Another game won by the Buckeye...Offense???

That's right! This time the offense rose up to the occasion and won this weekend's game at Minnesota. Troy Smith passed well to all of his receivers and tight ends, the running game heated up with Antonio Pittman busting a ruge run for a touchdown, and special teams chimed in when Tedd Ginn brought a kick off back 100 yards and took it to the house! The scary part, Minnesota's offense actually out played the defense during the first half. The Silver Bullets allowed more running yards in the first half then they had in any previous total game. They made some adjustments in the second half and were able to shut down the Gophers, allowing the offense to take over and run up the points. The game wasn't as close as the 45-31 score indicates. Yes, it was a 17-17 tie at the half, but OSU took over the second half (the last Minnesota TD was scored against the second team defense. Now the Buckeyes are tied for the Big Ten lead with Wisconsin and Penn State. Penn State has the tie breaker since they topped OSU a few weeks ago. So, what we need to have happen is Wisconsin needs to beat Penn State this weekend, then Iowa needs to beat Wisconsin next weekend, and Ohio State needs to beat Illinois and Northwestern at home and M*ch*g*n in that pit they call a stadium. Then we will have an all out Big Ten title. If the offense can keep things going, Ohio State has a good chance to win their remaining three games.

Some pictures....

Here are some pictures for you. The first two are the 'before' pictures of our dining room. As you can see, they used it as a formal living room. We repainted over the Barney purple and added my grandparent's dining room furniture. The third picture is the final results. The fourth picture is of our jack-o-lanterns, and the last one is of Alydia. She's such a cutie pie! I'm going to be in trouble in 15 years.

31 ain't no thang

Well, another year, another year older. I am officially 31. I know, it's not as big of a deal as turning 30, but I can't say that I'm just 30. Now, I'm a 'thirty-something'. It's OK though. I never really feel any older. When I'm no longer interested in playing games and need Viagra, THEN, I will feel old. I did have a bit of an old moment when Nirvana's "Smell Like Teen Spirit" came on the radio and realized that I first heard it was in high school, 15 years ago.

We had a pretty good day. Jessica stayed home to make me a birthday cake (carrot cake with cream cheese icing. YUM) and we went to lunch at Ruby Tuedsay's, then to target to get some things that we needed for Alydia. Then, Jessica made me my favorite dinner, schnitzel, which is breaded pork, fried, and topped with dill sauce, along with mashed taters and asparagus. (Double yum!) After that we went back out to get some Halloween decorations. In between, I cleaned out my garage finally so that I can park the car in there. I know, you aren't supposed to do stuff like that on your birthday, but it needed to be done. I'm going to close the evening with some drinks and relaxation in front of the TV. Oh, for a present, Jessica got me a cool Brutus pen holder for on my desk. I'll add pictures tomorrow, if I get the time. I also need to post the kid's jack-o-lanters. Alydia's is cute, but Gabriel's and Noah's are sorta scary. We designed them ourselves.

Thinkgs to look forward to:

OSU has four games left this year. Seems like the season has gone by really quickly.

10/29 at Minnesota 12:00 PM
11/05 Illinois TBD
11/12 #21 N'western TBD
11/19 at #25 Michigan TBD

Illinois should be a W, but Minnesota, Northwestern, and Michigan are all big games for the Buckeyes. Northwestern worries me after they handled Michigan State. At least we have them at home. The Big Ten race is still up in the air. Penn State is definately on top of the Big Ten being 7-1, but they stil have Purdue, Wisconsin, and M. State. I'm amazed that Jo Pa was able to turn them around so quickly. Well, I don't mean this to be a fooball post, so I'll drop it for now.

Back to the subject at hand, the thinks I am looking forward to in the near future:

11/01/05 - Star Wars III is out on DVD. I liked most parts of this movie. The two things I can remember that irritated me were when Obi Wan rode that big lizard like a cow boy and when Darth Vader, the baddest of the bad, screams 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' when told that Padme died. I never hear James Earl Jones' voice sound wussie before. I think it would have been better to have him stand in a silent rage and have the Force shake stuff instead.

11/05/05 - Poker Night. I am going to have a poker game at my place. It's a Saturday and I'm starting up around 7:00. Let me know if you want to come.

10/28/2005 - We are going up to Toledo for the weekend. I'm hoping to catch up with my buddy Ben. He and his new wife live about five minutes from my parents. Plus, my mom said that she'd watch the kids so that Jessica and I can go out Friday night. Byblos baby! The best food ever. Plus, we may try to see Serenity finally.

11/18/2005 - Harry Poter and the Goblet of Fire hits the theaters. The book was great. I'm hoping that the movie is just as good, but I fear that they will need to cut alot of details to make the movie short enough to show. I hope that they will do what they did with The Lord of the Rings DVDs and add extra scenes that had to be deleted. The trailers look good though.

