On the road

Have you ever been to Dawsonville, Georgia? It's about 40 miles north of our place, straight out Georgia 400. My Uncle Bubber and Aunt Pauline lived there a few years ago and we used to go see them.

There's some pretty cool stuff to do out that way. Bill Elliott Racing maintains a museum in Dawsonville. Supposedly it has all sorts of "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" memorabilia and stuff. It's free, I think. There's also a nice outlet mall up that way that's not too bad. It's centrally located for Dahlonega and Lake Lanier and Amicalola Falls and some of the other North Georgia sites to see. It's a nice area.

You know why I'm telling you all this about Dawsonville? So when you come visit us up there you'll have an idea of what there is to do. That's right! The Brady Bunch is MOVING TO DAWSONVILLE!

That's right--we're leaving Sandy Springs behind. Some friends of ours rented a house up that way that has 3BR/2BA downstairs, and a completely separate upstairs wing that also has 3BR/2BA. There is a kitchen separating them and each wing has its own entrance and exit to the outside.. They invited us to move up and split the house with them, and we decided to take advantage of the offer.

They will live in the upstairs wing, and we will live downstairs. It will be like a duplex. We're calling it the "duplay" in an effort to sound all highfalutin'. We'll split the kitchen and all the bills, so we expect our expenditures to go way down. We're going to see if we can actually save some money now.

We're really looking forward to it. There's a park not far away that is part of the Lake Lanier system, so we might get the chance for some aquatic fun if things work out. The kids will be going to Dawson County schools, and we are hoping the change will work for them. The school they are in down here (as well as our neighborhood) has been going downhill the last couple of years. We don't feel it's as safe and neighborly as it used to be, so we are jumping at the chance to move into a better environment.

Hopefully it will be a good move for everyone. Darlene's and my commutes are going to be a lot longer but we feel it is worth it to be in a better place. We started the moving process yesterday with Darlene bringing some boxes home from work. We're hoping to be fully moved and have the kids starting school up there on October 19. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, whatever you do for luck and good fortune, do it for us as we move. I'll keep you up to date with what's going on as the next couple of weeks go by. We'll be going up there Saturday to take a load of stuff. We'll try to get some pictures and I'll post them as soon as I can.

in other news, for you Sandy Springs FFC fans, this past weekend marked the first win of the season, a 57-41 thrashing of Sea Stags, raising the record to 1-2. The 57 points is one of the highest in franchise history. Might be the actual highest, but I'm too lazy to check. "Mojo" Maurice Jones-Drew scored three TD's and Percy Harvin ran a kickoff back for a TD. Between them they scored 36 points and everyone else did what was needed. It was a good week. This week's opponent is 2-1 Hook-Ups. Should be a good one.

Take care for now, and support your local blogger.

Lordy, Lordy

I turned 40 on Tuesday. I'm not going to ponder on it because to me it's not a big deal. I had another birthday. We ate at Golden Corral. Whee! Happy Birthday, me!

Sandy Springs FFC fell to 0-2 on the season. Week 1 was a 31-25 loss to MacBain, and Week 3 was a sad 26-15 defeat at the hands of a previously toothless Lethal Weapon 4 squad. Tom Brady didn't do anything for me. Week 3 is next, with 2-0 Sea Stags on the schedule. Karl's guys are always tough. We'll see what happens.

Not much else going on, so I'm out. Peace. Support your local bloggers.

Catching up is hard to do

Ich bin ein Blogslacker. It's been a long time since I've updated here. I've done a bit of updating on my my writing blog from time to time over the summer, but not here. I've spent most of my free time on Facebook playing bloody Farmville. I haven't even played my Webkinz lately--only three times in the last two months or something. Poor Fletcher is probably sitting there all, "uh....".

