Urge to Kill Rising...RISING!!

In the six years since I have graduated form Michigan, there have been countless amazing football games and dramatic come from behind victories. Every time I have watched one on television, I always wish that I was at the stadium and enjoying the moment with 100,000 of my closest fans.

Well, I had the opportunity to enjoy that great moment this past weekend. Even though I have tickets to six home games this year, Saturday's game against Wisconsin was going to be my only trip to Michigan Stadium all season.

It was a lovely fall afternoon in Ann Arbor. Sunny. 70 degrees. Great day for football.

Unfortunately, the first half of the game was a total disaster. 19-0 deficit. One first down. Outgained 220-20. 5 turnovers. My high school team would have been leading Michigan after a half like that. It was disheartening, but I was not one of the people who booed the team off the field at halftime. I would never do that.

I was starting to think I was a curse to Michigan football. Between the OSU game last year, the ND game two weeks ago, and the first half against Wisconsin, I was becoming a bad luck charm. I even received a text message asking what I did to break Michigan football.

I think the two teams switched jerseys at halftime. Michigan mounts an amazing comeback. One for the ages. Biggest comeback in Michigan Stadium history and second biggest comeback in team history. Exactly the kind of game I've always wanted to be able to watch in person. It was a game destined to make my top three list of greatest Michigan games I've ever seen.

BUT WAIT. This story must be too good to be true. And it is.

About two weeks ago, someone I went to high school with and roomed with in college called me. He was getting married on Saturday and wondered why I never RSVPed for his wedding. Although he went to Michigan, he hated Michigan football and didn't care that his wedding directly conflicted with Michigan's biggest home football game of the season.

Somehow, there was a mix-up and I never received the invitation. The groom apparently sent the invite to the wrong address. Since I was going to be in Michigan anyway that weekend, I felt sort of bad skipping the wedding. However, I was conflicted since I had barely spoken to this guy in 4 years and wasn't that close with him in the first place. The wedding appealed to me more because of some of my other college friends that were planning to attend.

I made the decision that I would skip the ceremony and arrive a little late to the reception. However, since the game kicked off at 3:30, I had to leave at halftime in order to even achieve that goal. I committed to leaving Michigan Stadium at halftime (after the band show, of course), and I was going to live with the final outcome. Given how the first half went, I figured that I would not be missing much.

Yes. I left the football game yesterday at halftime. AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! I listened on the radio as Michigan mounted their miraculous comeback during my 60 mile drive from Ann Arbor to Warren. At one point, I was worried that I was going to make a widow out of the bride when I arrived. I was so angry, yet ecstatic at the same time.

I did have a very good time at the wedding, and I am content with my decision despite the historic comeback. Knowing how crazy I am about Michigan football, my friends tried to mess with me during the evening, but I was not going to complain about my decision. In the course of life, the wedding was more important, and I shouldn't have gone if I was going to regret missing the game.

But wow. I can't believe I missed that finish.

On the bright side, the MMB did an entertaining spoof on Ferris Bueller's day off during halftime. May I suggest watching part 1 and part 2? Part 2 might be tough to make out what's on the video screens prior to the Joe Pa shot. Let me know if you need me to decipher the joke because of the poor video quality.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I'm so Evil

UPDATE - This is very bad news. Ford Jr wouldn't air his displeasure with Millen so publicly unless he knew that his father was not planning to take any action to remove Millen as GM anytime soon.

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Am I a bad fan and a bad person when I can't wait for the owner of my favorite NFL team to croak so that the team might improve enough to be just one step below respectable?

The team is so bad in so many areas that the only hope for improvement is a change at the very top. Firing Matt Millen, whenever that finally happens, will not make this team good.

My hope rests in Bill Ford Jr., who was a disaster as CEO of Ford, but probably less disastrous than his father, who has only seen the Lions win one playoff game since he bought the team in the 1960s.

What am I? A Teacher?

A couple weeks ago, a former employee that has since moved back to the Midwest contacted me. She's giving up on the actuarial profession and wants to go back to school for her MBA. She asked me to write her a letter of recommendation. Me!?!

I've never written a letter of recommendation for anyone before. I never even took my own letters of recommendation seriously when I was applying at Michigan since I knew that Michigan did not pay much attention to the letters.

