Pictures from Christmas

Don't be confused by the title... I am not going to post pictures of us opening gifts on or around Christmas. I have been playing catch up with my flickr account the last few days and I discovered that I never posted pictures I took on the flight to NYC. Jason and I were on separate flights so when the pilot of my flight took a picture perfect approach to Laguardia, I took out my camera. I hear this may be illegal and if anyone can provide me proof of this, I will remove the pictures but personally, I don't think this ia any different than Google Earth.
My favorite picture is of Shea Stadium and the soon to be Citi Field... I think that may be Jason's as well.

I also have pictures of the Statue of Liberty

and lower Manhattan

The rest of the pictures can be found here

Frigid cold

It finally stopped snowing and the skies are gorgeous today. That only means one thing... its freezing outside. I think temperatures are hovering around zero. It is a perfect day to stay inside, except of course to go vote in the Wisconsin primary! I thought that I was done with political advertisements for a few months.. but that was not the case. It seems that the campaigns at this point are into a little more dirt throwing than we saw in Iowa about 6 weeks ago.

Here is my politically inspired picture of the day (just because of the red and blue).

Valentine's Day

I know.. its a few days late but I used today to make Jason a great Valentine's dinner.
On the menu:
chicken mole


Spanish Rice
refried beans
guacamole
tortillas

and chocolate pudding cake



Jason said it was delicious no less than 20 times.. so I think I did okay.

More Winter!!

I have taken this week off from work to relax and spend some time with Jason in Wisconsin. I have decided to use this time to catch up on other things like the blogs that I haven't read or written in quite some time, cook, and work on our house a little (nothing drastic just some cleaning and possibly some new curtains for our new patio door).
I didn't think there could be much more snow up here than in Iowa but I was severely mistaken. This winter is already in the recordbooks for Madison as the snowiest on record. Before yesterday's snowfall, the season total was at 84 inches.. far surpassing the old record of 76 inches. We were supposed to get a foot yesterday after the freezing rain ended but only 4-5 inches fell.. did I mention it is still snowing?

I personally am sick of winter... I want to hear birds and smell spring!

Here are some of our favorite pictures from yesterday, I will try to get out and take some more today. I will try to keep our winter set updated on flickr.

Winter

I woke up this morning and turned the tv on, just to find out that the current temperature outside was -11 degrees. Yes, that negative symbol is intentional, and no, I'm not talking about degrees celsius. That's -11 degrees fahreneheit, and the windchill made it feel like -24. Aren't winters in Wisconsin great? It made me think of an old Calvin and Hobbes comic that ranks up there as one of my favorites.

Redemption!

Wow! After thoroughly getting manhandled by the Cowboys twice during the regular season, the Giants were actually able to pull things together and pick up a big win today en route to the NFC championship game next week!

It has been quite a year to be a fan of the New York Giants. The ineptitude of the past several years has been enough to make fans of the team somewhat wary, and the start of this season wasn't helping much as the team rushed out to an 0-2 record. Little did I know at the time that their two early losses (to Dallas and Green Bay) would turn out to be losses to the NFC's two best teams this year. As my hope for the team began to turn south, they decided to go on a little six-game winning streak to improve their record to 6-2. Suddenly, I'm excited about this team and think they have a chance! Then they go and split their final games with a 4-4 record, stumbling into the playoffs with some impressive performances in games against teams like the New England Patriots, as well as some forgettable performances against teams like the Minnesota Vikings.

So what were the differences in today's game? What were some of the factors that worked in the Giants' favor that were lacking earlier in the season? Well for one, the defense stepped it up. Sure, they weren't dominating. They allowed Marion Barber to rush for nearly 130 yards, and allowing some decent stats from the Cowboys receivers, such as Jason Witten and Terrell Owens. But what did change was the fact that the Giants defense didn't give up any of the big plays...those long passes down the field that have sunk the Giants in earlier games.

Secondly, penalties in the game were a huge difference-maker. The Giants played under control, being penalized only 3 times for 25 yards, while the Cowboys were penalized 11 times for 84 yards. And many of these penalties late in the game seemed to really kill their momentum.

The third reason for the Giants success lies in the fact that they didn't have to rely on their big-name players. Their pro-bowl tight end, Jeremy Shockey, is out for the season with a broken leg, and their star wide receiver, Plaxico Burress, has been playing with a progressively deteriorating ligament in his leg that has been slowing him all year....and limiting him to only 1 reception and just 5 yards today. What did help is the supporting staff that picked up the slack. Running back Brandon Jacobs had a pretty good game, with 54 yards and a touchdown. But the threat of the run was increased by the play of Ahmad Bradshaw, who seemed to pick up a handful of big runs in his limited playing time and kept the Cowboys defense on their toes. The real threat, though, came through the air. This was led by veteran Amani Toomer, who had 80 yards and two touchdowns. What was even more exciting, however, was the play of rookie wide receiver Steve Smith, who had missed most of the season with an injury. I've been excited about this guy though because he had quite a collegiate career at USC and adds another receiving option to the Giants offense. In today's game, Smith didn't put up huge numbers (4 receptions for 48 yards), but each of those receptions seemed to come at a big time.

