Maybe I'm a UofL football fan again

Hasta la vista, Coach Kragthorpe! Please let the door hit your ass on the way out...

"Were you looking for season one?" (Black Friday highlights)

Woke up at 7AM this morning and was ready to go. I had a list of movies and other things we wanted to get. Last year we waited until about 8:30am and most of the things were pretty well picked over.

We started out at Best Buy. It was crazy. People were everywhere. The line, we discovered, wrapped around different aisles before you could check out. We waited, as if waiting for a ride in an amusement park, to check out for 30 minutes. It was insane. We got everything on our list as well as a few other movies and a drawing tablet for Kelsey. Total saved: $90.

We then headed over to Target. It wasn't nearly as bad as Best Buy. The only thing I needed here was a Mr. Coffee for $29 and Seasons 1 and 2 of "Flight of the Conchords" for $8.99 each. We headed to the movies and, alas, they were sold out. We managed to get the Mr. Coffee and picked out a few more things. Then I thought I might sneak back over to the cardboard movie bins and check again. I didn't see anything. Then I overheard some little grrrl complaining about how they only had Season 2. I followed her voice and found Season 2. I told her that they were all sold out in the back so this may be all they had. I walked to the cart and then heard in a squeaky voice, "Were you looking for season one?" I turned and it was the grrrl waving season 1 at me. I can't recall the face I made but I'm sure it was embarrassing. Total saved: $55.98.

After that we went to Home Depot to buy some cute little trees. From there we headed to Oxmoor. I had visited the Apple Store a few days prior and found online that the Apple store was offering $101 off every computer in the store. I walked in and soon walked out with a brand new, top of the line, 15-inch Mac Book Pro. RULES!!!

We hit up Gap next. Then somehow talked ourselves into going to Wal-mart (and struck out). We came home, ate a turkey sandwich from Pat's leftovers (thanks man), and then headed back out. We went to Feeder's and struck out. We headed over to another Home Depot and got two more cute trees. Then we headed to Feeder's downtown and hit the jackpot. Will.i.am and two bearded dragons named Percy and Panda are going to have a very merry Christmas.

We came home, wrapped stuff up, put up the tree, took a nap, and now I'm playing with my new toy. We're heading out to dinner with Jed and Vian tonight. Can't wait!

A Real Spoiler

I like to talk trash in FFL but my team has been in horrible shape this year. How is it that I get stuck with duds when another guy manages to score Peyton Manning, Adrian Peterson, and Ronnie Brown? Anyway, with three games to go and only inter-divisional play left, I am finally leading my division with a record of 6-4-1. Not glamorous, but it's done the job.

This was an open letter to my FFL league. Just thought I'd share...

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A Real Spoiler

Some of you are at the top of your game and have nearly locked your division. Some of you are still holding out hope. One of you is still gunning for your first win. Some of you fancy yourself spoilers maybe.

Let me tell you something about spoiling. A real spoiler is someone who takes a team with the worst point-producing, first-round draft pick and makes the team work. A real spoiler is someone who picks up another man's trash and watches that player top the stats for his position (thanks for the TE Eckel). A real spoiler picks up a player from the waiver wire and watches him top the stats for his position too (okay, fine Morton, we're both tied for the lead at Kicker). A real spoiler takes his team of 7th ranked Passing, 8th ranked Rushing, and 8th ranked Receiving and muscles his way to lead his division. A real spoiler simply spoils, robbing a much needed win from a division contender when it really counts (sorry Ted, no Neti Pot is going to save you on this one).

Gentlemen, I have clawed my way through this season without stud RBs or flashy WRs. I've done it with good coaching moves, good waiver-wire pick-ups, and a little bit of luck (49ers DST scoring 45 points that one week didn't hurt either). I'm done with you other divisions (for now - see you in the post-season) and plan on spoiling it for the rest of mine. As your wives already know, once I get on top I stay there until the job is done!
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No ma'am, I do not *need* a new computer

Jooj likes to tell me what I need to do. So when I brought up my 12-year old, inoperable G3 Mac (still running OS 9, thank you) from the basement, Jooj took the opportunity to tell me that *needed* a new computer and that I was going to get a new laptop. You know what? That's fine and all, but I, like the US military (or at least the actors *playing* them in the movie Black Hawk Down), leave no man behind. I bought this G3 used, with its cracked Bondi Blue case, and it has proven its worth time and time again. It is still the main computer I use in my studio to project the images that I paint by. And it's still good to fire up a classic arcade game via MacMAME. So while a visit to the Mac Store and a purchase of a shiny new Mac may be in my future, not today sister!

