Sports Woes

This is just not my year for sports. Of any kind.

My Cubs are struggling to NOT lose 100 games. 100 loses! There's a mock out there of their 'magic number' to reach that 'goal' of losing (or not losing) 100 games.

My Auburn Football, which I love with all my heart, is in a rebuilding year, in all fairness. But only sitting at 1-3 at this point? So sad. Very hard to take. We did show LSU a hard fought game, at least... but there are so many tough games ahead of us yet.

Then there's my Jacksonville Jaguars, also sitting at 1-3. I was excited to actually be at the game when they won in Indy. I knocked up the loses to road games and tough teams. But as the year keeps going and I see how all the teams are playing, I question that. They really should be doing better... and then I wonder, again, why the hell they got rid of Tom Coughlin?

I don't follow basketball enough to claim a team or any woes. I guess I should be happy that our local WNBA team, the Fever, made it to the playoffs... but it's not really 'my' team. Maybe it should be... no, because then they'd lose.

I guess there's next year. Just count down the days to all of my 2013 seasons.

Nothing a Good Steak Can't Fix

So, Eric and I had an unexpected full night out last night. We had planned on meeting some friends right after work to celebrate a birthday, but we just assumed a few drinks, and then home for dinner. But then an unexpected invite came to go to St. Elmo's Steakhouse.

For those not in the Indy area, St. Elmo's Steakhouse has a bit of fame surrounding it. It's well know for its shrimp cocktail (if you ever need to clear you sinuses, get one!), and I think the steaks are pretty damn good, too. When famous people come from out of town, you can often find them having a meal here. A lot of people just stalked the exit door during the SuperBowl this year.

So back to 'date night' with Eric... he was actually out of town through Friday. In fact, he was still on a plane when it started - I met the group out at Tastings, a wine bar, and when he landed, he met up with us. We then did a round of pre-dinner drinks at St. Elmo's 1933 Lounge, a prohibition era styled bar above the restaurant (and very cool place to go, regardless). These two places, alone, helped end the rainy, dreary week on a positive note.

But finally, dinner. We did, indeed, start with the shrimp cocktails. Yummm... while St. Elmo's has a range of steaks, I always stick with the 8oz. fillet... I don't need anything bigger and this one is always top notch, anyway. Throw in some garlic marinated green beans, and I'm content as a sunflower in the sun.

So the moral of the story? Find a good steak and all is right with the world.

September Showers = ???

SO. Much. Rain. Considering the dry July we had, and August, for that matter, we sure are making up for it now! I'm so tired of the rain! And all it's doing is knocking off all the leaves to make sure we don't have fall colors (which were already threatened since we had such a dry summer). It's just miserable!

And there's more coming. Most of next week looks to be much of the same. I read the rain gage in our yard from the rain we've had this week... it was close to three inches. Now granted, that's over a few days. But just having the dreariness looming sucks! Plus, the below average temperature aren't too pleasent. I'm not ready to jump to early winter! Earlier this week, we woke up to the low 40's, feeling like upper 30's. That did not make me a happy girl.

Alas, I guess that's just living in Indiana. This is the time of year it's hardest for me to answer the question, "Why did you move to Indiana?" I can only shrug my shoulders and say, "I'm not sure..."

Jags Win!

Eric and I have gone to the Jags @ Colts games for the past few years now - I'm never sure what to expect of the outcome, but the game tends to always be on the exciting side. This year was no exception!

The Jags got the first score - a field goal. Needless to say, I was very excited about that. Sure - I'd rather a touchdown, but a score is a score, especially if it's the first score! It went back and forth for the first half with the Colts leading it, 14-3, as they went into the locker rooms. The second half is where it was at, though!

But first - halftime. Normally, I don't say much about halftime, but they did a nice little induction ceremony for Edgerrin James to go on the Ring of Honor. He hasn't played in Indy since 2005, so they hyped it all up, of course. I'm sure Peyton and Reggie will be up there one day - I think those will be even bigger deals!

Back to the game - second half! Not too far into it, Maurice Jones-Drew ran in a touchdown!! It seemed to stun not only fans, but the Colts payers, themselves. The Jags then held the Colts off, got the ball back and got a field goal, bringing the Jaguars within one point. But the fourth quarter is when it got really interesting!

Scobee scored another field goal (gotta love that guy!) for the Jags to take the lead, but we still had a lot of time left. With just under 5 minutes left, the Colts MISSED a field goal, bring a sigh of relief to me. But then the Jags couldn't hang on to the ball for enough time, gave it back to the Colts. They got down the field and this time, Adam Vinatieri did NOT miss! And now we were under minute.

Bummer.

45 seconds left, and Blaine Gabbert threw a pass to Cecil Shorts for an 80 yard TOUCHDOWN! I didn't even realize I was jumping up and down until I about lost my balance! No one saw that coming! Not even Blaine or Cecil! Again - the entire stadium was stunned and you just heard the few Jaguars fans (including myself) screaming!

But it wasn't over! The Colts still had 45 seconds to do something! And boy, did they try! Came close, but in the end, Jags won!

Eric's Homecoming

Last night was the 30th Anniversary Celebration for Eric's fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi, at Rose Hulman. Which also meant it was Rose Hulman's Homecoming weekend down in Terre Haute. So last night, it was off to Terre Haute we went!

