Game On! Plus Other Stuff

 

Hello again, everyone. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I had a rant about spoors betting here in the state of Florida? Well, this week, without fanfare, the Seminole Tribe of Florida rolled out their sportsbook. Not only that, there's even an app I can download to my phone. How about that! Many thanks to the Seminoles for making this happen, and yes, I have to give DeSantis credit too (albeit begrudgingly). But it's game on! I'm only going to start with $20 and go from there if I win, and I already placed my bet on the Tampa Bay Lightning to win tonight's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs (hopefully I didn't just now jinx it). 

The far right app pictured; the Hard Rock Sportsbook.

Speaking of betting, it's Thursday, which means the beginning of the NFL week. Last week as I alluded to in my last post was a debacle. I did wind up going over .500 with an 8-7 record but a measly 6-8-1 against the spread, although I got some entertainment seeing @TampaSportsBae get pied in the face because she picked the Giants to beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead. But it's a new week, and somewhat stress-free since the Bucs have a bye. Anyway, here's who I have:

IND over NYJ (+10.5)

MIA (-6.5) over HOU

DAL(-10) over DEN

CLE (+2.5) over CIN

BAL (-6) over MIN

LV (-3) over NYG...more on the Raiders in a bit.

NO (-6) over ATL 😒

BUF (-14.5) over JAX

NE (-3.5) over CAR

LAC (-1.5) over PHI

SF (+1) over AZ

GB (+7.5) over KC 👀

LAR (-7.5) over TEN

PIT over CHI (+6.5)

and as a special bonus pick

BYE WEEK over DET 😂

(other byes: TB, SEA, WSH)

Like I had just mentioned, there is news concerning the Las Vegas Raiders and it isn't good. Henry Ruggs III as many of you know by now drove drunk in Vegas and killed a young woman. Yesterday, the details of that fatal crash were made public. Not to mention the Raiders cut ties with Ruggs. Now, Raiders QB Derek Carr says that Ruggs needs to be loved right now, but I'm sorry. After reading how damn fast he was going, as well as the way Tina Tintor, the victim of said crash late Monday night, I find it almost impossible to find any shred of sympathy for him. Like my commanding officer in Naval Nuclear Power School (I think it was Capt. Slaton) would tell Sailors who were caught drinking and driving at Captain's Mast, "you could have killed me and my family." Unfortunately for Ruggs, he did kill someone who still had her entire adult life ahead of her.

You know, now that Halloween is over, now we can enjoy the remainder of fall until Thanksgiving arrives, then go straight into the holiday season, right? Apparently to some folks, no. They think that the second midnight hits on November 1, it's holiday season baby! Cue up the non-stop Christmas music on 105.5 the Dove (all Delilah, all the flipping time 😶). Folks, pump your brakes. We have more than SEVEN weeks until Christmas Day. We haven't even reached the end of Daylight Savings Time yet (that comes this weekend)! Even worse, some outlets are already playing Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Fortunately, one jukebox manager (as seen on twitter) has had enough:

You know, there was a time in my past that I had a Christmas fantasy of Mariah Carey in a Santa outfit greeting me at my front door, now if I never have to hear that song again, I'll be perfectly fine. Oh that and "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer." I have successfully avoided hearing that damned sonng for 19 out of the past 20 Christmas seasons, and if I die without ever having to hear it again, that'll suit me just fine. 

Ghost of Christmas fantasies past

Well, I guess that's all for now. Reading some of the news this morning over the election results has me near sick to my stomach and has kinda ruined the good vibe that I was in. I'll reset and be back hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime have a wonderful day.

CT

She's beautiful!!!

A Halloween Post-Mortem

 

Greetings once again everyone, except for Henry Ruggs. Seriously, a multi-million dollar athlete not being responsible enough to call an Uber or a taxi in Las Vegas in 2021? Pathetic. Say goodbye to your NFL career, dude. 

Took a trip around Twitter this afternoon, and I have to ask, "have we entered crazytown?" I swear looking at that crowd in Dealy Plaza, you'd think that way. There looks to me more people there now than there were on November 22, 1963. Nothing about what's going down in Dallas makes any sense whatsoever, then again, nothing from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021 did either. 

