Offer Submitted
Last night the wife, Crab Cakes (baby), and myself met up with our realtor at a Wauwatosa coffee shop to place an offer on a home.
This place is a few blocks from my parents house, which is both good and bad.
The good:
Great neighborhood
Easy resale
Neighborhood is safe for the wife and baby to walk
Wife can visit my parents if she needs to go anywhere (she still does not have a car)
The bad:
The parents are only a few blocks away
Yes, I'm seriously considering disabling the doorbell.
Anyway, it's a nice place. At first I thought it was too small, but the basement has been completely finished so it adds another level to the house. It's listed as a 2br, but you could use it as a 4br. Two of the 5 rooms in the basement can be used as bedrooms.
It also has a huge deck and a nice small yard. I'll be able to cut the grass in about 10 minutes, tops! Also, the yard is completely fenced in with a big red fence that you cannot see through, so it's very private.
There was only one issue with the house, ...one of the basement walls has cracks. It appears that the wall might be bulging a bit. The current owner says that the cracks were there when they bought the house. The previous owner said the cracks formed when he filled in the ground under the deck with gravel. I guess he felt that the weight of the gravel pushed against the wall and cracked it.
Seems a bit dubious, but if the current owner has lived with the cracks for 6 years and they haven't gotten any worse, then it might be true. We investigated the gutters and the landscaping for drainage problems and found none. We did find that the roof used to leak, but they replaced the roof recently to fix that problem. The current owners will pay for repairing the wall, so we're thinking that everything will be ok. Most of the houses we looked at had basement issues, and this basement looked better than most.
We'll find out about the offer later tonight.
The house is right on a corner with a 4-way stop. This is the very same stop sign that I once drove through while passed out at about 5:30 am on a frigid November Saturday morning.
You see, there was this girl. I had a huge crush on her. Her name was Amy and she sat across from me in a poetry class. Something about this women totally fascinated me. Whenever I looked at her my heart would pound like someone was tossing hardballs at the inside of my ribs. Once, my breath was literally swept out of my body as I adorned my eyes on her from across a plane of cheap laminate.
Also in this class was another girl named Amy. She had been a year ahead of me in high school, so we knew each other. I saw her talking to the Amy that I liked, so I got close and chummy with the Amy from high school. It worked. I got an invite to her birthday party.
I assumed the Amy I had a crush on would be at the party, but I couldn't be sure of that, so I decided to ask her myself. Now, I had so built up this girl in my mind that I could no more approach her than I could approach ...(let's see, who was hot back in the early 90's) Gabrielle Reece.
So, I stalked the girl for about a week after class. I found out where she went immediately after our class. My goal was to leave class quickly and beat to her next location. Then I could pretend to bump into her without looking like I was following her, brilliant right?
We hit it off famously, talking for about an hour. I called her that night and we talked for two more hours, ...we had so much in common. This was my dream girl. Then she casually dropped some info on me.
"Blah blah, my fiance' blah blah blah."
I was devastated. She meets a guy from class on the street. He talks to her, invites her to a party, gets her number, calls her, ...and she fails to mention the issue of her fiance' until late in the conversation. And then only in passing.
Well, I didn't give up, but that's another story.
We went to the party together. We did shots of Goldschlager every 25 minutes to commemorate the girls birthday. I chased them with bottles of beer, ...too many to count. The night was a blur of laughter and hugs. We walked to North avenue to hit a few bars. I literally could not see more than 3 feet in front of me. I almost fell down while standing still.
She held my arm as we walked home, but the brutally cold air kept me alert. We got back to the birthday girls apartment and had popcorn fight. Then I passed out in a chair. The girls decorated me with a lampshade, popcorn, and condoms and took pictures. Someone woke me at 5:30 and I got up and pretended I was sober.
We got in the car and I proceeded to nearly sideswipe a row of parked cars. I got her home in one piece, she begged me to sleep on her couch, but I waved her off. Once I got to the freeway I started to regret that.
On the freeway I could not stay in my lane. Also, I could not stay awake. I was dozing off and then snapping awake with my car drifting onto the shoulder. I rolled down the window and let the violent cold wind tear into me. I blasted the radio and sang along. I kept my speed between 50 and 55, but I could not stay awake and could not stay in my lane. I tried. Lord how I tried.
I contemplated pulling over and sleeping it off, but I knew a cop would come over and give me a ticket for drunk driving. No one was on the road. I can make it, I said.
I dozed off a few more times, but made it off the freeway and onto the street where my new house (hopefully) will be. As I approached the top of the hill where the stop sign is, I told myself that I was almost home. Stay awake. Stop at the sign, and then you are just two blocks from home. After the sign, you are home.
Blackout.
Wake up, I'm 75% of the way through the intersection, headed for the sidewalk. I straighten out, look around, and feel very lucky that no one was around. At least it's all over.
Blackout.
Wake up, I'm driving in the parking lane, half a block from the stop sign. I could not even keep it together for a half block! I knew it was getting worse, and soon I would not be able to wake up so quickly. I concentrated, blacked out a little as I made the turn onto my parents' street. Parked the car, entered the house, walked upstairs, collapsed on the bed, and said "never again" will I drive in that condition.
I was lucky to make it home that night.
The Other Backups
The
game Friday night was pretty bad overall.
Penalties, dropped balls, and missed assignments.
I actually fell asleep in the second half.
I guess Craig Nall failing to even complete a pass had something to do with the boring and stagnant game.
McBrien again showed me something. Unfortunately he's very raw, so he'll be put on the practice squad.
My current guess is that unless Couch curls up onto a trembling ball on the field Friday night in Tennessee (and I'd say the odds are 50/50 that he WILL do just that), ...he's got the number 3 slot.
God help us if he ever gets into a game.
Packers
Odds are that undrafted QB Scott McBrien is headed to the practice squad along with 3rd round bust BJ "Blowjob" Sander.
If this is true, then the backup QB race is really a race for 3rd string. Peterson has 2nd string locked up, so it's between the shithead Couch and Craig Nall. Timmy V from chanel 6 said he expects Couch to survive because the Packers are thinking about next year.
It goes like this: If Favre goes into retirement after this season, Peterson likely goes with him. Then, all you have is your 3rd string. You'd bring in people to compete for the job, but it would be easier if you had someone on your roster who already knew the offense (as we assume Couch would after a year on the bench).
I guess I can see that, ...but isn't Couch signed to a 1 year deal anyway? Who's to say he doesn't just get up and go somewhere else? We'd still have to sign him, and he'd likely ask for more money knowing that we'd basically be stuck with him.
If Favre goes, we're toast anyway. Couch isn't the future, and I don't think he can even be a stopgap on the way to another QB. I say cut him loose now. Let McBrien and Nall fight it out next year if need be, and look to college for a possible future starter. Let's face it, we're gonna suck when Favre leaves. Let's just accept that and not do something stupid to try and prevent the obvious.
This scenario just underscores that Sherman should have looked to the draft to get a young QB this year instead of hanging his hopes on a dope like Couch.
Friday Quiz
This seems about right. Disturbingly, my inner child is older than I am!
My inner child is forty-five years old!
I've never really liked children, not even when I
was one. I want things neat, ordered, and
adult--fine wine instead of french fries, pina
coladas by the pool instead of beach sand
between my toes. Now if only my fellow adults
would stop acting like such, well, children!
How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla
God DAMN, I Fucking Love Alice Cooper!
Alice caused
quite a stir recently by saying that all those Hollywood stars campaigning for John "liar liar" Kerry are "treasonous morons".
He clarified that he didn't mean they were treasonous to the US, but treasonous to Rock n' Roll.
Hilariously, he then comes out as a
Bush supporter:
"when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."
He continues:
"If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."
Read the whole article
here, then check out Alice's lyrics to
I LOVE AMERICA.
We're truly not worthy.
via
the Gweilo
Interesting House News
This past weekend the wife and I set out (with baby in tow) to once again find a new place for all our baseball cards, comic books, spare computer parts.
We found a place in a fantastic neighborhood in the suburbs that was very reasonably priced. I knew there had to be a catch, and there is.
It is a stairless ranch (no basement, no attic), with no central air conditioning, and no garage. It did, however, have a huge, beautiful yard, an open concept floorplan with lots of classic/interesting interior features, a bath and a half, three bedrooms, a living room, office area, and a large sunroom.
I didn't pay much attention to it. No basement means no workshop, which I crave, and no garage means chipping ice off of my car all winter. My wife, however, loved it.
She cares about three things, in no particular order: Nice kitchen, open concept, first floor laundry.
You could build a dog house out of old tires with these features and she would love it.
The realtor showing the property, we'll call her The Pig, asked if we were working with any realtors. We said yes. She made a sour-pig face. We left. Overnight the wife said she was tired of looking at houses because I seem to find something wrong with all of them. She said is not going to look at any more houses. I can look at them myself and let her know if I find one I like.
