With two of my fantasy football leagues completely finished, I only have one left.  Unfortunately I took a loss in that league this past week to the last place team.  I accidentally left DeAngelo Williams on my roster and should have played Jonathan Stewart instead.  That would have won the game for me.  I am now in fifth place but I hope I can get one more win in this last week and end in the top half of the league.  I remain in first place in both of my pick’em leagues and am still alive in the survival league with my pick of Arizona over St. Louis.  I cannot pick the Rams opponent this week as I already used San Francisco.  So I’m thinking of going with the Broncos over the Chiefs.  Finally I fell down to fourth place in the salary cap game, but I am hopeful that I can end in the top three after this weekend.  The college bowl pick’em has also started and I am happy to claim my spot at the top of the standings so far.

Speaking of college bowl games, I am taking off work tomorrow to head down to New Orleans for a big weekend of parties, family/friends, and to top it all off the University of Cincinnati taking on the University of Florida in the Sugar Bowl.  Watch for us on TV on Friday.  Go CATS!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas break, I know I did.  We spent the long weekend in Cincinnati with family and friends and attended six different parties and/or gift exchanges.  It was a very busy weekend, but worth it to see so many people.  I only wish I had one more day so I could have seen all of my friends that I didn’t see, but I know we will be back to visit again soon enough.

Instead of staying in Cincinnati through yesterday, we flew back on Sunday.  Originally Kim was going to work on Monday morning, but later decided to take it off so we could spend our first day up in the mountains this season.  For whatever reason, my company decided we should have Monday off instead of Christmas Eve.

So yesterday morning we woke up fairly early and headed up to Keystone for our first day of snowboarding.  The conditions on the open slopes were actually better than I had anticipated, but there are still so few trails actually open.  We were able to quickly get in ten runs and decided to call it a day after riding well over 50% of the open trails.  I really hope that a ton of snow falls over the next couple of weeks before we start getting visitors who want to snowboard or ski.  Overall, it was a good first day of the season.

The tradition of barely releasing NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music before Christmas has continued into this year. They always say it’s better late than never. Without further delay…NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music 2009.

1. Butch Walker – The Weight of Her
2. Roman Candle – Eden Was a Garden
3. Railroad Earth – Hard Livin’
4. Gregory Alan Isakov – That Moon Song
5. Mat Kearney – Closer To Love
6. Newton Faulkner – If This Is It
7. Elmwood – Night Caper
8. The Alternate Routes – The Future’s Nothing New
9. Brandi Carlile – Dreams
10. Dave Matthews Band – Why I Am
11. SoundRabbit – From The World I Have Known
12. Noah Gabriel – Grey On Gray
13. Will Hoge – Even If It Breaks Your Heart
14. Needtobreathe – More Time
15. Avett Brothers – Laundry Room
16. O.A.R. – Love Is Worth The Fall
17. Ingrid Michaelson – Maybe

All tracks are available for download from this site and I’ve also added them to sendspace.com (download link toward the bottom of the page), which should be a much faster download.  If you prefer to have a hard copy, the cover-art is included in the zip file.  Please support these artists by buying their albums and attending their live shows.  As always I hope you enjoy the compilation and happy holidays.

Last night Kim and I went out for our normal four mile run. Three-fourths of the way through I was officially finished with the quest to run one-hundred miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I finished the last twenty miles in five days since the last update, and can now start resting up for the holidays. I was the sixteenth person to finish the hundred miles out of over one-hundred participants. Kim still has a few miles left to finish, as does my dad. Good luck to both of them. I’m hoping that I will not be joining any of them for a run on Christmas morning.

I might as well provide an updated on my fantasy sports as well. I lost my big game in the money league to fall out of the playoffs. My performance was good enough to earn back my $40 entry free, but I would have liked to take home the big $200 prize. In my other league, I beat up on Kim pretty good, though I still remain in fourth place while she remains barely in first. I’m still in 1st in both pro pick’em leagues, as well as 3rd in the salary cap game. And finally I remain undefeated in the survivor game. Though Houston barely made it past St. Louis I’m still considering picking Arizona over St. Louis this week.

The holiday season is in full swing.  Kim had her work holiday dinner this past Friday, and that officially kicked off the next week or two of parties for us.  We met up with her coworkers and some spouses at LoLa for some coastal Mexican food and drinks.  I had never been to the restaurant before and was excited to give it a try.  The food that we ate was all good.  Their guacamole was especially good, as were the sweet potatoes that were served with some of the dishes.  My chicken dish was good, but the sides with it left a lot to be desired.  The asparagus was barely there, and I felt like some sort of potato would have complimented the rest of the dish very well.  As far as the drinks go, their margaritas were very good, as were the tastes of tequila that I had.  Overall it was a great start to the holidays and a good experience at this popular Denver restaurant.

