Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Ever woken up a 9 year old?

Have you ever woken up a 9 year old after she didn't get enough sleep? In case you haven't had that pleasure, here's what waking up DQ for school sounds like:

Halloween Fun from M&Ms


Yea, this is from last year - but since this is the first time I've seen it, it's new to me! Basically you have to find all 50 dark hidden movies in the painting. I just wasted about a half hour solving them. The first 25 or so are fairly obvious, but the last 25 took me quite a bit longer.

Can you beat 28 minutes, 53 seconds? Here's the link, enjoy!
http://www.mms.com/us/dark/dark_game.jsp

Oh, and on another Halloween note: Hey Gorilla, yes zombies do dance!



(This was from the Illini Zombie March).

Monday, October 29, 2007

Introducing the McPizza!

A friend of mine just sent me the recipe. And since it was such a brilliant masterpiece, I figured I'd share with you all as a reward for bearing with me this past week as I took care of some personal issues.

So with that out of the way, let's get to it. For starters, you need a pre-formed pizza crust. You can make your own, but what's the point? You will also need a can of pizza sauce. If you don't have any, about half a jar of Ragu will work just fine. Then you will need two McDonald's cheesburgers, a six-piece McNugget, a medium fries, and a package of shredded Mozzarella cheese.

You get bonus points if you have ugly ass mixing bowls and a 1950's gas stove to help with your baking.



Start your preparation by spreading your sauce across the pizza crust, careful not to touch the edge. Then add your cheeseburgers to one half of your pizza.



Next add the chicken nuggets and french fries. If you run out of room, feel free to eat the extras. It's the equivalent of licking the bowl after you make a batch of brownies.



Finally, add your cheese and any extra spices you prefer. My favorites are garlic powder and crushed red pepper, but in this case feel free to use a packet of McBarbeque sauce or some Honey Dijon on the nugget half.



Bake for 12 minutes and it's ready to eat! Doesn't it look both nutritious and delicious?



As you can tell from the picture, the pizza must have been a big hit. Also, looking at the picture, you can tell his beverage of choice is Dr. Pepper. Furthermore, I know what the gun was for (me!), but I'm thoroughly confused about the tape measure and the little candle. Any ideas?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Another reason to love the State Fair

Introducing: The Redneck Tank Top!

Monday, October 22, 2007

NC State Fair Revisited

On Saturday evening E and I took the kids to the State Fair in an attempt to take our minds off things. E and I had been there last week, but this was the first time for the kids. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones with the idea of hitting the fair. It was packed. 145,000+ people sort of packed. 30+ minute lines to get on a ride sort of packed. Still it was fun. The kids got on a couple of rides each, we saw some big livestock, we went into the petting zoo area, and there was a firework show at the end of the night.

Here are GB and DQ on a couple of the big kid rides.





Here's a great looking piece of ass. The only piece of ass you can see is his head, but it's still a nice ass. Can you say ass without giggling? Didn't think so.



And finally here's a video of the petting zoo area. E was in here with her three girls as well as DQ and GB.

A very long weekend...



I apologize for the lack of "real" updates for the past several days. DQ was home sick on Thursday and Friday of last week, but the real news came Saturday morning.

My dad passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack.

He had a bad back for a long time and had been going to doctors for pain shots into his spine every month or so. But those stopped working so he scheduled himself for a spinal fusion last Thursday. That went well and in fact they sent him home from Annapolis to his new place in Delaware on Friday. Then sometime late Friday evening he had the heart attack. They brought him in by ambulance and by midnight they thought he they had gotten him stable. However, he took a turn for the worse and passed away just before 5am. The good news (if there is any) was that he was not concious for any of this time and went peacefully.

Due to the fact that he died within a day of major surgery an autopsy is required and since that may not happen until today or tomorrow, we have postponed final arrangements until this upcoming weekend. That way we could maximize the number of friends and family that could attend. And that means we'll be in Maryland this weekend so we can all say goodbye.