Of course, it's a complete coincidence that she reached this point only after finding a house SHE really liked.
So, I realize that we're going to need to see this house again because I wasn't really paying that much attention to it. You know, because it wasn't close to what I wanted or what we discussed.
Here's where it gets interesting. My realtor is in Florida on vacation. She told me that if I wanted something I should call her cell phone and she would hook me up with a temporary replacement from her office. I decided to call The Pig first, just to see if the property had any offers on it yet. If it did, we would have to see it right away and I would need to tell my realtor to hurry. If not, we may be able to wait until my realtor comes back on Thursday.
So, I call The Pig. I remind her who I am and that I'm working with a realtor. I tell her we'd like to see the place again this week sometime. I wanted to know if there were any offers, she said no. I also asked if she could provide a sample heating bill for the property, and she said she would get that info for me. I told her my realtor would be in touch in a day or two.
She asked what day I was thinking about wanting to see it. I told her Tuesday night, idealy. She asked about what time. I said 7-ish. She then adds that SHE was the one who showed us the house in the first place, ...so there "might be a problem" with me trying to use my own realtor. I figure, ...whatever. I'll let my realtor deal with that.
About 5 minutes later she calls back. She gave me the heating info, looks good. She said she made an appointment for me to see it at 7pm Tuesday.
"Whoa. Wait. I didn't mean for you to set an appointment."
"Okay."
"I was just telling you the earliest we would like to get in there, but I haven't even talked to my wife yet."
"Okay."
"We'll let you know."
I get a hold of my realtor and tell her the whole story about The Pig trying to trick me into an appointment where she can claim I am her client and cut my realtor out of the deal.
She calls The Pig. The Pig gets really nasty with her and refuses to work with her. My realtor, being on vacation calls to tell me it's a mess and she can't really do anything about it until she gets back into town Thursday. If I want to go ahead without including her, she's ok with that. There's nothing she can do about it.
It comes down to this. Realtors can have their clients sign a contract meaning that they are bound to work exclusively with said realtor. My realtor does not like to hamstring her clients in that way. She is too nice and too honest and says she did not get into this business because she wants to hustle everyone for a commission. She's a rare realtor.
This has left her without a legal leg to stand on in this case. She has no real claim to be involved in the deal.
However, I do have some recourse here. My realtor has done a lot for us. She's spent a lot time on us and done a lot of work. We appreciate all her work and honesty. Although we do not have a contract with her, we do feel we have a committment to her, and we're refusing to deal with The Pig.
It may come down to some arbitration deal with the realtor's association, but we don't care. We decided to stick with our realtor and tell The Pig that if she wants our offer, she's gonna have to deal with our realtor.
That's where we stand now. Our realtor will call The Pig in the morning and draw the line in the sand.
Coward, Loser, Failure
Yes, that's Tim Couch I am describing.
From today's
Journal:
Tim Couch's August of disappointment dragged on Monday when the Green Bay Packers' beleaguered backup quarterback dropped out of another practice with arm trouble.
I guess the pussy finked out of practice because it was "cold".
"It wasn't great weather and he couldn't get his arm loosened up," quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell said. "It's a funny thing. Sometimes he'll come out on the warmer days and say, 'Hey, it feels great, I don't feel any pain.' Then there's a day like today."
Cut the bitch now!
Why wait?
For added amusment, read this scout's assesment of his performance:
One scout who has seen Couch register a 39.6 passer rating in the first two games found it hard to believe how far his level of play has slipped.
"(Expletive), just pathetic," the scout said. "His arm really looks weak. He's not throwing a tight ball at all. Doesn't have any scrambling ability. He looks like a beat dog. He's in shock, dismay. I don't see any hope."
Maybe he should just resign and get out of town before someone throws his washed up body into a tire fire.
But the rookie McBrien looks ok. He's got a lot of fire in his gut, which I like. He's raw, but he's got potential.
"He's spunky," Bevell said. "Guys get excited when he's in there."
First Batman Trailer is Out
Check it out
here.
Looks good, but they don't show enough for me to go ape-shit over at this point. It does give you a good idea about the focus of the movie.
It had been billed as a "Batman: Year One" type of movie. Fans will remember the sepia-toned "Batman: Year One" comic from the late 80's/early 90's, ...but this movie seems to go back even further in time.
Perhaps the childhood/growing up of young Bruce Wayne will get heavier treatment.
I hope they don't over-do it with the mysticism and symbolism. Batman has always been about intellect and focused anger, not about mysticism and magic.
