I have a feeling that Kermit knew this...

It's a fact! Eating more pork improves your sex life!

And you wondered why pork chops were the main dish at our wedding.....

Well hello there!

Hi everyone! Remember me? It's been about 2 weeks since I posted - so let's start the fun again with some complete odds and ends.....

1. Had a great visit to CA to see Layup and the new arrival, Morgan. Apparently Layup now blames us (me?) on giving him the "Ohio Flu", which I'm sure in his mind is just slightly worse than the H1N1. I'm just preparing him for a life with a child - and their exposure to 47 communicable illness at the same time.

1a. 8 year olds have no sense of temperature. We went to the beach - Freddie runs in the ocean like it is June in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was - at best - 60 degrees. That didn't stop him - he was in there for a good 30 minutes.

1b. The first morning I got up in our hotel room at 5 am - jet lag. However, I wasn't the first one up. Freddie was up and playing his PSP on the bathroom floor. At 5:30 we got in the car and went to the grocery store. Two notes about that:
- stepping outside at 5:30 in the complete darkness and being wide awake - and the temperature being a beautfily 59 degrees? It felt exactly like an early Vegas morning. Got my blood rushing for March.
- so who is in a grocery store at 5:30 in the morning? Just the stockers. And, in California, what is the ethnicity of the stockers? Of course.
So Freddie blurts out: "Why are there so many Spanish people working at this store?" Alright....have another donut and keep the questions to yourself until we get back into the car.

2. Got a magazine from Case touting the Engineering department and the faculty. In there there was a picture of the professors at the university.

It's been 20 years since I started at Case - and 5 of my professors are still there! These guys - Buchner (my adviser), Loparo, Chankong, Malakooti, Sreenath - were all middle age (40? 45?) when I started. And they are still there! (And frankly, they all look the same!)

And it's not just my department. Many of Janice's professors are still around; I looked at the Computer Engineering faculty and saw many names that Kermit bitched about (the Ozoygulu's, Merat, ...). Is this normal? I mean, in P&G, we switch roles every 3-5 years. I know it's vastly different....but don't these guys retire?

3. Driver Search 2010 is on. I'm looking at the Taylor Made R9 (because I am really comfortable with Taylor Made's over the past 10 years) or the new Cobra (since I really love my Cobra hybrid). The Titleist are too unforgiving for me, and I just am not comfortable with a Ping. It's a 9.5 degree driver with a regular shaft for me - I got the specs down, I just need to find one I am comfortable with.

Kentucky Basketball

I know I am the only one, but anytime I see UK hoops playing this year and I hear the name "Bledsoe" I always do a double take. To look up and see an athletic black basketball player, instead of a tall white slow QB - well it just freaks me out.

Casino Experiences

Well, I've had a chance to go to the casino twice over the past 3 weeks - once for Wiz's "fact finding" visit in late December and last night with Janice as a birthday gift.

(By the way - I'm trying to convince Janice to bake this cake - candles and all - for today, my 38th. She quickly rolled her eyes and called me a nerd. I love it!)

I swear, I think I see more odd things at the Indiana casino than the Vegas casinos. A list of the things that stick out from the last two visits:

- The pure joy that Don, Wiz, Mike and I all felt when we rolled into the casino and saw an open UTH table at 9 in the morning;

- The heart attack that our UTH dealer had when Wiz pulled out his camera phone and took a picture of the table - with the flash on! The woman admonished Wiz several times, with Wiz weakly stating "I didn't know I conuldn't take pictures!" Ha.

- Dealer is down! A dealer is down!
So we're playing craps, and on the other side of the table, there is an African American dealer handling the chips. After abotu 20 minutes, she starts complaining about something - we think it's because of some gamblers over there, although we're not sure what it's all about. 20 miuntes after that, she is replaced by the pit boss- the pit boss is now standing and dealing, paying out $7 when 8's are rolled.
5 minutes later, medics and a wheelchair comes by - and the African American dealer is seated with an oxygen mask - and after observation, is taken away.

