First Half Live! Packers @ Vikings

7:24 PM: Let's get it on! I couldn't help but fall into the hype for this game today ever since a Vikings super tool, I mean, fan, wore a Vikings Favre jersey to work today. Personally, I think he should be suspended without pay for the rest of the year. But I have neither the time, nor the inclination to pursue that.

7:27 PM: Steve Young (ESPN) gives the nod to the Pack which is a bit of a surprise stating that this is "Aaron Rodgers coming out party." Well done. However that comment is immediately followed up by "I completely disagree" by Matt Millen. And if anyone knows football, it's Matt Millen.

7:30 PM: I'm sippin on an Oktoberfest from Lakefront Brewery and to be honest, this is the least of my favorite Oktoberfest beers I've had this year. Come on Lakefront, step it up.

7:31 PM: Looking back a couple years ago, I can't believe I only gave this possibility about a 30% chance of happening. Deep down, I knew it was 100%.

7:36 PM: Jaws lets us know that A. Peterson is arguably the greatest runner in NFL history. Really. In his third season. Yeah, just like Reggie Bush was a lock for the Hall of Fame before he was even drafted. Peterson is awesome, so far, but let's not get carried away. Oh wait, I forgot this is ESPN.

7:41 PM: Kickoff. Ah yes, Ryan Longwell. I miss you. Mr. Wide Left Mason Crosby isn't cutting it for me anymore. First & ten from the 26. Grant stuffed. To be a theme? Hope not, he's on my fantasy team. Oh, follows up with a 13-yard gain. Nice.

7:44 PM: Welcome back Holding penalties. I've missed you all week.

7:46 PM: How does Barbe still have hair? Shouldn't his head been shaved by now by his teammates given all his screw ups so far this season? GREAT play to pick up the first down to the Vikings 45.

7:49 PM: Still moving..sweet play to Finley. Nice to see the TE's getting involved so early. AND we have a fumble. Maybe this blog won't make it the whole first half because I almost broke this wireless keyboard over my knee.

7:52 PM: Why is MM challenging that play?? Who up in the booth told him it may NOT be a fumble?! Lord.

7:53 PM: Favre under center against the Pack. I'm just as annoyed as I thought I'd be.

7:56 PM: Vikes pick up a first down but I like the pursuit the last 2 plays. Hopefully they'll continue that and get some momentum going because their run D has been atrocious.

7:58 PM: Taunting? For talking trash? This IS football isn't it???

8:01 PM: Going for it on 4th. Nothing like setting the tone early...I'm sensing Offsides on the D...nope, just a first down. Ugh.

8:03 PM: Well, at least their TE is on my fantasy team. 7-0 Vikes. Little too much excitement going on at Favre's steakhouse in GB. WTF?

8:06 PM: Pack starts from the 33.

8:10 PM: TOUCHDOWN!!!! 3rd & 5 and a phenomenal play. See my 7:49 PM post @ TE. 7-7...Go Pack! Brett who?

8:13 PM: Nice kickoff coverage. Special Teams had been pretty weak for oh, about 5 years.

8:16 PM: We're informed by the booth that Favre now has the record for most TD's for one team before throwing one for another team. Um, how many records are they going to make up for him??

8:18 PM: Nice..punt it away boys. Blackmon (essentially) fair catches at the Pack's 40. I don't know how those dudes catch that ball with a bunch of players bearing down on them. Big props for that.

8:20 PM: First down, Ryan Grant. I'm not getting cocky in my mind this time. End of first quarter and man, my fingers are tired from typing. It's worth it though right? RIGHT?! (Thanks Mom for reading) I'll take this moment to apologize for not posting more on this here blog. I know it's been neglected and I know I've promised to keep it up. I'm working on it.

8:23 PM: Q2 begins...with a Rodgers sack. Not sure what's going on with him. Usually he's good at getting rid of the ball in that situation. 2nd & 17...and I'm not crazy about that play call. I hope they're not playing for a GB with Crosby. Oh jeez...going for it on 4th & 3?? WOW...I'll take that. First down!

8:26 PM: Childress tried to challenge but apparently the challenge flag got caught in his beard. Play stands.

