catching up

so it has been about 1000 years since i have posted anything. this i realize, however it was a very busy and somewhat disheartening football season. but weeks ago nicole told me the blog needed some love, i thought i would try to give a brief summary of the football season but that seemed overwhelming so i am going to share a few videos i have taken and then start the football summary (possibly later today)...

video #1 waiting on the football team before the last home game of the year and the first home victory of the season as always go irish!!



video #2 my mom waiting on my sisters arrival at the south bend regional airport last week before thanksgiving...


video #3 possibly the funniest video ever taken in the apartment. last year we went on operation cutdown to go find the perfect tree. my dad always had very strict height restrictions but our apartment has cathedral ceilings so there were no limits. well other than the size of our living room opps!!

undefined Christmas 2006



nicole already shared these on her blog, but they are some of the best pictures i have taken on campus. something about being at the right place at the right time. enjoy..

its about the hamburger

i am not dealing with the game this week. i obviously don't understand football or qbs or touchdowns. but i do know it is all about the hamburger....thanks rocket!



also in case you need a good laugh check this out. my coworker dave sent me the link to the audio clip about a week ago it is truly a classic.



thanks to jacque and mike for hosting another unsuccessful party :)

breast cancer awareness month

i recieved this message from my friend Alisa today and thought i would pass it along...

Kim Klein, was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple months ago and has been keeping a blog on her experience as a law student, mom, and cancer patient. She has been nominated for a $10,000 blogging scholarship, and will only win if she gets enough votes. To vote, or just to check out her blog: click on the website in the attached email and click on the "Please check out every blog" link. Then you can go to "Kimberley Klein" - 7th on the list - and check out her blog. Just click on the "vote for me" picture on her page. You have to vote on the blog page itself.

Kim has done an amazing job battling cancer and she totally deserves to have her blogging efforts recognized!!

Twenty blogs have been nominated.all of them are blogs written by college students. The winner will be chosen by public vote..the blog that gets the most votes between now and October 28, 2007 wins the $10,000.

To vote, go to this website: http://www.collegescholarships.org/blog/2007/10/08/vote-for-the-winner-of-the-2007-blogging-scholarship/ Her name is 7th on the list. You can only vote once, but you can ask your friends to vote for her, too.

For those of us who have been touched by cancer, this is an marvellous way to pay tribute to our loved ones.

as you may or may not know one of my friends was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and i can't even imagine trying to juggle it all. so if clinking on a link can help somebody out in a similar way why not. i also checked out Kim's blog she seems like an amazing person. be sure to check it out!

hope you all are having a great day!

here come the irish

if you couldn't watch the game because of the great abc, you are still upset about the cubs early demise or if you just are having a case of the mondays and need some cheering up watch this video...it will turn your day around! go irish!! and yes curtis i will update the blog more frequently and more quickly when the irish win!

undefeated in california baby!!!

earlier this week i was driving in my car and heard livin' on a prayer on the radio, i thought to myself well after we go 0-6 the title of the blog is going to be "halfway there." not that i had entirely given up but i was trying to be a realist.

when the game came on this weekend i had an odd sense of calm (maybe it was because the cubs were about to be eliminated and i was glad for that to be over). throughout the game i was pretty calm (well at least the first half) the fumble recovery to the 1 yard line and we only got a field goal and i thought here we go again. but then something happened we didn't look overly lost and the penalties weren't on us...progress was made. then the field goal that made it by inches...somebody was finally on our side! after an amazing amazing amazing game by mo crum and a qb sneak by mr clausen the season turned around. it was so great to see those guys celebrating and smiling even. that is what abc get for showing the oh so interesting tOSU vs PU game, in case you were blocked out of the game you can watch a condensed version here. advice to abc never bet against the irish they just might surprise you.

i talked to robbie after the game and he said the fans in both end zones stayed after the game to celebrate with the team...i am so excited for everybody that got to be there. go irish!! 7 and 5 baby bring it on (i never knew 1-5 could feel so good)!! here are a few pics i found from the game



they haven't updated the press conference so i haven't heard anything from charlie today but i did read this great quote on espn, i am not sure if zibby got it from charlie or vice versa but either way these are some words to live by....

Clausen put the Irish ahead 13-6 when he bulled over from 1 yard out, with 1:53 left in the third quarter.

The Irish players began to celebrate a bit on the sidelines when Clausen scored, and Weis said he told them to tone it down.

