SUPERBOWL XLIV IS SET!

I have watched all of the previous 43 Superbowls (well, most of the games) and this one, while excluding my beloved Packers, is an especially sweet one. This year the Indianapolis Colts return to play the Superbowl virgins New Orleans Saints. Most pundits were picking these two teams just after mid season as both were on their respective runs to undefeated seasons. As it turned out, no team went undefeated but Indy (16-2) and NO (15-3) came close.

The sweet ingredient came in how The Saints arrived. They beat the Minnesota Vikings in overtime. The game came to overtime by the Saints intercepting a pass at the end of regulation of a tied game while Minnesota was driving. The REALLY sweet part is that this quarterback has a history of ending seasons (and playoff games) with interceptions with other teams. This quarterback was a Packer legend, Brett Favre, who broke almost every passing record for the Packers and the league, including the most career interceptions - when a QB plays for seventeen years, throwing an average of 3500 yards per season, it stands to reason. But I digress.

Favre threw his twentieth playoff interception on an audible - a play the QB calls instead of the one called by the coach. Then, as has happened to Minnesota four other times, they lost the conference championship. This time by a field goal in overtime. Favre ended his Packer career with an interception in a playoff game, retired, came out of retirement to play for the Jets, ended that season with an interception, retired AGAIN, came out of retirement AGAIN, signed with the hated Viqueens as we Packer fans "lovingly" refer to them, and ended this season with an interception. He has not yet committed to retirement this year. It's still early.

BHO - ONE YEAR IN

Well, it's been one year, exactly, into the Barack Hussein Obama presidency. Do you feel safer? Are you wealthier? Heck, do you still have a job? Do you have free health care? Is Guantanamo Bay prison closed? Are we out of Iraq? Are we winding down Afghanistan? Has every bill presented to Congress in the past 365 days been available for public viewing on television and on the Internet in printer-friendly format? Is the employment rate under 8% because the porkulous bill was hurried to vote? Are the investment houses, banks and car companies taken over by the federal government running leaner, at a profit and in a "cleaner" fashion? Is the world's (mostly over China and India) air cleaner? Are the Olympics going to take place in Chicago? Was the Senate seat formerly occupied for forty-two years by the late "Swimmer" re-seated by a Democrat after BHO visited Massachusetts?

I hate to say "I told you so"; wait, I do like to say that! Only 1,095 days left!

HUMAN TARGET

A new Fox network television show in the veins of Jason Bourne meets James Bond meets The Terminator, "Human Target" http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=humantarget is on as I type. I'm a sucker for this junk. There is, however, already a "turn off" aspect of this episode. It is taking place on a government-financed bullet train in California that supposedly cost only 62 billion dollars of taxpayer money. The target is the engineering firm's team leader for the project (who, coincidentally, is also a whistle blower). I am anticipating this being some "right wing militia group" or corporate sponsors hell-bent on stopping the project, especially after it's already been constructed and fully funded in perpetuity. The target is to be protected by a private security firm. That's where Christopher Chance comes in. He forces the bad guys to concentrate on him rather than the intended target. Lots of shooting, fighting, explosions and and witty repartee.

Wow! Was I off about the attempted killer. I turns out it was the team leader's jealous husband. Well, to be honest, she was having an affair, but that doesn't necessarily warrant killing anybody. Anyway, my cynical nature is still in tact.

Vote against boondoggle government choo-choos and their legislative reporters.

AVATAR JUNKIES

The latest film by James Cameron , "Avatar", has had rave reviews and has been panned. So it goes with films. Some say it is the weired work of an ecstasy-ladened has-been looking to, yet again, bash the U.S., her military and her governmental format. Others have declared it a monumental shift in the way movies will be produced from now on (as if special effects are new to film, but I digress). Still others are taking their attachment to this fiction to another level.

In this article http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html the author sited examples of people who leave the theater so enthralled with the beauty of the fictitious planet Pandora (any relation to the famous box is most likely intentional) that they state on a blog that they have considered suicide in order to take themselves to a place like Pandora so they can become the planet's inhabitants. As the kids tweet "LOL"! That was my initial reaction.

Is this society in such a sad state of affairs that computer-generated beings from a fictitious planet in a fictitious future cause lonely, depressed human beings to assume by ending their real lives that, because they simply will it to be, they will become these fictitious beings? Culling of the herd, I guess.

55YEARS AND COUNTING

Today is my the beginning of my fifty-sixth year on this planet. Even though my birthday is close to Christmas, I have never been forced to celebrate it simultaneously. My mother, as a boy, and now, my wife, have seen to that. It is an act of love I have always appreciated. I know and appreciate the fact that it takes extra planning.

As an "old guy" I now get to do more reflecting (and maybe DEflecting). I wonder how much longer I will have to - be be allowed to - work in order to have a somewhat unencumbered retirement. I have often stated that I may have to "die at my desk", especially considering the past couple of economic years, not to mention those to come with the way the state and federal legislatures have burdened our incomes with added taxes - called fees, and investments, etc.

On the other hand, I could just give up and let Daddy Obama take care of me and my wife. If he has it his way, I will most likely end up in federal prison because I will not be able to afford his health insurance nor the fine required for not buying it, which is actually less money than imprisoning me in the first place. If you are wondering, once I am imprisoned, my wife will be a welfare case and Daddy Obama will be caring for her as he now case for her mother and my parents somewhat (especially health care).

Anyway, I have had a good day and a great birthday meal. My wife decided to make lasagna from scratch from a recipe found on line. She also made my favorite cake - German Chocolate. She also has been making shadow box-like framed scrapbook page mementos and made one of the holiday party given by my employer last December (reference that post below). She also makes her own greeting cards and I was not excluded from this past time either.

Thank you, Sherri. You are generous to a fault. I love you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2010

Well, another memorable year has ended and a new one begun. As I age, all years are memorable, however, they seem to meld.

My wife and I did something unusual for last night - we went out!

We went to dinner with an old friend from college (her roommate) and then on to a biker bar in Greenfield to take in a band for which the percussionist is a classmate, as is his wife, of my two dates. The expectations were, how shall I put this, not real high. It was a "biker" bar and the friends (couple) are not all that close, but, we had nothing else to do.

The food was better than expected at Champs, but the music venue was surprisingly pleasant, even considering its smokiness. The band performed '60's and '70's covers and were better than expected as well. The bar had been freshly painted a beige color and had lots of polished aluminum and steel grate tables, resembling a bike production or maintenance garage. Pretty cool. Then, as the magic hour approached, a generous spread of home-made snack meats, cookies, deviled eggs and cheese trays were offered free (no cover charged even) and the typical festive trinkets were distributed. Then the piace (sp?) de resistance, champagne was poured, again on the house. All-in-all, it was a pleasant and memorable New Year's Eve.

I recommend "Fat Boy's Roadhouse" in Greenfield, WI for your New Year's Eve festivities, if you're looking for an inexpensive, casual but enjoyable experience.

As for the year to come, I pray for health (not health care), happiness and success for us all and for cooler heads to prevail in regards to government's intrusion and deficit raising.