Telemarketers Suck!

Federal Trade Commission regulations requiring telemarketing firms to identify themselves take effect Thursday.

Such calls had shown up on Caller ID as "out of area." Now the name displayed by Caller ID must either be the company trying to make a sale or the firm making the call. The display must also include a phone number that consumers can call during regular business hours and ask that the company no longer call them.

Check these out - 10 fun comebacks for your telemarketer.

"I can't believe you got this number so quickly. I got out of prison yesterday. You know what I was in for? Selling telemarketers' personal information to people that do bad things to them. Can I get you to stay on the line for just about thirty five more seconds while this thing downloads your cubicle location and headset I.D.?"

"That offer sounds great. Is it dischargeable in bankruptcy?" or "Do you accept welfare checks?"

Caller number nine you're on the air. What would you like to hear?"

Nice thought for the day

A girl asked a boy if she was pretty,
he said no.
She asked him if he wanted to be with her forever,
he said no.
She then asked him if he would cry if she walked away, he said no.
She heard too much. She needed to leave.

As she walked away he grabbed her arm and told her to stay.
He said...
You're not pretty, you're beautiful.
I don't wanna be with you forever I need to be with your forever. And I wouldn't cry if you walked away I'd die.

Screen cleaner

Here's a very useful and free utility to help keep your computer screen neat and tidy. It's a screen cleaner and will reduce that annoying residue that accumulates on the inside of your monitor screen. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll like it. Just move your cursor around to get all parts of the screen.

Screen cleaner link

I found this on someone's else's site.

Don't you love Spam?

Got an email today.

"Seems that your CC# was stolen 4***-****-****-8291"

I'm not sure how someone grabbed my card, considering it's in my wallet, but they knew that my credit card number was 16 digits (how else could they know the exact number of digits?!). Since they had a few digits wrong, I went ahead and forwarded them all of my credit card numbers, and asked them to fix the problem. Hopefully this can be resolved quickly.

The Rovers

I honor of New Hampshire voting today....

Check out this (Flash)

Schools are closed today

The schools all around town are closed today. The kids get to stay home. I always loved getting snow days as a kid. Too bad we don't get them now as adults.

The roads weren't really that bad this morning, but we're suppose to get more, including ice, later today.

Columbus Weather radar today

Mars Spirit rover fixed

NASA makes progress fixing the Spirit rover.

Latest Mars picture

I have a question for programmers

How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: None. It's a hardware issue.

News anchor Top 10 (inspired by Catherine Bosley)

This is the Letterman Top 10 from last night:

Top Ten Good Things About Having A Stripper As A News Anchor

10. "Finally, a way to get teens interested in current events."
9. "Easy way of fulfilling the station's FCC nudity requirement."
8. "Top story tonight -- I got a new tattoo."
7. "Impressive to watch her do the news while the sports guy's throwing dollars at her."
6. "Oh geez, I dunno -- Maybe the fact that she's naked!"
5. "Carrying on the proud tradition started by Edward R. Murrow."
4. "Fun to hear anchor say, "To hear more on the Iowa Caucus, meet me in the Champagne Room in 5 minutes."
3. "She covers the five W's of journalism; who, what, when, where and WOW!"
2. "Studies have found that clothing detracts from viewers' ability to process news."
1. Viewers intrigued every time she says, "This just in."

It's a great day for hockey

It's a cold one today!

Partly Cloudy 9°F
(Feels Like -5°F)
WIND CHILL ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT

Hockey games today:
University of Findlay (mens) - 7:00 PM vs Ferris State at Big Rapids, MI
Ohio State University (mens) - 8:05 PM vs Michigan State at Value City Arena

Another Dean Top 10

From Letterman last night:

Top Ten Ways I, Howard Dean, Can Turn Things Around

10. "Switch to decaf"
9. "Unveil new slogan: 'Vote for Dean and get one dollar off you next purchase at Blimpie'"
8. "Marry Rachel on final episode of 'Friends'"
7. "Don't change a thing -- it's going great"
6. "Show a little more skin"
5. "Go on 'American Idol' and give 'em a taste of these pipes"
4. "Start working out and speaking with Austrian accent"
3. "I can't give specifics yet, but it involves Ted Danson"
2. "Fire the staffer who suggested we do this lousy Top Ten list instead of actually campaigning"
1. "Oh, I don't know -- maybe fewer crazy, redfaced rants"

Survivor Allstars - Were the Final 2 Leaked?

Who's going to win Survivor: All-Stars, the CBS series shaping up as the "Super Bowl" of TV's most popular reality show?

Warning: Don't read any further if you don't want to potentially ruin the series for yourself...

A fan who calls himself "ChillOne" believes he has cracked the well-guarded secret and unearthed the identity of the two finalists: Amber Brkich and Rob Mariano. And ChillOne, the alias of Boston resident Bill Marson, insists he holds the credentials to back up his prediction. He correctly named the two finalists a month before the season premiere of Survivor: The Amazon last winter, with a clear hint that Jenna Morasca would emerge as the eventual champion.

Marson infiltrated the notorious Survivor shroud of secrecy last December, during his eight-hour "spoiling" operation at the site of Survivor: All-Stars filming in the Pearl Islands off the coast of Panama. Resort hotels were blocked and waterway access restricted before, during, and after filming. But during a layover en route to a two-week holiday vacation near Buenos Aires, Marson hired a guide to escort him around the islands and met with an anonymous source with reputed inside information gleaned from members of Survivor's production crew.

"My source also told me that Jenna Lewis and Rupert Boneham will be the others to reach the Final 4," said Marson, author of The Spoiler: Revealing the Secrets of Survivor (iUniverse, Inc.) under his ChillOne alias.

Survivor: All-Stars premieres on CBS Feb. 1, immediately after the Super Bowl, and will run through early May. Marson's complete story of his Pearl Islands discoveries is posted on his website, thechillone.com . Highlights include:

* Before facing off in challenges, the 18 contestants were separated from one another and escorted to their rooms by blindfold.

* Ethan Zohn, winner of Survivor: Africa, stumbled early and may be the
first contestant booted.

* Jenna Morasca dropped out early in the series due to concerns over a sick family member.

* The fifth through seventh-place finishers are Tom Buchanan, Shii Ann Huang, and Alicia Calaway.

* A bag of condoms found on the island of Mogo Mogo could tip off a sexual union among tribe members.

Marson, who used similar sleuthing techniques in his trip to The Amazon, takes pride in his reputation as one of the most successful and most popular members of the spoiling underworld. A group of Survivor zealots featured by media including The New York Times, spoilers search for clues or leaks that point to potential outcomes.

"It's like a game against (Survivor producer) Mark Burnett," said Marson, who claims he learned covert techniques in a professional capacity. "I raised the bar with my success in The Amazon."

Marson insists that spoiling actually heightens interest in Survivor.

"With my 'intel' from The Amazon, everyone debated for months whether or not it would prove right," he said. "With Survivor: All-Stars, we'll all be watching to see how my information plays out this time, including me."

Letterman Top 10 - Howard Dean

Top Ten Howard Dean Excuses for Losing the Iowa Caucus

10. "The Iowans turned it into a popularity contest"
9. "People don't seem to find shouting 'Presidential'"
8. "Weekend before the caucus, wasted 55 crucial hours marrying Britney Spears"
7. "By mistake, campaigned in Ohio"
6. "Due to fatigue on campaign trail, kissed hands and shook babies"
5. "Dennis Kucinich stole one percent of my vote"
4. "Saddam Hussein endorsement didn't help"
3. "In retrospect, shouldn't have opened speeches with 'Yo Mama' jokes"
2. "Bad idea to keep asking self, 'What would Dukakis do?'"
1. "Majority of voter base stayed home to watch 'My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance'"

Letterman top ten archive

Y-Town Chick in the news (still)

A ‘Thrill’ to Regret
TV Anchor Resigns Over Wet T-Shirt Video
ABCNEWS.com

Former anchorwoman Catherine Bosley became the lead story in Youngstown, Ohio, when a revealing video of her sexy vacation stunt came back to haunt her.

