Smoked Meat
  "Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire..." -- Exodus 12:8
 

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Waiting for kickoff...

As ISU kicks off the 2006 football season, here is my preseason forecast for wins and losses. A little something to laugh about in a few weeks. Or tomorrow.
Opponent           Result        Comment
Toledo W Scary opener.
UNLV W Clones roll.
at Iowa W Two straight.
at Texas L Welcome to the Big 12.
UNI W Looking ahead to Big Red.
Nebraska W Just don't go into overtime.
at Oklahoma L Norman. 'Nuff said.
Texas Tech L Circus passing too much for young D.
at Kansas State W New coach.
Kansas W Payback for last year.
at Colorado W Another late-season surge.
Missouri L The patented final game meltdown.

Final Result? 8-4 and another bowl game. I'd take it, with our swiss cheese defense.

Friday, August 18, 2006

FOUND!

  ...our new home. Cozy huh?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

SOLD!

...and after just one day on the market! Time to start packing.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Friday Musings

The Blizzard Fan Club
Lauren and I have been on a bit of a Dairy Queen binge lately. Blame it on the summer and the fact that we have two DQs within minutes of us. Well, if you like Blizzards, go join the Blizzard fan club. You'll get a two-for-the-price-of-one coupon and the satisfaction of knowing you are a part of something big. Or just becoming bigger.

The Return of College Football
I realized yesterday that Iowa State's first home game was a mere three weeks away. Sure, us Cyclone fans have had our guts ripped out time and time again--especially the last two years. And you would think, that after having season tickets for the past 8 years, I would have learned my lesson by now. If ever a group of people has had reason to feel jilted, it would be ISU fans. But like clockwork, August rolls around each year, and the excitement for college football returns. The tailgating. The marching band. The crowd. The thrills. The crisp fall days. So don't be surprised to see my coverage of ISU sports begin to ramp up again. At least until October or November when they once again throw the hearts of Clone fans down the garbage disposal again.

Tony Yelk: NFL Kicker???
One of the unchanging facts of Dan McCarney football over the past decade or so is the continual struggle with the kicking game. So you can imagine my utter shock and dismay when I found this article. It's baffling, but true. The Falcons have pegged our man Tony as their #1 kicker right now. Good for him. It would be a true irony to be unable to beat out Bret Culbertson for the job and then become a starter in the NFL.

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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

August 9th

Four years ago on this day, my friend Zach Evans died in a car accident. He was just 20 years old. I remember when I heard the news, sitting in my cubicle, listening in shock as my mom told me over the phone. He was passing a slow truck on a risky turn and hit another vehicle head-on. A lapse in judgment--and then he was gone. His girlfriend and sister, both riding with him, came away with little more than scratches and sprains.

Zach was a great guy. His family had started coming to my church about six years earlier. He was a super-smart kid, one of those homeschoolers who started taking community college classes when he was 14 and scored a 34 on his ACT when he was 16. He had a contagious laugh, made friends easily, and had a nickname for everyone. He called me "Balkstie" since I have curly hair and so did the guy from the TV show "Perfect Strangers" (Balki Bartokomous). I never saw the resemblance, but neither did I mind. You knew you were a friend if you had a nickname.

Zach loved to play chess, and had the sort of infectious personality that made you want to play chess too. I remember one summer where all the guys in my group of friends bought chess boards. Then we lugged them around in our cars to whip out and play against each other when we were hanging out. Zach made up a round-robin schedule and we kept track of wins and losses. Pretty geeky--I know. We were athletic guys. Guys who wouldn't be caught dead in chess club. But he was good, super-competitive, and you wanted to beat him. I didn't do it very often, but one day I defeated him three times. In a row. That was a fluke, but I reminded him of it frequently after that. He would just good-naturedly take it in, ask me to play him again, and kick my butt.

Zach loved the St. Louis Cardinals too. Which was a pain to me, since I'm a Cubs fan. Every year he would take out a bet with my cousin John (fellow Cubs sufferer) about who would finish higher in the National League Central standings. Some years he gave the Cubs 10 games. It didn't matter--he rarely (if ever) lost that bet. And he would make sure we knew about it. A few years back, when the Cubs were one game away from the World Series, I missed having him around to give a good-natured ribbing too. Strangely enough, when they blew it, I also missed having him around to tell me how bad the Cubs are.

Zach was the first friend I've lost to death. Three grandparents have passed away, but this was different. Zach was younger than me. And he had his whole life in front of him. At the funeral, the church was filled to overflowing. I remember the singing. Maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever heard, like a taste of what will be in heaven. In spite of the sorrow, I remember a deep thankfulness descending on my soul. An appreciation for friendship and the meaningfulness of life and relationships. Zach knew his Creator, and I will see him again someday.

Two weeks before the accident, the old gang was together again at Olive Garden for supper. Zach was in town for a few days to see friends before heading back for fall semester at Wheaton. He only had a year left to graduate, and he was going to get a law degree after that. We had a great time gorging ourselves on breadsticks, bantering about sports, and catching up on life. I hadn't seen him as regularly since he left for college, so it was one of those nights where you just enjoyed hanging out again. A picture-perfect evening when all was right with the world. A fitting last time together. I wish I could go back to that night--just to hear his laugh, or argue about some new movie we disagreed about. I remember when we parted ways telling him that we needed to play chess again soon so I could teach him a lesson. He just chuckled and said: "Anytime Balkstie, anytime..."