Holding the Rope

Before we get to the scores from one of the most competitive weeks of the 2006 JLM season let's visit a little story from Virginia. Seems the "commissioner" (this guy gives all commishes a bad name) fired two coaches the week before a playoff game in a 12-14 year old league because they had the audacity to play his son on offense instead of defense, in strict violation of the RULES HE HAD EMAILED TO THE COACHES BEFORE THE SEASON STARTED. So, not only did this bonehead fire two successful coaches who had the respect of the players and their parents, but he did so because they disregarded an order he gave them about how to play his son in games. Once you read the excerpts from the email you will simply drop your jaw in disbelief. Or maybe not...Larry you coach kids so you deal with crap like this. Well, I hope you don't have to deal with crap like this. Anyhoo...from one fantasy land to another...

JLM WEEK 10! The Night James Couldn't Hold the Rope
So, I'm sure you're all familiar with the catch phrase that Coach Fran used at the Crapstone when he was trying to get all the Bama upperclassmen who had every right to transfer without penalty so they could play in bowl games for a team that didn't cheat to stay in Tuscalooser for their final two seasons. He asked them to "hold the rope". Basically he said, you're screwed out of bowl games for two seasons but you can be the ones who hold this football program, and indeed, this university together as we go through this difficult time. Then after every single one of them pledged to stay at Alabama, he left after one more season for more $$$ at TAMU. (Granted he also left because his wife hated Tuscaloosa, he didn't like all the meddling from the boosters, he felt like he was misled as far as the NCAA investigation was concerned, and a myriad of other reasons including, but not limited to, the fact that UAT sucks ass.) Now, you're probably asking yourself at this point, "Self...what the crap is Matt trying to say by all this? That James let us all down? That James looks like Dennis Franchione? That Matt just wanted to write something derogatory about UAT without mentioning the fact that they got clobbered at home by the worst SEC team in recent memory?" Well, it certainly isn't that James let us all down. In fact, it wasn't even James who couldn't hold the rope. But it was his second RB choice this week, South Carolina's Cory Boyd, who screwed the pooch late Saturday night.

To recap: All three of us had one player going in the last game of the night which would decide the weekly winner. While I had Darren McFadden going for me, I was far out of the race for the win with only 58 points heading into the Collision in Columbia...or was I? Larry was sitting pretty with 86 points, but he only had Gamecock freshmen wideout Kenny McKinley playing. I'm pretty sure this was the first time McKinley has made a JLM roster. James was living large in the catbird's seat. He had 95 points (could have been much more had he chosen pretty much anyone else at WR besides Keith Brown of bama) and had the aforementioned Boyd going for him. As if I need to go into the gory details. McFadden undressed the Cocks' defense, running up 33 JLM points, pushing me to a solid 91 point effort. Good numbers, but not enough. Larry's pick came through as the Hogs blanketed Sidney Rice with double coverage all night and McKinley was able to snag over 80 yards worth of passes plus a touchdown...14 JLM points to give him a cool 100. So all James needed was a measly 6 points out of Boyd. One carry for one yard would be enough...as long as the run was good enough for a touchdown. How about 10 carries for thirty yards and two catches for 31? That would have worked. But no. Mr. Boyd managed only 2 JLM points as Carolina abandoned the run after falling behind at the half, and James was forced to stand on the sidelines and watch Larry revel in the late night heroics of his young wide receiver.

Thus end James' chances for an outright season Championship. The ledger now stands at 4 wins for Matt and Larry and 2 wins for James. Don't give up the hope though James. You can use these last two weeks to teach your squad about perserverence and dignity and character. You can try to convince them they aren't losers (even though we all know the truth...they are) and teach them the object of the game isn't to win, but to have fun and play hard (that's crap...it's winning and scoring with the cheerleaders that's important).

Now, I'm off to go vote in the rain. Cheers.

Final Scores - Larry 100 James 97 Matt 91 - Hi Man McFadden 33, Low Men Irons and Brown 0

Can't Believe I'm Getting First Crack This Week

Team YAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWA Brent Schaeffer

QB: Brandon Cox
RB: Kenny Irons
RB: Darren McFadden
WR: Tony Burks
WR: Andre Caldwell
WR: DJ Hall
K: Andy Bailey
D: Ole Miss

I almost picked Brent Schaffer at QB just to make my team so awesome. But I'll settle for Cox's 227 yards and 2 TD effort.

You Can Call me J.J.

Okay, not really, but my quest to follow in James' footsteps (and become James Junior) continues tomorrow with my first foray into the world of substitute teaching. I'll be taking over Tonia Armer's gifted classes at Lanier Middle School for the day. Wish me, and the poor students, good luck as we embark on this mission of knowledge, education, and spitballs hurled at the back of my head together.

And Down the Stretch They Come

With only three (or four) weeks left in the 2006 season of JLM it's coming down to the wire. We now have one player with 4 wins, one with 3 wins, and one with 2 wins. However, Week 9 didn't provide the type of excitement we've seen lately, with only one blowout since Week 2. Instead the single best performance of the year by a JLM player was posted by, get this...the quarterback from Vandy. That's right, Chris Nickson dropped 57 JLM points on Duke with 5 touchdowns (3 rushing, 2 passing), over 150 yards rushing, and over 250 yards passing. Couple that performance with a 31 JLM point day from Miss. St. stud WR Tony Burks (192 receiving yards and 2 TDs) and the rout was on...for me...over both of you. Felix Jones helped pile on the points with 20 (140+ rushing yards on only 9 carries and a touchdown) and Meachem and Taylor chipped in 10 points apiece from the remaining WR spots. There was a bit of bad news for me though. My kicker came in last, with only 6 points. My total was 147...good for 2nd highest JLM point total this year.

Larry posted a respectable 97 to take runner up this week. His downfall came with his first pick. Never, ever, ever pick a quarterback coached by Mike Shula in JLM. JPW's meager 9 point output wasn't good enough to keep up with the 49 points posted by McFadden (25 with a TD run and pass to go along with his 120+ rushing yards) and "My Name is" Earl Bennett (24 with 184 receiving yards and a TD). The Auburn picks were solid if not great, with Irons and Vaughn (10 and 11) giving Larry his only other players in double digits.

Bringing up the rear...again, was our little Arctic Monkey, Mr. D. James got some respectable numbers from half of his team (Cox 16, Lester 10, Smith 14, and Lyons 17), but his lack of starpower doomed him to an 83.

So, the weekly totals look like this:

Week 1: James 105 Larry 98 Matt 36
Week 2: Matt 151 James 98 Larry 69
Week 3: Matt 80 Larry 75 James 55
Week 4: Larry 85 Matt 75 James 73
Week 5: Larry 123 Matt 117 James 90
Week 6: Matt 79 Larry 74 James 70
Week 7: Larry 123 Matt 90 James 55
Week 8: James 90 Matt 89 Larry 44
Week 9: Matt 147 Larry 97 James 83

Now, as for Auburn's performance this week...what happened. I was in Cleveland so I only got to see the highlights on ESPN. How do we almost double the yards of our opponent, hold onto the ball for 17 more minutes than them, get inside their 14 yard line six times and yet have to hang on at the end to win? I just don't get this team. I still think we were better last year, and that worries me coming down the stretch. Having said that, I still think we'll win out because Georgia and Alabama aren't as good this year as they were last year and while we can't seem to blow anyone out we know how to win tight games. I'm guessing both of you watched the game and I'd love to hear a more educated explanation of what happened and why we only beat a bad Ole Miss team by 6 measly points. Thanks.

It's Miller Time

I had the day off today and tomorrow for that matter due to fall break. I was able to convince a friend of mine to take off of work and we road tripped to Milwaukee to take in some local tours. First we hit Miller Stadium, home of the Brewers. I've been to a couple of games there, but it was pretty cool to go into the press box, clubhouse and in the dugouts. After the stadium we hit the Miller Brewery for a tour. It was interesting, but not quite as in depth as I would like. The only part of the production we got to see was the packaging. Not much different from packagaing diapers or toilet papers to be honest. Still, it was a neet campus, almost like a small community. And of course the tour ends with a sampling of 3 beers: MGD, High Life and Leinenkugel's Creamy Dark (WI brew). Here are a few pics of the adventures.

Since it looks like I might be able to add some pics...

Here are a couple with Mr. Dinsmore in mind.

There are three types of coasters out here...wee, less wee, and FREAKIN' HUGE!

I've seen a lot of camel toes in my life, but never one on a camel (or imprinted in the sand).

YAWAYAWAYAWAYAWAYAWAYAWA Football!

If you haven't heard the "Col. Reb is Crying" song on the internet by now, you need to google it and listen to it before the game this weekend. It came out a few weeks back and is so funny I could listen to it ten times a day.

LMJ Week 9

Team Under18DaysUntilTheBoysReunite

Q Wilson bama
RB McFadden, AU
RB Irons, AU
WR: Rice USC
WR: Bennett, V
WR: Swain, UT
K: Vaugn AU
D: Arky

AU by 21
bama by 24
UGA by 2
UT by 7

The Wiscy Wonder Boy Gets off the Schneid

Well, we narrowly averted a major controversy in Week 8 of the 2006 JLM Season. As it turns out, James gets to celebrate his second victory of the season without a hint of special treatment from the authorities (namely me...which would have been odd since I'm the one who would have gotten screwed by any suspicious bean counting errors).