So much has happened this summer. It's hard to figure out what exactly is the coolest thing to tell you. I suppose the coolest thing is that Lynn and Brad, our friends from church, adopted a lovely newborn baby boy named Bailey and asked Darlene and me to be his godparents. He's about two months old now. That was cool, and we've enjoyed getting to know him (and them) better over the last few weeks. We babysat today, in fact, and Darlene and me, and her parents, and Bailey all went to IHOP. Bailey had French toast. It was cool.



I'm still digging my job and the rest of the family is back in school. The twins are in the 6th grade and Steven is in the 8th. They're all at the same school and their school has made the big switch to wearing uniforms this year. That's been different. Sage is in the 3rd grade and is having a good time, and Darlene has started a new year with 2,000 clowns in the cafeteria. Gracie is just a clown in her own right, as usual.

I've been doing some writing on and off. I submitted a short story to an online SF/Fantasy magazine about a month ago and am anxiously awaiting a response. Nanowrimo is coming up in November and I'm going to be making a push on that again. Like I said above, I updated my writing blog a few times during the summer. I will be doing a restatement of purpose over there in the next few days--laying out what I hope to accomplish over the next few months. I do that from time to time so I can actually have a list of goals to look back on in February and say, "Man, I meant to do that." Keep an eye on the writing blog. Here's the link again. Set a bookmark. Hit the RSS feed, whatever. Check it out!

The other thing that's going to be trying to bring me back here over the next few months will be my fantasy football updates. My UFFL team is currently behind in Week 1, 31-19, with Cousin Tom Brady and Wes Welker playing tomorrow night. I have a couple of other teams on Facebook and Yahoo, but as usual I'll try to limit my fantasy sportswriting to the UFFL front, as that's my first love as far as fantasy football goes.

I think that's all I really have to say right now. With football starting up I should be a more frequent poster. Summer is always a slow time for the blog. Autumn should pick it back up nicely. Take care, and please support your local blogger. And add comments, darn it!

I'm back!

Did you even notice I was gone? You haven't missed much. The fantasy football front was pitiful. SFC split the last two games of the season and missed the playoffs, finishing #10 in the Power Ranking. We lost to Lethal Weapon 4 15-2 (that's right; we only scored two points the week we played the team with Keyshawn Johnson starting at WR. Gack. Then we turned around in Week 14 and beat a decent Hook-Ups team 20-16. Go figure. Maybe next year we'll have better luck choosing kickers and Tom Brady will be healthy again. Congrats to Rake, though, on his successful season, and Ben, for his successful season in our Yahoo league. Good luck in the playoffs, guys!

Christmas choir rehearsal was chaotic tonight. Kids everywhere, four babies in various laps in various stages of excitement, and in the midst of it all, eight people trying to sing and hear the director's cues over the uproar. It was a great time. That performance is coming up in a couple of Sundays. Wish us luck!

That's it for now. My blogslacking is over for now. Take care, and as always, support your local bloggers.

Down goes SFC!

We lose! MacBain beat Sandy Springs FFC 32-17 to drop SFC to 5-7. Neither RB scored, and Leon Washington had 18 points on the bench. Leon has more points this season than Slaton does but hasn't started a game for me. I think it's time for a lineup change, especially with the Jets playing Denver this week.

Chunky Soup clinched the division, but SFC is still in the hunt for a wild card slot. Here are the SFC playoff scenarios directly from the UFFL website:

* Earn playoff spot with 2 wins and 1 Men O'War loss and 1 MacBain loss.
* If win 1, lose 1: will earn playoff spot with 2 losses by MOW and 2 losses by McB and Bake-O's loss in Week 14.
* Eliminated with 2 losses.

I guess that's it in a nutshell, innit? This week's opponent is Lethal Weapon 4, who are 1-10-1 and have 11 of their 18 players that aren't even active in the NFL. They can't even put a full lineup on the field--Keyshawn Johnson is one of their starting WR's. That's a big reason they've only won one game this year. I'm not getting cocky, but I'm hopeful. MOW and BAK play each other and McB plays Munchen Mavericks. I'll be cheering for BAK and MM.

