UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Wow, it seems that I have abandoned this blog for quite some time.

I hope I still remember how to do this…assuming I knew how to do this in the first place.

Random thoughts (aka a super sized “Quick hitters”):

- My loyal readers (all none of you) might have realized that I have yet to post a review for last week’s episode of The Office. That might have something to do with the fact that I have yet to watch last week’s episode!

Yes, I’m ashamed of myself…unfortunately, I skipped The Office to play Shot-Online during the bonus EXP days.

- Speaking of Shot-Online, a brief update: after grinding out the game over the weekend, I haven’t played much since. I logged in for several hours, nonetheless, but mostly just to go auction house hunting.

I’m at the point in the game where I should really be playing on Cadeiger. However, I hate the course so much that I’ve been pretty much sticking to Rufus Arena or easier courses for the caddy experience.

I might just quit using this character and start working on one of my other characters.

- It’s been rainy and cold…and yet pretty warm at the same time (???) the last few days.

Can’t the weather gods make up their damn mind?

- We swung by Costco a couple days ago, and somehow managed to only spend $50!

(Well, we really spent $100, but half of that was on a membership renewal.)

Of course, we dropped by VONS right after that and blew $30 on junk food and steaks :P.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1650 and rising.

(And it’s not even Black Friday yet!)

(EDIT: Haha…I need to add another $210 to that total :P)

Time for a couple customer service-related rants!

(If I’ve ranted about WorldwideRebates.com before, I do apologize.)

- Back in early September, I mailed out four rebates to WorldwideRebates.com. Three of the rebates showed up in their system rather quickly, but the fourth has still yet to show up.

I called the 800# on the rebate form, and once I got to the “We’ll connect you to an operator” prompt, I waited on hold for a couple seconds. That’s when I got a message that said something like “Thanks for calling…all of our operators are busy…please call back.”

*click*

Seriously? I can’t stay on hold? I have to call back, sit through the IVR, connect to an operator, and repeat ad nauseum until I can actually reach a live operator?

Fortunately, Frys.com is going to assist me in this matter.

- Thank you, Fedex. Thank you for not leaving me a Door Tag when you supposedly delivered my package at my doorstep on Thursday. Thank you for not returning my call 48 hours after I called in on the following Monday to inquire about the whereabouts of my package. Thank you for making me wait an additional 48 hours after I called in on the following Thursday to check the status of my case. And thank you for finally telling me, yesterday, that the package was lost and that I should contact the shipper to initiate a claim.

The best part is, I’ve got two more packages coming from Fedex this week! YAY!

*cry*

- Fantasy football updates:

Kyle Orton’s injury didn’t sink me in one league, as I eked out a 66-65 victory to get to 4-5, tied for seventh place. Four teams are only one game ahead of me, at 5-4, meaning I might still have a shot at a playoff spot!

Chad Pennington was available on the waiver wire, so he’ll be my Week 10 QB.

In my other league, a strong effort by Pittsburgh’s D—seven sacks, two picks, a blocked kick, and six points allowed—propelled me to my fifth straight win and a 6-2-1 record, good for tied for second in that league. In fact, the top three teams in the league have now won a combined fourteen games in a row!

Non fantasy-football thoughts:

- Another bad Dallas Cowboys loss, and…NOTHING FROM T.O.??? WTF??? What am I supposed to talk about?

Well, how about the fact that the New York Giants are coping without Jeremy Shockey and Michael Strahan just fine?

Eh, that’s no fun.

- Is it just me, or is Indy rounding into “Team that nobody wants to face” form? Sure, they struggled to get past a Tom Brady-less Patriots team, and yeah, they still don’t have a run game, and yeah, the Colts won the game on a couple boneheaded decisions by the Pats (that timeout called by Belicheck which nullified a first down and that idiotic personal foul penalty on what would have been third and short), and yeah, the Colts needed a 52 yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri, and…

Wait…what was my point?

Yeah, the Colts are finished.

- Minus-2 first half yards? ZERO first downs? Seventy-seven total yards?

Was I watching the Oakland Raiders offense or the Washington State offense against USC? The Raiders should be forced to forfeit their next game just for that abomination.

- So the Titans are now 8-0. Are they for real yet, after being a solid Green Bay Packers team?

