Snow

Although not sure it was classified as a blizzard, we had quite a snowy weekend. Minneapolis-St. Paul area received the most snow in a single December day since records began in the late 19th century. My guess is we got 15-16" between Friday night and Sunday morning. With the heavy winds, drifts were a big issue. Snow on our deck piled up such that it covered the lower parts of our dining room windows.

Basically, we barely left the neighborhood, and spent most of the time in the house, kids included. Fortunately, our two "events" this weekend were both neighbor parties.

Honking my horn

Wednesday Dec 8 Blog Post:"we got the Dolphins next, there's an easy division win." Guess what buddy, your Jets are 10th overall, Dolphins are 11th. On that same weighted basis, Dolphins are 3 spots ahead of you! Good luck on that one.

Miami 10, J-E-T-S 6

New prediction: Jets will be fighting for their playoff lives in week 17, a game against the lowly (but revitalized) Bills.

Imagine

Pats - Jets

I could not be happier about a single football game that did not have Roman numerals following it. I was so sick of the Jets pre-game talk. The Jets are a 6-6 team masquerading as 9-3. Including the results of this past week, Football Outsiders ranks the Jets at best the 10th in football, and on a weighted basis (giving more weight to the nearest games, and less to the earlier games) are 13th. Their Estimated Wins (a statistic that emphasizes consistency in the most important specific situations: red zone defense, first quarter offense, and performance in the second half when the score is close the projects a number of wins adjusted to a league-average schedule) estimates that the Jets should be 7-5. FO also ranks the Jets defense 7th (10th weighted), and most of that is based on their ability against the run. The are below average against the pass.

So, it was quite satisfying to watch this past Monday Night Football game. It was only made better watching this:



Best line to be eaten later, "we got the Dolphins next, there's an easy division win." Guess what buddy, your Jets are 10th overall, Dolphins are 11th. On that same weighted basis, Dolphins are 3 spots ahead of you! Good luck on that one.

So great

Ahead of the very interesting NE/NYJ matchup, this video shows just how great a coach Belichick is.



Love the exchange with Vinatieri at the end too.

V-Mart Closed

Red Sox let Victor Martinez sign with the Tigers for a 4-year $50mm contract. No brainer in my opinion. Martinez was a short term solution to the Sox lack of power. There's no way Martinez was going to fit into the Sox scheme for the next four years. He's 33 now, and not likely catching for the next four years. I do like this little nugget out of ESPN:

"Martinez is a Type A free agent, meaning the Red Sox will receive the Tigers’ No. 1 pick (No. 19 overall) and a first-round “sandwich” pick (a pick that will come after the regular first round and before the second round). Next June’s draft class is anticipated to be very strong, and the ’11 draft may be the last in which the Sox will be able to employ their very successful strategy of paying above slot in later rounds for premium talent that dropped because of contract demands."

As an added benefit, maybe it means Varitek is coming back.

Student Council

I forgot to mention, but Emily was elected Student council Rep for the third grade.

Click "Student Council" for link

Everyone note that Jerry Brown is not responsible!

Political statement absurdities are always abundant. However, this statement recently caught my attention.

From Bloomberg:

"Nov. 12-- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, citing a $25.4 billion budget gap over the next 19 months, declared a fiscal emergency and called lawmakers to a special session next month to begin dealing with the problem.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican whose term ends in January, late yesterday ordered the session to start Dec. 6, the day newly elected legislators are sworn in....

By Jan. 10, Governor-elect Jerry Brown, a Democrat who will be sworn in Jan. 3, must propose a plan to erase the next year’s deficit... “This special session underscores the enormous challenges facing the state,” Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown, said yesterday in a statement. “While the governor-elect did not create this fiscal crisis, he and his transition team will continue the work they started after election day, collaborating with administration and department of finance officials, the legislative analyst’s office, legislators, and others to address California’s budget problems.”

Wow! Didn't create it, huh? Really? A man who's last two jobs were State Attorney General, and Mayor of Oakland since 1999 and doesn't take office until January 2011, didn't create the state's financial crisis? NO ****!?!?! Why? Why preface your official public statement with such an obvious fact, but for the ability to START your term telling everyone, "it's not my fault!"

Consider this my official statement (I unfortunately, do not have a spokesperson ... yet):

"While Mr. Moore is not a resident nor governing official of the state, and thereby in no way responsible for the California fiscal crisis, he will make every effort to stimulate the California economy when there."

Halloween & Couple other random

Our "Zombie" Fairies - whatever that means

The neighborhood Trick or Treat crew

Emily's class pumpkins - we won it at Octoberfest


Leftover Disney picture

Katie's Sushi dessert - candy made with Rice Krispy treats, fruit roll-ups, Swedish fish, gummy worms and chocolate "soy" sauce.

Jobs for a brighter and more prosperous future

Solyndra is a solar panel manufacturing company in California. One of the few remaining U.S. solar operations. As reported by the Oakland Tribune, "the company's fortunes sparkled in September 2009, when the Obama administration announced $535 million in taxpayer loans to finance construction of a new solar-equipment factory. In December 2009, the company filed for an initial public offering of its stock expected to raise $300 million. In May, Obama toured the Solyndra facilities in Fremont." He touted how he was visiting a facility that was, "actually doing extraordinary work of building up America." He also gave "credit to those in the back, who are building the facility so we can put more people back to work and build more solar panels." He follows on with, "It's here with companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future... We need to build a foundation built on growth... Go back to making things...go back to exports. The engine will always be companies like Solyndra."

Grrrreeeeat. The problem here is that we can provide loans and grants (which BTW are very difficult to get) so that we can tout a "Green industry" that provides "jobs for our future," but we don't have economic policies and business policies that promote growth. My experience with one Massachusetts solar company is that the government loves to talk about green jobs and developing at-home technology manufacturing, but does very little about it.

Well, it was announced Wednesday that Solyndra (which dumped its IPO plans not long after Obama walked out their doors) is scrapping its expansion plans at that same Freemont facility (which was to provide 1,000 new jobs), is closing another U.S.-based factory, and laying off 250-350 workers.

Why? Because it can't compete with the manufacturers in China who can provide the same (or better) solar panels for substantially less cost.

So thanks for that.