However, I believe that letters of recommendation are much more important for graduate programs. It feels kind of strange writing a letter for an MBA program when I've never been to business school.

This individual is someone who I enjoyed having on my staff, so I'm definitely going to write the letter. I've been doing some research this morning, so I think I know how to write a strong letter of recommendation and highlight the qualities that are important to a business school.

Why does writing a letter of recommendation make me feel old? It's not like teachers write several of these each year...

So Jealous

I wish I could have joined my mom in this picture...

Be Careful What You Wish For

I've been to somewhere around 40 or 50 Michigan football games (home, away, or bowl). Given the significant number of games I've been to, I've lucked out and never attended a game where the weather was nasty. The UM-OSU game last year was not pleasant given the 30 degree weather and light rain/snow mix, but I've never been to a game with significant rain, snow, or wind.

Given that I've never been to a bad weather Michigan game, I was a little excited about the forecast of heavy rain on Saturday for my trip to South Bend. Maybe I would finally get to experience one of those soggy football games I love watching on television.

The weather was actually pretty good for the first half. It was very hot, sunny, and humid before kickoff. Then the clouds came in and the wind picked up a little during the first half, which was a nice change from the pregame weather. Of course, the team absolutely sucked during the first half. I've never seen an uglier first 8 minutes of a football game before. Yikes! We were down 21-0 and never really forced ND to do anything to earn it. Side note - ND is not a good football team. If these teams played again next week in South Bend, I think Michigan would still be favored by ~3 points. However, Michigan is also a very flawed team and at this point they are not deserving of a bowl game this season. I think ND also loses 6+ games this year.

The rains came in during halftime. It rained lightly during the MMB halftime show, then it poured when ND's band took the field. As the second half was about to start, I turned to the fans behind me and said 'I hope you don't mind if I stand for the entire second half because I'm not sitting down in the puddle-of-a-seat'. I was still moderately dry at this time. Thankfully, the Michigan fans behind me also preferred to stand for the second half.

The rain picked out throughout the 3rd quarter. At one point around the end of the 3rd qtr, I turned to FlyingV and said 'I don't think it can possibly rain harder than this'. Then, sheets of rain started to fall. Karma, I guess. Michigan ran only one play while the rain was at its peak. Threet fumbled the snap and ND took the ball for a TD. It was that kind of day. The Irish got every break/ "fluky" bounce/close call in the football game, which is why the final margin was not close even though Michigan had an extra 125 yards of offense.

By the end of the game, any piece of clothing I was wearing was completely saturated. We were only about 100 miles from Chicago, which set a record for rainfall in one day on Saturday. 6.64 inches.

I decided before the trip not to bring my raincoat even though I knew there was a chance of rain on Saturday. Why? Because it's green. Maybe I get what I deserve, but I'd rather be sick than wear green at Notre Dame Stadium for a Michigan-ND football game. At least it was pretty warm, so the heavy rain was bearable. Also, the people around me wearing raincoats and ponchos were probably just as soaked as I was by the end of the game.

In hindsight, I never want to attend a game like that again. It was fun once, but that's it. Or rather, it would have been fun if Michigan didn't hand ND the football game on a silver platter.

Zoolander ad Softball

I'm having way too much fun with these baby pictures. Here is little Eli showing off his new look - Blue Steel. Magnum will be ready soon...

Our softball team had a major challenge today. After getting the short end of the stick following a 3-way tie for first place this season (i.e., the 3 seed), we were fortunate enough to match up against the #7 seed in the semi-finals after the #2 seed was stunned in the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, we only had three girls available for today's game and had to play with only 8 players.

Despite this defensive challenge, we played our best defensive game as a team. Ever. We won 4-0. A shutout. In slow pitch softball. WITH ONLY 8 PLAYERS!!! I'm still amazed with the outcome.

Don't look now, but we are matching up against The Swarm in the playoffs for the fourth year a row (including the second consecutive championship series). They beat us 4-3 and 15-6 in our two regular season matchups. They also swept the regular season series last year before losing to us in the finals. We have our work cut out for us this time. Tricki is moving to Philadelphia this weekend, so she's only available for game 1. We'll have to find a way to win with only three girls again next week if we hope to three-peat, and The Swarm is much better than today's opponent. Regardless, it should be a fun series. They are always fun to play against.