8:27 PM: Really Rodgers? When you stare at the WR the WHOLE way, chances are it's going to get picked. Vikes ball...and a sweet GoDaddy commercial. Yum.

8:30 PM: Oh no, my main man Cullen is down! On of my favorite players and he is needed badly. Get up big guy! "Get your suit on! We need ya!" Yes, that was a "Back to School" quote.

8:34 PM: I have too many jokes about what Jaws keeps referring to as "gap discipline" to insert here. Please stop Jaws, I'm begging you.

8:37 PM: Hate to say it, but Favre is playing with us on this drive. C'mon Pack! AND he finishes off the drive with a sweet TD pass...14-7 Bad guys. I really hope they don't show Favre's Steak House in GB again. If those 2 tools with Vikes Favre jerseys are still standing, then GB has failed me.

8:42 PM: And during the ensuing kickoff Blackmon is hurt, badly it seems. This game is starting to spiral downhill. This lame Favre Sears commercial isn't making things any better either!! Back to the game and yes, Blackmon is hurt and it doesn't look good. THAT will hurt.

8:46 PM: Screen to Wynn, which he drops. I don't think I'll be able to watch this whole game. I'll either have a heart attack or yell so loud Lauren will wake up. I don't know which would be worse.

8:52 PM: And FUMBLE return for a TOUCHDOWN! Nice work CMJ! Peterson looked a little banged up there. Wonder if he's hurt? I hope it's not serious 14-14! Go Pack!

8:54 PM: Nice kickoff coverage again! Momentum turned? And there's the classic Favre moonball I've been waiting for. I think that thing would have hit the video board in the new Dallas stadium. Unfortunately it fell freely to the turf. Two Minute warning until halftime and the end of this blog post. Going by fast but I need to ice my wrists. (No jokes there please)

8:59 PM: long pass down to the 2 yard line. Harvin should have just made it in since I had to play him in fantasy football this week.

9:01 PM: after an INT negated by yet another bogus penalty tonight, Peterson runs it in. 21-14 Vikes.

So as we approach halftime, some last words before I sign off and officially go insane watching the rest of this. I like some of the things I'm seeing here. I don't think too many people actually think the Pack's going to win this game tonight. Too many issues on D right now colliding with playing against the best RB in the league and Favre in Prime time. You have a feeling, and you've seen some of it already, I don't think the almighty THEY are going to let Favre lose this game tonight, which is fine. Long way to go in the season and the Pack have some strides to make on both offense and defense. Hopefully they'll make a game of this and be hitting on all cylinders when the Vikes come to Lambeau on November 1.

Have a good night and go Pack!

run, fat boy, run a.k.a. the story of derek

Semi-recently we dialed up Run, Fat Boy, Run from Netflix after seeing a preview for it on another movie from Netflix. We are very much the Netflix family now, especially after little Lauren was born and our "going out to dinner nearly every night" lifestyle changed to be more of a "lucky to eat dinner nearly every night" lifestyle. Those of you with a child understand this. And those of you with more than one, or twins (!) well, my hat is off to you. I have no idea how you do it. Anyway...

So out of five stars I would give the movie four. It should probably really only be a three star movie, but the basic premise hits very close to home for me. (And to be clear, it's the running premise I'm talking about, not the leaving a pregnant fiancee at the altar part) The movie in a nutshell is that a chubby dude is trying to get his lady friend back by training for a marathon to show up her new, smarmy runner boyfriend. He (chubs) of course, is the epitome of health in that he drinks a lot, smokes a lot, sleeps a lot, etc. I won't ruin the ending for you (he gets her back) but here's how this hits home for me....I have started running on a fairly regular basis also training for runs. Not marathons, but still. The reasons for this are threefold:

1. To appease my lovely wife by getting my heart rate up a couple times a week, which she helpfully suggested I do, so I can be around for a long time and remain to be in my peak level of hotness. Okay, I made the last part of the sentence up but I'm guessing something about physical appearance has crept into her mind when she encourages me to run.
   
