Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I don't think I blogged about this back in the Spring of 2010 but I probably should have. I'm a math nerd and when it comes to money and math, I can get pretty geeky. There is very little I enjoy more than a conversation about personal finance, which is why I enjoy listening to Dave Ramsey so much.

Last Spring we took advantage of the low mortgage rates and refinanced from a 30 year fixed to a 15 year fixed. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess because the rates continued to go down even more after we had done it. Nothing I can do about it now, so no biggie.

But today we just got in the mail our tax statements for both mortgages. The 30 year was only 2 months worth of payments and the 15 year was 10 months of payments. I can't help but be amazed at how good of a decision it was to refinance. But I thought I'd let the math do the talking.

30 year fixed for 2 months:
Interest paid: $1400
Principal paid: $350.

Now assuming those numbers for the full year, the next 10 months would have looked like this(I'm probably off by a few dollars, but I'm also rounding so as to make it simple):
Interest paid: $7000
Principal paid: $1750

Now for the fun part, here's the 15 year info for the 10 months:
Interest paid: $5700
Principal paid: $7500

What makes the 30 year mortgage look even worse was that it took us 3 years to pay $6000 toward the principal when in only 10 months we have already paid $7500 toward the principal with the 15 year.

So by doing the 15 year we basically sent $1300 fewer dollars to interest payments and put $5750 extra toward the mortgage. Assuming we sold the house and could get that $5750 back, I'd say that's a savings of $7050 right? (I couldn't decide on this... maybe the $1300 should just be counted as money put towards the $5750 principal... can't decide on that savings. I guess I'll stick with the $7050 number)

Alright for all the math geeks, I'll keep on going.

So we sent $1300 fewer dollars to the bank so we don't get to take that out of taxes. I'm going to assume the absolute worst tax bracket at 35% here (I promise, we are not in that), then we would be losing $455 in our tax refund. So our savings for 10 months is down to $6595.

We are also sending $200 more per month for our payments, so for the 10 months let's take off another $2000 because that's not really saving either, down to $4595.

Now the only thing left to deduct from our savings of  $4595 is how much it cost to refinance, and while I feel like I've revealed enough about our lives here, it didn't even come close to half that amount.

What is nice is that because the principal balance is so much less than it was last year, the savings will just continue to snowball. We'll be paying more to principal and less to interest every year than the year before. When I first started looking at refinancing last January/February, I calculated that by refinancing we'd save just over 30K if we lived here 5 years. That takes into account all the information I logged above too. Although that might seem far-fetched, I also calculated that outside of the price it costs to refinance, we'd save $5200 in 12 months. It looks like my math is going to be pretty accurate!!

The only reason I post this is because I think it's a common myth that having a mortgage loan and sending interest payments to the bank is a good thing for the tax savings. In reality there is very little saving going on in that scenario at all. This may be naive, but I don't look at a mortgage as an asset or an equity builder, but as a bank account. The more I put into it, the more I'll get back later.

I realize there are probably stocks or mutual funds that would get a better return on my money than the amount I'm saving in interest by paying off the mortgage, but there's just something about getting rid the debt and owning more and more of my own home that appeals to me. If I'm going to be sending payments, I want to be doing it as intelligently as possible. I'm forced to do it anyway, so I might as well do my best to control the outcome.

My life is grand, that's not what I'm blogging about. I'm blogging about my life as a Bengal's fan. Could the offseason be going any worse? Try to script it to be worse. Maybe Maulaga can get a DUI?

