Man, it is fun and painful to watch that now. I only watched the first half, but still, we had no business winning that game. It was definitely a team of destiny. Larry was so silly that game. If you had shown that tape to college coaches I'm thinking scholarships would have been filing in daily.

Well, hope everyone had a good weekend. I spent most of yesterday cleaning since this house is out of control. Jen had an exam, yes, on Saturday, and still has three more to go. We'll both be relieved come Thursday. She hasn't had a real "break" from school since last Christmas after she spent most of her summer getting caught up on Spring semester.

We are pretty much not doing Christmas cards this year, so if you don't get one I hope your feelings aren't hurt. We think about all of you quite often and I look forward to saying Merry Christmas in person. I'm feeling sort of like Ebaneezer this year, no lights, no decorations, well we did go to one Christmas party, but other than that not a lot of Christmas spirit, at least by America's standard.

Larry, do you want to make a tee time for Monday morning at Muni??

Words to Live By

This guy knows what he is talking about

Remer has his profile pic

Now when he leaves his once a week response to a post we can see him chugging a cold beer.

Bama's new unis
This picture has been approved by Boner

The two greatest words in a teacher's vocabulary...

SNOW DAY!! That's right, I got the call about 5:45 am this morning letting me know that there would be no school today.

I think I have an idea of everyone's schedule for Christmas except for the Lowe's. Larry, are ya'll around the whole time. Sounds like I'll be picking Jeremy up on Monday sometime from the airport. Should we try and play a round on Monday morning before Boner leaves??

Seriously

Chuck Norris is a badass.

Also, check out the trip blog for an update.

War Eagle

Tough Draw

USA got a tough draw for the World Cup. Italy and Czech Republic along with Ghana. Italy and Czech are solid.

Oldie But a Goodie

Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity: applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6. I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0. Please help!

Thanks,

A Troubled User.
________________________________

Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem that men complain about. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.The best course of action is to enter the command C APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2. However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 ! WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Best of luck,

Tech Support

Welcome to Wisconsin

Just took this pic about 10 minutes ago. I know that deep down there is a part of each of you that wants to get out in 15 degree weather and shovel a little snow. It builds character and makes your back feel like @#$&.

Potential Remer Profile Pics

New Post

Hey blogger, blogger, blogger, blogger, blogger, blogger.........swing blogger

Anything going on with anyone?

Yesterday at lunch I had already accumulated 40 hours this week. Yee haw. I might get a Christmas tree up this year.

Or...

We could do a Championship Game weekend special. One player/squad from each of the teams in the big three title games + USC/UCLA.

QB: Vince Young
RB: Reggie Bush
RB: Maurice Drew
WR: Massaquoi
WR: Bowe
WR: Chris Davis, FSU
K: Mason Crosby, CU
D: Va Tech

SEC Championship game JLM

QB: Shockley
RB: Lumpkin
RB: Vincent
WR: Bowe
WR: Davis
WR: Massaquoi
K: Coutu
D: UGA

Off to California

I am off to California for a 1 hour meeting tomorrow morning. Yippee. I'm sooooo excited to fly for a total of 16 hours for a 1 hour meeting.

Oh Sweet Mercy

Watching the total destruction of Crodie will NEVER get old.

Where's the Weekend Hunter?

Remer...I need my fix. Fill me in on the goings on in the world of wildlife and gunfire. I thought about you yesterday morning. I was reading an outdoors column in the Evansville newspaper and the subject was "staged" hunting shows and how they are nothing more than glorified murder. The writer was a hunter, not some whack job animal rights activist. His point was that some of the hosts of these shows are unethical schemers who are really just trying to sell you their books/premium web sites/etc. by showing these great hunts when the action really takes place in an enclosed area with no real hunting. Anyway, I found it interesting and I have no doubt you would have as well.

On the subject of being in Evansville... The tornado damage in Newburgh is ridiculous. I remember the destruction and damage of the November '89 Airport Road tornado. Granted that was a long time ago and my memory is not quite as good in my old age, but I don't think the damage there compares to what I saw. Entire streets up there were virtually wiped out. There were literally homes with one or maybe two interior walls standing. Huge trees that had to be decades old were ripped apart and snapped into pieces. If you did a quick drive through the affected area and were asked to guess how many people were killed in Newburgh, given the fact that the storm came through at 1:30 in the morning, by taking the home damage into account, you would guess at least 15-20 lives were lost. The total: zero. Not a single person was killed. One of Cece's Pop's friends woke up and was staring at the sky; his roof had been torn completely off. I saw the house and that man has no business being alive. A couple got a call from someone in Evansville and were told of the tornado. They pulled their mattress over their heads as they took cover in a bathroom. The next thing they knew a fireman was touching their arm in the middle of the street, asking if they were okay. They had no recollection of being thrown from their home. There were tons of stories like theirs. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to go through that. Just another thing that leaves you in awe of the staggering power of mother nature. Well that, and a huge set of knockers.

And on a lighter note, went to my first Indiana gay bar Friday night. After we shut down the smokiest bar in Evansville, the girls wanted to go somewhere to dance. So we ended up at "Someplace Else" and danced amongst the queers and lesbos of the River City. Not a good looking chick in the place (except for the straight SBBs I was with). Kinda disappointed. Although there were a bunch of dudes kissing each other. Kevin would have been up at the bar making eyes at the fellas to get free shots.

Good read re: AU vs. ND for Fiesta

One team has three wins over opponents with winning records, two of those from non-BCS conferences, and lost at home to a team that will finish the season with a losing record. The other team knocked off back-to-back Top 10 teams in its last two games and lost to the current No. 3 and No. 24 teams in the polls.

Both teams are 9-2. Which deserves to play in a lucrative BCS bowl? The answer would be obvious in most situations.

Auburn beat Georgia on the road and Alabama at home in its last two games and finished 7-1 in the Southeastern Conference. It lost to No. 3 LSU on the road in overtime. Notre Dame’s “signature” win was over four-time loser Michigan. Auburn’s strength of schedule is far higher than Notre Dame’s.

But we all know what the outcome will be when the two BCS at-large bids are handed out. One will go to Notre Dame. No questions asked.
Why? Because it’s Notre Dame.

That’s not fair, of course. Never has a team gotten so much credit for a game it almost won as Notre Dame did for losing 31-28 to USC. The Irish leapt into the polls after beating Pittsburgh in their first game, a Pittsburgh that turned out to be woeful.
Didn’t matter. It’s Notre Dame.


Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn has put the Fighting Irish in position for a BCS berth.
There is no question that Notre Dame is the biggest name in college football, no question that its nationwide following is far larger than that of any other school, no doubt that first-year Charlie Weiss has brought an infusion of energy.

But the hard truth is that the two at-large bids should go to Auburn, winner of 23 of its last 25 games, and Ohio State, the Big Ten co-champion. Oregon, at 10-1, seems to have an argument until you look at who it has beaten and discover it has beaten no one of consequence.
Sadly, rewarding the players who have earned those rewards on the field isn’t what this is all about. It’s about cold, hard cash. An Auburn-Ohio State matchup in the Fiesta Bowl would generate a lot of interest, but not as much as Notre Dame-Ohio State.

That’s life in college football’s bowl season, and it’s really not the fault of the BCS. Notre Dame was the bowls’ darling long before the BCS came into existence.

Athletic director Jay Jacobs will do all he can to convince the Fiesta Bowl that Auburn is the best choice, but it would be a major upset if he is successful. Auburn seems destined to spend the holidays in Orlando for a Capital One Bowl matchup against Wisconsin.
On what had to be a maddening weekend for Auburn coaches and players, things almost fell into place for the Tigers.

Arkansas, needing a field goal to beat LSU and send Auburn to play a rematch with Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, was at the LSU 35 in the final minute in Baton Rouge. One run, one incomplete pass, one sack and one interception later, LSU had escaped.

No one can say LSU hasn’t earned its spot in next Saturday’s game, but the Bayou Bengals must have been carrying around a load of horseshoes. They beat Auburn 20-17 in overtime when John Vaughn missed five field goals. They beat Arkansas 19-17 when the Razorbacks missed two chip shots. On top of that, the winning points came courtesy of a safety on a bad snap.

Nevertheless, LSU has won nine straight games. First-year coach Les Miles, though, needs to stop saying LSU would be unbeaten if it had not blown a 21-0 lead against Tennessee. Far more ifs went LSU’s way than against it. LSU had six games--Arizona State, Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Arkansas--that could have gone either way. It won five of them, largely because of events over which it had no control. Sometimes things just go your way.

Far to the west Saturday night, Stanford scored with less than two minutes left to take a 31-30 lead over Notre Dame. A Cardinal victory would have ejected the Irish from BCS consideration and certainly would have enhanced Auburn’s chances.

It didn’t happen. It took Notre Dame less than a minute to score and lock up its $14 million payday.

Life isn’t always fair.

