I'm a Jason Bourne Fan

One of the funniest clips I have seen in a while. Thanks Jess, call me a copycat but I was rolling at my office today watching it.

Those who shirk, irk

Well today is my annual evaluation with Kiewit. I had to fill out several pages of forms critiquing myself and after doing it in pencil I realized I was being way too hard on me. Especially considering they can give raises based upon performance. So I went back through it the other day and w/o floating my boat, made it seem like they would be better off letting me stick around another year.

I have had an interesting past couple of weeks. Most people know that I love to talk to friends and touch base every so often. I have no intention of ever losing a friend. I work too hard on relationships and care too much to let them end. If I decide someone is worth investing time into, you can bet I will stick around. Unfortunately not everyone reciprocates this or has the same priorities. You know what, that's okay for the most part. I can handle it. They are friends, not family, and family does take priority.

What irks me is family who don't reciprocate. I have some extended family who I love, yes, but suck at relationships. If you have something fun to do, a new boat, outdoor activity, man they will be right there. But if you just want to see them, or they are in town and want them to come visit, or you want them to be your best man at your wedding, you know, after being your best friend since birth, and they push it aside and their dad has to make up an excuse for them that they can't afford it or something totally lame like that (after buying new skiis and an outfit), it gets old. I'm not just talking about one person, there are a few select ones. I guess if you have always been handed everything your whole life you shouldn't be expected to act any other way. Maybe just the fact that I'm writing this leads me to think that the problem is mine. However, I know that I am the one making an effort and despite the things that irk me, I will still be the one to reach out and make an effort the next time I am in town or the next time someone has a birthday I will call and wish them well. It would just be nice to not always be the giver.

Maybe that's why it means more to me when friends do things. They don't have to, you aren't family, yet they still do. I sure appreciate good friends.

Word Pet Peeves

I don't know how many people actually read my blog, nor do I care much. I do however, care about words people use when they type or spell. My mom called me Encyclopedia growing up because I liked to read and could spell. Perhaps she could have called me dictionary, because I get annoyed when easy words are misspelled or misused.

LOSE, not LOOSE -- Utah doesn't loose to BYU, they LOSE to BYU. One O, not two.
Loose indicates that something is not tight.

at least, not atleast--This is not one word, it is two.
If it is going to be cold, at least it could snow.

too, not to or two--Too can be used in place of the word also; Too can also be used for emphasis.
EX: That tree is too tall.
I want to go too(also).

a lot, not alot--The same principle applies here as it did with at least--there are two words being used, not one. A lot of people misuse these words.

should have, not should of--EX: My dad should have grown up in the depression because he likes to wear old and worn-out clothes.

there--a place or location
EX: Put it overe there.
their--indicates possession
EX: Yes, their house is painted blue.
they're--a conjunction using the words "they are"
EX: They're (They are) coming with us to the beach.
(thanks Kate)

I will continue to add these pet peeves to my list. Feel free to comment and add new words or phrases that annoy you.

Mr. Right he is not, Mr. Smart he is

So I don't know what is worse, the fact that I watched the Bachelor finale with my wife, or the fact that I didn't care that he didn't give the happy ending that our society so desperately craves. I read a good article (if there is such a thing regarding a forced reality show) on why the Bachelor did the right thing. I agree. Janna thought he should have at least kept one of them around to see if their relationship progressed and I do see the logic in that, but why continue to invest so much into something you don't see going anywhere? I am glad he didn't succumb to the pressures that were around him and throw in the towel. He followed his gut and usually when we do that it is the right thing to do.

Friends

While at BYU I made many good friends. There are many I still keep in touch with and there are a few that certainly we don't get to see enough of. Mark is one of those friends.

Life, Weather, Traffic, and Humor

Well I figured it wouldn't last. The temperature at worked went from 57 down to 46 degrees from 7am to 8am. After that I watched the barometer rise from in the 20 percent range up to 48%. This means the front has rolled in. With the wind it feels like it is about 27 degrees. Hopefully the snow holds off until we can get out of town tomorrow. I am supposed to get out of here around noon and hopefully we can get on the road before 2pm, otherwise we will be facing a bear of a traffic jam just to get out of town.

We are getting settled in the new place. It took me several days to get the dish up and find the right satellite. Unfortunately I had to do it in the dark since I rarely get home in the daylight. Janna keeps telling me she is ready to start painting, but I don't want to start that until all of the boxes are unpacked. Otherwise I will have 2 projects staring at me simultaneously.

Since it is Thanksgiving this week I have thought a lot about what I am grateful for. First is my family. They bring more joy to my life than anything. Having a wife who is willing and able to put up with me and raise our boys is priceless. Last Saturday she went to a get-together to sell Mod Bod clothes and was gone for about 5 hours. I asked her how much she made and said, "good, that's what I charge for watching the kids." Yes, of course I was kidding, but she responded with, "how much do you make every week?" I answered her and she said, "good, that's what I charge for watching them." Very funny.

