Dick Butkus

I just received my Chicago Bears Jersey that I ordered for my birthday, #51 Dick Butkus.

This is what was written about him at the Football Hall of Fame:

Dick Butkus possessed with a desire to excel that few have ever equaled. He played as the Chicago Bears' middle linebacker for nine years with only one goal in mind – to be the best, and from the very start, he was just that. In his rookie season, Butkus, a first-round draft choice had only one challenger for National Football League Rookie of the Year honors, teammate Gale Sayers. That same year Butkus was named first-team All-NFL, an honor he would record five more times. Butkus also played in the Pro Bowl following his rookie season and in each of the next seven years.

He even figured in the career statistical columns with 22 interceptions and 27 opponents' fumble recoveries. Dick had drive, meanness, a consuming desire to pursue, tackle, and manhandle – anything he could do to thwart the enemy on every play. Still he was a clean player, totally devoted to his career, a man who by his own admission played every game as though it were his last one.

Butkus had the speed and agility to make tackles from sideline to sideline and to cover the best tight ends and running backs on pass plays. He had instinct, strength, leadership and, maybe most important of all, anger. “When I went out on the field to warm up, I would manufacture things to make me mad,” he once said. “If someone on the other team was laughing, I'd pretend he was laughing at me or the Bears. It always worked for me." It was inevitable that injuries would eventually come to someone who threw himself so completely into a contact sport such as football. For Butkus, it was a serious right knee injury in 1970 that didn't respond completely to surgery. Three years later, he retired. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility

Birthday Surprise

On Saturday, Nov. 11, my family threw me a surprise party. Most of my family was there including some dear friends. Pictures are courtesy of my longest friend, Don Prince. Good job Don, in taking some nice photos.

Funny 4 da day

Saw this on myspace and just had to share it.

New Website Provider

Do not, I repeat do not use ACCUBURST as your website provider. I gotta believe they are going in the dumps. They ignore my emails and phone calls. I have now changed to a new provider and I am hoping everything will be honky dory - I can't believe I used those two words "honky dory".

About the elections, I am elated. That's pretty much how I voted right down the line, all Democrats. I guess I wasn't the only one. We are in such a quagmire in the middle east. I supported the attack on Afghanistan but not on Iraq. I just don't see any quick solution to the problem. We have opened up a Pandora's box and now we have to fix it and or deal with it.

Web site down

I'm not sure what's going on but my website has been up and down for the last week. I am having problems contacting customer service because I keep emailing them and leaving them phone messages and the only thing I get back is an email letting me know that my site is up now. If this doesn't get resolved in the near future, I'm going to be shopping for a new web provider.

Photos on my web page

Well, I finally put up my fall trip photos on my web page. I think there are a little more than 90 pictures. Hey everyone, if you get a chance, check them out.
I'm really curious as to how much money "Borak" will gross. Almost all movie critics gave it a thumbs up. If anyone has gone to the movie, let me know what you think of it.

Van UP!

Well, I got my baby back. My van is up and running. The problem was that my oil pump went bad. It cost me 4 bills to get it fixed, but now it seems to be running great. The mechanic, who worked on my van, said that I should be using better oil filters. I had a Fram filter and he noted that all that filter contains is some tissue paper and not much more to help filter the oil. He recommended I use Mann filters, more expensive, but better filtration. Note to self - dump the 4 or 5 Fram filters that you bought on sale.

Not much excitement during Halloween night. I had at most 10 trick or treaters. That's 2 more than I had last year. For some reason not too many kids going out at night. I guess there are enough church and school functions which enable the kids to get their fill of candy.

I recall my 1st Halloween in California, that would be in 1967. I lived with 3 other roommates and for some reason I don't remember them being home so I was by myself that night. I knew, as a child, how I didn't care for some of the small candy that people would give out on my Halloween treks. So I picked up 2 big boxes of Hersheys chocolate bars. I believe there was 40 to a box. These were the large candy bars that you pay 75 cents now. I figured, if I had any left over, great for me. People that know me know what a chocoholic I am. So, it's Halloween night, I have my candy ready and my six pack and TV, I was set. I lived in an apartment complex and knew most of the kids. I spent a lot of time in the pool and that's were the kids hung out. I figured that there would be a couple kids and that would be the end of it - wrong. The only thing that I can figure out is that there must be some sort of underground network communication that goes into effect during Halloween. I had so many kids come to my apartment. I swear there was a line formed to my doorway, and I lived on the second floor. After a few groups of kids, I noticed that some of the costumes were familiar and actually, some of the costumes didn't match. Those rascals were going downstairs and changing articles of clothing. I figured this out when I noticed that there was a policeman costume with a pirate mask. I quickly started taking note as to who I was giving candy to. At the end of the night, I had maybe 5 bars left. The next day, talking to my neighbors, they asked me if I had a party going on because of all the kid traffic at my doorstep. I just smiled and said nope, just a typical Halloween night for me.