2. To shed a couple pounds. I believe it was shortly after our wedding where I hit my all-time high of 170(ish) pounds. This is a large number for me since my standard weight was between 150-155 for a long, long time. (thank you very much aging body with a slowing metabolism. now I know what happened to Rosanne Barr, John Candy and the like)
   
3. For my health. Also around the time I got married it was discovered that my cholesterol was a whopping 340 which means I was basically a walking heart attack smothered in a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. It was suggested that I start exercising more and eating better to see if I could lower it, which I did, to what I thought was a fantastic number of 240 (ish) but apparently the doctors felt differently as now I am on medication for it which has a side effect of ruining my liver but hey, at least I would die with great looking LDL levels!

Notice that nowhere in my 3 reasons listed above do you see the words "because I like it." I don't. Not much at all. I like that I'm getting healthier. I like that I've dropped some mass. But that's about it. I don't like the running. Believe me when I say that my desire to improve my running times is only a result of my desire to get the run over with. It's not to brag that I am getting faster, oh no, it's to just be done with it quicker than the previous time I went for a run.

So why do I do it? Why don't I bike or play racquetball or something like that to get some exercise? Well it all comes back to what's most important, my lovely little family. Kirsten is a life-long runner (and an excellent one at that) so this not only makes her happy that I'm working out, but it also gives us another thing that we can do together which is great.

This past weekend we went up to Green Bay and ran the Bellin Run. It was my first time not only running the Bellin, but also running a 10k. I know, this is not a marathon or anything, but for me it was tough and a great accomplishment. I still remember the first couple times going to the gym where I could barely run 1 mile. I also remember the day I ran 2.75 miles (not sure why, it just sticks in my head) thinking that I was superman. And now, I ran a 6 mile race! Feels great and as the picture (below) shows, it was a great family day. Kirsten pushed Lauren in "the B.O.B." (pictured, left) and finished I believe as the first mommy/stoller runner which is awesome. There were a couple guys ahead of her, but no ladies, so she was incredible and I was in awe of her as I usually am when it comes to running. As for me, I finished 2 minutes over my goal of one hour and 3 minutes behind Kirsten (and the stroller) which yes, is a little humiliating, but it's all worthwhile when we can pose for a picture after completing something hard together as a family.

(have a great weekend)

i loved you in...part 2

Sorry for the delay in getting to part 2 of this topic going, but with the holidays, you know how it is. Anyway, thanks for all the comments that were posted on part 1. There were some good ones. The Nic Cage one was excellent. So I said Tom Cruise was my next one. And while there were some good ones in the comments like "Taps" and "Endless Love." The "Endless Love" suggestion was truely great since you have to click the "more" link on imdb to get to Tom's role. I can't give "Taps" too much credit since Tom now appears on the movie cover.


I still think I have the winner since the one I have is an uncredited role in a blockbuster movie. Talk about low man on the totem pole. Do you still get paid if your role doesn't show up in the credits or on imdb.com? Anyway, since it is uncredited, I had to actually skim through and watch the movie to take a couple screen prints on my PC to show here. 

So without further ado, I present Tom Cruise in the 1984 blockbuster movie..."The Karate Kid"



Shown here thinking...."I can't believe I took this role." or "Damn, that Billy Zabka is one good looking dude"




And here clearly not paying attention to his sensei









So there you have it...Former biggest movie star in the world and now running punchline for a number of jokes, Tom Cruise in "The Karate Kid." Off to find the next example of "I loved you in..."

i loved you in...part 1

So this is a post that I have been wanting to write for quite a while now that could turn into a recurring "game" on this here blog. It's called "I loved you in..." The premise is that if I were ever to meet any of the celebrities mentioned here in real life, I would say "Oh, [celebrity], I loved you in [small bit part from early in his/her career]" while that person would probably think you were going to mention his or her most popular role. Obviously the bigger the role that made the celebrity the most famous combined with the smallest bit part he/she had to play early on in his or her career the better.

For example, the first celebrity that got me thinking of this little game was Billy Zane (pictured) of Titanic fame. (Man, I can't even type Titanic without that terrible Celine Dion song popping into my head) So after Titanic, Billy Zane was "king of the world" so to speak having turned in a nice performance as the a-hole fiancee of Kate Winslet. Behold, exhibit A:

Kate: "Half the people on this ship are going to die"
Billy: "Not the better half"

Total a-hole.