The mild controversy arose when Mr. D, no doubt delirious from his 48 hour wilderness adventure with a million sixth graders, chose three LSU players for his roster. According to Rule 74-69-452.34 of the Official JLM bylaws, "a JLM coach must choose no more than two (2) roster spots (players and defense) from one of the available SEC teams participating in a college football game that week". As it were, James chose LSU quarterback Jamarcus Russell, and LSU wide receivers Craig Davis and Dwayne Bowe. Since the rules explicity and clearly bar a JLM coach from choosing three roster spots from the same team there is no clear and explicit rule for what to do if a coach brazenly ignores 74-69-452.34. Therefore it is up to the commissioner to choose an appropriate reaction. Panic, chaos, and the raining down of fire and sulphur were option number one, but I chose to do something a bit more subtle. My two choices were to either eliminate the lowest score of the three or eliminate the third roster spot chosen from the same team. In this week's case however, it didn't matter as Dwayne Bowe was the third LSU player chosen and also the lowest scorer of the Bayou Bengal trio (which was pretty impressive seeing as how he had 16 points). In the end, after subtracting Bowe's 16 JLM points, James ended up scoring 90 JLM points, or one more than second place me. Larry on the other obviously spent much more time this week thinking about how to make his thong look just like Lisa Banks' than his JLM squad. (Saw some pics Larry...great outfit. In fact, if I'd only seen you from behind, bent over, I'd have probably tried to hit it.)

Let's go bottom to top, in honor of Larry's derriere show off act Saturday night.
Team Nice Apples in the Bra
QB: Ainge 9 - I just don't get Bama this year...they play up to or way down to the level of competition
RB: Irons 0 - tough luck...try reading your hometown newspaper next time
RB: GreenEllis 7 - this guy might be the most overrated JLM player of the season
WR: Rice 14 - never know which Sidney will show up...1 catch for 4 yards Sidney or 7 catches for 85 yards and a touchdown Sidney
WR: Monk 1 - can you imagine what Jamarcus Russell or Eric Ainge could do with this guy?
WR: Doucet 0 - unfortunately for Larry and me, we chose the wrong LSU receiver this week
K: Hahnfedlt 7 - even your kicker came in last this week
D: AU 6
Total 44 - just plain awful

Team Hobbling all week because of the massive blisters on my heels from camping
QB: Russell 22 - he's a beast against bad teams
RB: Lester 8 - wonder what the deal is with his groin...why can't he say healthy
RB: McFadden 26 - this guy has it all, size, speed, a huge pen...wait, sorry about that
WR: Hall 10 - go figure...I pick a Bama player and lose
WR: Meachem 8 - still don't understand how Bama can shut down that offense
WR: Doucet 0 - see above
K: Succop 9 - his name is Succop
D: AU 6
Total 89 - respectable, but the zero did me in

Team Back in the Saddle Again
QB: Russell 22
RB: Jones 11 - would have been worth more if we counted special teams yards and not just TDs
RB: Boyd 11 - like Rice, you never know which Corey Boyd is gonna play for you
WR: Davis 17 - the second player who got James a special teams touchdown this week
WR: [Bowe 16] vacated 0
WR: Rice 14
K: Vaughn 9 - we might need him to nail some key kicks against uga and bama
D: AU 6
Total 90

Congrats James. Now, let's try and remember the rules from now on.

Week 1: James 105 Larry 98 Matt 36
Week 2: Matt 151 James 98 Larry 69
Week 3: Matt 80 Larry 75 James 55
Week 4: Larry 85 Matt 75 James 73
Week 5: Larry 123 Matt 117 James 90
Week 6: Matt 79 Larry 74 James 70
Week 7: Larry 123 Matt 90 James 55
Week 8: James 90 Matt 89 Larry 44

No way to react to a bad season by the Packers

It just always makes me wonder if these folks don't think they will get caught, or that in this day in age there is anything innocent about posting such messages on the internet. Of course, I'm sure we'll find out that he was abused, or picked on, or did get hours he wanted at the grocery store. Not that these aren't real issues, but I'm tired of hearing excuses for crimes. People have lost the ability to makes good decisions. Also, they don't know how to stand up and be accountable for bad decision.

What's next? A giant frickin' "laser" on the moon?

Larry, are you secretly working on stuff like this and just not telling us? Cause if you are I want to be the first human you try it on. If I could turn myself invisible I'd totally go find all the bullies I've ever known and give them massive wedgies...and they couldn't stop me if they couldn't see me!

JLM Week 8

Team WellIhaven'tDoneAnythingProductiveYetTodaySoIMightasWellPickMyTeam

QB: Russell
RB: McFadden
RB: Brad Lester
WR: Hall
WR: Meachem
WR: Doucet
K: Succop
D: AU

Thoughts on this week's games...I think we'll play somewhere in between Buffalo and Mississippi State level this week. Kenny will rest his sore toe and Brad gets the bulk of the carries. Cox finally puts up good passing numbers (first 200 yard passing game of the season and multiple TDs) and the defense plays solid for three and a half quarters. Final AU 41 Tulane 13

Arky struggles early with Ole Miss, but pulls away late to win easily 27-9. Georgia continues to struggle with weak teams, beating Miss St 23-13. LSU continues their trend of bitch slapping lesser teams, drilling Fresno 45-10. SC and Vandy play one of the day's most entertaining games with the Cocks sticking it to the Dores in the end 27-23. Bama somehow finds a way to stay close with a Tennessee team that should absolutely run them off the field. However, sheer luck isn't enough to put the Tide over the top and they lose their third game against an opponent with equal or greater talent (they are making a living off beating bad teams)...final score UT 23 Bama 10. Speaking of bammer, they have to be the worst 5-2 team in America. They have one convincing win, over La-Monroe and have survived scares against Hawaii, Vandy, Ole Miss, and DUKE! Duke has been shut out three times this year...they led at halftime in Tuscaloosa and were down by only two in the last five minutes of the game.

Some overall thoughts on the season. The first BCS rankings came out Sunday and we're the highest ranked team with a loss, checking in at number 4. How crazy is that? This is probably our worst team in three years and it's the first time we're getting love from the BCS. Anyway, I don't think there's any way we are the fourth best team in college football and I think we would probably be two touchdown underdogs to both Michigan and Ohio State right now on a neutral field. However, I do think this team has the chance to be a top five team by the end of the year. The wins should be there as Georgia and Alabama just aren't that good this year. We should be 11-1 come November 19. The real question is, what happens to Arky? There is no question that the Hogs deserved to win that game last week. They came into Jordan-Hare, refused to be intimidated, and kicked our butts. But, the fact remains, they are still Arky and they still have a true freshman quarterback. There is no way, now way possible, they go through the SEC undefeated with a true freshman quarterback. By all rights, they should have lost to Alabama (how sick is that...that we look back on a UAT loss and wish they had won) and they still have to play three more tough conference games...at South Carolina and versus LSU and Tennessee at home. I have a strong feeling they will lose two out of those three games. Which means we could end up facing Florida again in the SEC Championship game. Okay, now I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just keep winning games and it will all shake out in the end.

JLM: Last two weeks

Sorry I've been so slack in my duties as JLM scorekeeper the last couple of weeks. Believe it or not I actually worked three days last week. We had a training class on some new editing equipment at Turner so I had to put in some time down at the studio. Then I took off for a few days at the beach with the fam (Cece was in Kansas City for work and a visit with the sister and family). But I'm back and the scores over weeks six and seven have been pretty standard. I barely won last week and Larry obliterated the field this week.

Week 6: Matt 79 Larry 74 James 70

The margin of victory was provided by Arky's upset over our beloved Tigers. Like I said in another post, I would gladly have given up JLM glory for a perfect record on the Plains. My boy Syvelle Newton was high man of the week, accounting for 27 JLM points. Even though I only had one more player in double figures (Meachem with 15) I did have a trio (Irons, Little, and Wilhoit) ring up nine points apiece. Larry had two players score over 20 (JPW with 21 and BJGE with 22...what's up with Larry and his multi namers??) but was crushed by the negative three he got from Auburn's sleepwalking "effort" in Jordan-Hare. James' silver lining in his last place finish is that his WR corps doubled up the next highest trio, as Hall, Smith, and Davis accounted for 38 JLM points. Too bad no one else bothered to show up for him. Russell was abysmal in the Swamp, garnering only 12 points.

Week 7: Larry 123 Matt 90 James 55

Larry was off the charts good this week, picking three players who went for 20 points or more (Russell 23, McFadden 20 in less than a quarter of work, and Bowe 29). He also got solid contributions from the in state crew as Hall tallied 17 and Vaughn notched 13. He even went ahead and made the bold choice of Miss St as his team... and they rewarded him by allowing only 3 points in a drubbing of Jax State. My score would have probably been good enough to win on most weeks had Larry not been in the zone. It didn't help me that I shared my three highest scoring players with Larry (Russell, Hall, and Vaughn). I did manage a solid 41 WR points with Baker (I know, I know I went against my rule of not picking a player going up against Auburn, but I was driving down the road and didn't have a schedule in front of me) and Doucet getting 12 points apiece. My low man was the invisible man, Raphael Little (a major fantasy disappointment this season) who didn't play. However, not to be outdone on the low man of the week, James chose the pups from Athens to defeat the Commodes from Nashvegas. Ahhh, but the golden leg of Bryant Hahnfeldt had different plans. His game winning field goal sunk both the pups hopes of a January bowl game (I'm pretty sure no team that lost to Vandy has played in a major bowl in the last half century) and James' hopes of cracking 60 JLM points. Ouch. You know you're in trouble when your leading scorer is a white RB. Hester gave you 17. The uncannily bad Joe T III got you 13 and no one else got past 8.

Here's a quick recap at the scores so far this season:

Week 1: James 105 Larry 98 Matt 36
Week 2: Matt 151 James 98 Larry 69
Week 3: Matt 80 Larry 75 James 55
Week 4: Larry 85 Matt 75 James 73
Week 5: Larry 123 Matt 117 James 90
Week 6: Matt 79 Larry 74 James 70
Week 7: Larry 123 Matt 90 James 55

So Larry and I are tied with 3 wins, 3 seconds, and a last. Meanwhile the Wisconsin winters must have gotten to James' football brain as he has a first, a second, and five consecutive last place finishes.

