I don't know what to say

I’ve really been struggling for blog material lately.  This stuff doesn’t come naturally for me. 

• The Bears just keep winning.  Hopefully they will avenge the last eleven years and beat the Packers in Chicago this weekend. (The Bears haven’t beaten the Pack in Chicago since ‘93.)
• I finally saw a speed trap on Hwy 52 this morning.  There were four cop cars in the center turnaround near the 37th St exit.  They raised the speed limit to 60 through town last week, and now it looks like they are starting to enforce it.  It’s nice to have all six lanes open now, but it seems like the police could have brought in a lot of money by patrolling the road for the last three years when people were going 70 MPH in the 55 MPH construction zone. 
• Good news for IBM.
• When in doubt, post a funny picture of your kid.

 

Quick Thoughts 11/25

• I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
• “Black Friday” is the worst day of the year.  I will never understand how it is better to save a couple of bucks, but have to put up with long lines and hoards of people.  I’ll stay home, and shop online, thank you very much.
• Missouri lost last week, Colorado ate too much turkey and got blown out today, and now all Iowa State has to do is win tomorrow against Kansas and they can win the Big 12 North division.  For that honor they would get the chance to get destroyed by Texas.  Let’s just hope they can take care of their business tomorrow and not piddle it away like they did last year.
• Bears vs. Bucs on Sunday and it’s even televised here.  Sweeeeet!

The Bears are for real.

Even I did not expect the Bears to perform like they did yesterday.  Beating the Panthers 13–3 does not sound that impressive, but if you actually watched the game, you’d realize that the Bears defense totally dominated the game.  I had an argument with a co-worker this morning (who happens to be a Green Bay fan) and he said that he wouldn’t call scoring 13 points very dominant.  This is a case where the score doesn’t tell the whole story.  The Bears’ defense had EIGHT sacks, and two interceptions, and totally shut down one of the most potent offenses in the NFC.  They were all over Jake Delhomme, and I think were in his head before the game even started.  Carolina had been averaging almost 28 points per game this season, and the Bears held them to just 3. Yes Brent, the Bears dominated this game.  The Panthers’ lone offensive positive was Steve Smith.  I was really impressed with his speed and ability to make some really tough catches.  He definitely deserves the MVP consideration he’s getting.

With this win, the Bears are finally gaining some respect in the national media.  Here are some quotes that I’ve found:

•  “I eat my words. The Bears have played somebody. A good team. And they kicked the living tar out of the Panthers.” -Peter King in his cnnsi.com Monday Morning QB column. 
• “ Before Sunday, you could argue that the Bears hadn't beaten even one good offensive team or one top-20 quarterback. But you can't say that any more. Chicago won its sixth in a row and snapped the Panthers' six-game win streak in the process. This one was the win that told us the Bears just might be for real. With that defense and some cold weather to come, Chicago can no longer be taken lightly.” -Don Banks in his cnnsi.com Snap Judgments column.
• Not quite the response I’d like to hear, but Dr. Z, is starting to admit that he made a mistake in predicting the Bears would only win 3 games this year. 
• “ As measured with their words as they were merciless with their pass rush, Chicago Bears defenders tried hard after Sunday's victory over the Carolina Panthers to maintain an air of anonymity, to remain the league's most underrated division leader for just a little bit longer. Guess what, guys? The word is out. Or soon will be. The Bears, especially on the defensive side, are pretty darned good. “ – Len Pasquarelli from ESPN.com.
• “Before the season I couldn't even imagine the Bears competing with the elite of the NFC, but not only are they competing, they are kicking their butts. This team defensively crushed the Panthers and played well on offense also. Muhsin Muhammad had a great game and gave his young quarterback support. The Bears are for real.“ – Eric Allen from ESPN.com

OK guys, you’re getting some national respect now.  Some tough games are on the schedule the next few weeks, so don’t do anything jeopardize what you have earned.  The national media is waiting for you to fail so they don’t look like idiots for picking you to be so bad this year.  Bear down and show them how them how far off the mark they were!

The Best White Elephant Gift Ever

Check out the Jones Soda Holiday Pack.  Along with the beverages, it comes with a spork, moistened towelette and a wine list.  It’s really a pretty clever novelty idea, and part of the proceeds go to charity.  Today a co-worker brought in a pack and a bunch of paper cups for us to sample these unique flavors. 

We started with the Turkey and Gravy soda.  This wasn’t too bad, but it didn’t taste much like any turkey I’ve had before.  I noticed a bad after-taste though.  After consulting the label I saw that these sodas have Splenda in them.  I hate the taste of diet sodas! 

