Archive | December 2009

NFL Week 16 – Spring & The Prince’s Picks

The Prince and I both are picking the Titans in an upset over San Diego. Come on, it’s Christmas day; miracles can happen. I’ll be wearing my #28 Chris Johnson Jersey (I just love that kid, man he is good!)..who knows what luck may come our way!

The Prince is also making a bold upset pick with Detroit over the 49’ers. Who knows, he’s been right on weird upset picks before. Course he just told me that his picks are based on his favorite team, the Eagles, Ravens, Cardinals, Jags, Bengals…..basically all the animal teams are his favorite team. Though he is very partial to the Eagles. Not sure Momma who grew up with the Redskins is totally ok with that, but he’s cute; so what are ya gonna do.

So here are our basic party line picks for the week. Go Titans!!  Although I love my Redskins, I got burned on picking them last week from the heart. Even hoping can’t beat a better a team. So I’m ignoring my heart this week and picking…gag..do I have to say who.. No I don’t. I’m not picking my Skins this week and we’ll leave it at that.

Week 16
Fri, Dec 25  Spring’s Picks
The Prince’s Picks
SD @ TEN  Tennessee  Tennessee
Sun, Dec 27
TB @ NO  New Orleans  New Orleans
BUF @ ATL  Atlanta  Atlanta
DEN @ PHI  Philadelphia  Philadelphia
HOU @ MIA  Miami  Miami
SEA @ GB  Green Bay  Green Bay
CAR @ NYG  NY Giants  Carolina
OAK @ CLE  Oakland  Oakland
JAC @ NE  New England  Jacksonville
KC @ CIN  Cincinnati  Cincinnati
BAL @ PIT  Pittsburgh  Baltimore
STL @ ARI  Arizona  Arizona
DET @ SF  San Francisco  Detroit (upset pick)
NYJ @ IND  Indianapolis  Indianapolis
DAL @ WAS  Dallas  Dallas
Mon, Dec 28
MIN @ CHI  Minnesota  Minnesota

Byes: None
This entry was posted on December 24, 2009, in Sports - NFL.

NFL Week 15 – Spring & The Prince’s Results

Awe Man….the Saints lost. I can’t believe they lost. We are stuck with the void of Comcast in the boonies of the non-digital world, so we have no way of watching games on the NFL. But I’m hoping that they lost because they didn’t play their starters and they’re resting up for the playoffs. I’m crossing my fingers anyway. And Woohoo the Colts are still undefeated. I love when someone defies the odds. And I like Peyton; that boy not only has talent, he’s also got to be a great guy. Only someone with a healthy confident in themselves would play a part where they get laughed at in every commercial they’re in. And I love his commercials. I mean come’on, giving a mouth guard to a middle aged lady..that’s funny.

My Titans won. I’m so excited they won. And in overtime too! I kept waiting to see all the replay shows run the miraculous interception that bounced through several players hands before it wound up in the possession of the Titans, but no one seems to think that was kewl but me.

The surprise to me was the Panthers taking Minnesota. Brett’s front line seems to have crumbled here in the late part of the season. Where’s the protection for the pocket for goodness sake. I know they’re missing some guys, but the fill-ins are supposed to be professionals and should step in and show what they’ve got. Don’t they get it’s an opportunity to audition for a permanent spot?

Ok, enough of the review; here’s how the Prince and I ended up for the week. It was a 50/50 week for me. The 6 year old didn’t fair so well with his picks. But he tends to pick who ever I don’t pick. That works sometimes.