Average scores: Larry 92.4 Matt 89.7 James 78

Average margin of victory: Matt 21 Larry 16.3 James (would be 7 but there is a lack of a significant amount of data upon which to make a measurement)

"San Diego", German for....

We have an exchange program with a small town in Germany, so yesterday I was greated in 7th period by16 new smiling faces in my probs and stats class. They will be in the states for two weeks or so, and part of the deal is that they take classes just like they would back home. Therefore, they got books are expected to do the work just like my other students. They are equivalent to our 11th and 12th graders, but in Germany they actually have a 13th year of school so they still have a couple of years before they can got to "University." One interesting thing yesterday, I was asking which calculator they used and if it was the same as our Texas Instrument graphing calculators. The response that I got was that they are not allowed to use graphing calculators and must learn to do everything by hand. I thought this was pretty cool and wish we put less emphasis on the calculator. I believe there is a place for technology in the classroom, but good grief, I have to review with juniors and seniors how to add/subtract/multiply/divide fractions because they've been doing it on their calculator for 2 years.

I was thinking though, do you think they get back and everyone is like, you went to the US, where did you go? They say Wisconsin, only to receive puzzled looks, like where is that? I was explaining to them that I am from Alabama and they had no idea where that was, or maybe even that it is a state. Of course, I don't know much about Germany's geography either.

LJM Week #7

Team IReallyThinkWeAreGoingToPlayForTheNationalChampionship......InSwimmingMaybe

QB: Russell, LSU
RB: Irons, AU (you just gotta believe he is due, even though he is injured)
RB: McFadden (Made us look like little Grissom High my sophomore year)
WR: DJ Jazzy Jeff Hall, AL
WR: Monk, Ark
WR: Bowe, LSU
K: Vaugn, AU
D: Miss St.

Wilco Concert, Another chapter in the Kevin Book of stories

If you ever get a chance to see Wilco - DO IT! They are an incredible band. I am relatively new to them - been listening to them for about 4 months. They put on a great show. They played in the Von Braun Concert Hall (Not the arena - home of purple 19). Great venue for a band- the acoustics were tight. Jeff Tweedy, lead singer, has total control of the stage, crowd, band, energy. He is the leader. We arrived at about 8:00, which gave Kevin plenty of time to set up his recording gear. He digitally records live shows at shows where the bands allow live recording (There were actually two other recorders at the show, so Kevin wasn't the only recorder). We had to watch the show with the microphone stand in front of us, but you could hardly notice it. (More on the microphone stand later). In between the opening band and Wilco, I went and bought three show posters (one for me, Kev, and Andrew-Angie's brother), a shirt for myself and a onesy for baby Julian. Kevin is going to make the nurse put it one him minutes out of the womb. Wilco had 100 special show posters specially made for the show in Huntsville with the back of a Saturn rocket with the words "Wilco" coming out of one of the rocket motors instead of fire - Art Deco style. Wilco started at 9:15, played 24 songs and ended at 11:10. Great, great show, but the most entertaining part of the story is what happened afterward. The house lights came on and Keving started breaking down his mobile recording studio. We left the concert hall and noticed a croud in front of the back stage entry way. Andrew and I got in line to see if we could get backstage. We both got turned away by the securty guard. As we were turning around Kevin walks up holding his microphone stand and tells the guard, "I'm archiving the show". The guard let him through - no questions. We handed Kevin all three show posters. After they let all they "legitimate" people backstage, they cleared out the rest of the concert hall. We waited for Kevin in the parking lot for about an hour (keep in mind that 6 month pregnant Angie is with us and very tired). Kevin finally arrives and starts handing out gifts - the empty bottle of Maker's Mark the band was shooting after the show (Kevin drank the bottom 1/5 of the bottle), a guitar pick from the lead guitarist, a set list, a hat. He basically grabbed anything and everything he could get his hands on. The best gift of all was the show posters will all six band members autographs. He even walked out to the bus to get Jeff Tweedy's autograph. Just walked right out and banged on the door all by himself. Kevin says we are the only people in huntsville with the special show posters signed by all six bandmembers. Only Kevin .......

A great finish to a great evening.

Let's Get Things Back in Order

Team GettingOldIHaveaBruisedRibandHugeStrawberryonLeganditHurtsWhenIPoop

QB: Syvelle Newton (lightning's gonna strike twice...oh yeah and UK's D sucks)
RB: Kenny Irons
RB: Raphael Little
WR: Robert Meachem
WR: Courtney Taylor
WR: Sidney Rice
K: James Wilhoit
D: bammer

Another Close One

Definitely the highest scoring week of JLM this season, thanks to all the creampuffs on the schedule. And the picking was pretty smart...only one zero this week (and of course it cost the person who picked it). First of all James had to be feeling good with his quarterback selection when Jamarcus Russell torched the Miss. State defense for 330 yards and a trio of touchdowns. I mean, 34 from your quarterback usually puts you in pretty good position, right. Couple that with the 23 that Irons got him on Thursday night and he's in the drivers seat, right?? Wrong. Russell's 34 was the lowest score for a QB this week...ouch. Larry chose the right week to pick Eric Ainge who came through with 40 JLM points. My inspired selection of Kentucky's Andre Woodson (not to mention the ineptitude of the UK defense which allowed Central Michigan to stay in the game and kept the offense throwing till the very end) notched 35 JLM points. Add that to the 26 points my main man Cassen Garrison-Jackson picked up for Vandy against Temple and we had a pretty good race with the top two picks from everyone. After the top two picks Larry was in the lead with 63, I had 61 and James was dragging ass with a mere 57. After that it became a two horse race, with James bowing out when Monterio Hardesty gave way to Lemarcus Coker in the Tennessee offense. Hardesty hardly saw any action and only got 4 points. Larry moved ahead 76-73-61 through the RBs.

Here's where the week's lone zero came into play. Larry was solid in the WR category (except for the fact that he took Courtney Taylor who has yet to put up All SEC numbers this century) getting 18 from Swain and 15 from Bowe. James reverted to form with only 21 from his wideouts (4 for Taylor, 7 for Bennett and 10 for Baker). I had the high receiver with Meacham's 21 and even the Bama jinx didn't happen with Hall's 11. But I fell under the spell of the Urban Myth and chose freshman Percy Harvin, who hasn't done squat since the first game of the season. His goose egg dropped me further behind: Larry 113, Matt 105, James 82.

John Vaughn couldn't bring me all the way back, only outscoring Florida's Chris Hetland 6-4 and Larry wound up with a 123-117-90 victory.

So that's that...my second best week and I lost. I'm not happy about that Larry...it's on this week.

It's So Easy

You really couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

Ljm Week #5

Team IThinkMikeShulaIsDoingAFineJob

QB: Ainge, UT
RB: Irons, AU
RB: Green-Ellis, Ole
WR: Taylor, AU
WR: Swain, UT
WR: Bowe, LSU
K: Hetland, FL
D: LSU

Are either of you going to chase Rice like yesterdays stock tip?

Closest Scores of the Season

Week Four brought about the closest JLM scoring of the season. And if any one of us would have used his brain and taken Sidney Rice and his 46 JLM points (that's right...160+ receiving yards and FIVE touchdowns!!) it would have been a blow out. Instead we not only overlooked the top wideout performance of the season we (at least Larry and I) blew it on the LSU receiver. Larry got a whopping four from Dwayne Bowe while Craig Davis netted me eight. Meanwhile, Early Doucet reached paydirt three times and would have scored 25 or so JLM points for someone. As it turns out, his choice of Bowe didn't ruin his team and Larry notched his first victory of the season. His top two picks of Russell and Lester carried the team to victory, combining for 41 JLM points. His only other player in double figures was Dallas Baker, the non-touchdown maker who caught passes for over 140 yards but couldn't find the end zone (maybe he should transfer to Alabama...I hear they don't even know what an end zone looks like). James will be kicking himself for hitching his hopes to the wrong Cock this week. Mr. D decided to ride with Corey Boyd against FAU (hey, you can't talk about my alma mater that way!) and unfortunately Boyd was a no show. I don't know if he was suspended or what but he didn't touch the ball at all Saturday. That hurts, as James only needed 20 total points from his tailbacks to win the week. Hello James...KennyIrons wasn't playing and Brad Lester was jumping up and down in front of you waving his arms. And yet again, another possible JLM winning week was destroyed the choice of Alabama running back Ken Darby. WTFWYT??? Anyway, even though he came in last this week, James can take some solace in the fact that his WR corps led the league this week with a whopping 26 points. You gotta look for the little positives in the losses James. And by now you should have plenty of little positives to build on.

Final tally
Larry - 85
Matt - 75
James - 73

Thursday night football this week as the Tigers look to put an utterly lackluster performance behind them with a big road win over Spurrier's Cocks. Unfortunately for me (this one hurts) I probably won't get to watch the game as I will either be in a workshop for substitute teaching in Gwinnett County or on the road driving to Indiana to visit the in-laws. Cece better pray I can find the game on the radio or she's in for it. Now that I think about it though...Ray and Pat bought a new VCR three years ago so they could record the AU/USC debacle for me while we were at a wedding. Maybe I can press them into service again so I can watch the game when we show up sometime after midnight. I'll let you know if you should call me or not.

Re: Game Day comments

I did have thoughts on Boner's Game Day rant. I'm personally torn on ESPN's coverage or lack there of for Auburn. I feel like Auburn is better off to not get the national publicity and kind of fly under the radar until late November. However, it would be nice to tune in to the college shows and here some nice comments about the team. Still, people want to downplay their ranking and say that they have a cupcake schedule. The fact that the games are at home doesn't change the reality that they are playing top 10 caliber teams. Just because they are in conference shouldn't matter. They played a Pac 10 team and it was no contest.

As for the Game Day location, it's kind of a losing battle. They don't go for the story any more. They are going to follow ABC and that's fine. It's easy to get defensive, but the bottom line is that there are a couple of programs (Notre Dame, FSU, Ohio St., Michigan, Texas, and USC) that will monopolize the spotlight regardless. I mean, how can Ohio St./Michigan be considered the biggest rivaly in the country when they are different states. It's not like you go to work and half the people are for one team and half for the other. Or that family members don't talk for one weekend because of a certain game. But I digress. Ultimately, the location of Game Day will be less meaningful, just like Monday night football games in December between Green Bay and Oakland.

On a side note, did Lou Holtz really coach in the SEC? I mean, did he realize that he was in the SEC? He is the worse studio guy I've seen since Michael Irvin. Good grief. Does he still get paid by Notre Dame? Just wondering.

Random ramblings

Well, I went to a wedding in Chicago last weekend. It was pretty much a reunion of people that used to live in Appleton and work for KC. About 75% of those people have left and now work at different places or are in school. Anyway, there wasn't much sleep and I still haven't recovered. Man, getting old stinks. Maybe the hardest thing about teaching is that you can't really show up to work and say that I'm just going to lay low and not do much today. There's always 15-20 little faces expecting something. On the bright side, I spent the afternoon today organizing and helping out with the middle school homecoming activities such as duck taping a student to the wall to see who would be suspended the longest, magic carpet rides (relay race were you carry a student on a sleeping bag), and other various competitions amongst the different grade levels.

I thought I'd share a couple of links. Great stuff from my brother on the future of football at FSU. And in case you didn't get the email on the website my brother-in-law and friends created. Keeping Mike Shula would be the best thing for Auburn.

On a more serious note, I also mentioned that I went to see a speaker yesterday on the impact of poverty on education. Here is the website of the lady that spoke. She told stories that two years ago would have said were entirely fiction, but realize based on what I see, they are very, very real. When I think back to Grissom, I just don't remember poverty. I rerember thinking others had more. What are weird life view to have. Now I recognize that life isn't only about having financial resources, but other resources such as spiritual, mental, emotional, social, etc.

Hope everyone is well. Winter is fast approaching here.

MLJ Week 4

Team Timetotakeoutyournotebooksbecauseyou'regoingtogetschooled

QB: Chris Leak, uf
RB: Cory Boyd, usc
RB: Kenneth Darby, uat
WR: Dallas Baker, uf
WR: Marcus Monk, arky
WR: Robert Meacham, ut
K: John Vaughn
DEF: Auburn

When you look out at the schedule, which game scares you the most?? Me, well, to be honest, Thursday night at South Carolina. Yes, they are terrible, but after pounding them last year and they're poor showings this year, I'm just hoping that we aren't going to take them for granted. Spurrier is still the ol' ball coach. The other game that scares me, assuming we can go unblemished...Alabama. Oh well, that's a long ways off.

Close Shave

Well, I pulled out a very Auburn Tiger type victory in JLM Week 3. Larry gets the MBP (Most Ballsiest Picks) for the true freshman quarterback from Arkansas (Mustain was the high man this week with 27) as well as the KY Jelly receiver I've never heard of, Lyons, who tallied 20, the second highest total of any player. Unfortunately his two AU picks combined to net only 2 points and his running backs totaled only 10. The score breakdown was Matt - 80, Larry - 75, James - 55. Seems like the frozen tundra refers not only to the cold, hard earth of the Great White North but also to the part of James' brain that picks JLM players. His leading scorer was his kicker and his quarterback only notched 5...ouch. Oddly none of us had any faith in Chris Leak who put up good numbers in Knoxville. If Larry and Amanda had the physical ability to have any more children I would put money on Larry naming any subsequent son BenJarvus as he has chosen the Ole Miss running back every week I think. Okay, gotta run fellas as the line is getting long here at the ol' library.

Two final thoughts. I was surprised we stayed ahead of USC in the AP poll. I have to beleive if we win out and Florida, LSU, and Georgia all continue to play well we shouldn't face another 2004 type disappointment. Also, as I turned the car on this morning "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson was blasting on the radio and I was taken back in time to 2002, on a cold night in Appleton, Wisconsin. I was standing in a smoky bar watching Phil mosh around the dance floor at Park Central or Route 66 or whatever the name of that place was. Good stuff.

The Continued Decline of College GameDay

I know the whole ESPN/ABC bias issue against the SEC has been covered ad nauseum on the web (okay, you guys probably didn't read too much about it, but I sure did last year when I had a full eight hours a day to play around on the web...I mean sell things), especially by the geniuses at www.edsbs.com (EveryDayShouldBeSaturday). But this year it has really gone into high gear and the locations chosen so far for College Gameday illustrate the point perfectly.

As we all know, ESPN is owned by ABC and they are blurring the lines between their programming even more this year by calling all sports shown on ABC as ESPN on ABC. ESPN sees College Gameday as one of its most popular and profitable shows, boosting the duration to two hours this year. The two networks also started a new Saturday Night College Football Game of the Week on ABC this season. So, where do you think College Gameday has been the first three weeks so far? How about in Atlanta for Notre Dame/Georgia Tech (coincidentally the ABC Game of the Week!), Austin for Texas/Ohio State (ta da! ABC's Game of the Week again), and this week they are in (drum roll please) Los Angeles for the USC/Nebraska game (I'll give you three guesses who ABC is showing Saturday night in their Game of the Week). Now, I have absolutely no beef with the location last week. It was number 1 vs. number 2, a huge early season, cross sectional showdown which deserved all the attention it got. The Notre Dame/Georgia Tech choice was slightly more dubious, but given Tech's penchant for knocking off highly ranked teams early in the season lately (cough...Auburn...cough) and the fact that it turned out to be a close game it wasn't all that bad of a choice. This week however, is just plain ridiculous.

I just wish I could ask Kirk and Chris (forget Corso, he's too senile to know what year it is) a simple question. It's the third week in a football season that has seen zero major upsets or shifts in the polls so far (I don't consider Texas falling to number 8 a major shift in the polls...if they win out they'll be in the top 4 at the end of the year and possibly even qualify for the BCS Championship Game). This Saturday you have #2 hosting #10...#3 hosting #6...#11 hosting #7...and #4 hosting #19. Which game are you going to go to. Without telling them the teams involved does any reasonable person expect them to say they would choose the last game??? I know all the excuses they would throw at us. It's two of the most storied teams in college football playing for the first time (or at least the first time in a long while)...Nebraska's resurgance...USC's dominance over the past four years...BLAH...BLAH...BLAH. It's partisan BS any way you slice it. They can say they've already been at a Notre Dame game this year and they have been to the UT/UF game several times in the past. They can say they're saving the Auburn visit for the Florida or Georgia game. They can spew all the crap they want. The reality is they are going to pump up the ABC Game of the Week from now on and the rest of the games are secondary. Remember ABC's Saturday night line up is set for the whole season so if the teams they are showing end up tanking and having crap seasons we're going to be stuck with a whole lot of Gameday stories and attention being heaped upon a bad game.

In summation, Gameday sucks now and I hate that. I'd write more about it but I only have twenty more minutes on the computer. I really have to get the internet at home.

JLM Week 3

Team SweetIGettoPickFirst

QB: Cox, AU
RB: Irons, AU
RB: McFadden, ark
WR: Baker, uf
WR: Meachem, ut
WR: Rice, sc
K: Coutu, ugay
D: bama, bama, bama won't you bite my a$$

Where have all the good Boner's gone

Do you remember the days when Boner would break down an upcoming Auburn game with two pages of statistics, strengths, weaknesses, history, etc., often times even suggesting that Auburn was outmatched? Still, in the end he always went with the heart and predicted an AU win. Now, a trip around the world later and he's calling for the 3rd ranked Tigers to drop. Maybe it's the sight of so many man-capris, but I was shocked to say the least.

My thoughts, if you care. I think it's going to be a typical Tigers vs. Tigers battle most likely coming down to the wire. I feel confident that we played better teams. Not good teams, but better than the creampuffs LSU lined up against. I'm a little nervous that our defense, while fast as heck, is small and susceptible to being run on. We need an enormous game from our defensive backs to allow us to put an extra guy or two in the box. I'm not convinced the Jamarcus has turned the corner. With some heavy pressure, I think we can force him back into his old self. As for the offense, I think they've been conservative so far, but I hope they don't get too crazy in this game. In the immortal words or some drunk fan circa 1997, "run the ball, run the ball, run the f#$*(@g ball." Still, I think we need more impact from our tight end, and 6-7 catches from Courtney wouldn't hurt. Also, I'd love to see Lester and Irons on the field at the same time a la Caddy and Ronnie. I think they are both a threat to take it to the house on any play. Brandon will be consistent, not great, but I don't think he'll lose the game. Touchdowns may be hard to come by, so J.Vaughn has to redeem himself. In the end, I think Auburn establishes themselves as a real national championship contender with a solid victory moving up to #2 after Notre Dame gets pounded my Meeeeeechigan (I can hope can't I?).

Auburn 27
lsu 20 (with a chance to tie at the end, only to have David Irons intercept a Russell pass in the endzone)

Did I mention that I won't be watching the game live?? That's right, for the 3rd time since I've lived in Wisconsin I have a wedding (this time in Chicago) on the same day as an Auburn/LSU game. Let's just hope I don't get in too much hot water by sneaking off to the local bar.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Now, that's more like it

Okay, the abberation that was last week's results seems to have cleared up and all is right with the world (of JLM) again. In a startling turnaround from Week 1 I set a new record which can never be broken. Every single one of my picks, including my defense, scored in double figures. I can't recall the best single team tally in JLM history but I'm guessing the Bacardi (151) I laid on you boys has to be up there with the best of them. Let's go over the results.