So after this film, Billy's star could not have been higher. Relating him to our little game here, if I were to run into Billy Zane I would say "Oh, hey Billy Zane. How are you? I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely loved your work in both Back to the Future and Back to the Future II (where he played one of Biff Tannen's buddies)! You really inspired me to become and actor after those performances."

I just think that would be really funny. You know as I started saying "I loved you in..." he would be all "this dude is totally going to commend me on my work in that file that scored 11 oscars, most of them probably because of my acting." But instead I'd be all "you ain't famous" by mentioning his two appearances in one of the most beloved trilogies of all time, in which he had a non-speaking role and a character name of "Match." Barely even a background person. Anytime you have to watch a movie twice to make sure that "yea, that was Billy Zane wasn't it!" you know it's a bit part.

So what do you think? Good game?

I hope so, because I recently found one that blows the Billy Zane one out of the water. Here's a hint.

one political post

I don't like discussing politics but since we just had a historic election, I'll post ONE political post.

Well the months and months of propaganda is finally over and we have a new president-elect. I can't say that I agreed with the choice, but it's over and I will be giving Mr. Obama my full support as I hope most of the rest country does also (which won't happen). I hope even more that he does a good job. My expectations are very low at this point given the very vague "policies" he's been touting along the way. Change, change, change...that's all you would hear. Hopefully now we'll find out what that "change" actually means and it will get the country rolling. And after watching his excellent speech following the election, I can see how millions of people flocked to him. I think being as good of a speaker as he is locks in about 10 million of the votes for any canidate. But I digress...

So why won't the rest of the country get behind hime and move forward? I'll tell you why...

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Obama takes office in respect to the internet coverage that he'll receive. One thing that always made me give President Bush the benefit of the doubt was he was really the first president that had to go through constant internet scrutiny throughout. Now, I'm not saying he was a fantastic president who was wrongly criticized or anything, but remember when we was elected there were no blogs, well maybe like 2, and news organizations didn't have writers putting up multiple columns a day. Now there are millions of blogs. Each with their own opinions about everything, this one included. No president had to go through that before. Any idiot with a computer can post his or her opinions, beliefs and even lies out to the entire world. And just like a tidal wave, if enough people are saying it, momentum builds and eventually it becomes reality, true or not.

I'm looking forward to watching what happens now that a second president will step into quicksand of the internet. We'll see how the blogosphere responds. You know there will be just as many blogs tearing him down as praising him. Why? Because it's easy. And just like news networks, it's more popular to "report" on the negative stuff than anything positive, whether it's true or not. PLUS, everyday bloggers can hide in relative anonymity. It's easy to launch opinions or lies like SCUD missiles at someone when they're coming from all sides from nowhere in particular i.e. the internet.

We'll see what happens!

Lauren has arrived

Has it really been over a month since I posted something?? Yikes. I guess Facebook is really starting to dominate my online social time. My apologies. I am working on a few posts at one time right now so hopefully I can get those up in a reasonable amount of time.

So the big news is that our little one, Lauren Elaine, has arrived! After 41 tough weeks, mainly for Kirsten, she entered the world. We are very excited and feel very blessed to have her.

And now I can't even get through 2 sentences of this post without having to go in her room and check on her because the monitor is going off like a siren in the ghetto..constantly. BUT, it's a good thing. She took longer than usual to conceive and longer than usual to arrive but as they say, all good things come to those who wait and we certainly feel that that couldn't be more true in our case. I don't think it's really sunk in yet but she's here, we love her and we couldn't be happier.

And I promise to post more now. Not just one sentence status updates on Facebook.

facebook, wedding

Sorry for the lack of posts. There are multiple reasons for my neglecting this such as work, attending to my lovely wife's every pregnant need, and my new found semi-addiction to Facebook. I'm usually a little slow on the uptake of some of these sights, especially the social networking sites like Twitter (boooo). I have been using LinkedIn for quite a while but that's more of a professional, work-related site. Facebook though has been great for keeping in touch with our (Kirsten has an account too) relatives across the state and country. Also I've become "friends" with some people that I haven't talked to in many, many years...I'm looking your way Jessica in Texas. Those people I am definitely going to try and get a message to and not just befriend them. Anyway, it's been pretty neat getting into that site so look me up!.

