I'e been holding this one in my back pocket for a while, and after watching football this weekend, I think it is time to pull it out. If you don't know the story of Ike Ditzenberger, you're about to get the Reader's Digest version. Ike has Downs syndrome, and he played football for Snohomish High School; determined to play at the college level. ( Read more... )

I managed to make it nearly eleven months without taking a sick/personal day, but the weather did me in. I made it home Monday night and vowed to not set foot outside untiI I could see the ground again. So I puttered around Tuesday, whiling away the hours, reflecting on how if I didn't live on a hill, I might at least have a crack at driving. I was ( Read more... )

This year, for my annual Thanksgiving blog post, I decided to play Alphabetics, and come up with one thing that I'm thankful for that starts with every letter of the alphabet. I suggest you do the same thing too. Sure, Allen Ludden isn't going to give you $5,000 for it, but it will give you a good chance to go over what good things you have going ( Read more... )

While in the line at my local Top Foods, my eye wanders and I find myself idling looking at the magazines that line the checkout corridors. As soon as I began, I was regretting it. First on my foray into the depths of banality was Kim Kardashian whining about how by thirty years old, she thought she'd be married by now. My heart, it bleeds. The ( Read more... )

For about four months, my Sunday is taken up by football. The pre-show, the Seahawks game, and then the post-game. Since this is all on the radio, I'm able to do other stuff, but I enjoy the game and have something to look forward to. I'm listening to the game, and Seattle is hanging on by a fingernail to the dreadnought New Orleans Saints, when  ( Read more... )

One of the first things that my stepmother did after joining our newly minted family was to put a little pewter tankard under the downstairs phone. It was the Fair Jar. Anytime either my ster or I said "That's Not Fair!" we were fined a quarter. And at that age, a quarter was damn good money. It didn't matter how cruelly we were wronged, if the ( Read more... )

Some years ago when I was working a soul-sucking retail job, I was asked to do an extra task that really put my priorities in life into focus. The register manager approached me and said "would you go clean out one of the men's room stalls?" She didn't point out which one, which tells me it will be completely apparent which one. I will not bother ( Read more... )

As a youth, I had three representations of baseball for someone who had no skill in the real deal. I had a dartboard where the various colors were worth moving up so many bases. I had All-Star Baseball, where you'd take real life players and put their disks into a spinner, and using their lifetime statistics, you could play a simulated game. I also ( Read more... )

I don't believe in "karma" or "what goes around comes around. I've seen too many people I care about wrecked by incredible personal tragedy, and I've seen too many loathsome people have fortune smile upon them. That said, I have been laughing at the tribulations of Jennifer Petkov ever since she made the news for being a dink ( Read more... )

When it comes to the Four Loko story in this area, I'm really conflicted. I absolutely loathe alcohol. Whenever I try to drink it, I end up doing it wrong and it tastes remarkably like ass. I also don't like the idea of losing control, and since I don't drink, I don't know how high a bar that is. I also know that there are hundreds of people who ( ( Read more... )