Family Adventures: Halloween Weekend

There was nothing to do except to give the weekend over to Halloween. We had three parties in total: two kid-only affairs and one for all of us. Our Girl had one party through her after-school program and one at her dance school. We were all invited for a shindig at Blue Liner's house. Our Girl is a black spider this year. We went along as two bugs caught in her web.


Photo via George Takei's Facebook page

A friend shared this photo and it's only right I should pass it onward. Our Girl and I just finished "Riddles in the Dark" this weekend, the Hobbit chapter in which Bilbo finds the ring. I'll do a full review once we finish the book but what an outstanding chapter! If Gollum isn't the greatest character in fantasy literature, he's in very exclusive company.

Mock predicted an epic broomball game this weekend and it was... for the other team. We got hammered, 8-0. After the blood bath, four of us headed to a local watering hole and had a bit of a chalk talk with napkins, salt shakers and so forth. We have three games left. Surely, we can manage at least one win.

My Tennis Fantasy: Cilic

Current Overall Standing: 12th
My MVP for the Week: Marin Cilic (Croatia) with $113,600, defeating Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) to win the title at the St. Petersburg Open


Photo via Celebrities

Whatever happened to Cilic? At the 2010 Australian Open, the 6'6" Croat looked to be tennis's next superstar. Since then, he's been relatively quiet. This is his first title since February 2010, though he has made four other finals in the interim. He's only 23 so there's plenty of time for him to make more noise.

I'm with the Band: Iowa

Band: Hawkeye Marching Band
University: University of Iowa
Founded: 1881
Current Director: Kevin Kastens
Fight Songs: "On Iowa," "Iowa Fight Song" and "Roll Along Iowa"



The lyrics to "On Iowa" were written by W.R. Law. The lyrics to "Iowa Fight Song" were written by none other than Meredith Wilson, author of The Music Man. The lyrics to "Roll Along Iowa" were written by John Woodman.

Next week, I'll get started with the programs to which I have a more personal connection.


All This and Football, Too

My Picks for the Week: 14/20 (1st place out of 3 players)
My Picks for the Season: 114/180 (3rd out of 3)

Let's Talk Baseball: It's All Over but the Crying

Photo via Sound Check Music Blog

On NPR yesterday morning, they referred to the Cardinals as a baseball Rasputin, the team that just wouldn't die. For all of the heartache that has been felt by fans in Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Milwaukee and so on, it's gotta be pretty rough to be a Rangers loyalist right now.

With the Cardinals' victory, the run of six different teams winning the past six World Series is over. The number is now reduced to five: Red Sox, Phillies, Yankees, Giants and Cardinals. As you may recall from last year, in my ideal universe, St. Louis would now be preparing for a baseball Champions League with the best from Japan, Cuba, South Korea, Taiwan and whomever else could claim to have a viable national baseball league.

My Football Fantasy: Torrence

College League: won, 58.42-53.74 (3-4 overall, 11th place out of 12 teams)
Vermont League: lost, 137.44-85.22 (4-3, 4th out of 12)
My Player of the Week: Leigh Torrence (Cornerback, Saints)


Photo via LeighTorrence.com

The Saints are my team defense in the college league (7 points allowed, 1 sack, 1 interception, 2 fumble recoveries and 1 touchdown). Torrence himself was responsible for the interception and the touchdown. He was Academic All-Pac 10 at Stanford.

This week was a lesson in ignoring Yahoo!'s projected points. According to those obviously meaningless numbers, I should have had blowout victories in both leagues. Clearly, that didn't happen. Despite the results, my league standing in both stayed the same.

Family Adventures: Montpelier

Montpelier is, of course, our state capitol. It is the smallest state capitol in the country by population and the only one without a McDonald's. Ever since we first moved to Vermont, Montpelier has been one of our favorite day trip spots. Among other charms, it has a couple of great independent bookstores and the best Thai restaurant in the state: The Royal Thai Orchid. It seemed the perfect place to spend a gray, rainy autumn Saturday.

Much to our disappointment, the Thai restaurant was closed and will be until November 17th (lesson learned: should have called ahead). But seriously, if you're in the area and hankering for Thai cuisine, you can do no better in the Green Mountain state. We've looked. If the crispy duck special is on the menu, order it!

It was but a minor setback. Naturally, there are other options in town. We settled on The Skinny Pancake: a fine choice, as luck would have it. The company also has a location in Burlington plus a cart on Church Street, Burlington. The restaurant bills itself as "a unique creperie and coffee shop committed to nourishing localvore values in Vermont." It was tempting to sit around eating crepes all afternoon but they were a little too pricy for that. We each ordered savory classics. I had the Deja Vu which was pleasantly breakfasty. My Wife had the Lumber Jack which had a wonderful barbecue sauce on the side. I got a great whiff of it as soon as our server put the plate down on the table.

Then on to the bookstores, first Bear Pond Books for new books. My ladies sought and found a sewing book for kids, a new, sudden interest of Our Girl's. Then Rivendell Books, the second-hand shop. I got to point out the Tolkien connection for Our Girl, which was fun.

We lost in broomball on Friday but we played well and fought hard, a well-earned 2-1 result. We had few subs so I was exhausted by the end but we played real positions for the first time in my tenure, I on defense for most of the game with my partner in crime, whom we shall call Blue Liner. My mind has been working on schemes for our next game. In watching the other team, one of our number discovered the secret to harder shots on goal, too: hitting the ball with the edge of the blade. We need to work on that one, I think.

My Tennis Fantasy: Tipsarevic, Part 3

Current Overall Standing: 12th
My MVP for the Week: Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) with $181,750, defeating Viktor Troicki (Serbia) at the Kremlin Cup


Photo via Live Tennis Guide

Sunday's Moscow final was the first-ever ATP final between two Serbs and Djokovic wasn't even one of them. Tipsarevic is on a tear this fall, picking up his second title in four weeks, albeit with two first round exits in between.

I am not too happy with Fantasy Tennis Tour at the moment. Their site is very slow-loading, at least on Firefox - and I'm not switching to Internet Explorer just to appease them. I hope they'll have this sorted out by the beginning of next season. It's almost like they don't want me to crack the top 10 for the year.