I noticed that it turned on, hummed about for a moment, and then turned off. I turned it on again and it did the same thing. Then it stopped doing anything. I thought that the power button wasn't springing back into place so it may just be a problem with the switch. I popped her open and had a look.

The casing housing the switch was locked in pretty tight. I grabbed a screwdriver and, after quickly thinking to myself "I can't hurt it anymore than it already is," pried the casing open. I quickly figured out which tiny button was the power and manually punched it. The machine hummed to life (lurched is probably more precise) and kept at it. So my switch it busted but now I know how to turn my machine on (in the event that I have to power it down, which happens from time to time).

And yes, I'll be going to the Mac Store soon, Jooj. Just not today.

"The first rule of Fight Club is..."

I just want to take a moment and wish the movie Fight Club a very happy 10th birthday. This movie is one of my top five favorites and is probably ranked #2 right under The Big Lebowski. The movie came out during a time in my life when I needed the kick in the ass that the message of the movie delivered. I need to buckle down and read the book. I know I'd love it.

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. " -- Tyler Durden

"Gravity-y-y-y-y-yyy on me, Never let me down, Gently"

I've been reading over my blog posts over the last month or so and I'll be the first to point out that I've lost a little of my zing. I think I was suffering a little mixture of anxiety and stress. I was stressed from going a little longer than I wanted to without a job while watching those numbers in our budget slide downward. I was also dealing with the anxiety of the possibility of none, one, or two job offers that I was hoping were going to be slapped on the table. It all worked out in the end but things were kind of rocky in my head.

And then once I got the job I've been hard at work. Really hard. Head down, nose-to-the-grind hard. Not stay-late, burn-the-candle-at-both-ends hard. But hard enough to drain the wacky, creative, off-the-wall (have I hyphenated enough in this paragraph?) juices out of my posts.

For that, I apologize to my loyal reader(s) and to my future self who goes back to read these (and to the future editor of my memoirs for when you write them after I get mega-famous for doing whatever it is that gets my name in the history books). But I promise to being wackier, creativier, off-the-wall-ier, and zingier.

For example, I've been doing a lot of yard work. And while doing yard work I've been listening to a lot of music, old and new. I came across the quote from the Gorillaz first album and thought to myself, "How true!"

Gravity *never* lets anyone down gently :)

First paycheck!

I earned my first paycheck since August yesterday. W00t! Jooj and I celebrated by eating a nice dinner and getting our drink on at Dundee Tavern KT's (Dundee was too packed). We came home and I attempted to get her hooked on Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill". She liked it, but we had to turn it off before getting too far into it (her white zin hit a little hard).

We further celebrated our new source of income by shopping for 4 ours. A little of it was our weekly errands (we love you Target). A little of it was early Christmas stuff (this is going to be a good year). And a little of it was just for fun (Gap jeans fit my waist so well).

Yard work tomorrow. And painting. And grocery store. And... FOOTBALL!!! Woohoo!

Kelsey was behind the wheel

And I must say this first: I was quite impressed. We drove around parking lots for 45 minutes before she took to side streets for another 15. She did fantastic. I was so proud and impressed. She did almost hit a biker, but hey, who hasn't almost hit a biker or pedestrian?

You? No? How about you? No? You? You neither? Okay, well, maybe nearly hitting bikers isn't as common as I thought. Ms. Kentucky? Ah, winner!!!

Happy Birthday, Will.i.am!

It's Will.i.am's (my Will, not Black Eyed Peas Will... er, hell, maybe his his too) birthday today and the big man turns 13. Thirteen. THIRTEEN!!!

Wow, what a great age. I wish him a good one and many, man more good ones to follow.