Why Should the Buckeyes Even Bother?

As we work our way closer to the (mythical) National Championship game (sponsored by Allstate), it becomes clearer and clearer to this Buckeye fan that there's really no reason for the Men of the Scarlet and Gray to make the trip. After all, they're playing the SEC, and the SEC owns not only Ohio State, but all of the Big Ten (11), and playing the game is merely a formality to hand the SEC another crystal football.

OSU's record against the SEC in bowl games is pretty well noted, it's a giant 0-fer. Add in last season's whacking at the hands of the SEC in the championship game, and once again the theory of "why bother?" gets clearer and clearer.

Then the Dispatch prints this gem (as linked from the Ft Wayne Journal Gazette because I couldn't find the Dispatch's link), and it all becomes just more irritating. Now, our author for this commentary hails from Knoxville, Tennessee, so slight bias probably doesn't play into this. Listing the "Big Ten’s five most humiliating bowl losses to the SEC" is cute. But, as I found on this blog, the Big Ten is 8-7 in the last five years against the SEC in bowl games. But wait, they used THIS YEAR'S bowls as the 5th year, but none of them have been played yet. I checked the '02 season and found out why they didn't use it...Big 10 was 2-1 vs. the SEC that year, bringing the actually played five year total to 10-8 in favor of the big, slow, corn-fed, can't-hang-with-the-speed boys from up nort'. (And, oh by the way, in '02 the Big 10 won the National Championship. I believe this is where the obligatory, "ooooh, BURN!" goes.)

So, it appears the recent dominance isn't as tilted towards the SEC as the media zealots from south of the Mason-Dixon line would have you believe. Recent memory has the SEC whacking Ohio State 41-14, so our friends from down south have "what have you done for me lately" on their sides.

Now, here's where I'm going to diverge a bit, and maybe cause some controversy...

Ohio State happens to be playing LSU this season, not the SEC. LSU is a member of the SEC, but Coach Tressel doesn't have to prepare for the whole conference. Also, as it turns out, Ohio State lost to FLORIDA last year in the title game, not the whole SEC. Again, Florida is a member of the SEC, but not the whole conference. On that fateful night, Florida was far and away the better prepared team for the game, and how can you blame them...they had a month to hear how they didn't even belong on the same field. (Hmmm, that's sounding familiar...)

When we break away from the stereotypical ramblings of the media, we find out that Ohio State is taking on LSU. The constant focus on the conference match-up seems to be taking a little something away from both programs. We're about to see two of the best defenses the country has to offer this season, but the fixation is on Minnesota beating Arkansas in Nashville in '02. Oops, sorry that was five bowl seasons ago, the fixation is probably on Penn State beating Tennessee last year in Tampa. Crap, did it again...focus is on Wisconsin beating Arkansas in Orlando last season?

Sorry, fell into the conference comparison trap myself...

When we look at the two teams playing, we're looking at two pretty storied programs. They've faced each other twice, and LSU has never beaten Ohio State. They did tie in '87 in the first of the home and home meetings, but OSU won 36-33 in Ohio Stadium in '88. Each has their fare share of National Titles, LSU winning it more recently following the '03 season.

For this year's game, it's pretty much a given that it's a defensive battle and the team whose offense gets loose a couple times will win it. LSU is getting the nod in that category, as they have a bit more explosive offense than Ohio State. ("A bit more" is like saying Arrogant Bastard has "a bit more" flavor than Coors Light.) LSU is getting picked by most, is favored by Vegas, and is the Fan Pick on ESPN.com. But, they still have to line it up and play it, so a few things leaning in the Buckeye's favor...

- Anybody who thinks Jim Tressel will make the same mistakes in preparation as he did a year ago is kidding themselves. Jimbo will have the boys way more ready to go in 'Nawlins than in the desert.

- The underdog has a better record in the BCS title game than the favorite. And, oddly enough, the #1 team in the land is the underdog this time around.

- Remember the '04 Alamo Bowl? Ohio State beat Oklahoma State 33-7 and Ok. St. was a 1 point favorite. Cowboys head coach that night: Les Miles.

So, grab your beer and nachos and get ready to watch the Backed-in Bowl. The Backed-in Buckeyes from the Big 10 vs. the 2 loss Legit LSU Tigers. Should be a good one.

GROK Talk Slides

For all you who sat through my record timed performance of a GROK talk, here are the slides.


Pragmatic Programmer Sermon

I apologize for ripping through it, but the gift exchange loomed. The subject didn't really lend itself to Q&A real well, though I think all the points are important. If you haven't read/borrowed/stolen this book yet, do so today. For the time being, here's the list of tips from the book. I worked off about 20 of them.

Post GROK

A friend of mine recently purchased a restaurant in town. After the Quick festivities I headed there to discuss reworking his website. (I'm working for beer...it's a win, win.) This particular friend spent about 15 years in the local IT market, so he has some contacts.

While I was there a group of four guys strolled in to celebrate the end of the work week. Turns out these four guys were in IT, my buddy strikes up a conversation, since they were buying beer from him and all. They work for a small consulting firm (that I'd never heard of), and were very intrigued to find out that I was a developer. So, they asked the standard sales/recruiting questions...where are you, what do you do, etc. The requisite, "You don't sound so happy, here's my card, we'll pay you more," came out and I smiled politely.

Then they sent over one of their developers, at least they introduced him as such. He struck up a very non-technical discussion about the .Net Framework, PHP, MySQL, and some other buzzwords. I managed to not laugh uncontrollably, and continued to smile politely. Honestly, as soon as he attached "Framework" to .Net, I was done. I would have easily been the most senior person in their shop...probably by a few years. Then it hit me: Do I want to be the mostest seniorest person in a very junior body shop, or a senior member of the development environment I am currently a member of?

Without gushing too much...I'm not going anywhere. The IT talent collected around me at this point is amazing, and Quick keeps bringing it in. The whole, "We'll pay you more!" argument is intriguing, but how much more would it take? I'm in a pretty good position at this point. The advancement within the group is no easy task, but the advancement professionally is as good as it gets.

Winter beer clunker

On the recommendation of a coworker I recently purchased some Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale. This coworker proclaims himself to be a beer fan, so I took his advice...even after hearing him say, "It's a product of Anheuser-Busch."

Should've stopped myself there. This stuff pedestrian at best. It's semi-flavorless with a hint of beer taste and some spices. Nothing stands out about it. At all.

So, big thumbs down to Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale. Your money is much better spent on Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale.

Your money is much better spent on Blatz, for that matter...

Porters and Stouts

I'm a pale ale, IPA, gimme-all-the-hops-you-got kind of guy. But it's winter, and Todd reminded me today it's time to get into porter and stout mode. So, following Brendan's hockey practice tonight, he and I swung into the nirvana that is the Giant Eagle beer cooler.

As any young padwan would do, Brendan immediately asked, "Dad, are we getting some Dead Guy tonight?" His learnings at such a young age warmed my heart...guessing it wouldn't warm his mother's heart the same way. Just a guess on my part...

