CheezWizHed

Culver's curds - yes absolutely, but they have the best onion rings of anywhere also. And Kopp's burgers and custard -- yes, yes, and yes!

He is big (6'0"/236lbs) Any word on the guy's speed or will be another Watson?

[sarcasm]Wisconsin football owes me a debt of gratitude...[/sarcasm] I was traveling during the game and flipped on the game when we were down 21-14. So I'm certain it was my presence that turned the tide of the game and willed the interceptions. For the trophy, I think they just sweep up the pieces, put it in a Mayo jar, and put that in the trophy case. Good story for years to come.

Jones has a fair amount of catches at UTEP - 28 as a sophomore, 30 as a senior. What I remember from his rookie year (and Williams) was both needing to learn to pass protect - especially with Jones being smaller. Williams had 27 receptions as a freshman, then it decreased each year - which speaks more to his usage than his ability. Dillon by contrast only had 13 receptions last year compared to 318 rushes. But as a team, the highest amount of receptions for the year was only 29. The offense averaged 50.2 rushes vs 23.5 passes (12.4 completed) per game. This wasn't a passing offense. I just find it disingenuous to say that he is a big guy, so he must not be able to catch the ball. Still in limited chances but he looked pretty comfortable out there to me.

Mack generally stays at the same spot (over RT), right? I don't remember him moving over LT very much. If that is true, I'd prefer to have Wagner (RT) and Turner(LT) as our Tackles and keep Jenkins/Linsley/Patrick inside holding off Hicks.

Yeah, I've seen those. There is a balance to life, which is one reason I stopped focusing on it so heavily - go live it instead. But investing early is ALWAYS good. Even if you have to start small. Each pay raise, I'd take part of it and increase my 401k contributions for my 529b contributions. With each tax refund, I'd pay off more debt (never had CC debt, but paid off vehicles that way).

Our work has requirements to daily clean our work areas and especially the "high touch" areas. The directions for cleaning is to leave the surface wet with the disinfectant for 10 minutes. (Which is especially amusing when they recommend the keyboard as one of the things to clean). Now, I've been into the office once in the last 6 months (when they put that in place), so it doesn't really bother me. But it does make me chuckle when I see articles you quoted from NPR and the articles work pointed to for the reasons of the cleaning durations, then see people washing their carts before using them. Better off using them and cleaning your hands after.

I worked for Motorola as a software engineer in the late 90s and was getting stock options somewhere around my third year in the company. They used it to keep their best talent (not bragging, but only the top-rated engineers got them). So it isn't like that is new. What is FIRE? I used to by much bigger into investment; even being one of the first online trader accounts on eTrade. I read nearly everything Motley Fool put out (still a lot of good advice there). I did ok but realized how much time I was spending at doing it (enjoying it or not). So I stopped and simplified my approach: Mutual funds and index accounts, dollar-cost averaging, max out 401k matching, etc. have all done me very well. Someone mentioned working hard to get a 10% return but that is about what I've been getting without working at it at all. Now I need to start looking at switching gears being 8-14 years from retirement and start preparing for that switch. One thing I'd take advantage of right now (if you haven't) is to consider refinancing your home mortgage. For the first time in my life, I paid points on a loan to drive down my rate to 2.25%. My required monthly payment went down, but I'll plan to pay the same monthly amount. Thus, I'll pay off my loan 4.5 years earlier then my previous loan (saving myself about $75k). The refinance costs will pay back in 39 months, but I have zero plans on moving so that shouldn't be a problem. Step one to retirement is completed.

Bucks were 6/25 on wide-open threes. Knicks were 7/11 Bucks were 1/12 on open threes. Knicks were 8/13 So, our defense was at least closer to the Knicks (fewer wide-open attempts than not, and far fewer wide open than we had), but the Knicks were just unconscious shooting it.

Very few starting QBs make it 16 in a season. Rodgers seems to start all of them or miss a bunch. They've needed a good backup QB for a long time. I doubt the increase was part of it.

Three of four times... four what? He had 21 rushes, broke 7 tackles. It isn't clear what the four times refers to. I'm sure the highlight reel excluded his worst runs, but there were plenty of opportunities to see him be elusive. Number 13 is an excellent example of it. His running style looked far more like Jones than Williams (who often runs into his blockers). Certainly need to see more chances, but I think his future is bright. It wouldn't shock me to bring back Williams as a complementary RB and have Dillon start next year.

Agreed, but the Bears/Vikings/Lion games are never easy even with lopsided talent. Those rivalry games are hard because you always get their best game.

