2008 Golf Season Preview

At this point in the year, we normally post a preview of the upcoming golf season....
but we preempt our golf preview post with a breaking news flash that may impact the 2008 season:

Come and knock on our door
We've been waiting for you
Where the kisses are hers and hers and his,
Three's company too.....

Come and dance on our floor.
Take a step that is new
We've a lovable space that needs your face,
Three's company, too......

You'll see that life is a ball again
and laughter is calling for you.
Down at our rendezvous,
Three is company, too!

Credit Card Roulette

Eric hit it right on the head about the upcoming days before Vegas. Get ready for a Vegas Blitz here on Flotsam and Jetsam!!!

First, I got a great call the other night from Wiz. Wiz was at dinner with Lee, Micah, and company and he was pissed that nobody wanted to play credit card roulette. I love how I have the reputation of playing this game all the time, when that really isn't the case at all. But let's be clear, we will be playing this at least once in Vegas. Those of you who don't want to play, speak up now, not at the dinner table.

Secondly, I got some bad luck out of the way today. Went to DelMar to do some off-track betting with Carol and her friends. I bet the wrong horse once and was just missing in almost every other race. Ended up only winning one race. ONE RACE!!! Ugh. On the bright side, I am now a Del Mar VIP member, so that should be a lot of fun during the summer months.

Fuck the Terps. Wow they looked terrible. At least we don't have to worry about missing the game if we are out golfing.

Watching the Lakers vs. the Kings and noticed two things;
a. I should of made the wager on the Lakers back when they were 7-1 to win the title. Ask Eric how close I was in putting in that wager.
b. Ron Artest is crazy. He is driving Kobe crazy. I love it.

Philosophy in Vegas

Eric here, in my secret hideout one week before Selection Sunday. I'm in hiding so I can devote all my time to previewing the 90 or so teams that will be either in the NCAA or NIT for our Vegas trip....

Ok, ok, I'm in France this week. I'm all screwed up with the time - it's midnight here and I've had 4 hours of sleep in the last 38 hours, yet I am wide awak.

As we prepare for an avalanche of Vegas preview posts (started superbly by Layup), I'm questioning my philosophy in Vegas.

For next week only - are you gambling to win money? Or are you gambling to have fun?

Different answers to that questions leads us down different paths of money management/bankroll/etc. So most books that I read say that you need to answer this question clearly before going on any further.

Honestly, I don't know how to answer. I'm truly torn.

Talk amongst yourselves....

Vegas 12 days and counting.....

So I was looking up old Vegas posts and discovered a few interesting facts:

• Total Number of Posts- 1087
• First post was made by Eric on 5/31/2005 about the tribe reaching .500
• The next 5 posts continued to be from Eric, posting about Diet Rite, the A's getting rid of Kendal, more soda blogging, and the new coach of the Cavs. Its nice to see that nothing has changed in 3 years.
• We have posted about Vegas 118 times, which means that only 10% of the blog is dedicated to Vegas. One weekend I will take the time to see how many of the posts are about gambling, the browns, Jay's hatred for the Yanks, and Jon's love for Paris.
• I went to Vegas 6 times by April in 2006.
• It is obvious that the 06 trip was probably one of our best trips. The comments and posts are classic. Below are my top ten lines from the last two years:

1. Derek from the bachelor party: "Rutgers is a Fraud. A fucking fraud. And Eric, I don't want to hear it from you on college football again."
2. Jay from Blondie's bachelor party: "Trying to convince Derek to grind with this random Bride at the Rio and yell "I get deeper from the back!!" Never happened though...Derek telling Kerri that he was going to give her a "DDT". I haven't heard "wrastling" lexicon since grade school.
3. Derek's angry comment number 1 from 2/9/06: "Who is this guy Don? He comes out once and has Eric convinced to go somewhere else other than Smith and Wollenskys for dinner, because he can get a steak anywhere? Can someone tell him that the steak is better than the ones they serve at Applebees in Cincy? What the hell is this? "
4. Eric's comments before the 06 trip: "Any male who stays on 16 against a 10 is a communist or a Howard Dean supporter."
5. Kermit comments before the 06 trip: Let's start with insurance. If I'm humming Mexican Nortenas or singing Monty Python songs out loud, I must be drunk and winning. So, take insurance when I do.
6. Kermit's comments before the 06 trip: Anybody who drinks Tom Collins, should run for public office.
7. Leland's comments before the 06 trip: Leland here, blogging from Derek's laptop while driving to Vegas. We're currently going about 100 mph trying to make up time from sitting in a traffic jam from a road re-paving. While I look at the screen to type, we are whizzing by trucks so fast that they are literally just a blur in my peripheral vision. If we live, we should be there in about 90 minutes!
8. Don's comments after the 06 trip: Its Tuesday morning. I got 8 continuous hours of sleep last night, and I still hurt. Now thats the sign of a good trip.
9. Jay's comments from my bachelor party: "I was outside for a grand total of 11 minutes the entire weekend. Warrants mentioning."
10. Don 's comments from the 07 trip: "I like sleeping with Derek (although, apparently, this is the last time that will happen). He likes the room cold, stays on his side, leaves the TV on and asks how the night went before I zonk out. Very thoughtful. With the exception of dinner on Thursday, the only time I saw Derek was in the room – we were on completely opposite schedules. And yes, I do not sleep with a shirt on, I just can’t do it."