Since I was on a mission for porters and/or stouts, I had to fore go my son's excellent suggestion. I roamed the beer cooler for a while and settled on some Young's Double Chocolate Stout and a selection from the Rogue brewery, their Mocha Porter. The Rogue brew didn't disappoint, and though I'm not a huge fan of porters, this one is quite tasty. The Young's, though, oh my. I had forgotten how good this beer was. The first sip was all chocolate, and it only got better from there.

Not to be missed in tonight's rundown is there was already some Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout in the fridge. Barley's in downtown Columbus made me a fan of Russian Imperial Stout, and I rate theirs better than the bottles from the good folks at the North Coast Brewery. After the first one from Barley's I was convinced they measured the alcohol content in it by proof rather than by volume. However, short of bringing my next growler home from Barley's, Old Rasputin fits the bill.

So far, the shift into porter and stout mode is going well. I'm sure some Christmas brews, such as some Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, will be in order as well.

Intro to ASP.Net AJAX Slides and Code

Before Thanksgiving I gave an intro to ASP.Net AJAX presentation at Affinion and Nationwide, and would like to thank those that attended. As promised, and better late than never, here are the links to the slides and the code samples. The code samples include the javascript callbacks that I did during the presentation.

Code Samples

Slide Deck

Again, thanks to those who attended.

Fox Sports can't spell "BCS"

So, two years ago when Fox bought the BCS and we all knew it was the first sign of the apocalypse was upon us, I didn't know how far they could sink. Watching their broadcasts of the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and BCS Title games last year was painful. (Ohio State's pole-axing aside.) The pre-game crap was recycled from their NFL and MLB broadcasts, and their whole approach to the broadcasts seemed to be: "This is our first time with college football, it must be the first time for you, too, Mr. Viewer!"

But tonight, they took their idiocy to a whole new level...

First off, they give us a 40 minute BCS "selection" show...as if they could somehow match the similar show that takes place in March...and give us one "selection" in the first 25 minutes of the show. Never mind that the BCS isn't a "selection," it's a computer program that says who's automatically playing in the BCS and what openings remain for the top 12 teams to play in one of the BCS games. This year the "selected" teams were Illinois, Hawai'i, Kansas, and Georgia. Everybody else got an automatic bid, and most of the automatic bids go to very specific bowl games...which is where Fox cranked the retardery up to 11.

They followed a pattern of announcing one team for a couple bowls, then later announcing the other. This was after announcing who got the automatic bids...of import here is that Ohio State had the automatic bid from the Big 10. The Fox goes on to announce the Rose Bowl match up of USC and a mystery team, who after a couple commercials is revealed to be Illinois.

So, let's recap what's gone through any college football fan's mind by this point...

1. "God, I wish this was still on ABC."
2. "Ohio State is the Big Ten(11)'s automatic bid."
3. "I should turn to ESPN, but I can't...avert...my...eyes..."
4. "Illinois is going to the Rose Bowl. Good for Illinois."
5. "Looks like the Buckeyes are back in the title game."

Now, after we've all arrived at number five in the list above, Fox assumed we'd barely gotten to four thank to our lack of any formal education. So, in order to hold our attention, they announce that UGA is going to the Sugar Bowl, which removes the suspense about where LSU will go, so they go ahead and tell us LSU is in the title game against...they put up a question mark!! Some UNKNOWN team is going to play LSU!! "There's only one slot left!!" says Joe Fan, "I wonder who it could be?!!? Oh, come on, Fox, please, please reveal that team!!"

Finally, they revealed that the mystery team was Ohio State, and completed their assault on the intelligence for the average college football fan. I can hardly wait for their coverage of the games, now.

Blog address updated

Procrastination finally got the best of me, and I sat down with my closest adviser, Alexander Keith, and between the two of us we managed to get the "Wagon Queen Family Truckster" blog moved over to the new address of blog.timwingfield.com - complete with snappy new name. (I was blessed with the name of Wingfield...the rest, as they say...) In addition to the move, I'll also start putting my tech related posts here and allow the Slight Weapons Malfunction blog to lapse...well, lapse more.

Turns out my blog-per-subject thought wasn't one of my better ones. I'm still maintaining the hockey blog separate because I can manage enough posts to make that work, and I've added a couple other contributors. But, the tech only blog suffered from lack of content, and the personal blog started to get better. Combining the two subjects just seems to make sense for less to manage. Plus, I can put a little something at that timwingfield.com address I acquired earlier this year.

So, if you're subscribed to family-truckster.blogspot.com, you'll want to update your subscription.

The Game goes to the Buckeyes

Off the top, I need to give some credit to Chad Henne. I have a new respect for Henne. The guy has a sack the size of the state of Michigan. He is beyond injured, has been for weeks, and guts out the game today. The performance wasn't that good, but upon returning from the locker room, Lloyd tried to keep him out of the game, but I think the coach would have needed two Clydesdales, a John Deere, and a Cat dozer to keep Henne off the field. Henne is a gamer, and for that I tip my (scarlet and gray) hat to him.

At the other end of the spectrum...what little respect I had for Mike Hart is now gone. The guy ran his mouth after losing last year, ran his mouth after the MSU game, ran it again before the game, and ran it during the game...the only thing he couldn't run was the goddamned football.

Hey, Mike, guess what: There was a football game today. Your QB who has had to sign his name left handed for the last 3 weeks managed to show up, where were you? Oh, that's right, flapping your gums. Sitting out the Wisconsin game to "get ready" to run for 44 yards. On top of that you have 0 wins vs. Ohio State. In one of your pre-game jaw workouts you said, "I'd rather lose to Appalachian State than to Ohio State." Guess what big boy, you managed to do both this season. Mike Hart's career tally vs. App St and Ohio St. - 0-fer how ever many games you played. (0-5 for those of you scoring at home.)

Even better out of Hart, when the game got tough and his ankle got a little sore, off to the sidelines. Took himself off the field. Henne, as mentioned previously, would have gone out on the field looking like the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail. But not Hart. His team can't do shit and he's got an ouchy boo-boo, so off to the bench he goes. Turns out you can talk the talk Mike, but it ends there. Greatest running back in Michigan history? 0 and four, pal.

Enough about that, how about the Big Ten Champion Ohio State Buckeyes? Turns out that defense can bounce back from Juice-fest a week ago. That the offense isn't flashy or exciting, but can win football games. Seems Beanie Wells knows how to run the football a little bit...or, maybe a lot. Michigan's tackles will be having nightmares about Vernon Gholston for a few weeks.

So, in OSU's win, they didn't have the flash and dash of Troy Smith in the backfield, but they didn't need that this time around. With a defense giving up under 100 yards and all of 3 points, giving the ball to Beanie over and over was sufficient. Sure, it got boring late in the second half, but taking chances wasn't needed.

So, today's running back match up yielded two important things: 1. Beanie Wells is a big game, big time running back. 2. Mike Hart(less) is no Beanie Wells.

