Randuba Stuff

Not much news to report. I have been on vacation, "staycation," if you will, and I have the following random observations:

1. The movie "The Chernobyl Diarries" was pretty decent. It ends with a newer Marilyn Manson song as well and is pretty good at building suspense and creepyness. My girlfriend was completely scored and loved being scared with me. Good date or date rape movie
2. I saw black headed vultures in the wild.. They are a ridiculously long wingspanned bird and are monstrously huge. I saw about 6 of them. Another 2 hours later we were on another pseudo hike when we saw all 6 vultures circling overhead, perhaps waiting for something to die
3. My son slept on the top bunk of a set of bunk beds during our camping trip for the first time. It was a glorious moment for hiim
4. Kim, Rocco, and I have had a game of monopoly going on for the past 5 nights. Rocco owns all four railroads, little properties, and about 7 $500 bills. I am gaining money, but Kim spends her three turns in jail while Rocco and I build houses on our property. We were going soft playing him and let him get the railroad. My next strategy when playing monopoly with friends will be to BUY ALL THE RAILROADS.
5. I hate the woman in the commercial who shows up to her friend's recital practice teasing her about the lunch she has. She proceeds to sing "Mozerala-la-la-la-la-la" and I make a face that can best be described as me saying, without words, "Shut up, asshole!"
6. No matter how nice you try to make the Chuck E. Cheese in my neighborhood, the locals can still bring down the value of a newly renovated one.
7. The Kansas City Chiefs murder-suicide debacle is a horrendous story. What always impresses me about football is how a tragedy makes players just go out of their mind. The deceased player killed himself in front of his coach and general manager after murdering his girlfriend. How anyone can move on the next day after that and work their ass off is beyond my comprehension. Even if you only kind of knew the guy, to pull together as a team and pull that off, when your shit players played at least on a normally professionally acceptable level is a real amazing feat. It does nothing to replace the loss that poor three-month old child must grow up with, but what the 53 players and dozens of coaches could do under duress is great. Tragedy befalling an NFL player, like Torrey Smith's brother dying to Brett Favre's dad passing away, is like an automatic death sentence for the sufferer's opponent.
8. Tony Romo has the most passing touchdowns in Dallas Cowboys history with the least hardware to support it. None actually. The Eagles have none, either, but they have at least been to the dance since he has been eligible in the league. And, if NBC shows me his wife one more time, I may just drown myself in hot candle wax.
9. I have not been to work since November 21. I used to be begging for going back to work during my vacations years ago. While I am not necessarily dreading back to work, I certainly will miss all this time off with my family.
10. My (step)son said to me the other day, "Jim, I can't wait to be a dad." When I asked him why, he replied, "Because then I will be just like you. And I want to be like you."

Not much left to discuss, except that tomorrow I have another post-mortem "Flipping the Bird" recapping the back and forth, fantasy football fate determining battle between the Eagles and the Cowboys. One thing that I will touch on right now briefly is that when I think about this season and the previous season, once the Eagles have been all but eliminated from the playoffs, and the pressure to win now is off, they play pretty good. This game has been a treat, much like most of last Monday's game was. Another thing that has been great is that the young players seem to be playing like more of a team with some of the veterans now out of the lineup. I think in time this team can be good again, no matter who the coach is.