sfaJack

When the subject of moving first came up, she got quite annoyed when I told her maybe she should just suck it up (about the commute) and deal with it. Honestly, if our roles were reversed and I was the one doing the driving, that's what I'd do. Of course, I'd leave the house at 5 a.m. to beat rush hour each way; she can't/won't do this because she is NOT a morning person.

Selling the house isn't the issue so much as it is we like the area of town we're in. Basically, our thinking is this: - We would like to 'upgrade' our living situation--bigger house (sfaJill wants babies yesterday), bigger yard, and a neighborhood with fewer black people in it. The yard size is the biggest factor here; the biggest problem I've always had with our house is the fact that there's about 12' between us and our neighbors on each side. - The other factor of course is her commute; she hates the drive and is kind of sick of doing it. But she mostly likes her job. And, if she quits and finds somewhere closer to home, with only 4 years in her industry, there's no way she'll make the money she is making now. (i.e. she's earning more than market value because the folks she works for offered her more than market value to leave her previous job and join their startup company and have been giving her raises every six months since.) I figure I could find another acconting job if I wanted to no matter where we live so that isn't the issue. Of course, I don't hate my commute...

Don't worry, Mike. I'm sure Santana Moss will inexplicably catch two 60+ yard TD's in the 4th quarter to spark a late comeback victory. That little shithead always does that to the Cowboys. But, yeah. No Portis = Dallas win. Deangelo Hall's impact will be minimal either way though.

Yes I did, a little over 5 years ago now. I can't believe it's been that long.

My God, the wheels are coming off...

sfaJill is not very political and seems to only watch the news when there's something about a tragedy affecting young children so she can have a good cry. She's a registered voter, but I can probably count on one hand the number of times I recall her watching/listening to anything to do with the recent apocolypse election. She told me a few weeks ago that she didn't plan on voting at all because she didn't feel it would be right since she didn't know much of anything about either candidate, as if I'd divorce her because she didn't vote (though I did tell her I WOULD divorce her if she voted for the messiah--but that's neither here nor there). To paraphrase her: "All I know is that Obama is black, Palin's a woman, and you don't want Obama to win." Well, this past Saturday after the messiah's latest "redistribute the wealth" gaffe came out (in the form of that "I didn't realize selfishness is now a virtue" quote), I was bitching about it to her when she stopped me. "Wait, he wants to do what?" "Redistribute the wealth. Apparently we're selfish for not wanting to just give it away." "So he wants to take our money and give it away?" "Yes. Mostly to poor (black people)." "FUCK HIM. I work my ass off for my money. Those people don't do shit and he wants to give them MY money?? FUCK HIM! I want to vote for McCain." No comment as to whether I was suddenly turned on or not... ------------------------ Drawmuh~! at the in-laws: I was somewhat surprised to learn that my mother-in-law absolutely hates McCain and has apparently been loudly and proudly telling people she voted for Obama. My father-in-law, on the other hand, was quoted by sfaJill as saying, "I'd prefer if McCain wins." ------------------------ My dad--who HATES Jimmy Carter and has been saying Obama=Carter since before he vanquished Hitlery--had this to say when I called him Wednesday to talk about something totally unrelated: "Did you see what Russia already did today? I told you!" ------------------------ On Wednesday, sfaJill and a few of her current and former coworkers got together for lunch. I was invited because, well...I don't know why. I went though because an excuse to get out of the office for lunch without coworkers is fine with me. Upon arriving and shaking hands with one of her coworkers he, noticing the black polo shirt I had on, leaned in and said, "Ah, man, I forgot to wear my black shirt to mark the death of the United States of America." Then we laughed. And, no, there was no motivation behind my choice shirt. It was just next up in the rotation. A great bit of political commentary in hindsight though. ------------------------ One of my coworkers says she voted for Obama. Not because she's enarmored with Obama but because, "I want the Republicans out. They have caused all of our problems." I told her I'm blaming her for everything that goes wrong in the next four years and I expect to hear no bitching about any of it from her because, hey, the Republicans cause all of our problems.

Yeah, you're right about that. I personally have neither the time nor patience to engage in a lot of political discussion on the Internet. And certainly not in a liberal circle jerk hellhole like this board's CE folder. And before you ask, no, I don't post in CE at the Pit either. I'm not a ranking member of the Bush Fan Club, but I did vote for him twice. As a conservative, I feel betrayed by Bush in a couple of ways (*cough*massive spending*cough*), but he gets way too much blame for things that he absolutely can't control. My main point though is that it's absolutely insane for you to declare that we (i.e. those opposed to the Obamessiah) cannot criticize him for anything, whine about him being elected President, or bemoan how he's the worst human and President ever when that is ALL the liberals have been doing for the last 4-8 years. The shoe is on the other foot now. Deal with it. kkk is just doing his patriotic duty.

Do you mean the same way the libs oh so graciously "dealt with it" in '04 after Bush's re-election? The same way there haven't been any "Bush=chimp" or "Idiot son of an asshole" or "Shrub OMG LOL you called him Shrub!" jokes floating around the last four years? Please. Don't even act offended when that stuff starts happening to the Obamessiah.