"It's been a while since we've been up in the second half," he said. "So I told my guys to act like they've been there before. Don't make me look an idiot."

so i am not sure how it happened but it did, we finally finished one out!! regarding the sucessful karma for the game it seems like the events of this weekend are not reproducible especially since alli and scott are pretty much refusing to not return home but i did wear my osu sucks shirt...if that is what it takes for the irish to win, i can make the sacrifice!

at the home opener as we were walking around campus i asked a question regarding the great #10, i asked how long until somebody decides to wear it again. i got my answer today in the sbt dayne christ is wearing it. it is his number in high school and he is planning on wearing it next year, talk about setting high expectations. i saw this picture in the paper and think he looks like he might just have what it takes...

random thoughts: at halftime of the nd game the espn announcers mentioned the early exit (or early demise as robbie called it) and said "teaches them to make it to the playoffs" i could do nothing but laugh i realize i am a horrible person but misery loves company and since bobby, chipper and the rest of the braves are sitting at home i couldn't handle the cubs still playing.

(oh yeah did i forget to mention that usc lost yeah!!!!!!!!)

the grill isn't the only thing that broke saturday

friday night we went on the 2nd bass pub crawl (notice it wasn't the second annual just the second). we started at cj's (home of the best burger in the bend), then went to oyster, walked to backstage grill and then ended up at the new rum runners. it was a good time, there were a lot of people there i hadn't seen in a while. the funniest part of the evening was either us relentless teasing jacque (did you know she is engaged??) or us making fun of scott for not coming and then he walked in...oppps! it was all in good fun though. jacque along with george, alisa and john all got called up on stage at rum runners i can only imagine how much we are going to torture jacque before the wedding actually happens!! love ya girl :)



ah another saturday during college football season, used to be my favorite day of the week...now it is another day. we all gathered at scott's (we returned the favor of hosting the party) to watch another ND game. we should have known it was going to go well when scotts grill fell apart. destroyed could be the understatement of the day actually at half time when the score was 23-0 we all went outside to mourn the grill and the game. but the remaining food was good (josh's meaty mexican magic that wasn't sexually spicy was the biggest hit of the day) and good people (did you know alisa was a member of the vegetarian political party) were a support group for yet another nd loss...although there were signs of brilliance (ok signs of progress is probably more accurate) in the second half the end result was the same. i don't think we quite have the right karma set up yet, although when alli left and scott was in the bathroom things started looking up...not sure YET what that means. one of these days we should have something to celebrate, and i can't wait! after i got home last night i watched charlie's press conference and drank some more koolaide and am now ready for next saturday!! go irish and go jimmy c :)

after the game i left to join alli, jacque and their mom to go look at wedding dresses (you know she is engaged right?!) ok so i arrive at david's bridal they already have a dress ready for me to try on. easiest process EVER! the dresses are adorable, no i am not *ever* going to wear it again but they are not pepito bismal pink with puffy sleeves so for that i am grateful!! we "changed" the color of the wedding to cornflower, so the dress i am wearing is the new wedding color


i also have pics of jacques dress to and if you name isn't mrm i will send them to you to look at :) otherwise they are saying in the top secret vault!!

last night after all the excitement and a trip to the martin's salad bar and opening a bottle of wine i attempted to watch some good college football i was torn between cheering against ty willi and cheering for usc...after some convincing i decided i wanted usc to lose, so they won...brilliant...love being an irish fan! there is always next week in the life of a dilusional notre dame fan.

channeling nicole

while we were tailgating with some of our friends i overheard one of the guys say that his buddy was tailgating with jeff samardjia. i paused for a second and tried to decide what to do with this information. so after about 1.5 seconds i ran to alli (she was about 2 feet away and yes i ran) and told her about this interesting piece of information. after debating for less than 30 seconds we were off. we asked ben to go with us, he agreed as long as we promised we wouldn't do anything to embarrass him. we assured him we just wanted to see him and nothing else and set off to poll #12 in the parking lot.

we got there looked around and he was nowhere to be seen. we were about to give up when we realized we were on the wrong side of the poll (being directionally challenged it is difficult to figure these things out). we crossed the road and there he was. alli calls magan to tell her what is going on and ben handed me his phone so i could take a picture (he promptly runs away so we don't embarrass him any more).


finally alli convinces me we MUST go get a picture, ben is a rock star has come out of hiding and agrees to take the picture. i told alli i would go but i would not talk. so alli goes and asks jeff if we can get a picture and he said he would love to. then i suddenly get courage to talk and said something along the lines of we left you alone the entire time you were our neighbor...then he apologized for everything that happened while they lived there. honestly we never ever heard them but if we lived in 1b we may have had a different opinion. so anyhow ben, the greatest photographer EVER, took our picture.



