Who am I? Why am I here?

You'd think that working from 7AM to 9PM a couple days this week would give me more time to blog, but apparently the insurance industry never received that memo. That's what year-end does to us working stiffs.

Side note: Simmons has produced one of his funniest columns of recent memory. You should read it. I know Timmy will, and then he'll send me an email with his favorite quote. That's what captains do for their underlings.

Recounting my origins with Zero:
I played college for the best college team in Northfield not named Carleton. I never played CUT or the Hodags once in my entire college career, which is remarkable in that:
1) CUT was in our section (we were the perennial 3 seed and always lost to St. Cloud thanks to Naz, Todd, Winey and Raker)
2) We qualified for Regionals every year
Senior year, I was the D-Line captain and a handler (by necessity). From what I remember, no one on SZ even had an inkling of who I was. Although, I did get mistaken for a freshman somehow. Tryouts came, got layout D's on a captain who shall remain unnamed (one D) and UofMN players (many more than one). Incidentally, none of the UofMN guys made the team...great comedy considering the ongoing feud between Olaf and them at the time. I made SZ as one of the last picks (it is bad when you get the "you may not play that much down the stretch" speeches when you first make the team?)

Three seasons later, I'm down one of my own ACL's and up a dead guy's ACL, a quarters appearance, and a Worlds berth. We'll just call it a wash.

PS. I have a new dining room table. Should I be worried about poker chips on a good veneer (ie high quality, not crappy/cheap/thin)?