Patrick Eakes

I have been sitting in third place in my fantasy football league for most of the year. Two weeks ago, I took over the lead, so now I feel some pressure in the final week.

Our league allows us to buy and sell players against a salary cap, so multiple teams can have the same players. This week, I traded both quarterbacks, a running back, a wide receiver, and both kickers - 67% of my team.

At least no one can accuse me of playing not to lose.

Roch Smith has a great post at Greensboro 101 about original reporting by local bloggers in 2005. Looking at the breadth and depth of the list, it makes me feel good to be part of the Greensboro blogosphere. There is some great work going on around these parts.

NC State is about to kick off in the George Foreman Bowl. You know you are in a crappy bowl when it starts at 11am and is shown on ESPN2.

I expect the Wolfpack to have a tough time with this game. They have had a disappointing season, while opponent South Florida is playing in its first bowl game ever. Typically, teams that are excited about their bowl beat teams that are ambivalent about their bowl game.

I think the Wolfpack will prevail on the strength of its defense, but it better take South Florida seriously.

***UPDATE***

The Pack's defense showed up today and shut down South Florida for a 14-0 win.

Nice feature in today's N&R Life section on the oddities of 2005. The stories are humorous enough, but the mini-headlines over each story made the piece.

Early on, I knew I had to be reading the work of Lex. Dude is smart and funny, and he combines those skills into a razor sharp wit that I really enjoy.

John Robinson announces a new weekly ACC basketball feature that starts in tomorrow's N&R. It sounds like it will be a fun look at the conference, teams, and players. This could be a lot of fun if done well.

Ed Cone points to a new blog written by a Greensboro police officer. Much like Lenslinger's view into the world of television news, this cop's blog promises to give us a view into the daily lives of Greensboro's finest, and that should be an interesting ride.

I am friendly with a couple of officers that patrol near my business. They are unfailingly courteous, and I appreciate the straight forward way they talk. They have some pretty interesting stories to tell, so I have high hopes for Bobbysitter.

I have noticed lots of second stringers in the anchor chairs of national and local news broadcasts. Apparently, some production staffs are taking the week off, too.

I tuned into two news programs this morning around 7:25am hoping to catch the local weather at the bottom of the hour. WXLV ran an old tape of the weather forecast for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Instead of the Weather Plus they like to pimp, WXII had audio of two guys arguing about what was causing extra noise on air with a forecast graphic on screen.

I finally licked my finger and held it out a window to get the forecast.

The Bryan Park Champions course is always a good test of golf. Even on relatively calm days, the course extracts all possible wind off Lake Townsend, which several holes border.

Yesterday was a crazy tough day to play at Champions. The airport officially recorded sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts of up to 38 mph. It was stronger than that on the lake, and at times it was almost impossible to stand in place. Lake Townsend was solid white caps, and I think surfing would have been possible.

I managed to shoot a 78 that I count as one of my best rounds of the year. I hope that I won't have to face wind like that again anytime soon.

Our annual Christmas gathering went well tonight. We host both of our nuclear families, plus their spouses and offspring, so it was about 20 people.

That is about all our house can handle, but we managed okay, and the clean up is complete, too. Now, it is time to help Santa assemble a few toys that Sarah will enjoy a few hours from now.

I have written at this blog many times about Martin Eakes, the maverick banker who has spent a quarter century helping poor people build equity. Today, the News & Observer names Martin Tarheel of the Year.

I am sure that Martin is somewhat embarrassed by the splashy article, but I could not be prouder of the recognition of his efforts and accomplishments.

Jay Ovittore writes a fine tribute to Tre Styles in the current GoTriad. Perhaps WFMY can read the article on air this weekend and steal from a blogger and the newspaper at the same time.

Kristen and I both had continuing education classes to attend on Friday. She needed hers to finish up her CPA requirements, and I needed mine for my professional engineer license. My class started a half hour before hers, so I left the house first and Kristen took Sarah to daycare.

When they arrived at the daycare, they found the doors locked and learned it would not open until 9am (why it was on schedule on Thursday and delayed on Friday makes no sense to me). Knowing she would be late for her class, Kristen said "Shit, shit, shit." Of course, she heard an immediate echo from Sarah: "Shit, shit, shit."

I guess it was going to happen sooner or later.

I just received a phone call from a freight management inquiring about handling my company's freight business. The caller is based on the west coast and managed to work "Git-R-Done" into his rap three times in two minutes.

You don't think he would stereotype all southerners, do you?

When we arrived in Myrtle Beach this morning, it was cold and windy, and a big rainstorm had just departed. The weather channel promised the skies would start clearing at noon, and they were right.

The afternoon was still windy, but the sun came out and made things more mild. My golf was not so great, but I managed to win the 16th and 17th holes and secure a half in my first match.

Tomorrow I have two tough matches on a tough course. It will be near freezing with a brisk wind when we start shortly after 7am tomorrow, so hold a warm thought for me.

If this bowler had eaten at the sponsoring restaurant, his hand would never have been stuck in his bowling ball.

I am leaving early tomorrow for three days of golf at The Legends in Myrtle Beach. It is a nice complex with an impressive clubhouse, three courses and plenty of nice condos on site, and a 30 acre driving range. They also give each golfer a free beer each day and a free pig picking on Friday night - a pretty sweet deal.

When I heard Christmas carols on the radio and saw bundles of Christmas trees headed down from the mountains in mid-November, my inner Scrooge started screaming inside. But now I am about ready to embrace the holiday season, maybe due to the colder weather and threat of snow.

I really do like the Christmas season - I just prefer we limit its celebration to a reasonable number of days, preferably all in December. So, if I haven't told you yet, I hope you have a Merry Christmas (especially you, Ed).

Greensboro native Karoline Hood had the unusal honor of delivering the game ball to the Army-Navy game last Saturday. She is the captain of the marathon team at West Point, so she ran the anchor leg of the ball's trip from West Point to Philadelphia.

Interesting note: Karoline is a member of the family for whom Fort Hood was named.

My blogging has almost come to a halt over the last three weeks. I simply have had no time, even if blog topics have been in my head.

I gave the program at nine Rotary clubs during the month of November. Since I try to present some original material each time, it was time consuming.

My company is also in overload now. We are short order cooks for custom metal items. We often operate with only two or three weeks of backlog, because there is usually a steady stream of business coming in. We now have several months of work booked, even scheduling overtime during the entire time (I expect no sympathy on this one).

Dealing with computer issues at home and work have eaten some time and raised my frustration level, too. At least I have narrowed down the issue to an upgrade of my email program, Eudora, which does not play nice with anti-virus software.

Other than that, the several boards and committees I still serve on and occasionally visiting my wife and daughter have consumed the rest of my time.

I hope to get back into the blogging scene on a regular basis over the next week.

In the "Damn, that's late" category is the Big Link from three weeks ago. Check out connecting the dots here.