November 28th-29th - 23-19

Solid weekend for Hiner. It began with my hockey team beating Colorado again (this time on their ice), 3-2 in a shootout. Two things of note. 1.) We haven't been good in the shootout, so that's a plus. 2.) We were down 0-2 at the end of one, but our backup goalie held them scoreless the rest of the way (including deflecting both their shootout chances) to seal the win. Colorado's a good team, too, so sweeping them is kind of big for us.

Then, my Seahawks won. It was against the Rams, so not a big deal (we've now won ten in a row against them), but I'll take it. I'd still rather have the draft pick with the losses, but this was the annual Midwest Seahawkers event, so I'm pleased they won it for the guys who went to St. Louis.



Bigger news than all of this, though, is that my daughter turned six. We had a birthday party for her on Saturday at the inflatable bouncy thing place, which went over very well. A million kids running around (cousins as well as friends from school), but it was all contained and managed by cute high school girls. I just had to stand there...although I did my own share of bouncing, I should point out. Sophie had a great time.

Sunday was her actual birthday, but we just celebrated with a trip to McDonald's (her choice, but I didn't mind the price) and some more gifts. It was a good day. Got the interior decorated for Christmas, too. It's a good time of year. Better if my football team is in the running, but considering it's my first in a couple where I'm only worried about paying one mortgage, I'm happier this year than I have been.

And that's a sack on what I figured to be a pass play with only five minutes to go and life deep in their own territory.

Life's ball. 2nd and 17 on their own 5.

November 27th - 23-19

Wild win. Would've been a fun game to watch, were I ever afforded the ability to watch. Scoring went back and forth throughout the first and second, but the Wild took a 4-3 lead in the third over the Avalanche in what appears to be a traditional Black Friday afternoon game, then iced with an empty net goal to win 5-3. Chuck Kobasew got his second career hat track with the empty netter, and I'm pretty sure that's the first hat trick for a Wild player all season.



Otherwise, a decent enough Friday. Seeing that it was Black Friday, there were few clients calling, and fewer people on the roads. I was supposed to be at the office all day by myself, but my boss came in. Too bad. I enjoy playing the music at work, and I have to use headphones when I'm not alone, obviously. But it was a good day.

And when you're out looking for a Christmas album, you could do worse than Billy Idol's. It's surprisingly low-key and entertaining. Good job by Billy, who was willing to let the songs be what they are, instead of turning them into Billy Idol songs.

Punter kicks it deep and out of bounds inside the 20.

Life's ball. 1st and 10 on their own 12.

November 26th - 23-19

Decent Thanksgiving. We drove to Ashland to eat with my parents and my brother Brett's family. Matt and Krista were both with their in-laws, and we never have Thanksgiving with Tieraney's family unless mine isn't around. Such is the policy: Thanksgiving with Hiners, Christmas with Pattersons. I should point out now, though, that the Turkey Bowl will again this year be the Saturday after Christmas, instead of after Thanksgiving. Easier to get people then.

Spent a ridiculous amount of time after getting home putting together the Appletell Black Friday articles. This is a big deal for us...plenty of visits on those things, so I had to throw it all together. Couldn't expect my writers to work on Thanksgiving, after all...well, except for the British and Canadian ones. Don't know what their excuse was. Anyway, I'm hoping they'll get us plenty of pageviews, as I want to get back above 200,000 for the month. We were only at just below 170,000 this morning, so I need to quickly make up some ground.



Tieraney's off on "Black Friday." She's taking the kids to Ashland again so her dad can watch them while the Patterson women go see the New Moon movie. I'll be at work, thanking the Good Lord above that I'm not watching the New Moon movie. I prefer for my movies to absence of gay in them.

Four yard run.

My ball. 4th and 3 on my own 42.

November 25th - 23-19

Hockey team lost a shootout. We suck at the shootout this year. Don't score goals, and can't stop goals. That's a combination that doesn't bode well for shootouts. It's unfortunate, too, because we outplayed the Bruins quite handily throughout. Lost 1-2, and their only regulation goal was on their first damn shot of the game. Shut them down after that, but for naught. Well, not completely for naught. We do get one point out of it.

Worked from home, as Sophie was off from school. Our neighbor could have watched her, but why spend the $25 if we don't need to? She's off Friday, too, when Tieraney will be home with her. It was a good day. I was able to get my work done after introducing Sophie to the Lite Brite. I like the Lite Brite. It's bright. Know why?

