Fan in Chicago

Thanx for the heads-up !!! I am keeping DirecTV just for the Ticket. So total price for me $30 per month x 6 months + $150 ticket = $330 (accounted suspended for other 6 months). So its a wash for me.

jboy has given an excellent review of the rides so I wont bother. But we went last year for the first time. My wife was too scared off rides but came to give us company. By the end of the day the security staff had to drag her off Gemini cos the park was ready to close. So we now have made it a plan to go every year and we did go this year also. We love the park so much that we rather drive the 5+ hours than go to the local Six Phlags. I have not gone to the waterpark, just the regular side. They really have their act together. We stayed off site in a pet friendly hotel. In June, they had weekday tickets at a steep discount so we got them there. I think there is a local Meijer which has the best prices - ask the locals when you get there if you dont buy in advance. While you are there, make a one day trip to Put-in-bay (the decent playground for adults). Bars, parasailing, boating, walking, golf carts all over the island etc Top Thrill dragster !!! 0-120 mph in 4 seconds, then straight up and corkscrews down ! I didnt have the guts to do it but my daughters did it twice.

What you describe pretty closely resembles what does happen in my consultancy workplace. On some jobs, I am the project manager and on others, someone else is. Over time, the better PM gets more PM roles and the other ones' role gets relegated. It has pushed me to do even better than my internal drive. (Note- I do not work in a government organization)

Forget all that. I am from India and I hoard gold because I need to give it as dowry when my two daughters get married. Else nobody will accept them as brides. Linky

Motivation may have nothing to do with this. Gailey truly may be wanting to see how CR does with the 1's. Just because the right side of the line sucks does not mean he should shut himself to the possibility of upgrading the LG spot. As of now, Gailey does not know whether or not CR is better than Levitre. As good and consistent as Levitre has been, if there is an opportunity to upgrade that spot (any spot), you take that opportunity. But to do that the coaches have to know whether or not CR is better. Then, as a side benefit, if AL gets more competitive and plays harder to keep his starter spot, it only makes the team better. If AL folds like a pack of cards and gets de-motivated then the coaches know that this is a guy we do not want on the roster. Sorry, but there are NO sacred cows. (if there were, Belichick would have gone back to Bledsoe when he came back from injury and Brady would have been on the bench for a couple more years)

I would add that there is developing evidence to the current crop's competence. The large majority of the D is now firmly selected/acquired by the current regime - Dareus, Troup, Merriman, Barnett, Carrington, Moats. If what we saw in the Bears game was an example of things to come, we have to hand it to the FO. And then it kinda gets me excited thinking about how the O will turn out once attention shifts to that area of the team. Having said that, I do wish a little more was done on the OL in the past 2 years.

You mean the draft in which Wood and Levitre were picked ?

Is Levitre being tried at LT ? Cos I think he can play tackle also.

Read for yourself. And don't ask me if this website is authentic cos I have no clue

Understood. And just so we are clear - I was not challenging you, was just digging for more information.

My guesses (in this order): - Perennial favorite Kelsay - Reggie Corner - Marcus Easley

Hey, boss, why you using semantics to beat up on poor Bill ? (I just felt the need to come to his defense)

John - I don't know the extent of his injury. Is it going to take more than a couple of months to come back from ? I would love to have a cheap option available even if it is later this season or even into next season

JS also made the probowl and I realize that Merriman made three. Merriman exploded on the scene and had middling seasons due mostly to injury. JS was a late bloomer who then excelled but was sidelined by injury last season. In any case, I was making a philosophical comparison in that both represented upgrades to positions of need for the Bills. But, I will agree to disagree with you.

Here is my point of view. If we continue with the OL as it stands and there is no progress, we will see the same lack of holes and lack of time in the pocket. This actually hinders the development of the younger skill players like Spiller, Easley, Jones, White etc. I am advocating a (healthy) Stinchcomb as a temporary measure to hold the line together and allow the overall offense to develop. This will not mean that Pears will not see playing time. If Pears (in limited playing time) shows he is developing fast, then by all means have him start over Stinchcomb. But to say that we should spend yet another season as an audition and extended training camp is doing a disservice to the team and the fans. Laughably inaccurate ? A middle of road RT is not better than what we have now ?