Baseball is OVER!!

Thank goodness, the baseball season has finally come to an end.

They're finally done dragging the season out. Yeah, I'm a hockey fan, and the NHL takes heat for the 8 month season, but there's actual action in a hockey game...9 months of it isn't enough. But, this isn't about hockey, I do enough of that here, this is about baseball and all its annoyances...

First of all, the bane of all my Tribe fan buddies' existence is the off game in the middle of the three game home stand. Don't these guys spend all summer playing three and four game series? Don't they string three series together at times, playing 9 or 10 straight days? You get a "travel day" to get alllll the way from Boston to Cleveland, and then you need an off day in Cleveland after game 4? Why? Sight seeing? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is nice, but I'm sure Schilling can bring the family back in January to see it. (Because what's more beautiful than Cleveland in January? Well, other than Buffalo...) The NL was done by then, there was no baseball on, just the Sawx and Tribe lounging around in Cleveland in October waiting on the first lake effect snow.

Secondly, why do playoff games take 4 and a half hours? Extra innings puts you into the wee hours of the morning. During this year's playoffs I managed to watch a whole football game (Ohio State @ Purdue) during roughly 8 innings of a baseball game, and I got an entire Jackets game in before the 7th inning even started in one of the ALCS games. Honestly, Fox, do you need to start these games at 8 and end them at 1:26 in the morning? I understand that the American League is involved in at least half the playoff games, so I expect them to take a while, but even AL fans are complaining about how long these games are taking.

And finally, Sawx fan should be thrilled that they just won the Series in less than 85 or so years from the previous one. Do they celebrate? No, they bitch and moan because A-Rod decided to use that day to say he wouldn't be a Yankee next year. So what? You guys hate the Yankees anyway, right? You have the ultimate "SCOREBOARD!" on them, why whine about one of their players announcing they'd leave? Suck it up a little Sox fan...sheesh. You'd think the whole A-Rod thing was like the press would act if Joe Torre turned down a contract with the Yankees. (What? He did? How'd I miss that??)

So, now we're on to the once daily gold glove, Cy Young winner announcements to keep baseball in the news until Christmas or so...or long since forgotten by any self-respecting football fan. I'm sure some member of the Yankees will take a dump in the next 24 hours and the press will be all over it for us. Hell, somebody might actually spot the National League, but nobody in the press would notice because the Yankee turd would probably be a world record of some kind.

Ahhh, baseball season is over...pitchers and catchers report in only 48 hours or so...

Stupid TV...

As blogged last week, I'm supposed to be in Lexington with my brother watching the LSU-Kentucky football game. (Currently LSU is up 10 playing under cloudless skies.) I'm not in Lexington because CBS decided this should be a 3:30 game rather than the 7PM start it was originally scheduled to be. When did they make this decision? Last Sunday.

Since Kevin coaches JV football, we weren't going to make it from Waynesfield, OH to Lexington and get parked and get in the stadium in 3 hours. One traffic delay would mean $200+ in tickets would have gotten us maybe a half of football...and no pre-game beers. So, thank you CBS, for trashing a pretty good plan the Wingfield boys had in place. (Kev did get the tickets sold, and we lost $30 a piece on them. Could have been worse.)

Stupid TV gripe part two...WOW taking a dump on hockey fans...

I've managed the first two weeks of the NHL season without Center Ice...barely managed. Why? WOW currently isn't carrying it, and indications are they aren't going to carry it at all this year. What that means here is we're likely about to become DirecTV customers again. So, after three years of WOW cable, all three where they offered the Center Ice package, it's time to leave. In this instance, choice is nice. (And, no, Time-Warner isn't an option...same crap as WOW, different name. Plus, DirecTV is offering 35 or so HD channels at the moment...about 34 more than TW or WOW have....)

In the meantime, though, no Hockey Night In Canada...

In other news, Iowa won a football game today. I might mention that in my weekly recap tomorrow.

The Cardinal unrolls a Trojan

The debate over whether USC or LSU should be #1 ended yesterday as Jim Harbaugh, everybody's favorite Michigan grad, and his Stanford Cardinal pulled off the big upset of USC. If not for Appalachian St. beating Harbaugh's alma mater, it may have been the biggest upset of the year.

So, while USC was losing at home, Florida was going down in Death Valley. Imagine that, LSU winning a night game at home...whodda thunk it? Even in guiding his team to its second loss in two weeks, Tim Tebow is rumored to have passed a loaf on the sidelines and daisies immediately sprang forth and children were heard to be signing.

In the grand ol' Big 10(11), the suckitude continued...this time it was Wisconsin dropping, and at the hands of upstart Illinois. The Illini find themselves one 6 point loss to Mizzou from being tied with Ohio State for the outright lead. Other semi-surprises were Indiana winning again, and Northwestern taking down MSU in OT. Non-surprises of the weekend...Ohio State winning at Purdue and Iowa losing. Again.

So, the joy of college football rolls on. We sit with three undefeated teams at the top, and a bunch of one-loss teams behind them. Can Ohio State survive trips to State Penn and Ann Arbor? Will Cal survive another showdown with USC? Will LSU survive the always tough, and ridiculously deep SEC? (Kev and I will be in Lexington next week...will they bite it there at the hands of UK?) One thing's for sure, there's enough drama left in this season to give the BCS boys fits again.

Good.

Upsets galore!

I love college football and all the fun that goes with it. Yesterday was one of those days that keeps you tuning in with half the top 10 falling. Sure, Ohio State will benefit by not losing and climb into the top 5, but so many big losses on one day was amazing to watch. Of course "them" at ESPN were banging on LSU early on yesterday afternoon because they "started slow" and only beat Tulane by 25 points. Wonder if Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, W. Va, and Rutgers would trade places with LSU about now? Guessing they would...

For the fun in the crap fest that is the Big 10, all kinds of great stuff happened. Penn St showed that they were marginally overrated by losing their second game in 2 weeks, this time to Illinois. Michigan continued their meteoric rise from 1-AA doormat by putting a 12 point whupping on Northwestern. (Psst, meatchicken...Ohio State didn't need the whole game to put 28 up on the 'Cats. Hell, they didn't even need the whole first quarter. Just sayin'...) Indiana went into Iowa and won, guess Kirk will have to wait another year to try and remove the pretender tag. Wisconsin, while boring as hell just continues to win. November 3rd is looming large on the horizon. And to cap the day, Purdue dropped ND to 0-5...way to go Boilers! Your reward is the Buckeyes...enjoy.

I don't have the stat attack from last week, instead, I'm going to introduce my new favorite player...at least for this week: Wes Byrum, K, Auburn University.

Probably not a big stretch to figure out that I'm happy to see Florida lose. (At anything...football, basketball, baseball, hockey, lumberjack competitions, whatever.) And Wes had a big hand...er, foot in knocking off the Gators yesterday. However, he's my new favorite player not because he had to kick the game winning field goal - not once, but twice - but because before the thing even cleared the uprights, he was celebrating. And what way did young Wes decide was the best way to celebrate? By turning and giving the Gator Chomp back to the good folks at The Swamp. Atta boy, Wes!

