Frankly, Chris Foster, I don't give a damn.

A belated "Happy New Year" to all of my loyal readers. I am sorry that it has been a month since we last spoke. I hope the start of 2007 has been as good for you as it has for me. Not much has happened since my last post. I won my firm's Fantasy Football League and all I got was this crummy t-shirt (Okay, so the stakes are a little higher when you have an FFL in a law firm. Besides spending the cash on my new toy, I have a trophy sitting on my desk and two plaques are being engraved as I type this because I won both the Super Bowl and Total Points. A heartfelt thank you goes out to LaDainian Tomlinson, who's love and support [and 33 total TD's in a touchdown only league] helped me capture the season title; and to My Better Half who sat by my side for 17 weekends in front of the TV and computer when there were probably 1,000,000 things she would rather be doing [again, are you still wondering why I call her My Better Half?].) Outside of that, I got to spend a lot of time with my family over the holidays and the real world continues to push me around.

As always, I have taken it upon myself to establish a few New Year's Resolutions; nothing ground-breaking, just the usual attempts to make my life better for this year and beyond: (1) get back into shape (same as every year but I know 2007's going to be different. I've already been to gym 10 times...not bad considering the new year is only 15 days old); (b) get my golf game back to college form (this might be more difficult than getting back into shape...yep, my game's gotten that bad); and (iii) make My Better Half laugh at least once a day (I figure if I can make her laugh once a day it means things with us are great cause you don't laugh when you're mad...shouldn't be too hard though, she's a sucker for my lame jokes).

Whenever I prepare my New Year's Resolutions, I also take the opportunity to re-evaluate my pet peeves and see if there is a way to make them better. I figure that if I can cut down on these, my life will be generally less stressful which, in turn, means happier. I think it is funny that we spend so much time getting upset about little things; but I guess that is human nature. Take, for example, my newest pet peeve: talking on your cell phone in an elevator. I work in a building that has twenty-one floors and a separate elevator for the seven floors of the parking garage. That means between getting to work, going to lunch, and leaving I am in an elevator a minimum of six times per day. I am amazed with the number of people I encounter who absolutely must talk on the cell phone during the two minute ride to the lobby. I do not want to hear about whom you like and do not like in your office; I do not care about how drunk and crazy you got the night before; and I most certainly do not care about what the other person has to say about it, which I can hear because we are in a confined space that echos. Yet, I am only in the elevator for maybe a minute or two, should it really bother me this much?

I also have a thing about people hitting the snooze button in the morning. My Better Half is guilty of this and, according to Sis, so is my Brother-in-Law. I have never understood why people do not just set the alarm for fifteen minutes later and enjoy uninterrupted sleep. My Better Half informed me that not everyone can just jump out of bed like I do in the morning; some people need a little extra time to get the engine running. I am beginning to think that her reasoning is justified. She has promised to not do it so much and I, in turn, am starting to think that this is one pet peeve that I can learn to live with.

Another thing that drives me up the wall is when people tell me I cannot accomplish or succeed at something. Now, do not get me wrong, I know I cannot do everything, but I am a fairly determined guy and I know that if really put my mind to it there are not many things out there that I cannot accomplish. I encountered this over the holidays. Out at dinner one night with the entire family (read: My Better Half, parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents, etc.), I casually remarked that I was considering trying to find a way to raise enough money to play in this year's World Series of Poker. To my dismay, my parents, the two people who have supported me in every endeavor throughout my entire life, told me that it was a silly idea and that there was no way I could do it. Excuse me? It was like I had just been served by my parents. Well, I have got news for them, I am serving them back and it is officially on! I am calling on the support of my loyal readers to help me raise money (that and the thousands of people at Commerce Casino whom have no idea what they're doing. Seriously, sometimes I just feel like it would be easier if they handed me the cash before the game even started. With the worldwide web at my disposal, I will find a way to raise the money without having to play online poker. I am open to sponsorships, fundraising opportunities, and straight donations. Feel free to leave comments with ideas. I am listening...but I digress).

Last, but certainly not least, I cannot stand it when professional athletes feel that a game is not important and, therefore, does not require their best effort. Take Rex Grossman for example. He admited that he was not all there during his week 17 game against Green Bay because "[he] felt like [he] was going to play about a half, and it was the last game, it was New Year's Eve. . .." I do not care if you think you are only going to play a half; your team deserves your best, at all times, even if only for a half. They do not deserve a half in which you go 2-for-13 for 33 yards and 3 interceptions. How could you honestly look your coaches and teammates in the eye? (My Lions, on the otherhand, took it to the Cowboys in the final week when they had nothing but months of golf to look forward to and the Cowboys were still fighting for a division title. It was beautiful.)

Well, the Kings did not have the best first half of a season. I told you from the beginning it was going to be tough, but I did not imagine this. Both of their goaltenders are on injured reserve, one being out for the rest of the season. The younger players are leading the team, no, are carrying the team on their backs. Anze (again, it's pronounced Ahn-Jay; get it right) Kopitar skates hard every night; he is constantly skating and plays hard in both the offensive and defensive zone. Alexander Frolov is having the type of season that all Kings fans have been waiting for, showing that he will be a superstar in the NHL. But the two can only do so much. They lack support from almost everyone else.

The new year and second half of the season, however, have started with promise. The Kings have gone 2-2-1, with an impressive win over the Detroit Red Wings. Yet when the Kings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets to start the second half of the season, the Los Angeles Times sportswriter (if you can call him that) who covers the Kings, Chris Foster, wrote an article entitled "Kings Lose a Bit Despite Winning." The quick and dirty summary: because the Kings had a poor first half of the season, they should mail it in the rest of the way to finish last and have the highest probability of securing the number one pick in next years draft lottery. Mr. Foster probably is not a big hockey fan; he probably cried himself to sleep when he was assigned to cover the Kings. Why would a team mail it in for an entire half of the season when they are only eleven points out of a playoff spot with forty-one games left to play? Especially when they would not even be guaranteed the number one pick?

It is like I said a few months ago, this Kings team plays hard. Night-in and night-out they give it their all. The breaks might not always go their way, but they are not going to give any opponent a free two points either. I think it is time for Mr. Foster to consider a career change, or he should at least get out of this city. The Kings might be a few years away from winning the Stanley Cup, and they probably will not make the playoffs this year, but they will not stop playing until all eighty-two games have come to an end. And that, my dear readers, is something to be proud of.

(Oh yeah....just in case you're wondering how my second favorite team is doing....since they hired AM about a month ago the St. Louis Blues have gone 9-3-3 in fifteen games, including two wins over the Kings. AM, your 2006-2007 NHL Coach of the Year.)