Week 15
Thu Dec 17  Spring’s Picks
 Spring’s Results
The Prince’s Picks
The Prince’s Results
IND @ JAC  Indianapolis  W – 35 / 31  Indianapolis  W
Sat, Dec 19
DAL @ NO  New Orleans  L – 24 / 17  New Orleans  L
Sun, Dec 20
CLE @ KC  Kansas City  L – 41 / 34  Kansas City  L
ATL @ NYJ  NY Jets  L – 10 / 7  NY Jets  L
MIA @ TEN  Tennessee  W – 24 / 27 OT  Miami  L
HOU @ STL   Houston  W – 16 / 13  St. Louis  L
NE @ BUF  New England  W – 17 / 10  Buffalo  L
ARI @ DET  Arizona  W – 31 / 24  Detroit  L
SF @ PHI  Philadelphia  W – 13 / 27  Philadelphia  W
GB @ PIT  Green Bay  L – 36 / 37  Pittsburgh  W
CHI @ BAL   Baltimore  W – 7 / 31  Baltimore  W
OAK @ DEN  Denver  L – 20 / 19  Denver  L
CIN @ SD  San Diego  W – 24 / 27  San Diego  W
TB @ SEA  Seattle  L – 24 / 7  Seattle  L
MIN @ CAR  Minnesota  L – 7 / 26   Carolina  W
Mon, Dec 21
NYG @ WAS  Washington  L – 45 / 12  NY Giants  W
Results: W = 8 / L = 8    of 16
Season: W = 146 / L = 78    of 224
W – 7 / L – 9
This entry was posted on December 24, 2009, in Sports - NFL.

NFL Week 16

Here’s the picks:

Away Home     Winner Vegas Line O/U Bets  
San Diego Tennessee 20 21 TEN TEN 3 47 TEN Under
Buffalo Atlanta 20 21 ATL ATL 9 41 ATL Under
Kansas City Cincinnati 16 20 CIN CIN 13.5 40.5 CIN Under
Oakland Cleveland 17 20 CLE CLE 3.5 38 CLE Over
Seattle Green Bay 18 27 GB GB 14 41.5 GB Over
Houston Miami 22 23 MIA MIA 3 45 MIA Over
Carolina NY Giants 20 25 NYG NYG 7 42 NYG None
Jacksonville New England 17 26 NE NE 7.5 43.5 NE Over
Tampa Bay New Orleans 21 26 NO NO 14 49.5 NO Over
Denver Philadelphia 19 25 PHI PHI 7 41.5 PHI Over
Baltimore Pittsburgh 18 22 PIT PIT 2.5 42 PIT Under
St. Louis Arizona 18 27 AZ AZ 14 43.5 AZ Over
Detroit San Francisco 17 26 SF SF 12 41.5 SF Under
NY Jets Indianapolis 18 22 IND IND 5.5 40.5 IND Over
Dallas Washington 18 19 WAS DAL 7 42 WAS Under
Minnesota Chicago 21 24 CHI MIN 7 41 CHI Under

There was one good bet, but then the spreads moved. Oh well…

Here’s how the playoffs look to me:

Wild Cards AFC Denver New England 18 26 New England
    Baltimore Cincinnati 19 19 Cincinnati
             
  NFC Dallas Philadelphia 19 23 Philadelphia
    Green Bay Arizona 26 26 Green Bay
             
Division AFC New England Indianapolis 22 23 Indianapolis
    Cincinnati San Diego 17 25 San Diego
             
  NFC Philadelphia New Orleans 23 26 New Orleans
    Green Bay Minnesota 22 24 Minnesota
             
Conference AFC San Diego Indianapolis 20 22 Indianapolis
             
  NFC Minnesota New Orleans 23 27 New Orleans
             
Superbowl   Indianapolis New Orleans 24 25 New Orleans
    New Orleans Indianapolis 22 22 Indianapolis

E.W.

About cheerleaders in coats… There is a commercial on lately where a bunch of cheerleader types jump and do a cheer, but they are in jeans and flannel shirts. It occurred to me that without the outfits, cheerleaders are just annoying.

This entry was posted on December 24, 2009, in Sports - NFL.

The Physics of Santa

DecHomeSantaSanta’s Sleigh

While having lunch with The Prince yesterday, we discussed how Santa is able to get to all of the kids houses overnight. So I did some back-of-the-napkin calculations to figure out if Santa’s excursion violates causality. I should probably point out that I am neither a physicist, mathematician or doctor, but I play all of them on the Internet.

