SF下午

感冒未清，今早有點掙扎是否到SF上班，想想之前已休息了一天，還是出出去吧。公司樓下保安跟我打招呼，問我怎麼沒帶pinky，做他們這一行的觀察力真强；當然不是指我的手指而是摺車，我告訴了他因由，重出江湖快矣。同事們去Boulevard慶祝沒有被迫遷到東灣，我為了不把病菌散播推掉了，轉而去foodcourt吃兼聽聽鋼琴獨奏，他彈了Beatles的Norwegian Wood（那個版本編曲不錯），一首Lady Gaga舊作，還有我們的「飲歌」：「六個餐飽」(Tramerai by Schumann)下一站是Embarcadero的商場，買了一些禮物，還有自用的Godiva無糖朱古力；其實一早已買了一堆給媽媽，不過想親自試試味，再買多一點，原來和一般有糖的味道差不多，難怪她喜歡。雖然無糖，但卡路里也不低，而且代替糖的甜味物質多吃會致瀉，所以還是適可而止吧。

Sports highlights: college football upset, CFL playoff and wrecks at Phoenix

The memories of SF Giant's world series victory and celebrations still linger with me (so was that of Sydney Sixers winning the Twenty20 wicket champions league) but the fast-paced world of sports have completely left them behind. The young NBA season has already provided big headlines like the firing of Laker's coach only 5 games into the season. I watched part of the "Upset of the season" in college football: Texas A&M beating the then No.1 Alabama. 'Bama looked so strong all season that current headcoach of fellow SEC conference-mate South Carolina, Steve Spurrier, even claimed that 'Bama could beat the worst NFL teams, which most people including experts like current and former NFL/College coaches and laymen like myself disagreed (unless he referred to the poorly coached 2002 Washington Redskin by him :P.) Still, I thought if they were to be beaten, it would be a traditional power house in SEC, instead, it's the SEC newcomer Texas A&M. As a loyal fan of Texas, of course I dislike both A&M (long time conference rival) and 'Bama (with whom we fought for the college football supremacy decades ago and most recently in 2009) Earlier in the season A&M played a good game against Florida and almost beat them. I was in a big dilemma: on one hand, I don't want to see A&M to be that successful right after leaving the Big 12 conference and proved they made the right decision. On the other hand, A&M needs to be competitive enough to prove that the level of playing at Big 12 is not way below SEC. Oh well, since I dislike both of them, I might as well root for an upset and it happened. I was so glad that A&M's star QB Johnny Manziel didn't emerge last season or he might have ruined the perfect ending to the long time UT vs A&M rivalry.

And I was able to watch more football on Sunday, thanks to ESPN and Firehouse Brewery. ESPN streamed both CFL first-round playoff games (or Conference Semi if you will) My favorite team Saskatchewan Roughriders was an underdog and almost pulled off an upset by scoring a TD in the last 2 minutes and took the lead over Calgary but fell short. The Sunday night NFL game between the Texans and da Bears was a snooze-fest but Firehouse had good beer. 

The great sports weekend ended with the replay of the penultimate race of the NASCAR season (9th of the chase) with 3 drivers still in contention and it certainly didn't disappoint: championship leader (and 5-time former champ) Jimmie Johnson wrecked, on his own, which was a rare mistake made by him and young Brad Keselowski became the new leader again. Clint Bowyer wrecked Jeff Gordon and the latter retaliated and turned into fights between pit crews. Danica Patrick crashed, stalled on the track and turned into a big wreck during the final lap. Auto racing fans shouldn't root for wrecks. However, we certainly won't mind a few fights :P This immediately brought back memories of another Jeff Gordon related fight. I thought it was last season but it turned out to be Nov 2010 when I looked it up (against Jeff Burton) Seems like NASCAR wants Gordon to fight to pump up the TV ratings every now and then but with tight races like this I don't think that's necessary! I did feel bad for Kevin Harvick who won the race but all people could remember and talk about were the ones I mentioned above.