bad news: the 2004 fantasy football edition of willie's destroyers is officially out of the playoff hunt. and that's with three games remaining and 8 of 16 making the playoffs. and that's tough to do. i truly laid an egg on sunday, putting up a lame 43 points and, i believe, only three touchdowns. ahman green put up 145 yards but didn't score, and now eric moulds, roy williams, ashley lelie, and trent green begin battling to join a.green and domanick davis on the 05 destroyers.

much of the year has been due to bad luck, but this week i was bad - and unlucky. one week after finally giving up on the 'skins chris cooley as my backup to (the overdrafted) freddie jones, cooley grabs his third td of the year. his replacement, chris baker, netted nothing notable. it finally looked like (the overdrafted) john kasay was in line for a huge game, with quick math indicating 37 carolina points would be good 13 kicker points but, alas, kasay got hurt. ugh.

there will be a brief expansion draft as two teams are getting eliminated, and i might be in line to grab another star-quality player, so that's nice.

good news: they're not good, but the freakin' bears are in the hunt. i'm thinking that they'll keep me interested over the next two weeks, at least, when they take on indy (stranger things have happened) and then the lions on thanksgiving.

i really really love the bears secondary more than any other part of the club. azumah's proven to an extent angelo's instinct as a talent evaluator, and mike green's an absolute terror. while r-dub's adequate and t.johnson's filling in well, this unit with peanut and m.brown would be absolutely remarkable.

meanwhile, there's nothing nicer than being really excited about a draft pick, and seeing that draft pick become immediate great. tommie harris is a pro bowler, and soon.

i'm coming off an outstanding ann arbor trip, in which the cats performance was mildly disappointing (although not altogether unsurprising) but the company certainly made up for the on-field loss. you'll never find a better host in the world than nemo, possibly because he's (mildly) unemployed and living in a wicked nice townhome rent free.

after an early morning gurs-driven jaunt from michigan to chicago, sunday found me watching the bears, arrested development, and my big fat obnoxious boss with my dad. that's it.

today i'm buying myself groceries, and tonight i'm with coach (for sure) and others (i would hope). the pixies come wednesday, and a return to the 'port is sometime thursday.

report have the cats, if they win two more, heading to the sun bowl. i don't much like watching college football on cbs, but it seems that that's what i'll be doing on new year's eve morning. the likely opponent appears to be oregon, although that's still weeks (and two cats wins) away.