Week Fourteen

Wow! Rock on! A 79-74 win! So now I get to play Court – he’s my ex-boss, and we have a storied fantasy football past. It should be a good game and tensions are already high.

This was such a hot and cold week. I appreciate LT’s contribution, and Marion Barber is clearly a man who understands the meaning of “fantasy football championships”. Stallworth and Smith (and for that matter, my beloved kicker, Stover): not as much.

I ended up benching Brees, since we were up by 5 and I’m still bitter about his last Monday night football performance (-2, causing a loss to the aforementioned Court). He played for 26 points – I’m hoping he still has some momentum for next week.

QB
0
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 29
RB Marion Barber, Dal 28
RECEIVERS
WR Deion Branch, Sea 11
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 0
TE L.J. Smith, Phi 0
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 8
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 2
BENCH
QB Drew Brees, NO 26
QB Jason Campbell, Was 4
RB Ron Dayne, Hou 2
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 7
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 2
WR Nate Burleson, Sea 11
WR Drew Bennett, StL 0
TE Alex Smith, TB 3
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 11

Week Thirteen

This was supposed to be the week that I lost, and then didn’t go to the playoffs because I was in a three-way face off. But, then ALL of us lost (my game was 75-101 against #1 in the league), and so the deciding factor defaulted to total season points where I turned out to be quite a bit ahead. Nice! So championships it is!

But still, great job to LT, and ouch to everyone else. Hopefully this counts as a fantasy bye week across the board?

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 14
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 32
RB Marion Barber, Dal 8
RECEIVERS
WR Deion Branch, Sea 4
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 6
TE L.J. Smith, Phi 2
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 3
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 6
BENCH
QB Jason Campbell, Was 1
RB Ron Dayne, Hou 16
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 2
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 5
WR Nate Burleson, Sea 15
WR Drew Bennett, StL 3
TE Alex Smith, TB 1
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 9

And here’s a photo of Kevin, in his hat, concentrating on making patch cables for the cable box.

Week Twelve

Rock on: an 88-38 win over Josh, who’s tied for second in our league. I was lucky, since he played -1 point Roethlisberger instead of 20-pt Carson Palmer, and left a 17 point running back on his bench. Regardless, though, my team did well, with Brees still trying to make up for the first half of the season, and quite a few decent RB and WR performances.

Next week is the last week of the season, and with this win, I’m in a three-way tie for 5th place. The top six teams make the playoffs, so I have to beat my matchup (who, as luck would have it, is #1 in the league), and at least one of these other two have to lose for me to make it. Fingers crossed!

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 26
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 11
RB Marion Barber, Dal 18
RECEIVERS
WR Deion Branch, Sea 15
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 5
TE L.J. Smith, Phi 4
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 7
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 2
BENCH
QB Jason Campbell, Was 9
RB Ron Dayne, Hou 7
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 10
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 2
WR Nate Burleson, Sea 0
WR Drew Bennett, StL 3
TE Alex Smith, TB 4
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 6

Week Eleven

This week was a 72-78 loss to one of the two teams tied for second. I set my team before we left for New York, and then didn’t get to check scores all weekend, and so was spared from the agony of watching it all unfold. (Though you can bet that I wished I swapped which Smith played, or that I’d pulled Brees for Campbell…)

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 10
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 21
RB Marion Barber, Dal 4
RECEIVERS
WR Deion Branch, Sea 3
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 4
TE L.J. Smith, Phi 4
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 15
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 14
BENCH
QB Jason Campbell, Was 18
QB Damon Huard, KC 0
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 5
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 7
WR Nate Burleson, Sea 6
WR Drew Bennett, StL 0
TE Alex Smith, TB 11
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 8

Week Ten

All around, a middle of the pack performance that produced a 62-28 win. (I didn’t check right before the game and it turned out that Deion Branch was out – oops, but luckily it didn’t have an impact.) The Falcons D turned out to be a great pickup while the Pats were on their bye week, and I was impressed by the performances of Reggie Brown and LJ Smith – go Eagles! 🙂