On a related note, I hope that the good folks in Virginia did the right thing today and elected this man governor:

My Halloween wasn't as great as I had hoped to be, unfortunately. Saturday was the day everybody of age kinda let loose, but I couldn't do that; the sisters wanted to have comfort food (grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup) for dinner. That meant there was no chance of me getting my drink on because I knew my stomach couldn't quite handle it. Especially with the after effects of having firecracker shrimp (a dish I hadn't had in over a decade) from the night before. At least the hiccups from the week before didn't come back. Sunday was bad. For starters, the Bucs lost; no further comment there. Secondly my football picks were trash, but I was due for a bad week anyway. What didn't suck about Sunday was watching the Barves come from ahead and piss away a potential World Series-clinching game. Like I had mentioned on twitter, I'm thinking that grand slam by Adam Duvall was the Barves' 28-3 moment (IYKYK). So hopefully (I can't believe I'm saying this) Houston will force a Game 7 tonight...and no, I damned sure not an Astros fan. I just want a certain narrative to live on forever. Oh, did I mention I'm an Atlanta native???

This week has started off well. Very well.

Of course it is supposed to warmed up to the usual 80s today, but was it nice to feel that kind of cold on my shoulder. Not the cold shoulder that I usually get, some from certain schoolteachers in Orange County. 

Plus, the Lightning are on a three-game win streak, and the Magic actually won a game yesterday! OK, it was the Timberwolves, but a win is a win, and at 2-6 , they're right on pace for where I have them this season. Oh, by the way, have you seen the Magic's city edition jerseys for this season? Those are fire!! Beautiful jersey all around.

Speaking of beautiful, I give you the most beautiful girl in the world; Katie Bell.

Well, I'm off for dinner. I hope to be back here at least once before the weekend hits, but knowing me, you never know. Until next time...

CT

Happy Halloween

Greetings once again to everyone, except for the Chicago Blackhawks. I am pleased to report that the hiccup binge I went on last week has subsided. I have zero idea what I'm going to dress up as for Halloween, d truth be told, the last time I did dress up for it was 2010 and I went to downtown Orlando. Man, that was such a good time. Anyway, if I do decide at the last minute to dress up, given my hair now, I might become a monk:

...oh well, there's always next year.

So anyway, I had another pretty good week picking NFL games, going 11-2 and 7-6 ATS. I believe that's my third consecutive 11-win week, putting me at 76-31 for the season and 56-48-1 against the spread. As for tonight's game, I'm thinking upset in the desert, as Green Bay (+6.5) knocks off Arizona as the lone unbeaten team, giving Miami Dolphins fans the only thing they've had to cheer about this season.

Well, it's that time of the year again. No sis, not the time to stuff our house with things you bought from QVC, but winter storm season. Along with it comes the Weather Channel's stupid policy of giving winter storms a name. Instead of going off what that outlet of the media thinks (more on THAT in a moment), I've decided to use my own names for said storms. Here they are:

Agatha

Buttpaste

Cringe

DeSantis

Edsel

Flim-Flam

Gossamer

Hiccup

Insanity

Jameis (does that one come with a side of crablegs?)

Karen (obvious)

Lauren

Marjorie (see a trend here?)

Nincompoop

O'Really

Panther

QAnon

Robeson

Sham-wow

Trump

Ugly

Vanity

Whammo

XXX
Yankee

ZING!!

Really though, there isn't a need to name them; we went years and years going without and the only reason you did this was because of Sandy in 2012. Like I said, it's stupid.

Speaking of stupid, I have to call out this epidemic of stupidity that has been running rampant in our electronic media for a while now. It's like whichever medium you decide to watch/listen to, there seems to be a slant as to which POV a particular story is on. Take the Gabby Petito case. The side of the media that is aligned to the right (Fox News, Newsmax, NewsNation, etc) waned to delve into conspiracy theories that Brian Laundrie was alive, which brought back from the seemingly irrelevant Dog The Bounty Hunter attempting to extend his fifteen minutes of fame when it turned out he was dead all along. Then you have the greatest mystery inn aviation history, Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Remember when CNN basically had 24/7 coverage on it, and you couldn't go an hour of coverage with seeing Richard Quest's face? And one time, if memory serves me correct, a CNN panel actually speculated on whether or not the flight went into a black hole?

Whatever happened to critical thinking in our society? Whatever happened to thinking period? Nowadays watching the news is like the early 1980's song "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley. Remember pageants like Miss America and Miss Universe? Why don't we start one called "Miss Informaton?" And here's our first contestant, Miss South Dakota!

Ah, that resting witch face already makes her a top contender for the crown.

Seriously though, media. Knock it off. What happened to "just the facts, ma'am (or man)?" What is the latest from Washington, not "President Biden picked his nose today. HE'S UNPRESIDENTIAL!!" Screw your ratings and your ad sales, we want the news. Not dirt slinging and agenda-pushing. If I wanted dirt-slinging, I can just to the Monster truck show in January at Raymond James Stadium. What I'm saying to the media is...