SFC Week 11, Part 2

So the big win held up. 44-12 over Bake-O's. SFC won the week in the league and moves up to #9 in the Power Ranking. We're in third place in the division, just a half-game out of second and a playoff spot. Next week's opponents are MacBain's 69th Highlanders, owned and operated by former Jeopardy contestant and all-around whimiscal guy Rod Bain. MacBain is 4-7 on the year, and their logo features Dick Butkus wearing a kilt. They have a fantastic three-headed RB corps and a decent lineup elsewhere. Looking at their roster I'm not sure how they've only won four games. Hopefully they won't get their fifth this weekend. Tune back in next week for more UFFL updates.

Good news!

Fantasy football was good this week. Sandy Springs FFC kicked the jamba juice out of Bake-O's. winning 44-12. As of this writing it SFC is still in line to have the highest score in the league this week, for the first time all year. RB's Mojo and Steve Slaton both scored 12 points, and K Neil Rackers picked up 17 big points to lead the charge. Yes! I picked the right kicker!


I won't know the full implications of the win until tomorrow. Monday Night Football is ongoing and there are games still up in the air. We're 5-6 and in the middle of the playoff hunt, though, and have the last two weeks. Mojo has come alive, with 5 TD's the last two weeks. Hopefully he'll stay alive for a while longer.

Mr. Mojo Rising

We take a pause from NaNoWriMo to bring you fantasy football news. Sandy Springs FFC goes to 4-6 with a huge 38-14 victory over Munchen Mavericks. That is the highest point total of the year. The charge was led by "Mojo" Maurice Jones-Drew's 18 points off of three TD runs. I also started the right kicker, going with Neil Rackers, who put up 11 points. SFC rises to #10 in the Power Rankings

Next week's opponents are arch-rival Bake-O's. These two teams have a long history, having battled for division titles and playoff spots many times. Each team has sabotaged the other more than once. This season are both teams are 4-6 and the winner could possibly move into 2nd place in the division, depending on what happens with Men O'War. That doesn't necessarily mean we're in the playoff chase, as the top 6 teams in the other division all have better records. Tune in next week to see how the big game turns out.

Fantasy Football

Hello all, and welcome to November.

First, I want you to notice the title. Not for the words that are there, so much as for those that are not. I've decided to drop my "In which..." affectation and just get back to regular post titles. After "In which"ing for--what, two years?--I finally realized that it's quite a bit twee so I decided to stop. If you enjoyed it, please comment. Maybe I'll throw one in now and then to placate my many fans.

On the fantasy football front, Sandy Springs FFC has lost again and falls to 3-6. This week it was a wrenching 16-14 loss to Men O'War with the wrong kicker in the lineup. Again. Sigh. Next week is Munchen Mavericks, who are 2-7. Hopefully we can turn it around make a late playoff run. Here we go, quois?

In which 3 is the magic number

It appears to be, anyway, as Sandy Springs FFC is stuck on three wins for the season. A 29-11 loss to the undefeated Slate River Sharks drops the record to 3-5 on the season. SRS RB LenDale White outscored SFC all by himself, 12-11. I always think that's kind of cool, even when it happens to me. There were enough points on the bench to win, but I wouldn't have started Leon Washington (15 points), Matt Jones (3 points) and Kerry Collins (1 point) over the guys I did start. There used to be some sort of award I'd give on the website to teams with this sort of hypothetical win but I don't remember what it was called and I'm too lazy to go pore through the archives to find it. SFC falls back to #12 in the Power Ranking.

Next week's opponent is 2-5-1 Men O'War, ranked #9. The website has set MOW as the early 6 point favorite, but you never know. That's why they play the game.

In which Ryan Longwell is the MAN

Sandy Springs FFC goes to 3-4 with a 23-8 thrashing of Chunky Soup. Ryan Longwell outscored Soup all by himself with 11 points. On the bench, Wes Welker and Leon Washington scored their first TD's of the year, giving hope for the rest of the year. WR Matt Jones is suspended for three games and RB Shaun Alexander did a lot less with Washington than I'd hoped he would, so having Welker and Leon step up will come in handy. Steve Slaton continues to impress in his rookie year as well, scoring his fifth TD of the year. SFC raises back to #10 in the Power Ranking and, even at 3-4, is only one game out of first place in the division aw yeh come on.