By any measure, this has been an Auburn season to remember. A win over Wisconsin would mean a 10-2 record and a lofty national ranking. Of the three SEC teams that have gone 13-0, Auburn would be the first one to lose fewer than three games in the season that followed.
Regardless of what happens in the bowl game, Auburn is almost certain to go into next season ranked in the Top 10. These are good days for Auburn football.

For what it’s worth, here’s my guess at the bowl destinations for SEC teams:
Sugar Bowl: Georgia/LSU vs. West Virginia; Capital One Bowl: Auburn vs. Wisconsin; Outback Bowl: South Carolina vs. Michigan; Cotton Bowl: Alabama vs. Texas Tech; Peach Bowl: Georgia/LSU vs. Florida State or Boston College; Independence Bowl: Florida vs. Iowa State ...

Moving on...

What was already a bad season became a disaster Saturday for Ole Miss. It’s not easy to give up 35 points and more than 300 rushing yards to Mississippi State, but the Rebels managed to do it.

First-year coach Ed Orgeron hit town talking a good game. A 3-8 record says more than words ever could...

For all the glowing talk about the strength of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the league isn’t looking so hot down the stretch. That Florida State, outscored 69-21 in its last two games, is going to the championship game has to be a bit embarrassing. The ACC had two shots at the SEC on Saturday and lost them both...

JKLMNOP Week 69

Team LooksLikeItsJustMe...HopeIDon'tLoseThisOne

QB: Shockley UGA
RB: Mcfadden ARK
RB: Norwood MSU
WR: Jackson FL
WR: Bowe, LSU
WR: Milner, UGA
K: whoever kicks for Ole Miss
D: LSU

Happy Turkey Day

Well, we're heading over to Michigan in a couple of hours so I probably won't have computer access until we get back on Sunday. Pray for my sanity as we deal with Chicago traffic. I can't wait! Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I'm sure there will be some text messages to be sent over the next couple of days.

Greyhounds in Madison

James - The Greyhounds are headed your way.

Tremendous Video

Do yourself a favor. Go get a cold beer and prepare to watch the best moments of the most dominating defensive performance in Iron Bowl history. Trust me. Get the beer.

Honk if you sacked Brodie

Tight Times in Week Twelve

Well, I definitely wasted $.10 on that text message I sent to James Saturday morning with my line up. If only I'd followed suit and gone with McFadden instead of Little! Here's the recap:

James:
Cox 17
Irons 16
McFadden 29
Monk 10
Pope 7
Rice 12
Wilhoit 6
LSU 9
Total: 106

Larry:
Shockley 31
Irons 16
McFadden 29
Aromashodu 2
Bowe 1
Rice 12
Hahnfedlt 3
Ark 9
Total: 103

Matt S. (the S is for Sucks):
Shockley 31
Little 2
Irons 16
Aromashodu 2
Massaquoi 2
Bennett 22
Jackson 4
LSU 9
Total: 88

I don't know what the totals are heading into the last JLM(occasionally P) tilt of the season but I figure it's a tight race between James and Larry. Games this week are spread over Friday and Saturday. Arky/LSU, UT/KY, UGA/Tech, FU/FSU, Sis/MSU. I'll be in the atl till Wednesday night but I'll try and get my line up onto the blog so I don't have to waste anymore dimes on worthless text messages.

Youth Specialties

Amanda and I went with a few other fellow Trinity Youth workers (Jenni, Sam Sullins, Henry Everitt, and about 5 others along with Tony the Youth Minister) went up to Nashville for the Youth Specialties convention. This is the National Youth Workers convention. It has three stops each year. A lot of amazing stuff. All of you need to check out the David Crowder Band. Unbelievable. They led the worship music for the two general sessions on Saturday. Music that had 9000 people on their feet singing at the top of thier lungs. Definitley not your typical Christian music. During Saturday's noon session David Crowder Band was playing a 4 song set on one side of the stage. On the other was this large hunk of clay. As the band started, this guy walked out and started sculpting. After a song you could start to see a face, next song eyes/beard - obviously Jesus, next song hair and crown of thorns, the last song - big climax song stage lights going crazy, everyone singing/shouting at the top of their lungs, the sculpture guy breaks out red paint and starts steaking the scupture of the thorn crowned King. I can hardly talk about it. It was a demonstration on how absolutely powerful art can be.

Also went to a break out session on youth and pop culture. Great talk by Rich Mueller of the Mars Hill foundation. Excellent speaker (James, you need to check out his stuff on the site). Basically said we can't turn our head to the stuff teens are into today. We have to "swim in their soup" in order to understand them and ultimately minister to them. I can't even begin to summarize his 2.5 hour lecture. Very very good.

Sorry

I had to post the pic again after renaming it to meet the 68 character url limit.

JKLMNOPQRST Week 34

Team MakeThatFiveWinsForLTL

QB: Shockley
RB: Irons, AU
RB: McFadden Ark
WR: Aromashuho, AU
WR: Bowe, LSU
WR: Rice, USC
K: Hahnsfeld, V
D: Ark

The pic we've all been waiting for

As soon as I get back from Nashville, this will become my profile picture.

FOAM SHORTS!!!!!

FOAMINATIN THE PEASANTS!!!!!

Shouldn't have helped him out Shug

Auburn-uat

Once upon a time in the 1970s, Bear Bryant and Shug Jordan went fishing together. The fishing was slow, and the Bear sort of wondered out loud whether he could really walk on water, the way Tide fans said he could. Why don't you find out, Shug said. And so Bryant, never one to back away from a challenge, stepped out of the boat -- and promptly sank to the bottom.
As he swam to the boat and reached up to grab Jordan's hand, Bryant said, "Shug, promise me you won't tell Alabama fans I can't walk on water." "Sure nuff," said Shug, "just as long as you don't tell Auburn people I saved you from drowning."

THis is it

Maybe

Trying to set up a profile pic

You can't watch this enough times

Some classic Red Sea defense.

You may have to "save as" the clip to your desktop and then play it. It's worth it.

War Damn Eagle!!!!!!

Burninating the Peasants!!

WOW

Phil decided not to mess around with his first win. His QB and RB beat James by 17 points themselves. By far the highest scoring week of PJLM ever. Quick Rundown on the devestation applied by Phil's squad:
QB - Cutler 52 points
RB - Little 45 points
RB - Darby 11 points (worst score on his team...other than Ole Miss losing)
WR - Jackson 16 points
WR - Bennett 39 points
WR - Rice 11 points
K - Coutu 14 points
D - lil 'sis -3 points

That's a PJLM record of 185. For the record I believe this is the first time in our history that a team has been outscored by over 100 points (James had 80).

Larry and I had a spirited battle for second place. On any other week we would have blown the field away. I finished with 137 points to Larry's 125. Larry was led by Little's 45 and had five others in double figures. I only had five players score in double digits and I had a big, fat Vandy player ZERO, but I had Cutler's 52 and Kenny Irons' 32 to lead me.

If not for James' pick of Irons his score would be embarrassing. Oh wait, it was anyway.

The last two weeks are upon us. I suppose at some point today I could go back and record all the scores and see where we stand. We'll see.

One Down...One More to Go

I can't wait for the Iron(s) Bowl...War Eagle!

Trogdore - The Burninator

Everyone must view the follwoing website. Enter the site. Go to toons. Click on Bad Man Email. Find Dragon. Enjoy! TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOORE

Goin' Commando

Whoops...I accidentally posted this to the other blog this morning.

Goin' Commando
Don't you just hate that feeling of going through your gym bag after you get out of the shower and you realize you don't have any underwear? I know we've discussed it on here before, but I did it again today. And I had a big bowl of Raisin Bran last night before I went to bed so I have some good fiber farts brewin'. Every time I let one slip I'm going to be scared it's wet. Dammit.

Enough is enough

Team NoMoreLastPlaceFinishes

QB: Cutler vs ky
RB: Irons vs uga
RB: Foster vs memphis
WR: Rice vs uf
WR: Jackson vs cocks
WR: Davis vs ky
K: Vaughn vs uga
D: LSU vs uat

If you got the time

This is an interesting read from espn page2. The guy is a pop culture author.

Also, thanks for the calls and emails checking on Cece's mom and pop and the SBBs. Everyone is okay and healthy with no damage to homes as far as we know. I'm still waiting for definitive word on the status of the Knob but judging from the reports I've read and my knowledge of the topography of the Newburgh area I think it is fine.

Leak Carries Larry to Big Win

Larry: 115
James: 89
Matt: 80

I don't like this whole last place thing. It sucks. Leak's huge night (helped by the officials and overtime) of 48 JLM points was too much for James to overcome...even with Irons' 29 points (all in the first half). Larry's LSU tandem of Vincent (14) and Bowe (13) sealed the deal.

The Weekly Trojan

Well it's been awhile, but I thought I would share some stories from this week. First of all, we had state testing all this week, which made things hectic. Each morning the students tested for 2 hours then we crammed 8 periods into the remaing 5 hours. In a way, it was kind of nice since I was able to get a lot done during the testing. The whole testing thing is kind of a crock, but I guess it's a result of the No Child Left Behind bologna. Apparently the results help us determine what kind of school we are. That's great when you hear kids say things like, "I was tired so I just guessed on most of the questions." Thanks.

