Happy Fat Tuesday!!

Just wanted to take a quick second to wish everyone a Happy Fat Tuesday!

Now, from the "Damn we are getting old!" Department. Do you guys realize is was TEN years ago that we went to Mardi Gras (trip #2 was in 1996)!?!?!?! Ouch...

I don't think I've abused my body any more than Mardi Gras Trips I and II. Not even any of the Vegas trips (although our first few trips had moments). I'm getting a stomach ache just thinking about it.

Random bodily injuries:
- I specifically remember losing my voice from all the grain alchohol in the hurricanes
- Mardi Scum from the lower calf to your feet
- Random injuries when trying to de-bead yourself (or de-beading another person who was drunker than you for the night)
- Whatever happens to your internal systems when you "sleep" a couple hours a day, wake up at 10:00 start drinking again by 11:00 and the only other thing you put in your body consists of:

• taco buffets
  
• Lucky Dog Hot Dogs
• Seafood platters (not me fortuantely)
• Dante's pizza

As TK would say - Thats it, thats the list...

Good times!!

Hey Don H...

Sorry, one more random item:

Did you see who the expert analyst is for the NFL Network at the Combine this week?

Hint: this person doing analysis at the Combine is like....
Derek commenting on the Midwestern social life
Laura commenting on the strengths of the Republican party
me commenting on the singles' scene

Give up? Yes sir, it's Butch Davis!

Two more random items...

Mock bracket coming soon.

1) Here is an actual conversation between two guys at a poker game I went to Friday night:
Guy 1: "Did you go to the casino last weekend?"
Guy 2: " Yeah, we went to Grand Victoria on Friday" (note: Grand Victoria is a smaller casino in Cincinnati, further away than the more popular Argosy)
Guy 1: "Why did you go all the way down there?"
Guy 2: "Well, my mother-in-law wanted to see the Sha Na Na concert at Grand Vic that night."

I was speechless for about 5 minutes. You could take that conversation in so many directions.

2) Here is a time waster for you:
a website that lists the #1 song for any date in history

Mine isn't bad: "American Pie", by Don McLean.
My wife - who hates all Neil Diamond albums, is cursed with "Cracklin Rosie" by Mr. Diamond himself. Hilarious.

Derek's song is mildly ironic.

I found this on the Browns' board, where there was a history of the users/posters posting the #1 song on the day they were born. One poster listed "Vision of Love" from Mariah Carey as his song. WTF? He's like 14!

Post your "birth songs" in the comments.

Engagement Party

What is this crap? I can only remember one engagement party, and that was just a bunch of us getting together, playing poker and getting drunk. The presents consisted of liquor in non plastic bottles.

But anyway, where does the party rank amoung the other pre-wedding items like the bachelor party and the bridal shower. Do they get presents? Is it family only? Does anyone need to give a speech? Where is Dr. Laura when you need her?

Eric vs. Laura

I'm sure many of you missed the good discussion between Eric and Laura about the direction of the Democrats, but please make sure you check it out before it disappears. I like listening to the discussions between two rational people talking about politics, who instead of ranting about people being idiots, they actually discuss the topics at hand. Reminded me of Garafalo/O'Reilly discussion back in 2005, who actually respected each other and was a great debate on Iraq. Once I work out my deal with XM, Eric and Laura will have the key afternoon drive time slot.

Anyway, I wanted to make a couple of comments on their discussion.

• Voting based on Wedge Issues: Laura, didn't you and Jay (and the rest of us) vote for Elrich solely based on his slots for MD stance? By the way, what is going on with that? Has there been any progress on this?
• Arnold: Remember, he wasn't the first choice of the Republicans. It was actually Tom McClintock . The reason why Arnold won, was that he had a solid plan laid out to get our state out of major financial troubles. He kept hammering away on his 5 point plan that he promised would be met within the first 6 months of his term. He followed through and made it happen. The reason why he is getting some bad press now (or back in November) was that he took on Teacher Tenure, Union Dues, Parent Notification on Abortion, Debt Refinancing, and Prescription Drugs. He lost on everything, but at least he tried to make some major changes that every other republican and democrat was too scared to address.
• Dems need a plan: How do you build up support without a real plan? I mean this is Leadership 101. And then they wonder why they can't beat Bush and the Republicans!! I think it speaks volumes on the lack of direction for the party. Now I'm not as political as Eric and Laura, so someone like me needs to be reminded why I should vote for them, and it shouldn't be some platitudes on the country. Give me something that I can think about. Almost like what Arnold did in CA. Five key things that would improve the country with a solid timeline on completion. Hammer this home over the next 9 months. I think that everyone is getting tired of the same old platitudes that are provided to them by both the republicans and democrats.