And I can't take specific comments from Wiz's post since everything was amazing. Take the time to read this. WOW!!!

And here are Eric's great posts from a Mar 2006, Nov 2006, and the classic I believe post. All great.

Drive or Fly

Not too sure if I mentioned this before or not, but it is now cheaper for me to buy a full price Southwest ticket than drive out to Vegas. This is crap!!!!

The Ikea guy is number 7?

So Yahoo Finance had a little story today about the richest people in the World. Nothing really new except that Buffett overtook the Mexican Phone Guy for the number one slot. But as I was clicking on the number 5 and 6 guys; Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, to get more info on them, I found something pretty funny. Here is a clip about what they said about the two:

The sons inherited their fortune from their late father, renowned industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani. But they couldn't get along, and in 2005 their mother brokered a peace settlement breaking up the family's assets. Mukesh is using some of his money to build a 27-story home.

First, I found it funny that their mom had to "broker" a deal between the two of them. Its like my mom having to sit Eric and I down as we split up $42 billion. Ummm, I'm sure we could of found a way. Secondly, what is up with a 27 story home? Is he trying to get on MTV Cribs? Actually all of the profiles are a little funny. For Warren Buffett is says that he first filed a tax return at age 13 and took a $5 deduction for his bike. Not a bad way to waste some time.

Dreams

So I had a very weird dream last night that I thought I would share this morning with everyone. I can't get this out of my head and it involves me applying for a radio morning show job in Atlanta. I go to the interview and kick ass. They want to hire me but I told them I wanted some time. So I go over to get some coffee at an Einstein Bagel and my mom is there sitting at a table. I join her, say hi, and then go up by myself to get coffee. While standing in line there are a bunch of drunk frat guys standing in front of me. They start picking on me and I just stood there taking it since they were pretty large and I was by myself. It starts getting real bad with one of the guys pouring beer on me and everyone else laughing. I turn back to see if my mom is seeing this and guess who is standing right behind me in line. Avon Barksdale from the Wire. He gives me this little wink and pulls out a gun and shoots the kids. At first I was all for this, even high fiving Avon. Then of course it hits me that I was going to jail for life. So I ran back to my mom's table, told her goodbye and left with Avon. I was so freaking nervous about going to jail knowing that I wouldn't last a single day. I then woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I kept on thinking on what my strategy would be if I ever had to go to prison. Not good thoughts at 4:30am as your trying to go back to sleep.

Maybe I shouldn't of had so many cookies the night before.

Down with NAFTA, up with Pillsbury

Had a wonderful debate with Eric and Lee about NAFTA and outsourcing last night and I was going to do some research and post up a blog. Did some research on the Dept of Labor website and found some very interesting stats about US jobs. But then I got sidetracked by the call of our newly purchased, "tub of cookies" that we bought from Costco. This tub is huge and allows us to bake cookies at any time. Not being really "green" when I fire up the oven for 4 cookies. Well those 4 cookies turned into 8 as I discovered I still had Girl Scout Cookies in the pantry. So after 8 cookies I went into a sugar coma and couldn't really do anything other than watch American Idol and annoy Carol while she tried to do some work. Then that turned into me getting another cookie and playing some video games until 11.

Oh, and Carol wants a shout out on the blog since she had to endure sitting here watching Glenn Gary Glenn Ross over and over again while I wrote that last blog. Thank you Carol.

So NAFTA will have to wait.

Two weeks to go

This Democratic Primary is absolutely fascinating. If anyone has any idea when and how this will end - they don't know what they are talking about. We are in completely uncharted waters.