I think I'll wrap up this entry here. I should have more later this week. Until next time...

CT

I Have Some Catching Up To Do

 

Hello again. As you probably have figured out by now, I haven't been very active writing on this blog he past couple of weeks. As one twitter mutual stated this week, "Yay for depression." Besides that though, I've been battling a severe case of hiccups this week. Starting on Wednesday night and lasting until about an hour ago. It got so bad one time that early Thursday morning, I was nearly convulsing from it. Don't know what exactly triggered it, but I think it was the chicken pot pie I had Wednesday for dinner. For some reason it doesn't settle very well with my stomach; gas pain, bloating, the sudden inability to belch; okay, I'm going too far (and perhaps I should get some Gas-X). I just don't want to become that then-teenage girl from the Tampa Bay area that suddenly gained notoriety for having non-stop hiccups some years ago (I think it was the last decade) then a few years after that, was invoved in a bizarre murder-for-hire scheme. Yes, that actually happened. And just as I typed hat, they (hiccup) returned. Man, I (hiccup) just can't catch a good (hiccup) break. 

First off, the authorities found Brian Laundrie, or what was left of him, yesterday. Good. I think everybody under the sun who have been following the case knew he strangled poor Gabbie Petitio to death. As for me, I speculated with a friend up in St. Louis via text around the time he suddenly vanished in that nature preserve that he was more than likely in the belly of an alligator. I didn't buy into conspiracy theories that many in the right-wing media were trying to peddle (which caused Dog the Gravy Trainer to try to "chase" after him, much to the delight of Fox News and NewsNation). Sure enough, he was probably mauled to death/eaten by a gator or some other animal in the Florida swamp.

 

Given the proximity of this story to Halloween, I wonder if someone in Hollywood would try to spin this entire tragedy into a scary Halloween-type horror story. Like Laundrie isn't actually dead, but he somehow managed to survive the swamp and now he (or his zombie-like body or his demented spirit) now haunts that part of SW Florida. Then again, a story like that probably has been done before, but if it does get done, I have one request: please have a running car scene in it.

Hockey and basketball seasons have started. I have high hopes for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning again this season. Three-peat? Possible, but I kind of doubt it. My Stanley Cup Final picks are the New York Islanders over the Colorado Avalanche (who the Lightning play Saturday). As for the Orlando Tragic, it's another year in their perpetual rebuild. After tonight's loss, they're 0-2 on the young season. To be honest, I think they'll struggle to win 20 games this season, and probably gain a top-3 lottery pick. As for who wins this season? Well, it's the 75th anniversary of the league this year, so naturally it will be the Los Angeles Lakers besting the Boston Celtics for the Larry O'Brien trophy.

My football picks have been pretty good...sort of. In the last two weeks I was 11-5 and 11-3 straight up, but 7-8-1 and 8-6 against the spread. For the season, I'm 65-29 straight up and 49-44-1 ATS. Allow me for a second to go over the Seminole Compact. Yes, it's good that people in Florida can participate in sports betting...but there's a catch. It must be done on Seminole land. Which means unless you live in South Florida or Tampa, you're sh*t out of luck. And you can't participate in sports books that you see advertised on TV (such as Caesar's). Which means if you live in (ironically named) Seminole County, you have to traverse the hellish nightmare that is Interstate 4 through downtown Orlando AND the attractions area, then miles and miles of swampy wasteland until you reach Lakeland, where you're within striking distance of Hard Rock Tampa (which is thankfully on the east side of town by the fairgrounds). If you remember my entry from over two years ago, you'll remember I had it with living in Florida, and had about a foot out the door even. But my sister didn't want me to explore St. Louis when I wanted to (she apparently has never wanted me to possibly fall in love), and I wound up waiting until November of that year. Then the pandemic happened. Now we're here. Yes, Tampa has won three championships in that time, but it isn't the end-all-be-all. You know how some folks are now saying "bleep Joe Biden?" well I have my own mantra I've had since 2018: "(Bleep) Ron Desantis and (bleep) Donald Trump."

Sorry about that rant, anyway, here are my picks for this week's NFL games:

NYG (+3) over CAR

ATL (-2.5) over MIA

GB (-7.5) over WAS

BAL (-6.5) over CIN 

NE (-7) over NYJ

TEN (+4.5) over KC

LAR (-16.5) over DET

LV (-3) over PHI

ARI over HOU (+17.5)

TB over CHI (+11.5)

IND (+4) over SF

NO (-4.5) over SEA

BYES:

BUF, DAL, LAC, PIT, MIN

Bye-bye-bye:
JAX

I might have more later this weekend, but (hiccup) I have to (hiccup) get these (hiccup) hiccups squared away (hiccup). Until later (hiccup).