Car appointment today, too. Bought that damn thin in April, and I'm already up to my 15,000 mile service. I need to find a job closer to Mogadore. Ran me just under $100 with my 15% off coupon. Woman wouldn't acknowledge the coupon over the phone, so I had to make Tieraney leave work early so we could get there before closing and I could present the coupon in person. I told her I'd take a picture of the thing and e-mail it to her, but that wouldn't fly. What are computers for, if not saving me 15%?

Oh yes. Porn.

Run is stuffed after a short gain.

My ball. 3rd and 7 on my own 38.

November 24th - 23-19

No hockey, no major events, nothing at work, and nothing at home. Nothing to report.

Except that Rory (Clingerman) LeVan found me on Facebook and asked to be my friend. She's good people, that Rory, as is her husband. My first post on her site solicited this response: "Your humor never ceases to amaze me."

Damn right.

One yard run.

My ball. 2nd and 9 on my own 35.

November 23rd - 23-19

Thought I had a three way tie for first place in my fantasy football league, but it wasn't to be. One of the fellows had Matt Schaub at QB, and that got him 35 points, which gave him the win over his opponent. So, at 7-4, I'm in a two way tie for second. I play the first place guy in two weeks; final game of the year. I'm nervous about my lineup, so it's time to start making strategic decisions. I have to look at team matchups to decide to who draft and who to cut at this point.

Decent enough night. Caught up on the TV shows with my wife. Played some games. Goofed around with the kids. You know...family shit.

Three yard run.

My ball. 1st and 10 on my own 34.

November 21st-22nd - 23-19

No hockey this weekend to save me (or pile on the pain) from a drubbing at the hands of the Vikings. I told Vallos' aunt in church when she asked if we'd win, "We'll be lucky if we lose by less than 30."

And we did. Go team! Pride! Hit! Desire!

I want a new QB next year. Perhaps round two. Round one QBs make me nervous. I want a round one RB and round one offensive lineman. Hopefully left tackle if there's one there who's good enough. After that, I'm not expert enough to care.

Put up the Christmas lights on Sunday, although I won't turn them on yet. I normally handle all of this the weekend after Thanksgiving, but the weather was too nice this weekend to pass up. Last year, it was snowy and below freezing when I did it. This year, partly sunny and 50. Plus, next weekend is Sophie's sixth birthday, and we're having a pajama party for her at Pump It Up from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Big inflatable things. Nothing for us to clean up. Call that a win.

Oh, and I completed my first toilet repair. Replaced the overflow pipe all by own self, which required removing the tank from the base and everything. I'm handy! Sadly, though, not handy enough to fix the lights on the ceiling fan. Still have fan, but no light. I guess if you have to lose one or the other, than went the right way.

The RB finds a hole, but it closes up quickly. Two yard gain (at this point, Seahawk losses are no longer much of a factor).

My ball. 3rd and 2 on my own 31.

November 20th - 23-19

Yea, hockey! Owen Nolan scored two goals--including a sweet play with 1:07 to go--to help the Wild to a 3-2 win at home against the Islanders. Now, the Islanders are about as bad as we are, so it's not fantastic news, but you take that win.



Awesome play by Belanger keeping it in play, too. I've love to see that kind of action more often.

That's pretty much it for Friday news. Tieraney had shows to catch up on, so I played video games. Killed me some zombies and giant frogs before bed. All in all, a good, relaxing day heading into what looks to be a good, relaxing weekend.

Six yard run as we try to take some time off the clock (pointless in this exercise, I know, but we don't want to kill the illusion).

My ball. 2nd and 4 on my own 29.

November 19th - 23-19

Whoa! Penalty saves the day!

Insurance lady says the letter was a mistake. She'd worked this all out before (perhaps I mentioned it here) with the underwriters, and I'm not being dropped. My deductible will be higher, but my monthly payment will actually be lower. So anyway, offsides. I get the play again, and that gives us a first down.

Five yard penalty.

My ball. 1st and 10 on my own 23.

November 18th - 23-19

Blow, blow, my hockey team blows. Lost to Phoenix in Minnesota, 2-3. We tied it up in the third, but Phoenix pulled back ahead less than a minute later, and we weren't able to get that final goal.

But there's worse. I got a letter from my insurance company stating that they're canceling my auto insurance. Apparently, what with my life of crime and disregard for property, I'm too expensive to cover. Weird. I mean, yeah, a speeding ticket and two accidents in the past two years doesn't look good, but considering I had neither for the 21 years before that, eight of which were with this company, you'd think they'd get that this is not the norm.