Bosley said she had never even seen a wet T-shirt contest before she joined one in a Key West, Fla., bar nearly a year ago. The former newswoman, who had anchored the news at WKBN-TV in Youngstown, Ohio, for a decade, says she was celebrating life when she entered the contest, but she says she wishes she would have found another way to rejoice.
"I've done daredevil type things, but to think I would do something like that that put a dent in my own integrity, it was kind of hard," Bosley said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "It was a thrill for the moment. I got caught up in the moment and that was the problem."

Bosley said she entered the contest, with her husband by her side, because she had just found out that she would survive a serious lung disease she had been diagnosed with. Bosley, who also underwent open heart surgery a few years ago, said she wanted to enter the contest in order to express her freedom and her love of life.

The former anchor said she regretted her actions, which included the removal of her top during the stunt, the next day. But her vacation celebration didn't come back to haunt her for nearly a year, when video of her topless stunt surfaced earlier this month.

When news of the footage spread, Bosley resigned.

"I let down myself, I let down the community," Bosley said. "I see it as something that was very personal and turned into something that the world saw that was never intended to be like that," she said.

Bosley's former news director posted a letter on the station's Web site, saying "I will not compromise the integrity and professionalism of WKBN News. I did not sign on to run a tabloid news department, and the employees of WKBN did not sign on to work at one."

Bosley says she believes her actions wouldn't have turned her station into a tabloid news outlet, but she says she believes the buzz over the video wouldn't have died down if she remained in her former position. Meanwhile, her loyal viewers have sent Bosley many letters of support and the former anchor says she has learned an important lesson about how to behave in public in a high-tech world.

"We don't have privacy now that we have the Internet and the digital pictures and now we have the cell phones that have cameras," Bosley said.

The former newswoman says the next time she feels like celebrating, she'll do it with her clothes on.

"I'm going to wear a turtleneck and a big fat pair of jeans."

Want to be a Survivor

Go here to apply to be on Survivor. It's set in a "Top Secret" location according to the CBS website.

application site

Big Dog

This is where I get some of my favorite (and best) T-shirts.

Big Dog site

Warriors Basketball Game

Jack and I went to see the Westerville North Warriors take on the Pickerington Central Tigers last night. We went to the JV game and stayed for the beginning of the Varsity game. He loved the game, at first, and then the cheerleaders came out. From that point on, the cheerleaders were his main interest.

Next time we'll have to go to a professional game, so dad can watch the cheerleaders too :-)

Insider Trading?

Suspicious trading preceded bank megamerger

Exchanges saw a huge spike in the purchase of Bank One options even before news of the huge J.P. Morgan acquisition broke. The transactions were enormously profitable for a fortunate few.

Though Wall Street is struggling to clean up its image, little has really changed -- judging by the huge spike in the volume of stock options that became extremely profitable once news broke Wednesday of a proposed takeover of Bank One (ONE, news, msgs) by J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM, news, msgs).

New England

NEW ENGLAND TEMPERATURE CONVERSION CHART

60° F: Southern Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in New England sunbathe.

50° F: New Yorkers try to turn on the heat. People in New England plant gardens.

40° F: Italian & English cars won't start. People in New England drive with the windows down.

32° F: Distilled water freezes. Maine's Moosehead Lake's water gets thicker.

20° F: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats. People in New England throw on a flannel shirt.

15° F: New York landlords finally turn up the heat. People in New England have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0° F: All the people in Miami die. New Englanders close the windows.

10° below zero: Californians fly away to Mexico. The Girl Scouts in New England are selling cookies door to door.

25° below zero: Hollywood disintegrates. People in New England get out their winter coats.

40° below zero: Washington DC runs out of hot air. People in New England let the dogs sleep indoors.

