N is for.....

N is for.....New Zealand.

When I was 9 we welcomed an exchange student from New Zealand into our family. Steve lived with us for a year, and even though he was busy being a normal high schooler, he always made time for me. I've never forgotten the time he took me rollerskating. I felt like I had a big brother, and when Steve went home after a year of living with us, he was very much a member of our family.

That bond strengthened over the years. Steve came back to the US right after we moved to Green Bay. I was a sophomore in high school, and having a hard time adjusting to Green Bay. I really enjoyed having Steve around for a little while as I tried to find my place. Steve has always been a big music fan, and he brought me a copy of New Order's Blue Monday and a Joy Division T-shirt.  I had never heard of New Order or Joy Division, but I proudly wore the T-shirt to school. It was my interest in New Wave music that finally broke the ice for me at school. I'm not exactly sure how long Steve stayed with us that time, but for me his visit was perfectly timed.

Life carried on, and the next time I saw Steve was in Carson City, Nevada. My parents had moved out West when my dad found a new job, and I was living in Minneapolis by then. Steve had started his own family, and we happily welcomed Jo and their son, Connor, into our extended family.

In 1998, I was the first Riley to make it to New Zealand.  Meg and I went down over Christmas vacation for a couple weeks. Steve is a proud Kiwi, and he made sure we saw as much of New Zealand as possible in our short time. New Zealand is stunningly beautiful. Every time I thought I was looking at the most beautiful place on Earth, Steve would take us somewhere else, and I'd have a new top spot. The scenery was brilliant, but the best part of the trip was meeting Steve and Jo's family. I left New Zealand feeling like my own family had grown exponentially.

After having two more sons, Elan and Henry, and doing the family thing for a while, Steve and Jo couldn't fight their wanderlust anymore. Steve and Jo left the kids behind and came to the States with Steve's Uncle Paul and Auntie Carol. We had a great visit with them In Eagle Harbor, and then a classic night in Minneapolis. I'll never forget Paul and Carol busting a move to Hollaback Girl in First Ave.

The Kiwis value travel, and that was never more evident than a few years ago. Steve, Jo, and each of the kids picked a place they really wanted to see, and they set out on a family world tour. They went to the Great Barrier Reef, Siberia, Mongolia, Brazil, New York City, and they threw in a Tucson stop to see the Rileys.

My parents finally made it to New Zealand in 2009. My dad's health had been dicey for a while, but for those three weeks in New Zealand, he was full of energy and life. He was never really the same after that trip, but I'm glad his body gave him the chance to truly enjoy the experience. I think my parents had the same experience Meg and I did. They loved the spectacular beauty of New Zealand, but the best part was the people. They were among family.

Steve flew up for my dad's memorial service in January. He spoke eloquently at the service, sharing his unique impressions of my dad, a man he greatly admired. Steve ended his remarks by announcing that Jo and the boys had woken up at 6 that morning for a moment of silence to honor my dad. They didn't have to do that. Steve didn't have to come. That's just how it is with family.

And then last week, Steve's oldest son, Connor, called. He's taking a year off before university to travel. He'll come to Tucson in September, the next chapter in a long relationship. I can't wait to see what comes next.

M is for.....

M is for.....Movies

I was going to write an essay about the importance of movies in my life, highlight some of my all-time favs, that kind of thing. Then I had an idea: movies A-Z for the A-Z Challenge. I believe that's called synchronicity, and if it's not, well, anyway, here are some of my favorite movies A-Z. Good or bad, I loved them all.


A =  Away We Go
B =  Breaking Away
C =  Chariots of Fire
D =  Duma
E =  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
F =   Finding Nemo
G =  Goodfellas
H =  Hannah and her Sisters
I =   Inception
J =    Jerry Maguire
K =  Kung Fu Panda
L =   Little Miss Sunshine
M = Midnight Run
N =  No Country for Old Men
O =  Once
P =   Pulp Fiction
Q =  Quick Change
R =  Raising Arizona
S =   Signs
T =  Tootsie
U = Up
V = Victory
W= Wonder Boys
X = Xanadu
Y = Young Guns
Z =  Zoolander


I have a couple questions for you guys:

1) What's your favorite movie on this list?
2) If you could change one letter of my movie A-Z, what would it be?

L is for.....

L is for.....Language Arts.

I teach 8th grade Language Arts. We don't call it English in middle school, it's Language Arts nowadays. Not sure why, but hey, I'm just a humble public servant. The powers that be can call my class whatever they want. Like my main man Will once said, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Or something like that.

My job is to teach 13 and 14 year olds how to read and write better. This may come as a surprise to some, but a good majority of today's teenagers are not particularly excited about reading and writing. As if the gig isn't hard enough, many of my students come in working below grade level. I've got kids who read and write at a second grade level, 5th grade level, 8th grade level, 10th grade level, all in the same class. I have 125 students this year, and my challenge is to help them all improve. All this is to say, teaching kids to read and write is a daunting task.

There are days when it feels like it's all a big waste of time, like nothing I do makes a difference. My students are at a critical juncture. If they can't read and write, what chance do they have in this world? I try to have the kids read and write as much as I can, but I only have them for 50 minutes a day, a little more than 4 hours a week. Factor in all the absences and wasted time dealing with disruptive kids, and it's just not enough. Sometimes I feel like my job is impossible.

I can't give up though. It's just not in my makeup. I may have chosen a quixotic profession, but I love it. I love when a kid figures out how to correctly combine two sentences into one. I love when a kid volunteers to read out loud because he's finally confident he can do it. I love when a kid writes an essay with an obvious thesis statement and ideas to back it up. I love when a kid tells me the book we're reading in class is the best book she's ever read (thank you Hunger Games). I love when a kid who would make you cross the street writes a poem that can break your heart. These are the little victories that keep me going.

K is for.....

K is for.....Kurt.

I remember the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I was driving to Minneapolis to visit friends and I heard it on the radio. It was like a sonic slap across the face. I had never connected to a song so immediately, and I don't think I have since. That was a musical moment of inception, the beginning of a long relationship with the music of Nirvana. I don't listen to Nirvana as much as I used to, but the songs still resonate with me.

I thought about Kurt a lot this past weekend. Meg and I were flipping channels Friday night and we came across a show about the Foo Fighters, the band formed by Dave Grohl after Kurt's death. There was quite a bit about the Nirvana days. Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic, played on one of the songs on the new album, and it was particularly poignant to watch Grohl and Novoselic make music without Kurt.  Saturday night I caught the Foo Fighters first song on Saturday Night Live. I'm not really a huge Foo Fighters fan, but there's no doubt Grohl is a talented guy. He writes catchy songs, and it sounds like he has another hit on his hands.

Kurt died in 1994. 17 years ago. Hard to believe. I remember the day they found Kurt dead in his Seattle home. I was teaching preschool in Minneapolis. A friend called me at work to break the news. I was devastated. It was hard to keep it together. I loved Nirvana, still do. I often wonder what kind of music Kurt would be making in these crazy times. I miss Kurt Cobain.

J is for.....

