Before breaking down another NFL slate, how’s about a fun story about a little boy who lost his lunch? I know I’ve got you hooked already. If you’re not interested, just skip down to the football stuff, but you’re the one missing out.
Here’s what the text read….”Rye threw up on the”
“on the ?” I responded quickly.
First of all, that’s always jarring to get a text from Mrs. Mac that informs you that your firstborn is ill. I felt for him. But what did the boy puke on?
“the phone” came back the clearly disappointed text back.
The phone in question was my wife’s brand new Samsung Galaxy S-something that I had gotten for her as an early Christmas present just four days prior. Big screen, easy to use, actual apps that she could use (her previous phone was a Palm, that only really, really bad and bored programmers seemed to make apps for). She loved it, and now it was covered it vomit.
On Wednesday, while I was running back and forth from the office to the gym at Falmouth Academy then over to Falmouth Ice Arena, Lyra and the kids headed to Foxboro to celebrate her brother’s birthday. His newest kick is survivalist stuff, and he wanted to walk around Bass Pro Shop at Patriot Place and just browse. I wasn’t all that upset that I had a busy day, because more than 20 minutes in Bass Pro Shop would make me batty. I’m a get-in and get-out shopper, not a let’s spend the day eyeballing everything on the shelves kinda guy.
Apparently BPS has a restaurant inside its vast caverns. Lyra’s mom decided to pop for dinner for everyone, and Rye got chowder and a salad. It seemed harmless enough an order, but of course it wasn’t. According to my wife, he slurped in a mouthful of chowder and crunched down on something. We’re not sure what it was, but we’re pretty sure it was carrying salmonella.
Within 15 minutes, just after he and his sister posed for a picture with Kris Kringle, his belly began to rumble. He went to the restroom for an interlude, returning to the party about a half-hour later, seemingly in better shape.
Oh, but the food poisoning had not completely cleared his system yet.
I had returned from the ice rink around 9:30 and put on the 12.12.12 concert. Sometime during the middle of Baba O’Riley I got the text from Lyra. It seems that they got into her car and she gave Rye the phone so that he could play a game to try to keep his mind off of his icky belly. Just after reaching Route 495S, it struck like a bolt of lightning. While trying to navigate the world of Minecraft, Rye’s digestive system decided that the chowder was no longer a welcomed guest and booted the contents from his tummy like a grabby drunk at Lady’s Night.
Rye’s reaction time on the baseball diamond is pretty good, but it wasn’t so good in the backseat. Before he knew what had happened the back of Lyra’s car was violated, and ground zero was the brand new phone.
The lesson to be learned, I think, above all is this. The next time you’re in Patriot Place, perhaps choosing to eat at one of the many fine family restaurants is a better choice than fishing store. Might as well eat at this place.
Merry Christmas.
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Last week was a tough one for pickers of the NFL. Weird stuff happened, as it is wont to do in the NFL from time to time. Teams that had no right to win (Yeah, I’m talking about you Philly), actually won. Teams that should have at least been competitive (cough, Houston, cough) were horrid. There are few gimmes in the NFL right now, other than maybe the Pats and Broncos, and both of them have tests this week.
I posted a 10-6 week last week. I’ll take it. Not great, but not awful. Matt went 10-6 as well. We both start this week out at 1-0, having grabbed Cincy over Philly. I wasn’t able to post this before that because I had to cover the FHS girls’ basketball opener in can’t-get-there-from-here North Dighton, MA.
Rich: 141-65-1 (.683)
Matt: 130-76-1 (.630)
Tampa Bay at New Orleans: I’m going to go with the Saints here, even though they’re pretty bad. The NFL waived all penalties against their players for Bounty Gate. Sure was nice of them to wait until New Orleans was eliminated to make that happen. They and there fans will be pumped up this weekend, and the Bucs are reeling after basically getting knocked out last week with that awful loss to the Eagles.
- Rich’s Pick: Saints
- Matt’s Pick: Saints
Green Bay at Chicago: The Pack are in the driver’s seat and the Bears are in trouble. I just don’t see Chicago keeping up, even though they’re at home. Cheeseheads win.
- Rich’s Pick: Packers
- Matt’s Pick: Packers
Vikings at St. Louis: Adrian Peterson is the $6,000,000 man. How else can you explain his bionic season? They’ve got no passing game whatsoever, and All Day sees 9-man fronts all game long, yet still seems to go for 150 every week. He’ll do it again.