The "Year One" comics were brilliant because they showed Bruce Wayne struggle with his early battles against evil, ...taking small steps, testing the waters, learning his craft, ...and making mistakes.
Before Batman became an almost inhuman, stoic perfectionist, ...he was a unsure, earnest, gutsy young man.
I hope these traits make it into the movie, due out next summer.
Couch Stuffing
Couch sucked again.
He can't be the number 2 QB. That's obvious. So, are we gonna pay all that money for a number 3 who won't play? No, we can't.
That means he's gotta go.
It's not even a debatable point anymore. Who is suggesting that Couch can still be the number 2 QB this seasons, or even a potential successor? No one. The only question is will he make the team. The answer is, only if Sherman's an IDIOT.
Bill Maas and Kevin Harlan did a mostly bad job of talking up the Packers during the broadcast. They should have been issued pom-poms before the game. But even they could not speak well of Couch. Maas seemed particularly down on the weak-armed chump.
Late in the game the cameras showed Couch was standing alone on the sideline. No one wanted to talk to him. They all know it. Even if he does improve (it would be hard not to), he does not have the confidence of the other players. He can't lead them.
He's finished.
While I won't propose mutilating, torturing, or killing him (as I did last week in this space and verbally), I do think he should be cut. Nall or McBrien can be the #3 backup. Nall was #3 last year and it didn't hurt us.
If Favre goes down for more than a couple of games, Peterson gives us the best chance to succeed. I don't see that changing. Do you?
You can thank me later
for passing on this
link.
Friday Quiz
This is not flattering, ...but hey, I beat the British! But then again, who hasn't?
Fourth emperor of Rome. Poor Claudius was the
family idiot, made fun of and teased for being
slow. In reality, he was a very good
historian, he only had physical disabilities.
After Caligula was killed, he was forced into
being emperor. Killed by his wife.
What Julio-Claudian Roman Emperor are you? brought to you by Quizilla
Punter Predicament
I'd like to see Nathan Chapman, the aussie footballer looking to make it big in the NFL as a punter, get more of a shot
Saturday night.
By all accounts he has out-punted rookie B.J. Sander, whom the Packers spent a 3rd round pick on.
Word is that Sander was a 3-step punter in college, and has to adjust to become a 2-step punter in the pros. The adjustment is not going well. While his punts were all on line, they were short. Consistantly short. It's pretty obvious that he doesn't have the leg to kick more than 40 yards on 2 steps.
It looks like Sherman has
committed to giving him a shot. He kinda has to. Sander looked almost as bad as the miserable Couch.
Favre Comes Out Swinging for Couch
Sorta.
The reports had billed
Favre's comments as "defending" Couch. I guess that's mostly accurate, but Favre did fail to provide a ringing endorsement for the weak-armed, washed-up, waste-of-money.
I'll be as fair as I can.
Either Couch looks like a real quarterback on
Saturday night, or he has to go. Anything less and Sherman is an idiot.
National sports writers are weighing on
continuing Couch calamity.
Money quote:
Carmen Policy said when he resigned as the Browns' president during the offseason that Couch's failure had been one of his biggest disappointments in Cleveland. Every interception that Couch threw, Policy said, felt like a dagger to the heart. The Packers don't have nearly as much time or money invested in Couch as the Browns did. But they are beginning to have an idea what Policy was talking about.
Launch
Lately I've been trying out the free, customizable internet radio station on Yahoo's
Launch service. It's actually pretty neat.
And it's FREE.
You just sign in with your Yahoo ID, select some genres and bands, and let Launch select songs for you. For each song that they play, you can rate the song, artist, and album. The more ratings you provide, the more Launch begins to figure out your tastes. If you don't like a song or artist that they play, you can tell Launch not to play it again. Over time, the playlist becomes as varied as your own tastes.
A good example, the last three songs it played for me were Harvester of Sorrow by Metallica, Blue Monday by New Order, and an old song by CCR.
It mixes in things it knows you will like with songs you may not have heard, so it's more interesting that an mp3 list, ...and far superior to a regular radio station.
You can listen to my station
here.
Bloggered
If you visited the site anytime on Tuesday you saw that it was seriously Bloggered (f-cked up).
The blog people decided to change their menu bar at the top of the page and for some reason this made my old template go haywire.
After spending too much time trying to fix it, I gave up and decided to get a new look. As you can see, this current look does not fit the spirit of this site, so I will either be altering it severely over the next few days or getting a new template entirely.
For now, it's better than nothing.
Cut Couch Now
A miserable display of cowardice, cocksuckery, and complete ineptitude.
