CFO's B-day

My stomach churned a bit this morning when I heard that Macy’s announced that they will be opening at 8pm on thanksgiving evening this year.  The black Friday creep is gaining momentum and the list of retailers that are going to be open sometime on Thursday is getting longer and longer.  What is happening to this country?  It is depressing to see that one of the few sacred days when most businesses were closed is slowly becoming just another day.  Christmas day is next, just wait for it… and then remember that I said that it was coming. 

The CFO celebrated her 34^th birthday last week and her parents came for a visit to celebrate with us.  Prior to their arrival, I spent several hours on Tuesday night making the CFO’s birthday dessert request, individual apple cakes with caramel and pecans on top.  While they turned out very well, I was quickly reminded why it had been 4+ years since I made them.  I enjoy working in the kitchen, but something that goes over 2 hours to prepare quickly falls to the bottom of the list.

I made 2 dozen of these, yes, they tasted pretty darn good.

 

Our visit with her parents was full of good eating and the ladies did a lot of shopping.  On Saturday, the CFO’s dad and I suffered through watching UGA fall to Missouri and then Virginia losing to Maryland.  After that mental beating, we all went out for pizza and watched ISU get run over during the first half of their game.  It was not a good day for our football teams!

Sunday afternoon, her dad and I went to see the movie “Rush.”  I have wanted to see it since it came out about a month ago and I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to see it in the theatre.  Since it had a racing theme (1976 Formula1 championship) The CFO wasn’t interested in seeing it, even after a friend’s wife highly recommended it.  In my opinion, the movie did not disappoint, it was very entertaining and I highly recommend it, whether you are a racing fan or not.

Family feud, college football style

Last weekend was the “family feud” football game with my UGA Dawgs playing against the University of Tennessee.  My dad and most of his family are all UT fans, so there is always some trash talking amongst relatives leading up to the game. This year, UGA was ranked and UT was not, but they always seem to play us hard so, in my mind, rankings don’t matter.  I usually make a small wager with one of my uncles, but he wasn’t confident enough in his team to bet on the game (fair weather fan!). 

One of my uncles sent this photo of himself in his UT attire to all the bulldog fans in the family...  I blocked out his face to save him some pride...

 

While I was pretty confident in my boys going into the game, what I didn’t count on was injuries happening during the game.  Before this game, UGA had already lost their #1 wide receiver for the season and the #1 running back for a few games due to injuries.  By the time the UT game was over, we had lost our #2 running back and our #2 & #3 wide receivers.  Unfortunately, they will all probably be out for the season.

Sometime during the 3^rd quarter, when the game was starting to look questionable for a UGA win, I received a text from my uncle, “Nervous yet?”  To which I replied, “Typical UGA drama.”   Which it was… UGA can’t ever seem to dominate a game from start to finish.  No matter who the opponent is, ranked rival or junior college practice squad, they always find a way to make the game close and dramatic.  While I don't enjoy them playing this way, I fully understand that the game isn't over until the clock reads 00:00.

Following UGA football will probably take a few years off my life, or at least give me heart burn and ulcers… I sometimes wish that I didn’t get so involved in the game, but I just can’t help it.   During the key plays towards the end of the game, I was nervously rocking back and forth in my seat (which the CFO says is a sign that I have some sort of disability [life with a special ed professor!]).  Fortunately, the Dawgs made an awesome last minute drive down the field and tied the game up with only 5 seconds left in regulation.  My uncle sent the text again, “Nervous yet?”  I mumbled “yes” to myself, but didn’t bother to reply to his text.

UT had the ball first in OT and drove down the field for what looked like a diving touchdown… except on the reply you could see that the player lost control of the ball before crossing the end zone line.  I was up on my feet, yelling at the TV, “that was a fumble! That was a fumble!!  That was a fumble!!!”  Luckily, the replay official heard me yelling from central Illinois and they ended up reversing the touchdown call. 

It was now UGA’s ball and they had a chance to win the game.  UGA’s offense screwed around with the ball for 3 plays, which incited more yelling at the TV, “What are you doing (coach) Bobo?!”  For the record, I am not a fan of UGA's offensive coach (Coach Bobo), so I always blame him for anything bad that happens when UGA is on offensive.  On fourth down, our kicker trotted onto the field and kicked the game winning field goal.  The Dawgs dodged a bullet and my text message back to my uncle stated my feelings pretty well, “Phew.” 

