Trying to upload the stuff using jing

Well I figured out jing, and you can tell the quality is much better. I'm going to try to upload the pictures here.

Tailgating

This is the women neighbors congregating to chat at the tailgate. This seems like a natural thing that happens in particular with women. The men sit by the fire or sit in front of the TV. There's all kinds of things happening there. The heart of any tailgate is usually the firepit. Although when it's hot we don't set the firepit up, everyone usually ends up sitting around the firepit by the time it is dark during a tailgate. On this particular day, the Giants and Jets were doing so poorly, nobody was congregated near the TV, and everyone sat around the fire pit. < This is one of our TV set-ups. For a big, all day tailgate (this was a half day mini-tailgate) we have more than one TV set-up. Usually most people are congregated around the TV, but not today. Jets and Giants stink. In previous years we had a couch we brought out. That was fun. This is most of the crowd that night at the tailgate. There are actually only 4 members of the SFFL there and their kids (and some neighbors), like I said it was a mini-tailgate. So we started around 4:30 for the 4:25 game. Tailgates are centered around football. Everyone chips in with food. Artie (OVAL-gang) ordered pizza for his family and brought the extras out to share. Dina (no kids) (D's Dirty Pirate Hookers) brought drinks for everyone who needed a drink. John Curti (no longer in the league) made wings for everyone. Wings are a big staple of a tailgate. The kids ran around and played. They spent a lot of time in our backyard because we have a big backyard and a swingset. They played some football and ate food. Adults did not watch much TV today, mostly they sat around the fire and chatted. Some of the adults got very drunk.

Controversy and Discord in the League

Controversy all week. The naysayers who don't want 14 teams have been given fuel for their fire when Billy (Team HulseMan) did not check his line-up this week. He would have lost the game anyway (I did the math) but the usual suspects are up-in-arms and demanding I kick him out of the league. I talked to Billy and he said it would not happen again. In all likelihood it will. So I've decided to personally remind Billy to check his line-up. Nobody has to know about this. Yes, it's a total female maybe borderline enabling type of thing to do, but my goal is to not kick anyone out of the league. Why? Because I like our group, because I want to keep our group together. So, I said I'm commisioner, and I will handle this. Not everyone liked this. This was hard for me. Because I'm female, maybe, because of my general disposition, absolutely. But I stood firm on my ground, and told the former LM, who told me to kick him out, that I am going to handle this. I talked things through a bit with him, but Dina, a friend who I more and more often find myself butting heads with, does not seem OK with the decision. She is complaining to people (not to my face) about the 14 teams, about Billy and telling people if I don't drop 2 teams she would quit the league. The negativity and complaining is starting to affect how I see her, and I'm sorry to say the friendship. She has not won one a game and she is a sore loser. Now I don't like to lose, and I've been doing plenty of that, but I'm not looking for a scapegoat and I feel like she is. The worst part is the going behind my back complaining about it, which always gets back to me. The former LM is very negative and aggressive about it also, and technically he isn't in the league. He told me Dina might quit the league and he said (as a joke) that he would start his own league and steal away my team owners. These people are MY FRIENDS. But I did talk things through a little with him. He knows my goal to keep everyone together. While he doesn't seem to agree he seems to currently be respecting my decision and he DOES listen to my point of view. Of course this could change at any minute, and if he wasn't kidding about starting his own league, I guess there's a chance that he could steal the league out from under me. I hope he's kidding and I hope he's enough of a friend that he would never do something like that. But I really don't know anything for sure. And I've been expressing that I am afraid of mutiny. And I WANT to do what the league wants. It's not a dictatorship, so I want to ask everyone what they want. I just want to give Billy one more chance. And why shouldn't I reach out to him and give him a heads up that he doesn't have all his players in? Isn't that what friends do? Does the competition come before the friendships? Not for me, but certainly for others. So I wrote my LM note, and I centered it around a current event. I addressed the Billy issue, but more to diffuse the anger than anything else. And I made fun of Dina for losing, as I made fun of myself. The Billy issue is not over. It was hard to stand my ground. It's hard not to make the popular decision. I don't want to lose friends or lose anyone in the league. Jesus, it's only fantasy football.

Last Week's Post: Feeling funny about making myself the top story

This is my 4th LM note. I'm having fun with it. Not much to say about it. These pages are saved on my flash drive. I haven't figured out how to save them on the open sources. I spoke in the last meeting a little about my hesitance in making my story the "headline" story because I won. I think women have a natural inclination to defer to others. I think I did this by picking a clip that sort of makes fun of women. But it's a funny clip and it relates to the team name for 40 yr old virgin (who I beat). I'm bummed out I can't figure out a way to capture these screens where you can clip on the video and see it.