Moving

We moved into our house this past Saturday. We are down to a van full of miscellaneous lamps, boxes, the crib, and "stuff." We really need those lamps though since none of the bedrooms have lights. Ugh. Luckily our headboard has lights and our bathroom lights up our room well enough to get our bed set up. We inherited a really nice king-size bed that the boys have been sleeping in along with another large (seems bigger than a queen) bed in the 4th bedroom.

One of the only things that has been rough on me is that I cannot find my boots for work. They were getting pretty roughed up and worn out, but I wanted to get boots when I was ready. We have a Red Wing Store close to work so it looks like I will be stopping by there at lunch.

I like having the house. I don't have to fight for a parking spot. I don't have to pay an extra $50 a month for a garage spot. We have leaves to rake up in the front yard when we get a rake. We have to get a couple garbage cans, the city doesn't provide them like they do in a lot of places. Oh well. We got $400 in gift cards to Lowe's from our Real Estate Agent and Lender. Those will be used quickly. Our bathroom will be one of the first projects we tackle. Luckily it is only about 32 SF so we will only need about 20 SF of tile. We will have to paint it and do something about all of the patching in the shower. Maybe we will retile the shower too. I would like to get some 18" tile and do the floor and shower together. The previous owner didn't clean anything so there is a lot of dust and grime--pretty gross. I don't think she had dusted in years.

So anyway, we are just about done. Janna is going back to the apartment to clean today and turn in the keys. Stone has been a great helper. He loves to fill the boxes with whatever is available. We just need to get him out of his shell and get him new friends and a preschool.

Season Over

Well the season ended on a loss, but despite that it was fun. Unfortunately we only had 7 guys from the roster at the game. Scott A was able to get Dan and Nate to come play but without the consistency of the regulars it is hard to be consistent as a team. It is somewhat frustrating because we work so hard during the season and then bomb as a high seed come tournament time. The guys who were there played hard and our defense still did pretty well, but Scott didn't get a lot of reps at QB until the end of the season and that was who we had for Saturday.

The Ballers ended up winning the tournament. They played consistent all day. Their line did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They won by about 4 or 5 TD's. Good to know that we were only down 14 - 6 with a couple of minutes to go.

It is hard to justify keeping your starting QB when they don't consistently show. Maybe I'm old school, but when I commit to something I don't choose to do something else when others are counting on me. There are some things that take precedence, like a family member in the hospital, wedding, honeymoon, work making you come in, generally things out of your control. Other than that, it is few and far between. I can't back you when you choose to not come. It doesn't matter if you are Joe Montana, sorry, if you don't show you aren't helping the team.

I guess it doesn't matter much since it sounds like a large chunk of the team won't be back. Travis has his semi-pro team, Jon & Andrew are moving, Marcus is going on a mission, Dee is hanging up the cleats. I have been approached by the Ballers to play receiver for them and play on their indoor team as well. I am not sure what I am going to do. I really want to start playing volleyball again and I have a chance to get on a few different teams if I want to. They will be a lot closer to our new house too. I guess I'll have to wait and see what works out.

W, 27 - 0

We fully dominated this team. They are no longer called Fly or Die, I'll just refer to them as Die, because they didn't Fly.

We started the game on defense and forced a punt after they got just one first down due to a penalty "impeding the runner." Man, tuck your shirt in already. They didn't want to tuck their shirts in, yet cried the whole game about us grabbing their shirts.

Our first drive moved the ball all the way down the field after they pinned us back with a good punt. We unfortunately were stopped when the double pass was intercepted.

Again our defense was stout with Travis getting an interception on the next play. Tim proceeded to run the ball well with excellent blocking by the Offensive line and receivers downfield. Die got the ball back with just a couple of minutes left in the half down 6 - 0. They tried to muster a good drive but due to Andrew beating the double team, they were going the wrong direction.

Andrew got the first sack of the game, which nearly brought their QB to tears. Their QB was heard saying "no one sacks me ref, you know that." The next play he threw a swing pass that went for a 2 yard loss. The final play of the half Allen called Lion, which was the perfect blitz call for that play. The half ended on my 10 yard sack of that same QB who "never gets sacked." Good call Allen.

The 2nd half we came out on fire. Scott A. led a TD drive that ended in his run to the promised land. Again, good blocking and controlling the line of scrimmage was key. Travis took the reigns and led 2 TD drives with great play calling and mixing up the receivers. Travis had a nice downfield bullet that almost went through Tim's chest and another bomb that Kyle's gloves stuck to. Man those gloves are amazing. Travis also took away a 2 pt. conversion interception thrown by Scott. The guy had it in his hands and Travis went over his head and wrestled the ball from him.

Travis threw Marcus a nice TD for our 3rd score and for our 4th score he had me run a 2 step hitch and go I guess you could call it. The defender nearly fell on his face. Beautiful call. Andrew caught the PAT and also had the interception to seal the victory led by another great defensive call by our Defensive Captain Allen Welch. He had me blitz and Andrew drop back into coverage and he was able to step right in front of the pass. Andrew had a nice game.

