Little Bird nests in her own room, then flies into first place yet again

A feeling of independence and confidence has swept across Alicia Lauren, and the other members of the Sunday Football Picks are starting to pay for it.  For the third time in four weeks, the Little Bird captured first place by compiling double-digit victories.

Her impressive trio of 10-3 weeks is putting major pressure on defending champ Mark, who has watched his eight-game advantage over Ali get quickly trimmed in half.  She's now in second place with QT, still speeding along with her beak pointed at the top of the standings.

Ali's confident display in the Picks on Sunday afternoon came a day after she declared a bit of independence from her twin sister, who got politely booted out of her room.  You see, Nicki had a new room lined up that was already painted and wallpapered, so when Empire installed the lovely carpeting in both rooms Saturday, Ali thought it was time for the separation.  Nicki's bed was moved into her new purple digs that night, and the twins' sleeping quarters were no longer linked after exactly 11 years, 332 days, 12 hours and 55 minutes.  Their fancy new furniture arrives Friday!

After starting the 2004 season with a dismal 11-17 record, Ali has exploded with a 36-16 streak.  She knew not to pick the cruddy Bears this weekend, even though they were somehow favored to beat the Redskins.  Washington prevailed 13-10, and the performance by Chicago quarterback Jonathan Quinn was called one of the 10 worst in team history.  The Little Bird's sensitive nose obviously caught a big whiff of that stench long before the garbage hit the field.

Ali's other upset special was Green Bay slamming the Lions on Detroit's artificial turf, which normally acts as kryptonite on super quarterback Brett Favre.  But the fake grass at Ford Field apparently faked out the grass-loving Packers, and they rolled 38-10 to end a three-game skid.  Mark, D.J. and QT hopped on the Green Bay bandwagon, too, because Favre has never lost four straight games, and he certainly wouldn't lose to the lowly Lions, QT said.  Wow, she's turned into quite the NFL intellect.

Only time will tell if Ali's newfound independence and confidence can hold up for the remainder of the season.  The separation of the twins could turn out to be emotional and mentally draining, right?  After all, it's like separating peanut butter and jelly, like pulling the chocolate from a peanut butter cup, like taking the letters out of alphabet soup, like extracting the creamy filling from a chocolate cupcake, like removing Hilary Duff from Radio Disney, like keeping syrup off the waffles, like breaking apart the Wilmington Wildcats and victories, like eliminating milk and cookies, or like separating QT from her iPod.  It could suddenly turn ugly.