Statues crumble for me

I think last week's blue post was primarily weather-driven. Later that day I went outside and did a little work and walked around on the soggy lawn. I felt better in the cool breeze and warm sunlight.

Better days ahead ... this weekend is/was the NFL Draft. We're that much closer to the start of a new season. And a new season means ... anticipation. The first year without Brett Favre. Now, I'm not ready to do my Brett Favre reflections quite yet. The more I contemplate it, the less I'm sure when I'll be ready.

But what I am ready for is to see what Aaron Rodgers can do. I'm excited to see it. I want to move forward. Not that I have any animosity towards Favre, but the off season chatter makes me feel so stagnant. It's not as easy as putting away the helmet and walking off the field into the sunset. It's a life full of speculation and I'm getting sick of it.

Do I wish they would have signed Randy Moss or a multitude of other play makers? Do I wish Brett would have come back for one more year? Yes. In the same vein, am I ready for Brett to retire? ... yes.

Don't get me wrong, if he could give the Packers 10 more years of his "best level" of performance, I'd take it. Without a second thought.

But it had to happen sooner or later. In a fitting sort of way, it ended on an interception, in the NFC Championship. (and it hurts to even type it)

I guess my point is that it happened. And we all better start accepting it and moving on. Stop reading between the lines "some thing's bound to happen." Stop wishing he'll come back. Don't start booing Rodgers after the second interception and don't start chanting "We want Favre."

Because FYI--the magnificent Brett Favre leads the league in all-time interceptions. Remember we lived by Favre, we died by Favre. And when we died, it was often by a massacre.

I've learned to never say never, but I don't think he's coming back. And I'm even more positive that he wouldn't go to another team. I've said it before, it's a win now league. And to do that Favre would have to invest a lot of time and effort to learn new coaching schemes, a new playbook and new personnel. Mentally tired and 50+ learning hours a week don't skip down any beaches hand-in-hand.

So just stop it already.

Okay, okay, rant aside (I guess I needed to get that out). I think his little stint on Letterman was an audition to see if he had a future in broadcast/commentary. Sports jacket over the jeans and nice shirt. In-depth break down of his last game and the Super Bowl Champions.

And now back to the draft. I'm very happy they picked up a quarterback. They need some depth in that position. Last year at one time, didn't the Packers place one of the wide-outs in the QB slot on the depth chart? I was hoping for John David Booty---but I guess the Packers drafted best player at the time ... and I only know JDB b/c he got a fair amount of air time on ESPN Radio.

I don't know much about the other players they selected, but I'm sure I'll learn more this week. A fan calling in to ESPN Radio just said they should have picked up someone in the secondary and an offensive line tackle. Then they said something about the aging team and the QB they drafted was too short at 6'2".

The Packers do need some more help and depth in the secondary. But this is a better acquisition by free agent or trade. I think the secondary is one of the hardest areas for a young player to succeed. Traditionally, the Packers have done much better to bring in veteran.

Offensive tackle: yes there is some age with Clifton and Tauscher, but in that point of the draft most of the OT's (or maybe the OT's that they wanted) were taken. This should be another position they could get on the free agent market. Plus the current duo have been very reliable and don't traditionally miss a lot of games due to injury.

Aging team---hello, where have you been the past two years? The Packers were the youngest team in the league (and that was with Favre skewing their average).

6'2" too short for a QB (somewhere Doug Flutie spit out his Flutie Flakes): I think the roster lists Favre as 6'2". No more to say here.

It's amazing to see how quickly the screen fills when I'm blogging about football.

I've been doing softcore runs in KoL lately. Really going after trophies/tattoos (and being a mall whore, but it's so exillarating to see the meat roll in). I have 23 trophies, 57 tattoos and 4,531,546 meat.

I think I've gotten all the easy trophies. And I'm working on some that will take forever... 420 herb brownies, 80 around the worlds and the last run I've gotten my first tomato daquiri. Yes, around 23 acesnions, who knows how many exploded chef-in-a-boxes and 1 tomato daquiri. I battled each dungeon of doom monster 120 times and made a pretty good chunk of change from all the bang potions I put in my store.

I'm almost out of Ronin, but I wish they would make it easier to do mass-pulls from Hagnks. It's so tedious to go item by item. After Ronin, I typically just take it all out. This of course makes my inventory huge and makes it a longer process to put things in my store. They revamped the combat format with the new bar. So why can Jick & Co. put a little effort into Hagnks? Afterall, the poor guy just got a new facility, he could use a little help inside too.

I foresee the dark ahead, if I stay

This blogger window sits in front of me ... empty and intimidating. Nothing exciting to write about.

Tempted by the sunshine outside. I hope it stays so I can get out and enjoy the fresh air.

