There was grilling, there were beverages, and there was a cooler to be ridden. You’d be amazed at how fun it is to roll through the parking lots on a motorized cooler.

As for the practice/scrimmage/game itself, it was misty out. There is something cool (or possibly crazy) about sitting out with several thousand other fans in slightly unsavory weather just to watch your team practice. Jerry and I were cheering for football. It didn’t matter what was happening (do you cheer if the quarterback throws an interception because the defense did its job well?), it was just great to get back to the mindset of football season. The rain did pick up and become unpleasant just as most of us were heading for the car.

I posted many photos on Flickr that I’m sure the parents of the children in attendance will want to check out. Here are a few highlights:

Josh, Colleen, Doogie & Ben

Jenniffer & Muiread

Jerry & Taly ready for a ride

Colleen & Ben, Doogie, Josh, Jill, Sara, and Margaret

Diane & Lindsey at Kinnick

After the final rec show of the season, the members of the Hawkeye Marching Band were taking photos with their friends, their sections, their families, ect, before heading out to their last pre-game. It brought back memories of my not-so-long ago final year in band. Except this would’ve never been overheard when I was in band:

Mom to son: Honey, do you want your picture with Mr. Kastens?

My mom and I recoiled in horror. I remember when I had my 4th and 5th years in band, and LKK looked physically pained to have to shake my hand and fake a smile in my general direction.

I was in the band.
Back when the director didn’t like me or my friends because we threatened his grip on mediocrity.

Instead, I suggest you listen to the new John Mayer song, ‘Say‘, because its awesome.

Or look at my sleeping cat (who isn’t dying anymore than normal):

And for one last time this season: Go Hawks! Please? Just one more game to win and then we can go to a bowl game we don’t really deserve that probably won’t even be aired on a channel most of us can watch.

On Sunday, I’ll move on to basketball season. And wrestling. I did get a ticket for the Iowa v. OSU basketball game in Columbus in January when I’m there for training. Probably the only game I’ll get to see this year. Stupid cable companies and tv channels. *grumble*

A Minnesota game wouldn’t be complete without BC.

Colleen was a trooper…

Too bad none of them are Cowboys. Go Dallas! Beat those horrible Eagles!

Speaking of last week, my mom didn’t make it over to Iowa City for the game as she was attending my cousin Neal’s last home game for Central College. Taly used our available seat since her Jerry & Sara already had Jenniffer & Donor’s seats for the game and Kinnick policy is “if you have a heart beat, you need a ticket.” I went to the game with the Steeles and we parked at the union ramp and enjoyed a brisk morning walk across the river to Frosty’s tailgate (mmmm deep-fat fried) before the game. It was nice to see Chad Smith visiting from California and even more fun to get to be catty with him during the rec show. The second-string drum major is just so sad.

While sitting alone sans mother was kind of dull for the first half, especially since the game looked rather lost for most of the time, I did enjoy the extra space. My seats in the north endzone provided a nice vantage point to watch Kirk totally lose it on the ref at the end of the half that got everyone fired up. I really thought he was going to haul off and just punch the guy the longer it went on.

At the end of the third quarter, when it was looking much better for our heroes, Jerry let me know there were some empty seats around them, so I ran over to their section on the west side for the fourth quarter.

Here’s Sara & Taly in the stands:

The view of where I normally sit in the north endzone:

Stupid overtime. At that point Taly was getting a little fussy, so Sara took her down to the concourse to walk around. It was really cold in those seats because that area is shaded by the press box, so we made the last-minute decision to run back to my seats for the overtime (and the warmth.) I think the people we sit next to thought I was crazy. Diane (who sits above me ten or fifteen rows) thought I’d left the game completely. Funny.
Jerry and I warmed up and we won and it was generally awesome.

After the game we did a little post-game tailgating and then headed back to the Steele abode as a bunch of their family was coming over to visit. I ended up staying and getting to enjoy all the really great food and fun times with the family, of whom I’m a bit of an adopted member since Jerry & Sara’s wedding in Jamaica five years ago. It was a full house of Jerry, Sara & Taly; Jerry Sr. & Wendy; Uncle Mike, Janelle, & Sam; Rod & Elaine; Heather & Taylin; Grandma Irene; and me.

Everyone had fun playing with Taly.

Jerry grilled a ton of chicken breasts that Sara had marinated in this really amazing marinade.

Heather made fabulous baked potatoes and a great cake, and apparently all the women had made pies. I hear the pies were good, I passed to save room for the cake. The cake was for Taylin’s sixth birthday.

I got home around twelve hours after I’d left home and it was a really great day.
There are more photos on flickr.

And because there never seems to be enough Taly, here’s a little video of her entertaining us with her animal sounds and crawling about.

I posted pictures in less than a week! Be shocked and amazed!
And then blame my camera that is getting dicey these days, so I didn’t take as many pictures as I might have in the past.

Josh and BC on my couch at the end of the homecoming weekend.

More pictures tomorrow after I’ve slept.

And someone needs to send me copies of my pictures with Brandon Routh!

Am I digressing if I haven’t even said anything yet?

So the weekend. Yeah. Ok, Friday after work I made the always exciting drive over to Des Moines to see Jewels and enjoy some good New Orleans music. We went out to dinner at the Raccoon River Brewing Company. I had the Lobster Mafaldine and I would definitely recommend against that dish. It was just not very good. Though you probably won’t have to worry about it since the waitress said they’re taking it off the menu next week and she didn’t think it was very good. Which would’ve been a nice thing to mention BEFORE I ordered it when I was asking exactly what mafaldine noodles were. Yeah, she decided to keep her opinion to herself until after we had our food and she came back to our table to “see how things were tasting” and I told her I didn’t really like it, and she just agreed. Gee, thanks for the help.

