I had my fantasy football draft last night and I’m fairly happy with the team I’ve put together. I didn’t get the quarterback I wanted, but I think I’m fairly well off at other positions. My marquee player this year is Frank Gore, so hopefully his broken hand will be all healed up by the time the season opener rolls around. If it isn’t — well, I’ve got a couple of decent backups that can fill in for a week or two at the beginning.

I made a couple of mistake picks that could come back to haunt me. For example, I have WR Chris Chambers from Miami on my team. I didn’t know about his current legal problems (DUI charges or something) and the trade rumors swirling around him. Nevertheless, he’s still the No.1 receiver for the Dolphins, so hopefully Jeff Garcia will be able to get him the ball a couple of times, especially in the end zone. If not, I could end up wishing I had Botox for migraines as I spend all of Sunday evening banging my head against my keyboard!

Again, our league is just for fun, so I’m not too concerned about what happens. Hey, if worrying about how my fantasy football players perform is the biggest problem I have in my life, then I’d say I’m pretty well off, ya know?

There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?

I would say that most of my friends/family fall into this category of not reading a single book in a given year. I’m not sure when this happened, because I clearly remember having a lot of book discussions with these same friends back when we were in college. But now these same friends are more likely to tell me about an interesting magazine article they’ve read or website they’ve come across than about any books they’re reading.

I was looking through some old posts on this blog in an effort to clean up dead links and so forth when I noticed a recurring theme. I’ve made tons of posts detailing things that I want to do (these serve as more of a reminder to myself than anything you readers would really be interested in). These are usually small, worthwhile projects such as keeping in touch with old friends, exercising daily, cleaning the house more thoroughly, etc. I even wanted to do things to improve my home business, such as buy custom advertising pens, presentation folders, and business cards.

But in typical fashion, I’ve done none of these things yet. I’m not sure what’s going on with me here because it feels like I’m constantly busy, but I’m still not getting anything done. I think I’m doing only enough to get by on a day-to-day basis, just enough to keep my head above water. That’s why I’m not really getting anywhere. I need to start doing a little more each day so that I’ll eventually come out ahead.

Sigh. I need about seven extra hours a day to get these things done!

I’ve got my fantasy football draft tonight, so I’m going to try to set aside about an hour or so later on this afternoon in order to go through the various injury reports and player projections. I haven’t prepared at all for this draft and since there are a whopping 14 teams in the league this year, there’s a good chance of screwing up the entire season with a bad draft.

The league scoring favors running backs and wide receivers, so I’m going to focus on those guys in the early rounds. I probably won’t even pick a QB until the 5th or 6th round, but I should still be able to get someone decent at at point.

I have to remind myself that this is just for fun and not to get too upset if I get stuck with crappy picks .

The White Sox have been cellar-dwellers in the AL Central nearly all season, so it’s no surprise that the team is already looking ahead to next year. Towards that end, they recently named seven players from their farm system who will participate in the Arizona Fall League. Donny Lucy (catcher), Chris Getz (infielder), and pitchers Dewon Day, Jack Egbert, Fernando Hernandez and Adam Russell will all play for the Phoenix Desert Dogs. Another outfielder will be named to the team at a later date. With all those players to monitor, maybe GM Kenny Williams should check out some Scottsdale real estate so he can be closer to the action!

I really hope some of these pitchers pan out because the White Sox rotation has fallen a long way since the 2005 championship run. I think the team needs some new blood in there, some younger guys who will bring energy as well as talent (and maybe even consistency) to the bullpen. If that happens, they’ve got a good chance of being back on top again in 2008!

Bears linebacker Lance Briggs was charged with leaving the scene of an accident (a misdemeanor) yesterday after he met with police in connection with an abandoned Lamborghini. The car is reportedly worth $350,000 and Briggs allegedly left it on the side of a highway after crashing it into a light pole. According to Briggs, he was the driver and there were no other passengers in the vehicle with him at the time of the accident.

Sounds fishy, doesn’t it? Who in their right minds would just leave a $350,000 car out on the highway without calling for a tow truck?

It seems to me like he had been drinking and wanted to avoid a field sobriety test or a Breathalyzer. Maybe he had an unregistered handgun in the car or drug paraphernalia. Whatever the deal, it definitely sounds like he had something to hide.

My husband and I eat at restaurants far too often. We go to cheaper restaurants like the Chinese buffet (our favorite; less than $10 per person for dinner) at least once a week and we go to more expensive places like Outback or TGI Friday’s a couple times per month. We spend a lot of money this way and we know it’s a big waste, so we’re trying to cut down by preparing more home-cooked meals.