Guess what?  My hockey team actually won a game this week!  I must have been too caught up with running an insane number of miles to mention this earlier.  Sure they other team only had three subs, but we took it to them hard.  Plus we also had a new player join our team who is really good.  In face he scored the game deciding goal in our overtime shootout.  His snap shot is one of the best I’ve seen.  The stats are not posted yet for the game, but I think I added two more assists to my four that I already had.  That should be enough to make me the player with the most assists on our team and possibly move me into the top 10 in the league.  We will have to wait until next year for our next game to see if we can turn our win into a streak.

After realizing last week that I was falling behind in the quest to run 100 miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’m happy to say that I am now back ahead of schedule.  So far this week I have racked up 35.05 miles and I haven’t put in a run yet today.  Compare that with 25.2 the first week and 18.25 the second.  I’m contributing most of these miles to our weekend stay in North Dakota.  With the temperatures so cold outside, Kim and I spent much longer than normal on the treadmills.  And with the warmer weather in Denver, I’ve been able to keep running longer distances, though it is definitely getting darker earlier still.  My current total is 78.5, so only 21.5 more miles in the next week plus.  I’d really like to finish before we leave for Cincinnati next Wednesday night.

Though my fantasy football teams went 1-1 this week, the win was huge as it was in the playoffs for my big money league.  I am now in the semifinals and am guaranteed to at least get my entry fee back.  My game this week will be tough as I’m going up against the top seed in the league.  He has only lost three games all season, but fortunately one of those losses was to yours truly.  In my non-money league game I lost to my dad.  I’m still holding on to fourth place, but I can’t lose many more if I want to move up on to the podium by the end of the league.

I am still in first place in both NFL pick’em games.  I am also still alive in the survivor league after picking Tennessee over St. Louis.  I’m thinking of keeping that trend going and picking Houston over St. Louis this week.  In the salary cap game, I have moved back into third place overall.  I am now 2.5 points ahead of my friend Pat, but I’m hoping I can distance myself even more this week.  If anyone wants to join me and some friends in college bowl pick’em on Yahoo! enter in group id# 23712.  The password is pub24.

Last night I finally finished watching The National Parks: America’s Best Idea series on PBS.  The six-episode series, directed by Ken Burns, details the full history of the National Park Service.  Though it was a bit lengthy at times, most of the old photos and updated videos were amazing to see.  Some of the narration was slow, and I did fall asleep a couple of times, but watching the series made me realize how badly I’d like to see many of the various national parks in the system.  By my count, I have only been to nine of the fifty-eight national parks.  So I still have a long way to go in seeing all the parks, but fortunately there are some on the list that are nearby and I would love to visit those soon.

As I mention on Friday, Kim and I spent the weekend in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  Kim was doing some work and I joined her for a couple of University of North Dakota hockey games.  The Ralph Engelstad Arena is just as nice as I pictured it to be.  The outside of the building is all brick with many Fighting Sioux logos throughout.  The inside is just as lavish, with marble throughout, every seat is leather, and a scoreboard that could put some pro-level arenas to shame.

The hockey was exciting, just as I expected.  I’ve always been a fan of college hockey.  The University of Wisconsin started off the scoring in the first game and took a 2-0 lead at the end of the first.  The Sioux made a comeback in the second, with the score 3-2 Wisconsin at the end.  And finally the Sioux evened the score in the third, where it stood until the end of regulation.  The overtime action was thrilling, but neither team scored and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.

The second game started off better for the Sioux, as they scored the first goal of the game and had a 2-1 lead at the end of the first.  Then Wisconsin turned it on in the second, scoring two goals and taking the lead 3-2.   The third period was back and forth, and eventually each team scored, and the game ended with a 4-3 win for Wisconsin.  The Sioux players and fans were visibly upset.  The players had a few minor skirmishes after the game, and the tension heated up between the Badger and Sioux fans that were seated on either side of us.  Fortunately, it all ended with handshakes on the ice.

Outside of the games, we didn’t do much while in North Dakota.  It was freezing cold the entire time we were there, often with temperatures never getting above zero degrees Fahrenheit.  We mostly spent our free time running on the treadmills in the hotel, trying to catch up in the quest for 100 miles.  We also did some shopping and ate at some local restaurants.  The only one worth mentioning was Rhombus Guys pizza, which Kim and I both thoroughly enjoyed.

North Dakota on Dwellable