OMG!

Eugene, Ore. police have arrested the Tooth Fairy!

Bag of teeth links man to Seattle-area dental burglaries

After reading the story, this 26-year old is anything but The Tooth Fairy.

Shane Carlson had long been on the radar of Seattle-area police after his numerous arrests — and convictions — for car prowls, home burglaries and office break-ins. One Edmonds police detective describes the 26-year-old as "an equal-opportunity burglar."

Seems if it wasn't nailed down, he thought it was fair game.

Sounds like he'll be spending some serious time in the slammer, however.

Global Cooling threatens species!

Or, at least, makes it easier to catch/kill them.

Iguanas, a non-native of southern Florida, are having trouble with the latest cold snap.

Cold Killing Iguanas Extended cold could kill invasive iguanas

With this week’s evening temperatures falling toward the upper 30s, strange fruit may drop from South Florida trees: non-native, invading iguanas that many residents consider more pest than pet.
...
It is legal to kill iguanas, but it must be done humanely. Among the options is decapitation.

The adult iguanas can measure up to a yard in length. There is no closed season or bag limit. Might be a good place to take the air rifle for some small game hunting target practice. (Can't be "hunting" since the durn things are pretty much immobile which precludes any semblance of "fair chase.")

No recipe at the site but several commenters say iguana tastes just like chicken.

Any way. Go read the entry at Watt Up With That? And don't forget to read the comments. Some of them are hilarious while others are informative.

Old Fart Pride

Another item that came over the transom. I wondered why I got it from my buddy (who is five years younger than I and received it from a hunting buddy older than we are who is certainly an Old Fart) but realized after reading it that being an Old Fart isn't such a bad thing after all.

I'm passing this on as I did not want to be the only old fart receiving it. Actually, it's not a bad thing to be called, as you will see.

Old Farts are easy to spot at sporting events; during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, Old Farts remove their caps and stand at attention and sing without embarrassment. They know the words and believe in them.

Old Farts remember World War II, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Normandy and Hitler. They remember the Atomic Age, the Korean War, The Cold War, the Jet Age and the Moon Landing. They remember the 50 plus Peacekeeping Missions from 1945 to 2005, not to mention Vietnam .

If you bump into an Old Fart on the sidewalk he will apologize. If you pass an Old Fart on the street, he will nod or tip his cap to a lady. Old Farts trust strangers and are courtly to women.

Old Farts hold the door for the next person and always, when walking, make certain the lady is on the inside for protection.

Old Farts get embarrassed if someone curses in front of women and children and they don't like any filth or dirty language on TV or in movies.

Old Farts have moral courage and personal integrity. They seldom brag unless it's about their children or grandchildren.

It's the Old Farts who know our great country is protected, not by politicians, but by the young men and women in the military serving their country.

This country needs Old Farts with their work ethic, sense of responsibility, pride in their country and decent values.

We need them now more than ever.

Thank God for Old Farts!

Pass this on to all the Old Farts you know.

I was taught to respect my elders. It's just getting harder to find them lately.

C.Michigan 44, Troy 41 in 2 OTs

Another entertaining bowl game if not bowl game coverage last night as the Chippewas of Central Michigan defeated the Troy Trojans 44-41 in double overtime.

Despite two powerful offenses, the score was just 10-9 at half time and you could sense that the ESPN crew was bored. Or maybe they were just upset that they were not covering The Big One, the National Championship Game, to be played tonight. Now, I wouldn't blame them for frequent promos of the #1 Alabama vs #2 Texas game DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS, but in between plays by the play-by-play crew? Way to keep your audience focused on the game at hand guys. At least they sat up and started paying attention after Central Michigan's Antonio Brown ran the kickoff back 95 yards when it seemed Troy, having just taken a 31-19 lead, was about to put it away.

