It’s been an interesting week after garnering 9 other teams to form a Fantasy Football League. After ESPN dumped our original draft time because all 10 teams hadn’t registered 60 min before the draft. We attempted to create a faux team to act as a placeholder for the missing team, but because we didn’t finish creating that placeholder until 55 min before, ESPN dumped it our draft. So I scrambled to get a new time, but ESPN wouldn’t allow me to

1. choose a new time that same night, or
2. solidify a new time without getting votes from 5 other Team Owners.

So we chose a new date and time, then I asked everyone to get on there and vote. Some people were missing the page in their account that has the voting/polls. Some people could vote for that date and time, no problem. Some could not: they were told that time was taken, even if people after them voted and didn’t get the same error. One person wasn’t able to log in at all.

After a few more issues, I finally got fed up and created an entirely new league through Yahoo, though I wouldn’t have a few nice things that were included in the ESPN version (primarily the Stat Tracker). Yahoo likes to charge $10 for that. No thanks! Best part? I was able to get a comparable draft time (only 30 min later than what we were trying to get on ESPN). Hopefully I can stay awake long enough. I’m considering a nap after the kids go down for the night.

So I get it set up and send off the emails and the invites. So far, so good. No complaints–in fact, people are excited because they can upload their own images if they so choose. Yay! A few hours later, I log in to see how many teams have gotten in there and signed up, and right at the top of my login page is a promo from Revolution MoneyExchange, an online banker that is essentially a PayPal competitor. If I sign up, they will pay for me to get the Stat Tracker and Draft Kit, and will also put $10 in my new account. Hmmmmm….

I do some research and find that they are legit, they don’t charge fees the way PayPal does (all transactions between RME users are free), and they’re owned, in part, by Uncle Ted Leonsis (among others). This is a total win-win-win for me:

• I got free Stat Tracker and Draft Kit on Yahoo to help make up for my earlier bumbling with ESPN
• I got $10…and who couldn’t use free $10?
• I now have a very viable alternative to PayPal, whom I am incredibly disgusted with after I got ripped-off by an unsavory seller and PayPal chose to find in favor of said seller instead of protecting me, the buyer. Moral of the tale? Do not believe the whole “Buyer’s Protection” bologna. They will protect that seller so that they don’t have to refund those fees. Total conflict of interest since they stand to gain if they find in favor of the seller…no third-party arbitration as one might expect when disputing shady seller and his shady products. I won’t even get into the obnoxious rate their fees are at right now. Argh I hate them!

But I digress. So I’m extremely happy to have an alternate online bank. As of right now eBay really doesn’t accept them, but if you’re an online seller, this gives you a cheaper alternative for receiving payments from your buyers. Interested? Click on the green button over on the right…no…a little left of there…uh, no. Right above the weird guy holding onto his leg. There you are.

So, in summary: Plurk Junkies are now on Yahoo, we have the Stat Tracker, and PayPal can bite my butt.

So have y’all thought about joining my Fantasy Football League? I’ve got room for about 3 more teams…. I’ve updated the info at the original post, so be sure to go back and take a look. We’d love to have your money you!

I am going to go out on a limb and try to start up a Plurk/Twitter Fantasy Football League. While serious contenders are more than welcome, I’d like to stress that this. is. for. fun. I don’t want people getting crazy, mean, and anxious. At least besides me since that’s my normal disposition.

But seriously, I need to know who would be interested (seriously). Here are my very very sketchy details:

• Would like to have it set up for a nominal $5 fee per team…no fees for trades or whatever (unless y’all are really into upping the pot with $1 trades)… We are doing it for $10 a team and the winning team gets all the cash at the end of the season (duh!).
• However, per ESPN, there are certain states that are not eligible for prize-winnings (residents of New Jersey, Washington, Arizona, Maryland, Tennessee, Iowa, Louisiana, Vermont, Montana and North Dakota, you can thank your state legislators for being pricks and not letting you win cash prizes). Since I would hate for a participant from one of those states win and not get the cash collected, we will have to have a free-league or figure out an alternate way of collecting entry fees and doling out a prize (PayPal, perhaps?…though then we’d still have to do free trades) Screw that…we’ll do a Free League on Ess-Pin and just mail winnings to the winner! Thanks for the input!
• We are doing the Live Online Draft on Ess-Pin on THIS Saturday night at 9:45pm ET to allow for West-Coasters to finish dinner before the draft.
• I am totally open to suggestions since I am a newbie at this and suck at football.
• Yes, that means any or all of you will probably beat the pants off me. But it’s all in fun and that’s what I’m looking for.

So if you’re interested, or have futher suggestions, please leave a comment below or email me at colleen(at)colleenrummel(dot)com. Or find me on Plurk or Twitter. And keep checking back since I will TRY to keep a running list on this post of who has expressed interest (linky-love!).

1. Me
2. Rockinprgirl
3. Bombmom
4. Planet of Janet
5. Screed
6. Sarah
7. Anglophile Football Fanatic (pending scheduling conflicts)
8. Kim
9. Burgh Baby’s Mom (pending scheduling conflicts)
10. Colleen - Mommy Always Wins
We’ve (potentially) got a full league!!! Start thinking of your team name, everyone!!!

Caramama tagged me for the six quirky things meme.

Here are the rules (don’t you think there should be SIX rules?):
1. Link the person who tagged you. Check.
2. Mention the rules in your blog. Uh, check.
3. Tell about 6 fun quirks about yourself. I think “fun” is a highly subjective word here…
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. See below.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged. See below.