The Bengals have had their fair share of bad seasons. Actually they've had enough bad seasons for 4 or 5 teams. But they could not be setting themselves up for a worse season right now. Lets discuss the things that have gone WRONG so far since the last game:

1. I was rooting for Marvin to stay and get what he wanted out of the Bengals. Turns out he is staying and got absolutely nothing of what he wanted. 
2. Marvin and Mike Brown have the most ridiculous press conference in the history of the media. So laughable that they are getting crucified by the national media for it. They said almost nothing except Marvin is coming back and some changes in the coaching staff would be made. It was clear all Marvin got was a contract. 
3. Marvin met with Brad Childress for no reason whatsoever. By the way, they have no coaching spots open at the moment. How's that for instilling confidence in your current staff. 
4. Chad Ochocinco and Marvin trade negative comments. The latest was today: Marvin Lewis on whether Belichick will go after Ochocinco: "Belichick's smarter than that." I'm totally on Marvin's side of this, but come on. 
5. Carson asks to be traded or will retire. Mike Brown told Palmer the team wouldn’t trade him because he’s central to its plans. Clearly Carson doesn't want to be a part of those plans, I don't blame him. Mark my words, if Carson leaves, I think there will be a firesale on players, who would honestly want to stay?!?!

All this in only 3 weeks. Happy January 24th.

If this stuff continues, they may soon turn back into the Siberia of the NFL, where players actually put in their contracts that they cannot be traded to the Bengals. It happened in the 90's, no joke. 

One thing I have learned over the last couple weeks is at least not all the Bengals' players are idiots. I love Dhani Jones. So much so that I may get his jersey. I'm not sure I can wear a "C. Johnson" jersey anymore with any amount of pride, not that I had a lot to begin with.


ARG! It's so frustrating.

Over my many years of running, there is one thing I've gotten used to: sweating. I sweat a lot. I sweat so much that I have embraced wearing a headband like I'm Richard Simons. It has become somewhat of a shtick of mine. It doesn't matter how silly I look. The general rule of thumb is, if you're running, you can get away with any kind of clothing.

Along with sweating also comes the endless onslaught of salt that I have to endure, hence the headband to protect my eyes. Any run over 10 miles I start developing salt stains near my eyes, on my legs, and pretty much everywhere.

One day Moose said to me: "Have you ever thought about taking some salt packets or extra sodium to make up for it?"

"Well no, I figure gatorade is good enough."

Then came research on the topic. Just a 30 second search gave me all the information I needed: "Dehydration is perhaps the most instrumental factor behind cramps. Sodium loss in muscles due to dehydration produces limb and abdominal cramps. Drinking plenty of water with increased intake of salts can do the wonder." Even more thorough research reveals that there is at least some connection of some kind between muscle cramps and sodium loss.

I felt as though during the City of Oaks Marathon that I took in PLENTY of fluid. I was never really thirsty, which is the rule you should follow, so it had to be something else.

There hasn't been a marathon that I haven't struggled with muscle cramps. In every single marathon I am hobbling at the end because all my leg muscles are spasming. This past November it started happening around 22 miles. I have plenty of energy but no juice in the legs. Could it be that I am just losing too much sodium? 

This past weekend I decided to try a little science experiment. I went to the gym to run and with me I brought a bag of pretzels. I definitely got some "what is wrong with you, eating while running?" looks. In fact, I think I was offending the guy next to me by doing it. I was running 7.5mph eating pretzels the whole time and he sounded like he was dying doing intervals of walking to a 6.5mph pace. I ran 10 miles and ate half the bag along the way. 10 miles is not nearly long enough to call the experiment a success but it was long enough to say that it helped. I felt unusually fresh in my legs afterward. I would expect after coming home and watching football that they would at least tighten up and I'd need to stretch them out, but that wasn't the case at all. They felt like I hadn't run at all.

To be sure of this discovery, unfortunately, I'll have to get a 20 mile run in sometime soon. I might wait on that a few weeks. Since November, my longest run has only been 13 (although those were all on trails through Umstead Park). I'm super excited to see if I may be able to rid myself of muscle cramps once and for all. I'd love to run a marathon finishing strong instead of finishing like I got shot in both legs on mile 23.

I just need to be careful not to choke.

It's tough to admit, but my saint of a dog is not as saintly as I thought he was. Most of the time, Gryffin is a very well behaved, attentive, and loving dog. But there is a particular stunt he pulls that reveals a different side. It's devious yet intelligent. I thought I'd share since it is funny.

