Fantasy football update

With the end of the regular season, I thought I'd report how I did with my four fantasy football leagues this season.

WFFL
This is the league I've been in for more than fifteen years. We play during the NFL playoffs, and I'm happy to report that my team, the Cannibals, made the playoffs, finishing in fifth place, despite my 7-10 record and a four-game losing streak at the end of the season. I haven't won this league yet, so I'm hoping this is the year. Given how balanced all the playoff teams are in the NFL, I think I might have a shot.

KCFFL
I started this league up a couple of years ago, and won it the first season. My team, Negative Treatment, finished the season in eighth place and missed the playoffs. Which was a blessing, since there's no money on the line, and I couldn't keep track of all my teams anyway.

BAFFL
I joined this league this year, and my team (Crazy 88's) finished the regular season in sixth place, barely making the playoffs. With a couple of good weeks, I got to the championship game, but lost. But I'm very happy with my finish there.

CoFFL
A new league created this year, where my team (Immutable Objects) missed the playoffs, but won a couple of games in the consolation bracket to officially finish in fifth place. I wasn't quite as committed to this team, due to the fact that I didn't pick the players (it was an auto draft).

General thoughts:

• It was good to play a bunch of different teams on a bunch of different websites, with a bunch of different rules.
  
• But, four teams was too many. I couldn't keep them all straight. If I remember correctly, I've had four teams before, and had the same problem. One of the problems with getting older is making the same mistakes over and over again.
• I went a little too heavy on Steelers, having Big Ben and Fast Willie on multiple teams. Was expecting more production from that offense. Luckily, I was able to find production from other pickups, like Matt Ryan and Tyler Thigpen.

Stay tuned for further updates from the WFFL playoffs!

Annual Christmas letter

One of my regrets is that I don't take the time to send all my friends and relatives Christmas cards. Seems like I should be able to find a couple of hours to accomplish this. But the holiday season seems to come and go so quickly, that I never get around to it.

I've also had a desire to run Christmas lights across the roofline of my house, but that never happens either. Just too cold once I get around to it.

Even though we don't send out Christmas cards, my wonderful wife takes the time to write up an annual Christmas letter. So those that are interested can take a look, and see what we've been up to for the last year. I've copied it below for your reading pleasure.

Mortimer/Maberry/Tisland
Annual Christmas Letter

I am now too lazy to send out an annual Christmas card although I have 3 boxes of them sitting on my desk! So, the Christmas email has arrived from us!

We didn’t win the lottery; our kids didn’t win the spelling bee, try out for the Olympics or break a school record in academics!

Life has been good and bad and I will try to send some of the highlights!

Jeff celebrated 20 years at Thomson West this summer. He received a gift of luggage-is this a clue? He also was downgraded from a cube to a shared space along with most everyone else! He does continue to enjoy his job and has a lot of good friends he works with. The company, fortunately, has not been doing any downgrades.

I finally got my dream job this summer. I am now the Farmington High School Nurse. It is a great job and allows me time off when the kids are off and to visit my family. I am learning a lot about teenagers in the process. Next year the high school is moving into a new building and I am looking forward to being the first nurse there!

Michael continues to participate in football and taekwondo. He has achieved his brown belt in taekwondo and is working hard towards the next level. His football team finally won a game and he was so excited! He is busy with 7th grade work and turns 13 this month.

Ashlie is taking piano lessons and participates in speech team at school. She also tried out and made Varsity cheerleading. She loves biology and is starting to check into colleges. She will be 16 in July and has her learners permit! She was confirmed in the Spring and we had an awesome weekend with friends and family.

We have made several trips back to South Dakota this summer and one trip to Omaha. We always love spending time with family and friends. In June Ashlie and I went on a church mission trip to Ohio. We had so much fun and learned a lot while helping other people. We will be going again this year and this time Michael gets to go. The trip is to Lead, SD. Jeff got away a couple times this year to his friend Greg’s cabin for a work weekend. Work and fun was involved both times!

