No, I haven’t been put down nor have I gone on the lam in some kind of bizarre Logan’s Run-esque death ceremony upon reaching the age of 31. I’ve just been lazy.

A lot’s happened in the last three months (a lot of these will be Rider-related):
- The Riders win their first regular season game in Edmonton since 2000, albeit on a pretty cheesy holding call by the head ref (Proulx) on what would’ve been the game-winning field goal by Sean Fleming in an otherwise meaningless game for the Riders. It killed Edmonton’s slim playoff hopes for the second year of their new streak of play-off misses, but so did Montreal beating Henry Burris and the Stamps that weekend.
- The Riders host their first play-off game since 1988, and win (which they haven’t done since 1976)
- The Riders win the West Division Final, handily beating the favoured B.C. Lions, for the first time in the two teams’ third meeting in four years in the West Final (it was the Riders’ fourth West Final appearance in five years), giving the Riders their first Grey Cup appearance since 1997.
- The Riders win the Grey Cup! Their first time since 1989, ending a 17 year drought of seasons without a Grey Cup. The team now with the longest current drought is Winnipeg (who lost this year’s championship game to the Riders), who haven’t won it since 1990 (the year after the Riders won it in 1989) and are thus currently also sitting in a 17 year drought. Will Stegall beat the odds (which he himself put on his own self) and return in 2008? Will Glenn not fumble the ball and get his arm broken in the process in 2008? Will the Bombers win the Cup in 2008? Will Westwood finally be able to get a haircut in good conscience? Only time will tell.
- All of this with a brand new head coach this year, Kent Austin, who’s also a head coach for the first time, and was the quarterback of the Riders the last time they won the cup in 1989. Also the Riders first full year with general manager, Eric Tillman. What sucks now that they’ve done all this in one year, is what do they do now? The only thing left really is to just keep repeating, something that any team, any where, and at any level, would have difficulty doing (unless they’re the Canadian World Junior Hockey Team, it would seem).
- I survived the birthday season and the holidays here at home without any illnesses (I wish I could say the same for my wallet). I did get a weird head cold kind of thing in mid-December, but I never felt sick or tired, just had a runny nose, like some kind of extreme allergic reaction, and it only lasted a couple days. Sounds like my recent trip to Edmonton allowed me to miss the craziest flu season Regina’s seen for some time. When I got back to work on Tuesday, tons of people were home sick, and today everyone around me is coughing and sniffling. I wonder if asking them to wear masks would be rude?