Next week's opponents are Slate River Sharks, who are 7-0, the only undefeated team in the league. Their efforts are usually led by QB Philip Rivers and RB's Brandon Jacobs and LenDale White.

Slate River, prepare to take your first loss. WhoahPOW!

In which I try to catch up

I never wrote about fantasy football earlier in the week. Sandy Springs FFC got beat again, losing to Outlaws 33-25. That drops the record to 2-4. To make matters worse, Jon Kitna went on IR this week, making my two top QB's from last year hurt. I now have a QB corps of Kerry Collins and Jeff Garcia. We'll see. I also picked up Shaun Alexander in a move to possibly strengthen my RB crew. No idea how much work he'll get in Washington, but with Mojo on bye this week he'll probably get a start for SFC.

The other fun from today was that Da Bunch had gender-specific outings. The ladies (Darlene, Sabrina, the twins and Sage) went to the church for a mother-daughters banquet. I suspect Darlene will write about it in her own blog, so I'll only say that everyone won door prizes of some sort and they seemed to have a great time all the way around.



In the meantime, Steven and I went to the opening night Gwinnett Gladiators game at the Gwinnett Arena. They beat the Mississippi Sea Wolves 6-2. It was an extremely chippy game, with penalties all over the place. Gwinnett scored four power play goals. Steven was happy to get to see a fight. It wasn't a very long fight, a couple of good shots and it was over. The Gwinnett fighter won. It was nothing like the fight Wanda and I saw that time at the Knights game when that guy leveled Wayne Gretzky's brother (on his birthday, no less) and the teams fought for 20 minutes. That one was straight out of Slap Shot. I don't know if I'll ever see anything to top that. Still, we had a great night. I wore my Knights jersey. Exchanged greetings with a couple of other Knights jerseys and had a short conversation with a guy who said he was a referee in the IHL. That was pretty cool. It was fun. Hockey is cool.

In which I guess right but it doesn't matter

I picked the kicker who scored the most points but I would have won anyway! That's right, Sandy Springs FFC defeated Sea Stags 33-27 on the strength of 15 points from K Ryan Longwell and 12 points RB Steve Slaton. RB Maurice Jones-Drew added the final 6 points. SFC is now 2-3 and are ranked #10 in the Power Rankings. Outlaws are the opponenets this week. They are 1-4 and are ranked #12. Their efforts have been led by QB David Garrard and WR DeSean Jackson and they are the early 1 pt favorite. We'll see what happens.

In which we lose again

At some point I will blog about something other than fantasy football again, but it won't be tonight.

Sandy Springs FFC lost to Egomaniacs last weekend 29-17 to fall to 1-3 on the season. Steve Slaton and Matt Jones both scored for SFC, justifying my decisions to pick them up. That's always gratifying. 20 of Ego's 29 points came from LaDanian Tomlinson and Nate Kaeding during the second half of the Raiders-Chargers game. If the Raiders could have held it together Lane Kiffin might still have a job and SFC might be 2-2. Oh well.

This week's opponents are Sea Stags, who are currently 0-3-1. It is telling, I think, that the website lists Der Stag as the early 3 point favorite. SFC will be without the services of suspended WR Plexiglas Burress. SS is led by Big Ben Roethlisberger, Larry Johnson, Randy Moss, and Marvin Harrison. Wow! No wonder he hasn't won a game yet!

Anyway, tune in next week and see how we did.

In which we won!

Whoo hoo!

Sandy Springs FFC is off the schneid with a 17-6 victory over Joe V's Cellar Monkeys squad. Commish Carrier called the victory "lackluster" but I think he's still sulking after I called him a con man a couple of weeks ago. It was a good win! I actually picked the right kicker! And Mojo scored! Steve Slaton got points on the bench so he'll be moving into the rotation next week.

SFC is up to 10th in the Power Rankings and has the honor, nay, the privilege of competing against the number 1 ranked Egomaniacs next week. They are 3-0 and are scoring nearly 40 points a game so far behind the efforts of Jay Cutler, Terrell Owens, and Michael Turner (The Burner). His other RB's include Felix Jones and LaDanian Tomlinson, so you see why he is off to such a good start.

EGOBOYS GOING DOWN. You heard it here first.

Support your local bloggers. And their fantasy football teams.

In which I still can't pick a kicker

A mixed week in fantasy football. It was a good one for roster adjustments. I put Tom Brady and Nate Burleson on IR and added Kerry Collins and Matt Jones off the waiver wire as replacements. The Jones pick in particular has brought me ridicule from certain segments of UFFL ownership, but I stand beside my waivery acumen!

As for the game, not so good. SFC is now 0-2 after a disheartening 24-22 loss to Renegade Rebels. Donovan McNabb's Monday night TD pass provided the victory for RR. For the second week in a row I would have won had I started my other kicker. This week I left Ryan Longwell and his 18 points on the bench. I think my method for choosing kickers from now on will be to pick the one I want to start then actually start the other one. Or cut one of them so I don't have a choice any more.

At least I'm not at the bottom of the Power Rankings. That honor goes to Lethal Weapon 4, who have 10 players on their 18-player roster who aren't even active in the league right now. He can't even field a complete team because he only has one WR who actually plays! He started Keyshawn Johnson at WR this week! And I get grief for picking up Matt Jones. Hmph.

In which I'm ready for some football!

This past weekend signaled the official start of the football season. The NFL kicked off for the first time and high schools and colleges got into full swing as well.

We went over to my alma mater on Friday, Parkview High School, and watched them dismantle the Cougars of Chattahoochee High School, which is where my wife works. It was the second game of the season for each team, and each had lost their game in week one. Hooch had a pretty good team last year, and Parkview was a little down, but Parkview had no trouble with them in a 49-12 romp. Parkview had two running backs near 200 yards rushing. Unfortunately for Hooch players and fans this was a common sight during the game:



(Picture courtesy of CHS's Football Photo Gallery. Lots of great game photos to view there. Check it out!)

Parkview goes to 1-1 and Hooch falls to 0-2. The orange-clad Sam was happy, and the blue-and-yellow Bunch was not. Steven put blue hair gel in, so his tips were blue. It was pretty cool. We sat on the Hooch side (which got me, in my orange hat and shirt, some dirty looks) next to the band, who were rocking, even if their team was struggling. Hooch won halftime by a mile. That's a good band. We're looking forward to going to more Chattahoochee games later this fall.

Along with the beginning of the NFL season (Go Falcons!), UFFL fantasy football got underway as well. It did not go well in Week 1 for Sandy Springs FFC. I was matched up against Hook-Ups, run by Jimmy Woo. To quote from Bill Carrier's commentary:

"HU held on for a 10-7 win over SFC - HU's third straight season opening win. It was a brutal week for SFC, as MVP Tom Brady was lost for the season in the first quarter of Week 1. WR Nate Burleson was also hurt and is out for the season. Rubbing salt in the wound, SFC scored no TDs in Week 1 and only received points from K Ryan Longwell. The loss also broke a 4 game Week 1 win streak for SFC - SFC previously had not lost a season opener since 2002."