Of course, the table doesn't see any delays. The show must go on.

- Wiz is the WORST gooch at the craps table. Saying "seven" at the wrong time, betting $7 unknowingly on the hard ways - just an idiot.......

- .....however, it was clear that I was the worst gooch at the UTH table. Don was ready to slug me multiple times. One hand, Don has 9-6. The flop came J-9-6. I triumphantly yelled: "Hey, you got it, Don!"
The rest of the cards were 8-4; the dealer turns over J-4. Oooooo, sorry about that, Don.....

- It's funny to see Wiz, Don, Mike and I all get critizied for our UTH play by a guy who is betting $5 on the Ante/Blind and $15 on the trips.....

- Janice is now a big fan of Pai Gow.

- I saw the dealer deal herself a Royal Flush last night; however, the 2-card hand was "8-6", so we all pushed.

- I received 4 Aces at Pai Gow. How do you play that? I split it 3-1, with A-K up top. Yes, I won.

- Was going to sit down at a UTH table (for a second go around) and asked a player if I could take the seat next to him.
"Yes - but it will be 45 minutes until we play another hand!!!!!" he yelled.

They were ending a hand....the board had A, Q, J, 10, all of clubs....

The dealer had a 9 of clubs........and this player had the K of clubs.

A Royal in UTH - and he had $10 on the Ante/Blind, and $10 on the trips. That's $5000 for the blind, $500 for the trips. Wow.

- So there was a second UTH table open - and I went over there - it was being dealt by a .....how do you say it now? Midget? Dwarf?....by a height-challenged dealer. Also, the automatic shuffler was broken, so he was shuffling by hand. It was odd. I felt like I was playing against mini-me.

- It wouldn't be UTH at Belterra without getting ripped by the dealer for strategy, as I went in 4x with A-6 suited. The dealer called me "gutsy" and said I shouldn't do that unles I had 10s or better. Yeah, ok. Just pay please.

You think it's bad now, Layup?

Layup - you think parenting is rough now with a newborn?

This afternoon, the phone rang. I paused the TV (Judge Judy) and went to answer the phone. I was on the phone for about 7-10 minutes.

When I got back, the remote was nowhere to be found. Our 16 month old Martin was in the area playing at the time.

I searched for a good 15 minutes - no luck. I bribed our two older kids: "Hey guys, who wants to earn a dollar? Find the remote!"

After 20 minutes, Warren came back and said: "You hid the remote well, Dad! We can't find it!"

I've torn apart the couch 3 times. No luck.

I've looked in the garbage and the toilet. Nope.

It's now 7:30 pm and the remote is still missing.

OVC picks Jan 4

Picks for today :

5 star pick : E Kentucky -4.5
4 star pick : Tn Martin +21
3 star pick : Morehead st -12
2 star pick : E Illinois -4.5
1 star pick : Se Missouri st +4

Have things gotten better?

Dog one to dog two, we do not have the beach. Repeat we have not secured the beach. Heavy resistance from the german who won't go to bed and stop screaming. Repeat we do not hold the beach.

NFL Week 17: Holly

Here we are, at the end of the course - and the last week of the NFL regular season. Both seem anticlimatic.

The 18th at Augusta can truly be one of the great finishing holes in golf. It has provided its share of moments - such as Lyle in 88, where he birdied from teh bunker. The collapse of Norman in 86 (and also - most forget - Kite's missed 7 footer). O'Meara in 98. Phil's putt ("Is it his time? Yes!) in 04.

But if the contest is not in doubt, the 18th is a boring hole. There really is no chance for a disaster (unless you are Arnold Palmer, 1961 - who accepted congratulations as he was walking up the fairway with a one-shot lead. He promptly sculled a bunker shot and made 6). If someone has a two shot lead or more (like Zach, Faldo (96), Immelman, Woods many years), that's it. The tournament is over.

