If I hadn't seen it . . .

. . . I wouldn't have thought it possible. A quick note about Monday Night Football: it was fun to attend in person. A quick note about the Arizona Cardinals: they have an uncanny ability to find a way to lose. Since our opening day victory (read about it here), there have been three more home games. Each time, our local heroes take what seems to be an insurmountable lead, only to prove it surmountable. Tonight they had the undefeated Chicago Bears beaten up and down the field for 57+ minutes.

The good news is that some pals of Dennis Blaha arranged a major feed stop at the tailgate. Brats, Italian beef, sides. Weather was awesome. The game was very fun in its own way. And they opened the roof (see photo)! At this point, Cardinals fans tend to be fatalistic rather than frustrated or angry. No more home games until November 12, which is good because we could use a recovery period.

I can't stand to write about the game, but you can read about it here.

Signs of winter

Here in Arizona's Sonoran desert the onset of winter can be distinguished from the precursors that we noted back in the old country. (We got a chuckle out of Bill Seetch’s comment back at Notre Dame a couple weeks ago, which I hope was tongue-in-cheek, about the rats in the presbytery being extra furry this year, meaning of course a bad winter. I think caterpillar furriness also was considered to have forecasting value. Here's an academic discussion about fur and winter.)

Anyway, here you can see a rye grass winter lawn making its way through the Bermuda summer lawn. The winter lawn grows in after about two weeks of keeping the topsoil dampened. It looks great and doesn’t require much care thereafter. Especially if you are strategic (i.e. erratic) about mowing. And a winter lawn keeps down weeds that might otherwise grow in a dormant Bermuda lawn, as we learned last year.

ND Trip Day One

Finally getting around to posting some info on the ND trip. We left for South Bend on Thursday, September 28. Traveling party from Phoenix included Patricia and me, our three sons and Jon Blaha. I insisted on leaving early, so naturally offsite parking went smoothly, all lines were short and we ended up sitting around the airport awhile before take-off. (Snug and secure with our “A” boarding passes on Southwest, courtesy of PJ.) Flight was easy. Only glitch was getting our rental minivan, which counter girl at Budget wasn’t able to line up. Even that turned out well, as we were upgraded to a MASSIVE Suburban.

(An aside on the Suburban: this thing is an absolute monster. You could actually feel the gas tank lightening as you drove. Amazingly, I learned that all of the ads are totally true: by driving a monster vehicle, I received much more respect from everyone I encountered: fellow motorists, campus guards at various gatehouses, bookstore traffic handlers, etc. Plus this thing had about 20 cupholders, and you can never have too many of those. So it’s all worth it! Or something. I've posted a photo below of the beast taken on Sunday outside Moreau Seminary; the passengers look like mere ants.)

From Midway, we met “Nana” (Patricia’s mother, Shirley O’Donnell) for lunch at an Italian restaurant at 95th and Cicero. This ended up being lots of fun. Just look at the photo! We kept adding folks to our table. Mike O’Donnell showed up a bit and dropped off his son, Mike. Kerry arrived at Midway from D.C., and Nicole picked her up and the two of them arrived about 40 minutes after us. Got the food thing off to a good start with deep dish pizza. Turned out our waitress had been Mike’s kindergarten teacher, which was kind of entertaining.

Easy trip to South Bend, after killing about 30 minutes working through 294 construction. Courtesy of the Reverend Patrick Neary, we were able to stay at Moreau Seminary. Which is a classic place to stay when at ND. We found our rooms, mostly on the south side overlooking the lake with views of Golden Dome and steeple, etc. Pat wasn’t around. So we went out to dinner at The Vine in downtown South Bend. I’d go back willingly. Here’s a link to the restaurant’s website. Check out the menu when you’re there. I ordered the best dish: the Cajun Salmon Filet. Being in northern Indiana, this sounded dicey – but wasn’t. Pasta New Orleans was excellent. Hot asiago appetizer was excellent. Plus some IPA on tap. I was happy.

Then back to campus. The guard trembled at our Suburban and waved us on. Visited the Reverend John Conley at Siegried Hall. We had a nice chat, some nice munchies, and a nice tour (had never been in this hall before, it’s taking up a field where we Grace Hall studs used to throw the football around back in the 70s).

Went to Moreau. Did a short tour of the facilities (impressive as always). That was it for day one.

We're Back from N.D.

Our trip is over. Everything about it was great. I'll put in daily detail once I catch up at work. In the meantime, here's a family photo from the morning of Saturday, September 30. Also a photo taken from Moreau Seminary looking across the lake, taken near sunset on the same date. (Much) more to come.