Monday, October 31, 2005
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)
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.
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.
Friday, October 28, 2005
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.
Also, You might want to select a replacement running back for Riggs. He's d-u-n for the year.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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.
Monday, October 24, 2005
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.
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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I will admit that I enjoyed, the photo
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Friday, October 21, 2005
JKLMNOP
Are you guys so scared of miserable defeat at the hands of little ol' me that you're avoiding submitting a team?
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
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That should take care of 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.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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.
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)
(Unless they were on James while they were rooming together in college)
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
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.
Monday, October 17, 2005
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.
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.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
I didn't realize...
That USA Soccer started fielding gay Broadway dancers for World Cup qualifiers these days.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
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...
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
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
Monday, October 10, 2005
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!
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.
I'll update you guys on my European vacation a little later. As for now, I have work to do.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
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.
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
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
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
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.
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.
I hope to get to the JLMP scoring this afternoon sometime.
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