Five things that I'm going to start doing next week

1. Tivo the Oprah Sex Talk shows next week. The transcripts on the drudge report are almost making me cry.
2. Try using the phrase "Just the tip" a little bit more.
3. Try and catch Running Scared. Am I an idiot or do the trailers look pretty good to anyone else?
4. Listen to more Opis and Anthony on XM. I finally gave into Jon's request to listen to these guys and they were very impressive this morning.
5. Get up to Hollywood Park to get in some quick poker time before the back to back trips out to Vegas.

Random thoughts....

1) I love IT on days like this. I got a new computer; the process of moving my data from my old to my new computer takes a half a day. So - what can I do without a computer for an afternoon?
Golfing it is! Shot a 75 this afternoon at Walden Ponds. No one on the course, and it still took me 3 hours and 20 minutes to play. Maybe I am a slow player.

2) Went to Kindergarden orientation last night - to get parents ready for the 06/07 school year. All kids in the school district go to one building for Kindergarden.
For perspective, I graduated in a class of 13. Even if I would have stayed at Hereford for my senior year, my class would have only been 200.
Freddie's Kindergarden class is projected to be 1100 students.
Wow.

3) Freddie's learning new things, but we're still working on some concepts. This is an actual conversation we had tonight:
Me: "Pick a number between 1 and 5"
Freddie: "OK".
Me: "Now think of a word that rhymes with that number.".
Freddie: "OK, got it!"
Me: "What is the word?"
Freddie: "Hand".
Me: "Um.... what was the number you picked?"
Freddie: "Six".

4) For any of you who has ever received one of those spam e-mails from Nigeria, you will get a kick out of this:
An e-mail George W Bush must have received.

5) Finally, on the college basketball front, I read this article from cnn si and can assure you that Iowa City is completely blase about possibly losing Alford. It may not make sense to an outsider, but Alford is not well liked at all at Iowa.

Take my coach, please!

99 problems but a bitch aint one

Been crazy busy this week with the parents in town and a packed schedule at work. Ugh. Two questions though...

1. I'm going to get contacts (yeah about time) in the near future. What type should I get? I am totally clueless in this area.
2. I'm so torn on where to stand on this port security thing. Isn't this a topic of racial profiling, and if so then why is it OK to profile against a country and not their people?

Bubble Picture, 2/20

The past weekend of college basketball brought just a little more clarity to the tournament picture. Here is my take on where we are - the locks and bubbles - and some one-line thoughts on teams and conferences for the NCAA tournament:
Conference (L= # locks, B=# bubbles)
Am East: 1 (I know nothing on these teams)
ACC: L:4 B: 3? 4? Geesh. Who is the 5th team in the ACC? Md gets no kudos for beating Ga Tech at home in OT. Florida St has an easier schedule down the stretch. The bubble teams in order: Fla St, Md, Miami-Fl, Va.
A-10: L:1. What a pathetic conference. Who is the 2nd best team in this conference now? It's La Salle, RPI #99. No bubbles here. And I'm not impressed with GW. They will be a #3, #4 seed, and with the wrong draw, could lose in the 1st round.
(and you know GW will lose in the conf tournament, sending 2 teams to the NCAAs)
A-Sun: 1
B East: L: 7. B: 2 (Syr, Cin). I'd like to see more of each bubble team before putting them as locks. Home wins by both over the weekend over the also rans in the conference is not impressive enough.
B Sky: 1. N Arizona will be a dangerous #13-#14 seed.
B South: 1. Same with Winthrop.
B 10: L:6. B: 1. Is Indiana even a bubble team anymore? Geesh.
B 12: L: 3. B: 2 (Col, Neb)? What do you do about Colorado? They finally get the win they want vs. Oklahoma, then lose badly on the road to K St. Yikes. Right now, they are most people's last team in - and shouldn't do much damage.
B West: 1. Any comments about Pacific or Irvine?
CAA: L:1. B: 2 (NC-W, Hofstra). George Mason is now IN no matter what about going to Wichita and winning. Is Wilmington in too, now? I say yes. What if Hostra or ODU wins the CAA? Then this conference can - and should - get 3. This has happened before - remember the Horizon in 1999 or 2000? Detroit Mercy, Ill-Chi, and Butler all made it from the #10th best conference? This is a similar situation.
C-USA: L:1. B: 3 (UAB, UTEP, Hou)? Houston has slid up the board here. Non-conference schedules of UAB and UTEP are just killers.
Horizon: L: 1. UW-M's loss on Saturday removes any chance of being an at-large.
Ivy: L:1. And I wouldn't think too highly of Penn - they lost to last place Dartmouth on Friday. THey will be a #14, #15, be overrated and be blown out by 25.
MAAC: L: 1. Sorry -no two bids this year.
MAC: L:1. Sorry Don - Akron looked terrible vs. Nevada. No two bids this year. Akron wil be a weak #13 or #14 and still lose. Akron is #70 in the RPI; too high for an at-large.
Mid-Con: L:1: everyone's favorite team, IUPUI (pronounced ooo-eeee-poo-eee)
Mid-Eastern: L:1. No idea here.
Missouri Valley: L:3 B:3 (S Ill, Miss St, Bradley). UNI, Wichita, and Crieghton are locks. Missouri St had a HUGE win to probably get the inside track on an at-large; they won AT UW-M. Southern Ill had a big loss to La Tech at home; they have been fading and may miss it now. Bradley is coming on strong.
No way this conference gets 6, but still a strong chance for 5.
Mtn West: L:1 B: 1 (AF). Air Force has a terrible SOS (#290), but a neutral court win vs Miami that may be a tiebreaker down the stretch. If they get in (#11, #12 seed), they will be a tough out.
NEC: 1. No idea
OVC: 1. No idea.
Pac-10: L: 3 B: 2(Cal, Stan). What to do here? Is Cal in or out? Stanford is hanging on the bubble but another loss this weekend kills them. I'd guess that Cal is in, and are good enough to win a 1st round game.
Patriot: L:1. Bucknell is going to be a tough call for the committee if they lose in the tournament. RPI #40, great non-conf SOS #37, and wins vs. Syracuse on the road, St Joes at home. Could have sealed it with a win Sat vs N Ia. Right now, probably a #11; very similar to a NC-Wilmington from 2003 who took Md to the wire. Will be over-rated come tourney time due to history, but could do damage (Sweet 16?) given the right draw. Say, this scenario comes up:
#3 GW vs #14 Northwestern St
#6 Boston College vs #11 Bucknell
then Bucknell has a great shot to go to the Sweet 16. However, if it is:
#3 Tennessee vs #14 Akron
#6 Georgetown vs #11 Bucknell
then Bucknell will struggle to win 1 game, let alone 2.

ok, where was I?
SEC: L:4. B:3 (Ala, Ark, Vandy). Kentucky is in for me. What to do with Arkansas, who can't win a game on the road to save their life? I have a feeling it may come down to Maryland and Arkansas for the last spot, and that's when Maui might save the Terps. You watch Arkansas play - and you wonder how they win games. Clutch defense is terrible, can't shoot free throws, and don't have a true go to guy.
In general, this conference may be overrated.
Southern: L:1. Is this the year for Elon?
Southland: L:1. Northwestern St. Remember this name come tourney time. A legit team who will be a #13 and has the experience to pull off the upset.
SWAC: L:1. No idea
Sun Belt: L:1. Western Kentucky has a chance for an at-large, but it's not likely. RPI is 42, beat UAB (another bubble team) on the road and Viriginia. 8 straight wins.
West Coast: L:1. Gonzaga is overrated. They can't play D.
WAC: L:1. B: 2 (Utah St, La Tech)? This is another conference that can sneak 2 or 3 in. Utah St now at 50 in the RPI, and 8-1 vs top 100. La Tech had a huge win on the road vs. S Ill. Nevada is very close to being a lock if they lose.

So that is 54 locks; 24 teams fighting for 11 bubble spots.
In: Cincinnati, Colorado, NC-W, Miss St, AF, Cal, Ala, Syracuse, S Ill, UAB, Md
Last 4 out: Houston, Arkansas, Utah St, UAB

What the Dems Need

Interesting article in the Washington Post Outlook section. With all of the material the Republicans have given them, what have the Dems done with it? The war planning (or lack thereof, depending on your viewpoint), Abu Ghraib, Jack Abramoff, Social Security, budget deficits, Harriet Miers, the size of gov't, pork barrel spending, etc. Speaks to the ineptitude of the Dems and overall lack of leadership in the party in general, in my opinion. The article attributes it more to the overall leadership "style" of Pelosi et al.