That's right. I lost two players to injury in the first week. In a way it's funny, because this solves the bye week problem I mentioned before. All I have to do is put them on IR and pick up (or trade for) players who aren't on bye in Week 4. Then again, it is Tom Brady that I lost, and Burleson was going to be one of my top WR threats this year. Carrier has already made me a trade offer to restock the positions. No idea yet if I'll take it or not. I play him this week, so I have to figure out if he's trying to dump his dross on me just as we're about to play. I suspect he is. He's such a con man when it comes to fantasy football. We have a history when it comes to trades though: I traded him Rick Mirer for J.J. Stokes once. Or was it the other way around? Does it matter? Either way, I'll likely have Jon Kitna at QB this week, unless I can land a stud QB in a trade. There's really no one except J.T. O'Sullivan on the waiver wire, and I'm not sure I'm ready to go there. We'll see. Update later this week, probably.

Until then, I'm out. Support your local bloggers.

In which I talk about football and church and stuff

I'm doing this post piecemeal. I'm making tea for tomorrow, so I have to keep running back and forth to the kitchen. I know that has no bearing on your reading experience, but it makes for an interesting writing process so I thought I'd bring it up. If you haven't already been bored to tears and clicked off somewhere else, keep reading. It won't be much longer before you bail on me, I'm sure.

The UFFL Draft took place this evening. The league is geared up now for our 17th season of fantasy football. 1992 was the first year we played together and there were nine owners running ten teams (one guy ran two teams). 17 years later there are 14 teams, and seven of the original nine owners are still in the league. I think that's pretty remarkable.

I didn't actually take part in the draft. It was started at 6:00 and we were in church at that time. I sent my draft preferences to the Commish though, so my team still participated even if I didn't. We run what is usually called a dynasty league, which means we carry over our entire roster from year to year. The draft then, is made up of rookies and players who were not on rosters at the end of the previous season.

I exchanged three players. I cut QB John Beck, RB Adrian Peterson (the one from the Bears, not the Vikings), and WR Deion Branch. I picked up QB Chad Henne, RB Jason Snelling, and RB Steve Slaton. Henne is the QB of the future for the Dolphins and Slaton stands to get good playing time in Houston. I just had a feeling about Snelling, who plays for the Falcons.

(The tea is done. I made some Kool-Aid too, for the kids. Pink lemonade.)

So after the draft, here is the roster for Sandy Springs FFC:

QB - Tom Brady, Chad Henne, Jon Kitna
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew, Steve Slaton, Jason Snelling, Leon Washington
WR - Nate Burleson, Plexiglas Burress, Jerricho Cotchery, Wes Welker
TE - Alge Crumpler, Marcedes Lewis
K - Ryan Longwell, Neil Rackers

I like it. I'm going to have issues in Week Four of the season as all three of my QB's and three of my four WR's will be on bye. We'll see what happens when the time comes. It's going to be interesting. Watch this space for SSFFC updates as the season progresses!

Church was cool tonight. Steven helped out playing the drums during the musical portion of the service. The usual drummer was not in church tonight, so Steven and Tyler (the 11-year old son of the music minister) teamed up on the drums. One would play the snare, high-hat, splash cymbal, and handle the tom rolls, and the other played the floor tom and the ride cymbal. They switched out positions several times during the service and did a fantastic job. Steven has come a long way with his drumming and we are really proud of him.

The girls got to take part too. The pastor invited all the kids to come up and help out with the singing so Jewel, Jessica, and Sage got to go up and hold microphones and sing with their friends. It was great. Sage didn't know as many of the songs as the twins did, but she really belted out the chorus of "I'll Fly Away" and the twins were doing their thing as well. It was really cool seeing all the kids on stage enjoying themselves and taking part in the service.

I start my new job Tuesday. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, send good thoughts, do whatever it is that you do to send good luck to me. I'm so thankful to finally get back to work and get the opportunity to take care of my family again. I was drawing unemployment this summer, but that wasn't a patch on what my paychecks bring in. It'll be good to have that security again.

That's all for now. I didn't get much sleep last night and I need to be sure to get a good night sleep tomorrow so I'm going to sign off, have a quick snack (PBJ, most likely) then go to bed. My lovely bride is sleeping in the living room chair with the remote control, so I'll have to wake her up and get her off to bed. She'll fuss at me for it, but I'm going to do it. I love you baby! You have a sexy butt!