Chippewas' QB Dan LeFevour made like Bret Favre completing 33 of 55 for 395 yards and one TD. He also ran for a 13-yard TD in the first overtime period. Hard to believe he didn't play quarterback in high school until his senior year. He ends his college career as #2 in total yards with 15,853 total yards. Only Hawaii quarterback Timmy Chang did it better (16,910). LeFevour also moved into fifth place in the FBS in career completions and 10th in yards passing.

But last night he was almost out gunned by Levi Brown of Troy who completed 31 of 56 for 386 yards. Add in the one completion by Trojan Cornelius Williams for 17 yards and Troy did out throw Central Michigan 403 to 395.

With both defenses bending like hell but not completely breaking, field goals made the difference. Andrew Aguila, after missing from 46 yards early, converted on kicks of 28, 35, 44 and 42 yards in regulation. At one point early in the third quarter he gave the Chippewas a 12-10 lead.

After Antonio Brown's kickoff return made the scorer 31-26, LeFevour lead a drive resulting in a TD and then a two point conversion to make it 34-31 Central Michigan with a little over a minute to play in regulation. But Troy's Michael Taylor made a 46 yarder with about half a minute to go to tie it up.

The teams traded TDs in the first OT with LeFevour's 13-yard run matched by a Shawn Southward 1-yard run.

Troy's attempted field goal in the second OT was blocked meaning ANY score by Central Michigan would win it. The Chippewas played it conservatively and set up a 37 yard attempt which Aguila nailed for his fifth field goal of the night. And the celebration was on.

An excellent game which ESPN seemed to be overlooking for much of the evening. And that's a shame.

Speaking of driving in the snow/ice.

Don't be afraid of the former but do be cautious. Don't travel in the latter if you can help it.

If you must travel on ice, wait for a salt/cinder spreader and latch on to it's tail like a remora on a shark. Just be sure to stay far enough back that the particles the truck is spreading hit the road in front of you and not your windshield. You can spot the vehicles of people who have tried this but misjudged their distance. The crack all across the windshield sorta gives it away. By May large numbers of vehicles from certain northern and mostly rural states sport this indicator of the combination of snow/ice/cinder/gravel.

Actually, get some studded tires and you can do pretty well on the ice. They used to run auto races on an oval track on Lake Placid in the '60s using specially studded tires.

If driving in the snow remember one thing: Never, EVER pass the snow plow if his blade is on the road. Even if the plow is going only 20 mph in a 55 mph zone. It's there for a reason and if you peek to the right of the plow you'll probably see the snow/ice/slush shooting off in a lovely curl reminiscent of those from the Maverick's surfing competition off Half Moon Bay.

Remember, too, that the brake peddle is your enemy and so is your accelerator when the roads are snow covered. Keep your foot off the brake as much as possible and if you must use it do so slowly and well in advance of where you want/need to stop. If you are IN a curve, do not use your brake. You will likely go off the edge of the curve if it is slippery as your vehicle will slide in a straight line. If you feel you're going too fast for an approaching curve, slow down using a light touch on the brake--pretend there's a raw egg between your foot and the peddle--or gravity/friction (take your foot off the gas, dummy!). Once in the curve, your accelerator can be used (again, lightly as in egg-and-peddle) to get out of the curve. This works best with front-wheel and four-wheel drive vehicles where you get pulled instead of pushed.

If your vehicle is a rear-wheel, two-wheel drive and the snow is piled up on the road way, park it in your yard, make some hot chocolate and sit in front of the fire. Okay, maybe you can't do that because you have to get home from work/school/play. Use caution as detailed above.

And if you've got an automatic transmission put it into a fixed gear (those are the numbers on the console next to the "D" and "R") or into low (that's the "L"). This is especially true when going up hill. When going up hill you want to maintain a constant velocity--not necessarily a fast one, but constant. If your auto transmission starts to shift on you when you're part way up the slope, it's going to screw up that constant part of your velocity just the tiniest bit and quite possibly cause you to lose traction and set you to spinning your wheels.

