UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Quick-hitters:

- It’s about time somebody in a real cold-weather place chewed me out for whining about being cold.

At the moment, I am enjoying a nice, hot cup of tea.  Yes, it’s quite chilly here.

(waves at Amy)

- I wish I had the ability to leap halfway across a tennis court, dive, lay on my back, and still hit a perfect shot that curves around the net post, hits the line, and then curves away from my opponent(s).

At the very least, I’d like to know which button on the Wii-mote allows me to hit that shot in Wii Tennis.

- Apparently the college football bowl season is underway!  I believe the Jack in a Box 2 for $1 Taco Bowl was on today.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $2300, with about $500 in checks coming in the next few days.  Cha-ching!

- So my sister and I did some Christmas shopping today.  Technically, she went self-Christmas shopping, and I went because she had a hankering for some Six Dollar Burgers from Carl’s Jr.

(Tangent:  Has anyone tried the Portobello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger?  Incredible!  A horribly greasy, Swiss-cheesy mess on a bun, with tons of lettuce and onions, and sliced tomatoes…drooooool.)

So after dinner and some mall shopping—parking was a bitch, but the mall itself wasn’t horribly crowded, for some reason—we went to CVS, to spend some ECBs that were expiring soon.  Between the two of us, we got a ton of free after ECB stuff—cough drops, energy shots that I’ll never use, and some other stuff that I don’t recall at the moment—two boxes of tampons, some candy, and a box of replacement blade cartridges for a razor.  We then hit up the local 99-cent store for some Christmas gift wrap.  Somehow, we ended up spending NINE BUCKS!!!!!

(I could not believe that some woman filled up an entire cart full of stuff at the 99-cent store!  It’s the 99-cent store, for crying out loud!  She must have had a $99.99 gift certificate :P)

Next time:  details of my hot date on Wednesday!

Tags: Deals by Peter
1 Comment »

I hate rain.

Sorry, no quick hitters today.

- Thank you, Citibank.  Thank you for not closing my last statement until five days later than normal, even though the statement officially closed around the time I expected it to.  Thank you for not sending me my usual email saying that my statement is ready.  Thank you for not notifying me that I can’t make an online payment for 30 days after making a flubbed payment (yes, my fault), leaving me just four business days to mail you out a check.  Most importantly, thank you for reminding me why (shudder…) Chase gets the bulk of my business.

Thank You Points?  You guys should offer Screw You Points.

- After playing some Wii Tennis today, against computer Pros with obscenely high ranks (1400s, I believe), I wrote the following Haiku.

Wii Tennis is lame.

The computer cheats so much

My Wii-mote got chucked.

Awful, I know

(Tangent:  Yes, I am now in possession of a Wii!  I have no games–Wii Sports excluded–but with the mileage I’m getting out of Wii Sports, I may not need to buy a game any time soon!

Fellow Wii owners:  shoot me your Wii Friend codes!)

My sister then took the Wii Fitness test–she really stinks at it :P–and it was determined that her Wii age was 68!!!  That inspired me to create another Haiku:

[She] is sixty-eight

according to Wii Fitness.

She needs some fiber.

I’m a dead man.

- Here are my Week 15 (Fantasy) Football thoughts:

1) Fantasy Football Playoff Update:  The best team in the Bargain$hare league is OUT, after losing last week, 61-50.

It doesn’t help that Tom Brady scored three points; then again, his opponent had Tony Romo (3 pts).

I also got ousted, 112-95.  Looks like I’m headed for another fourth-place finish, after the best team in the league gets through with me, in the third place game.

In the only other league where I made the playoffs, I was also one-and-done.  Looks like I’ll finish fourth there too.

2) I share Jim Rome’s sentiment in being very very very pissed off at the Miami Dolphins.  Three more losses and you guys would have made history!

Stupid Brian Billick (for not going for it on fourth and goal at the 1).  Stupid Matt Stover (for missing the FG in OT).  Stupid Miami Dolphins.

Grrrr…

3) I know that this joke has been made eleventy billion times already, but Tony Romo really needs to keep his attractive, um, guests, away from him during games!  At the very least, try a brunette!