100° below zero: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. New Englanders get frustrated because they can't start their "kahs."

460° below zero: All atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale). People in New England start saying, "cold 'nuff for ya?"

500° below zero: Hell freezes over. The Red Sox win the World Series.

Big work news

J. P. Morgan to buy Bank One for $60 Billion

NEW YORK and CHICAGO, January 14, 2004 - J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Bank One Corporation (NYSE: ONE) today announced that they have agreed to merge in a strategic business combination establishing the second largest banking franchise in the United States, based on core deposits. The combined company will have assets of $1.1 trillion, a strong capital base, 2,300 branches in seventeen states and top-tier positions in retail banking and lending, credit cards, investment banking, asset management, private banking, treasury and securities services, middle-market, and private equity. With balanced earnings contributions from retail and wholesale banking, the combined company will be well-positioned to achieve strong and stable financial performance and increase shareholder value through its balanced business mix, greater scale, and enhanced efficiencies and competitiveness.

press release...

Youngstown news anchor in the national news

WKBN Anchor Resigns Over Nude Photos
Catherine Bosley, a news anchor for 10 years at WKBN in Youngstown, was used to having her picture taken.

However, someone took pictures of her in a wet T-shirt contest while she was vacationing in Key West, Fla., last year with her husband.

"It was just a spur of the moment, silly, irresponsible thing to do that I regretted a great deal the next morning," Bosley said.

She lived with the secret for 10 months until the pictures showed up on the Internet about a week ago. Now she's out of a job.

"I felt like I disappointed myself. I felt like I disappointed God. And should anything like this get out, I disappointed this entire community," Bosley said.

She claims she had just recovered from a deadly lung disease and wanted to celebrate life.

"It was 20 to 30 minutes of my life. It didn't hurt anybody. I didn't do anything obscene. It was funny at the time," Bosley said.

"I know that I have to set a standard and I'm a bit of a role model so I take responsibility for what I'm supposed to be held up to," she said. "This definitely goes down in one of those categories of what was I thinking? What was I thinking?"

Bosley said she asked bouncers at the bar where the contest was held if the contest would be a part of the "Girls Gone Wild" video, or if anything would make it to the national level. They said no.

Bosley is working with a lawyer to determine if any action can be taken against the bar.

news source...

Athens 2004

I wish we were going to be in Athens for the 2004 Olympics. Athens was one of the best cities I have ever vistied.

Lighting ceremony of the Olympic Flame in Ancient Olympia: 25 Mar 2004

See the Torch Route

Olympic Games: 13-29 Aug 2004

Pens win first in Philly in three years

The chances of the Penguins picking up two power play goals headed into Monday night’s game seemed slim. After all, Pittsburgh had just that many tallies on the man advantage in their previous 50 tries.

As low as those odds were, the chances of getting a victory in Philadelphia were even smaller. The Pens hadn’t picked up a win in the city in more than three years.

But the long shot came in on Monday night.

Pittsburgh netted two power play goals for the first time in a month, and Jean-Sebastien Aubin made 33 saves to lead the Penguins to a 2-1 win in Philadelphia. The victory snapped an eight-game winless streak (0-5-1-2) in Philly for the Penguins, whose last victory at the Wachovia Center came Nov. 24, 2000 in a 1-0 game.

The loss, on the other hand, extended the Flyers’ winless streak to five games (0-3-1-1) and their home winless streak to three (0-2-0-1).

Dick Tarnstrom beat Flyers’ netminder Robert Esche with a wrister on the Pens’ first power play opportunity of the evening. Tarnstrom used a Milan Kraft screen in front to pick up his eighth goal of the year and up his team-leading point total to 22.

Pittsburgh picked up its second power play tally of the night when Tom Kostopoulos drove hard to the net and picked up a rebound off Esche’s leg pads. TK chipped the puck over the sprawling goalie and the Pens had a 2-0 lead.