Cut the bitch now.
Scratch that, ...make him run sprints all day until he pukes up his
PowerPuff Girl cereal, then use him as a tackling dummy, then toss him out into traffic, THEN cut him. I want him to hurt.
Most importantly, I don't want to see that jag-off touch another football in Packer uniform again.
I was against signing him from the beginning, and I was right. The only questions is how much valuable time and money is Sherman gonna waste on this talentless dick.
Zing!
From a nice
WaPo article:
At each stop last week, Bush regaled his audiences by noting that (Kerry) the Democrat voted for the Iraq war resolution and then "declared himself the antiwar candidate" in last winter's primaries, and now, having "found a new nuance," has said he still "agrees it was the right decision to go into Iraq."
"And I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up," Bush chortled. "Although I caution you, there are still 80 days left where he could change his mind again."
...
He continues by noting that everyone in Congress voted for his $87 billion appropriations request on Iraq except for a "small what I would call out-of-the-mainstream minority of 12" Democrats, "and two of those 12 are my opponent and his running mate."
"You might remember his initial explanation," Bush told partisans at the Iowa event. "He said, 'I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.' That doesn't sound like the way people in Sioux land talk. The pressure got on a little bit about that vote. Then he said, well, he's proud of the vote. And he went on to say, the whole thing is a complicated matter."
Then came what is becoming one of the standard applause lines in Bush's stump speech: "There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat."
House Hunt Starts Again
I'm glad we took a closer look at the house before signing anything. There are serious issues with the driveway, garage, and backyard.
It's a drainage problem. All the surrounding yards drain into this yard. From there, the yard drains toward the house!
The house did not originally have a sump pump or drainage tiles, but they were added at some point over the years. This suggests that water leakage has been a problem.
The driveway is long, slanted, and cracked. It needs to be ripped out, re-graded, and replaced. The garage has serious settling cracks, the garage footings are cracked through the slab, and part of the garage appears to be sinking. The yard directly behind the garage is saturated.
We finally got a look at a previous inspection report, and to our suprise the report clearly identifies these problems. The buyers should have disclosed this to us, but didn't. It's the second underhand thing that they have tried. I mostly blame their realtor, who I suspect is leading them down this path.
Everyone expected us to sign an offer last night. When we walked away without signing anything, the owners and the listing agent took a long, hard look at the situation. They now realize (or are now admitting) that they have a problem. They are bringing in some contractors to see about fixing the problem themselves and relisting the property.
We'll talk to them during this process, but I doubt we will buy this house now. If they sink a lot of money into repairing it, they will want to sell it for a higher price which we can't afford.
The only way we could buy it in the current situation is if they get a quote for the repairs and decide to lower their price by that much.
We'll see what happens.
On the Couch
That's where Tim Couch may be on Sunday's this fall. I don't remember if I expressed it here or not, but I've never been really big on bringing in Couch. He never impressed me in Cleveland and he's
stinking it up in training camp.
I hope they have a short leash with him and cut him instead keeping him around because they tried so hard to get him.
Dammit
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault Moves to November
They are delaying it to add a new feature and more "polish" to the game.
Highlights:
"For the first time in the history of the series, players will be able to control their squad in the heat of battle, enjoying greater tactical maneuvering through a new feature called Combat Squad Control.
With Combat Squad Control, gamers under siege can bark orders on the fly, using only a single keystroke to order squad-mates to "Advance!", "Fall Back!", "Give Suppression Fire!" or "Assemble!" We believe that adding this new feature and giving the game more time for polish will pay out."
Whoa
Read this
article and commence drooling. This is coming out exclusively for the PS2 in October 2004. The PC version won't arrive until May 2005.
I am now in the market for a used PS2.
House Hunt Almost Over
The last time I checked in on this topic I was about to make a low-ball offer on the house, which I did. The listing agent balked at it and the owners came back with a very high counter offer. They made it clear to my agent that if our offer wasn't close to theirs, they would pass.
So we didn't make an offer. Our very good agent did a smart thing by not saying anything to the listing agent. She just let her twist in the wind wondering what we were thinking. It worked. The listing agent came back and asked what our "bottom line" offer is.
We gave it to her. It was $9000 higher than my low-ball offer and $4000 lower than their "best" offer. The listing agent asked for $1000 more from us and she would "strongly encourage" her clients to take the offer.
We said ok.
She called back to say that the clients would accept an offer $2000 higher than our "bottom line" offer.
My agent again played some hard ball, making them think I wasn't happy about the offer. They reduced their price another $1000.
