My break from the blog took longer than I liked - mostly because I have needed some time to detox. Its one of those truisms to life - vacations take work and can often be exhausting. Last night I went to a movie with my sister (Scott Pilgrim, go see it if you like 8-bit games) and when I got home, I basically passed out into a coma because my body was finally telling me to take a break. I woke after 11am.
Tracie is my Romona - with less funky hair.
Why am I so busy, you ask? Well, since coming home to Texas I am running between my Dad's house in Grapevine and my Aunt's house in Carrollton - trying to split time and spend quality hours with each. This means going out to eat a lot and generally having wonderfully long discussions on whatever. Oh and shoping. From Half-Price Books to Best Buy to JC Penny - I've been watching the bank account, but trying to the things that need to be bought (like Star Craft 2). I've also been catching up with my sister, who lives in Dallas (and is good enough to drive into the mid-cities), and playing on my new gaming laptop - and oh yeah, trying to find extra time to read the books I bought at GenCon. My mind is in vacation mode - so its having difficulty reconciling my constants state of tiredness.
So, yeah, tired on the vacation. Suck.
...
Lets talk sports. I had my second fantasy football draft this weekend. I got my college buddy, Rizwan, who lives in the area, to come over and sit across from me as we drafted - yelling jibes and smack at one another. I like to think I am okay at fantasy football, not dominant, but I routinely get into the playoffs in whatever league I participate. That said, I killed the draft last weekend. I know a good draft when I see it (usually, its not mine), but this last draft for our "Highway 82" League was sweet. Its a 16 person league, so talent is usually thin - but I got talent at each position.
QBs - Tony Romo and Mark Sanchez
RB - Michael Bush, Ahmad Bradshaw and Chester Taylor
WR - Randy Moss, Anquan Boldin, Josh Cribbs, Jacoby Jones, Michael Crabtree
K - Rob Bironas
Def - Johnathan Vilma and Barett Rudd
I expect to reap the rewards of a lot of this...
Okay, not so hot, right? Let me break it down for ya. Its a 16 person league, almost everyone has glaring deficiencies. My team (called the Gulf of Guinea Fail Whales) is moderately weak only in one spot - one "moderate" weakness is something I can certainly live with (and consider a major victory). The Fail Whale's nagging problem is RB, and I still have a solid amount of points to count on. Bradshaw will start, Taylor will get a number of carries, and Bush is a great upside player. My QB and WR corps is second-to-none... and my WRs are especially sexy because we reward special teams points (I am salivating at those punt/kick returns from Cribbs and Jones). Bonus -- the league is WR-friendly since you can start up to 5 WR (but only a max of 2 RBs). Plus, this is a QB-emphasized league (6 pnts per TD). Having one good QB guarantees at least a couple wins (and is absolutely essential to being competitive) - but I got insurance even if Romo gets hurt, which is normally the death-knell for a team because QBs become very scarce by week three in the league. To top it off, my core Def is awesome, with assured points for tackles and the possibility of some really big games mixed in.
I'm going to toot my own horn - in a 16-man (and woman) league, that is a very good draft. The thing that is going to trip me up is another very canny player (Andy) shocked the league and landed both Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson through an impressive trade for1st round draft picks. His problem? The rest of his team is either average or just plain bad. The last series of champions in the league all have had elite QBs - reinforcing my belief you have to have a good QB (not just an average one) to win. The guy with AP and CJ? He has Matt Ryan as his starter. Not bad, but certainly not great. His best WR? Anthony Gonzalez (and it gets a lot worse from there). Will two hoss RBs be enough to buck the trend and lead his team to victory despite having a middling QB (and in a league that de-emphasizes RBs)? I doubt it.
A bonus from the field museum trip - rodents back in the day had horns. Horns! How sweet is that? Gophers back then were metal. We totally got conned with horn-less gophers in the modern age. I mean, really, WTF?
...
Last Thurs my sister, Katie, totally got the hookup and managed to get us into a suite at the Cowboys preseason game against the Oakland Raiders (see how Michael Bush is now on my team?). The suite was, well, sweet. The game was good (though the Cowboys 3rd string lost to the Raiders 3rd string).
I love football. American (and Canadian) football. Here are some pics to express my love in pixels.
Apparently, Cowboy's stadium is known as the Death Star locally. It really is just about as big. Though I like to think of it as the"temple to football."
That's no moon!
Trying to give a sense of just how enormous that jumbotron is - and how large a stadium that can seat 100,000 in a comfortable 72 deg looks like.
Thats Tashard Choice in the backfield. He is quite good.
What is best in life? All-you-can-drink Dr Pepper, a ticket to use a suite, and a Cowboys game.
Being overseas for a large part of my adult life means that I have had to really search for gaming. The internet has been a huge boon, allowing me to stay in contact with my gaming buddies back home. Going back the the States once a year of so for our annual mini-Con, Nerdapalooza, has also helped. But, real gaming is about getting together on a semi-regular basis, spilling soda on character sheets, and trying to explain complicated combat manuvers through a mouth full of pizza. I dont get those moments a lot lately. Probably wont as long as I am in my current (busy) job. C'est la vie. 