It will be interesting. My dad had a lot of skeletons in his closet, and our relationship suffered for much of the past 20 years as a result of them. We were still friendly, but it was nothing like how it was when I was growing up. The love was still there, but so was the tension. We could talk about football or fishing or the kids, but it never got much deeper than that. However, outside of those skeletons, he was a good person and both kids adored him. DQ is taking his passing especially hard.

He was also a die-hard New York Giants fan, and was very active in an online fan club called Big Blue Interactive. He had made a lot of really good friends there and spent a lot of time with them at tailgates, training camp, or anything Giant related. It was really nice to see they put up a memorial page for him as well as had a message board thread dedicated to it.

These were good people, and very much his second family. I met many of them when I crashed their tailgate party a couple of seasons ago when the Panthers knocked them out of the playoffs. I'm the one out of place in the Panthers jersey, and he's the one in the winter coat with the yellow collar.



Goodbye dad. We'll miss you.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Atlantic City Revitalization

To make way for a new Mega-Casino, the Sands came down last night. I love when things blow up.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Halloween Costumes

The kids and I went shopping for Halloween costumes last night. And while the kids did not buy these chicken things, they were more than happy to try them on.



I apologize for the quality of the picture, but I used my cellphone since I didn't have a camera on me. Anyway, it reminded me of this old website, where you can give the chicken commands and he will obey whatever you tell him. Click on the image to give it a shot. Once it opens you can tell him to hide, or dance, or roll over, or whatever. He'll provide you with hours minutes of entertainment!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Blog Action Day


Today is Blog Action Day, a day dedicated to bloggers around the world uniting to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every participating blogger will make a post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic.

My personal cause has always been Global Warming. And honestly, the fact that there is still a debate over whether or not it exists is mind-boggling.

I promise I won't make a long drawn out post over why I think those who live in denial are more dangerous to the overall health of the human race than those who still support the war in Iraq. This is because I don't believe that this issue should be political at all. Al Gore, like him or not, has done an amazing job with his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. If you haven't seen the video yet, kick yourself in the ass, then get your kicked ass in gear and over to Blockbuster.

(And if you are one of those types who refuse to admit anything created by a "liberal" can be accurate, before you go quoting the Hurricane specialist William Gray or the likes in my comment section, check these links too: #1 #2 #3.)

Back to my point: I don't believe that Global Warming is a political issue and refuse to treat it as such. Whether you agree or not, I do believe the majority of our scientists are right in that we are doing tremendous damage to our planet which when combined with the natural cycle of things has created a serious threat to the human population as a whole.

And as such, I think it's a far better idea to embrace change and do something about it than to bash Al Gore, his Nobel Peace Prize, or anyone who supports the notion of Global Warming. If we're right and we can save our planet, great! If we're wrong and Global Warming wasn't the threat we thought it was, at least all our efforts will have fast tracked our move towards energy independence. Neither are bad options.

America used to be a leader in just about every major industrial advance the world has taken. Cars, Planes, Computers, the Space Race, whatever. Renewable energy should be no different. And if we do it right, there shouldn't be any undue burden on society. These will be growth industries and new jobs will be created to offset any lost ones as old ones are phased out.

Still, there will be always be someone somewhere who will be fighting these changes as hard as they can. Whether it is an oil company, a polluting manufacturer, a deep-pocketed special interest group, or a paid-for politician, it doesn't matter. It will be a hard fight with lots of money, TV ads, and propaganda spent bashing the idea that we are threatened by Global Warming. But that doesn't change the fact that 100 years ago there was someone somewhere just as angry and fighting just as hard to protect his livelihood when the last horse drawn buggy business finally succumbed to the automobile. But life goes on and we improve as a society instead of remaining stagnant.

We need to stop politicizing this issue and treat it as nothing more than it really is: Modernization for the betterment of all.

The Return of the Caveman.

On Saturday, I ate one of these,



While visiting the North Carolina State Fair:



(Just thought I'd share...)

