Even though I’m not from the Boston area, I’ve been a fan of the New England Patriots ever since Tom Brady took over the starting QB job from Drew Bledsoe several years ago. Don’t get me wrong: I would still pull for the Bears in a head-to-head matchup, but I also enjoy watching the Pats play.

(And before you get on me for jumping on the bandwagon of a winning team, bear in mind that I also like the San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, and Arizona Cardinals. And when’s the last time any of those teams won the Super Bowl?)

But I have to say that the 2007 Patriots squad is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. For the first few weeks of the season, I thought it was awesome that they were putting so many points on the board. I love seeing great offenses perform like that in the NFL, so it was a treat to watch Brady, Moss, and Welker light things up.

Now, however, the Patriots come off as little more than a group of arrogant a-holes who think nothing of running up the score on other teams. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should — even in professional sports.

Look, I’ve played sports my whole life, so I know that one way of showing respect to your opponent is by giving a 100 percent effort when you play. But it’s also respectful not to kick your opponents while they’re down, which is what the Pats are doing every single fourth quarter. It’s classless.

So when the NFL’s two remaining unbeaten teams clash this Sunday, you better believe I’ll be pulling for the Colts. You’ll never see Tony Dungy’s squad set out to embarrass opponents on the field like Belichick’s crew does.

I was reading through some of the top stories at Yahoo news, like I do every day, when I noticed that several of the articles set off my Firefox pop-up blocker. I didn’t actually view the pop-ups, so I don’t know if they were ads or just some type of alerts, but either way, I didn’t like what I was seeing.

I hate pop-ups more than any other type of online advertising because they are just so obnoxious and intrusive. Look, I understand that websites that provide free access need to cover their expenses by selling advertising; heck, I even do it myself. But not pop-ups on a news page, please! When I’m trying to read an article about the current condition of the real estate market, the last thing I want is a pop-up interrupting me.

Has anyone else noticed these pop-ups on Yahoo news? Did you look at them? Are they ads, or what?

Man, it was another absolutely brutal effort from the Bears today, as they got outplayed by the Lions in nearly every aspect of the game. The 16-7 loss drops Chicago’s season record to 3-5, and makes them 1-3 against the NFC North. Everyone says that it’s not time to worry about a football team until they lose their eighth game, but it’s clear that the Bears aren’t even close to playoff form.

Brian Griese threw four picks today, including three near the end zone. This comes just one week after he drove the team 97 yards to victory in Philadelphia in the final two minutes. Can we get some consistency around here, please?

Dropped balls, fumbles, poor route running, missed tackles, overpursuit, blown coverages, missed field goals, inept clock management…. There’s plenty of blame to go around the entire organization.

I think I’m going to TiVo games from here on out so I can get through them in an hour or so rather than wasting three to watch this kind of effort.

Most of my friends are as solidly grounded in the middle class as I am, so I was surprised to learn that not everyone has something as basic (to me) as life insurance. I guess this isn’t the kind of thing that you generally think about in your early thirties, but I believe in being prepared for every eventuality, so my husband and I have had policies ever since we got married.

With the variety of low-cost life insurance no medical exam policies available today, I can’t think of a good reason not to sign up. This is the kind of thing that would help keep a roof over your kids’ heads should something happen to the main breadwinner in the family, which, as a parent, is always a major concern.

There’s no sense in waiting until it’s too late, so make sure you’re covered as soon as possible!

Since Notre Dame didn’t play today, I was planning on writing a post about Game 3 of the World Series. However, it’s after 11pm now and they’re still in the 8th inning. I don’t really feel like staying up until it’s over, so I decided to turn to the NHL instead.

I haven’t been watching hockey at all this season, but I do see highlights on SportsCenter, which is where I first saw this incredible goal by Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He pulls the puck between his legs before flipping it past the goaltender… you have to wait for the slo-mo reverse angle to really appreciate how difficult that move was. Awesome! Take a look:

The Blog World Expo is now less than two weeks away, and I have finally decided that there’s no way I’m going to be able to make it. I really wanted to go to this event, but I can’t justify spending more than $500 to spend a couple days in Las Vegas, particularly since my family wouldn’t be able to go with me. I’d feel supremely selfish for doing so, especially with the holidays just around the corner. There are simply far better uses for that money right now.

So while I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to meet and party with my blogging friends at the Stratosphere Las Vegas or any of the other hotspots, I’m relieved to put the whole thing to rest. Now I can stop carrying on inner debates and weighing the pros and cons of attending the conference, and just get back to business as usual!

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

It bugs me to abandon books, so for years and years I tried not to. But now I value my time far too much to waste it on books that I can’t enjoy, which means that I will no longer plod through a boring just to say I finished it.

Some recent books that I’ve abandoned are:

1. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. It’s on the Observer’s list of the 100 greatest novels of all time, and I have loved Waugh’s other works, but I simply couldn’t get into this one. It was supremely boring to me.

2. Money by Martin Amis. This is another case of me being led astray by the Observer list. While I enjoyed the general writing style and some of the humor, I couldn’t get a feel for the protagonist, so I ditched the book about halfway through.

3. Ulysses by James Joyce. I’m not a Joyce fan at all. Granted, I’m no literary scholar, but I honestly don’t get what all the fuss is about regarding his works. I’d much rather prefer to read something comprehensible, thank you very much.

