For many years, I've been doing ESPN's Pigskin Pickem' game just for fun. OK, one year I did so well that I came in 4th out of nearly 200,000 entries. And what did I get for fourth place? The same thing I got for finishing in second place in many of my fantasy baseball leagues this year. ZERO! Every week, I do one "straight up" entry where you just try to pick the winners, and another where you try to pick "against the spread."
For those of you who don't know anything about "the spread" what it basically means is that Las Vegas sets a gambling "line" for football game, making team a "favorite" and the other team the "underdog." What you try to do in ESPN's game is pick the team which is either going to "cover the spread" or the team that will "beat the spread." For example, let's say the Colts are 7 point favorites over the Patriots. The Colts win 16-13, so while they won the game by 3 points, they didn't cover the 7 point spread. To get the game right, you would have had to pick the Colts not to cover.
Now I'm not much of a gambler - OK, I really don't like to gamble at all actually though a friendly small stakes game of "Texas Hold 'Em" amongst friends is always fun. Anyways, this week I correctly picked 12 of the 14 games against the spread in Week 9's NFL games! That's pretty good... ok, that's REALLY good! So which two games did I get wrong? The Jaguars were tied for the third biggest favorite this week as 7 1/2 point favorites against the "Bungles" in Cincinnati. An underrated Jaguar team, a winless Bengals team without their starting QB and #85 playing more like "Ocho Stinko" than Chad Johnson... it seemed like the Jaguars were a good bet to cover. So what happens? "Ocho Cinco" makes a surprise appearance scoring TWICE and the Bengals not only beat the spread, they win the game outright 21-19!!!... My only other misstep this week was taking the Texans to lose by less than 4 1/2 points against the Vikings in Minnesota. The Vikings behind three touchdown passes from QB Gus Frerotte (not to be confused with "Gus Frerotten") won 28-21 to cover the spread by 2 1/2 points.
Yes, I was thisclose to perfection this week.
-----
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Monday, November 3, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Life Can Be So Random...
... it seems like lately I'm running into people I know in the most unexpected places. I don't know about you, but this kind of thing always puts a big smile on my face, especially when it's someone who has in some way (even if it's a small one) had a positive impact in my life.
A couple of months ago I ran into a friend of mine from my church (Cornerstone Community) in Simi Valley at my gym in Thousand Oaks. Given it takes about 15-20 minutes to get from one place to the other, seeing her pretty smile at the gym was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise as I just assumed she lived in Simi. Apparently, there are many of us who live in Thousand Oaks and happen to make this particular church in Simi our home.
And then there's tonight. I went to church in Simi and after the service I noticed a girl who looked very familiar. The problem was that I was having trouble placing where I knew her from. After a few minutes it finally clicked with me - she worked at my local Best Buy in Thousand Oaks! The main reason I rememered her (asides from her stunning looks) was that she had outstanding customer service skills and always gave me service with a smile. I have to admit I thought so highly of her that I even filled out one of those customer service surveys one time, giving her a glowing review... So, I walked up to her and recounted a fond memory of there for both of us - the in-store Lifehouse concert from June of last year! What's funny is that I haven't been to Best Buy in literally forever. I actually thought about going there yesterday while out shopping to get a new memory card for my camera, wondering if she still worked there. It turns out she's not, but she's simply moved across the street to my favorite local sporting goods store - Big 5.
Speaking of concerts, this week I'm going to THREE Carrie Underwood shows in the course of five days starting Wednesday. It's gonna be fun!!! As per usual, lots of pictures will be coming provided I purchase that new memory card!
------
A couple of months ago I ran into a friend of mine from my church (Cornerstone Community) in Simi Valley at my gym in Thousand Oaks. Given it takes about 15-20 minutes to get from one place to the other, seeing her pretty smile at the gym was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise as I just assumed she lived in Simi. Apparently, there are many of us who live in Thousand Oaks and happen to make this particular church in Simi our home.
And then there's tonight. I went to church in Simi and after the service I noticed a girl who looked very familiar. The problem was that I was having trouble placing where I knew her from. After a few minutes it finally clicked with me - she worked at my local Best Buy in Thousand Oaks! The main reason I rememered her (asides from her stunning looks) was that she had outstanding customer service skills and always gave me service with a smile. I have to admit I thought so highly of her that I even filled out one of those customer service surveys one time, giving her a glowing review... So, I walked up to her and recounted a fond memory of there for both of us - the in-store Lifehouse concert from June of last year! What's funny is that I haven't been to Best Buy in literally forever. I actually thought about going there yesterday while out shopping to get a new memory card for my camera, wondering if she still worked there. It turns out she's not, but she's simply moved across the street to my favorite local sporting goods store - Big 5.
Speaking of concerts, this week I'm going to THREE Carrie Underwood shows in the course of five days starting Wednesday. It's gonna be fun!!! As per usual, lots of pictures will be coming provided I purchase that new memory card!
------
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
