Man every year I dread stupid fantasy football, and every year I get stuck doing it again.  I basically drop $100 to go show a bunch of people how comically little I know about football.  What a treat.  Some years I get it back though, and a few years actually come out ahead, but those are few and far between.  This year I doubled my misery by going down to the Brooksider Saturday afternoon and drafting Munkir’s team for him.  My motivation here was two-fold;  First, I wanted to help out a buddy in need, and second I wanted to get some good tips for my own draft which was later that night.  Those two items are not necessarily listed in order of importance, mind you.  I can say I was pretty happy with the way his team came out though;  It was better than my own anyway, mostly because he was third in line to pick and I was ninth.  I did have to sneak in the “Oh he’ll hate this pick” jab around the fourth or fifth round though, giving him Randy Moss, whom I’m sure he has already traded or dropped outright.  As for my brilliant idea to spend four hours of my afternoon picking up hot tips for my own draft?  Well, I laboriously typed all 150 picks into an Excel spreadsheet with any notes I thought pertinent, so I felt it was time very well spent.  When I got to my draft that evening, my stupid laptop wouldn’t start.  So, I ended up wasting my afternoon (except the moderate joy of the Randy Moss pick) and going into my own draft just as clueless as ever.

Sunday was spent cooking my fourth “practice” brisket.  Nothing new to report, which is good in that I think they are coming out a bit more consistent.  I went to a nice store to get this one though, where as the last three have come from good ol’ Costco.  I haven’t decided if it was worth the extra buck per pound yet, but I’m leaning towards “yes.”  Costco’s are fine, but it seems you can’t count on them having exactly what you want each time.  Kind of hit-and-miss on the size especially, which adds guess work to the cook time.  Martin kindly came over and judged it for me, although he didn’t reveal the actual numbers he gave me.  He takes that “Judges Code of Conduct” stuff a little too seriously if you ask me.  Something tells me that all this time spent practicing is going to end up much like my fantasy football “practice”;  A lot of time spent for more mediocre to low results.  That could just be my natural optimism shining through again though.

I ran into another moderately interesting item last week, which I had never seen before.  Now I must warn you, this part of the weekly update is mildly bawdy for my usual content, but I feel it is worthy of inclusion, mostly based on the sheer oddity of it.  I’m not quite sure how to broach the subject even.  You know those plastic round things that sit in the bottom of urinals?  I believe they are commonly referred to as “breath mints” or something.  Anyway, I’m not sure of their exact function, and to tell you the truth I’ve never put a lot of thought into the matter, but I have always assumed they have something to do with freshening the place up a bit.  Well, when I was down at the Brooksider last week I found that they “upgraded” these things to talking models.  No lie, they talk.  I don’t know what triggers them (it’s a little disturbing to think about) but I can say with all certainty that it is very unnerving when they start babbling.  You are just standing there minding your own business and the urinal starts lecturing you on the dangers of drinking and driving.  I even got into a rather animated argument with it Thursday;  “Hey buddy, I’m just here for a 1/2 price burger and a water, I don’t need any lip,” but it turns out they can’t be reasoned with.  They won’t shut up either, it just keeps going on.  Kind of breaks your concentration, if you know what I mean.  Just goes to show you the horrible ways that technology can be exploited these days.