I've got to admit to two things tonight.  I sing in my car, fairly poorly and I talk back to the T.V. when I'm drunk.  Maybe I don't get to talk to enough people when I'm at work.  Or maybe I just really like to hear the sound of my own voice when I'm alone. 

Other observations from the evening, Cold Smoke is really good.  I mean you should actively search out this beverage and try it for yourself.  Also, sorting cards really sucks, whether you have beer to keep you company or not.

Here we are again, waiting in anticipation of the (usually) most overhyped event of the year.  It's funny to me how caught up the country gets in the spectacle of the Super Bowl.  For a game that is usually well decided by half-time, it's amazing that people keep coming back year after year. 

From a pure sports perspective, having two weeks between the Super Bowl and the conference championship games takes away from the on field product.  It's great for the media and the hype, but detrimental to the teams who have to live through media day and all the other activities that don't come along during the regular season.

From an entertainment perspective, the half-time shows have gotten worse as they try and jam more and more into the limited time that they have to present the show.  Instead of getting great artists performing their best songs, we get overproduced medleys, with elaborate choreography and too many pyrotechnics.  The commercials also suffer from pressure associated with paying $2.7 million dollars per 30 second spot.  Yes, there are very clever commercials that appear during the Super Bowl, but the last several years have produced some of the best examples of trying too hard and falling short of the mark, that I have ever seen.  Sometimes less is more people and you have to trust the people you pay to make these things.

So given all that, why do I keep coming back?  The Super Bowl has become an event on my families calendar.  What started out ten years ago as me and my very young children, at the time, sitting down with a few snacks, and enjoying some time together; has morphed into something much larger.  We now fill a house with family and friends, some watching the game, some talking and cooking.  It's at the point where I get up in the morning and cook too much food, trying out new recipes and preparing old favorites.  The last couple of years, we have even had to Tivo the game so that we could watch kick off after the cooking is done.

I have to admit that I enjoy getting together with family and friends.  My kids are probably the biggest reason why I still light up when the Super Bowl party discussions begin.  They have turned into big sports fans, continuing a family tradition handed down by my grandfather.  (The boys turn on the TV when they get up in the morning and watch Sportscenter on ESPNNews, it's the only they watch before school.)

So, please enjoy your Sunday afternoon, whatever you are doing.  I know that I will be having fun, relaxing, eating and maybe even enjoying what I hope is a good game, with my friends and loved ones.

I don't know, you tell me:

Det. Carlton Lassiter            Gen. Dirk Anger

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It's that time of year again where I get my hopes up only to have them cruelly dashed by the morons in charge of network television programming, who cater to the lowest common denominator of the American public.  The new fall television season started on Monday, August 21 with the season premieres of Prison Break and Vanished on Fox.  Since I have a lot of time on my hands and the third greatest invention of man, after fire and the wheel, Tivo; I decided to try and watch all of the new shows from the four main networks.

Prison Break

This isn't a new show, but I didn't actually get to see the first season.  I heard that it was good, but I just didn't watch it last year.  The second season started with a bang, 8 prisoners had escaped from prison and the manhunt is on.  The episode threw you right into the mix and did a great job of making me feel the tension as the prison guards and the FBI attempted to close in on the escapees.  I liked the characters and the back story of the series.  If you can accept that a person could develop such an elaborate escape plan and then have it tattooed to his body and that covered up by a tattoo of the Sistine Chapel, then you can get into the show.  The show moves at a brisk pace, but also throws in great character development.  Like the scene where Lincoln Burrows is on a cell phone talking to his ex-girlfriend/attorney while she is killed by the secret service who she thinks is coming to help her.  I liked the show enough to keep on watching and I received the first season on DVD as an early birthday present. 

Vanished

This show gets a prime spot in Fox's Monday night lineup right after Prison Break.  The premise revolves around the disappearance/kidnapping of a Senator's wife that revolves around a centuries long conspiracy.  I just couldn't get into this show.  It had a lot of things that should have kept me involved.  It turns out that the wife had disappeared 12 years ago before she was married to the Senator, but she came back unharmed.  She is pregnant, but her parents tell the FBI that she couldn't be because of a medical condition from 15 years ago.  The man who was last seen with the wife is found dead in the trunk of his car.  There was a ton of information and setup in the episode, but I just couldn't get into it.  I didn't delete the show and plan on watching it again, but I'm not holding my breath that I'll change my mind.  I didn't like the characters, it's like none of them had any charisma or screen presence.  They were all just flat and the acting was just okay.  I have to say that overall it was a pretty pedestrian showing and I don't think this one will make it for the year.  Unless the next two or three episodes are measurably better, this show will get cancelled at some point.  Though it is on Fox, so who knows, they give shows more room to grow and find an audience

Tonight I went to the park with my two kids and then I agreed to watch four more kids to help out a friend.  So the seven of us had a great time playing at the park, running through the Splash Deck, playing kickball and just having fun.

