Monthly Archives: November 2010

week 12 and in

I have had 2 winning seasons before. But never have I had the last week in regular season be a freebee. Now I need to figure out if throwing last week gives me a better matchup in the playlets.

Anyway, I finally defeated my rival Pat. After 5 tries, it feels good to finally take one from you.

I love my iPad!

I’m sitting on the couch writing this, watching football and checking my football stats realtime!

Great Wolf Lodge

So, a rite of passage has occurred. Like most parents, we have finally taken our kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls to *relax* for the weekend.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about going. I primarily thought that it would be tacky and a money grab like most things in Niagara Falls. But I was wrong. The hotel is in top notch condition and extremely well run. Naturally it is geared towards kids so be prepared to tolerate the idiotic clueless things that will happen when there’s a million kids running around. Most of them being raised by clueless parents.

Nonetheless, it is large enough that even though you cannot avoid kids, you’re not inundated with them all at once.

The waterpark is outstanding. From lazy rivers, to a wave pool, to little wading pools for the tots, to a multitude of water slides for various age groups. There is also beer.

We tired the kids and ourselves out most of the time in the waterpark. We were also able to find some time to hang with just the gang: Tina, Jay, Frank, Jo, Dave & Kirstin while we dumped the crew off at Cub Club for an hr. Yes, quite pricey, but well run, safe, and worth the downtime. We tacked on an extra hr for Olivia to attend the Pajama Party. I recommend taking advantage of these services at least one night of your stay.

The Room was a bit pricey but the Family Suites are well thought out and large enough to have a play area. I thought the food, etc. was going to gouge us but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they kept food, beer and souvenirs at a very reasonable price. $5.50 for a 20 oz beer for example. An added nicety was that the buffet food was actually *good*. They had very tasty beef ribs and lots of variety of pastas, pizzas, seafood, salads, etc.

We were impressed enough that we plan to go again this winter at some point. For me to want to do this again, it must have been pleasant. Everyone knows how cranky I can get with this stuff.

Whew

This week was closer than it should have been. I was winning by a slim margin coming into tonight’s game and had 3 players to his one.

Took a chance on my RB and the news was good that he was good to start and feature. Too late to do anything about it, I find out his hamstring hadn’t loosened up and did not play the game. So now down to only 2: a TE and my Eagles DST. Playing against each other.

Well, the score ended up being 59-28 for the Eagles. Considering he had the kicker for the Eagles that amounted to 8 xtra points after TD and 1 FG from 40+ which totals 12.

I was only up by 2.9 coming into this. The tricky part about DST is that they start off with 10 and then decrease as points are scored and yards are racked up against. With a blowout, and so early in the game, it’s inevitable that the defence will loosen up and allow the other team to rack up the yardage. And they did. Enough to elimate all 10 of my starting points PLUS one more to send into the negatives.

Fortunately my TE gave me 2 1/2 and my DST had 2 Sacks and 2 INTS late into the 3rd amounting to 8 1/2. Which kept me alive. But during that 3rd I went from leading to behind by one tenth of a point.

The saving grace, the reason I won, was because my DST intercepted and returned for a touchdown for a net of 8 points with a couple minutes left in the 3rd. Just to elaborate: this was pretty much the last opportunity for an interception to occur as the teams would soon shift into conservative kill the clock mode. So, the last opportunity and it also had to be a throw that if it were intercepted there was no way the offense could catch him before scoring. Basically, this was a cinderella, hail-mary kind of scenario for me. I won by 6.1 points. Without that TD I lose a heartbreaker. Instead, it is sweet, sweet victory against an opponent I have horrible luck against. And a team I loathe. One of those teams that are overloaded with players on the same team. So tough to play against if you hit them on a feast week….which this one was. I rest easy tonight knowing that he is stewing and fuming as I write this.

Now I’m virtually locked for a playoff berth. I need either 1 win in the next 3 or 1 loss by another team in his next 3.

Lesson learnt: I should have played my decent but predictable RB on Sunday instead of rolling the dice on an RB that was questionable with hamstring and the last game of the weekend. To my credit the news was all positive up the kickoff that he was good to go so it was a tough call to make.

A little kick in the pants: His replacement racked up 3 TDs and 140 all-purpose yds. Now I’m afraid my RB has lost his job and I may have to play the waiver and pray that I pick up this new youngster.