Emptying of the mind

A lot of topics to post on that are flying around in my mind. Please indulge me in the cleaning out the cobwebs of my mind:

1) Janice and I had a great trip to OC last weekend. On Saturday we went on a boat ride - that's where that picture was taken of me. Three hours on the boat sailing the seas about 1-2 miles off the shore. I have a feeling that I enjoyed it the least - I wasn't feeling too good for about the first hour until I stood up for the rest of the ride. I wasn't seasick, but just uncomfortable.

2) Sunday was the Browns-Chargers game; the Browns kept it close for a while (leading with 1 min left in the 3rd!) before losing, 32-25. I hope those 6 FGs by Dawson won the game for you, Derek. There were a lot of Browns fans there that surprised Derek. Chargers fans were nice to us; there were plenty of fights we saw 2 section over in the 4th, mostly caused by alcohol.

3) Charlie Frye did not look good - too many throws into double and triple coverage; he missed more than a few open receivers, and there was the gift TD that he gave SD by putting the ball on the ground at his own 5.

Derek - a neutral observer - was not impressed. Period. However, one professional writer was impressed:

Charlie Frye's better than I thought he was.

Yep! Of course, Peter King.

4) I did get Derek to root for the Browns and to wear the vaunted 26-year-old Browns scarf during the game. So that was a success.

5) I didn't do well with the jet lag for the quick trip: I was up at 4 am on Saturday and 3:30 on Sunday (Pacific Time). Just couldn't adjust quickly. And that, coupled with the game on Sunday, meant I was completely wiped out at 8 pm on Sunday. barley made it to the end of the Pats- Colts game!

6) I have never been a fervent cult follower of Starbucks, but....
the Maple Macchiato is heaven. Wow.
Memo to Peter King: the Starbucks in terminal G of the O'Hare airport is a good one. Those Maple Macchiatos (2, one on Thu morning and one on Sat morning) were perfect. The yogurt parfait was a bit watery, however.

7) One quick note on the election: boy, am I pissed at George Bush right now. Congrats on the Democrats by the way on winning.... they successfully turned this into a national referendum without providing any specifics on what they would do differently.

Anyway, Bush ends up firing Rumsfeld after the election. What the hell, George?

You knew he was unpopular 6-12 months before the election... yet you kept him around. I thought it was because you still had faith in him and his performance - which is entirely possible given the constant (and mostly unwarranted ) witchhunt against him...

But you get rid of him. Why? What the hell changed? the election? What does that matter?

You should have either:
a) fired him 6 months ago - AND MOST LIKELY SAVING 5-10 SEATS IN THE HOUSE AND 1-2 IN THE SENATE; OR
b) stick to your PRINCIPLES and re-iterate that you believe in him despite the unpopularity.

Why the hell did you fire Rumsfeld NOW? I can't explain it....

Well, I have one possible theory why... it's a devious plan for 2008. I'll explain that, and how the Browns can make the playoffs, in a future post.

(PS - I'm spell-checking this post; it suggest I replace "FGs" above with "fags". How is that in the dictionary????)