Saints vs. Colts: Superbowl XLIV for the innocent bystander

-Well, it’s that time of year again, though the storyline this year has been a little more interesting than it normally has been. This year could be described as the Year of the Quarterback, with the four finalist offenses being led by outstanding quarterbacks (Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Mark Sanchez). This has made the games even more entertaining than usual, especially if you’re a defensive back.

As we enter the week preceeding this master of television ratings, numerous stories emerge, many of them being extremely interesting and highly publicized and not worth putting in this article. Numerous questions emerge on Twitter and Facebook (ex: Will Dwight Freeney play on his hurt ankle?, or How did Dwight Freeney get such a weird name, anyway?). To gain good perspective on this massive event, one must learn to see through the smokescreen of obscure blogs and online publications and peer into the inner sanctum of Pro Football. That’s right: take a look at the Meaningful Questions.

There are two questions for the first-time Saints, the first one being how they are going to try and contain Peyton Manning, who is at the top of his game and is hungry for a second superbowl ring. Peyton is arguably the best quarterback under pressure in the NFL (or National Football League, for those of you who really have got no clue whatsoever.) Peyton has never been sacked more than two times in his two playoff games this season behind his fortress of an offensive line. He was sacked(tackled) twice by the Jets in the first half, then got up, shook off the dust, and won the game for the Colts. Said a teammate of his determination, “He just won’t let us lose.” Peyton is known for his ability to battle through games.

The second question for the Saints is how they’re going to take advantage of Dwight Freeney’s recent 3^rd degree ankle injury. The Colts lost one of the league’s best blind-side pass rushers (guys who the quarterback can’t see who run up and tackle him just for kicks.) His injury will likely open the game up to the long-ball loving Drew Brees, as it will give him much more time to get the guys he likes to throw to down the field. Because of this, the running game will be a bit looser as well, mostly because the Colts will then have the long passes to worry about, decreasing the number of guys to plug the holes(gaps between offensive linemen that running backs like to run through). The best way for the Saints to take advantage of Dwight (if he plays) is to test that ankle. You’ll probably see an obscure 300-pounder attempting to pound him into the dirt at some point in the upcoming game.

There is only one major question for the Colts, this being how they are going to reconfigure their defensive game without Freeney. He is virtually irreplaceable, and even if they do play him, they are going to try and route blockers and dangerous hotspots of activity away from his bum ankle and the pain it causes one of their star players. The Saints’ running game has been known for its no-name running backs, and blocking them may prove difficult.

In conclusion, I’d just like to say that the Superbowl is going to be worth watching this year- and now, with your newfound knowledge, you can sound like another one of the experts.

Seth's Prediction: Peyton guns it out from behind his huge O-line, but the Saints take advantage of an unhealthy Dwight Freeney and the Saints trample all over the Colts’ D, racking up the yardage. Saints 45, Colts 38.

The Christmas List(s)

-Once again, time for the Christmas season. Loot, Jr. High teachers' good sides, and a dabble of politics are on my main list, but there's other stuff, too. Right now, I feel like I'm pushing a large steel block in a Shopko cart with no wheels, although we all remain ever-hopeful. Jr. High has ground to a complete halt halt, except for Mr. E.(english), who will soon be boxed up and shipped off to Japan with a teacher's degree and five bucks, as he told us in class on Friday.

-Today in P.E. we started basketball, which, of course, is the high point of everyone's day. Temperatures are expected to skyrocket on Monday, with highs of over six degrees, and, needless to say, we'll all be out in force with naught but two of our bulletproof winter coats and naught but one pair of Sno-Rangers. Scandalous, as Mr. E. would say.

-The winter months are here, which (along with uncle Tom) reminded me of times long past when I used to blog every week on Saturday. Maybe I don't have quite that amount of time anymore, but I think I'll try to be at least semi-monthly.

-There's a Fox Trot strip where it shows school getting progressively harder and harder until Paige ends up with all D's and F's. When I look back on my Lena Whitmore Elementary days, I can definitely see where the artist is coming from. From a very unmerciful standpoint, this would mean that I would have an overall GPA of 0.0 in college, but Things are Looking Up right now, and they say that middle school is the Worst Part of grade school. My grades don't come close to as bad as in the strip, either, but it does seem like I'm the only one sometimes.

-In English, we got an assignment on philosophy. Right now, I'm trying to think of how to explain to my teacher that Mormons think that man is half bad, half good. Any ideas?

Vacation!!

-Our delayed vacation has come and gone, and, for the most part, it's been fun, although our van blew out in the middle of the church parking lot and

(insert sound of annoying buzzer here.) This blogger has made an error, and shall now be terminated via Chinese water torture.

