WOW. WOW, what a week. WOW. Is it just me or was this the GREATEST WEEK IN LYA HISTORY! Can you even believe it? I can't. The whole thing still feels very strange to me. I have to say that I appreciate all of the well wishers that called this weekend, except those that were trying only to jinx the perfect week. In case you didn't call me, I was not talking to anyone out of fear and respect for the LYA gods. My wife screened my calls and judiciously did not pass on the comments you fockers made to her. I had not told her that I was chasing the perfect 10-0, and apparently she was wise enough to know not to discuss it when she learned of it from you people. She probably learned when she asked me on Sunday morning who I had that day and I said "the Falcons"… at which time she interrupted to say "well that's a sure thing, right." My swift and stiff response of "Will you shut up! You have no idea how this works do you!" probably gave her an idea of what she should and shouldn't say for the rest of the day. But the stars were aligned enough to give me my first ever stand-alone win at $300 on a 9-1 with a close flirtation with 10-0. There were two factors that carried me to victory, and I will discuss them here.

First, the symbols used to mark the wins and losses on the sheet. For the first two seasons I used circles (wins) and X's (losses), but since that failed me miserably, I switched this year to numbers for wins (1 or 2) and X's for losses. Well that certainly wasn't helping. After the discussion we had at the viewing party on how to mark the sheet, I knew I needed to change things up a bit. I first thought of going with the age old squirrels (wins) vs. badgers (losses), but I was extremely unsuccessful in drawing a squirrel in the tiny little box. Then I thought smiley faces (wins) and frowny faces (losses), but the two proved too difficult to distinguish, again given the size constraint. I settled on smiley faces (wins) vs. X's and needless to say NEVER LOOKED BACK.

Second, and I just can't emphasize enough the importance of this one, BIGGUY.COM. I can't believe how easy this whole thing is with BG.com. It pretty much just picks the games for you. I didn't even know who the opponents were in half my games, but I guess that really doesn't matter does it? The thought of me trodding through the lines, week after week, for the whole season, like a fucking caveman or something just sickens me now. The question isn't can you afford bigguy.com, it's how can you not afford it? Oh and by the way, lost in the wake of my spectacular spectacular was a 7-3 by another downtrodden dog of a picker, Halvorsen. Do you think it was the new dental work that turned him around? Nope, how 'bout BIGGUY.COM. Yes, it's THAT easy.

On to the rest of the season, and all I can say is that you are lucky sons of bitches that I just figured out how to pick the games and mark the sheet, or else the possibilities sheet would look a LOT different. Some items of note:

• Beaudin has only a .5 game lead over Mick for the season long picking champ, worth $200. The money title (the one that matters) whoever, has long been bigguy'd away by Beaudin, as he leads Mick by $833. That's one expensive 1/2 game.
• Dave Jones is 1-5 in his last six pros, choking away his once large lead. Technically, the category is open to everyone except Halvorsen, but that's only if Dave picks 4 games. Assuming he picks two, it's between him, Pops, Barfield & Mick, HB and G/GFB also would have a long shot with a 4-0 this week.
• Doubles, sponsored by bigguy.com, is a three-man race with HB in the lead. If he goes 1-1, Beaudin can sneak in with a 2-0. If he goes 0-2, Mick can also grab a tie (with a 1-1 from Beaudin) or an outright win.
• College is also a technically three-man race with Beaudin and Mick pecker to pecker. Barfield could win only with an 0-6 from Beaudin and a very bad week from Mick.
• In the Lifetime Standings, Mick leads Beaudin by 2 games, attempting to lead that category two straight years. Like this year, however, the money category is a different story, with Beaudin a mere $1400 ahead of Mick. That excludes side bets, includes all years' entry fees, but EXCLUDES this year's category payouts since they are still outstanding. Mick could put a big dent in that lead with an outstanding performance in the final weekend. Nothing like some bigguy.com pressure.
• Also on the hardluck front of the lifetime standings, Barfield is in third place at 53.6%, 27 games above .500, and 4 games ahead of Pops…whom he trails by $745. Pops, while 16.5 games behind Mick, leads him by $270. Again, that can be erased with a big performance this weekend.

Good luck everyone.

Seeyainaweek!