That's it. I'm out. Happy Labor Day. Support your local bloggers.

In which I talk about the summer and the fall

It was a weird summer. Not having a job was tough, but it did give me time with my family that I wouldn't have had otherwise. We were able to take a nice trip to the mountains to visit Darlene's parents and another one to Tennessee to visit my parents. We wouldn't have been able to take those trips if I had been working. Still, I know I didn't enjoy those trips as much as I should have because I was constantly worrying that we were going to spend too much money, or that someone might call with a job offer while we were gone, or something else.

I spent a lot of time this summer stressing over the fact that I wasn't having a lot of success with my job search. I didn't always handle the stress very well and there were times that I took my frustrations out on my family by being cranky and irritable and (occasionally) downright rude. I just want to take this opportunity to let my wife and kids know that I love you very much, and if I have been less of a family man than I should have this summer, I am sorry. I didn't handle the stress of the job search as well as I hoped I would and you guys caught the bad side of that more than you should have. Again, I am sorry.

I'm looking forward to going back to work, but I will miss being home when the kids get home from school. I'll miss being here when my wife gets home from work. We've had a little time to ourselves the last couple of weeks in that 20 minutes between when she gets home and when the girls get home. It's been nice. It's been nice being able to help with homework and sign forms and all the other things that a parent has to do to for school. I miss out on that with Sage since she lives with her mom, so I make sure to do what I can for the other kids.

This fall is shaping up to be a good one. We're going to get caught up on the financial side of things, and we'll hopefully be going to lots of Chattahoochee football games, since Darlene's buddy from work usually works one of the admissions gates (hi, Robin!). I'm looking forward to September 5, when Hooch travels to Lilburn to play Parkview. My wife's work school vs. my alma mater. We'll be going, I hope, and I'll be wearing my Parkview orange. Everyone else in the family will likely be in the blue and yellow of Hooch. I'll let you know how that goes.

Of course, I'll get back into posting about fantasy football once the season gets underway. The UFFL draft is a week from tomorrow. You may recall that last year I had the third highest-scoring team in UFFL history but flamed out in the playoffs. What will happen this year? Come back and find out! Support your local bloggers!

In which the season comes to an inglorious end

"That's all we got? Six g**d*** points?"

Harry Doyle (paraphrased)

With all the fantasy football talk on the blog lately, I figured I should let you know that the dream has ended. Sandy Springs FFC, the second-highest scoring team in the 16 year history of the UFFL, went out with a whimper last week, losing to Chunky Soup in the first week of the playoffs by the punk score of 9-6.

9-6?!?

6???

That's right, Faithful Readers. Sandy Springs FFC, the second-highest scoring team in the 16 year history of the UFFL, only scored 6 points. After averaging over 32 points a game during the regular season, it all fell apart in the playoffs, as nobody scored except the kicker.

To be fair, it has been slowly falling apart for the last six weeks. After the first nine weeks of the season SFC was 8-1 and averaging almost 38 points a game. Since then, counting the playoff loss, the record was 2-4, and the scoring average was way down. Plexiglas Burress and Maurice Jones-Drew lost their scoring touches late in the season, the Patriots have been running the ball more, and I have seemingly lost my ability to decide which of my kickers will score the most points in any given week. I guess it's somehow fitting, then, that the only points scored in this fiasco were by the kicker.

When I was doing the UFFL newsletter every week I called a game in which only the kicker scored a "Chip Lohmiller" game, in honor of Ben's early-days UFFL efforts, when his kicker (and only consistent scorer) was Chip Lohmiller. This was my only Lohmiller of the season. A fine time to pay tribute to my old friend's early-1990's mediocrity. Pfaugh!

Anyway, I'm out of the playoffs after the most successful season I've ever had, statistically speaking. Watch me score 50 points the next two weeks. Sigh. Maybe I'll hire Bill Parcells to run my team next year. Oh, wait, he's gone to Miami. Never mind.