Happy Memorial Day

No steaks - but this did just fine

 For Memorial Day, we engaged purely in selfish desires and used the extra day off to gorge ourselves on food and beverage. Just kidding - although some facebook memes out there would have you believe that is what everyone does. We actually did go to visit the cemetery earlier in the day but did not bring the camera so I have no pictures to share of that excursion. Our cookout plans were sort of last minute. We had some mystery meat burgers and a pack of hand-me-down burgers in the freezer, so we threw those on our high-tech grill along with some angus beef dogs and grilled them up.

The recipe made so much - I'm doing 1/2 next time

I haven't really had much time for trying stuff out on the dutch oven, so I pulled it out and tried a new desert. This one is called peachy dump cake - the ingredients are canned peaches, white cake mix, 7-up, and hot tamales candies.

I think it's good to gather with family and friends and have a celebratory meal in honor of those who died to serve and protect our nation, even if we don't necessarily have a chance to thank a veteran. How many people are groups of people are honored with their own national holiday? Not many.

Backyard meal

Serving up the dessert

A cutaway of the peachy delight

Super Spread!

A huge bowl of nacho cheese Doritos

Orange Fanta lined up and ready to go

Orange and blue M&M's

Pot roast was prepared in honor of Terrance Knighton

Not orange, but cookie bars!

Orange chicken in the Pro Pot!

None of this tasted as good as it looked once the game started.

Fall Project 2013 - Stain the Porch

This is actually two fall projects. The first one was the fall of 2012, and done about 96% by my father-in-law. We had this rickety old back porch that was a borderline safety hazard. We were fortunate that no one was seriously injured or even injured at all. And without the offer of the expertise and time of my father-in-law we would still have this rickety old porch.  As you see below, the new porch was a major upgrade! However, because this was done in the fall there was no time to put on a proper stain before the winter snows came.

I put it off for most of the summer and soon found myself in the fall of 2013 with a still-unstained porch. Finally, with time running out before the snows came again, I buckled down and blocked out a Saturday to do it. Even though my spouse and I picked out the stain together, when she first saw it on the porch she said, "Oh." So it didn't come out exactly like we envisioned but we're both pretty happy with the porch upgrade.

Quality construction. Three stringers - the old one had two.

I did dig the post holes - don't say I didn't do nothing!

Our old railing was not that secure.

With the stain - looks lovely.

Better Homes and Gardens eat your heart out!

All-Western Super Bowls

The Super Bowl XLVIII matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks is just the fourth Super Bowl to feature two teams from west of the Mississippi facing off for the world championship.

The last one was nineteen years ago, when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.

The Broncos played in the other two. They were crushed 55-10 by the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV and beaten by the Dallas Cowboys 27-10 in Super Bowl XII.

Let's hope they fare a little better in this one.

Memories of Super Bowl XXI

The first time I experienced the Broncos in the Super Bowl was January 1987, when they earned a spot opposite the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena, California.

I was eleven years old and in the fifth grade, a relatively new football fan. I had only watched two Super Bowls up to that point, so to have my favorite team playing in the big game was a pretty big deal. I remember that I did a rendering of the rose-themed Super Bowl logo (the game was played at the Rose Bowl) and a teacher came over and sneered at my work.

I don't know that we really had Super Bowl parties back then. I remember pretty much just watching the game by myself. I even taped it to watch again later. I remember my parents leaving sometime in the second quarter to go over to the school for some reason or another. Why they thought my mom's job was more important than the game I am not sure.

The first half, of course, was pretty close. The Broncos even led 10-9 at halftime, and should have perhaps led by more. Shouldacouldawoulda.

The wheels came off in the third quarter, however, as the Giants piled on touchdown after touchdown and the Broncos were unable to stop them. The final score was 39-20. I don't really remember how I felt. I'm sure that I was disappointed by the loss. But it was still pretty awesome that they had made it that far. The magic of their AFC Championship win over Cleveland and "The Drive" had kind of put a spell over everyone where it was okay that we had just been hammered in front of a worldwide audience.

