Top of the league in Fantasy Football

Its been a good week from a Fantasy Football point of view. I used some of the transfers I've been saving and have jumped from 3rd to 1st. There are only 7 or 8 games left so I'm hoping I've made my move at the right time and I can see it though at the top till the end.

Deb has a quack's appoinment this morning for some counselling. She is pretty worried about it but hopefully its gonna help. She had a pretty bad day yesterday which I;m hoping doesn't happen too often cos they are hard days.

Koopa had his balls cut off on Wednesday so he was pretty out of it Wednesday night and pretty quiet yesterday. He seems a bit more perky this morning but we have to try not to let him tear arse about until a week on Saturday which is gonna be difficult ;-)

United play Bolton tomorrow which I'm a bit worried about cos they are a bogey team for us. Still, we've been playing well so we should do it!

Listening to: Just the budgies
Back: Not too bad

Got me a new tattoo

Its been a while since my last post cos I'm still finding things a bit hard looking after Deb but she is still improving which is obviously very good. I on the other hand have got a chest infection which just won't budge which doesn't make things any easier!

I've been on semi holiday this week to help with looking after Deb and I'm doing the same thing next week. Basicall, I've booked 5 days off so I have to do 2 and a half days a week each week. Its working out quite well.

I got a new tattoo yesterday afternoon. Its an Ankh and its on the inside of my right wrist. It hurt like hell having it done and its pretty swollen now but it looks good which is what really matters.

With it being Mother's Day and all that, me and my brother Ian are cooking a meal for our Mom round at his house after the football. United are playing Birmingham which on paper looks an easy game but I reckon they'll be riled and more up for it after being thrashed 7 - 0 by Liverpool in the cup mid week.

Listening to: N.E.R.D. - Fly Or Die
Back: Not too bad

Hard work!

Well, Deb is improving but very slowly and its taking its toll on me. Its bloody hard work having to look after Deb, Koopa, Yoshi and Daisy and do everything round the house and make meals and so on and so on and so on. Still, the key word is improving and its gonna take a while but Deb is getting better which is the only thing that matters.

To make life a bit easier I've taken next week off work although I will be trying to get work done when I can and claiming the time back seeing as work have been good enough to let me have the time off at such short notice.

On the up side, I bought Fight Night for the 360 on Friday and its a very good game!

Listening to: Nowt
Back: Sore

Quiet weekend

Our mate Jen is a life saver. Koopa has really been stressing Deb out over the last few weeks and I've been too busy to be training him properly and stuff so Jen took him off our hands for the weekend. She took him Friday night and I'll get him back later on today sometime. Its been so peaceful without him but we both have to admit, especially me, that we miss having him around. I read all of the book The Practical Dog Listener this morning by Jan Fennal and if the stuff inside it works then we are on to a winner.

To add to Deb's troubles she has now got a bad back as well which is a nightmare for us in terms of going shopping so yesterday we shopped online with Tesco for everything except for the fruit and veg which I'm gonna get from Morrisons in about half an hour. It is getting delivered this afternoon and if it works out well we are gonna always do this and get fruit and veg from the local farmers market and shops.

Still busy as hell with work, did some yesterday and a little this morning (been up hours cos I couldn't sleep) but I'm not gonna do anymore today cos I have some DIY to do and United to watch against Newcastle. Come on you reds!

Listening to: Nowt
Back: Sore but not as bad as the other day

Soooo busy

Just a quick update to say that I've been doing nothing but work and looking after Deb and the dog.

Really busy with work cos I'm looking at re-architecting one of our systems.

Deb isn't doing too good still and the pills she is on have horrible side effects.

Dog is being a pain in the arse!

Listening to: Nowt
Back: Sore as hell

Daizy is much better (touch wood!)

Well, Daizy is def back to her old self now other than the yellow around her shit but she has only been off the antibiotics for a day so that may still clear up. She is currently chirping away extremely loudly while Yoshi chases her around.

Deb still isn't too good. She's been back to the doctors and has been put on meds for the problem. She goes back again a week tomorrow when I reckon she will get signed off work for at least another month to start with. The meds are really messing with her stomach at the moment which should settle after a week or 2 but it means she doesn't want to eat and I'm having to force her. It should all come good in the end though.

Come on United tomorrow night against Wigan!

Listening to: Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose
Back: So so again

Deb and Daizy haven't been well

Deb has been signed off work for 2 weeks with stress which will be reviewed at the end of the 2 weeks to see if she needs more time off. She's been really down about work lately cos her boss and the girl she has to work closely with are both wankers and no matter how hard she tries to ignore it she can't stop it getting to her. She's not been sleeping well because of it which has really added to the problems. The doctor she's seeing seems like a good guy though which is one thing going in her favour. Deb's gonna look for a new job when she's feeling up to it, possibly just a part time one.

Also, Daizy hasn't been too good. We took her to the vets on Saturday morning cos she just wasn't herself. She was just sitting there falling asleep, would hardly eat anything and wouldn't have any water at all. To top it all off, she didn't even try to escape when I caught her first time to put her in the small cage to take her to the vets. The vet thought she had a respiritory problem and possibly a liver problem because the area round her shit is yellow and it should be clear. She gave her an injection of an antibiotic called Baytril and prescribed a weeks course of it. Daizy was perked up by the next day and looks back to her old self now except for the area round her shit is still yellow. We're keeping an eye on that and hopefully it will clear up after the antibiotics are out of her system.

At least United won the donkey cup!

Listening to: Hole - Live Through This
Back: So so

Finding new tyres is a ballache

I need some new tyres for my car and finding some new ones has been doing my head in cos there are so many different opinions on the web about so many diferent tyres. I wasn't going to get some more of the Avon ZZ3s that I currently have cos I thought they were a bit slippy setting off in the wet but I finally managed to speak to someone that made sense at Camskill.com and he was explaining that all tyres are gonna be like that when you are setting off at a junction, in the wet when you've only been out in the car for 2 minutes. He also said that they are a damn good tyre, that he uses them and that they have some more expensive ones that I could buy but he recommended that I stick with the Avons. They have them for a bloody good price as well at £63 each including delivery and Ashton Autos will fit them for 9.50 a tyre. I'm happy with £290 all in considering ATS quoted me £530 for the same tyres.

I found out today that you can run all sorts of emulators and homebrew on the PSP through a backdoor in Grand Theft Auto. I tried it out and it worked so how cool is that? Time to hunt out all my old game DVDs!

Well, its the Donkey Cup final this weekend and hopefully United will stuff Wigan and we'll have some silverware to show for season. Come on you reds!

Listening to: Nothing
Back: Pretty good

General stuff

Its been a few days since I last posted so there is a bit to get through.

Firstly, what a shitter about Alan Smith breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle. I can handle going out of the cup to Liverpool cos thats just football but you really have to feel sorry for Smudger.

Koopa has been getting let off the lead a bit more. We went on the park with Suf, Jen and Gill on Sunday and I let him off again this afternoon on the green. He is coming back to us eventually but only when there isn't something more interesting.

Deb's laptop has now got Ubuntu installed on it but its not finished yet. I need to sort out the driver for the wireless card and some things are really bugging me such as how to set up the default application for opening MP3s and WMAs.

Went to a meeting in Leeds for work yesterday and my back was killing me most of the day which is just weird cos I was fine going all the way to Slough and back and that took miles longer. I think my back has mood swings ;-)

Listening to: Faith No More - Fool For A Lifetime
Back: Sore from a trip to Leeds yesterday

Deb gets Ubuntu

Deb has started using her laptop again and has been complaining about how much stuff she has to update. E.g. Windows Update, Virus Checker, Spyware Blaster, Ad Aware, etc. So, I've decided to stick Ubuntu Linux on it and see how she goes with that instead cos she only uses office, media player and Firefox so she should be fine with it. Given that there are virtually no viruses or spyware there should be much less to update. The only thing that might cause an issue is the wireless card but I found a few bits of help for that.

Its a mates birthday tomorrow so we are watching United V Liverpool in the FA Cup at her house tomorrow and then going into town later after that to get drunk. Should be good!

Listening to: Nowt
Back: Bit sore

The dog has been unleashed

We finally decided to be brave and take Koopa to the park and let him off his lead on Sunday. We went with Suf, Jen and Gill (Jen's sister) and their dogs Lucy and Dennis so that he would follow them around and come back when they did. It all started well but then he decided to run off the park and into a road but luckily it was the back entrance to the park where the road is not much more than a dirt path so there wasn't much danger. I chased him and got him to come to me and then after that he was pretty good. We did it again yesterday but this time with just me and Deb which was a bit scarier but he came back eventually. Its good though cos it really seems to wear him out ;-)

Watched United stuff Portsmouth on Saturday which is good and who would have believed that Boro would beat Chelsea. I can't see Chelsea losing enough to let United catch them though.

Right, I'm off to prepare a few Valentine's Day surprises for Deb.

Listening to: Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains
Back: Sore this afternoon but I dunno whats caused it

Knackered

I've been well busy this last week and as a result I'm knackered. I've had loads of meetings during the week, lots of annoying bugs left by an ex employee to fix in one of our systems and to top it all off I had to go to Slough and back yesterday for a 2 hour meeting. I set off at 6:30am and got back at 8:30pm. I laid on the couch to relax for a few minutes when I walked through the door and promptly fell asleep until Deb made me go to bed a few hours later.

I'm still tired this morning but I took the dog for a walk first thing anyway and I decided to run for a bit of it to see what he thought. Well, he really seemed to enjoy it and he's been kipping ever since we got home so I guess I knackered him out ;-)

Just doing some chores around the house today and then I'm gonna watch United against Portsmouth later this evening.

Listening to: Budgies and the fan on the laptop
Back: Sore after going to Slough yesterday

50 notes blown on double vodkas

I went out to watch United beat Fulham on Saturday evening and I got absolutely wasted. I spent £50 on double vodkas and coke, a burger (which the dog ate most of when I got home) and my bus fare home. I spent a lot of Saturday night puking and then most of Sunday feeling like shit cos I was so tired. I won't be doing that again for at least a couple of weeks.

Not much else to report from over the weekend so I'm gonna go home now.

Listening to: Sound of the gimps in the office ;-)
Back: Bit sore after a few meetings

Total turnaround , bought an LCD TV

Well, I've done a complete turnaround and bought an HD Ready LCD TV. I found one in Richer Sounds that is a 27", has a decent spec and loads of inputs. Also, it actually has the correct resolution for 720p HD TV cos a lot of bigger TVs don't and they have to actually downsize the picture which makes it lose some quality. It's a complete no name brand called Funai but I don't care for two reasons. Firstly, the picture on it looked fantastic playing the Monsters Inc film and I'm talking noticeably better than the more expensive Phillips, Samsung and Panasonic ones around it. Secondly, I got it for £660 including a 5 year warranty and if anything goes wrong they collect it in the first year and I walk into the shop with it for the 4 years after that and that is so much better than if you buy from the Internet. They didn't have any in stock cos they'd sold the one they had after I'd gone home to ponder whether to get it so mine is being delivered on Tuesday. Can't wait!

Also, I had an MRI on my back today which lasted about an hour and the noises were at just the right level/frequency/something to make me chuck up which was nice. I cheered myself up by buying Dead Or Alive 4 for the 360 ;-)

Hope United do better against Fulham

Listening to: Just the sound of the budgies ;-)
Back: Pretty good

LCD TV woes

So, I've got my Xbox 360 and I'm thinking I want to get an HD LCD TV. I discuss it with Deb and to my amazement I'm given the go ahead to get one on the conditions that its not too big and not too expensive. Now to her amazement, this was 2 days ago and I still haven't bought one cos after reading reviews and getting advice off mates and stuff I'm not sure that the picture quality will be that good compared to a bog standard TV other than for the Xbox 360. I think I'm gonna wait a while to get one for the living room but I might get a 20" one for upstairs and move the 360 upstairs. I can justify £300 for a TV for my consoles but not £600 for the main one we watch when the picture quality ain't gonna improve that much and there is not really anything wrong with the one we have.

Can you believe that Blackburn beat United 4-3 last night and were even 4-1 up at one point. What is happening to them? Still, at least they aren't doing as bad as Arsenal are ;-)

Listening to: Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape
Back: Pretty good

Koops is calmer now - Hooray

Koopa def seems so much calmer now that we can take him out for walks. I've been taking him out a couple of times a day for 20 minutes at a time and he just kips for a few hours after we get back and even after he wakes up he seems less inclined to run around like a complete maniac. Also, he met Suf and Jen's dog Lucy on both Saturday and Sunday and they were playing together and that really knackered him out as well.