One night, about a year ago, we were going through the night routine like we normally do. Make our way upstairs with the dogs running behind us, give them about 30 minutes of bed time, and then put them on the floor when it's time to go to sleep. But this night, when we put them on the floor, Gryffin ran to the door and sat there. Daisy has learned how to knock on doors so she starts slapping her paw whenever she wants through but Gryffin will sit there quietly without making a peep. We let him sit there for 15 minutes to see how motivated he was to go downstairs. He won, I got up.

So I got up thinking he had to use the bathroom. I put on some warm clothes and sluggishly opened the door. When it opened, he jolted downstairs running as fast as he could. Me being tired and can barely see in the dark, I took my time. By the time I got downstairs, Gryffin was sitting in the sweet room looking like he had no good reason to be downstairs. "Do you want to go out Gryf?" I opened the door, tried to coax him out, but he wouldn't budge. 5 minutes of puzzling behavior later, we head back upstairs for bed.

Gryffin does this a few more times over the span of a couple weeks before I decide to pick him up to take him downstairs in the middle of the night. When I set him down near the back door. He slowly turns and walks over to Daisy's bowl for her leftovers. AH HA!

Daisy is not a big eater. She'll take her time, leave it and come back to it. There's always something there. Most of the time she finishes her dinner right before breakfast, and her breakfast right before dinner. Gryffin on the other hand, INHALES his food in seconds. He doesn't chew, just swallows. He's always hungry for more, so naturally he's constantly torn on having to deal with his sister who doesn't care.

A few years ago I built a bowl platform for the dogs. Having to fill two water bowls for the dogs was annoying so I built a platform with two food bowls and one water bowl. It also keeps the floor clean.

Gryffin KNOWS not to touch Daisy's bowl. When we are in the room and food is in the bowl, he walks around it like it has a force field. If it's empty, he's allowed to lick it for flavor. But he has learned that when we are not in the room, anything goes, her food is fair game. If we don't know, we aren't mad. So running down and finishing the bowl in the middle of the night is a PERFECT situation for him.

Tonight, Liz and I are talking upstairs and all of a sudden I see Gryffin rip around the corner and run down the stairs. By the time he reaches the bottom of the stairs, in the middle of my sentence, I take off down after him saying "gryffin gryffin gryffin gryffin gryffin". I make it right when he's about 10 feet away and the second I walk in, he puts his tail between his legs and hovers close to the ground with his head down. "YEAH! You know what you were about to do".

My little saint isn't as saintly as I might think. I gotta keep an eye on that boy.

I am not going to act like I am an expert on losing weight. I've succeeded twice at losing roughly 30 pounds in my life but unfortunately they were the same 30 pounds both times. Come to think of it, I'm more of an expert at how to gain weight. Lesson 1: eat massive portions. There is no lesson 2. But there is a specific way that I go about losing weight and I thought I would share.

There are 5 simple rules I follow. They have, without fail, caused me to lose weight every time I try them. If I don't lose weight, it's because I deviated from these rules. I also have ranked them in order from the most important to the least important.


1. Drink AT LEAST 64 ounces of water. More is better, less is failure.

Not 64 ounces of milk, orange juice, and water, or 52 ounces of water and a can of diet coke. 64 ounces of WATER! You can have milk and orange juice, but it doesn't count towards your 64 ounces.

I bring a 32 ounce bottle to work with me every day. I can already tell you that the success of my weight loss day depends on how quickly I drink that bottle. What I do is drink the entire thing by lunch time. Then at lunch I fill it up again and try to drink the rest by the end of the work day. It sounds like a lot, and you do end up peeing a crazy amount throughout the day, but no matter who the nutritionist or dietician is you talk to, they will always say you can't lose weight if you don't drink a lot of water. It fills you up and curbs your food cravings. It's hard at first, and you have to concentrate on doing it and forcing it down the first few days, but after a while, drinking that much becomes second nature.

2. Eat the exact same meals, every day, for breakfast and lunch. 

You are never going to lose weight if you give yourself choices. Well, let me modify that, giving yourself choices is what makes losing weight difficult. You can't leave the house and say "What am I going to eat today?" How did making choices work for you last time? It never does. So every single day, you eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch. It might be miserable after a while, but if I'm losing weight, I'm not interested in wandering into it.

