Happy Halloween everyone. I'm glad that we were able to break out the 30 reply email chain over the past two days. Nothing like the talk of candy corn and dirty diapers to remind you of a fun childhood...

I want to try a new tradition with trick-or-treaters. I want to exchange candy. I will give them four pieces if they give me two. They're still coming out ahead and I'm not stuck handing out the same kind candy all night (i.e. I'm not stuck EATING the same kind of candy all night.)

Here's the candy I'd like to get tonight: Snickers, Rolo, Bottle Caps, Runts, Chewy Spree, Kit Kat, and last but not least... Pez, because nothing says yummy like the regurgitated contents of Spider-Man's disembodied head.

And so the NBA season begins... the Cavs should be good this year (read: better than last year), but I'm not convinced that their record will be any better. The teams in the Central have improved quite a bit while the Cavs have basically relied on people getting healthy and coming back from down years. I think that's a fair move, but there's still definite issues to be worked on. First and foremost is the non-existant team defense. Secondly is the pathetic point guard play. Eric Snow is a good defender but is a complete liability on the offensive side of the floor. LeBron is a good play maker, but he can't run the offense. The whole team just stands still and waits for him to break down someone one on one.

I think the Cavs need to run more this year and take advantage of the athletes on the team. When Z is on the floor and they go big, they need to work on the half court set. The half court wins in the playoffs. Pick and roll. Screen and post. Do something other than stand and wait until 2 seconds are on the clock and then hoist up a desperation jumper.

My hope is that Larry Hughes can come back and create things defensively while also opening up the lanes on the offensive side.

Here's a couple of lineups that would create a lot of matchup problems for other teams:

BIG
PG: LeBron James
SG: Larry Hughes
SF: Drew Gooden
PF: Donyell Marshall
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskus

SMALL
PG: Eric Snow
SG: Larry Hughes
SF: LeBron James
PF: Anderson Varejao
C: Drew Gooden

I think 50 wins is possible, and actually should be the floor for this team. I don't know how to read the other teams improvements yet though, so I guess we'll see.

I do not see a trip to the finals this year, but eastern conference finals are reachable.

Here's a picture of a hot chick and some dude.



For those of you whom I haven't talked to in a while, I'd like to introduce Lindsay (she's the hot chick on the right) and I would hope you recognize myself (the devastatingly handsome dude on the left.)

Is it just me, or does IU no longer look like a pushover?

I only saw a little of the Penn State game, but my lasting memory is the Purdue 37 yard field goal attempt that was right on target and looked great and then all of a sudden died like it was shot out of the sky. It hit a gust of wind and just fell to the earth. I think I watched it about 5 times on TiVo just to see what actually happened to it.

I was going back through some old comments and came across one that I thought was really funny.

I was talking about my anti-winnings in Las Vegas and Eric said "Slots? Why don't you just throw coins at ugly people. You'd get a better return on your investment."

Well said!

Purdue's season hangs in the balance of this weekend. If they beat Penn State they can still go to a good bowl game with 9 wins (though I'd have to say - this would be among the worst 9 win teams I can recall). If they don't, I think they're looking at a possible 7-6 season with losses to Penn State, Michigan State, and Hawaii. I'm not saying those will happen, just that if they lose to Penn State, then 2 more losses are more likely.

I need an easy plan to lose 1 pound per week through February. It is definitely possible, and within reason also. My goal is to get down to 185. With the holidays coming up, I generally seem to pack on at least 5 - 10 pounds. I would like to do the opposite this year. With no exercise, I might add. I don't have my gym membership anymore and I don't feel like pulling a Rocky 4 type routine in the snow. I basically just need to cut out 500 calories per day. I've done more than that before, so I just need to do it again. Maybe it's time to bust out the calorie counter again.

Ideally though, I would like the weight loss fairy to come visit me in the night and syphon off pounds while I sleep. Does anyone have their number?

There's just nothing better than a nice October snow storm to remind you that you live in Ohio.