(and, it seems, I was completely wrong on the Ohio Analysis below. Oops!)

Eric's Democratic Lines:

Who will be the Democratic Nominee in 2008?
Barack Obama -150
Hillary Clinton +120
Al Gore +900 (and dropping)
Field +2000

When will Obama or Clinton officially drop out?
Before June 25 -110
After June 25 -110

The D'Artagan/George W Bush Game
(5) Vanderbilt vs (12) Maryland

The Don Hershey Game
(4) Purdue vs (13) Oral Roberts

Layup's 5-12 Upset
(5) Drake vs (12) Florida

The Wiz Heart Attack Game
The Eric Ohio Underdog Game
(6) Clemson vs (11) Kent St

The RRD Virginia Game
(5) Michigan St vs (12) Virginia Commonwealth

The Leland/John the Pai Gow Dealer Game
(8) Kansas St vs (9) Arizona

The Kermit Pollari "if all 7 of you are going one way...." game
(7) Southern Cal vs (10) Texas A&M

The Mike D Cheesesteak Game
*vacant*

The Micah game most likely to end in broken bones
(6) Butler vs (11) Arkansas

Layup's $500 on the Money Line Game
(4) Notre Dame vs (13) UMass

Wiz's ACC/Mid-Atlantic Lock
(8) St Mary's vs (9) Miami-FL

The Gus Johnson Game
(6) Gonzaga vs (11) UAB

The 7-10 Game no one cares about
(7) BYU vs (10) Arizona St

The 9:00 on Thursday first upset of the Tournament
(6) Washington St vs (11) Illinois St

The Game no one but Eric cares about
(8) South Alabama vs (9) Baylor

The Eric Unload on a Random Over/Under
(2) Texas vs (15) Austin Peay


Fascinating discussion on MSNBS right now... Keith Olberman asks Chris Matthews if Hillary will think about quitting for the good of the party.
Chris: "It's been decades - decades- since politics was a team sport".
A great line.

It's election day!

Yes, it is Election day here in Ohio. Two things I am struck by in this primary season, mainly on the Democratic side:

1) Saw a Hillary commercial the other day. It was set in rural Ohio with lots of hills - think anything south of Columbus and east of Cincinnati. Chillicothe? Portsmouth? Anyway, they had several folks - men and women - appear and laud Hillary.

However, one think struck me. That commercial featured a few blue-collar, beer drinking 50-year old union males that were talking positively about Hillary. It's just very hard for me to picture these sort of men walking into the voting booth and voting for Hillary. The cultures, the genders, the styles are just too ..... different.

2) I don't think anyone should underestimate the importance of NAFTA/Free Trade as a campaign issue here in Ohio. We can debate intelligently all we want about the issue, but it is an accepted fact that NAFTA has caused a loss of jobs here in Ohio. People in those areas - especially NE and SE Ohio - are mad and pissed off. (Never mind the fact that cities like Columbus and NW Ohio are doing well in adapting.... look at Marysville and the new Honda plant, for example. What's the difference between the Marysville Honda plant and the Ford/GM plants in Cleveland or the Delco plants in Dayton? The lack of a union....)

The Ohio election may come down to the fact that Hillary -and her husband - is associated with passing NAFTA back in 1993. As an Ohio resident at the time, I was against NAFTA......because of the "giant sucking sound" that would be heard in these sorts of states. These states - and the people in them - would not accept that the world is changing around them and they would have to be retrained. Because of this, NAFTA would be hastening the loss of jobs that probably would be coming gradually......and I would like to have seen that be postponed as much as possible, since I live here.

Once again, it looks like the greatest Presidential candidate of the last 20 years, Mr. H Ross Perot, was right.


Went into the polls today with Freddie and Warren as I took them to day care. I let them touch the voting screen and "vote" for all the uncontested races.
I told them I was voting for John McCain for President.
"But who is Mommy voting for?" asked Freddie.
Well, I'm not sure. We will have to ask her when she gets home tonight.
"I think she's going to vote for Hillary", Freddie said.

Question: who do I have a serious talk with first? With Janice to make sure this is false? Or Freddie for actually naming Hillary unprompted?

F and J truths revealed!

Derek called shotgun in Tennessee, and never looked back as Carol drove the entire trip. Young Zahn not only forced Carol to wear makeup for all 3125 miles, but his sole contribution was "channeling the location of taco bells through a spiritual gps."

Scorpions

On Friday I received a strange message from Ben really early in the morning. I was in a meeting at the time so I pulled the message at the break. "Dude where are you? I just got caught cheating. Call me when you can."

