The weekend that was Part 3 of 3

This last weekend was one of the best weekends ever. Friday night was the Dave Matthews Band. Saturday was tailgating and the I-State vs. Army football game. Sunday I was at the Vikings vs. 49ers game in Minneapolis (maybe the best finish I have seen in person).


Last up is the Sunday Vikings vs. 49ers experience.

I got home around 11:30 from the Army game. A little too excited to sleep so being the uber geek that I am rolled my toon CTMcGee around Northrend for a few hours, that was dumb as I was having Zac come over to my house at 5AM to leave for Minny.

Zac was there right on time. Zac was going up because the 49ers are his favorite team and his b-day was in August so I convinced Jamie Lou that I should get him tickets for his birthday. It is a little tricked I learned from Jamie Lou to get a little juice for yourself. More commonly seen by buying yourself things you need right before Christmas and your birthday so that when gifts come that you already have you can take those back and get new things. Double dipping I'll call it.

Up North we headed, uneventful trip, intern Steve slept in the back seat most of the way up. Steve too loved the 49ers, and had a ticket so he tagged along with the brothers Christensen. on a side note I really need to start taking pictures of these trips... I have really none from it.

When we got to the cities we parked about 6 blocks from the dome off of 5th. the street spots were all taken but we found a lot for 6 dollars. While the walk is a bit far it is more than paid back by being 34 bucks cheaper than the lots closer to the dome and being able to leave town in a jiffy after the game as the ramp to the interstate is 3 blocks away from where we park.

We then wandered up past the dome and a few blocks beyond to Grumpy's. Zac and I had some egg bake and beers while Steve opted for buffalo wings and beer. It was a bit strange to be on a patio with smokers now that it is verboten in Iowa, but the sun and good times made that not such a big deal.

After Grumpy's it was off to the dome, we got there 45 minutes before kickoff. Always fun to boo the visitors as they come out of the tunnel to warm up and to hear that viking horn blow and cheer the boys in purple. Particularly fun for me was the fact the Jim Marshall blew thew horn to call out the team, he is a big BIG man. you can kind of see him int he photo below:




The first half was going famously, getting ready to go up 16 - 7 and receive the ball in the second half only to have the field goal blocked and returned for a TD by San Fran. Memo to Steve Hutchinson: you are great but you have to get up out of your stance when the ball gets hiked...dick. So instead of 16- 7 and getting the ball we were now down 13 - 14. I will say though that so far this year we have had to special teams TDs against us and we won both those games, so maybe it is a good luck kind of thing....maybe.

An amazing kickoff return by future RoY Percy Harvin got the crowd back into it. He is so amazingly fast in person. And to be able to run 101 yards and not have a finger touch you is even more amazing.

Vernon Davis' touchdown with around 9 minutes put San Fran up 4 but I still had a good feeling. When the Vikes went for it on fourth down and failed to convert at midfield, I didn't have such a good feeling. When the people started streaming out even though we still had 3 timeouts I felt a little worse. The the niners we ultra conservative with 3 runs in a row I felt a little better. When they kicked it in the end zone and we only need an 80 yard TD with 1:29 I even felt a little better. When Greg Lewis caught a 50 yard laser from Favre for the game winner with 2 seconds left, I really couldn't believe what I saw. I had never been to a game that finished like that. I have seen goal line stands, I have seen field goals made and missed to win games. But I have NEVER seen in person an ending like that.

The poor 49er fans went from happy to sad with the flick of a wrist. Even with thousands of people having left early that is the loudest I have ever heard that stadium get. It may have even been a touch louder when the play was confirmed.

Some even more exciting things coming up form me in the coming week or two. You can read about those fun things here when they are posted.

The Great Tomato Incident (2009)

So Jamie Lou got some great gifts from her sister Kerry's family (Kerry, Tom, Peter, and James). They were upside down tomato hangers. I have since come to learn that pretty much anything can and will grow upside down.

But I digress....


So earlier with brother Zac's help we basically built a cross in my back yard where is gets full sun. And it is a very nice cross, nice enough Thad may even want to burn it! (a little Dubuque humor for everyone there.... I am in no way implying that Thad burns crosses. But I have built a cross in my backyard, and he is from Dubuque.)



Zac and I were proud. we had made a tomato hanger thingy, with no plans or help from anyone. soon though I saw the error of my ways. While the top of the arms of the tomato hanger was tall enough once you hung the basket with its chain it was much lower than I had anticipated. as you can see on the left here, the tomato plant is already almost on the ground. See being a first time upside down fruit grower I really didn't know at all what to expect.

This is why I consider myself to be adaptable, I don't let it bother me when things go bad, I just drink a few beers and ignore the problem. If that doesn't fix it, I'll venture out into the world and see if there is any inspiration to be had out there. If that doesn't fix it, then it must not be too big of a problem and we will own the issue and make it a plus (see our yellow counter top as proof).




So once day while out working on my uncle Joe's pool with Zac I see he too has some unside down hangers, but his are on his deck with pipe holding it up in the air **idea forms here**



While I have no deck to run pipe up on, I do have a great tomato crucifix in my backyard I can use. So off the the Home Depot (only one trip to the hardware store for maybe the first time in my life, maybe because I drew up what I needed and stuck to the plan).







below are the results of my fix. I ended up getting 2 extra 90's to keep the 200# circles holding up the hangers from falling off the end. All in all a pretty good project, and I think the tomatoes will be good as there are already blooms all over both plants. You can see in the last picture how much lift was actually attained:

Zac's Birthday

Zac turned 30 on the 19th, so Jamie Lou and I did the lame thing and got him a gift card to Best Buy and a card with a sexy woman that was vacuuming on the inside. Complete with sound effects of that woman vacuuming. I laughed at it, so that is all that matters I guess.... But his wife was a bit better than us and invited over a few friends an family for some BBQ and a pool party. A good time was had by all. All except the kids Yoshi, Zac and Thad made cry. But other than those 5 kids, a good time was had by most.

So happy birthday Zac!

Ah yes, the happy Birthday boy. Can't you see it?:
Donna, Jamie Lou and Ella "The Kid" :
you might think it was Thad's Birthday, but it wasn't. In my best lispy voice "THAPRIZE!" or "TA-DA, a magazine for and by gay magicians":
And this is what happens when little kids tell Zac and me "I wanna go fast" Wait that was Ricky Bobby... Oh yeah, when they say "I WANNA GO HIGH!":

Wednesday night is "Wanted" at Billy Joes, I wonder if I will learn anything at that movie.

PS Oh and if you haven't checked out the show "The Middlemen" Mike was talking about on his blog, it was pretty damn good/funny/witty/ I liked it.

PSS OOOOH and Jamie Lou got me Rosetta Stone Spanish Speaking for Latin America.... I am one hour in and I know lots of words I didn't before come, leche, perro, mujer, pan, manzana the list goes on and on.... I wonder if I will really learn to speak Spanish, that would be KICK ASS to actually order a real drink at a real Mexican place and know what the eff I am saying/doing... I'll keep you posted....

PSSS My buddy Eric started working out, so starting next Monday I think I may too. Remember that is next Monday. That reminds me of the time in Ames at Olde Main Jamie Lou said "Too bad we aren't here tomorrow" as I look up to see a sign that says "Free Beer Tomorrow" She is awesome on so many levels! Always makes me laugh.

PSSSS JB, you an I once talked of doing Damn-2-Damn. Maybe next summer is the time to do it. What do you think?