Next we sampled the Brussel Sprout soda.  I’ve never had brussel sprouts before, and after this experience I will never try them.  This was the most foul tasting thing I’ve ever had in my life.  Half of the people trying it in our group almost lost their breakfast.  The stench of the soda alone should have been enough to keep us away, but we all wanted to complete this meal. 

Up third was the Wild Herb Stuffing soda.  This really just tasted like bad club soda, but had a slight herby after-taste.  It was pretty easy to drink after the brussel sprout soda though.

The fourth course in our liquid meal was the Cranberry soda.  This actually smelled like cranberries and had a normal soda fizz that the others were lacking.  This was by far the best part of the meal, as it was actually drinkable.

For desert, we had the Pumpkin Pie soda.  I think it could have used some whipped cream because it was pretty disgusting by itself.  I think it had a few too many spices in it, and not enough pumpkin.  Even so, it was still much better than the brussel sprout soda.

Personally I would have preferred it if these were not diet sodas.  I can’t imagine anyone drinking all five whole bottles by themselves either.  Even though most of these were really nasty, it was still a lot of fun to have eight people all trying them together and watch everyone’s reactions to the tastes.  I think I’m going to go pick up a couple of these packs because I have a couple of people in mind who it would make an excellent gift for.

 

Quick Thoughts 11/17

• So long 50’s and 60’s.  It was a chilly 3 degrees at my house this morning.
• The Packers and Vikings play Monday night, so that means the Bears are televised here on Sunday!
• I always thought Teletubbies were really strange, but I think the Boohbahs are even weirder.  They freak me out actually.
• Today’s lyrics: “I smoke old stogies I have found.  Short, but not too big around.”

Superfan Kahn's Thoughts 11/14

• The Bears have now won 5 games in a row.
• Yesterday’s Wind Bowl might go down as one of the most memorable crazy weather games in Bears’ history.  It’s hard to top the Fog Bowl though, but at least you could see all the craziness in the Wind Bowl. 
• Wearing the orange jerseys is a bad idea.  They should only be worn in video games.
• Just a sprain?  That injury to Cedric Benson’s knee sure looked pretty bad.  Ouch!
• The Bears have allowed only 107 points to be scored against them this season.  That’s the fewest in the NFL. 
• Why does all the national media rip on the NFC North?  From what I can tell, the AFC East and NFC West are pretty lousy as well.  The NFC North now has 16 wins between the teams in the division.  The AFC East only has 14 and the NFC West has 15.  The media’s beloved Patriots are 5–4 and yet are still in the top ten of most the power rankings I’ve seen.  The Bears are 6–3 now and barely cracking into the top half of the 32 team rankings.  Yeah they’ve had a pretty easy schedule so far, have played pretty poorly the last couple of games, but have still won those games.  I guess it’s just hard to break people’s pre-conceived notions of who’s good and bad from before the season started.  The Bears play the Panthers next, so a win against them would definitely help in gaining some respect.  The NFC North is not an elite division by any means, and it’s really not that good honestly.  My point is just that there are some other bad divisions out there too, but the focus is always on how atrocious the NFC North is.  Spread the love people!

 

 

I'm Batman

I came down with a nasty bug Friday night and spent all day Saturday in bed with a 102.5 degree fever.  The fever finally broke while I was sleeping last night and I woke up in a pool of sweat.  I’m still not 100%, but I do feel a lot better today.  Anyway, while I’ve been under the weather, Holly picked up a couple of movies for me to watch.  I watched Batman Begins this morning, and will watch The Longest Yard later tonight. 

I loved Batman Begins.  This movie totally restored the Batman movie franchise.  I remember being so excited to see Batman Forever when it came out, and then being completely disappointed in it after seeing it.  Because of that one movie, I didn’t want anything to do with Batman anymore, even though he used to be my favorite super-hero.  So you can see why I was very skeptical of Batman Begins.  Thankfully, Joel Schumacher didn’t touch this project, and the Batman glory days have returned.  The main reason I enjoyed this movie is because they had a lot of character development with Bruce Wayne and Batman.  Batman Forever was just action for the sake of action and had zero character development.  The only thing that I wish they would have done with Batman Begins, is to use Danny Elfman’s original Batman movie theme.  That was such a great super-hero theme, and would have been good for some consistency across all the movies.  It will be interesting to see how they tie any more new Batman movies into the existing movies, but I definitely look forward to seeing the next one they make.