Ok, so… just how many places does Santa have to hit worldwide? According to Wikipedia (Yeah I know… and if you’re reading this and don’t know, don’t bet on facts from Wikipedia. It’s just a good starting place.), there are 2.1 billion Christians on Earth. Now, since it appears to me that most of them are in Texas, I’ll use the average family size from the U.S. Census: 3.14 people. Hmm… Pi. That means Santa has to hit 670 million homes.

Next I’ll assume that they are evenly spread across the earth. Several sources indicate that the total area is about 150 million square kilometers (The Prince says, “What’s a kilometer?” so make it 93 million square miles). That works out to 4.5 km2(1.7 mi2) per home. Now make that area circular and we get a radius of 1.2 km (.75 mi). So from house to house is about 2.4 km (1.5 mi). So the total length of the trip is 360 million km (220 million mi). That’s more than a thousand times farther than my Chevy truck has gone. Continue reading

The Prince & His Take On NFL Cheerleaders

While watching his team, the Philadelphia Eagles take on the San Francisco 49’ers:
“Momma, Cheerleaders with their cloths on look better.
Without their cloths, not so much.”

SirEvil Daddy – “Boy are you crazy?”

Momma – “That’s right honey, they do look better that way.”

NFL Week 15

Here’s the picks:

Away Home     Winner Vegas Line O/U Bets  
Indianapolis Jacksonville 22 20 IND IND 3 43 JAC Under
Dallas New Orleans 21 27 NO NO 7 53.5 DAL Under
Chicago Baltimore 16 21 BAL BAL 10.5 40.5 CHI Under
New England Buffalo 25 19 NE NE 7 40.5 BUF Over
Arizona Detroit 26 22 AZ AZ 12 46.5 DET Over
Cleveland Kansas City 21 21 CLE KAN 2 37 CLE Over
Atlanta NY Jets 19 23 NYJ NYJ 5   ATL None
San Francisco Philadelphia 18 25 PHI PHI 8.5 42.5 SF Over
Green Bay Pittsburgh 20 23 PIT PIT 1.5 40.5 PIT Over
Houston St. Louis 24 21 HOU HOU 10 43 STL Over
Miami Tennessee 18 21 TEN TEN 3 41.5 TEN Under
Oakland Denver 18 23 DEN DEN 14 37.5 OAK Over
Cincinnati San Diego 17 25 SD SD 6.5 43.5 SD Under
Tampa Bay Seattle 18 23 SEA SEA 6.5 39.5 TB Over
Minnesota Carolina 22 20 MIN MIN 9 42.5 CAR Under
NY Giants Washington 19 20 WAS NYG 3 43 WAS Under

No good bets this weekend per the computer, but I got a feeling that Baltimore can’t beat anybody by 10 points, much less Chicago.  With the loss of Chris Henry. I expect Cincinnati to play with more than a little extra heart this weekend so maybe a win for them.

So much for agreement with the computer. Seems that the Pats have fallen out of favor for the Superbowl now and a rising star in the form of San Diego has shown up for the first time in the model. New Orleans wins it only by the barest of margins. Here’s how it looks:

Wild Cards AFC Baltimore New England 17 25 New England
    Denver Cincinnati 19 21 Cincinnati
             
  NFC Dallas Arizona 22 25 Arizona
    Green Bay Philadelphia 23 24 Philadelphia
             
Division AFC New England Indianapolis 23 23 New England
    Cincinnati San Diego 17 25 San Diego
             
  NFC Arizona New Orleans 23 27 New Orleans
    Philadelphia Minnesota 20 22 Minnesota
             
Conference AFC New England San Diego 24 24 San Diego
             
  NFC Minnesota New Orleans 24 26 New Orleans
             
Superbowl   San Diego New Orleans 23 26 New Orleans
    New Orleans San Diego 23 24 San Diego

E.W.

If women didn’t make us crazy, chasing them wouldn’t be so much fun would it?

This entry was posted on December 20, 2009, in Sports - NFL.

NFL Week 15 – Spring & The Prince Make Their Picks

Here we go for week 15.

I don’t think there’s a lot of surprises if everyone plays to their records. But strange things have happened in the last few weeks, so who knows.

