Finally...

...a good Fantasy Football week.

This week I actually went 4-1 in my leagues, which is by far my best performance so far this season.

I did, however, get a strike in my Survival League. I had San Diego over Oakland and that didn't pan out.

Oh well, overall it was a pretty solid week.

Still Working on Puppets...

I finally sold my fourth puppet this past week. It had been a while since I had a sale, and this one kind of caught me by surprise.

I signed in to check my e-mail and noticed that I had an Instant Payment from PayPal. Turned out someone had bought the Dart puppet in the middle of the night.

It's kind of a relief. I had began to wonder if any of the puppets were ever going to sell again.

Now that the fourth one is sold, I need to make another one to replace him on Ebay...so I'll be doing that in the next few days.

I actually have three puppets that I really want to get made in the coming couple of weeks. One of them I think is going to be great!!!

Victory for MSU!!!!

The Spartans go to 6-0 after beating Michigan today.

It's the third straight win over Big Blue for the Spartans...which hasn't happened in a LONG time. The last time the Spartans won three straight was more than 40 years ago.

The Wolverines came into the game with "The Leading Heisman Candidate." Denard Robinson had rushed for nearly 1000 yards in his five games so far, and passed for about that much as well. However, he hadn't played a team even remotely as talented on defense as the Spartans, and it became evident early that his yardage totals might have been a bit inflated by playing poor defenses. The Spartans held him to 84 yards on the ground, nearly 110 less than his season average, and dominated the Wolverines for most of the game.

To celebrate, I made this quick picture...GO STATE!!!!

An Interesting Idea...

I was watching a show on PBS or History the other day about Civil War Reenacting groups, and it seemed like it was a lot of fun. You get to meet people, go to "musters," perform battles, and learn a lot about history.

I've always been a history buff. I enjoy history, and for a long time I thought that being a history teacher would be absolutely awesome.

I also know that right here where I live, in Jackson, they have a HUGE Civil War reenactment every year. So I figured that there must be a group around here that's involved in it. I started looking around online and quickly found The 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Company B.

I contacted them about some information and got invited to one of their Members Meetings, free of charge. The cost to get a membership is only $16, and they have a ton of options for things that you can do with the group.

I figure I might stop by one of the meetings and see what it's all about. I started browsing for the clothing and equipment necessary to actually be an actor, but it seems to be fairly expensive so I'm not sure I would really want to get involved in that...but that doesn't mean that there isn't something else that I could do for the group that would be enjoyable.

The meetings seem like they are monthly on Sundays...and I work on Sundays...but they are in Lansing so it's possible that I could take a few hours off of work to attend one.

Either way, it seems like it could be interesting and fun.

Garage Blood Bath...

I forgot to mention this on the blog, but the other day there was a blood bath in our garage.

Cathy was taking Cooper and Gordon out to go to the bathroom in the morning, and on the way back in Cooper yelped. He's had his issues with his nails for a long time now, and he was down to only two of them left. One of them was getting long and really ragged...I had been hoping it would fall off for a while now.

So anyways, he yelped. Apparently Gordon had stepped on his foot...and low and behold...it ripped the nail right off, completely at the paw. Cathy came and got me up...I was still asleep...and I went out and started trying to stop the bleeding. It wasn't working very well. I finally got it slowed down quite a bit so I bandaged him up and put him in the house.

Surprisingly, even though it must have hurt him quite a bit, he seems like he felt better now that it was gone. He was moving around just fine and seemed pretty happy. I went back to bed and got up a while later and checked. We noticed that it was still bleeding very slowly...and after he walked around a bit it started bleeding a bit mroe. So we took him to the vet.

They ended up cleaning up the wound and then they put some antibiotic powder on it to make sure it wouldn't get infected. After that they bandaged him up and sent him on his way.

That was on Tuesday afternoon. The vet told us we could take the bandage off the next day, or leave it on for a while longer if it didn't seem to be bothering him. Well, it's not bothering him so we're going to leave it on until Friday morning. Ever since he's had this nail issue he's been really bad about licking his nails when they are bleeding a bit, and that causes them to not stop bleeding. The bandage doesn't seem to be bothering him, and it's definitely not as much of an inconvenience as putting his Cone Collar on, so we figure an extra day in the bandage will be good for him.

That...and it's kind of funny to watch him hop around on three legs!!!

Now...if only that one last nail would just fall off...he'd be good to go, no nails and all!!!

