The New England Patriots have parted ways with 4th-year quarterback Matt Cassel, sending him, along with veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2nd-round draft pick. Moving Cassel like this wasn’t entirely surprising, as the QB showed incredible growth as a player last season while filling in for injured starter Tom Brady, but the asking price has left some people scratching their heads. Just a second-round pick? Really? Not even some cash, a couple of box seats, or Caribbean cruises thrown in to sweeten the deal?

As soon as the Pats franchised Cassel in the offseason, you knew they were going to have to deal him. That’s because he’s guaranteed to make $14 million and change as a franchise QB, which along with Brady’s salary, would have put the Patriots in the $30 million range against the cap for two guys who play the same position. That wasn’t gonna fly, so a trade was inevitable — as long as Brady’s knee appeared healthy after reconstructive surgery. Apparently, Brady is on schedule to return for the regular season, so that’s why Cassel was dealt.

I actually think Cassel will do pretty well in Kansas City. He’s got two great targets in Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzalez, and if someone like Tyler Thigpen can hook up with those guys for 21 touchdowns, then Cassel ought to be able to outpace that figure pretty easily. It’ll be interesting to see if he can turn the Chiefs into a winning team next year. He seems like a nice guy, so I’ll be rooting for him for sure!

There was lots of movement in the NFL today, as many teams are navigating the free agent waters to see which guys would potentially be a good fit for their teams. One of the biggest signings of the offseason is that of former Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who reportedly signed with the Washington Redskins for a staggering $100 million over seven years. The deal can reach a maximum of $115 million including incentives, and comes with a record-setting $41 million in guarantees. Is Haynesworth really worth that much??

The Redskins also decided to keep free agent DeAngelo Hall, signing the CB to a six-year $54 million contract that includes $22.5 million in guaranteed money. That’s a pretty bold bet on a corner that has looked rather average for the past two seasons. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder sure does like to spend money, doesn’t he?

And the Cleveland Browns traded away tight end Kellen Winslow to the Tampa Bay Bucs for an “undisclosed” number of draft picks. Winslow actually seemed like a good fit in Cleveland, particularly when Brady Quinn was getting him the ball, but I guess the new coaching regime didn’t want to take any more chances on the oft-injured tight end. It’s odd that he would land in Tampa Bay, though, considering the fact that the team doesn’t even have a decent QB to throw to him!

Whew, this was just the first official day of free agency…. There are a bunch more guys waiting to be signed, so I’m sure there will be several more blockbuster deals in the coming weeks.

I’m one of those people who takes tons of photos with my digital camera. I almost always carry it with me, and end up using it to take candid snapshots of my family, friends, and pets nearly every single day. And yet I rarely ever print out the pictures and put them into albums so I can enjoy looking at the photos. That’s because I don’t have a quality printer at home, and it takes far too much time to sort through all of my files to decide which ones to print at the local photo processing place.

But I really do want to get my pictures into albums, which is why I’m considering purchasing this Canon PIXMA Wireless Printer. From everything I’ve read, this is a superior piece of equipment that comes with all the bells and whistles I could ever want in a printer. It handles all the regular tasks that any printer should, such as being able to accommodate a variety of paper and envelope sizes and completing tasks exceptionally quickly, while also being able to print professional-quality photos. In addition, the PIXMA can scan slides and documents, accepts a bunch of different SD memory cards and memory sticks, and is wireless, which means I can print from anywhere in the house thanks to the wonders of Wifi. No wonder Canon bills this as an “all-in-one” printer!

Of course, I’d expect a machine like this to be a bit on the expensive side, and it is — at most stores, anyway. But I found it on sale at Buy.com for around $215, which is significantly less than the MSRP of $299 that a majority of other places are charging. And when I consider all the things this Canon PIXMA printer can do, that price is actually pretty darn good. Still, it would be awesome to see the PIXMA end up as one of Buy.com’s Weekly Deals so I could save even more money…!

Ok, I’m not much of a superstitious person, but we all know the saying that tragedy/bad news comes in threes, right? Well, there was another commercial airlines plane crash today, making a total of three in the past month: U.S. Airways Flight 1549, Continental Connection Flight 3407, and today, Turkish Airlines Flight TK1951 came up short while trying to land on a runway at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.

We all know that everyone survived the U.S. Airways crash, but 49 people died due to the Continental crash (48 passengers and one person on the ground), and it looks like initial reports are saying perhaps 7 people have died in the Turkish Airlines crash (while 127 have survived).

I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m already scared to fly as it is. Hearing about these crashes, disasters, and near-misses doesn’t do anything to ease my fears. I’m interested in hearing what the cause of these last two crashes was, whether it was pilot error, ice on the wings, whatever…. I guess I would just like to be reassured that air travel is indeed the safest way to go, because right now it just doesn’t feel that way.

God speed to all who have perished in these accidents.

The economy is still so bad that I’m really beginning to worry now. Prior to this, I honestly didn’t give it much thought because my family seems to be ok. We both still have our jobs and though our hours have been cut recently, we’ve been assured that this is just a temporary measure. We also have enough savings to carry us through a few months of unemployment, should things take a drastic enough turn.

But now… well, I just look around and it doesn’t seem as though anyone has much hope about the situation improving. The stock market was up a little bit today after the Fed chairman declared that the recession would end this year (why didn’t he say that a lot earlier??), but that came after several days of losses.

Joblessness continues to rise, with tens of thousands being laid off and factories and shops closing across the country. Plus, for the businesses that are left, no one seems to be all that interested in spending money now. Small stores and restaurants are shuttering all over the place in my area, leaving only the big chains left standing. The entities that are still hanging on by a thread are always offering incredible deals like 50 or 60 percent off, buy one get one free, and things like that. I’ve even been seeing signs for free hotel rooms, yet I don’t know if these deals are working at all.

The bottom line here is that I’m becoming thoroughly depressed by the constant gloom and doom everywhere I look. It’s like people are holding their breaths to see what will happen next, which is actually making things worse for the economy. We should all be spending like usual instead of hoarding and saving and expecting the worst. I know it’s hard to do that in the face of such uncertainty, but what we’re doing now simply isn’t working. I hate being depressed like this, I hate worrying all the time… I just want everything to go back to normal!

My son got sick on Friday, some kind of 24-hour bug thing that he must have picked up from kindergarten. He was up puking most of the night, poor thing, and of course I had to stay up to comfort him as best I could. He was still weak on Saturday, but at least the vomiting stopped and he could eat a bit of dry toast.

Once my son got better yesterday, I came down with whatever he had. I did the whole puking thing too, and just felt like utter crap the whole day. I couldn’t sleep last night either, so as soon as my son goes off to school, I’m going to try to go back to bed for a while. Hopefully I’ll be able to eat something too, but honestly, I don’t even wanna think about food right now.

I just got done reading the book Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks. Yes, I know it was recently made into a film starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, but I always prefer the original stories better than the adapted screenplays.

Anyway, before reading the book, I kept wondering where Rodanthe was. I’d never heard of the place before, so I figured it was in some exotic location far, far away. Turns out, it’s part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks! I seriously never would have guessed that in a million years!

The book was ok, nothing great, but not as bad as some of Sparks’ other novels. I still want to watch the movie later when it comes out on DVD. I don’t care much for Richard Gere, but Diane Lane is a good actress, so why not.