The UItimate Showdown

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Did You See That?

The Pittsburgh/Indy game - did you watch it? That had to have been the best football game I've seen all season. Unbelievable. If you missed it, I pity your poor, unfortunate soul.

And, from the department of "I didn't get to see it, but I wish I would have," the Badgers smoked Colrado College last night, 9-1. Sweeeeeet.

All Alone

Well, I just dropped Liz off at the airport - she's off to India for a week. Hopefully, she likes the food. So, for the next week, it's just me and the cat. I suspect the cat will start to flip out without Liz and her lap around. She's made it very apparent that my lap, being as bony as it is, simply isn't good enough. With Liz gone, I've already started my life as a single man again...on the way home from the airport, I stopped off at Arby's to pick up lunch. :)

I spent yesterday at a software engineering conference at the University of Minnesota. I got to listen to Jim Rambaugh (one of the pioneers of my profession, really) talk but, after having gotten out of bed at 5 AM to get there, I think I slept through half his talk. I also got to hear Dave Hussman talk again - I've seen him at a previous conference. I doubt anyone would know who he is, either, but he's kinda like the Ted Nugent of the computer world...just replace the gun and the blood with a computer. He's always fun to listen to. But, as a whole, the conference was just as boring as it sounded. I also noticed that this may have been the only conference in which the only beverage served was coffee. No water. Bah.

After almost a month away from WCHA action, the Badgers took on Colorado College (in Colorado Springs) last night and took care of business with a 3-2 win. That leaves the Badgers with a 3 game lead over Minnesota and a 3.5 game lead over Colorado College in the WCHA. It should also conseve their position as the #1 team in the nation for at least another week, regardless of what happens in tonight's game. A lot of season left to play (including a two game set against #2 Minnesota), but tha Badgers have been looking good.

I got the new "Best of the year" CD from Nick yesterday. So far, I've only listened to a bit of it and, so far, so good. I'm sure I'll be listening to it a lot more over the next couple days, but I just realized that I left it in the truck when I got home, so now I have to haul my butt outside to go get it. *sigh*

Okay, I'm off. Later, y'all. If you feel sorry for me being stuck home alone, just send food. I'm almost out of Nutter Butters.

Not a Morning Person...

So, apparently, I can't tell time early in the morning. It's not that I can't read a clock, it's just that I have no way to figure out what 6:30 really means. The only thing I can really associate 6:30 with is "still dark outside" and "the cat will now walk all over you in bed." I also know that the bus comes every half hour, at :12 or :42 so this morning, I walked out of the house when my long hand was pointing at the 8. The bus was a little later than usual - rather odd as the drivers are normally very punctual. When the bus did come, I got on and noticed that there was a different driver. "Oh, I thought to myself, that's why - they've had a different driver run the normal route." It wasn't until I saw the other folks on the bus that I realized I had gotten on the bus a half an hour earlier than normal. Oh well, I guess I can go home earlier, then...yeah, right.

And what gives with women wearing so much perfume that it nearly knocks you over? I passed another of those this morning walking to work. That sure woke me up.

Happy New Year

Well, Happy New Year, everyone. Hopefully, 2006 has been treating everyone well, so far. Liz and I traveled to Minneapolis with a couple friends for New Year's. We spent most of the night at Famous Dave's. Apparently, the Famous Dave's in Minneapolis, aside from being a barbecue joint, is one of the best blues bars in the cities. Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials were playing. I had never heard of them, either, but they really put on a great show. So, long story short, we spent the evening eating, drinking beer, and listening to really good blues. The morning after, we rolled out of bed around 10, grabbed some lunch on the 50th floor of some building, and travelled back to Rochester (in a far less energetic car than it had been the previous day). (By the way, I just noticed that Lil' Ed and the gang will be playing in Merrill, WI, on January 21st. Sure, Merrill's a ways to go, but they're playing at Ballyhoos Brew and Chew. Face it, you know you want to go, now.)

Now, it's back to the grind. Back to work. Back to cleaning the house. Nonetheless, it's nice to be back to the usual routine. I'm pretty much a shining example of a creature of habit.

A couple nights ago, I spent the evening playing music clips from a handful of albums for my wife, trying to figure out which albums to order with a gift certificate I had gotten for Christmas. The plan was to get two albums, as the gift certificate would roughly cover that but, after an hour or more of playing bits and pieces from various albums, I had narrowed it down to three. Close enough, I figured, and ordered 'em all. In the end, I picked up The Black Keys, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and Franz Ferdinand.

Last night, being tired and not particularly in the mood to watch football, I went to bed as Penn State and Florida State entered the fourth quarter of their game, with Penn up 14-13. Three hours later, the game finally ended in triple overtime. While I slightly regret not staying up to watch the remainder of the game, I am quite surprised that neither coach actually died of old age while on the field for that long.

In other sporting news, the coaching change in Pittsburgh may actually be doing some good. While I'm not ready to hop on the bandwagon yet, I have to admit that the current run of 3-0-2 is a lot better than the 1-10-1 record the Pens had amassed in the previous 12. Hopefully, they can keep this up. One bright spot for the Pens, though, is that Crosby is the real deal. The kid is 18 years old and can flat out play. The season is nearly half over, and he's hanging in at 9th in goals scored and 14th in total points. That's pretty much awesome for a rookie.

Well, I'm off. Catch y'all later.