11/19/2005 - OSU vs Michigan. No matter what the records are for these teams, it is always the game of the year. I would rather both teams be undefeated going into this game because it adds a bit more excitement, but no matter what, the game is huge.

11/24/2005 - Thanksgiving. Normally, this is not a huge deal, but this year we are going to have the big dinner at out place. It is the first time ever, only because it is the first time that we have had enough room. We'll have my parents, Jessica's parents, and probably my aunt, uncle, and grandma and Jessica's grandma. Our brothers may come too, but I don't count on it.

11/22/2005 - The new System of a down cd, Hypnotize, will be released. I love SOAD. They rock! I have read the first song off of the album, also called Hypnotize, in concert and on the radio. It's pretty good.

12/06/2005 - The new Korn cd, See You on the Other Side, will be released. I have heard the released song, Twisted Transistror, on the radio. It's different, but good.

Well, that's about all for the next month or so. Lots of things to look forward to.

My Weekend

It was sort of a busy weekend for us. First, I had to work, so that takes up most of my day. On top of working, several of Jessica's family members were in town to celebrate her grandpa's birthday. So, this means a family dinner on Friday night and then a big party Saturday night. Don't get me wrong, I like Jessica's family, but I tend to get over loaded with too much family contact. Friday was ok. We had a pot luck type dinner. It was pretty good. The idea of playing some poker came up, so I ran home and got my chips. We only had four players, but it was pretty fun. Mostly because I won. Poker can always change a dull evening to a good time. One thing that we weren't too happy about is that Jessica's aunt brought her kids, who were 25 and 17 (he brought a friend). That's not the problem. The problem was that the 17 year old was allowed to drink beer. I know under aged drinking goes on. I drink in college when I was 19, but I was out on my own and responsible for my own actions. Oh well, what can you do? Another problem is that the entire family if a bunch of chain smokers, so we smelled like ash trays when we left.

Saturday was ok too. More people, more smokers, and more cards. It was another four person game. I would have probably won, but we called it after getting down to two players and just split the money (I am still up $50, so I didn't mind). Saturday had a larger variety of wierd people. There were a lot of gay folk there. I don't have a problem with that, but sometimes gays and lesbians can be a bit off. I really like Jessica's dad's friend George and Joe. Especially George. He is quite funny. It seems like the lesbians are more off than gay men. They always seem very full of themselves. At least that is my observation from last night and from my aunt's 'friend' Ann. She was always really sarcastic and kind of negative. Anyway, it was definately a different scene from what I am used to. It is definately an interesting experience going to a party with Jessica's dad's friends, who are mostly all gay, and Jessica's dad's family, who are mostly rednecks.

About half way through the party, a older man (late 50' or 60's) and a younger woman (late 30's or 40's) arrived together. Let's just say that the woman had 'look at me' syndrome. She was attractive, but was wearing a open middle shirt and jeans that should have been on a girl shorter and smaller than she. I think I saw her ass crack twice (no panties apparently). I don't mind seeing ass crack, but she just seemed to be trying entirely too hard. I tried to walk through the room she was in (it was her dancing alone and two men talking) to get to the dining room and she tried to make me dance with her. Apparently, she didn't notice my wedding ring or my fiesty wife that would beat the crap out of both of us. I declined. If she would have asked me three years and one wedding ago, I may have accepted. As I mentioned, she was attractive. I was bothered again when, not only were the 17 year olds allowed to drink, but there was a pot somking room upstairs that they frequented as well. I guess I'm just not a cool parent because I would NOT allow my children to drink, smoke, or do drugs while living in my house. When they move out, they can do whatever they want. They had just better not expect me to bail them out if they act stupid.

A happy note about Saturday: Ohio State CRUSHED Indiana. The defense was incredible again. The offense was pretty good too. One negative was when Tedd Ginn was stripped of the ball and IU scored a touchdown. It seemed to me that he was down due to the fact that his forward progress had stopped, but the officials didn't agree. Tedd Ginn had a punt return for a touchdown ans a 97 yard kick off return that was called back for a illegal block. He is so fast. After he turned the corner on the punt return, you could tell when he slowed down a bit and he was still going as fast as his blockers. Wow.

