Wow. Way to go, NFL. Worst playoffs ever. There were so many blowouts and boring games, I don't even know where to begin. Despite there being some upsets along the way, the two teams with the best records made it through to the Superbowl. How boring. We could have predicted three months ago that these would be the two teams that made it to the Superbowl, and we would have been right. Where's the drama? Where is this "parity in the NFL" that we hear so much about?

The playoffs ended on a pretty deflating note last night. Brett Favre, after coming out of retirement again and exceeding everyone's expectations, proved he is still Brett Favre (and that is not a good thing). With his team in field goal range, he decided to make a risky throw on 3rd & 15 that was intercepted. Keep in mind that it was a tie game with fifteen seconds left in the 4th quarter. The reckless gunslinger had to take one more shot--had to throw away yet another season trying to be a hero. All he had to do was hold onto the ball and run a couple of open yards and the Vikings would have been able to kick a field goal and win the game in the final seconds. Instead the Saints marched down the field in overtime and won the game 31-28 because Favre had to try to win the game all by himself. It was all too similar to the NFC championship game in the 2007 season, where Favre was an interception machine and single-handedly lost the game for his team.

What a letdown.

Well, Tennis is back. The Australian Open is good because it ends an annual dry spell of tennis, but overall it's my least favorite of the major tournaments, mostly because the Australian fans are rubes. It's not rugby, just shut your pieholes already. Yesterday's controversy was not caused by native Australians, though.

One good thing about the Australian Open this year is that it marks the return of Justine Henin, my favorite player on either the men's or women's side. In May of 2008 (right before the French Open, her best tournament), Henin retired after 62 straight weeks at being ranked #1 in the world. No one has ever retired at #1 before. Since she left, there has been no clear-cut #1 player on the women's side (though Serena Williams might disagree with that statement). There have been five number ones in the past nineteen months, none for more than a few months at a time. Henin has already been called the best player of her generation, despite being 5'6" and under 130 pounds. The feeling is that she wants to win Wimbledon to solidify her legacy. She seems in excellent form thus far, like she never left.

Stephen seems a bit ill. His nose has been running a little for two days or so, and today when I got him up from his afternoon nap, his whole head was just radiating heat. I gave him some baby Tylenol and his temperature is currently 99.1°F and he seems to be feeling slightly better. He has been short on naps today, so I am hoping he takes a third nap soon... actually that may have just happened, though he keeps startling and waking himself up.

I have a breakfast smoothie that I have been perfecting. I have cut out the added sugar with my newest version. A banana, a strawberry/banana yogurt, milk, frozen strawberries, a few ice cubes, and a touch of vanilla extract (approximate nutrition information). It's quite a hearty meal and I can prepare and eat it in less than five minutes.

I have been in a bit of a slump with making/recording songs lately. I have started several songs in buzz, but they are going nowhere. It has actually been long enough that I am somewhat worried, though I have thought several times before that I was "finished," and it naturally worked its way back into my life. I just can't force it.. there is no point in doing it if it is not fun.

My toe is on the mend. With quickness. I'd still really like to know what happened. Having never broken a bone or sprained anything, this was easily the worst injury I've ever received. I guess I sprained/overextended/pulled a ligament in my big toe. Whatever connects to the top of your toes that allows you to pull them up was bruised and not functioning. I could curl my toe downward, but I could not lift it up. I'm actually surprised how quickly it's healing. After it happened, I skipped two of the next three dog walks, but I am back on the wagon now. My left leg is sore from walking awkwardly for two whole days.

Speaking of dogs, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the bad aspects of owning a dog far outweigh the good aspects, especially when you do not have a yard for them to play in. Now that I have a baby, it's even worse. Add to their arsenal the fact that they wake the baby up from his nap every time a package is left at our door. They can not get past baby gates, so that is another reason to open the gates 85 times per day. Stephen really likes the dogs though. Chloe can not stand to be anywhere near him, but Davis tolerates countless unspeakable acts. Stephen grabs fistfulls of Davis' loose skin, bites his legs, and crawls right on top of him (the dog is only 25 pounds). Davis takes it all in stride. The staircases in this house are split... six steps, turn around, six more steps. Chloe likes to hang out on the landing between these sets of steps. Well, Stephen can now climb up the stairs. If he gets up to the second step (out of six), Chloe retreats. She really does not want anything to do with Stephen.