Now UGA has to regroup and some of the freshman players are going to have to step up and fill in some holes in our line up.  The good news is that we have a veteran QB to lead them, the bad news is that an undefeated Missouri team travels to Athens this Saturday… Somebody needs to add Tums or Rolaids to the grocery list.

The rest of the weekend was way less exciting, with cool and rainy weather. The low temperatures at night have dropped down into the 40's, the leaves are starting to change and the farmers have started harvesting the corn.  Like it or not, winter is coming to central Illinois.

Art + Football, a good weekend combination

I know, I know, art and football is a strange pairing.  On Saturday morning, The CFO and I headed west to Peoria for the yearly “Fine Art Show” hosted by the local arts guild.  No trip to Peoria is complete without a stop at Chick-fil-a, so we went there for breakfast before the show.  After a tasty chicken biscuit and hash-rounds, we were ready to enjoy the show.

There were artists from all over the country, including a couple Georgia based artists who were surprised to see someone wearing a UGA shirt and hat. Yes, I must represent my Dawgs on all football Saturdays.  The booths were full of paintings, metal work, glass, pottery and photography.  We walked through the entire show and then stopped to assess if anything had caught either of our eyes.  I guessed correctly that the CFO wanted to go back and revisit a glass jewelry box and I wanted to circle back to a couple other booths. 

We ended up picking up a few things, some for us and some for gifts.  It is nice to support these artists who are doing what they love to do and probably aren’t making much money doing it.  We estimated that by the time they pay to be in the show, travel there with all their stuff, get a hotel room and food, it must cost them over a thousand dollars to show up, not including what they put into materials for their crafts.  You have to sell a lot of stuff to make up that difference and, unfortunately, we didn’t see a whole lot of purchases being made.

We hit the CFO’s favorite pizza joint for the Italian trio appetizer that she loves so much before rushing home for the UGA/LSU game.  We ended up missing the first half of the first quarter (I was not happy about missing part of the game!), but saw the rest of the game.  What an up and down, back and forth game… happily, my Dawgs pulled out the win in the end.  They were the only team of our 4 college teams that won that day, the other 3 lost.  1-3 for the weekend isn’t very good.

I planted a few pumpkin seeds during the summer and didn't do much with them, I just let them do their thing.  Here are the first two pumpkins that we have harvested, there are a few more on the vine that I haven't picked yet.  Unfortunately, the leaves of the plants were attacked by a powdery mildew, so they didn't get as big as they might have otherwise...

Jerry!

This post was supposed to go out last week, evidently I forgot to hit the publish button:

I picked the CFO up after work and we headed west to Peoria to see Jerry Seinfeld.  I was a huge fan of his show when it was on TV and I often watch re-runs on TV if I find one while flipping channels.  Of course, we had to grab a bite to eat before the show, so we had a nice romantic dinner at Chic-fil-a… yes, I have a Chick-fil-a addiction!  My longing for their food gets even worse during football season because they advertise heavily during games.  Every time I hear that Moooo I start craving that sandwich.

We somehow missed the initial announcement about Jerry’s performance, but were still able to get some decent seats in the second row of the second balcony.  We were way up in the air, but could still see well.  His friend, and fellow comedian, Larry Miller opened the show and he was quite funny.  He went on a long rant about driving with his wife and the CFO started giving me the, “that’s you” tap on my leg.

 

Jerry came out next and talked for about 75 minutes before taking a short break, after which he came out and took questions from the audience.  A lot of the questions weren’t too good, especially the guy who asked, “will you go out for a beer with me after the show.”  Jerry basically said no, but applauded him for throwing up such a “hail mary” type question.  One person did ask if the character of George in the show was based on the co-creator Larry David.  Jerry said that while a lot of the things that happened to George came from Larry’s life, the character wasn’t based on Larry.