Because with a young John Elway at quarterback, the Broncos would certainly be back again.

Legacies

People like to talk about legacies in the NFL. For example, every game that Peyton Manning wins from here on out is "big for his legacy." And it's true, if he wins the Super Bowl next Sunday he goes down as one of the greatest passers of all time, a member of a select group of quarterbacks with two rings, and the first quarterback to win Super Bowls with two different franchises. If he doesn't, he's still just a really good quarterback who hasn't even won as many titles as his little brother.

You know whose legacy took a big shot last weekend? Mike Shanahan.

For some reason, the unseen powers that decide things such as football legacies determined some time ago that Mike Shanahan needed to win a third Super Bowl (without John Elway) to cement his legacy as a legendary NFL coach. He was never able to do it - not with Brian Griese, not with Jake Plummer, not with Jay Cutler, and not with Robert Griffin III after moving on to the Washington Redskins. In fact, the Redskins fired him earlier this month after they finished with a 3-13 record. It's possible, at the age of 61, that Shanahan will never be a head coach in the NFL again.

Last weekend, the Denver Broncos advanced to Super Bowl XLVIII. Part of the credit is due to their vice president of football operations, who helped rebuild the Broncos into a contender. His name is John Elway.

So not only did Mike Shanahan never make it back to the Super Bowl, but also John Elway made it back before him. Oh, and there's the part where John Elway wasn't even working in the NFL for more than a decade before taking the job with the Broncos.

I'm not sure why the unseen powers decided Shanahan needed to prove himself again. No one ever said to Bill Walsh that he needed to win another without Joe Montana to prove himself. No one is going to tell Bill Belichick that he needs to win another without Tom Brady, because he can't even win another one with Brady right now.

It's probably not fair. Mike Shanahan is one of only seven coaches to win back-to-back Super Bowls, which is a pretty remarkable achievement. Sometimes I think we forget how good a job he did with those two Broncos teams, just because he was never able to replicate it. But I guess that's why "what have you done for me lately?" is a phrase often heard around the NFL.

Review: The Secret History of Star Wars

The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The book reminds one of the high school student who needs to write a 10-page paper but only has three pages of material - so he looks for ways to stretch out his material. Kaminski's method was to present the same facts and arguments over and over again. I'm not sure why he needed the book to be so long but it could have been just as effective in half the number of pages.

But Star Wars fans, especially those of the original trilogy, should nevertheless enjoy this work. My favorite part of the book was the 1978-1983 time period, which explored the development of The Empire Strikes Back and the decision to wrap up the trilogy with Return of the Jedi rather than continue on to episodes seven, eight, and nine during the 1980's.

Some of the quotes the author uncovered during his research are absolute gems. George Lucas was absolutely frustrated by the time and expense Irvin Kershner spent on ESB. "It looks pretty because Kersh took a lot of time to do it. It's a great luxury that we really couldn't afford. And ultimately it doesn't make that much difference. . . It was just a lot better than I wanted to make it."

In my opinion, ESB is pretty much a masterpiece. But all Lucas really wanted out of it was a cheap moneymaker that would fund his other projects. Thankfully, we still have the film despite Lucas.

Another favorite quote from the development of ESB came when Lawrence Kasdan criticized Lucas for his habit of glossing over the emotional content of a scene because he was in a hurry to get to the next one. Lucas responded, "Well, if we have enough action, nobody will notice."

That quote, of course, perfectly explains the prequel trilogy.

I could go on and on, but I won't. A good deal of the book is spent proving that Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were separate beings up until about 1978 when Lucas was revising the first draft of the screenplay which was written by Leigh Brackett. Of course, anyone who is a longtime fan of the series realizes this, although George Lucas is hard at work trying to convince us that he had the entire thing laid out as the story of Darth Vader from the very beginning.

Of course, every fan of Star Wars has his own ideas of what George Lucas should have done here or there, and I'm no different. At the end of the day, the whole thing is his brainchild, created with his money, so he has the right to do to the story as he wishes. The movies which we treasured as children came at an enormous non-financial cost (his marriage) and maybe we don't recognize that as much as we should.