Friday, October 12, 2007

Practice makes Progress?

What the heck? I had to drop DQ's viola over at her mom's this morning so she could take it with her to school. When I get there, the TV is on the Disney Channel in the background and that is what the kids on the show were singing about. "Practice makes Progress."

You have got to be kidding me! What is this PC "Happy Happy Joy Joy" horse crap? Practice makes PERFECT! Kids should strive for perfection and not settle for mediocrity. If their school age hearts break because they don't achieve perfection, well too bad, so sad. Welcome to the real world. Try harder next time.

All we ever hear these days are excuses. My back hurts. My legs ache. I'm only nine. Kids these days are spoiled lazy and parents are to blame.

A perfect example of this are in the hockey leagues GB plays in. After one team gets a 6 goal lead, they stop putting goals up on the scoreboard. They don't want the kids to get their feelings hurt by receiving an old fashioned ass kicking. Instead they shut off the scoreboard and require the coach to play the kids at the end of the bench who refuse to practice and can't hold a stick. And we wonder why kids cant cope with anything these days. These kids feel entitled to play just because they are on the team. We should let kids fail when they deserve to fail so they can learn from it and eventually succeed. We should keep these kids on the bench and let them watch. Then maybe next time they will pay attention in practice. Or work on their skills at home. You know... make an EFFORT. Then maybe they would have earned some playing time.

Do you remember back to when you were a kid? When all the sports weren't pre-organized by the parents and kids were just assigned to a team? You know, when the kids picked the sides and those kids who weren't any good always got picked last? Or when you went to play ball at the park and if you couldn't catch then the kids would put you in the outfield, or simply not throw you the ball? Those were important life lessons. Ones we're not teaching kids anymore. We don't do that and it's extremely detrimental to these kids overall growth. Parents try and shield their kids from failure at all costs. But what these parents fail to consider is what is going to happen when these kids step out into the real world for the first time. How are these kids going to handle getting fired because they have never learned how to work hard for anything? No company is going to say "Aww, it's OK that our computers aren't fixed and we can't access our financial software. But we'll let you continue to work here because you did a good job showing up to work all week."

Political Correctness and the idea that children need to be coddled to the point that they are sheltered from life itself is a very real problem. But the good news is it is one we can do something about. We need to let our children experience failure. We need to teach them that their parents aren't always going to be around to solve all their problems. And more importantly, we need to teach them that mediocrity isn't a goal.

Practice makes progress, my ass.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

A small clarification

Due to an angry reader overwhelming demand, I am going to clarify that while I did laugh at the below video, I do empathize at the same time. Yes, the cat seemed rather stressed. And no, I would not put my own cats in there (unless they were really dirty or peed on my pillow or something). To alleviate my guilt at being so crass and shallow for finding the video amusing, I did some research on the subject Googled their website and discovered that this is supposedly a legitimate product used at many pet stores. As you can see, they claim it is kid safe.



Furthermore they have a full FAQ section and here is the very first item on the list:

Does the pet Stress out when inside the Cabin?

Using our unique technology we are able to lower the stress on pets compared to traditional bathing due to the fact that we do not use a restraining system and there is no stranger restraining or holding the pet. Also our unique patented nozzle system will provide a hydro-massage shower that will relax the pet and increase circulation which is very beneficial.

So, what does all this mean? I dunno, probably not much since not only did I lose where I was going with all this, I don't think anyone is buying the items in their FAQ anyway. Nevermind...

Clean Kitty

Is it wrong that I laughed so hard my eyes were watering?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Some DQ soccer pictures...

Just because I haven't put up any photos recently...






Justified Profanity

Yesterday I was heading out on my lunch hour to a strip mall that had a Verizon Wireless store. (The reason for that trip is probably blog-worthy as well, but it will have to wait.) Anyway, it's lunchtime and the parking lot is packed. After circling twice, I come up to a spot where there is a woman getting into her car on my left. I turn on my signal and wait.

