no more bedhead

I'm posting this because I don't think it will ever happen again, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I have made it to #1 overall in my English Premier League fantasy league.

I've bopped around the standings in this 20 team league, ranging squarely in the middle for most of the season.  I started to creep up recently, going back and forth between #3 and #4 for a few weeks.  All of a sudden, I jumped up.  I noticed, after the first round of games this gameweek, that I was sitting in #1 position, barely.  Keeping my fingers crossed, there was one game left - Man City vs. Wigan.  I have one player from Wigan in my reserves, and the #2 guy has one player from Man City on his team - Carlos Tevez - as his captain (double points).  I started the game yesterday ahead of him by 12 points.   I knew that if Tevez played the whole game that would be 2 points (4), and if he scored two goals that would be another 6 points (12), and I would be back in second place.

The first half went well, with a 0-0 draw.  Then the second half.  Long story short, Tevez scored three goals.  Oh well.  I spent the rest of the day figuring that I was back in second.

Plot twist - I had picked Didier Drogba to be my captain, but he didn't play.  That meant that the captaincy automatically shifted to the next highest value player.  That player - Frank Lampard.  Turns out Lampard scored 4 goals and an assist, for a total of 28 points.  Since he became my captain, those points got doubled to 56, and I am still sitting in first place!!! (By 5 points, but I'll take it!)

Aaaaaaaaalllllllllll-batross!!!!

Here's the proof:

...well, we've already got a Eurovan and a New Beetle.  A hacksaw, an acetylene torch, and some duct tape and we can modernize this baby!!

Tonight was the Regional Spelling Bee.  This bee covered the four counties in our neck of the woods, and the participants were the winners of the school spelling bees from the area.  As I mentioned earlier, Beenie was one of those participants.

Sixty-nine spellers started the tournament, and Beenie was number 45, so we had to wait a while for him to spell.  In the first round, he spelled:

• metagnomy

which was pretty funny, as none of us had ever heard of that word before.  He did a fantastic job of asking for pronunciation, origin of word, sentence use, etc., and actually used those clues to determine how to spell the word.  I was impressed.

At the end of the first round, 48 spellers had been eliminated, so they started round two with 21 spellers.

Beenie's word was:

• liquefacient

another word I had never heard of.  Again, he used his questions wisely and figured out the ending correctly.  However, he didn't quite get the beginning of the word, substituting an 'i' for the 'e'.  In both the school bee and tonight, I was writing down the words as he was asked them, and I wrote down this one exactly the way he spelled it, so I would have been out, too.  It was a tricky one - do you go with "liquid" or "liquefy"?  Oh, well.

He said before the bee that his goals were to have fun, and to get through round one.  He succeeded on both counts!

So, after the second round, there were seven spellers left.  The first one spelled her word correctly, then all six others missed.  When she went to spell her "championship" word, she missed, too, so all seven spellers were brought back and the round done again.

Again, six spellers missed, and one got it correct.  When he tried the championship word, he missed.
In the next round, six spellers missed, and one got it correct.  Then he missed the championship word.
Once again, six spellers missed their words, and one got it correct.  This time, he spelled the championship word correctly and was named the winner.  The other six were declared co-runners up.

So, I say that Beenie made it to the penultimate round of the tournament, because everyone else left standing at the end of the round in which he was eliminated were named winners.

It was a great experience for Beenie, and for us.  It was a lot of fun to see it in action, and the difference in difficulty of words between the school level and regional level was noticeable.

Edit 3/7: Beenie just pointed out that I spelled a word incorrectly in this blog post.  Good start for next year!  (I fixed it.)

After coming in second two years in a row (link), Beenie finally won the middle school spelling bee!!!!  I'm so excited and happy for him - especially because this means that he gets to compete in the Regional Spelling Bee, the winner of which gets to go to Washington, DC, for the big Scripps Spelling Bee finals!!!

However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have heart failure along the way.  Here's what happened:

The words he spelled:

• calibration
• examine
• consonant
• denominator
• scruple
• oblige
• patience
• palatable

At this point, it was down to a final group of three.  The other two spellers missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

• enfranchise

Now, by the rules of the spelling bee, he had to spell one more "championship" word to win.  His word was:

•  circuitous

and, he missed it. So, what that means is that all the spellers from the previous round come back, and we do it again.  The two others missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

•  omniscient

Then, for the championship word:

• analgesia

And, he missed it again. So, we did it one more time. The other two missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

• vengeance

Then for the championship word:

• photosynthesis

And, he got it!!!  I was an absolute nervous wreck during the championship word rounds.  I'm sure I was more nervous than he was - or at least than he appeared to be.

So, he got a big honkin' trophy, and he's on his way to the regionals in a month!

It's a little old, but it's making the rounds again. And I just love this video. Enjoy!

I saw these today and I would so totally buy each one if someone were producing them.



Image from johnonolan

Here's the blog post where I saw it.  Good collection of shirts besides these.

This has been around for about 14 months.  I can't believe I hadn't seen it until today.  16 minutes, but worth it.  Smile!

Two years ago today my wife brought home The Dog.  I think my reaction to The Dog have been well documented. But, in the spirit of generosity, and seeing how it is the Christmas season, I would like to say something nice about The Dog.

I like riding around town with the dog in the car.  He sits in the passenger seat and looks out the front window.

There.  That's all you're getting.

High School Football in Massillon, as told by All Things Considered.