Larry - Ahh yes, the UPS team with three Browns slated in at the wide receiver position. I assume you meant Thomas Brown of UGA (Reggie has been too scared to play college ball since Junior Rosegreen knocked him the F out back in '04). Unfortunately he's a RB instead of a WR. It was no biggie though so I gave you his points. In the future however, a player must be played at his listed position. You still get points for a RB's receiving yards or a WR's rushing stats, but you have to play them at their natural position. Other than the pick of Florida on D, Larry followed up a strong Week 1 with a weak week 2. Total points - Bill and Ted (69)

James - Mr. Dinsmore seems to be reversing his miserable history with WR picks. He took a flyer on AU backup Rod Smith who got him 14 points, while Dwayne Bowe scored 12 as LSU tuned up for the Game of the Century by toying with Arizona. Alas, he reverted back to his old ways with the Dexter McCluster choice - only 3 points as he had a glorified running back (Ole Miss QB Brent Schaffer) trying to get the ball to him. The Brad Lester pick was solid as well. After two weeks Brad is ahead of Kenny 4-1 on the touchdown tally. Total points - The Year we Got Rid of the Midget (98)

Matt - Ahh yes, to the victor goes the spoils of writing about oneself in glowing terms (if only I had more than seven minutes left on my computer session here at the library...really gotta get the net hooked up at the apartment). As I mentioned earlier, all my picks went for double digits, with my low scorer being Courtney Taylor with 10 (gotta figure he finds the end zone this week). Even John Vaughn, on the heels of that massive 55 yard field goal, contributed 12 points. The big guns were Ainge with 32, McFadden with 30, and Meachem with 23. Total points - Bacardi (151)

This week -- I'm actually not feeling all that great heading into the LSU game. I think Kenny and Brad will be fine, although it might take a little while to loosen up the LSU D-line. I'm just not sold yet on Brandon stepping it up in the big time. I know he played well at LSU last year and came up huge in the 4th quarter against UGA, but he still hasn't showed me he can step up and consistently make the big plays against top notch defenses when all the pressure is on him. And come on, we're ranked number 3 with the number 6 team coming into our house...all the pressure is on him this week. As much as I hate to say it, I see a close loss this week. Hopefully we won't fall too far IF we lose. My pick - LSU 23 - Auburn 16

LMJ Week 2

Team Ifonlywecouldcompeteatwhosleepstheleastamountoftime

QB Russell LSU
RB Kenny Irons AU
RB BenJarvis Money-Ellis Ole
WR Brown Bama
WR Brown UGA
WR Brown TN
K Wilhoit
D Florida

Close Scores in Week 1...Kind of

Okay, so Larry and James had a close score in week 1. Mr. Dinsmore must have surely used his time off this summer to scour the preseason magazines and beef up his SEC player knowledge. His inspired selection of Ole Miss transfer running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis (seriously, when you name your kid BenJarvus you should be reported to Child Services immediately and have your children taken away) and his pilfered selection of Kenny Irons (I know there's no rule against picking the same player as another JLMer - I even did it myself with a bust pick - but you gotta know I'm gonna give you a little grief for it) led him to a seven point victory over Larry, 105-98. The good doctor is certainly kicking himself in the rump for choosing Chad Jackson at wide receiver. It seems in a moment of confusion, Larry thought we were able to use preseason NFL stats...Jackson turned pro after his junior year and is no longer a Gaytor. The Jackson pick paired with the bonehead move of relying on an Alabama player led to his defeat.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum I attempted to set a new mark for futility. My leading scorer had 10, while three of my choices scored 1 point (all my wide receivers...am I turning into James???) and one scored 2 points. I won't go into the gory details beyond that...let's just say it was fugly.

Larry - 98
Leak 28
Darby 2 (get what you deserve for that pick)
Irons 28
Jackson 0
Taylor 5
Bowe 14
Coutu 12
LSU 9

James - 105
Cox 15
Irons 28
Green-Ellis 24
Rice 1
Baker 18
Davis 8
Wilhoit 5
UGA 6

Matt - 36
Mitchell 2
Jones 6
Wynn 10
Caldwell 1
Rodriguez 1
Rice 1
David 6
LSU 9

Congrats James...but look out. If I double my score from Week 1 I'll only be around 20 or 30 points out of contention in Week 2!

Ok, seriously, this is the last one

Well, as the pictures show, we do have a new dog. We've actually had him for a few weeks now. The story goes something like this. When we were visiting Lace and Ryan in Arkansas there was a cute little chocolate lab that lived next door. He lived in a 4 x6 fenced in pen, and was occasionally tied to a leash in the yard, but was never came inside even though it was roughly 110 degrees while we were there. His primary attention came from the neighbor, Ryan, when he brought him over to play with their dog. While were there I joked that we'd take him back with us, if they were willing to part with him. They didn't take the bait while we were there, but a couple of days after returning to Wisconsin, Ryan calls and asks if I still want him. We think about it for a couple of days and decide, what the heck. It turns out that Lace's parents were in town and returning to WI in an RV and were willing to bring him back. I met them just outside of Madison, and here he is. His full name is Gigabyte (his previous owner was a computer programmer or something) but we just call him Gig. He's been great so far, but I go back to work tomorrow and Jen starts school next week, so hopefully he'll handle the crate for extended periods of time.

Happy to be in Wisconsin, at least until it snows.


Abbey with her new brother. Hey give me my toy back.


Fortunately, just before getting him, we found out that Jen could get a free invisible fence as part of an advertising deal from Petsafe. Basically, we get a free system, she provides feedback, and they hope that she recommends it in the future. Much cheaper than the quote I got to have our yard completely fenced in. We only need 87 ft and it was going to be just over $1000. The only negative is that I have to install it and then train them. I guess it will be worth it when it's -10 and I can let them out without worrying.

LJM Week #1

Team IBetImTheOnlyOneThatEvenRemembersThisLittleGameWePlay

Q: Leak, FL
RB: Barby, Bama
RB: Irons, AU
WR: Jackson, FL
WR: Taylor, AU
WR: Bowe, LSU
K: Coutu, UGA
D: LSU

By the way, Wilco will be playing the concert hall in the VBC on Oct 9th, and I have tickets. James, start with "A Ghost is Born" good stuff, good stuff...

Never to early to start planning

Well, there has been much talk about gathering for a football game this year. Between families, flights, new jobs, etc. I was hoping to get the ball rolling. Here are the home games (full schedule):

09/02/06 Sat Washington State
09/16/06 Sat LSU
09/23/06 Sat Buffalo
10/07/06 Sat Arkansas
10/14/06 Sat Florida
10/21/06 Sat Tulane (HC)
11/04/06 Sat Arkansas State
11/11/06 Sat Georgia

Any thoughts...preferences? September is probably not good for us, but I think October and November could probably be arranged, assuming frequent flyer tickets are available. I look forward to comments. Wives, don't be afraid to speak for husbands.

Also, if you need to get pumped up for the season, I highly recommend that you tune into the following Auburn highlights, courtesy of youtube. I warn you that you might want to make sure you have some time to burn.

Home from Alaska

I am back! The trip to Alaska was unbelievable. We apent 7 days and nights on a fishing boat. Our captain was Rich Billings - an envirnmentalist that spent 15 years working for the forest service mapping reefs, observing animals, and measuring forest growths on Baranof, Kuiu, Admiralty, and chichagof islands. We caught about 1000 lbs of fish including sockeye salmon, coho salmon, king salmon, halibut, and various other species that we could not keep. We witnessed humpback whales bubble-netting (a phenomenon where the blow bubbles deep under water below a halibut bait ball and then shoot straight up with their mouths open to eat the fish. We saw a group of 4 or 5 breaching at the same time. They carried on like this for over an hour while we were in little trolling boats about 100 yards away. We saw two bears fighting above a stream. We saw coho salmon jumping up a 8 foot waterfall (and yes a few of them actually made it). We saw an eagle working for over an hour getting food for his new family. We saw sea lions, seals, sea otters, and many other animals. I will write longer later once I get my pictures straight. I have to go get the fish from the airport (we have 10 boxes, about 500 lbs of fresh fish - I look forward to sharing it with all of you!

It was like being Huck Fin for over a week.

It had to end sometime

Well, the Southern Tour finally came to an end. We concluded with an awesome three days in Maumelle, AR, which included a trip to Arkansas' largest water park, Wild River Country. A few trip statistics:

2090 miles, 36 hours spent in our car (does not include trip from B'ham to Panama City)
59.2 mph, avg
26.7 mpg, avg

It was an amazing two weeks. Being such a long trip really gave me a feel for what it would (hopefully will) be like to live close to, or in H'Vegas. I think I mentioned, but I'd probably drive you guys crazy wanting to do something all the time. Here are a few highligts from the trip.

Not even a hurricane can keep the Flora-Bama down.


Little P getting to know the extended family.



Hiking in Huntsville (great trails!).



Walking the dogs in Little Rock.



It was great seeing everyone. Boner, can't wait to hook up with you guys this fall. We were talking about a game in November possibly. I'll look into some dates here shortly. Larry, I can't wait to hear about the fishing trip. Don't forget to save me a fillet. Jeremy, thanks for turning me onto High School Musical. Fil, keep the posts coming. CHARLIE, let us know how the road trip was. Henley, study hard. Chandler, where are you. Kevin, save a job for Jen. Ryan, do you remember the web address.