J is for.....Javelina

Though some people think javelinas (the j is pronounced like an h, as in jalapeno) are a type of wild pig, they are actually members of the peccary family, a group of hoofed mammals originating from South America. I could try to explain the difference between a peccary and a pig, but frankly, I'm not really sure what the difference is. Apparently there is one, and that's good enough for me. Moral of the story, javelinas are not pigs.

Javelinas are common in much of central and southern Arizona, and they are very common in our yard. We moved to our current house in 2006, and our yard is a travel corridor for a herd of javelinas. The experts say you shouldn't feed javelinas, and ordinarily we don't. The one concession we make is Halloween. Why throw away perfectly good pumpkins when these guys will gladly eat them? Our neighbor does feed the javelinas, so they've made our yard part of their daily route.

We normally see 6-8 javelinas in our little herd. I don't know if they're the same 6-8 from year to year, but we like to think there's some continuity. In the spring we see babies, and let me tell ya, those babies are damn cute. My girls nearly lose their minds. This picture is a little blurry, but you get the point, there's is some serious wildlife going on in our front yard.

I is for.....

I is for .....Isthmus.

An isthmus (rhymes with Christmas) is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas, usually with bodies of water on either side.

The only reason I know this is because I went to college on an isthmus. You see, Madison is one of only two major US cities built on an isthmus, the other being Seattle. The Madison Isthmus forms the heart of downtown Madison and houses the twin engines of the city's economy, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin State Capital. The Madison Isthmus is bounded by Lake Mendota on one side and Lake Monona on the other.

To be honest, while I was a student at the University of Wisconsin, I thought Isthmus was just the name of an alternative weekly newspaper that I read to kill time every once in a while. Only later did I realize the geographical significance of all those trips up and down State Street. Looking at this aerial view, it's amazing to think that I lived the better part of 5 years on that stretch of land known as the Madison Isthmus.

Every summer we spend about a week in Madison visiting with friends. My buddy has a great view of the isthmus from his house. We often sit on his deck at dusk, the Capital dome in the distance, the waters of Lake Mendota and Lake Monona shimmering in the fading light. It's a view I didn't even know existed when I was in college, but it's one I treasure now.

H is for.....

H is for.....Hoosiers.

The topic for today's post came to me last Saturday. The Butler Bulldogs had just beaten VCU to advance to the national championship. Butler's improbable run to the finals made me think of the movie Hoosiers.

Butler is a small school in Indiana, and many of the kids on the team are small-town Indiana kids. To basketball fans, small-town Indiana basketball players are known as Hoosiers. Another connection between Butler and the movie is Hinkle Fieldhouse. Butler plays their home games in Hinkle, which was also the setting for the epic final game in Hoosiers.

Hoosiers is one of my favorite movies. It's about basketball, but like any great sports movie, it's about much more than that. Gene Hackman is great as Norman Dale, the coach with a checkered past. Dennis Hopper is brilliant as Shooter, the town's basketball-loving drunk.

One of my favorite scenes in Hoosiers, or any movie for that matter, is when Coach Dale gets himself thrown out of a game and Shooter has to take over. The team huddles up and Shooter is frozen. Just when it looks like Shooter might wilt under the pressure, his son suggests they run the picket fence. I love the look on Hopper's face as Shooter slowly gains the confidence to diagram the play. It's a powerful scene, one that has stuck with me through the years.

Perhaps the most memorable character in Hoosiers is Jimmy Chitwood, the tortured soul who could shoot the lights out. Jimmy barely speaks in the movie, and he rarely misses a shot on film-I can think of only one shot he missed. In my day, calling a guy Jimmy Chitwood on the basketball court was high praise for one's ability to shoot the rock.

So last Saturday, after Butler won, I found myself whistling the score from Hoosiers and I knew what my H post was going to be. Butler didn't go on to win the national championship, falling one game short for a second season in a row. As a life-long basketball fan, watching those small-town Indiana kids was inspiring.

I'll end with a clip, the last couple minutes of Hoosiers. This ending makes me verklempt every time. What are your favorite sports movies?

G is for.....

G is for.....Green and Gold

Green and Gold, a color combination synonymous with the Green Bay Packers. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a diehard Packers fan. I grew up in Wisconsin, so my allegiance was never a question. My family moved to Green Bay when I was 16, and we lived down the street from Lambeau Field. I left Green Bay, and Wisconsin, in 1992. Almost twenty years ago now, but I still bleed Green and Gold.

My childhood fell in the post-Lombardi, pre-Favre era: 1969-1991. This was not a great time to be a fan of the Green and Gold. The Packers managed just 5 meager winning seasons during this period, and let me tell ya, the losing seasons involved A LOT of losing. While the Packers of my youth didn't give me much to cheer about, I always kept the faith.

The Packers returned to prominence in the 90s with the arrival of Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren, Brett Favre, and Reggie White. In 1996 the Packers won their third Super Bowl, briefly returning the Lombardi Trophy to its rightful home. Wolf, Holmgren, White, and Favre are all gone now, but the Packers haven't missed a beat. Under the leadership of General Manager Ted Thompson and Coach Mike McCarthy the Packers are champions again. With players like Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews, the future looks bright indeed. Allow me to get my shades.

I found a little song that fits today's post. It's by Pat McCurdy, a comedian/singer/songwriter who was a staple of my time in college. Pat played in Madison about once a month and his shows were always packed.

How 'bout you guys? What colors do you bleed?

F is for.....

F is for First Avenue

Today's post is not about a street. The First Avenue I'm talking about is the classic rock n' roll club in Minneapolis. First Ave is the place where Prince and Morris Day and The Time threw down in Purple Rain. First Ave is hallowed musical ground, the way Wrigley Field and Lambeau Field are hallowed sporting ground. If you're a fan of live music, seeing a show at First Ave should be on your bucket list.

I moved to Minneapolis in 1992, and I saw a ton of shows at First Ave throughout the 90s. I can't say for sure what my first show was, but my earliest memory is tagging along with my roommates to see Sonic Youth. We weren't really fans, but tickets were cheap and available, so we figured, why not. It was an all-ages show, which meant we had to sit in the balcony to drink. I'll never forget the sight as Sonic Youth started playing, the high schoolers erupting into a crashing sea of teen spirit.

First Ave was beautifully seedy. The bathrooms were disgusting, but that should go without saying, we're talking rock n' roll here people. The place reeked of cigarettes and stale beer, a smell that should have been nauseating, but somehow became the smell I associate with great music. You came to First Ave for one thing, and one thing only: music. I don't see a lot of live shows these days, but when I do, I always wonder what the show would have been like at First Ave, the best place for live music in these United States.

Got any cool rock n' roll clubs in your neck of the woods?

E is for.....

E is for.....Eagle Harbor

Every summer we leave the heat of the desert and head north to visit family and friends in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. We used to leave town the day school let out, usually around May 20, and return a day or two before school started up again, usually the middle of August. With Meg doing summer school the last couple years, our departure has been pushed back, but we still have a ton of time to travel.

Meg's family has a place in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, and our time there is always the highlight of the trip. The family cabin is right on the water; we fall asleep to the waves lapping at the stone shore. It's a real On Golden Pond kind of setup. The wall the girls are sitting on in the picture is right out the front door. This pensive, over the shoulder pose is a bit of a tradition, the girls looking at the lighthouse.

