Boosting confidence in my college football picks

Not much went right in picking bowl games this year, except for the ones that I put the most confidence in. I can't ever remember a year where I got my top eleven confidence picks right in the same year.

Why chop the photo at 25? Well, let's just say there's a lot more red than green below it.

Turning wine into chalk

Ever since we owned our first house in Omaha, we've always had this wine picture up in either our living room or kitchen. We're really not sure why ... as the two of us aren't that fond of it. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice picture and all, but it's just not our style and doesn't go with the rest of our decor.

So instead of just tossing it away, selling it on Craigslist or crumbling it up for kindling, we decided to reuse it as a chalkboard. The first step was taping off the beveled edges to get ready to paint (for some reason, painting with this thing on the wall seemed to be the most logical choice).

The next step was to apply a few coats of adhesive primer so that no glasses or corks appear through the chalk.

Once the primer was dry, we put on two or three coats of chalkboard paint that we rolled out as smoothly as possible. Once those dried, we waited the required three days before rubbing chalk over the entire picture to get everything integrated with the paint.

After that was set, we erased what was on there and created a nice whimsical picture for the holidays:

First game without Joe Pa

I had my parents put in for some Penn State tickets in February. Obviously you can't predict what is going to happen nine months later, but we went to Happy Valley during a historic time.

In the wake of the Sandusky rape allegations, we end up witnessing the first game without Paterno as the head coach of Penn State since 1965. Pretty much a once-in-a-generation game that we ended up going to.

Ben, second from right in the picture above, and I traveled up Friday and met up with Clancy who showed us around State College. While walking through campus, we stumbled upon the candlelight vigil going on during our walk to the creamery. While there, something happened where it seemed like only our group noticed ...

There were a bunch of people up front with microphones leading the vigil, which, don't get me wrong, is for a great cause and it was cool to see 10K+ people show up in support. However, sometime at the very beginning, someone gets up and starts singing "Will You Be There." You know ... that song by Michael Jackson. You know ... that same Michael Jackson that is synonymous with child molestation. You know ... the whole reason why they're holding that vigil in the first place. I'm sure it was just an oversight, but it was very strange that we were the only ones frantically looking around to see if anyone else noticed what was going on.

Onto the game ...

We really weren't sure what the mood or atmosphere was going to be like at the game. We heard some horror stories about people making the trip to Happy Valley in 2002 and a few people actually cautioned against us going. To be on the safe side, we didn't wear any red on Friday night when were were in the thick of campus, but proudly displayed it all day Saturday.

We started tailgating around 8.45am and had some awesome Penn State groups on either side of us. Besides for one random (random = drunk) frat kid, everyone was extremely nice and was welcoming us and thanking us for making the trip up. Even though we had a smaller Husker group, including Christi's old roommate from college, we ended up mixing and mingling with both Husker and Penn State fans the entire day without any problems. In all actuality, I had a pretty awesome time.

What helps awesome times? When the Huskers actually win after you've dedicated a lot of time and money to watch them play in person. You really can't ask for more at the end of the day.

Pictures are up!

Nine straight days without power

Nine days. We went nine straight days without having electricity. Finally yesterday, sometime around 3pm, CL&P finally made their way over to our house and gave us power again.

For those reading this that don't live in Connecticut, it was absolutely ridiculous how long it took CL&P to restore power to everyone. Sure, there was a freak snowstorm in October that weighted down the leaves on everyone's trees, but regardless, you need to have a contingency plan in place for when storms happen. The fact that millions of people were without power for around a week is absurd.

For the first five nights or so, we toughed it out and slept in the living room. We got a fire going as hot as we could in the fireplace, and then would try to just sleep through the cold when it went out in the middle of the night.

Stan was with us a few nights, but his kennel was running a generator, so we were lucky enough to drop him off so we didn't have to worry about him at all.

We were also lucky that a few of our friends got power before us and were absolutely gracious enough to have us over. The Hoods hosted dinners for those that didn't have electricity for four straight nights and then Anne had us and the Martens crash at her place for three days/nights until we finally got the switch turned back on.

