It’s Monday Night Football’s season opener tonight. That means I had time to work on the photos I’ve taken since I last posted an image gallery while I watched all the pre-game hype.

First up is the shots I took while Nick and I were out kayaking two weekends ago. You can check those out here

Next up are photos I took at Kevin and Marcia’s place this weekend. They had a barbecue on Sunday that I went to. You can check those out here

…looking over the next several days. I’m working on a redesign. Please bear with me. I hope to have everything straightened out by Monday.

The headline says most of it. I was pleasantly surprised last night. I thought the Giants were going to lose by 3 touchdowns, instead their secondary did an excellent job smothering one of the league’s most potent passing attack, and the new offensive line did an ok job protecting the quarterback. There were some definite breakdowns on that but overall given their youth the did ok. Other positives included the passing attack – when Collins had time to throw he was picking apart the San Fran secondary. He threw three picks but really only 1 was his fault, the other two were tipped balls.

The major major downside was the completely ineffective running game. They simply couldn’t move the ball on the ground. That needs to get fixed or like I predicted they will end up at 6 and 10. Given the youth though there is hope for the future that I did not have until I saw the game last night.

One other complaint. I wish the press would stop hyping Shockey. Yes, he looks promising, but let the kid play and shut the fuck up about him. They could not keep their mouths shut about it all damn game, meanwhile he had a couple of catches and a few tackles (yes tackles, on interceptions!) and he dropped a couple of key balls. Let him mature before you start proclaiming him the second coming of Bavaro.

Since the last one got such favorable feedback, here’s another image that should make you laugh. Feel free to invent a caption. Me, I feel sorry for the dog.

Check this out: a clever british carpenter designed and built This contraption. It’s a floating island made from plastic bottles and bamboo that he built a landmass, house and other structures on. It’s brilliant! I’d love to retire to such a structure. I originally found the link on the mostly excellent BoingBoing. Start saving bottles, I’ll be looking for them in the years to come.

I’m not going to get longwinded about this, I just figure I will offer up a few observations about the upcoming season. Once again I don’t think the Giants will do well. Their secondary is weak and they’ve made offensive line changes that were needed but will take a season or more to take. Shockey will almost definitely have a very positive effect on their passing game but if the line can’t keep Collins safe (which it looks like they will have a lot of trouble with) then he will be giving the ball away again this season. This is also the year Ron Dayne needs to either put up the numbers or get lost. So far he’s been a bit of a bust. I don’t have a solid read on the linebreakers but I was very sorry to see Armistead go, he was and is a solid linebacker….
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Nick and I went kayaking this past sunday around Bailey’s island and had a great time. The weather was perfect and we had some nice 3-4 foot swells on one side of the island. I haven’t had a chance to process the images yet but I figured I would post something in the interim. This is a montage I took of the area we launched from. It started as about 8 images that I stitched together, none too cleanly but they’re good enough to give you a sense of the area. More to follow sometime this week.

Look at this. Who the hell are those people, and who are the fools subsidizing them? Michael in particular is looking real bad these days, but Brit isn’t looking to normal either. I wonder – if you asked them if they thought it was all worth it, would they say yes?

The mortgage company has gotten back in touch and upped my limit to $175k from the initial $150k. Now to find a house. When I get back to work on Tuesday I’m going to contact a couple of the local realtors and see who can come up with something for me. I’ll post links to the houses I have been looking at as I find them.

One thing I have concluded is that I need to get frugal. No more $8 lunches, no more ‘I feel like filet mignon and shrimps tonight,’ no more ‘I must have that $50 videogame now,’ no more ‘New videocard for the gaming rig, yee ha!’ every 6 months. I’ve been very spoiled the past couple of years. While I knew this would come it is still bumming me out. Even today I had to restrain myself from bidding on a game on ebay.

Poor me, crying about no new toys, he he. Oh well. I’ll whimper intermittently about this over the next few months I’m sure.

I’ve started the home buying process. I went to the bankers yesterday and got pre-approved for at least $150k. I was a little surprised by this. I had some financial troubles just after college and I thought that those would still be haunting me, but the bank ran my credit rating and she told me I had the second highest rating of anyone she had run in the past 10-15 years. It was an 813 in case anyone is keeping score.

Next step is the bank sends me an official pre-approval letter, at which point I can begin talking to the realtors. I’ve already started looking for houses. If you’re interested you can use realtor.com and input maine as the state, Brunswick as the town. There are several houses for under $150k, including one that is only a 10 minute walk from my office and another that is a 240 year old house on 3 acres of land. I plan on looking at both of them as soon as my pre-approval comes through.

I’ve also scoped out a few in Harpswell and Topsham. There’s a nice oceanview cottage in Harpswell that looks promising that I plan on looking at as well.

More to come as the process continues. I might actually be in a new house by this fall though if all plays out well.