Bugbear

* I need a weekend to recover from this past weekend. It was pretty much nonstop from Wednesday night until early Sunday morning. My butt never left the couch yesterday, and I'm still dragging. I can only imagine what I'd feel like if I drank!

* Why do teams keep insisting to kick to Devin Hester? The Bears' offense can't score to save their life - the only way they have a chance to win is if Hester returns a kick or two for touchdowns. If you don't kick to the guy, he can't score and they can't win. The Broncos played a better game than the Bears except for special teams, and for that they deserved to lose just out of stupidity!

* I guess now would be a good time to start Christmas shopping - I don't have many gifts to buy, but I haven't bought one thing yet. I've got some ideas as what to buy, so it shouldn't take too long, but like I've said before, procrastination is, well you know...

* The dictionary says that a bugbear is 'an object that causes great fear and anxiety'. Holding top two pair against Jeff's flush draw is a perfect example of a bugbear!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!

Hope your holiday is a great one!!

Factotum

Normally, when I sit down to write a post, I just start typing whatever is on my mind. It usually comes pretty easy, since I don't decide to write a post unless I have something to blog about in the first place. Then after I get finished writing, I title it and post it. Occasionally, the title comes pretty quicky, but a lot of times, I can't think of a catchy title, so I'll sit and ponder, sometimes longer than it takes to write the whole post in the first place. Today's one of those days that I can't think of a title, so I decided that I'm just going to open up the dictionary and whichever word I see first, that's the title of the post. Factotum - sounds good to me! Says here that it means 'a person employed to do all kinds of work'. I was thinking it was a bunch of fax machines stacked up on a pole, but alas, I was mistaken yet again...

I'm loopy today - I stayed up to watch the Illini game - they're playing in Hawaii, so the game didn't get over until almost 1:00. Couple that with an early wake up call for work, and that's probably a good explanation for my current condition. And with me hosting math club tonight, I should be ripe for the picking!! Good thing Gordo's missing poker tonight for the Bradley game!! I'm thinking by Friday, I should be fully rejuvenated and ready to roll!! :)

:(

I've never been the brightest bulb in the room...

A few months ago, I broke one of my teeth in half while eating lunch. As soon as it happened, I expected it to cause me a lot of discomfort, but it didn't cause me any at all. Plus, it was one of my back teeth - not visible at all when I talked/smiled. So do you think I did anything about trying to get it fixed? Shoot no - Procrastination is my middle name!! Well last weekend, it bit me in the butt. I had a really bad headache and my ear had a continuous shooting pain going through it - in fact I wasn't able to fall asleep either Friday or Saturday night. The pain finally went away on Sunday, and it hasn't been back since.

Yesterday, I went to the dentist and he said that my tooth was the cause of all of the pain I had this weekend. And luckily (depending on how you look at it), my cracked tooth is a wisdom tooth, so they decided I should just go ahead and get them all pulled. My pain threshold is pretty low, so I'm not looking forward to getting this done at all! I had it scheduled for this coming Tuesday, but I want to at least be able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, so I think I'm going to reschedule for the following week. Of course I have to live up to my middle name!!

Random happenings

* Last week, the Peoria Chiefs front office contacted me about renewing my ticket package for the 2008 season. I told them that I wasted a lot of the tickets I had last year, so it wouldn't be a good idea to buy another package. After some back and forth discussing/arguing, they finally accepted my decision. Well, last week while bowling for kids' sake, I won a raffle for a 12 game package of Chiefs tickets. I'm really looking forward to contacting them again!!

* Friday night, my phone was out of service - it told me that I hadn't paid my bill, but I'm set up to have my bill paid automatically (or so I thought). If you tried to get a hold of me on Friday and got a message saying that I wasn't accepting phone calls, now you know why.

* Thursday night at the sports trivia challenge, I din't get qualified for the hottub, but I did win 4 tickets to see the Rivermen Friday night. It was a great time at the game, but they got hammered 6-3. I've never seen the arena so empty for a Friday night game - they said there was 3300 there, but there was no way there were that many.

