The end of The Bob?

Since I don't check up on the local happenings that much since we moved out east, I miss some pretty big announcements. Like the one about the new West Haymarket Arena.

I know that you need to have the latest and greatest facilities to attract fans and new recruits, but how can you get rid of The Bob? Just think of what kind of horrible experience the college kids will have when they camp out and wait for the Kansas game a day early. They need to earn that front row seat by standing on freezing concrete for 20+ hours and listening to people like Holbein call up the Embassy Suites at 3am and asking for "Jeffrey Graves." When the hotel operator actually patched him through, you just heard him yelling "All night long Graves. ALLLLL NIGHHTTTTT LONGGGG!!!!!"

I'm sure they'll still camp out, but with people cutting out of line to grab some fries at Lazlo's, it won't be the same. It won't be the same at all.

But, in the long run, if this can attract more recruits and start dumping bodies in the seats, then I'm all for it. Just as long as gma, mom and dad don't lose their killer seats. There's nothing like going to a game and listening to Matt Davidson tell you about which bars he's planning to hit up when he's done chatting it up with Kent Pavelka. (Yes, if you click that link, that's me in the background of the 2nd picture wearing my "Nebraska Engineering" shirt. I couldn't be more proud to make Kent's professional website)

A post-election day picture

I took this in the old market right before I left Omaha. I was extremely surprised to see such liberal postings in such a conservative state. Either way, I thought it was a great flyer and couldn't think of any other time to post it.

Enjoy.

Boo!

Today's blog title will be used as a double entendre:

1. "Boo!" - Used to express contempt or disapprobation or to startle or frighten. Christi and I carved out the pumpkin above last night in preparation of kids coming over tonight. We're happy we're finally together and not in an apartment on Halloween this year.

2. "Boo!" - Used as an exclamation of contempt or disapproval. Every year on Halloween I redesign and launch (or try) a new version of my website. As with last year, it looks like it's going to come a little late. There is a reason though. It's a complete overhaul and has much improved functionality and development techniques.

Since I won't be able to put everything up tonight, here's a sneak peak until it goes up.

Best costume ever

I received this in my email this morning from Ponec and haven't stopped laughing since.

Enjoy.

No posts in a while

I'm very sorry for the lack of posts on here. With the new job, moving into a new place and concentrating my time on the new look for this site, I really haven't spent much time writing anything. In short, here's what's been going on in the past few weeks:

Donna came to visit us and brought Beth along as a nice surprise that we weren't expecting. We had a great few day with them while they were here. On their full first day in town, they came to work to take the official tour at ESPN. What was supposed to be a 30 minute tour took around 1.45 to finish. We were lucky enough to have Doug Flutie and John Saunders shooting a promo on the football field in the middle of campus. We watched from the production room and saw how they make all of the calls down to them and how they shoot each segment. From there, we continued on and eventually made our way to the large wall that houses all of the Emmy awards. While there, Doug walks right past our group and says hi to everyone. It seemed, at the time, that the tour guide and myself were the only people who recognized who he was.

When we got home, I asked Christi if she knew who the guy in the college football promo and the guy who said hi was. She said, "Of course I do." Not believing in her mid-80s college football knowledge, I said, "OK, who was it?"

"What is it? Doug Flutes?"
"That's close enough. His last name is Flutie. Do you know what team he played on?"
"Yeah. Boston college."
"Alright, good. What's he known for?"
"A long touchdown pass at the end of a game."
(at this point I was completely impressed, but I pushed further)
"I'm impressed. Here's your trivia question: what team did he beat with the hail mary?"
"Florida? ... no, a team from Florida ... like Miami."

At this point, she confirmed to me once again that we made the right move to travel half way across the country to give me an opportunity with ESPN.

So, like I was saying, we had a great time with Donna and Beth. They came a few days after we moved into our new place. We finally have it organized the way we want it and now are beginning to put up a few Halloween decorations.

I still owe a ton of people pictures, so those will be coming very shortly. I was going to do it today, but Christi said the house wasn't clean enough. Personally, I think the place looks great, but I have to go now and pick some stuff up so we can take pictures. Soon. Very soon. I promise.

'Watching' the NU-TTU game ... 79 texts at a time

We moved into our rental house on Saturday. Let's just say it is nice to finally get out of the hotel and get all of our stuff back. The only downside about the move is that it took place during the game and we didn't (and still don't) have internet or cable. So how do you watch a Husker game when you can't watch it? You have a few friends send you text messages every minute or so.

Before we get into that, here's something that happened before the movers arrived: Christi and I went out to stock up the fridge and get some last second things to keep ourselves organized. As we were taught (or grew accustom to) as we grew up, we were wearing our red proudly on Saturday. I believe we were looking at seasoned chickens when someone approached us. Her name was Marci and she graduated from UNK. She said she wouldn't have come up if she didn't see us wearing red. She did, however, notice our Jeep (with NE plates) in the parking lot and left a note under our windshield. You just have to love Husker fans outside of Nebraska (and inside). Ok, I digress, back to our story at hand ...

