Cold Desert

Hope everyone had a better Christmas than Harold Pinter.

Too soon?

I'm not a doctor.

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I've mentioned several times how AJ often seems much older than he is (7). To wit: the top three items on his Christmas list this year were:

1) Electric guitar
2) Laptop computer
3) Plasma TV

Um...he didn't get any of those. Maybe if I hadn't chopped that MGM tourney and went for first. X and I contemplated going halvsies on the guitar, but I balked at taking on the added expense of lessons at this point in our country's financial state, not to mention the bankruptcy of my place of employment. Not like the kid didn't make out, what with four--FOUR!--different holiday celebrations/gift-unwrappings. Part of what makes him totally okay with his parents' divorce, I suppose.

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Had Christmas dinner at Mom's where my brother-in-law, a vice cop in one of the most economically depressed areas of the desert, had us in stitches with some "Stupid Criminals" stories. My favorite was the baggy-panted drug dealer he rolled up on. Chris patted him down despite repeated claims of not-holding innocence and found a dozen rocks and $700 in cash in various pants pockets. The cagey dealer's reaction?

"These aren't my pants."

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AJ did get FIFA '09 for his Wii and played a few games before we headed off to Mom's. He wanted to be ManU, but I threatened to take it away if he didn't play Liverpool. In the first match against West Brom, Torres had a hat-trick and Keane missed two sitters. This would be the perfect spot for me to make a "life imitates art" joke, but Keane-O had a brace today against Bolton, so I'll withhold.

Top of the table on Boxing Day! I still have my doubts about the Reds' ability to win the Premiership, but it would be nice to be IN the race when spring springs. So far, so good.

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You have to admire the Yankees. They remind me of a man going through a mid-life crisis, spending wildly on new cars and squiring around a big-breasted trophy wife pitcher.

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Blogger TOC tomorrow on Fantasy Sports Live. Al, on_thg and I for 150 marbles. Can you feel the excitement?

I really am pretty average at the Fantasy Sports thing. I've only won a single season in my long history (last year) and that was after Charger-ing into the playoffs at 7-7 and having my teams over-perform for two weeks (though I did draft Randy Moss in the 4th round, so I'm not a total fool). I've never even sniffed a payout in baseball. But I hold my own on FSL. Primarily because I get to pick a new team every week. I don't do any real research, other than reading various sites/newspapers and looking at matchups. I think I've won like $40 over the course of the 16 weeks of the National. Football. League.

The fun comes from sweating my teams, of course. Or watching a relatively meaningless Lions-Saints tilt and screaming at the screen because Drew Brees is in obvious stat-padding mode and Rod Marinelli's son-in-law is too fucking stupid to bring 8 guys to try to plant Brees into the Ford Field turf, because, you know, how you're doing it now is wrong. Might want to change things up. Or learn how to defend a screen pass.

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Been cold and rainy lately in the desert. In fact, I had ice on my car this ayem. I literally had to turn the hose on my windshield so I could see to drive!

Hehe.

But it's supposed to warm up tomorrow, so Emet and I are going to Santa Anita. Forecast is sunny and beer-y. Want me to make any bets for ya? I'll accept Full Tilt or Stars transfers.

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Gotta play on Sunday.