4) LaDainian Tomlinson is running the Chargers towards a huge playoff push, while the NY Giants are (again?) choking away the season (though they should make the playoffs, barring a mammoth gag), while Eli Manning continues to regress.

5) Speaking of San Diego, that sound you hear is teams fearing the possibility of facing the Chargers, Browns (yes, the Browns), and the Vikings (or even the Saints, should they somehow make the playoffs).  Isn’t momentum great?

6) Screw you, Baltimore.

See ya.

Tags: Cust. Service, Games, Sports by Peter
4 Comments »

*shivers*

Quick-hitters:

- I love the Encino CVS store (on Ventura Blvd., for those of you in the valley). I brought my order of three items (all heavily discounted after CVS coupons) up to the register, and as she started checking me out, I handed her my three coupons. The cashier mulled over them for a bit, then asked me where I got these coupons from.

Oh oh, I thought. Did she think my coupons were fraudulent?

Fortunately for me, the cashier then asked, “Did you get these from your e-mail?”, following that up with some spiel about the good deals people get with CVS coupons + ECBs. She then asked the cashier next to her, “Why don’t I start doing these deals?”

Upon completion of checkout, my cashier told me about a guy who goes to that CVS every week, buys everything that has an ECB attached to it, then returns the items while keeping the ECBs.

(Tangent: Is this even possible? I thought the return of items that generate ECBs invalidate those rewards in question.)

Gosh I hate customers like that; these people are the one that kill hot deals for others. Costco’s return policy comes to mind…

For the record, I bought a bottle of baby oil (-$2 mfr coupon), some D batteries (-$5 coupon), and a box of free CVS brand Kleenex. After the $2 ECB I used, I paid a cool $0.13.

- Here are my Week 14 (Fantasy) Football thoughts:

1) So now that we know that the Jets may have been the ones that started this whole Spygate crap, does this mean the Patriots* are now vindicated?

Ugh.

(Tangent, sorta: In this wacky sports year of 2007–Boise State over Oklahoma, college football #1s and #2s losing every week, Tim Donaghy, Spygate, etc. etc. etc.–it’s refreshing to know that two of sports’ most consistent “performers” (Randy Moss and Terrell Owens) are back to their old antics. All this season, I’ve been hearing how neither Moss nor Owens has acted up, and now I hear about the following:

- Apparently Randy Moss has been caught on tape quitting on certain plays (if/when I find a link to this story, I’ll provide it). I can’t wait for Moss to give up on a critical play during the playoffs.

- Terrell Owens took a run at former Cowboy WR Keyshawn Johnson, obviously unhappy with the fact that Johnson tried to give some credit to Parcells for the Cowboys’ success in 2007. Thank you, TO, for giving me a reason to mute you every time I see your face on television again.

Ah…the more things change, the more they stay the same.)

2) Former coach Bobby Petrino is a coward, disloyal, and a “disingenuous drifter.” Falcons owner Arthur Blank once called Petrino the “CEO” of his team; ESPN writer Len Pasquarelli suggests that CEO stands for “Changes Employers Often.” Well, at least he didn’t insist that he was going to remain the coach of the Atlanta Falcons (right, Nick Saban?).

Couldn’t the guy have stuck around for three more weeks? And I couldn’t believe he didn’t have the decency to announce his resignation directly to his players; he left a note in each player’s locker!

What a great example Petrino is setting for his players in Arkansas, huh?

3) Fantasy Football update: It took a pair of minor miracles (4 TDs by Matt Hasselbeck, a garbage-TD by Jamal Lewis, and two Drew Brees TDs to Marques Colston), but I made the playoffs in the Bargainshare Fantasy Football league! Unfortunately for me, I now face the same team that ousted me last year, so I’m probably going to be one-and-done again this year

In one of the other leagues I participated in, I somehow backed into the playoffs! IIRC, I had to win in Week 14 AND had two other teams lose, and I guess that’s exactly what happened :D.

I’m tired and pissed off right now, so let’s just get to the final story of the day.