If the worst happens and you start to skid, remember that you want to steer into the skid. That is, if the rear end decides to head to the right, you steer to the right. If it heads to the left, you steer to the left. The idea is to keep the front of your vehicle--well--in front! This will allow you to maintain some control as you leave your intended path. Steer the opposite way and at best you'll set your self up to roll onto your side although more than likely you're going to be doing a 360 or worse. And be sure to keep your feet off the brake and off the accelerator! Let friction and gravity do the work until the skid stops. THEN you can lightly press the accelerator or brake as needed to get control of your vehicle.

When I was a kid, my Dad took me out driving on immediately after the first snow storm and showed me how to handle the family car under these conditions. We used the wide open spaces of the school parking lot. An acre or more of black top without concrete curb or grassy barrier between rows. The best words I heard that day were, "Okay, now put her into a skid!" I don't think you can do that sort of thing today. I know my son got a ticket at 12:30 AM for driving in a figure 8 in a vacant mall parking lot back in '00.

Aerie Report, January 6, 2010

I got up early this morning to drive over to Sayre to have the "secondary air injector pumps"--whatever the hell they are--replaced on the Tundra. Under warranty by a few miles so I didn't have to pay the $2200 plus labor it would have cost me. Mechanic's report said something about water intrusion into the pumps. Not so hard to figure out how that might happen with the extremely wet weather we had this past summer and the mud that generated.

Not a bad way to spend the morning except for the inch of snow I had to sweep off the truck before I began, the icy/slushy highway I had to traverse to get there and back, the fearful drivers I had to endure, etc.

I don't mind cautious drivers when the weather calls for caution as this morning's did, however I do have problems with drivers so afraid of the road that they will travel 20-25 miles below the speed limit on flat, straight roads. I'm sure these drivers (I came up behind two of them) have been on these roads before. I'm also sure that they were on their way to work (it was 7 to 8 AM, after all) which would mean they know the road pretty well. Therefore, it must have been their own skill in which they lacked confidence. Fine, slow down around curves or going down slopes when there's some meltwater on the road that could become ice. Watch out for those bridges and overpasses that "freeze before roadway" as they say. And remember to go straight when you go across one of those bridges--curves are not your friend. But for goodness sakes do not keep hitting your breaks when you "accidentally" find yourself going 36 mph in a 55 mph zone.

******

I mentioned that it snowed overnight...again. At least it was slightly warmer. It only got down to 17 degrees. Of course it only got UP to 24 during the day. While the snow stopped early in the day and didn't return, the winds did pick up and made it sown right nippy out there even at 24.

The temperatures will take a dip for the next few days but are supposed to get up to near freezing on Sunday. Which is also the first day they say we will see Old Sol. Two inches of snow expected from showers each day between now and then. Not enough to do much with at any one time. Can't shovel it, can't blow it, can't snow shoe on it, can't ski on it. Totally worthless except as an annoyance. THAT it's real good at.

Iowa 24, Georgia Tech 14

In the Orange Bowl.

I only watched the first half of this game as I had to get up early this morning to get the truck taken care of, but from the outset you could see that Iowa had come to play--no, make that "come to win."

Truthfully, I thought the Yellow Jackets were going to run away with this game. I thought their ground game would find multiple ways through or around the Hawkeye line. Boy was I wrong. The long break at the end of the regular season allowed the Iowa coaches to come up with and implement an excellent defensive scheme that shut down the Tech runners.

I had also forgotten that Rick Stanzi would be back at QB for Iowa. Those two quick touchdown passes in the first quarter had to have had a psychological affect on the Yellow Jackets. Certainly it caused them to play under much pressure.

The scary thing for the rest of the Big 10 has got to be that most of the Iowa squad will be back next year. Ohio State and Penn State better not be looking over their shoulders, 'cause Iowa won't be there. They'll be up front!

Want to see something that'stotally awesome?

Go on over to Dickiebo's to view a video of the winner from "Ukraine's Got Talent" at work. Just be sure to read Dickiebo's description first as there's no narration.