as we were leaving alli wished jeff luck with baseball (she is much better at this stuff than i am) and i tell him that i don't like the cubs (hey somebody in the organization should know) but that i am cheering for him to do well. so all and all i think it went amazingly well. we called about everybody we knew and nobody was as excited as we were well until nicole called but we have been through this all before. thanks alli and ben i never would have done it without you guys! below is the picture after the picture with our photographer (i wonder what jeff would have thought if we asked him to take it maybe next time!)

evansville all hail to thee....

jacque sent me this classy youtube clip from our home for four long and amazing years. i know i tend to give elkhart a hard time with the arrests that happen in my parking lot and for their crazy one way streets but this is by far the craziest thing i have seen in a long time...



in no way do i think this wasn't staged, but anybody who saw the vote for borries commercials knows that stranger things for happened in eville :)

all that being said i am actually going to make the trip down there for our 5 year reunion...how has it been five years already?!

at least the bean dip was a hit....

well people have been asking when i was going to update the blog so here we go...last away game nothing noteworthy happened. although alli beth and i impressed the guys we watched the game with for knowing things so that was something good. but this week we had high expectations. michigan hadn't won a game, we hadn't won a game, michigan has a freshman qb we have jc THE freshman qb, the away team had won the last 4 years, and fr moreau was beatified, mrm and mark went up to the big house for game, we broke out all of nicole's irish gear(so nicole as always was with us in spirit)...we were sure to win right?

we through together a quick gathering amy, charlie, crystal, josh, sally, scott, alli and myself gathered together to cheer on the irish! everybody brought something to share and one of the biggest hits as always was nicole's famous bean dip :) if you haven't made it yet you will LOVE it here is the recipe:

Pour 1 lb. frozen corn on cookie sheet & toss with 2-3 tbsp. oil (any kind of cooking oil is fine) Roast for 18-22 minutes at 450 degrees

Mix together the following:

3 roma tomatoes, seeded & diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 jalapenos, seeded & diced (I only use 1/2 or 1> jalapeno)

2 15 oz. cans black beans, rinsed & drained

2 tsp. garlic, minced

2 large avocados, diced

1/2 cup red onion, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Dressing:

2 tbsp. cider vinegar

1 tbsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cumin

6 tbsp. lime juice

5 tbsp. oil (I use olive oil)

Add corn to vegetable mixture and toss with dressing. in true nicole fashion we add a little bit more of everything but it is so good and remember it is good for you "it is all vegetables"

anyhow back to the game, we tried a LOT of things to change the karma...we moved seats, added beads, added socks, removed shirts and even in a last ditch effort chocolate cake shots all the way around (have you ever noticed we always eat to comfort ourselves) in case you haven't had a chocolate cake shot here is the recipe:

1/2 shot Absolut® Citron vodka

1/2 shot Frangelico® hazelnut liqueur

1 lemon wedge

Mix equal parts Absolut Citron and Frangelico into a shot glass. Drink the shot, and follow it immediately by sucking on a sugar-coated lemon wedge. you make think how in the world does it taste like chocolate cake, i don't know how it just works...imo, adam at corby's makes the best ones but the ones at home aren't too bad either.

but nothing could help, NOTHING, our only choice was dulling the pain. to be fair most of the michigan fans i know personally were not that bad so thanks for that at least. it could have been worse i had a premonition of 59 to nothing and alli had a dream that we were losing 35-0 so at least we were overly pessimistic. if you weren't able to make this gathering please feel free to join us next time!!

so charlie is sending the team back to training camp i hope it will help...it better i cannot stand msu...cannot stand them, stupid flag in the middle of our field oh heck no! so i hope we are ready to go. i can tell you at least 2 girls that will be screaming our heads off sporting some new lucky (i hope) shirts on saturday who will NOT leave before the game is over!! as always go irish!!

ps i won't even touch dd or whatever he wants to be called. he thinks he should have handled it better, yeah so do i. in the words of the great tommy z, "But if you're not going to be behind us 100 percent, it's best that you not be on this team." amen!

jc the people's choice

well today charlie announced what the nd faithful were all hoping for...jimmy clausen will be starting against penn state. the results of the blog poll were for the jimbotron and charlie listened to us (i am sure he has spent hours looking through the blogosphere for opinions like that of mine and nicole's). so he is the chosen one, i have been a fan since the beginning and can't wait to see what he can do. at the very least we will have a quaterback with experience going into next season. here are some picks of the newest "golden boy" from the fan practice and blue and gold game

charlie said today that jimmy was the clear leader after spring practice (before the pesky surgery) and that he wasn't medically cleared to go full out until september 1 but now it is september 1st and he is ready to roll...also interesting enough he would not disclose what he said to jimmy before he went in on saturday...my thoughts are something along the lines of take over your team boy you and i both knew it was going to happen. no quarterback has started so early in their freshman season, brady didn't start until game 4.

i need jimmy to do well so he can save the season and my liver (huge embarrassing nd losses make me drink too much) and while i don't think we are going to go 13-1 i do have hope that i didn't have halfway through the game on saturday.

stephanie's friend jen had the following thing to say and i just had to share, she sums it up into one neat little package...