- (from Consumerist) Apparently CompUSA and Bobby Petrino both subscribe to the “Save Face By Leaving Notes Instead of Actually Talking to People” when it comes to handing out bad news. How else can you explain this pathetic excuse of a pink slip?

Later.

Tags: Deals, Sports by Peter
1 Comment »

Quick-hitters:

- My silicone-gel keyboard wrist rest has gone AWOL!  For the love of carpal tunnel syndrome!

If anyone has seen my wrist rest, please let me know :P.

- I am in desperate need of a hair cut, but I hate getting my hair cut in the Fall/Winter.  My “helmet” does a great job of keeping my head warm!

(The term “helmet” came from a high school friend, who once noted that my hair would look like Darth Vader’s helmet if I allowed it to grow too long.)

If I get a hair cut, I might freeze to death!  After all, people lose a good deal of body heat through the head; I was told that we could lose up to 60% of body heat through the head, but Wikipedia says it’s closer to 40%.

As cold as it is right now, it is not going to stop me from enjoying this chilled navel orange.

- CompUSA is closing down.   You won’t find me shedding a tear over this news.

- So I’ve come down a bit from my euphoria upon the Dodgers’ signing of Andruw Jones.  Here are some added thoughts on the deal:

1) The more I think about the deal, the more I fear that this is going to work like just about every other Ned Colletti signing (Schmidt, Gonzo, Pierre, etc.).   Thinking about this possibility, combined with the possibility that Colletti is going to deal Kemp or Ethier—he’ll probably end up getting rubbish—just made me spit up an orange slice.

By the way, why do we have to trade Kemp or Ethier?  I read somewhere (a commenter on ESPN?) that we could deal both and let Jason Repko and Delwyn Young compete for the fourth OF job.  That thought just made me spit up some more of my orange.

2) Why do we need another big-time starter?  Isn’t Penny, Billingsley, Lowe, and two from Schmidt(?)/Loaiza/Kuo/minor-leaguers good enough? Isn’t there a reclamation project somewhere we could try out?

If the Dodgers insist on getting a big-dollar pitcher, it better be Hiroki Kuroda.  I’d rather overpay an intriguing FA than give up the farm for a rental.

3) I’m sure this joke has been made a million times already, but when was the last time two teams in the same geographic area overpaid for two overrated CFs each?

As bad as the Pierre signing was, though, I’d still rather have Pierre and Jones for ~$80 million than Gary Matthews Jr. and Torii Hunter for $140 million.

- By now, my loyal readers should know about my disdain for Symantec (really, Parago) rebates.

(Non-tangent:  This orange is actually pretty awful.  I have thus switched to a microwaved burrito.)

As much as I hate Parago, though, at least they are pretty good about validating previously rejected rebates; a simple phone call or email, insisting that your rebate was wrongfully rejected, usually gets the job done.  I wish the same could be said for Young America-run Web-rebates.com.

I have one rebate, for $10, on a PCI Wi-Fi card, that hasn’t been resolved since mid-August.  I was told that I could mail in a copy of the UPC to rectify the problem.  I have since mailed in a copy of the UPC twice, and emailed Web-rebates.com (via the Contact Us link at youngamerica.com) several times, and these clowns still have not fixed this rebate.  In fact, I called in about a month ago regarding this rebate, and the rep told me that she did receive one of the mail-in resubmissions, but that was missing the UPC copy as well!  WTF?

I now have to deal with two rebates, both of which were rejected for not including a receipt showing the purchase of the product in question.  I guess the person filing my rebate either completely missed my copy of the receipt, or missed the highlighted AND circled part of my receipt showing the required purchase.

What really sucks is that I have another $200 in rebates or so that is being fulfilled by these morons.  Fantastic!

Tags: Cust. Service, Sports by Peter
1 Comment »

Brrrrr….

Quick-hitters:

- Current rebate-o-meter: still at $2,600, though at least $300 in checks will be coming to me in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately for me, Christmas shopping isn’t yet complete.

(Tangent: I’m sure my loyal readers have discussed this topic before amongst their circles, but is giving gifts w/missing UPCs ever kosher? Are there situations where it is ever OK to do this?)

