Girls Don't Talk to Me Now, Either

With the exception of the afternoon I learned to smoke Kools in Chris R's backyard and that weekend we all went up to the lake and nearly sunk Bryan and Michael's Blazer, I pretty much spent my entire eighth grade year in my basement with this game. Seriously, stockpiled with Tecmo, a bag of Doritos, a two-liter of Dew, my Primus CD, and a handful of Slim Jims, my family might not see me for days. There was the season I notched 100 sacks with Bruce Smith. Or the full-quarter scramble with Don Majkowksi. 5,000 yards with Andre Ware. I once manned every team on the S.F. schedule and dealt the mighty, hated 49ers a perfect 0-16 season.

Now that I've found The Greatest Football Video Game Ever online, I fire it up over my lunch break for a quick dose of eight-bit nostalgia. Playing on a keyboard can't hold a candle to those uncomfortable square NES controllers but all the old strategy is there: Kick it short to conserve time. Sterling Sharpe will always outjump the DB. Derrick Thomas is unstoppable.

Anybody have Travis Staab's phone number? I'm jonesing for a Chiefs/Raiders throwdown.

If This Ain't the Mess, It'll Do 'Til the Mess Gets Here

One week gone by and this was supposed to be a post about how we're all moved and settled in, but some furnishing snags and three or four bouts with a nasty flu has us a bit behind schedule. Things aren't so bad, really. The movers, three forch dudes from Starving Artist Movers, got all our boxes and tubs and baskets and bags and furniture and bikes and everything into the new house and with a little (lot) more schlepping on our parts, Sweetpea and I set to finding homes for all our combined stuff. We're getting there, as SP likes to say, little by little.

Saturday night, we took a break from our unpacking to cook up a little soup and salad dinner and watch No Country for Old Men. I rather liked the movie, despite being Die Hard-conditioned to want a big showdown at the end, rather than the way the Coens played this one. I'd easily put it in my Top Ten for this year, if for no other reason than I didn't see more than ten movies in the last 12 moths. Hopefully we'll get the house together, and my freelance will level off and quiet down, and we can enjoy a few more dinner and a movie dates in '08.