Triumph of the Zilch

I play in a football pool with a small group of folks at work. After watching the NFL for 20+ years, I like to think I have a good grasp of what's going on in the league. I keep it simple too--no super inside tidbits or stats like how Seattle plays at night after a loss of greater than 10+ in October. Just a few simple factors, combined with my gut instinct. I'm not bad--certainly good for at least 9 or 10 wins a week, on a good week creping up to 12 or even a rare 13.

Only problem is, I've never won. Ever.

Which normally wouldn't bother me much (well, except for losing money). No, the problem is, I continually lose to women who have no idea what they're doing, and make no efforts to hide that fact. They'll pick based on what city they'd rather live in, or what uniforms they like better, and things like that. And they keep winning.

Well, this week I started off getting the two Thanksgiving games right. No big stretch there--Indy over the falling Detroit Lions and the Cowboys over the hideous Chicago Bears, not exactly going out on a limb.

Then Sunday rolls around, and checking my scores around 4:15, I realize I haven't gotten a game wrong yet. Hmmmm...

The afternoon games roll in and I'm still on a roll. In fact, my only setback all day had been Seattle (a hideous loss to Buffalo at home). I'm 13-1. Is this my week?

Not so fast--Denver ends the day with a stomach punch loss to the Raiders (at home and in the snow, no less), leaving me at 13-2. Would that be enough?

The answer: maybe. Turns out I'm tied with another guy in the office, and since we both picked Green Bay, it's going to come down to points (we used combined point total as a tiebreaker). I guessed 52 points, he guessed 42, I went higher at 52. I need a shootout.

Well, for once in my life, let me say, I love Bret Favre. Mike Martz, you're great too. Final score: 45-17, victory and a big ka-ching for yours truly. Of course, I've only broke even for all the other weeks I lost, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Last note: I think Ken Jennings took a dive. How did he not know that Final Jeopardy question? And did you see that third contestant? I could not get over how androgynous he looked. I think after he lost he went back to the Planet of the Spiders with Ziggy Stardust.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving remains my favorite holiday, mostly because my obligations are to (a) show up, (b) eat, and (c) watch football.

Although there wasn't a lot of (c) going around, since the Indy/Lions game was a blowout, and the Cowboys/Bears game was awful.

[Quick rant: everyone can keep kissing Peyton Manning's ass, but until he wins something, he's just Dan Mariano 2004. I can't believe Sportscenter actually ran a segment on why they'd rather have Peyton then Tom Brady on their team. Really? You'd pass on the guy that has two rings, two Super Bowl MVP's, and beat the other guy three straight rimes. Say that out loud--doesn't it sound dumb?]

Anyway, I tracked down a copy of the World Series DVD, which I watched Wednesday night alone, then watched it again with the family Thursday. It's really good, if you can find a copy (it's all sold out up here in Massachusetts). After watching them goof around in the extras, I want a TV show starring Mike Timlin and Alan Embree as security guards pronto. Screw that, I'm demanding it.

Red Sox continued their World Series trophy tour with a stop at City Hall in Worcester, MA, which is convienently about two minutes away from where I work. Yeah, like I was going to miss this.

Red Sox were represented by Trot Nixon and Mike Timlin. OK, not exactly Curt Schilling and David Ortiz, but it could have been worse (Providence, RI got Bronson Arroyo and Kevin Youkilis, and the local paper all but came out and said it was a shitty pair to represent the team). If Keith Foulke was there I would have ran up and hugged him.

We also had the Mayor, Larry Lucchino, the Spanish Announcer from NESN (does their table get broken a lot during games?), radio announcer Joe Castiglione (who performed his call of the final out in Game 4 in an awkward moment) and Wally the mascot (who served as my screensaver for most of the season).

They had these two radio douchebags MC'ing the event. After encouraging us to make noise, they looked displeased and said "We heard from the back Springfield [another MA town the Red Sox visited today] was a lot louder." Are you kidding me? That has to be the oldest trick when it comes to working a crowd. Dicks.

But I saw the World Series trophy in person, so that's good enough for me. Trot's shirt was also hideous, the kind of thing your dad might keep hidden in the closet because no one will let him wear it.

And hey, how about the NBA? It's faaaaaan-tastic!!!!!!!

Condo sale is moving along. So I will be living the American Dream and be completely broke.

Amazon.com sent me an e-mail letting me know Kathy Griffin has a new DVD out. Yeah, thanks for the heads up.

You know who's a good football team? The New England Patriots. Is it greedy to want another Super Bowl? Probably.

That Halo 2 commercial gets me fired up. "What are they to say now?" And I don't even own an X-Box.

I picked up "The Natural" by Bernand Malamud on a whim. I haven't seen the movie since I was like, seven, so I really don't remember it. Kinda sad.

You know what I could use? Sleep.

We passed a 1,000 hits a few days back. Thanks to everyone that's visited, accidentally or otherwise.

Sorry for the lack of updates. The good news is I finally found a condo, and I've been spending all my free time (and not-free time) working on the mortgage. Everything should be wrapped up soon.

You know what I hate? Christmas commercials in November. C'mon people, wait 'til after Thanksgiving. Argh.

Don't blame me, I voted for Bill n' Opus:

The Red Sox winning the World Series can carry you through a lot. Patroits lose a game to Pittsburgh? Big deal, the Sox won the World Series. Have a bad day at work? Screw it, you saw a World Series win. But Bush winning the election? I'm going to need two more World Series to make up for that. Maybe three.

I didn't think Bush did a very good job the past for years, so I voted against him. Apparently a lot of people agreed with me, but even more disagreed. Did people go to the polls and say "Man, Bush did a great job, he's got my vote." Or did they look at Kerry and say "What a tool. Guess I'll vote for Bush."

(For the record, I think Kerry's a tool as well, but was still largely preferable.)

You know what's going to suck (no, not the next four years, but a good guess)? The inevitable Jeb Bush/Hilary Clinton showdown in 2008.