Monday Night Football...best game EVER!!

Well, until the Saints arrive at the Super Bowl at least. Anyway, last night's 23-3 victory by the Saint's in their return to the Superdome may not have been an offensive clinic, but I won't argue with the results. The Crescent City Crew eliminated the advantage of the most prolific athalete in the NFL and his crew with crushing defense and a non-stop, sprit filled effort from every team memeber. I have no doubt that Atlanta will do well this year, but the Saint's showed that when they are playing at the top of their game that they will be VERY difficult to shut down this year.

3-0!!! Can you believe it! I watched the whole thing at a place called the Royal Exchange on the Embarcadero here in the Financial District. There were a couple other Saints fans in attendance, but it was mostly me, Piggy and two aquantinces from work chowing down, drinking up and roaring for the team. Man, it was amazing from the first series to the final gun.

Congratz Saints! And roll on!!!!!

EDIT NOTE: Apparently, it was the best game ever in a sense. ESPN reports that it is the most watched cable show of all time. 11.8 share and 10.8 million homes watching!

Eagles win! ...and geriatric violence.

So it was a really good weekend. I started off by getting up WAY to early on a Saturday for my sojourn down to the Bay 101 Casino to play in the poker tournament that they hold there on Saturday. Its now the only one in town and starts at OH MY GOD o'clock so it keeps the pretty hardcore in attendance. But hey, as a workin' man, I have no options. Well, luck was with me as well as some crappy cards (how is that good you ask? well, trust me, it can be) and I ended up splitting the first place prize and heading home quite a bit heavier in the wallet. Even though I had the chip lead I gave up a $50 jacket for the chance to to loose a couple thousand. I thought it was smart. My usual style was stunted as I saw almost zero decent hands and played only 2 before the first break (won them both) and 5 after that break (before the final table) that weren't my unraised big blind. Thankfully, I won them all due to a tight table image and not getting run over. At the final table I took my only bad beat and was left literally with a single $5K chip and a chair and battled my way back to have the chip lead at the finish. As usual, it was noted I was having "too much fun" being happy and generally good natured about the whole experience, but I figure if you aren't having fun, you shouldn't be there. Besides, smiling scares people a lot more than frowning most days. (I could go in depth here but since my audience is mostly family and friends you probably either get it or don't care.)

Sunday was more fun as we went to Monster Park to watch the Eagles and the Niners as mentioned below. Besides being fairly ghetto, this was a great place to watch the game and it was nice and sunny in our seats so I got some late summer sun and generally had a good time. Most of the fans were cool as we discussed how much better the Niners were getting even though they were loosing from the starting whistle (almost literally, the Eagles scored in their first three plays from scrimmage) except for one old crotchety bastard that happened to be sitting right in front of us. He seemed to take offense at every cheer for the Eagles and every comment from "good play" to "ow! you have to catch those" and was spending most of his time calling his home team "pukes" and "losers" and being pretty damn negative. Not that I didn't participate ein a little tet a tet with our grumpy old Niner fan, but I'd have to say the initiation of violent behavior was all on him. In the second half, Frank Gore fumbled on the goal line and a 330 lb. lineman scooped up the ball and ran the length of the field for an impressive touchdown. Needless to say, Piggy and I and every other Eagle fan in the pace (of which there were many) went absolutely nuts! During this process, a little beer splashed on old growly and I immediately offered him some napkins ans to buy him a beer with my apologies, but he seemed to take it as intentional and stood up demanding that I move, shut up, go to hell and fuck off in no real order. I tried to laugh it off, dissuade him, get his friends to corral him and ignore him and finally told him to shut his geriatric ass up and watch the game before he got us both thrown out. His response, apparently was to punch me in the stomach when I was looking at his seatmates for a little help. It didn't hurt, I laughed "did you just hit me?" and that didn't make him much happier. By this time his buddy returned and sat him down and about the whole section apologized for him being a jackass. If it wasn't so surreal, it might have put a severe damper on the day, but as it stood, I still had a great time. This did not stop him from getting off a "menacing" final message to me as he left with him team down about 30 points eluding to "meeting me in the parking lot" and "showing me just how geriatric his ass was". I waved him on and later thought it funny that he wanted to show me his ass in a parking lot...but it is San Francisco. (OK, I'm going to hell for that.) Perhaps the "geriatric" comment was out of line but he was half my size and weight and I don't think he realized how close he was to taking a trip over the top rail if he started anything. I get in the wierdest situations.

Anyway, besides a rabid nearly 60 year old half-badger half-fair weather fan it was a killer day and Piggy and I really enjoyed it. The old fantasy football league and KCoL Pick 'Em Football is going great too, so if you are playing, keep up the good work!

Cheesesteak Birds of Prey versus Gold Rush Mining Enthusiasts: This Weekend Only!!

Well, as a half-birthday suprise for my favorite Piggy I Craig'slisted (I think that is how they write it out here) a pair of upper level tickets to this weekend's Niners/Eagles game. While she is the Philly superfan (The sudden prospect of Philly in double playoffs does my job for me at home, let me assure you.) I am pretty enthusiastic about this game A) Because its Pro Football and B) Because both of these teams that were duds last year are looking like equally matched STUDS this year. It will be interesting to see if Alex Smith, Antonio Bryant and Frank Gore can penetrate the defense of the Eagles and if McNabb, Westbrook and Stahlworth (Ex-N.O. WR) can nail it down on the road. The NFC East will be a tough one this year, so I know every win counts for them.

Lets see, other updates:
1. The IRS will try to charge you twice. I paid a refigured tax estimate for 2004 a year or so back and the IRS decided I needed to be tracked town aobut it today. It caught me on a bad day and I really blew up (scaring my entire apartment complex I'm sure) but I had just finished paying quarterly tax estimates on the lines of about 7 grand that week and did not want to see my meager bank account depleted further by our "screw the middle class" tax system. When I calmed down and called them a few days later, they noted they had "researched further" and found that it had been taken care of. Real confidence inspiring huh? What if you sent that stuff to someone that was broke and suicidal? A shame you didn't look in the "paid" or "unpaid" checkbox before sending out more forms to validate your job's exisitance. On another note, a parential "oopsie" still haunts me as the SS Admin dosen't want to help me change my birthday back to its correct year. Crazy guys think I want to be older.
2. Vegas again. Nice corporate meeting in Las Vegas. Henderson, actually, at the lovely Green Valley Ranch property. If you havn't seen Vegas lately, this is part of the new face. Its not 3.99 prime rib and cheap glam. They are world class and they expect you to pay for it. Sure, there are a some old standard "trailer park" properties but revamps like Green Valley are showing of massive pool complexes, multiple tiers of top end resturants and lounges and entertainment that is no longer "where it goes to die" but people making serious fiscal decisions to set up regular gigs in Lost Wages. They are a Station Casino property, known for middle of the road places that were "acceptable" on most levels but have taken a Wal-Mart-esque approach to setting up bigger and better ourside of the city limits. GVR and Red Rock being their top spots. 3. Ah poker. Love to love it and hate to hate it and I do both some days. Still net positive but some ugly beats lately have me squirming. Grrr. That hasn't stopped people from wanting my opinion however, check out the community section of "Life's A Bluff" for my article on why massive changes to the WSOP would be wrong. www.lifesabluff.com

That is all my short term memory will divulge for now. Back to work.