A Few Things For a Monday

First, a funny:

Heh.  Occasional Reader and Constant Correspondent Lin sent that along.

We watched us some football this weekend... on SATURDAY, of course... and the games were pretty danged good.  The big news in college ball is the playoff picture, which looks like this:

The No. 1 Crimson Tide will face the No. 4 Buckeyes in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, and the second-seeded Ducks will face the third-seeded Seminoles in the Rose Bowl presented by Northwestern Mutual, both on New Year's Day.

I'll bet the air turned blue in Waco and Fort Worth when the playoff selections were announced.  Both the Bears and the Horned Frogs have their points, TCU more than Baylor, to my way o' thinkin'.  But it is what it is... and what it is is GOOD.  The smart money will be on Bama to win the whole shootin' match but, speaking as a guy who doesn't have a dog in this fight, I'd like to see Oregon go all the way.  Watching Marcus Mariota has been a pure joy this season; he's quite possibly the most exciting player in all of college ball this year.

Meg Griffin

In other news... My teevee provider is Dish Network and has been ever since I moved into Casa Inmóvil de Pennington, lo these three-plus years ago.  I discovered last night through the majik of fat-fingering a channel selection that Dish provides a full complement of Sirius/XM stations, previously (and obviously) unknown to me.  What this means is I can now listen to the lovely Meg Griffin in the comfort of home as well as when I'm in The Tart.  This is a great good thing.  Ms. Griffin's music selections are positively outstanding, part and parcel of that bein' she seems to choose music for airplay that resides in my CD rack.  You can't beat that with a stick.


In other, other news... (Whine alert)  The end game of my affliction is proving to be much more difficult than I imagined.  My meds just don't seem to work like they used to, I've spent the last three nights sleeping sitting up on the couch because I don't breathe well laying down, and I spend the first 30 minutes of EVERY morning gasping for breath in what resembles a low-level state of panic while I wait for the meds to kick in, giving me some small measure of relief.  I don't know how much more of this I can take.  It's well and truly depressing.

Saturday: A Different Football Post

She's pretty damned good at what she does.  Yes, she.



From the "about" section at The Tube O' You:

Sam Gordon is the smallest player in her tackle football league . . . and she's a girl. But that doesn't stop Sam from fearlessly running down the football field, dodging boys left and right all the way to the end zone for a touch down!

Sam scored 15 touch downs and had 13 Yards per carry as a running back. Sam also did well on defense, registering 59 tackles, 3 interceptions, and a fumble recovery during her 2014 football season!

Impressive.  Pretty cute, too.

Weekend Update

The weekend wasn't the best o' times here at  El Casa Inmóvil De Pennington, but it was far from the worst.  Saturday was almost a complete bust, what with the Wings getting blown out in Toronto, the Irish losing yet another game they prolly should have won (and that makes four losses out of the last five games), and Florida State winning yet again in a squeaker against a scrappy Boston College team.  (I won't link the FSU game coz I hate actively dislike those prats.)  Saturday's only saving grace was near 70 degree temps, which enabled us to take an early Happy Hour on the verandah before the UCR all-day football orgy.

Sunday?  We hit our high o' 52 degrees before noon.  A miserable cold front blew in right after that and just before Happy Hour, dropping the temps into the 40s with a wind chill in the 30s.  That meant we took Happy Hour indoors, what with us being of sound mind and lacking a sufficient insulating layer o' fat to brave the verandah in that sort o' weather.  We used that time to finish off the book we were currently reading, took a short nap, and fixed dinner... consisting of leftover spaghetti and a salad... after which we watched at least four episodes of "Eat: The Story of Food" on the NatGeo channel.  The absolute BEST parts o' that show were the frequent appearances of Nigella Lawson.  Ooooh... what a hottie she is!  The second best part was the segment on beer, which you can see here (Blogger doesn't like NatGeo's embed code).  Ah, yes.  Beer is life, innit?

And then there's this...

Occasional Reader and Constant Correspondent Rob sent that along this weekend.  I suppose you have to be of a certain age to get that.  And I AM.

Onward and upward...

Guest Post

Promoted from comments to the main page... Our Man Virgil Xenophon.

HOW I GOT TO SEE FOOTBALL GAMES IN TIGER STADIUM FOR FREE 1971-1972

When I left the Air Force and landed at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, 90 miles from Baton Rouge, I wondered how I was going to get to see my beloved Tigers play during football season as all games weren't televised like they are now and, as I was no longer a student, and season tickets sold out annually, even scalped tickets were hard to come by. SOooo...like any good ex-military guy, I devised a plan.

It so happens that those years were the years when the student culture was changing and in flux (not to mention the national one). Whereas in the early '60s all male students and adults wore a suit & tie to Tiger games and women their best dress, the culture was changing to casual wear. The only people who wore suits were news/sports reporters and LSU Admin officials. So I devised a plan to blend in in order to sneak into the press box.

First, I dressed in a suit, with a set of binoculars hanging around my neck and carried a clip-board to fake the sports-writer bit. Then I would head to the check-in point where the sports reporters got their credentials. In those days Tiger stadium was a one-story oval seating 68,000 before they added the upper deck slabs and the southern end-zone curved 2nd deck. It was a far simpler time. Usually two guys sat at a folding card table just outside the perimeter gate with a couple of shoe-boxes full of 3X5 cards used to verify reporters, and the double gates were hugely wide (to allow for trucks, etc.).

What I would do is hang back until I saw a gaggle of around 10 or more reporters gathered around the officials and otherwise occupying their attention. I would sidle up to the back of the crowd as if to get my Press Pass, then slide to the side when attention was diverted and walk right by thru the gates and on up to the elevator door to the Press Box as if I belonged and up I would go. Once there where I sat depended. If the games were against teams that were not traditional opponents and from far away so that there was little fan interest (like, say, Wisconsin) there would be few out-of-town reporters and so I could sit right at the reporters desk row and watch the entire game from the 50 yard line! Of course when trad opponents like Ole Miss, Alabama or Auburn came calling the Press Box would be packed with legit reporters. What then? Well, PLAN B was to take the back stairs/fire-escape from the Press Box down the elevator tower to the point where it opened as a one-way door out onto the top rung of the stadium seats beneath the Press Box. All seats usually being occupied, I usually then sat on the top step underneath the Press Box on the 50 yard line. Again, a great vantage point even if the seating was a bit "hard." LOL I did this for every home game for two years!

Special Note: On the night of the Ole-Miss-LSU "one second" game I arrived a little early.  Sooo, it being early there was still room in the Press Box proper, so I thought I'd take in a bit of pre-game warm-ups, ceremonies, etc., before heading down-stairs and out into the stadium. Unfortunately, I had had too much to drink at the fraternity house before hand, so passed out face down. A security guard eventually tapped me on the shoulder and said "Nice try, son," and escorted me down and out of the stadium. Not to be deterred, however, I planned a "re-attack" in the best Air Force tradition by repeating my performance (what are the odds?) a second time only heading directly for the stadium exit door before anyone could detect me and thus I was there to watch a very thrilling and historic last-second come-back win for my Bayou Bengals!

Virgil has been threatening for well over a year to become something like a co-blogger here at EIP. I took the liberty of promoting his comment from "All's Well" and calling it a "guest post" to encourage him to deliver more stories like this.  Further encouragement from you Gentle Readers would be appreciated.

(I did a couple o' minor edits and added the photo.)

Story Book Endings

We almost had two such endings yesterday... one worked out and one didn't.  Here's the one that worked:



The game was a 0-0 tie until nearly the last possible moment in OT when The Captain brought home the win.  It doesn't get a whole lot better than that, Gentle Reader.  I was semi-upset when it came time to tune into the game last evening and found The Powers That Be mandated US coverage of the game would be provided by Hockey Night In Canada.  This wouldn't upset me normally but last night?  Yes, and that's mainly coz the HNIC guys are such homers.  It gave me GREAT pleasure when the Wings won the game, if only because it shut the HNIC guys right the Hell up.  Well, that and back-to-back wins over the Hated Leafs.  The fact the Wings took a home and home over Toronto... in very convincing fashion... is sweet, indeed.

I was conflicted last evening, given the Wings and ND were playing at nearly the same time.  I got to watch all of the hockey game's first period without interruption but the remote sure got a work out after that.  Remote workouts ended with Number 40's OT goal; I watched the second half of the ND game in its entirety and that game certainly lived up to its billing, to the point where I think it was prolly the best football game I've seen this year... except for the ending.  I jumped up off the couch shouting "Yes! YES!!" when Golson completed a pass into FSU's end zone with 14 seconds left for an apparent game-winning TD.  But, no.  The play was negated by a VERY dubious pass interference call and FSU squeaked out a win.  From the linked article:

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was not happy with the call.

"We execute that play every day," Kelly said "And we do it legally and that's the way we coach it. We don't coach illegal plays."

I can vouch for the fact Mr. Kelly wasn't the only one who wasn't happy with that call.  A couple o' thoughts come to mind here... (1) "Sometimes it bees that way" and (2) "It's always sumthin'!"  It was a great game, even if the Irish were robbed.

Saturday: Play Ball!

Wait, that's not right.  There isn't an iconic term to describe the kick-off (heh) of the college football season, so toss the coin, choose to kick or receive, and let's get underway.  In honor of the first Saturday of college ball season, here's my UCR opening weekend post:

Sunday, September 09, 2007

The Rules

I missed this today before I posted, but it would have fit right in with the lead two items in this morning’s post: “Time for the new rules for college football fandom.” Samples:

1. As a fan, you have to pick a school, one school, same as if you were filling out applications to, you know, go to school there. You may not be a fan of a conference, teams from a specific state, "West Coast football" or college football in general. Nobody is a fan of college football in general, not even Lee Corso. Nor may you root for Harvard and Yale, any more than you could matriculate at both places, unless you're really, really smart, in which case you're probably building prototype military surveillance nanobots in your MIT dorm room, and/or devising a computerized ranking system* to shame Jeff Sagarin.

1a. Under extenuating circumstances, however, you may have up to three Division I-A rooting allegiances, so long as the schools meet the following criteria:

(a) Your birthplace/family school – especially if an inheritance is at stake, or if a campus library bears your last name.
 

(b) Al(most)ma mater – the school you transferred from.
 

(c) The school that actually handed you a diploma. Or would have, if you hadn't finished three credits short.
 

(d) Your spouse's school, especially if the program is vastly superior to your own, or your spouse cares waaaay more than you do, in which case: good call on getting married!
 

(e) You're a bandwagon-jumping, low-self-esteem weenie and scurry from Notre Dame to Miami to Ohio State to USC to Boise State depending on the year, the polls and the amount of water flooding into the ship.

If you can't be true to a school, at least be true to your own weaselly nature.

[…]

4. If you attended a lower-division or NAIA school, you're allowed to pick a D-I school of your choice. But you must consistently root for that school year in and year out, and it's preferred that the school be geographically close to you.

4a. Or you can just root for Appalachian State every week.

4b. Notre Dame? How very original.

[…]

9. You are allowed to root freely against the following schools for no specific reasons: Notre Dame; Notre Dame in their puke-green jerseys; Notre Dame when playing on "Triumph of the Will"-shaming propaganda house organ NBC; USC; any school that plays its fight song approximately 4,387 times per game like USC; Michigan; Miami; Ohio State; any school like Ohio State with a pretentious "the" in front of its name, because otherwise how would we know which Ohio State university they were talking about?; any school coached by Steve Spurrier; any school coached by Nick Saban. (ed: I’d add “any team from Florida” to this list, but that’s a minor quibble.)

You may have noticed that I’m in the 4b fan category. Given that I never went to college, I’m free to root for the school of my choice, under rules Four and 1a (d) above, even if that means I root for my former spouse’s school (The Second Mrs. Pennington is a Notre Dame alumna). And I have been an ND fan for nearly 30 years now and don’t foresee any change in that status on the near or far horizons. It’s way too late to change allegiances at this point in life. While we’re at it, I should mention I’m a fan of, and root for, at least three schools, depending on who’s playing whom: ND, Michigan (the ten year living-in-Detroit connection), and Air Force. For reasons that should be obvious now. The only time I’m torn is when ND plays Air Force…and I well and truly don’t know what to do during that game. Very traumatic, that.

So, to the author of “The Rules,” especially Rule 4b: Put a sock in it. I like ‘em, otherwise.

So there's that.  It's been our practice for the last year or so to post one of the week's best viral vids, taken from here.  There are always exceptions to the rules and today is one of 'em (besides that, fully half of this week's viral vids have to do with ice buckets and we've seen enough of those).  But I DO have a video for ya:



Heh.

I've Been Doin' It Wrong

I recently learned I've been eating sushi wrong, after oh, say, 45 years or so.  This is supposedly how one does it:



OK,  Naomichi Yasuda is Japanese and he's a master sushi chef so there's no arguing with his credentials.  That said, I will continue to mix my soy sauce and wasabi together, thank you very much.  And I eat individual fish pieces with my fingers, not with hashi.  I know, I know... I'm a barbarian gaijin.