Then as the fun at the park was starting to run out at the park, I decided that we'd all walk the two blocks to Dairy Queen.  Everyone loves ice cream don't they?

We get there and get our order and are eating on a bench by the front of the DQ and I look around and notice that everyone there is giving us a wide berth.  I mean we couldn't have had more room if we'd had body guards surrounding us and maintaining a perimeter.

So I started formulating a theory in the back of my mind.  I remember when I first got seperated from my ex-wife 6 years ago and I would take my two boys shopping at the mall or Target.  People, mostly women would say hi or stop and talk or make comments about how cute the boys were.  Tonight the kids were being cute and not being loud or obnoxious.  I'd normally assume that people would say hi or smile or something friendly.  They just looked at us as if you could get pregnant just by hanging around the incredibly virile and obviously fertile man in their midst. 

So I guess a single guy hanging out eating ice cream with one or maybe two kids is independent and sexy and someone whom you'd talk to.  A guy hanging out eating ice cream with six kids might as well have freaking leprosy.

I went to the first night of my 20 year high school reunion last night.  It was very strange and cool being together with so many people that I knew so long ago.  I had many great conversations and a few weird ones last night.  I have a shared experience with these people that has created a bond between us. 

After awhile the conversations all kind of blended together as the alcohol started to take effect.  But it seemed that after 20 years we had all seemed to finally let go of the insecurities and labels we had for each other back then, and started to treat each other as people.  It seems silly to me that it took that long to reach this point, but it's not like we get together every year or anything.

All things considered I'm glad I went and I am looking forward to tonight and tomorrow afternoon as well.

I've been playing online poker at Full Tilt Poker.Net for about a week now and I'm up $28,300.  I started out with $1000 play dollars and have now turned a tidy profit.  What a rush it is playing online and winning.  I've won from the front, like tonight when I was fourth entering the final table.  In the first two hands of the final table, I turned my $9000 into $70,000 and never looked back, dominating player after player.  I've won from the back, entering the final table with the short stack.  I've won 5 tournaments and finished in the money, 17 times.  It's crazy, I've never felt anything like it.

I've played poker for money for most of my life.  When I was a kid I learned to play poker in small town bars with my grandfather.  My cousin got very good at pool, and I got very good at poker, hanging out in those smoky bars while my grandfather socialized with his friends and neighbors.  I remember sitting there, watching the men play poker for hours.  There were some good players and they would occasionally show us youngsters a thing or two.  Playing poker at a table with other people is a completely different experience and skill set than playing online poker.  It's one of the most complex games I've ever played and still the only game I know of where you can win without having the best cards.

After I got into high school, my poker playing moved to the long road trips for football games and track meets.  When we would go to Havre, we had a 6 hour bus ride each way, and we'd eventually get a penny ante poker game going in the back of the bus.  I still play in a friendly small stakes game here in town.  I love the comraderie and the atmosphere at a poker game.  I don't always win, but I know I win more than I lose.

Watching someone who knows what they are doing at a poker table is a thing of beauty.  Poker has very little to do with the cards you are dealt and very much to do with how well you can read your opponents.  There is subtle skill in knowing when to lay down a monster hand, and when to push in with your weak hand because the other guy doesn't believe in his better cards.

I can see how online poker has created tens of thousands of new professional poker players.  The online game is unpredictable with players risking everything with cards that aren't good, taking their chances with lady luck on the flop.  There are more people today that make a living playing a card game than ever before.  Poker has moved out from the smoky backrooms and bars and become a mainstream game.  PTA mothers know how to play Texas Hold 'Em now.  My kids, 11 and 9, know how to play Texas Hold 'Em.  (Okay, maybe my kids aren't a good example)  They play poker at slumber parties and hanging out at their friends houses.  Not for money, but still they play.

I'm not about to quit my job and become a professional poker player.  Life on the road isn't for me.  But if you see me at a local bar playing, stop by and say hi.  I'm not ready to give it all up and become a degenerate gambler, I like to win too much to do that.  Degenerate gamblers love the rush of having it all on the line.  That thrill that the next turn of the cards could bring riches or ruin.

It's not for me, but I am having a hell of a lot of fun playing online for now.

I just spent the better part of three hours playing in an online poker tournament with 90 participants and I fucking won!  I've never played in a tourney like that and I won the whole damn thing.

Now if only the $7200 that I won was real, I'd have something other than a smug look on my face and a tremendous sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

At this point, I'll take good stuff wherever I can get it.

I'm all caught up on my work, I shouldn't be, I should be writing a report right now, but my investigator in the field isn't doing his damn job.  He won't have what I need to me until the end of the week, making my weekend full of work.  I don't really mind working on the weekend, but the four times a year I have my shit together I would really appreciate it if the rest of the world had theirs together as well.