The Flyers had a chance to get back in the game just two and a half minutes later when Drake Berehowsky and Brooks Orpik picked up penalties just 14 seconds apart. Philly failed to capitalize on the two man advantage though, and the two goal lead held heading into the third period.

Philly finally got on the board with their 28th shot of the evening. Chris Therien held a clearing attempt in at the Penguins blueline then snapped off a shot on goal. Recently acquired Mike Comrie deflected the shot at the left hash marks, and the puck floated under Aubin’s left arm, giving Comrie four goals in nine games with the Flyers.

Rico Fata nearly made the score 3-1 during a Tony Amonte penalty, but Esche robbed the Pittsburgh forward with a spectacular pad save from in close just 90 seconds after the Philadelphia goal.

A little luck never hurts, either. Mark Recchi fired a shot that went through Aubin’s five-hole, bounced off the far post and found its way back underneath the Pittsburgh netminder. Then Comrie missed a virtually vacant net during Philadelphia’s fourth power play of the night, sending a shot behind Aubin and through the Pittsburgh crease with less than eight minutes to play.

The win was the first against the Flyers since the teams’ first meeting of last season, when the Penguins pounded Philadelphia, 7-2.

Supreme Court Allows Secrecy for 9/11 Detainees

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Bush administration to keep secret the names and other basic details about hundreds of foreigners detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Without comment, the top court refused to hear an appeal by civil liberties and other groups challenging the secret arrests and detentions for violating the Freedom of Information Act and constitutional free-speech rights under the First Amendment.

The justices let stand a U.S. appeals court ruling that disclosing the names could harm national security and help "al Qaeda in plotting future terrorist attacks or intimidating witnesses in the present investigation."

Although the high court stayed out of the dispute about whether the government must release information about those detained, it has agreed to hear other cases arising from the administration's war on terror.

Those cases involve the president's power to detain American citizens captured abroad and declared "enemy combatants," and whether foreign nationals can use American courts to challenge their incarceration at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The appeals court said the government could keep secret the names of more than 700 individuals detained on immigration violations and those arrested as material witnesses in the investigation into the hijacked plane attacks that the United States blames on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

The appeals court said the government could also keep secret the dates and locations of the arrest, detention and release of all detainees, including those charged with federal crimes, and the names of the lawyers representing them.

Attorneys for the groups expressed disappointment that the Supreme Court rejected their appeal and will not consider whether the government acted properly.

SECRECY SAID TO COVER UP MISCONDUCT

"The Justice Department is keeping the names secret to cover up its misconduct -- holding people incommunicado and without charges," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit.

"The cover-up maintains the fiction that the government was going after terrorists when it instead was rounding up hundreds of innocent Arabs and Muslims," she said in a statement.

Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union said he still believes the secret arrest of more than 700 people violates basic due process rights. He said the government's own reports have documented mistreatment and arbitrary detentions.

"Such abuses are always more likely when the government is allowed to operate in secrecy," he said.

Attorneys for the groups said the appeals court erred in failing to recognize that the First Amendment prohibits secret arrests, except in the most compelling circumstances.

They said the appeals court gave unprecedented deference to government explanations that were "unpersuasive on their face, overly broad and without any support in the record."

A number of news media companies and groups supported the appeal.

The Justice Department, urging the high court to reject the appeal, said it was entitled to an exception that allows information to be withheld for law enforcement investigations.

Department lawyers said disclosure of the list of people interviewed and detained would provide terrorists with "a road map" of the investigation.

Disclosure also could "expose the identified individuals to harassment and intimidation and could destroy any ongoing intelligence value they might have," the lawyers said.

Movies I want to see

These are some movies that I want to see:

Chasing Liberty - Mandy Moore, et al.

Cold Mountain - Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, et al.

Mystic River - Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, et al.

Miracle - Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, et al.

New software has 'no boundaries or rules'

A few hundred thousand lines of computer code could revolutionize the way people interact with computers, say its unlikely inventor and his backers.

Denny Jaeger, a musician and composer who spent the past decade developing the software, will unveil it Jan. 15, when people will be able to download a scaled-down version for free.