In other news....  Speakin' o' doin' it wrong, there's this:

Would someone please explain WTF that thing is eclipsing the sun?  It LOOKS like a hockey puck, kinda-sorta, but I don't think that's what this means.

Update, 1430 hrs:  All is explained in comments about that eclipse thing.  To my GREAT shame.

Seven Years Ago Today...

... I was on about football with this:

Well, It was Interesting...

...but not too rewarding. Ohio State dominated Notre Dame. Crushed them. The 34-20 score makes it look closer than it actually was. Aside from the first drive of the first quarter, ND came out flat. OSU ran and passed at will throughout the game; ND's defense lacked focus and look unprepared, surprising given all the hype surrounding Coach Weis and his meticulous game prep. Brady Quinn couldn't deliver the goods, either. Quinn's passing was a respectable 29 of 45 on the day...but no touchdowns. And that sort of sums up the game, right there. OSU delivered the big plays, ND didn't.

I had a flash of hope in the fourth quarter when ND drew to within a touchdown with five minutes left. Not to be...OSU came right back and scored on another big play, a 56 yard touchdown pass by Troy Smith. Smith is quite possibly the most under-rated quarterback in the college game this year. He certainly took it to ND. Ohio State deserved the win.

The other disappointing game (for me) was Texas Tech's three point loss to 'Bama with 00:00 on the clock. I was convinced the game was going to OT, but noooo. 'Bama's kicker put a 45-yard field goal just over, and I mean just barely over, the crossbar to take the win. A heartbreaker for Tech.

Oh, well! Sometimes your guys win, sometimes they don't. Yesterday was a "don't" day for me...

Committed to the Inter-tubes by Buck on 1/03/2006 04:43:00 AM

Note the time on that post... what in the bloody Hell came over me to (a) be up at that time o' day and (b) actually put a post up on the blog at that ungodly hour?  Rather amazing, that.  What's not so amazing is I don't remember a single thing about that football game but the inter-tubes they are forever.  So I went and read up on it at The Wiki and found out THE Ohio State University (what? you don't recognize sarcasm when ya see it?) was the number four ranked team in the nation and ND was number six.  So that should have been a great game but it obviously wasn't... not to me, anyhoo.  Yesterday was a much better day for football.  As a s'matter o' fact I'm STILL grinning over 'Bama's loss.

Right Now...

... we're watching the Sugar Bowl, a game where we wish both teams would lose.  On the one hand there's OU, a team I love to hate... mainly because of my former association with OU fans while I was stationed at Tinker AFB in OKC.  OTOH, there's 'Bama, a team I love to hate because it's part o' the SEC, whose fans I find to be just as insufferable... if not more so... as those Boomer-Sooner people.  It would give me a great deal o' satisfaction to watch 'Bama go down to the underdog Sooners... just to shut up those SEC homers that think football begins and ends in the SEC.

So, here we are at halftime and OU is up 31-17.  I think that's OK (ahem), given the fact I'd be rooting for the underdog in any event.  There's still a lot o' football to be played and no one with half a brain would count 'Bama out at this point.  But we can hope.

Yo Mama...

... dresses you funny:

Commentators on Fox Sports broadcast of the Texas - Texas Tech game, just moments ago.

The guy on the left ain't all that bad... but the guy on the right?  Checks, stripes, and dots... Oh My!

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

What though the odds be great or small
Old Notre Dame will win over all

The odds are daunting... Alabama is favored by nine and a half points, according to my admittedly cursory research on these inner-tubes... and ALL of the ex-spurts, save Lou Holtz, whose opinion MIGHT could be suspect, pick Alabama to win.

No matter.  It's GOOD to be the underdog.  Kick off is about three and a half hours away... time enough to finish this beer, grab a nap, have a bowl o' those Navy beans, and then settle in for what should be a damned good game.

GO IRISH!

PS: Yet another winter-time outdoor Happy Hour.  How long can this continue?

Gig 'Em!

Halftime at the Big-Ass-Telephone-Network-That-Used-To-Be-Known-As-Ma-Bell-In-Former-Happy-Days-Cotton Bowl and those Aggies are up by a single point.  The Sooners are putting up more resistance than I thought they would and the Aggies' lead otta be more than one measly point at this stage of the game.  That said, I think the sticks are falling in the right direction, but we shall see.  It's been a really entertaining game so far.

