2nd Annual Big Red Invitational

Hurricane Irene did all she could to disrupt the second year of the golf tournament, but 13 out of the 20 original participants braved the conditions and golfed through the rain for 18 holes.

However, 18 holes wasn't enough to decide a champion as Ben and I were tied with Will and Mukul at that point. We played the 1st hole again as a playoff (without Mukul, who went to hockey) and as we battled through the downpour and the darkness, we stood there staring at Will having a 3' putt to win it all ... and it rimmed out. Personally, I think he was just being nice to us and missed it on purpose. With that, we decided to call it a draw, and now Will and I can say we won the very tournament that we put on every year.

Thanks to those that came out, it was amazing we were able to get 18 (or 19) holes in before the hurricane blows away the state of Connecticut tomorrow morning.

Another weekend on the Cape

This last weekend we headed up to the Cape to spend a nice relaxing weekend doing nothing but lounging around at the beach and playing some putt-putt golf (which Scott amazing hit three consecutive hole-in-one's ... and still finished dead last).

As with tradition (well, this only being our second year going with the Connor's), we fired up a delicious surf and turf dinner. Christi and I brought up some beef that we brought back from Nebraska in June and we got some fresh scallops and crab meat from a local place only a few minutes away. Probably one of the best homemade dinners I've had in quite some time.

Awesome Prince Amukamara coverage sign

Just saw this when looking through the Nebraska media guide for the Big Ten media days. Very creative sign(s) that I figured I'd share.

It's only 33 days until the first game. That's not too early to get pumped up, right?

We've become elitists

A few weeks ago, Ben saw that there was a polo match in Newport, RI for only $10 per person. Basically, bring your own food/drinks and have a good time.

Since the match didn't start until later in the evening, we hung out on the cliff walk and at the beach for a little bit. After staring at some mansions that were about the size of my home town, it was time to go watch the horses.

Since none of us had ever been to a polo match before, we really didn't know what to expect ... besides what we've all seen from Pretty Woman, of course. We knew coming in that there would be some high class people (those drinking the pink champagne on ice) as well as those coming to mock it (kind of like we did for Harvard v. Yale a few years back). We decided to play it up somewhere in the middle.

Bringing a card table and chairs turned out to be a great idea, as well as having some sandwiches and adult beverages on ice. We probably spent more time socializing than actually watching the match (which Kenya won), but the experience was amazing and we'll definitely be back.

Click the pic above for pics, or click here.

Reverse psychology at its finest

Who doesn't think watching Tosh.0 for 30 minutes a week doesn't pay off?

Enjoy:

Building a raised garden: my step-by-step guide

I've strung together other how to guides on fish taping your wall and renovating your bath (when you have no clue what you're doing), so here's one more:

First, you need to start off with a massive dirt pile that your wife absolutely hates. Why? Because when you show the final before and after pics right next to each other, it looks that much better. Personally, the dirt you accumulate from building your own patio works best.

Secondly, you need to move the dirt around the yard. You must get creative ... very creative in where you try to put everything so you don't create another one that Christi your wife complains about in the future.

Next, go out and get a bunch of lumber. I chose pretreated 2x6's so that I don't have to worry about them rotting in the ground. However, pretreated lumber isn't that appealing on the eyes, so spend some money and stain it. I went with six 2x6x12's. I cut two of the boards in half and used them as the short sides so our garden is 12'x6'.

After borrowing Scott's milk crates and circular saw to cut the 4x4 (thanks again, by the way), I began building the bed upside down. I created the two ends first and then attached the 12' long sides.

Now this was the tough part. Christi and I had to carry the garden, fully assembled, from our garage to the back yard. When we went through the side fence, we had to turn it upright, and Christi could barely reach the top of it as we walked through. However, she pushed on as this is something she told me she wanted ever since I ripped up the yard to install a patio last year. When I built the patio, I bought a pickaxe that I thought I would never use again in my life. However, I dug out the 8" deep posts in about two minutes because I kept it around in the shed. You can use a shovel, but, man, this was so much easier.

Finally, we went out and bought all of the vegetables for the garden. Confused as to how this could cost so much more than just the price of lumber to construct the entire thing, I'm sure I'll be thankful later this summer as we're able to eat some fresh food whenever we want ... Stan included. When we had a garden in Omaha, we caught him all the time eating our tomatoes and jalepenos.

We also have some nice modern herb pots from C&B, so we are dedicating these to things that we'll want to easily pick whenever we're throwing a dinner together. Yes, the smaller one is a pot dedicated to growing mint for julep's on the 4th of July. We only have a month left, so hopefully we didn't plant these too late.

At the end of the day, I couldn't be happier as to how everything turned out. Making it even better? Having your wife even more pumped than you are. Now we just hope it survives without us when we head out in a week for my sister's wedding.

Unbelievable seats at Yankee Stadium

A big thanks to a few ESPN3 guys who didn't want to sit in the rain as I was able to experience baseball at a whole different level on Sunday night.

It's one thing to attend a Red Sox//Yankees game, but it's another to see the game from ten rows up behind home plate.

Pictures for the game are up.

My wife is cheating on Facebook

That's right. My wife is cheating on Facebook. I would love to say it's with my awesome site, but it's with her new fad: Pinterest.com

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and this website is about as simple as it gets. Basically it's just a little JS snippet that strips a website for all of its tags and lets you insert that, with a link and a short description of things that you think are awesome on the web.

From what I've seen from Christi and heard her say about some of her friends, it's about as addictive as anything else out there. So if you need a break from The Facebook, BrianHelge.com or any other website out there, Christi will personally vouch for it and probably send you an invite if you ask nice enough.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can even see a cute dog on there every now and then.

Taste of Nebraska - New York 2011

There really is nothing like having a Runza and some Val's pizza on a random weekend in New York. This past Friday and Saturday Christi and I went took the train down with Ben and Patty to go experience the Taste of Nebraska here on the east coast.

Put on by the New York Husker alumni chapter, they fly in fresh Runzas, Val's pizza, east campus ice cream, Fairbury hot dogs, kolaches, etc. Basically it's a way to curb our appetites for some Nebraska delicacies without taking a three hour plane ride back home. We went down and met up with Andy Miller, who used to live down the street from Ben and I, and surprisingly enough there were four people from Seward in attendance.

Besides the main event, we actually went down to The City a day earlier to grab some good things to eat/drink and just hang out for a little bit. We were extremely impressed with the Irish Rogue and we'll have to make a plan to go down to NYC for a game this year and see how their watch parties compare to Meriden.

Pictures are up here.

Royal Flush: Prince is coming to a venue near us

The Giants selected Prince Amukamara with the 19^th pick of the 2011 NFL Draft. Ben, Patty, Christi and I are heading down to the Taste of Nebraska this weekend and we'll be sure to say hi if we see him out and about.

We'll be sure to say hi to his sisters Princess, Precious, Promise, Peace and Passionate if they're around too. Think I'm making those names up? No not at all.

Pictures of us stuffing our faces with Val's and Runzas soon to follow ...