We remain active in our church and enjoy the fellowship of so many awesome people there. We are involved in community service, youth group, Sunday school and Jeff is the financial secretary. We hosted the youth Halloween party.

We were approved for adoption in July after a mountain of paperwork and are now in the waiting process. We have had some ups and downs and worries/fears but feel we are meant to do this and the rest will take care of itself. We are waiting for a boy or girl (or 2) under the age of 4! The call could come any day but should arrive by July. We will then travel to Ethiopia in 3-4 months for a 7 day trip. Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers.

We have had some sad events this year as well. My baby great-niece, Zoe, passed away in May from a congenital heart condition. In November my nephew, Adam, passed away unexpectedly. He was 23 and an awesome kid! The same month Jeff’s dad was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. Arlo is doing well and we are grateful for that. We are also grateful for good friends and family who hold us up in difficult times.

We will be heading to South Dakota for Christmas break and spending time with all of our families and friends. We wish you all an excellent New Year and hope Christmas is magical and full of wonder!

Jeff, Sayra, Ashlie & Michael
Chewy, Jack & Bean

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

Dealing with a death in the family

Just got back from an unexpected week in Pierre. One of Sayra's nephews, Adam Maberry, died unexpectedly. He was only 23 years old and had a bright future ahead of him. Although I didn't have a chance to get to know Adam that well, I could tell he was a great guy. I wish I would have had more time to spend with him. And it broke my heart to see how this affected his parents, his sister, his grandmothers, Sayra, Ashlie and Michael, and the whole family. I've been blessed with great in-laws, and to see them in this much pain was difficult. They're an extremely close family, and certainly didn't deserve to lose Adam so soon.

New Watchmen trailer

Schweet!

Time to rock!

Getting fired up to see Hairball at Bogart's on Friday night. Anyone in the southern metro area with nothing to do on a Friday night should check them out. Well worth the $8 cover charge, I guarantee it!

Rachel's Challenge

Just got back from the Farmington High School where I attended a presentation by Larry Scott of Rachel's Challenge. Great program, great message, great cause. Very moving story. What is Rachel's Challenge? As described by their web site:

Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America.

Securing your passwords

Great tip from Joel on Software for securing your passwords. I had my email and eBay accounts hacked into a while back, and have become a bit of a password security nut. I had been using PasswordMaker for a while, but I like the PasswordSafe/DropBox combination better. It's those pesky user names that change from site to site that make the PasswordSafe a better solution, I think.

Weekend fun

As anyone tracking my Facebook status over the weekend knows, I was at my buddy Greg's cabin helping him put up some siding. You can check out some pictures over on his blog. The weather was great and a good time was had by all. Definitely rewarding to look at the before & after pictures to see what we accomplished and how nice it looks.

Snot's dead?

Nobody told me Joe Kudla, a.k.a. Thomas Snot, died. Total bummer. Kinda reminds me of Bob Casey's death. There's something else that's never going to be quite the same, ever again. I still get a little choked up at the beginning of every Twins game I go to. Probably a sign I spent a little too much time at the Metrodome after moving to the Twin Cities.

It'll be interesting to see another Puke n' Snot show without Kudla. Not gonna be quite the same.

Feed My Starving Children

Worked last night at one of my favorite charities, Feed My Starving Children in Eagan. Great organization, and really fun to spend a couple of hours working there. I was the warehouse assistant last night, which was the only job I hadn't helped with before. Other jobs include applying labels to the meal packets, filling them with ingredients, weighing the packets, and sealing them up & boxing them. So now I feel like I've gotten the full experience.

One of the reasons I like them so much is they've got really high ratings on Charity Navigator. Good to see that they're doing good work, and being really efficient with the funds they raise.

I'd encourage everyone to check them out, and support them in any way you can!