Next week is the tournament. We play on the WEST FIELD at 9 am VS. Ambush. They are 4-3 and were a very solid team in the spring that beat us 14 - 6 that season. It is win or go home, single elimination. See you there.

Game 6, W, 19 - 0

I wasn't at last weekend's game so I have nothing to report other than I know we won over a terrible team and 2 TD's is not going to do us any good if we are playing anyone decent in the tournament. I heard the defense was again strong and the offense was good in the 1st half and not in the 2nd. A couple of red zone picks kept the score low by both QB's. I will just chalk it up to an off week and hope that if I were there it could have been better. I sure hate missing games. It drove me nuts not being able to be there. Not only did I miss the game, I nearly missed Stone's birthday party. That would have been worse than missing the game.

This week we play an average team. They barely beat the crappy teams when I watched them. They beat the Lions on the last play of the game. All I really want to do is mess up the QB's hair. He has it all spiked up every week and I want to just get him really good once and mess up the hair. If we get everyone to this game we should do well.

We found out today that the tournament is scheduled for Saturday, November 3 (weather permitting). I hope it goes that day because I am out if it is the following weekend. We close on our house Nov. 9 and are moving Saturday Nov. 10 so I am out if we get rained or snowed out and they push it. I think it would level the playing field with a lot of teams if we played in the crappy weather.

Anyway our defense should have at least 3 picks and our offense needs to kick it up a notch.

Uh Oh

It happened. I got "in trouble" you could say. This weekend we celebrated birthdays for both Janna and Stone. Last night Janna told me she thought I would post a blog post wishing her a Happy Birthday. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the first time I have been on the computer since Thursday with the exception of about 5 minutes Friday morning. I had to work Saturday for about 7 hours and then the rest of the weekend was spent with my family. So no Birthday Blog.

Instead of blogging, I made good memories with them. Janna, Stone, and I have almost completed his 1000 piece Superman puzzle over the past 24 hours. We have about 300 pieces left. I enjoy blogging, but you either get me or the blog. We sent Janna to Nordstrom on Saturday after Stone's birthday party to spend her birthday present. We played superheroes and watched College football til Rusty fell asleep and Van woke up.

I know it is over with, but Janna I hope you had a good birthday. I look forward to the day when I don't have to work on your birthday. I hope you enjoyed your afternoon shopping at Nordstrom. I love you.

Fall Classic

They did it. The Rockies are in. They have punched their ticket to the Series. It doesn't matter who they play, they have no fear. They don't panic when they are down. They just play baseball and play it hard. Good things happen when you play hard.

We are back on normal day shifts starting this morning. It is a bigger adjustment than you would think. I really liked having my mornings start out at home with the family. I got to take Stone to school a couple of times and was able to get a lot done with the paperwork for the house. The only thing we are waiting for now is the Seller's response to our Inspection Report and the things that need to be fixed and/or replaced.

Van is 5 months old today. He is getting big. He laughs a lot and really responds well to the boys when they play with him. Stone does really well with him and likes to hold him and carry him around until we see him and make him sit down.

We went and visited our new ward this past Sunday. It is in a new chapel which is nice. The ward is a good mix and actually was just reorganized a couple of weeks ago. They took parts of 3 different wards and restructured the boundaries to make this ward, so the ward is just coming together. The timing is good. The EQ all introduced themselves and it looks like a strong quorum. Janna stayed in the nursery w/ Rusty so she only met a few sisters. Rusty loved nursery, Stone wasn't so happy about Primary. I stayed with him the first hour and he fought it the entire time. He is the only boy in his class with 4 girls. Their Primary Program is the day after we move in, so he will get to not participate in another one.

Game 5, W, 13-0

We played Last Call again. We shut out Last Call again. We did not shut up Last Call though. For a team that has lost twice to us and not scored a single point, they sure talk a lot of smack. They went from tied for 2nd with us in the league to somewhere in the cellar where they belong. We are firmly planted in 2nd place with 4 wins and 1 loss. This win guarantees us a spot in the playoffs.

Tim was back at QB for us this game, playing most of the 1st half and leading us to a 7-0 halftime lead. It was also his catch and rugby shovel to me that got us the 2nd touchdown of the game. He threw me a nice ball down the middle of the field right at the end of the first half but the drive ended around the 20 when the clock expired.

Hopefully Tim has renewed confidence in throwing to me. Apparently sometime in our 1st game this season he said I wasn't aggressive enough on a ball and it was nearly picked. I can't remember it and have been racking my brain trying to remember it, but can't. If someone can recall it, let me know. Anyway I hope my one-handed catch of his shovel-pitch helped redeem his confidence in me. I take full responsibility of good balls I don't catch and I am working hard on not letting those drop.

Subway Sub of the Game: Malcolm. Malcolm played his first game with us. He is a force to be reckoned with on the O-line. I lost count how many defenders he flat-backed blocking on offense. It was nice to have a big body helping out on the line and giving our QB's more time to throw.