Coaching Soccer

A few weeks ago at practice Brendan's coach asked for volunteers to help coach in case he was out of town, and I deftly pointed at another dad and said, "He'll do it!" Nice job, Timbo, you volunteered. (And other dad didn't think it was too funny, and now thinks you're pretty much a douchebag. Two birds with one stone as only I could do it...) After practice, I talked to John and said that I've coached hockey for a couple years, and though I know nothing about soccer I can help maintain order.

So, tonight was the big night. John's out of town, his assistant is out of town, so practice is being run by his wife, Lisa, and yours truly. Thankfully Lisa had played soccer since she was five, and I believe played in college. I, on the other hand, know a soccer ball is round, that you can't use your hands if you're not the goalie, and in a wager for a beer could probably explain offsides. I mentioned that to Lisa at the game on Saturday and she told me not to worry because, "...it's just like hockey!"

Sure it is...but there are a few minor differences. Off the top, offsides doesn't involve a blue line. How do you know if you're in the wrong place without a big blue line??? That's just insane. Secondly there's the whole ball v. puck thing...when a puck rolls, that's a bad thing. Protective gear for a soccer player involves a couple of shin guards. (Though after watching these kids kick at each other, helmets, shoulder pads, and hockey pants wouldn't be a bad idea.) And finally, a goalie doesn't need an additional 45 minutes to get dressed in more leather gear on than Carrie Ann Moss in the Matrix to play in net. (I believe they're also called a "keeper." What the hell are they keeping???)

So, with those formalities worked out, I figured I'd be OK. It's a group of 8 year old kids like any other group of 8 year old kids. They'll run around do the drills as instructed and hopefully enjoy themselves. Wow was I mistaken...it was a mess. Yelling, laughing, crying, running, kicking...and that was just two kids going to a water break.

Now, I know kids will be kids and they have their moments of not paying attention at all, but this seemed to be a whole new level. Not that the kids that put on skates are any better or worse, but had this been a hockey practice there would have been a lot of skating. Not to mention a lot of yelling and a lot of whistles. Are hockey kids different kids? No, I don't think so. But, their coach comes armed with more than a whistle...he's got hockey gloves on and a stick in his hands.

So, I enjoy working with kids in sports, but I don't envy the soccer and baseball coaches of the world...not at all. I'll stick to coaching hockey, where the little rug rats are contained by boards and glass.

And I have a stick and gloves...

The fun of College football - 9.22.07

I basically had the house to myself yesterday to work on a presentation for work. During the day the TV stayed tuned to college football, which is pretty much normal for a Saturday around here. I took my scheduled break from the presentation at 3:30 to watch Ohio State play Northwestern. At 3:42, with the Buckeyes firmly in control, I went back to work.

Complaint time: Locally the OSU game got swapped with the meeshigan v. State Penn game on Mickey's family of networks. So, OSU on ABC, the "other game" to ESPN. Both in HD...or so you would think. Here's what happened on my cable network...they switched OSU to ABC on both feeds, but only switched the meatchicken game on the regular feed. So, I had two HD feeds of Ohio State eeking out a 51 point win. Would it REALLY be that hard to have swapped out both, WOW? Just wondering. (While you're at it, why don't you maybe list that FSN's HD feed shows glorious, high definition football all Saturday as opposed to your listed "HD Promo" when the Reds or Jackets aren't on in HD?)

On to other football related things, and right off the top...Dear LORD how bad is the Big 10(11)??? Ohio State is emerging as the top of the conference once again, and they're in a down year. Penn St couldn't beat a team that couldn't beat a team from 1-AA who couldn't beat a different 1-AA team yesterday! (If you didn't follow all that, App St's win streak came to an end yesterday at the hands of Wofford 42-31. Associative property of football states that Wofford v. Penn St should be a helluva football game.) Michigan St might be good, but they beat Notre Dame, so they could suck. Wisconsin and Iowa was fun to watch...if you tuned in only for the last 5 minutes of each half. Speaking of Iowa, they get great run in the press every year it seems, only to fall flat at some point or points. If Ference is such a stud as a coach, when is he going to sack up and win the Big 10? Outright, Iowa Fan, not by tying teams you don't play. (I notice that neither Ohio State or what's left of michigan are on Iowa's schedule...hmmm...)

Other games I caught a bit of were the Browns-Bengals-esque, "Defense is overrated" score fest in Stillwater, OK and the Georgia v. Bama game. Gotta admit, I don't mind watching Saban lose football games. And that one was an OT thriller. Bama ties it up with just over a minute left after trailing pretty much the whole game only to go 3-and-field goal in OT and have the Dawgs score on their first play from scrimmage. In a game I didn't see, Tim Tebow rebounded from his horrendous 1 INT game a week ago to throw two TDs and run for two TDs as the Gators held off Ole Miss. Thankfully he got it together, as rumor has it he took a dump last week and it actually DIDN'T smell like fresh cut roses.

Big Gainers (But not big winners)
1. Brian Brohm, prolific passer from Lousiville, put the ball up 65 times yesterday and threw for 555 yards and 4 TDs in a losing effort. (To Syracuse of all teams.)

2. Not to be out done, MAC powerhouse Ball State waltzed into Lincoln, NE yesterday and marched up and down the field on the vaunted Black Shirts to the tune of 610 yards total offense. Or, only 153 more yards than USC had in the same stadium a week ago. In two weeks Nebraska fans have seen over 1,000 yards total offense and 89 points against the Huskers. Be glad Oklahoma isn't on the schedule...

3. Finally, scoffing at the 600 yard mark was Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell who went 46/67 for 646 yards and 5 TDs, but it wasn't enough to beat Ok St.

Giant Eagle's a little slice of beer heavan

That's right, it's a regular blog-o-rama here today at the Truckster. We go in spurts...doesn't make me a bad person...

If you're a beer snob and haven't discovered Giant Eagle's beer section yet, you're missing the best beer selection I've ever seen in a chain grocery store. I discovered this a few years back when Giant Eagle landed in Columbus. Any store that builds a walk-in beer cooler in the middle of the store is going to get my business, and I've bought plenty of non-pale American pilsner beers there.

Today, however, it seemingly got better. My local Giant Eagle expanded beyond the cathedral like cooler. Today I noticed the following available in The Beer Section:

• Chimay - If you've never tried this Trappist Ale, you're missing out. I bought a bottle of the Grand Reserve (blue label) to enjoy during the opening of the NFL season. No Bud Light in this house for football games.
• Inside the cooler was a nice selection of Sam Smith's beers. The Oatmeal Stout gets most of the accolades, but I've had four or five from Sam Smith, and none of them are disappointing.
  