Gawd, I love the Minnesota State Fair

Chocolate-covered bacon. Yum yum!

Will it top a deep-fried candy bar on a stick? Probably not. But there's only one way to find out. Not sure if I'll make it to the fair this year, but if I do, trying a Pig Licker is definitely on the list.

Bernie Mac, dead at 50

Reports out of Chicago are that Bernie Mac died this morning due to complications from pneumonia. Are you kidding me? That's way too young. I'm a fan of his sitcom. Every once in a while, my TiVo will record an episode, and I still find the re-runs highly entertaining.

Bernie Mac, you will be missed.

Are we a bagel kind of town?

Dan Haugen of MinnPost provides some evidence that we might prefer bagels to donuts.

I don't know. I still miss Krispy Kreme.

The Forgetting

Just finished watching The Forgetting, a documentary about Alzheimer's produced by TPT. I was struck by how difficult it is for the spouse/children/siblings of someone that gets Alzheimer's. It was mentioned during the panel discussion that followed how it's not unusual to see the Alzheimer's patient outliving their caregiver. Deep, moving stuff. Fantastic work by TPT.

Attention Lost fans!

The Dharma Initiative wants you.

Triumph at Comic Con

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog reports from Comic Con. If you watch closely, you'll see him insult Scott Kurtz, creator of the webcomic PvP.

A new Lost podcast is up!

Audio from the Lost panel at Comic Con. I needed me a little Lost fix. Woohoo!

Guys who can write

There are some writers I love -- I'll read anything they throw out there. One is Malcolm Gladwell. Check out his New Yorker article, In the Air, that deals with innovation, inventions, and the idea of multiples. Gladwell's articles always take some time to read, but they're always worth the effort.

Another guy is Chuck Klosterman. Check out his latest article for ESPN The Magazine on the Shaq - Kobe feud, This Just In. Klosterman's always got an interesting take on sports-related issues.

Taking technology for granted

One of the things I'm starting to take for granted is my cell phone. My wife had gallbladder surgery today, and I'm happy to report that everything went well. As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn't make it to Pierre to be with her. But throughout the day today, I was getting text messages from Ashlie with updates, complete with pictures. I got a picture of the gallstones they removed (yuck!), the flowers Sayra got, and even a lovely picture of my better half as she's recovering in her hospital room. All courtesy of a cell phone with a camera on it. (And a teenager that knows how to run it.)

And I spent most of the day in a meeting, away from my desk and my computer. So the fact that I've got this thing hooked to my belt, with me almost 24 X 7, is great too.

Wasn't it just like 10 years ago these things were the size of a brick, and about as heavy?

The Mallets of Invention

So, what does a fella like me do when he's got more time on his hands than he's used to? He spends his time bouncing around YouTube checking out Frank Zappa-related videos. Like this beauty, called The Mallets of Invention, which talks about how Ruth Underwood, a classically-trained percussionist, joined the Mothers back in the late 60's. I think it demonstrates the true genius of Zappa -- the way he tailored music to people in the band. It also points to the fact that he was a total music geek, the way he looked to "electrify" different percussion instruments.

Approved for adoption!

Got word from our adoption agency today that everything is in order for our dossier, and we're officially on the list waiting for a child (or children). Also got the letter from the CIS giving us the green light. So it's time to sit back and wait! According to the specialist from the agency, average wait time for an infant from Ethiopia is 7 - 9 months, and since we're open to toddlers, it should be less than that. Woohoo!

Offsetting the good news is the fact that Sayra has her gallbladder removed in Pierre tomorrow morning, and I won't be there with her. I'm not entirely comfortable with that, but it's just too far to travel for what should be a straightforward procedure.

There's gotta be an easier way to get from point A to point B. Someone get on that.

First post!

Why a blog, you may ask? Seems like there's been stuff I want to put on my Facebook page, but no good place to put it. So I'm dumping it here.

Not exactly divine inspiration, I know.