Yeah, they’re for real, and they could conceivably be 14-0 going into their final two games (PIT, @IND). They play @CHI (minus Kyle Orton), @JAX (more on them later), NYJ (Brett Favre = Pick Six potential?), @DET, CLE, and @HOU. Which of those teams will Tennessee be underdogs against?

- And finally, didn’t I say last week that JAX @ Cincy was a “trap game”???

And who does JAX play next week? Freaking Detroit! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I’m tired, so that will have to be it for tonight. Until next time!

(Look, Ma! No Diva Favre commentary!)

Tags: bill belicheck, cadeiger, costco, dallas cowboys, fedex, indianapolis colts, new england patriots, oakland raiders, random thoughts, rebate-o-meter, rufus arena, shot-online, tennessee titans, The Office, vons, worldwiderebates by Peter
1 Comment »

I’m in a pretty bad mood right now, so pardon me if this blog is a bit more negative than usual.

(I know, I know…MORE negative?)

Quick-hitters:

- Still no resolution from Costco…though the manager is only partially to blame. I tried calling him twice more last week, and he was not in on either day.

I have yet to call since :P.

- My forehead is still sore from the smackdown I received from my favorite cashier at the Encino CVS.

(You remember this, right?)

Two days ago, I dropped by for the first time in a month (!!!!!), and I ended up spending $7 out of pocket! You should have seen her reaction this time!

“SEVEN DOLLARS??? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HAND ME A QUARTER!!!”

And then…***SMACK***, right on the forehead!

(OK, so it was more like a V8 commercial-like tap on the forehead, but still, it was pretty damn funny.)

Fortunately, after seeing the 3-4 ECBs that printed out, she decided that it would be OK to return to the store for my future CVS shopping needs.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1052, and rising.

Thank goodness for the 2009 FAR software “season!”

Yeah, I know I skipped last week’s NFL Thoughts, but I promise I’ll make it up to you.

- Fantasy football updates:

Fortunately for me, what will forever be known as the “Steven Jackson game” did not ruin me. I was blown out anyway. I am now 2-5 in that league, and facing the top team next week.

(So should I hex the other Steven Jackson owners in the Fantasy Football universe and play him this week?)

In my other league, I’m on a 3-0-1 run to get to 4-2-1, good for third place. I really like my chances in this league, even without a healthy Brian Westbrook.

Non-fantasy football thoughts:

- Awwwww…Brett Favre is angry, over the reports that he spoke with former Lions’ GM Matt Millen, offering “strategic Packers information” to the Lions.

Poor baby.

Where should I start?

“It happens more than you know,” Favre said. “Don’t think for a second that, you know, when Mike McCarthy left in ‘99, went to the Saints, the next year we played them, they put it to us, that he didn’t tell his guys what they thought. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Note to Diva Favre: the “Other people do it, so it must be OK” argument never works! Nice try, though.

“I guess I’m a little bit angry because I think my reputation has been well respected throughout the years,” Favre said. “Any time that’s questioned, the type of teammate I am, it does anger me, I’m not going to lie to you.”

You must have been quite angry over the damage your rep took over this past offseason, huh? Then again, that’s probably the media’s fault.

“Believe me,” Favre said, “I’m trying my best to help this team win, the New York Jets. Spending no time trying to make the Packers lose. I got enough on my plate, believe me.”

“Believe me. I’m trying my best to help this team win by thinking about retirement until training camp.” I can’t wait for him to try this line out during the offseason.

Now that I got the cheap shots out of the way, let me just say that Favre is…R…RIIII…RIGHT. People talk all the time. Exactly how is anybody going to prove that Favre told Millen (assuming they did speak about schemes and strategies) what the Lions’ coaches couldn’t already figure out by watching tapes? More importantly, the NFL has already considered it a non-issue, so I guess that’s good enough for me.

- Do you realize that:

The Cowboys could be 4-6 after their game at Washington?

(Speaking of the Cowboys, how I will live without some T.O. news this week???)

The Colts could be 3-6 after their game at Pittsburgh, and could easily be 1-8?

The Rams are three upsets away from being a legitimate playoff contender?

(I can dream, can’t I?)

The New York Bretts could be 4-8 after their game versus Denver, sparking Favre to consider returning to his team the following week at San Francisco?

(I can dream, can’t I?)