So I end up leaving work early to meet up with him and he is a mess. I ask him to tell me what happened. Apparently he and his friend started out a bar in Dana Point, picked up two 40 year old women and ended up back at his place. He then went on to tell me that they were partying pretty late at his place with the two girls and the drummer from Scorpions. What??? The drummer from Scorpions? Are you serious? And to think he was going to quickly brush over this and move onto his girlfriend walking in on him? Umm, no. I want more details.

Derek: What happened to him?
Ben: I think he left pretty late.
Derek: So you're telling me that you out-partied the drummer from Scorpions?
Ben: Well I guess, but I want to get back to explaining...
Derek: Man, I was hoping this story would be something like we had to dispose of the body since he is still in my bathtub. Had to kill, had to get it on.
Ben: Uh, no.
Derek: Man, I wish I came out with you last night
Ben: Uh, no you don't. Last night was the worst night of my life.
Derek: How could that be. You partied with the drummer from the Scorpions.
Ben: Do you even like the Scorpions?
Derek: No.
Ben: Then who cares?
Derek: Man, the drummer from Scorpions. Do you mind if I blog about this?
Ben: Whatever.


Well this helped us laugh for awhile before getting back to his girlfriend. And lets just say that this was the highlight of our conversation as the "caught cheating" stories are all the same and very depressing.

Now this is the second musician we have seen in our parts here in Dana Point. Ben, Carol, and I saw Richie Sambora last year at the Salt Creek Grill. Is this the retirement community for ex-hair band musicians?

Glenngary Glenn Ross

So a couple a weeks ago Eric and I were joking around and were doing some old quotes from the movie Glenn Gary Glenn Ross. A little known movie that starred Al Pacino, Alex Baldwin, Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon, and Kevin Spacey. We were trying to use the quotes to describe what might happen in Vegas. It was so fucking funny that both Eric and I were crying. If your going to Vegas and you haven't seen the movie, watch it. I'm sending it to Lee tomorrow. Anyway, here are a few scenerios that Eric and I thought of on how to apply the lines in Vegas.

1. Wiz complains to Eric about shitty cards at the BJ table. Eric's response will be

Wiz "These cards are weak."

Eric "The cards are weak." The fucking cards are weak? You're weak!"

2. Mike is at the craps table. Some moron bumps into him while he is rolling. Don turns to him and uses the Pacino quote of;

"You stupid fucking cunt. You, I'm talking to you, shithead. You just cost me $6,000. Six thousand dollars, and one Cadillac. That's right. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it, asshole? You're fucking shit. Where did you learn your trade, you stupid fucking cunt, you idiot? Who ever told you that you could work with men? Oh, I'm gonna have your job, shithead."

3. After Eric hits a 4 team parlay. Eric will come running over to Don and Mike at the Poker table.

"Get the chalk. Get the chalk. Williamson, Put me on the board. Put me on the Cadillac board.

4. Lee is at the BJ table with Wiz. Lee needs to use the BJ card for the 400th time during the session. Wiz looks at Lee and states

"You have the memory of a fucking fly."

5. Micah, Wiz, and Lee are all doing very well at the Pai Gow table. I walk up and everyone losses. Micah turns to me and says

"Will you go to lunch. WILL you GO to LUNCH."

6. Micah asks Eric for some picks. Eric looks at Micah and says

"These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you would be throwing them away. They're for closers."

7. And then he follows up with...

"And to wish you good luck would only be a waste."

8. Some stranger tries to make small talk with Kermit at the BJ table.

Stranger: "So, what's your name?"

Mike: "Fuck you, that's is my name. You know why, mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an eighty thousand dollar BMW. That's my name. "

9. Someone asks Wiz where Eric is?

"I'm not a leash, so I don't know."

10. Lee and Don are getting some coffe in the morning after a long losing streak the night before. Eric walks up and states

"Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers."

11. Kermit is bragging to Eric about how well he did at slots the night before.

Eric: "You're such a hero, you're so rich, how come you're coming down here wasting your time with such a bunch of bums? "

Kermit: "You see this watch? That watch costs more than you car. I made $970,000 last year. How much you make? You see pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids."

12. Don is getting killed at the BJ table. We all walk up to him and he points to the dealer and says

"That guy's a fuckin' asshole. Anybody who talks to that asshole is a fuckin' asshole."