* And finally, how about those Illini!! Knocking off the #1 team in the country - they've got more wins this year than they had in the last 4 years combined. The future's looking bright!!

Much ado about nothing...

Last night was a great night! I was able to do something that I haven't been able to do for a couple of weeks - absolutely nothing!

My schedule is so packed - bowling league on Mondays, math club on Tuesdays, bowling league on Wednesdays, virtual golf league on Thursdays and then whatever on the weekends - I rarely get a chance to stay home for an evening and relax, but last night I had the night off of bowling, so that's exactly what I did. I got caught up on The Amazing Race and Survivor, and watched a couple of movies - House of Games (which wasn't that great) and True Romance (which was really good). I was also able to get my bowling ball fixed - the insert inside the thumbhole broke off, so I had to get it replaced and redrilled.

Tonight is the sports trivia challenge at Crusen's again - if anybody wants to come out, the more the merrier - I think it starts at 6:30.

Half full or half empty?

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? I usually tend towards the former (or try to anyway). Depending on your answer to that question, you'll either think my weekend was a really good one or a pretty sucky one. Let me explain...

Optimist Thursday - I went to Crusen's on Farmington Road to participate in the Sports Trivia Challenge - I was hoping to get my name drawn so I'd be able to play and they did - in fact I was in the first group. It was a really good time and I'll be going back this week as well!

Pessimist Thursday - After getting called up on stage in the first group, they proceeded to ask questions that nobody would know the answers to, like 'How many stitches does a baseball have?' or 'Who was the Sports Illustrated athlete of the year in 1973?'. I answered a few questions here and there, but I didn't do too well. By the end of the night, they were asking remedial questions that anybody could get, like 'What number is on the top of a dartboard?' or 'What bird name is the same as getting 3 strikes in a row in bowling?' Needless to say, the people who played later fared much better than I did.

Optimist Friday - I went to happy hour at Kelleher's - got to see a lot of friends and had a great time - went to the Recovery Room afterwards and played darts, where Ritter and I won a free breakfast from Victor and Gordo - stayed out much too late, but had a blast!

Pessimist Friday - On my way to Kelleher's, my friends Tim and Cathy called and invited me to a poker game. I haven't seen them in a few months and I really, really wanted to go, but I had already made plans so I didn't make it over there. I really wish I could have been in two places Friday night - I miss hanging out with those guys and hopefully we can start doing more stuff together!

Optimist Saturday - Bowled for Kids Sake in the morning, which was so much fun!! That evening, I started at Double A's with some friends for dinner and we ended up at Tomcats to watch Rachel's Hippo. They were great!

Pessimist Saturday - Some of the Jaycees set me up for a blind date Saturday night - I left Double A's to meet this girl at Kep's Place in Washington. It didn't go too well - in fact, she left about a half hour after I got there. I guess that was all for the best, as it wasn't going to work out anyway. At least I was able to catch up with the group again to see the Hippo, so the night wasn't a total loss!

Optimist Sunday - Went to TNT's to watch football - it used to be our regular Sunday hangout, but for some reason, everybody stopped going. It was good to get back out there with the fantasy football guys and watch all the games. My "big money" fantasy team did really well this week - in fact, over the last 2 weeks, I've gone from being down $150 to being up $200. That's a $350 swing in 2 weeks! Woohoo!!

Pessimist Sunday - When I got home from watching football, I placed a sizable bet (my remaining sportsbook balance) on Indianapolis to beat New England - and they were winning by 10 with 8 minutes to play. But New England came back and won the game, and now I don't have any more money left in my sports betting account. No more online betting for me - at least until they let U.S. citizens put more money in.

So as you can see, my weekend was the best of times and the worst of times. But I woke up this morning feeling pretty good about the weekend and I'm in a pretty good mood now, so I guess it's half full for me!!