Let's see. Today I'm having lunch with my dad after work, and then hopefully Stef and I will be able to see a movie or something later in the day. Tomorrow is the big Pohl family get-together at my Aunt Elaine's house in Homer. We used to do this every summer and winter, but somewhere in the last year or two we decided to make it more of a fall-spring thing. Anyway, it'll be good to see all of the Pohls for the first time since my graduation party in May.
After the party Stef and I will drive out to her house so we can go to...
waaaaaait for it...
The World Series.
Give a holler and hate me. Hate me. Go ahead, hate me!
Yes, it's ridiculous, yes I'm spoiled, yes I know there are a bazillion other Tiger fans out there who deserve to go to these games more than I do, but when you get offered tickets to go see two World Series games in as many days, you don't pass them up.
So, obviously, huge thanks are in order to Stef's dad for inviting me. While I can't sit here and honestly claim to be a truly diehard Tigers fan (the way I am with all-things MSU), I am really excited to be going to the games this weekend. I just feel bad because -- while Tim will be able to go to the games after missing the ALCS last week -- Teri is the one who's missing out this time. She's the one in Las Vegas this week, this time with her sisters to see a Jimmy Buffett concert. Oh well. I mean, who'da thunk the Tigers would end up in the freakin' World Series?
Anyway, that's basically it for the weekend. He he. Have a good one!
This is kinda cool. Thanks to a recommendation from our Director of Lending at work, Wendy Landes Hatem, I'm going to be serving on the planing committee for the Michigan Conference on Affordable Housing. I'll also be serving on the PR subcommittee for the conference, which helps plan all the press materials for the event.
For those who don't know, this is the huge conference at the Lansing Center that I go to every year. It's the largest affordable housing conference in the nation (with well over 2,000 attendees), so it's pretty cool that I'll get to serve on the planning committee for the event.
He he... just a little shameless self-promotion.
Yep, the tattooed freak Jeffrey won Project Runway last night.
I know people hate him, but this is almost like Richard Hatch winning Survivor in the first season. The biggest asshole on the show takes the whole thing. Okay, okay, like everyone else I wanted Michael to win, but he blew it at the end there. Weird last-minute surprises like this are what make the show so fun to watch. Well, that and Tim Gunn.
Seriously, when is the Gunn going to get his own show? Bravo could call it "Make it Work," and have a big tie-in with the next season of Runway. Somebody get the Weinsteins on the phone...
In case you were already wondering what to get me for Christmas this year, Gob's segway from Arrested Development is up for auction on eBay. The sale ends on October 24, so hurry up and place your bid. Currently, the price is at an ever-so-reaonable $3550.
"Yeah, the guy wearing the $4,000 suit is holding the elevator for the guy who doesn't make that in four months. Come on!"
(via Gizmodo)
It feels like our football program is the laughingstock of the country — ESPN football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said he felt sorry for MSU fans. Our fourth-quarter collapses during the last couple of years have been horrific, even legendary, and our off-the-field conduct has been even worse. Six players have been kicked off the team in the last two weeks. The Spartans haven't been this bad since former quarterback Jeff Smoker went to rehab for a substance abuse problem.
With all of this going on, it was not a surprise to hear fans booing at Saturday's game. At halftime, nearly all of the students had vacated their spots in the stands — this is not acceptable.
Although our team's success this season is waning, it is not just the players' faults. The team is a direct reflection of the coaching — they do what they are told. When the fans in the stands take their anger out on the players, they are only making it worse.
University officials have already made it clear that Smith will continue to coach throughout the remainder of the year, but maybe they should reconsider.
God, let's hope they reconsider.
More "fire John L." letters here and here.
LOS ANGELES - Picasso’s famed “Dream” painting turned into a nightmare for Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion dollar canvas an elbow.
Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his painting, called “Le Reve” (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks ago.
“At that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise,” Ephron wrote, noting that Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that damages peripheral vision.
“Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. ’Oh s---,’ he said. ’Look what I’ve done. Thank goodness it was me.’”
Wynn’s office on Tuesday confirmed the story, an account of which also appeared in this week’s The New Yorker. Both accounts said Wynn had decided to release the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself.
"Thank goodness it was me..." because I would've killed anyone else right on the spot with my bare hands!
Yoooooooow! He poked a hole in a $139 million painting? Ouch.
Is it just me, or does this remind anyone else of the scene in "Bean" when he accidentally sneezes on the painting of Whistler's mother?
Hello, I'm Dr. Bean. Apparently. And my job is to sit and look at paintings. So, what have I learned that I can say about this painting? Well, firstly, it's quite big, which is excellent. If it were very small, microscopic, then hardly anyone would be able to see it. Which would be a shame. Secondly, and I'm getting quite near the end of this... analysis, secondly, why was it worth this man spending fifty million of your American dollars? And the answer to that is, that it's a picture of Whistler's mother. And as I've learned, staying with my best friend David Langley and his family, families are very important. Even though Mr. Whistler was obviously aware that his mother was a hideous old bat who looked like she'd had a cactus lodged up her backside, he stuck with her, and even took the time to paint this amazing picture of her. And that's marvellous. It's not just a painting. It's a picture of a mad old cow who he thought the world of. Well that's what I think.
As my dad would say, a lot of Spartan fans came to the game on Saturday disguised as empty seats. About a quarter of the ones who did show up weren't wearing green and white. Todd Shulz nails it:
Even so, it was stunning to see roughly a quarter of the 73,498 seats (paid attendance) occupied by fans in Ohio State gear at the outset of the game. Three hours later, they had plenty of elbow room to celebrate their team's 14th straight win. Most of the green was gone and you could have squeezed the city of Columbus into the southeast corner.
Afterward, embattled MSU coach John L. Smith claimed not to have noticed. But you can bet President Lou Anna Simon, athletic director Ron Mason and MSU trustees did.
When it comes to big-time college football, nothing gets the attention of the decision makers like gaping tracts of aluminum. It's a rare sight at Spartan Stadium, where the loyalty of the legions is legendary, especially when compared to the results they've received in return.
MSU fans haven't seen a conference title since 1990. They haven't seen a Rose Bowl team since the 1987 season. Heck, they haven't seen a winning team since 2003. They've suffered mightily, swallowing disappointment, ticket increases and the introduction of seat license fees along the way.
And yet, year after year, game after game, they've shown up. Until Saturday.
If it was a statement on the state of the program, or the fate of Smith, it was a powerful one. If there's a decision to make about the coach, the fans have more to say about it with their pocketbooks than Simon or Mason, who, by the way, have plenty of good luxury suites and club seats available. Maybe MSU fans finally realized their collective clout.
This is the one thing Lions fans haven't done: quit going to the games. Fans are fed up, and they're protesting with their asses by staying home.
The Spartans (3-4 overall, 0-3 Big Ten Conference) have five games left, starting with next week's trip to Northwestern. All five are winnable, if Smith and his banged up crew can keep their wits about them on the road and out-duel mediocre Minnesota and Purdue teams at home.
"I'll never give up," junior linebacker Kaleb Thornhill said. "I know my teammates will never give up. I know coach will never give up. We're not quitting on each other. I'm with my teammates and coaches no matter what."
Still, one must wonder whether Spartan fans have finally had enough. Has their seemingly infinite patience been exhausted? Has their stoic suffering reached its breaking point?
It sure looked that way Saturday. If so, you can dot the first "i" in "finished" for Smith.
One can only hope. Here's some more links:
• SN: Sea of red
• SN: MSU squanders opportunities
• SN: MSU might not win again this season
I got to work this morning to discover that our heat isn't working. It was out all day on Friday, but at least I was able to bolt at 11:30 and enjoy my warm car on the way down to Ohio. So yeah, they're supposedly "working on it" today, but it won't be fixed until tomorrow. Oh, and guess where we'll be tomorrow? In Detroit for our staff meeting, where – surprise! – the heat is also not working. Grrrrrrreat.
We all had some dinner before taking off for a play in downtown Colubums at 8 on Friday night. My mom's coworker's husband was one of the playwrites, so we had free tickets to the show. It was basically this two-act performance of a series of short scenes about the history of this (now defunct) theater in Columbus. The first act was a little uneven and unfunny (in my humble opinion), but the show definitely picked up during the second act. A lot of the scenes included inside jokes about the history of Colubums that went over my head, but I more or less got the gist of things. The second act was much better (and funnier) than the first, and the scene penned by the coworker's husband was pretty clever. It's funny, because by the end of the night I had really come around on the show; while I could've done without the first act entirely, the second half of the play was actually really entertaining. I'm glad we got a chance to go -- it's always fun to get out and do things like that when I go visit my mom and Dan in Ohio.
I slept in until about 10 on Saturday morning, which felt really good. After a week of waking up at 6 AM every morning, it's always great to be really lazy and sleep in on the weekend.
I was up and around by noon or so, and we all got our things together to drive down to the Ohio Renaissance Festival for the day. It's been at least three or four years since I went to the Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan, so it was cool to go see the one in Ohio. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday too, so we picked a great day to go.
A lot of the shows and shops ended up being almost identical to the ones they have at the Ren Fest in Holly, but it was still cool to check everything out. At the very least, it's always funny to watch all the crazies who walk around in their ridiculous Renaissance getups. Plus I'm always down with having a giant turkey leg for lunch.
We took off after making a few laps around the festival grounds and watching a few shows, including the jousting. It was about 5 PM when we got back to the house, which meant we were just in time to catch the second half of Michigan State's pathetic performance against the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes. Of course, the good thing was that we also had the Tiger's game going on at the same time, so at least there was something worth watching.
Yep, who'da thunk it? The Detroit Tigers are going to the World Series for the first time since 1984 – the year I was born. I was really glad that Stef got to go to both of the baseball games this weekend, but I felt bad for her dad for missing them. He's had season tickets forever, but last week was his trip to Las Vegas with his buddies, so he obviously wasn't able to go. Ah, well. Anyway, I'm just really happy for the City of Detroit and all the Tigers fans across the state. It's about time we all had something to cheer for again!
Well, my sleep-in time was significantly reduced on Sunday morning since I had to get up early enough to go to the 9:30 mass with my mom and Dan. The service wasn't too bad, but man, that priest is horrible. He gave this 15 minute meandering sermon that could've been cut down to under five minutes. It could've been worse, I suppose, but somebody needs to get that guy an editor.
We got back to the house by 11 and my mom whipped up this nice, big brunch for us before I had to the hit the road. After we ate, I pretty much packed up my clothes, re-made the bed in my room, said my goodbyes, and hit the road for Michigan.
The drive home was smooth sailing the whole way, and I got back to Lansing by about 4:45. Stef was already at my place when I got there, so we headed right back out so I could buy groceries for the week. We eventually made it back to my apartment and just relaxed for the rest of the night, and watched "Thank You for Smoking" on DVD. It was really nice getting to pal around with my girl after being apart for a few days. So yeah, that was basically it for the weekend.