I am not one of those people who thinks breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I think people who eat big breakfasts are also the same kind of people who will use that as their justification to have a breakfast burrito or a sausage, egg, & cheese biscuit from McDonald's. Breakfast is important in that you just eat something, but definitely nothing huge. I'd say something around 200 calories is perfect. If you combine that and all the water you drink, your body is perfectly fine until lunch.

At lunch my goal is to fill myself up on foods that are healthy and low in calories. I don't really aim for a certain calorie count but I generally think you should never exceed 600 calories for lunch.

My personal routine is eating a nutrigrain breakfast bar from Whole Foods for breakfast. Then at lunch I have an apple, banana (with a little peanut butter on each slice cuz bananas suck), carrots, and a nutrient shake.And depending on whether or not we have it, 5 Ritz crackers because that's how many crackers Ritz has decided is enough for a "portion" (stupid).

3. Eat a moderate dinner without stuffing yourself.  Decide how much is enough before you begin.

Before you start eating, eyeball how much dinner is enough to make you full, only put that on your plate, and eat nothing more. When I'm losing weight, I don't pay attention to the health content of dinner. Usually with Liz cooking, it's always healthy anyway. but you don't have to eat the craziest, healthiest dinner in the world at this point. Have what you want but just have a reasonable portion. Besides, after your super awesome day of water and healthy stuff, you'll find it difficult to want to ruin what you did.

Dinner is the only choice you get for food throughout the day. That's because it's also the only meal of the day that I am invested in with another person. If I get a big huge meal for dinner, I have to eat while Liz stares me down.

4. Workout on a routine, but not excessively. 

This is why marathon training doesn't help you lose weight. You go out and run 20 miles, you're going to come back craving massive amounts of food. On the other hand if you consistently run 3 or 5 miles, 5 days a week, then you get your body used to dealing with that. It's all psychological. If you are able to run 20 miles and resist the urge to splurge, then go for it. I just can't do it.

5. Weigh yourself every single day, almost obsess over it. 

This time around I stopped doing that because I figured it might be motivation to see how far I came in a week. It had the opposite effect. I ended up having to wait a week to realize I made little to no progress at all. It also caused me to not feel responsible for my daily food actions. If after a week I didn't lose weight, it's not necessarily because of the 1 beer I had Saturday night. It's the aggregate of the dumb decisions I did all week long. The goal is to limit every dumb decision.

If you weigh yourself every day, it's a constant reminder of what you are trying to do. You have to keep the goal in the forefront of your mind. I know every night that what I do has consequences tomorrow. It makes me not want to have a cupcake (Liz made 25 of them last night, ARG!) because I don't want to see what that did tomorrow morning. Small daily successes build up into big long term achievements.

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Over the past 2 weeks, I have followed rules 1, 3, and 4 and have only lost 2 pounds. I'm not too terribly thrilled with that. Rule #2 is super important and I need to go to the grocery store and stock up to make sure I follow it. It's heavily reliant on always having the right foods in the house. If you don't, then it's impossible and I inevitably trip up.

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This post has given me an idea on another blog post I want to write. What is the perfect day of food? Is there a perfect day of food? If so, I wonder what it would be like to have that same day of food for an entire month? I'm contemplating making that a February challenge for myself. The same thing every day for an entire month. Might have to make sure I take vitamins if I do that. Although it would be a surefire way to lose weight!!

