Vegas, baby

We are headed out today for a weekend in Las Vegas.  Super Bowl weekend in Vegas has become a bit of a tradition. I'll be looking for some sort of teaser bet on Larry Fitzgerald catching multiple touchdowns and hoping that the Cards take down the Steelers, if for no other reason than because defensive showdowns are a bit boring to watch. Also, hold on, let me check... Yes, I believe Pittsburgh already has a ring or two or six.

Wish my liver well.

vacation's all I ever wanted

Tonight was my last night of class for the quarter.  I have three weeks until classes start up again -- the only break of any substance at UCLAx is offered between fall and winter quarters, so this is the longest I've had without new classes starting up again all year.  No huge plans.  We're taking a quick trip to Dallas tomorrow.  We were planning to go to the Cowboys-Giants game, but our friend didn't come through with his tickets (ones his business typically has access to) and we decided not to spend a bunch of money to get them.  Honestly, I sort of prefer watching on tv and I'm sure that the fans in Irving would not be super hospitable to me anyway, based on prior experience.  Yeah, Cowboys fans can be pretty obnoxious.  Newsflash.  So instead we'll be having a little viewing party with a bunch of Cowboys fans.  I guess I'll just have to arm myself with the truth that the Giants will win the division this year regardless of the outcome on Sunday.

I'm happy to report that I ended up enjoying my classes this quarter.  The big surprise was how much fun I had with Mixed Media/Collage. So I've included above a picture of the collage I did for the project entitled Seeing God.

That's all for now.  Happy holidays!

keeping the doctor away

Well, it is November once again and since I'm relatively sure I don't have time to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, I'll do my best to make it through another NaBloPoMo.  No theme this month, just writing a post every day.

I've spent the afternoon doing art homework and watching the Giants-Cowboys playoff game from last year in preparation for the first meeting of those teams tomorrow in New York.  This is a warm-up for the December game that Mike and I will be going to in Irving, Texas.  Go Giants!

one and oh

Football season is upon us once again.  I had quite a nice week one.  The Giants opened up the season on Thursday night with a win over the Skins.  Not a particularly exciting game to watch, and I hope Coughlin didn't actually shut down the offense to start the second half (as it appeared) because he does tend to annoy a bit with his overly conservative play.

The play that was not at all conservative this week was the play of my fantasy team.  I ended up topping out the league points-wise thanks to the amazing play of one Michael Turner, new starting running back for Atlanta.  I picked up Turner in the 3rd round of the draft as my number 2 running back (I also have Marion Barber).  Turner has been on my radar since my first year playing fantasy ball, when I was in dire need of a RB and picked him up off waivers.  He was just the back-up to LT but he showed a ton of potential and I've been waiting for him to get a starting job.  I was not disappointed.

Favre got a win for the Jets and Rodgers got a win for the Pack, so Mike was happy on both counts.  I have a vested interest in Favre this year (though I can do with less commentary about him on all the pre-games and sports websites) because he is fighting it out with Eli for the starting job on my fantasy team.  With Coughlin's play-calling, Favre may be safe in the starting job until his Bye.

deep thoughts

Bela Karolyi is the James Carville of Olympic commentary.  Carry on.

stop me if you think that you've heard this one before

Stories I could do without for the remainder of the Olympics:

1.  Color-commentator Rowdy Whatever* freaking out about whether Natalie Coughlin will hit the lanes during the backstroke.

2.  Phil Dalhausser purportedly blamed his parents for his early life hair loss, but he luckily has an attractive head to sport the bald look.

Shouldn't they have a playbook so they don't just keep saying the same things over and over again?  Or do they not expect anyone to watch as much Olympic coverage as I've seen thus far?

*I'm sure I'm supposed to know who this guy is, but I'm not even interested enough to google it.

eye of the tiger

I went to Orange County this weekend for a mini camp at David Leadbetter's golf academy in Irvine. A girlfriend and I spent 3 hours each day swinging, learning, adjusting and hitting lots and lots of golf balls. I'm embarrassed to note that I was really sore after the first day. I'm still a bit sore today.

I've played golf off and on for about 15 years. I was introduced to golf in my childhood though. My dad and his brothers loved golf and my dad joined a country club (he was sooo not the prototypical country club type) when I was an adolescent. Also my gramma was a huge golf lover. She coached high school women's golf and watched professional golf on tv voraciously after she stopped playing herself. So I've known the golf fundamentals for most of my life, which helped a great deal when I finally decided to give the game a try in my mid-twenties.

Because I knew the basics and I was actually able to make contact with the ball pretty consistently early on, I never took any golf lessons. I'd take some advice from people I played with (but because I'm stubborn, it had to be presented in a Leila-friendly manner in order for me to listen), but mainly I'd just figure things out by trial and error.

So maybe it will come as no surprise that I've had my posture all wrong the entire time I've played. I've been sitting back on my heels instead of playing over the ball. Turns out that I'm going to need to strengthen my lower back in order to play with the correct posture. Also, as I've known for years, I swing mainly with my arms instead of getting the power of my body involved. I have a lot to think about and try to fix in my long game.

There is some good news. My instructor was very impressed with my pitching. I've always had a decent short game (when I was a kid I would go golfing with my dad and he would hit all the drives and long shots for me so that I could play pitch-n-putt but the greens). And it was nice to get a gold star on that portion of the class.

I'm excited to get out next weekend and see how I play post-camp. Michelle Wie, watch out!

t is for tiger

That's good enough for me.

Somehow Mike and I ended up vying for the prize in his office NCAA tourney pool. I currently have the lead by 3 points, but the final game is worth 5 points. I picked Memphis to win it all and he is the top person behind me who picked Kansas. Should be a pretty exciting private viewing party at our house tonight! Go Tigers!

continuing madness

Today's post is brought to you by the letters UNC, KU, UCLA and M-E-M-P-H-I-S. We're heading down the Redondo for the day to hang out with LJ and Wes at their brand new house and watch some basketball. Wes went to UCLA, so at least one game will be important to someone in the crowd. I'll be somewhat quietly hoping for a Memphis win, because if Memphis wins it all, I'll win Mike's office pool. But mostly I just hope that the games are good and I don't drink too much wine this weekend.

ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day

Approximate hours until beginning of 2008-2009 NFL regular season: 3950
Approximate hours until beginning of 2008-2009 NCAA basketball season: 5520

It seems I have a lot of free time on my hands starting right about now. I guess I should be thanking the Hoyas.

wake me up before you go go

Things that are screwed up about the NCAA bracket selection and directly affect the happiness of my household today:

• Wisconsin was flat-out screwed by the committee.  There is no way around it.  They won the Big Ten regular season, they won the Big Ten Tournament and they got a lower seed than Duke*, which lost 2 games in the last week, came in second in the ACC regular season and lost in the semifinals of the ACC tournament to unranked Clemson.  Duke did beat Wisconsin early in the season, but then Wisconsin beat Texas (a 2 seed) and only lost to ranked teams, ending the season with a 29-4 record.  Wisconsin's four losses were to Purdue (twice), Duke and Marquette.  Duke's record was 27-5, with losses to unranked Clemson, Wake Forest and Miami.  Total bullshit.
• Because of the shenanigans mentioned above, the selection committee in its infinite wisdom put Wisconsin and Georgetown in the same half bracket.  If they both win their first two games, Mike's team will be playing against my team in the Sweet 16.  They should both be 2 seeds, with the possibility (remote as it may be) that they could meet in the Final 4.  Instead, one of our teams is guaranteed to be out before the Elite 8.  
• Indiana ended up with an 8 seed.  In a continuation of the total lack of respect for the Big Ten, and because Wisconsin got a 3, all the other Big Ten teams fell to a lower seed than they should have had.  Indiana did not end the season strong, but they were top 25 before the tournaments and they should have gotten a 6 or at worst a 7.

*I'll even go so far as to say that Wisconsin deserved a 2 seed more than Georgetown did.  I mean, the Hoyas did win the Big East regular season, but they lost the finals of the Big East tournament to Pitt.  Wisconsin won both.  The Coach's poll that came out today puts Wisconsin at #5, Georgetown at #8 and Duke at #9.  That sounds about right.

I wish I was a little bit taller

Things that happened in NCAA basketball today:

1. Georgetown beat Louisville to win the Big East regular season title.
2. Wisconsin won the Big Ten regular season title.
3. UCLA almost (should have) lost to Cal. They already sealed the Pac10 regular season title with their overtime win over Stanford this week.
4. UNC beat Duke for the ACC regular season title.

On to the big conference tournaments and then to the selection show next weekend! I love this time of year.

my unified world theory part ncaa: coaches and mascots

In my ideal world, college basketball programs would include in their requirements when looking for coaches a simple question: Does he (or she, but who am I kidding - it's always a he*) resemble our mascot?

Hence, it was pure genius for Wisconsin to hire Bo Ryan:



















And it was not a bad move for Georgetown to scoop up John Thompson III (for more reasons than just family loyalty):
















So despite my sadness that Kelvin Sampson blew his shot with IU**, I'm taking some solace in the fact that he now is free to pursue his ultimate dream job. Coaching the Cal. Bears:




















*I cannot even tell you how happy I was to hear an honest-to-god female color commentator for a Men's Division I game this weekend. And she was GOOD.