So, I left a message with my rep to tell her I also want to cancel Tieraney's auto, our home insurance and our life policies. You want the Hiner package, you gotta take the Hiner, I always say.

On the bright side, new zombie killing game today. I like the zombie killing games, especially when one of the zombie killers is wearing an evening dress.



Video games are so awesome. Why so many zombie games? Because zombies don't tend to write letters to their Congressmen in protest. Why not aliens, then? Because zombies are based on human models, so they're easier to create/animate. Also easy and fair game? Nazis.

Sack. Looks like life will get the ball back in good field position for a late drive.

My ball. 4th and 10 on my own 12.

November 17th - 23-19

Okay, so there were toilet repairs, right? Now, ceiling fan repairs. Turned on the lights, and POP. Lights on, and immediately off. The fan itself still works. No lights, though. The bulbs aren't burnt out, they're just not getting power. The fan and the lights are on different switches, so I'm assuming it's a wiring thing (ceiling fans usually don't have fuses, after all). I will try to solve this myself. Electricity = fun!

Otherwise, my house is solid.

Two yard run.

My ball. 3rd and 4 on my own 18.

November 16th - 23-19

My boss is buying his first HD TV with a Blu-ray player, and he's been seeking my advice. Called me at 7:00 from the store for advice on cables. I'll take the points, as he was right to do so. I know about the technology. I know who needs what, and why. I would've made a crappy salesman.

Toilet repairs. I'm going to do them myself. First time I will have attempted it, but it's just a toilet...how hard can it be? Nothing but mechanical parts, and those can usually be figured out with a few diagrams. And if I fail, I've got two perfectly functional toilets backing me up.

Also, I'm the type of Christian who occasionally likes to sing praises to the Lord, not just ask Him for stuff when I'm need. And so, let me say this.

1. I'm thankful I no longer have to rake leaves. I have only one house now, and the leaves in that house's backyard blow away on their own.
2. Because He sent his Son to Earth, I get to eat the Chex mix 'round Christmastime. People love to make their varying recipes of Chex mix (keep the friggin' Cheerios out, please), and I love to eat it. Ain't no atheist alive can have a handful of Chex mix and not at least think, "Right or wrong, the Christians at least gave us this, and that's not bad."

Unrelated, hot ham and cheese sandwiches last night for supper. Tieraney wanted to microwave them. See what I have to put up with?

Four yard pass.

My ball. 2nd and 6 on my own 16.

November 14th-15th - 23-19

Horrible sports weekend. Mogadore lost the second round of the state playoffs, 7-48. My hockey team lost Sunday afternoon to the Hurricanes, who had previously lost 14 straight. My football team blew a 14 point lead to lose to the Cardinals, 20-31.

So, enough about all that. Went to my boss's kid's Bar Mitzvah party Saturday night. Not the Bar Mitzvah, mind you. That was at 11:30. The party started at 7:00. I wasn't about to spend the whole day in Beachwood, and I didn't want to drive back to Mogadore just to return, and I couldn't line up a babysitter for both events, anyway, so I just went to the party at Whirly Ball. This is a place where you drive bumper cars around and play polo, basically. You've got this scoop and a whiffle ball, and you drive your car around to scoop up the whiffle ball and throw it a backboard. Hit the backboard, and you get two points. Hit the net in the center of the backboard, and you get four. I played two game...won the first, lost the second. It's actually tremendous fun. And although I didn't score many goals, I had plenty of assists. I'm that type of player.

Nothing else to report. No trips this weekend. Oh, but I did hook up the Pioneer A/V tuner I got for review on Friday. Difficult set-up. I'm hoping they'll let me buy it at a discount so I don't have to disconnect it and send it back.

We try to return the kick from within the end zone, and don't get far.

My ball. 1st and 10 on my own 12.

November 13th - 23-19

Another hockey loss, 1-3 to the Ovechkinless Capitals. Josh Harding in at goal, and he actually had one of his better games of the season, but our offense was dormant. Again.

Otherwise, busy day at work, lazy day at home. I suppose that's the way to do it.

Life considers going for it, but their defense has been doing well, and settles for the three as we approach the midway point of the fourth quarter.

Long field goal attempt is good.

November 12th - 23-16

My hockey team blew a 3-1 lead at the end of 2 to fall 3-4 in a shootout at Tampa Bay. This bothers me, but on the road, I guess I'm happy to at least come away with one point. Three points two games into a four game road trip is stellar for our squad.

