Career Day

Packers 31 - Colts 45

Javon Walker must be having a bittersweet reaction to today's game. He caught more passes than he ever has in a game -- including three touchdowns -- which means he also had more receiving yards than ever before. It really was a career day for him. Unfortunately, he was also the one who was holding the ball when Indy forced the only turnover in the game. Unfortunately, it happened as Brett appeared to be leading us to a miraculous comeback victory; 6 minutes left, down just 7 points, and just past midfield. That play killed it, and, honestly, there was really nothing Walker could have done about it unless he'd Super Glued the football directly to his upper body. The defender basically held him up just long enough so that a) Javon's forward progress wasn't quite stopped, and b) he couldn't really get his ass (or knee, or elbow, or shoulder, etc.) down on the ground. It was so unfair.

What an amazing pair of QBs, though. The numbers on offense in this game were staggering. Between them, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning combined for a total of 751 yards and 9 touchdowns! There were five TDs and 412 yards in the first quarter alone, and Brett's QB rating in that quarter was a perfect 158.3. The first four posessions in the game tested my pacemaker. The Colts started with the ball: 36-yard touchdown pass. We get it: 36-yard touchdown pass. Them: Touchdown. Us: Touchdown. Then we "lost serve." Indy went up on us 28 - 14 and never looked back. BTW, every single play they "ran" in the first quarter... was a pass. That ought to give you an idea how good a secondary we had today.

AOL Sucks

I've maintained an opinion for years that AOL is one of the world's worst, most virulent soul-sucking corporations. Today I reaffirmed that opinion.

I signed up for AOL for Broadband a few weeks back -- it was the freebie I chose when I signed up at FreeiPods.com. I knew at the time that I was going over to the Dark Side. I had read the letter in PC Magazine [Aug 3, 2004] detailing one man's struggle to cancel a family member's AOL account after he died -- they ended up requesting a copy of his death certificate! I knew I'd get the hard sell, at least, but I was prepared to fight the good fight when it came time to tell them I was done.

It took all of my strength, but I prevailed. This after "David" used every trick in his little salesman's brain to entice me to stay -- telling me about their exclusive broadband content, musing about how I could not possibly have used the service enough to know what I'd be missing, knocking $10 off the monthly cost, and even (in an "oh, gosh, my boss is going to kill me, and it's coming out of my paycheck, but I just think you're so great I don't care" tone) offering to extend my free trial another two months. I interrupted him several times and informed him I wasn't interested in the hard sell, that it made AOL even less desirable to me when I heard him begging like that, and, eventually, asking him if we could hurry this up because I had a meeting in 7 minutes. To that he actually responded, "Well, if you knew you wouldn't have time to take care of this now, why did you call?"

I don't know if I was successful at supressing my laughter over the phone after that.

Anyway, "David" finally caved. I'm free once again.

Squirrels Ranks at 22,650

Site of the day: Wordcount.org.

This site provides the world with a graphical representation of the 86,800 most-frequently-used words in the English language. Fascinating. Also, a good site to visit when you want to waste some time.

Home Opener Curse?

Packers 10 - Bears 21

We always beat the Bears. It's practically a foregone comclusion. Everyone picked us to win today. We expect it now. Maybe that's the problem.

Lovie Smith (or Lovie Jones, as Dick Stockton called him today) made the bold statement just after he was hired as the Bears' head coach that their #1 goal was to beat Green Bay. Anyone get the feeling they wanted it more? They kicked our asses. At Lambeau. In our home opener. Like Minnesota did last year.

The good: Brett got another passing TD, which extends his streak to 27 games. Better still: That gives him a total of 25 TD passes against the Bears, which is the most against a single opponent in the NFL.

The bad: Well, we did lose. We beat Chicago in lots of stats, but... come on: Scoreboard. Our defense was crap. They ran through us for an average of over 6 yards a carry. Our receivers dropped balls, Ahman fumbled on the 5 and they scored off it, Brett had 2 interceptions... I could go on, but I'll stop now.

Na Na Na Na, Good-Bye

So, at my appointment at the UW's Stone Clinic earlier this week, they showed me my diagnostic profile. Common risk factors for kidney stones include high calcium or magnesium, or low citric acid values. My highest risk factor: Sodium (Na, get it?). Yippee.

When the doctor came in, I said, "So, no more McDonald's french fries, I guess, huh?" His response surprised me. He said the fries aren't really all that bad for sodium. Unfortunately, the Dietician then shared with me a list of fast food items and their respective amounts of Sodium. The worst sandwich at McD's: Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese, with just over 1300mg of sodium. She wants me at no more than 2500mg per day.

I'm sad now.

New Search

A9.com has dropped its Beta status and is now live. It's pretty cool.

Find Cletus' House

People sometimes claim I must not have enough to do. Their main argument supporting that opinion? My surplus of Simpsons knowledge. I am here to tell you, gentle reader, that most of what I know about The Simpsons comes from:

• obsessively watching the show, even (or especially) in reruns, and
• snpp.com.

