Not Such Deep Thoughts: Special Frost On The Pumpkin Edition

So, I’ve been amongst the missing lately. Can’t be helped. I’ve been so busy that some things, like this blog, and my yard, have had to go on the back burner for a while. We’re about ¾’s done with our Man Town makeover, and we’re already halfway into a total gut of our den. Add to that a couple of humungous projects at work both coming due at the same time, and I’m left with nothin’. Most nights I just crash and burn wherever I stop. (Note to self: falling asleep on a kitchen stool is not a good thing, on so many levels…)

It’s a good tired though, because it comes from getting things done and moving forward. The only bad part; things are happening that I want to comment on, and I can’t. Consequently, my mind is filling up with random thoughts that I need to purge, so without further ado, I will now proceed to purge:

I’m convinced that we have some of the strangest and most determined squirrels in existence living in our back yard. Trying to keep them from wiping out our bird feeders is like a never ending chess game. No matter what we come up with, they find a way around it. Lately they’ve come up with a new trick, now they’re eating our pumpkins. They gnaw big holes in them and feast on the seeds, and they don’t just work on one until it’s gone, they hit all three at once. My wife sprinkled them with pepper this year, didn’t deter them. They just waited until a good rain washed it off, and then started in. The greedy little beggars are really starting to bother me. I’m thinking I might be able to make a pretty nice pair of slippers out of them. Would it be a tripping hazard if I left the tails on? That would look pretty cool.

Man, what a season the Pats are having. Nail biting excitement, major drama and a 6 and 1 record, does it get any better than this? I don’t think so.

Speaking of the Pats and major drama; Randy Moss is one far out dude. The guy just can't help himself. I think it stems from the sense of entitlement some of these guys have. They're catered to from High School on, and it gives some of them a really skewed sense of reality. Randy doesn't seem to understand, or care about, the consequences of his actions. He gets his money no matter what he says, or does. If I ever bad mouthed my employer in a news conference, I'd be looking for a new job, and stressing big time. Not old Randy, he just moves on. He’s landed with the Titans this time, good luck to them.

While we’re on the subject of entitlement, I think it’s time for all of us to take a good look in the mirror. Go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait… Ok, you know what you just saw? You saw both the reason for the current economic downturn, and the solution to it. It’s not the banks and big business that have done this to us; we’ve done it to ourselves. Sure, they’ve been a big part of it. The banks were making sketchy loans, and Wall Street was selling shares of nothing, but we bought into it, and we have to change the way we think and act to get ourselves out of it. Its not gonna be a quick fix, either. It’s going to be a long and painful process. We have to refocus on what’s really important in our lives, and cut out all the excesses. No one held a gun to the heads of the people that are walking away from their debts and forced them to buy houses that they couldn’t afford, or to put all their money into a market heavily invested in said bad loans. Our culture of entitlement is to blame. If you can’t make the payments, don’t buy it. If you’re border line on your mortgage, then don’t fill your house with chrome appliances, granite countertops and huge flat panel TV’s. If you’re building a nest egg, put it in the bank; don’t give it away on Wall Street. We all have to start living within our means and being smart if we’re ever gonna get out of this mess.

Along these same lines, I was very disappointed with the recent elections. Part of it was the tone. We’ve reached a point where smear tactics are the norm, and I’ve had enough. I don’t want to watch their nasty ads, and I don’t want them besieging me with their robo-calls. Think any of these pols understand how fruitless this behavior is? Everyone I know has been screening their calls for weeks, and the mute buttons all across America have been working overtime. What a waste. If they took the money they spend on this foolishness and donated it to a good cause, they'd have my attention immediately. The other part of my displeasure is the partisanship. It doesn’t matter whether you vote the Republicans or the Democrats in, if they don’t work together, nothing will change, and they won’t work together as long as we the voters continue with the current lynch mob mentality. They’re petrified to cooperate with “the other side”, in fear of angering their base and getting the boot. I understand people being angry and wanting to clean house, but it doesn’t help. As I said before, there is no quick fix to our current dilemma, and people need to face that fact, as awful as it is. We need to change the game, not the players. We need to insist that our elected leaders work with their opposition, instead of thwarting them at every turn, and we need to do the same. You may not like who ends up getting elected, but you need to support them, regardless. I hear all this talk about change from both sides, but I don’t see any evidence of it. All I see is gridlock and pettiness. Only teamwork gets it done people, try to remember that.

On a lighter note, the Celtics are looking good so far this season, and it’s been a delight to have The Big Shamrock in town. Posing as a statue, leaving autographed sneakers somewhere and tweeting clues to the location to his fans, priceless. He’s been a force to recon with on the court, also. You’ve gotta love this guy, and this team.