I spent Saturday morning getting our lawn ready to aerate on Monday, only to figure out later that I was a week early.  Our block of the neighborhood is renting the equipment as a group, but that isn’t happening until the following week.  I’m not sure how I got the dates mixed up, but I did.  Saturday afternoon was spent watching my GA bulldogs play what was supposed to be an easy game against North Texas.  In typical Dawg fashion, they let NT stay in the game with a blocked punt for a TD and a kick off return for a TD.  I hope the boys are more disciplined this week against LSU! 

Speaking of the LSU game, ESPN’s “Gameday” show will be broadcasting from Athens on Saturday morning.  I can’t wait to see pictures of my home town again, although I’m sure I’ll just watch it and wish I was there. 

On Saturday night, we went out to dinner and to the ISU game with a group of professors and spouses.  ISU just rebuilt half of its stadium and it looks really nice.  We were sitting in the old section of the stadium (the school gave faculty a cheap price for those tickets), but it was nice to look across and see the new structure.  The stadium now seats just over 13,000 people… a far cry from the 92,000+ at UGA.  The game was entertaining and the Redbirds won.  We should really go to more games, I’m not sure why we don’t.

 

This was the first Saturday all season that our 4 college teams all won… it was a good day for the University of Georgia, University of Virginia, James Madison and Illinois State.  If ISU and JMU keep winning, there is a chance they could face off during the playoffs!

Its in the bag

Last weekend was pretty quiet.  I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, until the CFO spent the beginning of the week preparing to start a research project at a nearby high school.  She is working on using technology to help people with disabilities live on their own and this project involves grocery shopping.  I don’t know all of the details of the study; I just know that I was asked to go to the store to pick up some products that matched products that we already had at home.  I did my part to help out and ran by the store during my lunch break and picked up the stuff on the list.

That night, she started dumping stuff out of containers into plastic baggies and Tupperware containers.  Evidently she needed a “full” and an “empty” version of each product for the project.  I didn’t really question it, until what I thought was only going to be a couple things exploded into at least 20 different items.  We now have salt, pepper, cinnamon and other spices in small baggies.  Bread, chips, pasta and other larger quantity items are now in larger zipper bags.  We also have Tupperware containers full of things like jelly and butter plus Aquafina bottles with honey and syrup in them.  “Good luck finding stuff,” she said with a laugh.

She then handed me a 2 liter bottle of sprite, “time to drink up, this needs to be almost empty.” Of course, I wasn’t about to drink a whole 2 liter bottle in one evening, so the remainder was poured into a water pitcher with plastic wrap rubber banded around it.  I doubt that will keep the carbonation in for long, but it was worth a shot… I’d hate to see it go to waste. 

This is a good example of how the two of us differ… I like a good plan, figured out well ahead of time and she is a last minute procrastinator.  I would have had a list of what empty containers we needed a few weeks ago and would have started saving containers then.  Over the past month, I am certain that we have thrown away many of the containers that she now needs… 

I continue to try to introduce her to the “Five P’s” (Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance), but she seems happy to continue with her last minute ways…

Just a sample of our new storage system.  Yes, that is honey in the water bottle.

The quiet before the storm

September through December always seems very busy for us and I have yet to figure out why.  I guess holiday travels have a lot to do with it?  I've stayed home through most of the summer, so I am looking forward to these things this fall:

-Seeing Jerry Seinfeld perform live.

-Going to the UGA at Vanderbilt football game in Nashville. (hopefully, if our ticket source comes through for us)

-Seeing Bill Cosby perform live. (yes, we saw him last year, but the show was really good and we’re going with some friends this time)

-Travelling to San Diego so the CFO can go to a conference.  (This just joined the schedule this week and there was no way that I would let her go there without me)

-The CFO will go to VA for another conference. (leaving me home alone)

-A cruise vacation with my parents combined with a visit to Athens. (yes, we are addicted to cruising)

-Christmas holiday.

-The CFO’s brother’s wedding.

I feel like I am missing something else, but can’t remember it right now.  Needless to say, we are going to be busy.  My co-workers don’t understand why I spend 80% of my vacation time in Nov/Dec, but that is how it always seems to work out. 

