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It's... Football!I'm feeling much better today, having spent nearly all of the last two days at home (other than my grocery excursion on Friday and going to dinner with Trish last night. My congestion is nearly cleared up. My cough is still there, and is bad at times, and has the feeling that it might stick around for another week. But otherwise I feel pretty good. Thank goodness!
 Today I met Lucy, her husband John, and Bill for dim sum up in Palo Alto. It was pretty yummy and it was good to see them all again. Afterward we went over to Keplers to browse books, although I ended up not buying anything. It was overcast all day; apparently we're supposed to get several doses of rain in the next week, which I'm looking forward to. At last! Weather! After I parted from those folks, I went over to visit CJ and David, whom I haven't seen since (I think) baseball season ended. I still owed CJ money for that last game, and paid her for it. I also made a pest of myself and rounded up nearly everything that I'd loaned to her over the last year-and-a-half or so. She'd finished with all of it, I think. I don't mind lending things for long periods of time, but I do feel I can ask about the stuff from time to time just to make sure about it.
I've spent a bunch of this weekend watching the football playoffs, and CJ and I watched most of the Giants-Eagles game this afternoon. Yesterday the Vikings beat the Saints (expected), and the Raiders shut out the Dolphins (expected, though not so resoundingly). The Giants beat the Eagles more through luck and forced turnovers than anything else, and I expect the Vikings to make short work of them next week (though the Vikings have a penchant for sudden, unexpected losses to inferior teams in the playoffs, such as to the Falcons in 1998). The big upset this morning was the Ravens beating the Titans, which surprised me quite a bit. I think the Raiders will probably tear the Ravens apart next week. A Giants-Ravens Super Bowl would be surreal. A Raiders-Vikings Super Bowl could be pretty cool. I've realized in the last few weeks that one thing that really bugs me about football is the end game. The really stupid thing about it is that everyone realizes that it's physically impossible for a team to make up a 20-3 deficit in the last 90 seconds of game time, so everyone's cheering (or not) for the winning side, but there are still 90 seconds left to play, which could take 5 minutes, or even more if the losing team really goes all out or gets really lucky. It's amazingly boring, and it completely robs the game of the sheer joy that baseball has when the final out is made, because not only have to definitively won, but until that point you might not have won (even with a few really lopsided scores), and the game ends with a specific event which gives you something to cheer about (especially if it ends on a strikeout). Football, in fact, is largely devoid of the "little joys" that baseball gives its fans. It's exceedingly rare that, once the score has worked out a certain way, there's much in the game to anticipate or appreciate. A good catch here or there, maybe. The occasional player having an outstanding day. In baseball, there are often such little things happening in a game: A batter attempting to go 5-for-5. A pitcher working a double-digit strikeout game. A rookie player making his debut. The possibility that on this next pitch you could see an unassisted triple play. And heck, even in 10-2 laffers, there's always a possibility that the leader's bullpen could implode and the other team will come up with 8 runs. In football, a 28-3 score will almost always stand up. Baseball is a nice mix between being a team sport and an individual sport. Football has very little individual achievement in it, outside of the quarter back and a few other superstars. The final score is such a dominant part of the enjoyment of the game. In baseball, the final score is important, but there's so much more to enjoy, too. I enjoy watching football, but not as much as watching baseball.
It's been nice having a couple of days at home to do not much. I read some comic books I've meant to read for a while, and I watched the first four episodes of Sports Night on Comedy Central, which is just as funny as the later episodes I've seen. Don't miss it, if you get CC! But oh, I'm so glad to feel better. I can only begin to express how lousy I was feeling on Thursday and Friday.
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