Well, those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head (but there are a lot more than what’s listed here!).

My son and husband have expressed an interest in going camping. We’re not hardy outdoor types, so I know it’s far too late in the season for us to go this year, but maybe next summer we could give it a try. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to start looking around for some basic camping gear now so we’ll be prepared if we ever do go.

We’ve actually thought about going camping before, but decided that our son was too young at the time. Next summer he’ll be five and a half, and ought to be able to handle a night or two in a tent — right??

I watched part of Game 1 of the World Series last night. Five innings was enough to reaffirm the widespread notion that the National League simply doesn’t measure up to the AL, as by that time the Sox had put up a 13-1 lead on the Rockies. Amazing.

Josh Beckett was pretty much unhittable and is going a long way towards establishing himself as one of the best postseason pitchers of all time. With the win last night, he ran his 2007 playoff record to 4-0, with an ERA of just 1.20. Moreover, he has 35 strikeouts against just two walks, and has worked a total of 30 innings in his four starts. Those numbers are unbelievable!

Well, I don’t know anything about the Rockies, but from seeing what they had to offer in Game 1, I doubt they can make this a competitive series. It seems like those who were predicting a Red Sox sweep will be right on the money!

I had lunch with my regular group of friends today, and the discussion turned (as it often does) to entertainment news and celebrity gossip. We were led to the topic by someone who said that it must be hard to be a TV show regular and “age drastically right in front of millions of people.” She was talking specifically about the CSI cast, and how they don’t look as fresh-faced as they did when the show premiered 8 years ago. Well who would, right?

From there we started talking about whether or not we’d even want to be a celebrity in the first place. While none of us would mind the money (of course), we weren’t too keen about the prospect of being in the spotlight 24/7 and not even being able to go to, say, McDonald’s without paparazzi and others snapping photos the entire time.

And that doesn’t even begin to touch the issues we’d have with looks and weight. Celebrities can’t even walk to the corner store in sweats (and no makeup) because photos of such an adventure, along with catty comments, would undoubtedly appear in several tabloids. Moreover, any kind of weight gain would attract undue attention as well, which means we’d likely have to keep a lifetime supply of hydroxycut or something to keep our weight in check.

So, all things considered, I think we’d all much rather keep our anonymous lives than have every little thing we do come under scrutiny!

I just wanted to let you know that I’m hosting a giveaway on one of my other blogs. Between now and November 3rd, you can enter to win Veronica Mars: The Complete Third Season DVD box set, which is approximately a $38 value (if you were to order it from Amazon.com). All you have to do is send an email to have your name entered in the drawing. No linkbacks, websites, posts, YouTube videos, or other nonsense required!! Check it out today:

Veronica Mars DVD Giveaway

Have you been following the news about the wildfires in California? This is some truly frightening stuff, as the fires continue to rage for a fourth consecutive day. According to one AP article I read, the current catastrophe has consisted of a series of 16 separate blazes that have destroyed some 410,000 acres and 1,300 homes. In addition, nearly 500,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area.

My husband and I were seriously thinking about relocating to California a couple years ago, but now I’m glad we didn’t. Between earthquakes, drought, and wildfires, it seems that there’s always some sort of natural disaster hitting that area. In fact, I’d have to say that Las Vegas or Phoenix real estate looks far more attractive at this point.

Anyway, if you’d like to make a donation to help those who have been displaced by the current round of wildfires, please give to the American Red Cross.

I looked at my PayPal account tonight and saw that the interest rate for the money market fund is way down again. The annual yield is now just 4.94% — a disappointing turn, considering the fact that the yield had been between 5.02 and 5.23% ever since I joined the fund last December.

If the rate keeps dropping like this, I might have to just take my money out and put it in a high-yield savings account where the funds would at least be FDIC insured.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to dig up some history on the PayPal MMF to see what its lowest-ever yield was. That could give me a bit of insight on how to proceed here….

We usually try to go somewhere warm for vacation every winter, and since we weren’t able to take our usual trip last year, we’re even more determined to go this year.

But the problem we’re having right now is deciding on a family-friendly destination. We don’t feel like going to Disney World yet again, so I guess we won’t need to book an Orlando vacation rental this time around. Maybe we should head in the other direction and check out Arizona or Southern California. Or how about a short cruise to the Bahamas? Does that sound like too much of a “couples” trip, or would it be okay for a family?

We really have no idea where to go, so we’re open to suggestions if you have any!

I had to avoid checking my fantasy football scores this week until after I watched the Bears game because I have three Bears players on my roster and would therefore see the final score in my control panel.

Anyway, I finally had a chance to look earlier this afternoon and was happy to see that I won again (neither of us have guys playing in tonight’s game, so the matchup was finalized yesterday). I actually did very well this week, while my opponent had a tough time. In fact, the other guy didn’t even break 15 points with his team, which is just about as crappy a score as you can put up. To put it in perspective, my kicker scored more points than my opponent’s entire team (and no, I didn’t have Rob Bironas and his 8 FGs)!

Too bad my little win streak is going to come to an end next week. I’m going up against the guy who has Tom Brady on his team, and there’s no way I can compete with that kind of firepower. How many TDs will Brady have next weekend? Four? Five? Another 6? I don’t even want to think about it right now!!

(Photo credit: Getty Images via Yahoo Sports)