Anyway, here are two real conversations that I had with 8th grade students. Emphasis on 8th grade.

First, I over heard two students talking and one was discussing his sister and her work.

Me: What does your sister do?
Student: She's an exotic dancer.
(Awkward silence)
Me: Maybe we shouldn't discuss that in class.
Student: Well, she brings home a couple of hundred dollars a night. Of course she has to, to pay for a rack like that.
Me: CLASS DISMISSED!

Ok, I made the last line up, but how do you respond to that statement?? On a side note, the 3 towns that make up our school district probably total to about 6,000 people. Well, there are two gentlemen's clubs. Let's just say you feel like taking a shower after driving past them.

Second coversation occurred this morning after I see a student who looks as if she's in a bad mood.

Me: How's it going today?
Student: This is a terrible day.
Me: It's only 8 am, how can it be terrible?
Student: My friend forgot to pick me up for school so I went to ask my mom if she would take me. She was drunk (just a reminder this occurred before school!!) and started yelling at me, so I called my grandmother to come get me.
Me: Well, it's early, I'm sure your day will get better.

So these are two examples of the type of home lives some of our kids come from. It puts things in perspective especially when they are acting up or doing poorly in school. It's not necessiraly an excuse, but it definitely makes your heart go out to them even when they act like knuckleheads.

Well, that's all for this week. Have a great weekend.

Joshua as Dash

Amanda did well with the home-made incredibles outfit

Snow White with a black eye

Claire's face hit a table during Sunday school

JKLMNOP Week 10

Team GottaGetBackonaWinningNote

QB: Cox, vs ky
RB: Darby, uat vs msu
RB: McFadden, arky vs cocks
WR: Rice, SC vs arky
WR: DJ Hall, uat vs msu
WR: Aromashodu vs ky
K: Hetland, fu vs vandy
DEF: ls-poo

New Bathrooms at Jordan-Hare

Those renovations sure are paying off.

Chest Brockwell
This picture has been approved by Boner

Hey Remer

I know that it wouldn't go with the typical posts on this blog, but I'd love to hear about the weekend. I hope it was a great experience.

"Head"Line of the Year candidate

Nutt's got kind a quandary on his hands with the whole Dick/Johnson/Cocks triangle.

Dick to replace Johnson vs. Cocks

(okay, so it says Gamecocks, but still)

New Blog

Hey fellas. Cece and I started up our trip blog last night. It's www.roundtheygo.blogspot.com. We just got the basics set up and haven't really started posting yet. Bookmark it now and check back every now and then to see the updates.

Week 9

Surprise, surprise, the good doctor was correct. He won. Scores now...smack talk later.

Larry 115
James 106
Phil 95
Matt 89

Croyle (31), Rice (23), Hall (21), Darby (20) were high men of the week. Larry had 3, James and Phil had 2, I had 1.

Got sunburned at the Auburn game. Crowd was kind of lame. I hate to say this but I'm getting to the point where I like the games better on tv. If I can't sit in the student section I'm not sure I want to be there.

Bad Friend

Phil...I'm sorry I couldn't make it out to see you last night. Some friend I am. Phil travels all the way to Atlanta and I go to bed at 11:00 instead of hooking up for a beer. Next time you're in town man...no excuses from me. First round is on me.

Also, You might want to select a replacement running back for Riggs. He's d-u-n for the year.

Never too early

To start thinking about the next Guy's Extravaganza. Especially with babies popping out like I was catching fish, it's important to plan ahead.

I'm about 90% sure that we'll be in Huntsvegas for Christmas, but that doesn't really count since it's primarily consumed with family time. Still, we should be able play some golf, etc.

I'm wondering if late winter/early spring is even an option. As a loooooooong shot, what about a long weeknd in Salt Lake City for sking/snowboarding?? I have a 4 day weekend in March and I've thought maybe there's someway I could get out there. It's kind of a pipe dream, but thought I'd throw it out there. Anyway, I'm just trying to get the discussion going.

On a side note: One of my 8th grade students is growing a rat tail of sorts. Well, I had this flashback of Jeremy and that little wisp of hair he used to let grow. I actually laughed out loud. Can we get some pictures of that posted??

On the other side note: Did I mention that I have the next two days off?? Apparently there's a teacher's conference, which is optional, or in other words, two days of vacation. I plan on trying to catch up on rest as these last weeks have been exhausting. Hopefully I'll be Boner-esque in my posting the next couple of days.

Come on Remer!

It's been three days since you've posted any scantily clad women...be they huge and fat or hot and wet.

Dumbest article I've seen in quite some time

CNN has a story on their website right now about how Bush would lose a presidential election to a "Democrat" right now. Really? That's news? Actually, no it's not news. Do you wanna know why? Because it's not an election year. Bush isn't trying to get elected right now. Geez. I'm in a crummy mood and I'm just going to bitch about stupid things for a little while.

Sales is full of slimeballs

The girl that sits next to me is seemingly innocent. She's all "la la la...puppy dogs and babies" on the phone and is about as smart as a toenail. But she's a freaking snake when it comes to deals. We have another sales group based in Minnesota. Our territories overlap quite a bit and we run across leads every now and then that have already been talking to one of our counterparts in Minnesota. My policy is to back off and let them have it. I have enough leads in my pipeline. If I'm a good salesman I can make my quota and be successful without poaching deals from co-workers. At least twice a day I hear her on the phone trying to steal a deal away from one of the Minny folks. It's f'n disgusting. Sorry...just had to get that off my chest. My other co-workers and I talk about how unprofessional and underhanded she is. She has absolutely no support from any of us. Hope she doesn't need any help anytime soon.

Okay...seriously, Wisconsin must be frozen right now

This is getting ridiculous. James wins two weeks in a row??? Obviously this victory is tainted for two reasons: a) after tempting the fates and submitting a team after games started last week Phil didn't even bother to turn in a line up this week and b) Shockley's injury prevented one of the best JLM (sorry Phil...no show, no letter) shootouts in recent memory from materializing.

James: 134
Matt: 117
Larry: 84

Larry pulled a James on the receivers and squandered 62 points from the RBs (31 each for McFadden and Norwood). Shockley's injury was unforeseen and unfortunate but Milner (0, chance James would have of surving a fight with the dude who married the chick he used to boink back in college), Swain (4, or as many wins as Grissom had in the 17 years I lived in Huntsville), and Taylor (5, sadly his best total since the opening game) pretty much blew. Choosing a kicker from uat didn't exactly pan out even though the freaking loser with a dollar bill taped to his leg (seriously, I hope an LSU or Auburn player just lights him up on a kickoff and stands over him and says something like "how much you worth now, dickweed?") kicked the game winner for the Luckiest Team on the Planet. Neither one of his FGs were over 40 yards so he only added 6 points. And while I certainly appreciate Larry's faith in uat's opponent, it backfired on him with a team loss.

I put together a solid effort minus Shockley's bum knee. The man, the myth, the legend known as Sidney Rice dropped a serious 31 point effort against the 'Dores (although if James hadn't picked him as well, he would have gone for 17 yards and no touchdowns). Combine that with the 58 from the RB position (27 from the new Brent Fullwood - Kenny Irons and 31 from McFadden) and I was looking good. All I needed was one of those incredible 24 point games from a kicker, with 2 extra points, 4 FGs from 39 yards and in and 2 50+ yard bombs. Alas, I got four extra points. Damn Vandy kicker.

James' squad was solid all around: 21 from Cutler, 31 from Norwood, 27 from Irons, 31 from Rice. The 40 point total from his wide receivers equaled his entire receiver output from the previous 5 seasons of JLM combined...I think. He even went out and had the highest scoring kicker. I blame the cold weather down here in the south. It got into the 40s last night! James' blood has thickened up in the tundra and he can handle these temperature changes much better than Larry and I (not even gonna mention Phil's name here...doh!).

So it's on to a new week for the JLM crew. And the race for first is on. May the best (or warmest) man win.

