O Christmas Tree

Here's a picture of our tree and the girls. I went to a tree place and looked at a price tag. The first one I looked at... Well first some background. We just moved down from Michigan. Where trees grow on trees. Where I refused to pay more than like $25 for a tree. I would talk to people and ask if they knew anyone. I would drive down dirt roads looking for people selling them. The last couple of years I bought them from a really old guy who lived off in nowhereville. I'd always buy the ones that had been cut a few days so they were cheaper. So anyways back to the story...The first one I looked at had a price tag that said 155.00. I figured it was a mistake because I thought I'd seen some at Lowe's for 15.00. So I moved on to the next one. It was over 100 as well. The cheapest scraggly one I saw there was more than $60! So I went to Lowe's. The one I ended up buying was $40. Which seemed like a steal after the first place. Now that I think about it the first place was probably a front for Lowe's so that people wouldn't mind paying $40. You win this time Lowe's.

A nice welcome home

When we left Myrtle Beach it was 66 degrees. When we got home it was in the 20s and I still had to run. It was way slippery. But I was able to do an ok pace. The wind was pretty cold. This is what it looked like this morning.

Myrtle Beach Thanksgiving

Ok I promised pictures from the beach. I guess I should follow through. The girls and their cousings got their hair and makeup done for birthdays. Luckily I missed out on that.

We all went putt putting after that. It's becoming a Laura birthday tradition, at least when we're in a warm weather place for the birthday.

And of course we went to the beach. The girls loved playing with their cousins and in the water.

One last one just so you can laugh at me. This is my bucket of crab legs.

Notre Dame Football

It sounds like Weis will be back. South Bend TV is reporting it. I'm also hearing it from a few other places. I bet he hires Romeo Crennel to run the defense. Woohoo. I'm so excited. Another season of mediocrity or worse.

Will you lend me some money?

Ok. I've had enough. I've been patient. I've always said give him time, let him get his players. This is too much. Last week they almost lost to Navy. This week they lost to Syracuse. How bad is Syracuse? They lost to Akron. This is only their third win of the year. They are bad enough that they already fired their coach but he's there for the rest of the year. So here's the deal. I'm done giving time. I don't care who your players are you have to beat Syracuse. So now I'm ready to fire Charlie. But here's the problem. Notre Dame signed him to a ridiculous 10 year 40 million dollar contract. So it's going to take at least 10 million to fire him. Someone call Regis and see if he's willing to pitch in.

The day after the election

I know I know. I'm supposed to be ticked off and hoarding food in my bunker and all that stuff. But I'm not. Instead I'm choosing to be hopeful. I tried to stay up last night and listen to Obama's speach but I didn't last much longer than McCain's. I remember thinking how bad I felt for the Palin's, they have to go back to Alaska. I also found it weird that I heard the announcement on Comedy Central. Maybe someday I'll grow up and watch the real news. So here's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping that the nation rallies behind Obama like they did behind Reagan. I'm hoping that some of the things we were told about Obama are things that were misrepresented or are from his past and he's matured past them. I'm hoping that all of us learn from all of this and both Republicans and Democrats will really start doing things that are in the best interest of our nation and not our friends or our voting districts. I'm hoping Obama picks some people for his staff that know a lot and aren't just friends of his. This is what I'd love to see in the future. I'd love to see someone humble run for office. A guy (or gal) who isn't afraid to admit he doesn't know it all but will surround himself with the right people. I'd love to see him pick those people ahead of time and run as a group. Be willing to say that these are the people that are going to help me make decisions. To admit he doesn't know everything about finances and so here's a guy like Steve Forbes to run with me. Or I don't know everything about foreign affairs and so here's so and so to run with me. I think it would be good to know who a president is going to pick before we elect him. Anyways. There's some ramblings. I have enough faith not to be worried about it. So I really am hopeful.

IU Football

I had the chance to go to an IU football game this last Saturday. High School football killed most of my opportunities to go to college games so I was ready. It was my first time to Bloomington. Another stadium to check off the list. This was great. We had incredible seats. Here's the view.

We also had passes to a suite. Which we only used to get free food. On the way to the suite Coach Hep's widow walked by. In the suite there was chicken, steamed vegetables, lasagna, garlic bread, cookies, brownies, and drinks. I had the chicken and the zucchini/peppers/onions. I also had a cookie and a brownie. It was pretty good. But I had to go pay for the traditional brat afterwards. Maybe it was because I waited until after the 3rd quarter but it ranked very low on the list. The bread was crusty and the brat was chewy.

Central Michigan won the game. After the game we went over to Assembly Hall and walked right down to the floor and sat in the courtside seats until the usher came and kicked us out. I'm going back down there Friday for a basketball game. That should be great.

So here's my observations.

1. I'm not used to a stadium with that many empty seats.

2. The drive down to Bloomington is beautiful.

3. Getting in and out of the stadium is very easy, but some of that may have to do with the empty seats.

4. The seats were incredible and passes to a suite kicks major butt.

Politics

I have grown tired of politics and try to avoid the subject. You won't hear me blog about it much but I thought of something the other day. One of the things that bugs me the most is that it seems you have to be a millionaire to get elected. That's dumb because the guy that is representing us never knew what it was like to be us. Most of them even inherited their money. But as I was hearing someone complain about Palin getting a $150,000 wardrobe I was struck by something. The reason they had to buy her the wardrobe is because she isn't rich. There's actually a chance that someone who isn't a millionaire might become president. How weird would it be to have a normal person be president?

The end of the road

The weak points of our football team were exposed again in a big way this last Friday. Our special teams stink and we cannot put a team away. The game started out scary. Our starting quarterback was injured on the first play from scrimmage. Our backup came in and switched to an option offense and he ran the team down the field and scored on our first possession. We held on defense but ended up backed up against our own endzone. We then fumbled on the 3. It didn't take long to give up a score from there. We were able to score again and were up 14-7. Things were looking good but we blew a chance to go into halftime up 21-7 but threw an interception in the endzone and instead went in 14-7. In the second half things just kind of continued on that weird pace. We had opportunities to score but didn't. We put our starting qb in but he had his worst game of the year. The score was tied late in the third quarter when our long snapper put the snap on the ground. Our punter picked it up and tried to run for the first down getting close but falling short. We gave the ball up with incredibly great field position and they took advantage and tied it. We put together a decent drive in the 4th and ended up in that dreaded position where punting is a waste but you can't make a field goal. So we went for it and failed. The score was still tied when we gave up the ball with 3:28 left to play. Our best defensive player got hurt and they took advantage of a backup db. Eventually they scored with 51 seconds left. They missed the extra point so it was 20-14. We were able to move the ball down the field and were on the 18 with 30 seconds left. We spiked the ball on first down to stop the clock. Something that we shouldn't have had to do with the whole clock stoppage to move the chains but I'm just a volunteer assistant. Second down was a waste. Third down should have been a completion down around the 5 but our tight end dropped it. And fourth down was an incomplete pass. Game over, season over.

Final Regular Season Game

To end the regular season, we played a team who's only win came on a forfeit. The other team played an ineligible player. We gave up way too many yards. 282 rushing yards. But we had 462 and 8 touchdowns. We did that with 39 plays. That's an average of more than 11 yards per snap. But we were supposed to win this game and win it big. We did win 53-16. It was nice to have some players back. Next week sectionals start. We have to go back to the team we beat in week 5. It was close last time and will not be an easy game this time.

Another week another game

This was a fun one for me. The starting quarterback for the team we were playing comes to our church. He's a really nice kid who is the top qb in our county. He's 5th in the state in passing yards. Unfortunately his defense is awful. They've won one game the past two years. We had our problems on defense in this game as well. Our leading tackler was suspended a game for cussing in class. Between injuries and suspensions we had 5 defensive starters out by the end of the game. It was a shootout. We had a wide receiver end up with 129 yards and 4 touchdowns, a running back with 256 yards, and the freshman I keep talking about had 73 yards and a touchdown before he got hurt. The final score ended up being 40-35.

This one is for mom

She's wanting something posted and would prefer it wasn't football. So I'll tell you about my busy day off yesterday. I started with a breakfast meeting in Indy at 8:30. Which is way too early for me on a day off. I was late because I couldn't find the restaurant. But I finally made it. I came home and mowed the lawn and then it was time for practice. Practice went ok but we found out that our leading tackler was suspended for cussing in class. After practice I ate supper and took the girls to Laura's soccer practice. After practice I took the girls to Crazy J's. We split a couple scoops of Cookies and Cream and walked across the street to play at the park. Steph was at choir practice. We then went home and I made the girls run sprints in the backyard. They need to get in shape and get faster. I need to get in shape. I ran with them. Then I put them to bed and watched football and baseball and fell asleep on the couch. So there you go.

The rest of the catchup

We had to go play the best team of our conference. It started poorly. If you remember, the starting qb got hurt the week before. He was going to play but the backup was going to play in this game as well. Well the backup missed the bus. He got a ride and showed up late but it set a bad tone that we weren't able to change. The first series was quickly ended by an interception. The defense held but after the punt we had bad field position. That was quickly made worse by our qb trying to scramble. He got taken down at the 1. We punted and the punt was returned for a td. That was the end. We fell apart and got killed. Our qb played scared, missing all kinds of passes and it didn't take long for the rest of the team to give up. We had a running clock in the second half and still lost 49-0. The thing that really ticked me off was listening to the guys in the locker room talk about how the team that had just beaten us wasn't that big, fast, and good. Well then what does that say about us? Thank goodness we'll start getting some players back soon. The final two more regular season games before sectionals start should be easy wins. We're now 4-3.

Quick catch up

Ok this will be brief and I'm sorry for that but I need to catch you up in a hurry. We were having some huge problems with our kicking game. We started kicking towards the sidelines and were putting some out of bounds. This means we gave the other team the ball on the 35. Which was better than what was happening when we actually kicked to them. We were ahead at halftime 19-14. After halftime the head coach asked a couple of assistants, not including me, whether to kick to them or kick out of bounds. Both assistants said to kick to them. They returned that opening kick for a touchdown and the 2 point conversion gave us the final score of 22-19. In the third quarter our starting qb went down and that killed any hope we had of a comeback. That left us at 4-2.

OK Burrill here you go

Week 5 had us going to a big rival. This is a team that our group of seniors have never beaten. One of the three teams we weren't supposed to have a chance to beat. The first half was a slugfest during which our offensive line totally forgot how to play football. We went into the half fortunate to be up 3-0. The head coach took the line outside and talked with them while the defensive coordinator staged a meltdown in the locker room. We came out in the second half and played much better. Our punter saved us twice though. One snap went over his head and after he chased it down, he did a running kick that ended up gaining 38 yards. Later when we were up 10-7, there was another bad snap that he pulled down and ran for a 30 yard gain and a first down. We ended up scoring on that drive and going up 17-7. Then in the 4th quarter our punter/place kicker/kicker/wide receiver/cornerback intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown to go up 24-7 with 1:45 left. And then we did what we do against good teams, let them back in. It only took 30 seconds for the home team to score making it 24-14. They then kicked onsides, recovered, and scored again using 22 seconds. They missed the extra point so it was 24-20 and there was 52.9 seconds left. We fell on the last onsides kick and we were able to run the clock out after that. So we are now 4-1. Our next game is against a team that is relatively new to our conference. They joined in 2000 and have won evertime we've played outscoring us 348-28.

700 billion. That's a lot of cheeseburgers

700 billion dollars. I can't really wrap my mind around the idea of that much money. Is it really going to solve anything or just postpone the problem? I don't see how it fits into capitalism and free market ideas. Read this article and tell me what you think.

Football week 4

Week 4 was much better than week 3. No overtime or chance of overtime. It was a 40-0 victory. The freshman I've been talking about got 6 carries. One was a 64 yard touchdown. Another was a 30 yard touchdown. He had a 47 yarder called back because one of the wide receivers wasn't set when the ball was snapped. He lost yards on a couple of carries so he only finished with 89 yards. The game started with the defense holding and we took over on downs. Then the second offensive play was a 40 yard td pass. The next defensive series ended in a close interception and it was pretty much over after that. The first quarter ended 20-0. So now we're 3-1 and the team we lost in overtime to is now 4th in the state. Another test this week though. It should be fun.

Merge

This is what the field looked like during practice Thursday. I'm not sure what kind of traffic they are expecting.

Football week 3

Ohhh man. Week 3 brought #7 ranked Western to town. The talk was all about how Western had dominated this series for the last 10 years and about their huge defensive lineman who was being recruited by some Div. 1 teams. I just wanted to see how we'd play against some decent competition. On the opening kickoff our starting middle linebacker got injured. He was done for the game. Other than that the game started well and the guys figured out that the weren't playing against professionals. Earlier in the week one of the starting offensive tackles told us that he was done for the season. Some lousy excuse like being expelled. The new tackle looked like he was about to pee his pants but by halftime he was convinced that he was playing against jr. high girls. Right before halftime our defense made a mistake and left the slot man wide open. The quarterback saw it and threw quickly to his side but either it was a bad pass or the slot man wasn't ready and the corner intercepted it and returned it 85 yards for a touchdown. The score at halftime was 14-7. We had an unexpected lead and the boys were feeling good. Nobody scored in the third and with 6:11 left in the 4th we scored to go up 21-7. We were feeling good. Too good. We went conservative. I hate going conservative. Western scored with 3:54 to play. We tried to run the clock and punted with 1:41 to play. Western scored on a big screen to tie the game and we lost in overtime. Up 14 with 4 minutes left and left with heartache. It was sickening. The good thing though is that the guys know they can play with anybody. This is a team that last year was 6-5 and the year before was 5-7 and in 05/06 was 1-9. So it's a huge confidence boost for them.

Football week 2

Ok I know I should've posted this earlier but here's how the game went. Horrible. I've never seen anything like it. We had 26 penalties for 202 yards. The other team had 6 penalties. Here's the crazy part. We still won 33-6. We rotate two tailbacks and one of them really was playing well. He broke his leg sometime during the game. He scored a touchdown after that but he's done for our season. This means we'll be seeing some of the freshman that has been impressive. He probably would've started if he hadn't skipped practice Wednesday. This week we'll finally be tested. Top 10 ranked Western is coming. Yikes. I hope we play better than last week.