I went into my Sunday morning very stressed about my fantasy team. Of course, I always go in to my football Sundays like this :) Drew Brees is on his BYE week so I had to pick up a QB. There were a few decent ones to choose from – Eli Manning (but injured), Carson Palmer (but playing in BAL), Matt Ryan (but playing against my 49ers!) and possibly Matt Hasselbeck (coming off of injury.) I wanted Matt H. but his injury was stressing me out – what if he got injured again in the first quarter and I got cheesed?!
Now, this was on Wednesday AM. Our league puts all free agents on waivers starting at 10am PT Sunday until Tuesday at midnight (so early Wednesday AM.) I had originally wanted David Garrard actually but when I went in to pick him up, I saw that someone else already picked hm up. Dang! So this sent me on my QB deliberations. I ended taking Matt Ryan. He is a good QB but I was a bit stressed about the choice.
Then on Friday I saw that they were saying Matt Hasselbeck would be playing. He was still listed as probable but he had been practicing all week and would play. So I went with my gut and dropped Ryan and grabbed Hasselbeck. Apparently – I just needed a “Matt” in my line up this week :) Although I was still stressed about the injury. Even this morning, I almost dropped him and picked Eli but just said to myself – go with your gut. Whew…worked out well :) Now, Matt Ryan or Eli would have done almost as well for me too. But thank goodness someone else picked up David Garrard ahead of me! :) I got 69 points from Hasselbeck! Very nice indeed. He made up for the very (barely) average performances by my RBs.
Once again Yahoo projected Brandon Jacobs to get 45 points. All I read all week was how the NYG running game would open and Jacobs would go off. Well…they were half right. The running game DID open up…for Jacobs’ back-up Bradshaw! The reason this really sticks in my craw is that years ago I had Tiki Barber as one of my RBs. 2 years in a row actually. I love Tiki! BUT, our league awarded points for TDs and barely any for yards. So Tiki would run and run and run the ball but they would give it to the much bigger back Jacobs to punch in for the TD. GRRRRRRRR.
So then we changed the scoring in our league to reward yards run and not just TD hawks. And then Tiki retired. Boo :( So this year I drafted Jacobs, who stole numerous TDs from me in seasons past, and now HIS runs AND TDs are getting stolen from me! GRRRRRRR…
But anyway, Jacobs got me 18 points today. Far cry from 47. But my PIT Def finally showed up after choking every week since Week 1 (and losing Troy Polamalu.) 7 sacks! Very nice. They got me 40 points today. And Hines Ward did decently.
I replaced my old kicker, Bironas (TEN) with Scobee (JAX). JAX had 0 points today. No kicks. Zeeee-ro. Genius team maneuvering by me :)
In the meantime, I have been slow-cooking Kalua Pork since last night. 20 hours! This morning I woke up to both huskies upstairs by the kitchen. I think they were lobbying for Kalua pork for breakfast :)
The recipe for this is VERY simple. Anyone can cook this – anyone with a slow cooker/crockpot:
Ingredients:
1 4-6lb pork butt roast (so this is actually shoulder – the butcher thought I was funny)
1 1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian sea salt (yes, you need this and not just regular salt)
1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
1. Pierce pork all over with a fork. Rub salt then the liquid smoke over meat. Place roast in the slow cooker.
2. Cover, and cook on low for 16-20 hours (I do 20), turning once during cooking time.
3. Remove meat from slow cooker, and shred, adding drippings as needed to moisten. The meat falls off the bone. Takes barely any effort at all.
I serve this over sticky rice with some Sriracha (rooster sauce!) for spice. Very, very delicious! And easy :)
My Gators won last night – very pleased. I’m sure the Gator Haters will have their usual crap to say but we won so *sticking tongue out* :) I also survived Survivor Football – I chose NYG at home over OAK this week – that was a very stressful pick ;) But no one else dropped out either. We’ve only lost 1 person so far. We all keep picking well!
And I am winning our weekly pool this week! My DEN over NE pick paid off!! I almost chose CIN too but chickened out – doh! Oh well. It all comes down to MNF. I chose MIA and everyone else has NYJ. If NYJ wins, then I tie with 3 others but I have the lowest score (for tie-breaking purposes) so we need 34 as the highest combined score! So send me your low-scoring, MIA winning karma please :)
So a full weekend of long, fun husky beach walks, good football, plus 2 nights of slow-cooking yummy food. I haven’t slept well but that’s fairly normal nowadays. And I baked some chocolate chip cookies during Sunday Night Football. AND finally finished Season 2 of Mad Men! Now can start watching the DVRed episodes of Season 3.
And I did win FF this week :) Beat my opponent 236 to 132. So I am now 4-1. Not so bad. But next week is a very, very tough (has AP, Wayne, Mendenhall) opponent – boo :( New week of football stress….