Now, onto something a bit more important. My thoughts on the LSU game. I think my soulmate is a guy named Matthew Zemek who writes for CFN. He mentioned two things in his column about the game that made me scream Saturday night and that haven't been mentioned in any other stories I've read. First, why didn't Carl Stewart throw the ball on the halfback pass??? As soon as he started drifting out toward the sideline I jumped out of my chair and said, "he's gonna throw it". Only he didn't. He just drifted along and finally tried to get back to the line of scrimmage. I didn't notice it on the replay, but Zemek said in his article that Mix was wide open on the five yard line. Second, and most damning in my opinion, why in the hell did Tuberville call timeout before the LSU kick?? The playclock was under :05 when the kicker started walking off his stance. They had no chance of getting the kick off. The LSU coaches were frantically trying to call timeout (their last one) and we bailed them out by wasting our last one. Of course this hurt us when Brandon committed a cardinal sin by throwing a pass in the middle of the field without getting it past the first down marker on our final drive. If we have that timeout, we can get two to three more plays off and get Vaughn closer on the last play. Granted, the way his luck was going he probably would have missed anyway, but you never know. A couple more thoughts...Stanley McClover is way overrated. He's good, but he's definitely no All-American. He's not even All-Conference. We cannot get pressure on the QB without blitzing and on obvious passing downs Gibbs prefers to drop a lot of guys into coverage. This is going to hurt us against Bama. Croyle can kill you if you give him time, but if you get in his face and hit him he gets pretty gunshy and makes some crappy throws. Ben and Devin and Courtney dropped several passes right in their damn hands that would have kept some drives going. Brandon missed some passes, but he also threw a lot of passes right on the money that were just flat out dropped. David Irons needs to stop jumping up and down and celebrating open field tackles after 17 yard runs. I'm happy he made the plays and all, but come on. They jut ripped off a good chunk of yardage on first and ten. Our defense is solid, but we don't have enough big play guys...difference makers. We didn't force a single turnover against a team that was around 100th in the country in turnover margin.

Next two weeks should be relatively easy. Ole Miss' defense is going to give us a few problems early, but we should roll them in the second half (30-10) and Kentucky won't put up any challenge at all (48-7). If Shockley is back and healthy then the UGA game is a toss up. If he's out, we should win by 2 touchdowns. If we win the next three games and go into the Iron Bowl 8-2 with a shot at winning the West, I think we win by 10 points or more. If we come in with a loss to Georgia and Bama has already wrapped up the West, I don't like it.

Hey

Where's Chandler when you need him? We need to tell him to go back down to Auburn and try to walk on as a kicker again

Once agian, posting just to move other posts down

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I will admit that I enjoyed, the photo

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JKLMNOP

Are you guys so scared of miserable defeat at the hands of little ol' me that you're avoiding submitting a team?

Hey Remer...always remember

I have a much bigger screen than you guys

Yeah, that what she said. ..

OK.......

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That should take care of my screen

Good Work Larry and Phil

Now I'll just add the finishing touch and she'll be off my screen!

Posting to move the last one down

Someone has to post something just to move Jeremy's girlfriend down off of the screen.

Let's Do It - Week 8 JKLMNOP

Team Kick'emintheButtBigBlueHey

QB: Shockley vs arky
RB: Irons vs lsu
RB: McFadden vs uga
WR: Aromashadu vs lsu
WR: Rice vs um
WR: Hill vs ky
K: Hahnfeldt vs cocks
D: ugay vs arky

Quick aside. I tuned in for the last 30 seconds of My Name is Earl last night so I can't tell you if it's funny or not. A couple of people I know said it's really good (and the Sports Guy loves it). I did however catch my first episode of the American version of The Office. Good stuff. It was a Halloween party episode and I thought it was tremendous stuff. I might have to start tuning in to that one on a regular basis.

Nice Pants

I don't think that Phil could even pull these pants off.

(Unless they were on James while they were rooming together in college)

Larry...where are the Claudia pics?

You've only shared a few pics with us. I heard Uncle KevCock came by and met her this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to make it by soon and meet the little whippersnapper.

James, a little clarification

Is this how they really do it at the Badger games?

Is it cold up there James?

I'm guessing it is, because Wisconsin is hell and hell must have frozen over...James Alexander Dinsmore the First of Madison, Wisconsin, USA finished atop the standings in this week's JLMP Fantasy Football contest. I know, I know...you all probably need a few moments to let this momentous news sink in. An injury and a thievery led the way, but a win is a win. An even more shocking development would be the play of James' wide receivers. Led by his copycat choice of Dwayne Bowe, JDinz's wideouts produced a week high 26 points (Bowe - 14, Obo - 5, Brown - 7). It was his backfield however which made the difference as he lapped the field: James 101, Matt 83, Phil 78, Larry 70. D.J. Shockley's roller coaster play was on an upswing as he was the week's high scorer with 32. Kenny Irons notched 18 points subbing for an injured Brad Lester (who only got me 3...I hate Brad Lester's groin) and Thomas Brown of Georgia racked up 10 points.

Larry has apparently begun channeling James when choosing his wide receivers. His pathetic trio of pass catchers (or alleged pass catchers) combined for a woeful 9 points - Obo 5, Doucet 2, Jackson 2. Larry screwed the pooch with Leak at QB as well. Apparently he didn't get the memo that Meyer's "light in the loafers" offensive scheme doesn't work against SEC defenses. He made up for those picks though, with his RBs. Darby and Addai totaled 41 points - the best for any RB tandem this week.

Phil is holding steady, waiting for his breakout week. Of the runners up, he had the highest total backfield score (Croyle 13, Darby 17, Irons 18) and had the best off the wall pick, UGA's Bryan McClendon (11 points). Unfortunately it wasn't enough for a second place finish.

I played bridesmaid yet again (do I get a dress out of this at least?) with James' jinx coming back to haunt me. He was 100% right in chastising me for picking an Auburn opponent, in this case Marcus Monk. Monk registered only one catch for 18 yards. I was also bedeviled by Lester's groin. But such is life. You have to be able to shake off injuries and bad mojo to win a league as competitive as JKLMNOP. And I just wasn't up to it this week. But I'm gonna practice hard this week, learn from my mistakes, take it one game at a time, and really try to make some improvement. If I make any mistakes they're gonna be at full speed and they're gonna be "effort" mistakes. Sorry...I was just trying out my coach-speak.

Florida is off this week, so you can't pick Chris Leak Larry.

I didn't realize...

That USA Soccer started fielding gay Broadway dancers for World Cup qualifiers these days.

Where My Boys At?

Anywhere there? Bueller? Bueller?

Ouch

It's a picture of Tyrone Prothro's broken leg from the Decatur Daily newspaper. If you don't like pictures of limbs bent at ungodly angles please don't click the link.

Boner and the wife go to Europe...Part I

As you know, Cece and I took a wonderful ten day vacation from the real world recently and headed off to Europe. It was so nice to get away from it all (except football...Saturday's were tough. I kept catching myself looking at my watch saying things like "Damn...the bama/florida game just started"...and the blog...I missed her) and experience a bit of Old World charm.

I didn't think about my job twice as I gallivanted around London and gay Paris (and by gay Paris, I don't really mean gay as in gay...well, I did walk down a pretty gay street with some pretty weird bars and bookstores and there were a lot of dudes kissing other dudes, but I didn't spend a lot of time there...just like five minutes...no wait, it was more like 30 seconds...but I digress) taking in the sights and sounds of cities that are so old I can only describe it with an SAT-like analogy. London is to Atlanta as ____ is to Matt?

a) Matt's father
b) Matt's grandfather
c) Matt's great grandfather
d) Moses

I'll let you take a guess as to the answer.

And now, for a brief run down of the days' highlights.

Thursday: Our direct Delta flight from Atlanta to London-Gatwick took off almost on time just after 5:00 PM (which is about the best you can hope for with Delta). The in-flight movie was Monster In Law. I chose to listen to music and read but all the old people in the plane really laughed a lot. Old people are funny that way. I did glance up every now and then to catch a glimpse of J Lo's heiny. Yowza. I'm sure all worked out in the end (no pun intended) and Hanoi Jane and J Lo's heiny became the best of friends. Yawn.

I was trying to finish re-reading the da Vinci Code because I wanted to take notes on places to see in London and Paris that related to the book. I was also planning on taking a walking tour in Paris that is inspired by the book and I wanted to be able to ask intelligent questions so I could prove to everyone else on the tour that I was smarter than them thus making me feel better about myself. After reading for awhile I realized I needed to try and get some sleep. Our plane landed around 6:00 am London time and we were going to try and go out in Brighton that day to do a little sightseeing. I was able to nod off a little here and there but the coach section on a transatlantic flight ain't exactly the best place to get a good night's sleep. Of course my wife closed her eyes, opened her mouth (you've all seen the pictures) and was off to sleepy land before I could say "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament".

Friday: We got off the plane just after 6:00 and got to stand in line for around a half hour waiting to go through customs. You could pretty much guess where everyone was from in the line based on their clothing and/or passport. And I gotta tell ya: Americans are fat. We might not smell as bad as some Europeans, but we sure do blow them away when it comes to obesity.

After about thirty minutes or so in the passport line we retrieved our bags (including the heaviest, most unwieldy suitcase in the history of mankind) and made our way outside. Cece's friend Andy was waiting to pick us up and after we stuffed our four bags and three bodies into his tiny Ford Fiesta we headed south to Brighton. Of course it only took two minutes for me to get my first taste of crazy English driving. Andy tried to cut across two lanes to make a left at the roundabout leading out of Gatwick and after almost slamming into a car who had the right of way, proceeded to yell at the other driver. "Aww, f*ck off ya c*nt, I'm just trying to get over there." Naturally the windows were rolled up so we were the only people who heard his ranting. After the car let us through and we were rocketing down the motorway Andy turned and flashed his gap toothed smile at Cece and said "Sorry for the language love. I'm used to being alone in the car."