Three Episodes In...

...and I'm absolutely in love with the new "Hawaii Five-O."

It's great. I've enjoyed each episode immensely...basically having a smile on my face throughout the entire show. I'm really liking the scripts for the shows. They are well written and just plain fun.

Couple that with the couple of jaw dropping action pieces in each episode so far and you've got a show that I simply can't get enough of.

I'm really glad it's getting so many viewers...that probably means it will stick around for a while. Which is good, because it's quickly become my new favorite TV show.

Horrible Season...

My fantasy season is going HORRIBLY.

I can't believe how bad my teams all seem to be. I'm 2-2 in one league, 0-4 in one, 3-1 in one, and 1-3 in another.

That 3-1 is just a fluke, as well. Why do I say that?? Because my team is the lowest scoring team in the league by about 30 points. So basically I've managed to have my wins come when other teams have their worst weeks.

So my record for the season so far is: 6-10

That's pretty bad.

The only thing that's keeping me going is the fact that I'm doing really well in my Pick'em leagues. I'm leading in the actual Pick'em, and I still have a one strike lead in the Survival League.

Oh well...I guess you can't have good seasons every year, right??

Magic...

So it's starting to get cold outside again, which means that more and more of my time will be spent just hanging around the house. Not that I really do much outside of the house anyways, but I'll be inside even more.

What does that mean?? It's time to start getting some magic going again. I've ordered a couple of tricks in the last week or so and I'm looking forward to getting them. They are tricks that I have had on my Wish List on Penguin for a while now, so it's cool that I'm finally getting around to getting them.

The Sadness...

So today when we woke up something bad had happened.

Archibald, one of our two rats, had passed away. I don't know what happened. I had noticed a few days ago that he hadn't seemed to be interested in eating, but I thought maybe it was just because it was getting colder outside.

Cathy and I took him into the back yard and buried him. Then I cleaned out Roswell's cage and put Roswell back in the cage.

Then I got worried. I started looking online and found that rats don't do very well by themselves. Everything said that they can survive, but that they won't be happy and they won't live as long as they normally should.

So Cathy and I headed to Pet Supplies Plus and got Roswell a new friend. His name is Spencer, and he's a tiny little guy. We got Roswell out of the cage and introduced them, and there wasn't any fighting or anything...so we kept them out for a little while then put them into the cage and they are getting along great.

It's funny because Roswell is SO much bigger than Spencer...and Spencer spends most of his time laying on top of Roswell.

Hopefully they'll both live long and happy lives now...and we won't ever forget Archibald. Rest in Peace little buddy!!!!

Vegas Calling???

So...

Cathy and I are going to Hawai'i in 2012. We will both get pretty large bonuses from work in January of 2011. I had originally been planning on saving my entire bonus for the trip to Hawai'i so that we could have a ton of money for the trip there. However, we will also get a bonus right before we go to Hawai'i...

...so...I've been thinking that maybe a quick trip to Vegas is in order in February. It will have been a year since we went, and we didn't really go on any kind of vacations at all this past summer, and we don't have anything planned for the fall.

I'm thinking another 4 nights and 5 days would end up costing about $1,000 for the airfare and the hotel...which isn't really too bad. I could pay that and still have plenty left over from my bonus to put away for that trip to Hawai'i.

The best part about Vegas to me is that as we go more often, it becomes more and more relaxing. As we do more things and get to the point where we've seen just about everything there is to see, we also get to the point that we can basically just sit around and enjoy ourselves.

So I'm thinking that it's probably going to happen...now I just need to start hunting for some good airfare...

New iPod Touch on the Way...

Today Cathy and I both ordered new iPod Touches. This is the newest iPod Touch. It has quite a few new features that we were both interested in.

I pretty much had to get one. The one that I got last year is about a month past it's warranty, which means it's the PERFECT time for it to start to die on me. The screen on it isn't working correctly any more, and a quick check on Apple's site shows that it would have cost me AT LEAST $100 to get it fixed, probably quite a bit more.

So I upgraded to the 4G version of the device, which gives me four times the storage space and all the new features.

I'm especially interested in the HD video that it can take. I have been making videos of the puppets that I've been making and posting them so that people can see what they look like, and to do it I have to use several programs. From what I've seen about the camcorder in the iPod, you can take the HD video, edit it, and upload it to YouTube all from the device itself...which will be GREAT!!!!