There is a daily assault on my house by the forces of the arachnids. It's like I'm living on one giant spider sack. The more I kill, the more they attack. If I open my door they come from everywhere trying to run in. If I check my mail, there's a ninja spider just hanging there trying to be inconspicuous. If I see one walking around and I look at it, they stop... like I won't know they're there. As soon as I turn around to get a paper towel to kill it, they take off and then I can't find them.

I don't like spiders. I've tried to have a truce with them in the past. I've tried ceding an area to them, but they're power hungry. They just want more and more concessions. Well, I've had enough.

It's go time.

Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum!

I just got back from surgery and I feel pretty good. There was a little bit of pressure for a while, but now that I'm still all drugged up, I'm okay.

We'll see how I feel in a hour or so. That may be when the codeine becomes my friend.

I know what I want for Christmas now, and it is completely unreasonable.

I want a 12 ft X 20 ft addition to the back of my house that has a single 36 inch door way and the walls are covered in sound proofing material. I'll also need a 102" DLP HDTV. Add to that a 10.2 channel immersive sound system (currently only available for theatres). Lastly, throw in 2 Mirage OSD-10's, 4 OMD-28's, 1 OMD-C2, 2 OMD-15's, and 3 OMD-R's.

Then put one recliner right in the middle of the room and I would be very happy.

I estimate the cost of said room to be $200,000.

Imagine this. You're an 81 year old man out for a relaxing cruise in the ocean. All of a sudden... BAM. You've been stabbed in the chest. First thoughts? Your wife didn't do it. Your kids didn't do it. Your friends didn't do it. So what happened?

A freaking stingray jumped out of the ocean, into your boat, and stabbed you with malicious intent.

What is the moral of the story? You can't trust nature. When things start flying out of their natural habitat to try to kill you, they either just plain don't like you, or they're not right in the head. Imagine if you were just walking around next to a cliff that is 500 feet tall and the next thing you know you see a lion jumping off said cliff to try to bite you in the face. It would not be good. Lions are not meant to attack you by jumping off cliffs in the same way that stingrays are not meant to jump into your boat and chase your ass down so that they can stab you.

Why do people keep running over a piece of string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

I am asking for serious suggestions on what I would like for Christmas gifts. I am asking even though A: I will not get any serious suggestions or B: I will not get any suggestions at all.

I never know what I want, and now it's not because I buy all the things I want... it's because there's nothing out there that I actually feel that I need or want that is somewhat affordable.

A high school football player in Arkansas scored 9 touchdowns and his team put up 72 points... and they lost 73-72.

Imagine how your defense must feel if your offense puts up 72 and you still lose.

Purdue's defense played well in the second half. The kicking game has me slightly concerned, but I'm hoping that it was just a bad week.

I wouldn't get my hopes up against Wisconsin - although I do think Purdue can win that game. Wisconsin destroyed Minnesota and Purdue hung on to beat them. Of course, the same could be said for Northwestern and Miami (OH) and us and Miami. NW trounced UM and Purdue didn't. IU beat Iowa which destroyed Purdue. What's going to happen in that game?

I do agree that 9 wins is within reach now. I think that 7 is the minimum that they should win now (Illinois and either IU or Michigan State), which would put them probably back in the stupid Sun Bowl. I'll take the Sun Bowl over no bowl though. They should be able to handle Penn State too, but I don't see them beating Wisconsin this week. I'm also not sure what to think about the Hawaii game. I see trap all over it. Then again, you put the offense in a nice climate and they should put up huge numbers.

Lastly, Anthony Spencer is a beast.

My brief prediction for today: Purdue 24 - Northwestern 20

My grandmother finished radiation yesterday and had her last dose of chemo today. They had been administering 1/3rd doses each week, but today they gave her the full dose. She has one more shot tomorrow and then she's done. Within a month we should know the results of all this.

If I don't get this for Christmas, I'm going to be sad.

Dylan talked to the surgeon today. He's having a pin placed in his right hand and two pins in his left foot. The surgery is scheduled for 7:00 AM on Friday.