Hotel/flight reservations have been made. I booked the executive suite of the Grand Hyatt at Union Square; the two rooms can accommodate all three of us, so it was actually cheaper than getting two individual reservations.



Flying the Continental non-stop again, which pleases me. The bad thing is that it puts me in S.F. at 11:30 a.m. the day before the show, giving me far too much time to kill, and it leaves S.F. at noon on Sunday. I'd rather it be reversed, so I could leave Cleveland later and get back sooner, but so be it.

The good news of all this? It means I have a job with NAPCO at least through February. I mean, they've done nothing to indicate we wouldn't be around, but it's good to get some assurance.

And finally, we had parent/teacher conferences for Sophie last night. She's a good student, we're told...no worries on anything academically. We also learned that she "cracks up" her teacher, and that she's constantly singing. As in when she's asked to put away the books, she'll suddenly start belting out, "Putting away books" with, as Mrs. Eckhart put it, "such a big voice for such a little body." Mrs. Eckhart also praised us because she could tell we're actively participating in Sophie's education and discipline. Seems to me that shouldn't be something that would need praising, but what do I know about modern parenting? I subscribe to no magazines and I have yet to buy anything with the words "Einstein" or "phonics" in the title. Also, I let my kids watch TV. Not FOX news, though. I want them to grow up loving people, not fearing them.

1st down pass is batted down.

Life's ball. 4th and 13 on my 32.

November 11th - 23-16

I'm going to San Francisco again. Got the official word to go ahead and get flight/hotel information. This will be an odd Macworld next February, as Apple won't be there. Smaller, obviously, but will there be any spunk? I'm not sure who'll make the show exciting, and I'm curious to see who can step up, if anyone. I don't have much hope the show will last beyond this year, so it'll be good to be there at the end, I guess.

Plus, my team will be Bill Stiteler and Ed McKell. See what I've done here? I'm like Tim Ruskell or Dick Cheney giving the good jobs to my good friends. Although, actually, they're both qualified. Bill's worked expos with me before, Ed's been to the last 10 in a row, and both of them are great writers. It'll be a good time.

Pass falls incomplete.

Life's ball. 3rd and 13 on my 32.

November 10th - 23-16

My hockey team, for all the complaining I've done, is 4-1 in the last five games. We won 5-2 on Tuesday, which is our first win by more than one goal all year. That last one came with three seconds to go when, get this, we were shorthanded 6 on 3. Two quick penalties left us with a 5 on 3, and Toronto pulled their goalie to add the sixth. That we held them off at the end was pretty amazing. That we scored an empty netter was just luck.



Not sure this means we've turned the corner on the new scheme, but that we're no longer fearing road games is a plus (especially considering we've got three more just ahead).

Regardless, hockey carried the day. Not much else going on. Dinner out the Outback. No games to play, so I actually started to lay out the new play. I've got a new computer program that makes it easy to define the elements you need and lay out the "acts" appropriately, so you see how it develops before you start. That's not my normal way of doing things, but maybe it'll help me stay focused...and I have to review it anyway.

Runner is hit behind the line for a loss of three.

Life's ball. 2nd and 13 on my 32.

November 9th - 23-16

Here's the thing about the health screening for life insurance a week or so ago. I'm good. Cholesterol is higher than it needs to be, but not dangerously. There is no cocaine in my blood. I'm insurable.

My wife? Not so lucky. Apparently, her blood showed too many signs of kidney disease (?!) for the insurance company to feel comfortable, so she has to get more test. I guess this is good, the tests, in case there is something wrong. But seriously? Kidneys? She's 30. Ain't should be nothing wrong with her kidneys. She feels fine. She's not showing the majority of the symptoms, and those that she is showing are symptoms of just being a woman. (Yes, I'm a bit sexist at times, but so what? Women sleep too much, then complain about never having enough time to juggle all the things they've got go do. Why don't men do that? Because while the women are napping, we're practicing our juggling. And by "men" and "women" in this scenario, I mean, some of the men and some of the women I know. Because although I'm sexist, I'm not a completist.

So anyway, she has a doctor's appointment set up, and we'll see what happens there. Not worried yet, but will find out soon enough if I should be.

Life continues to grind out yards, picking up four for the first down.

Life's ball. 1st and 10 on my 29.

