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.

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

Another week has gone by and my hockey team has lost yet another game.   This week we faced off against a team with numerous players that I used to play with.   It was sad to lose this game, realizing that I could have potentially been on a winning team.   My team is still looking for our first win and only have a handful of games left.

I will spend the rest of this weekend up in Grand Forks, North Dakota with Kim, who is doing business there.   We will be attending a couple of North Dakota hockey games this weekend.   The Fighting Souix play at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, which is considered to be one of the finest hockey facilities in the world.   I’m pumped to see some great college hockey action in this wonderful arena.   The first night we have seats in the student section.   I hope we can blend in a little.   This will mark my 42nd state visited.

After another week in the quest to run 100 miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’m sad to report that I’ve fallen a bit behind.   I finished the first week with 25.2 miles, but have only added 18.25 miles over this past week.   That takes my total to 43.45 miles, which is a bit off of the half way mark.   Today is day 15 of the 30 day challenge, so I was really hoping to be halfway through the miles.   Unfortunately the weather outside has been very frightful, with temperatures not above freezing for days, and below zero most nights.   My dad has joined in the quest, and is less than three miles ahead.   I hope that we all can find some time to get out there and add some good miles this weekend.

Another not so good weekend in fantasy football with only one win.   I lost in one of my money leagues and that one is now over for me.   I finished in 8th of 12 teams.   I also lost in the other money league, but I am still in the playoffs this week.   I’m in the 5th spot and will play Kim’s dad who is in 4th.   I beat him by less than two points during the season, so this could be a great game.   Therefore my win came in the non-money league, where I remain in 4th place.   There are no playoffs so this one is still going strong.

I also remain in 1st place in both nfl pick’em games and in 5th for the college pick’em.   I am still alive in the survivor game with my pick of Chicago over St. Louis.   I’m thinking of sticking with that theme and picking Tennessee over St. Louis.   And finally I fell to 4th place in the salary cap game by .03 points.   This is still anyone’s game!

This post is late today because I spent all of my free time looking for flights to New Orleans. If you missed the insanely exciting University of Cincinnati football win over Pitt this weekend, the Bearcats are now heading to play in the Sugar Bowl on New Years Day against Florida. I have never been to Louisiana before, so this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

With this past weekends hockey tournament wins out of the way, it’s back to our normal losing ways on my regular team.   We had a late game last night, and despite the other team only have seven total skaters, we still managed to lose.   I’m guessing that the snow and cold temperatures, in addition to the 10:30 start time, kept some of their players away.   On the bright side, the game did go all the way to an overtime shootout before the loss.   Our opponents held a 3-1 lead late into the third, but we were able to tie it up before the end of the game.   I had an assist on one of those two goals.   Unfortunately none of our first three shooters in the shootout were able to score, and the other teams last shooter put one in to end the game.   Without a win after six games, my team remains solidly in last place.

One of Kim’s coworkers circulated an email encouraging people to sign a pledge to run 100 miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas.   I first thought that it would be impossible for me, but after Kim put her name on the spreadsheet I felt like I had to do it as well.   So far I have to admit that it is going pretty well so far.   We started off by running the four mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with nearly 10,000 others.   It was a bit crowded and unorganized at the start, but we still ended up running under nine minute miles with a finish time of 35:31.

Since then I have managed over twenty more miles of running and walking.   With one week down (I don’t plan to get any miles today) I have completed 25.2 miles.   That’s just over a quarter of the way to the goal of 100 miles!   Over 100 others have put their name on the tracking spreadsheet and only a couple dozen others are ahead of my progress.   That makes me feel pretty good, though this is definitely the most I’ve run in a long time.   It’s probably too late for any others to join in the fun, though feel free to do so if you can remember your distances over the last week, dad.   My goal is to finish it before Christmas Eve, so I’m not stuck with big runs on the last two days.

The University of Cincinnati is just one win away from their first undefeated football season in recent history.   I checked the record books and the last time they had zero loses was in 1918.   The team remains in the fifth place of   all major polls as they head into Pittsburgh this Friday to take on now fifteen ranked Pitt.   Pitt was as high as eighth in some polls until their loss to West Virginia over the weekend.   If the Bearcat football success isn’t enough, the basketball team is now ranked in the top 25 teams in the country after a few big wins early in the season.   It’s a great time to be a Bearcat!

Now it’s time for my weekly fantasy football update.   I had a bad week with just one win.   I now sit in seventh place in one of my money leagues, with just one week to go before the playoffs.   I need to be in the top six to continue so I really need a win this week.   In my other money league, I upset to the top ranked team in the league and should now have reserved my spot in the playoffs!   In the non-money league I fell to fourth place after a loss.   For the pro pick’em leagues I am in first place in both, while I’m in fifth in the college version.   I am in third place in the salary cap game.   And finally I am still alive in the survivor game with my pick of Cincinnati over Cleveland.   I’m leaning towards Chicago over St. Louis for this week.

Something happened over the weekend that I haven’t experience in a long time, I was on a winning hockey team!   My team for weekly adult league hasn’t won a game yet this session, and we’ve played six games now.   One of the guys I’ve played with for a while now asked me to join his team over the weekend for the 2009 Gobbler Classic tournament.   We were scheduled to play one game on Friday evening and two on Saturday.   I must admit that I haven’t played that much hockey in a long time, probably since high school.   I may have played in tournament while living in Kansas City, but even that would have been at least three years ago.

The tournament started off great.   My team was able to score four quick goals in our first game, and we were able to hang onto a 5-2 victory.   Our second game was on Saturday afternoon, and though we held the lead for much for much of the game, it was close toward the end.   We ended up pulling out another win.   Though I don’t recall the exact score, I think we won by two goals.   Our third game was on Saturday at ten o’clock.   This game was against the best opponents we faced, and in the end we lost the game 2-1.   The other team’s roster was filled with many younger players, and anyone could tell the non-stop hockey action had taken its toll on our older team.

With that said we still had enough points to make it to the championship game on Sunday.   Again we were going up against the team that had just beaten us the night before.   Right from the start you could tell this was going to be a different game, even though it remained scoreless for some time.   Eventually we started scoring goals, and it didn’t end until we were up 4-0.   Our opponents managed to get a couple of goals by the end of the game, but it was clear that our team was rested and had come to win!   We were awarded our championship long-sleeved t-shirts after the game, and had a couple of beers in the parking lot afterward.   It was a nice weekend for lots of hockey.