I really have been delaying in writing this blog because I forgot in December and two months of movies is a lot. Oh well, here it goes:


November 2010: 

• Toy Story 2 (1999) - 4 stars - Very cute. Just as good as the first one.
• I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) - 3 stars - Cute movie, but super forgettable. So forgettable that two months later I can't remember how it ends. D'oh!
• Bruno (2009) - 1 star - Worst movie ever!! This makes Borat look like a great movie.
• Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) - 5 stars - This one took me by surprise. Liz even hyped it up, which usually turns out to be a killer, but it lived up to the hype. It was really moving and I did not see the ending coming. I highly recommend it.
• Iron Jawed Angels (2004) - 4 stars -I've never really been a fan of Hillary Swank. I don't know what it is, maybe it's just that she's very plain jane, but she did great in this movie. I also love movies based on historical issues, I just hope it's true to history.
• The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror (1990) - 3 stars - This always seems like a great idea, but I'm always disappointed when I watch it. I think mainly because I'm thinking I'll see Halloween episodes I've never seen before, but I don't.
• Public Enemies (2009) - 4 stars - I felt like I was actually watching a documentary about old fashioned bank robberies. It COULD NOT have been that easy. The movie gave me the impression that law enforcement during that time was pathetically organized and maintained. My only other comment is that Johnny Depp rocks.
• Up in the Air (2009) - 3 stars - It was entertaining, but very vanilla from start to end. I liked the concept though.
• Merlin - Season 1 (2008) - 4 stars - As much as they might not want to seem like it, they pretty much copied off of Harry Potter, just throwing their own spin on things and bringing in different ideas. The show is also extremely predictable. Every episode contains the same structure. Something will happen, Prince Arthur would do something stupid, the King would get angry, etc...
• Jaws (1975) - 4 stars - First time I saw Jaws as an adult. I don't know why people thought this was terrifying. They would telegraph the scary passes.
• Whale Wars - Season 1 (2008) - 5 stars - LOVE WHALE WARS!! I was hooked after the first episode. Makes me want to take a Winter and go on a ride on the Steve Irwin.
• Ghostbusters 2 (1989) - 2 stars - When I was a kid, this movie was awesome. As an adult, I realize I was a dumb kid for thinking that.
• Assassins (1995) - 2 stars - What do you want? It has Sylvester Stallone kicking butt. It's just too bad the plot was awful.
• Old Dogs (2009) - 3 stars - OK I have a problem with this movie. Also, how lame am I that I'm blogging about a problem I have with a movie called "Old Dogs". The concept of this movie is that these guys are old and can't do anything anymore. John Travolta is freakin 55. Since when is that ever considered "old" in that context? They were joking about all the pills they had to take. Really? Downing pills at 55? Maybe I'm just naive?
• Cool Hand Luke (1967) - 3 stars - I watched this movie because it has a lot of pop culture references, but for the life of me I can't remember which reference I was watching it for. After the movie, I picked up a few (like "what we have here is a failure to communicate"), but not the one that I watching it for. I think it's a reference from Friends. Oh well.
• Driving Miss Daisy (1989) - 3 stars - 1990 Best Picture? 1990 must have ba-lown! It was cute, but by today's standards, it would have been mediocre at best.

December 2010: 

• Sherlock Holmes (2009) - 4 stars - I was giving this movie a 3rd try and finally I understood it. All the other times I couldn't make out what Robert Downey Jr. was saying. All they did was mumble. 2 stars without understanding, 4 stars now that I do.
• Avatar (2009) - 5 stars - Hands down, one of the best movies of all time.
• Valentine's Day (2010) - 4 stars - Very cute, but predictable as most romantic comedies are. Also, I so badly want to hate Ashton Kutcher, but the dude is HILARIOUS.
• Toy Story 3 (2010) - 5 stars - Very good movie. It's tough to make a third movie that is as good, if not better than the first two. I'm impressed. I still don't love animated movies, and probably won't want to watch it again, but it was very good.
• The Book of Eli (2010) - 4 stars - Phenomenal movie. It was very close to getting 5 stars, but I reserve that for only the best.
• 12 Monkeys (1995) - 3 stars -Pretty good movie. I really hate when time travel is incorporated into movies. It's one of only two movies where it didn't entirely anger me to watch. "The Time Traveler's Wife" is the other one.
• Up (2009) - 4 stars - Cute movie, but it was my second time seeing it and that's just too much. I can't do animated movies more than once. I guess the only exception is musicals. I can enjoy Disney movies more than once.
• Whale Wars - Season 2 (2009) - 5 stars -Not too much changed between Season 1 and Season 2. I guess the donations hadn't started pouring in yet because it's run by a non-profit group.
• The King of Kong (2007) - 4 stars - Great documentary about the world of competitive gaming, and more specifically, Donkey Kong. It was basically the story of the battle between two guys, Billy Mitchell, the long time Donkey Kong champ, and Steve Wiebe, the newcomer who just flat out could play. By the end you realize Steve is the greatest person on the planet for having to put up with all the crap he has to endure. You go Steve!
• Samurai: The Last Warrior (2004) - 2 stars - I thought this was going to be awesome, but it was super boring. They couldn't have picked anyone more boring to narrate. I learned a little I guess.
• Russel Brand in New York City (2009) - 3 stars - I liked him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and wanted to see what his stand up was like. He is legitimately crazy. Although I'll give him credit, he had me rolling laughing.
• Whale Wars - Season 3 (2010) - 5 stars - Season 3, they break out the Ady Gil. By the middle of Season 3, the Ady Gil gets broken. They also roll out the very old and broken down ship donated to them by none other than, Bob Barker. They named it the Bob Barker. We kept laughing at how angry Bob must be to see the ship he gave them performing so poorly. You have GOT to see this show!!

