Happy Halloween!

Dusting off my old halloween cat collage, enjoy:

Can't lose, right?

My team cannot lose this weekend (due to an open date), but I've still made some of my usual lousy predictions. I didn't publish last week's due to travel - vacation, followed by a road trip to Clemson - but I did about like usual.

Upset specials: Georgia over Florida (still can't understand why UGA is the underdog when UF clearly sucks this year, but whatever...) and Wake Forest over Maryland. UM's record looks good until you realize they haven't really played anyone yet.

Home team is in CAPS and underdog is listed first with (+pt spread).

Mich St(+4.5) 21, IOWA 28 - Iowa is simply the better team

Georgia(+1.5) 17, Florida (at Jax) 14 - would love to see the Dawgs go down, but not counting on it

Missouri(+6) 20, NEBRASKA 21 - Mizzou is good, but I see Nebraska winning a close one

USC(+7) 20, Oregon 35 - Kiffin gets waxed

Duke(+14.5) 14, NAVY 31 - wasn't sure about the Middies beating the spread, but I am thinking they will

Wake Forest(+7.5) 24, MARYLAND 21 - the Demon Deacons will get it done

Beer O'Clock needs to come early today...

...because this is what work has been like all day, and it just keeps getting worse:

Big Ol' Jet Airliner

No, I'm not going to a Steve Miller concert. But I am going to California tonight for a visit with my sister in Encinitas. Mom's coming too. As usual, it is taking me hours to get my sh*t together and pack a bag.

I'm not taking PDM, which means only one thing for him: Booze and Hookers!!! He talks a big game, but in reality it will be more like "Beers and Burrito de Puerco!"

Football Picks - Can I Go 4-2 Again?

Once again, I was 4-2 straight up last week (but only 2-4 against the spread). I do get to claim bragging points for being one of the few to predict the 'Bammer upset, which made me feel all smart and stuff, and for once my team beat the spread.

This week's upset specials are UVA over UNC, who hasn't won in Charlottesville since I was in high school, and Okie State over Texas Tech just because. UNC may be due, but I ain't seein' it this year. Then again, I've been wrong before (at least two times per week).

Middle Tenn State(+20) 10, GEORGIA TECH 35 - not sure about the 20-pt spread but hope springs eternal and we need a big win before the toughest part of our schedule kicks in next week

VIRGINIA(+6.5) 21, North Carolina 20 - may be wishful thinking, but I'd like to see the 'Hoos get a win

Southern Methodist(+4) 10, NAVY 28 - got a soft spot for Coach Johnson's old team

Texas(+8) 20, NEBRASKA 42 - big time revenge game that'll have people literally seeing red

MICHIGAN(+3) 17, Iowa 28 - Ricky will rock this game and RichRod will be unhappy

Oklahoma State(+3) 35, TEXAS TECH 31 - for no particular reason at all

There are stars in the Southern sky

We'll be under those stars tonight for the Eagles in concert at Piedmont Park. Hope they play this song.

PDM is doing it the hard way.

Apparently all you need to improve your instructor ratings is a nice tat. On the other hand, maybe that only works for chicks...

Not so fast there, Adams...

In the waning days of his eight years as our governor, Sonny has finally said something I agree with. Will wonders never cease?

Given our state's budget shortfalls and cuts in education, why on earth should UGA start an engineering program that directly competes with Georgia Tech's College of Engineering? Tech is consistently ranked among the top five engineering programs in the nation. If the state needs to produce more engineers, existing programs could be expanded to serve more students for far less cost than creating one from scratch.

Football Predictions - No Guts, No Glory

OK, so back to 4-2 straight up and 3-3 against the spread last week. My upset special did not happen, and Georgia let me down (not really, I just picked them to allow my mojo to help them lose). And Tech didn't beat the spread, being lucky to get out with a win. That was then, this is now.

This week's "no guts, no glory" upset prediction is South Carolina over Alabama. Sure, it isn't likely to happen. Probably no one will beat Alabama this season. But if ever there was a chance, I think it is this weekend. SC 21, Bammer 20

Everything else:

Clemson(+2.5) 24, UNC 21 - another upset pick, probably more likely than Bama losing

Virginny(+8) 17, GT 28 - love that koolaid, plus it is Homecoming and we are due to lay the hammer down on someone.