No way is Jacksonville going to be able to stand up against the Colts, so I think their undefeated season is safe. I can’t stand Dallas, but even so I agree with Tony Dungee who said the Cowboys don’t have what it takes to bring down the Saints at home. So I expect them to continue undefeated as well. Crossing my fingers they do; I really want the Saints to go undefeated for the season; as I’ve mentioned several times over the past weeks. 

The tough picks for me are Atlanta and NY Jets. I’m going with the Jets, but you never know about Atlanta. Sometimes they step it up when they know they need to. Tennessee and Miami is another hard pick. But I’m going with my Titans to win at home.  The Prince is sure the Dolphins will step it up and take Tennessee.

We’re split on New England at Buffalo. He thinks being home is going to give the Bills the advantage. I don’t think it’s going to matter. But the Patriots have some pretty bad Coaching decisions so anything is possible.

Then there’s Green Bay and Pittsburgh. I really don’t understand why the Steelers have played so poorly lately. But it’s hard to pick them this week. I think the Packers will continue the ride on their previous games and take the Steelers easily.The Prince is counting on that home field advantage again. Which he thinks will carry over into Charlotte for the Panthers as well. I don’t think Carolina has what it takes to stop the Vikings Offense or hold back their Defense. So I’m going against SirEvil’s home team and picking Farve and the boys in purple.

So here are our week 15 picks.

Week 15
Thu Dec 17  Spring’s Picks
The Prince’s Picks
IND @ JAC  Indianapolis  Indianapolis
Sat, Dec 19
DAL @ NO  New Orleans  New Orleans
Sun, Dec 20
CLE @ KC  Kansas City  Kansas City
ATL @ NYJ  NY Jets  NY Jets
MIA @ TEN  Tennessee  Miami
SF @ PHI  Philadelphia  Philadelphia
NE @ BUF  New England  Buffalo
ARI @ DET  Arizona  Detroit
CHI @ BAL  Baltimore  Baltimore
HOU @ STL  Houston  St. Louis
GB @ PIT  Green Bay  Pittsburgh
OAK @ DEN  Denver  Denver
CIN @ SD  San Diego  San Diego
TB @ SEA  Seattle  Seattle
MIN @ CAR  Minnesota   Carolina
Mon, Dec 21
NYG @ WAS  Washington  NY Giants

Byes: None
This entry was posted on December 15, 2009, in Sports - NFL.

NFL Week 14 – Spring & The Prince’s Results

Spring 11 of 16 & the Prince 9 of 16

Ok, not a bad week though there were a few surprises. How in the world did Cleveland beat Pittsburgh? What’s happened to the Steelers? Did they forget to show up for the game?

Woohoo the Saints are still undefeated. I’m SO excited about that. And kudos to the Colts for winning over Denver as well. Going to be an interesting finish to the end of this season. Wouldn’t you like to see these two play against each other.

What in the world made me think Cincinnati would upset Minnesota I don’t know. I’m glad they didn’t, but it means I lost the pick.

I was surprised Jacksonville lost to Miami. And although I’m ecstatic my Redskins beat Oakland, I lost the pick there too. And where in the world was Arizona; did they leave their brains back in Phoenix? The off-sides and encroachment calls on Monday was like watching a bunch of rookies playing in their first NFL game. The penalties were stupid and only added to the reasons they lost to San Francisco.

So we ended the week fairly good. Even the little Prince is still doing better than 50%. Here’s the results of our picks.