As you can see in the title, I received 79 texts, 5 phone calls and 1 voicemail (from mom when we tied it with seconds to go) during the game so I knew what was going on. There were times where I felt I would've known more about the game by reading my texts than if I were actually watching it live. Here's some brief highlights in case you were wondering how specific things were:

2.14 30mph winds and tstorms in Lubbock today!!!!! (via Ponec)
3.11 TT to get the ball, returns it to the 32 (via Ponec)
3.15 Tech runs for a first down, then we hold them 3 and out !!!!!!!! Graham Harrell is 0-3 (via Ponec)
3.28 We've been tackling well...but 3rd and 7, we sell out blitz, then run a slip screen to crabtree....7-0 TT (via Ponec)
3.29 Untouched....we brought 9 on the blitz (via Ponec)
3.49 F***ing right b****....another 3rd down conversion inside the 5. Next play TD CASTILLE!!! 15 PLAYS, 74 YARDS, 8:03!!!! That's how u do it (via Ponec)
3.50 Strike up the f***in band (via Urban)
4.25 17-7 at the half (via Ponec)
4.26 Bo's thoughts on the 1st half 'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' and ran off (via Ponec)
5.43 TD DREU YOUNG!!!!!!! 24-24 (via Ponec)
5.44 Band...u know what to do (via Urban)
5.46 If we win im streaking (via Urban)
5.56 QB sneak....TD Tech. 2:21 left. We'll score again, guarantee that (via Ponec)
6.03 Inside the 30!!!! Backtoback passes to Todd (via Ponec)
6.05 [Call from Ponec letting me know we scored to tie the game]
6.05 [While on the phone w/ Ponec, mom calls to say 'We just scored to tie it!!!! GOOOOOOOOO BIGGGGGGGGG REDDDDDDDDD]
6.13 TT starts w the ball, first play goes 24 yards, delay of game (via Ponec)
6.15 TD on an end around, PAT is no good!!!!!!! (via Ponec)
6.17 Pick by Ganz...ballgame (via Ponec)
6.20 Did that just happen? (via Urban)
6.20 Was hit as he threw the ball...this is the type of game teams win to change the tide of a program....f*** (via Ponec)
6.24 Well at least we didn't get our ass kicked...we would have a good team if we had a defense that had half a clue (via Urban)

That was the condensed version (28% of the texts I received). Ponec was actually showing off his football knowledge as he was telling me what types of routes the receivers were running and everything. If he would've pulled a Jim Rose and told me what color of pants our guys had on, I could've visualized the game perfectly.

Thanks to everyone keeping me in the loop.

Pictures to come when we receive a visit from Comcast.

Eight Great Years

Today is the golden anniversary of when Christi and I started going out. It's crazy to think that we've spent 1/3 of our lives together.

Feast your eyes on this awesome picture on how it all started. Good thing she stuck with me long enough to teach me how to dress ...

A long way to go

No matter how pumped people are that Callahan & Co. are gone or that Bo is the new head coach, Husker nation needs to get a reality grip on one thing. Nebraska football still has a long way to go until it's a national powerhouse.

Watching the Missouri game a few nights ago humbled me to how good the team really is this year. Missouri scored on all but two possessions Saturday night. Those two were a 59 yd. FG attempt as time expired in the first half and running the ball up the middle on 4th & 4 with a few minutes left in the 4th quarter so they wouldn't run up the score anymore than it aleady was (which was nice considering they converted a fake field goal to a TD last year while up 34-6 in the 4th).

This means that Nebraska really didn't stop Missouri. Ever. I know Bo doesn't have his players yet and that Missouri has one of the best offenses in the nation, but that's a pretty big problem. Looking down the schedule doesn't make you feel any better with Texas Tech and Oklahoma looming in the next few weeks. It'll be quite a challenge to get the D in full gear to pick up 7 wins (or more) before December rolls around.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Husker fan through and through, and there will be nothing stopping me from believing that we can go into Lubbock and pull off an upset, but sometimes you have to put things into perspective. My dad once told me that you can't get too mad after a loss. He said that they're just a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds running around. When you think about it like that, it makes it a lot easier to go to bed after the Tigers put together an absolute show at Memorial Stadium.

Stan's 1st Birthday

Yesterday, our little guy turned 1. It's sure hard to believe that since he's 75+ lbs. and is still as hyper as the day we got him. Although, with Christi working from home now (and Stan not being in the kennel), he has been going to bed a lot earlier. He's growing up and going into the bedroom to sleep without us now.

Anyways, for his birthday, we got him a brand new toy and a nice bone that took him most of the night to demolish. We planning on going all out and buying him a dog birthday cake and stuff like that, but that whole job/moving thing hindered our plans recently.

See pictures of Stan's birthday click here and to see the West Hartford Reservoir that he took us to, click here.

First day at ESPN

ESPN is everything I thought it would be ... and so much more. Today is round 2 of Rookie Camp, and then I'll get thrown into the fire and actually start working instead of watching killer company videos and seeing Mike Greenberg walk down the hallways.

I must have made a good impression because they let me know upon my arrival that they would be airing the Nebraska - Missouri game on their network just for me (and maybe for a few Mizzou fans working there). It'll start at 9.00pm our time, but you have to give and take.

I'm still holding my breath that they give us the NU-Va Tech game instead of watching Penn State this upcoming Saturday. I'll see if I can find the guys in charge of regional coverage today and put my two cents in ...

The Clique

Ben VanKat
Troy Bell
Chris VanKat

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