Minnesota Winter Sports Stink so far

The WILD have played bad of late, the Timberwolves aren't good at all, and the Vikings, are .. to be nice.. TERRIBLE. The Gopher football and basketball teams are as bad as the Vikings.. (I won't mention their hockey because that's the Gopher sport I will not watch!) FORMER(now) Gopher basketball coach Dan Munson finally resigned so maybe that will improve some stuff. Glenn Mason should resign next so the football program can move on as well.

Mom has son arrested for opening presents early???

According to a Fox News story, a mother had her 12 yr old son arrested for opening a christmas present early.... what the hell?

The story starts:

After a mother discovered her son had unwrapped a Nintendo Game Boy Advance that was meant for him as a present from his grandmother, she called the Rock Hill Police and had the young man arrested for petty larceny, according to the police report filed this week.

Read the rest by clicking on the blog title, or the link above

Speaking of the VIKINGS Sucking

Today's Jim Souhan article on the Vikings demise in the News Tribune, from the Star Tribune:

NFL coaches and quarterbacks, we hear, receive too much credit after victories and too much blame after losses.

Baloney. As the Vikings’ season froze like a tongue to a flagpole on Sunday at frigid Soldier Field, the culprits were the Bear Market Brads.

Because Brad Johnson threw away the biggest game of the year, Brad Childress is facing the most important decision of his career.

Johnson tossed four interceptions in the Vikings’ 23-13 loss to Chicago, leaving Childress with no choice but to send in Brooks Bollinger.

That doesn’t take Childress off the hook.

Johnson’s mistakes lost this game. Childress’ mistakes might have ruined his first season.

The rookie coach so believed in the user-friendliness of his offense that he started his first season with a 38-year-old quarterback and no reputable backups.

He so believed in his ability to mentor quarterbacks that he chose the raw Tarvaris Jackson in the second round.

This week, Childress will pick between the flailing Johnson, the ailing Bollinger (who injured his left shoulder) and the unveiling of Jackson.

The Chiller had better choose wisely, or he’ll turn an already-seething locker room into the set of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

After the game, defensive players laughed over the absurdity of holding Bears “quarterback” Rex Grossman to a 1.3 passer rating and still losing.

How bad was Grossman? If Johnson had changed sidelines, he would have improved both teams.

Viking defenders weren’t the only ones fuming. Those responsible for the running game wondered how they rushed 35 times for 192 yards and a touchdown against one of the NFL’s best defenses yet managed only 13 points.

Maybe it was attempting zero passes into the end zone, abiding by Childress’ philosophy that you take what the defense gives you, even if the defense gives you nothing more desirable than Enron stock.

“It wasn’t like we weren’t moving the ball,” center Matt Birk said. “We were gashing them. It wasn’t like they were playing Cover-2, either. They had an extra guy in the box every time, and we gashed them.

“They made more big plays than we did. That’s why, even though we felt like we outplayed them, they won.” Childress did more than the Bears to slow the Vikings offense in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings got the ball with 12:14 remaining, needing two touchdowns, two extra points and a field goal just to send the game into overtime, and yet Childress didn’t call for a time-saving, no-huddle offense.

Bollinger led the Vikings to a touchdown, but just 5:40 remained when Ciatrick Fason scored.

Childress then called for an onside kick. That’s a coaching non sequitur. If you deem an onside kick necessary, you are past the point where you should have been running a no-huddle offense.

Now Childress must fix his no-offense huddle, and he faces a coach’s toughest decision — whether to change quarterbacks when the playoffs are a mathematical possibility.

His options: Johnson, who’s playing like a victim of identity theft; Bollinger, who’s hurt; and Jackson, who sounds worried he might be asked to start.

Choose Johnson, and the defense might revolt. Choose Bollinger, and you’d better Mapquest directions to the emergency room. Choose Jackson, and you’re telling a veteran team with a strong defense and running game to wait ‘til next year.

The pick here: Bollinger if he can lift his arm, Jackson if he can’t.

The longer the season lasts, the worse the Vikings play. Blame this loss on Johnson, but it’s the other Bear Market Brad who has guided his team into this nasty recession.

Jim Souhan is a national sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Souhan's great.. and writes a lot of Minnesota Twins articles during that season, and appears on the Twins FSN broadcasts a lot.

