These are the musings of a diverse dude. We'll discuss sports, politics, family, music, hunting, fishing, and of course, all things that hold the interest of yellow dogs and those that patrol with them.
When I reported about John a couple of weeks ago, there was concern about his losing his streak of 43 consecutive winning seasons. St. John's was a game below .500 at the time, with two to go (one being against #24 ranked St. Olaf).
Worry no more. The Johnnies ran the table, and Gag's consecutive winning seasons now goes to an amazing 44.
Given the way they finished, John is coming back to coach for his 60th season at SJU.
College football's winningest coach of all time really didn't have any plans to do anything else. He told the St. Cloud Times:
"I don't know anything else," said Gagliardi, 85. "What else should I be doing? Am I going to take a trip to Italy or go climbing the Himalayas? I don't want to do any of those things. There are days I don't even like going into St. Cloud."
Thanks for sticking around, John. And good luck running that consecutive winning seasons streak to 45.
My wife and I were able to parlay our Brown County lottery tickets for the Packers against the Bears on Christmas day into some good tickets to the Monday Night game against the Vikings. As you can see by the photo, we had some pretty good seats.
The day started out at work, with a typical gameday work requirement of wearing of NFL gear. I was the only one clad in anything purple, and I took heat for it the entire day. I gave as well as I got, but surely paid for it the next day over game recaps. Oh, well, maybe next year.
We started out our game experience by conducting our first tailgate, which was done in yard of some dude that lived a couple of blocks away from Lambeau. He basically parked vehicles all over the place, cramming them in as best he could, all at $20 a pop. In exchange you got good proximity to the field, an easy exit, room for tailgating, as well as a dedicated port-a-potty. A bargain at twice the price.
The night was chilly but not uncomfortable. We had some great beef barley soup from Camp Traditions to warm us on the inside, and some bratwurst because we're in Wisconsin. This was completed on the new $29 grill that I bought at Gander Mountain the day before, which performed, well, like a $29 grill.
We entered the stadium, and I was surprised to see so much purple. I estimated that a good 3-5% of the crowd were Vikings fans, and it was nice to have some brothers in arms nearby.
As we moved to our seats, it became quickly apparent that we'd be sitting in front of the five drunkest guys in Lambeau. And when you're the drunkest guy in Lambeau, that's really saying a lot. It started off with one guy getting inches from my face and screaming "VIKINGS FAN, GO HOME!" to which I answered, "You mean to my house? In Hobart? Just up the road?" He didn't see that one coming, and he kind of just stared at me in a drunken confusion.
The drunk, shirtless guys were really loud, but not necessary harmful. Regardless, even before the national anthem, the cops paid them a visit and hauled them out for a little "talk." They returned about 10 minutes later, minus one guy. After this point they tried to behave, but the booze in their blood and the rout on the field conspired to get their mouths going, and soon the cops were back. The cops came one more time as well, but our buddies managed to plead a pretty strong case and were able to stay . By the end of the game they were actually pretty funny, but the start was definitely touchy.
Overall, people were great. I think it helped that the Vikings got killed; people were actually feeling sorry for us. Overall, I was treated much, much worse at Miller park at when we attended the Brewers game.
While this was our third Packers game, it was the first that we weren't in a suite, and we were clearly missing a lot sitting up there. The crowd in the bowl is fun, knowledgeable about their football, and well lubricated.
Next game for us is New Year's Day against the surprising Detroit Lions. It should be a fun time.
If you live in Green Bay and like to golf, you better be up for some adverse conditions if you want any semblance of a season.
The photo here is taken from the green on Number 1 at Thornberry Creek yesterday.That white thing to the left of the pin is my ball (I missed the putt and made bogey), and that other white stuff further off the green is exactly what you think it is.
In fact, I wanted to get a round in on Saturday, but the course wasn't open as they felt there was too much snow on the ground.So I headed out the next day, by myself on a rainy Sunday, with hopes that most sane people would have decided to stay home and watch football. As my solo round progressed I caught three twosomes - two let me play through and I skipped past another - and I skipped playing 18 as 17 is pretty close to home and the rain had really kicked in at that point.Giving myself a bogey for 18 gave me a 95 for the day, which is respectable given my 17 handicap and since my last round was August 27; nearly two and a half months ago.
And I got it all done in 1 hour 45 minutes.
Given the forecast, I'm not sure there will be any other chances to get out this year, but we'll see.Regardless of what happens, it was nice to hit the course one more time so late in the year.
Last week I was asked to speak to a class of junior and senior marketing students at the Carlson School of Management.Attached is a terrible picture of about a third of the class.
While the reason for the invitation was really based in the school fishing for a big charitable donation from me, it was still an honor to talk to the kids.I spoke to them about my company, my career story, the ecommerce industry, and offered them advice as they begin their careers.I felt the talk went fairly well, and I intend on building out some of my speech for content on this site - look for that coming soon.
My overall impressions of the students were as follows:
I was impressed in their engagement, and how they really poked at me with questions.I was clearly not just some blow off day; they really wanted to learn from me.
I was also impressed with the technology with which they were armed.I would have loved to have been able to go to school similarly outfitted, although I likely would have wasted a ton of time on video games.
Finally, I was impressed with their intelligence.They knew their subject matter well, and clearly were true students of business.
It was really fun to engage with them, and since my company leveraged my speaking to conduct on-campus hiring, I'm might be engaging with some of them again in fairly short order.
Here is some video from last weekend to give some perspective of our favoite hunting spot on our lake.
Dubbed "Gucci Point" as in most years one is able to hunt it without getting one's feet wet (not true this year), it has been the place where some of my fondest hunting memories have been made.
It is also the place where I spread some of my dad's ashes, as well as the ashes of my first dog, Blitz.
There's lots we could do to celebrate, but for today I chose the USMC Silent Drill Platoon as their performance, dedication, and precision represent the type of job that all our military do.
With the most cringe-worthy performance of a major debate thus far, Rick Perry has eliminated any chance of moving forward. He went from being a savior of the party with a clear path to the nomination to ham-handed rube to done like a TV dinner in less than three months.
With Cain's issues gravely hurting his chances, the nomination is now Romney's to lose.
And, as Rick shows below, you can lose it pretty darn quick:
