Craig's Blog of Destiny

Well, it wasn’t the best football we’ve ever seen, but it was a good game!.  Here’s the winners in our pool, looks like David hit the jackpot with three wins!  Candy bars are on the way.

Ok, here’s the grid for the Superbowl Pool!  (Click on it for a larger size)

Names were placed randomly on the grid and then numbers were randomly drawn. We filled the grid up as we got names, and have 40 participants, which gives everyone two squares. The last 20 squares were given to the 20 people to respond first, so if you were prompt, you have been rewarded with an extra square.

As a reminder: Every score change is worth a candy bar, regardless of how many times the score has changed during the quarter, and the extra point after a touch down does count as a score change. The score at the end of each quarter is worth a candy bar in additional to the win for the score change.

Our example for this year is (and last year the game followed our previously given example all the way through the first half) is: New York scores first, say a field goal, the score would be 3-0 New York. The person that has the square representing 3 for New York and zero for New England (in our case, Jamie) wins a candy bar. Then suppose New England scores a touchdown, making the score New England 6, New York 3; Sam would win. Then New England kicks the extra point, so David would win. If the first quarter then ends, David would win another candy bar.

We love the Candy Pool because it makes it fun to watch the game no matter which team wins. So lets hope for an exciting, high scoring game!

We’re rooting for you!

It’s Ashlie’s birthday today!  Have a great one!

Are you ready for some Football! 

It’s time to get your name on our annual Superbowl Candy Pool – just send me a note or email telling me what your favorite candy bar is and you’ll be entered.  If you’d like, you can send me a couple of choices; in the event you are a lucky winner of multiple candy bars, you can have a variety.  I’ll accept emails or comments on one of the blogs that I’ve posted this on (Live from Wherever or the Cottle Family Blog)– as long as I have your name and your choice of candy bar(s). 

We hope there will be lots of winners; last year we had eleven different people winning a total of eighteen candy bars.  Like last year we’re including the extra points as winning scores.  Anyone can play, young and old.  So get your choices in early. As soon as we have the grid complete, we’ll send everyone a copy so you’ll have it for the game.  

The fine print: No submission of candy bars is required!  All winning candy bars come from Kristin and me as a reward for participating in our pool. Deadline for submission is noon on Friday, February 1st.

Each participant will be assigned at least one square representing possible scores.  Based on participation we will use the traditional 10 by 10 hundred square grid or a smaller 5 by 5 grid.  If the later is the case, two numbers will be assigned to each column and two numbers assigned to each row.  Scores for the squares and square assignments will be made randomly.  Every score change is worth a candy bar, regardless of how many times the score has changed during the quarter, and the extra point after a touch down does count as a score change.  The score at the end of each quarter is worth an extra candy bar.  The score at the end of the game is also worth an extra candy bars.   So those who have the score at the end of each quarter will win at least 2 candy bars (maybe more, depending on the quarter and what else has happened during that quarter).

For example, if New York scores first, say a field goal, the score would be 3-0 New York.  The person that has the square representing 3 for New York and zero for New England wins a candy bar.  Then suppose New England scores a touchdown, making the score 6-3 New England: the person that has 3 for New York and 6 for new England wins a candy bar.  Then New England kicks the extra point, so then the person that has the 7-3 New England score wins a candy bar.  If the first quarter then ends, that person (who has the 7-3 New England score) wins another candy bar. 

I know, I’ve posted something just like this before, but I couldn’t resist this view from the plane window this morning.

It’s J’Neil’s birthday today!  Have a great day!

I really like the NFL.  I had a great time playing football in high school, and there is no better sport for watching on television than football.  Several years ago I worked for a company that had regional headquaters in San Francisco.  Since I spent a lot of time at the regional offices conducting training classes I came to really enjoy the San Francisco area and became a big fan of the 49ers.  So of course, I hate the Dallas Cowboys.

 This week I learned that while in Dallas, our management team would be going out to Texas Stadium for dinner and some fun down on the field.  Here’s the view from the room where we had dinner, at the skybox level.   