November 7th-8th - 23-16

Whoa. Successful sports weekend on both sides. As if offering me condolences for missing the concert I wanted to see, the Wild somehow managed to beat the much better Dallas Stars at home, 3-2, and apparently looked very good doing it. We jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, allowed them to come back, but scored the game winner late in the second. My boy, Clutterbuck (only because you have to have a "boy" on each team, so why not the guy who was called "Clusterfuck" all the way through junior high and high school?) got the early goal.

Sunday, the Seahawks fell behind early to a horrible Detroit Lions team, 0-17. First two plays were turnovers, so it looked like the same thing we saw against Arizona. But thankfully, the Lions are so bad that they can easily blow a 17 point lead. We outscored them the rest of the way 32-3, winning 32-20.



Matt had a fantastic game after that early pick...his best in two years. I was surprised, as he generally sucks when we're behind. So, that was good, but we now have three straight road games. I'm certain we will win one (Rams). It's possible we win two (Cardinals). No way we win all three (Vikings).

Otherwise, all I really did this weekend was go to my niece's birthday party. She's 17. I'm not. I'm older than that. Oh, but Sophie got her first report card. Mostly Ss. All the kids get are Ss (satisfactory) and Ns (needs improvement). Her Ns came in exactly what I was expecting: attentiveness, ability to work in a group, that sort of thing. They said she can only count to fourteen, but that's not at all true. She can count up to 100, but she has trouble saying "thirteen." Sounds like "fourteen" when it comes out of her mouth. So, I'm working with her on pronouncing that. Otherwise, it's mostly pretty good.

Downfield pass into double coverage is broken up.

Life's ball. 3rd and 3 on my 33.

November 6th - 23-16

No concert for me. Paul and David decided to play D&D. I tried calling Bryan McQuillan to see if he'd go, but he wasn't up for it on such short notice...although we did end up talking for over two hours. He thanked me for saving his life. Not enough of my friends have thanked me for saving their life. I hope they're all able to do so before it's too late.

I made the pizzaghetti for supper, which I prefer to call spaghizza. Sophie greatly enjoyed it, but she'll enjoy anything with enough parmesan cheese on it. Sam and Tieraney didn't get into it, but I didn't expect them too. Sometimes, Hiner gots to cook for his own self, know what I mean?

Seven yard pass.

Life's ball. 2nd and 3 on my 33.

November 5th - 23-16

The AP report on my hockey team's game against Vancouver said we played "slow and sloppy throughout and showed little fight against a weakened opponent."

2-5 loss at home against the Vancouver Canucks, who were playing without about half of their team. Backstrom was so bad he was pulled at the end of the second. We've got Dallas on Saturday. Seahawks have Detroit Sunday. That's a lot of Ds and a lot of Ss, and that's all the further I want to get into that.

Spoke for quite some time with the Gamertell editor last night, who's curious as to why I'm sending one of my writers to CES in Vegas this January instead of going myself. It's mainly because I'd rather work Macworld in S.F. in February, and don't want to take two weeks off that close together, abandoning my family. But also, Macworld gives me more freedom. CES is huge, and I'd be a writer, there. Not the editor in chief. I'd have people bossing me around, instead of me bossing other people around. I think this should all be pretty obvious.

My chest feels weird.

Life picks up the first down on a draw play. Seriously, a draw play.

Life's ball. 1st and 10 on my 40.

November 4th - 23-16

Ends up, Tieraney doesn't want to go the Styx/REO/Night Ranger show this weekend. Kind of sucks, because I want to see it, so she suggested I see it with David Temple. So, I asked David, but that's "game night," which is when he and his buddies drive in to Cleveland to play Dungeons & Dragons. So, I called Paul Gazella (these are both ONU guys, by the way, both STE guys, too, and both in my band here now when we bother to get together). Paul's tempted, but isn't sure it's worth canceling game night. I'm to find out on Friday.

This is my life. Getting shot down for an '80s girlie-man rock show because the only people who'd go see it with me are playing D&D.

Four yard pass out to the flats

Life's ball. 3rd and 4 on my 45.

November 3rd - 23-16

This is going to be a very uneventful week. No hockey until Thursday. Typical work stuffs. I expect no big plays from life, they're just going to keep trying to grind out yards to tie it up.

My wife is pushing for a dish, though, so I guess that's worth talking about. We hadn't done it before due to her fear that it'll drop the signal during one of her shows. But the cable box upstairs crapped out, so it missed a recording. Plus, Time Warner is raising its monthly rate by $10, and increasing the amount we have to pay for each box. If we switch to dish, we'll save $50 a month for a year, then $25 a month after that.