The game is on Big Fox rather than ESPN and that causes me some small amount o' grief, in that ESPN is in HD on my satellite system and Big Fox is regular definition teevee.  That makes for a diminished viewing experience plus there's also the minor irritant of Fox's graphics, which feature the adolescent droid-thing you see at left.  I dunno exactly WHY that graphic pisses me off but it certainly DOES.  Grow up, Fox... lose the gotdamned video game stuff, and get off my frickin' lawn while you're at it.

Update, 2050 hrs:  Touchdown Kermie celebrates...

Aggies 34, OU 13.  Oh, yeah.  Fourth quarter comin' up.

Snoozer

That would be the 30th iteration of American Advertising Bowl, otherwise known as Some Kinda Goofy Tortilla Chip With Dumb-Ass Teevee Ads Bowl.  Oregon ran the initial kick-off back for a touchdown and I thought "uh-oh."  I was right, too... K-State was never in it, although I kept hoping.  I actually watched the whole thing, or at least down to the three-minute mark.  Let's hope the Aggies Boom the Hell out of those Sooners tonight, but let's also hope for a more entertaining game.  Well, wait.  I kinda like blowouts when a team I love to hate is getting its ass kicked.  Yup... Schadenfreude Я Us.

Snoozer would also be me, seein' as how I stayed in bed until noon-thirty today.  I actually set my alarm for 0930 when I went to bed this morning, seein' as how I had plans to make a commissary run, one objective o' such bein' to buy the ingredients for a big-ass pot o' Navy bean soup.  That's all by the boards now, due primarily to my late arising but also because of this:

It's just not a nice day to be out running around.  We have food in the larder, cigars in the humidor, whiskey in the cabinet, and a fridge full o' beer... so there's no NEED to go out.  Tomorrow looks like a better day, so we'll do it then.  Procrastination Я Us.

Re-runs Я Us, too.  There's this from a couple o' years ago just so's your visit ain't a total loss, Gentle Reader:

A Meme, Which is MUCH Better than a Mime

If it's not readily apparent, the meme is "All about you, from A to Z."  From my comment to the post at Blog-Bud Andy's place:

A - Age: 65 (67)
B - Bed size: Bed? Convertible couch, rarely converted. (A full-size bed now)
C - Chore you hate: Housework. ALL of it.
D - Don’t eat: tripe
E - Essential start your day item: coffee and LOTS of it.
F - Favorite board game: monopoly, if pronounced "bored"
G - Gold or Silver: Teeth and Hair (I only have one gold tooth, so I guess that would be "tooth and hair")(That gold tooth is gone now, to be replaced with an implant.  Soon.  I hope.)
H - Height: 5' 8"
I - Instruments you play: stereo
J - Job title: Heh. Fun-neee!
K - Kid(s): 3
L - Love or lust: Ineligible
M - Mom’s name: Marie
N - Nicknames: Buck, Sarge in past lives.
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: hemorrhoidectomy, back surgery, Legionnaire's Disease
P - Pants or pantyhose: See Cullen
Q - Famous Movie Quote: "We need the eggs."
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Sibling(s): A younger sister.
T - Time you wake up: Whenever I feel like it.
U - Underwear: Underwear?
V - Vegetable favorite: asparagus
W - Ways you run late: I don’t
X - X-rays you’ve had: There isn't a part of my body that hasn't been X-rayed.
Y - Yummy food you make: Navy Bean Soup.
Z - Zoo favorite: San Diego (playing it straight); any number of bars (otherwise)

Google is your friend if anything is unclear, other than "Cullen."  The answer to that lies with Andy.  And the image has nothing to do with my answers, which are ALL truthful.  Coz I NEVER lie.  Heh.

Committed to the Inter-tubes by Buck Pennington on 10/01/2010 02:18:00 PM 7 comments:

Updates in italics; the answer to "Cullen" is in the comments to the original post.  

I'm Glad THAT's Over

Wait.  I'm talking about the holidays.  Didja think I meant sumthin' else?  Like this, mebbe?

