I had a bunch of things to do yesterday, so I Tivo’d the Bears-Saints game and didn’t end up watching it until late at night. By the time I finished I was too tired to write a post about it, which is why I’m just getting around to it now.

Anyway, the Bears won 33-25 to finish out the season at 7-9. More importantly, they won two games in a row for the first time all year, and will have at least a couple of positives to take into the offseason with them.

The player of the game was Devin Hester yet again. This guy is simply ridiculous in terms of how skilled he is on kick and punt returns. Saints head coach Sean Payton said beforehand that he planned on staying away from Hester, but I guess punter Steve Weatherford didn’t get that memo. In the 3rd quarter, he punted directly at Hester, who answered by cutting through the Saints’ coverage and scampering 64-yards for a TD.

That was Hester’s 11th career kick/punt return TD (which doesn’t count his Super Bowl score or the missed FG he returned for a TD last season). He now needs just 2 more to tie the all-time NFL record of 13 special teams TDs set by Brian Mitchell. Difference is, Mitchell took something like 233 games to get his record, while Hester has racked up his TDs in 32 games.

Plus, you have to remember that most of the time, teams aren’t even bothering to kick to Hester anymore. He rarely gets any real chances to run one back, and this trend is probably going to continue into next season as well.

Anyway, getting back to the game: The defense looked pretty good even though they gave up 25 points. They got a safety in there, sacked Brees three times, recovered a fumble, and had two interceptions. Not bad at all.

The offense looked decent at times, especially when Orton connected with Hester for a 55-yard score. But again, there were a lot of squandered opportunities, Orton missed several wide-open receivers, and the O-line had too many penalties.

Take away Hester’s 2 TDs and the Bears lose again. Lots of other guys on this team better step up next year, or they’re going to miss the playoffs again.

It’s going to be a loooong offseason. Hopefully the Bears address a few of their needs in the draft and come back strong in ‘08!

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

I don’t know what’s going on with me lately, but I’ve been suffering from major PMS symptoms for the past six months or so. This kind of thing never affected me before, but now I’ve been getting extremely irritable in the days leading up to my period. The smallest thing is liable to set me off — which I know can’t be pleasant for my husband or son.

I’ve been reading up on the subject, and it seems that I’m exhibiting classic symptoms of having too much estrogen and/or not enough progesterone in my system. One of the results of this imbalance is irritability, so I could be on the right track here.

If it turns out I’m right, then I’ll be able to manage this estrogen imbalance with a progesterone cream. That sounds simple enough, but obviously I need to do more research before starting on a treatment plan.

Jerry turned 35 today, which is hard to believe (mostly because I’ll be turning 34 myself in just a few more days!). We always do low-key birthday celebrations, so the only thing on the agenda for tonight is dinner at Outback.

I gave Jerry his present this morning, which ended up being Call of Duty 4 for Xbox. Not surprisingly, he’s been playing that game most of the day, and will probably start up again once we get back from dinner.

Anyway, happy birthday to my wonderful husband — the 12th one we’ve celebrated together as a couple!

Jerry’s birthday is tomorrow, but I still haven’t bought him a present yet. Every single year, he insists that he doesn’t need anything for his birthday since it’s so close to Christmas, and every single year I feel guilty about not buying any presents, so I rush out at the last minute to get something. This year is not going to be any different, as I plan on hitting the mall later tonight before going to see The Great Debaters with a friend.

Now I just have to figure out what I want to get Jerry before I leave. I’m not going to have a bunch of time to shop around, so it would be much better if I can just run into a specific store and grab something.

He has a lot of cologne left, and recently bought a bunch of socks, underwear, and ties. He doesn’t wear gold chains or any other kind of jewelry, so that’s out. And he already has plenty of power tools too.

I’ll probably end up getting him an Xbox game, like usual. I know he mentioned something about Call of Duty 4, but I can’t remember if he was saying that he wanted the game or thought it looked stupid. I guess I’ll have to hint around the subject at dinner!

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is a simple one:

What were your favorite books this year?

The only new release I read this year was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I did enjoy that book, so I suppose it qualifies as one of my favorites from the year.

Other than HP, however, I spent most of my time reading Agatha Christie, Michael Connelly, and Anita Shreve. Out of those novels, I thought Christie’s And Then There Were None was superb, as was Death on the Nile, Cards on the Table, and The ABC Murders.

I did manage to read a few classics, including Silas Marner, Daniel Deronda, The Red Badge of Courage, The Awakening, A Passage to India, The Age of Innocence, and Return of the Native. Most of those were re-reads, as I’d last gotten to them in high school and wanted to refresh my memory a bit. I liked all of ‘em, though I did feel that Daniel Deronda dragged in a lot of places.

Anyway, I hope to read even more in 2008, and am looking to add new favorites to my list!

Another Christmas is now officially in the books, and I’m happy to say that I made out reasonably well. I got a bunch of useful gift cards, some clothes, and a few books that I wanted. While these were all fantastic presents (and things that I actually asked for), I kind of wish someone had surprised me with a truly unique gift, like the wine of the month club membership that my cousins bought for my uncle.

I’d heard of these types of clubs before, of course, but never looked closely at what a membership entails. With my birthday coming up next week, I decided that this would be a perfect time to check out some clubs for myself just to see if it’s something I’d be interested in.

One of the websites I landed on during my research was GoldMedalWine.com, so I started reading about the details of their memberships. They have several different membership levels, starting with a Gold Series and progressing through something called an International Series.

Each series entitles members to different products, such as one red wine and one white wine per month in the Gold Series, or two reds and one white in the International Series. Exclusivity of the wines also comes into play, with selections in the International Series not available anywhere else in the U.S.

Compared to other wine club websites I looked at, I think GoldMedalWine.com was the easiest to understand. The details of each membership level are clear, and all charges (including shipping) are prominently displayed so there won’t be any unwanted surprises later on. Moreover, the wines seemed to be of exceptional quality, and were reasonably priced.

Overall, I was very impressed with what I saw at GoldMedalWine.com. In fact, I might just have to drop my husband some hints about getting me a wine of the month club membership for my birthday this year!

I just wanted to make a quick post to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day, no matter how you chose to spend it.

I had a very nice get-together with extended family yesterday, and was able to spend all day today with just my immediate family. This was the first Christmas where my son really knew what was going on, and he was so excited to see all the presents from Santa under the tree! It was an amazing feeling to see him so happy; I’d forgotten how special Christmas is for kids!

My son got a bunch of toys that he wanted, but I think we went overboard there. Next year we’re definitely going to scale back on how much we buy him — particularly since he’s my parents’ only grandchild, so they spoil him too.

Those of us buying my husband presents decided to pool our money together and get him an 80GB iPod Classic. It was a total surprise for him, and he’s been fiddling with iTunes ever since he opened it.

I asked for (and received) movie theater gift cards from just about everyone who was planning on getting me a present, so now I’ll be able to see a ton of new releases instead of having to wait until the films come out on DVD. Seriously, if I went to one movie at the theater every weekend, my gift cards will last me until the end of summer!

All in all, it has been a pretty terrific holiday. I am so thankful that we were able to have such a nice time together!