Jets Monopolize Titans

Our Jets completely monopolized this week's game against the Titans, the NFL's only remaining undefeated team, giving us our fifth straight game and a tie for second place in the AFC.

Speaking of monopoly, the Jets Collectors Edition monopoly game is at the top of my Christmas wish list. The game pieces include Jets helmet, quarterback, linebacker, football, referee's whistle and hot dog.

Can't wait for Sunday's Thanksgiving home game. J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets.

GLHS headed to the state championship!

Max Machado, in his third interception of the afternoon, and third takeaway in the fourth quarter, secured Governor Livingston's 32-28 decision over over Summit with 20 seconds remaining in the game.

The senior quarterback/cornerback also threw two touchdown passes as Gov. Livingston (7-3), earned its second championship-game appearance in school history and its first since a 24-0 loss to New Providence in the 1989 North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 title game.

See you at Giants Stadium on 12/5 where Chrissy and the cheerleading squad will root for GL's first state football title.

Meet the Parents

This weekend, we flew to Charlotte to spend an early Thanksgiving with Conrad's family. We arrived Friday afternoon and checked into our suite at the Marriott. Unfortunately, Chrissy's bag had been tagged to Cleveland instead and her belongings did not arrive until the next morning.

We headed over to the Honeycutt's home on TPC Piper Glenn golf course for cocktails and dinner. TPC, a lush par 72, 6,853 yard course designed by Arnold Palmer, is also an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for its commitment to environmental quality by meeting required standards for protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and providing wildlife habitat.

Con and I instantly plotted 18 holes on Saturday morning, however the weather, an unseasonably cold 38 degrees, did not cooperate. After a lovely dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

UNC Charlotte Tour

Saturday we toured UNC Charlotte, Conrad's alma mater and a potential school for Chrissy. One of the interesting sights was the monument at left, representing a giant quill. Much to our amusement, Chrissy and most of the other students on the tour were clueless as to what a quill actually was!

Conrad barely recognized the campus from his days as a Tarhill defensive tackle. In the 25 years since Conrad's graduation, UNC Charlotte has grown from a school with 9,000 students to one with a student body of 21,600 people who are pursuing a wide range of doctorates, master’s and undergraduate degrees.

In 2013, the Charlotte campus will be home to a new Division 1 football team. Not soon enough for Chrissy, though, who has her heart set on cheering in 2009.

Happy Birthday Conrad

After many months of research, my gift to Con was the Bose wireless surround system. Con was thrilled with the state of the art home entertainment system, free of ugly, cumbersome wires. We agreed to defer our installation until the weekend when we could set aside "30 minutes [to perform the] three easy installation steps".

On Saturday morning we eagerly unpacked the boxes only to find a multitude of connector cables and wires. Naively, we assumed that Bose included these wires for customers with signal interference that prevented wireless transmission. But, after consulting the manual, we were still confused and called the Bose help desk, to be informed that the "wireless" capability separated the front and rear components, only, while all others were still connected by the traditional hard-wired connections.

Needless to say, the system went back to the store and until technologies develop a truly wire-free solution, we'll stick with the decent audio on our wide screen high def TV. Poor Con never did received his present.

44th President of the United States

"An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.

Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.

His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. " New York Times 11/5/08