Third time's the curse

I have one of those credit cards that pays back 1% on purchases made. It had been quite a while since I last cashed in, so last Friday, I called in.

"Hello!" said the cheerful, heavily-accented voice on the other end. "My name is Justin! How may I help you?"

Okay, "Justin" it is. I gave him all the particulars and in short order, he ordered up a nice tidy check made out to me as a reward for my loyal usage of his company's branded credit card. "Anything else I can help you with sir?"

"No thanks, but I appreciate the help."

"Now sir, before I let you go, I see you aren't enrolled in our payment insurance program..." (at this point I started thinking of more interesting things like status meetings)..."so can I interest you in this program?"

"No thanks, that won't be necessary...just the check."

Justin's pleasant demeanor changed a bit at this point and we said our goodbyes.

Well, today, a half-dozen gift cards from The Gap showed up, with a combined value of about half of what I cashed out. I don't know what the point of telling you this is, other than to speculate that Justin's performance was the second of two thilly-ath turnabouts in the last 24 hours that are eating me up, the first being the Packers' play calling in the second half last night. These things tend to travel in threes, so I don't even want to guess what tomorrow might bring.

But, on the brighter side, I'm set for blue jeans for the next 13 years.

This just in. A picture of Marlene Margulius:



This week's jackpot was OWNED by Team Dean and Marlene for 59 minutes and 58 seconds tonight. Their contrarian methodology (16 on Buffalo) has gotten them close many times before, and a rookie placekicker wasn't going to rob them from 53 yards out. Right?

Only he did, putting Dave Stellick in first this week, and Steve Krier three behind in second place. Congratulations, fellas.

Haven't forgotten the financials. I'll get them posted soon. Please remain calm.

Has anyone else noticed the juxtaposition of good and evil around the Cowboys these days? Richie Cunningham at quarterback and Lex Luther in the owner's box? Just wondering.