- I thought Chicago and Minny had two premier defenses. Eighty-nine points combined? Yikes.

- So is New England that good, or is Denver that…average?

Of course, Cutler’s finger injury played a huge role in the outcome of that game, but Denver’s D couldn’t stop a Pop Warner RB right now.

(Fantasy football tangent: Selvin Young, please stay injured. I am enjoying the Michael Pittman show.)

EDIT: OK, the tangent above was a bit of a low blow, on the heels of this article chronicling the Broncos’ injury woes. It’s incredible that the 3-4 Chargers (no, you guys should not be 5-2…please stop that) are only a game out of first place in the AFC West, and could very well beat out the Broncos for the division title.

And finally…

- Raise your hand if you had the Tennessee Titans as the only unbeaten team left in the league. To borrow a thought from ESPN’s Bill Simmons, there’s some serious “Ewing Potential” with this team, now that Vince Young is no longer the QB.

It’s probably the media’s fault that Young isn’t the QB any more, though.

Until next time (later tonight, that is!).

Tags: brett favre, brian westbrook, cashier, costco, cvs, dallas cowboys, denver broncos, diva favre, fantasy football, indianapolis colts, matt millen, new england patriots, new york jets, rebate-o-meter, steven jackson, tennessee titans by Peter
No Comments »

Let’s see if I remember how to do this.

(Week 1 NFL thoughts to come tomorrow…I hope.)

Random thoughts from the past week:

- Stupid commercials I’ve seen lately:

1) These two about high-fructose corn syrup. I was going to attempt a long-winded rant about these commercials, but I’ll let The Consumerist and their readers handle it.

2) “Pasta player-hater!” WTF.

- I have something like ten rebates that need to go out in the next week or so.

Who wants to bet that I won’t send them out until two days before the postmark deadline?

- Eight straight wins, and now nine of ten. A 2.5 game lead over Arizona. Four wins against Arizona aces (Brandon Webb and Dan Haren).

Three thoughts here:

1) Why aren’t teams giving Manny the Barry Bonds treatment? Manny had another HR today, as well as a scoring fly ball. Can we etch his name on the MVP award right now?

2) Speaking of Manny…hey, Jeff Kent, Andre Ethier is Exhibit B of the Manny effect, is he not? He had four more RBI today, including a huge bases-clearing double to give the Dodgers’ bullpen some breathing room.

Don’t rush back, Kent.

3) Derek Lowe just made himself a ton of money over the past few weeks. And who knows how much more money Manny made himself.

- So some of you might be thinking that I was kicking up my heels and celebrating the season-ending torn ACL that Tom Brady suffered.

You’d be wrong, and I will neither confirm nor deny that that eleventy billion replays I’ve seen of the hit that Brady took might have changed my opinion of the injury. Despite what I may have written in the past about the Cheat-riots, nobody deserves a season-ending knee injury, especially on a fluke play in the first quarter of the first game of the season.

And please stop with the “karma’s a b!tch” talk. If anything, the Pats got what was coming to them in last year’s Super Bowl.

I first heard of the injury when I woke up late Sunday morning, fired up my laptop, and saw something about Brady leaving the Chiefs-Pats game early in the first quarter with a knee injury. When I first read that headline, I immediately thought “Oh oh…season ender?” After seeing the replay for the first time, I was about 90% sure he was done for the year.

Was the hit dirty? I don’t think so. It seemed desperate, and definitely unnecessary, but I didn’t think it was dirty at all.

What sickens me about the entire situation is the fact that one could argue that Diva Favre’s Jets team might very well be the favorites in the AFC East. If the Jets win the East (even with Brady’s injury), we might not hear the end of it until after the Super Bowl, even if the Jets lose in the first round of the playoffs! Worse, we might have to suffer through weeks and weeks of “See? The Packers should never have gotten rid of Favre!”

(shudder…)

More NFL thoughts next time…

- My two fantasy football drafts had one thing in common: I somehow missed the first pick of each draft.

Both leagues are Yahoo! standard, ten-team leagues. Unfortunately, I was not able to get twelve players to partake in a BargainShare league. Oh well.

(Note: For some reason, I’m having difficulty getting screenshots of my draft results. As soon as I figure out what is going on, I’ll post the full draft results. For now, I’ll just list my team.)

