All I have to say is that this was one hell of a weekend. I spent all day Saturday watching college football and all night watching the same highlights over and over. A storm came through on Friday and dropped temperatures down to the upper 70's with a steady breeze. Sunday, B and I went to Asheville which has a great college town atmosphere. We ate at the original Mellow Mushroom, sat outside in a semi enclosed gazeebo which had thick vines for a roof. All I could think of was being in Gainesville on a late fall gameday. The cool breeze combined with the street noise and the smell of good food. Needless to say, I'm very content with life right now.

The Big-10 announced a new logo today. Although the change is subtle, the league feels that the new logo more accurately communicates that they are the Big "10"

The first full day of college football is done, and it's time for me to hand out the grades for the day

C Time Warner Cable.

This was a hard one to grade seeing how the former Adelphia company now operated by Time Warner Charlotte until the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson can decide whether or not they want to incorporate the bankrupt company as a municipal utility. I called around 7:30 Thursday to order the HD tier that has ESPN so I can get the LSU game. Spent 45 minutes on the phone with some poor customer service rep who just couldn't figure out why the activation signal wasn't going out to my cable box. We set up a service appointment for Friday and left it as that.

Little did I, or the service rep realize, was that a storm that night knocked out the internet connection, but not cable, which is why he couldn't activate the channel upgrade. I was pleasantly surprised with my cable box rebooting during the halftime show, then greeted with a high definition close up of Lou Holtz. If you watch closely enough, you can acually see him decay.

Of course, I conveniently forgot to call the cable company back to tell them that the channels came through and I didn't need the service man to come out. Oops.

F My knowledge of the TV listings

It took a phone call with my Dad to find out that the Gator game was not on Pay-per-view, which the first game usually is. I found the game on a local Charlotte channel I didn't bother to check and only missed the first drive. So I watched the Gator game and kept tabs on the Michigan-App State game on the internet. I later learned from a Best Buy employee that the Michigan App State game was on another channel I didn't bother to check.

A+ US 321

The 88 mile strech of highway that seperates Charlotte from Boone, NC. Someone asked if Appalachian State would be ranked in the Top-25. The answer: No, because they schedule weak teams like Michigan.
Wow, just wow. This isn't just an upset, this completely wrecked the known power structure of college football. They just made it known that the top I-AA teams can hang with and beat the top I-A teams. That serioulsy shortens the vertical distribution of college football.

F Notre Dame

HA HA.

B Windows Vista

Bought a new laptop today. The old one was developing a short in the power supply and kept switching over to the battery. It was 4 years old and was a discontinued floor model when I bought it. So I upgraded to an HP Pavilion running Windows Vista. I really like it so far. I know this has nothing to do with college football but I AM watching Gameday final while I'm typing this up on the new laptop.

I am not ready for the iPhone revolution.

Are you? Yeah, I didn't know about it either. But apparently the release of the iPhone is the greatest single historical event since man crawled out of the ocean. If you're not on board, you're left behind.

Dare you challenge the greatness of the iPhone. What can it do? No, the question is what can't it do? The iPhone WILL cure cancer. The iPhone WILL bring us world peace. The iPhone WILL end hunger.

Ok, I'm over exaggerating a little. But, it will let you watch YouTube while driving home from work.

So a few posts ago I told you about my aging death-trap of a mountain bike. Well, I finally got a new one. I bought a Trek 6000. If you don't know Trek, it's the bike that Lance Armstrong rides. So I'm like Lance, but with twice the balls, Ha ha!. Ok, so it's more like I'm like Lance, minus the 6 Tour de France Titles, minus dating Cheryl Crow, minus... ok, I get it.

Oh and since I got the thing, it's rained every single day.

Billy Donovan is walking away from a five-year, $27.5 million deal. Apparently a "minor detail" surfaced in the contract where his incentives would only be paid if he met all of his monthly Amway sales quotas.

I've been doing A LOT of mountain biking since I got up here. How can you not? The trails are fantatastic. My 10 year old 800lb bike, is not quite so.