We typically spend the 4th of July in Eagle Harbor. The 4th festivities kick off with a parade. The kids wear costumes, and at the end of the parade, they present themselves before judges, who will create an award for each kid, thus earning them a nifty $5. Last year’s costume theme was Star Wars. Check 'em out: Queen Amidala and Obi Wan Kenobi.

After the parade, everyone meanders over to the ball yard (you could say “park" but the more old-timey the better around here) for an afternoon of games. Most of the games on the 4th involve throwing things. The kids throw frisbees, and the adults toss eggs and rolling pins. The 4th in Eagle Harbor is classic small town Americana.

Time has a way of slowing down in Eagle Harbor. The days are long, filled with reading, trips to the beach, boat rides, long walks, good meals and good conversation. It's the place where I recharge the battery. Even though we only spend 2-3 weeks in Eagle Harbor every summer, the memories we create last a lifetime. It's a long way from our home in the Sonoran Desert to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but Eagle Harbor is always close to our hearts.   

D is for.....

D is for......DROPS



Drops were, hands down, the greatest candy ever made. I used to get a box every time I went to the movies. I loved Drops so much, it never occurred to me that one day they would disappear.

I'm not exactly sure of the timeline, but Drops starting becoming scarce in the mid to late 80s. I once went by myself to see Beaches at a discount theater because I knew they still sold Drops. That's called devotion my friends. Well, that or addiction.

I remember saving empty boxes, writing the name of the movie I'd seen on the box. I distinctly remember flattening the boxes and stashing them in my closest. I'm torn between being embarrassed that I was such a loser, and wishing I still had those boxes. They were from movies like The Breakfast Club, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride. They would be like relics of my youth.

By the 90s, Drops were extremely hard to come by. They weren't in theaters any more, but every once in a while I'd come across some boxes in random, off the beaten track places. I bought every box I could find and milked them for all they were worth. My closest friends knew I was obsessed with finding Drops, and they would buy any boxes they came across on their travels. One of my friends even called the company that made Drops, Heide, to find out where he could get some. My friend was told Drops were no longer being made. Once the existing the supply was sold, no more Drops. The kind soul on the phone that day actually sent my friend a case of Drops for free. My friend gave me the box for my birthday, and without a doubt, it was one of the best presents I've ever received.

I remember my last box of Drops. Meg and I were seeing a movie in Buffalo, Minnesota. I want to say it was one of the Harry Potter movies, but I'm not sure. We stopped in the little drug store down the street from the theater to get some cheaper snacks. I was shocked to find a lone box of Drops in the candy aisle. It's possible I'd never been that happy in my young life. Those last Drops were a little crusty with age, but I savored every last one. 

C is for.....

C is for.....Cereal

Seinfeld is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Some of the best scenes took place in Jerry's kitchen. My eyes were always drawn to the cereal boxes in the background. Those boxes of cereal made me feel like Jerry and I had something in common, just two hip and happenin' guys who loved cereal.

My earliest memory of cereal is drowning Cheerios in sugar. I dumped so much sugar on those Cheerios, the excess would settle at the bottom of the bowl. I scraped the bottom with my spoon to make each scoop a sugary delight. When the Cheerios were gone, I happily knocked back the glorious sugarmilk remaining.

During high school, my friends and I often went out to lunch.  If we were strapped for cash, we would go to one of our houses to raid the fridge and cupboards. When we ended up at my house, we'd take this big mixing bowl we had and fill it with whatever cereal was on hand. Our favorite concoction was Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles. We creatively called this combination Lucky Pebbles. It still makes me smile to remember us standing around that mixing bowl with oversized serving spoons, the air filled with the sound of our crunching.

I probably ate more cereal in my 20s than I did as a kid. There were days when cereal was breakfast AND dinner. I still eat cereal for breakfast most mornings. My cereal of choice these days is Raisin Bran Crunch. I'm proud to say the girls have inherited my love of cereal. Meg and I try to keep the cereal choices fairly healthy, but I sneak in a box of Lucky Charms every once in a while as a special treat. Nothing like sharing a bowl of Lucky Charms with my kids. Who knows, maybe I'll introduce them to Lucky Pebbles one day.

B is for.....

B is for Bueller..........Bueller.

The 80's gave us a lot of great teen movies, perhaps none better than Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In high school, a bunch of us would act out scenes from the movie at parties. Such was the pull of Ferris Bueller that this often made us the hit of said parties. It was a glorious time indeed.

I've always thought they should make a sequel. Ferris is producing a play on Broadway and Cameron is a banker on Wall Street. Ferris has to meet with an investor threatening to walk, but his marriage has just fallen apart and he can't handle the idea of groveling for money. He gets a message from Sloan, whose own marriage has recently imploded, on facebook that she's coming to the city and would love to get together. Cameron is working on a big project, but Ferris coerces him to ditch work. The three old buddies wander NYC, avoiding Ferris's investor, Cameron's boss, and possibly Sloan's ex. This is just a rough outline of course, but you can see the possibilities, can't you?

I saw this recut trailer for Ferris Bueller a while back, and it's kind of interesting. Imagine Ferris repackaged and marketed as an indie film, full of irony, angst, and epiphany. It makes me wonder if I missed some deeper meaning in the film.

A is for.....

First day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Here we go.

A is for.....Appleton.

Appleton, Wisconsin, is one of the places I lived growing up. We moved to Appleton from Port Washington, Wisconsin, when I was in 4th grade. I still remember the day my parents called me into their room to give me the news. Just that morning my best friend at the time, Tommy Kent, had gleefully told me that his parents had bought one of the lots right behind us. My best friend was moving a stone's throw away, and I was moving to some place called Appleton.

I was devastated.

Luckily, you bounce back quickly when you're 10. There were lots of kids my age in our new neighborhood, and it didn't take long to find running mates. We had a lot of freedom in those days. Appleton was a small town, the kind of place where parents expected their kids to play outside all day. It was the kind of place where all a kid needed was a bike.

We rode to the fields that bordered the neighborhood to play Dukes of Hazard. We rode to the softball fields to collect aluminum cans. We rode to Open Pantry to play BurgerTime and Dig Dug. We rode to the tennis courts at Einstein Junior High or the public swimming pool at Herb Park.

When winter came the bikes went into hibernation, but there was still plenty to do. We built snow forts and waged epic snowball fights. We laced up our skates and spent hours on frozen ponds and flooded backyards. We took the bus downtown and played basketball all day at the Y.

Life uprooted my family again when I was 16, shifting us 30 miles north to Green Bay. Even though my time in Appleton was relatively short, it remains a big part of who I am. The memories of my Appleton days are always with me.

I Don't Want My MTV

With the A-Z Blogging Challenge starting Friday, I wasn't going to post anything this week. I saw something on TV last night that got me a little wound up, and I need to rant a bit.

