So, the Packers are out of the playoffs. The season is over, and now you are finding yourself with a bunch of spare time on Sundays. Don't sit at home and mope. Do something productive this winter -- tackle one or more of OMC's list of 100 things to take your mind off the Packers:
- Play cribbage in your favorite coffee shop. Try not to shout at your opponent like you shout at NFL refs.
- Finally learn how to play Euchre or Sheepshead now that you're sober enough on Sundays to remember all the rules.
- Rent one of those movies that you never saw that every time you tell someone you've never seen they say "WHAT? YOU NEVER SAW ...?"
- Play pinball at the Landmark.
- Redesign the cheesehead hat.
- Play shuffleboard at Thurman's.
- Call your grandma (she misses you).
- Ice skate at The Pettit.
- Join a club and exercise, then treat yourself to dinner somewhere fancy or not-so-fancy.
- Go to a matinee -- movies, plays, ballets, etc.
- Invite friends over for an early evening fondue or go to Cafe Vecchio Mondo for one of their yummy FUNdues.
- Go antiquing in the Third Ward.
- Brunch at M&M club to prove football fans are not homophobes.
- Calculate the the square footage of Mark Belling's forehead and compare in size to the available retail space at Northridge.
- Drive around the city with a camera full of film and take photos of whatever strikes your fancy.
- Knit all of the Packers matching slippers.
- Restore something old.
- Go to the Humane Society just to swoon at cute animals.
- Make soup or stew while listening to your favorite CD and drinking.
- Get a massage.
- Make mix CDs with lots of bands from Green Bay for your friends.
- Finally watch the DVD you got for Christmas.
- Call Chinese restaurants in Brown County and order food for Packers.
- Shopping therapy: Go to Target and blow $100 on candles, frames, wrapping paper and underwear.
- Write a letter or e-mail to people you haven't spoken to in many years. Feel free to enhance your successes since you can't brag about Packers.
- Floss.
- Visit the Domes (it's nice and warm).
- Go bowling (2-for-1 at Bay View Bowl).
- Go shopping at an outlet mall in Kenosha.
- Buy tiny bottles of liquor at the Mars Cheese Castle.
- Paint a room of your house something other than green and gold.
- Play a season of Madden 2003 on your Playstation 2 and make sure the Packers win this time.
- Pack away your Packers clothes until next fall.
- Roast your own Packers blend coffee.
- Go to Art Smart's Dart Mart, buy green 'n gold juggling balls and learn to juggle.
- Invite your friends over for a build-your-own sundae Sunday.
- Paint your face and bare chest green and gold and go to the mall.
- Invite your gal pals over for cosmos and "Sex And The City" reruns.
- Buy a ticket to Maryvale for Brewers spring training.
- Start "labor trading" with friends: you help a friend with a project one Sunday afternoon and they help you the following Sunday.
- Eat at every George Webb in the city. Nothing like grease to get your mind off of football.
- Smell the oils at Outpost for some post-season aromatherapy.
- Scrub the inside of your oven to clean the crusty cheese drippings from the frozen pizzas you ate during the season. {INSERT_RELATED}
- Play fantasy football.
- Pick your fantasy baseball team.
- Write Packers poetry/limericks (something surely rhymes with "Longwell").
- Go to the Milwaukee Art Museum. After all that football you need a little sophistication.
- Fire up the PC and surf OMC all day.
- Make a green and gold Jell-O mold and watch it wiggle.
- Day trip it to Chicago but do not even think about becoming a Bears fan.
- Prepare for NFL draft by reading all college team scouting reports.
- Attend Wave, Admirals, Bucks, college hoops or other sporting event and pretend you're at Lambeau.
- Shop Brady Street for Packer gear. When you don't find any, go to the Nomad.
- Walk to Summerfest, pray for warm weather.
- Buy your Brewers season tickets now.
- Sleep in.
- Buy new Zubaz pants for next season.
- Volunteer.
- Count the number of elephants in the Oriental Theatre's lobby.
- Shop for black velvet paintings at thrift stores.
- Toss the ol' football in your yard with the kids.
- Walk The Streets Of Old Milwaukee and feel sorry for folks from "the olden days" who couldn't watch Packers games on TV.
- Read "War and Peace" and compare or contrast it to modern football.
- Dumpster dive like you saw Driver dive for the ball.
- E-mail your friends and ask them not to forward stupid football e-mails to you anymore.
- Get a life, get over it ... it's only football.
- Pretend there is snow, fire up the Toro.
- Check out a neighborhood that you've never visited.
- Search Ebay for a Terry Glenn bobble pass doll.
- Do the Lambeau Leap onto your own couch over and over again.
- Organize your class reunion.
- Buy a new bed, or at least test a bunch out at the store.
- Rent the first season of "24" on DVD.
- Organize your personal finances.
- Dance to the reggae at DJ Eric Blowtorch's Sunday night Onopa Brewing record spin.
- Go to The Packers Hall of Fame in Green Bay.
- Write fan mail to Favre, thanking him for record number of consecutive starts.
- Shift your sports focus and start following high school volleyball.
- Re-watch videotapes of the games from this season (drinking heavily may help you forget the outcomes).
- Tailgate in your garage.
- Write a made-for-TV movie about the life of Bart Starr.
- Spend the day roaming American Science and Surplus.
- Go to the library.
- Make donuts, trying to match the Krispy Kreme recipe.
- Apply for the next Survivor.
- Now's the time to buy a Packers jersey, they are sure to be on sale!
- Put those old photos in a photo album.
- Try kickboxing.
- Say "Pack 'er? I don't even know her!" over and over again until someone throws something at your head.
- Watch Home Shopping Network. Spend your Christmas bonus.
- Apply for the soon to be open Offensive Coordinator job. (It ought to be pretty easy, you only need six plays).
- Build Gilbert Brown snowman and try to tackle it.
- Mold Christmas fruitcake into a football. Eat football. Mmmmmm...
- Go on a meat packing tour to commemorate the origin of the team name.
- Spend Sunday looking forward to new Simpsons episodes rather than Packers games.
- Watch bizarre programming on ESPN during NFL playoffs (Cattle-roping, lumberjack contests, World's Strongest Man Competition.)
- Walk off all the brats you ate during the season.
- Be thankful you're not as fanatical of a Packers fan as the guys who shot Dan Devine's dog.
- Tie son's left arm behind back and groom him to be Favre's replacement in 2017.
- Pitchers and catchers report February 15.