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!