Kseniya Simonova’s Amazing Sand Drawing

(h/t to threecollie of Northview Dairy)

Cave Drawings

More stuff from my (younger) sister. She sends me lots of stuff. Tonight it was good stuff that I'm willing to share.
******
Cave Drawings:

Written across the wall of the cave were the following symbols:




It was considered a unique find and the writings were said to be at least three thousand years old!


The piece of stone was removed, brought to the museum, and archaeologists from around the world came to study the ancient symbols. They held a huge meeting after months of conferences to discuss the meaning of the markings.

The president of the society pointed to first drawing and said: "This is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem. You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil. The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them."



"Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that if a famine hit the earth and food didn't grow, they could seek food from the sea. The last symbol appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews."



The audience applauded enthusiastically.


Then a little old Jewish man stood up in the back of the room and said,
"Idiots, Hebrew is read from right to left...... It says: Holy Mackerel, Dig the Ass on that Chick."

The $100 Bill

I've no idea what the provenance of this little piece is as it came over the transom from my (younger) sister this evening. I found it amusing and instructive.

The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted.. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.....


On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.


As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.


The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.


The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.


The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.


The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.


The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.


At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.


No one produced anything. No one earned anything.


However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.


And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

This would, of course, not work in the real world because each of these folks (except the hooker) would have had to take sales tax out of the transaction and forward it to the state and/or county authorities.

Then again, our federal, state and local politicians are all currently taking their cut as they distribute that $100 earmarked for "shovel ready" jobs in the bills they write in D.C., until the people actually in need are receiving far far less if anything at all.

Yet another snowy morning at the Aerie

For the second consecutive day I got to the weather.com page and check the radar to find there's pretty much a blank screen all around ...except for one small blue dot located along Armenia Mountain. I can confirm that it is snowing beneath that blue dot. I can also confirm that the freakin' thing hasn't moved over the last hour and a half. (When I put it in motion it just pulses like a beating heart.) Looks like another inch or two of uplifting snow. ("Uplifting" has nothing to do with how it makes you feel, believe me. It's when moist air from the lakes blows south and hits the ridge. It then rises and--voila--condensation takes place. Since it's only 13 degrees at 7 AM, that means snow.)

This is slightly ridiculous but still much, much better than some of those towns on the shores of Ontario, Erie or Huron. Terry saw a report on TV news this morning that Fulton, NY (northwest of Syracuse along Lake Ontario) had gotten 52 inches of snow in the last few days. And was expecting more. Since she is just under 60 inches tall on a good day, she found this less than amusing.

Winds are still coming out of the north-northwest but their velocity is way down. The windmills are slowly, slowly turning and the snow flakes are drifting horizontally slowly enough that you can follow individual flakes with your eye.

Boise St 17, TCU 10

First let me say that I was rooting for TCU. Second I'm not a huge fan of defensive battles on TV. Three plays and punt are about as exciting on TV as watching bread rise when you forgot the yeast. (Watching a defensive slug match in person is another story. In person your eye can take in the whole field. That allows you to focus on the line play and/or defensive backs. TV focuses on the ball and nothing but the ball. Sometimes to the point of being faked out of their pants when the QB and running back pull off a great fake.)

For two teams averaging over 40 points a game--Boise lead the nation with 44.2 points per game and TCU was fourth with 40.7 per game--this was a pretty, well, boring game from a TV viewers perspective.

Okay. Boise State played a heck of a game. The interceptions came just when they needed them most. Brandyn Thompson had two, including one in the first half returned for 51-yards and a TD that looked for all the world like it would be the only one scored by Boise. Until he made a second INT in the second half halting a TCU drive deep in Boise territory. After that INT Boise couldn't get anything going and, on a 4th-and-9, was lined up to punt from their own 33-yard line. Except they didn't Kicker/punter Kyle Brotzman threw a 29-yard completion over the middle to Kyle Efaw. Kellen Moore then played pitch-and-catch with his receivers as they marched down the field in a drive culminating in Boise's only offensive TD.

