Cats and Dogs

Saturday night, Linda and I went to our first Drake men's basketball game as they hosted the University of Northern Iowa in a Missouri Valley clash that could go a long way toward determining the mythical state championship. The Panthers and Bulldogs both had beaten Iowa and Iowa State so a win here would be a big step toward the title. Because these two face each other once more, tonight wouldn't settle it.

The game was closely contested throughout the first half with the advantage probably going to the Panthers. After a very high energy, highly entertaining drum and dance company, the Bulldogs began a methodical series of possesions that produced points and stingy defense that denied UNI. As the minutes wound down, the Drake lead crept further ahead. In the end, the 'dogs won 74-61 and the students stormed the court to celebrate with their coach, Dr. Tom Davis, and victorious team.

The Knapp Center was filled to the rafters and rocked with cheers for either team. It was one of the most entertaining games we'd seen.

Hurry up...

... and wait.

Yesterday, I was travelling home after a week of training and this image summed up the whole experience. Air travel during winter in the Midwest just seems to be a lot of waiting. Even on the plane, it's mostly just waiting to get back off.

Similarly, we often receive training when it's convenient to be trained, not when you're likely to get to apply what you've just learned. We learned a lot of interesting concepts and a fairly complicated tool to help implement those ideas. The question now is when will we use what parts of it.

Sorry there aren't any better pictures or tales to be told. It was just classroom, cafeteria, hotel, and a couple of restaurants.

Laisseez les bon temps roulez!

Let the good times roll! The Chicago Bears are heading to the Super Bowl! Amazing as that sounds given the critical review they were so often subjected to, they just keep rollin' along. There have been some major bumps along the way but the team seems to generally rise to the occasion. Yesterday was no exception. The Bears stunned all the pundits by beating the Saints 39-14. The Chicago defense allowed two scores while scoring four takeaways. The offense committed the only penalty, a false start, but registered nearly two hundred yards running the ball. Rex Grossman, flawed as he has been, played an excellent game; I've not heard any criticism of him yet.

As an added treat, my brother's Colts will face the Bears. While there may have been something interesting in rematching the Super Bowl XX Patriots, I'll enjoy the family aspect of this one. As usual, the Bears enter this game as the underdog. When will they learn? ; )

Shakespearean Godfather

Tonight, Linda and I revisited the story of Antonio Andolini's boy Vito, also known as Don Vito Corleone, told in the style of William Shakespeare. An interesting idea translated surprisingly well to a cast of eight local talents on a small stage with no real breaks of any kind. The non-stop presentation went smoothly and did an impressive job of covering the bases of the three hour epic told by Coppola in 1972 in half the time. The small cast meant that nearly every player played many roles. It was very helpful to have recently seen the movie to keep the characters straight. Like the movie, the hits just kept coming. Unlike the movie, the gunplay was converted to swords and daggers. From time to time, to deal with certain challenges or to reduce the overall length, some scenes were reduced to narrative accounts of what happened elsewhere. Noticably lighter than the movie, this play had us smiling more often than not.

The Theater for a Change has an interesting schedule coming up. I'll be keeping my eyes open for other opportunities to help keep them going.

Sledding!

Evidently I was there too early in the morning. When I returned in the afternoon, the sledding hill just south of the capitol building was covered with kids of all... well... many ages. It was bitterly cold, still around twelve degrees, with a brisk wind but these kids were having a blast. I had fun capturing these images as well. The hill is pretty tall and smooth with two good bumps built right into it. When the sledders and snow boarders clear the first bump, they're scooting right along for the second bump. As you can see from the photos down the middle, it's pretty common to leave the ground for that one. As you can see in the center picture, not all of the sledders finish on their sleds.

Uncomfortably Numb

Brrrr! While the first snow of the year may be photogenic, more often than not, it arrives during some of the least favorable picture taking times of the year. This morning, I braved the elements and went looking for some nice images to share with my warmer and wiser friends and family.

The first place I stopped, I chatted briefly with a man who going cross country skiing and bad brought his dog out to play in the snow. They're in the upper right image heading off into the woods.

Next, I went downtown to see what was happening at the outdoor ice arena. With temperatures reported to be twelve degrees (that's twenty below freezing!), I didn't know what kind of crowd they'd have. There were a few cars parked in the area but the ice was being dressed by the zamboni. Evidently, they expected skaters ... and I think they were right! You can see the zamboni and the shelter house in the lower left portion of the lower right image. (Confusing?)

Finally, I headed down by the river and got a nice shot of the flow coming around a bend. It makes up the left edge of the image I posted. In the trees directly across the river from where I took this shot, I had seen six large brown lumps that could have been birds but they looked big enough to be raccoons, big raccoons. Before I got out of the car, I'd been able to line one of them up with a tree trunk in the background. As I had hoped, these were bald eagles! When I got out of the car, four of them took flight and cut some beautiful sweeping turns against the grey sky. As I pulled out the legs on the tripod, the remaining pair took off as well. Brown lumps when perched, they're impressive in flight. That was a real treat for me.

It's nice to be in from the cold now but it was nice to be out in the fresh snow this morning.

Da Bears!

Whew! Sunday afternoon is over and the dream lives on! The Chicago Bears won in the first round of the playoffs for the first time in a looong time. The Seahawks gave 'em all they'd want in a game and did it did take overtime to resolve but the Bears prevailed. The defense kept the Seahawks under control most of the time. Shaun Alexander did make some nice runs but he was also often stopped too. Special teams paid off well too. It was apparent that return specialist Devon Hester had made an impression; nobody really wanted to kick to him. Robbie Gould was golden and provided the game winning score. Best of all, Rex played well.

The New Orleans Saints will certainly test them again but, right now, the Bears can (briefly) celebrate their success. Ideally, it would be a Bears-Colts Super Bowl but I'm not holding my breath; there are only very good teams left and anything can happen.

Playoffs and Poker

Saturday afternoon, I was invited to share in the celebration of Kevin's fantasy football league. A good number of faces familiar from past events were there and a few new people were met for the first time. The party coincided with the Colts - Ravens playoff game so that gave me a good chance to support my brother's underdog Colts. It wasn't pretty but the Colts did win a battle of field goals.

After that game, we sat down to play some cards. Some of the players don't play often so there were some interesting plays and startling moves. It didn't take too long for most of the table to be familiar faces. One new guy was having pretty good success and it wasn't long before my chips were his.

It was an afternoon well spent and I was soon heading home.

Saturday morning funnies

This morning as most, I started my computer, went to my My Yahoo! page and saw that Joel had posted new entries on his blog. The three most recent posts were titled "Self Cleaning Underwear", "Citizenre", and "Mercury Joe."

I couldn't resist a post about self-cleaning underwear and learned that this was not a trick or clever play on words but that the United States Air Force has developed a way to make fabric somewhat self cleaning; the soldiers could wear the same clothes for weeks at a time without ill effect, sometimes even helping clear up certain skin conditions. Evidently, one aspect of the treated fabric is that it has antibacterial capabilities. The article talked about how this technology could easily translate into the fabrics for people in the food preparation or medical fields.

The CitizenRe post was about a new solar energy program that didn't spark much interest for me.

Mercury Joe, however, turned out to make me laugh and I have to do my part as Time's Co-Person of the Year and share it with you.

These guys (did I really have to tell you it was guys?) are sending GI Joe into "space" in the style of the historic Mercury flights of the early 1960s and, in classic guy fashion, inviting the world to "Hey, watch this!" Being a guy and knowing that those three words are often ticket to the front row for very unexpected and sometimes catastrophic events, I visited their site and watched their videos. I was not disappointed. These guys do a very nice job of telling their story in video and stills photos of their sparkling successes and their smoldering failures. I also learned that GI Joe is not their first astronaut. Like the Mercury flights, before sending up an action figure man, they ran initial tests with ... Gumby!

Historic note: The kinda scary looking guys in the photo at the right, you've probably heard of most of them. I got this picture from a government website. They're our first astronauts going through survival training in the Nevada desert.

Friday Night Video

Last night, I went over to Linda's to view the 1972 classic, The Godfather. The film won three Oscars and is currently rated the number one film of all time on the IMDB website. Granted, the IMDB voting is based more on popularity than traditional critical values, it is a credible measure and reflects the long running appeal. Those, however, are not the reasons we spent the three hours it takes to take a peek into the fictional Corleone family and their "family." Unfortunately, due to my policy of sharing what I'm doing now (or recently) and not what I'm going to do, I can't yet tell you the rest of that story just yet.

Wednesday Night Pizza

Last night, Joel and I returned to our old ways by going out for pizza on Wednesday evening. The server even remembered us and our usual order! Though I usually like to try different things from a menu, there is something nice to being known.

After our tasty meal, we roamed about dispelling the myth that Sonic had left the area, seeing the new developments at the newest mall community in the area, and returned home to visit Marlene during the Hawkeyes game.

At work, I had overheard conversation that there was only one Sonic burger joint left in the Des Moines area. Last night, we saw two and can accept that there are more.

The Jordan Creek commercial village is certainly growing. Besides the central mall building, there are bigbox stores, shopping centers, and tiny, upscale "main street" areas with residential capacity. Living at the mall... how much better could it get?! Not really what I'm looking for but, for some, I can understand the appeal.

Marlene is an avid follower of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and really enjoys being able to focus on the games. Our arrival did not bode well. When I asked Marlene if, from her English major mind, she could provide me with an example of a gerund phrase, she knew what kind of evening lay ahead. I am pleased and mightily impressed that she was able to provide an appropriate response to my question; I only know that because I just looked it up. The game did turn out to have an exciting but disappointing conclusion when the Hawks lost a close one at Illinois.

After the game I called it a night and headed on home.

For the grammar curious:

First and foremost, a gerund is the form of a verb, but it is not a verb. Second, it is a noun. And finally, it ends in "ing."

