So Wes Welker does a little media appearance yesterday and everyone walks away dazzled at the number of times he used the words “feet” or “foot.” My initial reaction was that this non-story had to be the silliest sports media coverage of all time.
Then I remembered- they’re playing the Jets. Who are coached by Rex Ryan. Whom, it has been revealed, has a foot fetish.
And now it not only makes sense, but I think it’s the most brilliant bit of trash talking of all time.
Brilliant sun today along with some impressive cold. The snow finally stopped yesterday evening around 7PM or so. The kids spent the entire afternoon outside working on their snow fort. Right now, it’s more tunnel than fort, but they want to work on hollowing it out some more today, possibly making it big enough to sit upright in there.
While watching a little TV and doing nothing for awhile, the Wife and I noticed that the kid’s school popped up on a “closings” list. There was some initial confusion- we were surprised to see the decision to close school for today made so quickly. Personally, I was figuring on a delayed opening. But we were able to confirm it a little later. So the boy and the lass will have plenty of opportunity to perfect their snow fort.
I’m not as sore as I thought I’d end up after all the shoveling. Score one for me. I am tired though, so I’ll have to call it a “push” overall. The kids are no worse for the wear. No surprise there. Likewise, the Wife is fine.
So that wraps up the Winter Weather blogging. At least for now. It is only January after all. There’s still plenty of time for Mother Nature to throw some more at us.
Plowing was a cinch the second time around. I’m still exhausted.
Pics after the jump.
We’re still here. The kids are outside building a fort in the pile of snow I shoveled off the deck. It’s roughly eight feet high and 10 or 11 feet across. The boy and the lass could make a living room out of it, complete with plumbing if they wanted.
I started shoveling and plowing at 9 o’clock. I finished at 1 o’clock. The driveway is partially protected by tree cover and was 8 inches at it’s lowest. Further down where it’s open to the sky it was 13″ when I started. The hardest part was how quickly I ran out of places to put the snow. Because of how I plowed, I left a portion unfinished while I plowed the up near the road. By the time I returned, the snow was over 16″.
The snow on the deck was ridiculous. Easily 20″. I think the disparity is because we’re kind of in a hollow- at the bottom of a hill with only our backyard (where the deck is) open to the sky. As a result snow tends to kind of get captured and settles in.
Anyway, I’m pretty much exhausted. I’ve got some pictures but I’ll post them a bit later. It’s still snowing- I’d say another 2.5″ has fallen on the portions of the deck that I cleared.
Despite my exhaustion, I’ll say that the snow is simply magnificent. I told the kids this is possibly a once in a lifetime sort of snow and they should enjoy it. So far, they are.
They were predicting 5-8″ overnight. As of now, there’s 12″ and the snow is still falling. Now they are calling for an additional 8-12″ and looking at the radar, it’s entirely possible.
This isn’t a “blizzard” in the technical sense, but I think it lives up to the spirit of the term better than the last one did. I’ll post pics later.
So, not too bad for taking a minute to make predictions. The only game I missed was the one where the team with a losing record for the season beat the team with a winning record. I think that’s forgivable.
So that sets up the 4 divisional games:
As a bonus, I fearlessly predict that Oregon will beat Auburn tonight.
I meant to jot this down yesterday, but got sidetracked by Pinewood Derby preparations. I showed the boy and the lass how to polish the axle nails for the wheels using my drill press and they were both thoroughly engrossed in the activity for the afternoon. Also, there was much painting going on.
The boy was paid a nice compliment yesterday after his hockey practice.
He and I were in the car ready to head out. One of the volunteer coaches was parked next to us and as I started to back out, the coach motioned to the boy while looking at me. Clearly he wanted to make a quick comment so I stopped and rolled the window down. Again, motioning at the boy he said “He’s a great kid and a real pleasure to work with.”
I’ve spent more than a few pixels here documenting some of the boys tougher moments. It’s nice to spend a few showing that, for all those other moments, he has a lot that are good moments as well. Enough for other people to notice.
Clearly, we all have to root for the Seahawks. Because even though they lost more games than they won (But HEY! They won their division!), by winning the Super Bowl they will definitively prove that they are the best team in football.
Incidentally, doesn’t this show why a playoff in college football would never really solve the purported problem that the polls and BCS aren’t solving? I’ll be more blunt- the problem of choosing the best team can’t be solved because on any given day, a no-win bunch of losers can have fate smile upon them for an afternoon. Even against the supposed best team in the country.
The boy’s Pinewood Derby race is coming up in a couple of weeks. The pack supplies a kit for the boy since he’s a Scout; we purchased a second kit for the lass since we figured she would want in on the fun as well. This week they both decided it was high time that their cars got done. Neither of them is capable of handling a saw, and it sure would be a shame to let the equipment in the garage go to waste. So I had myself a little woodworking project.
