Wednesday Quotable

Happy New Year

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

The Fantasy Football Report

Well, it was a great year. Mark Similey won the LPC Championship, I won the incredibly difficult LPC Pickem, and Chris Day won the second chance pickem in come from behind fashion edging out Alex by 2 games. I finished 4th in that league. Today’s report will be the final edition until next season. I am going to hand out a few awards.

Manager of the Year goes to Mark Similey’s Dead Skins for his strong season and championship.

Ritz gets the Rookie of the Year award since this is his first season in fantasy football and he made it to the championship game.

Comeback Team of the Year goes to Oral Beason’s Bachrach, at one point with a record of 3-6 missed the playoffs by one play and finished the season at 7-6 with the highest point total in the league.

The “Never Give Up” award goes to Mary Similey’s Turkey Buzzards. She started the season 0-8, yet she kept managing her team, won 3 of the last 5, and 2 straight in the consolation to finish in 5th place in post season.

The Ghost Rider awards goes to Jesse who kept the same roster all year, and even without a starting QB since week 3 made the playoffs. BTW, Jesse would have won the league had he just started a QB.

Pastor Travis gets the Dallas Cowboys award, for expectations that were not met. Every year he seems to do great in fantasy football, and he was projected to do well this year. Unfortunately he left us with the same results as the Dallas Cowboys.

There you have it, the Fantasy Football Report Awards Ceremony. Congrats on a great season. We will see you next year!

Max Factor

Marcela’s sister Viviana is visiting us for a few weeks.  She has a way with animals.  So our faithful and loyal Max has abandoned us for Vivi.  She spoils him, talking to him like a baby, constantly petting him and playing with him.  He’s eating it up!  He also enjoys not being locked up during the day while I am at work.  Sunday, it became obvious that he is attaching to her for now because he sits outside of her door and barks for her to come out and play.  Well, Saturday we headed out to Biscayne National Park to walk, see the bay, and go out to the jetty.  We took Max and Marcela snapped off a picture or two.  Max loved the wind, the water, and the fresh air.  There was also a cute little girl that wanted to hug Max every time she saw him.  She couldn’t have been more than 3 years old.  Her hands were covered with lolly pop mixed with saliva, so Max got a little sticky from it.  Just like every time we take the little booger out with us, Max was a star.  Everyone wanted to talk to him or pet him.  We had 4 or 5 more people who called him a girl.  He can’t help it, but he does look like a girl.  He also got a little sea sick and barfed up his breakfast, even though he didn’t get on a boat.

Happy Max

Max is a regular old salt!

Phillip and his fearless dog Max look out over Biscayne Bay.

Marcela, Viviana, and Max at Biscayne

Sunday Armchair QB

1. The Dolphins have done what I did not actually believe they would do.  They won 11 games, won the division, and made the playoffs as the 4 seed.  They will host a playoff game against Baltimore, one of the few teams that whipped Miami earlier in the year.  Miami has matured a bit since then and may actually be favored to win this one.  As for my expectations, I will keep it  to myself and just say that no matter what happens the Dolphins have had an amazing season.  Especially nice was how Pennington avenged his dismissal from the Jets by (probably) ending Favre’s career by beating him in NY.  The Jets sent Pennington packing and replaced him with Favre.  The Jets missed the playoffs, the Dolphins and Pennington made the playoffs, and as of next year the Jets will have to find a QB.  This is indeed a rare situation for Miami who is usually at the losing side of such free agent and waiver acquisitions to teams like the Patriots with Welker and the Jets with Brian Cox and others.
2. The Hurricanes took a dive against the oh-so-powerful Cal Golden Bears.  It wasn’t actually so disappointing that we lost, but that we looked so unprepared all through the first quarter and the final drive of the game.  Harris looked good, but with 2:40 to play in the game and down by a TD, he didn’t have a clue how to manage the team.  That has to rest on the shoulder of the coaches Shannon and Nix.  Nix will possibly get canned for his inconsistency this year.  How do you have as much time as the Canes had between the end of the season and the bowl game and yet the QB had no idea how to run a 2 minute offense?  He literally looked like he was totally lost.  It took 40 seconds to go 6 yards, and with a time out that was finally called while the clock was stopped.  To top it off, it was Shannon who ended up having to call the time out.  With less than 30 seconds to play, the team called a run play.  What gives?
3. Back to the NFL, there were some huge stories this year.  The Dolphins made the playoffs with 11 wins after winning 1 game the entire previous year.  The Falcons with no head coach and no starting QB at the beginning of the year made the playoffs after being projected to finish last in the division with 3 or 4 wins, and they did it with a rookie head coach and QB.  The patriots miss the playoffs altogether with 11 wins after losing only one game the entire previous season.  The Chargers exact revenge on the Broncos who beat them earlier in the year on a totally bogus call that cost them the game.  Their win put them in the playoffs and the Broncos out.  The Cowboys who were projected by nearly everyone to win the NFC and maybe the Super Bowl did not even make the playoffs and got trounced in one of the worst blow outs in team history to finish the season.  The Jets choked in 5 of their last 6 games to miss the playoffs while Favre’s career will likely end, and they were eliminated AT HOME by the QB they let go to make room for Favre.  The Detroit Lions finished the season with the worst record (0-16) in the history of the NFL.  Tampa Bay choked away their chance at a playoff birth by losing to one of the worst teams in the NFL giving up 17 straight points to finish the game.  An 8-8 team made the playoffs winning their last 4 games while an 11 win team missed the playoffs.  Green Bay dumped Favre to go with Rodgers, and won only 6 games which was a huge disappointment considering they only lost 3 games the previous season with Favre.  What a crazy year!
4. I will provide a final fantasy football report tomorrow with awards for Manager of the Year, comeback team of the year, trash talker of the year, etc.  See you tomorrow!