Highlights: I don't want to float my own boat, but in the 2nd half on 2 consecutive plays Scott threw me swing passes to the left and I think combined they went for about 50 yards. That was fun. I had the shimmy-shakes with my hips and eluded several would-be "tacklers" to pick up several yards after the catch. These were good plays that kept the linebackers honest and we would be smart to continue to run them until they stop us.

Allen had a few nice catches, one for the extra point if I remember right. Tim busted out the first TD running behind Malcolm on the right side of the line. Those punks were talking so much smack, it felt good to run it through their hearts and blow them off the line.

Our defense was solid again with its 4th shutout of the season. Allen has been calling a good defensive game and keeping the QB's guessing with our blitz package. It was good to have Paul and Dan back. We are hoping to finally see Jon Betts and hope his wife is making a speedy recovery from her accident.

The game came down once again to controlling the line of scrimmage. Our line both offensively and defensively dominated all game and even drew a couple of pats on the back from the officials during and after the game. When we control the line of scrimmage, we win.

Forecast: We play the Thunder next Saturday and unfortunately for them they play us in their 2nd game of back-to-back games. They have nice professional-looking uniforms and even a coach. I don't think they have won a game yet, but it is not for lack of trying. They played the Ballers tough in the first half on Saturday and moved the ball on them, they just couldn't finish. We should be up by 3 TD's going into halftime.

We have the late game so rest up. Hopefully the weather will cooperate like it did this past weekend and the rain will wait until after we play. Well done this week, my report is brief because it is late and I am tired. The Rockies won again and are up 3-0 in the series. They are playing out of their minds, I love it.

Next Game: 10/20 11 AM VS. Thunder

Driving Etiquette-written by a Denver Cab Driver

This article I found on the Best of Craigslist. It is edited for length and PG rating. I say Amen.

I expect the worst from Colorado drivers and I am rarely disappointed. I have been reading about road rage on Craig’s List and I do have a few pointed observations. If people are honking, flashing their lights and shaking their fists at you perhaps you should reevaluate some of your driving habits.

Here are a few pointers. When sitting at a red light please don’t redo your makeup, read a newspaper, change your clothes, text message, be looking in your purse, allow your passenger to get out of the car, or begin distracting activities that may cause you to be otherwise occupied when the light turns green. When the light actually turns green there shouldn’t be a 3+ second gap necessary before you STEP ON THE GAS. The roads are overcrowded as it is and all it takes is a couple of idiots sitting and staring at a green light for 15 or 20 seconds to start a chain reaction behind them that leads to what we call VOLUME SLOWING.

If you are in the left lane and you want to drive at a leisurely pace, I understand. GET IN THE RIGHT LANE. This is the lane for slower traffic. It's the law. If you are driving in the left lane and you are dead even with the guy in the right lane, YOU ARE IN THE WRONG. There are people behind you with appointments to keep, jobs to go to or who may have an urgent need to use the bathroom. Please move to the right and let them get about their business.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to sit and grind my teeth because there are three flaming morons side by side leisurely driving down the road 15 or 20 miles below the speed limit. MERGE RIGHT MORON! You are COSTING ME TIME and TIME IS MONEY. Some of the people passing you may exceed the speed limit in doing so. This is perfectly legal but even if it wasn’t, please remember, YOU ARE NOT A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER. We have paid professionals who are perfectly capable of enforcing the law and YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM. By intentionally slowing traffic you ARE BREAKING THE LAW and could be ticketed for this violation.

If you are in the right lane and someone in the left lane is signaling to get over LET UP ON THE GAS. I don’t know how many times I have put on my signal for thirty or forty seconds and tried to merge right only to experience a blaring horn and upraised finger from some retard who has been pacing me in my blind spot for the last mile or two. Just for the record, this is why so many people fail to signal turns and “cut you off”. They know that as soon as you see the turn signal you will probably sit your passive aggressive butt directly in the way and stay there for as long as possible.

About being “cut off”. The only people who are “cut off” are those who REFUSE TO YIELD. You do not own the road and must share it with about a million other drivers. Get good with this fact or move out to Anywhere Else, Colorado where your driving won’t raise eyebrows and tempers. There are other distractions that interfere with the flow of traffic that you should learn to deal with in a mature and proactive fashion like accidents.

Accidents happen but unless you are a medical professional who is slowing down in order to stop and render aid KEEP MOVING. I’m not advocating blasting through police diversions at 60 miles an hour but there is no need to slow down to a crawl when passing an accident, RUBBERNECK’S CAUSE ADDITIONAL ACCIDENTS so if you and your voyeur family don’t want to become a part of the roadside tragedy you are gaping at, GET A MOVE ON. The same goes for other roadside diversions including break downs, pretty girls getting ticketed, accidents on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET, emergency vehicles going in the opposite direction on a divided road and related events, If you are driving in the mountains and you see that there are 20 or 30 people piled up behind you, PULL OFF TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND LET THEM PASS.