Don't click on this link...

unless you are a fan of:
a) Supreme Court Chief Justices, and
b) gregarious Broadway stars

Well Hello, Justice, ...well hello, Justice....

I know you can't resist.

US Olympic team

I don't know how to say this - since this could come out the wrong way - but...

it's awfully hard to root for the Americans in the Olympics.

It's hard to cheer for people that are constantly thrown down your throat; it's also hard to feel sorry for hot dogs and underachieving dolts.

Look at what we have so far in this olympics. We are "forced" to root for:
1) Bode Miller. He is the most overhyped athlete since Dan O'Brien.
2) Apolo Anton Ohno. Another definition of overhyped. As one writer put it, "he has never crossed the line first in an Olympic event".
3) The curl girls - Curling's hope on the women's side (last I looked, they were 1-4).
4) Michael Weir, the figure skater who wore a "CCCP" jacket at practice the other day. Oh yeah, that warmed him up to anyone 30 years old or older who remembers the cold war. Punk.
5) Jeremy Bloom - another overhyped "star" who choked in the clutch.
6) I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the 1998 Hockey fiasco in Nagano.
7) And now this snowboardnig woman (Lindsey Jacobellis) who had the race won, decided to do a move at the end, fell, and lost a sure gold medal.

How am I supposed to be expected to root for these people? Give me the unheralded underdogs like Joey Cheek and Toby Dawson anyday.

I wish NBC would just let the games play out so we can decide who to root for, instead of forcing "stars" down our throat - "stars" that can't perform on the big stage.

February 18

Is the date Feb 18, 2001 going to be a date that will live in infamy for sports fans? This, of course, was the day that Dale Earnhardt died at Daytona.

ESPN is already calling Feb 18, 2001 as a "surreal" day

Something more monumental happened that day. See the above picture.

Just a question - is Freddie going to be saddled with this date for the rest of his life? Like being born on Aug 12, 1994 (baseball strike), Apr 5, 1974 (Aaron's 715) or Dec 31, 1971 (Clemente's death)?

(Boy, I look young in this picture....)

(And yes, I am the one in red sweatshirt....)

Wow...I was dead on!!!!!

So I got copied in on an email from my old VP on my forecasting model results for the first two months. First month, I was off slightly, but it was explainable due to some crap that happened in Oklahoma. The second month I was off by $200,000. That's $200,000 off of a $419 million dollar monthly total. That's .05% off. I emailed the VP back asking if I could come back since I can't seem to hold onto any employees these days. My YTD total for terminations is 10. That is a 10% monthly turnover rate. I was told that they haven't seen something like this in some time. So I go in front of the firing squad tomorrow to explain my actions and oh yeah, my office results.

US vs Finland

What a disappointing end to the 2nd match for the US Men's Curling today - one that will be talked about. After a great shot to finish the 2nd end with a double, the US let up a double in the 5th. We were all tied at 3 going to the 9th - a perfectly executed blank end resulted in the US having the crucial last shot in the 10th and final end. However, the strategy for the last shot in that end was botched, and Finland grabbed a point when the US captain decided on a controversial plan of attack.
Final - Finland 4, US 3. The US is now 1-1 in group B.

We still have the first US Men's match and the Women's match on TiVo from early this morning; when the kids are in bed, Janice and I will watch to see how they won the first match and what the women did.

(and, unlike most of my posts that sound like this, I am not being sarcastic. Janice has become a huge curling fan, and I'm getting sucked in.)

Dane Cook

I've been meaning to post this for about 5-6 months now, since hearing him do standup on XM. This guy is easily the greatest comic we have now!!! What jogged my memory was that he played a cook in the movie Waiting, which I saw over the weekend, and I highly recommend it. This guys topics are so random and his delivery is very original that he blows me away. On a side note, it is depressing to listen to all the other comics nowadays. Didn't racial humor hit its peak back in 92? Why are people still doing this type of shit? "Let me tell you something about (fill in race) people." Come on!!! And is there a decent female comic that can talk about something else other than how much men suck in bed? Don't they have anything else to talk about? Wanda Sykes makes me laugh and Ellen D can get me to crack a smile, but everyone else sucks. I wish I had Tivo the last time I was at the New York New York, so I could send everyone the Rita Rudner outtakes playing on the TV. It really makes you wonder, who the fuck is seeing her everynight.