Just as the lady finished backing up out of her spot, another car rounds the corner and gets right on her back bumper. As she pulls forward, passing me on my right, this other woman makes a quick turn into the spot. I hit my horn and give her a "what the hell are you doing?" look. It was right out of a TV commercial.

I stuck around for a second to be sure she could see my less than pleased look on my face once she got out of her car. Apparently she had already seen it because once she parked, she got out and walked right up to my window and said "What the fuck is your problem?"

I rolled down the window and replied "What the hell, lady? I was obviously waiting for that spot."

She pointed her finger into my car and at me and repeated "What the fuck is your problem?"

So while I'm normally a very nice person. I simply told her what my problem was. I had no idea I had such a problem, but apparently I did because this is what came out:

"My problem is you are a fat ugly bitch that is too fucking lazy to walk the length of the parking lot and instead you needed to be a complete asshole and steal a parking spot. Now go waddle over to Starbucks and get your extra large Mocha Frappachino and your four slices of cheesecake and get out of my face." I then rolled up my window and drove off, not waiting to see if she said anything else.

So, as I just mentioned, apparently stealing a parking spot from me can set me off. I had no idea this was such a big deal for me, but I guess it was! That or I was having a bad morning. (Still, it was sort of therapeutic to yell at her like that. I would have had guilt too, but she broke out the profanity first...)

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Unseen creativity

There is nothing like coming home from work, walking into the house, and immediately realizing there is something amiss. Take yesterday for example: I walked in the door and there on the floor of the foyer was a large paper bag full of fuzz. The sort of fuzz you might pull out of your belly button but on a much larger scale. A large enough scale to fill the paper bag to the top and then some.

If that wasn't enough to pique my curiosity, laying scattered around the paper bag were the heads of various stuffed animals. There were the heads of at least two teddy bears, a dog, a parrot, a hippo, and what I think was a chicken.

Now DQ collects stuffed animals. Lots of stuffed animals. She has more than any 10 other kids combined. And since most kids collect stuffed animals, when I say she had a lot, I mean it. Most of her stuffed animals have meaning to her. She has small ones like Webkinz or Beany Babies, big ones from various trips to Disney or other places, and even some she picked out herself from Toys R Us. She also has countless others that aren't so meaningful. For example, stuffed animals she won from the crane machines at an arcades or Chuck E Cheese. (DQ is probably the only kid that can successfully pull a prize over 90% of the time on those things.) Anyway, I'm getting off track, but I think you get the idea: She has a lot of stuffed animals.

After staring at the scene of such slaughter for a moment, I called down my primary suspect. My son. But the look of surprise on his face when he saw the carnage gave away the fact that he was innocent of this crime. So I called down my other suspect. She took a look and said "I'll get rid of that in a minute."

"What happened?"

"Those were all the cheap stuffed animals."

"Yea, but what did you do to them?"

(My son looked just as interested in the answer as I was, obviously bothered by the fact that he didn't think of tearing the heads off her stuffed animals first.)

"I took the stuffing out."

"I can see that. Why?"

"Because I was making Halloween costumes for my other stuffed animals..."

"Oh."

What do you say to that? She was being creative, she was using her imagination, she said she was going to clean up the mess even if she hadn't done so yet, and she was paring down her animal collection. So I said the only thing that came to mind: "Cool! Let me see some!"

Monday, October 8, 2007

Gotta love E-Mail Memes...

I hate forwarding junk e-mail to other people because I always delete all the stuff that I'm asked to forward on to 10 of my own friends. And I hate tagging people and telling them to do things on their blogs since I rarely comply when I'm asked. But this Meme came into my e-mail this morning and I actually enjoyed it. So instead of filling it out and forwarding it on to everyone, or tagging blogs and asking them to play along, I'll leave it up to you guys.

Steal this if you want. Ignore it if you want. Comment and tell me I'm retarded if you want. But regardless, here's all my new names:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Woody Azera - Now touring the North Carolina State Fair with the banjo!