There was a good Kurt Warner vs. Joe Montana statistic on ESPN yesterday, but I can't find it anywhere on the web. It was a list of the top 5 quarterbacks for throwing touchdowns in the playoffs. Joe Montana was number one with 45 touchdowns in 24 games (I think). Kurt Warner was number five with 31 touchdowns in 13 games, meaning he would throw nearly 60 touchdowns in 24 games if he kept up the same pace. Others on the list were Dan Marino and Brett Favre (39 TD's). Kurt Warner had far fewer games than anyone else on the list. Beyond the numbers, there really is no comparison. Joe Montana won four Superbowls and is the only player to ever receive three Superbowl MVP's.

I used the rest of the chicken, pico de gallo and chopped pepper mix to make more fajitas last night--only this time, with chicken. I have been doing well at cooking meals this week because Stephen's nap times have changed. His second nap is from approximately 4:30-6:30 in the evening now, which allows me to walk the dogs and cook dinner right after Jaime gets home. Unfortunately, the new nap times are not working out because he is staying up too late. Last night we were up until 11 o'clock. Not cool. He woke up at 2:40am this morning and did not want to go back to sleep. I did not want to cut into the milk supply, so we hung out in the rocking chair against his will for a while. He didn't appreciate that, so I laid him back down in his crib and got dressed, preparing to stay up with him and feed him, but by the time I had gotten some clothes on, he was back asleep. He ended up sleeping until 7:15 this morning, when we woke him up. I would rather him get up in the mornings and have the proper amount of nap time than have my mornings free.

Every weekend is more and more busy.

On Saturday at 11:10am, we saw Avatar in digital 3d. I have to say, I was not expecting much when we walked into the theater. I am not a fan of action movies, fantasy movies, or most any movie that cost over $50million to make. Having said that, I liked it more than I thought I would. There was definitely some poor acting by the main character and Michelle Rodriguez, but it wasn't horrible. And also, the mineral that they are mining is called "unobtainium." Really, James Cameron? Unobtainium? I understand that the term is sort of tongue-in-cheek, but it just sounds so awful when the actors try to say it with a straight face. The political and human rights side of it kind of bashed you over the head. I've heard James Cameron say that his pro-earth messages are subtle. Far from it. This is the non-cartoon version of FernGully.

Visually, it was definitely a step-up from anything I've ever seen. The first major motion picture to use CGI extensively was Jurassic Park, and to be honest, CGI characters haven't gotten that much better since Jurassic Park in my opinion. Every time Jurassic Park is on TV, I always marvel that the CGI in 1993 looked about 80% as good as most effects today. But Avatar was a step up. All the scenes where they were wandering around at night were phenomenal looking. This must be what it felt like when Star Wars came out.

Most people told me that it was not worth seeing unless you saw it in 3d. I guess 3d is the new trend to get people to go to the movies. This is marketed as some "new kind" of 3d, but this technology has been around about as long as I have. I saw 3d just as good as that (using the same technology of different polarization in each lens) in Disney World when I was six years old (Captain EO ftw). Fake 3d is more of a distraction for me than anything else. On one hand it's kind of cool, but on the other hand it's just not quite right and I'm always looking at the background instead of the foreground. Everything is just a little "off."

Then we ate at California Pizza Kitchen before picking up Stephen. Avocado egg rolls. Barbecue chicken pizza. Couple beers.

Yesterday was chores all day. I cut my hair, did four loads of laundry, and installed our new baby gate that can accommodate the weird angles and banisters at the top of our stairs. Installing that thing was no easy task. Seems like I still need to make a few adjustments, but it is going to work. We also went grocery shopping, cleaned up the house a little, and watched football.

Every NFL game this weekend turned out the way I wanted except for the Cowboys winning. That kind of pissed me off, actually. And of course, we were grocery shopping for the second half (and overtime) of the Cardinals/Packers game--the only good, exciting game all weekend. I think the Cardinals are my favorite team in the playoffs. Kurt Warner is an absolute machine in the post-season. When I was young, my family watched Joe Montana tear it up in the playoffs nearly every year, but I think Kurt Warner is just as good. He is every bit as calm as Joe Montana was, and more athletic. Warner's problem is that he will not run for yards... ever (and sometimes he likes to throw five interceptions in a game, but not in the post-season). Yesterday he completed 29 passes with a nearly 90% completion rate, and he threw more touchdowns than incompletions. Pretty staggering to throw five touchdowns and only four incomplete passes all day. The Cardinals were so efficient on offense that they only had five 3rd downs in the entire game.

We randomly started receiving Rolling Stone magazine addressed to my wife a while back. I'm not sure if someone bought us a subscription as a cruel joke or what. This month's edition features two massive articles about global warming. They do a big spread on the "earth's biggest enemies" and trash McCain and a lot of big oil executives and such. Just when I thought Rolling Stone couldn't get any worse. I know they have always focused on some things other than music, but how can you claim to be a voice of the counter-culture when you espouse the views of a major political party and Lady Gaga is on every other page?

My wife volunteered to walk the dogs for me this morning because we slept in and she didn't have time to do her normal morning routine. I said thanks and went back to sleep. Turns out it was nine degrees outside. Oops. Now she will never volunteer to do that again.

I was doing very well at making at least one post per day, but over the past 15 days I have fallen off. Things are back to normal now and hopefully I can continue.

On the night of September 12, 2009, a women's Semifinal match was being played at the U.S. Open. Serena Williams was down match point to Kim Clijsters when she (S. Williams) was called for a foot fault. She retaliated with a tirade and threatened bodily harm to the lines person responsible for making the call. She was penalized one point for the outburst, which cost her the match since it was match point. She was immediately fined $10,000. The incident can be seen here. Her post-match interview was unapologetic and flippant. I do not feel the need to go into the details of the actual events, because they were heavily reported at the time.

The ITF recently handed down an additional fine of $82,500 for the incident. She has not been suspended. Two days ago, she gave a somewhat official response, with a blog post hosted on globalgrind.com. Here are a few excerpts from the post:

Also for all those that don't know, I felt incredibly bad, and miserable for losing my cool, and most importantly not representing the person I really am spiritually and the role model I want to be to my young fans. [...] The fact is every professional athlete gets wronged in one way or another. And every athlete gets upset. We have been working, sacrificing, missing out on numerous things, things we will never get back or experience for the sake of our careers. [...] Well this is what happened to me, and to be honest I believe I reached my boiling point. After yet ANOTHER wrong call I began to wonder- Was I being "overlooked" or wrongly judged on purpose!??? [...] Answer this: Why is it another player who also lost HIS cool not to a line judge - like I did - but to the main officiating judge- using the same "f word" why was HE only fined 10 thousand dollars. Was what I did 10 times worse than what he did?! [...] What about the famous HE who made arguing with officials "cool". Cool for "MEN" I guess. Is it because they are all HE's and not a SHE like me?

First of all, Serena acts like this is her only transgression. She seems completely oblivious to the fact that her reputation is that of a petty, self-centered athlete who can not relate to others. When she was dismissed by Justine Henin in the quarterfinals of the 2007 U.S. Open, she pouted in the post-match press interview. "I really don’t feel like talking about it [the loss], to be honest. It’s like I don’t want to get fined. That’s the only reason I came [to the post-match interview]. I can’t afford to pay the fines because I keep losing." She also refused to admit she was outplayed by the number one player in the world, citing her own mistakes as the reason for the loss. "I think that’s usually the case with me... that it’s for me to win or lose." Face it, Serena, you got smoked by Justine Henin. She was far-and-away the best player in the world at the time. (Since Justine Henin has left the sport, there has been no clear number-one ranked tennis player on the women's side. The title of "number one player" seems to change every month).

It seems that Serena is often involved in disgraceful behavior. Smashing racquets, showing contempt for the press, and openly mocking the ratings system (and people ranked above her in this system)... none of this is uncommon. Her blog post makes it sound like she is the victim.

She brings up John McEnroe (among others) without mentioning his name. In 1987, John McEnroe was fined $17,500 and suspended for two months for misconduct and verbal abuse. Taking inflation into account (usinflationcalculator.com), this fine amounts to over $33,000 by today's standards. Saying her fine was "ten times worse" is quite a stretch. Additionaly, McEnroe was suspended for two months, while Serena received no suspension for her actions. Why isn't John McEnroe crying sexism that SHE received no suspension? How is she comparing herself to infractions that are over 20 years old? Things have changed. We don't have anyone to compare her to in recent times (except maybe Marat Safin, who never threatened anyone), so how is she able to label these punishments "sexist?"

Serena Williams seems to miss the point: While John McEnroe taunted, cursed at, and argued with officials, she threatened bodily harm to a lines person. This was more than "losing your cool." Tennis is supposed to be above this sort of thing. These aren't football players who celebrate Super Bowl wins by going out to a club and stabbing someone. There was no argument in her on-court statements. She was not trying to get the call reversed, and she was not debating any points. She was simply intimidating and threatening someone for doing their job and adhering to the rules.

