Eagles Outlook

i think the eagles are damn solid at every position but (assuming the QB can stay healthly for the first time in a while) especially strong at QB, OL, and DL -- imo, the three most important aspects of a football team.

there was a lot of drama over lito and westbrook demanding contract extensions. curtis going down isn't a good thing. the birds didn't make any splashy roster moves in the offseason.

as usual, there are a lot of things for people to obsess and chatter about, but on a whole, i think most of those things are not critical to winning and losing football games.

i'll admit that i don't quite have as good of a feel for this year's football team as previous teams, but if mcnabb stays healthy, i don't see how the the eagles won't be good this year. good enough to win the superbowl (no idea). good enough to go 10-6? definitely.

biggest question for me right now is what the heck they're going to do with the DE position. mcdougle finally showing something is definitely throwing a monkey wrench in the works.

Olympic Swimming Thoughts

as i previously noted, i believe that "sports" can be categorized nicely into 4 categories, and that the olympics should be primarily about what i call "athletic feats" rather than "sports". as such, i believe that swimming is a perfect event for the olympics.

what i don't quite understand, though, is why the breast stroke and butterfly are separate events from the freestyle. shouldn't swimming simply be "swim from here to there" first one there wins. whether you choose crawl stroke (which most people mistakenly believe to called "freestyle"), breast stroke, side stroke, or butterfly is up to you.

why do you need a separate breast stroke or butterfly event? seems strange to me. you don't have a 100m sprint and 100m skip and 100m trot and 100m powerwalk. why not a side stroke event?

in addition, running has the marathon but swimming doesn't have something analogous to that. while swimming does have its longer events, there isn't something as extended as the marathon. here's my proposal:

olympic water treading - chin touches the water and you're out

i think this would be highly entertaining and certainly less ridiculous than synchronized swimming. how long do you suppose a world class athlete could tread water? 8 hours? 12 hours? longer?

Back from the Dead

sorry again for the lack of activity! it's been a busy year for me at work and with the new (old) house. my role at work has evolved somewhat and now requires me to make 2-3 business trips a month -- which i hate and messes me up completely. the good news is that the house is coming along nicely and 9 months after moving in, things are finally rounding into shape.

no more tools strewn about here and there waiting for my 3 year old to injure himself. no more dust generating projects waiting to undo all the cleaning we've done.

since we moved in, here are some of the projects/catastrophes i've tackled or hired someone else to tackle (in no particular order):

- pipe burst in basement prior to us moving in and ran for somewhere between 2-4 days filling the basement with water (fun!)

- refinished the hardwood floors

- fixed the 50 year old boiler to get it running again so that more pipes wouldn't burst.

- replaced the old boiler with a new one high efficiency boiler and switched from oil to gas

- installed central air conditioning

- repainted interior

- repainted exterior

- rototilled entire backyard and seeded with grass

- built playset in backyard

- chopped down 6 trees

- insulated attic areas

- replaced a large portion of the roof (btw - i hired some guys from lancaster to do this, they were the most impressive contractors i saw. they showed up at 9 am in wedge haircuts and black wool pants with suspenders (on a 90 degree day), nodded hello and started climbing up ladders and tearing the roof apart. i didn't see them take any breaks. i didn't see them eat lunch. these guys took off two layers of asphalt shingles and one layer of cedar roof shingles, nailed down plywood on the rafters, and installed the new roof shingles and were done by 2 pm.

- replaced or fixed every plumbing fixture in the house. i am not kidding when i say that everything that carried water in the house was leaking when we bought it -- every sink, shower, tub, and faucet. the worst was the first week we owned the house. there is a new bathtub that the previous owner installed into a raised tile enclosure in the master bath. the first time we tried it, water poured into the room below like someone had installed a faucet on the ceiling. it turns out the previous owner had installed the tub, hand tightened the plumbing connections, and tiled the whole thing over. i had to chisel out a bunch of tiles just to get to the connections.

- ran plumbing to places that needed but didn't have any water -- new utility sink in basement and two outside faucets

- added heat to the kitchen and master bath (had no heat when we moved in)

- upgraded electric service to 200 amps

- replaced cellar door

- replaced some rotted basement windows with glass block

- installed radon system

- ran electric to stove area to install range hood

- propped up front porch and had a stone column that was collapsing torn down and rebuilt using the same stones

- refinished original sink in hall bathroom (need to do the same to the tub)

i'm sure i'm forgetting other stuff, but it's been a lot of fun and i've learned a lot. the good news is that i'm mostly done with the major projects so things should settle down a little for me -- freeing up some time to blog.