Oh holy day,
The stars are brightly shining.
It is the day of the dear Savior’s rebirth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till he appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious day.

Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh day divine
Oh day when Marshawn was reborn
Oh day divine
Oh day divine

PRAISE BE TO TEDFORD (PBUH) FOR THE PROPHET, MARSHAWN, HAS RETURNED TO US.  Whilst the evil-doer Fred Jackson did take upon some of His carries from him, it was a most successful outing.  Marshawn rushed for over 100 yards.  But alas, the gravity led by Iblis drew great pains upon the world and rent the ball from the grasp of Marshawn.

Yes, he fumbled.  Once.  But it’s OK.  Because he’s back.  Oh holy day!  Oh holy day! 

The Bills crushed the Dolphins, which in and of itself is not that exciting of an event, I guess.  But to have Marshawn back.  Yippee!  Elsewise, Trent Edwards threw 4 TDs.  2 of which were to Lee Evans, which was great because I have him on 2 fantasy teams and he’s sucked for so long.  Of course, both of those teams had first round byes, a sarcastic thank you to Lee Evans for finally NOT sucking on the week when it didn’t really matter.  Somehow I only have Marshawn on one of my teams.  How did that happen?????

The fact that Edwards could succeed so greatly in the NFL must give hope to History’s Greatest Monster (Osama Bin Longshore) for the future.  Maybe, inspired by Edward’s success, he’ll declare for the draft early.  That would be easily the greatest thing a Stanford alum has ever done. 

But what’s important here is that the sun has again risen upon our lives.  No more darkness.  No more inane poetry (sorry to be redundant there).  No more pretentious mustaches (only ironic ones for me!).   Never leave me, Marshawn.  Never leave me!

"Basking in the warming glow of Marshawn’s glowing warmth." 

Judging from the response to our basketball reporting (zero outside comments on the last 4 post), Golden Blogs readers are clamoring for non-football related information.  I’m happy to oblige with highlights from our 24th highest profile sport, Women’s Volleyball! (apologies, cross country and lacrosse).  As you undoubtedly heard, Cal advanced to our first ever final four with a victory over defending NCAA champ Nebraska last night.  I watched the first two games of the 3-0 sweep on the CSTV gametracker, basically a flash animated volleyball bouncing around a tan rectangle, with a comic book star indicating where the ball was spiked.  Sounds like a fun Saturday night, no?

The saving grace were the player photos which popped up when a point was scored, providing further support for one of the three immutable laws in sports: volleyball players are hot.  (The other two: Polynesians make great defensive linemen and blitzing always works.)

Cal won the first game and was up 30-29 in the second (first to 30 wins, but you need to win by 2).  I was on my way out the door, Cal had the defending champs on the ropes, and the little animated circle was bouncing around: the tension was mounting.  Suddenly, of my thousand plus songs and New Yorker podcasts, what should start playing on my iTunes but Fight for California!  Properly inspired, Cal scored their final point to win the game and I headed out the door, completely confident that they would win a final game to prevail.  Some may call this a happy coincidence; I call it proof that God does indeed control the outcome of sporting events, though for some reason He thinks we’d rather win in women’s volleyball than keep the axe.  Also, it seems He’s not a Mormon.

I’m not a pretty volleyball player, but could they hold UW to 350 yards rushing??

Cal plays Penn State on Thursday, with the winner advancing to play either Stanford or USC.  The final four is being held in Sacramento, so if you’re located in the Bay Area, show up and create a homecourt advantage.  If not, pull up your iTunes, install flash player, and let the good times roll.