Great Article on ND Football

I agree 100%, you can read it here

New Movie

Monday night was a big deal at our house as the Backyardigans debuted a new flick, the Super Secret Super Spy. Bon put together a little party for Reese and she even enjoyed popcorn for the first time. She didn't miss a beat plucking the snack from the bowl between her Mom and Dad while keeping her eyes focused on the spy plot unfolding before her eyes. I would personally give the show a B-, I had pretty big expectations, and while there were some good parts, I expected to laugh more. Reese has yet to give it a grade...

You have heard the adage that you don't get second chances, well in this instance folks, you do. Another home on our street has gone up for sale, three doors down, they were good friends with the people we bought from. So for those of you who missed out on the chance to be our neighbors, you can still be on the same street. You can check out the listing here.

Peace out...

Cool Story

Kitna says concussion symptoms magically disappeared

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Associated Press

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Detroit quarterback Jon Kitna was one of the NFL's most thankful players Monday.

Kitna was knocked out of the game against Minnesota on Sunday with a concussion, only to return and lead the Lions to an overtime win over the Vikings.

"I've never felt anything like that, and for it to clear up and go right back to as normal as I can be, is nothing short of a miracle," Kitna said Monday. "I just definitely feel the hand of God. That's all it was. You can't explain it. "I have no headaches, no symptoms, no lingering effects. But that was the worst my head has ever felt, and the worse my memory was in the second quarter. Yet, after halftime there was nothing."

Kitna said it was the third concussion of his NFL career, and the first since 2001. After saying he knew who he was during the game, a reporter asked Kitna if he knew where he was. "Barely," he said.

He was knocked out of the game in the second quarter and appeared to be out for the rest of the day, standing on the sideline without a helmet. But the team cleared him to play in the third quarter and he came back in the fourth. Kitna passed a follow-up examination Monday morning.

"He's fine," coach Rod Marinelli said. "He didn't have any symptoms, no headaches." Kitna ran the ball twice on the final possession, leading a game-winning drive when Detroit trailed or was tied for the third straight game, including a win last season at Dallas.

"It was a courageous effort," offensive tackle George Foster said.

Da Zoo

We had a solid time at the zoo on Saturday, the Slim Posse made it down for the festivities. Unfortunately, Reese woke up with a cold, but did pretty well for the day. She failed to get a nap before hand, so the wheels fell off about 3pm and she finally gave up in the stroller.

This Notre Dame thing is killing me, they may be the worst team in Division I. What I do not understand is how you can run off Ty Willingham after three years, and in year three of Charlie things are worse than they have ever been. I was not pleased when they fired Ty in the first place, and the two years of success Charlie has had were with Ty's players. It is going to be a LONG season...

I have another beef, why is Faith Hill doing the Sunday Night Football intro? Pink was perfect, and now she is gone, I mean Faith's voice is meant for sappy ballads, not getting people fired up. Pink has that edge we need. So in protest, I will load and play this video while Faith is muted on our television...

Tags?

(Not actual license plate)


So I walk out of the office yesterday morning, and just happened to glance at my license plate. The numbers "3-07" were staring back at me. That's right folks, I have been driving on expired tags for 6 months...

I am not proud of it, but fortunately I was not the one who had to go and face the firing squad at the DMV, it was my lovely bride. You see, March is her birthday month. So the clerk asked Bon to try and explain to her why we were just getting around to this, and Bon replies, "honestly, we forgot." Great stuff, that's one of the reasons why I love her folks, blunt truth. So I am legal on the roads again, and approaching 160K miles on the Corolla, til death do us part...

For your Friday musical selection, how about The Cure...

Have a good weekend

Blah

Not much to report here, one friend lost his mother on Monday, and another friend got some bad news yesterday, so we are just really thankful for what we have and ask that you enjoy the good stuff, I know we will on Saturday, with the Slim posse at the zoo.

Peace out

Has Football Started?

Sorry for the delay, been busy.

Now that ND is 0-2, the Bears lost their opener, and two starters on defense, I find myself asking the question, has football season really started for me?

What an action-packed weekend, Saturday we hosted our Life Group from church for a luau. I have seriously not mowed the lawn in 5 weeks, and just as everyone arrived on Saturday, we got absolutely dumped on! We were sent scrambling pulling the tables inside that Bon had decorated so well. We made some game plan adjustments, and fired up the grill in the garage before moving it just outside the door once the rain trickled back a little. The only bad part, was that it seemed too short, we would have loved for everyone to stay longer and hang out, we really enjoyed it.