I procrastinate.  I completely understand procrastination.  But when someone tells me that they will have me all the information on Monday, I expect them to have the information to me.  Now I won't have the info until Friday, the client is pissed off and I'm afraid the guy won't have the info on Friday.

I would be in a much better mood if the guy had just said, I've got all these cases to complete and I will finish yours on Friday, instead of saying that the case would be finished by the end of LAST weekend.  Why do I have to deal with all of the retards?

I've been really on top of things lately, communicating with everyone and doing all of my work before my deadlines.  Seriously, this doesn't happen with any kind of regularity.  I'm always putting out fires and dealing with the person who needs the most attention at the time.  I'll stay on top of this guy and make sure that I get what I need and after this is over, I won't ever use this investigator again.

As I sit here in my home office playing around on the computer, my kids are in the next room playing MVP Baseball on the PS2.  As they play the game they are talking along with it doing the play by play and the color commentary, but not in a running narrative, more like a highlight reel on Sportscenter on ESPN.  They are playing a game in San Francisco at AT&T Park and one of the players hit a home run.

Peyton says, in a deep and excited voice, "and he hits one into McCovey Cove!  Home run!" 

Jackson then pipes up with, "There are people in boats paddling over to get the ball."

They bring back memories of hot summer nights at my Grandfather's ranch, sitting around the living room listening to Vin Scully or Jack Buck announce the baseball game of the week on the radio.  Their voices so magical as they painted pictures in my head so real I could almost smell the stale beer and popcorn at the stadium.  Anyone else remember the good old days of sports on the radio?

I'm going to have to start looking for colleges with good radio/TV degree programs.  Anyone have any suggestions?  :)

The heat was oppressive today, Missoula topped out at 102 degrees at 6 o'clock this evening.  I know the whole country was hot, but you can't get much more north than we are located. 

The one good thing to come from the heat today, was that it made my home improvement project go much faster.  I had to patch a whole in the bedroom wall that was caused by one of the boys wrestling on the bed and putting his butt through the wall.  He landed right in between two studs and until today, I had a butt sized whole in the wall at the head of my bed.

The primer, drywall texture and paint all dried at amazing speed in this heat.  You can barely tell that there ever was a whole in the wall.  I did a pretty great job considering it was only the second time I've ever tried to patch drywall.  The first time the wall looked like a blind person had been directing the repairs.  I bet if I went back to the duplex in Yakima, WA, I could find the exact spot that I repaired, it was that bad.  Maybe someone in the preceeding 12 years fixed my shoddy repair.

I know it's kind of silly, but fuck, am I bored.

_______________________________________________________

1. WHAT BILL DO YOU HATE PAYING THE MOST?
Phone.  Qwest and I have history, it's a long story.

2. FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT A ROMANTIC DINNER?
When travelling with someone special.

3. LAST TIME YOU PUKED FROM DRINKING?
Fresno, CA 1992

4. WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU GOT DRUNK AND DANCED ON A BAR?
Never

5. NAME OF YOUR FIRST GRADE TEACHER?
Mrs. Stuerwald

6. WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE DOING RIGHT NOW?
Hanging out with someone, anyone, talking

7. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
Astronaut

8. HOW MANY COLLEGES DID YOU ATTEND BEFORE YOU SETTLED ON THE ONE YOU GRADUATED FROM?
Two

9. WHY DID YOU WEAR THE SHIRT THAT YOU HAVE ON RIGHT NOW?
Because it's baggy

10. GAS PRICES! FIRST THOUGHT?
Fuck!

11. IF YOU COULD MOVE ANYWHERE AND TAKE SOMEONE WITH YOU WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHO WOULD YOU TAKE?
I would take my two boys and move to Monterey, CA.

12. FIRST THOUGHT WHEN THE ALARM WENT OFF THIS MORNING?
I wish it wasn't so damn hot

13. LAST THOUGHT BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP LAST NIGHT?
I hate to admit this, but all the work I had to do today

14. FAVORITE STYLE OF UNDERWEAR?
Boxer briefs

15. FAVORITE STYLE OF UNDERWEAR FOR THE OPPOSITE SEX?
I'm legally required to say thong here, but honestly, boy shorts

16. WHAT ERRAND/CHORE DO YOU DESPISE?
Dusting

17. IF YOU DIDNT HAVE TO WORK WOULD YOU?
Yes, I'm sick, I know.  I wouldn't work all the time, but I would work

18. SEX OR SLEEP?
Sex, every time

19. YOUR FAVORITE CARTOON CHARACTER?
Samurai Jack

20. FAVORITE NONSEXUAL THING TO DO AT NIGHT WITH A GIRL/BOY?
Talk, tell stories, hang out

21. A SECRET THAT YOU WOULDN'T MIND EVERYONE KNOWING
Sometimes, I buy stuff to make myself feel better

22. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
1974 Porsche 914 that I bought from my cousin.  I was the only kid I knew who was making car payments in High School

