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the patriots lost to the jets tonight in the playoffs, as impossible as it may seem. that's the thing with football playoffs, that every game is an elimination game. you win, you advance, you lose, you go home. in most other sports, playoff rounds are played in series. any one team can beat another team, but usually the better team prevails when its best out of 7. however, the brutal nature of football prevents that scenario from ever happening. that's why i think the playoffs has a lot to do with luck. the elimination of a bitter arch-rival, a costly turnover, a critical player injured, any of these factors could shape a victory or a loss. still, it never feels good when the hometown team loses. i'll probably stay away from any sort of football news for a while. i really don't care who will advance. all my hopes are now on the celtics to bring back a championship, so at the very least boston will have one sports parade this year.

it's tough being the patriots: the standard of excellence is set so high, anything short of another super bowl victory is considered a failure. the team surpassed early season indication that this might be a rebuilding year, with so many new faces and the loss of randy moss (new england not winning the super bowl this year probably saved moss from suicide). it's sort of cliche, but new year looks promising. the pats have a handful of high draft picks from strategic trades, and of the players who do stay on the team, vengeance will be on their mind when they meet up with the jets again.

i was able to get hailey back inside the house the first time because she was wearing her winter jacket and i could grab onto it. the second time she went out she had nothing on (not even a collar), so i couldn't get her to come back inside. whenever i got close enough to grab her, she'd run away. i don't like bribing her with food (which sets a bad example) so instead i was making loud noises to attract her back inside. kicking some snow seems to draw her near, but as soon as i reached out she'd run away again. i finally got her back by tricking her with her favorite toy. she seemed super restless inside the house, so the third time i took her outside but on a leash. turns out she needed to make number 2 and willingly came back inside afterwards. from that point on she was calm and went to sleep.

my camera did it again: it lost 2 more photos (one of them was a photo of an egg and pork dish for dinner). both were taken while using the external flash. i wonder if that has anything to do with it? or maybe because i just remember those flash photos because i don't take very many of them. i'm beginning to seriously consider upgrading my camera body.

i returned home with less than a minute left in the game. i didn't want to witness the inevitable end of the season. i had about 20 minutes to get back to cambridge so i wouldn't miss the start of the golden globes. at least the award ceremony was an entertaining distraction from having to think about the patriots loss. hailey stenfield was in the audience, but why wasn't true grit nominated for anything, or did i miss something? nothing really memorable, but i do admire how they always end on time, right at 11:00.