Random Friday tidbits

Two tidbits, to be precise:

1. As much as I loved watching Boise State's improbable win in the Fiesta Bowl, I had written that they had pretty much eliminated me from my family's bowl pool picture. In fact, after that loss I had to win the remainder of the bowl games just to tie for first, then I needed to win a tiebreaker. Will wonders never cease...I WON the thing!

A little background here. For probably 20 years, my family has had a pick'em bowl pool. No point spreads, no confidence points, just straight wins and losses. And no money involved, just family bragging rights for the year. It started with just my immediate family...as we had 2 German exchange students live with us, it expanded to include them. Later, as my sister and I got married it grew to also include our spouses, and eventually when our kids are old enough they will be included too. About 6 or 7 years ago my dad bought a little "traveling trophy" that now goes to the winner each year, as well as a plaque that hangs in my parents' house with the names of each year's winner engraved. Sometime in the last 5 years, the female German exchange student who had lived with my family back in 1992, emailing her picks in from Germany, actually won (talk about embarrassing!). But sure enough, we mailed her the trophy, and the next year she mailed it back after someone else won (thank goodness she didn't win it twice in a row!!!).

So this year, it came down to Sweetie and me for all the marbles. Sweetie had won 2 out of the last 3 years. Coming into the BCS Championship between Ohio State and Florida, she was ahead by one game. She had picked Ohio St. and I had picked Florida. So if Florida won, we'd have the same record, bringing it down to the tiebreaker. We were under the impression that the tiebreaker was picking the total number of points scored in the championship game. She had picked 52, I had picked 47. So she either wanted an Ohio State win, or a Florida win in a high scoring game. I needed a Florida win in a low scoring game. Florida took the lead early, and both teams were scoring often. Our allegiances quickly changed as I started rooting AGAINST Florida because they were scoring too much, and Sweetie kept cheering as Florida marched the ball down the field. By the third quarter, the score was 34-14. 48 total points. One more score of any kind by either team would give Sweetie the bowl pool win. When Florida scored a touchdown to make it 41-14, Sweetie celebrated her 3rd win in 4 years and we went to bed.

In the morning I checked my email, and saw one from my dad with the subject, "AND THE UNOFFICIAL WINNER IS..." When I opened the email, I saw MY name! Turns out total points scored was the SECOND tiebreaker. First tiebreaker was correctly picking the winner of the championship game, which I did. And Sweetie didn't. Not that I'm rubbing it in, because I'm not that kind of guy...maybe. =)

Actually, it would be awfully hypocritical of me to rub it in, seeing as I hadn't won the bowl pool since at least 1999, and maybe even further back. We don't have a record of the winners from before my dad bought the plaque, and I honestly don't remember. But it's been a helluva drought.

2. Tidbit #2 is that I saw a promo last night for something I've been waiting on for a LOOOOOOOONG time...the Scrubs all-musical episode! That's right, next Thursday on NBC at 8PM Central time they'll do the whole episode as a musical. We got a "foretaste of the feast to come" a couple of seasons ago, with this clip. If next week is ANYTHING like this, it's gonna be freakin' AWESOME. Actually, this clip is really heavy for Scrubs...I love it when they do stuff like this. The blonde in the red dress is a patient of JD's and Dr. Cox. They've really grown attached to her, but they also know she's dying. Earlier in the episode, JD asks her what she thinks death is like. Her answer: "I really hope it's like a big Broadway musical. Everyone's all dressed up and singing to the rafters, and you go out with a real flourish." Also, earlier in the episode, Turk has asked Carla to marry him, and she's leaving for a few days to think about it. There's more to the story, but just suffice it to say that there's valid reasons for hesitancy. So here, the cast joins the patient in a GORGEOUS version of Colin Hay's Waiting for My Real Life to Begin, which brought tears to my eyes when I first saw it in the context of the entire episode. Here it is:

I also ran across a clip from next week's episode, entitled Everything Comes Down to Poo...OMG, I am sitting here literally CACKLING. If the clip above was a little heavy, be sure to watch this for catharsis: