Monday

Blogging is a bit difficult in the middle of an FFF weekend.

The size of the Hawkeye victory on Saturday was a big surprise, even to Iowa fans, I think.  MSU followers were in shock.  The second half was nothing but time marching to the inevitable conclusion, and the exodus from the stadium began in earnest by the end of the third quarter.

1.01 was the hit of our tailgate party.  Shock!  She did fine, but she (and her Mom) were glad to be on the road after the half.  1 and 1.1 are learning the challenges of dealing with a mobile toddler.  In another month or two, she'll be a real handful. 

The tailgate party was fun.  3 delivered the car to the appropriate spot (Thanks, Roy!) around 11AM, and the rest of us parked a few blocks away, hoofing it to the stadium-side, preferred parking spot, less than 50 yards from the entry gate.  LtPC fired up the grill, and our crew and guests enjoyed a classic BBQ lunch.  Suite.  Once the game started, a van in an adjacent spot had a big screen TV viewable by us, so those without tickets had great seats for the game as well.

3 and 4 (Herky and other friends) hung out at the car for some post-game de-briefing, and then it was off to CR for the evening.  I remain tremendously unimpressed with the city's (or the University's ?) egress strategies (actually, lack of strategies) for departure traffic.  Why wouldn't you post some rent-a-cops at key intersections and keep the flow moving rather than rely on street lights?  (Roy said that they ran into the same bottle-necks at lights like we did.)  I mean, its not like the U didn't ring up several million in income for the day.  You can't pay a few guys $15/hr for a couple of hours to orchestrate an exit plan?

The TV presentation had about a 5-7 second delay from the actual game, so the roar of the crowd gave us a "heads up" that something good was about to appear on the TV.  The delay had to do with the signal going from the camera to the satellite dish to Bristol, CT, and then back to the TV from the local provider. 3's friend Herky's dad works for the UI Communications Department and was describing the technology of it all.

I am advised by 3 and 4 that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Check it out: www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano.   The website is down right now, due to traffic, I suspect.  3 and 4 are threatening to participate.

Like most other adults with a pulse, I'm anxious to get to November 3rd.  The political ads are just overwhelming the viewer at this point.  More than any election that I can remember, the negative ad is likely to have the opposite effect.  If So-and-So's campaign smears their opponent with factoids from 30 years ago and gay/molester/hater/racist innuendo (or worse), the electorate may just say, "Enough!" and go vote for that other guy.  Not a bad choice from my perspective.

Bad Carma has taken up residency in South Bend.  Navy. Death of a student videographer.  QB down.  TE down.  RB down. Tulsa. Utah and USC on the horizon?  Touchdown Jesus needs to put on some shoulder pads.

Cliff Lee gets a shot at reclaiming his mantle as Best Post-Season Pitcher tonight for the Rangers. He was certainly off his marks in Game 1.  I say he get it done tonight in Arlington.  But Texas does need to score a couple of runs in his support.

I'm headed out for my Monday Night With The Winniferous.  Could that be a book title? 

(BTW, when we ran yesterday, it was around Vander Veer Park (four times) to, 1) get the feel for the TT route, and 2) to avoid the Bettendorf trick or treaters! The W went bananas over the rodents working the fallen nuts in the park!  The run brought back memories from our evening walks there from the Scott Street house..a few lifetimes ago.)

More later.

BCOT