So, we're without power, Christi is forced to take 6 days of PTO (not really you're ideal vacation in a 50° house all day/night) and we're paying an arm and a leg to keep our dog happy for a week. So what's the bright side?

I bought a chainsaw.

Instead of paying an arborist $250/hr. to cut down and haul away our tree, I went out and bought an inexpensive chainsaw and Ben and I did it ourselves.

Unfortunately, we lost the front half of an absolutely gorgeous tree in the back of our house. But the bright side is that it's extremely fun to use a chainsaw. In doing so, I saved a lot of money as well as storing a lot of new firewood for next winter.

The really good news is that we were able to pay our friends back as we went to the Hoods and Anne's houses and chopped down some trees that they had in their yards as well, so that way we didn't feel like we were just mooching off of our friends for an entire week.

All in all, this week absolutely sucked. However, Christi and I kept a very positive spin on it that helped out immensely. Just don't be surprised if you get wood chips or firewood for your Christmas presents this year.

Tree on Wire

Saturday was absolutely crazy. We heard that Connecticut was expecting 8-12 inches of snow in October(!) and at first Christi and I thought it would be cool to have some snow this early. Then we learned a very important lesson about how things work: Leaves need to fall off trees before snow can fall.

Our once mighty oak in the front yard had all of its branches just bending over and swooping to the ground. Then it happened, they started cracking under the weight of the heavy snow and crashing to the ground.

When the first one fell and the snow was still coming down pretty thick, we decided to go out and take a picture with it. At the time, we were laughing because a hurricane blew through two months earlier and all we lost was branch one third of the size. We really didn't know what to expect moving forward.

After our friends canceled their Halloween party Saturday night, we kept watching more and more huge branches crash to the ground. Then we noticed that a few huge branches were starting to hang right above our power line (as well as cable and and telephone lines). As we saw the branch cracking in half, we just were under the assumption that we were going to have to do deal with the fact that it was going to rip down all three lines and we would be without power for at least a week until they could hook them back up.

After it started getting dark (maybe it seemed darker since we lost power around 5pm), we heard a huge thud in the front yard. The cable line was stripped to the ground, via our siding, and the telephone line was snapped off (no huge deal as we don't have a landline).

So, we were thankful that the power line was still in tact and we had the hope that if power was restored we could at least get it. Even at the expense of the limb catching on fire at the same time. Then ... we heard another large crack. We go out and find a massive limb teetering on our power line. No way for it to fall because of how it broke off and how it was hanging.

At this point, it's getting dark and cold since we haven't had power for the past five hours or so. Christi and I decided to keep the fire going that we started during the Nebraska game and sleep in the living room for the night since our house is without heat.

Throughout the night, you could hear trees and branches snapping from all over the neighborhood and just thumping against the ground when they eventually fell over. Every time we heard this, we'd sprint to the front window to make sure it wasn't one of ours and that our power line was still barely holding on.

Around 3am, we were both awoken to a massive crashing sound. Like before, we sprint up to the window and the front yard looks exactly the same. We just figured it was someone else's yard as we couldn't see anything.

Then Stan needed to go out around 4.30am and Christi very nicely offered to wake up and take him out. Then I get woken up to her saying, "So ... there's a massive tree in our backyard." It was so dark that it looked like one of the pine trees from our neighbors yard behind us fell over and crashed into our yard. Luckily, it missed the house and the garage and we said we would just try to get some more sleep and assess the damage in the morning.

When the sun came out, we were able to see that it was our tree laying in our backyard. We absolutely love this tree (check out those awesome highlighter colors!) and it basically snapped in half.

Sunday was basically a clean up day. We still have some wires hanging in the street and are currently going on day three without power.

Unfortunate timing as today is Halloween. The Governor didn't want to get ostracized from Connecticut, so he said that he wasn't going to officially cancel Halloween, but that everyone could go out at their own risk. Now who's going to send they kids out with live power lines down in everyone's yards?