**IU is one of my two college basketball teams - both parents (and tons of extended family) went to IU. In the interest of full disclosure, since I'm likely to have some March Madness ramblings here, the other is my law school - Georgetown - I was there when Iverson was playing. Unbelievable.

best birthday present EVER

What a post-season. What a Super Bowl. What a year.

I became a Giants fan in 1991. Before that, I had a few teams that I liked, but none of them were My Team. In 1991, I was in Rochester, NY, living through all that Bills hype (to be fair, there isn't a lot to cheer for in Western NY besides the Bills). Watching that Super Bowl, surrounded by Bills fans, and seeing the Giants pull the victory out just barely, that is when the Giants became My Team. It has been a long 17 years, waiting for them to get back to this place, but it has been worth it.

I've had a wonderful time wearing my Eli jersey for the last 6 weeks. I'm one of the 5 people in the country who always believed he could do it. ELI MVP.

it doesn't surprise me...

...that Hitler was a Cowboys fan.

da bears still suck

I've heard a lot about football this week. I've watched a lot of football this week. I've lived a lot of football this week. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, there isn't much else to do. Beer, brats, cheese curds and Packers fans are about all you can find in Green Bay.

It was a really fun trip up to the frozen tundra. We got to visit with Mike's family. We ate a lot of artery-clogging food. We listened to some Wisconsin polka music. Oh, and there were a few hours that we stood out in the elements watching a football game. More about that in a minute.

As we drove into town, we started listening to Green Bay sports talk radio. There wasn't much talk about strategy. Instead it was all about putting footballs in the freezer before practice. And not wearing sleeves. Not concern about how the teams matched up. Not talk about how Green Bay would keep their running game going against a pretty decent run defense. Frozen footballs and sleeveless linemen. Was Green Bay looking past the Giants? I'm not sure I would go that far, but the confidence level seemed so high - in everyone I talked or listened to - that it seemed no one thought the Giants could potentially win the game. Overconfidence? That seems fair. There was some talk of the horrendous game against Chicago in the cold and wind, but that was often followed by distinguishing that this game would be in Lambeau.

I won't lie, I was nervous for the Giants. More because they haven't really been tested in the cold this year. But I also knew that cold temperatures would likely keep the score close and that the Giants are comfortable right now playing with anybody. Even the Packers in Lambeau in January. At the stadium before the game, I was asked by Mike's brother-in-law: Really, who did I think would win the game. I told him that I thought either team could win it. That the cold was a great equalizer and that the Giants have been pretty good at wearing other teams out this post-season. I'm not coming in waving the white flag, folks.

On to the game. It was cold in the stadium. Mike and I layered up. His family gave us a lot of high tech winter gear and plenty of hand and foot warmers. Still the temperature drop was noticeable when the sun went down about a half hour before the game started up. I was never cold, but if I took my hands out of my mittens to send a text message, they needed to get back in (and grab a hand warmer) within a minute or so. It was frostbite cold. Temperature was around -2, wind chill around -20.

Our seats were in the north end zone, about 40 rows up. Serious hometown fan territory. That was the one bummer of the game for me (besides the total clown behind us who had no business calling himself a Packers fan - cheering for linemen to go down ("I hope they have to bring a stretcher on the field!") and yelling while the Packer offense was on the field - what a jackass). The fact that I never did locate another Giants fan anywhere near us who I could celebrate a bit with. I've been an away team fan at any number of games and that is the first time I've been my own little island like that. Needless to say, Mike wasn't giving me any high fives. There were a smattering of Giants fans elsewhere in the stadium, and the overwhelming majority of Packer fans were civil-to-nice to us outta-towners.

We had a pretty good view of the field. I've never been in end zone seats before, but being that high up, we could see the entire field. I didn't even have a hard time telling the amount of yardage on running plays, etc. I did have trouble seeing detail on instant replays when they came up on the big screen all the way across the field. We couldn't tell whether Amani Toomer really caught that pass on the sideline or if he was out of bounds. We couldn't tell if Plaxico had possession and fumbled or if the pass was incomplete.

What I did see quite clearly were both of Tyne's misses in the 4th quarter.* Kicked right at our seats. Oh, and he kicked the game winner our way as well. After that kick was made in overtime, Lambeau was as quiet as I've ever heard a sports venue. And all the way through the parking lot back to the car, practically the only sound to be heard, well other than the guy playing a trombone in sub-zero temps for spare change, was the swish swish swishing of ski pants as people walked and the crunching of packed snow under heavy boots.

