One Fine Day

This week IPS gave Jill a great gift....two days off for fall break. So, Chuck took Thursday off as well. It was a fun day. We started our day at 6:45 when the plumber arrived to do a little work. We took Chase for a bath and a haircut. When it came time to find a place for lunch, we decided we really wanted Mexican food. Indianapolis doesn't offer any good Mexican, so we decided to head to Kokomo for some Hacienda.

It doesn't get much better than these chips and salsa. Yummy.

Chuck indulged in the Taste of Hacienda. Good choice. We left with our tummies full and smiles on our faces.

Northwestern 34, Purdue 29

The perfect beginning to any football gameday - Mad Mushroom cheesesticks. Jill and I went to West Lafayette early and met up with Paul Fisher, my Industrial Engineering classmate at Purdue. He has worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando since graduation - pretty cool. He was back in town for the weekend since it was the annual Homecoming celebration. We were in town to watch Purdue lose another football game.
Here we see a great example of a Purdue play this year. Brandon Kirsch (surprisingly) hits the open wide receiver, in this case Andre Chattams. Chattams, not being accustomed to the ball actually making it to him, catches it, turns upfield, and dives "toward" the end zone, just in time to fumble it past the pylon. Northwestern touchback. Talk about a kick in the pants.
Ok - so we've mentioned some of the best things about attending a football game - watching some great teams play, the fans, the excitement, but there is one aspect of college football that is downright annoying and can drive you to boredom. I'll give you a hint - the picture above depicts this aspect.

Any guesses?

That's right - it's "Red Hat Guy". Red Hat Guy's job is to walk out onto the field so the officials know that it's TV-timeout time. Whenever ESPN is showing commercials - Red Hat Guy has to be there to make sure the game does not go on until the viewers at home have had their fill of Budweiser or Pontiac advertising. We have always wondered if there's a Red Hat Girl. Maybe he dates the Red Hat Ladies exclusively?

This is us on the elevator on the way to the car. At halftime. Purdue was down 28-9 at that point, and we just couldn't stand the thought of wasting our only Saturday this week to watch the rest of that bad game.
View of my sophomore-year apartment building, Cedarwood (on the left), from the roof of the Northwestern Parking Garage, on top of which we parked for the game. This apartment was a great location for going to class - being about a block East of campus. It's always fun to see how things have changed since our time here - although more often than not they haven't yet changed at all.

Iowa 34, Purdue 17

Now filming in West Lafayette - A Boiler's Story - Ben Affleck will be playing the part of Chuck Carnes. Here we see him taking a break in his nice brown and pink sweatshirt. I think they have Jennifer Garner on board to play Jill Carnes. They're both a little tall really... On the way to the game we went t-shirt shopping. A person can never have too many Purdue t-shirts.
After t-shirt shopping was over we headed over to check out the newly finished Dick and Sandy Dauch Alumni Center. I'm not sure what really happens in the Alumni Center, now that it's there. Planning tailgates for road football games, complaining about the athletic department, talking about how rich and powerful they all are? We might not fit into that, but we checked it out anyway. They have some really nice displays highlighting Purdue contributions to the science of locomotives in the early 1900's, to flight in the era of Amelia Earhart as an instructor at the Purdue airport, and to astronautics in Neil Armstrong's time here. We're pretty sure there's some great research going on now, but not sure exactly what it is. Maybe designing better and more effective food additives?
Hawaiian shirt: $35
Ticket to Purdue/Iowa game: $43
13 beers at Jake's Roadhouse at 11:00 a.m. : $42

Getting left behind by your friends, passed out on the side of the road, to be found by the West Lafayette Police and Fire Departments: PRICELESS

This proud student's experience brought to you by MasterCard.

Jill hamming it up at the Alumni Center. Being an alum, she suggested to put this "P" gate here. Not really, but you don't know that.
Me hamming it up in front of the engineering fountain and Hovde Hall. I think the President's office is in there, but I've only seen him in person twice - on December 14th, 2002, and May 17th, 2003, at our graduation ceremonies.
This just in. Our football team is horrible. If it wasn't bad enough to lose on the road (fluke?) to Minnesota in double overtime, or to lose at home by getting blown out by Notre Dame (luck of the Irish?), today's game solidified Purdue's home at the bottom of the Big Ten. Now 0-2 in the conference and 2-3 overall, the potential dream season predicted by "experts" is not exactly going to plan.

Notre Dame 49, Purdue 28

Purdue got killed. Luckily we didn't waste our time going to or watching the tape of the game because we attended some friends' wedding, and someone let the cat out of the bag that the Boilers were getting slaughtered. The picture above is a microcosm for the game. ND was leading 7-0 in the first quarter, and Kory Sheets broke away to run it to the 2-yard line. On the next play Jerod Void fumbled the ball, Notre Dame recovered and scored again to make it 14-0. There's always next week...