The software, called "No Boundaries Or Rules," or NBOR, includes an intuitive user interface for writing, drawing, compiling multimedia presentations and other PC tasks. It allows real-time collaboration and sends large files over the Internet at lightning speed.

Opening Blackspace results in a blank canvas where users arrange text or create sophisticated visual displays with only a few clicks and drags of a mouse -- without ever using the pull-down menus, icons, margins, tabs and fonts of Microsoft Word and other current word processing systems.

Canvases can be saved as common document titles -- such as schoolreport.doc -- or as a symbol, such as a star, logo, photo or dot. Instead of sending all the data over the Internet, the creator can send the symbol alone.

If the recipient has NBOR, he need only click on the symbol and the complete file will rebuild itself in the recipient's Blackspace, thanks to 500,000 lines of complicated code that Jaeger and eight developers abroad spent two years writing.

more...

NBOR software site

The Real World San Diego

The big news on Tuesday night's premiere of The Real World San Diego wasn't the drunken almost make-out between two cast members, nor one of them vomiting while passed out (all caught on tape, of course), nor the other fighting with his girlfriend about their relationship while he's away (did he never watch a single episode of this show?). We've seen all that before. Rather, it was in the preview for next week's double episode, which showed Robin Hibbard being handcuffed after punching a Marine, which was also caught on tape. The footage also showed Ace, er, Brad also being handcuffed by police. Thus we have an answer to one of the questions about what criminal activity MTV will or will not show.

Penguins beat Brodeur like a rented mule

The Penguins got their 10th win last night equaling the number of wins that fellow cellar fighters the Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks have. The beat the devils with Martin Brodeur in goal. Not bad.

Penguins 4, Devils 2 — Jean-Sebastien Aubin had 31 saves in Pittsburgh’s third road victory of the season. Mike Eastwood, Ryan Malone, Eric Meloche and Matt Bradley scored for Pittsburgh. Scott Niedermayer and Patrik Elias scored for New Jersey.

Lemieux will miss rest of season

Mario Lemieux will miss the rest of the season after hip surgery next week, but he doesn’t plan to retire. The six-time NHL scoring leader and twotime Stanley Cup champion hasn’t played for the Pittsburgh Penguins since injuring his left hip Nov. 1 against Boston.

Lemieux has since tried therapy and rehabilitation, but a magnetic resonance imaging performed yesterday showed no improvement. Lemieux, who also owns the last-place Penguins, will have arthroscopic surgery Jan. 13.

"I was optimistic that the injury would heal, and I was hoping to get back in the lineup,’’ Lemieux said. "It is disappointing that I won’t have a chance to return to the ice this season, but I look forward to coming back next year.’’

Penguins team doctor Charles Burke said Lemieux is experiencing ongoing pain because of tendinitis in his left hip flexor muscle. The surgery will remove damaged labrum, the ligament-like cartilage that contains nerves and lines the hip socket, and repair a tendon.

This is the third time in as many seasons Lemieux had been sidelined by injury, and one of a score of such layoffs in his remarkable but oft-interrupted career that saw him sit out the 1994-95 season and retire for 44 months.

Lemieux, 38, missed most of the 2001-02 season with a right hip injury that also required surgery. Lemieux had that operation shortly before helping Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.

He returned to lead the NHL in scoring for most of the 2002-03 season, only to finish eighth with 91 points in 67 games after sitting out nearly a month with a sore groin.

This season, Lemieux injured his left hip three days after becoming only the sixth player in NHL history to reach 1,700 points.

Penguins having trouble

The Pittsburgh Penguins are stuck on an "iceburgh" going nowhere. They are the only team with single-digit victories (9-23-5-3) and have an ugly 0-8-3-1 record within the division heading into their game tonight against Northest Division rival New Jersey. The Penguins are 1-7-1-1 in their last 10 games. With their only win coming when we went to Pittsburgh "last year" (12/29/2003).