College Sports

Was up watching US Hurling at 1:00am. Not too bad, but I just can't get into a sport that was probably thought up by some college kids on a boring friday night. I'm just waiting for them to turn some of our college "sports" into an olympic event like card tossing into a bowl, full contact 21, putting 90 feet on a concrete surface, ice hockey when wearing shoes, keg or other large random object carrying race, or going through a gauntlet to get to the bathroom at 2:00am.

And is anyone else getting bored at watching this snowboarding half-pipe bullshit? Its impressive and all, but I tend to get tired of watching guys do twisting things over and over again. ugh.

Vegas Planning

OK, we've got a little more than a month until Vegas. I've gotten a few questions about plans, golf, etc. - and what better place to quibble about Vegas plans than right here?

1) Golf. What are people's plans for golfing? Kermit (my friend from college) has got a tee time at Paiute on Friday afternoon - Don is in, I think I'm in... Leland - does you and your party want to jump in with us? Derek?

Saturday - Kermit is interested, but I don't think I will go. Anyone else?

2) Dinner. It is tradition that we go out for a fancy meal once during the trip; the last two years it has been at Smith and Wollensky's.
One suggestion this year (from Don) is Bobby Flay's at Caesars. Other recos?

3) As stated before, Don, Derek and I are coming in Wed night; Don and I are leaving Sun night. Kermit is coming in Thu night and leaving Sat night. Derek - do you have any definites as to who else is coming from southern California?

NCAA Bubble Watch, 2/8

OK, here is our weekly look at the bubble. We will look at each conference and list the teams that are a definite lock (at this time) or are on the bubble currently.

Am East: 1 (Albany)
ACC Definite: 4 Duk, NC St, NC, BC
Bubble: Miami, Md, Va
Big win last night for Md to keep them on the good side of the bubble.
A Sun: 1 (E Tenn St)
A-10: Def: 1 (GW)
Bubble: Xavier, ?
God, this conference is terrible. Temple's loss today takes them off the bubble.
Big East: Def: 6 (WV, Vill, UConn, G'town, Pitt, SH)
Bubble: Marq, Syr, Cin
Big Sky; 1 (N Az)
BIg South: 1 (Birm So)
Big Ten: Def: 6 (Ia, Ill, Mich, Ohio St, Mich St, Ind)
Bubble: Wisc. Tonight's win helps, but losses to Purdue and ND St are black marks.
Big 12: Def: 3 Tex, Kansas, Okla
Bubble: Colorado, Neb, Ia St
Big West: 1 (Irvine)
CAA: Def: 1 (leader is Geo Mason now)
Bubble: loser of Geo Mason, UNC-W, Hofstra.
3 teams in the top 50 in the RPI. This conference should have 2 bids.
C-USA: Def: 2 (Mem, UAB)
Bubble: UTEP
Horizon: 1 (UW-M)
Ivy: 1 (Penn)
MAAC: 1 (Iona)
MAC: 1 (Kent)
Bubble: Akron
Mid-Con: 1 (IUPUI)
Mid-Eastern: 1 (Del St)
MVC: Def: 3 (N Ia, Crei, Wichita)
Bubble: S Ill, Miss St. Bradley's loss tonight kills them.
MWC: Def: 1 (SD St)
Bubble: AF. AF @ SD St is in progress right now.
NEC: 1 ( F-D)
Ohio V: 1 (Murray)
Pac 10: Can any of you west coasters figure this one out?
I have 1 Definite - UCLA
4 Bubbles: Washington, Cal, Stanford, Arizona.
Washington is 6th in the conference right now!
Pat: Def: 1 (Buck), who is in even if they lose their conf tournament
SEC: Def: 5 (Tenn, Fla, Ky, LSU, Bama)
Bubble: Ark (what a crushing defeat tonight for them)
Southern: 1 (Elon?)
Southland : 1 (NW St)
SWAC: 1 (Southern)
Sun Belt: 1 (W Ky)
WCC: 1 (Gonz)
WAC: Def: 1 (Nev?)
Bubble: Utah St, La Tech

So that is 53 locks. The bubble teams are fighting for 12 open spots. How do you separate them?
My guess at this point:

IN: Marquette, Wisconsin, Washington, Miami-FL, Maryland, NC-Wilmington, Syracuse, S Illinois, Air Force, Arizona, Colorado, California
OUT: Virginia, Xavier, Hofstra, Cinci, Ia St, Nebraska, UTEP, Akron, Missouri St, Stanford, Arkansas, Utah St, La Tech.