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Vanilla Black & White - Heh. That actually worked out really well!

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
ABen - Yea, and I'm scheduled to star in Top Gun II now.

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Blue Bear - A better call sign than 007, don't you think?

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Keith East Meadow - "Buffy, I know you're my sixth cousin, twice removed and I know I've died twice this season, but I'm pregnant... and I think it's yours."

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Ben Ad - I am going to be Ben Kenobi's long lost nephew in the upcoming Episode VII.

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Orange Beer - Saving the world, one bar at a time. Oh, and have you met my sidekick, "The Pink Sex on the Beach"?

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Arthur Martin - Driving the number #69 "Yea, it's been a while" car.

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Tuscany Reeces Pieces - Hey now. How did they know I have a part time job as a reverse stripper? That's where I start off naked and people pay me to put stuff back on.

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names)
Lynn Scott - Yep, I could totally pass as a woman. Oh wait, I probably should have reversed that for guys.

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Fontaine Fargo - Sounds more like the newest guest star on Desperate Housewives...

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Halloween Rose - Now THAT would have been a good stripper name!

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + "ie" or "y")
Grape Jockstrapy - Just because it sounds so much better than Banana Codpiecey, and I want a cameo on South Park.

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Granola Bar Palm - Woody Azera's bongo drum player.

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your favorite hobby/craft, favorite weather element + “Tour”)
The Sleeping Hail Tour - Somehow I don't think anyone will be using that.

Food for thought

So...

Have you ever been in a public place and suddenly had to use the bathroom really bad? And when that happened, did you choose your stall by picking the cleanest looking toilet seat? And after you had chosen your throne, had you ever been halfway done only to realize the stall was completely devoid of toilet paper? And if that happened, had you ever had to wait until the restroom cleared out of everyone else before doing the toilet bowl shuffle, quickly running into the next stall over? And did you pray that the toilet bowl shuffle wouldn't leave you with stained underwear? And once you finished switching stalls, had you ever realized your new stall had a broken lock so the door wouldn't stay closed? And was the door on the stall with the broken lock so far away you couldn't simply lean forward to keep it shut, so you gave up and let it keep swinging open?

That's never happened to me. Especially not last night at the hockey rink, where I knew everyone else in the place. That would have been embarrassing...

Friday, October 5, 2007

A very sad day

It's been 24 hours and I'm still in mourning. I know it's not quite at the same level as when a friend or family member passes away, or even a beloved pet. But still, when something you have become so attached to for so many years is gone, it's hard to get past.

Yes, that's right. I cleaned out my underwear drawer and tossed out about a half dozen 10-15 year old ratty pairs. It brought a tear to my eye to do so, but it was just time. The elastic was completely gone, the threads were so worn in areas that they were see through, and there were so many holes that if I tossed them in a pile it would look like a lump of swiss cheese.

I'll get over it. But give me some time...

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Something isn't quite right here

DQ is going on a field trip at the end of the month with her 4th grade class and she talked me into being a chaperone. The permission slip said they were going to "a campground in Arapahoe, NC on the Neuse River to learn about and study a variety of ecosystems and the interdependency of organisms within those ecosystems." I thought it sounded like a great place where the kids would get a wonderful experience.

Anyway, I looked up the place so I could get directions and the place is called the Don Lee Center. I pulled up their website and right there at the top of the homepage is a proclamation that they are "affiliated by faith with The North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church" and the entire point of the place is to "Experience the presence of God through wind and water, through story and song, through friendships that last a lifetime."

Now as some of you may know I am Jewish so this information sort of sat funny with me. I can't get past the fact that nowhere on the information sheet or the permission slips did it mention that this is a Church run center. Let me clarify, I'm sure it will be fantastic trip and everyone will have a great time. It looks like a wonderful place and the kids can learn so much. Nothing beats hands on experience. But after living in the South for so long, there a big concern that this trip is going to turn into a religious sermon on some level. I really do believe that religion should not be part of this trip - faith needs to come from each family and not from the school. Faith is very important to some people, and less important to others. But more importantly, not everyone's faith is the same no matter how strongly they believe in it.