23. YOUR BEST YOUR MOMMA JOKE?
I stay away from the Yo' Momma jokes

24. YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Cotto Salami

25. WHAT DO YOU GET EVERY TIME YOU GO INTO A GAS STATION?
Bottled water

26. BEACH OR LAKE?
Beach

27. DO YOU THINK MARRIAGE IS AN OUTDATED RITUAL THAT WAS INVENTED BY PEOPLE WHO DIED AT 20?
No

28. WHO DO YOU STALK ON MYSPACE?
No one

29. FAVORITE GUILTY PLEASURE?
Playing video games with my kids

30. FAVORITE MOVIE YOU WOULDN'T WANT ANYONE TO FIND OUT ABOUT?
Hot Dog the Movie

31. WHAT'S YOUR DRINK?
Alcohol? Beer, Paddy's Irish Whiskey

32. COWBOYS OR INDIANS?
Cowboys

33. COPS OR ROBBERS?
Robbers

34. DO YOU CHEER FOR THE BAD GUYS?
No, but I do like a good anti-hero

35. WHAT HOLLYWOOD STAR DO YOU THINK RESEMBLES YOU BEST?
Matt Damon?

36. IF YOU HAD TO PICK ONE WHICH CAST MEMBER OF LOST WHO WOULD YOU BE?
Sayid

37. WHAT DO YOU WANT WHEN YOU ARE SICK?
Someone to take care of me

38. WHO FROM HIGH SCHOOL WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN INTO?
No one comes to mind

39. WHAT RADIO STATION IS YOUR CAR RADIO TUNED TO RIGHT NOW?
ESPN Radio

40. PENCIL OR PEN?
Pen

41. STIFLER OR OZ?
Oz

42. NORM OR CLIFF?
Norm

43. THE COSBY SHOW OR THE SIMPSONS?
Simpsons

44. WORST RELATIONSHIP MISTAKE THAT YOU WISH YOU COULD TAKE BACK?
Not being able to express my feelings and open up and share

45. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SITS DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM YOU AT WORK?
I work alone

46. IF YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH IT WHO WOULD YOU KILL?
People who wear bike shorts when they aren't cycling

47. WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH?
Albert Einstein

48. WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU LIKE TO SLEEP WITH?
Define famous

49. HAVE YOU EVER HAD TO USE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER FOR ITS INTENDED PURPOSE?
No

50. LAST BOOK YOU READ FOR REAL?
Bleachers

51. DO YOU HAVE A TEDDY BEAR?
No

52. STRANGEST PLACE YOU HAVE EVER HAD SEX?
Where would it be strange to have sex?

53. STRANGEST PLACE YOU HAVE EVER WANTED TO HAVE SEX?
See above

54. HOW MANY TIMES A DAY DO YOU TEXT?
Four or five

55. AT THIS POINT IN YOUR LIFE WOULD YOU RATHER START A NEW CAREER OR RELATIONSHIP?
Career

56. DO YOU GO TO CHURCH?
No, not even on holiday's anymore

I'm sitting here playing around on the computer with the TV on in the background to keep me company, cause I'm home all alone and like to have some noise.  I'm watching "The Rules of Attraction" and it's pretty hard to follow when you aren't really focusing on it.  I'm catching most of the movie and not really caring much and then I hear this:

"I won't go to bed with a girl who doesn't come.  If I can't make a girl come, then why bother?  It'd be like asking questions in a letter."

I swear I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or ponder the "psychological" implications of the statement.  I kept rewinding the Tivo and listening to the dialogue, over and over. 

Just a bit of dialogue that I can't shake, so if you read this, please share your thoughts.

I'm sitting here playing on the computer with the TV to keep me company, it is 11 o'clock and it must be over 90 degrees here in the house.  It is one of those still nights where there is no wind at all and the heat is just stifling.  I'm sticking to the leather of my recliner and sweat is rolling off of me.  I'm constantly fidgeting and moving trying desperately to get some air between my body and the chair. 

I have all the windows open and the fans on, but it isn't even close to enough to overcome the heat that has built up in the house during the day.  Usually there is a breeze here up on the hill where the house is located, and that helps to cool the house enough so that it is comfortable.  But during the dog days of summer, on these still nights, it is just brutal to be here.  I'm thankful that the boys aren't here or else they would not be sleeping and complaining about how hot it was and how they couldn't sleep.

I'll just continue to sit here and hope that in the next couple of hours the house cools off enough to be able to sleep.  I'm desperately trying to find things online to distract me enough to make me momentarily forget how miserable it is to just be sitting here, alone.