KABOOOM...Blogging From the Center of the Illinois Earthquake

- So those of you who live on the west coast, like Patrick, are probably used to this type of thing but living in the Midwest I certainly am not. You may have heard a small earthquake hit Northern Illinois this morning at about 4 AM, and that the quake was centered in the small village of Gilberts, Illinois.....hey, guess where I live! Gilberts, Illinois!


The Epicenter

Luckily for my wife and me, the quake was small, and nothing was damaged except the value of our home now that everyone in the Chicago area will associate the sleepy little town Gilberts with earthquakes.

For those of you who have never been in an earthquake, and I always figured I would go my entire life being one of those people, here's what it was like. A loud KABOOM...like something blew up in my house, actually I was relieved when I found out it was an earthquake and not my furnace exploding. The boom was followed by light shaking at first and then heavier shaking, lasting about 10 seconds. Making things even weirder was that we were getting dumped on by nearly a foot of snow while this happened, so it was all very Day After Tomorrow-esque. Save me Al Gore!!

Lucky for me I get out of here for a 4 day weekend in Florida tomorrow, happy to get out of this snowbound earthquake plagued hellhole. For the record, the earthquake in Haiti was 33,000 times more powerful than the one underneath my house last night, which really kind of drives home the point of how bad that Haiti quake really was.

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- The EPL is pretty much down to a two horse race after Chelsea's convincing 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge over 3rd place Arsenal on Sunday. Didier Drogba had 2 first half goals for the Blues, who moved back in front of Man U for first place with the win. The win comes days after Chelsea's John Terry was stripped of his England captaincy, so now he's being being canonized as some Churchill-esque model of perserverance. Uhhhhhhhhh.

- Man City kept pace in the race for 4th place with a 2-0 win at home against Bolton yesterday. Tevez and Adebayor had the goals. New signing from Middlesbrough Adam Johnson played a great match for City and received a standing O.

- Lots of yummy midweek Premier League action today! Liverpool will be challenged to stay hot as they will face Arsenal at the Emirates. The Gunners are reeling after back to back losses to Man and Chelsea that have, as I mentioned before, pretty much eliminated them from contention for the League title. Tottenham is hoping to climb back into 4th place after ceding that spot to Liverpool over the weekend. They have a winnable match at Wolverhampton, while the 3rd of 4 teams in contention for that spot, Aston Villa, faces what probably is a must win for their Champions League aspirations at home against Man U today. League leaders Chelsea have a tough match at Everton today.

- In La Liga, Sevilla suffered a tough 2-1 defeat at Zaragoza, who really needed the points to get out of the relegation zone. The match was butt ugly, with the winning score coming on an own goal and 3 red cards issued. Sevilla is trying to leapfrog Mallorca for 4th place and earn a Champions League qualifying spot.

- AS Roma continues to be one of the hottest clubs in Europe. Their 1-0 win at Fiorentina on Sunday moved them ahead of AC Milan into 2nd place in Serie A. Roma is on a run of 12 straight without a defeat in Serie A. Italian league leaders Inter are in action today at 13th place Parma.

- Checking in with the PDM (Mexico), who are very early in their Clausura season. Chivas is tops in the league with a perfect 12 points in 4 matches. Apertura Champs Monterrey are off to a 2-1-1 start. Pachuca and Morelia are tied for the Group 2 lead, while Santos Laguna leads Group 3.

- There's a rumor that Barca has reached an agreement with Cesc Fabregas that would bring the Arsenal superstar midfielder to Camp Nou at the end of this season. Barca denies it but in my short time following European soccer, it seems like everytime there's a rumor it always ends up being true, so expect to see Cesc in La Liga next year.

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The odds to win next years Super Bowl out !

The Colts are the favorites at 13-2, followed by the Saints at 7-1 and the Cowboys at 15-2. The biggest long shot are the Rams at 150-1.

Want my pick? I say take the Packers at 19-2.

- The biggest ticket free agent is sure to be Carolina DE Julius Peppers. The Panthers and Peppers are at an impasse, and Peppers said the team isn't even talking to him about a new contract. Peppers will be 30 this season, and has 25 sacks in the last 2 years.