Quick Thoughts 11/11

• The Bears are 13 point favorites this weekend with the 49ers coming to town.  Some guy named Cody Pickett will be the QB for San Francisco.  I can see the Bears’ defense licking their chops, for what should be a huge day for them. 
• The Cyclones play Colorado at 6PM on Saturday.  The game is going to be televised on FSN, so be sure to watch it!
• One thing I’m not clear on with this bird flu, is whether they think there will be a risk of contracting it by eating poultry.  It seems to me that it would have to be contracted from a live, infected bird, but I’m no expert.  Does anyone else know?
• I usually have someone in mind who I think will know the song lyrics of the day.  But lately someone other than who I think will respond has been getting them.  That’s not a bad thing, and I don’t want to discourage anyone from responding.  Today’s lyrics will be a little tougher for some people, but I know one person who will probably know them right away.  So with that, here are today’s lyrics: “This time tomorrow, reckon where I’ll be. Hadn’t it been for Grayson, I’d a been in Tennessee.”

 

Quick Thoughts 11/9

• Congratulations to my buddy Andy who won an XBOX 360 in the “Every Ten Minutes” contest through Mountain Dew.  Plus he won a party pack that included a bunch of hats and t-shirts, of which he gave me one of each.  Thanks man. 
• “Survivor” is starting to get pretty good now.  It always helps when there’s at least one idiot around to provide entertainment value.  Last week’s episode was one of the best in a long time.
• I watched a little bit of VH1’s new show, “But Can They Sing?”  I’ll save you some time by telling you the answer is a resounding “NO.”  Don’t bother watching this show.
• You have to try this: “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl”.  It’s ascii Star Wars.  Sounds like this guy started in 1997 and is now about halfway through the original movie.  That’s an insane amount of hours.
• Today’s lyrics: “Now if I wasn’t such a weenie, do you think you’d still love me?  Pretending I’m an airplane on the living room floor.”  That’s song writing at its best right there.
  

Quick Thoughts 11/7

• Tylenol is a wonder drug.  Payton is getting his two year molars and they are really making him miserable.  He’s had a fever, and they are causing him quite a bit of pain.  However, twenty minutes after giving him some Tylenol, he’s running around and back to his normal self.
• What’s the point of having a blimp fly over a game that’s in a dome?  I’ve never understood that. 
• Bears win, are now 5–3, and have a two game lead in their division.  They must beat the 49ers this weekend because the schedule gets a lot tougher after that (Panthers, Bucs, Packers, Steelers, Falcons, Packers, Vikings).  I know the Packers are bad this year, but Favre has quite a history of being a Bear slayer.  I like the Bears’ chances against them this year though, and I’ll go out on a limb and predict a sweep of the Packers.  The Bears will finish at 9–7 and win the NFC North.
• The Cyclones are now bowl-eligible after destroying Kansas State this weekend.  So why does the season seem like such a big disappointment? 
• Today’s lyrics should be easy: “If I’m not blind why can’t I see, that a circle can’t fit where a square should be.”

Quick Thouhts 11/4

• I subbed in bowling league again last night and did quite well.  I had a 200 game, and wound up with a 524 series.  With that, my 147 average should jump all the way up to 154.  You gotta love that early in the year when one week can affect the average so dramatically.   
• I’m becoming quite fond of flavored coffees.  Today I’m drinking Irish creme, but also enjoy hazelnut, chocolate macadamia nut, chocolate caramel brownie, and vanilla creme.  This is just regular coffee, but the beans have been soaked in the flavors.   Good stuff.
• Have I mentioned how much I enjoy listening to Coldplay lately?  Great music.
• The Bears will beat the Saints this weekend, 17–6.  (I haven’t picked against the Bears yet, but yes, I probably will when they play some tougher teams down the road in a few weeks.)
• The Cyclones can become bowl-eligible this weekend with a win over Kansas State.  The game is in Ames and should be winnable.
• Today’s lyrics: “Is it getting better?  Or do you feel the same?”

Ch-ch-ch-changes

As I mentioned in the last post, I went as Superfan Kahn for Halloween this year. That means I shaved my goatee, and just had a moustache. Sporting just a moustache is not something that looks particularly good on me, wouldn’t you agree?

My dad and his brothers have always been able to pull it off, but I don’t think I ever will. So by the end of the day Monday, my face was clean-shaven. I’ll have to post a picture of this for my mom since she seems to like the no facial hair look the best on me. Sorry Mom, but it won’t last long. It’s almost winter time, so that means it’s time to grow a full beard.

UPDATED: Ok Mom, as promised, here’s a picture for you.