The budgies are loving their new toys and all the branches that we've put in their cage instead of normal perches. They keep hopping from one to another. Its quite comical!

Can you believe United got Liverpool in the 5th round of the F.A. Cup. What a shitter but hopefully we'll beat them the same way we did a few weeks ago.

Right, I'm off to play on the 360 and see if I can get better at PGR.

Listening to: Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
Back: Pretty good

United are in the donkey cup final

United beat Blackburn on Wednesday night to make it into the donkey cup final. It wasn't a convincing win but I thought we shaded it. Bring on Wigan. Hopefully United will do a better job against them than Arsenal did ;-)

Well, we took the dog to the vets last night for his second jab and she said that seeing as he's not exactly a puppy and had already come into contact with other dogs at the rescue centre that he was allowed out straight away rather than having to wait for a week. Thank feck for that. I've taken him on a couple of walks today and we're gonna take him out again in about an hour after Deb is home from work. He already seems a bit calmer!

No big plans for the weekend. Gonna go food shopping either tonight or tomorrow morning and take the dog on the park one day. We got some new branch perch things and toys for the budgies so we're gonna rearrange their cage as well but other than that we both want a lazy weekend.

Almost forgot, United play Wolves on Sunday so thats one thing I'm def gonna do.

Listening to: Nine Black Alps - Everything Is

Back: Pretty good

NBA Live 06 looks shit hot on the 360

Played the NBA Live 06 demo last night on the Xbox 360 and all I can say is wow. When it zooms in on players for throw ins and free throws it looks like a good computer game but during normal game play there are times when it looks real. It plays pretty damn good as well!

I'm in the office today and the fat polish fuck is being so annoying. He seems to find it impossible to let people have a conversation without him having to but in and he's always done something before and knows the best way to do it. If you've been for one shit then he's been for two. I was thinking of referring to him as "2 shits" from now on but I think I'll stick with dickhead ;-)

Well Wigan did one over Arsenal last night so as long as United beat Blackburn tonight I'll be happy.

Listening to: Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Back: Pretty good

Painful scan and cool 360 downloads

Had a scan on my water works today cos they don't work properly sometimes when my back is really bad. They did it by injecting a contrast dye in which shows up on x-rays. What fun that was! I had an alergic reaction to the cleaning solution they used meaning that my bits were burning like hell. I've got a follow up for that on the 8th of Feb and I've got my MRI on the 3rd of Feb.

To make me feel better I brought my 360 upstairs so I could hook it up to the network and see what Xbox live was all about. So far I've downloaded demos for Fight Night 3, Madden 06 and NBA Live 06 is downloading as I write. Fight Night looks the bomb but I haven't seen the other 2 yet. As soon as the price becomes reasonable I'll by a wireless adapter for it but until then I'm gonna get a really long ethernet cable that I have out of the attic and run it down the stairs when I want to go online.

Well, hopefully Wigan will beat Arsenal in the donkey cup tonight and United will beat Blackburn tomorrow night. A final against Wigan rather than Arsenal would be good assuming we get there!

Listening to: Alien Ant Farm - ANThology
Back: Sore as hell yesterday after a 7 hour meeting and pretty sore today

Dogs are hard work but I got a 360

Damn its hard working owning a dog to start with. All our friends with dogs assure us that it gets easier but its so draining having to watch Koopa's every move and ignore him when he's bad and then train him and so on.

On the plus side, Deb agreed that seeing as she got a dog I could use our joint money to get an Xbox 360. So I did and damn is it cool! I've only had it a couple of days (hence no blogging ;-) and haven't hooked it up to the Internet yet to see what thats like but first impressions with the games I've got are that it is really good. I got Fifa, Project Gotham Racing and Kameo and the graphics are all shit hot in them but equally the gameplay is good as well.

Well, unfortunatly I'm not going to be playing on it for a few hours cos I have to translate part of our Content Delivery system into Spanish for a proposal that needs to be sent tomorrow. I will be watching United take on the scouse scum later though. Hopefully it won't be as bad as when we lost to shitty last weekend.

Listening to: Puddle Of Mudd - Come Clean
Back: Ok this morning but was really shit when we were out up town last night