Team 1 (currently 0-1 and in DEAD FREAKING LAST):

• Round 1, Pick 4: RB Steven Jackson

(Grrrr…I was going to draft Joseph Addai here. I was also considering Tom Brady here, so at least I didn’t do that!)

• Round 2, Pick 17: WR Reggie Wayne

(Peyton Manning better get back into “game-shape” real soon.)

• Round 3: RB Maurice Jones-Drew
• Round 4: QB Carson Palmer

(This is the pick that is going to make or break my team. So far, I’m leaning towards “break.”)

• Round 5: WR Roy Williams

(I was going to take Williams in round 4, and was very happy to see him fall to me in round 5.)

• Round 6: TE Dallas Clark
• Round 7: DST Minnesota

(Don’t ask.)

• Round 8: WR Donald Driver
• Round 9: RB Thomas Jones

(Sleeper! And with the way Steven Jackson and the Rams are playing, he might be a starter soon enough.)

• Round 10: WR Bernard Berrian
• Round 11: WR Reggie Brown
• Round 12: K Phil Dawson

(He has since been dropped.)

• Round 13: RB Kevin Smith (Lions)
• Round 14: WR Drew Bennett

(Rams’ loyalty :P)

• Round 15: QB Jeff Garcia

I could see this team easily finishing 5-9 or something like that. I am not too thrilled with this team, and believe it or not, this was my “casual” draft.

Team 2 (1-0, second place after scoring 111 pts):

• Round 1, Pick 4: RB Brian Westbrook

(I actually wanted Addai here too. I think I’ll live with this pick.)

• Round 2, Pick 17: RB Ryan Grant
• Round 3: WR Andre Johnson
• Round 4: WR Roy Williams
• Round 5: TE Antonio Gates

(Why was I not notified that he still has a foot injury???)

• Round 6: QB Donovan McNabb

(Possibly my best pick of both drafts, if he stays healthy.)

• Round 7: WR Donald Driver
• Round 8: WR Jerricho Cotchery
• Round 9: DST Pittsburgh
• Round 10: RB Selvin Young

(Michael Pittman? Andre Hall? Stupid Mike Shanahan :P)

• Round 11: WR Nate Burleson

(Ouch…torn ACL? Now who is Matt Hasselbeck going to throw to?)

• Round 12: K Phil Dawson

(Dropped.)

• Round 13: RB Justin Fargas
• Round 14: QB Matt Schaub
• Round 15: WR Ronald Curry

If (and that’s a huge IF) my top six stay healthy, this team is going to be a force to reckon with…I think.

Until next time!

Tags: andre ethier, derek lowe, fantasy football, hfcs, high fructose corn syrup, jeff kent, los angeles dodgers, manny ramirez, new england patriots, season ending injury, stupid commercials, tom brady, torn acl by Peter
No Comments »

No quick-hitters tonight.

My jaw is still hurting from Stripped.

- Today was a great day.  One day after clamoring for a Diva Favre trade to the New York Jets, it actually happened!!!

I feel like a kid in a candy store…on Christmas Day.  In fact, I was so happy when I heard this news that I declared myself a Patriots’ fan for two days:  Sunday, September 14, and Thursday, November 13.

(Soon after I typed that, I started hyperventilating.  I may need to re-think that idea.)

Let me rephrase:  on those two days, I will be cheering heavily AGAINST the Jets.

(That’s better.)

I’m not even going to waste my time analyzing the events of today; I’ll just let my new favorite sports writer express his feelings, and I’ll agree with him 100%.

- We took off for the Kodak Theatre at around 5:45PM, and got there at around 6:15PM.  We decided to have dinner at uWink, frankly because it was the only restaurant nearby that 1) wasn’t Quiznos, and 2) didn’t have a line extending out of it.

(Fun facts:  apparently this uWink opened back in May of 2008.  In addition, the founder of uWink also founded Atari and Chuck E. Cheese:

Following the success of the first location in Woodland Hills, Nolan Bushnell, former CEO and founder of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese…)

The concept of the restaurant is pretty cool:  the menus are digitalized, using a touch-screen terminal at each table.  You enter each diner’s name, enter the order for each person, and then you simply “send” the entire order to the kitchen.  Most food items are completely customizable (examples:  types of bread, doneness, types of cheese, etc., for your burgers), and you could even order drink refills from the touch-screen.  The terminals also offer various games to pass the time.