Still, I wanted the projects to be as much theirs as possible. Towards that end I had them each select the style of their car. I simplified the process by doing a quick search and then taking them to Maximum Velocity. The lass chose the Sports Car, which is the hot pink one under Car Plan 4. The boy chose the Formula One car under Car Plan 3. No commentary regarding their selections.
After the jump are some pictures to show how they came out.
The South is supposed to get as much as 12 inches of snow today and tomorrow. This might not be such a big deal if by South I meant Antarctica. But we’re talking about the snowy peaks of Birmingham, Alabama.
Last year, when the Northeast was pasted with feet of snow, we were told that this was in line with global warming predictions because it showed an increase in precipitation. So, even though temperatures haven’t increased enough yet for it all to be rain, the storms were consistent with “Global Warming Theory.”
So now, we’ve got a cold front that stretches all the way down into the deep South of the US. And, as we all know, the South is known for receiving gobs of snow with great skiing and snowboarding. So the “increased precipitation” in the South that is resulting in all the snow is still certainly consistent with “Global Warming Theory.” Don’t pay any attention to the cold temperatures.
Incidentally, after the snow is done falling, it’s supposed to get really cold. Don’t worry, I’m sure the cold snap is still consistent with “Global Warming Theory.”
No in depth analysis; no litany of BS about what coach or player is causing some drama that might have an effect on the game. In fact, this while line of commentary you’re reading at the moment is my only attempt at fluff for my Wild Card predictions. For all the goofballs out there crunching numbers on Cray Supercomputers, allow me to demonstrate just how easy it is to make predictions:
There, see how simple that is? Maybe I can get a job as a professional opinion giver…
Santa delivered the kids a couple of handheld gaming devices this Christmas. Specifically a Nintendo DSi for the boy and a Mobigo for the lass.
As it turns out, he also handed the Wife and I a significant amount of leverage over the kids. It’s taken only a couple of days for them to grok the concept of “earning Wii time” as they now call it. So far, without complaint, they are helping with laundry (the boy actually brought down the kids basket without being asked), the dishes and feeding the animals.
Each achievement is quickly followed with a “Did we earn some Wii time?” at this point. So their motivation is pretty clear. But still, they are contributing and they seem to be making a connection between acting now so that they can play later.
Also, if they can earn time by helping out, they can also lose time through misbehavior. At some point, we might actually have to come up with some kind of system to determine just how much time they earn. Right now, though, the kids aren’t concerned with that level of detail.
That’ll probably be next week. After they decide that we didn’t give them enough time over the weekend.
Having received various electronic games for Christmas, and with Christmas vacation ending yesterday, the Wife decided to lay down the rules for the new year regarding those games. So last night, she explained that during the school week, they will not be allowed to play the Wii or their Mobigo and DS. Further, they will have to earn play time on them by helping out with chores around the house. Another rule is that leaving the games lying around the house will result in them losing the game for some period of time.
Remarkably, there was no pushback about these rules. I was pleased, if not a little surprised.
But this morning, the boy fired his first salvo.
He wanted to play his DS after school up in his room; that way it wouldn’t be left lying around. I reminded him about the rules we had discussed the night before.
That quieted him for the moment; but I expect he’ll have another plan of attack when he comes home from school tonight.
The boy’s hockey practices resumed this weekend. On Sunday specifically. Individually, he seemed less than thrilled to be playing. He was standing up a lot and didn’t seem to be giving a lot of effort. It was possible that he was tired; but overall, the impression was one of him not really being interested in playing.
Being who I am, this bothered me. But the one good decision I think I made was not to say anything to him about it. Remaining silent wasn’t easy for me either. In fact, it was darn hard for me to just let it be.
First, nothing to do with the game, can these TV guys possibly kiss Joe Paterno’s rear anymore? Is there a density measure for such a thing? Like kisses per unit time or something? Wholly crap. I mean, sure it’s expected to a degree because Paterno is a media favorite- he’s the last college football God. His passing from the game will mark the end of an era. Sure, I get that. But crikey, these two guys are gonna need to brush, floss and Listerine themselves with the good stuff before their done. Multiple times.
As for the game, pretty good stuff but sloppy. The teams are pretty evenly matched, but I’m giving the edge to Penn St. I think they’re a little stronger mentally. Whether that’s enough to overcome their mistakes remains to be seen. I don’t think a team can make a living trading mistakes with Florida. The good news if you’re Florida is that the game is still close. The good news if you’re Penn St is Royster and the o-line are starting to get it going. I expect a lot more of Royster in the 2nd half.
Although, overall, it’s looking like the team that makes the last mistake will lose this one. We’ll see if I’m right.
Happy New Year!
Check out the timestamp. Numbers are cool!
The real payoff will come in November on the 11th…