Weekend Update

For all of you that were not present for the impromptu boys weekend, we had a great time. Saturday was really one of the best boy's days in a long time. It started off with a Squirrel Nest breakfast at 9:00am. Phil ordered the Big Squirrel on his first visit to the Nest (The Big Squirrel is a three egg omelet with every left over from the night before stuffed into it). I have a feeling Phil grew quite a "Squirrel Tail" later in the day. After the nest we went to Goose Pond for our 10:52 tee time, only to find out they were 1 hour behind on their times due to two different scrambles earlier in the morning. We had the head of the pro shop call Jimmy over at Goose Pond Plantation to see if they had a 10:50 tee time. They did - we pursued. We showed up at the Plantation. Rain started, so we decided to sit in the lounge area of the double-wide and play a hold'em tournement with golf tees as poker chips. Phil won the first $5 buy in, and came close to winning the second $5 buy in game - Jeremy was down 85 tees to 15 and it was time to go play. jeremy, in true fashion, would not give up the game and instead tried to bargain with Phil to split the pot 50-50. Phil declined the offer - I think they settled it with a game of crack after the hold'em tournement later that night (see below). The course was in good shape, unfortunately my game was not. It was quite a shock to challenge James to a Nassau only to have him play the game of his life and tie his personal best of 82. I am now the proud owner of the shaft. My bag feels at peace again with the comfort of the shaft in the bag. Jeremy and Phil had an exciting Nassau. Jeremy bested Phil's 79 with a 78, winning the match on the final hole. We left golf and everyone went to their own house to bathe. We met back at my house for grilled hamburger dinner. It was great to spend time with James, Jen, Phil, Amanda, Pierson (cute little fella), Kevin, Angie, and Jeremy. At 10, the ladies, babies, Kevin, and Angie left - leaving the men to do what men do best. We pulled the round table into the middle of the room and played a $10 buy in hold'em tournament. We drank a big pitcher of Margarrita's and watched Phil eat an entire bowl of queso dip. James won the night game and now has enough money to pay for gas to get back to Wiscy. The evening festivities ended at about 1:00am. It really was one of the best days in Boy's Weekend history. We missed you Matt, James said he would have taken you in the golf match. Can't wait to see what next year brings. I vote for another travel weekend.

Happy Birthday to the blog

Saturday was the one year birthday of the blog. I think most of you have forgot your password to post, so I will resend an invite to the blog. James gets the "Most valuable Poster" award for the most posts. Matt gets the "Farthest Post" award. And jeremy gets the "Please don't ever put pictures like that again on the blog" award. Hope all is well. I hope to hear from everyone once you get your blog accounts up and running again.

Congrats to Boner

Boner,

I talked to your mother at church this morning. She told me that you guys sold you condo. Congrats. I hope I'm not stealing your thunder by bringing this up (Oh, who am I kidding, nobody reads this execpt me and James, and he is in Gulf Shores). She also mentioned that CC has an offer to KC (higher position, very nice) and that you are seriously considering a career change as well. I'll let you field that one if you want. I can't wait for you all to get back. The stories will be better in person.

Southern Tour '06

Well, at this point tomorrow night, I'll be longing for a hotel room in Evansville. I wonder if the Marriot allows dogs? I could kick it with Sven, or whatever the bellboys name was. I guess I'll be zipping around HVegas at first, but will be back at the end of next week. If anyone feels the urge for some gulf coast action give me a call. I know, I know, you've all been on your beach trips. I'll be in touch.

Larry, how are the tee times looking?? I'm not sure if the CD is going to come together. I've only got it down to 80 something songs right now.

World Cup...my take

I missed most of the first half and sounds like that's where a lot of the action was (apparently every game has started at 2:00 pm but they decide to change it for the finals). I thought it was a compelling game with plenty of tense moments. As I was watching, I thought France was the better team, and seemed to be playing to win, they just couldn't find the back of the net. I've said this a hundred times recently, but in soccer the "better" team doesn't always win. Think about the U.S. effort versus Italy. I think most would agree that we out played them even with a man down. Anyway, I hope there will be more coverage of tournaments, qualifying, European games, etc between now and 2010.

A couple of thoughts, as someone who played I can appreciate many of the strategies that are employed in soccer. However, as a fan, I do feel that something needs to be done to get more opportunities on goal. I'm not saying that more goals are necessarily needed, but I'd like to see at least double digit shots on goal from each side. It's just too easy in soccer to "pack it in" and play defense. No matter how good the offense is, there's only so much space to work with. I've been on both ends of the spectrum. The only comparison I can think of is basketball before the no goal tending rule. You'd get a 7 footer and tell him to never leave the front of the basket. I don't think that doing away with offsides should happen, but maybe have a red line or something that would allow offenders to push up some. Also, I heard a discussion yesterday about how coaches have little impact once the game starts. Sure they make some decisions about the 3 subs, but that's about it. I'd like to see them adjust the substitution rule, allowing two re-entries per game and one more in OT. We had a version like this in college and it prevents free substitution like hockey, but it allows for a little more strategy, resting players, talking things over with them, etc. Am I not being a purist??

As for Zidane, reading about his history, it doesn't sound surprising. There was definitely no excuse so I'm not trying to defend him here, but soccer just has a different passion to it, especially at that level. I've seen much worse, obviously not in that kind of spot, but I've played with a lot of foreigners who've done things that would make Ron Artest look like a choir boy. Still, Zidane is the captain and arguabley the best player in the world over the last 8 years. He put himself before his team, and country for that matter. Now there saying that Maturazzi said something awful that provoked Zidane to retaliate like that. Again, no excuse. People are so sensitive. I mean, you guys have made some comments about my mom that could have led me to crack you in the squirrel pack but I kept my cool and was the bigger man.

Best of the best

Ok, so I'm thinking of putting together a Best of LTL and Best of Boner mix before our trip down South. Just making sure I've got them all covered.

LTL:
James' mix - first one ever
Yo Soy El Nino
Education
Soak up the Sun - This one didn't have a name, but it's the one you made for Boner's wedding
Run, Bike, Swim...Puke - For the tri weekend
Wiki Larry a - virtually a "best of" in its own right

Boner:
Boy's weekend - brings back memories of a Spanish omellette
Nothing sux like a big orange - I saw a guy the other day with a Tennesse shirt on and I almost instinctively yelled this
Tioga in the house - pretty much says it all

Boner, I can't remember, or find any others. Is that it?

Don't let anyone fool you

For the most part, I'm a pretty good sport when it comes to the jokes about the south, rednecks, etc. Sure, I can get a little defensive, but southerners do the same to people who move there from other parts of the country. Still, from the moment I moved to Wisconsin, I've maintained that the only difference between Alabama and Wisconsin is the accent. To prove this, I reveal to you exhibit A: The Tournament of Destruction.


Yes, we went to a local speedway last night to watch amateur drivers compete in crazy events. As you can see by the cars, the purpose is to see a lot of crashing. Events include racing backwards, multiple cars chained together, and of course pulling a trailer (which might have a boat on it). To make things more exciting, a cement truck comes around and covers the track with soapy water. And of course, the grand finale was a demolition derby. All in all it was very entertaining. There was even aguy sitting in front of us with a shaved head and Bubba tatooed on it, along with other things. I'm thinking of giving some of my high school students a car to fix up so that I can compete next year. You can see all the pics here.

Are you ready?

Ok, so it should be all set. We will be getting into HVegas on Friday evening, July 21. Should we try for a Saturday morning tee time?? I spoke with Jeremy and Fil today and they sound like they are a go. Larry, we've been chatting, plus you check the blog, and I think that's good for you as well. Do we got traditional...Squirrel Nest followed by the Pond, or break tradition and try something new. I'm game for whatever, just looking forward to hanging out with you guys. The Shaft is almost thawed out and ready for a trip down south. Unfortunately, I could probably just leave it here.

Another good article

This blog by Jamie Trecker is pretty insightful. Check out USA questions 1-5. Compare and contrast the professional developmental leagues in the NHL with the club and college preparation system used in the US.

Is the US good at any sport on the world stage?

This is a funny, yet realistic article about US athletics on the world stage. Hey, at least we won the Tour de France 7 straight years... very good comparison of coach Arena to Larry Brown after the US basketball debacle in the last summer Olympics.

Wish me luck

I'm going to need it if I'm going to find a place to watch the US-Ghana game in about 30 minutes. I'm guessing 100% of the tvs will be showing Italy-Czech. Oh well, at least thez will show our game right after that. Then tonight we'll be watching Croatia-Australia with a few thousand desparate Croats. They need to win to advance, just like us. Come on USA and Croatia!!

Welcome to the jungle

Well, being married to a future vet is having its impact. Below is a picture of our newest addition. Kind of a long story, but when we were visiting Jen's mother's house we found this lovely in her garage. Apparently he belonged to the neighbors who were moving and trying to find him a home. That's all Jen needed to hear before we were driving 6 hours back to Madison with a cat, dog, and mother-in-law in the backseat. As you can see he has an extra toe (polydactyly for all you vetinarians). He's actually adjusted pretty well, except that he wants to be an outdoor cat, but we haven't let him out...at least not intentionally. We have some potential new owners, so the plan is for him to be living with us only temporarily. We'll see.










These next two are only here temorarily (thank God). They are pretty low maintenance except that they drag things in the house with all that hair. Jen is on a list at the vet school for pet sitting. It has actually been quite lucrative this summer. We'd probably do it for free, but it's nice to bring in a little extra cash.











I share all of this with you because there are currently 7 animals in our house. I just want to prepare you so that if you read about us in the newspaper you won't be shocked.

The blogmaster

James, I want to congratulate you for you relentless pursuit of blogging. The posts have been very sporadic by the general vegan populus, but you my friend have stood strong. So here's to you Mr. I'mgoingtowritesomethingeventhoughnobodyreadsitanymore. (Boner singing in false setto, "Mr. I'mgoingtowritesomethingeventhoughnobodyreadsitanymore").