Question of the Day

What does the term "Pass the duchy on the left hand side" mean? And is that a little boy singing part of that song or just a girl with a high pitch voice?

Thoughts While Driving a Yellow Mustang

Just a couple of quick things from LA/San Diego since it's 1am PST and I was trying to stay on EST. Guess that ends today.
1. Part of the reason I'm staying up is to download "It's Raining Men" from iTunes so I can blast it on the car stereo driving around San Diego.
2. Besides the incredible homo factor, the 2006 Mustang is one of the worst cars I've ever driven. Blog to follow on this sometime next week, but I'd honestly rather be driving my old '83 Honda Accord 4-door with 13 people in it on the way to the Student Union to see "Blue Chips".
3. Eric, let's pretend you never mentioned that.
4. Malibu--overrated. Santa Monica--not bad. Pepperdine--wow.
5. Derek, I now see how you've become such a pussy with cold weather. It's 75 degrees in Feb! This shit is amazing.

Final Stats

Overall stats on the year: 154-138-13.
So, for a span of 305 games, I was at a 52.6% clip.
Break even is 52.4%.

If (hypothetically, of course) I put 22 donuts on each game, I would have risked a total of 6,710 donuts and came out ahead 44 donuts. A return of about 0.6% on the investment; slightly better than the average savings account.

For perspective, if I picked at a 50% rate - 152-152-1 - I would have been down 304 donuts.

But the 52.6% rate is a positive balance. Two years in a row now - with a sample size of 300+ games each year.

Not too bad. Next stop: Vegas during the tournament; in 2003, I think I had 45 bets on the 48 games for the weekend.

Final Thoughts on the NFL

Yes, the result of the Super Bowl makes me upset. I'm not quite as infuriated as the result from The Super Bowl That Never Occured (tm), but frustrated nonetheless. Why? No one wants to see their division rival win. As I said earlier, I want everyone to suffer until I get a ring in any sport.

To see the refs play an important part in that game, well, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Do I think that the game was fixed? Well, to quote "The Incredibles", "The law requires me to say no". If you put Wonder Woman's truth rope on me, I'd say no. But it's becoming clearer and clearer that the refs put some teams in position to win.

For example, the Browns ran back 4 kickoffs/punts for TDs this year. They were against the:
Bengals
Ravens
Colts
Lions

Which 2 of those TDs were called back on questionable penalties?
Which 2 of the above teams made the playoffs?

The answers, of course, are the same. Draw your own conclusions.

Now, Seattle did enough things wrong to lose on their own. As Don said, the clock management by Seattle was Butchie-esque.
And then there was the trick play. The Steelers have run this sort of play two or three times this year. Any AFC North opponent can tell you to expect it. AND THEY ONLY RUN IT WHEN THEY ARE LEADING IN THE SECOND HALF!!!

So what happens? Seattle seems to be caught off guard by the gadget play inthe 4th quarter when Pittsburgh is leading, 14-10. That's all on Holmgren. I don't care if it was a 2nd string safety in there - it is the coach's job to get everyone ready to play.

I don't ever want to hear the Steelers described as a "smashmouth" team. The trick/gadget plays are a vital part of their offense. Nothing wrong with that - but let's not call them a "throwback", "old-fashioned", or any of that nonsense.

Retirement

Wow, I was surprised on the amount that came in yesterday on the game. Stupid prop bets make the regular gambling addicts go bezerk. Everything turned out very well. Very Very Well in fact. This will probably go down as the fourth largest day for me, behind the 2001 New Years Day Bowl Games, Carolina-Pats Superbowl, and the 2002 New Years Day Bowl Games. In talking with some of the other people in my profession, they stated that they had to stop taking action on Pitt by the weekend, since the amount was so large. Lucky for Brad and I, we only had 1 wager on Pitt, with everything else on Seattle and the Over. Amazing....

And I'll take the line from The Bus and I am announcing my retirement today. Brad and I are in talks on what to do with the client list, but for the most part we will be closing shop, with a few small exceptions. Its been an amazing ride over the last 10 years, which has taught me several important lessons about life and sports:

1. Never accept a wager from someone you don't know. Over the years, I've only had a few small problems collecting and they have been all related to people who I don't know that well. Friends and friends of friends will pay up 100% of the time, but its those people that do not have ties to anyone that I have problems with.
2. Gambling will make men do the craziest things. I have had to cut people off from placing wagers, when they are into me for way too much money and have 2 kids and a wife to take care of. Its amazing to watch how desparate people get when trying to win back money that they couldn't of afforded to lose.
3. The Gooch is real!!!!
4. Most games leading up to a big event like the Superbowl, World Series, and the NBA Championship are fixed. It will eventually come out.
5. Nobody has a firm understanding on how to be great sports handicapper. Boston and my brother are the closest, but the rest of us are in the dark.