There is enough good information and thought-provoking ideas in this book that I can forgive the author for his not-quite-professional writing.



View all my reviews

Josh McDraft

Josh McDaniels practically destroyed the Broncos franchise during his less-than-two-year tenure as head coach of the Denver Broncos. Or did he?

I was kind of wondering what he was thinking as he stood on the sideline watching the Broncos beat the Patriots to claim the AFC championship. (He's now the Patriots' offensive coordinator.)

His draft strategies were widely panned while he was in Denver. . . and with good reason. Trading a first round pick next year for a second round pick this year is generally a bad idea, unless you hit a home run and Alphonso Smith turns out to be an All-Pro. (He didn't.)

But not all of his picks were busts. The following players played key roles during the Broncos' win and were all draft choices from the McBronco era.

• Knowshon Moreno. He had a 28-yard run on 3rd-and-10 in the second quarter which set up the Broncos' first touchdown of the day, and was the game's leading rusher with 59 yards.
• Robert Ayers. He sacked Tom Brady for an 11-yard loss on 3rd-and-8 from the Broncos 18 with about three and a half minutes remaining in the second quarter, forcing the Patriots to settle for a field goal on their only effective drive of the first half.
• Demaryius Thomas. He had 7 catches for 134 yards and a third-quarter touchdown reception which gave the Broncos their largest lead of the game.
• Zane Beadles. He started at left guard and was part of an offensive line that didn't give up a sack and kept defenders away from Peyton Manning all day.
• Eric Decker. He had 5 catches for 73 yards, all of them for first downs.

I should also mention David Bruton, a reserve safety and special teams player. Although he played a less significant role, he was credited with one tackle in Sunday's game and was also a McDaniels selection.

McDaniels might have felt a little bit of pride yesterday, even though his team was thoroughly beaten on the field. He might have thought, "Hey, I wasn't such a bad judge of talent after all!"

So while John Elway gets the lion's share of credit for constructing this Super Bowl team, let's take a moment to thank Josh McDaniels for 10 percent of the roster. However, I don't think that they will give him a Super Bowl ring if the Broncos win.

Summer Projects 2013 - Paint the House (Rear)

Some of our siding was warped when we bought the house

Last summer, my father-in-law replaced the warped siding

Which left us with sort of a patchwork look color-wise

It wasn't the most pleasant to look at over the past year

So we painted the entire rear of the house so it looked good

The paint was a little darker than what we have on the sides

But no one is going to notice except for a couple of neighbors

Summer Projects 2013 - The Mailbox

Our old mailbox post - many years of faithful service

We've had mailbox issues ever since we bought our house. First off, the house came with a nice red Nebraska Cornhuskers mailbox. So that had to go right away. The post still had issues though. As you can see, it was pretty old, probably the original one that came with the house in 1975. Sometimes the mailbox would get a little wobbly, and we'd get a warning from the post office, so we'd do a quick fix to keep it in place. We share a post with our neighbor, and they experienced similar issues. I think at one point, their mailbox was just on the ground for an extended period.

New mailbox post - fashioned from materials we already had

 
So this last summer, I believe on the day we returned home from our summer camping trip, our neighbor was fixing to replace it because the post office had issued her an ultimatum that they would not deliver any more mail until she fixed it by X date. So she had bought some materials. My super great wife went out and told her that we would help her. At some point we decided that we already had the materials needed, leftovers from various fence and porch projects of the past year. So we went to work on it immediately. We based the design on the previous post and it went quickly.

Finished product - ready to give another 40 years

We only ran into one sticking point when we found our drill wasn't quite powerful enough to secure the two posts together, so we had to go across the street and enlist the help of another neighbor who has a ton of tools.
 
But we got it up in one evening. We even had some leftover Quickrete so we mixed some up and made it extra secure. The neighbors were super impressed with my wife's construction and design skills although they didn't comment on mine at all. Maybe because I don't have any. Anyways, we are glad to finally get that project done!