It was a busy weekend around our house. On Friday, Lisa’s parents arrived for a visit. Naturally, Friday night was spent opening all the presents from that side of the family. None for me (apparently it’s on its way in the mail), but Ellie and Lisa enjoyed theirs. Evan too, for as much as he can.
On Saturday, we ventured downtown before Gerald Ford’s funeral started to see the trains at the National Botanical Garden. It was a short trip, but fun, since Ellie loved the trains. Later that day, I took the plunge and splurged, thanks to a gift card from work, on an HD tuner card for my computer. If it works well, it could morph into a Tivo replacement some day. It worked well enough on Saturday night, and I was able to watch the Giants in glorious HD, as they defeated the hated Redskins to make the playoffs. Tom Coughlin: not a pretty guy in HD.
We had our traditional Chuck E. Cheese visit on New Year’s Eve, and Ellie damn near stayed up till midnight. She had a blast at “Chez Fromage,” especially at the spider stomping game. In the end, I was the only one still awake at midnight, as I rang in the New Year with a special beer.
Yesterday, we had a late start, and went out for breakfast before Lisa’s parents had to head home. We didn’t do a whole lot else, as I wasted much of the day trying to fine-tune the HD reception, and Ellie played with her new toys too. I’m definitely going to have to pick up a different antenna, because the cheap one I got from Home Depot isn’t working so great. I’m taking recommendations on antennas, as well as PVR software.
So the Giants managed to win against the Redskins, and will play Philly in the playoffs. In the crappy NFC, anything can happen, but Eli isn’t building confidence, and I doubt Tiki can run for 200+ yards every day. The Jets also made it in, and I think they have a good shot against the Patriots. It’ll be a good storyline anyway, the mentor versus the pupil once again.
The bowl games were setting up for a controversy. The Big Ten won two bowl games against SEC teams yesterday (Wisconsin over Arkansas, Penn State over Tennessee), but then Michigan blew it by getting smoked by USC. USC beat them with Dwayne Jarrett, same as they beat Notre Dame. You’d have thought Michigan would be ready for that. And Boise State, the Cinderella, finished undefeated in an awesome game against Oklahoma. I went to bed with them smoking OU near the end of the third quarter. It was 11:30pm, and it seemed to be going all Boise State’s way. I woke up this morning and saw the highlights that Boise State won in OT, thanks to multiple trick plays. Wow, too bad it went so damn late that most people on the East Coast didn’t see it.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte was pretty good, but not as good when you’re expecting a Gingerbread.
New Year’s Weekend
The D's 
What a great weekend for football!! With the NFL and the Bowl games I felt like I was watching March Madness action. I can’t remember ever being that into the NFL on the last weekend (especially) and some bowl games I otherwise couldn’t care less about. Starting with the Giants-Redskins on Saturday night when it seemed like the Giants were going to win by 30 and Tiki would run for 500 yards and 8 TDs, then as they seem to have done all year they let the Redskins back in and had Eli peeing his pants. Luckily Tiki saved the day for the offense. So an 8-8 team makes the playoffs, sad but what is funny is they could very easily win their first round!! Transition to Sunday where the Jets just needed to win to get in against the Raiders…OK, no big there so let’s look at the Chiefs. They needed 4 things to happen – Steelers over Bengals (happened in OT thanks to a missed FG at the end of regulation which looked like it was going right down the middle at first then ducked out by 15 – 20 feet), Patriots over Titans (probably most likely to happen, Young hadn’t seen many defenses and schemes like the Pats), 49ers over Broncos ( no chance with Denver at home, right?!? wrong, unbelievable OT game), and lastly or should have been firstly – the Chiefs had to beat the Jags (they can beat anyone and lose to anyone but playing at home it was almost a lock that they win this game). Somehow, some way the stars aligned and all those things happened. I should forward the emails from some of the guys out here and how they have been cursing the Chiefs and especially Herm. To quote one of the top pessimists(Jake A, the other not quoted yet – Mike S) real quick – “i don’t understand how anybody can honestly think this shot in hell is going to happen”. My comments were basically that you have no reason not to be optimistic with how things in the NFL have gone this year. So many teams had been up and down ANYTHING can happen. I think my shoulder just popped out as I was patting myself on the back. New Year’s Eve-ning had the “I can’t believe the Chiefs are in the playoffs” heard at least 50 times. So with that our friend Jeff will be tapping the unopened keg from New Year’s next Saturday.
Last and the BEST game of the weekend. After being let down by Michigan’s futility(not a fan, I just really wanted Michigan to win to add to controversy) I flipped on Boise State and Oklahoma. I didn’t think I would spend much time watching this game, I figured Oklahoma behind Adrian Peterson would crush Boise State. When I turned it on Boise State was up 14-7 so I was pleasantly surprised. I watched the rest of the game in its entirety. I could believe that OU came back and tied the game, being up 8 is a good situation for Boise State. Suddenly Paul Thompson decided he wanted to play in this game and made some pretty nice plays. The two point conversion series was pretty hilarious…First Thompson throws a fade, incomplete – no good – but wait Pass Interference!! Next, another fade but this time it was caught – point after good – but wait Illegal Shift!! Third try, going for another fade but it wasn’t open so Thompson came back to the middle and hit his receiver in the middle of the end zone!! wow. Boise State got the ball back with plenty of time to drive the field and get a field goal to win. Next thing you know – PICK SIX!!! Are you freaking kidding me!?!? OU now has the game locked up with 50 seconds and Boise State’s confidence completely shattered after totally choking!! Not so, Zabransky used his TE a lot and drilled a 25 yard pass across the middle and they are back alive. Next play SACK, game over again right?? Especially when it got to 4th and 18!! Nope, Zabransky hits his receiver about three yards short of the first down and five guys licking their chops waiting to drill him and end the game…THEN he laterals it, the hook and ladder WORKS and they score a freaking touchdown!!! WTF?!?! Now we get to OT and OU is soooo done right, they just pissed the game right back to BSU…Adrian Peterson 25 yards on the FIRST PLAY!!! Okay, BSU is now toast right? 4th down again and no way they can pull that off…Wrong, first down with a pass to that TE again(Schouman). so, here they are now inside the fifteen, phew. but they go right back to fourth down, what should they do for two yards. Hand it off, sneak it, play action option with the QB?? Nope, they go with the most reliable play in the book – the FLANKER OPTION!! No where to run for the two yards for sure, but who gets open?? TE Schouman!!! Said Flanker throws a perfect lob and they get the TD. BSU has to be happy to get to another OT so they are going to kick the game tying FG…WRONG again. they go for two, have to give the announcer credit for calling it right away. TO OU, they surely will come to their senses and kick. WRONG, they go for it. Gotta pass or run a draw right…Nope, empty handed pump fake and my favorite play from pee wee flag football, the Statue of Liberty for a SUCCESSFUL two point conversion and FIESTA BOWL WIN!!!! Hook and Ladder, Flanker Option Pass, Statue of Liberty = BOWL WIN AND UNDEFEATED SEASON.
CONGRATS BSU…I hope Zabransky gets a shot at the next level, he was fun to watch. And how about Mr Crochet and his proposal to his cheerleader girlfriend right after running for the game winning score?!?! AWESOME.
LikeLike