I tell you what. If you are coming down Rumford trick-or-treating tonight, we're handing out extra candy to those dressed up as CL&P workers, lumberjacks, clean up crews, etc.

Photos are up.

A night with Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle

Some people know that I absolutely love comedians. For those that don't, when I was in high school, I used to stay at home Friday nights (when everyone else was out partying) just so I could watch Comedy Central's Friday Night Stand Up. What's a comedy lover to do when DVR didn't exist back then?

So when Dheerja and I went to a conference in NYC last year, she told me the best place to go was the Comedy Cellar. We went for a show while we were in town and it was absolutely awesome. The best part is that there are always tales about big name comedians dropped in announced to try out new bits for their next show.

We were back in the city on Thursday for a career fair at Columbia on Friday. With this, we decided to catch the 10pm show (8pm and midnight were the other options). I really wanted to catch the 8pm show because out of all three, it was the only show that had a comedian I was really familiar with. Todd Barry was the biggest name, and I absolutely love him, but it just didn't work out time wise.

So we see the 10pm show and put us in the front row (obviously the seats for mad ridicule for those that have been to a comedy show before ... especially at a place like this where the comedians don't hold anything back). After watching three of our first five comedians, the emcee comes out and says, "Our next performer, star of the Broadway show 'Motherf**ker with a Hat' ... CHRIS ROCK!"

The Comedy Cellar just lost it. And I couldn't believe it. There we were, five feet away from Chris Rock. He came out with a few sheets of paper on new things he was working on and performed for about 45 minutes. It was absolutely awesome. As he walked off to what felt like ten constant minutes of applause, the emcee came back on stage.

"Well, that was a treat, wasn't it?" he asked everyone. "So how do you follow up that? ... Well, ladies and gentlemen ... Dave Chappelle." We all looked around and no Dave Chappelle, then he continued, "ha ha ha, just kidding. You really think that could happen? But in all seriousness, ladies and gentlemen .... Dave Chappelle."

We turn around again, and sure enough, Dave Chappelle walks on to the stage smoking a cigarette. He performed for an hour and a half(!) and just seemed like he didn't want to ever leave the stage. When he was finally done, they kicked us out because they midnight show was waiting to get in. For over and hour and a half.

For twelve dollars, I will never get the comedic value that I got Thursday night. I can only be so happy that I was in the right place at exactly the right time this week.

The quest for 120' from Dogfish Head

I feel like Captain Ahab ... I found my great white whale.

I want to say that it's been at least a year and a half since I've tasted the hoppiest beer on the planet. When Brew Masters debuted last November, that really didn't help anything either as everyone now wanted to get their hands on some 120. Great for DFH, bad for me and the rest of the fans out there.

Yesterday, our buddy Jimmy out at Manchester Wine and Liquor, sent out an email with the new daily beers available. At the bottom of the list was the words we've been waiting for: "Dog Fish 120 IPA - (Sorry - Limit 2 btls)." At $8-9 dollars a bottle you can't really buy a ton of them. Right?

The journey began by calling all of the package stores in West Hartford so we didn't have to make the drive through Hartford across the river. Of course, no one had any, so we set out. Upon arrival, we learned they were already out. Of course they were. Since we showed up 6+ hours after the email was sent, we weren't exactly surprised because of the rarity of this beer. We didn't know the night was just beginning.

We definitely asked the right person there because he told us to call M&R down the road to see if they had anything. With two M&R's close, Scott called both. The first was all secretive about it and said we could only have 1 bottle. The second was more relaxed and just said, "yeah, we still have some."

With that, we drove to the second store. When we got there, a guy walked us to his back room saying he had a few 4-packs left in the only case they had. We opened the box and saw three 4-packs. Absolutely amazing.