Kind of like this week. The 6 teams in the NFC all have 2 game leads. The field is all set. What are the Vikings playing for here? Don't say "a bye" - I think they may want to get on teh field next week and work out the kinks. And besides, the Steelers, Giants, and others have proven that the home field advantage has diminished over the past 23 years.

And the AFC? The Jets and the Ravens have the 2 stroke lead. Do you really think the Jets will lose- at home - against a team that has nothing to play for? What about the Ravens? Will they actaully let the Raiders beat them? I know, I know, any given Sunday and all that.......but it's very hard to imagine.

My personal 18th hole(s) go back to my college days - the first conference tournament I played in and the last tournament I ever played. In 1990, I was a freshman, and was +4 in the second round at the UAA Championships at Marshfield (MA) CC when I came to 18, a 400 yard par 4. A drive and a 4 iron put me on the wrong tier, 50 feet away; I played about 12 feet of break and heard an audible gasp from our coach's wife; the ball settled down about 4 feet below the hole. I nervously put that in for a career-best 74 at the time, which gave me all-conference honors as a freshman.

The last tournament I played for Case was the 1993 NCAC Championships at Granville, a Donald Ross layout near the campus of Denison University. I was playing well, and I wanted to make all-conference badly, since the talent in this conference was far superior to the talent in the UAA. (It's a long story - at the time, we belonged to two conferences). The 18th has "the most spectactular view in Ohio golf", and was an apporpriate place to end my career. After going +5 on holes 13-15, I came to 18 pretty much knowing I needed a par; a good drive and a wedge put me about 35 feet, requiring another testy two putt. I finished tied for 10th, and on the conference second team.

(If we are talking about a par-3 18th there's no question I put Maketewah in here.........)

Anyway, enough reminiscing. On to the games:

Atl 20, TB 17. Is Matt Ryan going to play for more than a half?

SF 28, StL 10. I'm sure the Rams will "try" to win....but have Suh in mind while playing. Boy, he's a real talent at LB.

NYG 27, Min 20. I don't think the Giants will go out quietly after last week.

Mia 23, Pit 20. The Dolphins will officially end the Steelers' season.

Hou 31, NE 20. I am banking on the Patriots beingextra conservative here.

Det 20, Chi 17, OT. Yes, the Bears put everything in last Monday's game and will overlook the Lions.

Cle 20, Jax 17. Four in a row for Mangini to close the season.

Car 27, NO 13. Too much pride in the Panthers.

Ind 20, Buf 10. I mean, the Jets barely scored on offense versus the Colts last week. The Bills are horrendous. Really - how exactly are they moving the ball?

Sea 23, Ten 20. Hasselbeck will put up one more good game for the home crowd.

SD 21, Was 20. The Chargers will open up a 21-3 lead, then take everyone out.

Bal 28, Oak 13. If the Browns can force 4 interceptions......what can the Ravens force?

KC 23, Den 20. The last wheel falls off Denver's cart.

GB 24, Az 21. Who will stop trying first?

Phi 28, Dal 27. I think both teams value the division title and will make a concerted effort to win this game.

NYJ 20, Cin 14. Again, as I said, the Jets hardly moved the ball vs. the Colts' 2nd stringers. They needed their defense - and the great Curtis Painter - to give them the game. Cincy is better than the Colts' reserves.

Best bets: 15 of them. Last week: 5-7-1; overall: 99-111-3.

SF -8.5

NYG +8

Mia +3

Hou -7

Det +3

Chi/Det under 44

Car -7

Ind +8

Sea +6

Bal -10.5

KC +10

GB +3

Phi +3

Phi/Dal over 47.5

Cin +9.5

OVC Picks - Jan 2

OK, let's start this again: my picks for tonight's games in the OVC:

1 star game:

Tenn St +11 at E Kentucky

2 star game:

Morehead St -5.5 vs. Austin Peay. Austin is not as good as usual.

3 star game:

Ten Tech -3 at SE Missouri St

4 star, lock of the day:

E Illinois -4 vs Jacskonville St.