13. Don and Eric are playing craps. The dealer can't pay out correctly and continues to slow down the table. Eric yells out

"WHAT YOU'RE HIRED FOR, is to help us... does that seem clear to you? TO HELP US, not to FUCK-US-UP to help those who are going out there to try to earn a living... You fairy. You company man."

14. Eric gives three picks to me to use in his parlay.

Eric: I'm giving you three picks.

Derek : Three? No I count two.

Eric: There's three picks there.

Derek: "Clemson? Fuck you. Fucking Clemson couldn't win a game if they tried. Fuck you, Eric! You know your business, I know mine. Your business is being an asshole. I find out whose fucking cousin you are, I'm going to go to him and figure out a way to have your ass - fuck you!"

I'm sure there are more, but I've got to go to bed now. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, then I'm sure you're probably thinking that I'm crazy.

Fully Operational Death Star

I think it was Jay who coined this phrase out in Vegas. Or was it "OK, I'm fully loaded now." while walking away from a ATM. Either way, I will give him credit for this as he just named his newborn daughter Layla Nevada Danielian.

Anyway, for you non-gambling folks, Fully Operational Death Star means that you have a full and extensive bankroll to try and take out the casinos. And that is what I have 18 days away from our 11th annual March Madness trip. Yes, 11 years. We started going out in 1997.

So, after some worries, I have been able to build up several layers of bankroll from the money I bring out, to reserves, to back up reserves, to "Oh shit I'm broke, but there is a hot craps table over there" reserves.

So I can't tell you how excited I am for this trip!!! I will post my betting strategy sometime next week.

Crushed

How the fuck did MD loss this game? Watched the entire game and we dominated every minute except for the last one. Crushing loss.

Cross-Country Hell

As some of you might know, Carol and I drove cross country two weeks ago. We flew out to Baltimore, drove down to the outerbanks, packed up a 20 foot Penske truck of some of Carol's moms stuff and then drove back. I had a really long post planned, but I think I can sum it all up in a top 10 highlights and lowlights.

Lowlights
10. Mark 7 areas off my list of places I wouldn't mind living in. The entire states of Kansas, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and then portions of South Eastern Utah, Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, and Eastern VA. The Verdict is still out on Missouri. We passed two casinos and they had a lot of porn shops.
9. Rush Limbaugh- Used to enjoy listening to him, but when you only have AM/FM radio and you have to listen to him for the full time, you start to realize two things; he repeats the same thing over and over again and probably 60% of the time it was commercials.
8. Beards- I grew a beard during the week. It appeared in full after 4 days. Thought it was going to continue, but it just sort of died out. And wow, there was a lot of gray. While it did keep me warm during the day, it was very annoying during the evening. Ugh.
7. Enterprise Rent a Car- Screwed me in the outerbanks by not having a 4X4 truck despite stating that they did. Ended up getting it stuck in the dunes and having to pay $250 for a 2 inch tow out of the hole I dug. But looking back at the situation, it probably was for the best. The tow truck driver let us borrow his truck for an additional $100 so we could load up all of the furniture, then his buddy came over and left a 20 ft trailer so we could load up all the goodwill stuff. Then I complained to my people out here at Enterprise and they comp'd the rental and gave me a free spot in their upcoming golf charity event. But at the time, it was bad.
6. Wellsfargo- Seriously, how long does it take a check card transaction to hit the books? One day? Fine. 3 days? Unacceptable. Bank of America is within minutes.
5. "Quick stops in Vegas"- Explained in the post above.
4. Penske Truck Rental- Made sure that I rented a new and nice truck from Penske. They stated that they had a hook up for my IPOD. I had reserved 20 furniture pads. All for the nice price of $700 plus insurance and tax. Well I got there and no furniture pads and no IPOD hookup. Oh, and the power outlet didn't work so I had to ration my cell phone power. And the Penske got shitty AM reception so I couldn't get Dr. Laura and Coast to Coast. Had to listen to repeats of Rush and Hannity. God I hate Hannity. And yes Don, we did play your wonderful game. Kept us occupied for about 10 minutes as we only had about 5 stations at a time.
3. Underestimating your drive time. Louisville to Denver in one day. Didn't seem so bad since I was told that it would take 7 hours to get to KC and another 7 to get to Denver. 14 hours? So we got to KC in about 7.5 hours and then I saw a sign for Denver stating 605 miles. Um...if I do my math right, we would get there in 8.5 hours if I did an average of 75mph. Still not too bad. Then we hit a major accident in Bumfuck Kansas that shut down the 70. There is one lost hour. Then I ate some really bad beef jerky. That's two stops at 20 minutes a pop. Then there were stops every 2.5 hours because of gas issues. Yup, that's 18 hours of driving.
2. Losing the alphabet game to Carol because of a huge mistake. We both on Z. Carol was asleep. We were approaching Mt. Zion and I saw about 4 signs for the national park, but never called it out. Carol awakens from her sleep and calls it out in a matter of minutes. Let's just say that I threw a huge hissy fit for about 10 minutes. I almost cried.
1. Missing the under on the Louisville to Denver trip that Eric posted by 5 minutes. You know you have a gambling problem when you are trying your hardest to keep the Penske truck at 75 mph despite catching trails and seeing things that aren't there on the road just to beat Eric's line.