Sooner or later it’s going to snow. For those of you with no winter driving experience snow is the white stuff that falls from the sky. IT IS FROZEN WATER and is often quite slippery. THIS IS THE TIME TO SLOW DOWN. GET IN THE RIGHT LANE and let the people who want to drive fast do so, For those of you who own vehicles with 4-wheel drive, great! 4-wheel drive will give you great traction in the snow BUT IT WILL NOT HELP YOU STOPPING! I don’t know how many times I have been passed in a blizzard by shiny 4-wheel drive vehicles going 30 or 40 miles an hour over the safe limit for driving only to see them piled into a bridge abutment a mile or so up the road.

Clearly if you’ve just polished off a 12 pack you should be riding with me. We all have cell phones nowadays. If you have one, get a headset, you need both hands to drive. If you’re having an argument with your sweetie, PULL OVER and finish it in a parking lot instead of the middle of an intersection. In conclusion. I don’t care what kind of self-absorbed butt nugget you are in the rest of your life please remember that you are piloting a couple of tons of metal glass and plastic around the road. Try to rise above your vile self just long enough to get from A to B without angering every other driver on earth, and we’ll all be a lot happier and some of us may live a little longer. Thank you in advance for your fine cooperation.

Rockies over D'backs, 5-1, Lead Series 1-0

They did it again. After giving up a run, the Rockies immediately answered and put a string of singles together to beat up on the Diamondbacks. I was able to listen to most of the game on the radio at work while at my computer last night. Brandon Webb, the opposing pitcher, was the pitcher responsible for their last loss on September 26th I think it was. Luckily it was so long ago that the Rockies couldn't even remember.

Work is going well. We are supposed to be going back to regular day shifts next week sometime. I don't look forward to that. I have been able to maintain a regular workout schedule these past few weeks and I'm finally starting to see some results. I guess I need to develop a do or die attitude toward it and I'll be okay. I just have to do it regardless of the time of day or energy level. Otherwise I will be fat and lazy again like 70% of America.

The home inspection report came back last night. I should be able to do a lot of the work myself as long as the seller pays me for my time and materials. I am offerring to let her pay me with her piano, new front room chairs, some mirrors, and shelves. I did this because I know she is limited on cash and these are things of value she already has. I also know that if I do the work myself, I will be able to do the work the right way and not have her son try to patch it temporarily.

Luck, Who Needs Luck?

So the Rockies are playing in the NLCS. It has been pretty sweet to see how well they have played this year since we moved to Denver. I like to think that I am somehow good luck for them. Maybe that what the Mariners need, me to move to Seattle. After we moved to Boise the Boise State Broncos had their 2 best seasons ever as a Division 1 program. We moved here and the CU Buffaloes upset Oklahoma. It's too bad I'm not a betting man or I could make some serious money.

I walked through the inspection on the house we are purchasing. It was yesterday. The house is pretty sound, no foundation problems, all of the concrete is great. The windows all open and shut smoothly meaning no settling and the house is still square and that is a plus in the Denver area. The soil in the Mile High City isn't the best. It is a clay soil and this regularly causes problems for houses not built with proper foundations. If builders don't go down to the bedrock and allow for swell, the homeowner is in trouble. Better hope that warranty is good for a while. There are a few issues with the siding and a broken window and scratched up back door from a dog. Other than that it is in good shape.

Funniest Show on TV

My favorite show on television is The Office. There is no funnier show on currently. I have approximately 15 episodes on my Archos player. I am glad to see it's been sydicated and showing on TBS on Wednesday nights.

Game 4, L, 20 - 6

Wake up call. We have been coasting since the first week, playing teams we are clearly better than. We lost 20-6 yesterday, though the score does not show how close the game was. We trailed 14-6 for most of the 2nd half. The Ballers were a good team with great team speed. They controlled the line of scrimmage and thus the outcome of the game.

One of the glaring things on defense was that we gave up a couple of big plays where we let the same receiver get behind us. Eliminate those 2 plays and we played pretty solid defense. I don't think I should be playing Free Safety. I don't have the right mindset for it. Their QB was very shifty and had a good arm.

Scott A had a nice interception in the 1st half despite playing with a sprained thumb. Tim threw a nice DP ball downfield which really is what jumpstarted our offense. Tim will be back at starting QB this week I think. Travis is getting married and has a couple of weeks of obligations with that. Travis threw a nice long TD pass to Marcus in the back of the end zone.

Tim and Scott both playing QB will hopefully be able to mix up the calls and force the defense to make adjustments. I think their defense got a little comfortable and we didn't force them to make adjustments. Several routes were open but Travis didn't have enough time to see the open receivers.

Perhaps if we put in an extra lineman to use as a "tied end/tackle" type of player, we can have an extra blocker if needed, and still have him as a receiver option to use over the middle or wherever the QB wants him to go. When our QB's have time, regardless of who is playing the position, they can pick apart defenses. We have seen them do this against the other teams.

I know everyone is doing their best, I hope doing something like this will shore up our line so we can better control the line of scrimmage. Keep your heads up guys, the season is not over and hopefully we will get another chance against them in the playoffs.

Next week we play Last Call again. We beat them 6 - 0 the first week. Our defense was solid against them, we just needed to punch it in the end zone when we get it close like we did 3 different times that game.