Sunday Life Pointe Talk Soup

• Mayhem, madness, chaos, and pandemonium could have been the words to describe the technical aspects of today’s service, the last before the new year begins.  I say could have because those words do not describe the service this morning because of the excellent work of Mike, Alex, Jesse, and Ritz.
• The lights, sound system, and other technical equipment were out of whack before service started, but Alex, Mike, and Ritz jumped on it and fixed the situation.
• We were short on microphones because Zech had a problem getting to church today while we all thought Zech had the equipment with him.  Alex decided to mic the bass drum, and provide Jesse and Reina with mics.  We had to scrap “It Is You” and replace it with another song.
• Mike B was on the drums, Jesse on rhythm guitar, and I was on bass, while Jesse led vocals and Reina sang back up.
• We sang “Point of Difference”, “Say So”, “Holy is the Lord”, and “Mighty To Save”.  For the meet/greet, Jesse did his best Darius Rucker impression while singing “Time” to welcome the new year.  It was pretty cool, except at the end we didn’t really get it down in either service.  De-d-deh deh.
• During the message, Travis reminded us of some of the memories over the past year that were interesting, funny, touching, exciting, and wonderful.  Overall, it was just a great Sunday morning.
• It was also cool to have some of my cousins in the second service and to go to lunch with them.  That was a treat.

For another persepective on the Sunday morning at Life Pointe in Homestead, be sure to check out these quality bloggers and their Sunday wraps when they’re posted:

Chris Day gives his Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

Ritz writes a Goosfaba

Trav has a Wrap Up

Kelly makes a Chick Kabob

Jesse sometimes writes From the Stage

Saturday Top 5: New Year’s Resolutions

The new year is time for a new beginning. We all know that it’s a time to reflect on the old year and all the things we want to change. We always use it as a time to improve ourselves. Well, this is a list of the top 5 New Year’s resolutions.

#5. Get Organized – {hand in the air yelling “GUILTY”} This one is a resolution I have made for myself many times.  I am not the most organized person.  I think I will make this one of my resolutions this year.  Automatic bill pay is about the only thing that has kept me afloat here.

#4. Go to Church – I’ve heard people state this one as if it will fix the other issues down the list.  As if they were to start hanging out at the mechanic’s, their car would get fixed.  It’s a little more complicated than just going to church.  But, it’s better than nothing.

#3. End that Bad Habit! – For some, it may be smoking, for some it’s drinking, for others it may be cheating on a spouse with the secretary.  Those habits are done!  Why?  Because the calendar says so.  I jest.  Many people look at the new year as a time to make a new start because they are not satisfied with the direction of their lives.  I think if more people were believers and leaned on the Bible and prayer for God’s direction, maybe they wouldn’t wait for the New Year to stop destroying their lives.  JMOFWIW

#2. Lose Weight – Why do we always weight until the New Year to commit to lose that 10, 20, 30 (or in some cases 80) pounds?  Because it gives us that hope that we will actually do it this time?  Maybe because it’s such a good starting point.  I think with weight loss, motivation is everything.  We need something to kick us in the pants to get us going.  Good luck!

#1. Exercise or Get in Shape – Yes, I already listed weight loss as a resolution, but I consider this a wholy seperate resolution because there are many people who do not really need to lose weight but they feel they are not healthy because of lack of exercise.  Besides, we all know the truth is that we can lose weight without exercise, and we can exercise without losing weight.  So, how many of you will commit to just 15 minutes of exercise every day?

Friday Bottom 3:: 12 Days of Christmas

Christmas came and now Christmas has gone leaving us the remnants of Christmas dinners, wrapping paper, and for many people credit card bills. The one sure thing you can count on every year is for the radio stations to play The 12 Days of Christmas, or some parody of it. These are the bottom three gifts from the 12 Days of Christmas.

