Not much toil or trouble, actually

Alma, taking a page from my dad's book, couldn't wait until the ninth to give me at least one of my "thirdiversary" presents, so she gave it to me tonight: a make-your-own bubble tea kit. She kept on telling me how much I was going to like it (until I had to tell her, "Stop overhyping it!"), but of course she was right. Although she cooked the first batch of pearls; we'll see what happens when I'm boiling them up myself at home. They have all kinds of syrups and powders you can get for flavor, but I think it's probably healthier just to make yourself a real fruit smoothie and get some pearls into it. (I did that tonight with frozen raspberries and it was plenty delicious, although incredibly full of seeds.)

Considering how often I stop in at Boba Bee these days, this is a nice alternative to have. I mean, you can get 90 servings' worth of pearls for 13 bucks, which will buy you three or four bubble teas at retail price, so... mmmmmmm. I wonder if Alma realizes she's created a monster.

Feliz Navidad

So the Bowl Challenge is off to a hot start. Currently JQ and I are tied at 5-2, and then there's a big group at either 3 or 4 correct picks, so it's still on. Unless you're NU Dave; I think my new rule for making picks is going to be wait for his to come in, then take the opposite for every game. I'm teasing of course, but damn, 0-7? That is a major confluence of bad luck picking. There are quite a few bowls coming up where he picked with the majority, so odds are he gets off the schneid soon, but wow. Previous long 0-fer to start a Challenge? 0-2. So congratulations, Dave - you may not win the Challenge, but you've made your way into history, however ignominiously.

"Back" in DC for Christmas, which is tomorrow. It's been pretty laid back, which is just as well, since work was stressful as hell for the second half of last week. I miss Alma, though.

Business: does anyone out there like Camera Obscura? They're playing Logan Square Auditorium on February 3. I actually know nothing about them besides the name and an album title, but they're playing with the Essex Green, whom I love. (And if you're wondering why I didn't just ask about the Essex Green, I figured you'd be much less likely to have heard of them, unless you are Marc Hogan or someone I told about them.) I suspect Alma isn't all that interested (our musical tastes don't have a huge amount of overlap) so possible company would be appreciated. (If Alma does end up wanting to go, well, even better.) Let me know in the comments.

Bowl challenge lineup

It's a bit late to put up everyone's picks, even if the first game is already over (if you had NIU... sorry). I'll try and get them up tomorrow, but until then, here's who you're competing against for a small token of my esteem to be determined (in order of picks received):

Me
Dad
NJ Dave
Stan
Rud
Tyler
Drew
JQ
NU Dave
Rich

A healthy field considering nothing is officially at stake, I think (the token of my esteem could potentially be pocket lint, after all). Good luck to all!

Bowl-a-Rama

In answer to the couple people who have asked, the BigFlax.com College Bowl Challenge is making its triumphant return for yet another year. Once again I will not require an entry fee (since I wouldn't get half of them anyway), but the winner will receive a small token of my esteem (to be determined).

To enter, simply send your pick for the winner in each of 32 bowls - PLUS YOUR TIEBREAKER SCORE FOR THE TITLE GAME (someone always forgets this, so here it is in bold type; please don't make me hound you for it) - to bigflax (at) gmail (dot) com by 6 pm CST next Tuesday, December 19th (one hour prior to kickoff of the first game).

Those of you looking for a lineup of bowls from which to make your selections can find it here. You'll have to do your own research.

Any questions? Let me know in the comments. As usual, the contest is open only to people I know in at least some capacity (i.e. FOAFs are okay if you really want in, but no random strangers).

"Jason History: Giants lose ace to rival Dodgers"

Tyler and I make it a game of trying to guess the lame, often pun-based headlines on ESPN.com to accompany various major sports stories. I actually nailed one exactly a couple weeks ago, though regrettably I've already forgotten what it was.

Anyway, today Jason Schmidt, probably second-best in a middling class of free agent pitchers, signed with the Dodgers (only the biggest rival of Schmidt's old team). ESPN, in their infinite wisdom, chose the headline "Schmidt Happens in L.A." Hey, ESPN: did it occur to you that with a last name like Schmidt, this guy has probably had to put up with jokes like this for the last 30-plus years? Way to rub it in his face. With that in mind, I tapped my secret contacts at ESPN and discovered that there were actually a number of similar headlines that the Worldwide Leader considered, but rejected, to lead the story:

"Know Schmidt? Dodgers Do"

"Schmidt Bullish on Dodgers"

"Dodgers In Deep with Schmidt"

"Dodgers Jack Schmidt from Giants"

"Schmidt Out of Luck in San Francisco"

"Taking a Schmidt: Dodgers steal rival's ace"

"Money Talks, J-Schmidt Walks"

"Dodgers Have Schmidt Where They Eat"

"Schmidt Happy as a Pig with New Contract"

"No More Schmidt-Talking in Bay Area"

"Giants Up Schmidt Creek Without a Pitcher"

God, how does he *always* know?

Winter has a knack for showing up like clockwork every December 1, like its alarm clock went off and it suddenly realized it was late for work. This year's edition of the Two Days Ago It Was 60 Degrees show saw a blizzard whomp Chicago. I was staying at Alma's up north and ended up being so snowed in (by about a foot of snow) that I couldn't get to the Metra and eventually had to miss work. That's always pretty embarrassing, because there's really no such thing as a snow day once you're out of high school. I'm going to end up going in either tomorrow or Sunday (preferably tomorrow, but we'll see just how badly I got plowed in and how easy it is to dig out, especially if the snow freezes up overnight) to make up the time, which is always fun.

The annoying thing was expending all this energy trying to dig the car out and just failing miserably. I'd dig out the wheels, try and dig out the space into which I was planning on driving, and then get back in the car - and then I might go two feet and the whole process had to start again. It was a big-time losing battle, considering that there was no fewer than about six inches of snow on the ground in the parking lot and sometimes more where the plows had pushed it up during their first pass some hours before. I ended up having to dig the car out just to get it back into the space from which I had been trying to extract it. Bad, bad times. I've been inside for the past thirteen hours and my pants still aren't totally dry.

You have to expect weather like this when you live in Chicago, and I've dealt with worse (although honestly, it rarely has been this bad for the first snow of the year, the October 14 non-stick aberration notwithstanding), but coming so soon after the balmy weather of midweek (I was able to wear my Man City windbreaker to work on Wednesday!) it was a real kick in the butt.