TCU quarterback Andy Dalton just seemed to be a little up tight at the start and slightly off his game when it came to ball location. He did have a respectable 25-44 for 272 yards night, but the three INTs, after tossing only five all season, were killers. One returned for a TD, one to stop a drive and eventually lead to a TD and the third with seconds on the clock as TCU again marched deep into Boise territory and threatened to tie the score. (Okay. Maybe that last one was just bad luck as the ball ricocheted around before a Boise player snatched it out of the air.)

Neither team got much going on the ground. Boise managed 77 yards on 32 rushing plays while TCU had just 36 yards on 20 ground pounders.

Boise State converted on six of 18 third downs and was 2-for-2 on fourth downs. TCU managed just one (1) of 12 on third down and was 0-1 on fourth. Each team punted eight times.

Thank goodness for that fake punt. It was the only truly exciting play in the whole game.

A Mystery

I a very interesting paper over at Watt's Up With That a Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach explores the question: Where Are The Corpses?

A recent study in Nature [Thomas 2004] stated that 37% of all species might soon go extinct because of habitat reduction due to global warming. This same prediction of impending mass extinctions from habitat reduction due to global warming has been made a number of times recently, for example in a book by Professor Michael Benton of Bristol University (Benton 2003), as well as in studies by Parmesan and Yohe (Parmesan 2003) and Root et al. (Root 2003).

Habitat reduction has also been cited as being responsible for the continuing extinction of species which is said to have already happened due to the cutting down and fragmentation of tropical forests (Wilson 1995, 2001). For example, a recent study in Conservation Biology (Harris 2004) opens by saying that “Intense deforestation causes massive species losses.” Wilson says that due to habitat reduction we are in the “sixth great wave of extinctions”, comparable in size to the five previous great waves of extinctions in geological time. (Wilson 1992).

Eschenbach does something unusual (although it shouldn't be)--he looks at the record of extinctions over the last 500 years and asks "Where's the Corpses?"

Spoiler: There aren't nearly as many as predicted. But go read the whole thing.

Little Ice Age anyone?

They might not have actually done anything, but those UN and government entities that attended the Copenhagen summit on Global Warming last month have certainly succeeded in bringing global warming to a screeching halt.

...record freezing weather grips Europe, North America and Asia

Great Britain may be heading for a Dickens of a winter. (That's a joke. Laugh!) Switzerland is getting buried in snow. As are Germany, Austria, China, and Russia. The US, too is colder than an igloo. Even India has had more than its share of cold, cold temperatures.

Funny that there's been no mention of conditions in Canada. Perhaps, like the Alaskans, cold to a Canadian is 1- something one experiences every, freakin' year so it's--you know--normal or 2- there's a reason for all those Canadian license plates heading south on the US interstates and no one is left to report on conditions up there. If the latter is the reason for the lack of reportage, I wish the migrants would just leave their damn weather home or, better yet, ship it north to someplace like Churchill where they know what to do with it.

[PS: It's still snowing here. Hasn't stopped all morning and now afternoon. 40% chance my a**! And the wind has picked up a little as well. Out of the north-northwest naturally.]

More snow at the Aerie

Well now, things have warmed up a bit here at the Aerie this morning. All the way to 12 degrees! The weather.com quacks are saying we'll get an inch or two of light powdery snow this day--and tomorrow--and maybe the day after as well. In fact, the 10-day forecast window shows 30-50% chance of snow showers EVERY SINGLE FAROOKIN' DAY. Odd that their radar shows now snow showers in the area at the moment because it's certainly coming down pretty heavily. There's an inch of fluff on the deck that explodes whenever a mourning dove comes in for a landing.

The weather.com site also says the temperature is currently 15 degrees while my digital reads 12. The only thing we agree on is an almost total lack of wind--thank goodness. And the high temps will only get to the 20s according to them, while the lows will be back into the single digits later this week.

*Sigh* Maybe we should have looked further south when planing our retirement.