Tennessee(+8.5) 20, UGA 24 - Tempting to pick UT for the upset, but Georgia has their back against the wall and is playing at home. Plus, I hope my bad mojo has its usual effect.

Florida State(+7) 14, MIAMI 28 - Sure, I want FSU to win, but I will be shocked if I am wrong with this pick.

Southern Cal(+7) 10, STANFORD 28 - Go Trees!

Mox

It is Friday, so here is Moxy. She is rooting for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Atlanta Braves this weekend.

Go Jackets! Go Braves!

A Fun October? Signs Point to YES.

Two home games, both starting at the respectable hour of 3:30pm. One away game (time unknown) coupled with a weekend visit with PDM's brother. A week off work in between games. A trip to visit my sister in the San Diego area during that week (paid for with frequent flyer miles rather than actual money). New stuff (good stuff!) to watch on the tube. Comfortable temps, but without the yard making heavy demands for maintenance yet. I'm thinking October could be a lot of fun.

The Persistence of Scent Memory

I accidentally disturbed a very large leaf footed bug yesterday while doing some weeding and I cannot get the memory of the odor it released out of my head. This is worse than having some cheesy 70s song stuck in the brain - at least in the musical case you can replace the stuck song with another less obnoxious one. The scent is probably not how you are imaging it if you haven't run into one of these. Think of a sweet, yet rancid, strong, cloying scent and you are on the right track. Kind of like a vase of decayed gardenia or a rancid almond. A note of something almost pleasant, twisted and overpowered by an "offness" that is hard to describe. A very odd odor.

Anyway, that scent has been stuck in my olfactory memory all day. Lucky me.

Moderately Bad Football Picks?

I've gone 4-2 for the last two weeks now, so I can't say my picks are *really* bad. Last week I was also 4-2 against the spread, which is my best week yet. The name change on this post has probably doomed this week's picks to utter failure, because that's the way my sports mojo works.

My upset pick of the week is NC State over VT, 21-17. NCSU is the real deal -- I saw it in person last Saturday.

I've got everyone else winning and covering:

WAKE FOREST(+10) 10, GT 21 - I think the actual spread may be much higher, but lets not get crazy and throw in my bad mojo.

Florida(+9) 13, ALABAMA 24 - I don't think Floridy has any chance this year.

CLEMSON(+3) 20, Miami 28 - this one was tough. I want Clemson to win and have seen them play well, but I haven't yet seen them play good and tough for all four quarters. If Clemson can't bring it for the entire game, Miami will take this one even with Jacory "Interception Man" Harris doing his usual stuff to help the Clemson defense.

COLORADO(+4) 17, Georgia 31 - another tough one for a different reason. I don't like either of these teams. You all know how I feel about UGA. You may not know that Colorado has been spouting off lately about how they were the "consensus national champs" in 1990. Twenty years later they still manage to piss me off (and apparently do not understand what the word "consensus" means). How about the fact that they had one loss, won another game because the refs gave them a fifth down, and won their bowl game due to a bad call against ND? Also, the Coaches Poll begs to differ! Georgia Tech went undefeated in 1990. The Buffs can kiss my grits. Too bad someone has to win this week's match up, but since Colorado is awful and Georgie's back is against the wall I am going with the stupid Dawgs on this one. Blech.

Texas(+4) 17, Oklahoma 24 - I don't really care who wins this one, but Oklahoma is playing much better football than Texas so I went with the favorite.


Goooooooooooo Jackets! Sting 'em!

Just for Dave: POUNCE!!

Dave wondered about the absence of action in my cat photos last week, so this one is dedicated to him:



That is genuine motion blur on the cat. I did not doctor it up in photoshop.

For the record, Silvio did catch the chipmunk he pounced on. Then let it go and caught it again. And again. And again (FUN!). The game finally stopped when Zima showed up and ate it. And then promptly threw it up.

I won't even go in to how Zima chewed one of its legs off before it was dead and I had to get PDM to come out and humanely kill it. Because that part of cat ownership really sucks.