Seasonal Activity May Vary

Kirsten and I wrapped a few presents and stuck them under the Christmas tree, including a couple for her folks, and one for Cecily. Or, more accurately, Kirsten wrapped presents, and I watched and muddled through a game of Madden 97 that I found for my Genesis emulator. God bless Madden 97 - it really was the best of the bunch.

Anyway, I have yet to purchase more than a couple of gifts for folks, although half of my Chanukah gifts are out and in the post. That leaves only...well...Christmas. Then I, like the rest of you, are done for the year.

One of the great things about the holiday season used to be that NBC showed Thursday night football games. No more: now they're on NFL network, which has bad coverage, smarmy sportscasters (Cris Collinsworth, you are not as smart as you think you are), and isn't seen by more than half of America's cable subscribers. So it's like the game isn't happening...or like it's a college game between Nevada and BYU. You know it's out there, you know somebody might be watching, but you haven't actually seen it so it might as well be a myth, like Loch Ness or Britney Spears's intelligence.

There's also a Saturday game that will be broadcast. You know, to everyone.

So, for the game that might actually be happening (or might not), and the one that definitely will:
49ers at Seahawks: Believe it or not, the 49ers are in second place in their division. The fact that they're 5-8 and have no chance at a wild card (the NFC west is the only division without any hopes of a wild-card team) shows that this is the worst division in pro football this year. SEA
Cowboys at Falcons: This is a really difficult game to pick for me, and I'm not sure why. I'm leaning towards Dallas, just because I think they're a slightly better team, but they looked pretty bad against the Saints last week, and that was at home. So I'll go out on a limb here and say ATL