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 13
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 15
RB Marion Barber, Dal 3
RECEIVERS
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 13
WR Deion Branch, Sea 0
TE L.J. Smith, Phi 8
DEFENSE
D/ST Falcons 10
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 1
BENCH
QB Damon Huard, KC -5
QB Jason Campbell, Was 18
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 8
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE (BYE) 0
WR Nate Burleson 5
TE Alex Smith, TB (BYE) 0
D/ST Patriots (BYE) 0
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE (BYE) 0

For unrelated visual interest, Kevin was pretty pleased to get my TI-83 from senior year of high school’s AP Calc…

Though, something gained, something lost. He weeded out some of his old wires and plugs and circuit boards and electrical things, most of which were deprecated somewhere circa ’95. A sample useful thing:

Week Nine

First of all: it’s already week nine?! What happened to October??

Not a bad game – I finally have a winning record, after this 79-63 matchup. 🙂 Rock on. Drew Brees was awesome AGAIN (crazy!), and my running backs were decent. Wide receivers were remarkably subpar, and the pats D and kicker weren’t their typical selves, but it was enough to win by a pretty decent margin. Poor Schobel did nothing, but at least I was cheering for Philly while he was out there (even if the game itself was painful). And 11 out of Burleson (a new local pickup off of waivers, riding the bench for the moment) is not bad. We’ll see how he does.

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 28
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 13
RB Marion Barber, Dal 16
RECEIVERS
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 5
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 4
TE Matt Schobel, Phi 0
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 7
KICKER
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 6
BENCH
QB Damon Huard, KC 7
QB Jason Campbell, Was 7
RB Michael Pittman, TB (injury) 0
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi (BYE) 0
WR Deion Branch, Sea (injury) 0
WR Nate Burleson 11
TE Alex Smith, TB 1
K Matt Stover, Bal 1

In the “someday we’ll have walls and real furniture!” category, Metzger was in town and he, Shawn and Sanna came over to watch the Pats vs the Colts (and then the first half of Philly vs. Dallas until that got too depressing). We’re lucky to have the kind of friends that bring fancy cheeses and crackers (not to mention the beer!) but don’t blink an eye at watching the game from canvas chairs in a room that’s been stripped to the studs. 🙂 Our kind of people.

Plus, their puppy will be staying with us for Christmas! Pretty awesome.

Week Eight

Yeah! A win! (75-68) This was a bye week for a lot of my players, but I was so impressed with Brees (who thought I’d ever say THAT?!) and the Patriots defense for floating things along. I picked up yet another new tight end off of waivers, who did well by scoring a point — not super, but no real complaints. LT was a little slow, as was Stallworth, but I was so pleased to see Reggie Brown have a good game, even if he was sitting on the bench. (And the Eagles won — nice!)

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 30
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 9
RECEIVERS
WR Marty Booker, Mia 1
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 4
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 2
TE Matt Schobel, Phi 1
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 18
KICKER
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 10
BENCH
QB Damon Huard, KC (BYE) 0
QB Jason Campbell, Was 0
RB Marion Barber, Dal (BYE) 0
RB Michael Pittman, TB 0
WR Deion Branch, Sea (BYE) 0
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 11
TE Alex Smith, TB 0
K Matt Stover, Bal (BYE) 0

For visual interest, here are the five enormous trees in our backyard:

…and the even huger ones in the side yard.

Our town has rules about how many trees you can cut down, but since we have a largish lot, we get to take down up to eight a year. All of them have to be replaced with smaller trees (unless we want to pay a fee to the town). Get rid of the monster dark pines and gain some fruit trees? Or some small maples? Anyone have small, hardy tree varieties that they can recommend for the pacific northwest?

Week Seven

Oops, not the best fantasy week. It didn’t look promising from the outset, since it’s LT’s bye week, and I have a bench full of hurt players (Deion Branch, Alex Smith, Michael Pittman). I picked up a new tight end and threw in Marty Booker to play a full lineup, but lost 64-72. Bummer. The opposing team tried their worst – they regularly break 100 – and the opposing quarterback even threw in a -8 point performance, but it just wasn’t enough. If I’d swapped kickers and played Brown instead of Booker, I could have tied, and then won (ties go to the team with the most QB points, as I learned the hard way in Week 3), but that’s totally hindsight.