I should probably be more embarrassed to admit this than I am, but I was watching Showbiz Tonight last night. They caught my attention with a video of some girl beating the hell out of another girl. Apparently the girl doing the beating is on MTV's reality show Teen Moms. I must have missed the part about why this girl was pummeling the other girl, but I did catch a lengthy discussion about the show in general.

MTV says Teen Moms discourages teen pregnancy by showing how hard the life of a teen mom really is. MTV acknowledges paying girls on the show $60,000 a season, but they deny choosing any girls who purposely get pregnant so they can be on the show. Really MTV? Really? That's like Barry Bonds saying he didn't know he was using steroids. The panelists on Showbiz Tonight weren't buying it, and either am I.

MTV isn't fooling anyone. Teen Moms doesn't deter teen pregnancy, it glamorizes teen pregnancy. In our celebrity-obsessed culture, the last thing we need is a show that turns teen mothers into celebrities. MTV has been a pop culture cesspool for a while now, but Teen Moms might be a new low.

Basketball Blues, The Big Short, and George Clooney

The Badgers got Butlered last Thursday night, another season ending with a meek exit from the tourny. The guys had trouble shooting the ball all year, so it wasn't a surprise to see them struggle shooting. They might have hit a new low though, missing 17 shots in a row. You just can't do that in the tournament and expect to win. Overall, it was another great year for Bo and the boys, another year of exceeding expectations.

While the Badgers were struggling in New Orleans, Arizona was running Duke off the court in Anaheim. My colleagues had a little bounce in their step Friday morning. Unfortunately, the Wildcats ran into the hottest team in the tournament, UConn, and they came up just a bit short yesterday. I know people here are disappointed, but the Wildcats had a great season. With Sean Miller at the helm, Arizona basketball has a very bright future.

I finished reading an amazing book yesterday, The Big Short, by Michael Lewis. The book dissects the subprime mortgage shenanigans that have seriously derailed our economy. I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to big time business, but Lewis does a nice job of explaining complex economic concepts for the layperson. I can't say I fully understand everything, but I get the gist. A relatively small number of guys basically brought the world economy to the brink of collapse. I wasn't a big fan of the whole Wall Street buyout when it was going down, and after reading TBS, I'm even less inclined to believe it was the right thing to do. It's hard not to think Henry Paulson and his Wall Street cronies got away with a money grab that would make a Russian oligarch blush.

Whenever I finish a book, I always start another one right away, just a few pages to get it going. I started reading Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists last night, and it hooked it me right away. I read about 50 pages, and then this morning I woke up early and read another 50 before everyone else woke up.

Meg and I watched The American last night. This is one of the quietest, slowest movies I've ever seen. Not that there's anything wrong with that (full Seinfeld inflection), but the movie just seemed to take itself way too seriously. I normally like Clooney, and he's fine, but this isn't one of his better movies. Speaking of good Clooney movies, my two favorites are Out of Sight and Up in the Air.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Anyone do anything fun? See a good movie? Read a good book?

Need Some Direction

Just a quick post to ask for a little help. I've decided to do the A-Z Blogging Challenge this year. Starting April 1, I'll be posting every day in April except Sundays. That will give me a total of 26 posts-one for each letter of the alphabet. If you're interested, you can click on the button to the right to read more about the Challenge and sign up.

Here's where I'd like some help. I'm considering a number of different themes for the project, but I'm having trouble making up my mind. Whether you're a regular reader or here for the first time, I would appreciate some feedback. If you would be so kind, let me know which theme sounds the most interesting, or the least boring, as it were, in the comments. Of course, if you have any better ideas, write-ins are definitely welcomed.

1) Random: just go with whatever comes to mind for a particular letter when I sit down to write.

2) Movies: not reviews, but start with a movie title and see where it takes me.

3) Books: same idea as movies.

4) Music: songs, bands, concert venues, anything music related really.

I have another question about the project, but I'll save it until I've picked my theme. Time to get comfortable on the couch for a big night of college hoops. You know I'll be cheering my Badgers on, but I'll be flipping over during commercials to catch some of the Arizona/Duke game too.

Basketball Bliss

I wrote about my lifelong relationship with the men's college basketball tournament last week. The first weekend of the tournament has always been one of my favorite weekends of the year. The upsets, the buzzer beaters, there's really nothing else like it in all of sports.

Wisconsin was never good enough to make the tournament during my time in Madison. The basketball program finally got its act together a few years after I graduated, and now you can pretty much bank on the Badgers being in the field of 64, I mean 65, I mean 68. The Badgers started this year's tournament in Tucson, so for the first time, I was able to cheer them on in person as they battled for a spot in the Sweet 16.

I wanted to bring the girls, but they had dancing commitments for St. Pat's. I talked a friend into going to Thursday's opening game, and instead of sitting in the nosebleed seats we paid for, we easily found empty seats near the court. A lot of the experts had Belmont upsetting Wisconsin, but the Badgers pulled away in the second half for a comfortable win.

I thought about bringing the girls to Saturday's game, but the tickets were just too expensive. My buddy didn't want to pony up another $80, so I went solo. I caught the end of the San Diego State/Temple game, a double overtime barnburner. After seeing how things worked on Thursday, I figured a good chunk of the San Diego State fans would clear out after their game. That's exactly what happened, and I wound up sitting in the front row, center court. It was like a basketball dream come true. The Badgers overcame a late six point deficit to win an extremely hard-fought game. They're moving on to the Sweet 16 in New Orleans, and the Final Four is a real possibility now.

The game was brilliant, but the best part of the whole experience came after the game. The full moon was out; it was a beautiful, balmy Arizona night. I called my brother and a couple buddies to talk about the game as I waited with a small crowd of the Wisconsin faithful to congratulate the team as they boarded their bus. I took some pictures of Coach Ryan and the guys, and I even got Jordan Taylor to pose for a quick picture with me. I told him I was an alum, teaching 8th grade right down the street, and that my students would be very impressed that I got a picture with him. He graciously listened to me ramble and actually thanked me when I told him he made a great block at the end of the game to seal the victory. I walked away very proud to be a Badger. ON WISCONSIN!

School Without Noise

Today was a grading day at school, which means there were no kids in the building. The silence of a school without kids is strange. It's a nice break from the audio assault that is public education, but it's the kind of silence that could get to a person after a while, a Shining kind of silence.

Needles to say, I find it hard to stay in my classroom very long on these days. I spend a lot of time visiting with other teachers. Just in case this sounds unprofessional, I'd like to assure the tax-paying citizens of Arizona that our conversations are always focused on the academic achievement of our students. There is no way I would ever use school time to talk about the awesome seats I had for the Badgers game yesterday. Nor would I waste valuable time listening to colleagues talk about the U of A's chances against Memphis and a possible matchup with Texas on Sunday. We teachers are all business, all the time. By the way, my seats for the Badger game yesterday were amazing, Arizona/Memphis was a great game, and I like the Badgers and the Wildcats to advance to the Sweet 16 this weekend. Just sayin.

Blogger extraordinaire, Munk Davis, sent me this cool video clip about teachers. It's brilliant-give it a look. Thanks Munk.