Apple has been bitten by a bug once again. This time there’s a glitch in iPhone iOS4.1 and your calendar won’t recognize the switch to Daylight Savings Time. They promise to fix the problem with the release of iOS4.2, and I’m sure they will, but this is just another example of releasing a product before it’s been fully tested. Their breakneck pace on that front is driven by, you guessed it, us. If companies don’t keep up, they get left behind, ‘cause everybody needs and wants that “next big thing” yesterday, even though they know there’s going to be issues. Now I love gadgets as much as the next guy, but I’ve learned the hard way not to be an early adopter. Along with that instant gratification comes issues and regret, always, and I’ve already got a boatload of both, thanks.

On the frost on the (half eaten) pumpkin front, it’s starting to get a bit chilly here in New England, and as I said earlier, we’re in the middle of some remodeling work. Plastic sheeting has become our best friend during this project, it is not, however, a very good insulator. brrrrrrrr. Things are moving pretty quickly though, and I think we’ve finally found a keeper with this contractor. I can do a lot of things, but carpentry is not one of them, so it’s good to have someone who knows what they’re doing, works quickly and is pleasant to deal with. They’re doing a phenomenal job, and really helping us to stay within our budget, which is important. This is a mandatory energy saving thing, not just a beautification project, as last winter we had to nail a quilt over one section of the den wall to stop the draft. It was brutal. The bonus here is that these guys are kind of fun having around, all things considered. You have to be comfortable with a contractor who’s in your house all day, every day, and we are. We’ve had some real beauts in the past…

Argh! While I was writing this, the Pats laid an egg of epic proportions. Make that 6 and 2…

That is all.

The Moss Effect

What a week. First we had the thrill of watching the Pats clean the Dolphin’s clock on Monday Night Football, after sitting through a very scary first half, that is. I was pumped the next day, thinking there was hope for this season after all.., and then Wednesday morning I woke up to the news that Randy Moss had been traded to the Vikings. I thought maybe I was still asleep and dreaming, or hadn’t heard correctly, and then, click, out went the power. Talk about a bad start to the day…

I needed more info, and I needed to check the breaker panel, so I made my way down stairs, grabbed a flashlight, and checked the panel. Nothing was tripped, so I got out my portable radio and went back up to the kitchen. As I shuffled around lighting candles, I found that our automatic coffee maker had finished its cycle before the power went off, thank God for small miracles. How lucky am I to have the coffee made and the alarm go off just before the power goes out? Maybe I had misheard the sports report, I was pretty groggy.

So I poured myself a cup and sat there by candlelight, sipping coffee and staring at the radio, waiting for the sports report. I didn’t have to wait long, because it was the lead story. As you’re well aware, it was true, and I was more than a little perplexed. What is it with these guys; just when things look brightest, BAM, they do something totally incomprehensible. Moss for a third round pick? Really? Oh man.

I sat there for a while until the power came back on. The beeps and boops as every device in the house cycled back on woke me from my reverie, and I got on with the start of the day, but I chewed on that news all morning. At first I was worried about losing the team’s only deep threat, and the pressure that would place on the short game, but once I got past my initial aggravation, I started to see things a little differently.

Although it’s been amazing having one of the best receivers in the game, it’s been obvious this season that the man was unhappy. His unhappiness seemed to peak right after Brady got his contract extension, and seeing that he was looking for the same thing, it was somewhat understandable. His timing left something to be desired, though. Airing his grievances after the season opening win took a little of the shine off of the day. The buzz during the following week was as much about Randy as it was about the win. While this performance alone isn’t enough to justify dumping a player as valuable as Moss, I was sure that there was more lurking just below the surface. Bill’s no rookie, so for him to make a drastic move like this, there had to be.

Sure enough, as the week wore on, all sorts of stories surfaced. Felger related a story about Brady calling Moss out last season for cutting his routes short, and then having to call him and apologize to get him to stop sulking. A friend of ours who’s a season ticket holder told us a story about Randy’s performance at a Kraft fund raiser, standing in the corner with those DJ cans of his on instead of paying attention to the speaker. That must have made Bob Kraft a happy man. The latest has Brady and Moss needing to be separated after a locker room spat recently. Although these incidents are all small things, they all add up to one big thing, trouble.

Bill Simmons summed it all up best in his column this week. I love his “Crazy Hot Chic” analogy; it’s so on the money, and a must read.

Simmons broke the story on Tuesday night via twitter, by the way. Gotta love that. There must have been a “real” journalist or two that was pissed about that. Take heed, boys and girls, it’s a brave new world, and news waits for no one.

Anyways, like it or not, it was probably time for Randy to take his show on the road. Belichick has gone to great lengths this season to right the ship, even going so far as to have all the past Super Bowl memorabilia removed in an effort to change the atmosphere, and we all know what happened with Thomas at the end of last season. There’s no room for griping and whining in a Belichick locker room. No sir, won’t do.