I guess what I'm rambling about is that I just want some assurances that this trip will be that secular so that the kids are not getting mixed signals if their faith differs from the Christian majority. Especially since the parents were never notified that this field trip was being hosted by a church.

Am I wrong?

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Why I love living in the south.

It's because the people down here never cease to amuse me...

From WCNC: MAIDEN, N.C. -- A man who found an amputated leg in a barbeque smoker wants to get the leg back.

Shannon Whisnant will be meeting with John Wood in Maiden this afternoon to determine just who really owns the limb.

Wood originally lost his leg in a plane crash. He lost it again last week when the barbecue smoker he was storing the limb in was bought by Whisnant at a storage warehouse auction.

Wood is fighting to get the leg back so he can bury it. However, Whisnant said he wants the leg because he paid for the barbeque smoker with the body part inside.

At last check, the leg was being kept at a local funeral home.

Whisnant has already turned the smoker into a tourist attraction. The smoker is in a storage shed off Business 321 in Maiden where he’s charging $3 a peek for adults and $1 for kids.

I bith my tongthe...

I bith my tongthe lasth nigth when I wath eathing dinner. I bith it really haud. Id bwed lotsth, an id hurded. An now I'th got a widdle fwap awn the dip of my tongthe an I keep pwaying wiff id.

Ids nod funny. Doan laff!!!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Ten Degrees of separation

As I mentioned in my extremely thought provoking post below, I had nothing to write about. And since work was slow today I decided to do some reading. And after getting through my normal blog-reads I still had an hour before lunch. So, in the interest of killing some more time, I needed some new reads. And therefore I devised myself a little game.

I went to the blog of the last person to leave me a comment. In this case it was Terri. From there I visited the blog of the last person to leave her a comment on HER site. And so on and so forth.

This was a really fun thing to do and I found some cool blogs that I know I will be returning to down the road. And who knows, maybe something here might strike your interest and you'll visit them as well. Or even better, you'll try this out game on your site yourselves sometime.

With no further delay, here's where my morning travels took me:

Stop #1 - Terri. Terri has been blogging about rediscovering herself and her faith. She had a wonderful post yesterday about going to church by herself.

Stop #2 - Logzi. Logzi had the first comment on Terri's post so she was my next stop. I had never been there before and she's a mom of three. On this particular post she was talking about how she much preferred the cheap $12 watches from Target to something expensive.

Stop #3 - Kate. Kate was the next stop and she was talking about putting Vaseline on her nipples. I won't ruin the story but it's safe for work.

Stop #4 - Hammer. Hammer was pissed off. Apparantly he had an issue with a guest who slept over. And apparantly this happens a lot.

Stop #5 - Phlegmfatale. I don't make up these names (and I'm not sure if I did that would have been one I was going to use.) Anyway this woman took time out from her shoes long enough to post about the sadness in Burma.

Stop #6 - DBA Dude. DBA Dude seemed to be one of Phlegmfatale's regular visitors and he was posting about his nickname, Obi-Wan. What struck me funny about this is that is what Jenn has called me for 3 years whenever the topic of her ex-husband came up.

Stop #7 - RT. RT had a picture up on his (her?) site of Putin under the heading of "The next dictator". I didn't read too much here, but you are free to.

Stop #8 - deathlok. This guy was (not surprisingly) posting about Zombie Movies. Zombie Movies are cool. I may have to go back here.

Stop #9 - Wyatt Earp. This looked to be nothing more than a fantasy football site so you may want to save yourself the trouble unless you care about some league you aren't playing in.

Stop #10 - Skywriter. This is the site of a woman who used to do some skywriting. I may have to go back there, the header graphic is a really cool image of a bi-plane skimming the water and her latest post featured a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.