About a month ago I was riding out at the U.S. National Whitewater Center when I my front brake decided it didn't want to work within the manufacturer's indended specifications. Lucky for you know who, it happened right before I was about to drop down a 30ft twisty turny descent with a lot of very hard trees.

Apparently the little metal piece that holds back the wire part bent and couldn't catch the "noodle" as the bike guy said. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? All I needed was a pair of pliers. Now, one would think, that at a multi-million dollar outdoor adventure facility, a simple pair of pliers would be easy to come by. Or so I thought.

Having spent four years of my life involved in rowing, I knew where there was water, there were boats, and were there were boats, there would be a boathouse, and where there was a boat house, there be tools. So, I made my way over to where the kayaks and rafts were stored and went into the rental office.

I was greeted by a soccer-player type college girl who seemed to be content that the cloudy weather had kept adventure seekers away from the park so she could pursue whatever. She was extremely disinterested in helping me.

"Hey, do you guys have a pair of pliers I can borrow?" I asked.
"Nope." she replied, rather quickly.

I could have argued with her, but what was the point. I went through the whole conversation in my mind, and it would have gone something like this:

Me: "So, you're saying that nowhere inside this 2500 square foot building designed to store and maintain rafts and kayaks, there is not a single set of pliers to be found".
Her: "That's right".
Me: "And you know this for a fact without having to get up out of your chair?"
"Yes, now if you aren't here for a rental, then you're just annoying me. Go away".

pfft, as if I would rent a kayak from a place that doesn't have a pair of pliers in their boathouse. Anyway, I was evetually hooked up by the rock climbing wall guy.

Now, the term "Mountain Biking" has the word "Mountain" in it which would infer that it was indended for riding on actual moutains. Beth went to Raleigh with her friend Kim this past weekend, so I loaded up the 4Runner and headed out to Asheville. This was going to be awesome!

So it start out and it's kinda flat. Then it the trail started to have a little incline in it. No problem. An hour and a half later, completely drained and soaking in sweat, I eventally reached the summit. I had abandoned riding halfway up and had walked my bike up the rest of the way.

I turned my bike around and started the decent. For the first 1000 yards or so, I was riding the brakes so hard, I think I melted the pads. The rest is an experience I really don't think I could put into words. It was basicly a controlled freefall. The leaves from the trees became a green blur. It was an experience that you just can't compare to anything else. 20 minutes later, I was back at the parking lot. The drive out, the climb. It was more that worth it.

Some guy on TV won $500,000 for correctly figuring out the sum of 11.5 and -14. What am I doing wrong?

Spring has hit here in Charlotte. I first noticed it when I woke up one morning and everything was fucking green. So much for watching the seasons change.

So with spring, comes pollen. Now, I'm used to seeing pollen living in Florida, but down there, it's measured in granules per cubic meter. Here, it's measured in inches. Kids stay home from school and build pollen men and make pollen angels. Surprisingly amazingly my allergies are completely unaffected.

Anyway, so I'm at the gas station trying to close the car door with the front side of my fingernails, because I know that if I used my hand, I'd eventually get yellow pollen all over the white shirt I brilliantly wore. The gas pump starts asking all the reglar questions, "What's your zipcode", "What's your pin", "What's your height in centimeters", Then it asks, "Would you like a carwash?".

Well, it was 10:00 AM, so I still had plenty of time before I had to get to work. I know that my car would probably be covered in pollen again by noon, but dammit, I was determined have the cleanest car on the road for a few hours. So I said yes. Then I had to scroll through all the different types, starting with the full wax/rainx/armor all/backrub all the way down to the one where it just drops a bucket of water over the car. Perfect. "Enter your number" What number. I have a number. I guessed '7'.

So I finished filling up and headed over to the carwash. There was someone in front of me. I wasn't worried. I knew by the time I was done with my wash, his car would be completely covered again and I'd still have the cleanest car of the road.

