Slinging Trees and Singing Songs

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a Christmas tree lot in order to earn a little extra money for the holidays. It has been mostly fantastic. Despite the fact that I am Jewish, I have a Methodist father and my family always celebrated Christmas. The holiday holds a special place in my heart, right next to the place that manufactures nostalgia and greed.

When my sister and I were young, we were always very discerning Christmas tree shoppers. We would pore over every tree available, dissecting the good and bad sides of each, wondering how our angel would fit on top or if our stand would accommodate the trunk. It was a lengthy, meticulous process made all the longer by at least one or two breaks to run amongst the trees playing hide and seek.

The Farris Participation Index for Fantasy Football

Introduction

I play fantasy football in an extremely competitive 12 person league. This is actually our first year accommodating 12 teams and I think the change has been good. It requires a little more player knowledge because you have to dig deeper to fill out your roster than you would in a 10 person league. I would however caution you before increasing the size of your league; it is imperative to ensure that each one of your owners is competing at a very high level. The increase in required fantasy football skill can lead the inattentive owner's team to fall by the wayside rather quickly, and if this happens to a significant percentage of the teams in your league, it can ruin the whole thing.

Why I Love Airplanes

I just returned from a series of extensive traveling. I went to Israel. And then I went to San Diego. And then I went to Las Vegas. And then I came home. It was pretty great.