Last Call will be playing at 8am against the Lions and then against us at 9am. It will be interesting to see how well they respond to playing 2 games in a row. The last weekend of the season we play Fly or Die the hour after they play Thunder. How did we get so lucky?

10/13, 9 AM VS. Last Call

Game 3, W, 35 - 0

Third weekend, third victory. This one was not as hard fought as last weekend when we actually had some competition. Luckily no serious injuries like last week. Matt had surgery on his torn achilles tendon this past Wednesday and will be in a walking cast for 3 months. We miss you Matt.

So first the game almost didn't happen. Our team was there early and well warmed up while our opponents, the Boozehounds, had only 4 guys. Fortunately they start the clock and give them around 5-10 minutes to have enough guys. The refs actually called it a forfeit and began picking up the cones as it was the last game when the rest of their guys got there. A couple of our guys begged loudly and after a short discussion allowed the game to proceed.

We started with the ball on our own 20 and on 2nd down (I think) Travis threw a 60 yard bomb on a double pass play to Marcus. Yes, Marcus is back. He had a sweet mask to protect his nose. We went for 2 pts and a defensive penalty on the first try put the ball on the 1 yard line. We easily got the 2.

A quick defensive series later and Travis took over QB from Scott. Travis led a well-paced drive down the field and finished with a TD throw to me. I believe the PAT was unsuccessful but we still had a 14-0 lead. To their credit they tried hard but being down a man is hard when you have slower players. We had a 3 TD lead at half and finished with 2 more in the 2nd half. I apologize I didn't take notes and cannot remember who had how many catches. I know there were a few picks, including a pick-6 by Nate, Andrew's, Todd's, Travis's--oh wait, nevermind (haha). Good defense all-in-all.

Best tackle of the game: Andrew picked a tipped pass on our first defensive series and instead of getting his flags pulled he was tackled to the ground. Apparently it was the guy's first game and he thought the flags were there for decoration.

Defensive Player(s) of the Game: the refs I don't know what down it was but in the 2nd half I ran a short crossing pattern and got the ball just past the line of scrimmage on the left side. A quick display of hip action that even I didn't know was in me got me past 2 or 3 defenders and 25 yards later we were down somewhere around the 5 yard line. Oh, except for that late phantom flag they decided to thrown on Scott for making a textbook block that didn't even affect the play. Scott, it was clean.

The good news is that we continue to move the ball well and score. The bad news is that our opponent next week will be night and day better than these guys. It would have been nice to have a tougher game leading up to next week's game, but you can't have everything.

Our defense continues to pitch a shutout on the season. Stellar coverage and great pursuit on the line has bode well for us. Andrew's rush on the defensive line sticks out in my mind as being excellent all game. All of the guys rushing on the line are doing well containing the QB and forcing errant throws. Our blitz package is working and our speed will certainly be tested next week.

Scouting report: The Ballers are a team of fast African-Americans with one bull-rushing white guy on the line. A few of their guys are pretty fit, but remember, this is still just flag football and my skinny arms can pull a flag as easy as their ginormous ones. We need everyone to bring their A game next week and be ready to play a good game. They like to throw the ball downfield. The first week the Lions had 4 interceptions, so we should do well.

NEXT GAME VS. The Ballers
10/06/07, 08:00 AM, Harlow Park East

That's my take.

No House Yet

Well, no luck with the house. The other offer was for 5K more than ours, but they can't close until sometime in December. The Sellers want to move soon, but apparently the extra 5 grand is reason enough to stay another 2 months.

I have to admit, I am okay with it. The house was really nice and staged exceptionally well when we walked through, yet at only 1550 (approx) finished SF and only 3 bedrooms, by the time we have our next kid (no we are NOT pregnant), we would outgrow the house. I do not want to feel like it is already time to move should we decide to have another kid.

Last Friday night we saw another house that I am leaning more toward. It is 1000 SF bigger than the other one which includes an unfinished basement. It has 4 bedrooms upstairs and they are all large rooms. The only downside is the kitchen. Since I am never in there does it really matter??? Just kidding Janna. We will have to expand the Kitchen for Janna, I am thinking of taking out the cabinets on the south side that encloses it and creating an island for her. I guess we have to decide to buy it before we get too many ideas.

The lot is about the same, taxes are a little more, but we should be able to get into it for anywhere from 12-15K less than the smaller house. We are going to go see it one more time before we make any decisions. Most importantly, it has a chimney so Santa can get into the house, just ask Stone & Rusty.

Things that burn

I hate fax machines. We finally found a decent house in our price range and were getting ready to make an offer. So of course I get the call this morning that another offer had been made first thing this morning and they have until 8pm to respond to it. Why does this always happen. Same thing happened in December. Makes you feel all rushed and uncomfortable. I do not want to feel that way when making the biggest purchase of my life to this point.

