Vikings playing in Chicago......

Earlier in the season, the VIKINGS almost beat the Chicago Bears, losing only 19-16 back in week 3. They've been bad the last 6 weeks, just barely beating Arizona.... but.. I'll be watching at least until the game gets out of hand. Hopefully Rex Grossman's season keeps going downhill at least through the game

Sea World Whale Injures Trainer

This article's the talk of the Internet today... a Sea World killer whale took it's trainer underwater twice during a show. This version is from Mediacom's news page:

A trainer at SeaWorld Adventure Park remained hospitalized Thursday after a killer whale grabbed him and twice held him underwater during a show, officials said.

The trainer was in fair condition at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center, nursing supervisor Denise Thompson said. Ken Peters, 39, was "resting comfortably," SeaWorld San Diego spokesman Dave Koontz said.

Koontz did not know the extent of Peters' injuries and the hospital declined to release details.

Peters was hurt around 5 p.m. Wednesday during the final show of the day at Shamu Stadium, a 36-foot-deep tank.

The show's finale called for a female orca named Kasatka to shoot out of the water so Peters could dive off her nose. The whale is about 17 feet long and weighs well over 5,000 pounds.

As several hundred spectators watched, the whale and trainer plunged underwater, where Kasatka grabbed Peters by the foot and held him for less than a minute before surfacing, Koontz said.

"The trainer was being pinned by the whale at the bottom of the pool," Karen Ingrande told KGTV-TV.

When they came up, Peters tried to calm the animal by rubbing and stroking its back but it grabbed him and plunged down again for about another minute.

The crowd "began to realize there was not something right and the whale was down again under the water. Again they were splashing the water to try to get the whale to come to the surface," Ingrande said.

The whale finally released him and Peters was able to surface and swim away. Other trainers stretched a net between him and Kasatka, Koontz said.

He emerged from the tank with one leg of his wet suit torn.

"He tried to stand up on the stage and that's when we realized there was something wrong with his leg and his foot. He was just white as a ghost," spectator Sherri Justice told KFMB-TV in San Diego.

Mike Scarpuzzi, who oversees zoological operations, said Peters has been working with animals for 16 years, including 12 spent at Shamu Stadium.

"His skills and techniques, and close relationship with the whale played a major role in helping the animal calm down and allowed him to eventually swim out of the pool," Scarpuzzi said.

The park planned to continue the Shamu Stadium shows Thursday using other whales. The park has a total of seven killer whales, including two of Kasatka's offspring, Koontz said.

He did not know whether Kasatka would be allowed to perform.

Koontz said trainers from the San Diego park and sister parks in San Antonio and Orlando, Fla., planned to confer Thursday and review the incident in an effort to figure out what made the orca grab Peters.

Koontz said the 30-year-old orca had been performing most of her life and was familiar with the routine.

"She's been one of our strongest, most consistent performers," he said.

Koontz said a different whale dived with a trainer's foot in its mouth two or three weeks ago but obeyed commands to release the trainer and return to the side of the tank. The trainer was not injured.

SeaWorld officials reported in 1999 that Kasatka tried to bite a trainer during a show, but he was unhurt.

I'm not sure anyone really knows why it happened but I'm sure we'll find out soon why they think it happened.

DAMN it's cold

Damn it's COLD here... without any snow on the ground it seems to feel even colder for whatever reason! I may have blogged before that winter was here.. but **NOW** it really is!

Winter's finally here, It's COLD anyway

Winter's here.. as far as temperatures go. Yesterday it was freezing rain that slowed the temperature on the interstate from 70 to 35-40 at the fastest. 45+ minute home instead of the normal 20.

We're finally to the point where it won't get much warmer than 20 again until March I think... but.. if I could guess the weather temperature I'd be better than the weathermen.

They're still not forcasting much snow at all though, it'll probably be a really bare winter and more of a "brown" christmas than white christmas.

Survivor Series, predictable but not THAT bad.

The Survivor Series PPV last night was definitely predictable, though it wasn't totally bad or anything.

In keeping with the random thoughts title of the blog(for once):

It was obvious that Ric Flair would end up finishing his match and winning, but getting beat up by 5 guys after wasn't as easily seen beforehand.

The UMAGA thing was stupid.. get yourself DQ'd and be done rather than dominate the match and give your character more legitimacy.

John Cena FU'ing (a fireman's carry into a "side slam") the 520+ lb Big Show was great. Every time he gets to do that it gets better.

It's great to see Jeff and Matt (used to be Matt and Jeff) Hardy together as a tag team, at least as long as they let it last on TV. I think they're supposed to be on the ECW PPV next week.

It was great to see BOOKER T (King Booger) lose his title finally.. but damn.. can't the guy EVER lose clean without some sort of weapon etc taking him out? Booker as himself rather than "king" is a much better character, whether he's a heal or face.

Check out my eBay store!

I've opened an eBay store again, this time permanent I think, to sell sports trading cards and other items that I might get from consignment customers to sell bulk.

I'll still obviously still put auctions up as well, since that's what the eBay consignment business is about :)

Check out the *STORE*

WWE Survivor Series tonight!

WWE's Survivor Series PPV is tonight! They're going back to most of the old style Survivor Series elimination matches so this PPV should be really good!

My favorite match to look forward to is Ric Flair (captain)-Dusty Rhodes-Sgt. Slaughter -Ron Simmons vs. Kenny (captain), Johnny, Nicky & Mikey (aka the spirit fags).