QB
QB Drew Brees, NO 14
RUNNING BACKS
RB Marion Barber, Dal 15
WR Marty Booker, Mia 2
RECEIVERS
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 11
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 13
TE Quinn Sypniewski 1
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 6
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 2
BENCH
QB Damon Huard, KC 3
QB Jason Campbell, Was 0
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD (BYE) 0
RB Michael Pittman, TB 0
WR Deion Branch, Sea 0
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 5
TE Alex Smith, TB 0
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 7

For visual interest, here are pictures of the mountains as I left for work this morning!

Those pretty, clear blue skies are NOT the October norm. I’m more happy than usual to get views of the Olympics in the morning (which is saying something) now that we’re down to those last few days.

And, leaving work at 5:30, Rainier was glowing out over the foothills.

(I had a photo without the garage foreground, but I actually like this one better. That mountain is amazing because it totally overwhelms the rest of the landscape – it just draws the eye.)

Week Six

This was a pretty stellar week. Everyone in my work league’s been watching my LT performance with amusement, and predicting each week that he’s “about to go off!” and it keeps amounting to naught except that this week he actually did! And my kicker was not far behind. And Dante Stallworth really performed. At 119-57, I ended up with the highest score in my league – second place had 116 points, and third rolled in at 113, and then everyone else ranged from 22 to 93. So now I have a tying record. Neat! (It’s a little bit of a pity that all the points came this week if you believe in the law of averages, but I’m still pretty psyched even despite all of the injuries on my bench. :-))

QB
QB Jason Campbell, Was 13
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 47
RB Marion Barber, Dal 5
RECEIVERS
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 22
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 10
TE Alex Smith, TB 1
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 3
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 18
BENCH
QB Drew Brees, NO 17
QB Damon Huard, KC 13
RB Michael Pittman, TB 0
RB Tony Hunt, Phi 0
WR Deion Branch, Sea 0
WR Reggie Brown, Phi 8
WR Marty Booker, Mia 3
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 13

And here’s a photo Kevin took of a spider web on the back deck. Love the photo, hate the enormous monster spiders. It’s started to get really cold at night (40s) the last few days, so maybe their days are numbered…?

Week 5

I’m a good month behind on the fantasy football season, but I’ve finally gone back and added in the recaps for weeks 1-4. To sum, the first two games were disappointing losses, the third was a tie that I lost due to Drew Brees, and last week, I had my first win. This week was another (yay!), 77-52.

This week, I decided to pick up a new tight end, who has earned himself a spot, especially given how well he did against the Colts. Nice! Jason Campbell had his first start, and he proved himself — for the first time ever, my QB is the week’s high scorer. (Drew Brees was relegated to pondering his recent debacles from the bench.) Deion Branch got hurt in the 2nd quarter — that could be a hit next week, since he’s been so consistent recently. At least Daunte Stallworth finally had a good week. Regardless, I’m worried about my wide receivers. The Patriots D was great, and it says a lot about my kicker that 10 points doesn’t seem particularly praiseworthy. Another iffy game for Marion Barber, though he barely touched the ball until the second half of the 4th quarter, and then he was awesome. It was also a fun game to watch, especially for the final minutes.

The injuries are definitely starting to pile up. Damon Huard had a shoulder thing, Deion Branch’s foot is out for two weeks, my promising bench-riding RB Michael Pittman is out for 6-8, and despite his 13 points, Daunte Stallworth is still marked as having knee problems. Hang in there, guys!

QB
QB Jason Campbell, Was 19
RUNNING BACKS
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, SD 13
RB Marion Barber, Dal 6
RECEIVERS
WR Deion Branch, Sea 1
WR Muhsin Muhammad, Chi 1
TE Alex Smith, TB 12
DEFENSE
D/ST Patriots 15
KICKER
K Matt Stover, Bal 10
BENCH
QB Drew Brees, NO 6
QB Damon Huard, KC 3
RB Michael Pittman, TB 1
RB Tony Hunt, Phi (BYE) 0
WR Donte’ Stallworth, NE 13
WR Reggie Brown, Phi (BYE) 0
WR Marty Booker, Mia 4
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE 10