For the record, I found it a little strange to call something 'Homecoming' without a football game as the main event.

Since we were just heading down to go to the banquet, we didn't leave all that early. We did get there early enough for him to show me around campus, though. Beautiful, but small! I honestly think it was about the size of my high school campus - maybe a little bigger since it had dorms. But the way it's kind of tucked in off of the main road gives it a comfy feel. Granted, there were no stressed out engineering students running around on this particular day... just a couple of them throwing another guy in the lake. (no joke - apparently some tradition, according to Eric.)

After the quick campus tour, we went by Eric's old fraternity house - Delta Sigma Phi. It was quite a ways off campus, which surprised me. Walking wasn't even an option, and even biking might have been based on the road you'd have to ride. But it was a big house - I could see the appeal of it for a fraternity. It was an old government building bought in a tax sale nearly 30 years ago, so there were lots of rooms... and quirkiness to go with it! But it was definitely a house full of guys!

Finally, the banquet, which was down the road from the fraternity house a couple more miles. Some other Indy friends were there, as well, and we caught up with them, as well as some other brothers Eric hadn't seen in awhile. They had some of the original members speak, tell stories, and talk about some of the history that may have not been fully known. Since I never went Greek, I never got involved with any organization like this (where you have a bond for life). The closest I came was UPC, which I LOVED and wouldn't trade for anything. But the Greek thing definitely is different.

We headed back to Indy late last night and just went to bed. Long day... lots of driving. But a fun evening, none the less.

In With a Bang!

Well, Autumn decided to come to our area with quite some flare, in the form of a crazy cold front! Yes, fall starts tomorrow, but Mother Nature wanted to make sure we knew she was changing things up on us!

The first wave was just a good rain. Then around 7pm, we started hearing severe weather reports pop up on the TV. The next band was fast moving, strong winds and rain with thunder and lightning, and lastly, hail! The hail got thrown in last minute - Eric was worried about his car, so he even moved it to a nearby garage (since we do not have our own yet). Just as he got back to the house, the rain came in like a wall! Then came the hail... sure enough.

It was only pea sized, so it only did damage to vegetation. Leaves came down off of the trees, ripped to shreds if they were bigger leaves. My pour pumpkin vine took a beating, too, but I'm sure it'll survive. But those leaves that were as big as my head are no more! But it came down in droves and littered the yard and walk everywhere!

And the temperature DROPPED! The rain, itself, was cold! I ran out in it (after the hail part was done)at one point to grab something and it was piercingly cold! But then it ended.

The storm left behind a few power outages, a lot of mess on the ground in the form of leaves and twigs, and a much cooler temperature. Hello, Fall!

Just Another Political Vent

So this one will be short, but not sweet. But as the election nears, it just gets worse and I just get more riled up.

This blogs topic... the damn ads! I'd like to see a political ad where the politician tells me what he's going to do for me and how he's going to make things better, not what's wrong with the other candidate! That's not going to get my vote. It fact, that makes me want to vote for you less!

I also don't care who supports you and your campaign. Again, that does not tell me what I want... no, what I NEED to know! You have a better chance of losing my vote if the wrong person supports you.

Finally, I don't give a crap about which candidate raised more money! It doesn't matter! again, it doesn't hep in enlightening me, or anyone else, on what will be better when you are in office.

Honestly, I'd love for political ads to go away all together. They're biased and tell us nothing. Lets go back to the old school way... hobnobbing and a good, straight forward, bio in the paper as the election gets near. Not that I want politicians knocking on my door, but do us all a favor and just get on your soapbox about YOU, and not your opponent.

Cake!

Not the food, the band.

Last night was one more concert for the year... one we seemingly planned for since we knew about it for months. But all that changed quickly... it went from being downtown at The Lawn, to up in Noblesville at Deer Creek. We were going to meet some other friends either before or after (or both, but with us having to drive to Noblesville now, that wouldn't happen. So why all the change? A storm.

We knew a storm was coming - it was talked about for days. That's why they moved the show up to Deer Creek, under the pavilion. Why they didn't do it until the morning of, I don't know - made for some chaotic last minute planning. But we all still managed to make it up there and meet up (there was a group of us). We got into the venue as the opening, opening act was finishing up, but you could see the storm was looming.

So official showtime approaches, and instead of a band walking on stage, it was the MC from he local radio station for the concert. They were going to delay until the storm passed, and we could go wait in our cars or stay under the pavilion. We stayed.

Then the storm blew in. And boy did it blow in! Leaves were swirling around, rain was blowing under parts of the pavilion, and the temperature dropped! And it rained!! Torrential downpour for about an hour (at least!). REports were coming back from downtown Indy that there was flooding everywhere because it came down so fast - gushing up through the storm inlets! But we stuck it out.

Finally, the first band, Metric, took the stage around 9:45pm. They played for about an hour, and then we debated amongst ourselves whether or not Cake would play past the 11pm curfew as they broke down Metric's stage. I said yes, without a doubt. Other people had doubts. But by the time Cake took the stage, it was nearly 11pm! And they did, indeed, play well after the curfew, wrapping up around midnight.

Made for a long night,but isn't half the concert experience just that - the experience? This will be one remembered for the storm.