Worst Game Ever.....With the Best Ending

I went with my dad to the OSU vs. Michigan State game this past Saturday. I usually go with Jessica, but she had to work. I was going to go with my buddy Jesse, but he had to work too. And since Bryan already has a press pass, I decided to take my Dad. It was pretty fun. It's funny how worked up he gets about bone head plays, and there were a LOT of bone head plays by the Buckeyes. I am now a firm believer that Troy Smith should be benched. There was a point when the OSU faithful were booing him. It started off with poor offensive possessions and the OSU defense getting picked apart by the MSU quarterback. The defense did well on first downs, but second down plays usually netted enough yardage for MSU to get a first down. Luckily, the defense tightened up enough to hold MSU to relatively few points. The write up I book marked above makes it out as Smith being the hero of the game. In reality, he missed wide open Ted ginn Jr about three or four times and taking a sack or throwing incomplete passes, and he missed Gonzales wide open and fumbled, again. The Buckeyes turned the ball over 4 times. How they won, I don't know. On top of all things, Santonio Holmes muffed two kick returns ( he was able to recover one of them) and Ted Ginn Jr. muffed one as well. When Holmes finally caught a punt, the crowd gave him a very sarcastic cheer. Why did Ohio State win? 1. Because of the MSU screw up on the last second field goal atempt. The special teams coach sent the field goal unit out when the head coach wanted them to spike the ball to stop the clock first. The confusion enabled OSU to block the kick and run the ball back for a score, making it a 3 point game instead of a 13 point MSU lead. 2. Smith finally started to hit wide open receivers for long scores. First, he hit Santonio Holmes and then Tedd Ginn Jr. Finally, another TD to Holmes finished it. I have been saying all year that I wanted the offense to throw some long balls to the to wide receivers. One of the plays, both Holmes and Ginn were easily ten years behind their defenders. 3. The crowd at the end of the game was probably the loudest and most intense I have ever heard it. In the fourth quarter, with MSU trying to get back into the game, the crowd was so loud that it hindered the MSU offense and lifted OSU defense to a new level. It was amazing. The defense played so well in the last two MSU possesions that it was like a different team. The QB was hit more times than a punching bag. I wish I could forget the first half of that game, but am glad I was there for the final six munites or so. Hopfully the offense can solve some issues this coming Saturday against Indiana.

Another thing about the game is where our seats were. We were directly above one of the student sections, and let me tell you, the coeds at OSU are still very easy on the eyes. Oh, and I forgot sun screen, so I have horrible burns on my legs, arms,and face. OUCH!

Bowling Woes

Some of you may know that I am in a bowling league that meets on Thursdays. It is an all male league with four bowlers per team. I'm a fair bowler and carry around a 180 average. Well, so far this year, my team has been getting used like a five cent whore on coupon day. Are we bowling bad? Not really. It just seems like when we are a little off our game, the teams we are bowling against are staying at their averages and when we are average, the teams we bowl against are hot. The way our league scores is that each game is worth two points and the final series counts as one point, so seven points per week. So far, the best that we have managed in a week is three points. To be a contender in the league, a team needs to take five to seven points per week. As a result we are at the bottom of the barrel. We still have a good time, but it would be better if we would win a few more games. Last week we won one game by a lot and lost the other two games by a total of about 30 pins. Last night we won one by a lot and lost the other two by a total of about 30 pins. For those of you without calculators, that's 6 out of 14 points. The silver lining about last night is that I was on fire. 209, 189, 235. It's the best I've done in a while. The funny part is that, if you read one of my prevuious posts, I hurt my foot/ankle on Saturday. Like a man, I played through the pain. I know that women do that too, but the statement loses a bit if I say 'like a woman, I played through the pain'. To say 'like a true athelete' would imply that bowling is anything more than a reason to get out of the house and drink. I suppose that ESPN carries it, thus making it a sport, but something that a 500 pound man can do as well as a 100 pound woman, raises the question as to whether or not bowling is truely a sport. No, I do not weigh 500 pounds. I was making an exaple. I guess I could pose the question as to whether or not ESPN is even a sports channel any more. They carry poker and I once saw the Scrabble championship on ESPN. Scrabble?? I am gatting off the topic. The woes in 'Bowling Woes' is that, dispite the fact that we bowl alright, we are still getting beaten too much for my taste.

Speaking of getting beaten too much, I have tickets to the OSU game tomorrow (nice seguay, eh?). I have to admit that I am not as excited about the game as I would be if the Buckeyes were 5-0 instead of 3-2. The bottom line is that they let go two games that they could have won. It's very irritating. Well, I will still go to the game, I will still cheer for the Buckeyes and the Band, and I will still have fun. I just won't pick any roses any time soon.

I'm never going to have another OSU cookout...

