WHEN THE RAIN STARTS TO POUR
At the end of each year, I review my friend’s blogs and link back to my favorite story that they wrote this past year. It is just a way to support my friends and let them know I enjoy their work. I hope you take the time to read their stuff and support their websites.
Happy New Year!!!
LikeMIGHT WIN AN OSCAR
It is a tradition of this blog to rank a list of movies that came out during the year (2006) and that I remember seeing. Exciting stuff, huh!
- Invincible – Excellent, a great movie for even those who do not like football
- Flags Of Our Fathers – Very good, a great WW2 flick
- Inside Man – Enjoyable and interesting, but you have to pay attention
- XMen3 – Very good. Love the extra scene at the end of the credits
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – Entertaining and pretty much what I expected in the second movie in a trilogy
- Cars – Very funny. Another movie with things at the end of the credits
- Eight Below – Those dogs are amazing, but it still a sad movie
- Thr3e [SNEAK PREVIEW] – Very enjoyable based on a book by an author I really like
- Talladaga Nights – Good. Very funny parts and not so funny parts
- Hoodwinks – Not as good as the Shrek movies but ok
- Over The Hedge – Alright. It had a great message
- M3 – Ok. Some stupid scenes but entertaining
Monkey Meditations
- Things To Do When Stuck At DIA: Buy overprices Christmas gifts from the gift shops
- Remember when Denver Mayors lost their jobs for bad management of snow storms and the airport?
- Times have changes, not only can your blow the snow storm, but you can now mess up the election.
- I guess it is a different time in this old, snowy, cow-town
- Things To Do When Stuck At DIA: Say hi to Brian and Shawn
- Yep, my brother and his wife (both employees for an airline) were stuck at DIA.
- They were flying home to Palm Springs.
- So much for their first Christmas in Colorado since they got married.
- Things To Do When Stuck At DIA: Snowshoe on Pena Blvd.
- Personal Pictures of the snow from Denver’s Blizzard of 2006 – click here.
- Ethan Photo’s – click here
- Photos of local blogs I read but don’t know them – click here and click here
- Things To Do When Stuck At DIA: Stand in security lines for days like normal
- Normally, I leave the quest for burgers to the expert, Rick
- However, my two favorite burger joints are now in the Denver area.
- Fatburger is in Highlands Ranch area
- Culvers is in Thornton.
- Things To Do When Stuck At DIA: X-Ray your kids
- Here is wishing you have a safe and great time with family and friends
- And that Santa does not have time to check his list twice.
- Merry Christmas
OFF WE GO INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER
What can I say about him that has not been written? I don’t know, but I wanted to make sure I did say something about Fisher DeBerry and his retirement as the coach Air Force Falcons after 23 years as the head football coach.
I am big fan of of Coach DeBerry and the job he did at Air Force and his strong character and integrity. He was at AFA for 29 years (23 of those years the head coach). I loved the way his teams played hard and won a lot of games that they really should not have won since they were an academy school, the way he really did care about the players, and the way the program stayed clean. I know sometimes he put his foot in his mouth with things he said, but so have I.
A few years ago, I got to hear him speak at a breakfast and am so glad I got hear him speak. It is something that I will treasure. I will miss him leading the AFA Football teams. I wish the best to him and his family.
Here are a few stats about his time as head coach of the Falcons that I found interesting:
| Pre-DeBerry | During-DeBerry | |
| Record | 126-160-13 | 169-107-1 |
| Winning Seasons | 13 | 17 |
| Eight or more Win Seasons | 4 | 11 |
| Bowl Games | 5 | 12 |
| Bowl Wins | 2 | 8 |
| Record Against Navy | 8-8 | 17-6 |
| Record Against Army | 9-8-1 | 18-5 |
| Command-n-Chief Trophies | 2 | 14 + Shared it another time |
| Conference Championships | 0 | 3 |
Notes:
- AFA began playing football in 1955.
