Congratulations to Charles Woodson for winning the Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL, and his All-Pro selection.  He no doubt deserved it, and was a dominating player, even from the defensive back position.  He’s the only defensive back other than Deion Sanders to win the award.

    In addition, he happens to be the coolest guy on the planet.

    When I say cool, I mean it in the old school way.  He dresses cool, he walks cool, he speaks cool and is always the coolest person in the room.  He’s under control, and makes those around him comfortable, even though he is obviously cooler than they are.  He’s a great athlete, but doesn’t tell everyone about it, and the guy even has his own wine label. 

      I’m not a Michigan fan, and am a bit of a cynic when it comes to professional athletes.  Usually I don’t root for them, nor am I surprised when the do something selfish and by most of our standards ridiculous.  In fact, when the Packers signed Woodson, I railed against it.  He was coming off a major injury, and had never been a high interception guy.  In fact, when we talked to him in his first training camp, and asked why he chose Green Bay, he very frankly said it was because Tampa didn’t have enough money.   Honest answers are also cool.

      Despite the rocky start, Woodson has aged well, and since he has grown up in the last two years, he has turned his life around to match up with the cool he already had.

     This year Woodson donated $2 million to a children’s hospital in Michigan.  When asked why, he said it was time.  He is now a father.  He is now a husband.  That makes his cool meter go up even more, and puts him in a class few athletes can match: cool even when you take away his athletic accomplishments.

Tuesday Morning Lows were actually higher than Monday's

“ICE on Sidewalk, Be careful” …A sign we often see around here but not where it is now hanging; outside of the public library in Florida in a town called, get this…”Frostproof.”  The state has been setting records for low temperatures the past week and when Florida sets record lows we usually get hit with higher prices on fruits and vegetables.  The effects of this latest freeze won’t be fully known for a few weeks but the state Department of Agriculture said that there had been…”significant crop damage” throughout the state.  From oranges to strawberries to tropical fish, the cold snap has impacted a variety of living things. 

On the flip side…some businesses have seen an increase in this cold weather.  Miami JC Penney stores sold out of sweaters and exterminators are busy getting rid of rats who are looking for warmth in people’s homes.   So I guess for some people the cold is gold.

Around here we’re waiting on a warm-up.  We may actually see above freezing temperatures by Thursday!  My boys will be asking me to get the “slip and slide” out soon. 

More Later.. Find me on Facebook/Pete Petoniak.

The iphone is my new Simon
Not that Simon. (Although that reminds me that American Idol starts tomorrow.)
Do you remember the electronic memory game from the 80′s called SIMON?
I was obsessed with it! I played it over and over and over. Kind of like the Rubik’s cube. Only I was much better at Simon than Rubik’s.
Well anyway, I can’t think of a gift I’ve received since then that brought me so much fun. I get clothes and books and music and things for the house and workout clothes. My sports watch is a neat gadget, and the ipod is awesome. But the iphone with it’s apps has consumed me lately.
It started about a month ago when I searched for word games.
I love BOGGLE. And I found a couple of free apps that have the same concept.
Over the holidays, instead of reading a book, I found myself taking the iphone to bed with me!
I played SCRAMBLE until my eyes melted out of my head.
Over and over and over.
I even dreamed about words and the other words I could make with that word.
Not since the days of Space Invaders have I been so obsessed.

I met up with my college friends over the weekend in NYC.
One of them accused me of being addicted to my iphone.
I only updated my Facebook twice and showed her a couple of neat photo apps.
I mean, that was nothing.
If she only knew about my TRUE obsession and how much time I REALLY spent on my word games.
I was a little embarrassed.
So I kept my iphone tucked away.
Until I was seated comfortably(?) at the airport.. With a MILLION other people zeroed in on their iphones!

A tornado in the Northwoods ripped up a lot of trees in 2007.  That EF3 Twister with winds of between 140 and 160 mph scared the landscape so much that it’s still visible from space.  Snow now highlights the twisters’ path.  For more information on the BearPaw tornado click here.

2007 EF3 Tornado tore a 40 mile long path through dense woods

Wind chill advisories were issued as far south as Tampa Bay Florida this morning.  Also, much of Central Florida was under a freeze warning.  We are all feeling the cold.