• Next up was one I'd already purchased, but my purchase was in 6 pack form previously. Giant Eagle went above and beyond in providing a full 2 liter growler of Rogue Dead Guy ale. Dead Guy on tap is one of my favorites, but the bottles aren't quite the same. In the growler though, should be closer to draft than bottled. That purchase will have to wait, becuase...
• Arrogant Bastard is available!! That's right, one of the greatest brews ever is on sale now at Giant Eagle. I found this one a couple of years ago when Garnett served me one, but didn't stumble across it again for a while. Then during Blankensoft's going away party we found that BJ's on Polaris had it on tap. And now to find bottles of it available at a local grocery? I reigned myself in and only bought 3 bottles.

Thankfully the Chimay and Arrogant Bastard I purchased have a high alcohol content...helps dull the pain of the Bears 4 turnovers. Add in their up-the-gut failers on 2nd and 2, 3rd and 3, and 4th and 2, and it's time for more beer...

Let's Go Blue!!

Here in the heart of Buckeyedom, the beloved men of the fighting nuts are off to a less than stellar start. Granted, they're 2-0, but taking down Youngstown St and following it up with a 20-2 shellacking of Akron isn't enough to keep the natives from getting mildly restless.

But, look!! Over there!! MICHIGAN IS SUCKING!!!

Like the allure of something shiny, watching the Wolverines drop their first two games has kept many scarlet and gray fans pretty happy. Sure, there are a few that spew out the hooey that they want Michigan to be undefeated going into The Game...spare me. Find me a Buckeye fan who shed a tear over Appalachian St taking down big blue a couple weeks ago. Search Buckeye Nation for a guy who tuned in hoping and praying that Oregon would roll over and play dead. These people - if there are more than one - are in the vast minority.

Additionally, there are the people who want the win "so the conference doesn't appear weak." Appear weak? Um, too late for that one folks...ignoring last year's stellar BCS and bowl performances by the Big 10 (and that mess in the desert still stings yours truly), it appears Bowling Green might be the best team in the Big 10 this season. Forgot, they're not in the league. OK, we'll give it to Penn State for now...but Wisconsin's domination of UNLV, the aforementioned slow start by the Bucks, Michigan's impression of the Duke football program, and Minnesota's toubles with all things MAC aren't speaking well of the Big 10 so far. Maybe Iowa will finally step above poser status this season. (If they do, they'll still get questioned about it without Ohio State or Michigan on the schedule.)

But I digress...this is supposed to be about michigan's futility thus far. And my glee in said futility...

I enjoyed the Appalachian St upset, not only because it was Michigan, but because seeing one of the big programs go down at the hands of one of those teams used to "fill out" the schedule was fun to see. (Since it wasn't Ohio St. it was fun to see.) Add in that App St. was only going to the Big House because the NCAA expanded the schedule for that extra game to make a few more dollars off their storied programs, and it just gets better. (Never mind that we can't have a playoff because we don't want the "student-athletes" playing too many games.) I had to chuckle every time they showed the shocked faces in the crown at Michigan Stadium...and they showed those faces a LOT, so I got a lot of chuckling in.

So, I tuned in to the Oregon game in the same manner you drive by a car accident...it's there, you don't really want to look, but you could catch a glimpse of some carnage. Maybe even some blood, or a severed limb. Oregon didn't disappoint, and the game wasn't nearly as close as the 39-7 score would indicate. The blood came in the form of boo birds in the Big House. The severed limb? The Bronx cheer when Chad Henne appeared to be leaving the game injured. (Before he finally did leave the field injured.)

So, no need wiping that grin off your face, Buckeye fan. Boeckman may not be setting the world on fire, but you're 2-0 and not the punchline of jokes such as: How many batteries does it take to shock a Wolverine?

1-AA.

Star Wars theory

It's no secret I'm a bit of a Star Wars fan. And as any good dad would do, have passed that along to the boys. Brendan is into it way more than Alex, but give Alex a little time.

Now, as fans go, I'm not walking around daily in Jedi garb. I don't own a Stormtrooper costume, nor do I have memorabilia strewn about the house. The "craziest" Star Wars thing I own beyond the DVDs is a skull and crossbones stormtrooper shirt that my loving wife bought for me at MGM-Studios last summer. I do enjoy the movies, and discussion about them, though.

I had always taken the story line as it was presented in the theaters...see Luke struggle with becoming a Jedi, meet his father, find his sister, and defeat the empire. Follow that with how Anakin came to be, how the empire came to be, and how the Jedi were defeated. Add them together in the order they were released and in essence you have a story about Luke and his father. Additionally, I believe the story is told by R2 and 3PO, which I believe was generally accepted in the 80s when the first three movies were coming out.

Later, during a lunch discussion, Jeff offered an alternate theory: Watch them in order of chapter, I-VI, and it becomes a story of the rise and fall of Darth Vader. I found that theory to be pretty interesting, and have passed it along in other discussions.

Then today I'm reading Neal Ford's blog for the first time. Not sure why I hadn't read it before, Neal is an excellent resource in the tech field, and I saw him speak twice at CodeMash last January and enjoyed both sessions. However, in the middle of Neal's blog I come across a post that discusses another theory about Star Wars: A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope.

If you're a mild fan of Star Wars, read that...it'll get the wheels turning.

Red, White, and Blah

July 3rd, 1776 was a big day in American history. It had to be, otherwise the city of Columbus wouldn't have a huge celebration that day. Red, White, and Boom, the annual celebration on the river followed by the big fireworks display, is done to celebrate...Thomas Jefferson crossing the last t and dotting the last i? It's an interesting choice of days, but that's only the beginning of my griping...

I enjoy a good fireworks show as much as the next person, and Red, White, and Boom is a pretty big fireworks show. The music is usually done well with the fireworks, and the TV production is pretty good. The addition of high def this year made the TV version even better...even more reason to not fight the million or so people clogging downtown Columbus. But, even watching from home, the July 3rd extravaganza still comes up a bit short of the patriotic celebration its supposed to be.

Though I'm as big of an Ohio State fan as there is, I've yet to figure out what the Across the Field has to do with the 4th, er 3rd of July. The assumption that no celebration can take place in this city without including THE Ohio State University seems a bit short sighted. If there's a large crowd gathered, the fight song must be played? I'm all for it if that large crowd is seated at Ohio Stadium, but celebrating the day before the Nation's birthday doesn't seem like the best place for it.

While we're on music, possibly my biggest gripe is the choice of finale music. It should be a constitutional amendment that all July 4th (3rd) celebrations should be required to close with either Stars and Stripes Forever or the 1812 Overture. It's the 4th of July. It's the birthday of the US of A...you should go home humming the Stars and Stripes Forever, not some random song selected by the good folks that also run The Morning Zoo.