Here are my six quirks, or rather, six of my quirks:

1. I have to eat M&Ms in pairs. Matching pairs–one candy on each side of my mouth. And if the package ends in an odd amount of M&Ms, then I have to give the odd M&M away…or throw it away. Although if I’m really NEEDING the chocolate, I will bite in half and put one half on each side of my mouth to chew up. Justin likes to torture me and make me have an odd amount and then NOT take the extra candy like he’s supposed to. He will also screw up having pairs in the same color. I find that I need to eat my M&Ms at work or in solitude.

2. I like things in even numbers…which is how I ended up four cats and two dogs. I got my cat George, but he would get destructive when lonely, so I saw someone who had two kittens; she didn’t want to separate them and when I saw them together, neither did I–welcome Angus and Ollie. And since the three-cat thing was bugging me, I got a fourth kitten, Oscar, several months later. We got our black Boston Terrier, Maggie, after we moved into our townhouse. After Gavin was born poor Maggie was so lonely, that we got our red Boston, Ginger, when Gavin was about 15 months old, to keep Maggie company. After George died this past September, I’ve been feeling weird and “off” by the odd animal number, but if I came home with a fourth cat, Justin would kill me. Totally serious.

3. The needing even numbered things is everywhere…it’s how I purchase things and food, and how I eat. The only things that need to be odd are ice cubes. Two aren’t enough and four is too much…so it must be 3 cubes. And apparently something more Divine is telling me that two kids isn’t enough, but four might be a bit excessive. Justin doesn’t agree. Even after I told him in all sincerity and seriousness that I feel that there is one more baby waiting for us in Heaven. Then he just looked at my like I had three heads. But not like I had two or four heads.

4. I don’t make my bed in the mornings. Just not enough time, not motivated, and I am lazy. However, I can’t lay in my bed at night until I’ve straightened out the sheet and blanket(s). Regardless if Justin and the dogs are already in bed and sleeping. I just pull and hitch the covers around them.

5. I am a spaz about following new recipes…I want to make sure I know the outcome when I follow it word-for-word, but will often adjust as needed afterwards. And I’m worse when it comes to Justin making something. I will hover over him like a crazed hummingbird as I uncontrollably correct his measurements and such. I seriously cannot help it…at least not until he chases me out of the kitchen with a well-placed towel-whip.

6. I have an irrational fear of being constipated. Yes, I suffer from Coprastasophobia. It started when I was pregnant with Gavin five years ago. I was annoyed enough about being in the bathroom to pee 200 times a day and I was not going to be in that bathroom any longer than I needed to be (partly because then I’d realize how much more I need to clean it). When I read that constipation is a common issue with pregnant women, I started going crazy with the fiber intake. I ate Frosted Shredded Mini-Wheats, ate 9-grain bread (even though I hate all those seeds…and did you know they come out the same way they come in? No wonder your colon is so clean!), ate lots of fruits and vegetables to ensure flow-through, sprinkled wheat germ on my salads, ice cream, and sandwiches, and had fiber-with-calcium pills at the ready anytime I even suspected I might be having some slowdown in the old bowels. When I had Cooper it got worse. I took the fiber pills a few times a week regardless if I thought things were grinding to a halt or not and ate whole-grain breakfast cereal several times a day in addition to my other high-fiber intake. It was completely uncontrollable and is still a fear I have, though after pushing out two big babies, I don’t need as much fiber to help things out. If you know what I’m sayin’. Too much?

Now, who should I tag? Well, considering I’m one of the last people to do this meme I won’t tag anyone because mostly likely they’ve already done it or they just don’t “do” memes…if I’m mistaken, feel free to tag yourself and let me know, I’d love to read it!

As you may have remembered, I got crazy and purchased a basic water canning set with the intent to make some blackberry jam that did not need to be frozen. I was so worried when I ordered it that it would come too late and I’d be stuck with tons of blackberries on hand, or would just end up making freezer jam again (not the worst thing, but I wanted a product with a longer shelf-life). But the canner got here just in time; the blackberries, however, did not. And have not.

As summer has gone on and on, I have been continually perplexed as to why this time last year I had produced a good 16 half-pints of jam, while this year we’ve had yet to have enough berries ready at one time to make even a half-batch of jam (4 half-pints). We did a little research and found that even the U-Pick berry farms were having a rough year and didn’t have berries available this year; even the Farmer’s Market had very little berries to sell.

So I thought I’d try my hand at making homemade tomato sauce. I looked in my Ball Blue Book and they had a recipe for “Seasoned Tomato Sauce” and it required 45 lbs of tomatoes. WHAT? I bought 15 lbs and adjusted as needed. After cutting up about 11 or 12 lbs I realized I did not have enough space in my pots to accommodate the remaining 3-4 lbs of tomatoes, so I adjusted again. Good thing I like a lot of onion and garlic in my tomato sauce since those were already chopped and busy sauteeing. I think next time I will blanch and peel the tomatoes prior to cutting and cooking since peeling them via the food mill slowed things down quite a bit. But, after going through it all and waiting nearly 4-1/2 hours for it to cook down, it passed Justin’s taste-test, so I think it will be alright.

The canning itself wasn’t all that bad and I’m planning on using the rest of the tomatoes to make salsa. Hope I do it right since I don’t care for any of the recipes in the Ball Blue Book…just need to make sure it’s acidic enough so that I don’t make big botulism bombs.