So I pull up to the little um, control thing, and it asks for my code. I didn't have a code, but I had a number. So I hit seven. It didn't do anything. I think it wanted more numbers. So I kept pressing 7. No luck. So I slid my debit card into the little card reader thing, and the display said "Card reader not working. Please see sales associate". I looked over through the window and stared at the guy behind the counter. Still, nothing happend (sorry, couldn't resist).

So, I left the gas station and pulled onto the interstate. I didn't have the cleanest car on the road. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. You just can't compete with those "garage" people.

Nike held a running contest between Florida Fans and Ohio State fans and the loser would have to put a life size statue of the winning team's mascot on their campus. Of course the Gators won, and Albert was erected on the OSU campus.

They were right, we got snow!!! Here are some pictures. Sorry about the quality, took them with my cell phone.

OK, so I've come to realize it's not really a good idea to hit the windshield washer fluid when its 20 degrees outside, and on the interstate.

It might snow on Thursday. Damn bastards have been calling for it for a few weeks and they've been wrong every time. I want snow. I want to be able to throw snowballs at my dog while she's pooping. I'm kidding! I'll wait until she's done.

I keep forgetting about The Onion. Greatest satirical news website, like ever. Here are some good ones that have come up lately.

Spaghetti-Os Discontinued As Franco-American Relations Break Down.
I knew things were turning bad when they offshored the meatball plants.

Americans Demand Military Response After Chinese Shoot Down DirecTV Satellite
Sure laugh now, but Sirius could be next!

Bears Lead Rex Grossman To Super Bowl
...and how many years did it take Peyton "Never Beat the Gators" Manning?

"Dude, you're crazy." The guy said. "You're about to go up against possibly the best team in the history of college football, and you're not nervous".

"Nope", I replied as I pulled my floral boxers from the coin operated dryer. "We won the SEC, that's all that counts. If we score a touchdown in this game, it's icing on the cake".

I admit. I was a non believer. We can't win out there. Last time Tommie Frazier blew past our defense like Charlie Weis and a salad bar.

My emotional process went something like this:
15:00 1st - Maybe we can keep it close.
14:44 1st - We're going to get our asses handed to us.
10:13 1st - Okay, maybe this can still be intersting
05:51 1st - We're going to make them work for this
14:56 2nd - 14 point lead, good lead. They can still beat us
13:32 2nd - See! Here's the comeback. Oh well, fun while it lasted.
06:00 2nd - Good kick. 10 points is not a big enough lead.
01:53 2nd - Another good kick. 13 points is still not a big enough lead.
00:23 2nd - Holy mother of Urban Meyer, we're going to win this thing!
10:40 4th - ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod.
00:00 4th - I have to absorb every moment of this.

Can you imagine what Gainesville was like. Well, here's Youtube:

If you're not so familiar with VOIP, that's Voice Over Internet Protocol, e.g. Internet Phone, well, uh, it's Internet phone. Normally you just hook up this thing that sits next to your cable modem or whatever and it all hooks together, but you can also route it through your computer for whatever reason.

Well, Skype, has created a reason. They have released an add-on program that performs voice stress analysis. The not so coincidentally same stress analyis used in lie detector tests.

It was a simple plan to a simple problem. How to get 1 Acura CL, 1 Honda Accord, and 1 24' moving truck from Florida to North Carolina with only two drivers. Just rent a car trailer and tow one behind the truck. Easy, right? Beth was against it. She thought it was too much to handle and we'd be better off just selling the car and buying to new one when we got up there. She just had a bad feeling about it and didn't want me to do it.

So I get to the rental place where I meet Ann. Ann is freaking nuts. Totally out of her mind, but she runs the Budget truck rental/Public Storage facility, so she must have some brains. Turns out, she didn't have the trailer where you just tow the car by the front wheels. So she "upgraded" me to the full blown full entire car off the ground carrier. Fine. By the way. I've never towed anything before. I figured I'd learn with a 24' moving tuck towing my car. What could happen?