Next week's game will be the NFC championship game against the Green Bay Packers, played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This will be a difficult game for me to watch. I've been a Giants fan all my life so naturally I want them to win. But at the same time, I've been following the Packers for the past few years since I've been living in Wisconsin and this year's team is a very exciting, talented team. The Packers have an outstanding offense, and Brett Favre has so many tools at his disposal with wide receivers Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, James Jones, and Koren Robinson, not to mention tight ends Bubba Franks and Donald Lee. Plus, the running game of Green Bay has been vastly improved since the arrival of running back Ryan Grant. I'm sure that there will be a lot of analysis in the coming week about this game, with many questions being asked. How will Eli Manning perform? Will the Giants be able to handle the weather at Lambeau Field? But I imagine that perhaps the most common question will be in regards to Green Bay running back Ryan Grant. Earlier this year, Grant was on the Giants' practice squad, and was later traded to the Packers. I wouldn't be surprised if a big question will be about Grant's ability to show up his old team. I suppose I should look at next week's game as a win-win situation for myself. I am hoping that the Giants win but if not, the NFC will be represented by an excellent, and exciting, Green Bay Packers team that I have come to appreciate.

American Gladiators

In a sign that television networks have completely run out of ideas, NBC has remade the series "American Gladiators". Whether or not this is a sign that the writer's strike is finally hitting primetime, I'm not sure. But it really is a blast from the past. I remember watching the original show when I was in high school, and being a big fan of events such as "the assault" and "the wall". And before you judge me for watching the show, keep in mind that it used to be a big favorite of both Bill and Chelsea Clinton during their White House days.

Tonight was the premiere of the new series. Of course, to remake an old show, you can't just use the same formula. You always have to make a few changes, and it seems to be best if these changes are pushed to such an extreme that is almost seems ridiculous. Okay, it sometimes does seem ridiculous. While the old show was hosted by Larry Csonka and some other dude, the new series is hosted by Hulk Hogan and Layla Ali. And let me just say that Hulk Hogan is not exactly the best personality to be hosting a show. But beyond the hosts, some changes were also made to the show. The Gladiators themselves are pretty similar to the mold of the old Gladiators. Big, muscular characteristics with goofy names. Not quite the Blaze and Laser of old, but with names like Stealth and Titan. Lots of spandex on the Gladiators too, which isn't necessarily a bad thing with a Gladiator like Crush, but certainly makes you makes you want to turn away when you see a Gladiator like Hellga.

I particularly enjoyed some of the events. They decided to keep some of the old events, plus add some new ones into the mix. But when they had an old event, they had to make some kind of change. For example, you might remember "The Joust", where a contestant and a Gladiator are on top of their respective platforms and need to knock each other off of their respective platform. Well, how would you update this event to make it more exciting? Put the platforms over a large pool of water! Or maybe "Hang Tough", an event in which the contestant has to cross the event area swinging from one ring to the next, all while having a Gladiator chase after you trying to get you to fall off. How do you update this event? Put it over a large pool of water!

Like the old series, my favorite part of the show has to be the final event, The Eliminator. The Eliminator on the old series was modified several times from season to season, but its essentially a large obstacle course the contestants need to get through:


On the new version, this is where things really get interesting. They pretty much put together the toughest Eliminator I've ever seen, and it seemed like every contestant was about to collapse by the end. In fact, I think a few did. It starts by having the contestant scale an 8 foot wall, and then jump into a large pool of water (big surprise there!). But this isn't just any pool of water. Across the middle is a large FIRE that the contestants have to swim underneath. While the fire is not much of an obstacle and is clearly blatantly contrived, its still pretty damn cool. This is followed by climbing a large cargo net, and then the barrel roll. The barrel roll is pretty much what it sounds like. You grab onto a large barrel as it rolls down a hill with you hanging onto it. At the bottom of the barrel roll, the contestants have to use the handbike to get across a pit. By this point, all of them seemed exhausted and I questioned the logic of actually using the handbike. Why not just fall in the pit and then climb out the other side? Anyway, after the handbike, they run across a balance beam, climb up the pyramid, use the zipline to get back down, and then run up the inclined treadmill. Every single contestant was absolutely worn out by this point, and it resulted in most of them just falling down and laying on the treadmill as they tried to pull themselves up (see picture above). Once they completed this, there's just one more wall to climb and then bust through a wall of foam bricks to finish.

All things considered, it was a pretty enjoyable show and it brought back some memories. I'm not sure if I'll actually make sure I watch it each week, but I'm also sure I'll watch it again. It seems that they devote more time to interviews and background of the contestants, which I never really cared about in the first place. But whenever I watch Hulk Hogan talk, I find myself eagerly waiting for him to give us a good "Brother!" yell, or perhaps remind us to "train, say your prayers, take your vitamins, and believe in yourself". Or perhaps he'll start referring to the contestants has his Hulkamaniacs....