Or maybe not:


Nah, can't take the humidity down south anyway. And the southwest desert heat, while dry, is still way too hot for this old boy.

Second CBC outing.

Eight (8). That's what the thermometer read when I left the house at 7:15 AM this morning to participate in the Christmas Bird Count for the Lycoming Audubon Society. Worse, the wind was blowing at a steady 20 mph out of the north-northwest and there were snow showers falling and in the day's forecast.

Five of us would meet in Liberty to cover a small section of Jackson Township. Ann and Martha would team up and cover one section while Phil, Gary and I would take the rest. It had "warmed" to 14 degrees by the time we started at 8:45 but the wind and snow flakes still blew.

Birds proved to be few and far between. The little ones were hunkered down in the thickets and none of the farm houses along the way seemed to have feeders out. (We only came across two that actually had some seed in them to attract birds.) Even the farm yards didn't have a lot of birds. No starlings. No finches. No woodpeckers. Few rock pigeons. Not a lot of birds at all.

Our route took us through a couple of elk farms, an organic beef farm and several wild, wooded gorges. Still, only in one area where there was still some standing corn on one side of the road and a maintained feeder on the other side, where there was a stand of hemlock and spruce adjacent to a home with a maintained feeder, and in one spot near the bottom of one of the gorges with a open running stream beneath a thick stand of hemlocks, did we find small but active flocks of chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and tufted titmice.

The whole time we were out, the wind blew snow from the fields and/or the snow fell and flew. By the time we gathered at the Fry Turkey Ranch for lunch and to compare notes, the snow fell more steadily on the open ridge of Route 15. When we left the restaurant an hour later, there was an accumulation of 1/2 inch on the highway. And, though not very deep, that proved dangerous to at least one driver heading south over Bloss Mountain. Emergency vehicles with lights flashing lined over half a mile of the south-bound side as the errant car sat far off the roadway facing north. Once I cleared that area--at much less than the 65 mph posted speed limit--I found the snow falling less and less as I traveled north to Mansfield until there was only a very light and very occasional flurry at the Aerie. (The winds still blew, however.)

The results for the guys today:
Number of species: 14

Red-tailed Hawk 2
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Rock Pigeon 16
Mourning Dove 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 32
Common Raven 3
Black-capped Chickadee 22
Tufted Titmouse 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Brown Creeper 1
American Tree Sparrow 6
Dark-eyed Junco 26
Northern Cardinal 1

The ladies had essentially the same species. Only the numbers changed.

Saturday night at the Bowls

With the fire burning to warm the Aerie, I settled down to watch the evening/night football games.

First up was the Arkansas vs East Carolina game. Nothing really unusual about this game--except the kicking. And that it went into overtime. How they got to overtime is a strange, strange story.

The game was played in very cold, but not frigid conditions in Memphis, Tennessee. At kickoff the mercury hovered around 32 degrees with a wind of 15 mph or so, but the temperatures fell throughout the game. As a result the ball was hard from the cold and inelastic and it didn't carry as far as it normally would. Early on, place kicker Ben Hartman of East Carolina was asked to attempt a field goal from around 50 yards. It was within his range and he hit it well and true...only to see it fall just short. It was an omen.

That miss was just the beginning of Hartman's woes. While Hartman and the Arkansas kicker Alex Tejada would succeed in making field goals (one each in regulation), the score would be tied 17-17 with 1:09 left in the game when Hartman's real odyssey into misery would begin. As he stepped up to attempt a go ahead FG from around 38-39 yards out, the temperatures had dropped to 25 degrees. He hit the ball well, but the kick clanged off the left upright. No good.

Arkansas took over but three incomplete passes ran almost no time off the clock. A short punt and a long return set it up for Hartman to have another chance from around 38-40 yards out. Again he missed--this time wide right--as time expired.

Arkansas won the toss to start overtime and, as a result East Carolina was on offense first. When they came down to a 4th and 2 on their first series, it was time for Ben Hartman to step up to the plate--again. And as he had in the previous two attempts he missed from around 40 yards out--wide right again.