First of all, Roku is not a subsitute for your cable box. It is an easy and very good way to stream net audio and video content. I have been using the 720p (XD?) version for a year now primarily to stream Netflix and Pandora. I occasionally try radio stations also: 1. I am very happy with it - easy setup, simple operation and very reliable. Don't expect too many bells and whistles. It is light and competent 2. as I said above, I have the middle tier one and it works great 3. I have Netflix devices in three places and can stream from any one. I am not sure I have tried concurrently watching Netflix - your bandwidth may be an issue There are no fees for Roku - there are several free channels besides Pandora (and Netflix if you already subscribe to it). But don't expect a whole lot of free and good content

No harm in bringing him in for a e v a l by our medical staff. If there is hopes that he can be back up to full strength later this season, we should sign him. Similar to what we did with Merriman last year. Even if he is not ready for most of this year, we will have an experienced lineman for next year. Ofcourse, all this is predicted on the big IF of how bad the injury really is.

Not sure the strategy was intentional. We were incredibly thin at LB last year. Davis, Merriman were injured and we were pretty much plugging anyone available. The coaching staff may have thought it is better to put experience in one of the LB spot than trust it to a rookie. So, it could have been that Kelsay was playing LB due to force of circumstance.

Not sure, but I can say with certainty that she swallowed

Bigger priority I understand, but it looked like it was treated as the only priority. How many Offensive players did we get in the past two drafts ? 5 ? And of those, two were Spiller and Easley who dont help (much) in blocking. I really don't subscribe to this philosophy of not using any of the top three picks on good, trench OL players over two full drafts.

Not really. IMHO, Martz's play calling puts undue pressure on the young/newish line and they dont have the experience together to deal with it. Oh, and the fact that the entire Bills D played lights out made them look worse. As one of the Bears players said, the Bills were is regular season form. I liked what I saw of the D and if this was a 'vanilla' D, I salivate at the thought of their performance once the real games start.

Agree about the D - if this is a sign of things to come, I am quite excited. However, I respectfully disagree about the performance of the OL. They flat out sucked. Few holes opened, not holding blocks long enough to allow a pass play to develop. The majority of the line has been the same since last year (yes there were some injuries last year but still). 'Allow time to gel' should not be an excuse any more. Heck, if it takes Urbik, Pears etc so much time to gel we should have acquired linemen who can hit the ground running much faster. If there is a OL to be had in a trade, the Bills better be ready to deal. But, I realize thats not how we roll.

Fully agree, AD. I am furious right now. I elaborated on my anger before the trade and was hoping it wouldnt happen. But it did and I am not fully on the anti-Nix camp unless he proves me wrong. So far, under his tenure we have lost 3 #1 and 1 #2 rounder from before. Build through the draft and keep your own ? Really ? Isn't that what Nix said when he came in ? And he proceeded to purge the roster of players from the earlier regime without proven replacements. Created holes where we didn't have to. This is entirely meaningless. Thoroughly stupid move in a line of questionable ones.

That is it, isnt it ? I, for one, am not arguing he is elite or even top 10 in the league. My point is that he is the most proven WR on this team right now. And that is what is important. The team will be poorer in this season without him no matter the development of other players that MAY happen. It is a question of managing risk and it is better to keep him for at least one more season till we see what talent we do or dont have. I dont see any replacement on the FA market and certainly dont want to depend on the waiver wire to fill slots. As a side note Nix has said his philosophy is to keep our own and build through the draft. If he trades Lee, he will prove himself to have half lied to us.

Late to this discussion but I am with you on this topic, Kelly. I will be seriously pi$$ed off if we get rid of Lee. Since last year, I have given the benefit of doubt to the new FO but this will flip me over and make me wonder what the real strategy is. Consider: 1. Last draft, in the face of severe shortage of linemen, we pick a smurf/gadget player in Spiller under the guise of BPA. He proceeds to do pretty much nothing his first year 2. Traded away Lynch which I kind of understood given his penchant for getting into trouble 3. Let Whitner walk. While not an impact player, he was a known commodity and his price was reasonable. We should have kept him till at least such a point in time that we knew for sure one of the current players is good enough to take his spot 4. Let Poz go - again, my argument is similar to that for Whitner but understand as $7 MM was a bit much 5. Did not get Zach Miller or Kevin Boss . A position of need for sure and even though they werent cheap, WE HAVE THE MONEY. What on earth are we saving it up for ? Esp with the rookie cap, it not like we need it to sign a high pick like Luck next year So, in my mind the questionable decisions are adding up and while I still am supporting the FO, a Lee trade will totally change the balance. Why give away our #1 draft picks for low compensation in the name of building a new kind of team ? Unless one of the other WRs proves themselves to be capable of being a #1, we have no business trading him away. I cannot be convinced otherwise despite his lack of production last year