Thursday game: Cleveland

The odds of Brad Johnson throwing several horrible interceptions are lower this week.

That second scenario would give OSU at least three losses though. How impressed would the voters be by OU beating a 3-loss team, especially since the teams they'd be tied with have also beaten OSU? And honestly, who cares at this point? Tech is going to lose to OSU and OU, OU will beat OSU, and this whole thing will be moot because Texas, which is going to win out, will have the tiebreaker over OU.

Nah. Jacksonville has major issues with their o-line and is not the same team they were last year. And 7.5 on the road, Bengals or not, is a large spread for them. I WILL admit that I never figured the Bengals would win outright though. The one I pulled out of my ass was Arizona/St. Louis. I thought the Rams would win that one outright. Whoops!

Kansas City, too. You don't really want Billy Cundiff to be your kicker.

Point taken! But I (and other here, obviously) would just to like to know what is and what is not acceptable behavior; why is one "worse" than the other?

Broward, why would you ever expect NFL officials to be consistent in their calls? The thing I don't get about the endzone celebration thing is this--a penalty is called when it's excessive group celebration, props are involved, or it draws too much attention to a single player, right? Why then was TO called for a penalty in week 1 when he fired out of imaginary starting blocks (a la Usain Bolt) but each and every time someone does the Lambeau Leap, there is no call? How is THAT any less "attention-seeking" or "taunting" or *insert whatever buzzword Goodell is using this season* than firing out of imaginary starting blocks?

The TSM Blogosphere has been busy lately with talk of vacations and all the "problems" that go along with them. This got me thinking about some of the trips we took as a family (myself, Mom, Dad, and little brother)...and some of the problems that came with them (though none of them involve my dad getting the cops called on him). Mount Rushmore/South Dakota I think this was around 1990 or so. I remember this was the trip that my mother tried an experiment to get the two of us to behave in the car during the long ass drive: bribery. She got two rolls of quarters out of the bank and gave one to each of us. Each time we "acted up" or otherwise got into some trouble along the way, we had to pay her a quarter; any quarters left at the end of the trip could be used at the video arcade and if we made it through the whole trip without losing any quarters, we would get another roll each to use at the arcade upon getting home. This was a big incentive to us...until we were fined a quarter each for horsing around at the motel pool in Oklahoma City after the first day's drive. Then we suddenly didn't care much anymore. The real disaster of this trip came out in the Badlands when the family car got a flat tire literally out in the middle of nowhere. The tire was so flat and our car so weighted down with luggage and whatnot that my dad couldn't even get the jack underneath it to change it out. Three hours of sitting in the hot sun, just waiting for some help. And me, being the little ultra-worrywart I was at the time FREAKED OUT at the prospect of dying out there. Eventually, a state po po came out and called a wrecker for us, but there were some tense moments as I was losing my mind and my dad was pissed off that he had a problem he couldn't solve alone. Then later, when my dad was forced to pay what he considered to be highway robbery for a new tire; well, that was good times at then end of that particular day. Washington D.C. Thanksgiving 1986. My mom, brother, and I had flown to D.C. (my first flight ever, and the only time we EVER flew anywhere as a family) to visit my dad while he was at his FBI Academy training in Quantico, VA. This trip was fine...until the flight home. That's when I, having neglected to tell my mother about the stomach ache I'd had all day, couldn't take anymore and threw up all over the guy sitting in the seat in front of me. My mother was mortified. The comedy highlight of the trip came later when we were close to landing in Houston when I reached into the seat back pocket in front of me pulled out the airsick bag, turned to my mom and asked, "What's this lunch sack for?" New Braunfels, TX I don't remember exactly when this was, but I was probably 8 or 9 or so. We went to stay at grandmother's house one weekend in New Branfels for a couple days of tubing down the river and playing at Schlitterbahn. Unfortunately, on Day Damn One we went tubing. My brother and I were sharing a tube and, when we went over one of the sets of rapids, the tube dumped over, spilling both of us. To make a long story shorter, I got caught in the current and couldn't make it to shore alone; this guy that was standing on the bank ran out into the water and pulled me out. As a result, I had no desire to go anywhere near the water the whole rest of the weekend which kind of threw a wrench into the whole 'weekend water fun' plan. My dad was frustrated by this, even going so far as to say, "You didn't drown! What is there to be afraid of?" Yeah, so anyway, there we were, heading back home less than 36 hours later, me terrified of the water, my dad pissed off at me because we had driven all the way out there for nothing. San Antonio Summer 1995. The brakes on the family vehicle give out on the way back to our hotel from Fiesta Texas. By 'give out' I mean the brakes would stop the car...but only if you were going 15 mph or less and had extra room to stop. Instead of calling (and paying for) a tow truck, my dad decides to drive the 20 miles back into town at approximately 10 mph, earning us probably 100 dirty looks from all the angry motorists behind us as they passed us. I'm still amazed to this day the we a) didn't rear-end somebody and b) get pulled over for going 10 f'n miles per hour. Quick highlights from some other trips: - My dad bought my brother and I new fishing rods before one of our many trips to the lake. One the first morning of this trip, we'd been out there for about an hour when I reached back to cast my line...and somehow let go of the rod as I flung it forward. SPLASH! My brand new fishing rod is damned forever to the depths of Lake Somerville. Dad is pissed when he realizes what happened. - My brother leaves his winter coat at a Long John Silver's on our way back home from a family gathering in central Texas. He realizes this within five minutes of us leaving the restaurant, but fails to tell my mom out of fear of getting in trouble. Instead, he chooses to wait until we are over halfway home to say anything; that doesn't go over well with the parents. - And I won't even mention the time we were in Arlington and decided to stay at Six Flags Over Texas an extra couple of hours instead of walking over to the Ballpark in Arlington and purchasing tickets to that night's Angels/Rangers game as we had talked about earlier in the day.

