Nice...

Tebow

Did you eat or drink too much?!? (Kind of a rhetorical question...)

This will help. Well, maybe it will help.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Yesterday's Decorations

The Playmaker made the short turkey. The tall Indian was made by The Playmaker's Sister last year.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Yesterday's Gravy

This was money. And we had nothing to do with it. The Wife whipped it up.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Yesterday's Bird

Turkey, 8.0...The chef's seating card

Card made by The Playmaker's Sister -- including Shrinky Dink Eagles helmet and Daddy label!

Turkey, 7.0...High heat for 30 minutes

Yanked after 30 minutes @ 500 degrees...

Breast covered in foil and back in the oven @ 350 degrees...

Turkey, 6.0...Almost ready

A mixture of butter and oregano under the skin on the breast, with olive oil and a special spice on the skin...

Lemons for inside the turkey...

Digital thermometer inserted (and set for 161 degrees), the turkey is ready for the oven...

Turkey, 5.0...Out of the brine to air dry

9 AM today, after the 12 hour brine...

Into the fridge to air dry for 2 hours...
(It ensures a crispy skin...)

Turkey, 4.0...The 12 hour brine

Bathing in the brine...

Aerial view...

Into the fridge for 12 hours...

Turkey, 3.0...The brine boxes

The Playmaker's Sister's

The Playmaker's

The Playmaker's acrostic poem about Thanksgiving

Turkey, 2.0...The book of secrets

This Bad Boy is one of our most prized possessions. It contains notes, anecdotes and recipes used during Thanksgiving and Christmas since 2004. Every year we refer to it. Every year we add to it.

Yesterday, we used it to concoct the brine. Today, we referred to it for air drying the turkey after its brine bath. Most importantly, it contains the almighty turkey roasting directions from the last two years...years when the turkey was absolutely fantastic.

Turkey, 1.0...Guilt free eating

We humped the elliptical bright and early at 5:30 this morning. 131 carbs burned?!? Wow! Of course, that equals, like, four pieces of kielbasa.

Happy Thanksgiving

Great stuff...

Thanksgiving is, probably, the best day of the year. It requires no gifts, no worry of disrespecting the PC crowd with an innocent remark of, "Merry Christmas!" No, it just involves food (lots of it), football and a multi-day break from work. (When the day is done, you still have three more days off to enjoy.) Oh, yeah. And it leads into the Christmas season.

How great is that?!? Seriously, how great is that?!?

So tomorrow we will do our annual Turkey Day Stuff. Get up early and hump the elliptical a few minutes longer than normal. Shower and then take the family out to breakfast. Once home, The Kids and The Mrs. will make and bake chocolate chip bars, while we prep the turkey.

Actually, it will be two turkeys this year. We went out last week and scored a great deal on a turkey fryer. So we will be frying a 14 pound bird (in less than an hour, as it takes just 3 minutes per pound). In the oven, we will be roasting a 22 pound monster.

Football will be watched. Beverages will be consumed. Snacks will be had. More football will be watched. And, finally, turkey will be ingested.

And it will be good.

Stay safe tonight and come back tomorrow for real time turkey updates, including (maybe) a video of the turkey frying.

Juan Castro: The Answer!

Just kidding. (But he is better than Eric Bruntlett!)

Let us share our Fantasy with you...

We crushed our over-matched opponent in Fantasy Football yesterday, 121-84. Ricky Williams (30), Drew Brees (25), Ryan Grant (19) and Mike Sims-Walker (15) led the scoring parade. We are now 7-4 and tied for first place in our division. In the Power Rankings, we are ranked 4th out of 12 teams.

Food for thought...

A wise man doesn't need advice and a fool won't heed it...

Turkey Trial Run...

Almost Libation Time...

Sports updates...

Soccer: Team 801 had a 30 minute intrasqaud scrimmage to end the season today. The Blue Team defeated the White Team, 5-3. The Playmaker led the way for the Blue, scoring 2 goals. In the much anticipated matchup between Team 801 and The World (AKA Team 801's family members), The World won by an estimated score of 10-3. And yes, The Head Ball Coach went Beckham and scored 2 goals.

Basketball: 90 minutes after soccer, The Playmaker's Sister had her second hoops practice of the season. During the intrasquad scrimmage, her Red Team beat the White Team, 14-8. The Playmaker's Sister had 6 points (on 3-4 shooting). Since there were only eight girls at practice, The Playmaker got a chance to get some run and dropped in a deuce from about 7 feet.

Saturday To-Do List...

1. 8 AM Final soccer Saturday of the fall -- The moms, dads, brothers and sisters are taking on Team 801, the league champs.

2. 11 AM Basketball practice for The Playmaker's Sister -- Two people scored in last week's practice game. And one of them was The Playmaker. Hmm...

3. 12 PM Ohio State at Michigan -- We'll go (way) out on a limb and say Michigan will pull the upset.

4. 3Pm - 5PM The Playmaker is going to a birthday party -- Secretly, he would rather stay home and watch college football with The Head Ball Coach.

5. 5:30 PM Dinner and (lots of) drinks at Captain Ray's -- Keep it real, son. Know what I mean?!?

You two keep it real. Know what I mean, son?!?

I could defeat you if it came to a physical confrontation...

WTF -- Why the face?!?

I'm the cool dad...

Fantasies & Flags...