A lot of people across the US woke to cold temperatures

Looking to get away from the cold, you’ll be hard pressed to find many areas in the USA above freezing.  Miami and Los Angeles are your best bet today!

Much of the US is under old man winters icy grip

By The Associated Press

The federal homebuyers’ tax credit is a great opportunity to save thousands of dollars when you buy a house. But don’t expect to get the credit if the seller is a member of the family.

Why not?

Curiosity about this restriction in the tax credit program inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

=====
In the last year, I have read many articles on the dangers of texting while driving. Have states begun to prohibit this dangerous activity?

Daniel Lippman
Washington

—
Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have laws banning texting while driving, according to Melissa Savage, a transportation expert with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seven states and the district have also banned driving while talking on a handheld cell phone.

In recent years, all states have at least considered laws dealing with distracted driving. Many safety groups have urged a nationwide ban on using any handheld mobile devices while behind the wheel.

Ken Thomas
Associated Press Writer
Washington

=====

We own a house that my daughter and her husband have rented from us for several years. They are a young married couple with two young children, and they saved for seven years to buy the house from us. However, they learned that they were not eligible for the federal tax credit, even though this was their first home purchase, because they were buying it from relatives.

It is heartbreaking to see them lose out on the credit because they are buying the house from her parents. I wish we could afford to make up the $8,000 for them, but we just can’t.

What’s the reasoning behind this rule?

Gerald Williams
Cleveland, Tenn.

—
Your daughter and her husband may be honest people. But others aren’t so trustworthy.

Nearly 600 taxpayers under 18 claimed the tax credit this year, including some under four, a Treasury Department official said this fall. That led lawmakers to conclude that some homeowners were merely pretending to sell their homes to family members as a way to collect the tax credit.

When lawmakers passed a bill to extend the credit until next year, they added anti-fraud language, including the ban on selling to relatives.

Alan Zibel
AP Real Estate Writer
Washington

=====
Now that historic health care bills have passed both the House and Senate – albeit with major differences – everyone is talking about the so-called reconciliation process.

How does this work, and have there been any major pieces of legislation that have passed both the House and Senate, only to die during the reconciliation process?

Chad Steenerson
Terre Haute, Ind.

—
“Reconciliation” is a process used to pass budget bills. In the case of health care, Democrats chose not to use that approach, which would have stopped Republicans from mounting a filibuster but also would have limited what the bill could contain and exposed it to other challenges.

Usually, when the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, a bipartisan conference committee, with members from both chambers, tries to find a compromise. Democrats are also bypassing this approach, which would have given Senate Republicans three shots at filibustering.

Instead, the White House and the top Democrats in the House and Senate will try to negotiate a compromise, which would need to win a majority of votes in the House and would only have to get a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate one time.

There have been times when the House and Senate have passed separate bills and a compromise from the conference committee has failed. In 2003, for example, Senate Democrats filibustered a compromise on a Republican-written energy bill because of language that immunized makers of a recently banned gasoline additive from lawsuits. A similar bill became law two years later.

Matt Yancey
AP Congressional News Editor
Washington

=====
Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.

A low pressure in Illinois combined with NE winds will bring snow to Wisconsin.  NE winds will pick up moisture from Lake Michigan, creating bands of snow.  When the snow bands move onto land they can create heavy snowfall.

Radar View as of 11am Thursday

11am Wind Speed & Direction

Lake Effect Snow Band from Kewaunee Co. into Brown Co.

I do it every Monday. And I do it every January 1st. On Mondays I start over on my diet. And on the first of the year I make those crazy resolutions. Crazy, I say, because who really keeps them?

I did one year. Maybe because I wrote them down while a friend was watching.
By the end of the year, when we got together I was so proud at how many I had accomplished. I had set 10 goals. And accomplished most of them. The ones I failed on are the same ones I make every year: lose weight, get organized, get financially fit.

Well I’m making them again. The same ones. Whether I say they are my resolutions or not, they are the three things I want for myself.

And I have one more for 2010. I resolve to blog once a week.

It won’t be easy, but looking over my list, it might be the one that I can actually accomplish.

Good luck to you all! And Happy New Year!