Saving Money But Hurting My Neck

I'll admit, I am off my game this year. Normally by this late in the holiday season I have a solid Christmas gift list assembled for what I plan to get everyone and I've made a healthy dent into it. But, this year, I am just coming up blank. I have several people still to buy for and no idea what to get the majority of them. So, as is my tradition, I did a little scouting yesterday after an interview in the hopes that inspiration would strike. It did not. In fact, the only good find of the day was a gift for myself.

After last week's successful DVD creation I felt the need to go one step further and create a professional looking label to go on the DVD case that would allow it to blend seamlessly into the rest of my library (told you, I like stupid projects). I figured I would just have to go into a computer store for DVD label paper. Imagine my surprise when I was in Marshall's (seriously, that is my favorite store next to sporting goods stores - it's like a treasure trove, you never know what you will find) and saw that they had packs of 15 DVD label paper for $4 and it was half off. So, for $2 I would not only get the labels, they had a website for free label design software. I came home, uploaded the application and began to make my awesome looking case. Only one problem: the software was truly basic and wouldn't allow you to adjust the landscape of the template, so the entire time I was working on the DVD label it was set up as vertical, not horizontal. While that came in handy for writing on the spine of the DVD, the rest of the time I had to turn my head 90 degrees to the left to see what I was trying to type. And, while I ended up with a very nice looking DVD, I also got a severe crick in my neck. What did I expect for $2 software?

-Sports radio is buzzing in Boston today with the news that four Patriots (Randy Moss, Adalius Thomas, Gary Guyton and Derrick Burgess) were late for an early morning team meeting and were sent home as a result. This, to me, is a sign that Bill is slipping in his old age. I've never understood coaches who think that giving someone time away from practice is a punishment. "How dare you be late! You know what your punishment is? The entire day off. No running or repetitive stretching for you! Go home and sleep or spend time with your kids playing video games. That'll show you!" He should be fining the crap out of them or making them stay late with extra running. Sending people home so that they miss additional meetings and practice is not the answer when the team is in the midst of their first true losing streak in 3 seasons and clearly needs all the practice time they can get.