We really need to do this more next year.

Kirsten secured two tickets to last night's San Jose SaberCats game at the Shark Tank from someone at work. This is the second game we've attended, and again we had a blast.

San Jose SaberCats: 61
Colorado Crush: 56

San Jose quarterback Mark Grieb threw five scoring passes and the SaberCats (9-6) clinched their sixth Western Division title and first since 2003 with a 61-56 win over the defending ArenaBowl champion Colorado Crush (10-5) in an Arena Football League game on Saturday night.

Grieb completed 23-of-28 attempts for 260 yards with no interceptions in the game. He threw three touchdown passes in the second quarter, the first a 12-yarder to Brian Johnson that tied the game at 14-14 with five minutes elapsed in the frame.

It was the first career touchdown reception for Johnson, who also had a game-high 18-yards and a 1-yard scoring running for the only points in the third quarter.

San Jose scored twice in the final 37 seconds of the first half to take a 40-28 lead at intermission.

Following a Willis Marshall touchdown run that gave Colorado a 28-27 lead with 44 seconds left in the half, Charles Pauley scampered 57 yards with the ensuing kickoff for the first San Jose kick return score of the year.

On the next Colorado possession, Omarr Smith stepped in front of a John Dutton offering intended for Ahmad Hawkins and returned the interception 42-yards for a score as time expired in the half.

It was the 5th career interception return for Smith giving him the SaberCats career lead.

Dutton threw four of his six scoring passes in the fourth quarter to pull the Crush close, his last a 48-yard strike to Hawkins as time expired. The former SaberCat threw for 376 yards on 29-of-43 passing but his two interceptions were converted to touchdowns by San Jose.

Marshall had a game-high 10 catches while Damian Harrell extended his league touchdown receptions record to 55 with four scores on nine catches.

Notes: Brian Johnson had his 1st career touchdown reception… Marquis Floyd had his 2nd interception of the season… Barry Wagner had 1 rushing TD giving him 127 rushing TDs in his career… Brian Schmitz made his 500th career PAT… Charles Pauley had San Jose’s 1st KOR touchdown of the season… Omarr Smith had an interception for a touchdown and now holds the team record with five… Brian Johnson scored his 12th rushing TD of the season… Mark Grieb completed the 2,100th pass of his career… James Roe passed 6,700 career receiving yards… Grieb set a team season record for pass attempts with 564…

We also got bobbleheads! Arena Football is just fun. Even in the upper level seats you're close enough to hear the QB call audibles, the action is fast, and the feel of the event is somewhere between football, a rock concert, and a good minor league baseball game.

Assuming things improve, I'd be tempted to get season tickets for next year.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering about the name... this area is lousy with fossil examples of Smilodon californicus. They're the state fossil, and also found in great number in the La Brea Tar Pits in LA. There's even a Sabercat Road in Fremont where a number of intact skeletons were found in the 50s.

GO CATS!!

With apologies to all my Marine friends..

But today's Doonesbury just nails the feelings between the Army and the USMC.

( A few good what? )

The Letter Meme

After I confessed my sins, fr_john said he needed to consult with Rome and told me to do this meme while I waited.

Here's how it works: You reply to this and I'll give you a letter of the alphabet. Then you post this in your own LJ along with 10 words starting with the letter I give you along with what they mean to you.

I was tagged with "L"

1. Literacy Books have been an important part of my life since about the time I could walk. They transported me to place both real and imaginary. This doesn't begin to address the reams of basic information that is in word form. I'm shocked that there are still adults in this country who cannot read, and angered by by those who brag about how long its been since they read a book.

2. Leisure My relaxation time is important to me. Even if it just surfing the net or watching old movies, I need tome to decompress. That being said, were I in a position to stop working (say, winning the lottery) I doubt I could live the "life of leisure." I'd find something to do.. go back to school to become a geologist, learn to build custom bikes, something. The key would be finding work that I thought of as leisure time.

3. Language Way back when, when I was first entering the Army, they gave me a test called the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery) to determine my ability to learn foreign languages. My score was so low they were amazed I spoke English. I'd love to be able to speak another tongue, but I've tried and it is a stone wall for me. Even "easy" languages like German appear to be beyond me.

4. Leather Not in a kinky way, but I've always loved leather. Motorcycle jacket, a good set of jump boots, gloves.. they wear well, look great, and piss off silly extremist liberals. The perfect clothing!

5. Longitude I'm a history buff, and to me one of the most amazing unknown tales of history was the quest for longitude. When sailing long distances, latitude is easily determined with a sextant and a good star chart. But longitude required whole new technologies. The tale of how a cabinetmaker solved the riddle in the face of scorn of the scientific establishment of the era is one of intrigue, conspiracy, and heroism.

6. LRRP OK, it's not a word, but the Vietnam era Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols were the beginning of the reforms in the US Infantry that culminated in how I was trained in 1984. The LRRPs emphasized preparation, tactical thinking, and strong team work to "out G the G" (out guerrilla the guerrillas). They also trained and operated at night, something we did a great deal of in my day.

7. Laparotomy The surgical procedure I had in 1995 that led to my cancer diagnosis. Surgery is very, very weird. Your body knows that you have been severely injured, but has trouble telling what is wrong since everything has been sewn and stapled shut.) I was lucky in that I had a surgeon who understood that gross was not a problem for me, and described exactly what had been done to me.

8. Laminate One of the tasks in the Army I hated more than anything, more than cleaning the latrines on a Sunday morning, was having to laminate maps. Before any exercise, we'd have to laminate the appropriate maps and cut them into sections so the officers and senior NCOs would have waterproof maps that could be carried in the cargo pocket of our BDUs (battle dress uniform.) The laminate we used came in large sheets, and was impossible to work with. It would fold, stick to everything but the maps, and inevitably leave bubbles and ridges. Once we got the maps laminated, we had to cut them into sections, then laminate them again, front and back.

9. Loud I like things that are loud. Heavy Metal music, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, thunderstorms, large caliber firearms... I have no idea why, but something about loud noises just thrills me. Probably why I like Wagner but no other operas.

10. Love A concept I'm still trying to get a handle on after 16 years with Kirsten. I'm a logical guy, and sometimes I try to analyze these feelings, try to distill why I love her, and not other people. I try not to think about it too much, mind you, but I'll freely admit that while I don't understand love, I like it!

713!!!

While I was writing the last entry, Barry Bonds smashed a 3-1 pitch to the upper deck in Philadelphia.

In idiot news, anti-Bonds fans had a sign "Ruth did it on Beer and Hot Dogs."

Newsflash, kids. Bab Ruth played in the Majors from 1915 to 1935. Prohibition, the banning of alcohol mandated by the XVIIIth Amendment, was in force from 1919 to 1933. Which means that during Ruth's moist productive years beer was an illegal substance.

So Ruth's records should be stricken from the books and he should be pulled from the Hall of Fame. At least if the Phillies Phans are right...