Sports radio in Green Bay after that loss was something to behold. Plenty of anger to go around. The overwhelming sentiment: "We shoulda beat the crap out of the Giants!" (That is actually a direct quote. Prior to the game, I also heard "We're gonna beat the crap out of them!" Maybe this is only amusing when said in a Wisconsin accent though.) I think that Mike McCarthy might have a few questions to answer in Green Bay about the preparation for that game, as well as the play-calling, during the off season. The good news is that the Packers are a young team and they don't seem like they'll lose many players to free agency. Everyone assumes Brett will be back, and heck, he probably will. That last interception would be a tough last play before retirement for him, I think.

This picture probably sums up the trip. It was taken about halfway through the 4th quarter, tie score on the board (quite possibly the best thing about this photo is that I managed to capture the aforementioned jackass - yup, that's him in the black poofy hat and feathers):


I hung in pretty well for a Southern California girl.

We'll be in Vegas for the Super Bowl again this year. Should be a good game. I don't think the Giants are ready to roll over for a drubbing just yet.

*I had a totally sick feeling going into overtime that the Giants could lose the game after outplaying the Packers for most of the game. Wow, that would have been a demoralizing loss. There is nothing that makes a Giants fan more nervous that having a kicker miss kicks. Maybe I'm the only one who still remembers the feeling watching Feely lose this game for Big Blue (at least in part because I was at that game), but damn, I sometimes hate kickers.

baby, it's cold outside

Wow. What a wonderful football weekend this one turned out to be. Mike and I did not make plans to head to Green Bay for what turned out to be the snow bowl. I'm sure it would have been fun to be there. Instead we waited it out to see whether, miracle of miracles, both of our teams would be able to hold on and make it to the championship game. And guess what? Oh, fine, you already know, right?

Giants are playing the Packers this Sunday for the right to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl! It seemed unlikely, to say the least, that this outcome could be possible in weeks 15 and 16 of the regular season, but here we are. And there we will be. Details have yet to be worked out, but we just cashed in some American miles on flights up to Chicago this weekend and you can bet that Mike and I will be freezing our butts off on bleachers at Lambeau in 6 days.

Current weather forecast for Green Bay on Sunday? High of 12 degrees, low of 5 degrees. What have I gotten myself into??? That is a far cry from the current 70 degrees and sunny I have going on in Los Angeles.

a casual observer

Well, I lost in the first round of my fantasy league. So for the rest of the season I can watch football without worrying about how many points Earnest Graham or Randy Moss is going to pull in. And I can stop obsessing over Brandon Jacobs's injury reports. Sad but true.

I was playing against my friend Malia's team. She is the person who got me into the league and I beat her twice earlier in the season. But she has LT, and that overtime winning touchdown of his was a killer for me. I ended up with a respectable 140 points (higher than the totals for the other two teams in the playoffs who played last week), but on Monday night her final player, Marques Colston, had a career game and catapulted her over me with a final score of 150.

So now I'll just be hoping her team goes all the way. And planning for who I'm going to try to pick up next year. Fine, I'll take a week or two off first.

Next football question: Which Packers playoff game will I be dragged to in January and will I freeze to death if I'm forced to go to Lambeau Field and sit on those icy bleachers?

somebody has to lose

I may have mentioned this before, but I am very excited about my trip this weekend - I'll be at the RCA Dome watching this game Sunday afternoon. This trip has been planned for some time, because Mike and I decided to pick a game to go to in Indy this year and this one sounded the best to us even during pre-season. We'll be using seats provided to us by his employer, because they are pretty hooked up in Indianapolis, and we'll be catching up with my aunt and uncle, who are Colts season ticket holders. I'm a big Peyton fan, despite his overexposure in commercials this year, and I have some fantasy stakes in the game as well (Randy Moss, Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders and Marvin Harrison if he plays). Should be a good game. Even if it is a blowout either way, which I sort of doubt because they both have such effective offenses, it will be fun to be at The Game Of The Year. At least until the playoffs.

Only question that I have at this point is whether I should buy an Indy shirt while I'm there or just wear my (Eli) Manning jersey...

and we trash-talk too

As promised, my fantasy league is now a featured league on espn.com. If you are interested in reading about or following the goings on of the league, links are included below. As an added bonus, any page hits and/or positive feedback for Stephanie's columns could very well be good for her career. And I like Stephanie a lot. Even if she is a Browns fan. New columns will be published every week. This week it was a Friday feature, but I'll let you know if that changes.

League front page and bios: http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/LTO

Introductory column: http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=lotobackstory

Week 3: http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=loto3