Last weekend we made the familiar trip north to Green Bay for my sister Jessica's wedding. She's my youngest (of 2) sister so immediately it was an eye opening experience as I can no longer pretend to be any type of young anymore. I'm old. Really old. Not only that, but after this past week's performance of the financial markets, I won't be retiring until I'm really, really old. Bummer. Anyway, we lucked out in that in didn't rain that day but did the days surrounding it which has to be some sort of good sign right? Thought so. The ceremony went off without a hitch and it was great to see all my relatives (there are a lot of them) that I now only seem to see at weddings and funerals unfortunately.

The reception was great also. It was the standard Green Bay affair of family style, fried chicken and all the fixins which I have come to crave since I live in Milwaukee where that meal isn't as standard as it was for me growing up. Love it. That and fish fries which are pretty terrible around here compared to up there. I read so many great reviews of places and then go there and I'm like, "eh," not that great. But I digress. I'd say the highlight of the wedding (other than the union itself) was just before dinner when Jess made a little announcement.

Ben (the groom) was in the Marines and served two tours in Iraq. Well my clever little sister secretly invited some of his Marine friends to the wedding. Ben had no idea, his parents had no idea, pretty big surprise. 6 showed up from everywhere from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania to Hawaii. She gave them a big introduction and it was quite cool. There were few dry eyes in the place as they made their way in and Ben was speechless. Even this guy was tearing up which means it had to have been pretty emotional since I've been called a "robot" a few times lately. Anyway, it was good stuff.

The rest of the night was great. Kirsten was a trooper throughout the day but I did have to take her home at 9:00. I went back to hang out with all the cousins, many of which are also expecting children soon. How the time flies. We used to talk about GI Joe guys but now, it's babies. As you can see from my Dad's picture to the left, which was taken as he was making his way to the dance floor for the Father-Daughter dance, good times were had and smiles were all around.

awesome

happy birthday kirsten!

On this day, roughly 29 years and some hours ago in Des Moines , a lovely little girl was born and thus unknowingly changing the very fabric of a certain two and a half year old male living far off in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a city most recently known as the home of the professional football team a certain hick from Mississippi is now trying to destroy through his own selfish and mind-changing ways. Yea, that's right. Suck it #4.

Sorry. Couldn't help it.

No really, get bent Brett.

Okay.

Yes, today is my lovely wife Kirsten's birthday. I bet when she turned 28 last year she never would have guessed that at 29 she would be not only with child but also under a doctor-mandated house arrest. Ah, what changes a year can bring! Happy Birthday my love!

I know Kirsten mentioned in a comment in a previous post that we're having a little girl, which we're both really excited about. That being said, I don't want the girl to come out looking like me. That's no good for anybody. However, our most recent ultrasound apparently has revealed that she has some of my features already, like my nose, prompting Kirsten to give the little fetus the name "Dereka" until such time comes that an appropriate name can be decided upon. I guess I can cross Brett off my list because a) it's a girl and b) he's a tool. Sorry, did it again.

Take a peek at the ultrasound pic (taken at 24 weeks) and see what you think. Even the doctor said she's looking like me. Poor, poor girl.

not about brett favre

Last week I once again stormed the Bastille running in the nighttime 5K race through the streets of downtown Milwaukee. It is really a great run and a great time. I ran it with a my friend and coworker Bob. The weather was really nice. We really lucked out since for a couple hours leading up the run, the skies had opened up and we had some pretty nasty storms moving through the area. One might say they could be classified as "squalls," my new favorite meteorological term.

Anyway, by the time the race was to be run, the weather was great; hot but nice. I have been trying to run more this summer in an effort to get healthier and hopefully lose a couple pounds and it seemed to pay off as I posted my best time for a 5K. I don't want to post the time here lest I make you all jealous.

This year I didn't run the Bastille Days run with Kirsten because as some of you know, she has been confined to the condo, and more specifically the couch, for the past couple weeks. It's been an exciting time, not in a good way, in the pregnancy progression including a couple emergency visits to the Labor & Delivery floor at the hospital due to some very early contractions. We hope that they under control now, but unfortunately for her she needs to stay home, off work, and rest which I assure you is a very tough thing to do all...summer...long.

Maybe you could drop her a comment (she reads this) and wish her well..thanks!