No joke. We're setting the bar awfully low this year. At least I'm in great shape so far when it comes to tiebreakers. 3-0 division (and AFC). All my losses are to NFC teams.

Did you win the World Series ticket lottery, Smues?

Maybe Scott Linehan is a horrible coach. WTF ever, Dallas. Thank God this game wasn't on in Houston today because I'm pissed off enough about it. If I'd to watch that 'effort' I might have broken the new HDTV. So glad I got tickets to the Baltimore game now. At least it will now DEFINITELY be the final game at Texas Stadium.

He didn't flip out (as far as I remember), but I can't imagine he was thrilled about it. Dude was wearing a shirt and tie so I figure he had somewhere iimportant to go; how understanding could he be? My mom said years later when the incident came up in conversation that the guy "kind of got what he deserved." He was sitting in the same row as my mom and little brother (1 row in front of me) and, when my mom asked him if he wouldn't mind switching seats with me so both of us could sit with her, the guy said "no"...and apparently was a real asshole about it. That's probably why I didn't get into any trouble for puking on him. He did finally switch seats with me after I puked on him though.

Break everyone's legs. All your bases are covered.

It's not even the same thing. First off, I don't recall the Cubs and Marlins having an extra off day built into their series schedule. You'd have been bringing Prior back on short rest in game 5. And for a marginally better chance at clinching in 5 instead of 6? A rested Zambrano was the better shot in that game. Secondly, it didn't matter who the Cubs put on the mound that night. Nobody was beating Josh Beckett in game 5 of that series. Dude threw a 2-hitter! As for this flip-flop by Maddon, I think we're nitpicking on the details here. Kazmir is fully rested and capable of pitching a good game. And Shields has been fantastic at the Trop all season, right? What's the harm in pushing him back to game 6? Besides, the Rays have three chances to win this series. If they can't get it done, well, they don't deserve to win it.

So sfaJill and I were in Target last night walking up towards the registers when I noticed a display of 'funny' Halloween cards featuring our Presidential candidates. There was one with the Obamessiah on it that read something to the effect of "this man might be our next President--and you thought Halloween was scary" (cue laugh track). I briefly thought about buying it and sending it to my dad, but decided against it because he'd probably 1) think I've turned gay because I sent him a card in the mail and/or 2) lecture me about "wasting 43 cents to tell me something I already know." Then I noticed a display for greeting cards for "Happy Sweetest Day!" This conversation occurred. Guess who is who: "What the fuck is 'Sweetest Day?'" "I don't know. What are you talking about?" *picks up a 'Sweetest Day' card* "This. What is this for?" *looks at card and then display* "I guess it's kind of another Valentine's Day!" "Great! Another day to waste $80 on flowers that will be dead in 72 hours!" After some checking of the world's leading information source, it appears Sweetest Day is some midwest Yankee tradition that started innocently enough but has since evolved into another Hallmark holiday that's now starting to spread overpriced candy and unfunny cards to our neck of the woods down here. When will this crap ever stop? Though I must admit I'm shocked that it took this long for it to reach Texas. I guess George W. must have spent some of his time laying off some people in the Hallmark marketing department and they're just now catching up on the workload. I told sfaJill not to expect anything for Sweetest Day. She seemed fine with that. ---------------------------------------------- The party's over for kids who pass Texas's high school standardized test. I remember taking this test, then called 'TAAS', in 10th grade. I also remember all of us getting to go to Pizza Hut to celebrate passing this very basic test of academic skill (you know it's basic skill level when my dumb ass misses only 4 of the multiple choice answers ON THE ENTIRE TEST). I do not remember not seeing the kids who failed the test not being at this wonderful celebration but I didn't think anything of it. Of course, it was nearly 15 years ago now. This is my favorite part of the article though: Note to Robert Scott: it is also pretty easy to identify which students failed this test when, on state-mandated "Re-test Day", they are 'absent' from class because they are in the library retaking said test. No, that's not obvious at all. Nope. No way. So if I decide to NOT meet the basic requirements of my job, my boss should not give raises to everyone else so that I don't feel too bad about myself?

Just terrible.

A 1, 3, and a 6??? WTF? There better be a new cap-friendly contract included with that deal.