- They were not in a conference till 1980:
- Some of the pre-DeBerry head coach records did have him as a coach on AFA
Other AFA Football Coaches Records:
- Colonel Robert V. Whitlo (1955) Record: 4-4-0
- L.T. “Buck” Shaw (1956-1957) Record: 9-8-2
- Ben Martin (1958-1977) Record: 96-103-9
- Bill Parcells (1978) Record: 3-8-0
- Ken Hatfield (1979-1983) Record: 26-32-1
Stories about DeBerry’s Retirement:
MIRROR YOUR’VR ALWAY TOLD ME WHO I AM
It is tough and painful when you finally see who you really are. When you really look into the mirror and see that you have been lying. When you finally know it is time for deceiving to come to an end. For me that day came December 13, 2006. That day this rockies fan became tired of fooling himself.
It all started in the early 1990ies when I told myself, voting for a new stadium would bring a new Major League Baseball team to Denver. Then when the rockies started in 1993, I told myself, yes, we have a Major League Baseball and we are no longer a Minor League Baseball town. I was wrong. Sure, we no longer have an AAA team (I miss you Z’s), but we do not have a Major League Team. I guess we are an AAAA farm team for the majors.
December 13, 2006 is the day the rockies traded Jason Jennings to Houston. JJ is exactly what we have been promised would help us win at Major League Level. A home grown pitcher who could handle Colorado with no baggage or arm troubles. I do not care how great the potential of the guys we got for him is. Why? Because I know when or if they are good the M&M boys will trade them away they will not pay them.
Today, I stopped telling myself fairy tells and I stopped believe foolish things. The mirror has crack and I know the rockies are an AAAA farm team. The best I can hope for is that the Yankees or Red Soxes will pay us $30-50 million so they can talk to one of our guys and hopefully sign him to a major league contract.
Good Luck JJ! We hope to send other players to help you in the big league soon.
P.S. Check out Win, Lose, & Drew
THREE, FOUR, SHUT THE DOOR
Tonight, Monday, December 11, 2006, I got the pleasure of attending a sneak preview of the movie, Thr3e. It is the first book by Ted Dekker to become a movie. If you have read this blog or pay attention to the what I am reading, you know I am a big fan of Ted’s and his writing. Needless to say I was excited to be part of the sneak preview of the movie, which should come out in January.
I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, so I will not write too much about the plot. I will say I was happy to see it was well done, but I figured it might be since one of the produces of the X-Men movies was part of the project. I was happy to see some actors/actresses were people that I had seen in other things, including one of Three’s Company fame (click here for a cast list).
Also, I was also happy that the movie did a good job of staying true to the book.
They said before the movie, that Ted was going to be there but could not attend, which is too bad. However, they did give a few prizes before the movie. They gave a few copies of the book, “Thr3e”, which my friend Kurt twas one of the winner (you can read his thoughts on the night at his blog). They also gave out a few copies of Ted’s new book “Skin”, but I did not win. Oh well, I still enjoyed getting to part of the preview and seeing this enjoyable film. I would recommend you check it out when you get a chance.
MORNING IN THE COLORADO SNOW
Sure, I would probably recognize Joe Sakic if I ran into him, but I am not so sure about some of the other avalanche. Well, with the Avs playing there 1000th game since coming to coming to Denver, I thought it would be good to be more aware of avalanches. Maybe, I could even learn why in the world they would trade Chris Drury?
At the class I went to, the one of the first things they mention is that avalanches kill more people in Colorado than anywhere else. I was not sure I wanted to learn more about the Avs. However, I just figured it was because they are good at home and only ok when they are not in Colorado.
On and on the instructor went on how we need to pay attention to the triangle of terrain, weather, and snow-pack to be aware of avalanches. Then the instructor talked about angles, aspect, shape, etc. That was very confusing, but I figured it was about Joel Quenneville’s triangle offensive or something like that.
Next we heard about various tests like the Rutschblock test and other stability tests to help us be determine the avalanche danger. Again, it appears there is danger involved when you are around the Avs. So maybe keeping us safe from them is why the class was at a REI store and not at the Pepsi Center where the 1,000th game was being played.
By this point, I was thinking maybe I had my avalanche information crossed, but then they started talking about avalanche gear and how costly some of the equipment is. Then I was thinking, yep, we are talking about the NHL and Colorado Avalanche as they do charge so much for their stuff. However, I am still not sure how a digital beacons work or if they can help Svatos find the net.
It was an interesting class and I more excited about going snowshoeing now. I still want to learn a lot more about avalanches to enjoy the Colorado back-country better and to be aware if I was standing next to Budaj.
Other Links For Avalanche Awareness and Safety:
