Getting caught up, much to your chagrin I am sure

Well, it looks like I have the place all to myself. Not my apartment mind you, but rather the radio stations plural. carol is off again this week, which means I can either call a cab and come in in the morning or go the cheap route and pull an all nite shift. Tonight it will be the all night shift, thank you very much. The novel thing is, usually there is someone working the FM station whose job it is to monitor all three stations, basically just to make sure they stay on the air. The thing is, our FM station is doing its Christmas charitable endeavor this week, a campaign for Make a Wish that involves live broadcasts on location during the day and the part timers that would are pulled in to run the board during those broadcasts, leaving no one to run the board in the evenings. The result is there is no one here and they are relying on the automation to run all three stations. Good luck with that I say, I know how much the automation screws up our station, putting it in place to run all three is just courting audio disaster, but I suppose it saves a couple of pennies.

Anyway, I didn't come here to bitch about radio, I did that in the last entry thank you very much. rather, let's get back to the business of blogging, which I have been neglectful in.

I guess I will begin in the realm of sports, because they have been good around these parts recently. The Pitt basketball (ranked #9 nationally) remains undefeated after a couple of close games, a 6 point win against crosstown rival Duquesne and a 1 point win at Washington after it was ruled that a last second shot was actually released after the buzzer preserving the victory for Pitt.

Likewise the football team ended its season on a positive note, something I don't say about Pitt all that often when it comes to Pitt football, but they pulled a huge upset, defeating West Virginia 13-9. WVU went into the game ranked #2 in the country and, with a win, would have been playing for the National Championship in January. The loss ended the title aspirations for WVU and sent the Pittsburgh fans into a frenzy here in Pittsburgh. Mind you, Pitt-WVU is a rivalry to begin with. It is called the Backyard Brawl given the relative closeness of the two schools, separated by only 60 or so odd miles, and this year marked the 100th meeting between the two schools in football. I don't know what they joke about in West Virginia when talking about Pitt, but here, we tend to use a lot of redneck, incest related insults when referring to our football rivals to the southwest. Prime example was a joke I told while at work prior to kickoff of the game;

How does a mother in West Virginia know her daughter is having her period?

Her son's dick tastes funny.

Yes kids, there is no love lost in these parts when it comes to the West Virginia folks.

Anyway, after Pitt won, a horde of students watching the game (it was played @ WVU) poured out into the streets to celebrate, apparently losing sight of the fact that Pitt's record for the year was only 5-7. Still the mob was unruly enough that we locked the doors at work and wouldn't let anyone in, which is good because the mob opted to set fire to a car outside the bar and block traffic in the street, forcing the police to come out en masse, though their presence did little to curtail the revelers. I snuck out the back door at work after my shift, opting not to challenge the masses, but rather avoid them.

Yet there is more sports to talk about, I should become a reporter or something. I haven't even gotten to the fantasy stuff, crikes this could be long. remind me to never take a week off again. After a bad start to the season, the Penguins have righted the hockey ship to a certain degree. There are currently 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, making the overall mark now 15-12-2. Currently they are on a 4 game road trip, three in western Canada against Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver and then a game back here in the states against Philadelphia. For the first time in their history, the Penguins won all three games in their western Canada swing, winning two of the games in shootouts.

And finally, the Steelers where things are so so with the professional football franchise. They are undefeated at home and abysmal in road games, yet they still have a two game in their division with three games to play, so chances are they will make the playoffs, which is when I might start paying attention to them, for now I have my fantasy teams to worry about.

Speaking of which, I have two weeks worth of updates to get out of the way. Let's start with the office pool, something that I have considered myself pretty much out of a few weeks ago. I still question my chances, but at least I haven't quit on it, going 11-5 two weeks ago picking games and an even better 14-2 this week. I have cut the deficit down to just 4 games now, but I only have three weeks to make up that difference. For the season I am now 134-74 picking games this year.

Yahoo football, I lost last week 131-75 and for the first time in ages, I am no longer in first place, instead dropping to second overall. This week however I pulled out another solid win, 129-80 to complete our regular season 10-4 and enter our playoffs as the #2 seed.

In the bar league, last time I had wrote I had clinched a playoff spot, but where I would be was still yet to be determined in the seeding process. A win would give me the #3 seed, a loss and it would be up to everyone else to determine just where I would enter the playoff bracket. the only thing I did know was that I would not get a first round bye in the playoffs, as only the 1 and 2 seeds get those. Well as luck would have it, I lost the last week of our regular season, as did everyone else that could have taken the #3 spot from me, so it was a no harm, no foul sort of loss. I ended the regular season there with a 7-6 mark, and this week marked the first week of our playoffs. The thing is, a loss this week and there is no way I could win money, we only pay out for the top three teams. A win and I would at least have a chance to play for money, whether that be ultimately in the championship game (with a second win) or in the consolation game for third place (with a loss). Well, I would like to thank the patriots for beating the Steelers in that regard as Wes Welker contributed to my winning effort with 20 fantasy points in a 131-76 win. Up next is a matchup against the #2 seed, who lead the league in points scored this year, having both Ladanian Tomlinson and Tom Brady on his roster, and he posted a 10-3 record during the regular season. We played each other once during the regular season, way back in week #2, a game I lost 134-126.

Lastly fantasy hockey, where I remain in 6th place, going 5-3-2 two weeks ago and 4-6 last week. For the season I am now 43-42-15 overall, which I guess is okay, I wish it were better, I am just 4 ts out of 7th place and missing the playoffs, but I am also only 8 points away from 4th place so it is safe to say everyone is still pretty bunched up at this point.

I should update the change meter, I haven't done that in a while. Adding to the total will be another 26 cents so we now sit at $33.48. Come Jan. the change meter celebrates it's two year anniversary on the page. Cake and ice cream for everyone, provided you have cake and ice cream in your home to eat. Me, I will probably have ramen noodles to celebrate. For now I will just have them for dinner and leave you to other more interesting pursuits than my blathering.