(Apparently, these terminals run MacOS.  How do I know?  Our console crashed, and when it was rebooted, I immediately recognized the MacOS screen :P).

Food was pretty good—we all had cheeseburgers, mine with Bleu Cheese and bacon, Nancy with sweet potato fries—but the service was S L O W, and therefore, our food came pretty cold.  We sat down around 6:50PM, and didn’t get our food until nearly 7:20PM, not giving us much time to eat.  It’s a good thing that the Kodak Theatre was literally next door.  At least my drink refill came pretty quickly.

- I won’t go into too much detail about Stripped, but let me summarize the night with this tidbit:  both myself and the guy sitting two seats to my right were crying during the performance…TEN MINUTES IN.

(Too bad he started nearly 20 minutes late, which in Los Angeles time, means he started ten minutes early.)

Izzard started off with a bang, hitting on two easy targets:  Los Angeles itself (remember Dress to Kill, where he made fun of San Francisco?) and George W. Bush.  I was kinda shocked, actually, when he not once, but three times (by my count) insisted that we all vote for Barack Obama.

As usual, religion, language, and animals dominated the show.  In almost George Carlin-esque fashion, he questioned the 6,000 year old Earth theory, opined about Noah’s Ark (poor squirrel!), and ribbed the Ten Commandments (”Thou shall cover thy neighbor’s ox???”).  Language—even animal communication!—also occupied a good part of the routine, and in typical Eddie Izzard fashion, he veered way off-topic several times.

Of course, what Eddie Izzard stand-up routine would be complete without his constant gyrating about, coupled with his facial expressions?  Too bad I was way up in the nosebleeds, so I couldn’t get a good look at his face.  I could imagine how dumb he looked at times, though :P.

My two favorite moments:

1) The image of a soldier being impaled by a Hoplite, then pulling himself forward on the spear, pushing himself back and again pulling himself forward right before dying, will forever be burned into my retinas.

The sadistic “ha-HA” after each pull will not be soon forgotten either.

2) Izzard’s demonstration of how man went from a four-legged creature to a two-legged creature was just stupid funny.  While he got winded after that act, the crowd got winded from all the laughing.  I couldn’t see right for the next two minutes, as I had to wipe tears off my face.

Oh yeah, and as I correctly predicted, he tossed in a reference to his FX show, The Riches, which got a loud ovation from the crowd.

Damn bloke!

Tags: digital menu, diva favre, eddie izzard, MacOS, michael silver, new england patriots, new york jets, stripped, touch-screen terminal, uwink by Peter
1 Comment »

Quick-hitters:

- 92/101F today, and fortunately, only 27% humidity.  A few days ago, it was only 95F with about 45% humidity.

If it ever hits 100F with 45% humidity, you won’t see any new blogs on this site for a while

- The Olympics opening ceremonies start in two days!

Yawn.

- Tomorrow, I will be attending Eddie Izzard’s new show, Stripped, at the Kodak Theatre!

One might say that I’m so excited, I cannot hide it.

Since his first stage appearance on London’s West End in 1993 in the one-man show “Live at the Ambassadors”, there’s been a succession of sell-out and critically acclaimed International tours including “Glorious” in 1997, “Dress to Kill” in 1998, “Circle” in 2000 and the record breaking “Sexie” in 2003. Now Eddie’s “Stripped” and he’s coming to you.

I have five of his shows on DVD—everything from “Unrepeatable” to “Circle”—though I’ve only seen “Glorious,” “Dress to Kill,” and “Circle.”  I plan on doing a marathon session of Eddie Izzard tonight through tomorrow morning…sleep is overrated, right?

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,020 and still falling.

(Speaking of which, I have about $200 in rebates that must be filed in the next couple of days.  Oops!)

- Yesterday, we went errand-running at the usual hotspots.  The first stop was RiteAid, where, as expected, I missed out on all the good FA(SC)R deals.  I was only able to score some cheap body wash and bug spray for ~ $2 after coupons and rebates.  Meh.

Next stop:  CVS.  Unfortunately for me, I had run out of ECBs, so this entire trip was going to be paid for with…CASH!!!

(AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!)

My sister, on the other hand, at least had a single $2 ECB.

