Spartan Football--- The Corn and Brat Day

One of the nicest events held every year is the Round Lake Spartan Youth Football organizations annual Corn and Brat day. This year I would guess was the biggest yet, about 5,000 people throughout the day! The opposition was provided as always by Mchenry and they came with some big kids!

There are seven different age groups and teams so its an all day affair, the kids get a treat by running through a banner to start the day, the PA system calls them out by name when they make a big play, the companion cheer leaders cheer like crazy for the teams! It is is one of the best things about the Round Lake area!

Second Annual Fantasy Football Draft was Today

The league is bigger by 5 teams this year, the original 9 teams were joined by five newcomers. I had to divide us into 2 divisions (North and South).

The league kicks off on the 6th with some classic opening day show down's with the feature match-up between Trustee Michael Blum and Trustee Brian Brubaker in a battle of elected officials!

I got QB Drew Brees and Tom Brady so I am faced with a challenge right off the bat! I am also not terribly happy with Mike Anderson being the best of a bad lot of running backs!

Corn and Brat Day for the Round Lake Spartans

Yesterday was the all day Spartan-palooza corn and brat fest. I was there for about two hours and saw tons of people and generally had a good time spending my money on Spartan goodies and benefits.

The picture is from the press box and is of the lightweight game. Good view from up there!

Big Day in a New Orleans Saints Fan's Life

I wore my 10 year old Saints cap all week, and got lots of comments. Quite a few positive ones as well! From Packer fans! Should be a good game. If the Saints offense can move the ball on the Bears defense, I have some good vibes. My prediction is Saints 27- Bears 17, you heard it here first.

I have waited 39 years for playoff victory 2, lets hope playoff victory 3 is much shorter, then we can talk about victory 4!

The Special Joy of Being a Saint

A New Orleans Saint that is! I have been a fan since the early 70's when I would get there games dubbed into Spanish from the New Orleans CBS Affiliate. They actually removed my childhood obsession with the Jets. So I was weaned on George Roberts, Archie Manning, Kenny "the Snake" Stabler, Hokie Gagan, Hobie Brenner, Bobby Hebert, Morten Andersen etc etc. 39 year, 6 trips to the playoffs and 1 win!

Today they host a playoff game, since they have 1 playoff win in 39 years, I am not sure of number 2 tonight, but I am sure am hopeful.

Fantasy Football Championship Decided the Result was not a Suprise!!

Congratulations to Tim Orris who swept almost everyone he played with the best regular season record of 10-2 (Bob Stone and Davis Clark were the only ones who beat him all year) and then last night he finished me off 123-86 in the championship game, it was never in doubt. We had 10 people playing all season and even the guys who finished out of the playoffs told me that they enjoyed it and will be back next year for season 2! I am going to buy a trophy that will allow the winner to have his name on it and keep it for year until relinquishing it next year or retaining it if they win again . Tim and I are going to the OTB today as well, so I am buying him lunch in my losing side bet on the game.

Some of the season highlights of the season were:

• Al Villasenor beating Paul Holingsworth 166-60 for the most points scored and biggest margin of victory.
• Michael Blum got the fewest points when I drubbed him 77-12
• Michael Blum beat Sean Gillette 115-111 giving Sean the dubious distinction of scoring the most points in a losing cause.
• Closest game of the year was a 70-70 tie between Brian Brubaker and Bob Stone.
• I am awarding myself the lucky award winning 3 games by 2 points or less including my playoff win over Michael Blum.
• The only person not mentioned before now was Terry Vandenboom, who played but did very little in the way of anything memorable. I am assuming my next trip for a haircut will now cost me!
  

Round Lake vs Grayslake

Well as I predicted I would take out the eight Round Lake residents confident enough to take me on with my brilliant football mind in tmy fantasy football league, however I also allowed a good friend of mine who happens to live in Grayslake to participate as well. Not only did he win the league with the best record, relegating me to second, he is now the only person between me and glory. In other words its me against Tim Orris this weekend for all the fantasy football glory available. We have discussed some personal stakes, loser buying lunch and having to be the others chauffeur to the OTB on our horse racing foray's. He has LaDalian Tomlinson or someone like that on his team so its going to be an up-hill battle. I am still confident!