I loved the game yesterday. Matt, if you see any Italians, tell them we smacked them in the mouth and then looked them in the eye. The US can play on the worlds stage. While I am elated about the tie, we actually should have won the game. We dictated the play and attacked the entire first half and some of the second half while down a man. The US squad fought hard, showing the true US spirit, the entire game. Sure we missed the net on some shots in the second half, but I don't think any team would have had the legs playing with 9 guys for 45 minutes to place shots accurately. (James, I disagree with your assessment on Reyna. He is sill controls play through the midfield. Most developments went through him in the midfield, and his shot in the Check game shows that he can attack when he needs too). The player I most wonder about is McBride. He is the prototypical workhorse American, but he isn't very creative. i would like to see Eddie Johnson play more, but hey, I'm not the coach. the table is set for us to advance. We have to beat Ghana, who will be without their two leading scorers, and Italy has to beat the Czechs, who will be without half their squad due to injury and cards. I think we go.

James, I feel your pain, i won't get to watch the game live either. I have an all day meetin that I have to attend.

Let me know the exact dates you will be in H'ville. I leave for Alaska on 7/25.

it would be nice to hear from some of the other Vegans.

Still alive

What an incredible game today. The US actually looked hungry and played with some intensity. I take back what I said about other teams raising their game when playing us. I think the Italians thought they would win easily with out much effort. It's hard to be mad when we got out with a draw, but what could have been if we had an entire 2nd half with a man advantage. Instead they go down a man and hold their own. Something to hang their hats on. Again, I haven't watched much, but I think the US can carry this momentum into a 2-1 victory of an emotional Ghana team. From the little I saw of Beasely, I hope he doesn't get on the field. He showed me nothing. Also, I realize that McBride is sort of the poster boy for a hard working striker who is great in the air, but he just doesn't bring much of a threat otherwise. We need some creativity and play making up front. Reyna seems to be past his prime. He had a wide open look in the 2nd half that he couldn't even put on target. The defense played solid, but it will be interesting to see how they fair without Pope. I didn't see the game against CR but Keller played well. There were times when it looked like Grissom vs Vestavia in the 1992 state championship game with Larry as an unpenetrable force. Now I've just got to figure out what do about the game on Thursday...call in sick perhaps??

Most spoiled athletes

I just caught the sportscenter segment on the US Open and how difficult Wingfoot has been the last two days. They were interviewing players who were talking about how grueling it is and that after 15 or 16 holes you're tired and you're mind starts to wander. I you friggin kidding me?? You play golf for a living. Not to mention, 95% of them probably come from well-to-do family's where they grew up playing country club courses. I wish more courses would tighten things up. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually like to see these guys work a little. What skill does it take to blast a ball 320 yards and then hit a half sandwedge into a big, soft green? Hit the ball straight then it doesn't matter if the rough is 3 feet deep. The only area I can tolerate some complaining is the greens. I do believe the greens should be appropriate for putting. Anyway, just thought I'd vent about that.

I'm finally going to get to watch a little WC. I have know idea if the US has a chance, but my suspicions tell me they lose by 2. I just think every other country raises there game 3 levels when they play the US. I'm sure the liberals will blame Bush for our poor performance.

Summer sweet summer

Wow, I was gone for a few days and now I don't now when I'm going to find time to read all the posts. Just kidding. Well, we had barely graduated another class of Trojans and summer school has already began. Not quite the cush job I was hoping for. Still, I get done at noon so I can't complain too much.

Plans are starting to fall into place for the Southern Tour. We probably won't actually be in Huntsville until Friday, July 21, or Saturday July 22. It looks like we are going to head straight to B'ham to celebrate my mom's birthday and from there head to the gulf for a little R & R on the beach. Once I know definite dates that I will be in H-Vegas hopefully we can pull something together to play some golf or just hangout. It would just be great to see you guys.

Ahhh yes, even Jesus felt the frustrations of being a teacher

Got this from one of our English teachers.

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and gathering them around
him he taught them saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Bessed are the meek.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are they who thirst for justice.
Blessed are you when persecuted.
Blessed are you when you suffer.
Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven...

Then Simon Peter said, "Do we have to write this down?"
and Andrew said, "Are we supposed to know this?"
and James said, "Will we have a test on it?"
and Phillip said, "What if we don't know it?"
and Bartholomew said, "Do we have to turn this in?"
and John said "the other disciples didn't have to learn this"
and Matthew said, "When do we get out of here?"
and Judas said, "What does this have to do with real life?"

Then one of the Pharisees present asked to see Jesus' lesson plans and
inquired of Jesus his terminal objectives in the cognitive domain...

And Jesus wept...

It would be interesting

This is a cool article. It wonders what the US National team would look like if the best athletes from other sports played soccer. I say, what if the best soccer players played other sports?? Oh wait, not much to offer ther.

World Cup Pickem on ESPN

I have set up a group on the World Cup Pick'em game on ESPN. Join the group.

Group Name: He's done it, it's the record
Password: billfold

You don't have to make all the picks for the whole tournament. The games are locked at kick-off. You can choose your picks daily.

Any one else excited about the World Cup?

By the Way

The Indian food hasn't been nearly as hot going down as it has coming out. Holy sh*t fellas! I've been scarfing down Asian food for two months now and I believe my stomach and intestines are starting to revolt. I had a nasty bout with explosive 'rhea in Cambodia that put me out of commission one night. Now I've got the slow burn kicking my tail on the subcontinent. The food is awesome, but I'm paying for it on a regular basis.

We're Alive

Yes Larry, the answer is we are in fact alive. Please forgive me for my lack of posting on both blogs recently. We've either been busy checking out ruins, busy traveling, busy making travel plans, or just in a place with a really slow or non existent internet connection. Right now, we are in the Indian state of Goa. It's like their Florida. And right now I'm kicking off their monsoon season in style...with a tropical depression that has knocked out power all across the state and dumped massive amounts of rain all over. Lucky us. Hopefully we'll be getting on a train tonight and moving along to our next destination. I say hopefully because we're on a wait list for our tickets and the train was running about 12 hours late yesterday thanks to all the rain. Wish us luck.

Hello World

James and I need some new material on the blog.....

Fil, Where are the proud papa pictures?

Boner, Are you still alive?

Jeremy, How about a duck-n-chick update?

Henley, Tell us how last semester went, and are you chopping trees this summer?

Chandler, What sick sporting event are you participating in this summer?

Ryan, What triathlon are you doing next?

Charlie, I feel like we are growing apart. Where have you been lately? Have you left on your Alaska trip yet?

Kevin, Have you figured out how to post a message yet? You can download any live show in the world but you can't post to a simple blog...

Hope everyone is having a good summer.

US National Team Game in Nashville

I was there. It looked pretty bad.

Morocco's strategy was pack it in and try for a counter attack goal. They definitely were playing not to let us score. They play 5 across the back most of the game. We got stuck in the mud in the attacking third. Here are a few observations:

Reyna is key to the midfield. We do not have anyone else that can fill his role. Donovan is good but has a habit of getting lost during most of the game. He is not a strong presence in the midfield. John OBrien just doesn't have his game speed or touch yet. I think he has the creativity and the know how, he is just way to fragile and out of shape at the moment. Masteroni was gassed and just would not show himself in the back midfield to the sides to switch fields or to just let the play flow through the midfield. Beasley couldn't use his speed since they were so packed in and we played on their half most of the game. No where for him to run. I liked the late play from Convey.

The attacking was bad. We really only had about 3 real threats on their goal. They should know how to break down a team that packs it in. McBride and Wofl couldn't get any goods serves and couldn't do much when they got the ball. Eddie Johnson needs to find his form again. He had a nice wank about 12 yards in front of the net in the second half. He should have buried it. Overall, I'm not really impressed with our strikers - no creativity, no threats.

The defense was solid. Gouch, Pope, and Gibbs are fast. Gouch can physically control just about anyone he will face. Three in the back is good for the US.

Keeping, good aas usual. Late 1 on 1 was Cherundolo's fault. Easy clear out of bounds would have prevented the goal.

I really don't care that they scored. I would have been just as unimpressed if it was Nil-nil. The attacking third was pretty pathetic. This world cup is going to be difficult for us (aka France) if we don't get our act together. Hopefully the next two tune ups against really inferrior talent will get the team focussed.

A few things

First, Phil and Amanda are the proud parents of a 7 lb 3 oz, 22 in baby boy named Pierson Young Moyer. Mom and dad are doing well and should be heading home on Friday. Congrats Phil and Amanda. I can't wait to see Phil in action as a dad. It's going to be amazing.

Second, I have to read on Matt and Cece's blog to find out that Kevin and Angela are pregnant?? What is going on here?

Third, I just heard through the cellular grapevine that the Banks have added to the family!! A chicken (later determined to be a rooster) and a duck. Why are there not pictures on this blog with many, many stories?? Jeremy, this is an outrage.

Hope all is well.

Recipe

Ingredients:
Beer, rum (straight), beer, vodka (with orange juice), beer

Mix well in Matt's stomach then serve with dinner (spicy shrimp soup) in a toilet bowl about 4:00 am.

Yum.

Seito's Passing

Kevin had to put Seito down Monday around noon. Seito lived an incredibly long life for a big Shepard. Many of you knew Seito and can appreciate the joy and sorrow Kevin and Angie feel after the loss. Joy- Kevin had the opportunity to have one dog-of-a-lifetime. Seito traveled everywhere with Kevin (even into the fraternity house for a year). Seito could probably tell some very interesting an bizarre stories from his perspective/observation of Kevin's life. Sorrow- Self explanatory. The dog was Kevin's shadow for the past 12 years. Its tough to loss someone that has shared in your development from child to adult.

Here's to Seito. I look forward to petting your head and your velvet ears once I see you again at the entry to the Pearly Gates...

New Mix CD

I have a new CD done. I will send it out to those of you that want a copy. Its pretty good. All new stuff.

We want the real story

Boner,

I'm a little disappointed in your blogging efforts. You know its your duty to carry the blog. Poor James has been doing all he can to keep it live and real. We want to hear the real travel stories. Here are some questions I have for you.