Before we could start celebrating, we asked how much these would set us back. He said, "I'm not sure, we can ring them up. I heard they are pretty expensive ... something like eight or nine dollars." Then he paused and said, "that's got to be for the 4-pack, not for a bottle, that'd be ridiculous." Scott and I knew it was for the bottle, not a 4-pack. Even as we walked to the front desk, he looked in the cooler and pointed at the 90 minute 4-pack, for $9, and said, "it's going to be comparable to that."

We get to the front desk, and he rings up all three 4-packs as $8.99. Both Scott and I tried not to say anything and leave the store as quickly as possible. We got into the car, celebrated, then drove home.

What should have cost us somewhere in the vicinity of $130 only cost $28.83. In a roller-coaster type of night where we weren't sure if we would get any, we got three times as much as we originally thought for a mere fraction of the price. A once in a life opportunity for sure.

In our first stop, I picked up a 60' and 90' as well and am going to do 4.5 hours of DFH this weekend and see if I can take them all down before I either pass out or Christi has to take me to the hospital. I'm sure I'll be in sweet bliss no matter what happens.

Cheers.

11 years of dating ...

... we still can't keep our eyes off of each other.

Not that we hold much precedence to this anniversary since we have a much better one to look forward to every year, but it's cool to say that we've both been together for more than one third of our lives.

It begins

It's finally time ...

The greatest night of baseball ... ever

Are you kidding me?

Seriously, are you kidding? Never in my life would I think to write that a day that the Braves lose one of the largest September playoff leads in MLB history would turn out to be the greatest day of baseball that I will probably ever witness in my life.

Starting with the NL, the Cardinals destroyed the worst team in the majors to put the pressure on the Braves. This worked. The Braves squandered two late leads, even blowing a lead in the 9^th with only one out to go. Atlanta ended up losing in 13 innings and definitely reminded me of when they lost the 18 inning thriller to the Astros in the 2005 NLDS.

So you have and absolute collapse in the NL and a very, very good game that went to extras. Even though the Braves lost, I looked past this and just said this was great for the game of baseball to have a game with playoff implications go to extra innings. This was because looking at the other scores, nothing was too interesting. At least at that point ....

Boston and Baltimore were in a rain delay for most of the night and the Rays were down 7-0 to the Yankees in the 8^th. Then the night started getting fun. The Rays somehow find a way to score 6 in the bottom half of the inning capped off by Longoria's three run shot.

At this point my remote control was getting tired wishing it was in a rain delay. Once the delay ends in Baltimore, the Red Sox were clinging to a one run lead trying to close it out. Then the Rays kept chopping away at the lead.

Bottom of the 9^th. 2 outs. 2 strikes. Dan Johnson up to the plate. Yes, the same Dan Johnson that was a former Husker. Yes, the same Dan Johnson that is in the greatest YouTube clip of all time. Yes, that Dan Johnson. That Dan Johnson ends up hitting a solo shot to send the games to extra.

Alternating pitches between the two games, I get fixated on watching Papelbon trying to close out the game with a one run lead. Just like the Dan Johnson drama, the Orioles are down to their last out. Two consecutive doubles later, the game is tied.

Flip back to the Rays game.

Fans start going absolutely crazy watching the scoreboard seeing that the Red Sox blew the lead.

Flip back to the Red Sox game.

A line drive to left is bobbled and the Orioles win the game in walk-off style. Their celebrate like they won the World Series and have something to actually cheer about in their town since Cal Ripken retired.

Flip back to the Rays game (only one still going at this point).

Fans find out that the Red Sox won and start going absolutely nuts. No more than three minutes later, Longoria steps up again and hits a walk off home run to send the Rays to the playoffs.

Let me reiterate. I never, ever thought I would say that a day where the Braves lost a game to make the playoffs and capped off the biggest collapse in franchise history would be my favorite day to watch baseball, but it absolutely was. It's one of those nights that I couldn't be more happy that I was waiting to launch our MLB playoff package on ESPN.com and was able to experience all of these amazing games.

This will go down as the greatest day in my baseball watching/consuming history. I really can't imagine how it gets better than this. Try to prove me wrong MLB ... I'm all for it.