Mayors Fantasy Playoffs Start Today

Tim Orris and myself both won byes into the semi finals. Tim will play the winner of the Bob Stone vs Davis Clark showdown and the honor of losing to me will go to the winner of Al Villasenor vs Michael Blum cage match.

UPDATE: Having huge connection problems at the White House! Much gnashing of teeth, hence the post from my phone! How is that for dedication

Fantasy Football Update

Standings
Tim Orris 8-2-0
Bill Gentes 7-3-0
Bob Stone 7-3-0
Michael Blum 6-4-0
Al Villasenor 5-5-0
Davis Clark 5-5-0
Sean Gilette 4-6-0
Terry Vandenboom 3-7-0
Paul Hollingsworth 2-8-0

Top six teams make the playoffs and there are three weeks left in the fantasy season. So everyone has a mathematical chance to get it done. Top two teams get first round byes so there is some competition at the top as well.

Football Update

Today is week eight of the Mayors Fantasy Football Challenge. Huge upset last week as Brian Brubaker's team smoked me to break up my perfect season. There is a 1 vs 2 showdown and 3 vs 4 showdown as well

Al Villasenor (2-5) v Sean Gillette (3-4)
Bob Stone (6-1) v Michael Blum (4-3)
Brian Brubaker (2-5) v Paul Hollingsworth (2-5)
Terry Vandenboom (2-5) v Davis Clark (2-5)
Tim Orris (6-1) v Bill Gentes (6-1)

There is a 6 way tie at 2-5 for the final playoff spot as well. 6 games to go, so you guys better get a move on. The teams in bold are in the playoffs right now!

NIU Homecoming

I was fortunate to go to the Northern Illinois University Homecoming game yesterday where they pounded Temple University 43-21. It was fun since I was with a bunch of alums, and could make snide remarks about the school the whole day! Of course me having gone to a much more prestigious temple of learning, I could afford my disdain. Actually I had a good time we had decent seats on about the 10 yard line.

We watched the band perform before the game at the alum center and then walked behind them to the stadium which was fun. The students were all tailgating and I saw the coolest thing for BBQ in the parking lot next to the stadium, a converted cement truck with a hatch in the side for grilling! See below!

Football Week Six Update

Today is week six of the Mayors Fantasy Football Challenge. Not many shocks as I sit atop the standings as expected by all.

Sean Gillette (2-3) v Bob Stone (5-0)
Terry Vandenboom (2-3) v Bill Gentes (5-0)
Brian Brubaker (1-4) v Michael Blum (3-2)
Tim Orris (4-1) v Al Villasenor (1-4)
Paul Hollingsworth (1-4) v Davis Clark (1-4)

Overall everyone seems to be enjoy the league fortunately for some 6 teams make the playoffs so there is hope for the gentlemen on 1 win.

Thoughts on Blogging

I have been reading the comments and have been wondering what I should do about them if anything. I have had this discussion before on the blog about comments and I still think that as long as you follow my relatively simple rules its okay. I do cringe at some of the comments about people on here but I do believe it's a free country.

As a rule of thumb I never respond to comments in the comment section, but I did notice that a thread was broached a few days ago about this blog being a personal vehicle for me. I do recognize that I have an ego, and I can tell you that you better make sure the next mayor has one as well. I digress. I went and counted the last 300 posts I have done which went back roughly to December 2005. I looked for something that did not talk about the village and I counted them.

I found 25 posts or 8% that were all about me with no village influence, and I was scoring generously since I would argue that I appear as the Mayor in a few of the 5K races which made up a few posts and of course the fantasy football posts which are self serving. Most of these posts appear on a weekend as well. The most over the top one is of course the butter post and the egg post that along with this post have gotten me the most comments and traffic.