Recent Movies

I finally watched both Wedding Crashers and 40 year old Virgin, which were excellent!!! Maier and I are trying to rank these two with the recent comedies. How would you rate the following movies:

1. Old School
2. Wedding Crashers
3. 40 Year Old Virgin
4. Anchorman
5. Dodgeball

Beach Football

Played tackle football on the beach for the first time in about 4 years. A little rusty, but still was able to bowl over a couple of people and throw about 7 TD passes. I've lost about 6 steps, but gained about 25 pounds which was put to good use. The highlight of my day was on an interception, I lined up one of the guys and totally ran over him, which prompted Austin to go completely nuts. Austin also had one of the greatest TD celebrations, which involved him running to a lifeguard stand, climbing it, making the superman pose, and then yelling the name of the guy who he burnt out about 10 times. Classic. The only downside of the game is now I'm not able to really move around. I'm in so much pain right now.

LA Blog

I'm out in LA on business, so I'll actually try to keep a real blog going this week. I doubt that I'll get to post stuff every day (both for lack of want to and lack of interesting things to post), but I'm hoping for 2-3 moderately entertaining posts.

Sunday. Direct flight from Reagan National Airport to LAX--5 hours and 43 minutes. The captain mentions an 82 knot headwind that we're flying into--that sounds like a lot to me. I'm on an Alaska Air flight (was booked through Delta, but operated by AA). As a result, you had to call and book your seat, it wasn't available online. Result was that I called and got an aisle, the other three that I'm traveling with all got stuck in middle seats. 6 hours in a middle seat is my idea of hell, and one of the guys is in the last row next to the pisser. Sucks to be him.

Fairly uneventful flight, there are a lot of Koreans on the flight. Not sure if they all fly AA, or they're all just going back to LA. Get to the rental car place (Avis) and they try to up-sell me on the car category. No, I don't need an Impala, just give me the Malibu or Monte Carlo that I signed up for and let's get this done with. She tries a couple of more times, but finally gives in and gives me my contract. It's in space 938 and it's a canary yellow '06 Mustang. I see what she's writing and I tell her that that's not what I asked for in the reservation. Sorry, that's all we have. Really?!? Are you fucking kidding me?!?! "Is there anything else available?" I ask. "I'll even move down a category." "No, I'm sorry", is her response. I feel like I'm being punished for something. So I'm the homo driving around a Navy base in a canary yellow Mustang.

Stop by a friend's place to meet up to watch the Superbowl. Liz lives in Redondo Beach, about 10 minutes from the airport. Derek meets up with us with a friend, Carol. She turns out to be very funny, attractive, intelligent, and she doesn't work for his company. Hmmm. She must not know him very well, or he must have some sort of incriminating photos of her. Anyway, off to lunch at Hermosa Beach at a little Mexican place. Decent food, nothing outstanding. The major subject of conversation turns out to be sex acts/positions. Rusty Trombone, Cincinnati Bowtie, Cleveland Steamer, ATM, Bull Rider, etc. Just your general run of the mill, lunch conversation. The Superbowl has started, but Liz TiVo'd it, so we're heading back about 20 minutes into the game.

I won't talk about the game, but we all have a good time and head out to our hotel. I already love the fact that we've watched the game and it's still early. The hotel is in Oxnard, about an hour north of LA. Check in, and here I am, writing in the blog. The plan is to try to stay mostly on East Coast time, but I know that that is doomed. I'm hoping to get up early tomorrow, get a run in and still be out of here by 0800 LA-time. We'll see what happens.

Talk to everyone tomorrow.

Super Bowl Picks

Before we start, some random notes:

1) Is anyone else uncomfortable with Tom Brady tossing the coin at the start of the Super Bowl? He is still active - it's not like he is a retired icon like Marino or Kosar. How do Pats fans feel about this?

2) Went to the grocery store today - so many people had their Bengals jersey on. Why? It's not like this is a celebration of ALL NFL football. If your team is not in it, then shut up and take it.