March Madness

The men's college basketball tournament officially gets under way tonight, although I am not a fan of these play-in games. My Badgers come limping into the tournament, but they're playing here in Tucson, so I feel like I should find a way to be at the game. The girls are actually really excited to go, but like most sporting events these days, it's not cheap. With multiple games being played at one sight, it's a little more complicated than just buying tickets for the one game your team is guaranteed to play, so we'll see how it all works out.

The tournament has always been my favorite sporting event of the year. So many great memories, where do you even start. I remember One Shining Moment before it was a big deal. My earliest memory is Al McGuire and Marquette winning the title in '77. My dad went to Marquette, so that was our team. A few years later some of the Marquette players came to my school, St. Thomas More, for a little basketball clinic, and I remember being in awe. When Marquette fell on hard times, I just kind of followed the game in general, usually pulling for the underdogs.

I remember losing my mind, like everyone else of course, when Lorenzo Charles snatched that ball out of midair and slammed it home. I loved Rollie and Nova taking down mighty Georgetown. Keith Smart's jumper in '87 was a highlight of my senior year. I vividly remember the collective shock in my dorm room when Chris Webber called the infamous timeout that robbed the Fab Five of their legacy. Meg and I were in Tucson visiting friends in 1997 when Arizona won the title, and the air was literally electric with victory. Last year the Butler Bulldogs gave basketball purists everywhere a reason to dust off their copies of Hoosiers.

Unfortunately, the Badgers never made the tournament when I was a student, that would have been amazing. My buddies and I followed Tony Bennett and UWGB during our college years; their victory over Jason Kidd and Cal was huge for the state. The Badgers finally became a factor in the Dick Bennett era. It wasn't always pretty, but they won, and if it wasn't for Michigan State, we probably would have won the national championship in 2000. Bo Ryan has turned UW into a perennial power on the hardwood, but in my mind, the Badgers have often underachieved in the tournament. They had a nice Elite 8 run a few years back, losing a tough one to eventual champ, North Carolina, but other than that, too many loses to lower seeds.

Whatever happens this year, whether I see it live or in a sports bar, whether the Badgers continue to underachieve or somehow find a way to make a run, doesn't matter. The girls are budding basketball fans, so watching the tournament with them will add another dimension to this already great time of year.

How about you? Any fond tournament memories?

Why I do What I Do

Teaching is a fickle profession.

I left work yesterday completely defeated. My students took a quarterly reading assessment earlier in the week, and the results were discouraging, to say the least. I'm not usually one to worry about standardized tests, but we're getting more pressure than ever to raise these damn test scores, and if nothing else, my pride was wounded. Jerry Maguire was good at closing deals, I like to think I'm good at raising my students' test scores. I drove home in silence, doubting myself, searching for answers.

Another day, a new perspective. One of my former students is a junior at West Point. He's in town for a few days, and he went to talk to kids in the JROTC program at his old high school. Meg works at the school, so I told her to send my regards and invite him to stop by my school if he got a chance. I don't work at the middle school he attended any more, so I didn't expect him to come by, but sure enough, he did. It was probably more of an afterthought, but our Assistant Principal asked if he'd like to talk to some of our students, and without blinking an eye, he agreed.

So today I had the privilege of introducing this amazing young man to my 2nd period students. My students are predominantly Mexican American, many of them from poor families. Here was this dashing (the looks on the girls' faces were priceless), humble, intelligent young man who looks like them, grew up in the same kind of neighborhood, proof positive of what hard work can do. Watching my former student talk to my current students was a sublime experience. It's something I won't soon forget. It's the kind of thing standardized tests can't measure, can't take away. It's why I do what I do.

Words to Live By

I don't know about you, but my daily vernacular is peppered with movie quotes. My movie-saturated brain enjoyed this collection of movie lines and catch phrases, many of which I routinely employ.

My favorites:

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." One of many classic lines from The Princess Bride, one of the most quotable movies of all time.

"I want my two dollars." This one is an underappreciated gem from the John Cusack oeuvre.

"I'm walkin here!" I can't tell you how many times I've dropped Ratso Rizzo while trying to negotiate crowded school halls.

I know there are going to be worthy movies left out of a collection of this nature, but there are two omissions I cannot abide. Fletch and The Big Lebowski are chock-full of classic lines, and I find it hard to believe that both movies were shut out.

I'd love to know which lines are your favorite, and which movies were shut out that you find hard to believe.

Q=8

My baby girl turned 8 yesterday. In the time-honored tradition of parents everywhere, I have mixed feelings about another birthday. It's that whole bittersweet thing. As I've gotten older, birthdays have become quite the existential experience. Thoughts of the past fuse together with thoughts of the future to create a weird mental state. But enough of that.

The birthday festivities kicked off Friday. We took Quinn to get her ears pierced after school. We always tell Quinn she's "one tough cookie," and true to form, not a tear, not even a flinch. Her best friend had her ears pierced too, and it was pretty cool to see how excited they were. The earring thing is interesting. I would have let Quinn get her ears pierced earlier, but Meg had always said the girls should be 10. She changed her mind recently, and like the good husband I am, no questions were asked.

The girls enjoy coming up with themes for their parties, and in a testament to the power of marketing, Quinn went with a Rango theme this year. We did the movie of course, and then we did a lizard scavenger hunt in the backyard. I was Rango's deputy sheriff, and the girls had to check in with me when they found their lizards. I got to wear the sheriff's badge my buddy Matt bought me when we went to Tombstone that one time: Sheriff Tim. Probably enjoyed that more than a grown man should, but whatayagonnado.

Quick tangent to discuss Rango. I'm not sure who loved it more, the kids or the adults. It's a spot-on homage to Westerns, with a brilliant nod to Clint. In the beginning of the movie Rango talks about what makes an effective story. He uses words like protagonist and conflict, things I try to teach my students every year. I like to use movies to help kids understand the elements of fiction, and I'm sure we'll be watching Rango next year. Not only is Rango a possible teaching tool, I wouldn't be surprised if it's nominated for best movie. My man, Roger Ebert, gave it four stars, and I have to agree, it's that good. My only complaint is geographical. The Mojave Desrt of the movie has saguaro cactus prominently featured.  We take this a little personally down here in the Sonoran Desert. There are no saguaros in the Mojave Desert. Saguaros can only be found in the Sonoran Desert. Thank you very much.

Back to the party. Instead of cake, Quinn wanted a giant chocolate chip cookie with a frosted peace sign. After chocolate chip cookie and ice cream, we did the presents. Quinn lit up with each gift like it was the best present she'd ever received. She profusely thanked each friend and gave them a hug. I was really proud of how she handled herself. That was pretty much the party. Before each kid left, Quinn gave them a little cactus she picked out at a local nursery. It was a great party, great day. Still can't believe my little girl is 8.

One Shot

I came across some cool videos on /Film this week, thought I'd share. Both videos were done in one camera shot, and I thought they were pretty interesting. Curious to hear what other people think.

The first one is Tick Tock, a short film by Ien Chi. It plays in reverse, and according to Chi, "traces a young man's few minutes trying to fulfill his highest potential." Not sure I get that from watching it, but it's certainly cool to look at. Chi said it took 36 takes to get the right one, and it was filmed on the Oxford College of Emory campus. I'd say Chi was influenced by Memento, which in my book is a good thing.