I also have been told that some people believe that I am going to use this blog as a place to grind home my political agenda during the upcoming trustee elections. Tempting as that is I made a conscious decision a long time ago to say nothing pro or con about trustees, I have broken that rule a few times but I generally think twice and take it down or edit it quickly. I try to just list people who attend events and besides this blog is about me not them. I will write nothing here about the local elections other then a post reminding people to vote.

As many of you know I participate in partisan politics at county, state and federal levels so I went and counted how many posts had a partisan bent to them, I found 2 of the total out of 557 total posts since the inception of this blog that's less then 1%. Those posts by the way were listing a "meet the candidates" before the primary.

I think these numbers indicate that I am meeting my original goals of what the blog should and could be.

Lastly this blog is hosted by Blogger a free software on the internet, we use a pointer off of eroundlake.com to get to it. When I decided to do the blog 2 years ago I could not make up my mind if I wanted it to be attached to the village web site or not. My choices were as follows:

• Link off the eroundlake.com page (the current format), the challenge here was that since it would be hosted "quasi officially" I would have to be under control therefore no partisanship, no venting about trustees etc. I ultimately decided that this was the best thing for what I wanted to do with the blog, the blog is about the village and me as the village's Mayor. I think the blog has changed to something different over time which I actually appreciate more then I thought. I also thought that this way would hold down my readership because it would be more corporate.
• The second method was to do it off site via blogger as something like mayor.blogger.com and vent what I really think. Those of you know me well enough know that with friends I have a sly sense of humor about village business. I ultimately thought the sly, acidy, "call it like I see" it blog would be much more popular. However I also thought that it would not be as effective towards what I wanted to do which was inform people about Round Lake and the surrounding area and let people know what its like to be Mayor.

If you have an issue with what I am trying to do then I am sorry. However I can tell you that I have never received one negative comment to my face nor other then a few comments negative comments about the blog in any other forum. I get more people coming up to me saying "I love the blog keep it up". Or better yet giving me ideas for posts with there questions and concerns. Which of course is ultimately what its all about.

4th Grade Hijinks!

I spoke to some Fourth graders yesterday morning at Village School. I had a great time as always, I go to Mrs Fainman's class twice a year, and always enjoy the banter! As always I saw a kid wearing a Spartan Football Jersey, and in fact there were two kids in the room who played on the Spartan football program. I got asked some excellent questions, and I told them the story of the train engine at the bottom of Round Lake.

Fantasy Football Update Week 4

Today's fantasy football league features a battle of un-beaten teams with the featured match-up Al Villasenor vs Terry Vandenboom taking center stage. One of these teams is poised to be the foundation of the league, the rock that supports all other teams. The sub-basement that Neumann installed incorrectly if you will. These two team clearly define the un-beaten spirit since they have beaten nobody.

Last weeks action had some close games, 4 of the 5 games were decided on Monday night, and my whipping of Sean did not get over until garbage time in the 4th quarter of the Saints Falcon game with a cheap 7 yard completion to Marques Colston on a 3rd and 11, that's how utter my domination of Sean was (87-86).

Tim Orris, Bob Stone and yours truly are all un-beaten so far at 3-0, with Michael Blum at 2-1 followed by the rest of the pack!

Halloween Times and Dates

The trick or treat hours for Round Lake and the Round Lake Area will be Sunday, October 29, 2006 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. We do this so kids can be out only when its light and parents are around and not at work. Safer! More light to see the candy, what a deal! Your village working for you! Just so you know this is what's left of Sean Gillette after I got finished with him last night in fantasy football, and since its Halloween like I thought it excellent to post here!

Fantasy Football Sunday

Today's matchups in the elite Mayoral Invitational Fantasy Football League are as follows.

Terry Vandenboom (0-2) v Bob Stone (2-0)
Tim Orris (2-0) v Brian Brubaker (1-1)
Paul Hollingsworth (1-1) v Michael Blum (1-1)
Sean Gillette (1-1) v Bill Gentes (2-0)
Davis Clark (0-2) v Al Villasenor (0-2)

Most of the games will be close except of course for the beating I will be delivering to Sean in our match-up. Good luck to everyone!