BUT NOW, I have a third item to add to the list:

• The Extremely Detailed Map of Springfield

The Pack Is Back!

Packers 24 - Panthers 14

Ahhhh.... Victory is sweet!

From The New York Times:

Packers Go Right to Top in Their Bid for N.F.C. Supremacy

...The Panthers were trying to prove they belonged in the spotlight they had earned with last season's Super Bowl appearance.

The Packers showed otherwise in a game that was less a proving point for Green Bay than a launching point for perhaps another run at a title....

"I can't think in recent memory anyone dominating them in the run game," Favre said of the Panthers. "And I felt like in order for us to win, we had to run the ball. I didn't think we'd run it as well as we did tonight."

Interestingly, both Chris and I were frustrated by the number of running plays called, mostly because it looked like Brett's arm needed some work. He did finally find some receivers, though -- he went 4-for-5 for 52 yards in the 72-yard drive in the second quarter -- so we calmed down a little. I think we both prefer the passing plays, but you know what they never stop saying: "You gotta' run to set up the pass."

The good: Brett extended his streak of consecutive games with a TD pass to 26, with a pass to Ahman near the end of the 3rd quarter. He now holds third place alone, passing Fran Tarkenton.

The bad: Looks like Grady Jackson is out for a few weeks with a knee sprain, and Najeh Davenport strained his hamstring. Hamstring injuries don't really get better, do they?

Ready for Some Football!

Thank god for football. I watched at least parts of three games yesterday, and I'm starting to feel normal again.

The Packers play Carolina on MNF tonight. This is what should have been last year's NFC Championship game (if not for a certain 4th-and-something-or-other play -- I forget the exact number -- and a certain interception in Philly... <cough> 26 <cough>). I think we'll pull out a win, but, surprisingly, the poll at Packers.com shows 58% of visitors voting "Carolina by more than 7." My guess is Panthers fans have caught wind and are stuffing the ballot box on that one.

Chris is coming tonight so Bob & Jeff can kick off the beginning of yet another Packers football season together. Go Pack Go!

88 89

Went to see 88 89 last night. This is the band that Jason and Mark play in, and last night was their first real gig in front of, like, people and stuff. =) Let me tell you: they rock! I told Jason and his co-lead singer, Ross, that very little about their concert made it sound like a first gig. Their three (!) sound checks had me wondering, but once they started the show, they sounded polished and professional right through their entire set. I was impressed.

I especially enjoyed their songs that were driven by more unique rhythms. One or two of their songs put me in mind of Third Eye Blind. About a year ago, Jason suggested that their sound was reminiscent of The Beatles and/or John Mayer. Honestly, I think 88 89's sound is more multi-dimensional than either of those two.

They've gotten a bunch of new gigs set up lately, and their debut album is coming out soon, so I think Madison is going to get to know the band pretty well in the coming months and years. If you get a chance to see them, take it; it'll be worth it. (If not, then at least treat yourself to a listen of some of the songs they've recorded in-studio.)

September 11th

I am perhaps the one person in this country who refuses to refer to the disastrous date of September 11th, 2001 as "9/11." For one thing, it's ignorant -- people in Europe would equate that to November 9th (they put the date before the month), but, in true American style, we don't think of anyone but ourselves. Some argue that's perfectly appropriate in this case. After all, it was our disaster, which took place on our soil. Were we the only ones who were affected by it, though? Of course not. Even in France (France, for god's sake!), citizens shared our grief and horror and claimed "We are all Americans." We don't choose to acknowledge that. We choose instead to isolate ourselves from the world with regard to the events of that date. We choose to elect* a dopey president who appoints hothead military zealots and surrounds himself with advisors who train him to put on an air of strength -- something he really barely pulls off in practice -- and declares a war, on our behalf, against a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the supposed reason we were fighting the war in the first place! Go, America!

I choose to remain informed, to not blindly be led by blind "leaders," and to remember not only the significance of the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, but also the way the free world rallied behind us and was unified by those events in the days and months that followed.

Despite all the bumper stickers, it seems we've forgotten, after all.

New Fruity Porn Pops!

This made me laugh.

Whew!

No baby yet!

B-Day

If our daughter were to be born as early before her due date as our son was before his, she would be born today. This makes me nervous.

Brett was born 6-1/2 weeks early. He was in the hospital for 17 days. We were in the Ronald McDonald house, away from home, trying to deal with way too much new stuff all at once.

Thing is, he's fine now. Better than fine, actually... although getting him potty trained would be nice. So in that sense, I'm now calming down about the impending arrival of our daughter. I'll be happier still in a few more weeks, of course, but we're over the hump of when problems would have been practically guaranteed with this pregnancy/birth.

So it's B-Day because this was Brett's Day. It's Better-get-at-least-to-this Day.

And now it's Blog Day, too.