- Rich’s Pick: Vikings
- Matt’s Pick: Vikings
NY Giants at Atlanta: The Falcons need to make a statement, and the Giants have a way of not showing up unless they absolutely have to. I think the Falcons come up big this weekend.
- Rich’s Pick: Falcons
- Matt’s Pick: Falcons
Indianapolis at Houston: The Colts have not been a good road team. Gary Kubiak will have the Texans deadset on making amends for the stink bomb they dropped in Foxboro. Houston wins big.
- Rich’s Pick: Texans
- Matt’s Pick: Texans
Jacksonville at Miami: The Battle For Florida, or the game that no one cares about, even in Florida. Both of these teams are going nowhere, and they’ll play before a half full stadium. I do like the Dolphins defense, and the Jags can’t run the ball at all. Dolphins, if you care.
- Rich’s Pick: Dolphins
- Matt’s Pick: Dolphins
Denver at Baltimore: Ray Lewis is coming back, but he should have stayed on the couch playing Madden with Paul Rudd. He’ll make no impact, and the Broncos will find a way to win on the road. Peyton has that team playing really well, and they’re contenders.
- Rich’s Pick: Broncos
- Matt’s Pick: Broncos
Washington at Cleveland: When RG3′s knee bent that way, we all thought it was over. The man not only is the most dynamic young player in the NFL, but he also seems to be made partly of plastic. I believe he’ll play, and make enough throws to beat a pretty bad Cleveland team. The Browns D is okay, but Griffin has shown that he can beat teams with his arm, and I don’t think he’ll be leaving the pocket too much this week, and if he does, he’d better get down or out of bounds. We need this guy in the league for years to come.
- Rich’s Pick: Redskins
- Matt’s Pick: Redskins
Seattle at Buffalo: Not even a true home game for the Bills here, they’re in Toronto. If they could only score 12 points against St. Louis last week, what will they do against that Seattle D that is playing out of this world? The sons of Pete Carroll will be too jacked and pumped for the Bills.
- Rich’s Pick: Seahawks
- Matt’s Pick: Seahawks
Detroit at Arizona: It finally happened, I’m out of jokes about just how bad the Cardinals’ quarterbacks are. I’ve got nothing, they’re so inept that I just feel bad for them, and their fans, and most of all Larry Fitzgerald. How was this team in the Super Bowl just three years ago? Detroit will run it up.
- Rich’s Pick: Lions
- Matt’s Pick: Lions
Carolina at San Diego: The Chargers looked great last weekend, and I can’t believe I just typed that. This could actually be a sneakily entertaining game. I’m going to take the Chargers, and I feel dirty.
- Rich’s Pick: Chargers
- Matt’s Pick: Panthers
Kansas City at Oakland: I mean, where to start? These teams are horrid. They both lost by a ton of points last week, and a win just hurts their pick status in the draft. Gun to my head, I think I believe in the Chiefs a little bit more.
- Rich’s Pick: Chiefs
- Matt’s Pick: Raiders
San Francisco at New England: One of the best games of the year, on paper. But, that’s what we thought on Monday Night. I know my boy Elias is going to disagree with me, but I don’t see how the 49ers win this game. First, it’s in New England and it’s supposed to be 39-degrees and dreary, advantage Pats. The SF defense is without a doubt one of the best in the league, but Tom Brady is having a sensational year. The Pats have turned the ball over just nine times all year, and Brady has thrown a total of 4 INTs, so there’s that.
While the 49ers are allowing only 14 points per game, the Pats are scoring 36. Now I don’t think they’ll reach that number, but 27 seems feasible. I don’t think that Colin Kaepernick can match Tom Brady, not yet. I’ve got the Pats, 27-17, and I feel good about it.
- Rich’s Pick: Patriots
- Matt’s Pick: Patriots
NY Jets at Tennessee: Did you know that the Jets are still in the playoff hunt? No, seriously, they are. They need to win out, and get some help, but they’re in the thick of it. But, this is Monday Night Football, and to me Mark Sanchez plays like an understudy who just found out he’s on stage for Opening Night on Broadway when the bright lights are on. Remember that Thanksgiving Day game? I do. Chris Johnson, on the other hand, tends to show up in a big way in big games on TV. I think we’ll have a spotlight on the final demise of the 2012 Jets, and doesn’t that sound like fun?
- Rich’s Pick: Titans
- Matt’s Pick: Titans
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