Earlier in the day, Reese and I had a "whirlwind adventure", as Shrek would say to Donkey. After running a quick errand to Target, we walked out and found a giant nail stuck in one of the back tires, and it was losing air quickly. We bopped over to Big O and they patched it up for us free of charge. The bad thing was, it took about an hour for them to get to it and Bon's cell phone had gone dead, so we were stranded. We walked the parking lots and ran over to Home Depot to kill time, she was great the entire time.

Sunday was filled with football, we barely left the family room all day once we got home from church, Reese threw around a ton of high-fives.

Peace out...

My Foe & Serious Dough

Alright, there is a big bee's nest in the ground down by our fence line. They had dug a nice size hole as an entry point into their secret lair and I had strategically blocked it with a huge rock.

As I was out watering our desert last night, I noticed that had found another entry point, so I went to block that one too. Needless to say, one of the fifty boogers got to my leg and latched it's little fangs into my steel wheel. Now, it has been a while since I was stung by a bee, so I may have grown allergic to 'em, cause that bite still hurts, and I feel a little light-headed today. It is almost like the venom has taken over my body! I am hoping this subsides and I am able to focus on the football game this evening...

Also, we had stopped in to Petland on Friday night, looking around, cause as you know there are spring puppy plans in discussion. They had an English Bulldog, and out of curiosity I stopped back by there to talk with them about some ads and inquire as to the price of the dog, for craps and giggles, and I seriously started laughing when he said with a straight face, $3,400! I said, "No, seriously, how much?" his response was the same. That is close to what it costs to get Reese from the hospital in Nashville! I think I will keep shopping...

I love tracking this company...

Apple Launches New iPods, Slashes iPhone Price

By Peter Kang

CNBC.com

| 05 Sep 2007 | 03:47 PM ET

Apple announced a major overhaul of its entire line of popular iPod portable media players and, in a surprise move, cut the price of its recently introduced iPhone.

Shares fell on news that Apple would be slashing the price on the lower-end iPhone by 33%, to $399 from $599.

"We want to make the iPhone even more affordable," said CEO Steve Jobs, at the launch event in San Francisco.

Jobs said Apple remains on track to sell 1 million phones before the end of September.

In addition, the company said it will no longer be selling the 4 gigabyte version, according to Jobs.

Apple's bold move comes just hours after Microsoft reduced the price of its Zune digital music player by 20% to $199 as the software maker steps up its efforts to take market share away from industry leader Apple, which has sold over 100 million units since its launch in October 2001.

Earlier, the co-founder of Apple introduced the new lineup of iPods will now be equipped with the same touch screen technology utilized by the recently launched iPhone mobile handheld. The revamped product, dubbed the iPod Touch, will feature wireless connectivity and will allow customers to download music with the bundled Safari Web browser.

"We're approaching holiday 2007 and today we're going to refresh or replace every single product on this lineup," said Jobs.

Apple said it will launch a Wi-Fi music store to complement the new wireless technology and signed a partnership with Starbucks.

"Starbucks really has become this 'third place' between home and work," said Jobs. "We are in a unique position to leverage the innovation and global footprint ... to literally transform the marketplace."

The 8-gigabyte version of the iPod Touch will retail for $299 while the 16-gigabyte version has a price tag of $399.

Apple has sold more than 110 million iPods to date, Jobs told the audience.

The new iPod Nano, a smaller version iPod, will be redesigned with a 2.5-inch LCD screen and will be able to play video content and video games. The 4-gigabyte version will cost $149 while the larger 8-gigabyte version for $199.

The hard drives for the new "classic" versions of the iPod will be upgraded to 80 and 160 gigabytes, with respective prices of $249 and $349.

Apple's chief executive also said a new version of its iTunes store will support customizable ringtones for use on the iPhone. The ringtones will cost an additional 99 cents on top of the price of the song.

In usual Apple fashion, the company was vague on details of the product launch ahead of the event. Analysts widely expected the product to be a touch-screen iPod similar to the iPhone.

Ahead of the event, Apple fans and Wall Street analysts alike speculated on several other potential products such as an iPod equipped with Wi-Fi, an iPhone Nano or a content announcement that would bring the Beatles catalogue to iTunes.