Oh, and my insurance company wanted to drop me. Is that weird? Because of my speeding ticket 2-1/2 years ago, plus my accidents last December and in April, they decided I'm too much of a risk. Never mind the absolutely spotless record from 1991 until 2007, I guess. My agent stuck up for me, though (or so she says), against the underwriters, and managed to keep me on with a higher deductible...which will actually save me money, provided I don't crash again. "I should hope so," I told her. "If I'm forced to switch auto insurance, the home and life insurance go with me." And did you know there's now damage insurance? She wants me to pay even more to cover myself if I'm ever sued for something. What the hell's going on here?

On the bright side, with the help of our freelance developer, I was able to get my clients' online stores back on in their entirety. Killed a day and a half of work, as I don't think we can bill the client for all the time spent, but at least he's happy.

Short run.

Life's ball. 2nd and 8 on their my 49.

November 2nd - 23-16

Not a pleasant day at work. Came in to find out that the identities I'd created for the online store (my year-long project) had all mysteriously disappeared from the web. Everything was gone. If someone cam to the site expecting to see one identity, they saw the default...not good at all. The client was pissed but patient with me, and I spent the whole day working with the guy who did the custom programming to see how we could most easily get them restored. However, there was no easy way to get them restored. My workaround didn't work, either, so the sites were either down or wrong all day. When I went to bed at 11:00, they were still not working properly.

Only solace I can take in this is that it's not at all my fault. I did nothing wrong, but wasn't able to quickly hammer out a solution, which frustrates the hell out of me. Hopefully, better luck tomorrow, or I'll have one really pissed off client to placate.

12 yard pass for an easy first down.

Life's ball. 1st and 10 on their own 49.

October 31st-November 1st - 23-16

Behold, great joy! The Wild won a road game! Against stinking Pittsburgh! In regulation! They'd only lost two games all year, and they certainly outplayed us. At the end of one, they had 16 shots on our goal to our 4, but we were up 2-1. At end of the three, SOG was 35 to 15 in their favor, but the score remained. Backstrom was finally back in form, and certainly stole us a win. We're off now until Thursday, so I'll get to bask in this for a while. Feels good, but doesn't allay the frustration of the season thus far.



Trick to Treat Saturday night. It was fun enough. We do this at my brother's house in Cuyahoga Falls. Weather held out, so that was cool, and we had pizza afterwords. Sophie was hard to contain, but I try not to yell at her too much when she's excited about such things. It's a safe night to run around freely, when drivers know to be cautious, so it's cool.

Sunday, however, brought me no joy. Seahawks got pummeled by the Cowboys. I hate when the Cowboys beat anyone, let alone my Seahawks, so, that was bad. Weren't we, like 13-3 just a few years ago? Where did all those players end up? There's talk now of firing Ruskell and bringing in Holmgren as GM next year. I don't see that happening. I think we've got Ruskell for a while, and I don't blame him, anyway. I think fans just like to point the finger at one guy, because replacing one guy is easier than rebuilding an entire team.

QB slips what appears to be a sure sack and scrambles out of bounds for five yards.

Life's ball. 3rd and 5 on their own 37.

October 30th - 23-16

Sophie's Satan's Feast Day parade was today. They were let out of school at noon, but had to back by 1:00 in costume. This is the whole grade school, mind you. K-6. All of the kids dressed up in costume, and were lumped into either the gym or the "multi-purpose room," which we used to call the cafeteria. Parents lined the hallways, and the kids paraded around in costume, led by some drummers and girls carrying tubas without every playing them. I was unmoved, but oh, how the parents who care about such things loved it. They filmed it, took photos, smiled. I played Pandorum on my iPhone. Of course, I waved at Sophie, but I really have no interest in what other kids are doing for Halloween.

And then, wonders of wonders, my hockey team won. 3-2 over the Rangers. Get this...in regulation! It was supposed to be the return of Marion Gaborick, whom we traded to New York this year. But, Gabby was injured (which is why we traded him), so the drama was gone. Know what? I don't care.



Pass over the middle is batted down at the line.

Life's ball. 2nd and 10 on their own 32.

October 29th - 23-16

Thursdays are, for the most part, the most uneventful days of my week. That'll change next spring when there's hockey on Thursdays on a regular basis, but guess what? There will be no 4th and 2009 next year. This experiment will be over. We must all move on.

Bought a new Wii game. "Dead Space Extraction." That is a great title. I don't know what it means, entirely, but it's great.

Punt.

Life's ball. 1st and 10 on their own 32.