The second video is a rap song, T.Shirt's "24 Frames." I don't know how many takes they needed for this one, but it was shot on two floors of a theater in SoHo. I could do without the cheesy blond, but the lyrics, 120 movie titles, are kind of cool. I'm not much of a rap fan, but I thought this was pretty creative.

If Loving Melissa Leo Is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right

The Oscars are a big deal in the Riley house. Meg and I try to see as many of the nominated movies as we can each year.  We had to pull a movie doubleheader last Friday, but we managed to see all 10 Best Picture nominees this year. Overall, I thought it was a particularly strong group of movies.

My personal favorite was Inception, but I have no problem with the The King's Speech winning Best Picture. I do think it's ridiculous that Christopher Nolan wasn't nominated for Best Director. Other than Nolan's omission, I'd say the Academy pretty much got it right though.

I wanted Exit Through the Gift Shop to win Best Documentary, mostly to see what Banksy would do. I was hoping for some street art shenanigans. By all accounts, The Inside Job is a deserving winner, and I'm looking forward to watching it.

The acting awards were foregone conclusions this year. Colin Firth was brilliant. He is now officially America's favorite Brit. I just hope he doesn't wind up in any more Bridget Jones movies. Natalie Portman winning Best Actress makes sense, but Black Swan was probably my least favorite of the ten Best Picture nominees.  The Fighter was a great movie, and Christain Bale and Melissa Leo were spot-on in their Bostonness. I think the moral is, do a convincing Boston accent and Oscar will come a callin. Well, unless your Marky Mark, whose Boston accent wasn't nearly as authentic, despite actually being from Boston. All this Boston talk reminds me, if you haven't checked out this mashup of Boston movies, do yourself a favor, give it a look.

Speaking of Melissa Leo, her F bomb was the only interesting thing about the whole show. I liked her a lot in Frozen River a couple years ago, but she reached a whole new level after that little acceptance speech of hers.

I'm sure I'm in a very small minority on this one, but I was disappointed there was no lifetime achievement award. I like a little history mixed in with the awards.

I don't normally get very excited about the Best Score, but I was very happy that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for their score of the social network. I haven't been able to get that little piano riff out of my head since I saw the movie.

I don't know who thought James Franco and Anne Hathaway would be good hosts, but I would hope they will not be involved in planning next year's show. Award shows should be required to have stand-up comedians as hosts. I was actually hoping Billy Crystal was brought in to replace Franco and Hathaway, but alas, no such luck.

Even though the show wasn't great, it was a fun night. Watching the Oscars is something Meg and I enjoy together, and that's always the best part.

Snow in the Desert

We woke up to snow this morning. Scout literally screamed when she saw it. There wasn't much, and it's already gone, but it's kind of cool to see snow in the desert. It's not uncommon to get snow in the mountains, but we rarely get any down here. This is only the second time we've had snow on the ground since we moved here in 1999. Here are some shots from the first snowfall in January '07:

View from the front of our house

View of the neighbor's yard

We don't really have the clothes for snow

Wow, I haven't looked at these pictures in a while. The kids look so much younger. They actually cancelled school that day. It was a little embarrassing, being from Wisconsin and all, but I swallowed my pride and enjoyed the day off. The girls had a blast. They filled a ziploc with some of the snow, and we actually still have it in the back freezer.

The girls made sure to get a bag of today's snow to keep the '07 snow company. There wasn't as much snow this time around, and it's not as sunny, but still fun to see a little of the white stuff. The smiles were a little brighter than usual this morning:

The Oscar Winning Boston Movie

It seems Boston movies are their own genre these days, and if you're like me, that's a good thing. Here's a funny mashup of Boston movies to get you in the mood for the Oscars tomorrow.

Very Stylish

I want to thank Kate at Calamity, Kids, & Other Stuff for giving me The Stylish blogger Award. Kate is a woman with a lot on her plate, and the way she handles it all is quite inspiring. I'm honored that Kate would think of me for an award. I have to share seven things people might not know about me, and then comes the best part, passing the award on to 7 other deserving bloggers.

1) My parents were both in the Navy, and I was born on the Naval base in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

2) My first concert was Hall and Oates, and yes, I am very proud to admit it.

3) I was an altar boy until I was 15.

4) I had pictures of Molly Ringwald and Siguorney Weaver on my wall in high school.

5) One of my favorite places in the world is the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin.  It doesn't get any better than having a beer on the Terrace.

6) When I lived in Minneapolis, I ran into Walter Matthau at my local grocery store. He was in town filming Grumpy Old Men. We were picking out melons together.

7) I will never forget the look on my dad's face when he got a hole-in-one on the last golf hole he ever played. Priceless.

Here are 7 stylish blogs you should really check out and follow:

think.stew

Artful Nuance

The Writer's Kaffeeklatsch

Munk Davis

Selina Kingston is Forty

Beyond the Diapers and Spills

Counterintuitivity

Blog Tag

I've been tagged for the second time in my blogging career. Thanks to Nari at narislife for thinking of me. Nari is doing really cool things with her blog, and I always enjoy reading her work. Check her out and give her a follow.

When you're tagged in the blogosphere, you have to answer some questions about yourself. In this case, quite a few actually. Before I do that, I need to tag four other bloggers. I love all the blogs I follow, so with no particular rhyme or reason, here are four interesting bloggers worth reading and following:

Otter Thomas at Life of a New Dad

Austin James at Austin James Here

James at Luke, I Am Your Father

Yat-Yee Chong

Now on to the questions:

1) If you have pets, do you see them as animals, or are they members of the family?

We adopted a dog this summer, and she is most definitely a member of our family. She came to us with the name Riley, so it's like that old Little Caesar's commercial around here, Riley Riley.

2) If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?

Like most of us, I have any number of unfulfilled dreams. The one that jumps to mind right now is going to Ireland as a family.

3) What is the one thing most hated by you?

I hate how polarized American politics has become. The art of compromise appears to be on life support, and it's hurting us a country.

4) What would you do with a billion dollars?

I would set up family and friends with homes, cars, college funds, the works. I'd do all the traveling I've always wanted to do. I would establish a foundation focused on helping kids go to college, and that would be my life's work.

5) What helps to pull you out of a bad mood?

Just the sight of my girls brightens my mood, and one of their hugs can bring me out of even the darkest places.

6) Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

It is a blessing to truly love another person. Life is incomplete without loving others. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life to love.

7) What is your bedtime routine?

I lock the doors and turn on the microwave light. On the way back to my room, I check on the girls. I love seeing how peaceful they look. I brush my teeth, turn on the kids' old sound machine, and then read a bit. I can't end a day without doing some reading.

8) If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your partner?

It sounds like a bad movie, but I actually met my wife at a bar. Friends of mine had a band, and we met at one of their shows. We went to a party after the show, and I was pretty lit. Good thing my wife found my drunken antics amusing. The rest, as they say, is history.

9) If you could watch a creative person in the act of the creative process, who would it be?