I have a couple of things I brought home from work, but I don't know if I'll do any of it. The past month I've been bringing small projects home to do because there's just not enough time in the week to get to it all. I think I'm getting a little burned out from it. It still needs to get done though, so I'm not sure what my solution is.

Last night on Doctor Who was the last episode with Christopher Eccleson as The Ninth Doctor. Oh, it was such a good show! The new doctor looks funny ... but I'll miss Eccleson.

I'm kind of in a music rut too.

Oh happy days, is this spring fever or Sunday morning blues?

Over and out ... and hopefully, on to better things.

A bag of bricks made of chocolate

I had a chocolate craving, it hit me all of a sudden, like a bag of bricks ... made of chocolate. So I made a devil's food cake. And waited. And waited. And waited while it baked.

Now I'm not hungry anymore. Gah.

The pope is making a visit to the United States. I'm not Catholic, and I'm going to share my views about the religion or the church institution in general, at least, not in this post. But what is up with the Papel Stadium Tour? He's doing a Washington stadium tonight and tomorrow making an appearance at Yankee Stadium.

So what if you're a devote Catholic and a Red Sox fan? Ponder that.

And I swear, if Natalie IS NOT evicted tonight, I WILL NOT watch the rest of this Season.

The risk that might break is the one that could save

Okay, so it was a huge misconception that spring was here. Nothing like three days of snow and a total accumulation of around four inches to put a person back in their place. A miserable place with no spring in sight.


I think it's safe to say that this has been the longest winter in our recent memory.


A Green Living Update: I got my canvas bags and haven't used a plastic or paper bag for grocery shopping since. My next goal will be to use it in other shopping avenues. I've also tried soy milk. Very good, slightly more expensive than that from a cow. Much more drinkable though and the power used to process it is a renewable resource. I find it funny though that I buy soy milk but cream cheese and yogurt. Oh well, I suppose, baby steps.


On a completely different topic, I didn't realize Phil from The Amazing Race was Scottish. I always knew there was something different about his accent. He's doing a story on the sunday morning show, and while putting across Scotland, his brogue (is it a brogue from Scotland? or is it only a brogue if it's from Ireland?) is coming through.

My latest viewing addiction (in this post-writer's strike world) is Dexter. This series originally airs on Showtime, and by some television act of genius, they are re-airing cleaned up versions on CBS. I first was exposed to Dexter when Jeanne gave me a tape of Season 8's (the one with Evil Dick, was that 8?) Big Brother After Dark, the not-for-broadcast-television footage of drinking, swearing and sometimes raunchy behavior---though this 8 hour footage was awfully mundane.

Anyways, as I was fast-forwarding through the commercials (and the less interesting parts of the show), I caught glimpse of Darla (Julie Benz) the immortally evil vampire, sire of Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She played that role so well I still get a shiver down my spine when I see her. I stopped and backed up a little, but it was just a montage of the different series on Showtime. It only showed her and a guy.

But as luck would have it, the next commercial block had more. It showed the average looking man who appeared with Darla, narrating his average looking life ... and here's the twist ... he's a serial killer. Oh yeah I read something about this show, a crime series told by the perspective of the murderer. Interesting.

Dexter, our favorite serial killer, is a blood-analyst at a Florida police department/crime lab. He's the best at what he does, and has killer instincts when it comes to habits of the criminals the detectives are investigating.

We learn Dexter was adopted after surviving (and possibly witnessing) a horrible event. His adopted father, a detective, recognized Dexter was different from other children. He taught Dexter how to act normal and control his urges to do murderous things. Soon, Dexter lives by the code he was taught, only killing people who deserve it--people who escaped punishment from the justice system.

Dexter nicks the cheek of each of his victims, saving a drop of their blood on a slide before he dismembers their bodies and dumps them in the ocean.

But Dexter finds himself admiring the work of another serial killer who drains the blood before he dismembers bodies. And this killer--dubbed the Ice Truck Killer--soon takes interest in Dexter. It's cute mutual admiration with breaking and entering, cut up barbie dolls, kidnapping and mutilation.

This show works because other than the urge to kill people and social awkwardness, Dexter is an all around decent and nice guy.

The opening credits are great too. It's just Dexter getting ready in the morning: shaving, eating, tying his shoe, flossing his teeth. But they show it in such a visceral way that it makes it look like he's in the act of killing someone.

Top two photos: Easter eggs this year. I played with putting wax on to get different colors. I tried to do stripes and polka dots but just couldn't control the wax enough to make it work.

Last photo: A picture of the start of my omelet this morning. It looked so much like a yin-yang that I had to take a picture. Now it also reminds me of Dexter's breakfast scene, but this is much more peaceful than his.

It's been too long

Spring is here. Maybe.