The Iowa Hawkeyes beat the Penn State Nittany Lions 77-58 tonight in Iowa City. They started off 17-3 and never looked back. Penn State has struggled the last few seasons. In fact, the last road win the Lions had was in 2001 in Iowa City. Iowa looked like a team with something to prove after losing to Michigan Wednesday. Once again, Jeff Horner has a good game and the Hawks win. I think that Pierre Pierce will probably always get his points; to beat the Hawks you have to stop or slow or frustrate Jeff Horner.

The Hawkeyes were led in scoring by Jeff Horner’s 20; he was joined in double figures by Pierre Pierce (17) and Glen Worley (14). Iowa was led in rebounding by Greg Brunner with 9; they were led in assists by Jeff Horner with 8. The Nittany Lions were led in scoring by A Johnson’s 22; he was joined in double figures by Jan Jagla (11) and Ben Luber (11). Penn State was led in rebounding by Jagla with 11; they were led in assists by Luber with 5.

The game was decided early. The Hawks jumped out to a double figures lead before Penn State scored a field goal. After that it was more and more Hawks. It was the kind of game that the bench players got a lot of time, which is always good. The Hawks were without center Sean Sonderleiter who missed the game for personal reasons. (That’s all that was said, which leads a lot of room for conjecture. This story has a bit more on it.) On a positive note, Glen Worley played 38 minutes and DIDN’T foul out. WOW! And little used reserve Erek Hansen got 21 minutes to cover the missing Sonderleiter and played well. While Penn State has been struggling, the Hawks have to put this one behind them as they play at Michigan State on Wednesday. Michigan State was one of the favorites to win the Big 10 but due to an incredibly tough preseason schedule hasn’t done nearly as well as predicted. However, they seem to be back on track now.

On time again, it’s this week’s Friday Five:

You have just won one million dollars:

1. Who do you call first?
Of course, KC. But she’d probably hear me yelling, as would everyone else on the PLANET.

2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?
A super spec PC with a 20″ LCD monitor and a T1 line to my house.

3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?
I’d buy a nice diamond for KC; she has the original from our wedding ring but she deserves so much more than that.

4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
Of course. Don’t know exactly how much but: Salvation Army, United Way, Red Cross and our church.

5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
Again, of course. I’d have to hire someone to invest it for me. I usually don’t get too creative and that much money would necessitate creativity.

Two things that made my life harder today:

1. This morning when I got up, when it got to be time to go out to get the cars started so they’d be warm for us to drive to work. KC has a Hyundai Santa Fe; it popped right off and was running like a champ. I have the older Ford Windstar – after a few seconds it was obvious that it was NOT going to start. Well, now KC is going to be late to work as she will have to take ME to work and I don’t like pissing off KC.
2. KC also had to pick me up after work. We went to Hy-Vee to eat supper; while it is a grocery store, they have a pretty good meal selection there as long as fancy isn’t one of the priorities. We ate and generally discussed things coming up tomorrow, Sunday and such. Had a right nice time, we did. Then, when we got home, the water main is frozen. Yup, frozen. Well, it has happened before, so I did what I did before. Got out the trusty Bernzomatic that I use to do light plumbing in the house and heated up the main until it thawed. Now we have a lot of brown water; at least until we get enough run through to clear the pipes.

Well, it is going to make it easier for us to decide to move south when retirement comes! Or maybe not!

After asking the question “Who do you like?” I have to make a decision on who to root for. Let’s go through things I consider criteria for this, since I didn’t root for either team during the regular season.

Hawkeye, Cyclone and Panther Alum Players
Carolina Panthers: Bruce Nelson (Iowa).
New England Patriots: Dedric Ward (UNI).
No advantage.

Native Iowans
Carolina Panthers: Bruce Nelson (Emmetsburg).
New England Patriots: Dedric Ward (Cedar Rapids), Matt Chatham (Sioux City)
Advantage: Patriots.

Iowa College or Native Iowan Coaches
Carolina Panthers: John Fox, Head Coach (Iowa St Def.), Sal Sunseri, Def.Line (Iowa Weselyan).
New England Patriots: Brad Seely, Special Teams (Vinton).
Advantage: Panthers.

Website Coolness
Highly subjective. I like what I like and I want to find certain information easily. If the website helps me that helps its rating. The Panther’s site I found much of the information in table form. I had to go to individual popups or pages for information on the Patriots’ site.
Advantage: Panthers.