My initial impulse was to think of an author I admire, but I think watching a great director would be more interesting. Watching Martin Scorsese create a movie would be fascinating.

10) What kinds of books do you read?

I try to read a healthy mix of fiction and nonfiction. I prefer literary fiction and biographies of historical figures.

11) How would you see yourself in ten years time?

Ten years from now I'll probably still be teaching. That means I'll also be struggling to find a way to pay for two college tuitions. Who knows, maybe the writing thing will help pay the bills. At the very least, I plan on having some books out there.

12) What's your fear?

My greatest fear is that I'm not living life to the fullest. I have a tendency to put things off, thinking there will always be time. I have to remind myself to live in the moment, carpe diem as they say.

13) Would you give up all the junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to visit space?

Sure, why not.

14) Would you rather be single and rich, or married and poor?

I love being married and scrapping by, so being married and poor probably wouldn't be that different.

15) What's the first thing you do when you wake up?

I shuffle my way to the kitchen, pour myself a bowl of cereal, and then sit down to read at the computer.

16) If you could change one thing about your spouse/partner, what would it be?

I have just consulted my wife for this answer, and she actually came up with a pretty good one. She falls asleep way too early on the weekends. I like to watch late night movies, and she can never stay up.

17) If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be?

In honor of Jeffrey Lebowski, my new name would be "The Dude."

18) Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?

I doubt I could ever forget, but I hope I'd have the capacity to forgive.

19) If you could only eat one thing for the next six months, what would it be?

This one is easy. Goldfish. To be honest, I don't think this would even be much of a challenge.

The Sounds of Reading

A lot of my students tell me they don't like to read. I tell them that's impossible, they just haven't been reading the right books. They scoff, but I bet them they'll like the books we read in class. That's one of the great challenges of teaching 8th grade English, choosing books that even the most resistant readers will love.

I'm currently reading two such books with my students, and I'm having a blast sharing them with the kids.

My two advanced classes are reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and if you haven't read this one, I highly recommend making it your next book. The aspiring writer in me marvels at what Zuzak did with language in this book. At 550 pages, there was some initial whining about the size of the book. As we read the prologue, I could hear the kids being hooked in their silence. After we read the first few chapters, one of the girls said the book was like poetry. There was much enthusiastic agreement around the room, and I had to admit, I couldn’t have said it better myself.   

My other three classes are reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. If you haven't read this book, you really should. Twenty-four teenagers are thrown into an arena and forced to fight to the death, the whole thing broadcast on live TV. My students are literally begging me to skip everything else so we can read the entire period. The kids follow along in their copies as I read aloud, and the sound of 25 kids turning the page in unison stirs this English teacher's heart. When we stop to discuss what's going on, kids who don't normally participate in class are answering questions and making predictions. I joke with them that they actually sound like they know what's going on. One boy told me last week that this is the first book he’s ever liked. That's the best sound of them all.

Two Lanes and a Burger Joint

I love to drive. I inherited my love of driving from my dad, and I'm fairly confident that love will transfer by osmosis to the girls. We've been throwing the kids in the car for long hauls since they were babies. Most families don't consider 7 hours in the car quality family time, but the Rileys are road warriors.

We made our annual pilgrimage to Albuquerque this weekend for the New Mexico State Feis (that's an Irish dance competition for new readers of the blog). We normally spend a couple days in Albuquerque, but they changed the weekend, so we drove over Friday and came right back yesterday.

Meg and I really enjoy the drive to Albuquerque, especially Hwy 26 from Deming to Hatch. We discovered Hwy 26 on our first trip back up north after we moved to Tucson, and we've been taking it ever since. Hwy 26 is only about 50 miles long, a short cut between Interstate 10 and Interstate 25. There is very little traffic, and if you do have to pass someone, it's never a problem. Hwy 26 is a classic two lane road, and the scenery is fantastic: wide open, big sky country. It's the kind of road that makes you feel like you're driving in an older America, in a simpler time. It's the kind of road that just makes me feel good.

Right before 26 ends at Interstate 25, you hit the town of Hatch. We've talked about stopping since the very first time through, but this was the first trip we actually did it. Hatch claims to be the chile capital of the world, the chile fields drawing nourishment from the Rio Grande. Like the road that connects it to civilization, Hatch is a throwback to another time. A time when America was dotted with quaint little agricultural towns. Being in Hatch is like being in the past, but with cell phone reception and wifi.

We stopped on the way back yesterday to eat at Sparky's, an old school burger joint with a Southwestern twist and a Hatch institution. Sparky's was hopping, and I have feeling it does pretty well, Hwy 26 funneling hungry tourists through its doors. The food was just OK, but it's not about the food, it's the experience. We bought t-shirts for the girls, and they're very excited about wearing them to school this week. Meg bought some chile powder at one of the many places selling a plethora of chile products, and we were on our way.

It's always fun to drive a road like Hwy 26 and catch a glimpse of small town life in a cool place like Hatch. There are a lot of great roads and small towns in the US. Got any you want to share from your neck of the woods?

Must See TV

I'm not a huge TV guy, but there are a few shows I make sure to watch every week. My favorite show is The Office. I'm bummed out that Steve Carell is leaving after this season, but I'm hopeful the little run-in between Michael Scott and the random British guy by the elevator means Ricky Gervais will take Carell's place. I'm not holding my breath, but that would be awesome. If the writers choose to replace Michael with one of the existing Dunder Mifflin gang, my vote would be for Andy. Carell is funny, but Ed Helms routinely induces bouts of uncontrollable laughter. Whatever happens, I would love to see the Nard Dog get more screen time.

Another comedy that has me completely hooked is Modern Family. I love the ensemble cast, and the writing is whip smart. My favorite character has to be Phil Dunphy. He's like Michael Scott with a family. With Steve Carell calling it quits, Ty Burrell may soon be the funniest guy on TV. Modern Family nicely mixes in some poignant moments here and there, which makes the humor that much better.

I'm a sucker for a good cop show, and Southland is a great one. I find it hard to believe NBC gave up on this show, but I'm glad TNT gave it another shot. The writers have more freedom on cable, and the show is really hitting its stride this year. Meg and I love Regina King. Of course, if you were in Jerry Maguire, you can do no wrong in my book. King's character is one of the strongest female characters I've ever seen, on any size screen. Her work alone makes Southland worth watching. I also love Cooper, the drug-seeking gay cop who doesn't take shit from anyone. The dialogue on this show is brilliant, and it's full of action and suspense. This is probably my second favorite show right now, with a real chance of being my favorite by season's end.

I generally avoid reality TV, but my wife has gotten me into Storage Wars. We actually watch this one with the kids. We love watching the guys buy abandoned storage units, sifting through the junk to find hidden gems. We love to hate Dave. His "Yep," has become a frequent refrain in the Riley house. Our favorite is Barry. He's funny and quirky, and we enjoy his hipster sensibility.

There are other shows I watch, some with more frequency than others, but these are the four I look forward to watching. I'm sure there are other great shows out there. I'd love to hear what other people are digging these days.

Vince Lombardi and King George VI Walk Into A Bar

The world is arguably a better place now that the Lombardi Trophy is safely back where it belongs. I wish I could have been in Green Bay today for the celebration.