Last weekend was pretty much uneventful, the highlight being my Dawgs pulling out a nice win against the SC gamecocks.  Sadly, UVA and JMU both lost.  UGA is off this weekend, so my blood pressure should stay at a normal level all weekend.

Lowe's came through for us and had the replacement roman shades installed in the living room and kitchen.  Of course, this called for the side by side comparison photo above.  It is amazing what the correct backing material does, now you can actually see the pattern in the fabric.  The CFO is much happier, therefore I am happy too.  As some old man once told me “Happy wife, happy life.”  Although, I’d like to argue that an unhappy husband would make life unhappy too...

The Butler

Last weekend had all the ingredients for a great weekend… decent weather, the start of college football, fantasy football draft and Monday was a holiday.  It was all going well until Saturday night, when my Dawgs choked on their #5 preseason ranking and lost to Clemson by 3.  It was a very disappointing beginning to the season.  The silver lining is that it was a non-conference game so it doesn’t count against their chance to win the SEC Championship.  This coming weekend they play South Carolina, let the nail biting begin.

The CFO and I picked up some super sweet corn at the farmer’s market and I’ve been grilling them up perfectly.  I’ve found what I think is the best and easiest way to prepare corn on the cob… no more big pots of boiling water on the stove or trying to grill them in their husks.  Here is how I’ve been cooking corn on the cob this year:

1.  Shuck the corn and place each ear on its own sheet of aluminum foil. 
2.  Drizzle olive oil over each ear of corn and then sprinkle with fresh cracked pepper, kosher salt and garlic powder. 
3.  Roll each ear up in the sheet of foil and close one end of the foil.
4.  Pour in a couple tablespoons of water (to create some steam) into the open end and then seal up that end. 
5.  Throw them on a hot grill (350-400) for around 12 minutes, rolling them once or twice during that time. 

That’s it.  Very easy, yet quite tasty.

Sunday was the fantasy football draft, so I spent the better part of 3 hours on a conference call with the rest of the group (a total of 14 people).  Most of the group gathered at a house in northern VA, but a few of us called in and did it remotely.  I think I built a pretty good team; hopefully I can win some money again this year.

On Monday afternoon the CFO and I went to see the movie “The Butler.”  We walked into the theater and quickly realized that all the other people in the room were at least 2x our age…  Kind of funny.  About halfway through the movie, a beeping/buzzer sound started going off and it took a few beats for me to figure out that it wasn’t part of the movie.  It was definitely a more modern sound than the time frame being portrayed in the film.  When the projector turned off, we all finally realized that the fire alarm was going off.  Everyone in the theater kind of looked at each other for a few seconds, seeming to wonder how we should respond.  “I guess we should leave” seemed to be the unspoken consensus, so we all headed out the side exit and gathered outside of the theater.

Evidently someone pulled the fire alarm and, after about 40 minutes, the fire department gave the all clear.  We eventually found an employee who said he thought that they might restart the movies, so we headed back into the theater.  I was pretty happy that they restarted it; I would have not enjoyed being “left hanging” and not knowing how the film ended.   We were also given a pair of movie passes for a future visit for the interruption, so that was a bonus. 

Considering the subject matter of the film, I thought the movie was well executed and entertaining.  On our way to the car, the CFO and I both wondered aloud about how “true” all the connecting pieces were.  The movie clearly states at the beginning that it is based on a true story, but how much of it was really true?  

Unfortunately, after a little bit of lunch time inter-web research, it turns out that a lot of it was not factual.  In case you haven’t seen it yet, I won’t go into a lot of detail on what isn’t true, but a large amount of the 2 hour movie’s subject matter was ad libbed by the director.  This also helps to explain why I was also a little disappointed with the ending…  I thought that the film got a little political/preachy at the end when the subject became our current president’s election. 

After doing my research on the accuracy of the film, I am now somewhat disappointed by the movie. I’m pretty sure that the true story would have been entertaining enough on its own; I don’t understand why all the falsehoods were included.  I guess that was just Hollywood taking any opportunity that they could to make the movie more racially charged and to throw in their political opinion.  Oh well, I guess I should just stick to comedies, sci-fi and James Bond movies. 

And just like that, a “long” three day weekend was over.  It is amazing how quickly that extra day passes by…