Saturday, January 31, 2004

I know. It' been a while. I've been busy. Winter has finally begun and I've been very busy with forecasting. Kristie has resumed cooking the Wednesday night dinner at the church, so I've been dragged into blessed with the opportunity to assist. In fact, Kristie did a great monologue a couple of weeks ago extolling the culinary delights of Wednesday nights. She dressed as a "woman of the world socialite" who goes on frequent jaunts to Europe and elsewhere and is very cultured in the arts. As she is talking to her friend on the phone, she explains that she simply can't go to the symphony on Wednesday night. "My Wednesday nights are filled daaahhhling". It was really a hoot--she hammed it up real good. Below are some pics of dress rehearsal and one of the actual performance.

Sunday, January 11, 2004

First, a note. I believe I've mentioned it before, but just to reiterate. If you hover your mouse above a picture, you should see a picture caption. I like to call it "Lazy Man's Picture Captions".

Well, that's it. The Rams season has finally come to a close in what was a triple heart wrenching, double overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers. I've never been to a more emotionally draining game. With three minutes to go we scored a touchdown, completed a two-point conversion, recovered an on side kick and kicked a field goal with no time left in regulation--all that just to tie it up. In overtime the Panthers got first possession and rallied to within field goal range. They kicked it and it went through only to have it rescinded with an offensive penalty. After a couple more plays, the Panthers tried again and.....missed, wide right. Next up, it was the Rams turn to miss a 53 yarder. Each team had another possession: Panthers punted; Rams had an interception when they were within field goal range.

Finally, it was 3rd and 15 for the Panthers--it looked like we would get yet another chance. Panthers score a touchdown. Just like that it was over. Our hearts on edge for the last hour and it just ends so suddenly. Season over. I haven't even been able to watch other playoff games. Titans at New England: fuggedaboudit. Colts at KC: who cares? GB at Philly: OK, maybe I'll have a peek. If the Rams had won yesterday, I would be on the edge of my seat for that one.

Lovely Wife says I'm way too heavily invested in football. It's just a game, she says. Well, season over. Time to move on. Today, I tried to discover some of the finer things in life that I've been missing since the season started. One word. SciFi. That's right, today the Sci Fi channel featured, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II. It had it all--that great slimy lizard from the sea meets a genuine Japanese style transformer. A super serious weapon of war aircraft combined with M.G. to create Super M.G--complete with "beam cannons", "plasma grenades" and "tranquilizer missiles" (one of these things, is not like the others). Luckily, in a tearful goodbye, Godzilla and baby Godzilla survived, only to walk into the sea and return 20 years later to star in Godzilla vs. M.G. III (the final chapter).