Highlights (only 5)
5. Jeep Wrangler. By far the best off road vehicle I have driven. Handled the dunes in the outerbanks with ease, despite it being stormy and having high tide whenever we were traveling.
4. Some places I would live; Denver, Western VA, and Vegas.
3. Mesquite, Nevada: Got there at 10:00pm. Carol and I both fell asleep without gambling. I woke up at 5:00am the next morning and went down to the casino, where I found it completely empty. I walked over to the craps table and there is one dealer counting cards on the table. Asked him if the craps table was open and he said yes. $2 limits. He promptly removed the cards, grabbed the stick and cashed in my money. Ummm....where are the other dealers. Oh, they are either on break or catching up on admin stuff from the night before. So I'm at a regulation craps table, rolling dice by myself with only one dealer. He stood next to me with the stick and had to run down to the other end, grab the dice and then pay me out. Lots of fun.
2. Carol's Brother and Girlfriend- What great guy. I was always on the fence about him because of his treatment of Carol, but we get in late, he has fresh fruit for us and then tells us that he scheduled massages for us the next morning. Very nice.
1. Quality time in the truck- Without a radio for the most part, I had a wonderful time with Carol. A total of 48 hours of driving and we had a blast. A little surprised.

A Crazy two weeks

Wow, this has been a really bad couple of weeks. I don't think I have ever felt this overwhelmed due to work and some stuff happening at home. Work, I'm sort of up for a promotion, but my results need to hang in there for the next couple of months while my bosses give me a test drive in the new position. I sort of lost it with one of my managers when he told me that he was sorry for some slight drops in his results and he will try to get them up. "Try??? Try!!! Are you serious? There is no try. There is no hope. You do! You execute! And by the way, no more apologies." I ended up later going back and toning down the message. But still, I feel like a bubble team right now. Just trying not to have a bad loss at home and hoping that my track record from earlier on in the year will hold me over to the promotion. I will keep you all updated.

As for home? Well, Carol and I packed up her Mom's stuff from the beach house two weeks ago and traveled cross country back to Dana Point in a 20 foot truck. And that truck was full of stuff that we finally got put away today. Our house was a disaster for a solid week, but now everything is either where it needs to be or repacked and put away. I can't even explain to you how much lifting I did here at the house moving some furniture. For those of you that have been here, I had to basically bench press a 6ft long 4 ft high dresser on its end over the railing on our stair case. Ahhh, buts is all worth it. We now have a California King size bed that we both have to climb into. One of the most impressive things I've ever had. No more knees in the back or elbows in the head. Just me, myself, and I in the West Wing portion of the bed. Amazing!!!

It's never too early

Corey Williams
Shaun Rogers
Donte Stallworth

Jamal Lewis coming back
Derek Anderson coming back

boy oh boy, is it September yet?

And then we hear Chris Mortensen say this....I know, I know, I just ripped on ESPN - but remember, Mortensen predicted at the beginning of the 2007 season that the "Browns would win 3 division games". He was laughed at by many of his co-horts....but in the end, he was right.

The AFC North is ours for the taking in 2008. (Well, it was ours in 2007 before Anderson let it get away. By the way, I am not taking any questions on our QB position at this time......)

The state of sports media today

This sums it all up, no?

Happy Leap Day

First of all, congrats to Jay and Laura for the new arrival! Hope everyone is healthy and doing well. Before you gave out the initials, I would have expected the name to be "Hillary Obama" for a girl, but your choice is good too!

Happy leap day to everyone. It's the 3rd anniversary of my engagement to Janice...and yes, to all you smart asses out there, I asked her. (This is Sadie Hawkins day, you know).

We'll probably spent tonight at CiCi's pizza, or Ruby Tuesday, or some otehr similar restaurant in the suburbs with a child:adult ratio of 3:2.