The rest of the drive was somewhat uneventful. I will say this though, don't ever complain about the driving in Atlanta anymore. European drivers make Atlantans look like a bunch of 90-year olds behind the wheel.

Upon reaching Brighton, we made our way to Andy's flat, for which he paid around 200,000 pounds (between $350,000 and $400,000). I immediately felt grateful for the housing prices back home. His three story place had three TINY bedrooms, an absolutely minuscule kitchen (with no dishwasher), a decent sized living room on the top floor, and a split bathroom. I say split because the shower and sink were downstairs on the bottom floor and the toilet was upstairs next to the kitchen. And I swear to you the closet in mine and Cece's bedroom is twice as large as the room the toilet was in. Maybe three times bigger. Let's just say that you get a bit more bang for your buck here in the good ol' US of A.

As I was unable to get much sleep on the flight over, we took a little two hour nap before heading out into the city. Brighton is a seaside town on the English Channel and in the summertime is a haven for tourists. The tradition began back around 1800 when the Prince of Wales, who would go on to become King George IV began to vacation there. When he became the Prince Regent (he was in control of the government even though his father was still alive but mentally unfit) he built an opulent royal palace to host lavish parties and dinners for the upper crust of society. We played the role of dorky tourist geeks and took the tour of the palace. Decent tour...lots of history. Our tour guide was pretty knowledgeable and she had a good sense of humor. After the palace we walked around The Lanes, a pedestrian only shopping area. We only walked around a fraction of The Lanes on Friday; we found the larger section Saturday.

After walking back to Andy's flat we hit the couch and watched some British TV, including a special episode of The Office that had us laughing hysterically. When Andy's roommate arrived we headed down the street to the "new" pub and had a few pints and listened as Andy told us about his recent around-the-world trip and his roommate Phil told us about his upcoming trip which will include stops in Asia, Australia, and North America (I think that's where he's going. We're about 5 pints into the night now and I was already dead tired). Andy's girlfriend Liz called to let us know she was almost in town (she currently lives in Cardiff, Wales and made the drive after work), so we made our way back down to the flat to meet her. After she arrived we headed down the hill to Andy's "local" pub. It's like Cheers except the bartenders know a lot more than three or four regulars by name. The whole neighborhood stops by every night. Here's where the night gets real fuzzy. I had a couple more pints and I was done. I was pretty much falling asleep at the table and so we made the trip back to the house to go to bed (luckily the Velcro Pygmies weren't playing so I didn't end up doing the wake up and rock out and then pass out thing over and over again). I'm guessing I was pretty drunk because the next morning I didn't remember Liz walking in on me in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Thankfully I was "standing" in the bathroom so it wasn't too uncomfortable for everyone involved.

Coming soon...Saturday at Arundel and Sunday we head to London. Stay tuned...

Getting an Early Start on JLMP

Team LookKidsBigBen...Parliament

QB: Cox vs Arky
RB: Darby vs sissy
RB: Lester vs Arky
WR: Brown vs sissy
WR: Bowe vs fu
WR: Monk vs au (garbage time TD)
K: Coutu vs vandy
D: ugay

Predictions:
uat 37 sissy 9
ugay 31 vandy 17
lspoo 16 fu 13
AU 27 arky 10

Bonus prediction:
In a statement game USC trounces ND 49-21

Guess Who's Back

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up!

After a little European vacation to clear the head (not the lower one unfortunately - it's easy on the wallet to stay with friends but it sure doesn't put the lady in the right mood, if ya know what I mean) I'm back baby! I'll keep this one fairly brief seeing as how I didn't watch one second of the games for two straight weeks and I haven't even read up on Auburn's beat down of South Carolina last week.

Scores:
Matt - 114
James - 92
Phil - 86
Larry - 63

That's right...I just needed a little R&R across the pond to rekindle the old spirits of JLMP greatness (ignore for a moment that I chose the team the same day I picked last week's apparently pathetic squad of losers). I hit a high note with three players in the 20s (Leak - 21, McFadden - 24, Rice - 24) and got decent production out of the rest of the roster with no one registering less than 5 points.

James started strong, getting 21 from the QB spot and 28 from his RBs. He even got 25 out of the receivers, which is like hitting the lottery for him. But it wasn't enough.

Phil had high man of the week with Cock Mitchell's 29. Unfortunately he only had two other players reach double figures (Addai with 16 and Espy with 10). We'll forgive him for his poor picking this week as he has other things on his mind these days, like running to the grocery store at 2 am to pick up some pickles, peanut butter and anchovies for Amanda.

And then along comes Larreeeeeee. Wow...so much for the streak huh? Our poor professor of pickology really stunk up the joint this time out (maybe he's been spending too much time around Claudia's dirty diapers). He stole James' pick of Dwayne Bowe for his high man (15), his QB only accounted for 13 and his only other player to score double digits was McSwain with 10.

Well, that's it for week six of the 2006 season of JKLMNOP. We're halfway home fellas. And if memory serves me correctly Larry and I each have three wins. Time for the bottom feeders to step it up!

Wow...Congrats to Phil!

Way to go Phil. I was slowly going throught he posts and saw something about our newest player and our newest father and I was a bit confused. Then I read down a little further. That is such awesome news. I am thrilled for you guys. I'll be eagerly checking the blog for updates on the bambino and mommy.

I'll update you guys on my European vacation a little later. As for now, I have work to do.

The Arabian Prince of crack - no crack!! 

The Weekly Trojan

Well, I missed last week so I thought I'd try and get back in the groove of my weekly post. I'm finding that it's harder to come up with funny, creative stories than I thought. My students are actually good students this year. I give them assignments and low and behold they do them in class without me having to hound them (for the most part). I have had a couple of comments/reactions that make you question yourself. In one day, in two different classes, I explained what we were going to do and I got the following responses: 10th grade - "Jesus Christ", 8th grade - "this sucks." Now, I quickly learned not to take things personally and I don't expect everyone to have math as their favorite subject, but I think it's fair to expect them to participate in the assignment or class. Anyway, I thought you might find this humurous and the next time a co-worker, or boss doesn't like what you've done, you can be thankful they don't react like a teenager.

On a more serious note, I somehow got wrangled into being a part of a 7th grade book study that meets during lunch on Friday's. The book we are reading is called "She Said Yes" about Cassie Bernall who was the girl at Columbine High, who, reports say, was confroted on whether she believed in God prior to being shot. She responed, "yes", thus the title of the book. The book is written buy her mom, and the first 40 pages are quite gripping. This is one of those events where I can say, "I remember what I was doing that day." Anyway, it's interesting to see how the students discuss the book and it's the first time I've really heard religious discussions in our school. So far, the book is not so much about whether she was a martyr or not, but about a teenage girl who was lost, depressed and mixed up in the wrong stuff before giving her life to Christ the impact it had on turning her life around. It's pretty cool and I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll be trying to stay warm now that the temps have dropped into the 50's.

LPJM - Week #6

Team Youmotorboatin'sonof*&^%*

QB: Leak, UF
RB: Little, UK
RB: McSwain, Ole
WR: Jackson, UF
WR: Bowe, LSU
WR: McClendon, UGA
K: Brown, USC
DEF: LSU

And to review Boner's team.

Team ISaidHead...Start - Week 6

QB: Leak vs ms-poo
RB: Addai vs vandy
RB: Derek McFadden, arky vs ul-monroe
WR: Mario Hill vs citadel
WR: Chad Jackson vs ms-poo
WR: Sidney Rice vs ky jelly
K: Coutu vs u-pee
D: Arky vs ul-monroe

LPJM Week 5 Results

Well, I would certainly understand if there are some scoring errors, but I'm not sure that it would matter. I couldn't quite remember the breakdown for Defense (I gave 3 points for a win and 6 points for a win and holding the other team to under 10 points, I'm not sure if the defense gets points for TD's, which would improve my score, but not enough to make a difference) or field goals (I gave 3 pts for <>40 and 1 pt for extra points). Anyway, here's what I've got. It isn't as entertaining as Boner's commentary.

Let's hope Boner uses his time in Europe to study something other than history. Because recent history shows that Boner is not fairing well. In a Dinsmore-esque move he manages 21 points from his wide receiving core, and the high scorer, Erik Davis was on all teams so it didn't matter. This coupled with an off week from Vandy's RB Jeff Jennings led Boner to a paltry 67 points.

I wasn't much better, going with a 12th generation Clausen at UT for a massive 10 points out of my QB. My UF tandem of D. Wynn and C. Jackson forgot to show up in Tuscalooser, resulting in a modest 72 points.

Our newest competitor, and newest father, got back on track with a great effort from Sidney Rice despite the Cocks getting destroyed by Auburn. His "ok, we won't shut you out" touchdown helped Fil's WR group go for a nice 33 points. Nice games from Darby and Addai helped Fil make a run, but 87 points wasn't enough to de-throne the current champ.

