Nice Try Though

last week my in-laws gave us their tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  It was a date night but because it was last minute, so many things went wrong.

The good:  loved the pyro-techno part.

|The Bad: some of the slow songs (something about a train) were boring.

The Ugly: after the "Christmas story" was over, the lead came out and said "I know it's a school night but we are gonna play a couple of songs from our newest album.

I was under the impression that there would be two more songs and it would be over.  but they just kept playing.  and playing ..and playing.  

IF I had known the encore was gonna go on for an hour, that would have been one thing.  but I felt like they were just gonna play one more song and then we could go.  so I was trapped.

when the concert finally ended, it took a ridiculous amount of time to exit the FedEx Arena because 1) a lot of Slow Moving People and 2) The Powers that be decided that everyone should exit the way they came in....one exit location for 7200 people.  

2023 Bears Predication Update: Need Some Help

 The Chicago Bears have now played 13 games and before going to a 17-game season, this would be the last quarter of the season, so I'm gonna check in with my 2023 predictions.

The Asterik games are games I didn't make a prediction but did lean a certain way. 
 so I'm going to count them at face value

Thus my record is 8-5, the opposite of the Bears' Win-Loss record (5-8).  Do the Bears still have a chance?  Mathematically, sure.  Realistically, they need a lot of help.  They should have won the Tampa Bay, Broncos, and Saints games, and first meetings with the Vikings and Lions, but didn't.   

To make the playoffs, first, the Bears have to Win out the rest of the season.  A single loss now essentially eliminates them.  So let's assume they win their next 4 games and finish the season 9-8.  The next four games are winnable but given how they blew other winnable games, I'm not holding my breath.

Second, they need a bunch of teams to lose at least 2, if not 3 more games.   

It's a little too early to come up with scenarios where they make the playoffs.  San Francisco is the only team that has clinched a playoff berth, but Dallas and Philadelphia aren't going away.  The Rams, Seahawks, and Giants are trying to sneak in and playing very well right now.

There might be a scenario where Detroit implodes and finishes 9 and 8, and I think the Bears would win that tiebreaker?  Unfortunately, that would mean the Vikings win the division.  

It gets even trickier with the NFC South because the Bears lost to the Saints and Buccaneers, but beat Carolina.  They have to win the game against Atlanta (since becoming a fan, the Bears have missed the playoffs twice to Atlanta because of tie-breaker rules). 

But here's the thing.  Even if they do and have a 9-8 record, they would still miss the playoffs because of tiebreakers because that is who the Bears are.  They fail to control their destiny.

Let's assume over the next four games everyone goes 2-2 while the Bears go 4-0.  Lions would win the division, Minnesota would get the last wild Card and the Bears would be watching the playoffs from home.  

 

first full week at the New Contract Gig

This is my first full week at the New Contract Gig.  I started the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and worked was online the three days before Thanksgiving.  And my official start date might have been even earlier because onboarding as a contractor is messy.

On the positive side, this is probably the best time to come aboard because things are winding down on most people's calendars and our clients tend to have restrictions on upgrades and installations at the end of the year.  The only downside is my colleagues likely look forward to this downtime and don't really want to teach the newbie things when they could be mailing it in for the next month.

Finally, even though this is a contract role, and I'm dealing with the 3rd party BS that comes with that, it feels different.  The team is treating me like I'm part of the company.  NG didn't really want me to get a job because she would prefer I be the SAHD.  However, we can use the income and I feel this is my best shot at staying in the job market in case things go South in the South.

Since moving to Olive Branch, we now do the reverse commute of what we previously did to visit the in-laws when we lived in Chicago.  So we left here on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and drove to Mt Vernon.  While we are getting better and better at this, we still manage to forget something.  Luckily it wasn't anything important this time.

However, Natasha was not feeling well when we got there.  It turns out she had a UTI/Kidney infection and we had to get her on antibiotics.  Which is really easy to do when you are 4 hours from home.