St. Cloud

Some friends of mine had some people up to St. Cloud over the weekend for a day of fun and poker. I had a blast. I got to go waterskiing which I haven't been able to do for about 3 years! I decided to take the easy way out and got up on two ski's then dropped one. I went for a ways before I fell. I decided to try and get up on one ski and I was able to! Went for a while then fell again. I decided to call it quits then. I wanted to ski again later and didn't want to tire myself out by trying to get up on one again. After an hour or two I went out again, dropped a ski and didn't fall. The form isn't what it used to be and I can't lay out with one arm like I did when I was younger and weighed less! After waterskiing and tubing we all played some volleyball then we ate very well! About 8 PM we finally started the poker game which I played horribly. That didn't matter to me since it was a good game with good friends and whether I won or not didn't matter since I already considered the day a success! The game finally got over around 3 AM with the top 3 finishers chopping.

Erasmus James finally signed a contract. He most likely has hurt any chance of playing even in the nickel package with his holdout but as I Tice said, if he comes in and gets 5 sacks, all is forgiven. I hope he can come in and make an immediate contribution to the team as I don't think Troy Williamson will. The more I see and hear about him the more concerned I am with Troy being picked at #7. I think he will work out eventually but his contribution this year will be minimal. I also don't think he will develop into a superstar but will be a good receiver down the road. Who knows, everything coming out of camp is all spin right now anyway. Anything coming from Tice's mouth is a way to test or motivate certain players. I doubt that Keith Newman is actually challenging Napolean Harris for the starting job. Hell, at least I hope not. Newman is a good backup but unless I have been seeing something different, he's not a starter. A note on our LB's, I really hope that EJ can someday get the mental aspect down to use his physical abilities. EJ has the physical skills, imo, to be a very good linebacker.

Check out Cheer or Die's blog. He was down in Mankato yesterday for training camp and has some nice photos for your downloading pleasure.

Mead

Well on Sunday I brewed my first batch of mead! Someone brought some to a tailgate a few years agoa and I've been meaning to brew some since. For those of you that are wondering what mead is, the easiest explanation is "honey wine". For a more thorough explantion go to http://www.gotmead.com , http://www.brewboard.com; and http://forum.northernbrewer.com. I didn't do any fancy recipe, I just bought Northern Brewer's Sweat Mead Kit . Everything looks real nice in it right now and I'll try and get some pics up of it in the carboy. Its a nice golden yellow right now bubbling every 2 seconds or so. Even though from what I have been reading, mead should be allowed to age for a year or more it should be drinkable in time for my roadtrip to Detroit the first weekend of February (read SuperBowl). It is so nice having a quality brew shop so close!!

Speaking of tailgating, I have no idea where we are going to tailgate at this year. The Rapid Park Lot while being a nice big lot is too far away from the B.I.T. (Big Inflatable Toilet), also know as the Metrodome. Talking with my fellow tailgator's we are thinking of using one of the back lots by the Liquor Depot. We'd have to get there early to get a spot but considering my normal start time is around 6:15 anyway I don't forsee that being an issue!

I got my first comment a few days ago! Somehow CoD found my blog. I suppose this means I have to make a concerted effort to update this at least every few days. I've been better lately and may send an email out to some friends letting them know about this. Until now I haven't really told anyone since I wanted to see how it went first.

Donkey

Well I have been playing like a donkey lately and I don't know why. I think it might have something to do with post mentor program burnout. The wife got up Sunday to go in and do her Naval Reserve drill so I decided to play the Sunday 7 AM tournament since I was awake. I should have stayed in bed. I wasn't fully awake and played plain and simply terrible. I was playing like some overagressive calling station. bah! Other than that I didn't really play much over the weekend to try and take a little break and get refocused. I've noticed when I've been playing lately that I'm not really paying much attention and I'm just going through the motions. Last night I played the 10 PM PSOC event and played much better. I didn't make any spectacular plays but didn't do anything stupid either. Got all my money in against a big stack when I was starting to get short and busted. A big stack had been raising with pretty much any paint and raised my BB when I had A8. Figured I was good so I pushed all-in hoping for a fold but I really didn't have much folding equity with my reraise so the call was expected. He turned over K6o to my A8. I hit an 8 but of course he rivered a straight. It happens. I made the right read and play but got sucked out on. I'd make the same play again. I just need to stay more focused and stick to my game and I will be fine.

Vikes are in training camp! Yay! Hopefully I can get down to watch one of these days.

Skol!