Sleep. I came home and went to bed at 6:30 tonight. I woke up at 9:00 and am going back to bed now at 11:00. Whatever illness I have needs to go away.

Thoughts from this wild weekend.

Purdue sucked. I saw 0% of the game and I can tell you that.

Notre Dame beat a winless Stanford team and is suddenly better than Auburn? Please. Auburn would destroy the Irish.

I was rooting for the Tigers to beat the Yankees, but it would be ridiculous for Steinbrenner to fire Joe Torre.

My brother Dylan got in a head-on car crash on Saturday at 65 MPH. His car is totalled, the van that he hit is totalled also. Miraculously, everyone basically walked away from it. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, but he only has a broken left foot and right hand. It could have been MUCH MUCH worse. Here's his car:



His passenger walked away, the passenger in the van walked away, and the driver of the van was admitted and released from the hospital. I'm just thankful that he's okay - relatively speaking.

My stupid comments weren't working on Thursday night, so I neglected to mention that I saw Monty Python's Spamalot. It was pretty entertaining. I enjoyed it.

As for today, it's a sad day... I'm off to my Cedar Point for the last time this year.

The cold and flu season. Oh how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

One.... two.... zero. In zero ways do I love thee.

I've been sucking down cough drops like they're made of Taco Bell nacho cheese.

I busted out the Advil Cold & Sinus to no avail. Today I'm trying Theraflu XTREME! Why is it extreme? I have no idea. Why is there a Right Guard Xtreme? Again, I have no idea. Probably because if you're not EXTREME today then you're just not trying hard enough.

New product suggestion: Elmer's XTREME Glue! We made it extra yummy, so your kids will not be able to stop eating it!

More proof that there was absolutely no reason for oil prices to be $75 per barrel... the price falls and Venezuela says they are cutting supply. The price falls some more. OPEC says they may cut output. Prices fall some more. There NEVER was a supply issue. There NEVER was any reason for oil to be as high as it was. There's plenty of oil out there and the technologies we've got are getting better and better at extracting it. The tar sands in Canada put the rest of the world to shame. Once the new plants get going full steam up there, there will be even less of a concern about the stability of the middle east. We won't need the middle east. As it is, half of our oil comes from ourselves. Half of the remaining amount comes from stable areas of the world. Why does the market get so freaked out about instability in 25% of our suppliers? Who cares? Is that cause for tripling of the price of oil? I don't think so. The only reason that the price rocketed upwards was because of speculators like the huge hedge funds pouring billions into the energy markets. Amaranth and MotherRock just got burned big time and lost a third and ALL of their assets respectively, so it wouldn't surprise me to see the rest of the hedgers start pulling their money back out, which will really knock some dollars off the price of energy.

If OPEC does cut production, I think it will have the opposite of their desired effect. I think prices will continue to come down because then the market won't care as much about potential disruptions as there will be excess supply remaining untapped.

Either way, my prediction is that the price of oil will keep falling. Will it get below $50? I think so.

The Indians finished 78-84 despite outscoring their opponents by 88 runs over the course of the season. That's the best run-differential in major league history for a team with a losing record. The previous best was plus-77, by the 1955 Reds, who went 75-79.

Yay. The Indians are the best!

I have nothing particularly interesting to say today. It's been crappy weather over here. It's dreary and overcast now. It was thunderstorming this morning and raining until lunch. Where did Summer go? Did it ever even arrive this year? It went from 70 degrees to 100 degrees for 2 weeks and then down to 60 degrees. I have news for you Earth... 2 weeks does not equal Summer!

I want my Summer back!

Notre Dame is not good. They're better than Purdue though, and that's painful to admit. Purdue's defense just did not start off well at all.

It was a frustrating game to watch, and in fact, I didn't watch much of it after halftime.

My wish now is for Notre Dame to somehow make it to the BCS championship game and get completely dominated and obliterated by Ohio State. Oh how sweet it would be to crush their dreams. Alternatively, I also wish for them to lose every game for the rest of eternity. Those two dreams seem to conflict, and yet, they are both valid.