Lastly, I realize we're in the age of sponsorships everywhere. But, did we need to pause the music and fireworks to announce that the grand finale was up next and it was brought to you by Ashland? Who announces the grand finale? I'm glad it was sponsored, and I'm glad Ashland got their name out there, but it seemed like the ultimate interruption. In most fireworks shows you build up to the grand finale, and the sense of anticipation of, "Is this the start of the finale?" is part of the fun of the whole show. Not this year, no anticipation...slight pause and then: "COMING UP NEXT, THE GRAND FINALE! PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE OF COLUMBUS, DON'T MISS IT. IT'S BROUGHT TO YOU BY ASHLAND CHEMICAL. GRAND FINALE IS UP NOW!!"

So, in the spirit of Red, White, and Boom, I'm announcing the end of this blog entry...

Hot Dog and Jelly

I'm currently sitting on the deck reading some blogs and such, when Alex comes out of the house with a snack he made himself. This could be a new phenomenon, and if so credit should go to Big Al for inventing the HD&J...

Take one slice of bread, in his case the heel, and spread a generous amount of stawberry jelly on it. Then take one cold hot dog out of the fridge, place it on the bread, and fold the bread around it. Enjoy.

He ate at least half of it before he was done with it. That doesn't mean he didn't like it, half is usually where he stops with most things.

So, give it a shot.

Last day in AK

We didn't do a heck of a lot on our last day in the Last Frontier. Mostly we laid around Mom's place, but we did go out for a picnic lunch by Lake Hood. Lake Hood is the biggest float plane airport in the world, and in the 45 minutes we were there we saw at least 8 planes take off and another 4 or 5 land.

In addition to all the float planes taking off and landing (watering?) on Lake Hood, Ted Stevens International Airport was directly behind us, so we heard plenty of passenger and cargo jets taking off. Also, off in the distance beyond Lake Hood is Elmdorff AFB, so when we first started eating you could see six F-15s in the distance. (You could hear them long before you saw them.) So, if you're in the mood for watching some airplanes, there are three picnic tables behind the FAA building in Anchorage that will give you a view of small 4 person planes, big passenger jets, and the USAF all in one spot.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing. We did a quick shopping trip at REI and Title Wave Books. If we were hikers or campers REI would have been a great place to blow a couple grand. Title Wave Books is an interesting store, and we of course lost Mom in there.

I made a return trip to the Moose's Tooth for a t-shirt, and had an IPA while I was there. The bar was full, so I stepped outside to their outside waiting area and just looked over the Chugach Mountains a little since we're leaving them in a few hours.

That will about do it for our first trip to Alaska. We've got to pack and then head for the airport about 11:30 or so for our 1:20am flight back to OH.

A little driving in Alaska

So far all of our touring has involved little driving. We've driven to things close to Anchorage or in Anchorage, or taken the train for the long haul. Yesterday we took a pretty good drive north east of town to Williams reindeer farm and then on up to the Matanuska glacier. The glacier is roughly 90 miles from Anchorage.

The reindeer farm was interesting. We saw a lot of reindeer, Bruce the moose, and Eddy the Elk. You could feed the reindeer, which everybody did, even Alex. You had to pull grass for Eddy to eat, and not everybody was up for that one, so only Wendy and I fed Eddy. It was very windy while we were there, and there was a lot of glacier dust blowing down the valley, so we didn't stay out with the reindeer too long.

After leaving the reindeer farm we headed east towards the Matanuska glacier. We traveled on Alaska Rt 1, otherwise known as the Glenn highway. The Glenn is a lot of up and down and turning as it follows the Matanuska river through the valley. It's really not a bad drive, until you get one of the locals in their giant pick-up trucks on your ass because 60 on this curvy road is just "too damn slow!"

We hit a construction zone on the road, which means the road is only one lane. No flaggers up here, you follow a pilot car through the construction zone. Basically, the westbound side of the road is held while the eastbound side follows the pilot car. When the pilot car reaches the other side, it turns around and takes the cars headed the other direction through. I'd say it was at least a 4 mile construction zone, maybe more, so if you miss the pilot car you've got a 15 or 20 minute wait on its return.

Once near the glacier, we took Glacier Camp Rd to get closer, but it required crossing a small bridge that a couple occupants of the car didn't really want to cross. (Turns out had we crossed the bridge it was going to cost us $15 per person to continue on...a steep price to see some ice.) We went back up the hill to the main road, and then went about 100 yards and pulled into the Long Rifle Lodge. What a view while you had your burger here, above is what we saw out the window. And the burger was darn good, too. They also had a one-pump gas station, which is a good thing because we needed a little gas to get us back down into Anchorage.

We left around 1 and returned about 7:30, so it was a nice afternoon. Here's the map with some place markers of where we went. Our route took us up the Glenn to the Old Glenn Highway to get to the reindeer farm. after leaving the reindeer farm, we continued on the Old Glenn into Palmer, then north-east to the glacier. Coming home we just stayed on Rt 1 the whole way.

Maggie, Flattop, and the Moose's Tooth

Today's travels in AK started out at the Alaska Zoo. It's really a nice little zoo, well kept, very green, and not 90 degrees. (Like it would have been at the Columbus Zoo today.) We walked around the whole thing in about two hours, and they have some very nice exhibits.

We did get to see a local celebrity, Maggie the Elephant. Maggie has been a resident of the Alaska Zoo since 1983, and is the source of some local controversy. There are those that think Maggie shouldn't be kept in the rather harsh and un-elephant climate of Alaska, and the other side that thinks people should have the ability to see a live elephant at their zoo so long as her health isn't in danger. That's the short, "I'm visiting from Ohio," recap.

As it turns out, today was Maggie's big day, the zoo decided it was in her best interest to move her south. A decision as to where hasn't been made, but they want her flown and checked out by two independent vets to ensure that she is healthy enough to fly.

After leaving the zoo, we headed towards Flattop to the south east of Anchorage. I say "towards" because it wasn't all that easy to find. Mom couldn't recall the exact route, the maps we'd looked at the night before told half the story, and even a guy mom asked wasn't totally sure. (If you're up here and looking for how to get there, take O'Malley Rd, to Hilltop Rd, to Upper Huffman Dr and follow the sign at the top of Upper Huffman which points you left and up a gravel road.)

Once there, we paid the parking fee and walked up to the observation area. The observation area gave us a great view of Anchorage, Susitna, Cook Inlet, and way off in the distance you could see the Alaska range, including Denali. (Mt. McKinley to you lower 48 types.) It was a bit hazy, so Denali wasn't in clear view, but you could see the snow covered peaks off in the distance. Behind us on the observation deck was Flattop, which is one of the most visited parks by the locals. You can hike up to the top of Flattop, but we opted against it sticking with the much easier observation area.

After taking in the first two periods of the Cup Finals, we headed off to the Moose's Tooth. This place came recommended from mom and two of the tour guides on the train yesterday. It's simple, pizza and beer, but they do both very well. (I've yet to have a bad micro-brew up here, guess the long winters make for some good brewers.) To continue the world beer tour, I had a four beer sampler - Alpenglow Amber, Pipeline Stout, their ESB, and their Fairweather IPA - and followed it up with a glass of the ESB. Though, the IPA may have been the best, I opted for the ESB because I'd had an IPA downtown on Monday.