For us, this isn’t as easy as you might imagine. First of all, we’re not very good cooks and don’t have many recipes at our command. We know a few basic ones, but I don’t think we could go much more than a week without repeating meals. Second, it’s not as though we have a full set of Berndes cookware at our disposal. Our kitchen is very bare, so there’s not a lot we can make. And finally, we don’t have the same tastes in food. Whereas I’m a very picky eater and tend to stick to a few meals that I know I like, my husband is more adventurous and wants to try different things all the time. That’s why restaurants usually work out better for us. We can each get what we want without any hassles.

But we know that it’s cheaper and healthier to eat at home, so we’re going to try to limit ourselves to two restaurant meals per month from now on. The rest of the time, it’ll be home-cookin’. Wish us luck!

I was looking at Google Trends today to see what the top searches are, and once again I’m completely baffled about what people are looking for on the net. The thing that struck me about the searches for today was the fact that so many of them were for older movies. I mean, right now Mighty Joe Young (from 1998) is the #8 search on Google Trends. I wonder what that’s all about. Also, Widow on the Hill (2005), 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), and A Knight’s Tale (2001) are all in the top 20. Weird.

The top search is for Las Vegas advisor, which I guess means a lot of people are planning to visit Sin City soon. There’s also a site in the top 10 called bestubelieve.com, but I’d never heard of it before checking out Google Trends today.

It seems that I’m never searching for the same things as the rest of the world!

My husband and I haven’t had a vacation all to ourselves in more than four years, so we’re desperately in need of something — even if it’s just a quick weekend getaway. We used to go to a very nice B&B in Michigan, and we’d love to get back there again sometime soon. We’re hoping that my parents will be able to watch our son the second weekend in September so we can finally have time to ourselves.

If this works out, I just might go and pick out some sexy costumes to surprise my husband with! Actually, we’ll probably take advantage of the free time by sleeping in, relaxing, and just soaking up the peace and quiet. Yeah, we’re getting boring in our old age!!!

I haven’t been talking about the Bears much this preseason because, well, it’s just the preseason, but now that there’s only one more warm-up contest left before heading into the opener against San Diego on September 9, I figured it was about time to post a few thoughts..

• Rex Grossman is looking as sketchy as ever. I just don’t have much confidence in him as the starting quarterback. He’ll look great on one series, hitting Berrian in stride for a long gain or a touchdown, and then he’ll come back and play like crap in the very next series. He’ll fumble a snap, throw a horrible interception, etc. When he’s in, it feels like the Bears are always just one Rex mistake away from losing.
• Cedric Benson better come on strong sometime soon. The Bears gave up on Thomas Jones, a solid back who was a 100-yard threat every week, to turn the reins over to Benson. But he hasn’t really done much here in the preseason. In tonight’s game against the 49ers, he looked awful, gaining just 33 yards on 19 carries. He did score a TD, but it was only from 2 yards out.
• If the Bears don’t have a good running game and have to rely on Grossman to throw the ball, what’s gonna happen? Wait, don’t answer that.
• The first-string defense looks exceptional. I have a lot of confidence in this group and know that they’ll be able to hold opponents to 10-14 points most weeks. (Hopefully I can pick them up in my fantasy league!)
• Special teams looks pretty good too. Robbie Gould and Devin Hester have been awesome, and Brendan Ayanbadejo is still looking like a Pro Bowler on coverage.

The bottom line: The offense is shaping up to be the Achilles Heel of the team once again. Rex Grossman + no running game = total disaster. If the Bears have to rely on the defense and special teams to score the bulk of their points, then this will end up being a loooong year. Let’s hope I’m wrong!

If you’re a sports fan, I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the Texas Rangers scored a mind-boggling 30 runs on the Baltimore Orioles in the first game of a double-header yesterday. I didn’t see the game, but I’ve been watching SportsCenter and listening to analysts discuss the feat ever since.

The two things that jump out at me (besides the 30 runs) are the fact that the Rangers scored their runs in just 4 innings (which means they had 5 scoreless innings) and the fact that Texas reliever Wes Littleton got a save in the game despite leading by 27 runs in the 9th inning (one way for pitchers to earn a save is to pitch at least three innings in relief regardless of the score when they enter the game).

How will the Orioles recover from that beatdown? I’m sure plenty of the guys on the team are ready to pack it in right now and start booking their offseason Orlando vacations. I mean, they’re 17 games out of first place at the end of August, so there’s not much left for them to play for. Yeah, you can talk about “pride” or roster spots, but come on… their season has been over for a while now, and this 30-3 loss just adds insult to injury!