Football Sundays are a light at the end of my weekly work tunnel, and it always takes a while to adjust to life without football. I love college basketball and my Wisconsin Badgers, but nothing quite matches the anticipation of Packer Sundays. I'll revel in the glory of another championship for a while, but it won't be long before I'm jonesing for next season to begin. I know the blog's been a little football heavy recently, so this will be last football post for a while.

The Super Bowl wasn't the only cool thing about the weekend. Meg and I went to see The King's Speech with my mom Saturday night. I knew going in I would like the movie. Say what you will about the Oscars, but a movie doesn't get 12 nominations if it isn't damn good. I don't normally love British period pieces, but this may very well be one of my favorite movies of all time.

Colin Firth is brilliant as the King, and Geoffery Rush is every bit as good as his unconventional speech therapist, Lionel Logue. The history was fascinating, but when you get right down to it, this is a movie about friendship. There have been a lot of great freindships in the movies: Sam and Frodo, Butch and Sundance, Chris and Gordie, Thelma and Louise, Andy and Red. Now we've got Lionel and Bertie.

Not Like Any Other Town

Green Bay is different than other sports towns. Most people know that the team is publicly owned, the only nonprofit organization in professional sports. It's more than that. The team is an integral part of the community. If it's not the biggest employer in town, it's up there. The money the team brings in is crucial to the local economy. That's why Brown County voted for a tax increase to renovate the stadium years ago.

I finally got to see the renovations last year when I went back to see the Packers play the Cowboys, and let me ya, they did a helluva job. The glass atrium facing Lombardi Avenue is a thing of beauty. If you're a sports fan, you need to see a game at Lambeau Field. Even if you're not a sports fan, you should check it out. I went to Wrigley Field with my brother-in-law a few years ago, and even though I'm not a baseball fan, certainly not a Cubs fan, I remember the experience vividly. Wrigley is one of those places, and Lambeau is too.

When I lived in Green Bay, the population was probably 85-90,000. In a town that size, you can't help running into players. I used to see players out and about all the time. I remember seeing James Lofton shopping at Kohl's. I worked at Hardee's during high school, and I remember Larry McCarren routinely coming through the drive-thru. When I would come home during college, I used to see players all the time at the few clubs we had in GB. In Green Bay, you get to interact with the players and coaches in a way you just don't see anywhere else, and it makes the bond between team and town unusually tight.

My favorite Packer story involves one of the coaches. My buddies lived next to Dick Mojoleski, the defensive line coach at the time. We were playing Trivial Pursuit one night, and for one of our sports questions, the answer was Dick Mojoleski. I don't remember the question, but I do remember our excitement. We ran next door and showed Mr. Mojoleski that he was the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question. He laughed and thanked us for showing him. We told him to keep the card, and I could tell he was touched.

Everyone who has ever lived in Green Bay for any length of time has these kinds of stories. Just this morning I came across a great article written by Paul Gigot, an editor for the Wall Street Journal. He lived in GB in a different era, but his experiences are the same. Check him out, he does he a much better job of explaining the unique nature of Green Bay and its team than I do.

You Never Know

I was going to do all Packers posts this week, but Mother Nature threw me a curveball, with some unintended consequences.

It's been in the teens the last couple nights here in the desert, uncharacteristically cold. Like most desert homes, we have a lot of exposed plumbing. We thought we'd adequately insulated the exposed pipes we have, but I came home yesterday to discover water pouring out of the pipes on the west side of the house. Lots of people had pipes burst, so plumbers are scrambling to get to everyone. Half the schools in town were closed today because they didn't have water, including the girls' school. My school managed to stay open (lucky me), and thankfully the in-laws were able to watch the girls. The girls love hanging out with them, so that was good thing. Regardless, I was in a foul mood when I left the house this morning. Then wouldn't you know it, life got all beautiful on me.

We had our student of the month breakfast this morning at school. Each teacher nominates one kid to be their student of the month, and we invite the kids and their families up to school for breakfast and a little award presentation. My student was the Quickwrite kid, and it was great to hang out with him and his mom. She's a single mother, and the love between Mother and Son was palpable. Watching them interact, it was impossible to be in a bad mood.

Any remaining angst and frustration was squashed first period. We had an assembly to say goodbye to the South Korean kids. One of the kids got things started by playing the piano. He wasn't very good, but our kids were a perfect audience, wildly cheering when he was done. There was a slide show after that, and then the South Korean kids brought the house down with a drumming performance-very cool. The assembly ended with each South Korean kid being called on stage to receive a parting gift from our student council. Our students went nuts for each kid. The whole thing was so cool, it just made me feel profoundly happy.

This was the kind of day that just goes to show, you never know.

Me and the Punky QB

With the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl this weekend, the blog is all about football this week. It has to be this way:

I grew up in three different Wisconsin towns: Port Washington, Appleton, and Green Bay. My family moved from Appleton to Green Bay in 1985. We lived about a mile down the street from Lambeau Field. We didn't have season tickets, but we went to games here and there. When we did go to games, we just walked over to the stadium, no big deal. Looking back, being able to walk from your house to a game was pretty cool. I took it for granted back then, but I realize how special it was now.

Regardless of how bad the Packers were, the Bears game was always a big deal. A buddy of mine from Appleton was a huge Bears fan. His family had moved up from Chicago, so I didn't hold it against him. His dad got him a couple tickets for the game, and he came up to GB for the weekend. I remember walking up Lombardi Avenue to the stadium, talking about selling our tickets for the right price. We half-heartedly bargained with a few guys, but ultimately we decided to go in.

We were inside well before kickoff, so we went down to the front row to watch the players warm up, see if we could get some autographs. At the time, the only thing separating the field from the stands was a waist high fence. There were swinging gates that led onto the field, and the one nearest us was wide open. There was zero security, so we just walked right onto the field. We were on the Packers sideline for a bit, but my buddy really wanted to check out the Bears. We're talking the '85 Bears here, so yeah, I abandoned my team.

We wandered around the Bears sideline, checking out all the guys you'd expect: the Fridge, Singletary, and of course, Sweetness. The guy who stood out the most though was Jim McMahon. Watching McMahon walk up and down the sideline, randomly screaming at the top of his lungs, he seemed more like a mental patient let out for the day than a premiere quarterback.

We eventually took a seat on the Bears bench, and we just sat there, soaking it all in. Right before kickoff, someone from security finally busted us. The guy wasn't mad, he just sent us on our way. We went to our seats and watched the game.

The game itself was especially memorable. It's one of the most notorious games in the Bears/Packers bitter rivalry. It's the game where Ken Stills laid out Matt Suey. It's the game where Mark Lee and Walter Payton went crashing into the Bears bench. It's funny, Lee and Payton ended up pretty much where my buddy and I had been sitting. How great would it have been if we'd been run over by Walter Payton?

There is no way something like this could happen nowadays. Security is way too tight, even in little ol' Green Bay. If you did manage to get on the field, you would certainly be kicked out of the stadium if they caught you. I had fun that day, but I certainly didn't appreciate what a unique experience it was. I do now.