Last week was "crazy busy," as we had three rounds conferences at school. This week has been almost as hectic, as we had to calculate and then enter first term grades for 130 kids. Having put both of those hurdles in our review mirror, we are now catching our breath. As such, here are the football updates:

Fantasy Football -- Let us just say as much as we loved Dallas Clark for saving our ass week 2 with 24 points on a Monday night, we now despise him that much. We entered Sunday night's Colts-Patriots game trailing by 9 points. All we needed was Clark to get us 10 points against the Pats. Our other tight end, Brent Celek of the Eagles, would have given us...wait for it...10 points had we played him. But we chose to sit him in favor of Clark. Of course, Coach Bill was smart enough to take away Clark and hold him to 4 catches for 65 yards (6 points), yet dumb enough to go for it on 4th and 2 from his own 29 yard line. Who knew?!? So we lost by 3 points. Cripes.

Flag Football -- Your Flag Football Cardinals closed out their season with two victories last week to end the season 13-1. Thursday they got revenge against the Eagles (the only team to beat them), with a 35-0 beatdown. The Playmaker had one catch for 12 yards. On defense he guarded the other team's best player and held him to zero (zero!) catches. The kid did have one rushing attempt, but The Playmaker darted in and yanked his flag in the end zone for what would have been a safety in regular football. Last Tuesday, the Cardinals stomped their opposition, 42-21. The Playmaker had two touchdown receptions. The second one was, perhaps, his best catch of the year. We had the ball on about the 15 yard line and it was fourth down. After scanning the field and finding mass congestion in the end zone, The Head Ball Coach noticed The Playmaker open just a smidge. For some reason there were two defenders on him and the opening was mere inches. With no other options, The Head Ball Coach threw the ball as hard as John Elway he could to get it into the tight quarters. The Playmaker calmly caught the ball in his arms (the velocity was too great to attempt the catch with his hands) for the score. It was a D-1 catch, to be sure. On defense, the highlight of his night came just before halftime. On the final play of the half the other team completed a short pass and the receiver eluded his man and darted down the sideline for a sure-to-be momentum building score. The Playmaker was on the opposite sideline, but sprinted diagonally across the field to attempt to cut the kid off from the end zone. As he was just behind the receiver at the 10 yard line, he realized he could not get his hands on the flag. So he did the ultimate next best thing. He simply Bulldogged, errrr, tackled the kid to the ground. Classic. Frigging classic. Luckily, as the kid's body slammed to the turf, the force dislodged one of his flags. The Playmaker got up and held up the flag -- which is what the kids are supposed to do. No one said anything about the tackle.

Three & Out...

1. When did Coach Bill get all stupid and turn into Andy Reid?!? Good gawd, man, what the hell were you thinking going for it in your own end on 4th & 2 with two minutes and change left in the game?!? That is the single dumbest non-Andy Reid-or-Donovan McNabb-thing we have ever seen. Cripes.

2. Don't worry, Fat Andy is still the reigning idiot! Third and goal from San Diego's one yard line, Fat Andy decides to give the ball to Eldra Buckley. You are probably asking, "Who the hell is that?!?" Just know that he has zero touchdowns this year. Of course, he got stuffed. And on fourth down, Fat Andy called on David Akers to kick a field goal.

3. ESPN's 24 hour college basketball marathon?!? Oh, to be young again. Hell, oh to be in college again. Were we still on campus, we're guessing we would not be attending classes tomorrow (shocker!). And, most likely, a keg of beer and some red cups would be involved morning, afternoon and evening. Yes, morning.

Hmm...

Best we can do...

Not sure what this says about us, but of the nine shows listed, we watch only one faithfully (The Office). Depending on who's playing, we will watch Sunday Night Football (well, until we fall asleep and The Wife takes the clicker). The other seven?!? We never (never!) watch. (We gave up on Desperate Housewives two years ago.)

North Jersey is NOT the Jersey Shore...

These people are gross. Thank gawd they don't travel South on The GSP.

Wow...

He can't shoot, dribble or pass. But, man, can Iggy dunk.

Veterans' Day

Fantasy...

Our Eagles lost to Dallas (just reinforcing our stance that they will never win anything as long as Andy Reid and D-McNabb are running the show), but our Fantasy Team came up with a huge (huge!) win. We compiled our highest output of the year in crushing our opponent 121-81. We are now 6-3 (second best record in the league). There were plenty of points to go around. To wit: Larry Fitz (24), Mike Sims-Walker (20), Drew Brees and Ryan Grant (15 each), Denver's D (13), David Akers (12), Brent Celek and Ricky Williams (9 each) and Jeremy Maclin (4). Equally impressive was only leaving 24 points on the bench. (Dallas Clark and Shady McCoy each had 11.)

Monday Links...

Update on HS baller who is skipping senior year to play for pay in Israel!

Coach Barry Greener?!?

Is this the worst OU team of the decade?!?

Three & Out...

1. Fantasy Football! After leaving 46 points on the bench last week in the form of three Eagles (Shady McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek), we have two of them in the lineup today -- Maclin and Celek, in place of free agent reject Torry Holt and Dallas Clark. We are currently 5-3, so today is a big game.

2. College Football! That non-interception call that went against LSU in yesterday's showdown with Alabama was an utter joke. It's not our style to criticize, but The Fix was in to get Bama into the SEC Championship against Florida. And then The Fix will be in to get Tim Tebow into the National Championship.

3. Flag Football! Your Flag Football Cardinals won last Thursday, 35-21. (We could have scored one more, but opted to run out the clock at the end.) The Playmaker had one catch for 15 yards and scored a touchdown on an end around from about 20 yards out. We are now 11-1 on the season.

Enjoy the weather and the football games!