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It has been a pretty awesome past few weeks, folks. Last weekend we headed to Madison for our first visit to Camp Randall this season against San Diego State. Dan and Ryan were in town for the game so there was debauchery aplenty. State Street Brats, Wando’s, and the Stadium Bar lighted our path to the game. I did not make it into the game until halftime, which was a little disappointing, but the glass was half full is the way I will look at it. Yesterday we had a really fun “tailgate” for the Michigan game at Gabe’s by the Park in St. Paul. We rented out about half of the bar and had around 200 people show up. Alumnus of the Badger Band played all of our favorites throughout the game and Erasmus James even made an appearance. As for the football game, well, let us just try to forget about that. The Badgers were actually leading through a good part of the first half and the game was tied at 10 by halftime. The Badgers defense, while prolific, just could not keep up through the second half. They just wore us down. We had poor field position through the second half and the defense was time after time put into tough spots. If the Badgers could have scored first in the second half the momentum may have swung in our favor. I think this team still has a good shot at going 10-2. We played well enough against Michigan, in the first half at least, to beat Penn State and Iowa. Boy do I want a national championship for this program. I was curious as to how many NCAA championships we have as a school and it turns out it is 23. Not the highest by any means, but nothing to scoff at either. This Saturday we are at Indiana and I think I will attend the Michigan at Minnesota game later in the day. Oh, and the Packers picked up their first win of the season against the Lions. This time of the year is all about football for me.

8/19

Irish Fest (the largest Irish festival in the world) was August 19th so we made the trip home in order to attend. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I made it back to the Milwaukee lakefront at least once this summer. I really wanted Cindy to see what one of the ethnic festivals is like since she has only been to Summerfest. I took some pictures, which have been posted.

8/26

On the Wednesday the 23rd we headed to the cabin. The weather was not on our side, however, as we had severe storms the first two nights. We even lost power for twelve hours. The rain and clouds never really went away until Sunday afternoon when we had to head back to the Twin Cities. Laura T, Laura B, and Gina met us there over the weekend so at least we were in good company even though the weather was bad. We brought Bucky to the cabin with us and he really seemed to enjoy himself.

9/2

The first Badger game of the season! We headed over to Gabe’s by the Park to watch the Badgers take on Bowling Green. They won 35-14, which is not too much of a shock considering the opponent. I liked watching the game there and will definitely go back for other non-televised games. On Sunday I felt like doing some hiking so we went to Afton State Park. We have been having bad luck with weather lately because just as soon as we parked the car it started to pour. We sat in the car for a half hour before driving home.

9/9

Cindy’s friend Alysha was married on Saturday in Milwaukee so we had to miss the first home Badger game of the season. The wedding was at 1pm, but the reception was not until 5:30 so we met Garrett downtown to watch the game at Hooligan’s where I had one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. The Badgers beat Western Illinois 34-10, also not much of a surprise there as Western is a 1AA school. Seriously, could the Badgers have a more pathetic non-conference schedule? Anyway, the wedding reception was a lot of fun and I was able to socialize with some friends that I have not seen for a long time. The Packers started off their season with a 26-0 loss to Chicago at home. The Pack looked weak in just about every way. Let’s hope this young team can pull it together.