Thankfully, the after-dinner entertainment did not disappoint. We went to a club called Vaudeville Mews to see Stanton Moore perform with his trio. I’m familiar with Stanton because he plays with Bonerama from time to time (as well as performing on their last two albums), but he’s way more well known on his own from his own groups like Galactic. I wasn’t sure what the crowd would be like, or even if there would be a crowd. Its not a huge venue, but it was non-smoking and it had a balcony. Jewels and I got a couple of stools upstairs where we had a nice view of the stage and the sixty or so people in attendance. It could’ve been more, but it wasn’t a large space, but it was full without being packed. The music was great. Its Stanton on drums with organ and guitar in a cool funk/blues/jazz mix. At the break, I got his new cd, III, and they all signed it. Its a great album. Not that I’m biased in anyway since Mark plays on it. We had a good time and Julie enjoyed the music, now I’ve just got to get her to a Bonerama show sometime.

Here’s one photo from the balcony:

Saturday morning I headed over to Josh’s house to watch the Iowa/Indiana football game. All I will say about that is that I’m surprised someone else in the neighborhood didn’t come make sure we were ok after the amount of anguished screaming that was coming out of his house. Stupid losing. I then headed back to IC, thinking I’d seen the last of Julie and Josh for the weekend… but I would be wrong. When I got home, the house smelled like baking, but there were no baked goods to be found. I was a little suspicious, but in the end, I figured Rachel had just baked something for a gathering she had gone to and the tasty items were just gone. I spent the rest of Saturday night watching TiVo and movies (I saw enough movies this past weekend that they will require a separate post).

Sunday, I watched some more dvd’s and also went to see The Illusionist in the theater. I knew I had plans to have dinner with Jerry & Sara & Antalya and Doogie & Colleen that night. I thought nothing of them picking me up since they often do when we go places together. We arrived at the Brown Bottle (which I remembered was where I had my 21st birthday dinner, where the hell did the last nine years go?!) and Doogie & Colleen weren’t visibly anywhere which I thought was odd. As we headed to the back to sit down somewhere, I started to hear singing and there was a whole table of my friends and balloons! I was surprised.

Josh and Julie had come over from Des Moines on a Sunday night! And Diane redeemed herself. She’d sent me an email earlier in the week in response to a dinner invitation I had sent out on my own and said she was free. Then a couple days later she sent me another email and said she was busy. I was so mad. *chuckle* My friend Adrienne was also there, who now just lives a block or so from me, but who I haven’t seen since the spring. It was Adrienne who introduced Rachel and I and it was Rachel who threw me the surprise party! That was a huge surprise. I was really touched and impressed! Dinner was kind of a blur just because I was overwhelmed and there were so many people and so many cards and a bit of wine. Actually I think most of us had a wine sampler, so that meant three glasses per person, so we really looked like a party of lushes. HA! The restaurant brought me a piece of somekind of brownie pie with a candle, but I wasn’t permitted to get dessert beyond that. There was more to come apparently.

Rachel invited everyone back to our place for dessert. I knew there had to be a cake somewhere! I rode back with Julie since she wasn’t a local who knew where she was going. When we got home, the whole place was decorated with streamers, balloons, confetti, and candles! There was my favorite chocolate chip surprise cake (recipe supplied by my mom), ice cream, candy, and frozen drinks such as mojitos. Rachel had really gone all out! And then, as if I wasn’t surprised enough, the doorbell rang and there was Frosty and Margaret! And since Frosty can’t go to a party without making something, he had brought over the stuff to make hot spiced apple cider. So thoughtful.

Pictures from the evening are up. More thanks to Rachel for taking pictures. I only took the one of my food and the one where Sara looks dead. (Now you have to go look, don’t you?)

After everyone headed home (since most of them had to work the next day. Suckers), Rachel and I cleaned up the place and she was kind enough to deflate all the balloons that were going to give me nightmares if I got up and found them all over the floor the next morning. (If you weren’t aware, I have a serious aversion to balloons laying about. I can’t handle the potential for popping. Helium ones are fine.)

Whew! Its not even my birthday yet! Ok, so my birthday finally did arrive, in all its rainy Monday glory, and I had been smart enough to take the day off. I slept in, then Sara and I took Antalya and we went and had pancakes at Lou Henri’s. After that we went and picked up fresh shrimp and crab from the Fabian Seafood truck. Get on their mailing list if you like fresh seafood. After that, I headed home to check my mail. Yea cards! I got a nice amount of cards in the mail and a lot of e-cards and emails from friends and family. Then I headed back to the theater (yea movie theater gift certificates!) to see The Departed. By then, I was just kind of done with the eating out and the running about. I spent the rest of the evening eating leftovers from the weekend and catching up with TiVo.

It was a fantastic birthday weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped make it so!

Thursday night: eat (The Vine), drink (College Street), sleep

Friday: shower, eat (Atlas), lounge (on the Pentacrest), drink (Gabe’s), march, eat (Pizza on Dubuque), march/drink (Joe’s Place, Dublin Underground, Deadwood, Sports Column, College Street), snack (Marco’s), sleep

Saturday: shower, march, tailgate (Zillman’s), march, beat Purdue, nap, shower, eat (HuHot), make fun of ISU, party (Frosty’s), sleep

Sunday: shower, eat (River City Beefstro), lounge about for the rest of the day thinking about how I have to be in better shape and eat less next year

The only injuries to my person were a few expected bruises, two overly-tight calves on Sunday morning (I nearly fell down the stairs), and one really annoying blister on my foot.

I used up the rest of my words captioning my photos from the weekend.