Mishmash Musings

Although I’ve never really observed Grandparents Day in the past, I decided that this year would be different. I’m going to buy my mom a card and a gift, and then maybe organize an outing so she can spend the whole day with my son.

I haven’t quite decided what kind of present to get her, but am leaning towards a formal portrait of my son in one of those nice custom picture frames that really make the photo look great. Her whole house is already plastered with pictures of my son anyway, so I’m sure another one would be more than welcome.

Since Grandparents Day is next week, I’ve really got to move on this idea if I want to pull it off in time. Maybe take the photo tomorrow after school and try to get it framed by the end of the week. It’s definitely doable, right?

I’ve been shopping around for a sports watch to wear on a daily basis when I’m just lounging at home or running errands. All of the watches I own right now are expensive dress watches that look pretty ridiculous when paired with a t-shirt and sweats, so I want something a bit more casual (but still nice).

I saw this Festina Road Warrior while browsing online, and I think it is awesome! I’d never heard of Festina watches before today, but was pleased to learn that the company is very established and has a 100-year history of making higher-end sports watches.

Anyway, the Road Warrior is a bit out of my price range right now, but maybe I can ask for it for Christmas or my birthday. That means waiting a few more months of course, but from what I’ve read, the watch will be well worth it!

I usually don’t care much about the weather or hurricane warnings, but this whole Gustav situation has me positively riveted. I can’t believe that another massive storm is bearing down on New Orleans just a few years after Katrina devastated the city.

This time around, people seem to be taking the government warnings more seriously. There’s a mandatory evacuation in effect, all highway lanes have been rerouted to lead out of The Big Easy, and everyone’s acting with a sense of urgency.

I really hope Gustav doesn’t do major damage to New Orleans and that all these precautions turn out to err on the safe side. The region just wouldn’t be able to stand another massive natural disaster.

I was just reading up about the Carolina Panthers as part of my fantasy football draft research when I noticed they have a bunch of players out with injuries. Wide receiver Steve Smith recently suffered a concussion in a pre-season game, and DJ Hackett, Jason Carter, Chris Harris, and Chris Gamble also have various injuries, ranging from knee problems to muscle strains.

Hopefully the Panthers organization carries some good NC health insurance to get these guys healthy and back in the lineup in time for the season opener on September 7. Otherwise, I think that tough San Diego Chargers team will simply be too much for them.

Since most college teams around the country began play today, I guess I can safely come out and say that it’s football season! Football is by far my favorite sport, so even though the baseball season has been interesting with both the Cubs and White Sox doing well, I couldn’t wait for the end of August to get here so I’d have something to do on Saturdays and Sundays!

Football season for me means cool weather, weekends filled beer, chips, and pizza, and of course a bunch of smack talk with my friends about our fantasy teams. It means sitting out on friends’ decks to watch games through mid-November, and then huddling around their fire pits to watch games through the rest of November and December. It means wearing team apparel all weekend long, dwelling on wins or losses, and second-guessing fantasy decisions for the entire week.

In short, football season is my favorite time of year, so you better believe I’ll be a happy camper from now until February!

I’ve been playing fantasy football for several years now, but I’ve always just maintained one team in one league. This year, I decided to quit the league I usually play in because they have far too many teams now. I then joined a couple of free public leagues on Yahoo and ESPN. Soon one thing led to another with other friends calling me up to join, and now I find myself in 6 different fantasy leagues! Yes, s-i-x.

Even as a total football junkie, I feel this is a bit of overkill. With one team, I used to follow “my” players religiously, watching games that I wouldn’t otherwise tune into if someone on my roster was playing, etc. But with a total of five teams to keep track of (my sixth fantasy league is college pick ‘em), I doubt this is going to happen much. Maybe I’ll be able to do it after a few weeks when I see which of my teams will be worth following for the year, but at the beginning there’s no way I’ll be able to do it.

On the plus side, I have so many different players that it significantly cuts down on the stress factor. If one of my guys has a bad game, it’ll hurt one of my teams, but will inevitably end up helping another, so it will be a wash.

Well, we’ll see how having this many teams works out in the end. I’m sure by the midway point, I’ll just be making minimal roster changes in a few of my leagues while having a fighting chance in some others.

Either way, I’m still excited — at least at the beginning here!

Jerry has been wearing contacts for about 10 years now, and is thoroughly tired of the hassle that goes along with them. Between revising his prescription every year, going through gallons of cleaning solution, and always having irritated eyes, he’s had enough. That’s why he’s really been pushing for Lasik surgery lately.

I haven’t looked into Lasik much in recent years. I know I checked it out in-depth when the procedure first became widely available, but the cost was prohibitive back then and we didn’t have enough money to pursue that option.

Now, however, I’m sure we could manage somehow. We’ve got some savings, and Jerry’s Christmas bonus should be fairly sizable this year, so maybe he’ll be able to have the procedure in early 2009. I’m sure he’ll be happy to finally be done with contacts for good!

One thing I’ve noticed happening over the past few months is that our small group of regular friends isn’t having quite as many dinner outings as we used to. We used to go out to decent restaurants at least two or three times a month, and end up spending several hundred dollars between the six of us.

But now that everything costs more and people are not as secure with their employment status as before, we are just having these dinners at someone’s home or going out for small lunches on the weekends instead.

I’m as worried about finances as the next person, but I have to say that I’m getting very tired of giving up all my fun in life. I’ve never been one to go clubbing or to spend all my money drinking, so these restaurant outings were about all I had to look forward to in terms of socializing. Now that they’re not happening, I can’t help but feel a bit depressed.