That pretty much closed out our Wednesday. We're likely heading off to a glacier tomorrow, but who knows.

Our day on the Alaska R.R.

Our day started at 4:45 am for our trip on the Alaska Railroad to Seward. But, since the sun comes up at 4:30, we had plenty of daylight for our drive to the train depot in Anchorage.

This was easily some of the best scenery we've seen since we've been here. Our trip to Seward took us out of Anchorage, around Turnagain Arm, past the Chugach mountains, through the Kenai mountains, past Kenai lake, and eventually into Seward on Resurrection Bay. (Map of our route. Not the exact route of the railroad, that's the Seward Highway, but that's roughly our travels.)

The train starts out in Anchorage (elev. 38 ft), climbs just over 1,000 feet in the mountains, and then ends up back near sea level in Seward. It varies in speed based on climbing or not and for the scenery outside. It slowed for glaciers and other photo ops, but did about 40 to 45 mph while traveling next to the Turnagain Arm.

Seward itself isn't a huge destination, it's a pretty typical small coastal Alaska town. Except his one receives a number of cruise ship tourists and is home to the Alaska Sealife Center. We walked around the town and visited the Sealife Center, which is well worth the visit. The downer to Seward is that the train stops on one end of town, the Sealife center is on the other. Nana and Brendan decided to walk it, Alex, Wendy, and I decided to wait on the trolley to save Big Al's legs for later. We waited and waited and the trolley never showed...because it only runs on cruise ship visits. So, we got a cab, which took a while to arrive, but got us there for $5. The van was missing a few key parts, one of which was the muffler, but it got the job done.

The return trip on the train was just as much fun as the morning trip. We left Seward about 6PM and returned to Anchorage right around 10PM. Plenty of sunshine for photos on the way back, but it was a bit foggy up in the mountains. A couple of the glacier shots make it appear as if the glacier just appears out of the fog. A neat effect, but you miss the upper portion of the glacier.

All in all a great day. The folks that operate the Alaska Railroad are some of the nicest people we've come across. Each car has their own tour guide, all of which were working for Alex by the time the trip was over. He and Brendan both ended up with AK RR "Security Officer" badges, other small pins, and temporary tattoos. I wouldn't hesitate to take any of the other AK RR trips on a later vacation. (The ONLY downer on the train...the food is expensive and almost mediocre. Everything else was excellent.)

The Alaska Railroad pictures have been uploaded to our album, and there are plenty of them to see.

Downtown Anchorage

Today we headed to downtown Anchorage. Mainly to take in the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and also to have some lunch. Mom has proceeded to point out a number of really good eateries, but to eat at them all we'd have to stay until late July.

We parked near the mall and walked everywhere, which wasn't too bad. We ended up covering about 18 blocks in our travels, and it only sprinkled a little bit, so it was a pretty nice walk. There isn't much of a buffer zone between the sidewalk and the street in Anchorage, though, so it can get noisy and a bit tight as double trailered trucks go by 6 feet away.


The museum was really nice. They had some strange contemporary native American art thing going on that was kind of odd, but they had an Alaska exhibit that was very interesting. Thanks to some cruise tour groups, we went through it backwards, but still saw the whole exhibit. They had everything from a full size whaling boat that the Eskimos have used for centuries to a cross section and "pig" from the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

After the museum, we headed to the Glacier Brewhouse for lunch. Mom has had a number of meetings here, and it came highly recommended from her. The food was excellent, and the beer was more excellenter yet. I enjoyed a cask conditioned IPA that was scary smooth. It was 3/4 gone before I realized it. If this place was located in the greater Dublin area, I'd eat there once a week...though I doubt the halibut would be as fresh as it was this afternoon.

We then strolled back towards the car and did the touristy thing of t-shirt shopping. We also stopped at Town Square Park, which is where the picture of the boys above was taken.

All in all it was a nice day, and we made it back home in time to watch the Ducks beat the Senators. Nothing like squeezing in Game 3 at 4 in the afternoon, then having dinner.

Map of our travels today.

Sunday in the Land of the 10PM sun

Prior to heading up here, a number of people said to me, "Alaska? Now? Won't the sun be up the whole time?" Well, no, that wouldn't be until the first day of summer, and it doesn't happen in Anchorage, anyway. Long days, yes, but not the whole day as Anchorage is too far south.

Our first full day here was a Sunday, and since mom is a minister, we were required by law to go to church. Mom attends Turnagain UMC, which is about 15 minutes from her condo. Once there, we met a number of people there who said, "Oh, Brenda's your mom? I'm so sorry."

After church, we had some lunch and headed home to continue recuperating from the previous day's flying. After a good rest, we headed to Earthquake park to look over Cook Inlet and see some sights. The picture of the boys looking to the northeast over Cook Inlet as a ship passed. The marker from the link above is roughly where they were standing.

To the left of where the boys are is Susitna, which means "Sleeping Lady." Even with my little digital camera, you can see the sleeping lady in the mountain. Her head is to the left, and you can almost see her hair flowing down the hill.

The airport is near there, as is Lake Hood which is a pretty big float plane base. While we were at Earthquake Park, at least 6 or 8 float planes flew over on their way to somewhere in the middle of Alaska. In contrast, we also watch three 747 cargo jets take off.

Mom then took us to her favorite tourist place - Fredy Meyer. It's owned by Kroger's so, fairly familiar. I picked up a six pack of Alaska Brewing Company's summer brew, which was quite tasty. We had a traditional Alaska meal of take-and-bake pizza, and then settled in for the evening.

I put a few photos up from yesterday on Picasa, and will add more as the trip progresses.

Alaska Trip

We made it to the Last Frontier

Yesterday was the longest travel day I may have ever been through...literally and figuratively.

Literally, because a flight from Columbus to Anchorage is 12 hours out of your day when everything is on time. If your plane leaves Columbus an hour late, things seem to get longer. Then when your plane leaves Phoenix late - because in the world according to US Airways Phoenix is between Columbus and Anchorage - things seem to get drawn out even further.

In reality, we landed in Anchorage 10 minutes later than our original time. The worrying about connections and everything else was for naught, we got here right on time. Right on time was 12:00 am Alaska time...4am EDT for those of you scoring at home. Leaving Columbus at 5:10 for a 11 hour trip means it's gonna be late when you get there.

Figuratively the longest day because Brendan and Alex were on the trip. Both have flown, but it's been a while, so both were pretty excited about flying on the "big hairplane." (Alex's words) Their excitement lead to neither of them sitting still the entire trip between Columbus and Phoenix. Not bad, we had a row to ourselves, but only one parent gets to sit in a three seat row with the boys, so no tag teaming them. Unable to tag out until 3:15 minutes into the 4:15 minute flight, dad was worn out...and this was the short leg of the flight.

Upon arriving in Phoenix, our plane's original departure of 7:20 has been pushed back to 7:45 according to the board at the gate. Cool, we've got 50 minutes before we board another plane for the final leg to ANC. Enough time to get a bite to eat and get some Benedryl in the boys. Or, so we thought...