Every time I have a cookout for an OSU game, they lose. Wisconsin twice and now Penn State. Watching a losing effort by the Buckeyes causes the atomosphere of the party go from good, to tense, to plan bad. The defense was great. They did everything they needed to to keep Ohio State in the game. It wasn't until the last few minutes of the game that I became truly worried because I knew that the defense would get the ball back to the offense. Now, the offense blew chunks. More specifically, Troy Smith blew. He missed wide open receivers and took bad sacks for losses. Then, he throws the interception that leads to the winning touchdown. Everything else in the game was dead even. At one point the yards gained by each team were almost exactly even. To be honest, I've never been a Troy Smith fan. Yes, he made plays, but he'd rely on his legs rather than making passes to his open receivers. Saturday's game seemed the exact opposite. He'd stay in the pocket waiting to pass when he should have run. Or, he'd miss open receivers and make bad passes. Plus, they can't seem to get the bal to Ted Ginn Jr. I guess Penn State's defense did a good job of shutting him down, but it seems like he's just not getting the ball at all. I guess I need to give Penn State credit. They had a good game plan and shut down the Buck's offense. Plus the crowd was loud and full of energy, making it a truely hostile place to play. It is so frustrating that we can put up so many points against Iowa, and then suck so bad after a bye week. Well, I guess there's always an outside possibility of winning the Big Ten title. Penn State needs to lose a few and Ohio State needs to win out. It probably won't happen, but we can hope.

On top of the Buckeyes losing, the kids that were over DESTROYED my basement. There is crap all over the place. That's the thing I hate about having other people's kids over. You can't really yell at them and the parents don't really do much to keep them in check. The party ended after the little kids started throwing things at each other and one of them took a blow to the head. There was blood and screaming. It's really no one's fault because I'm sure they were just playing a dumb game, but the older kids should have put a stop to it or told an adult what was going on before someone was hurt. Well, we had fund until the Bucks lost and the kids got out of control. Oh! and then on top of it all, I took the trash out and stepped badly on the edge of my driveway, twisting my ankle and falling on my ass. It HURT. Nothing like laying in your driveway in the light rain unable to stand up. I was finally able to hobble inside and wallow in my agony.

Don't worry. Just because I'll never have another OSU game cookout doesn't mean that I'll never have another cookout. Maybe I'll make it a spring cookout or maybe an OSU bye week cook out. Then people can just gather to have fun and won't get angry when the Bucks lose. I have tckets for this weekend's game. I'll probably go, but I am not as excited about it as I was on Friday. It is against Michigan State, so it should still be a good game. Maybe they'll put Zwick in and see if the offense can get going with a better passer at the helm.

Another HUGE game....

Ohio State travels for the first time this year as they head out to Happy Valley and play Penn State. The Lions are undefeated so far this season and are ranked 16th. Being in Penn State and a night game makes this a bit of a challenge for the Buckeyes. I think I am as nervous and excited about this game as I was for the Texas game. It's supposed to be wet in Happy Valley, do this will likely beome a defensive battle. If that is the case, I need to give the nod to OSU to come out on top. Ohio State has only allowed 51 points in four games, 25 of them to Texas. That's a pretty good defense. Kick off is at 7:45 tonight. hopfully the OSU defense and special teams will make a big enough difference that the Bucks can come home with a win.

A bye week and up 2....

It was an interesting week in college football. As my title indicates, OSU had a bye week this past weekend and moved up 2 positions in the polls. LSU lost on Monday and Florida got stomped by Alabama on Saturday. I filled the void of an OSU football free weekend by watching the Michigan vs. Michigan State game. It was a good one. At first, it looked like Michigan was going to roll over MSU, but the Spartans came back. It ended up going to OT where Michigan took the game with a field goal. I had thought that MSU was going to be the team to beat in the big Ten, but now I'm not too sure. It's up in the air again. One thing that scares me a little is how badly Penn State beat Minnesota. Penn state is now undefeated so far this year and the Buckeyes head out to Happy Valley this weekend. I was feeling confident about the game, but the Penn State win gives me reason to worry a bit. I still feel confident that the Buckeyes can win, but the past two years, OSU has lost a night game immediately following a bye week. Two years ago they lost to Wisconsin, and last year they lost to Northwestern. Hopefully it is not a pattern. One thing that is obvious is that the rest of the Big Ten doesn't play very much defense. The average total scores of the 5 Games played by Big Ten teams is 61 points (both teams added together). Granted, one of the teams playing was Notre Dame, but they put up 49 points on Purdue. I am pretty confident that the OSU defense can carry the team to the Big Ten title. The problem is that Wisconsin is undefeated, and OSU does not play the Badgers. If both teams win out, Wisconsin would have the better overall record and win the title.

Speaking of the upcoming OSU vs. Penn State game, we are having a cookout this weekend for the game. It should be a pretty good turn out. My bowling team is coming and bringing their wives and some other people are going to stop by. I hope everyone will be able to come out. I know it's hard for out-of-towners to make arrangements for places to stay and all that. It's a late game, so it's not like you could drive all the way to Columbus, watch the game, and then head home. I do have some room for people to stay, but not a whole lot. It should be a good time though. Food, drink, cards, whatever. We always make too much food and usually have left overs for the week. Yummy junk food left overs...mmmmmmm.