After dinner we all went down to the field for messing around, lots of folks took the opportunity to  throw footballs around.  There was a sort of impromptu field goal kicking competition.  There were a couple of players there signing autographs, one was Jay Novacheck.  I don’t remember who the other one was.  I didn’t get his autograph.  Most folks were real excited that there were several Dallas cheerleaders there.  Here’s a picture of me entering the field:

So what does a 49er fan do at Texas Stadium?  I wondered around some, and eventually found myself on the star at the fifty yard line.   On the left, that’s me on the star.  On the right, that’s me spitting on the star.  Yes!  We 49er fans take our opportunities when we get them. 

Several years ago my father started a tradition of having the family make predictions on New Years Day.  Last year we continued that tradition in our home.  Here are the predictions – and my current commentary – from last year:

J’Neil:

 I will have success at Science Fair

She did indeed have success, though it was hard to get her planets, on her scale the size of marbles,  placed appropriately – some of them would have been down somewhere by the mall, and some even further!

Sam will have a different hand held gaming system

Indeed, I believe Sam did get his new DS system last year.  Did you know DS stands for double screens?  They’re playing on two screens now!  Even more amazing, they play each other, on seperate devices, wirelessly!!!!  In my day we had rubber balls… and we liked it!!!!

The Dakota’s will merge together and make on big Dakota

Hmmm… political, geographical predictions don’t seem to be your strong point, J’Neil.

Sam:

I will spend > $75.00 on golf this year.

Well, if he didn’t, I did for him…

Rush will tour

We were sure glad that he got this one!  But did he predict two tours within a year?

US will show open aggressions toward Iran, North Korea or Syria.

Sam is way more up to date on current affairs in this area than I am, so I’m not willing to make a call on this one.  Maybe it depends on how you define “open aggressions.”

Kristin:

Craig and Kris will visit Hawaii.

Yes, we did, in April I believe.  The trick here was that she got me to go, and boy am I glad!

Craig will see Rush at least twice.

Pretty safe prediction here, if they toured I’d see them – mulitiple times.  In fact I think Kris saw them four times, including the great front row experience outside of Sacramento!  My total turned out to be seven times…

There will be an attempt to reinstate the draft.

We’re all real glad this one didn’t seem to happen.  Although there were probably some political morons that floated the idea.

Craig:

I will ride the STP.

Ok, I have to come clean, I didn’t make it.  July turned out to be just too busy (Rush shows, weddings, HO office trip, a broker convention in Las Vegas, all on top of work…).  I think we figured out that I had about 4 nights at home over a five week period at that time.  I did get some training rides in, and hope to continue those!  Notice that I didn’t date the prediction.

Everyone in my immediate family (3) will have HP by 7-31-07.

I have to admit, I was confused by this one: was HP some dread desease we were all going to contract?  Then in one of those few moments of clarity I have, I realized that it should have said “will have read HP by 7-31-07.”  Of course, HP was the final installment of the Harry Potter series.  I believe it was released on 7-21-07, so I figured Sam, Kristin and J’Neil will have it read within 10 days.  Sure enough, we got our copies of it a little past midnight (right after a Rush concert!) I think Sam took about 2 days, Kristin only took a couple of days more and I’m pretty sure J’Neil had it done by the end of the month.  You know, there could be an argument made that it actually was some dread desease…

California will fall into the ocean.

Hey, I can dream can’t I….

It’s Michael’s birthday today!  Have a great day!

With all the demands that life makes on us, and the natural reluctance we have to expose our emotions, it becomes rare that we have strong, stirring emotional experiences.  However, I’m having one today.

It is with tremendous pride in Sam that I’m announcing his blog:  Jacob’s Escalator.  I don’t believe I’ve ever possessed such clarity of thought as I have in the pride I feel when I read Sam’s work.   Make sure you read his Prologue along with his first post (The Notebook…).  They are outstanding!

http://jacobsescalator.com/blog/

Way to go, Sam.