For example:
The story is the same for high-tech farming.
STORY is the subject. IS is the verb. FARMING is the object of the preposition FOR. An object is a noun. A form of a verb that ends in ING and acts as a noun is a gerund.

Can you beat a blog? Informative, somewhat entertaining, and educational!

Botanical Blues

Remember the post from the Des Moines Botanical Center last week? We returned this weekend to hear local legend Rob Lumbard sing and play. Okay, legend may be a wee bit strong but he's a well established figure in the area and his name is readily recognized by those who've been here a while. The setup was not optimal and the sound system was probably intended for communicating emergency directions for visitors to the botanical center but it was a generally pleasing setting with music that went on beyond. The series will continue for seven more weeks with new performers each week; a nice program to highlight a nice feature of the community.

Drake - UNI Women's Basketball

Saturday afternoon, Linda and I went to Drake's Knapp Center to see the women play. As before, the crowd was good and the play was better. With two former starters injured, the Bulldogs are struggling and scrapping and, unfortunately, often coming up just a little short. That was the story Saturday afternoon. The University of Northern Iowa Panthers got off to a quick start but Drake rallied and led most of the first half and well into the second. In the end, it was mostly a case of time just ran out and UNI was in the lead.

"I'm goin' fast!"

Tuesday evening, Joel had a hankerin' for a Wisconsin burger so we opted out of our regular pizza outting. Not quite up to the feast that is the Wisconsin burger experience, I went with a smaller, lighter sandwich, saving room for B.Y.O.B. night at the theater!

Unfortunately, the theatrical options were not that appealing so we chose instead to go back to Joel's and watch Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby. Not to miss out on B.Y.O.B., I got a bucketful to go. The movie lived up to the goofy spoof of the NASCAR experience that Will Farrel could produce. A pretty good time and whetted the appetite for more NASCAR news.

With just over seven weeks to go until the Daytona 500, I visited the NASCAR website and saw "72-year-old Hylton plans to enter '07 Daytona 500" headline. Wow! "The cars -- and track -- have changed quite a bit since James Hylton's first Daytona 500." ... um... yeah! Evidently a quality driver in his time scoring 140 top five finishes, he's now eleven years older than Dave Marcis was in 2002 when he drove in the biggest race of the NASCAR season. He'll be driving the 58 this time; 48's gonna be busy defending his titles as champion of both the 2006 Nextel Cup and Daytona 500.

Not nothing...

... but not really much either.

Bowl season is upon us so I've been catching bits and pieces of various bowl games. Fortunately, I did get to see the Fiesta Bowl in its entirety. Hailed as a candidate for Game of the Century, it was a very fun game to watch. Something about teams wearing orange and blue...

Boise State took the field with perennial power Oklahoma and played an excellent game. They lead, they trailed, they sent the game to overtime on the sparkling execution of a playground gadget play. In overtime, it took Oklahoma one play to score a touchdown; the kick for extra point was good as well. Boise State continued to scrap and scuffle to get into position to tie the game once more... and then it began. The team lined up with three receivers wide right. The quarterback went in motion to the left leaving another wide reciever to take the snap. The ball was snapped and everything moved to the right. It looked like some sort of flanker screen but no! The ball carrier lofted a pass into the endzone, I believe to the tight end. Very unexpected... and again well executed. Rather than kick for the tie, Boise State lined up to go for two; the game would end on this play, win or lose. Again, three receivers were wide to the right. This time the quarterback took the snap and rose up to throw to the right. Finally, the flanker screen! But no!! I didn't see the ball actually go right. The running back who'd been behind the quarterback suddenly bolted to the left corner, ball clutched in his arm!! Blockers and trickery provided a broad swath of open field and the win was sealed. Great fun!

Happy New Year!

The year 2007 is off and running. I hope it's going well for you and yours.

Personally, it's off to a familiar start. There's snow on the ground, there's a buzz about the Hawkeyes bowl performance, and Brett Farve made the Bears look bad in Chicago; I guess all's right with the world. Well, not entirely... but we'll get through it, I'm sure.

Sort of like Thanksgiving, I'm in a reflective mood today. I suppose that's one of the normal responses to anniversary milestones. In 2006, I did a number of very good and memorable things. One of the challenges is actually remembering all that has happened; most of you probably know that I will miss the majority but those that come to me later will probably make me smile none the less.

I returned to Illinois to help celebrate my Dad turning eighty, revisited the Grand Canyon, saw two NASCAR races in person, and visited Las Vegas and the Carolinas for the first time. I met Linda, walked thirteen miles for little more reason than to say we'd done it, rediscovered Drake athletics, visited the UNI dome for the first time, and found that I enjoy USHL hockey. I guess I earned my title of Time's Co-Person of the Year when I started this blog; you earned your share of that same title by reading it.

Fortunately, I didn't do it all last year; there's still plenty of great stuff to be done in '07. I hope that we'll have some even nicer memories in another year or so. Have a great New Year!