By the way I stole the picture from Brians Blog. Kind of interesting side note that 4 of the league members are bloggers! Sean, Al, Brian and Me.

A Chronology of 47 Years!

Today is my birthday, I have been told it happens once a year! The picture captures me at my finest in mayoral excellence! Sound asleep, plotting evil on Volo, whipping the other 9 chumps in the Mayoral fantasy football league, mayhem on assorted trustee's, paving over the anti 120 forces all at the same time!

47 Years Ago-- I was born in Port Jefferson New York. (1959) Oddly enough the White Sox clinched an American League pennant that day.
46 Years Ago-- My sister Gaye showed up to steal all the attention! (1960)
38 Years Ago-- My Dad did a sabbatical in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where I went to school in a one room school house with 15 other kids ranging from 1st to 8th grade. (1968)
36 Years Ago-- My parents both took early retirement and moved to Guadalajara Mexico, where my sister and I attended Mexican schools until we went to college. (1970)
32 Years Ago-- My grandfather took me to the Montreal Olympics (hooking me on Track and Field) and the Baseball All-Star game in Philadelphia. (1976)
28 Years Ago-- I went to college, where a few years later I would emerge with a degree in History and a minor in English Literature from Texas Pan American. (1978)
25 Years Ago-- I bought my first car a white 1973 Toyota Corona for $400, it had 73,000 miles on it. Sold it for scrap 6 years later with 201,000 on it. I would still be driving it if had not self destructed. (1979)
24 Years Ago-- I got my first "real" job. I was a warehouse manager in New Orleans and then later Dallas. (1982)
20 Years Ago-- I moved from Dallas to Chicago (1986)
19 Years Ago-- I met the First Lady of Round Lake, a couple of shotguns, a few slaps upside the head and I was married! (1987)
18 Years Ago-- I played golf at Renwood with my father in law and was amazed that civilization existed outside the city of Chicago. My first exposure to Round Lake.
16 Years Ago-- The first kid arrived, my daughter Denise. (1990)
14 Years Ago-- I lost my mom to a long struggle with cancer. I miss her to this day. (1993)
12 Years Ago-- We moved to Round Lake buying a townhouse in Tree House in the Woods. I also purchased my first Big Gulp at the Rollins Road 7-11 one of nearly 100,000 since! (1994)
10 Years Ago-- I was appointed to be a trustee of the Round Lake Area Library District.
8 Years Ago-- Was appointed to be a member of the Round Lake Planning Board (1998)
7 Years Ago-- Became Chairman of the Round Lake Planning Board (1999)
6 Years Ago-- I lost my dad miss him everyday as well. (2000)
5 Years Ago-- Elected Mayor of Round Lake, what was I thinking? I also resigned from the Library Board where I had won re-election twice. (2001)
4 Years Ago-- I weighed 283 pounds (2002)
3 Years Ago-- I weighed 194 pounds (2003)
2 Years Ago-- Re-elected Mayor, this time my eyes were open, and I knew what I was getting into.
1 Year Ago-- I still weigh under 200 pounds (barely) but damn I look good.
Today-- I am 47, I look great, I have a colossal ego, and I think the world revolves around me. What else could I ask for!

Mayors Challenge Football Season Kicked Off Last Week--

Well last week was week one of the Mayors Fantasy Football Challenge. I had 9 people challenge me. The scores were:

Tim Orris 112 d. Davis Clark 50
Bill Gentes 88 d. Al Villasenor 51
Brian Brubaker 82 d. Terry Vandenboom 55
Michael Blum 115 d. Sean Gillette 111
Bob Stone 70 d. Paul Hollingsworth 54

Today we have some interesting match-ups, a rematch of the 2005 trustee election with Sean vs Brian, and a battle of the unbeatens with me vs Michael. Good luck to everyone.

The View from on High of the Spartan Brat Fest

Davis Clark our Public Works Director took these this Saturday. The first is the view up to the tower and the second is the view down from the tower. Spartan Football had a big day with Brian Brubaker Spartan President telling me that they made almost $30,000.