Back from paradise, Hawks Headed to Tampa, Facebook holdout.

• Just back from a great vacation with great friends---and Andy. My wife and I are fortunate that we can take a trip each year without the kids. We take the children to Jellystone and Disney and Clear Lake, which we enjoy, but friends and family members tell me to always find time for just us. It's good advice, and we know we're blessed to have both the support and means to pull it off.


• This year we went to an all-inclusive in Playa Del Carmen, which I learned is in Mexico. It was breathtakingly beautiful, sunny all the time (well, in the day), and hot, which is nice. All-inclusive means all your food and drinks are part of the deal. For the most part, this is good. You're not working, or driving, or doing crossword puzzles, so it's a good time for letting yourself go a little. However, it's easy for a little to become a lot.


• You know that feeling you have when you paid $9.95 for the buffet---you better eat your money's worth---it's like that, only worse. "I'm on vacation and the desert's free! I better try all five kinds of cheesecake, and dip 17 different things in the chocolate fountain." The drinking can be even worse. Once you discover you can order any drink, and it feels free, it's time to play hangover chemist. I ate like Charlie Weiss and drank like Charlie Sheen. I put on 7 pounds in five days. That's not easy.


• The trip back is never easy. First of all, all the security checks and bodily probes make it feel like the terrorists won at least one thing: making travel a nightmare. Then there's the sheer shock of going from 85 degrees to 11 degrees. Somehow in a period of less than a week, you forget just how COLD it gets here. It hits you like Bob Sanders.


• It's good to be back. That's the best part of vacation, realizing as you return, you're glad to be home. Can't wait to do it again.


• Tim Tebow seems too good to be true. He also loves to talk about his faith. It's no surprise Tebow attracts the haters, but I think he's real. Plus, Bigfoot took pictures of Tim Tebow. And Tebow can win a game of Connect Four in three moves.


• Stephon Marbury just made it easier for the haters. While people are being laid off left and right, Marbury won't play basketball despite making $21 million this season.


• Speaking of layoffs... I'm stunned the Des Moines Register dumped Duffy. I thought he was untouchable, but clearly these days, no one is.


• It's good to see Lucca Staiger having so much fun playing basketball. The guy showed a lot of patience and loyalty.


• Where are the Panther football fans? Fewer than 10,000 for a national quarterfinal?Maybe it's another sign of the recession. You won't see that out of Hawkeye fans though. They'll sell a car and cash in a 401k before missing the Outback Bowl.


• Props to our man, Jon Miller, for calling the Outback a month ago. Jon's chartering a trip too. We'll be on that trip. It's the way to go. Hundreds already signed up but they're still adding more at http://www.hawkeyenation.com/


• Nearly 16,000 fans for the Iowa - Iowa State wrestling showdown. Now if we could just get someone to notice outside Iowa. ESPN had that match somewhere below Boston Middle School Dodge Ball championship.


• Good to see OJ looking so miserable. No joke. It was good to see.


• The Cavaliers pay Lebron James hundreds of thousands of dollars every game. Is it too much to ask that James not act like he's already in New York?


• Looking forward to Jim Carrey's new movie, "Yes". I loved it the first time when it was called "Liar Liar".


• You were right. "Hancock" is fun and promising for 45 minutes and then takes a turn so wrong you'd think Hassel was driving.


• Am I the only Facebook holdout? Seriously, it's taking over the lives of my friends, family, and co-workers. Even people who vowed to never give in, I won't mention names (Shawn Terrell), have now given in. I continue to fight the good fight.