Anyway, that's how I spent my time. Enjoy some new reads if you haven't been to any of these places before.

Nothing

I have absolutely nothing to write about this morning.

(Well, except my lost digital camera which I found in the center console of my car on my way to work. And that means I'll finally catch back up on my 180 Experiment on my other site.)

Monday, October 1, 2007

Harmless (Sports) Rantings

This was a sports filled weekend that went really well for the kids and not so hot for the adults.

On the upside, on Saturday DQ's team knocked off a really talented team from Wake County. Initially it didn't look like it was going to happen. We scored the first goal of the game, but then gave up 3 goals to finish out the half after the girls fell back into their routine of standing around and not challenging the ball. As a result, we were playing the majority of the first half in front of our goal because we got beat to every ball so couldn't clear it. At halftime I challenged the girls. And I raised my voice. I've never done that before with this team. I told them that if I didn't see them running I was going to take them out. I told them that we could play with this other team but we weren't. I said I wanted them full speed until they couldn't run anymore and then they should put up their hand and I'll sub them out. I told them that they could could catch their breath on the sidelines, get a drink of water, and then I would rotate them back in as their teammates got tired. It only took about 3 minutes into the second half before the girls realized I was serious. They looked shocked when I pull our four best girls out after we were still standing around and watching the play. The four girls from the bench went in and had their best shifts of the season and the rest of the game took care of itself. We were rotating people at every throw-in and literally shut the other team out 3-0 the rest of the way. And we hit the post two other times or it could have been more. The end result was that this upbeat tempo gave the girls a 4-3 win that really helped their morale. Two girls that hadn't scored before had goals, and the entire team had the biggest smiles on their faces after the game. That was combined with the fact that their parents were cheering just as loudly on the far sideline letting them know how well they played. Anyway, that evened our record at 1-1-1 after three games and things are looking up now that the girls have a taste of what it takes to win and they know they can do it.

Then yesterday GB had his first night of hockey at the new rink. This was just an evaluation day where they put the kids through drills and then a scrimmage so the coaches could create even teams for the inaugural season. GB did well enough in the drills to be placed on one of the two top lines for the scrimmage. And then in the game his team won 3-0, and GB had two of the three goals. Now this is the same kid that in 3 seasons of hockey at the old place had yet to score a goal (and really never came close either.) From across the rink, I could see that his face was lit up with smiles under his helmet too. His teammates were coming up to him telling him "good job" and "nice goal" - he's never experienced that before. He's going to enjoy the new rink. :)

Finally, the Illini won again. I know they really aren't "kids" anymore but they aren't getting paid to play so I'm going to count it that way. They knocked of #21 Penn State 27-20. That upped their record to 4-1, with their only loss coming to still undefeated Missouri. We're getting votes now to be ranked ourselves. While we're far from a championship contender, or even a contender for the Big Ten title, we are so far ahead of where we've been in years that it's great to see. Illinois hasn't beaten a ranked team since 2001, and hasn't started 2-0 in the Big Ten since 1991. That's improvement. We've got a huge test next week when #5 Wisconsin comes to town though. That'll be a real gage of where we're out. If we can make a game of it, it's going to go a long way in pumping us up for the stretch run and maybe we can secure ourselves a bowl game!

Now for the down side. I think I'm going to burn my Mets cap. How do you lose a 7 game lead with 17 games to play? That's more than embarrassing, it's a pathetic collapse of historic proportions. That's all I have to say about that.

Then the Panthers. The bottom line is we're a team with no heart. We've got players that seem to be out there just playing for a paycheck. And we're not a good enough team to play like that and win on a regular basis. Now our season is far from over, we're 2-2, one game out of first place with 12 games to play. But we need some major changes. And that must start with our attitude.

Finally to my hockey game last night. We didn't play horrible but nothing went right. We had a handful of mistakes and each one of them came back and bit us in the butt. Combine that with the fact that their goalie played great, and the end result was that we got beat 7-2.