Augie

….and poor Rex thought it was in the press conference. If only he had known….

Pickle ball is where tennis players go to die.

As much as I hate winter, Minneapolis is a great city with a very vibrant downtown and great business environment (including 15 Fortune 500 companies). Downtown is connected with skywalks and tunnels so you can get around in the winter without having to go outside too much. And they celebrate summer like nobody’s business! My first trip there was for a certain Super Bowl, but in the handful of trips since then I have come to appreciate what the city has to offer. It’s just NOT for me full time. EVER. Brrr……

I don’t like the downward emojis, so I will just go with BOO THIS! You can’t really believe that. How about if we talk about your family burning up in a house fire? That is just WRONG, and I see no defense for such a comment.

Did you get it wrong the first two times?

It was on the surface Delta from Atlanta, but it was a Virgin Atlantic plane and crew. That’s why I threw it in there.

Beats Prego Atlantic. But let’s focus on the game this weekend and the great football Josh and our guys are playing!

I’m 6’1” so a bit over “average”. The guy in front of me reclined his seat a couple hours into the flight. I basically kicked him in the back until he relented. No hard feelings, he was a Bills fan with a group of about 10 heading to the game, But my legs had nowhere to go. I explained I wasn’t trying to be difficult, but my knees had to go somewhere. He had reclined because the guy in front of HIM had reclined. I explained that my legs couldn’t go in the overhead bin, so he had a talk with the guy in front of him and we all kept our seats in the upright position. I met a guy at the bar a couple hours before the flight. Nice guy, and he was a big 6’5”. He had seats farther up front and he had sufficient room as I walked past him to the “short person zone”. I had a fish sandwich and wine. Lots of wine. He was drinking dirty martinis, and he won the inebriated Bills fan of the flight award. He wanted to pay for my tab. I said you just showed up, I’ve been here a while, I’ve got this and gave the bartender my card. Somehow he won, and he picked up my ~$100 tab with tax and tip. Turns out he retired from investment banking the first time when he was 50. WTH? I’m not that proud! Front of the bus was worth the upgrade on THAT plane! That’s where our guys sat, I’m sure.

We had a driver pick us up at our Rome hotel at 6am and he drove us to Sorrento, which is about a 3 hour drive. We left him to kill time there and took a boat with a few other couples (one guy in a Bills shirt, and we immediately hit it off) to take a lap around Capri then spend the day there. The driver was a great guy and he killed time until we were done, showing us the sights coming and going. We didn’t get back to the hotel in Rome until about 10pm. LONG day, longer than anyone expected. His tip went way up when we realized that we could not have accomplished that without some local help. Sometimes you just have to pay to make it happen, or go to plan B.

I know they are in London 2 weeks in a row, so it’s watered down, but I bet I’ve seen at least 30-50 people in London in Bills gear for every person in Jags gear. Not shocking by any means, but it makes you proud!!! GO BILLS! Make up for the game stolen from us on a bogus interference call a few years back!

Tom Brady’s father never could figure that one out. You’d think he’d learn after a couple decades of getting short-sheeted! I’m sure we could bring Kelvin Benjamin back to serve as the official food tester. Maybe we can bankrupt them? 🤷‍♂️

Ummm, Enjoy Marseille!!!

We went all out for our trip last Spring and had private drivers and guides for almost everything we did. It was certainly expensive, but there is no way we could have gotten so much done without taking on that extra expense. It was all arranged by someone my SIL uses to take groups of college students on educational trips (Yeah, not a bad perk for a job!). I’m not sure how to find the right driver, but it sounds like you are on the right path for this situation. .

There were dozens of Bills fans just on my flight, and one lonely but nice couple from Jacksonville. Enjoy Paris! We went in May and I absolutely loved it. You are traveling like my wife organized it, and you’ll be glad you got it all in. I’m just winging it this trip, and I’m in desperate need of a quick nap after zero sleep on the way over. A little nap before lunch can’t hurt.

I am currently sitting at the airport bar with a lot of time before my flight. I love airport bars! Nobody looks at you funny if you’re having a drink as the sun rises or sets. That reminds me of a HUGE rugby tournament in Savanah, GA at St. Patricks day. Teams from about 40 states, and my old boys team won it. Getting hammered in the airport bar as return flights were staggered, one guy we had to load into a wheelchair and told the flight attendant he’d been hit in the head in the tournament but had been cleared by the bartender….I mean DOCTOR to fly. His flight to Chicago went smoothly, unfortunately he didn’t wake up until Milwaukee. Oops! 😂 I was dating my now wife and the time and told her if she wanted out after meeting my friends, I would understand! I’ll look for the info on Saturday when I get there in case there is some flexibility. I’d love to meet up, but I need to get settled before I can commit to anything. Right now I’m just hoping the Tube is as easy as everyone says. Thank you, YouTube! I feel a little better after a few of those clips.

Good eye! You saw that coming!

BINGO!!!

Exactly.

You really need to get a grip on the math thing based upon nothing but wild assumptions without a whit of actual knowledge. Explain dark matter to me, then tell me about math. You will be the first. Hard to prove there is something else out there. FAR harder to prove there is not.

I totally agree on taking the long view. It’s like owning certain luxury cars, a couple needs three or four of them, because something is always in the shop! In this case, we may need an Uber for a week or two.

We are second in the league in scoring, behind only the team we just stomped. They put up 70 in a joke of a game, so that point stat may be misleading. The guy has four whole NFL games under his belt, and he’s made some nice contributions. Maybe you should be a Bears fan? That would give you more ammo! No need to try so hard.

Not me, the offense is rolling!!! I don’t care who makes it work, as long as it works. Stats are not the entire story. Tom Brady spread the ball all over, and it seemed to work for him. How can you be upset with the results? It’s a team game.

Is it 20% off a single item purchase gift card? No wonder Bed Bath & Beyond went out of business!

Like, for his birthday? That would piss me off too!