Coming off the strength of a bold prediction, LTL continues making solid picks like Riggs and Addai, 34 points combined and Obamanu being the only AU WR to make a dent, helped Larry get to 90 points and another victory.

I'll have to go back through the results to see the overall tally, but I'm fairly positive, that the 4 time JLM(P) champ has only 1 victory to his name.

Slow Going

Wow, Boner leaves the country and the number of posts drop rapidly. Next year is going to suck.

I hope to get to the JLMP scoring this afternoon sometime.

Ahhh, the old shaved kitty

Here pussy, pussy, pussy...

Raymond's shaved pussy

Coldplay at Philips Arena

The wife and I took in the Coldplay concert at Philips Arena last night. And while I haven't exactly been tearing up the concert scene lately I have to say it was one of the best concerts I'd been to in some time. There was definitely a lot of energy from both sides: the crowd and the band. Chris Martin really engages the crowd in a concert. He doesn't seem to sing songs to the crowd so much as he sings them for the crowd. They opened with a song off the new album (I bet Cece a dollar they would open with Speed of Sound and I was wrong), but I can't remember the name. Immediately after the last note in the opener they busted out Politik from their first album. It opens with gut busting drums and piano and the lights were all skewed across the stage and it just felt like a rock concert. I was a bit apprehensive going into the show that it might be a low key kind of a night. I'm sure they've been touring a while and you just never know when one of these huge bands that is so incredibly popular all over the world and is constantly performing, either on their own tour or Saturday Night Live or Letterman or wherever, is just going to have either an off night or a night with no energy. Well they were definitely on last night. The afforementioned Politik along with Clocks and Yellow absolutely whipped the crowd into a frenzy. They really put a lot of spark into the "famous" songs. I've been to shows where the band seems to be tired of playing their hits and just goes through the motions on those songs. Coldplay did a good job of keeping the intensity level high throughout the show. Of course the downside of that is they didn't play for very long. They played about an hour main set and left for less than five minutes and came back for a four or five song encore. They closed with Fix You and included the obligatory lyric changes to give props to the host city. They also changed some of the words in Politik (home of Outkast and REM...Georgia on my mind) to reflect a little local color. Although after the song Chris Martin did say that they don't do that everywhere (wait a minute before you call BS) and that Atlanta is special to them (I said wait a minute). He told a story that I'd actually heard him tell before, not in Atlanta, but in an interview. Back in 2000 before they had any "hit" songs in the US they were on a tour which featured Korn and some other heavy metal bands and they just felt like crap. They said they were getting booed on stage at most shows because of the type of music they were playing and they were at a really low point in the confidence level as a band. Well, as the tour made a swing through the south they booked a couple of shows at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. It's an old church in downtown that has been turned into a phenomenal and intimate music venue (Kevin and I saw Cake there last October...f'n awesome show) holding about 2,000 folks. They rocked the house and got such an energetic and positive response from the crowd they started to feel good about themselves again. The second night they invited Elton John onstage (he lives here part time) and he played piano on a couple of their songs and they pretty much took off after that. I believe it was after that tour that they wrote most of the songs that would become Rush of Blood to the Head. Anyway, the point is that I know most bands change some lyrics to pump up the crowd but they at least seemed sincere about their motivations last night. The best "moment" of the show was after the break. Martin came back on the stage alone to start the encore and said they really wanted to do something special because they were back in Atlanta (this is when he told the story about the Tabernacle) and said they had invited a special guest. I immediately though it would be Elton John. But he said they thought there was no better way to honor Atlanta than to bring up someone who was born there (no Elton John then) and who he had posters of on his wall when he was a teenager. Then he introduced Michael Stipe and the place went nuts. Stipe came out and they did a stripped down version of Night Swimming - Martin on piano and Stipe singing. I know this sounds pretty gay but I got goose bumps. That is one of my favorite REM songs and it was just a really cool moment. The funniest moment of the show came when Martin just stopped playing about 30 seconds into The Professor. His voice cracked or he missed a note and he just stopped and said, "F that, I screwed up and I'm starting over. You guys don't deserve that." Everyone laughed and he just cranked right back up. My only complaint was that they didn't play as long a show as I thought they would. They didn't hit the stage until around 9:20 and we were back in Centennial Park walking toward MARTA by 11:00. I'd say they probably played for an hour and a half. I've seen shorter shows, but I've also seen longer ones. But it was still worth the money and it made me want to go to more concerts. Nine Inch Nails is coming to town in November and I'd really like to see them again. Cece wants to go see Neil Diamond. I said yes, but only if Will Ferrell is playing Neil Diamond. We're also going to see U2 on November 19. I'll be watching the Auburn/uat game at the Jocks 'n Jills at CNN Center and then hustling over to Philips to catch the concert. Hopefully it'll be a happy time at the concert (four in a row!). Anyway, just wanted to share that from last night. We leave this afternoon for London and Paris. I'll be sure and take plenty of pictures of British people with bad teeth and rude Parisians to share with everyone. I'm also bringing a bottle of spray deodorant so I can hose down any smelly Frenchies I get stuck next to. Au revoir gentlemen.

Getting a Head Start

Team ISaidHead...Start - Week 6

QB: Leak vs ms-poo
RB: Addai vs vandy
RB: Derek McFadden, arky vs ul-monroe
WR: Mario Hill vs citadel
WR: Chad Jackson vs ms-poo
WR: Sidney Rice vs ky jelly
K: Coutu vs u-pee
D: Arky vs ul-monroe

Hopefully no one gets hurt this week and all these freaks play.

Anyone else get a chuckle thinking back to Jeremy's "My Morning Jacket" comment?

JLMP Week #5

Team LARRYIsAWhiteGuyPeopleThinksHesFunny

QB: Cutler, V
RB: Riggs, TN
RB: Addai, LSU
WR: Davis, LSU
WR: Jackson, FL
WR: Obomanu, AU
K: Hetland, FL
D: AU

Life With Three Kids

I don't have time to post anything. More to come when life settles down a little.

The BabyMaker Keeps His Pledge

Team L'hopital'sRule (I can't believe you busted out L'hopital's Rule by the way) kept his promise to his new little baby girl and brought home the bacon in Week 4 of the 2005 Season of LJMP. In the closest tally yet this year (unless Early Doucet goes nuts tonight - doesn't matter, Larry is the only one with him on his team) Larry brings home his second weekly title to tie me in the race for the Championship. Short score description today because this is the last week in the month/quarter and I'm leaving for Europe on Thursday so I kinda need to spend a little more time on the phone.

Larry rode the Gators to the win: Leak 39 - hi man for the week, Jackson 23 - top WR for the week. Irons and Darby were also in double figures with 18 and 10. Total 104 (without Doucet)

James gave it a run but alas his inability to choose receivers bit him in the arse again. Mario Hill and Keith Brown combined for a score equal to John Blutarski's GPA at Faber College: 0.00. He did steal 15 in the WR spot by copying my pick of Sidney Rice but it wasn't enough. He did squander some more good choices at the QB and RB spots: Mitchell 20 (solid, but worst QB score of the week), 31 for Wynn and 21 from Jennings (again...thieving my picks to beat me). Total 100.

I pulled a downright Dinsmorian WR draft and still ended up with the 2nd most WR points. Shockley (27), Lester (15), and Jennings (21) combined for a solid 63 but the 16 from the receivers killed me. Total 96.

Phil settles into his more likely finishing spot- last, with an 84 point showing in week 3/2. After scoring the highest ever point total for a Vandy player - Cutler's 32 - Phil slowed down with his next highest scorer being Syvelle Newton with 13. He did spread the wealth though with five players in double figures. But it wasn't enough. Total 84. Oh yeah, and you might want to check the injury reports -- Andre Caldwell is out with a broken leg.

Good scores. As for this week, I'll submit a team but obviously won't be able to do the scores. I'll try and go ahead and put a team in for next week too but I can't make any promises.

The Weekly Trojan

Well, again it was a fairly uneventful week. I'm just waiting for this fantasy to be over, but all my classes are very good and I'm not having any trouble with the students. There is one 8th grader who is the poster child for whatever ADHD/ADD drug he's taking. It is so obvious the days that he doesn't take it that I should just send him to a quiet place at the beginning of class.

I'm getting a little bit of an eye opener in Calculus. As you may remember I teach Probs and Stats the first semester and then Intro to Calculus the second semester. I have to study to make sure I know what I'm talking about, but overall it's not too bad. Well, there is one student in our school who is taking AP Calculus through a special program where he watches a teacher at another school via a webcam. Well, he's having a bit of a hard time keeping up, so he was moved into my study hall class with the expectation that I would kind of "assist" him, like an independent study or something. Needless to say, only some of the questions can I answer off the top of my head. I've said, "I'm going to have to look into that" quite a few times. Still, he's a great guy, and seems happy that I'm helping so hopefully we'll all be better off in the long run.

No big plans for the weekend, just tring to watch as much football as possible and drink as many Old Fashion's as I can. Since it doesn't look like I'll be attending an AU game this year, I'm hoping to go to the Wisconsin/Indiana game next weekend. We'll have to see.

Best...Complaint Letter...Ever

I think this guy might be a little ticked off.

Remer. Is this better than the last one?

Sell Baby Sell!!

The hizzle is for sizzle, my nizzles.

Claudia intro, take 2

Amanda comes home today. Claudia has been sleeping, well ... like a baby. I guess she is waiting until she gets home to awaken. I will keep posting.

Meet Claudia Elise Lowe

Where is Spiderman?????

I thought we were going to get some pictures of little Claudia on here? Wellllll, we're waiting.

Find Your Calling

If you are unhappy with your current career or think you're not who you should be, then visit this place to find your true calling.

Matt Sharp is a Goal Scoring Superstar Hero. I rule.

Lessons from Alice Ann

I'm sure we all remember the significance of the phrase "crossing the Rubicon".

"I must say that I could see in their eyes that they felt like they had crossed a Rubicon," Chancellor Gordon Gee said in a telephone interview yesterday. By holding on to beat Mississippi on Saturday, Vanderbilt is 3-0 for the first time since 1984. And what must make Gee most proud is that the players in his program can define Rubicon. --New York Times

SEC Football Picks

Just straight up this week:

Troy @ South Carolina
Wyoming @ Ole Miss
Arkansas @ Alabama
Western Kentucky @ Auburn
Florida @ Kentucky
Richmond @ Vanderbilt
Tennessee @ LSU
Georgia @ Mississippi State

JLMP Week #4

Team WhosYourDaddy

QB: Leak, FL
RB: Irons, AU
RB: Darby, Bama
WR: Obomanu, AU
WR: Jackson, FL
WR: Doucet, LSU
K: Hohnsefer, Vandy
D: Vandy

Why Smart People Don't Gamble on Sports

James and I both went 6-2 straight up on the SEC games this week, missing only the Ala/USC and UK/IU games. When it came to the spread however...I was a miserable 2-6 and James wasn't much better at 3-5. Ouch.

FYI...after being very strong ATS last year Auburn is 2-1 so far ATS this year. Should be favored in the next three games vs. Western KY, Arkansas and USC before heading into Red Stick as a sizeable road dog. I would guess we'll be at least 10 point dogs by gameday.

The Rookie Makes His Move

Congrats to Phil on an impressive showing in his inaugural week of MPLJL (explanation forthcoming) Football. While the rookie made a splash with his backfield (highest scoring quarterback and two of the three top scoring running backs) he must learn to spread the wealth to his wideouts. He was downright Dinsmorian in his receiver picks (but not to be outdone in his area of futility expertise James did even worse with his). Team WhyDidn'tBelhavenHaveaFootballTeamWhenIwasinSchool picked up SIXTY-NINE points (sorry I just had to put 69 in all caps) with his trio of DJ Shockley (28), Jerious Norwood (21), and Kenneth Darby (20). Unfortunately he got only six points from his pass catchers (yes James, that means you did worse than six points with yours) as Preseason All America Courtney Taylor continued piling up the stats (1 catch for 16 yards), Chad Jackson didn't put up video game numbers as Urban Meyer's office finally played a defense with enough speed to foul up his wussified misdirection based offense (53 yards), and Sean Bailey either forgot how to get to Sanford Stadium or he was too busy cramming for his Basic Rules of Football midterm exam (0 points). Phil followed in the footsteps of experienced JLM vets Larry and James by choosing Vandy's kicker (7 points)...and it would come back to well, uh kick him in the groin, so to speak (or type). The defense choices all cancelled each other out as both Auburn and Georgia recorded wins and allowed less than 10 points to their outmanned opponents. That led to a first week score of 91 points for Phil. Pretty impressive in his first outing.

James and Larry on the other hand. Well where to start here? First let's get right to this week's scoring controversy. Larry's "letter of the law" rule could come back into play here. As one of his running backs, Larry chose Brown of UGA. I'm not sure if there is some whitebread walk on from an affluent Atlanta suburb named Chas Brown somewhere on a Bulldog depth chart far, far away, but there is a Tyson Browning who is heavily involved in UGA's running back rotation. Browning produced 9 points and marks the difference between a third place or last place finish for James/Larry. With those nine points, Larry would total 77. He would have 68 if we give him a zero there. James ended up with 72 points. So that is now up for discussion amongst the league's Board of Directors. Here's a quick glance at their rosters:
Larry Backfield
Cox, Rafael Donatello Leonardo Michaelangelo Little and the aforementioned "Brown" go for either 37 or 28...solid but no one stood out.
James Backfield
Cock Mitchell and the Renaissance man Little combined for 26 points....or one less than the most inspired pick of the week, Auburn's fourth string RB Brad Lester, who romped to 91 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns rushing, and the Tigers' first kickoff return for a touchdown since 2000 (you get TD points but no yards for returns).
Larry Receivers
UGA tight end Martrez Milner put up 13, Eric Davis of the 3-0 and first place in the SEC East Vanderbilt Commodores tacked on 10 more, and Taylor was nice enough to give a point.
James Receivers
Well, well, well. Let's see whose Saturday James jinxed. C.J. Fayton...check, 0 points. Keon Humpries...check, 0 points. Marlon White...check, 3 points. Death, taxes, and James Dinsmore's terrible wide receivers...so predictable.
Kickers and teams were even with 7 from Hahnfedlt and 9 from AU/UGA.

Once again there is but one man standing at the end of another week of JKLMNOP Football...me. At first glance my roster doesn't jump out at you as spectacular: 14 from Cox, 11 from Carl Stewart, 20 from Darby. Receivers contributed a solid 30 - 5 from Chad Jackson, 15 from Marcus Monk, 10 from E. Davis. And we already know the team scores were even. So if you look at my team and Phil's, and you add up the scores for QB, RB, WR, and Defense we're all even. So basically it came down to the kicker. Phil chose to follow the leaders (well, technically they chose before him so I guess they were kind of leaders) and go with Vandy's Hahnfeldt, who delivered a FG and 4 PATs - 7 points. Meanwhile, I chose the road less travelled and went with UGA's real kicker (not to be confused with the guy who kicked for them in the 1930s...James' favorite Bulldog of all time, Andy Bailey) Brandon Coutu. My Mandon Brandon knocked home 5 PATs, drilled two field goals from beyond 40 yards and blasted in a 58 yard bomb for good measure. That's an 18 spot from the kicker position, which makes him my second leading scorer this week (he would have been Larry's high man). I might be mistaken but I believe that's my second consecutive week of 102 points and I've marked my territory in the winner's circle. Beware young Phil. I am prepared to defend my chosen ground to the death if necessary.

Good luck in week 4.

The Weekly Trojan

Well, it's Homecoming Week here at Dodgeland and although things have been crazy with all the costumes and stuff, nothing to out of the ordinary to bring up. Of course, I'm driving a convertible in the parade after school with two of the Homecoming court students so there's always a chance something crazy will happen (like last year). The Trojans are 0-3 going into their tilt tonight, but I'm hopeful the packed house will bring out the best in our guys. You know, when I think back to Homecoming, I don't remember much, just going to the dance. Hmmm, maybe I wasn't that involved.

I will comment on the environment here at the school. To give you an idea of the setting, the school was built on a portion of someone's farm, so there are literally corn fields on every side. Well, apparently this is the appropriate time of year for spreading manure to fertilize the fields for future crops. If Ryan reads this he could comment since he comes from a farming family, and Jeremy could probably explain why manure is uselful. Now, I'm no expert on air systems, but I believe air from the outside is circulated throughout the school as part of central air. To give you an idea of how it smells in certain parts of the school, think back to Larry during the poker tournament at his parent's house. Yes, it is quite brutal. It's funny though, kind of like when I worked in a pulp mill, you almost become immune to it.

Also here's a litte joke for you're Friday:

Two boys are playing football at this park in a small town in Alabama
when one of the boys is suddenly attacked by a crazed Rottweiler.
Thinking quickly, the other boy takes a stick and shoves it under the
dog's collar, twists it, and breaks the dog's neck, thus saving his
friend.
A local sports reporter who was strolling by sees the incident and
rushes over to interview the boy. He tells the boy he's going to write
the story and says, "I'll title it 'Young Bama Fan Saves Friend From
Vicious Animal.'"
"But I'm not a Bama fan," the little hero replies."Sorry, since we're in
Alabama, I just assumed you were," says the reporter and he starts
writing again.
He asks how does "Auburn Fan Rescues Friend From Horrific Attack sound?"
"I'm not an Auburn fan either," the boy says. Oh, I thought everyone in
Alabama was either for the Tide or the Tigers. What team do you root
for?" the reporter asks.
"I'm just visiting my cousin, I'm a Tennessee Vols fan," said the boy.
The reporter smiles, starts a new sheet in his notebook, and writes:
"Little Redneck Bastard From Tennessee Kills Beloved Family Pet".

