av8rmike

...but I woke up early yesterday morning and my stomach had other plans. There was no way I was making it to fuzzy_gizmo's party, as I could barely pull myself off the couch.

Still, that was a hell of a Super Bowl, wasn't it? Apparently, I missed all of the good commercials, either between nodding off or running to the bathroom. I'm sure you all wanted to know about that.

Happy Groundhog Day to those of you who celebrate. Looks like it's six more weeks of winter.

I wrote a set of short routines in Python to help me decide the 34 games in our office's college bowl pick-'em pool.

Hmmm.. I don't really have a political icon, but this is close. As I text-posted earlier, I got to the Pratt Library at about 7, when the polls open in MD. The line was out the door and around the corner, but moved pretty quickly... for the first 20 minutes. Then it went much more slowly, as it was about half an hour before I got inside. I got to one of the 11 machines they had by about 8:00, so it was an hour total. I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe the kind of lines they had in Georgia with 1,000 people waiting 12 hours to vote early.

Also, if you're going to try to get a free cup of coffee at Starbucks, go to a "real" one, not one of the ones collocated with a grocery or book store, because they probably won't honor the offer. Or, do what I did and run into a co-worker in line, who offers to buy you a cup.

Finally, GO STILLERS!

This weekend went from "nothing to do" to "not enough time to do everything" in pretty short order. I killed time on Saturday, as has tended to be my usual way, and was contemplating how to kill the evening, when my friend Bonnie called. She and a friend were going to their neighborhood bar for karaoke, so out I went. No, I didn't sing, because it looked to be a "regulars get favorited"-type of treatment. Then, while I was out, I got messages from Jess about directions to Sunday's Super Bowl party at her friend's place in Arlington. Her and I managed to talk a little beforehand, and since she said not to bring beer, I elected to try the brownie recipe one of our recent interns at work left behind.

Unfortunately, between running to the store, throwing laundry in, and mixing/baking/packaging the brownies, I didn't have much time for the practicing I neglected to do Saturday. The party was pretty fun, despite me knowing only one person there and the hosts being Chicago fans. Not that I cared one way or the other about the outcome.

Today I have to go home really early, not just because of rehearsal, but my teacher is back to lessons again, and this afternoon was the only time we could schedule. Should be interesting.

It might be the worst-kept secret in the NFL, but I was surprised when I first heard that Bill Cowher was leaving as head coach of the Steelers. Coaching jobs in the league are like revolving doors, especially in a place like Washington, where owner Dan Snyder just throws money at coaches until they start winning. But Cowher was the longest-tenured coach, at 15 years, so it's hard to remember a time when he wasn't around. That's going back to before I was in high school.

Although, the more I thought about it, I was more surprised he didn't step down after winning the Super Bowl last year, like Bettis did. I guess it became clearer this year that the team lacked the same magic and that Cowher was starting to burn out. And you can't blame a guy for wanting to spend time with his family. I feel sorry for the guy who has to take over after him, though; there will be some mighty big expectations on him.

I am positively electric today; Every time I touch something metal, I get a shock. Of course, it's pretty hot and dry in here, which probably has something to do with it.

Equally electric is my outstanding and baffling luck when it comes to football. Not only did my fantasy team win this week (thank you, Jamal Lewis), but I split the office pool this week and won last week. Somehow I always manage to win the week before Thanksgiving.

After making an inauspicious start by dropping the first two games of the season, my fantasy team has now won four in a row. Although, most of them have been squeakers; this past week I beat Brad's team 107.34-105.78. I'd have done better if I had a better defense, but both of my starting defenses were on a bye last weekend, so I didn't have much choice but to draft whatever was available.

The Steelers game on Sunday was weird... or at least, WJZ's coverage of it. I didn't get home from the concert until 4:30-5:00, already well into the third quarter. I was half paying attention, half washing dishes when I heard them say something about checking into the Jets-Dolphins game, but they never went back to the Steelers. I guess since the Steelers game was a blow-out and Miami was in the midst of a fourth-quarter come-back, they figured more people would want to see that.

I know, that's why people buy the NFL Sunday Ticket or DirecTV or whatever people buy nowadays.

Why did I watch the replay of Jericho last night? I should have known it was going to freak me out. It's a good thing it's on Wednesday nights, when I have GVO rehearsals. In any case, I don't have time or energy for another ensemble-cast serial show.

All I wanted to do afterwards was walk around the city, maybe patronize a business or two, just to reassure myself it was just a TV show and there were still people around. Which I did, except for the patronizing part. Except for bars, there are surprisingly few places in Mt. Vernon open past 10:00. I talked to Jamie for a while before going to bed after 1 AM.

Now, it probably isn't related to the TV watching, but I must have gotten up three times during the night to pee, the third of which was before 7:00. After that, I couldn't get to back to sleep because I was thinking about the show. I putzed around here for a while before getting breakfast at the farmers' market. I suppose I could have gone back to shul, but I've never in recent memory gone to services on the second day of Rosh Hashana, so why start now?

Maybe I can grab a nap this afternoon, since I won't be going over to Dad's to mooch dinner tonight. They're in England until next Wednesday. Oh yeah, I should also finalize my fantasy football line-up, since it looks like most of the players are done being injured.

I hope I can stay awake enough to enjoy the Steelers' season opener tonight against the Dolphins. I somehow picked up a sore throat over the weekend and have been dragging all day. After this, maybe off to find some tea in the office...

I got my picks in for the office pool: Steelers, as always; Denver, New England, Green Bay, Arizona, Indianapolis, Washington, Oakland; the rest I can't remember or don't care about. As far as fantasy goes, I swear half my team is injured. I probably won't know until Monday afternoon if Clinton Portis is starting, and my other running back, Jamal Lewis, is also "questionable". I'll probably end up putting Tatum Bell in for Portis unless something changes by Sunday morning.