1) What's up with the ambien? Dude your traveling the world. Why aren't you sleeping soundly at night? Anything your boys need to know about?

2) We are looking for stories like "The wackiest place to make love in China" or "What not to pack while traveling the world" or "The Strangest thing I have been offered while traveling in a third world country - Me Love You Love Time"

3) Did you eat any Vegamite while in Oz?

4) How much does it cost for you to go to an internet cafe? (This might be the reason why you haven't been posting since you are on a tight budget)

5) How is the budget working out for you. Are you over or under at this point? I will bet under until CC friend came to visit, now you are over budget.

6) Any good bands we need to know about?

7) Tell us your strangest hostel mate story.

8) Is Thailand really known as "Adult Disneyland"?

9) What is the weirdest thing you have eaten?

10) What is the international appearance of the US political leadership?

Just some ideas from your "starved for the real information" friends.

Smart Investment

Jen sent me this today. Makes complete sense to me.

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now
be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank
all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND,
you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, my current investment advice is to drink heavily and
recycle.

It's called the 401 Keg Plan.

Well, I turned in my portfolio today for my teacher certification. Two years of work all condensed into one 3 ring binder. One more little presentation and hopefully I'll be official ok to stand in front of a bunch of teenagers and try and teach them about the wonders of math. Only 23 more days of school until summer...but who's counting??

Future in writing perhaps

After almost two years, I finally wrote something for the school newsletter (you may have to scroll to page 7 on the FlashPaper). We had some folks from John Deere come and talk about a career in engineering. It was pretty cool, and it was neat to see the kids reaction.

Yesterday I did an 8K put on by the University to raise money for the Athletic Department. Someone asked me if I had any qualms donating money to the UW after the bowl game. I thought about it, and yeah, I want my money back. Well, I guess it's too late now. Anyway, it was a fun event and I actually did a little better than I thought I'd do. Even more surprising, I'm not that sore today. Hopefully if Larry is preoccupied enough I can take him down this year!!

Speaking of Larry, how is the transition to the new house? Still haven't seen any pics.

Better late than never

One of my goals going into this school year was to have a webpage for my students and their parents. Well, I never was able to take a class on webpage design, and when I looked into teaching myself it just seemed overwhelming. A couple of weeks ago, my brother hooked me up with Nvu, a free program that is comparible to Frontpage and Dreamweaver. I downloaded it, and started to play around and I've finally got a pseudo-website. It's far from finished, but it's start. I hope to unveil it to the students next week. I don't have assignments up yet, but feel free to follow along if you need to brush up on your Algebra.

Nice Postcard, Boner

I would like to thank Boner for the beer coaster postcard. Nice! I wish I could drink beer around the world and laugh when I think about all of my friends hard at work. I can't wait for the real stories to come out (the ones that can't be posted to the public travels blog).

Spring glorious spring

Well, Spring appears to have arrived hear in Wiskey. It was up to 74 degrees today! Of course, it could very possibly snow again...who knows. Tomorrow starts my official "Spring Break". We get Friday, Monday and Tuesday off. I probably mentioned this, but our district opted not to go for the week long break this year. I've got a ton of work to do on my portfolio so that I can graduate and be an officially licensed teacher.

Just thought I'd put some feelers out for potential get-togethers in the near to not-so-near future. We will be heading down south at some point for sure, but at this point we don't have any dates planned. Maybe we should wait until later in the summer since there is a good chance the Moyer's (all 3 of them) will be in Huntsvegas. Since I didn't know that Phil took a yearly trip to the beach, I'll ask anyone and everyone, if they know the dates they will be in Florida. I may have mentioned before, but my folks have talked about getting a place down there for a period of time and I figured it would be awesome if some of yu's guys were down there.

Hope everyone has an awesome Easter.

Closing on the new hosue

We are closing on our new house on Tuesday afternoon. Yee haw. Life is crazy right now.

Midwest Swing

Nelly and Eminem aren't the only hardcore Midwest rappers. I was reading about this guy in the Madison paper. Apparently he is from Madison and is looking to create a buzz about rappers from this part of the country.

Parental Advisory: The lyrics aren't quite PG so use caution if little ears are around.

The IronFamily

Well, Ryan and Lace should have arrived in Arizona today. This Sunday is Ironman Arizona. I can't believe Ryan has gone from the Huntsville sprint tri to the real deal holyfield. The link will take you to the website where you should be able to track their misery...I mean progress.

Larry, what's the deal?? Are we doing a half this year or what? I'm contemplating a 20-mile run in May. It's associated with a festival celebrating this small town's Norweigan roots. It starts at the state capital and makes it's way to the downtown area of Stoughton, WI.

Slow motion

Well, the blog has all but come to a halt. I figured I'd post something just for the heck of it. Things are warming up here and with daylight savings time I've been able to get out and do some running. Hard to believe I've only got 10 weeks of school left. Hope everyone is doing well.

Cyclone LARRY

Boner, I can't take it anymore. Aren't you going to mention the greatest force in Australia - Cyclone LARRY!!! Come on, I totally interupted your vacation. Where is the story?

Seriously, Did LARRY interupt your trip?

More Utah pics

I was having trouble uploading the pics so I created a flickr account for sharing pics. Click on the link to check them out.

The Pow Pow is Schwank at Brighton

An actual quote on the back of the shuttle that runs people from the base of the mountain to the resort. Wow, what a trip to Utah. I think it snowed over 20 inches during the three days we were there. Of course, this is becoming standard for Utah. Nothing against other locations, but it is amazing to wake up and look at 6 different snow reports and make your decision on where you want to go that day. Anyway, we had a blast and no one got hurt, which is good, especially for Ryan since his Ironman Arizona is less than a month a way.

Here are some pics to docmument the adventures:

It's hard not to smile in conditions like this.










Ryan dropping in.

Quick Hello

Hey Fellas! Hope everyone is doing great. Good news about the house Larry. I can't wait to check out the new pad. I'm sure Kevin is happy that he gets to repay your efforts in moving him in. Larry...I have a couple of songs for you to download and check out. The Living End is an Australian band that is pretty good. Check out their song, "Wake Up". It's pretty solid. Also try and find a song called "Flaunt It". It's so bad it's hysterical. It's a total dance club song. Just terrible.

We just got back to Canberra from Tasmania, Melbourne, and the Great Ocean Road. Great week and a half trip. We've done a lot of great little day hikes and seen some amazing scenery. We have about 600 pictures so far and we'll start uploading some pics on our blog soon. Larry, even if we had made it to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) we couldn't have seen your name. Since they turned it back over to the Aborigines they have stopped letting people climb the mountain. It's a sacred area to the Aborigines and they don't let anyone up there anymore. Oh well...your name is sacred now. Don't let Hollywood hear about that.

Have a good one fellas...we'll talk to you soon.

Future Larry's of America

Well, I just got home from the Conference Math Meet. Our students don't take as much pride as other school's, but it is fun to watch teams compete. For example, there was a guy who had totally dressed up as a "nerd." Classic stuff. Then, in the room where I proctored the test, these guys were discussing the individual test, comparing what they had done. All I heard was, "I knew it was a phase shift to the right" as they high fived. Typically we don't fair too well, but had some 8th graders place in the top 5 on the Algebra I test. I had them last year and often felt intimidated by their quest for knowledge. Ok, not really, but they are fun students to teach.

Great 50th Anniversary Weekend At Church

You guys missed a great 50th anniversay weekend in church. Saturday night service was lead by Mac Buttram. Gibson BBQ dinner Saturday night - they are also celebrating their 50th anniversary as a company. After dinner was a multimedia celebration in the New Room. The multimedia celebration had pictures from over the past 50 years. A few nice ones from choir tours from years past. I participated in a short drama. The drama was about the original three deciding to start a new Methodist Church in the south part of town. Jane Daniel loaned me one of her dad's skinny ties from that era - Coolest tie I ever wore. I greased the hair back and wore Harry Carry glasses. I could have been a great rocket scientist in the 50's. Claire didn't even recognize me.

Sunday had Larry Dill leading the sermon in the New Room and Willis Vickery leading the service in the sanctuary at 11:00. Vic lead the choir. The service ended with our favorite "Walk Along". Jeremy, Amanda, and Carrie represented our choir tour era.

Overall, it was a great celebration for a great church

YES! Another Round For the Boys.....

Finally, Beer drinking is justified and even supported scientifically!

Support your local (Wisconsin) teacher

Typically I'm not a big fan of online polls, but hey, what the heck.

Well, We sold our house........in three days

God has a really funny way of balancing out the highs and lows of life.

High Point: We sold our house, and almost got our asking price (Which was a heck of a lot more than I thought we could ever get out of the house)

Low Point: I left work today with explosive ..... uuhhmm you get the picture. I've been in bed since 3pm this afternoon. Hopefully its only a 24 hour bug.

We will be moving around April 12 (Happy Birthday Amanda, here's your house). I can't wait to have the entire gang over to break-in the new house.

It's got to end some time

Well, the mighty Trojans saw there basketball season come to an end tonight. We won our first regional game, but then ran up against the 6th ranked Marshall Cardinals. We fought hard, but in the end they just had too much for us. It's tough to look at the seniors and see that pain when they realize there high school career is over. It's like our coach said, only one team gets to finish the season with a win. On a positive note the freshman (my guys) ended the season on a three game win streak including a win over our arch rival's JV squad. It wasn't an "official" game, but we crushed them. The great thing was that there is a 6'4" freshman that played for our JV all season, but came and played with us for this game. He was a stud, scoring 17 points in limited action. It wouldn't have helped him be a better player, but if we had him all year I'm not sure we would have lost a game. It's like Coach Stapler used to say, "you can't teach height."


Did you see this story? Nice. Are guys saying, wow, he's lucky, or man, she's giving herself an out to hook up? I just don't understand why people get married if this is there outlook.