CT

Twitter

NFL Week 6 picks

 I should have a proper blog entry tomorrow, in the meantime here's who I have this weekend in the NFL:

Tampa Bay (-7) over Philadelphia

Miami (-3) over Fulham (Jacksonville)

Cincinnati (-3.5) over Detroit

Kansas City (-6.5) over Washington

Carolina (+2) over Minnesota

Indianapolis over Houston (+10)

LA Rams (-9.5) over NY Giants

Baltimore (-3) over LA Chargers

Green Bay (-5) over Chicago

Arizona (+3.5) over Cleveland

Las Vegas (+3.5) over Denver

Dallas (-3.5) over New England

Pittsburgh (-5) over Seattle

Buffalo over Tennessee (+5.5)

Bye:
Atlanta
New Orleans
San Francisco

Bye-bye:
NY Jets

CT

Red Flags

Red flags. I'm sure you've heard of them. If you're a gearhead, they mean stop an auto race for a bad accident. For maritime messaging, it means the letter B. For relationships, it's a little different because it isn't literal. 

It's various behaviors that signify to another person, usually a potential dating partner, that something isn't quite right. And since on Twitter, posting "🚩" have been all the rage this week, I thought I might share a few of my own.

If she smokes, 🚩

If she doesn't like nor follow sports, 🚩🚩

If she refers to the Tampa Bay Lightning as the Lightening, 🚩🚩🚩

If she doesn't like that you watch wrestling on occasion, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If she sounds like Fran Drescher, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If she doesn't believe in science, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If they like Ron DeSantis, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If they're MAGA, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

...and my personal favorite, if they attended a particular college in the Appalachians,🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

okay, not really...😂

CT

Friday Night Shenanigans

Hello again, it's Friday night and nothing's going on. I could be drinking, but I'm not really supposed to. The Red Sox won tonight, so that sucked. So, what should I write about?

Well, I can retrace how I did last week in my football picks. In a word lousy. College picks were 6-9 (NOT nice at all). In the pros, I went 10-6 straight up but a puny 7-9 ATS, so for the season, I'm 43-21 straight up but 34-30 ATS. Suffice to say I'm glad I don't gamble on games, then again I live in a state with a sorry-ass governor, so there's that.  

For this weekend in college football here's who I have

Ohio State over Maryland

Tennessee over South Carolina

Florida over Vanderbilt (seriously though, WTF was that performance last week?)

Texas over Oklahoma

Georgia Tech over Duke

Virginia over Louisville

Wisconsin over Illinois

Georgia over Auburn

UMass over UConn (in the Toilet Bowl; they're a combined 0-11)

North Carolina over Florida State
SMU over Navy

Iowa over Penn State

UCF over ECU

Kentucky over LSU

Michigan over Nebraska

As for the rest of this week in the NFL (I was successful Thursday night)

NYJ (+2.5) over ATL

NO (-2.5) over WSH

GB (-3) over CIN

MIN over DET (+10)

PIT (+1.5) over DEN

TEN (-4.5) over JAX

TB over MIA (+10)

NE (-8) over HOU

CLE (+2.5) over LAC

LV (-5.5) over CHI

AZ (-5) over SF

DAL (7) over NYG

KC (-3) over BUF

BAL (-7) over IND

Hang on while I grab a snack real quick

Alright, I'm back. Bit of clarification on the posted tweet from earlier. When I composed said tweet, I wasn't really feeling it; tonight, I am. I guess that's what chronic depression can do, at least I take Prozac to keep me on somewhat even keel.

Something from my last entry I wanted to talk about briefly:

Yes, I'm starting to get too old to have crushes, heck I'm pushing 50 for heaven's sake. That doesn't mean that I don't have interest in females, though not the ones listed though because those five are not in my ballpark, unavailable, or both. I know schoolteachers in Orange County probably breathe a sigh of relief, but realistically I'm not in a position to even see anyone, let alone date (Thanks, sis!). I mean I'm kinda aggravated enough as it is living with my siblings, my stroke four plus years ago also doesn't help matters. There's plenty of other factors that limit me that I'd rather not get into here, but if anyone has a question about it, I might address it, though likely not here.

Well, it's getting late, so I guess I'll wrap this up. Until next time.

CT

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