The stock gained 11% in the last five sessions in anticipation of the product launch.

Peter Kang is a markets reporter for CNBC.com and can be reached at peter.kang@nbcuni.com.

© 2007 CNBC.com

URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/20605162/

Fantasy Sports Graveyard

My fantasy baseball team is officially out of it and my WhatIf Sports squad failed to make the playoffs in my organization's history. (Yes, these are not real, and I am big dork)

On the bright side, the NFL kicks off tomorrow, and hope will spring eternal for my fantasy football teams.

I think everyone is close to 100% healthy in our house again, so that is a big plus.

Check out this catchy tune...

Shell-Shocked

I gotta tell you, I did not see that coming!

I think this is God's way of giving me the fall Saturdays to focus on schoolwork, instead of being concerned with a national title race.

I can take the heat when necessary, so for all you Bald Nut fans, you can talk your schmack to me and I will take it.

I will say Jimmy Claussen actually looked decent during his time, so at least we have something to look forward to!

The one good thing is that I am not a Michigan fan, YIKES! At home, to Appy State!

Mad props to OU, the Bobcats start out 1-0.

Quick, funny story for you all from Saturday...

We had run some errands, and arrived home. I pulled some stuff out of the back of the Trotter and left the tailgate up since my hands were full. Due to habit, I hit the button to shut the garage door and thought nothing of it.

Later on, I came out to dump some rash in our big bin and noticed the tailgate was still open a little, but the garage door was down. On its way down it had grabbed the tailgate and pulled it down putting some serious scratches in the body in the process. By far, the biggest DOH! moment I have had in a while, so we will be getting that fixed.

Two days until the NFL season kicks-off!

Interesting...

Bush Tries to Calm Markets With Mortgage Plan

By Reuters

Reuters

| 31 Aug 2007 | 01:31 PM ET

President Bush tried to calm financial market turmoil from the credit crisis by announcing proposals intended to prevent homeowners from defaulting on risky mortgages.

Rising U.S. defaults on so-called subprime mortgages to less credit-worthy borrowers have caused volatility in financial markets around the world and raised concerns that the U.S. economy could fall into recession.

In trying to soothe those worries, Bush said the U.S. economy was healthy enough to weather the credit crisis and that the subprime market problems represented only a "modest" part of the economy.

"The recent disturbances in the subprime mortgage industry are modest. They're modest in relation to the size of our economy," he said.

Read more here:

URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/20521776/

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MSN Privacy . Legal

© 2007 CNBC.com

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Big get well shout out to my nieces, Addie and Carleigh who got struck down with some crazy sickness over the last few days. Hope you feel better girls.

The crushing news of yesterday was the demise of softball. To make a long story short, I had been told by the complex that we had until today to get our money and registration in. I called yesterday to make sure we were on the up and up, and TADOW, we were blocked. They decided to just keep what they had and not take anymore squads. Very big disappointment, I feel bad for all of the guys who were going to play.

Also, the Irish begin a new season tomorrow against an actual viable opponent, imagine that OSU fans. Opening with Georgia Tech instead of Youngstown State, who the Bald Nuts start their season with, simply embarrassing.

Have a great weekend everyone...

It is my intent to provide you all with a music clip each Friday, to get the weekend kicked off right. Let's get it started with one of my favorite old-school bands, Blackstreet.

Feeling Blah

Something looking an awful lot like a 24 hour pneumonia struck Bon down yesterday hard! She sounded awful, with a symphony of deep coughs. I stayed home as much as possible, and had the opportunity to cook up dinner. (Hamburgers and Mac/Cheese, one of my specialties). Reese was in a great mood, which made things a little easier and we all sacked out a little early.

Seems like she is feeling better this morning, so we will take it easy this weekend and see if we can get her back to 100%. I cannot handle her workload, it is crazy!

Furniss Pawn

Things have been a little "lean" to say the least at the day job, but we are plugging through. In an effort to supplement our income we have become an independent pawn shop.

I sold my school books for some nice coin, and Bon pulled off a sweet deal. Here is the story:

Bon and Reese attend the local YMCA almost everyday. One day, Bon overheard two ladies talking about how one of their sons was interested in learning the drums, but she hated to drop money on a brand new snare. Little did they know that we still have Bon's drum, which has not been opened out of the case for at least 10 years. Being the savvy investor she is, Bon saw an opportunity to cash in. She was able to unload the garage space-eater for some greenbacks. Very nice move, facilitated by keeping her ears open, (or maybe it is God working again)...