#3. 3 French Hens – 1st of all, hens are a little messy and they eat all the time while they scratch around in your yard and destroy your grass. They taste good, but I would rather go on down to the grocery store. Besides all that, these hens that we are talking about are French. I am totally against that.

#2. 11 Pipers Piping – I am not 100% sure what a piper piping sounds like, unless their talking about a bagpipe. If so, I could handle one piper piping, perhaps on St. Patrick’s Day. But 11 would be way too noisy and chaotic. Christmas is supposed to be calm, you know, a Silent Night and all that.

#1. 10 Lords a Leaping – What could be worse than one lord leaping around (probably in leotards)? Multiply it times 10 and you have the worst gift out of the 12 Days of Christmas. I question their intentions.

Christmas Day Thoughts

-Today is my first full Christmas day on the job.
-Last year I worked Christmas Eve on night shift and spent Christmas day in a haze.
-Yesterday, Marcela and I spent the day celebrating Christmas with my wonderful parents.
-We enjoyed a day of food (brown sugar and honey glazed ham, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole), gift giving, games, and watching “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
-As you probably have read, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is my favorite Christmas movie, and to me is one of the greatest movies ever made.
-My mom and dad did not get each other any big Christmas gifts this year, well, not in the sense that you wrap a present and give it. They each agreed to skip that and give a child the gift of freedom. I could not be at church to see for my self, but Bill Wilson gathers resources to free children in the far east from the sex slafe. I believe the cost is around $300 dollars. What a precious gift.
-I just want to mention how much I love my mom and dad. My mom is the most giving, caring, and selfless person I know. My dad has always done everything he could to shield his children from tough times growing up. I never felt the strain of tight economic struggles, family disputes, or “hard time” because my dad made sure that while I was a child I saw the world through a child’s eyes. There were definitely hard times, I just never knew about them.
-Marcela hooked me up with a couple of great DVD’s: Iron Man and The Dark Knight.
-My mom and dad gave me tickets to Mannheim Steamroller, two pairs of flannel pants, a new thermos, a bag full of coffee goodies including a pound of my favorite St. Arbucks coffee (Italian).
-I came in to work today and I was listed on the roll as being on vacation today. I could have gone home, but it’s hard to pass up the 2 and 1/2 time.
-In a couple weeks I will have an opportunity to take the operations exam at work. If I pass, it could really change things for me.
-A friend from here at work will be studying with me so we can pass this thing.
-See you guys and gals at church Sunday. Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas! Remember the reason we celebrate. Jesus stepped into a robe of flesh, took on suffering and pain, and gave his life that we could be free. Presents, dinners, music, and movies are all fun. But Jesus is the “reason for the season”. Don’t forget it.

Wednesday Quotable

I know it’s Christmas Eve, but I had to use this opportunity to post today’s quotable which comes from the dialogue Republic by Plato.

Necessity is the mother of invention.
-Plato

Necessity gave birth to this beauty below. We were at practice last night and we needed a microphone stand but all we had was a projector stand. So Jesse and Zech found a way to make a mic stand out of it.

Jesse shows off some of his talents such as creating microphone stands.

Fantasy Football Report

The league championship has been determined, and like the whole season the finale was exciting right down to the wire.
Congrats to Mark Similey, the Life Pointe Church Fantasy Football Champion!  He defeated Ritz by a score of 102-98 with the game literally coming down to the final play.  If Forte had broken loose for a TD, or if Chicago missed their FG and Green Bay had a field goal of more than 50 yards Ritz would have won the game.

In the consolation games, Jesse’s dead team showed once again that if he had just managed the QB position, we would have had a different champion.  I was able to beat Jesse on tie breakers with the final score being 107-107. Pastor Travis dropped his final game against Mary’s Turkey Buzzards, and Paul’s Skins got smacked by the league’s top scoring team, Bachrach.

The final standings determined by the payoffs are:

#1 Dead Skins (League Champs!)
#2 Ritz
#3 Citizen Cane
#4 Fuser Heads
#5 Turkey Buzzards
#6 TJ’s Big Doggs
#7 Bachrach
#8 Skins

It was a great season in the most competitive league I have ever competed in. Thanks for your participation! I had fun serving as the league commish and next year I look forward to an even bigger league so that I can reclaim my rightful place at the top.

In LPC Vegas style pickem, I have already cinched up first place. In 2nd Chance, barring a miracle, the race has come down to Alex in 1st by only one game vs Chris Day in 2nd. This was a disaster of a week in which I only scored 4 wins out of 16. The upsets were plentiful. I’m now 7 games back and essentially out of contention for 1st.

See you next week for the Fantasy Football report finale and awards show!