Arkansas went on the offensive and managed a first down before stalling and having to call on Alex Tejada who managed a 37-yard FG to end the game.

Final score: Arkansas 20, East Carolina 17.

******

I'll confess, I didn't watch the entire Alamo Bowl game between Texas Tech and Michigan State. I couldn't stand the frequent references to the Mike Leach/Adam James saga. That and once it got to be midnight here at the Aerie, I turned into a pumpkin and hit the sack. (It was 6.1 degrees at the time and I feared going birding in the morning. More on that later.)

I watched the first half and a little into the second. Seeing the Texas Tech offense function, is a unique experience. First off, their offensive line uses the entire width of the field. And I'm talking about the interior five not just splitting a receiver or two out wide. From tackle to tackle, they seem to stretch from one yard stripe to the other. In fact, they appear annoyed if they get squeezed between the markers and the side line. Each lineman is a good five or six feet from his neighbor. You would think the defense would find this porous, yet they seldom get through the gaps to reach the quarterback. In a large part this is because the QB seldom holds the ball for more than two seconds. He's either handed it off to the running back or passed it to one of the wide receivers on a quick screen. The linemen are seldom stationary during the quick screens. One shot at the defense and off they go to block in front of the receiver. If the defense blitzes the running back picks up the extra rusher while an end will slide into the area the linebacker or corner just vacated. Texas Tech seemed able to reel off 8, 9, 10 yards on every play and Michigan State couldn't find a way to slow them down. When Tech kept it on the ground, Baron Batch was gaining 4 or 5 yards. (He finished the game with 22 carries for 100 yards.) Starting Tech QB Taylor Potts completed 29 of 43 tosses for 372 yards (an Alamo Bowl record) and one INT and two TDs before a sprained ankle forced him out of the game. His replacement, Steve Sheffield was 9 for 11 for 88 yards and one TD.

Despite their offense (31 first downs? and 579 yards total), Tech still had to come from behind after Brett Swenson's 44-yard field goal put Michigan State ahead early in the fourth quarter, 31-27. Luckily, Sheffield was able to direct two fourth quarter scoring drives to cement a 41-31 victory.

If only the ESPN coverage could have focused upon the game being played on the field instead of the soap opera of former coach Leach; wide receiver James and his dad, Craig James of ESPN; and the Texas Tech Chancellor's decision to fire Leach on Thursday.

Big East in the Bowls

It says something that the game being played in Birmingham, Alabama (South Carolina vs UConn) is being played under colder conditions than that in Toronto, Canada (South Florida vs Northern Illinois). True it was close to one (1) degree F on the streets of Toronto and they played indoors at the Rogers Centre, but still....

******

Speaking of the Independence Bowl, South Florida pulled away in the second half to beat the Northern Illinois Huskies 27-3. Way to go Bulls!

******

Meanwhile, in the PapaJohn's Bowl in Alabama, the UConn Huskies out muscled South Carolina 20-7.

******

So the Big East ends the bowl season with a record of 4-2.

Rutgers beat Central Florida 45-24 in the St. Petersburg Bowl played in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Pitt beat North Carolina 19-17 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl played in Charlotte, NC.

West Virginia lost to Florida State 33-21 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. This in Coach Bobby Bowden's last game after a historic career.

Cincinnati lost to Florida 51-24 in the Sugar Bowl played in New Orleans, La. The final game for larger than life QB Tim Tebow who set all kinds of BCS records. And, possibly, the final game for coach Urban Meyer.

The Reckoning

I know that there are some out there that partied hard on New Year's Eve. And that some of you may still be paying the price. For you who may still feel the pounding between your ears and the spin cycle at work in your stomach, I have a bit of advice from Robert W. Service:

THE RECKONING


It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,
With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want;
To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass,
Smoke a choice cigar, and sip the wealthy water in your glass;
It's bully in a high-toned joint to eat and drink your fill,
But it's quite another matter when you

Pay the bill.