So, they are going to accept my offer, which is $1000 more than my "bottom line" offer. A pretty good deal. We'll formally make the offer tonight and unless someone comes in and makes a higher offer on the house in the next 24 hours, it's ours.
Nice
The professor
dips into territory famously occupied by the
Gweilo (and occasionally by
yours truly).
Looks good to me too!
A Different View of WWII
Japan is fabulous and fascinating place. The language, culture, and food offer delights for all my senses.
And let's not forget about
this.
But I'm intrigued by the way they view WWII.
I don't know a lot about how those events rest on their consciousness, but I know there is no single prevailing view. I'm aware that right-wing groups can be unapologetic about it, feeling that the conventional wisdom regarding their empirical desires and brutality is over stated. Revisionism, especially regarding the rape of Nanking, is strong.
I also know that a fierce pacifism runs very deep in the country. Many use the example of WWII to advocate
total disarmament.
But I found this interesting story about a new book in Japan that claims that the surprise nature of the attack on Pearl Harbor was not the fault of the Japanese, but of a long-winded American priest in Washington, DC.
Read up.
A Quiz I Can Relate To
Which OS are You?
Friday Quiz
Here is a
quiz for ALL of my friends, ...well, almost all of them.
House Buying
We put in an offer on a colonial last night.
This house had been on the market for over 60 days. As far as we were told there were no offers on it. It is a very nice place, but has some defects. Some of those defects look costly.
For one, the driveway needs to be replaced. It's a long driveway and will cost about $5000. Also, it only has one bathroom and it's on the second floor. There is a lone, standalone toilet in the basement with a slanted, falling-down plywood stall around it. I don't consider it a half bath.
The owners are asking a lot for it. They got it for about $106k in 1999. They were asking about $170k this year after doing about 20k in upgrades over the last five years.
To my mind, the house is really worth about 150-155k. Subtract 5k for the driveway and you are in the 145-150 range. That's where my offer from last night was.
This morning our realtor (great realtor, btw. We got really lucky with her.) got a call at 9am from the listing agent. The agent was "fuming" about our offer. She then let it be known that the home owners already have an offer on the house and ours is a secondary offer.
She's supposed to disclose that fact up front and did not.
The other offer is tied to the buyer selling his house in Mequon, but he's divorced and his wife has a bridge loan on it, ...so it's a title nightmare. The home owners are probably eager to get out of that deal. I believe they've accepted the offer, but can get out of it.
Also, they now want to stay there until Sept 30. It's a pain in the butt, but we said that would be ok.
We'll see what they come back with tonight. They are going to try and up my price, but I ain't having any of that, especially since they want to stay an extra month. 60 days to close is a long time.
The Man is Called a Traitor
...in Dem party circles.
Here's
VERY short piece (a few paragraphs) from the Georgia
Democrat Zell Miller on why he is supporting Bush and not Kerry this year.
Concise and razor sharp.
Slowik Strategy
Well, well, well ...looks like I wasn't the only person who thought the Packer's predictable, soft underneath, non-attack style of
defense sucked. The new defensive coordinator Bob Slowik said the following:
Though Slowik didn't put a number on it, the Packers will probably blitz 15% to 20% more in order to create an atmosphere of unpredictability for opposing quarterbacks.
Unpredictability, ...as opposed to what?
Under Donatell, the Packers were fairly easy to read. They played an eight-man front on most downs and relied heavily on Donatell's pet defense, "Cover 7 Slice," which depended on the free safety being able to either fill a gap on running plays or drop into a throwing lane on passing downs.
Really, ...no wonder his blitzes seemed to get picked up all the time.
The problem is the Packers' best safety, Darren Sharper, typically played on the strong side and neither the departed Antuan Edwards nor underachieving Marques Anderson could handle the position. Most of last year, Donatell used Sharper in deep center field or over the tight end because he needed his best player as a safety valve.
Hmmph.
Playing that defense, the Packers ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in several key passing and running categories, but they allowed a whopping 48 passing plays of 20 or more yards (tied for 26th) and eight plays of 40 or more yards (tied for 20th).
Godfuckingdammit! I said ALL of this shit last year! It was obvious to me, and it apparantly it was obvious to everyone else except the brainless cheerleading excuse for sports writers in this town.
I wasn't entirely sold on the Donatell firing at first (they were more aggressive in the latter half of the season), but now I can see why it was done so quickly. His philosophy was all wrong.
Good move Sherman.
I don't know if Slowik can get it done, but he's on the right track.