We were gone for 10 days in December and still managed to watch 10 movies and 2.5 seasons of Whale Wars. Not too shabby!

A while back, I wrote a post called "Operation Reese Cup". In the comments, Lynn suggested that I put a picture of Moose on our fridge because that's essentially who I am aspiring to run like. He's a crazy fast runner who over the last few years went from average joe casual runner (me) to insane Boston-qualifying marathon times.

What an excellent idea Lynn!! I got Moose's approval and he was even gracious enough to send me an email with 3 pictures to choose from. I chose the one with the clearest view of Moose and as a bonus, it had his Boston qualifying time in there as well. So here is a picture I took this morning of our fridge. I apologize if it's blurry, but I took it with my camera phone and I'm in a hurry right now. In fact I'm hurrying to meet up with Moose to run a good ole 13 mile run on single track trails in Umstead Park. Yay!

You can see a little part of it, but just above him is my weight loss chart I am keeping. I'm not quite proud of that enough to post a picture of it. Progress has been slow, although progress is being made and that's all that matters.

Moose said that he wants to take a picture of himself standing in front of his picture on our fridge, and he'll put that picture on his fridge. Sounds like a plan! Maybe I can get a picture of Moose standing in front of his fridge... it's like recursive motivation.

The song I declare to be my "favorite" rotates, as it should. Your taste changes. Sometimes in the morning, pancakes are my favorite breakfast and then by the end, I no longer like pancakes. Favorite can change quickly. For a long time my favorite song was Rascal Flatts "Here Comes Goodbye". It's still awesome but lately I have become absolutely obsessed with Lady Antebellum and this song just hits me every time. I could listen to it over and over again, and I have.

Now that I mention it, there isn't a song Lady A. has come out with that isn't amazing. Right now, they are easily my favorite to listen to. They have 2 CD's and I highly recommend both of them. I'd say their latest, "Need You Now", is slightly better, but just barely.

Check it out, Lady Antebellum - Hello World:

To be honest, I never had any New Year’s Resolutions until Michael and I were married. And even then, I never really cared too much about them. It started out as something he’d want to do, and then I’d go along with it. Such as having no soda the entire year, which we plan on continuing into 2011 as well. It’s to the point where I don’t miss it and don’t want it. That’s pretty good for someone who used to have at least one soda a day in college…thinking about that now makes me sick.

So I’ve never really had my own resolution – until this year. I’ve tried to do this in the past, but failed every time. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Hillary, we’re now aware of the horrible conditions that the America’s farm animals are raised in. I won’t go into it, but if you’re really interested, go find the movie Food Inc and watch it (you can watch it instantly on Netflix by the way).