US Airways, front runner as my choice of "Biggest PITA Airline Ever," announces that the plane will board on time. Not a big deal, except Wendy's with the luggage while the boys and I are halfway down the terminal looking for something to eat. (There was a Burger King sign down there, figured that would to the trick.) During negotiations on what to eat - which weren't going well - Wendy comes running up. She's got both pull-carry on bags, my laptop bag, the camera bag, and both the boys backpacks. She was a funky hat short of looking like a Sherpa. I look at her funny and get, "WE'RE BOARDING!! WE'VE GOT TO GO!!" We get her load lightened, and get back to the gate. Needless to say, tensions were running high. We didn't get anything to eat, had no time to settle down from the last flight, and are now being told we need to get on the plane to leave on time. AND the magic of the Benedryl hadn't been brought out, and without food in him, Brendan wasn't cooperating. "The Incident" then happened...there was yelling, crying, an attempt at force, more yelling, louder crying, more yelling, etc, etc. Somewhere in Phoenix, children's services is probably looking for a man who fits my description.

Thankfully, the Benedryl did it's thing - Brendan eventually took his, in exchange for getting the window seat - so the flight from Phoenix to Anchorage was pretty uneventful. Well, other than being damn near 6 hours long, it was pretty uneventful. I got a movie in, both boys slept, Wendy slept, and we still had three hours to go. Those three hours eventually passed, and we landed in Anchorage just after midnight local time. Mom met us at the bottom of the escalator, and we proceeded to wait on the bags. And wait. And wait. Got the bags, threw them in Mom's car, and Brendan and I went to wait on the shuttle to get to the rental car. And wait. Got on the shuttle, got to the counter and, yup, you guessed it, waited some more. All the waiting was finally over around 2am, and we were in bed by about 2:10.

Hopefully in the coming days I'll add some more from the trip, hopefully a few pictures. Tuesday we're on a train to Seward, and that should produce some good pictures.

Stupid Reds...

As all sports fans, I have my ups and downs. Recently I had a couple pretty good ups in watching two of my favorite football teams play for their respective championships as the Buckeyes went to the BCS title game and the Bears to the Super Bowl. Those were obviously followed by two pretty solid lows as both teams failed to win either game...and in the case of the Buckeyes, well, flat out embarrassed. (Of note: If you're favorite team returns the opening kickoff for a touchdown, turn the TV off, it's not going to turn out in your favor.)

One of my other teams of choice is the Blue Jackets, and their futility is pretty well documented. Every team in the National Hockey League has made the post season except one...guess which one? No biggie, we're six years old, it'll happen, and I'll be there. For each game.

So, that leads me to the Redlegs. The team I have likely cheered for the longest. My earliest memory of a live sporting event is sitting at Riverfront Stadium with Grandma Betty and Grandad Clyde taking in the Big Red Machine. I have been a Reds fan for as long as I can remember. I've been to World Series games to watch them play. (And win, Tribe Fan, suck on that! Ha!) I've seen them bulldoze Riverfront and build the GAB, neither of which is a bad move. But as of right now they are proud owners of the worst record in baseball.

Now, SOMEBODY has to have the worst record in baseball, but that somebody has usually been in Kansas City or Detroit or Texas or Tampa...NOT Cincinnati. This is the oldest professional baseball franchise, they're not supposed to be the WORST team in the league!

So, as with the typical season, I'm not so worried about the playoffs at this point, so just try to win a few games, fellas. And most importantly, take 2 of 3 from the Indians next week. I owe one lunch because of last weekend, already...

Off to meeeeeshigan...

I'm in Plymouth, MI at the moment watching Men in Black and listening to the Sabres and Rangers (currently tied at 1 in the first OT). Originally I was to come up tonight with three of my co-workers to go to Day of .Net in Ann Arbor tomorrow. However, my company has been doing some consulting with the MAIS department at the University of Michigan, so I came up to bill U of M for 8 hours of consulting today prior to the code camp tomorrow.

As a drop-out of THE Ohio State University, the irony of consulting at the University of Michigan is not lost on me. I got a chuckle out of it...especially when adding in my cohort from Quick is a Purdue grad, and one of the lead developers on the dev team graduated from Michigan State. I mean, come on Michigan, produce some IT talent already...

Now comes the part that will make Buckeye Fan shudder...I love Ann Arbor. This is one of the coolest little towns I've been to in a long time. It's basically the U of M surrounded by a few houses, restaurants, and banks, but it's a great little town.

Highlights of the visit will revolve around the food and beer consumed. For food, we'll start at the top. On the direction of Billy - U of M alum - I headed straight to Blimpy Burger for the best burger in Ann Arbor. That wasn't a stretch, it was a great burger. Kind of like the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld, you order in a very structured manner (number of patties, bun type, any grilled add-ons, and lastly cheese), but the cook coaches you through it. Don't mumble, though, he'll throw something at you. Actually Brian mentioned the Soup Nazi thing, and the cook shot back with, "No, more like a burger Pinochet. Come to Blimpy, get a burger and a dictator." The cook was also sporting a mohawk, and making it work...not something everybody can do. But, I digress...the burger, which was more grease than meat, was outstanding. The steak fries that were included, also solid. All in all, it made for a great stomach ache for the afternoon.

[Hockey Update: Sabres just put away the Rags for the evening...Slugs now up 3-2 in the series.]

Beyond the burgers, we took in two brew pubs, the Grizzly Peak Brewing Company and the Arbor Brewing Company. They're located about two blocks apart on opposite sides of Main St. The folks at Grizzly get the nod in the food department, the brewers at Arbor do a better job with the beer. Grizzly has a great pulled pork appetizer and I followed it up with a great steak. The steak had some kind of red pepper glaze that was great. The beer at the Arbor Brewing Co...mmmmm, Mai Bock. End of story.

Tomorrow is all day code camp...hotel breakfast, Dominos pizza for lunch, and hopefully something slightly better than those two combined for dinner...

What's one more blog?

I am a glutton for punishment...I barely keep the two blogs I do have current, so what the hell, why not start a third one? (And I'm thinking about a fourth...yikes.)

Call me kooky, but piling three or four distinct subjects into one massive blog seems like a disservice to those looking for one subject. Which of my nerd buddies cares that I hate Sean Avery with a passion as soon as he puts skates on? Conversely, which hockey reader cares that I bombed a Vista upgrade the other night? (Haven't blogged that one, either...I'm a slacker.) So now I add a third one where anybody that fits in those two groups can now not care about whatever anecdotal stuff my 4 year old produces on a daily basis.

So, with a nod to the sheer genius that was National Lampoon's Vacation, we title my personal blog. Why Vacation? Well, it was hilarious when I was in the 8th grade for its content, but as I age and pile the kids in my own Family Truckster I view it more as a documentary.

And with that we are set down the path of one more blog that I won't update.

Often.

Or maybe I will.