Rebel Rebel

FINALLY feeling better after the Mexico debacle. I did take the Saturday flight through Atlanta and gutted it out in the Delta lounge quaffing ginger ale and eating pretzels while charging up my laptop so I could watch "24" on the ride home. Watching Jack Bauer save the United States from disaster kept my attention from wandering and allowed me to survive 4 hours in the air next to a big, fat, cigar-smelling guy who had the aisle seat, thus stuffing me next to the window. Again, I had to focus to the nth degree and gut it out. Ebong met me in baggage claim and whisked me home. Home never felt so good. I was glad that Doc Eells took care of my meds and I tossed those down with a couple cans of diet pepsi. It was 12:30am and I wasn't tired, so I watched the Australian Open final between Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. That took me to 4:30am - I fell asleep then.

I arose the next day feeling much better and not just because it was Super Bowl Sunday. I kept an eye on the pre-game show but seriously, a 5 hour lead in to the game with Al Roker and Conan O'Brian and other assorted NBC stars was pitiful. Even Bob Costas doesn't shouldn't be doing football games - he's too small and he dyes his hair. Football players don't dye their hair Bob.

The game was a snoozefest until the 4th quarter (with the exception of the half-ending play by James Harrison) and then all hell broke loose and we had, for the 2nd year in a row no less, the greatest Super Bowl ever played. It's sort of like Nadal-Federer; each final is the best tennis match of all time. Contemporary society demands platitudes and superlatives. So be it.

Oh yeah, and the Steelers won the game. No one remembers the loser.

I'm am tormented right now. The cause of my lament? A bum left shoulder that is keeping me off the golf course. MRI next week, doc visit the following week and then either injections of WD-40 or the wing gets scoped.

Jake continues to trek the muddy streets of Ecuador. What I like about Jake is that he adapts so well to different places. He's at ease anywhere in the world and that disposition will serve him well in life.

Alec and Tiff continue their journey as a young, married couple. We hope to see them in a few weeks for UNLV-UTAH.





We were at the Rebel game last night and watched a close game versus San Diego State University. Alas, UNLV was beat for the first time in 3+ years on their home court during a conference game. This was not a good loss although the game did provide some funny moments. Well, actually, the funny stuff happened before the game. Here goes.... Janae and I were running late and we got to the Thomas & Mack midway through the first half. As we pulled up to the orange parking lot, the lady says, "Lot's full," and wandered away. I saw another parking guy coming so I told Janae, "Tell him I'm handicapped." She hesitated, but I had already gone into character. The guy says to Janae, "He doesnt' look so good." "Bad back," she croaked nervously.

Apparently I looked really pathetic to the point where the guy moved a bunch of orange parking cones and served us up a front row spot! I had to maintain character, so I whispered to Janae, "Come over and help me out of the car." She rolled her eyes. I giggled.

As Janae AND the parking guy were helping me out of the car I had to bite my tongue to surpress my laughter. My neck was cocked to one side, I pulled my right elbow in, and I shuffled like Ray Charles. As I walked toward the escalators, Janae kept looking back to see if the guy was looking - he was - so I had to maintain the limp/gimp strut. At the top of the stairs Janae said the guy wasn't looking so we bolted to the entrance. I was laughing and Janae was worried about our Karma.

What's Karma?