What does that mean for the team? Well, I have a feeling that we’ll look back on this week as the week the 2010 team solidified. Are they a better team? In some ways, yes, because discord is a powerful thing. Will Moss go on to have a productive season for the Vikings? Of course, because he’s playing for a contract. We’ll get to see soon enough, as the Vikes play the Jets tonight on MNF. This should be good on a lot of levels. My buddy Mark thinks that the Jet’s superfan that wears the fire helmet will be sporting some kind of appendage on top in honor of Brett Farve’s recent alleged adventures this week, and I think he’s probably right. Must see TV.

All of this drama aside, the real question, the one that everyone seems to have forgotten is; have the Patriots really gotten their mojo back? For the answer to that, we have to wait until next Sunday, but as my old Magic 8 Ball is fond of saying; "The outlook is good."

That is all.

Not Such Deep Thoughts; Special Decking The Halls Edition

The last couple of weeks I’ve spent an inordinate amount of my free time either decking the halls, or aimlessly wandering through malls. Neither activity ranks very highly on the old berry funometer, but it has given me a lot of time to think (uh-oh…), and now it’s time to share those thoughts with you, if only to exorcise them from my brain. So, without further ado, I bring you a Special Decking The Halls Edition of Not Such Deep Thoughts:


Come on Randy, you better watch out. Santa knows that you’ve been dogging it, and pouting, and if things keep going like they’ve been going, I see a lump of coal in your future. On the other hand, were you to start hustling and playing through to the whistle, you just might be spending this holiday season with visions of a shiny new ring dancing in your head. From here on in, try thinking of each catch as a layaway payment towards the big bling.


Every time I go up in the attic, I smash my head on something. Get the tree, smash my head. Look for ornaments, smash my head. Bloody gashes on my dome are not a good look for me.


The Sox have given us an early present with the acquisition of Lackey and Cameron. Adrian Gonzalez would be the capper Theo, but please don’t go giving up Ellsbury to make it happen. Dump Buchholz if you want, but not Ellsbury.


Why on God’s green earth are the plugs on the pre-strung lights that are attached to our tree labeled C8, C12, C26 and G2, and why are the labels on 3 of the 4 marked with different colored dots? There are only 2 outlets on the main cord, and neither one is labeled or colored. I really wish I could find those directions…


I usually like Target’s holiday commercials. In previous years they’ve always been fast paced, colorful and set to infectious music. This year’s campaign is just depressing. I know they’re trying to pound home the “good deals in a bad economy” theme, but they just feel uncomfortable. I can’t help thinking that the families are going to erupt into a knock down drag out domestic dispute at any moment. “You bought a flat panel TV? I thought we discussed overspending” and “You spent too much, I’m really not that into you” are not the stuff of holiday memories, they're just creepy and depressing. Is it how Christmas plays out in a lot of families? Yes, but who wants to be reminded of that.


And speaking of bad holiday commercials, how about that strange one for the Kindle? You know the one; it has a woman who morphs from a mustachioed magician to Daniel Boone firing a musket, and its set to a sickly sweet song called “Fly me away”. The woman in the commercial is actually an Amazon contest winner who wrote the jingle herself, and as impressive as that is, it just doesn’t seem to fit the product to me. I get the whole “Kindle can bring you a gazillion different books and fly your mind away to wherever you want to go” thing, very artsy-fartsy, but the first few times I saw it I honestly thought it was going to be an ad for Southwest or Jet Blue. Besides, the Kindle is a sexy device; you need to show it off. You see it for about 2 seconds at the beginning of the commercial, then nothing but unrelated fluff for the rest of the spot. The money would have been better spent on a close up of the device as it changed screens between countless newspapers, magazines and books. Simple and to the point.


The best Christmas album ever made is Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. It’s a must have for your collection. Don’t just dismiss it as a silly cartoon soundtrack, the man was a genius. The album is comprised of full versions of those all too familiar snippets from the cartoon, and his piano work floats and soars through each track against a backdrop of incredible jazz bass and percussion. The recording quality is fantastic, to boot. When I listen to it, it feels as if each note reaches in and gently massages the stress centers of my brain.


Malls suck during the holidays. They’re hot and crowded, the parking lots are like a demolition derby, and the food courts are like a middle school mixer.


I’m off now until the start of the New Year, and there’s nothing like it. It allows me to slow the pace down and actually enjoy the holidays. I’d been slogging my way towards this break like a Foreign Legionnaire slowly making his way towards an oasis, sand sucking at my feet with every step, a prayer on my lips that it was not a mirage I was seeing on the horizon. This past year has not been a memorable one on a lot of fronts, and now that I’ve finally made it to the finish, it feels like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. As a great man, and one of my role models growing up, once said; “Nothin to do but eat and sleep… and live off the fat of the land. Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.”