NFL suicide pool week #2

I pick ATL

matt, what's your pi..... oh thats right, your out.

James, how about it?

Now that would look cool mounted on the Wall

Seriously...that thing is bigger than my car.

Yeah, so uh, soccer players are insane too

His shorts were "soaked in blood"!!!! And who talked him into going back into the game???

Blogrolling

Larry, as the administrator, you may be the only one who can do this, but maybe this would be a way to add links to cool websites, or whatever. Anyway, check out blogrolling.

MJLP Fantasy Football - Week #3

Team I'dbetternotlosetoPhilinhisfirstweek

QB: Blake Mitchell, Cocks
RB: Brad Lester, AU (what the heck)
RB: Rafael Little, UK
WR: CJ Fayton, UT
WR: Keon Humphries, MSU
WR: Marlon White, Vandy
K: Bryant Hahnfeldt, Vandy
DEF: Auburn

Maybe the first time in history that I've had two Vandy players on my team, not to mention no Florida players. I'm going for lowest score in history.

The Old Mailbag

Gotta love the Sports Guy.

The Hob Knobbin'

For Love of the Game

You either have to be crazy or really love your sport...no wait, this is just f'n crazy.

SEC Picks - Week 3

Let's start a little fun weekly picks feature. We'll go SU and ATS. Submit two picks for each game and we'll do 2 bonus points on the over/under for one game:

Ball St. (+36.5) AUBURN
Ole Miss (+3) VANDERBILT
UL-Monroe (+38.5) GEORGIA
Alabama (-3) SOUTH CAROLINA
Kentucky (+3) INDIANA
Tennessee (+4.5) FLORIDA
Mississippi St. (-2.5) TULANE (Game played in Shreveport - Tulane is "home" team)
Arkansas (+31) USC

Over/under for UT vs. UF: 49

On the Market

Well, the condo (aka The Sharp B&B aka James' former second home) is officially on the market and for sale. If any of you know a prospective intown condo buyer in the ATL hook a brother up. Geez dude, real estate is where it's at. These agents make beacoup bucks. Six percent of a sale is a lot of dough. I realize the buying agent and selling agent each only get three percent but still...that's six percent of our sale price. So in the end this three year investment is going to come out pretty much a wash. We're going to be lucky to get $215K for the joint which after commission and potential closing costs (we're really hoping for someone with a corporate relocation package so the closing costs are covered) leaves us with around $200K...ouch. That's a whopping $2000 increase over the purchase price. If we have to go below $215K to sell I think Cece's head might explode. And that's not a good thing. So keep us in your thoughts and if you want to visit the pad one last time you better hurry on over (we hope).

Auburn ranked in the Top 10

Unfortunately it's for the wrong reason. Ok, on more than one occasion I may have been a slacker. I just think as an Auburn grad I'm well rounded.

Thoughts on Auburn and the SEC

A win is a win and I'll definitely take it, but I wasn't really encouraged by the offensive effort on Saturday against State. I was working over at Turner and only got to watch about 45-50% of the game so I may be talking a little bit out of my ass on some of these points. I know the coaches were trying to prove a point and just run the ball even if Mississippi State was going to put 8 or 9 guys in the box (kinda like a normal Saturday for Frankie), but it seems like the offense is still very sluggish and way behind last year. Granted that's going to happen when you lose a fifth year Senior QB, a Senior RB and a fifth year Senior RB, but we have SO MUCH talent at wide receiver it is hard to believe we could play a conference game and only complete two passes to starting wideouts and four overall. I read a couple of stories from today's paper and Borges was saying he probably shouldn't have gotten so conservative in the second half but he just wanted to keep Brandon confident and didn't want him to force any plays and make a couple of turnovers. That's all good, but he isn't going to get any meaningful snaps in the next two weeks against Ball State and Western Kentucky. At least he was playing against SEC athletes Saturday. If he's going to lead wins over South Carolina (their defense looked pretty solid against the pass versus Georgia...not so much against the run though) and at Arkansas (more on this in a minute...Vandy????) he needs to work on some passing plays in pressure situations. The running backs look pretty pathetic at times. Kenny ripped a couple of decent runs but he lost a fumble and he had a ton of rushes for no or minimal gain. Carl is a bruiser but he kind of plods through the line. He doesn't look like he has an extra gear or a good burst. Brad Lester may end up being the best of the bunch. He looked fast, fresh, and ready to rumble out there. But he doesn't have any game experience and he hasn't been getting a lot of reps in practice against the first or second team D so I have no idea if he can handle pass protection at all. Larry's statement about Tre not sniffing the field after the fourth game might be prophetic after all (let's add psychic to Larry's already long and distinguished list of accomplishments). I just feel for the wideouts. Courtney was garnering all sorts of All America and All SEC accolades before the season and now he has a grand total of 80 receiving yards and no touchdowns after two games. I'd be willing to bet we don't throw the ball a lot the next two weeks so he's not going to produce numbers until the meat of the SEC schedule. On the bright side, if his numbers aren't out of this world maybe he'll stick around for his senior year. Ben and Devin are borderline middle round draft picks and need to make some plays so they'll get noticed by the scouts. If we ain't throwin', they ain't catchin', and the NFL ain't lookin', and they ain't gettin' drafted. Tight ends looked good though:)

Defense looked pretty hungry out there. I think they were a bit embarassed after the Tech game. LBs were flying around and the linemen were holding their own against a bigger O-line. Groves looks like he might be the real deal at DE, supplanting McClover as the best defensive player. The secondary looked pretty solid. Montae made some nice plays in coverage as did David Irons. They're just not causing enough big plays. Picky I know, considering the D scored a touchdown and notched their first SEC shutout since 2000 (that would be the Vandy game where Vince kicked me out of the camper at 6:00 AM and I cracked my engine block trying to back my car over the curb so we could listen to my stereo...good times). I just want to see them shut down a good offensive team before I start looking at them the same way we could look at last year's D.

Kicking game remains sporadic. Bliss is a freaking stud punter (James I don't think you got to watch the game so let me clue you in on the best sequence of the day: Bliss knocks the holy hell out of a punt, 61 yards in the air. The MSU punt returner is going back so far he loses track of where he is and calls for a fair catch on the five yard line. AU stuffs a run on first down. MSU completes a short pass on 2nd down. The corner stands the receiver up and a gang tackle ensues during which someone knocks the ball away and Herring runs it into the end zone for a touchdown. Without Kody's huge punt the defense doesn't score a touchdown right there) but neither Vaughn nore Kutch are impressing me at all. Vaughn seems to have gone backward in his development. The coaches didn't have enough faith in him to try a 47 yarder against Tech and he missed a thirty-something yarder against State. Kutch's kickoffs either go out of bounds or end up at the ten, leading to good field position for the opponent.

Overall, I'm kind of blah on the team right now. We're probably not going to learn a lot about them over the next couple of games and I'll be in Paris for the South Carolina game (oui, oui). So I won't get to see a decent game until mid October when we head to Arkansas. I'm just not seeing anything more than 8-3 out of this team...which is a shame because they are loaded with talent. It's just inexperienced talent. I don't see how we can match scores with LSU and Georgia. The South Carolina and Arkansas games are going to be tougher than they should be and I hate to admit it but the Bama game is going to be huge.

SEC thoughts: how in the hell can Arkansas lose in Fayetteville to Vandy?? Well the answer is probably Vandy's Senior four year starter QB versus Arky's Redshirt freshman second game starter QB. But still. It's Vandy. In Fayettenam. The SEC West is far behind the East right now and the gap is only going to get bigger. I think Les Miles is a good coach but unless he goes 10-1 or 11-0 this year he's not going to recruit as well as Saban did. Orgeron at Ole Miss is a fraud and they'll be exposed as the year goes on. The only reason they beat Memphis is because Memphis' QB got injured on the first play of the game. The Rebs are heading for 4-7 again. Arky is talented but they won't win six games. We saw State's offense in rare form Saturday. Bama is one injury away from going back to sub-.500 ball, and it doesn't matter if it is Crodie or Darby. Either one of them goes down and their season is toast. We obviously aren't looking too hot on offense. Just based on the talent gap between us and most of the teams on the schedule we should have no problem winning seven games at the bare minimum, but I think more than eight would be a mini-miracle at this point. I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong though. LSU is the clear class of the West and probably shouldn't lose a game to a West Division opponent. I think they'll handle UT next week and their only conference loss might come against Florida. But that game is in Baton Rouge so you never know. They might be good enough to go undefeated. We'll see how much has changed if they go undefeated, and USC and Texas stay unbeaten as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. The East is just better this year. I think UT is overrated but Florida and Georgia are pretty solid. Carolina is going to beat some people and UK and Vandy are obviously better than they were last year. Neither one of them is going to a bowl game but they're still better than last year.

This week: I like Florida over UT in a close one, Carolina to put a decent sized smack down on Bama, and Vandy to continue the dream season with a win over Ole Miss. AU 36 - Ball State 9.