3) While waiting in the line, I picked up the latest "US" and started to look for the "Fashion Police" section - it wasn't there? That's the only reason that magazine is in existence! After 5 minutes of flipping through in a panic, I found out that the last few pages were stuck together and, yes, the "Fashion Police" section was there. The victims this week were Robert Downey Jr. and Lisa Loeb. Whew! The world is safe.

As for the game, I really want to see Seattle win, but I can't see it. This game will be dominated by the Steelers, but the final score will be closer than the game:

Seattle 3 3 0 14 -- 20
Pittsburgh 0 14 6 3 -- 23

Scoring for the game:
1st Q:
Sea: FG Brown 36, 7:12 left
2nd Q:
Pit: Randle El 12 run (Reed kick), 13:19 left
Pit: Bettis 1 run (Reed kick), 4:47 left
Sea: FG Brown 42, 0:04 left
3rd Q:
Pit: FG Reed 31, 9:23 left
Pit: FG Reed 29, 4:10 left
4th Q:
Sea: Alexander 2 run (Brown kick), 13:03 left
Pit: FG Reed 35, 6:33 left
Sea: Stevens 15 pass from Hasselbeck (Brown kick), 0:42 left

Best bets: (current record: 153-137-13
Sea +4.5 (The Seahawks will make it close in garbage time)
Under 47

Superbowl

I'm so behind on everything right now, so I haven't had the time to put together a nice spreadsheet on props for the Superbowl. Click on the link below to get a list of over 200 props f0r Sunday.

http://www.vegasinsider.com/nfl/props/

Some basic ones are missing like over/under of interceptions, FG, and punts. If you don't find something that you want, please write a comment and I will supply anything that you want.

One interesting one that I found on my other site is this one.
"Will The Burger King Score TD Any Commercial Between Kickoff and Last Play"- Even money

And yes, I will take that one.

Terps and the NCAAs

My God, was that ugly. I waited all night to watch the game uninterrupted on TiVo, and I see that abomination of a 15-point loss at home to Carolina.

What can this team do well? Well, Caner-Medley gives a whole lot of effort, especially on the offensive end. Strawberry reminds me of Dixon, a little bit.

But overall, this team is not a team. No defensive team play. Too many gaps in the lane and allowing too many drives by UNC. Offensively, it's the same old Williams-coached team - too careless with the ball. I'm not impressed with UNC at all - contain Tyler in the middle and then you just let Noel have his points, so this was a very winnable game that was lost in the 2nd half.

Can you say that the Terps belong in the top 30 in the nation right now? I can't. Top 40? Close - which makes them a pure bubble team.

Eric's picture on the tournament right now:

Definite "in"s at the moment:
Am East (1)
ACC (3: Duke, BC, NC St)
A-10 (1) GW
Atl Sun (1)
Big East (5: UConn, WV, Vill, PItt, G'town)
Big 10 (7; all 7 are locks at this point. Mich, Mich St, Ohio St, Ill, Iowa, Wisc, Ind)
Big 12 (3; Tex, Col, Ok)
Big West (1) UC-I
Big South (1)
Big Sky (1) Montana could pull an upset as a #13
Colonial (1) Watch this conference. We could have 2 here.
C-USA (1) Memphis
Horizon (1) UW-M could be an at-large, but tonight's loss hurts.
Ivy (1)
MAC (1) I love the MAC, but only one is definite right now.
MAAC (1)
MEAC (1)
MVC (all 4 are locks now; UNI, Wichita, Crieghton, and S Ill)
MWC (1) SD St
Mid-Con (1)
NEC (1)
OVC (1)
Patriot (1) Bucknell is almost a lock for an at-large if they lose in the Pat tournament.
Pac-10 (3: UCLA, Az, Washington)
SEC (4: Fla, Ky, Tenn, LSU)
Southern (1)
SWAC (1)
Southland (1) Northwestern St is another team to watch - another upset in the making as a 12/13.
Sun Belt (1)
WAC (1- La Tech; Nevada has really slipped)
WCC (1; Gonzaga).

That's a total of 53 teams. So - 12 more spots for teams like:
Md, NC, Mia-FL, Clem, Xavier, St Joseph's, Temple, Marquette, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincy, Kansas, Ks St, Iowa St, Neb, 2nd Colonial (GMason/UNCW loser), UAB, 2nd MAC (Miami-OH? Akron? Kent?) , Missouri St, Bradley, Air Force, California, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Nevada

That's a pool of 26 teams for 12 spots. Is Maryland in the top half of that group? We will watch this over the next few weeks.