Happy New Year

Decisions, decisions. What to do on New Year's Eve? You can ring in the year at home, a bar, First Night or watching the Bears. Yup, the NFL realizes with the Bears success this season, the Chicago/Green Bay rivalry and the fact that Farve may be playing his last game, this will be a good matchup. So it's gone to prime time. Well, when the Bears win, it will be one more reason to raise a toast! BTW, if you're watching the game with a beer in your hand after halftime, you're not watching in person. Soldier Field is cutting off beer sales after the first half.

Christmas is almost here!

I've been busy and away from the blog. Everyone's busy this time of year it seems. Time to relax and laugh, and yes, as has been a tradition for 10 years, WTBS will be airing a 24 hour "A Christmas Story" marathon starting Sunday night. You know the story, the kid wants a Red Rider BB gun and everyone, including Santa, tells him "you'll shoot your eye out!" There's the leg lamp, the tongue frozen to a metal pole and the bunny suit too. It's a classic. A cell phone company is even spoofing the movie on their commercials. Some may prefer the sappy sweetness of "It's a Wonderful Life" or the "yes there is a Santa Claus" of "Miracle on 34th Street," but I'll take the real-life craziness of Ralphie and his family anyday. BTW, you can even buy a "leg lamp" at amazon. Merry Christmas!

You blockhead!

Forget the old natural vs artificial tree debate. Buy this tree and you won't have to spend hours stringing lights, hanging ornaments and trying to get that darn star to stay on top. This is the Charlie Brown Pathetic tree. It comes complete with one ornament and bendable branches, so you can have it drooping over if you prefer. Not a whole lot of room for presents underneath, but as Linus would remind us, that's not the real meaning of Christmas anyway. If you want to find out more,
click here.

A real fish story

Here comes another product I can't imagine anyone would need. It's the Fish N Flush toilet aquarium! It's a see thru tank, as you can see, which you can put fish in. There's a seperate tank that is used when you flush, otherwise you'd be buying new fish often. How did someone come up with this idea? Was he or she sitting there (or perhaps standing) doing his/her business and thought, I wish I had some goldfish to entertain me right now? Maybe you can put "sea monkeys" in there. I guess I'm one of those people who goes into the bathroom with a specific task in mind and I don't want to read, do puzzles, talk on the phone or watch fish while I'm doing it.

Buyer's remorse

People who listen to me or read this blog know that I'm a Cub fan. I'm as excited as anybody about getting some new talent and hopefully this will be "the year." I have to admit some reservations about Alfonso Soriano however. First, the contract makes my head spin. Eight years, $136 million. He also gets a suite on road trips, a no trade provision and tickets to all home games. He gets incentives such as $75,000 for a Gold Glove, not that it means a lot when your salary is in the hundred-millions. Wow. Here are some sobering stats, from the Cubs website: Soriano hit .231 with runners in scoring position, and .197 with runners in scoring position and two outs. Thirty of his 46 home runs were solo shots and 31 of his doubles came with nobody on. He strikes out a fair amount for a leadoff hitter too. I hope I eat these words, but I'm not lining up for World Series tickets just yet.