It's great to go out every night on fun or pleasure bent,
To wear your glad rags always, and to never save a cent;
To drift along regardless, have a good time every trip;
To hit the high spots sometimes, and to let your chances slip;
To know you're acting foolish, yet to go on fooling still,
Till Nature calls a show-down, and you

Pay the bill.

Time has got a little bill--get wise while yet you may,
For the debit side's increasing in a most alarming way;
The things you had no right to do, the things you should have done,
They're all put down: it's up to you to pay for every one.
So eat, drink, and be merry, have a good time if you will,
But God help you when the time comes, and you

Foot the bill.

Not bad advice for daily living either.

Hey! Who turned off the heat?

It was down to 11 degrees when we came down to the kitchen this morning at 7 AM. And it went down from there. Not much, thank goodness. Just down to 10 degrees at 9 AM. The winds are a pretty steady 20 mph coming out of the north-northwest making it feel closer to zero. The temps did go up to 13-14 degrees when the sun got up over the mountain, but still....

Must be those rascals from Canada cleaning out the fridge again.

At least were (almost) out of range of the lake effect snow. Just a 50% chance of snow showers here today and tomorrow. That should make our second outing for the Christmas Bird Count tomorrow morning interesting to say the least.

Florida 51, Cincinnati 24

Ouch!

All the action was on the Florida side of the ball. I figured it would be a little closer with the Gators beating the Bearcats, but this was a blow-out of the major proportions.

Perhaps losing their coach to Notre Dame and their interim coach to Buffalo affected the Cincy squad more than we will know. Perhaps Tim Tebow's final game and Urban Meyer's semi-farewell to the Gators had them playing with a bit more emotion than normal. Perhaps playing so close to their home base that this could have been classified a home game for the Gators had them fired up. Whatever the reason, the Gators came out of the box firing on all cylinders while the Bearcats looked overwhelmed.

Huh?What did you say?

So I get done listening to the insufferable Brent Musberger and his partner "Herbie" doing the Rose Bowl on ABC, a displeasure only matched by having to watch Ohio State beat the Oregon Ducks 26-17, when I switch to Fox to watch the Cincinnati Bearcats against the Florida Gators. And there is no sound...as in NOT ONE FARUKIN' PEEP! Why could that not have happened on ABC? I tried using the mute button to get the closed captioning but even that is not getting through.

At least I can still watch the action on the screen. *sigh*

PSU 19, LSU 17 FSU 33, WVU 21

Playing in Orlando on what has to be the worst field in the world of college football--especially after hosting the state high school championships and an earlier bowl game plus having endured colder than usual weather preventing the sod's roots from taking hold--Penn State and LSU played a down and dirty, nitty gritty showdown of a game.

PSU kicked a field goal with a minute left to take the lead 19-17. LSU, with no time outs, tried but failed to get down to field goal range.

And Joe Pa came away with another win.

*****

Meanwhile, up in Jacksonville, Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminoles trailing 14-3 after the first quarter, came from behind to prove victorious 33-21. You knew the 'Noles were going to come out playing hard, but you have to wonder if the Mountaineer's starting QB, Jarret Brown, had been able to play in the second half if the outcome wouldn't have been different.

Aubrun 38, Northwestern 35

Holy moly! Interceptions and fumbles on both sides as each team scored 35 points in regulation. Big plays on both sides of the ball...by both teams. Hard hits. And a missed Northwestern 48-yard field goal--following an Auburn fumble on the kickoff following the tying score by Northwestern--with 3 seconds on the clock.

Auburn scores on a field goal. A face mask penalty giving Northwestern a first down (and 15 yards). Roughing the kicker on a missed attempt to tie in overtime creating a first and goal for Northwestern. THEN, with a new kicker in the game because the old guy was hurt/inaccurate, a fake on a short 22-yard field goal that fails so Auburn wins.

Heck of a game!