Can It Get Any Colder?

So let me start and say that it is cold outside. As I write this post it is -8 F and -26 F with wind chill. Even though I live in Wisconsin and we do get cold weather, this is beyond cold. Let me try and give you a feel for this.

First, if outside for a few minutes, coats freeze. By freeze I mean coats get stiff and while trying to move around there is fear you might crack your coat. If you have ever seen the experiment when you dip something in liquid nitrogen and the item freezes solid, and it makes it so brittle that the smallest shock would cause it to shatter. That is what I am talking about.

Second, car batteries become weaker. On Saturday I could not get my car to start. I got a neat gadget for Christmas that has a jumper cable system. So I tried to use it but it did not provide enough juice. I had to actually have someone come over and jump my car for real.

Finally, my furnace runs non stop. this is the one that bothers me most. I try to keep my gas and electric bill small, but this weather keeps my furnace running. I try to keep my house heated at 63 F, not to high, but my furnace runs non stop. all I think about is how much money I am wasting.

The solution would be for me to move somewhere warmer, but then I would just complain about how hot the sumer would be.

Liam Dawson

Yesterday around 11:00 am my second nephew Liam Dawson was born. He was 8lbs 2 ounces. Twenty-one inches long.

I went to see him yesterday and he has curly blond hair. Bright blue eyes. I will add some pictures once I get some.

Sheepshead

At works some of us have started playing Sheepshead for fun. We have a good mix of new players and old players. The new players have caught on to the game and really are playing pretty well. I have been playing off and on with my family for about 10 years.

So the real reason I am posting this is I have been asked to run a series of Sheepshead games at place called Papas Social Club. It is a really nice bar that actually is set up nicely to accommodate five handed play. The only problem is I am not sure what type of commitment we could get since the thought would be to run the league over 16 weeks. I think if we could get 3+ games going at a time that would be great.

The other thing I am not sure about is how to play. I don't mean I don't know the rules, I just know how my family plays. I know some people enjoy playing Call an Ace, while others like Jack of Diamonds. Both games are fun and bring about different play. At the same time I am worried that novices would not want to play for fear of doing wrong. I want to run a game that is really more social than cut throat. I really would like to put the game on display and get some people my age more interested in Sheepshead.

So if anyone out there as any ideas or comments on how to make this work let me know.

Who Is the Best Bond

My friends and I have spent countless hours arguing about who is the best James Bond. We all agree that Sean Connery was the best hands down. We also agree that George Lazenby was the worst. But for the other four how do they rank. I never really had a formula for ranking, and just went off my gut when I would argue this question. Now however; I have come up for a formula that seems to work for me.

What I did is I listed all 21 Bond movies with the actor who stared as bond. Then I ordered the movies based on how much I liked the movie. Now this was tough to do so I decided to re-watch all the movies with one exception. I did not re-watch Casino Royal. After ranking I assigned a point value to each film, 1 point to the worst and 2 for the second worst and so on. Then I totaled all the actors points for each film they did and I divided by the number of films. Since Craig and Lazenby only have done one film a piece my findings needed to be modified a bit to take into account for longevity. So what I did was add one point for each film the actor did to the average points.

So here is the data based on my opinion.

Title	Bond Actor	Rank	Points
Dr No	Connery	4	18
From Russia with Love	Connery	7	15
Goldfinger	Connery	1	21
ThunderBall	Connery	15	7
You Only Live Twice	Connery	8	14
On Her Majesty's Secret Service	Lazenby	21	1
Diamonds are Forever	Connery	13	9
Live and Let die	Moore	17	5
The Man with the Golden Gun	Moore	12	10
The Spy Who Loved Me	Moore	14	8
Moonraker	Moore	9	13
For Your Eyes Only	Moore	3	19
Octopussy	Moore	6	16
A View to a Kill	Moore	18	4
The Living Daylights	Dalton	16	6
License to Kill	Dalton	10	12
GoldenEye	Brosnan	2	20
Tomorrow Never Dies	Brosnan	11	11
The World is Not Enough	Brosnan	19	3
Die Another Day	Brosnan	20	2
Casino Royale	Craig	5	17

and the order I will rank the Bonds are....

Bond		Average Points	Adjusted points
Connery		14	20
Craig		17	18
Moore		10.71428571	17
Bronsan		9	13
Dalton		9	11
Lazenby		1	2

So there it is. As like anything this my opinion and can be debated.