The Iowa Hawkeyes beat the Eastern Illinois Panthers tonight 71-62. Not a very inspired game by the Hawks. Now I’m not saying Eastern is a bad team or anything, but they are now 1-8 to Iowa’s 7-2; the Hawks shouldn’t have had to work that hard for a win. They seemed awfully sluggish and not mentally with it.

The Hawks were led in scoring by Greg Brunner with 16 (he also led the team with 9 rebounds and 5 assists); the other double-figures scorers were Jeff Horner (13), Jared Reiner (12), Pierre Pierce (10) and Brody Boyd (10). The Panthers were led by Jason Wright with 14 with Jesse Mackinson (13), Aaron Patterson (12) and Emanuel Dildy (11) rounding out the double-figures scoring. Brunner is proving to be quite the workhorse; he seems to be a tireless rebounder and battles on the boards and in the position wars fiercely. Glenn Worley continues to “improve” his health; he played 15 minutes and scored 7 points, but had 4 fouls.

For some reason unknown to sane people, Iowa coach Steve Alford held out Nick DeWitz and Mike Henderson because of what he termed “academic reasons”. Both players are eligible but neither met the “men’s basketball academic team standards”, whatever that is. Not that these two would have sparked the team much more than anyone else would have, but what the heck is Alford doing? Both met university standards for eligibility. Because of the “Ronnie Harmon” incidents in Iowa’s past, the athletic teams at Iowa have a higher eligibility requirements than nearly all other Big 10 schools (I believe the lone exception to this is Northwestern). Sounds to me like he’s saying “They are in my doghouse and academics is what I will call it.”

The Hawks travel to play Missouri on Saturday; hopefully they won’t get beaten too badly there, but Missouri is a very strong team. After that they start of the Big 10 season. Iowa still has a long way to go to be a winning team in the Big 10, even though the conference is not nearly as strong as it has been in the past few years. Lets hope they get their cumulative act together.

I really have just one word to say: WOW! The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is a movie that is quite epic in its scope. What a movie! We went last night after the family cleared out after the Christmas thing; me, KC, Breezomatic, ZDog and J. What a movie!. We went to the Showcase Cinemas 53 where there are many HUGE screens and very comfortable chairs (even for someone my size). What a movie! The sound system is top-notch there also. Did I mention it was a great movie?

The cast is pretty much the same as the other two. The main characters are Frodo (Elijah Wood – from Cedar Rapids, Iowa!), Sam (Sean Astin), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd). These are the surviving members of the original Fellowship of the Ring. The acting here is great. Yes, the effects are stunning, but they do not overshadow the acting (unlike many movies of our time). Not only are the digital effects completely seamless, but also the other effects of makeup and fight-choreography make the film truly amazing. The plot is well known to me as I had read the books and the main gist of the movie was true to the books. I thought the story-telling aspect of this movie was excellent; you felt like you knew the characters and how they would react to each of the new situations that they encountered. Not only is this a compliment to the director but the actors as well; to develop characters that are multidimensional is something that is lost in many of today’s movies.

My disappointment was when the movie digressed from the book. Not only have I read the entire trilogy but much of the Tolkien material as well. I felt that the scouring of the Shire was a critical part in the return of the four Hobbits to their beloved Shire; this was completely left out of the movie. The fact that the four drove Saruman and Wormtongue out of the Shire showed not only that Saruman had indeed fallen from the ranks of wizardry, but now he was nothing more than a nuisance. Also, the return trip through Rohan, Lorien, and Rivendell had some significance to the travelers and this was completely left out.

The disappointment was small when compared to the way that Peter Jackson stayed as true as he could to the books. Aside from the aforementioned glaring omissions, he was as true as he could be to what I believe was Tolkien’s original intent and messages. It is a truly amazing feat what Jackson and the cast and crew of these movies have accomplished. Yes, a must-see and a DVD must-own. I’d have to rate this movie a 10 of 10.

The soup is simmering, the house is clean. We are ready for the clan to come here to celebrate Christmas. KC and I decided on soups to feed the tribe; we have vegetable beef, chili, and potato soups ready to go. I have made two loaves of home made bread (sesame honey wheat and old fashioned white). Others are bringing appetizers, veggies and desserts. Sounds like a feast!

We will have my mom, two of my brothers and their families as well as ZDog and his fiancee in at noon to eat. Yeah, that’s right – fiancee. He popped the question before Christmas and she said yes. (Congrats ZDog and J). Later another brother will show with his wife and one of their sons. At that time we will probably have about 16 in the benched42 household. It won’t be too crowded, though; we’ve had this crowd over before!

Don’t ya just love the holidays!?!

Well, I’m on time for this one! It’s the Friday Five:

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
At work, it was creating the automatic scripts involved in a huge upgrade to laptops. It cut our work time and difficulty level to a third of what it was before. At home, it was helping ZDog get out on his own.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
Not going anywhere for our 25th anniversary. Due to an unusual set of circumstances, KC could not get any time off on or around our anniversary. Of course, we are going to Playa del Carmen in February to make up for it!

3. What do you hope the new year brings?
I hope for things for others. I try not to raise my expectations about the future for myself – I’ve been burned too many times in the past by expecting more than what I should. I remain optomistic, but don’t set any expectation.

4. Will you be making any New Year’s resolutions? If yes, what will they be?
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I DO make resolutions, but don’t limit myself to New Year’s Day to make them.

5. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?
Don’t really have any plans at this time. We tend to get together with friends and family and play cards, do puzzles, play board games and in general just socialize. We usually make those plans firm on or after Christmas. Of course, our best friends aren’t going to be here – they are traveling to the Iowa bowl game. Their second son is in the Hawkeye Marching Band (plays a Susie; that’s a sousaphone for those of you from Rio Linda) and they are going for the game and halftime show.

I know I have no talent as a writer and even less as a poet and/or musician, but I thought I’d subject you to my whimsy anyway:

It’s the day before Christmas and all through the place,
Every item is ready, a smile on each face,
The stockings are hung, (get out of the gutter!)
The breads are a-baking, made with real butter.

The kids are all older, out on their own,
But had let us know their plans, by phone.
The wife in her PJ’s and me in my shorts,
Were both fully ready for all the cohorts.

But soon in my heart, I had such a fright,
I even looked up from my computer that night.
Away from the keyboard and mouse I was hauled,
My hands were sore, felt like they’d been mauled.

I looked outside, I didn’t see white,
There was no snow to the left or right.
The grass was ugly, some shade of yuck-brown,
It looked like something you should step around.

After a time, there was nothing there,
So I settled back down in my computer chair.
I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling of dread,
I had this idea in the back of my head.

The feeling I had was one I feel lots,
When I forgot something as I do (I’m such a klutz).
It hit me just then like a 20 ton weight,
I figured out why I’m in such a state.

My kids are both gone, Breezomatic and ZDog,
KC is resting (actually sleeping like a log).
While some traditions have been left behind,
Others have come up and I don’t really mind.

My favorite tradition of checking out Christmas lights,
Is now a fond memory, we don’t check the sights.
The other “traditions” they come and they go,
Like the seasons, the ice, the fog and the snow.

You see, I feel this time of year is the best,
It’s my favorite holiday, it beats all the rest.
To celebrate the Creator and his only Son,
That is what it’s about it’s number one.

In conclusion I’ll say for this holiday season,
Celebrate well but celebrate the reason.
I’ll leave you with wisdom of others tonight:
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Happy Holidays to all readers of my blog. I thank you for visiting and hope this tale has put a smile on your face.

From Spatterdash, our Tune for Tuesday band, comes the next installment. This week’s Tune for Tuesday is The Church of Logic, Sin and Love, a whimsy tune about life. Right click on the link and choose to save it on your computer. Enjoy!

Again, I have spoken with one of the copyright holders and he is OK with me posting their songs here. (As far as I know, this is legal.) You can check out the CD reviews for their second CD, Truth Serum, here. I didn’t write any of these reviews, either.

The Iowa Hawkeyes lost to the Texas Tech Red Raiders last night, 65-59. Steve Alford loses to his old coach Bob Knight – for the third time in three games. Iowa simply looked rusty the first half. Their passes were not crisp, their sets were not precise; they looked as though they had just had two weeks off – which they did.

Pierre Pierce led the way with 18 points for the Hawks; he was joined in double figures by Glenn Worley (12) and Jeff Horner(11). The Red Raiders were led by Andre Emmet with 23; J Washington was also in double figures with 12.

Pierce was 1-9 from the free throw line; I’m sorry, Pierce was 1-9 in foul shots – if they were free throws he would have made at least 7. As a team the Hawks were only 12-25 from the line. I have coached bad high school teams that shot better from the line. The poor free throw shooting and the sloppy passing are the two major reasons the Hawks lost. The sloppy passing is mainly due to Tech’s quickness on defense, but there simply is no excuse for such poor free throw shooting. Let’s hope they get their act together before the next game. Free throws SHOULD be just that – points given to you by the other team.

Glenn Worley continues with his past game: in 21 minutes he had 12 points and 5 rebounds for good things, and 6 turnovers (to lead the team) and 3 fouls. Jared Reiner had possibly his worst game at Iowa: 1-5 from the field (mostly layups) and only 3 rebounds. These two guys in particular need to get their act together if the Hawks are going to make some noise in the Big 10 season.

Yeah, I’m always late with the Friday Five. This week’s is a list of five favorites of five areas. I will list each one in no particular order.