Cheerleader Occupations
This one is kind of subjective. I like teachers and I like professionals. Sales reps, secretaries, assistants, dance instructors and vague job descriptions won’t help. Neither will college students (they should be cheering for their college!)
Carolina Panthers: 3 Teachers, CPA, Mechanical Engineer, Banker, TV News Editor; extra points for a stay-at-home mom.
New England Patriots: 2 Teachers, Graphic Designer, TV Show Host, News Reporter.
Advantage: Panthers.

Going on this “scientific” analysis, I guess I’ll root for the Panthers!

Looks like we are going to a friend’s house for the Super Bowl. Corey and Andrea are hosting a party again. They are having some basic munchies and some Budweiser and Miller Lite; other folks will bring stuff as well. We had a great time there last year. The guys tend to watch the game and the gals ended up playing cards. One of the guys is bringing some home-made red ale. I spoke with his wife today on a support call and brought up the party during a lull in the activity on the computer (good support techs know that the computer has times where it is trying to get something done and that time has to be filled in an entertaining fashion so the callers WANT to call back). He brought some honey-wheat lager last year that was pretty good. We are bringing the chili-cheese dip (everybody knows what that is and how to make it, right?) and some Killian’s Irish Red.

Who do you like? The Panthers or the Patriots?

It just keeps getting colder here. We had another 1.5″ of snow and the predicted overnight low is -10°F. The 8mph wind out of the north isn’t helping matters any either. BBBRRRR! Shoveling the driveway AGAIN was not any fun; at least this time is was only a little bit of snow instead of the 5″ we had last time. And the best part?

In what looks like a recurring pattern, the Iowa Hawkeyes lost to the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan, 90-84. The Hawks just didn’t have it tonight, whatever “it” is. They shot well, 58% from the field and 73% from the line, but they allowed the Wolverines to shoot 53% from the field including 46% from the 3-point area.

The Hawks were led in scoring by Pierre Pierce’s 23 points; he was joined in double figures scoring by Glen Worley (18), Brody Boyd (13), Greg Brunner (13) and Sean Sonderleiter (12). Iowa was led in rebounding by Pierce and Worley with 7 each, and in assists by Pierce and Jeff Horner with 4 each. The Wolverines were led in scoring by Lester Abram’s 24 points; he was joined in double figures by Courtney Sims (16), Daniel Horton (15), Bernard Robinson Jr. (10) and Dion Harris (10). Michigan was led in rebounding by Robinson and Brent Petway with 7 each and in assists by Horton with 7.

Jeff Horner suffered through a rough night, scoring only 3 (1-6 from the field) while committing 5 turnovers and 4 fouls and generally seemed frustrated throughout the game. I’ve said it before that when Horner plays well the Hawks will win. Pierce needs to get better at the line. He was only 5-11; if he is going to get to the line that much he needs to make more free throws. The team had 16 turnovers (Worley and Horner had 5 each) and 26 fouls – not a recipe for a win; many of the fouls were careless and lazy fouls. Watching the games unfold it looks like Pierce is the “designated inbounder”, you know, the guy who always makes the in-bounding pass when the Hawks get the ball out of bounds. This needs to stop; to many times he simply throws passes up for grabs, almost as if he can’t think past his first option. On a positive note, Glen Worley put together possibly his best game this year; keep up the good work, Glen. No time to lick their wounds; the Hawks face a pesky Penn State squad on Saturday.

I heard it again. It is a common simile. You remember similes right? Comparisons using the words “as” or “like”. Anyway, I heard it again and wondered just which one?

Is it:

a) I have to piss like a Russian racehorse.

or is it:

b) I have to piss like a rushin’ racehorse.

Enquiring minds want to know.

From Spatterdash, our Tune for Tuesday band, comes the next installment. This week’s Tune for Tuesday is Tale of Drunken Delight, a song about… DRINKING! 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.

After the snow stopped coming down, the temperature followed suit and began coming down. Yuck. When I got home after work (and after my nephew’s basketball game) I had to clear the driveway and sidewalk. It was only +5°F out and the wind was out of the nortwest at 15mph. Not a good combination if you are shoveling powdery snow; I ended up with more than one face full as the wind was swirling around near the house and in the driveway. And now the temp is -1°F; boy is the 102°F water in the hot tub going to feel good tonight!

We got some more snow last night and this morning. Originally it was forecast that we would get 1″-2″. Well, let’s just say I want some of the drugs those meteorologists are taking. We ended up with 5″-6″. It wasn’t a nasty snow; the roads were easily plowable and the snow itself is rather powdery and light. It’s just that I don’t want to shovel the driveway!! During the snow, the $64 question is:

Happy Birthday, Katelyn.