Sequester Reprieve: The Defense Department got a reprieve from having to absorb steep spending cuts for the remainder of the fiscal year with the House's vote late Tuesday night US East Coast time to delay budget sequestration from kicking in by two months. By a vote of 257 to 167, House lawmakers voted in favor of H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which among its provisions puts off sequestration until March 1 and gives Congress more time to try to work out a solution to the nation's deficit problem. Sequestration was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 2. The House vote, which cleared the legislation for President Obama's desk and his signature, came after the Senate passed the bill by a 89-8 vote early on Jan. 1. To enable the two-month postponement of sequestration, the legislation provides $24 billion in savings, equally spread across defense and non-defense accounts, achieved through an equal amount of spending cuts and revenue increases, according to the White House's fact sheet on the legislation. "This will give Congress time to work on a balanced plan to end the sequester permanently," states the fact sheet. "Revenues have to be part of the equation in turning off the sequester . . . as well as spending cuts," said President Obama in remarks on Dec. 31. (See also Obama remarks following House vote and HASC Chairman McKeon's statement.)

The Fat Lady really hasn't sung yet... we still have two more months of endless wrangling and more failure to act in this Kabuki play and the threat of sequestration still looms large.  But at least the tax increase has been averted for most people.  Small favors, and all that.

―:☺:―

That said, I really AM glad the holidays are over.  I hardly ever go into full-blown Humbug! mode, not bein' the type who enjoys pissing in other people's corn flakes.  The holidays are difficult for me and I'm really quite glad they're over.

―:☺:―

Speakin' of over... there's this:

(U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Alexxis Pons Abasca)

Full Nest: Last month, for the first time since late 2001, the 16th Special Operations Squadron had all of its airmen and AC-130H gunships home from combat, according to unit officials. The squadron's last deployed AC-130H touched down at Cannon AFB, N.M., on Dec. 20, marking the first time since after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 that all of the unit's assets were stateside, according to a Dec. 21 base release. "Standing here watching everyone come home as the squadron's commander is an inspiring moment," said Lt. Col. James Mott, 16th SOS boss. "This will be a really nice break for our troops," he added. The squadron transferred from Hurlburt Field, Fla., to Cannon in 2009 when it switched to the 27th Special Operations Wing from the 1st SOW. Despite that move, the squadron never missed a deployment, states the release. (Cannon report by SrA. Alexxis Pons Abascal)

I THOUGHT sumthin' was up when I made my commissary/beer run out to Cannon a few days ago.  The reason I thought that?  I counted 21 Herks on the flight line that day, which is the most I've ever seen (yes, I always count the tails whenever I go out to the base.  Always.).  I'm bettin' those troops were glad that was over... for a while, anyhoo... there's nothing like being home for the holidays.  I can say that with authority, even if I'm more on the Humbug side of things these days.  That wasn't always so.

―:☺:―

My internal clock is seriously messed up.  I know today is Wednesday, but my mind tells me it's Sunday after yesterday's all-day football orgy.  The bowl games have been pretty good this year for the most part, at least the ones I've watched.  There have been some blow-outs and some disappointments but those were overcome by the wonderfulness of the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the Rose Bowl.  The outcomes of both those games were in doubt, right up to the final seconds.  That said, I still HATE the Advertising Bowl phenomenon.  We shall not flog dead draft animals... what's done is done.  Ain't that America.

Miscellanea

We went out to Cannon Airplane Patch earlier today for to make a commissary run, restock the whiskey supply, and get our bi-monthly shearing.   But our inattention to the calendar allowed us to only complete two of the three assigned tasks, in that we re-stocked the whiskey supply and the food larder but we did NOT get sheared, as every single chair in the barber shop waiting area was occupied and we didn't feel like spending an hour... or more... waiting to get sheared.  So we'll do our best imitation of one of the Deities At Hand for another few days.  Our hair is approaching the religious as we speak and we've put on a winter beard, on top of that.  So we're lookin' pretty much like said deity, but that won't last all THAT long.

We're just in from Happy Hour and we're watching the second half of the SEC championship game with more than a little interest.  Those Dawgs just scored and we're rootin' for them.  But as I've said before: it doesn't make no nevermind WHO wins this game; ND shall prevail in the only game that really matters.

In other news... a friendly uniformed emissary of the FedEx company visited us this afternoon and left us with a big-ass box containing these lil beauties:

Ah.  A month's supply... and we exaggerate only a lil bit... of salsa and chile sauce from The Source, including one jar of that eagerly-awaited Scorpion Salsa, which we shall try tonight.  We're salivating, even as we speak.

Yow!

