The End of Summer

In the world according to teachers, the summer is coming to an end. No more coming home for lunch with your mother as she is back to work. No more hanging out watching episodes of True Blood back to back and back to the routine. For those not married to an educator and those with no kids the summer still goes on a few more weeks, but not us.

This is a sad time when your mom goes back to work, but it does mean a few good things are coming. After all, the best part of the Cubs season is coming up, football season. Stupid Cubs...

1. The new Madden is out. Yes, I am almost 30 and I know the release date. Yes, I did buy Madden the day it came out. Yes, my franchise is coming along nicely. The Bears defense is fast, and the Mike Martz offense is a blast to run on the new game. Should I be ready to launch into a full Madden analysis at this point in my life? Probably not, but I figure these are my final weeks of being selfish with my time because...

2. You are almost ready to join us. If you come on your due date we only have about six weeks until you are ready to hang out. FINALLY. I think it's been a long time and I don't even have your feet kicking me in the ribs. (I have your mother's elbows for that.) I can't wait to meet you. I am very excited that you will be potty trained within a few weeks of birth... Right? Isn't that how it goes? I don't really know much about this whole fatherhood thing, but I figure that it has only taken me about a week to figure out how to run Martz's offense in the new Madden, so I should catch on quickly. It took Kurt Warner years to master that offense, and I am averaging like 42 points a game after only a week.

3. Fantasy Football. I love fantasy football. For years I renounced it as dorky. Now, I know that it is dorky and I don't care. It's a great way to keep in touch with old friends and prove my dominance. Yes, I do have the highest average finish over the five year history of the league. Thanks for asking.

4. The Fantasy Football Draft. I love the draft. We all get on line and talk smack over beverages, eat manly food, and have a great time. Then we all sit around and analyze everyone's team. It's at this point that everyone decides that I have a very average team, Fid thinks his is great, and Pete proves he has no idea what the hell he is doing. Then we all await Dallas's post draft preseason predictions. Dallas runs a huge set of self designed logarithms to predict where everyone will finish. He's a huge dork, and is usually way off. It's all part of the fun.

5. The NFL Season. I love football. I love sitting in my basement in front of the big screen all day. We switch which church service we go to just so I won't have to miss pregame. I might have to switch my lineup due to injury after all. I try to avoid watching preseason games just so the opening weekend is that much better. I think the Bears will be vastly improved. I am a huge optimist. This year your uncle Jordan and I plan on getting you and Charly together to teach you the finer points of the 4-3 Cover 2 defense and other important things. Football is awesome.

Summers on it's way out, fall is coming in. Soon days in the hammock will be replaced with nights by the fire pit. Grilling season will be replaced with grilling season... I grill all year. Charcoal. I wonder how old you have to be to eat pulled pork? Three weeks?