Then of course I get all of the paperwork filled out, signed, initialed, forged for Janna with her permission, and the fax machine on the other end wouldn't work. I spent way to many hours dealing with that problem. Now if it was on my end, I take full responsibility. However it was not and that is why I wanted to punch somebody or something. 3 different fax machines would not take and it was not my end. Finally my agent had me fax it to her house and it worked fine. Slow, but fine. Archaically slow, but fine.

So now we wait. They met tonight to discuss the 2 offers and our agent is really upbeat that our offer will be accepted. I am okay whether we get it or not. We saw another house Friday night that needed a little updating inside and had an unfinished basement, but was 40% bigger and we wouldn't outgrow as fast. It was 10K cheaper too on the asking price, so either way I guess we will be able to get into a decent house and still pay less than we would if we stay renters at these stupid apartments.

Our apartment management put a renewal letter on our door today. If we stay and sign a year lease, our rent goes up by 200 dollars/month. 10 month, almost 300/month. Month-to-month goes up 450/month plus a month-to-month "premium." What the 1134-upside-down is that all about? Why would you totally screw your renters like that? Especially ones that never miss a payment and cause no problems? Unfortunately I had already heard they do that, it just makes me even madder that they would try this crap on me. I already filled out the survey they attached and told them what they could do with it. What a joke.

I'll let you know about the house when we do. I'll post pics too if they are still available then.

Game 2, W, 33 - 0

Well I have to start off by saying this was perhaps the funnest game we have played as a team. I think this was partly because we won big, but also because everyone played so well both offensively and defensively.

Subway Sub of the Game: Travis Rawls, QB, 3TD passes and a few catches

This is the first time Travis played with us. He played free safety for us and slot receiver in the first half. After we went up by 3 TD early in the 2nd half we put had him take over the offense, leading 3 TD drives. Travis threw a TD to Kyle that went about 60 yards in the air. He has a gun for an arm and brings a lot of confidence to the offense.

Offensively: Everyone who played line at some point. We didn't miss a step with Tim being gone. The line was committed to their blocks and gave both Scott and Travis time to pick apart the defense. Everyone really played well on offense after the first drive and everyone caught a ball and 4 or 5 guys had touchdown catches.

Defensively: The entire defense was tough today. On Matt's 2nd interception he went down with an injury. We don't know the diagnosis (possible achilles tear) but hate to lose him and wish him a speedy recovery. Dan Park had 2 or 3 picksin the 2nd half alone. We only forced one punt that went for about 3 yards because every other possession we intercepted. The defense as a whole only gave up about 50 yards or less on the entire game. Maybe it was more, but it didn't seem like it. They only had 2 throws over 10 yards for the game.

Game Highlights: We started on defense and forced a punt on their first possession. They punted the ball about 5 yards in the air where Allen had the presence of mind to field the punt and return it about 15 yards. Our first possession we got within the 10 yard line and didn't score. Having done this 3 times last week, it was pretty frustrating. However the defense continued to flex its muscle and forced its first interception of the day (Matt H).

This time our offense would not be denied. We marched down and scored. Scott threw a good ball for a TD. On our next defensive stand we once again intercepted (Matt H) and at the end of his return he went down with the injury. Once again we made quick work of it and scored another TD on a throw by Scott A. We converted the PAT on the 2nd TD for a 13-0 halftime lead.

The 2nd half was more of the same. We came out and had a strong drive down the field and went up by 3 TD on another throw by Scott A to Allen. If I rememer right, Allen also caught the PAT.

Travis took over the offense at this point and led three TD drives. One was a 1-play 60 yard bomb to Kyle as mentioned above. The other two drives were strong drives with good route running and well thrown balls.

Overall I think we can be very happy with this win, but we don't have to be satisfied. We are playing a team next week that we have not scouted. If we continue to control the line of scrimmage, we will be successful. Good job guys.

NEXT GAME: 10 AM, September 29, 2007, Harlow Park East
OPPONENT: Boozehounds

No Souting report on the Boozehounds except that I heard that they did lose today to the Ballers and as they call themselves the Boozehounds, they may come hung over. They had a bye last week.

The View from the Top

This picture explains a lot of why I went back into construction and why I transferred to Kiewit Building Group. It is all about the view from the top. It makes you forget all of the stresses of the day and appreciate all that you had to to to get to that point. If you click on the picture and look to the left, you can see downtown Denver.


This is how precast buildings go up. After the 4' tall grade beam is ready to go, the precast pieces, which weight 15,000+ lbs. each are trucked in, usually 2 at a time. Each piece is uniquely designed to fit in a specific location and arrive in order. The team that sets them can do about 9-12 pieces/day, depending on any unforseen problems. The pieces are welded into place and to each other, and then grout is put in the underside of them.

Look to the left of the picture above, those are the same 2 pieces from the picture above. After these 2 pieces were set a double-T floor piece was set and extended from the front piece to where the top of that man-lift basket is extended.

This is what the building looks like as of this morning. It is topped out at 15 feet and those panels on top are the roof at level 16. You can see the bottom-right where they are up to the 4th floor with precast on the front portion of the building.

With the setting of the precast pieces along the grade beam (above), we were rewarded with a surprise steak dinner tonight. It took a lot of hard work and good teamwork to get all 30 or so embeds put in exact place along the grade beam for the precast pieces to be welded to. Every single one was within the 1/4 inch tolerance.

No one else had the guts to order the 50 oz. (yes FIFTY), so I secretly ordered it to no one else's knowledge. The reaction was worth it all. I saw eyes bulging like Chevy Chase's. I did not plan on finishing it in one sitting, but I did put away a good portion and boxed up the rest along with the side of ribs.

Work Update

Quick update on my job. The Hotel we were supposed to be starting has been indefinitely put on the shelf until we hear otherwise. The owner hasn't been able to get all of the funding lined up and does not want to continue incurring costs, therefore we have dissolved the team and shelved it for now. For me nothing will change except now I will be on the Palazzo Verdi job full time. I have been working on it for the past 7 weeks, so I am already heavily involved in it.

We are scheduled to go back to nights next Monday and that should last for about 5 weeks. I am actually looking forward to that as my hours go from 60+/week back to about 45/week. I also will be able to workout every morning and see Janna and the kids and even get to take Stone to school a few times.

Game 1, W, 6 - 0

Today was our first game of the Fall South Suburban Adult 8 x 8 Flag Football League. We had 10 guys make it to the first game, however due to Marcus's nose colliding with Marshall's head last Saturday, his maskless face could not risk another collision. So we played with one sub.

Let me tell you, I really think I am going to forgo the construction elevator and start using the stairs exclusively at work. I am losing what little lung capacity I had built up since they put in that thing.

The game was a hard fought one with only one hot-head. On our first drive after halftime, (which had a 0 - 0 score after 2 trips into the red zone without a score) we had once again driven within our opponents 10 yard line. The call was an option to the right where I was lined up in the slot. I proceeded to block my opponent and drive him out of the play while my team picked up about 5 yards.

When the whistle blew I lifted my hands off of the guy, yet could not get separation. The shmuck had grabbed my shirt on the left shoulder and on my right breast and was attempting to throw me to the ground. Are you kidding me? I was about 4 inches taller and had him out weighed and out-muscled. I yelled at him to let go of my shirt and he wouldn't. Making sure the ref couldn't see, I popped him in the chest to initiate him letting go of me and by that time the ref was there. The ref did not even say a word to me, he just told everyone to get back to their huddles and gave the guy a chewing. He saw the entire play and knew I was legal in my block. The guy probably was just warned for using expletives and told to knock it off, but give me a break, don't mess with an opponent that could knock you on your can at any given time.

As frustrating as it was getting to the red zone and coming away empty-handed, our defense continued to be stout. We ran a solid cover 2 and mixed in some good cover 3 to keep them honest. The opposing QB had a good arm with accuracy on his deep balls, yet our coverage was there. We forced them to punt 3-4 times in the 25 minute running clock halves. We did not punt even once.

The O-line was great. They stuck with their blocks and gave Tim time to make good throws to open receivers.

Offensive play of the game came with under 2:30 to play. We forced another punt and got the ball on about the 21 yard line. Tim had run a few successful draws up the middle so we knew he could run. He called trips-left with what I think was a draw up the middle. The offensive line called our their blocks and we did a good job of calling out blitzes. All blocks were made and after some fancy footwork by Tim, 60 yards later we were ahead 6-0. Nice run Timmy.

The XP failed, so we gave them the ball back on their 20 with 90 seconds on the clock. The coverage once again was solid, giving up the short dump passes to the linemen. They completed one pass downfield that went underneath the deep coverage, but it couldn't have gone for more than 20 yards. Their final play we could call our defensive play of the day when Matt intercepted a throw into the end zone to seal the victory.

My offensive MVP: Tim Dickman 1 rushing TD, played a smart game within himself and limited the turnovers as QB to 1 INT. The offensive line probably deserves this as much as Tim for their blocking. Unfortunately the guy running the ball usually gets more credit.

Defensive MVP: Matt Harting. This was a tough choice as it was a shutout. It could go to anyone as there were several passes batted down and several flags pulled. Matt had the INT that sealed the win for us, so I have to give it to him.

NEXT GAME: 10 AM, September 22, 2007, Harlow Park East
OPPONENT: WGI Lions

Quick scouting report: We watched their game following ours and they are a much improved team from the spring. They picked up an African-American co-worker and he recruited about 3-4 of his buddies. They have speed at the corners and left Free Safety. One of their D lineman is a big boy too. The O line is really their weakness. If we rush 2 and blitz every play, the QB will have no time to find his speedy receivers. This is what we saw today and it worked.

At least 6 times they put a receiver in motion, hand him the ball, and he threw it every time, usually a short pass.

Offensively, if we get good blocking and stay with the medium middle of the field crossing routes with a receiver both under and over the Safeties, we will move the ball.

Defensively, put intense pressure on the QB (a new quarteback this season, lefty that did not throw a ball over 15 yards, probably 40 years old, not mobile) force him to roll right and he will do nothing.