Has you tried Google Earth yet? Wow, what a great little package they put together. The Boy® and I have had a great time tooling around the world looking at places he wants to visit some day. It has been a blast for him. He now refers to various maps and we have to look them up on Google Earth. For him it is akin to flying there.

Never seen Winter Park? Well, here it is from a birds eye view.

How about what an eagle sees as it soars over the Dome?

So, I thought I would take a little tour of other stadiums and let you guess which team plays there. Some are easy, some may take you a few seconds to put it together. And two of them show how cities....PROGRESSIVE CITIES...were able to build new baseball AND football stadiums. (Are you listening esteemed Minnesota Legislature?!?!)

Here is an easy one to help you warm up. Which NFL team plays here?

Extremely easy again. Notice the dual stadiums. Minnesota residents can put their tongues back in their mouths.

And just to add insult to injury, another city and state found a way to create these beauties.

Now a little harder. I've seen the Vikes play there three times. They had a great playoff victory there....and a horrible playoff loss. Can you name it?

One more for today. I have also seen the Vikes play at this stadium. In fact, I was on the sidelines. I lost 30 pounds (or so it seemed) due to the 120-degree field temperature. Where are we?

In Case You Missed it

If you did not see the little blurb at Pro Football Talk about former Texas QB Vince Young, here it is. It is worth reading as there is always one person who does some miserably on the Wonderlic test that it merits a story. But no one has every done this bad:

VINCE IS STOOPID?

A league source tells us that there's a rumor making the rounds at the combine that Texas quarterback Vince Young scored a miserably horrible six on the Wonderlic test.

A six! That's bad. It's beyond bad. In fact, it's the lowest score that we can ever remember hearing anyone getting.

All incoming NFL players take a 50-question version of the Wonderlic, with a 12-minute window within which to finish it.

We found 15 sample Wonderlic questions on ESPN.com's page 2, including such brain-benders as selecting the ninth month of the year from among five possible choices. We'd like to think that most people of average intelligence could get at least six of the 15 sample questions right.

Getting a total of only six out of a total of 50 questions of that same kind is pa-freakin'-thetic. For a guy who's going to be called upon to read defenses and call audibles and work through a progression of receivers against NFL-caliber opposition, it's downright scary.

The source tells us that he hasn't seen the result in writing yet, but that he's "99 percent" certain that Young's score was six.

Said the source, who knows a thing or two about evaluating college players:

"I predict he'll fall all the way out of the first round."

That's a bold statement, and we're not saying that we agree with it -- primarily because our guess is that there's someone almost dumb enough to get a six on the Wonderlic, who'll overlook Young's low score along with any other concerns that might come to light over the next two months.

It has since come out that Young's test might have been incorrectly scored and that he has since retaken the test and scored a sixteen. Whatever.

Trivia Follow-Up

Did you test out your vast Vikings knowledge with my trivia question posed to you Monday? The question was, "Which WR ran for more yards than another other WR in Vikings history?". The correct answer was Anthony "Chicken Legs" Carter.

Shameless Plug

Ever since the Great Computer Crash of '99, I have worried about losing valuable data. Back then, I lost all my Vikings related columns from 1998 - 1999. That was tough, man. Especially considering the '98 stuff was some of my best.

So I finally decided that I would take safeguards. This past weekend I invested in a safe deposit box for my bonds and other important papers. My bank is only going to charge me a $17 annual fee. Peanuts! All my valuable papers locked away in a safe the size of Fort Knox somewhere in an undisclosed location in the western 'burbs of Minneapolis.

That sealed it for me. Shortly after visiting the bank I head off to Best Buy and got a 300 GB external hard drive. The only thing that might have more storage space is Hillary Clinton's ass!

This little baby, made by Seagate, has some punch to it. I backed up all our valuable documents, photos, and spreadsheets from the last 7 years and it hardly made a dent in the storage capacity. And the damn thing is on sale currently at Best Buy. Just a mere $199. Wise investment. Of the 300 GB available, I filled up 40 GB. Awesome.

A lot of people have told me lately that backing up stuff onto DVD or CD is OK....as long as you then make new copies every 5 to 10 years as the data can degrade on discs. This way, with an external hard drive, I won't have to worry about that.

As the kids say, "Sweeeeeeeeet!"

Shameless Plug II

I now have 3,568 songs on the trusty iPod. I know this is not Vikings related but I have to do this. My Top Ten most listened to songs are:

10. Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz
9. Breathless by The Corrs
8. A Whisper by Coldplay
7. Constellations by Jack Johnson
6. What Happens Tomorrow by Duran Duran
5. Stranded by Van Morrison
4. Belle by Jack Johnson
3. This is Such a Pity by Weezer
2. Rodeo Clowns by Jack Johnson
1. Flake by Jack Johnson

But wait! There is more! I have everything categorized nine ways to Sunday. Such as playlists by decade. Here are my top three most listened to songs by decade starting with 1940:

3. Aint' Misbehavin' by Louis Armstrong
2. East of the Sun by Tommy Dorsey
1. Feicia no Capicia by Louis Prima

The 1950's:

3. School Days by Chuck Berry
2. It Happened in Monterey by Frank Sinatra
1. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair by Nina Simone

The 1960's:

3. Hello It's Me by Todd Rundgren
2. Running Scared by Roy Orbison
1. Something in the Way She Moves by James Taylor

The 1970's:

3. I'm In Love With My Car by Queen
2. Pocahontas by Neil Young
1. Turn To Stone by E.L.O.

The 1980's:

3. Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash (the Boy's® current favorite)
2. Peek-A-Boo by Siouxsie & the Banshees
1. Young Americans by David Bowie

The 1990's:

3. Lithium Sunset by Sting
2. Dream by Forest for the Trees
1. Got My Own Thing Now by the Squirrel Nut Zippers

I know, I'm such a dork. But this is the beauty of the iPod. You never really know what is going to come on next. I'm not saying these are the best songs from each decade....just the ones that I seem to turn to for one reason or another. Make fun of me and tomorrow we'll divy up the Top Three by genre starting with Jazz, then Blues, then World........

And since I put you through all that, I promise to have something Vikings related for tomorrow. It will be on which corner should be playing opposite of Antoine Winfield. See you then!

Posted by maasx003 at February 28, 2006 01:35 AM