Anyway, Ann's husband, who normally helps customers with the trailers had already left for the day. But she didnt' think it was too difficult, so she would help me. She also mentioned that the guy who dropped off the trailer rushed out without checking in and she has a report filed on him. I didn't see any red flags.

Wednesday evening:

I line up the truck and Ann attaches it to the trailer. She forgot the safety chains, but for the rare occasion which I would actually need them, I put them on. I would like to note here that we did not put my car on at this point. So I'm driving home with the empty truck and the empty trailer. So far so good. I stayed off the interstate and took 41 down to Apollo Beach. Some kid pulls up and says I have some crap hanging off the end throwing up sparks and stuff. Whatever. So I turn on to Big Bend Road and cross the railroad tracks at 45mph. At that point, some poor soul behind me probably wet himself at the sight of a trailer becoming uncoupled from a truck and thrashing all over the road.

Luckily, I was able to get the truck off to the side of the road and the only damage was to the trailer. I made the call. I knew what was coming and I deserved it. She arrived, and didn't even have to say it. She told me so. The bitch of it is that it wasn't my fault! Ann forgot to secure the hitch. So we called the roadside assistance and had them take the trailer away. I just wasn't meant to be.

Thurdsay morning:

Movers arrive and start packing up. They started with the den. In the back of my mind, the word "title" keeps reverberating. I dismiss it. A few hours later, I talk with Beth about taking the car to CarMax. Again, for some strange reason, the word "title" enters my mind. Damn it! So the title to the car is packed in the front of the truck and I need to sell the thing.

So she calls CarMax to see if we can still sell the car without the title. Absolutely they said. We just send the title when we get to NC, and they'll send us the check. Again, this is not my fault.

And then, it started raining. I'm in Apollo Beach way South of Tampa and CarMax is on Bearss, way North of Tampa. When it rains in Tampa, the roads pretty much shut down.

So I finally get there around 4:30, and the nice sales guy Allen would be more than happy to buy the car off me. We get the appraisal which of course was nowhere near what the car is worth and get ready to do the paperwork. I bring up the issue of the title. Allan basically says, "I don't know who told you that but we absolutely can not buy your car without the title. But, the tax office is two exits down I-275 and if you can get there by 5:00, you can get a copy of your title". It was 5:10.

The plan for Friday:

8:00 AM Final walkthough with buyers
9:00 AM Sign closing documents at title agency
10:00 AM Get dulplicate title from tax office
10:30 AM Complete sale to CarMax
11:00 AM Depart for Charlotte.
9:00 PM Arrive in Charlotte.

Actual events on Friday

8:20 AM Buyers arrive for walkthrough
9:15 AM Arrive for signing documents
10:00 AM Depart for tax office
10:20 AM Realize key to car is in truck at title company
10:40 AM Get key from truck
11:00 AM Wait in line at tax office
11:45 AM Get duplicate title
12:00 PM Arrive at CarMax
1:30 PM Receive check from CarMax
2:00 PM Return to truck.
2:10 PM Beth steps in ant pile, highly allergic.
2:59 PM Abort trip crosses my mind.
3:00 PM Depart for Charlotte.
3:00 AM Arrive in Charlotte.

Stupid car. I know, had I just listened to Beth we wouldn't have had to deal with all of that. But I loved that car. I didn't want to sell it. It absolutely broke my heart to see the CarMax guy drive it into the back lot. I've had it for 5+ years, 110,000 miles and probably could have given me 100,000 more. A car like that is unreplacable.

Unless, it's replaced by brand new 2007 Toyota 4Runner.

If Michigan beats Ohio State in the National Championship game, but Ohio State plays really well and keeps it close, should they split the National Title?

From ESPN.com....

Already eligible
Boston College (7-1), Clemson (7-2), Georgia Tech (6-2), Maryland (6-2), Virginia Tech (6-2), Wake Forest (7-1).

On the bubble
Florida State (4-4), Miami (5-3).