1. List your five favorite beverages.
Diet Mountain Dew, Killian’s Irish Red, Diet Code Red Mountain Dew, Miller Genuine Draft Lite and Fresca.

2. List your five favorite websites.
Lockergnome, Yahoo!, Google, SourceForge and NoNags.

3. List your five favorite snack foods.
Baked Ruffles, White Cheddar Cheese Nips, Chips Ahoy Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pop Tarts (Wild Berry are my favorite, but any fruit type will do) and Hostess Ho-Hos.

4. List your five favorite board and/or card games.
Hearts, Cribbage, Michigan Rummy, Monopoly and Backgammon.

5. List your five favorite computer and/or game system games.
Spider Solitaire (I’m addicted), Duke Nukum (any version), Doom (any version), Quake (any version) and Yahoo’s Text Twist.

Ya know, I am a pretty easy-going guy. Everybody says so… REALLY!. But one thing really pisses me off; well two things, really. I just returned from Wal-Mart (yeah, I know, I’m white trash) and both of these things happened to me more than once.

Number 1 – You know when you are looking for a close-to-the-door parking spot and you are having a hard time. This time of year kind of lends itself to that; no close parking places no matter how hard you look. Well, I found two of them that were not too bad considering the day and guess what? My peeve – there was at least one empty, abandoned shopping cart in the spot. ARRGGGHHHH! How can people be so rude, stupid, lazy, whatever that they can’t run the shopping cart to the cart corral? Not that I would have actually parked in the spot as it would have been taken earlier, but why not put away the cart? People can be such ignorant slobs!

Number 2 – Now I’m inside Wal-Mart. We have a Super Wal-Mart and it has pretty much anything you’d need. I’m pushing my cart along (surprisingly it doesn’t pull to one side or the other) and I need to get to the next aisle to get something. Doesn’t matter what I want to get, it happened at least four times in that store. And there, it the MIDDLE of the frickin’ aisle is someone’s cart. They are off in the aisle somewhere and I can’t get around the cart to get the ONE STINKING ITEM that I need from that aisle. Again, how can people be so rude, stupid, lazy, whatever that they can’t push the cart to the side of the aisle so someone else could get by?

I guess I can understand a little these two things happening if the person involved has kids; you know, they have to tend to the kids before tending to the rest of the store. However, what kind of example are they setting for their kids? To be rude, inconsiderate, lazy and stupid? AARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

We had our IT department Christmas party today. Well, actually it was called a winter holiday party, but everyone knows it is a Christmas party. Had a great time. It was at a fairly new country club in town and the food was catered by an outfit from the Quad Cities. EXCELLENT food: salad, mixed vegetables (steamed), baked potatoes, garlic chicken and prime rib. I definitely didn’t leave hungry!

Our CIO was there as kind of an overseer. Our MC’s were some volunteers from the department. The “entertainment” was a comical version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” featuring the roasting of managers of different departments in our IT department, called “The 12 Days of IT”. Lots of laughs as the managers all took the roasting in the spirit it was intended. Heck, when the CIO gets roasted along with his managers, how can they not have a good laugh with all.

Attending this just made me realize even more than ever that I really work in a great place. Yeah, I could probably make a bit more money in other places, but we have a really great group of folks who not only are quite knowledgeable in their fields but also are very professional on the job and easy to work with. The added bonus is that we can have a party like we had today and everyone can have a great time from the lowliest support member to the CIO. Makes me think, “I really like my job!”

Well, it’s done. Work has been rather trying this week, to say the least. To put it bluntly it’s been ass. The last two weeks we have had our field sales force in for training on new product in what is called a Region Meeting. They have combined several regions in hopes of cutting costs to a point. We in IT take this opportunity to get as much updating done to their laptops as we possibly can. Last week we had about half of the sales force in for a two day training session – somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 or so. This week is was closer to 60. Each laptop had about 90 minutes worth of work to be done; some had other issues and needed even more time. Out of the time I worked the earliest I got home was around 8pm, the latest around 1am; this after a full day of some the duties that I do normally combined with working on the laptops during the day. I do consider this a part of the job, but it isn’t a part that I look forward to. The weather here didn’t cooperate either; it added to the time because the sales folks’ flights were delayed due to the weather in Chicago and other midwest airports.

The IT team came through with flying colors. We were under a lot of pressure to get the laptops upgraded and back to the sales force in order for them to get training on the CRM package we use, SalesLogix. We have a new IT specialist for SalesLogix and she was great to work with. She has already added to our knowledge base on the program and is very good about sharing that knowledge. I have always thought “Don’t make yourself irreplaceable – because then you are also unpromoteable.” From my contact with her during this time. she seems to be of the same mindset. It fits right in with our CIO’s thinking: we don’t want a single point of failure.

Well, we won’t be going through this type of upgrade for a while; well at least until the National Sales Meeting in February!!

Happy Birthday, Carrie!!