- Don’t you hate it when you’re mailing out a bunch of documents—rebates, naturally, in my case—and you are short a single stamp?

Argh!

- It took only a few weeks and several phone calls, but my condo intercom phone number has finally been changed! At least they didn’t take their sweet time to get the job done.

(Or, as my UPS guy put it, they averaged two [phone] digits every week.)

- Super-duper quick Week 13 (Fantasy) Football thoughts:

1) Here, read ESPN’s TMQ for my thoughts on the Pats-Ravens game. Everything he says, I would have said, except he writes about 20,000x better than I do.

2) Fantasy Football update: I’m out of playoff contention in three leagues, and have to win and get help to sneak in in a fourth.

I may have to retire the “(Fantasy)” part of my blog description.

3) It was sad to see the Redskins not win against Buffalo, and it was especially sad to see the reason why: two consecutive time outs in an attempt to ice the kicker. That is illegal under NFL rules, and it results in a fifteen (!!!) yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The penalty made a possible 51-yard game winning FG attempt a 36-yard attempt, which Buffalo K Rian Lindell nailed to win the game.

Ouch.

- So I suffered a devastating loss today, and I’m pissed off about it!

(dramatic pause)

One of the feet on my beloved Microsoft Blue Optical Mouse fell off!!!!!

(:P)

I’ve had this mouse for years—the feet are incredibly worn out—and unfortunately, I must now find a replacement for it.

Right now, I’m eyeing the Logitech VX Revolution mouse sitting on my desk right now; it’s supposed to be a Christmas gift, but it looks awfully cool…

- A few minutes before I started this blog, I went to MSN Sports’ home page, and I saw a blurb about free agent CF Andruw Jones and the word “Hollywood.” It took a few minutes for me to piece together exactly what those words meant…

THE DODGERS SIGNED ANDRUW JONES??? THE DODGERS SIGNED ANDRUW JONES!!!

Yes, I’m fully aware that Andrew Jones, who signed for two years and a somewhat ridiculous $36.2 million, could very well turn out to be another Jason Schmidt (overpaid and came with injury risks but at least it was a short-term deal) . I realize he hit .222 last season, with a .311 OBP, and hit only 26 HRs and drove in only 94 RBIs. I understand that he had poor plate discipline last year, but consider the following:

1) The Dodgers just signed a 10-time Gold Glove winner coming off the worst season of his career to a very short-term deal. As pointed out by one of my new favorite sites (MLBtraderumors.com):

The salary structure to Jones’ deal is interesting: $9MM in ‘08, $15MM in ‘09, and a $12MM signing bonus. That setup could make Jones much more tradeable if the need arises.

If he completely stinks up the joint next year, who’s to say that we couldn’t trade him to a contender willing to take a chance on him?

(EDIT:  Whoops!  From what I’ve heard, Jones got a no-trade clause added to his contract.)

And, as a myopic Dodger fan, I have to believe that last season was the exception and not the rule, right? j

2) He’s going to roam CF in Dodger Stadium, meaning Colletti could now move Ethier or Kemp in a deal for a front-of-the-rotation starter (Bedard? Haren?). Or, if he could find the right sucker, perhaps he could dump Juan Pierre on somebody!

3) We just signed a Scott Boras client. Clearly any rumors of friction between Ned Colletti and Scott Boras were overblown.

By the way, I cannot believe Boras would agree to a deal that would make Jones 33 years old by the start of his next deal. What if Jones doesn’t age gracefully? Depending on what Jones does in the next two seasons, Boras might have just cost his client a great deal of money. Or, perhaps, maybe he made Jones extra money with this deal; maybe Jones never recovers from last season’s slump.

4) We didn’t pay $90 million for five years of Torii Hunter, or $70 million or so for five years of Aaron Rowand.