A foot fault is a very cut-and-dry call. It is a very easy call to make. There are no camera angles that show for certain if there was actually a foot fault, but I believe the lines person. Her entire job during a serve is to watch the line to see if the server's foot touches the line. Unless there really is a conspiracy involved, I have to believe the call was correct. There is also the point of view that you should not let officiating determine the outcome of a sporting event. Basketball referees should not call minor fouls late in the game if the game is tied; football referees should not make calls for minor interference infractions on 4th down late in a game. I agree with this philosophy. I think the lines person was taking her job too seriously--calling a foot fault on match point. Though I believe the line judge should have "let it go," I also realize that a badly-timed call does not deserve the reaction that Serena dished out. Threatening an official in any sport is an unforgivable no-no.

She is quick to point out that $92,500 is a large amount of money ("92 thousand dollars! This is more than most people make in a year."), but nowhere does she say that 92 thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket for her. Over the course of her career, she has earned over $28million in prize money alone. That does not count her endorsements and the countless commercials she has done. I do not see her complaining about the amount of money she is making compared to the average citizen. Because of inflation (among other things), she has earned more than double the prize money that John McEnroe earned in his entire career. Look at it this way: as prize money increases, so does the amount for fines. Tennis has been good to her. You have to take the good with the bad, particularly when you brought the bad stuff on yourself.

I think the fine should have been more. I think she should have been suspended. And I assure you that my opinion has nothing to do with gender.

Camping trip turned out to be really good. Fortunate breaks in the weather (though we never saw the sun) and a good impromptu camp site made all of our other short-comings disappear. We kept the same fire going with wet wood and on-and-off rain for almost 40 hours, made coffee, and cooked italian sausages over the fire.

Fire Pit at the Site

We definitely did not make it to the shelter. We couldn't find the back way to get in that is "off the books." See, you're supposed to have a 3mi hike to get to the shelter, but someone knew about a place to park where you had a 1mi hike to the shelter. We just had too much stuff to hike 3mi up a mountain. The person who knew this secret location was not able to make it on the trip, so we had to wing it. Luckily we had tents and we didn't need the shelter. Because of the rainy weather, I just packed up Jaime's old Canon point-and-shoot, so I only took a few pictures. We were forced to burn a lot of old, rotten, wet wood, but it made for some cool smoke patterns in the logs. Several logs had the center rotted out, so the smoke could travel through the log and exit out of other holes that had no fire anywhere near them. We had fun with that because we are simple.

Smoking from Both Ends

I severely under-dressed the first night and only got 3-4 hours of sleep, but the second night, I was warm throughout the night and it was quite nice.

By the way, it appears that both Jaime and I have beaten our sicknesses without the baby getting sick. I guess it's true what they say:

When you have a contagious illness such as a cold, flu, or other mild virus, your baby was exposed to the illness before you even knew you were sick. Your milk will not transmit your illness to baby, but it does have antibodies in it that are specific to your illness (plus anything else you or baby have been exposed to) - they'll help prevent baby from getting sick, or if he does get sick, he'll probably not be as sick as you. -kellymom.com

Also, my wife and I currently manage the worst fantasy football team in history. It is no longer a matter of how many points we get beaten by, it's about the ratio of scores. This week we got beaten by a ratio of almost 5:2. At about 4pm yesterday we were getting beaten 10:1 (90 to 9). I also watched the Redskins lose to yet another no-win team this weekend. That's always nice.

In an ongoing effort to trim the fat from our spending habits, I just called COMCAST to cancel HBO and turn in one of our DVRs. This should save us about $32/month. We still have four ENCORE channels, so we get a lot of uncensored movies, just no HBO original programming (I'll miss the documentaries and the boxing). OnDemand still works, but with no access to the HBO OnDemand, it's next to worthless.

Poop watch continues on to Day Ten.

Busy weekend. Got Jaime's old car running again, cleaned out all the junk. Now we just have to vacuum, scrub, wash, wax, etc. and we can [finally] get rid of the thing. Finished mounting lights at LP's house, went grocery shopping, and spent a good four hours at the Mulligans' yesterday. I plan to walk Stephen down to the bank with me today to deposit some checks.

My wife wanted me to help her with her fantasy football draft this year. She has played the previous two seasons without knowing anything, and she has done very well. This season, probably not so much. Blame me. First round pick was more than likely a complete waste, and Kurt Warner may be starting to show his age. We shall see. This week, Zach took us down to Chinatown, as promised.

Tennis was also good this weekend. Weird things happened, and Kim Clijsters won the U.S. Open after taking off almost two years to have a child.