The VIKINGS SUCK

The Vikings lost again yesterday, to Chicago. The Vikings actually ended up finally giving Tarvaris Jackson about 1 minute of playing time in the final 2 minutes of the game.. Brooks Bollinger didn't do anything before he got hurt getting tackled onto the concrete like frozen turf in his Vikings debut as a reliever.

Rex Grossman threw as many Interceptions as Brad Johnson did but his team managed to actually win...

The only Chicago sports team I like is Da Bulls.. used to be a Cubs fan.. but they've been depressing as hell over the last 5 years or so again

eBay Consignment Business can be weird

One of my consignment customers.... isn't that bright.. I was listing a bracelet for her.. and it sold.. so I call her to go pick it up and ship it. I get there and she hands me a different bracelet because she thought that one was sold and she had **PAWNED** the other one.. wtf!?!?!?

I had to email an apology to the person on eBay who won it..and emailed them a refund of payment. Well, the next morning (Saturday) they paid for it AGAIN.. so I re-did the refund again..and.. they paid for it AGAIN.. and I did the refund *again*... so far so good now.. 24 hours and not a 4th payment. Don't people read their email?

Ok, just in case you want to see what I'm selling.. click the title of the blog.

Damn it's COLD

It is officially .. colder than a witches tit outside! The windchill factor is 0!



BRRRRR

Bulldogs win!

Holy Crap.. the UMD BULLDOGS Men's team actually won a game.. beating Alaska Anchorage 7-3 up in Alaska...

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).

Minnesotan who won Powerball sitting on their ticket?

This is weird.. the NEWS TRIBUNE today has an article about someone who won $47 Million of a $94 Million powerball jackpot not claiming their money yet. It's been 3 weeks since the drawing and the moron (MY choice of words) hasn't claimed their portion. WTF? Unless they're already a big millionaire why would you sit on a ticket worth that much?

Hopefully it's just someone who has no clue they won... but that could mean the ticket will never be claimed.

Some of the possibilities are:

Clint Harris, the state lottery’s executive director, is eager to award the Powerball jackpot — the first since his 2004 hiring.

“Maybe they’re waiting because they don’t want to impact their taxes this year,” he said Wednesday. “Maybe someone’s talking to a tax attorney or financial planner. Maybe the ticket is sitting behind a magnet on someone’s refrigerator and they just forgot about it. Or maybe it’s lost. All those possibilities are there.”

I know *I* didn't win nor did I buy any powerball tickets that day.

I've been buying $5 of 'Hot Lotto' myself since it's at something around $14 million(a record high easily) and hasn't been won in weeks. It's supposed to be easier to win because there's not as many states playing... but.. noone's won in a long time

Christmas Shopping? I don't think so

I went and bought a newspaper just to see the "big sales" for what is called "black Friday." Nothing stood out as a superb deal really. I might actually go visit some of the companies on MY WEBSITE to do my Christmas shopping. Most of the places that are selling stuff are offering gift cards to be used online OR in stores if there is an available store.

The Internet's just so much easier than dealing with the huge crowds of people, and parking at the mall.

Justin Morneau American League MVP

Congratulations to JUSTIN MORNEAU, the American League Most Valuable Player! It's amazing also that Joe Mauer and Johan Santana were in the top 7 in voting for the same award!

Even though the Twins didn't make their playoff run last, they had a huge 2nd half of the season winning the American League Central on the last day of the season. I think they just ran out of gas at the end.

GO TWINS!

Fox News Finally Gets Smart

Fox News **FINALLY** got smart and cancelled the OJ Simpson bullshit they were going to air next week titled 'If I Did It.' DUH.. *IF?????*

The moron Simpson on foxnews.com said

Simpson told The Associated Press in a phone interview late Monday he could not comment on the situation "until I know legally where I stand."

He added, "I would like nothing better than to straighten out some things that have been mischaracterized. But I think I'm legally muzzled at this point."

Screw the PS3 anyway

Screw the PS3.... I have the original X-box (before the 360) and I'll keep that instead. When they stop putting out games for the X-box, maybe I'll invest in a 360, but no thanks SONY.. you don't produce enough of the machines, so you can raise the price to amazingly high amounts for a video game system.

So much for the Duluth Nationals

I've never *BEEN to the Duluth National Snocross, but I don't suspect it will actually be happening this year. It's scheduled for the Friday/Saturday/Sunday after thanksgiving and we have no snow. They can MAKE snow on the hill etc but not when the daily forecast this week is this:



40 degrees and sunny may be nice for us all.. but not for them. Oh well, I guess ESPN will just have to stay home for Thanksgiving.