(Don’t ask me how we used up all our ECBs.  The story is too painful to retell.)

Needing to reload on ECBs, my sister and I each bought three FAECB items—Tums, Excedrin, and Extreme Energy shots—and she bought a couple packs of lip balm.

My total:  $18 (ouch!).  Her total:  $23 (WTF).  We both went into cardiac arrest after paying what we owed.

Finally, we stopped by Costco, where we were certain we were only going to buy a “few” things.  Clearly we were delirious at the time, probably from the CVS fiasco.  We got our usual fare—romaine lettuce, cucumbers, some snacks, and a rotisserie chicken for dinner—and we couldn’t resist another box of pluots, which were marked down to $5 for 15!  My sister also had to buy a bottle of wine for a get-together this weekend, and I couldn’t resist a tub of seafood salad (which I totally regret buying now; I didn’t expect it to be sweet!).  We also bought a bag of frozen breaded chicken tenderloins, which was priced at $12.99; I could’ve sworn that this stuff costs $15+.

Total bill:  $70 or so.  With the wine purchase, that bill was pretty reasonable.  Try convincing my sister of that, though :P.

- So I know I said I was done with the whole Diva Favre situation.  I know I said that the whole saga was probably coming to an end.

Double play.

Hey Diva, what happened to you wanting to come back to play for the Packers?

Favre seemed resigned to a future elsewhere, telling ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Tuesday morning that the “best thing for this team is for us to part ways.” (source)

And you Favre myopians still insist on rooting for the guy?

“They told him, ‘We’ll trade you, but not within the division,’” Favre’s agent, James “Bus” Cook, told USA Today for Wednesday’s editions. “His first desire was to play here. Their first desire was for him not to play here.”

I believe the Diva’s first desire was to screw over the entire Packers’ organization.  Something tells me he had no intention on wanting to come back.

Favre told Mortensen he doesn’t have a problem with competing with Aaron Rodgers for the starting job, and can “truly understand” why McCarthy would make Rodgers the starter. But Favre also said a competition “probably isn’t going to work” and that “the problem is that there’s been a lot of damage done and I can’t forget it.”

What a bunch of baloney.  This guy has sh!t all over Aaron Rodgers, from the day Rodgers was drafted!  Does anyone recall the day Favre said that (to paraphrase) that he was not responsible for grooming Rodgers?  And why wouldn’t a competition work?  You’re the better quarterback!  Take the job away from Rodgers, and put the final nail in his Green Bay coffin!

And as far as “damage,” I’m sure the Diva thinks he’s done little wrong.

And now I just heard on my TV that Favre is not exactly keen on a trade to Tampa Bay.  WTF?  I’ve said this several times before, and I’ll say it again:  YOU ARE NOT THE GENERAL MANAGER!  YOU DO NOT GET TO DICTATE WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO BE TRADED!!!

Please, please, please, trade Favre to the Jets!  I would pay to see the New England Patriots pummel Favre into the ground twice a year.  Hell, I’ll turn into a Pats’ fan for those two games if a deal to the Jets happens!  I will cheer on the Pats’ D to score 4-5 Pick-Sixes (INT returns for TD), even if I’m playing in a fantasy league where my opponent has the Pats’ DST!

(Did I REALLY just say all that?  Do you see how much I cannot stand this story?)

Two parting thoughts:

“The football team’s moving forward,” McCarthy said. “The train has left the station, whatever analogy you want. He needs to jump on the train and let’s go. Or, if we can’t get past things that have happened, I have to keep the train moving.”

My sister responded to this with:  “McCarthy can conduct the train, as long as Favre is tied to the tracks.”  Yikes!

Finally, Yahoo! Sports’ columnist Michael Silver is now my new favorite columnist.  Finally, someone who isn’t in love with Favre, telling it exactly like it is!

Tags: brett favre, circle, costco, cvs, definite article, diva favre, dress to kill, ecbs, eddie izzard, glorious, green bay packers, hot, live at the ambassadors, new england patriots, new york jets, olympics, opening ceremonies, rite aid, sexie, stripped, tampa bay buccaneers, unrepeatable by Peter
1 Comment »

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: baltimore ravens, coffee press, cold weather, cvs, folgers, new england patriots, rain, symantec rebates, texas longhorns, ucla bruins by Peter
5 Comments »