It comes down to knowing where your food comes from. So I’ve decided for the year to be a vegetarian when going out to eat. If I buy my meat at our local grass-fed farm, or at a trusting grocer (usually Whole Foods or Earth Fare), then I am happy to eat meat in the comfort of my own kitchen. At restaurants however, it’s all vegetarian for me. This will not be a problem for beef because I stopped eating that at restaurants years ago. Chicken is the problem…yummy delicious chicken. I hope that it will help me eat healthier and cook at home more. I try to cook as much as possible, but when I get home at 6 pm most nights, I just don’t feel like it sometimes!

What are my two biggest challenges? Not getting my normal meal at delicious places like Chick-fil-a. We don’t do fast food anymore, other than Chick-fil-a…simply because it’s delicious. Also, we eat at our local Mexican restaurant way too much. I’ll still go there, but I can’t get my normal meal and will have to think outside the box.

So there it is…my very own New Year’s resolution that will be very hard to accomplish. Wish me luck!

Ouch, my first sub .500 week last week. That was a tough one.

This week is unpredictable. You never know who is going to play and who isn't New England can pretty much just say "no, we're not playing, and their playoff position would be completely unaffected. So I'm making my picks as best I can based on who may or may not play.


Expert Picks: ESPN Analysts

Week 16: 7-9

Miami @ New England:	New England
Minnesota @ Detroit:	Detroit
Carolina @ Atlanta:	Atlanta
Oakland @ Kansas City:	Kansas City
Pittsburgh @ Cleveland:	Pittsburgh
Buffalo @ NY Jets:	NY Jets
Tampa Bay @ New Orleans:	New Orleans
Cincinnati @ Baltimore:	Baltimore
Chicago @ Green Bay:	Green Bay
NY Giants @ Washington:	Washington
Jacksonville @ Houston:	Jacksonville
Dallas @ Philadelphia:	Dallas
Tennessee @ Indianapolis:	Indianapolis
San Diego @ Denver:	Denver
Arizona @ San Francisco:	Arizona
St. Louis @ Seattle:	Seattle

Overall Record: 150-90

Quick Thoughts on the Games:

New England has absolutely nothing invested in this game. But it's home and Bellichick knows the importance of momentum. I bet Brady plays until halftime and lights up the Dolphins.

Has anyone noticed the Lions have won 3 in a row? And two of those wins were against teams still in the playoff hunt. Minnesota is in a tailspin, the Lions get it done again.

Atlanta NEEDS this game and the #1 seed. Carolina is awful.

Kansas City doesn't have a lot to play for here... so I was tempted to go with Oakland, but I won't.

Pittsburgh has to win to get the BYE. It's too important but winning in Cleveland has proved difficult so it'll be tough.

Jets won't have a problem beating Buffalo.

The defending champs can't lose the last game of the year. Tampa Bay is another year from the playoffs.

Cincinnati is hot, but that's what they do when the games don't matter. We beat them in Baltimore last season, but I don't think that'll happen again.

I'm shocked Green Bay beat Philly last weekend. Two big home wins in a row would give them some HUGE momentum.

Part of me wants to pick the Redskins here... and ya know what, I'm changing my pick, go Redskins. After getting spanked last week, I think the Giants will fall under the playoff pressure. I've never been an Eli Manning fan. I think he's labeled as "good" because of his last name more than his game. Their defense won them the Super Bowl, not their quarterback.

Jacksonville/Houston, I didn't feel like wasting time thinking about it.

My big upset pick. Philly has nothing to play for and sounds like Vick won't play. Dallas and their new-coach-hopeful would LOVE to knock off Philly for Jerry Jones.

Indianapolis + potential playoffs + the real Archie Manning son = Win

This game is meaningless except for one thing. I've been hearing a lot about how Tebow wants to go out and prove himself, and prove himself he will.

Arizona won 2 of their last 3. Sure, why not pick them.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see a 7-9 team make the playoffs. I just LOVE controversy, which is another reason I'm rooting so hard for Oklahoma to POUND Connecticut and TCU to DEMOLISH Wisconsin. I think the former will happen, the latter probably won't. But it sure would highlight the ridiculousness of the BCS. So Seattle winning would start the talk of how the playoffs are seeded and I think that's a good thing.