They should be here on Thursday, so I won't have to wait long. I will probably end up keeping my old one and using it solely as a music player...that way if it gets banged around a bit it won't matter at all.

More New TV...

I found another great new TV show to go along with "The Event."

I actually think I enjoyed this more than "The Event." It was fun, action packed, humorous, and well acted. I thought the show was excellent and I really enjoyed it from start to finish. I found myself smiling throughout almost the entire thing.

What show is it??

Here you go...



I highly suggest giving it a try. I really liked it!!!

Some Live Sporting Events...

On November 17th, Cathy and I are taking our friend from work Alex to a Detroit Red Wings game.


It's Alex's birthday on the 16th, but the 17th will work better for all three of us. The Wings are playing the St. Louis Blues that day, so hopefully it will end up getting them some points. I am going to get him a T-shirt and a hat to give him before the game, and we're going to go to dinner somewhere in Detroit before the game starts...so it should be pretty fun.

On November 20th, however, we are doing something even more amazing. I thought I had posted about this before, but I can't find it so I guess I must not have.

Alex usually spends a lot of money on his friends for Christmas. This year he won $10,000 from the TV show "Survivor" on some text and win contest, and at work a few weeks ago he was talking about Ultimate Fighting Championship coming to Detroit. Cathy jokingly said "Man, if only I knew someone that won 10 grand this summer who could get us a luxury suite" and that set the plan in motion.

Tickets went on sale the other day, and Alex purchased the second most expensive luxury suite available at the palace. Twelve tickets are included...extras go for $50 each...and from what we can gather it's catered...at no charge...with free beer.

Alex paid for all of this, and invited his closest friends to come and enjoy the fights with him. It's crazy because Cathy was being completely humorous when she said it, and Alex just went with it. He said "If we're going to go to UFC for the first time, we might as well make it memorable, right?"

Memorable is an understatement. I think it's going to be AMAZING fun. I'm really looking forward to it, and so is everyone going. I think there's going to be a total of 15 of us when it's all said and done...but if a couple can't get the time off of work we may dip down to 12. Either way it's going to be a blast.

Update to My Video Game Preorders...

So I'm a bit upset right now.

I always think that if a company is taking preorders of something, they should ALWAYS have enough of the product to fill the preorders. Once the number of products is claimed, they should STOP TAKING PREORDERS.

That's not the case with Capcom's store, apparently, as today I got an e-mail from them letting me know that my "High Stakes Edition Dead Rising 2" was on back order.

Of course, there's no easy way to contact the company. You can send them an e-mail, but there's no information about how to cancel the order, how to call them on the phone, or anything like that.

So I did some searching online and I found a phone number that connected me to the company that runs Capcom's online store. I asked if they had any idea when the product would be back in stock, and the representative told me "We have never had a product through Capcom that was a preorder end up selling out and going on back order, so unfortunately we don't know when it will be available."

Well, that was that. I canceled my order right there and will probably just end up ordering a standard version of the game from Amazon. There's another collector's edition, "The Zombrex Edition," but it just doesn't really look very cool to me at all. So I guess I'll just save the $40 and get the regular one.

Oh well. I'm a bit bummed that I won't be able to get the version that I wanted, but saving $40 isn't too shabby.

Two Year Anniversary.

As of today, it's been exactly two years that I have been posting to my blog.

I've slowed down on posting recently...mainly because I haven't been doing much worth writing about. But don't worry, I will continue posting for a long, long time!!!

Happy Blogging!!!

From Starter...to Prison...to Starter...

I am an animal lover...and love dogs in particular. I have three dogs of my own, all rescued from a local shelter, and I'm actually disappointed in myself right now because I can't take in a fourth. I simply don't have room, but she needs help or she's probably going to die. But I can't have a fourth dog, it just wouldn't work.

With that said, I HATED Michael Vick for what he did. I thought he was the scum of the earth, and I thought that he should have had done to him what he had done to each and every one of those dogs.

But.

He served his time. He paid the debt to society that the law levied on him.

And.

He seems like he's changed. He seems more humble to me now. He seems like a person that had the world, then threw it away, and is now trying to get back what he once had because he now knows how lucky he was.

He also seems like he learned from his mistakes. I think he "learned" what he already "knew." He learned that fighting dogs is wrong. He knew it was illegal, but he learned that it's wrong.

