New England plays their playoff game in about an hour and a half.

First time in years they haven't had a first round bye. They've never gone to the Super Bowl without a first round bye.

All of the so-called experts have already written off the Patriots and are telling us their dynasty is over.

In my humble opinion, Tom Brady is the best pro quarterback I've ever seen.

Are his best days behind him? I would say so. Does he have enough left in the tank to lead the Patriots deeper into the playoffs?

Remains to be seen.

~

For the first time in around 30 years, vinyl records outsold CDs.

In more ways than one, this old saying applies:

What goes around, comes around.

I frequently dream about time travel. Not going back to a time in my lifetime, but WAY back. Sometimes it's great moments in history, like the American Civil War or the French Revolution.

If only I could harness that and do it for real.

~

For all of those people who drank to much on New Year's Eve...

I'd scream HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I worked until 10:30pm. I went home, watched the news and at 11:55pm, turned over to the ABC affiliate here to watch the ball drop.

At 11:59pm, I poured myself a shot of whiskey.

At midnight, I toasted my family and friends, downed the shot, then watched a movie before I went to bed at 4:00am.

At age 67, that's celebration enough.

And today? No hangover and no regrets.

A Happy, Healthy and Joyous New Year, everyone!

I wrote a few days ago about the 40" Sony flatscreen I'd found by the dumpster where I live. I wondered then why someone would pitch a t.v. that worked.

Now I know why.

It suddenly quit working. Just went blank and wouldn't turn back on.

So I unhooked it, carried it back out to the dumpster, then hooked my old 20 year old 25" Magnavox back up.

That night I went online to Amazon and bought a new Toshiba 40" flatscreen for under$200.00.

It arrived today, a day early. I will be hooking it up shortly.

I'm not disappointed. I got the old one for free, after all.

One last thing:

The next day after I put the old one out next to the dumpster, I noticed it was gone.

All I can say is good luck to that person.

~

An English staple, fish and chips, was not originated in England.

The batter fried fish came with Jews from Portugal and the chips came from France.

Well, hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza didn't start out in the U.S.A, either.

So what? Food is food. I'm just glad it got here!

It's been a short work week for a lot of people this week, but Friday is still Friday.


Bring on the weekend!

Well, I called my sister in California in the evening (7pm), thinking I would talk for an hour and then be ready to finish making my Christmas dinner.

Wrong

My sister, her husband and my nieces and their husbands had just finished dinner and she didn't 'feel' like talking. Said she would call me back in an hour.

Okay, it's family and allowances are expected to be made.

I finished making dinner, ate and cleaned up the dishes, pots and pans.

By this time it's 8:30 pm and I called her back.

She is just getting started cleaning up after their meal. She had me on speaker and I just love to hear the sound of rattling pots and pans, and the occasional sound of running water while I'm trying to talk. Oh... and shehadn't even opened my presents to her yet.

Well, I wound up talking to my brother-in-law for an hour before she got back on the phone. I was a tad miffed, but didn't say anything.

We talked a few more minutes and then she wanted to rest.

I was cheery, told her I loved her and said goodbye.

Someday I'm going to make her listen to me while I'm being rude and cleaning up and see how she likes it.

Phew! I'm SO glad Christmas is over.

~

Back in August, one of the tenants where I live moved out and left behind, sitting next to the dumpster, a Sony 40" flat screen t.v. There was no remote, but I hauled it up to my apartment just to see if it worked.

It worked, but there was a problem:

The t.v. worked, but was programed for only two stations, both analog. Without the remote, how was I to get the t.v. to accept my AT&T input?

I mulled it over and finally decided my best option was to buy a Universal remote and see where that led me.

Well, it didn't work right away, so I put the t.v. back in the corner of my bedroom...

and kind of not really forgot about it, but thought there'd be a time later on when I could devote serious attention to the problem.

Four months go by and today I thought: "Let's either get this sucker working or pitch it."

An hour and a half later, after programming the universal remote to the t.v. and then programming in the Uverse dvr:

Success!

I now have a 40" t.v. in both the living room and the bedroom.

To a lot of younger people this is not a big deal. Being 67 years old and doing it all on my own with no help makes me quite proud of myself.

The only drawback is that it will sometimes take me longer to get out of bed in the morning now.

I have a smug look on my face and I deserved it.

~

A very Merry Christmas to all of you fellow NNers.

We're definitely on Santa's naughty list.