Jan. 12

Football day. I only have a few of these left. Then again, there’s college basketball, which was reason enough for me to get up at 8 and listen to the Gators game on Yahoo! radio. A plus to being unable to watch the game is that it forced you to multitask. The Box could be a lot cleaner in the coming weeks because the Gators aren’t good enough to be broadcast on national TV.

Pleased with Florida’s win, I took a victory nap and woke in just enough time to start my car and get ready to go to Bob’s. The Kia whined a bit in the -30 weather, but it came around on the second turn of the ignition switch. You can do all you want to prepare, some things just don’t want to work below -20.

At Bob’s, it was the usual fare: pizza, beer and dirty jokes. And Sun Chips. Never anything else, always Sun Chips. It doesn’t matter who’s buying that day, we always get the healthful whole-grain stuff instead of real chips. Since we’re all pretty health-conscious, I guess it makes us feel better when we wash them down with a few beers and a greasy slice.

Adam, the Ohioan sportswriter, was delighted with Green Bay’s win. Bob was happy because the Packers beat the spread the game went over the over/under line. Rich and I, well, we had pizza and beer and were therefore happy.

Adam brought Big League Chew, the tobacco-inspired gum that enthralled my generation (go ahead, mention it to anyone my age and see their eyes light up). He, Rich and I pinched massive chunks of the stringy bubble gum from the baggie and chewed until the slimy, sweet paste became a malleable wad good enough to make a bubble bigger than our heads.

Alas, work time came for the rest of the crew, so I cruised home for the Pats-Jags game. The sky wasn’t yet pitch black when I left at about 3:45, which made me feel good.

I had planned on seeing "Into the Wild" tonight, but that fell through and instead I’m going downtown to take a couple shots of the city at night. I’ll have them up by Monday.