Cheers - Season 2 is out on DVD today

I just picked up my Cheers - Season 2 DVD. The cheapest place I found was at Target for $32.99. But I bought mine at Best Buy and they matched the price.

USA TAKES GOLD AT WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The United States stunned Team Canada Monday, overcoming a two-goal, third period deficit to post a 4-3 win and take the gold medal at the 2004 World Junior Hockey Championships. It was the first gold medal for the U.S.A. in the tournament's history, as the team posted a perfect 6-0-0 mark.

The Americans pulled out the win when goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury attempted to clear the zone with five minutes to play, but his pass deflected off Canadian defender Braydon Coburn and into the net. O'Sullivan got credit for the score - his second of the period and third of the championship - to give the U.S. its first lead of the game.

The game was a disappointment for Fleury and fellow Penguins prospects/Team Canada members Maxime Talbot and Stephen Dixon, as their country captured the silver for the third consecutive year.

Earlier in the day the host Finns defeated the Czech Republic, 2-1, to capture the bronze medal. Pens prospect Ondrej Nemec was held scoreless in the loss.

Fleury's performance:
MARC-ANDRE FLEURY - Canada: Fleury allowed nine goals in five games for a goals against average of 1.81. He made 103 saves to post a .920 save percentage.

Maybe now with Fleury back, the Penguins can put together some winning streaks.

Hotline

Have you ever had someone ask you for your number and found yourself wishing they hadn't? Perhaps they smelled strange, looked strange or weren't strange enough for your tastes. Well now somebody has come up with the perfect solution: The Rejection Hotline. Below is the list for all the available cities:

Atlanta: 770-908-7383
Baltimore: 410-347-1488
Boston: 617-658-7083
Charlotte: 704-559-4169
Chicago: 773-509-5096
Cleveland: 216-556-0051
Dallas: 972-504-6270
Denver: 303-575-1696
Los Angeles: 310-217-7638
Miami: 305-460-3285
New York City: 212-479-7990
San Francisco: 415-356-9833
Seattle: 206-781-3928
Las Vegas: 702-387-2619
Washington, DC: 202-452-7468

First Basketball Practice Game

Megan had a practice basketball game today. They did really well. She likes games a lot more than practicing. Her first reall game is next Saturday at 9:00 AM. Go Sharks!

Back to work and Go Bucks!

I'm back to work for the first time this year. At least it's only a one day work week. Then the weekend. Ohio State play Kansas State tonight. Here's some news about the game.

K-State QB investigated for alleged sexual assault :

The Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Kansas State tonight was in dire need of some pregame buzz, but suffice to say the buzz provided by Kansas State quarterback Ell Roberson yesterday was no public relations dream.

A 22-year-old woman, a Kansas State graduate and said to be an acquaintance of Roberson, has accused him of sexual assault. The incident occurred early yesterday morning at the team hotel, the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, but not in Roberson’s room, said Paradise Valley police Lt. Ron Warner. In an interview with police, Roberson admitted to having sex with the woman but said it was consensual.

"He had his side of the story and she had hers," Warner said. "There’s no evidence of physical injuries. There was no evidence at the scene. It’s her word against his."

As of late last night, Roberson had not been charged. Warner said the earliest charges could be filed is early next week, after the Maricopa County attorney’s office had a chance to review the evidence.

There was no word from Kansas State coach Bill Snyder last night on whether he planned to bench Roberson or limit his playing time. In fact, there was confusion about who would make that decision.

"That’s not my call," Kansas State athletics director Tim Weiser said at a hastily called news conference yesterday after a KSU pep rally. "If I was dealing with a firstyear head coach, somebody that I wasn’t real sure was capable of making an informed decision, that would be one thing. But I’ve watched coach now for several years and I know how he deals with situations and I know he’ll do the right thing, whatever that is."

But when Snyder was asked after the team’s walk-through in Sun Devil Stadium how he planned to handle it, he said, "You’re talking to the wrong guy."

Happy New Years

Just enjoying time off at home.