School is Tough

I have seriously felt some struggles this week with my schoolwork, as it has been cranked up a few notches for the stretch run. There has been some difficulty with the on-line software for the course which has added to the mayhem. I literally probably dedicated 12 hours over the last 3 days to this stuff.

I feel like crap today, btw, sinus headache, and wicked tired.

Bon, Reese, and I went on a lunch picnic yesterday with a group of folks from church and had a good time. Reese was running all over the place and even got a little wet in the giant sprayer/mister thing.

Big 4 Corners fantasy football draft tonight at BW3. We were able to score a cool promotion where we get $100 in free food for having our draft there.

Talked with Daddy B yesterday, which is always a pleasure, I cannot wait until he moves up here. We miss him and Aunt Krys so much.

Talk with you soon...

Staying Course

Not much new happening, homework has been a little difficult and we have been transitioning into the new office downstairs at the house. The dining room now looks a little bare, but we will take care of that in time. Big fantasy draft tonight at CCM, looking forward to a down weekend.

Interesting Times...

Foreclosures Climb 93 Percent From Last Year

Tuesday , August 21, 2007

LOS ANGELES —

Foreclosure filings rose 9 percent from June to July and surged 93 percent over the same period last year, with Nevada, Georgia and Michigan accounting for the highest foreclosure rates nationwide, a research firm said Tuesday.

The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. The figures are the latest measure of the ailing housing market, which has seen defaults and foreclosures soar as financially strapped borrowers have failed to make payments or find buyers.

In all, 179,599 foreclosure filings were reported during July, up from 92,845 in the year-ago month, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 164,644 foreclosure filings were reported in June.

The national foreclosure rate in July was one filing for every 693 households, the firm said.

"While 43 states experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, just five states — California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia — accounted for more than half of the nation's total foreclosure filings," said RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio.

Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate: one filing for every 199 households, or more than three times the national average. It reported 5,116 filings during the month, an increase of 8 percent from June.

Georgia's foreclosure rate was more than twice the national average, with one filing for every 299 households. The state reported 12,602 foreclosure filings, up 75 percent from June.

Michigan reported 13,979 filings in July, a 39 percent spike from June.

California, Florida, and Ohio were among the states with the highest number of foreclosure filings in July, the firm said.

California cities continued to dominate top metropolitan foreclosure rates.

The state reported 39,013 foreclosure filings last month, the most by any single state, but the number of filings rose less than 1 percent from June's total.

The state's foreclosure rate was one filing for every 333 households, RealtyTrac said.

Florida's foreclosure filings fell 9 percent between June and July to 19,179. The July figure represents a 78 percent jump from a year ago.

RealtyTrac did not say if a single property received more than one notice. The company did not break out the exact property count.

In recent months, the mortgage industry has been battered by rising defaults and foreclosures, primarily driven by borrowers with subprime loans and adjustable rate mortgages.

Lagging home sales and flat or decreasing home prices have made it more difficult for homeowners who fall behind on payments to sell their homes and clear the debt, spurring the rise in foreclosure activity.

Puppy?

Bon and I are planners, not so much fly by the seat of our pants. Last night we started talking about a dog. Reese absolutely loves animals and Chubbs will not give her the time of day. Plus, I have always wanted a dog. I stopped in to Petland last week to talk about advertising and they had a white bulldog that was way cool, just chillin'. So we are pretty close to agreeing that in the spring we will adopt an English Bulldog pup. By then, Reese will be a little more apt to help us pick her out and possibly help with a name. I love the name Shaq for a dog, but not sure if that really fits a female. I will definitely keep you all updated as this situation progresses.

The Bears looked decent last night, I actually think our defense will be better than last year, and that is wicked scary my friends.

Peace out for now...

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I know I am a little biased, but she is so beautiful, I absolutely love being her daddy.

There is a sense of relief this morning, as last night I completed the last on-site course in the MBA program. I am on-line now the rest of the way through the end in March. I am sure it will go by fast and I will be moving on to the next chapter in the chronicles.

One more day of classes in C-bus and I will get my official certificate. Basically this just means that I can schedule the mortgage license exam.

It seems like I have had very little time with Bon and Reese over the last couple of weeks, so I am definitely looking forward to some down time next week.