Sorry about that. What I meant to say was, our van blew out in the middle of the church parking lot and we had to borrow the Wacker's Sprinter (Very nice of them-the manager @ the Jetty Fishery told us she'd never let her sister borrow her brand-new sprinter.)

-Twitter-mania seems to be the thing right now, so I decided to make an account(BrotherofJared). I love the idea of the character limit- it seems like they should increase it, but I'm sure we'd run into the same problem, which is very frustrating sometimes.

-I also rebuilt both of our computers last weekend. I am proud to say that I have nursed the family computer back to health, although I still think that we should save clippings of the Dell ads.

Today is my first relatively un-busy day in a while, so I thought I would blog about the past couple weeks:

First, I thought I'd blog about different members of our family's highlights of the reunion-My dad's favorite parts were, not uncommonly, the broom hockey and the dunes. My mom's: the Mine were probably just hanging out and playing sports- that and going to the dunes(seeing uncle Tom jump into a bush made just about everyone here's day). Jared's favorite part was the treasure hunt. We all loved that- thanks for the hard work, Jonathan! Miri's favorite part was the morning activities with her group, and Caroline's was the girl party w/ Aunt T. Jacob liked playing with his fellow banana slugs, and Julia enjoyed just about everything, with the exception of sitting still. I have no idea what Paul liked, mostly because he has yet to start talking. That wraps it up for the reunion- I think this one has been great for all the kids, since the adults worked with them so thoughtfully. Thanks to everyone for a great reunion!

I recently had an "epicoectomy"( a great name for what I would call "Let'sjustchophimupandripthedarnedthingout-ectomy.") on my gums. For most of it, I was on anesthetics, so I was just sitting there, looking around at things I had never noticed were even in the room. There are 2,049 little holes in the ceiling speaker, 394 dots on each of the floor tiles, and 125 little pieces on each side of the zipper on Dr. Cole's coat. That pretty much sums it all up, although it's nice to have it all over with.

Bellingham is beautiful at this time of year, and it was great to spend time w/the Mumfords, even minus Al. I went on my first real mountain biking trip, and was finally convinced that it's just as fun as-or more fun than- road cycling. All thanks go to the Mumfords for letting me into their house!

busybusybusy

-In my opinion, this is the only time of the year that can compete with Christmas time for all-around business, since most people are making summer plans and trying to keep up with increasing homework loads (at least I am). This is my excuse for the large blogging lapse that I've been having. Anyway, now I've started again- I hope you have fun reading!
-Baby Julia just discovered the ticket out of nursery, which will work like a charm on any nursery teacher- the "Gotta Go Potty!" trick. There is never any way to tell whether or not they really do need to go, since most mere mortal primary workers are not equipped with lie detectors. Needless to say, taking Julia potty was a prime object in Mom and Dad's Sunday.
-Our family just discovered Mythbusters, and last night we watched the episode where they try to fool different security devices. The best one so far is the one where they hop into the giant whirlpool to see how dangerous they really are. It's easy to see why Nigie likes this show so much, although I can't quite guess what his favorite would be.
-This is the last post before our English projects get turned in, and I just realized how much work it would take to do one if I didn't have this blog. But, luckily, I do, so my grade isn't (hopefully) about to plummet through the floor- after all, the project is worth a hundred or so points.
-This should be an interesting reunion(cousin camp), since everyone has a part in it-we will now also be building potato guns from ABS and BBQ sparkers- they're supposed to shoot up to 200 yards, although this may only be Urban myth.
-That should be all for now, but be prepared for (roughly) weekly posts from now on! (oh, and remember to comment, too-!)

PS: In Spokane on Saturday, we saw a sign in front of a store that said
"Surly Staff
Poor Selection
High Prices
Terrible Quality". We had a laugh about that, but couldn't figure out the reasoning behind it...

17 days left till the end of school...16...15...

-The time has now come for our whole family to begin the countdown until the end of summer. I am having suspicions that this only makes the waiting seem longer, but hey, it's tradition.

-Today, among other things, I passed frozen sacrament bread.It was funny to see the faces of the priests when they realized that they didn't have any bread. Someone came rushing in with some bread, and the priests strained at the bread, barely able to break it. It was also funny to see the faces of the people in the crowd as I passed it. There were a lot of kids whispering in their moms' ears. I'm sure it went something like this: "Mom, why is the bread so hard and cold?"Anyway, that helped us to remember that life's a farce, no matter what we try to do about it.

-Bye, and remember to comment(remember that I wait for you to comment before I blog again)!