Well, this football season is shaping up to be a dandy. It's going to be like 2003 again when Brady was a frosh taking his lumps. Evan has already proved in mop-up duty that he can't move an offense, and the college game doesn't support the option or running the QB anymore, so D-dawg is out. I really thought Charlie would throw Clausen in there sooner, but he had to give the ND faithful a real look at the more "experienced" quarterbacks. That way, when everyone's yelling for his head because the froshie is throwing interceptions against USC and Michigan, we all know there ain't nothin' better to fall back on. Charlie is truly a genius.

so here is to hoping to the future (and beating msu, usc, bc and u of m, maybe not this year but next year would be nice)...go irish!!

ps it took nicole until last year to shake brady's hand and she has already shaken jimmy's i think that is an excellent sign! check out the video if you haven't yet!

join the club

well this weekend was one for the ages...nicole called me about 4 pm on friday to say she was coming home for the weekend. i couldn't have been more excited i think my co-workers thought i was nuts! she has only been gone for a few weeks but it seems like an eternity, so the scene was set...nicole in town, finally the answer to the qb question and tailgating all seemed right with the world. let the long weekend begin.


saturday morning we did some power tailgating, maximized the amount of people we saw in a limited amount of time. we still managed to see the team walk into mass, see yesterday's entry for the video. after seeing amy, brian, sarah and randy we heading back to watch the game.


nicole, alli, brett, christa and myself settled in at our apartment with snacks, drinks and good company to enjoy the irish kickoff. the overall mood was excited about dd starting (the winner of last weeks poll) but weren't two minutes into the game and many of my expletives later nicole assured us it was going to be a long season and that we needed to just relax. we took a break in the first half to watch miss south carolina and then dove back in for more. evan went in for the two minute drill and nicole was so excited to see a forward pass we declared it was time to make tshirts (christa suggested "evan almighty").

during halftime we saw the video nicole was telling us about the haiti program, it put things in perspective. you can check out the video here.

we charged through the misery that was the 2nd half and then a bright light shown from the sideline...his name jimmy clausen...he was throwing...i screamed nicole and christa stopped talking about the miracles of the human heart and hope was born again! something about seeing our third quarterback of the day brought joy, he could throw, he seemed to know what he was doing, he smiled from the sidelines and most importantly nicole didn't break his hand when she shook it earlier today!! we celebrated the small victories and enjoyed the end of the game (even a fan from southern california who will remain nameless even admits now jimbotron might be the best option).

so the score was bad, the game was bad...but there appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel. but at the end of the day one thing still hasn't changed....

don't forget to vote in this weeks poll and make your voice heard!

highlights from charlie's press conference...charlie promises that the team will be better or worse next week but not the same, i guess that is good news. charlie also said that jones and sharpley were both disspointed with their performance but he told them to join the club, couldn't have said it better myself. but it was still a great irish weekend...



i am watching the braves game right now, talk about knocking a girl while she is down but the commentators just said john smoltz wasn't sure if he was going to be able to start today because his sides hurt from laughing too hard at the michigan loss. that is some funny stuff. now they are talking about how maybe notre dame would have used a 4th qb if he was available, not funny.

on a bright note leroy dixon from sb anchored the 4x1 relay for team usa yesterday and they won the gold. while i haven't seen leroy in YEARS i played softball with both of his sisters for a long time at chet waggoner and am so proud of him!

well it could have been worse....

well we suck...but so did michigan right?! i will post pics and highlights from this weekend tomorrow...

but in the meantime you can check out my youtube premiere...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1yqhbfx1-s

so we are 1 for 1 in selecting the correct starting qb...not sure that is a good thing. but PLEASE vote in the updated poll....go irish!

hawaiian luau

krista and adam hosted a hawaiian luau yesterday at their place. their parties are always a blast my personal favorite theme has been the ugly christmas sweater party. the weather was not the best but that didn't stop us from going out and having a great time. here are just a selection of the pictures from the event....

did you know that briana and alli are almost the same height? (love you alli)

krista and christa got to meet! yeah!!

fun times with the "marketing committee"


fruit jousting (how a boy didn't think of this first i am not sure)

also i stumbled upon this great new youtube video honoring the newest brave mark teixeira check it out more than once and sing along :) it is amazing how many things rhyme with teixeira! you have to check it out and let me know what you think.

brady debuted last night it pretty remarkable fashion according to both my mom and nicole, i hope this is a sign of good things to come for him!!

fan appreciation day (open practice)

so today beth padgett and myself headed out early to the stadium to check out open practice. now we knew that charlie wasn't going to gather the fans to tell us who the starting qb was going to be but i still thought it would be fun to check it out. not to mention i have an obligation to keep nicole posted on what is going on in the bend.

i learned today that armando allen is one VERY fast kid. he is the only new number that i learned today (thanks to the very informed young man sitting in front of me). zibby was fired up and looked like he was having a great time. when he broke through on a practice punt return nobody was stopping him from taking it to the end zone. remember how there were 4 qbs at the blue gold game, then zach left, so were down to 3, but at practice today there were 5 guys in red jerseys. couldn't tell much of anything about any of them although the crowd was for sure most interested in mr. clausen (give the people what they want charlie!!). demitrius, evan and jimmy all saw about equal time at different places (but i didn't see jimmy really air anything out). carlson was back and making some great catches and grimes looked good as well. i will say that for me the hightlight of the entire practice was when the defense had 10 players on the field and charlie made them all take a lap that was good for them i am sure, maybe he should do that in game too it would for sure cut down on penalties. you can take a look at the rest of the pictures from today here. so all i really can say for sure about practice today it was a great chance to be in the stadium for free and speculate on the upcoming season just like everybody else.

also, i was talking to my brother last night and he informed me of the following observation he heard from a co-worker. sorry i couldn't resist....

the first 4 games on tOSU schedule in order are:

Youngstown

Akron

Washington

Northwestern

well that is all from the college football front today, GO IRISH only 21 days and a couple of hours until kickoff!!

ps i just read that dayne christ was at practice today, nothing like keeping the pressure on. (for those who don't know dayne is a rising senior at nd high school in california, he has already committed to the irish and is rumored to be better than jimmy at least that is what my sister says :))

from the lakes of minnesota

it has been a tough week here nicole left for pitt on sunday and melissa leaves tomorrow for st. paul, minnesota. melissa and i have known each other since a fabled day in 1992 (yes folks we are old) when she came to visit corpus to see if she wanted to join the insanity. we clicked instantly in april of our 7th grade year and have been best friends ever since. we have been through a lot from the joys of middle school, the craziness of high school coaches (hoffman, jimmy and murrey) about a million crushes (i honestly don't think there is a single guy at st joe we didn't have a crush on at some point), several broken and in some cases shattered hearts, proms, y2k, countless nights at the bar, dozens of sleepovers and just about everything in between. so as she takes off our her next adventure we had to live it up at least one more time. we had a relatively calm night last friday at corby's and then onto backer



but something told me weren't done yet and we weren't. last night we sent our girl out in style...there are very few people that can convince me to rock out until 3 am on a work night but mel is for sure on the very short list... here are a couple of the pics from last night, the rest you can check out on my newly created (much to my dismay) myspace page...




words cannot express how much i am going to miss both nicole and melissa, but with football right around the corner i know nicole will be back soon and we are already planning a trip to the tundra for mel's birthday, if you want to join let me know :)

love ya girls south bend isn't going to be the same without you this song is for you both...

strike me dead if i say rebuilding

my favorite source of nd news without a doubt had a great article from media day including translation, check it out...no it doesn't say if the jimbotron will be starting but it is pretty optimistic.

also this is the FUNNIEST video i have seen on you tube in about forever!

enjoy and go irish!! (24 days til opening day kickoff)

stupiest thing i have EVER seen in my life

so about a month and a half ago jacque's "brilliant" boyfriend decided this was a good idea and thanks to didk it will live forever on youtube...

the birth of my blog

while beth, alli, brett, nicole and i were at the st. joseph county 4h fair last night celebrating the blogiversary of Nicole's page i was being heavily encouraged by nicole to start a blog, i told her i thought i would be copying off of her but she insisted i needed to do it for four reasons....

1.) we are two totally different people
2.) she for some reason thinks i am funnier than her
3.) people want to hear about all the nd football things happening in south bend AND
4.) she won't have time to blog anymore (there was an audible GASP as she said this, she admits today this is absolutely not true)

while i will promise i can't hold a candle to nicole's page i am going to give it the old college try and we will see how it goes. i am not sure what i will have to blog about but with football season right around the corner and the braves fighting for first place i am sure i can come up with something.