Week 14
Thu Dec 10  Spring’s Picks
 Spring’s Results
The Prince’s Picks
The Prince’s Results
PIT @ CLE  Pittsburgh  L – 6 / 13  Cleveland  W
Sun, Dec 13
NO @ ATL  New Orleans  W – 26 / 23  Atlanta  L
DEN @ IND  Indianapolis  W – 16 / 28  Indianapolis  W
SEA @ HOU  Houston  W – 7 / 34  Seattle  L
CAR @ NE  New England  W – 10 / 20  New England  W
BUF @ KC  Buffalo  W – 16 / 10  Kansas City  L
DET @ BAL  Baltimore  W – 3 / 48  Baltimore  W
CIN @ MIN  Cincinnati (upset)  L – 10 / 30  Minnesota  W
NYJ @ TB  NY Jets  W – 26 / 3  NY Jets  W
MIA @ JAC  Jacksonville  L – 14 / 10  Jacksonville  L
GB @ CHI  Green Bay  W – 21 / 14  Chicago  L
STL @ TEN  Tennessee  W – 7 / 47  St. Louis  L
WAS @ OAK  Oakland  L – 34 / 13  Oakland  L
SD @ DAL  San Diego  W – 20 / 17  San Diego  W
PHI @ NYG  Philadelphia  W – 45 / 38  Philadelphia  W
Mon, Dec 14
ARI @ SF Arizona  L – 9 / 24  San Francisco  W

 Results: W = 11 / L = 5   of 16 
Season: W = 138 / L = 70  of 208
 W – 9 / L – 7
This entry was posted on December 15, 2009, in Sports - NFL.

Spring Receives Her Ph.D.

Big News This Week:
My final Dissertation for my Doctor of Philosophy in Pastoral Psychology passed review and approval on Dec. 2nd, 2009. Woohoo. I’m so excited and proud. It has been a long year of writing and researching. And now it’s finally done and approved. The Doctorate degree will be officially awarded in January 2010. I can’t wait.

The Dissertation is posted on Spring’s Haven @ http://springshaven.com/articles/index.shtml

This entry was posted on December 13, 2009, in Spirituality.

NFL Week 14

Here’s the picks:

Away Home     Winner Vegas Line O/U Bets  
Pittsburgh Cleveland 21 18 PIT PIT 10 33 CLE Over
Green Bay Chicago 23 23 CHI GB 3 41 CHI Over
Seattle Houston 20 26 HOU HOU 6 44.5 SEA Over
Denver Indianapolis 19 25 IND IND 7 44 DEN Under
Miami Jacksonville 19 23 JAC JAC 2.5 44 JAC Under
Buffalo Kansas City 23 19 BUF KC 0 37.5 BUF Over
Cincinnati Minnesota 18 24 MIN MIN 7 43.5 CIN Under
Carolina New England 17 27 NE NE 13.5 44 CAR Over
NY Jets Tampa Bay 19 21 TB NYJ 3 37 TB Over
St. Louis Tennessee 15 25 TEN TEN 13 41.5 STL Under
Detroit Baltimore 16 27 BAL BAL 13 39.5 DET Over
New Orleans Atlanta 24 21 NO NO 10 50 ATL Under
Washington Oakland 19 19 WAS WAS 1 37.5 OAK Over
San Diego Dallas 22 24 DAL DAL 3 48.5 SD Under
Philadelphia NY Giants 21 22 NYG NYG 1 44.5 NYG Under
Arizona San Francisco 21 21 SF AZ 3.5 44.5 SF Under

No good bets this weekend, at least Cleveland showed up to play last week.

As the playoff picture crystallizes, it appears the reality is starting to agree with the computer on the Superbowl. Still says the Pats will beat NO there. Not much change from last week:

Wild Cards AFC Denver San Diego 18 27 San Diego
    Pittsburgh Cincinnati 20 18 Pittsburgh
             
  NFC Philadelphia Arizona 23 23 Arizona
    Dallas NY Giants 21 23 NY Giants
             
Division AFC San Diego Indianapolis 20 23 Indianapolis
    Pittsburgh New England 17 24 New England
             
  NFC Arizona New Orleans 23 28 New Orleans
    NY Giants Minnesota 20 22 Minnesota
             
Conference AFC New England Indianapolis 23 22 New England
             
  NFC Minnesota New Orleans 23 26 New Orleans
             
Superbowl   New England New Orleans 26 25 New England
    New Orleans New England 21 25 New England

E.W.

Anybody else notice that right after the Large Hadron Collider came online, that a large wormhole opened up over Norway?

LHC 2.36 TeV Collision Event

Wormhole over Norway

This entry was posted on December 10, 2009, in Sports - NFL.