I for one am willing to forgive him and give him another chance. But I will never forget what he did.

I think he deserves this second chance...let's just hope he handles it with care, because not many people are lucky enough to have what he had. Even fewer are lucky enough to get it back after they have lost it.

Whoa...

Just found a show that would appear like it could replace "LOST" as my go-to sci-fi, conspiracy, awesome weekly drama.

Another HORRIBLE Fantasy Week...

Man, I'm getting absolutely killed in Fantasy this year. It's amazing how horribly I'm getting beaten.

After going 1-4 last week, I followed that up with a stellar 1-4 performance. Unfortunately, my win this week came in a different league...which means that I'm 1-1 in two leagues and 0-2 in two leagues.

The worst part?? I think my teams are just horrible. I have Brett Favre as my "best" QB on four of my teams, and he was good for -1 point this week. Amazing.

Nobody ended up with any strikes in the survival league, and our pick'em league all had pretty close picks. I'm still in the lead in that, but my lead was cut by a little bit.

Oh well, I'll give it a few more weeks...then start looking towards next season!!!

That Time of Year Again...

So it's the time of year that all the great video games start coming out.

I've been ordering and preordering games all over the place the last couple of weeks.

It all started this past week with "Halo Reach." A great campaign and an online multiplayer mode that is growing on me. I'll say this as a major positive about the online multiplayer...playing with my real friends from work, Alex and Elon, makes up a bit for the fact that the multiplayer isn't as fun as I remember.

But now, let's move on to the games that I've preorderd that will be coming out in the next few months.

First off is "Dead Rising 2." It comes out September 28th, so this one is just around the corner. I actually preordered a very limited edition from Capcom's website that comes with a poker set from the casino in the game and a chance to win a HUGE zombie from the game. Should be a fun game. I've played a demo of it and found it pretty enjoyable. If nothing else, it's absolutely hilarious.
Next up is "Castlevania Lords of Shadow." It's a third person action game that looks like it takes the things I liked about "Dante's Inferno" and ups the ante with all kinds of more awesome. I got the special edition of this from Amazon, and it included $20 worth of game cash that can be used for a future purchase. It comes out on October 5th, so just a week after "Dead Rising 2."


After that there's a couple of weeks worth of wait time for November 5th, which is when "Goldeneye 007" comes out for the Wii. This is a remake of a classic Nintendo 64 game that was really the game that got me into shooters in the first place. The remake looks solid, and I'm hoping that it will be great in a nostalgiac but new kind of way. I'll be getting the edition that comes with the Golden Controller...


After that is another couple of weeks worth of waiting, until November 26th, when a workout game comes out for the Wii. Cathy has and enjoys EA Active for the Wii, and they are releasing a more "male" type version of that game. It's "EA Active NFL Training Camp." As you would imagine, it's a workout game based on the routines done in an NFL training camp. It looks really cool and comes with some great tools that should make working out fun.
And last, but I'm sure not least, is this game that I've been looking forward to for the Wii for a while. It's "Epic Mickey," which is a platformer featuring that lovable Mickey Mouse. I got the special edition of the game from Amazon and it comes out on November 30th.


After all of these games have arrived, I should have well over $40 worth of Amazon Game Dollars to spend on something else. I'm sure that in the next few months another game will come out that I'll want to buy, and the fact that I've preordered these games will come in handy when that other game will end up only costing me about $20 or so.

I'm looking forward to some great games this fall. Add to that the fact that "Bad Company 2" just announced some stellar downloadable content, and I think that I'll have my plate full for gaming this fall and winter!!!

Rocky Top...

After our "Halo" campaign Tuesday night, my friends Elon and Alex came down to our house to go to dinner with Cathy and me.

Cathy and I have a nice little bar/restaurant near our house called Rocky Top that we have been to a few times over the years.

Well, last week we went there and they have a new menu and we really enjoyed it. The best part?? They have "Nuclear Chicken Wings." They are the hottest things I've ever had, and I loved them.

After I told Elon about them, he really wanted to try them so that's where we decided to go. We all had a great time and the food was excellent. Elon didn't fare quite as well with the nuclear wings as I did, but he still enjoyed them. Alex got a ham sandwich that had bacon on it...and bacon at Rocky Top isn't just bacon...it's deep fried bacon. Yah, that's right.

I'll have to try a sandwich with the deep fried bacon the next time we go there. It looks incredibly good!!!