I actually remembered about Booking Through Thursday today! The topic for this week is Indoctrination, and the question is this:

When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading? (Family trips to bookstore, reading the same book as a sibling or parent, etc.)

I wouldn’t say that anyone else in my family really shared my love of books. While everyone else did read from time to time, I was the only one who did so constantly.

Even though he didn’t read a whole lot himself (besides the newspaper), my dad really did encourage my love of reading from an early age. I remember when I first learned to read, I would sit down at the kitchen table nearly every single night to tackle a new children’s book out loud — with my father as the sole captive audience member.

The only other family oriented book memories that I have would be of our weekly trips to the library. The local library was too far for me to walk or bike to until I was much older, so I had to be driven there by my mom or dad. We’d just make a family trip out of it, often stopping to get ice cream from Baskin-Robbins (next to the library) in the summertime.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times on this blog that my husband and I aren’t that big on buying expensive furniture. We have always just bought the cheapest stuff we could find because we have a four-year-old in the house as well as a Beagle that can’t stay off the couches and chairs. We figured we’d just be throwing money away if we bought anything expensive because there are liable to be spills from the boy and who knows what from the dog.

But now that we’re setting up an entertainment room in a separate part of the house, I think it’ll be safe for us to buy new living room furniture — which brings up a question that I’ve been meaning to ask. For those of you who have nicely furnished rooms, do you stick with one manufacturer throughout your house or do you pick and choose pieces based on what you like (and what will match)?

What I mean is, if you have a sofa from Century furniture, do you go out of your way to make sure your end tables, coffee table, and armchairs are from Century as well? Is it cheaper to buy full sets or can you score better deals buying one piece at a time?

I’m just trying to get a feel for how this works. Remember, I’m a person who used duct tape on my desk chair for almost a year before finally breaking down and buying a new one. Furniture is so not my thing!

If you’re not sports fan, then you’re probably sick to death of the Michael Vick story by now. But lots of people (including me) are still interested in it because we’re waiting to see A) what Vick’s prison sentence will be; and B) what his punishment from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will be.

I just read an article today about how R.L. White, the president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, thinks Vick should be allowed to return to the NFL. White’s basic argument is that Vick made a mistake, admitted his mistake, and (presumably) will serve time to pay for his mistake. After that, Vick should be given a chance to prove that he has “learned” from the mistake.

Whatever. Playing in the NFL isn’t like having a regular job, where you can just slide in under the radar and go quietly about your business. Image is everything in America’s #1 sport, and I don’t think any franchise will want much to do with Vick since his reputation is garbage at this point. Moreover, there’s still a very real chance that he’ll be banned from the NFL for violating the league’s gambling policy, which states that players can be suspended indefinitely (or have their contracts terminated) for gambling or associating with gamblers.

I have a feeling that the commissioner will fall back on this policy when handing out punishment for Vick because it’s the “safest” one in terms of being cut and dried. Other punishments would have to speak to Vick’s character or humanity, and those would obviously be much more controversial.

I certainly don’t envy Goodell’s position right now because no matter what ruling he makes, there will be an outcry. If the NFL punishment is viewed as too harsh, then there’s the danger of certain groups claiming that the sentence was racially motivated. If the sentence is viewed as too light, certain groups are liable to claim that Goodell feared the potential backlash of a tougher penalty.

It’ll be interesting to see which route Goodell takes.

My family loves to take photos everywhere we go, so we have a Nikon D70 digital SLR for action shots at sporting events,and a more portable Casio Exilim EX-Z600 for everyday snapshots. Both are great digital cameras, but both are in need of repair right now.

Something happened to the lens on my D70, so now any pictures I try to take come out completely unfocused. I’m not sure what happened to the Casio, but all the pictures come out extremely dark, no matter what the actual lighting conditions are.

I’m going to get a replacement lens for the D70 as soon as I have an extra $300 to spare (who knows when that will be) because there’s no way I’m going to let an expensive camera like that go to waste. As for the Casio — I’m not really sure what I’m going to do about it. I might take it into a shop that offers free diagnostics to find out what exactly is wrong with the thing in the first place. If it’s a problem that can be fixed at a reasonable price (less than $75), then I will go ahead and do that. If not, I’m going to start shopping around for something new.

For the time being, I’m stuck taking pictures with my cell phone. The quality is terrible, so hopefully I’ll get my camera situation worked out soon.