I would say most of that contact was on the 2nd level (and 30 came on the long TD run.) Point being, I want to see how quick his feet are. Jones is very adept at making a hole where there wasn't one initially. I went back to review his night and this is what I found: 1st touch: All Dillon - hit in backfield - gains positive yardage 2nd: Big hole - breaks DB tackle at end 3rd: Big hole - drives LB for 6 more yards 4th: Good hole - gets 3-4 yds after DL/LB converge 5th: Small hole - drives pile forward. 6th: Small hole - drives pile forward 5 yards 7th: Play action fake, Dillon catches ball for 6 yards 8th: Good hole - breaks a tackle, drives another for 2 yards after contact 9th: Good seal on edge, - sandwiched by two DBs drives them forward for 4 yards AC 10th: (30yd TD run) Good seal on edge, broke leg tackle by CB and another by the safety 11th: Stretch play to left, decent blocking, no gain after contact but drove tackler sideways (i.e. didn't go down right away) 12th: Big Hole - taken down by an arm tackle 13th: Good Hole - two very nice cuts to setup the hole though (1:53) 14th: (6yd TD run) - All Dillon - squeeze through a small hole and bowled his way in. If you are curious about his feet, take a look at #9 and #10 where he bounces the run outside and #13 (my favorite). #13 he makes one big cut back to the hole, but then makes a very subtle second cut to make the LB whiff and gain another 5 yds or so. His first run was impressive because someone hit him behind the LOS and he still drove back to positive yardage. #5 & 6 were also good shots of what he did with limited blocking. Now certainly, the Titan's defense is not good and this is one game. But the point is that he made good decisions on every play - love his instincts. He showed quick feet to make big and small cuts. He showed power - very Henry-like. At least for this one game (yes, small sample size alert), he showed himself every bit as good as Jones running the ball with much more power. Note: since Dillon had 21 carries, the 13 listed above don't represent everything obviously.

Well, I also have three sons, I can blame someone else...

I'll add that both my parents were blue-collar workers that scraped to get by. They didn't spend money they couldn't afford and taught us to save money. I ended up with an engineering job, while my brother became a mechanic. He just retired at age 56 and is living comfortably. I mentioned that I'm on the same track right now. It isn't about how much you make... more about how you manage what you have.

The main problem is that kids DO learn finances from their parents (by walk at least) and no HS course is going to change that. For Christmas, this year, I got my kids this course: https://www.daveramsey.com/store/product/foundations-in-personal-finance-high-school-edition-for-self-study We always give them one gift that is Education focused. They weren't jumping up and down over this gift (like they did for the downhill ski passes and lessons), but sometimes parents have to parent and do what is good for their kids. The single biggest lesson I could drive into the skulls of people is to start saving money (even a small amount) EARLY. I started my 401k with my first job and put in the minimum to match my company. I just sat down to review how things are going (24 years later) and it is looking like I'll be able to retire when I'm 55 or 60 (which I'm actually a bit surprised). My financial goal that I hoped to hit at 65 should happen about 10 years earlier now. Compound interest and dollar cost averaging ROCK! I started 529b accounts for my kids' college education - and started them late when they were already 5-6 years old. Interest has over doubled my initial contributions and they will have 2-3 years of their college paid for without me contributing another cent. Now I'm kicking myself for not starting them at birth. But I'm still in a better situation then my friends that are shelling out $$ to pay directly for their kids' education.

Sounds pretty much like the inverse of the Warrior/Bucks game on Christmas Day. Did anyone watch the game? Were we giving up wide-open threes or were the Knicks just hot?

I'm curious why people think Dillon isn't a good pass-catcher or have to qualify it as "for a big guy"? He really has only a couple of chances to catch the ball and from what I can remember, he has looked good on all of them. That shoe-string catch on that shovel screen (which was negated by penalty so it didn't show up on his stats) was impressive - for ANYONE. He has very soft hands for an RB. His route running was very natural. There was one play he rolled out to the right along the LOS then cut upfield. He timed the pass well and caught it with his hands (i.e. no body catch) while on the run. He looked very natural running out there. On another route, he did a go-route and cleared out for an underneath throw to Davante. No, he isn't running "the whole route tree", but for a rookie RB that didn't get a pre-season, he has looked very natural out there. And remember that it took a couple of years for Jones and Williams to get to their current level of catching the ball and pass blocking. Dillon is way ahead of both of them as rookies, IMO. At least in the small sample size that we've been seen so far. He certainly isn't Eddy Lacy catching the ball out there. Note that Henry was consistently removed on passing plays last night too...

Yeah, I thought about that when they were giving it to Jones and 3rd and 1. Jones is a good short-yardage back for his size, but that isn't his forte. If Williams was healthy you know he would've been getting those rushes. Dillon looked really good in those situations. He took a shot at one point (the kind you cringe and "ooo" at) and then pushed the LB for another yard or two.

1. Just win or tie is enough. 2. If we lose, Seattle must lose

Dillon had a couple of very nice catches tonight. One was a bad throw by Rodgers and he grabbed it off his shoestrings. A couple others were just nice hand-catches; he looked very natural there.

But having Bears/Packers on isn't bad anyway. Both are probably playoff-bound and it's a rivalry game. The game will be tough because it's the Bears, but I'm not buying the 3 game winning streak. They lost to the Packers, then Lions, and beat Vikings, Texans, and Jaguars. No real world-beaters (nor playoff teams) in that group.

Nice! Dillon with 124 yards tonight, over doubling his season total.

WOW. Adam is just balling tonight.

I'd love to see Rodgers get another TD. Then 5 more against the Bears to make 50 on the season.