Update, 1900 hrs:  Dinner is done and I consumed about ten percent of that bottle o' Scorpion Salsa.  The verdict?  That stuff is THE hottest commercially produced salsa I've ever tasted, and the equal of the hottest home-made stuff I've ever had.  There are hotter "hot sauces" available (Dave's Insanity Sauce come to mind), but that stuff ain't salsa.  OTOH, Scorpion ain't very far from Dave's Insanity where heat is concerned, but it IS better tasting.  By far.

Ahem

The outcome of last night's game was in doubt until the final seconds... but all's well that ends well.  Which is NOT to say that we didn't have the odd moment or three where we clutched our chest and simply hoped our poor old heart would survive.  I'm speaking of that magnificent fourth quarter goal line stand, of course... USC ran four plays from the one-yard line and no TD.  Aiiieee!

On to Miami!

We Weren't Gonna Post Today...

... but there's this:  Yesterday was such a remarkable day in college ball I HAVE to put something up, if only to acknowledge this brief shining moment wherein ND returns to the top o' the heap after SO many years o' wanderin' in the wilderness.  There's the possibility that the moment could be all TOO brief:  ND's last regular season game will be played against one of their biggest rivals... the Condoms of USC... out in El-Eh.  The Condoms are comin' down off a humiliating loss to cross-town rival UCLA and might could be tough next week.  Hell, they're ALWAYS tough, and more so when the game is played in the Coliseum.  We shall see.

The Irish cruised yesterday in their game with Wake Forest.  I'll also give a BIG ol' hat tip to both Baylor and Stanford for their timely assistance in raising ND to the pinnacle (the Stanford - Oregon game was a CORKER... best game of the day, IM(NS)HO).  That said, I'd rather that ONE of either Oregon or K-State would have won yesterday, mainly coz ND could beat either team like a stepchild, the Irish would have been Number Two in the polls, and ND would have stayed there if they win out.  The obvious implication is ND would've been guaranteed (sorta) a place in the BCS Championship game... and would have won its first national championship since 1988.  That's still possible, of course.  We shall see.

There are other interested parties that are overjoyed at the Ducks' and Wildcats' losses, too... and that would be all those red-of-neck Supremely Egotistical Conference fans.  I hope to see ND shut them right the Hell up on January 7th; THAT would be sweeter than sweet and I could die a very happy man on the following day.  We shall see.

In the meantime?  We'll just sit right here and watch the river flow.

Added, 1720 hrs:  For those o' you who might have missed the reference above, there's this:

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

People disagreeing everywhere you look,
Makes you wanna stop and read a book.
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
That was really shook.
But this ol' river keeps on rollin', though,
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow,
And as long as it does I'll just sit here
And watch the river flow. 

That's by the Stones... I couldn't find a clip o' Dylan singin' his own song.  No matter, the sentiment is the same whoever is doin' the singin'.

People disagreeing everywhere you look
Makes you wanna stop and read a book
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
That was really shook
But this ol’ river keeps on rollin’, though
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
And as long as it does I’ll just sit here
And watch the river flow

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

People disagreeing everywhere you look
Makes you wanna stop and read a book
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
That was really shook
But this ol’ river keeps on rollin’, though
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
And as long as it does I’ll just sit here
And watch the river flow

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/watching-river-flow#ixzz2CciApdbT

Oh, NOES!

This:

Shit.  Fuck.  Piss.  And other such exclamations.  Dammit!

The Saturday Sacraments

Ommmm... Ommmm... (to the left of my slippers, for the reference-impaired... that would be Satya "Midnight"... and a Sammy Adams Octoberfest to the right of those same slippers)

Air Force loses to the Boat School in OT, in Colo Springs, no less.  Too bad we don't have a frickin' KICKER.  That said, we still have the ND game comin' up this evening, so all is not lost.

NOT Racist

But most definitely sport-ist:

If you saw this pic standing alone (and you ARE, Gentle Reader), you'd be forgiven for thinkin' it came from the pages o' NatGeo in some sorta article about South African ritual dances.  But no, it's from a CBS News slideshow titled "The NFL's Most Rabid Fans."  Or sumthin' like that.  My first thought was rabid is rabid and there isn't such a thang as "most rabid."  You just shoot 'em... those poor animals so afflicted... period, end o' report.

My second thought?  You RARELY see these sorts o' thangs at hockey games.  Yeah, there IS some occasional weirdness, but it's weirdness I can really get behind.  Or in front of, as the case might be.  Example:

I rest my case.