If the Dodgers could work a deal for one more bat (Scott Rolen, maybe?) and/or another starter (not necessarily a front-of-the-line guy), I can’t help but be optimistic about next year’s team. Rolen seems to be a good possibility, given his awful relationship with Cards’ manager Tony LaRussa, and especially considering the latest spat between the two. As for the starter, I just hope we don’t decide to overpay for Carlos Silva or Kyle Lohse.
Of course, if Colletti keeps Ethier and Kemp, that means Pierre will eat into the playing time of one of those guys. Why, oh why, did we have to sign Pierre last year? Why couldn’t we have just re-signed Kenny Lofton last season?

Until next time!

Tags: Sports, Technology by Peter
3 Comments »

I’m such a slacker…

Quick-hitters:

- Argh!  Watching the Pats-Ravens game was so aggravating!  I was SO hoping for the Pats to choke!

Full commentary on that game tomorrow, along with yet another reason why I hate Fantasy Football.

- I could not believe that my Bruins lost to Texas on Sunday!  What an awful first half!  I hope UCLA coach Ben Howland does something to fix the slow starts that the Bruins have had in recent games.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $2,600.  That includes the $400 or so in rebate checks I got over the last two weeks, and I have yet to file over $300 worth of rebates.

Anyone wanna bet on whether or not I’ll hit $3,000 again by the end of the month?

Speaking of rebates…seriously, Symantec, why even offer upgrade rebates if you’re going to reject every single one I try to claim?  I filed four more upgrade rebates in the past month, and all four were rejected for various reasons.

- I’m not sure if my loyal readers knew this, but I love CVS.  ECBs + rebates FTW!

(Rite Aid Single Check Rebates don’t suck either.)

I got eight bottles of Febreze, a bottle of Tums, some soda and Doritos, four bottles of mouthwash, a Gilette Fusion razor blade, and a stick of Degree “Clinical Strength” deodorant.  Net cost:  about ten bucks, and it would have been three bucks less if the cashier had followed my simple instructions of scanning my ECBs in the order I stacked them.

(Yeah, I know I’m whining about three bucks here, but WTH?  I handed him three ECBs–a $10, a $5, and a $2–stacked on top of one another.  What gave him the idea to scan the $10 first (on the top), then the $2 one (on the bottom???

Note to self:  hand the cashiers coupons and ECBs one at a time from now on.)

So why so much crap?  The Febreze worked out to about a buck a bottle.  The Tums made me a buck after rebate (minus tax and the stamp, of course).  Each bottle of mouthwash netted me $1.50.  The razor and the deodorant were free after Rite Aid SCR.  I rest my case.

- I hate this time of year, weather-wise.  It’s kinda warm in the daytime–there’s enough sun to make it not cold–but it gets ridiculously cold and windy at night.   I almost long for the ~120 degree summer days again.

(I know, I know; I shouldn’t be complaining about night time temps in the low 40s.)

Rain is in the forecast in the next few days…fantastic!  And I’m considering a trip up to NorCal at the end of the month?  I must be insane!

(Tangent:  Until last night, I have never heard “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” sung by Rod Stewart and Dolly Parton.  My ears are still bleeding from hearing the song last night.

If I hear the song again, I might just pass out.  I’d rather listen to a record of chalkboard/fingernail scratching on infinite loop than hear that song one more time.)

Somebody get me an electric blanket.

- If you are the only coffee drinker in your house, and you do not brew coffee with a coffee press of some sort, you must be insane or only drink coffee five minutes before you leave the house.  No thanks to my sister, who was kind enough to give me a canister of Folgers Simply Smooth coffee, I am now hooked on coffee.

(Tangent:  I don’t want to be chewed out for suggesting that one can make a “perfect cup of coffee” using Folgers.  Go away.

And by the way, yeah, you’re right.)

I have one of these Vietnamese coffee presses, and all I know is that this Folgers coffee tastes like crap when brewed in my sister’s Gevalia coffee-maker, and it’s quite tasty when brewed with my press.  Water quality doesn’t explain the difference; my sister uses water filtered through her refrigerator–quite tasty water, by the way–while I use Brita pitcher water, which is drinkable only if I pass the water through the filter 2-3 times.

Drool…typing this up just tempted me to brew another cup of coffee.  Yes, I’m an addict.

Later.

Tags: Deals, Food, Random by Peter
4 Comments »