If you’re listening Santa, all I want for Christmas this year is some quality family time and rest. Lots and lots of rest.


That is all.

Casell Throws For 415 Yards, Pats Defeat Dolphins 48-28

Wow. How about those Patriots?

You've gotta love this team, and you’ve gotta love Matt Casell. He’s really developing nicely, spreading the ball around, throwing strikes, and moving when he needs to. This was his second straight game throwing for over 400 yards, putting him in some pretty elite company, and he also got his second rushing touchdown of the season. This guy will not be denied.

Moss also had three touchdown catches today, passing old teammate Chris Carter and moving into 3rd place in NFL career touchdowns. Check out the Game Notes and Quick Hits on Patriots.com for more details.

It Wasn't Pretty But They're 11 and 0.

The Patriots became AFC Eastern Division Champs for the 5th year in a row by virtue of a Bills loss today, but things didn't go quite so smoothly on the field.

The Pats pulled off a squeaker against the Eagles, beating them 31 to 28 in a back and forth game that came right down to the wire. The Eagles played inspired football and A.J. Feeley had the game of his career, but the Pats persevered. Brady led them on a 69 yard scoring drive in the 4th to retake the lead and the defense sealed the deal with a pair of interceptions on the last 2 Eagle possessions.

It was a tight game but I don't for a minute believe the post game comments from the NBC porks that the Eagles have shown the rest of the league a blueprint to beat the Pats. The defense was flat tonight, although they came through when it counted, and Moss was not himself. The Eagles secondary had a lot to do with his performance but you could see that his timing was off. He was jumping to soon on the high throws and he seemed to be looking over the wrong shoulder on a couple of plays. Hey, the guy is an amazing receiver, tonight just wasn't his night.

The double coverage on Moss did open up Welker, who had a big night and really pulled our nards out of the fire. That guy is a mean motor scooter. Game balls have to go to both Welker and Samuel.

On to Baltimore to face the Ravens on Monday Night Football. This should be good. There was some jawing earlier in the season between Adalius Thomas and Ray Lewis. I just don't like that guy and would love to see him get shut down.

The 60 Minute Men are now 10 and 0

That was like a scrimmage. Brady looked sharp, as did Moss. The two of them looked like they were practicing in an empty parking lot. Hell, the whole team was like a well oiled machine. 6 straight drives of 60+ yards. 7 possessions, 7 scores with Tom in the game. Final score 56-10.

Both Brady and Moss set career and season franchise records tonight. Brady passed Steve Grogan as the Patriots career touchdown pass leader with 185 and also passed Babe Parilli for the single season touchdown pass record with 38.

Moss became the first Patriot to break 1000 yards receiving in a single season since Troy Brown in '01. He also broke Stanely Morgan's single season record of 12 touchdown receptions with 16 and Ben Coates' single game record of 3 touchdown receptions with 4.

I don't want to hear any pouring it on comments this week. As John Madden said tonight, "This is pro football and you just don't stop playing. It's up to the defense to stop them". They're just off the bye and they needed to work it. The 2 minute drill at the end of the 1st half was something Brady had trouble with at practice this week, so they worked it. Going for it on 4Th and 1 in the 3rd allowed Buffalo the chance to stop them when a field goal would have been automatic, so they worked it. Faulk and Maroney get hurt so they swap off with Evans and Eckel and still punch it in. Fourth and fifth string running backs!

Other than the Colts there isn't anyone who can give these guys a game, and after watching them the last couple of weeks I don't think they're up to it anymore either. Both Peyton and Adam are definitely in a slump, and the rest of the team has been decimated. It's like they left it all on the field when they lost to the Pats.

Oh yeah, I'm enjoying this.

Note to CBS Sports:

Replace Shannon Sharpe. Half the time you can't understand what he's saying, and to make it worse, half the time you can.

Was that a killer game yesterday or what? We haven't seen "The Comeback" in quite a while as Tom and the boys have been dispatching opponents with alacrity of late, but you could feel it coming.

There was only 9 minutes and change left in the 4th quarter and the Pats were down by 10 when Brady strode confidently onto the field and lead the team to score not once, but twice, to take a 24-20 lead. Then the New England defense clamped down, stopping the Colts after the first score, then sealing the deal with a forced fumble on the Colts last possession.

Is there any greater reward for the Patriots faithful then seeing Goober on his belly making the Peyton face at the end of a game?

And speaking of rewards, how about Randy Moss? Spectacular one handed catch. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Caught, pulled down and tucked away, all with his left hand as he stiff armed with his right and never missed a step. Fan-farging-tastic!

Moss would open the game up for Welker and company. After his big catch on the 3, Brady had no problem finding Wes Welker and Kevin Faulk for the scores and the final clock killing first down.

Can it get any better than this, and if it does, can my heart take it?