Olympic sport 2024?

I think this would be pretty entertaining to watch. And there probably wouldn't be doping involved.

Bear-ly breathing

So I said the vikings game was a 'must-win' yet the Bears lost and are still alive after handling the Jaguars. The beauty of the NFL. Also, that was before the Williams wall hub-bub, Gus Frerotte getting injured and the pack officially tanking. A note on the Williams wall -- one of them was quoted multiple times during the Bears game as saying he had 'no respect' for Bears' star rookie Matt Forte. Well, who doesn't deserve respect now, half-wall? Yeah, take that.

O lost another tooth today -- that's two for those scoring at home. Julie and I were having a little trouble with the Tooth Fairy protocol. How does the Tooth Fairy know when to visit? Does she check under everybody's pillow every night? Luckily, Owen seemed oblivious to the logistical holes.

Speaking of which, O went with the saturation technique on his Christmas list. If Santa only brings half the requested presents based on a behavioral sliding scale, best to put as many options down as possible.

What the Dickens

O got a special holiday treat -- snaking around the bowels of Macy's as weirdly proportioned electronic dolls told the story of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was actually really cool, though Scrooge on his knees quaking in front of his own open grave as the grim reaper/ghost of Christmas future towers menacingly over him might be a little much for some little ones. At the end of it was Santa, who took a little extra time since Owen was the first kid to make it through (alive?) that morning.

Please put me out of my misery

"Really, the fantasy football season isn't fun. Winning is OK; losing is agonizing. You constantly feel awful about your choices and your bad luck; it's the only exercise that causes arguments with friends you normally never would argue with; and you spend roughly a kazillion hours managing your team for the 10 percent chance that you might win your league. There's just not a ton of upside. It's almost like smoking cigarettes -- it started out with good intentions, and it's something to do, and it can be fun in the right moments, but ultimately, there are an inordinate amount of moments when you find yourself leaning out a window in 20-degree weather to puff out a quick cig as your nose gets frostbitten, or bumming a cig from a group of horrible girls and then feeling obligated to talk to them, or waking up in the morning and coughing up your right lung. Really, it's more harm than fun. And yet, we continue to do it. And love it. This entire paragraph made me want to smoke." -- Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy).

That pretty well sums it up for me. I'll likely end up 10 points short of a playoff berth tonight and instead of seeing that as a blessing in disguise so I can more fully enjoy the next 3 weekends of my life, I'll probably sneak 47 peeks at MNF **JUST IN CASE** Maurice Jones Drew can manage to score 34 points. And all the while, I'll ask myself - why did I trade for Eli Manning if I was just going to bench him in the midst of one of the most dominant 18 game runs any team has had this decade? Sure, we all knew Trent Edwards would have a let-down after last week's explosion but ONE FRIGGIN' POINT?! Against the Niners?!? At home?!?

Ok, I feel a little better.

Turkey alert

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Liz' but O still refused to try off-the-bird turkey, as well as just about everything else served. It's like the ol' Chinese finger prison, this battling over the food. The harder you fight it, the worse it gets. Otherwise it was a fun day, including a primo spot at the float launch area @ the parade. Julie found another great board game that Owen can already beat me at.

Interesting study related to Thanksgiving

Reading, 'riting & relaxing

Julie and I had been trying to get a conference with Owen's teacher for a while since there had been some 'issues' (O not being allowed to go on a trip to the library ....) Seemed like she was dodging us so we showed up unannounced last Friday and waited til she had a prep period.

Apparently, O "does his own thing" often spreading his stuff out over a few different desks, rarely completing in-class work. Just that day, she informed us, he was at his desk READING A CATALOG during a lesson. (whether he had on bifocals and a cardigan and was smoking a pipe cannot be confirmed).

We've now instituted a plan whereby his teacher will jot down a note in his homework book informing us whether he completed his in-class assignment or not. This note will be tied to whether or not he gets to use the computer that night. In the past, he seems to have responded to the 'you're on notice' approach. We shall see.

Moose cuts loose

As far as I can tell, Mike Mussina announced his retirement today after 17 full MLB seasons, 9 with the O's, 8 with the yankees. I won't try to hide my bias: he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Impossible to directly compare eras because of the increased role of relief pitching in today's game, so I don't want to hear anything about 300 wins. The two biggest stats in his favor -- 117 wins over .500 and NINE top 6 Cy Young finishes. No, he was never THE DOMINANT starting pitcher in the league over his career but nine top 6 Cy finishes says consistent greatness to me. Plus, the only other AL rightie with better numbers in his era is Roger Clemens and his forever-tainted legacy. Never was on a WS championship team BUT for the 1997 O's who went wire to wire first place, these were his postseason stats: 29 IP, 11 H, 4 ER, 7BB, 41 Ks against two of the highest run-producing teams of the decade (Mariners, Indians).

So he gets in, I'll say on the fourth try. In the nine years between now and then, he'll get elected to the Orioles' Hall of Fame, allowing some of the bad blood between him and ownership to disappear; then he'll go into Cooperstown as an Oriole.