Yesterday was our daughters baby shower at the Murphysboro Event Center so on Friday me and a long lost high school buddy went up to check it out.  It's a nice quiet place to go have a beer or four and talk.  We opted for the four beer option which was made better by the price of beer which ranged from $1.25 to $1.75 which is dirt cheap.  Only drawback was the only draught was bud light and no craft beer options.
The shower had a good turn out and went off great.  Bailey and Shad got lots of great gifts and almost couldn't fit all of it in their truck and suv.  The Event Center went out of their way to accommodate us and the Glue's chicken salad sandwiches were great.  Biggest drawback is there was a lot of left over food including chips that I'd rather not have in my house because of the temptation.
Unfortunately we were unable to go see the Herbster perform at the annual Hospice Gala since the Glue's mother is not doing very well.

It was a sad day in the Melvin house yesterday as the Packers season came to a crashing halt one game before the Super Bowl.  The Falcons abusing our defense didn't come as a surprise but their defense did surprise in how effective they were against our vaunted offense.  The game was effectively over at halftime which left another half to suffer through but we watched until the bitter end.
The Packers have been plagued by injuries all year long and the trend continued as we lost a backup safety on the opening kickoff followed by another hybrid safety, linebacker, running back and three offensive linemen.  The loss of the linemen led to the Packers finishing the game with a defensive tackle playing guard.
There's a possibility that we've seen the last of some players wearing the Packer uniform that I'll really miss, including: Lang, Shields, Lacy, Peppers, Hyde and others.
One person I'm afraid I won't miss is our D Coordinator who will probably be back much to my chagrin.
The 2016 Packer season seems like it just started and now we'll have to wait all off season for it to start again.  Oh well, bocce season will be starting before long, the weather will get better for golfing and of course my favorite daughter has twins on the way shortly.

A quick food note, imagine that, on Saturday we went down to Jordo's Pizza in AJ with our daughter and son-in-law.  Pizza was good but they don't have beer which was disappointing.  We'll probably go back if for no other reason than it's on the top 20.
What a roller coaster of emotions for us Packer fans in the Packer-cowboy game.  I thought we had to get off to a fast start and a good sized lead to keep their run game from taking over.  Dallas got a FG to start the game and then Green Bay answered with three straight TD's to go up 21-3 with a lot of game left.  The cowboys then answered with a TD and a FG to make it 21-13 at half which after being up 21-3 was somewhat of a disappointment. 
We got the second half kick off and answered with a nice drive and a TD.  We had a chance to put it away at this point when Hyde made a real nice play for an interception but as we were driving Rodgers threw a rare interception.  It was at this point where our offense went a little flat and our real defense showed up allowing two TD's and a two point conversion to tie the score.  We drove down and got a FG but then our defense went back on the field with too much time on the clock.  Our defense managed to hold them to a FG but there were only 35 seconds left in regulation.
We get a quick first down and then Rodgers gets sacked for a big loss and I'm yelling to let the time run out but Rodgers calls a timeout.  On 3rd and 20 Rodgers rolled left rolled some more and then somehow found enough space to make a great throw to Cook who made a great catch on the sideline for a first down with 3 seconds left.
Out comes Crosby and he pounded down the middle but dallas barely got a time out called prior to the kick.  On the next attempt the snap and hold looked good but the ball looked wide left but somehow knuckled right and through the crossbars for the win.  Needless to say it got real loud at the Melvin household.  After all the playoff let downs we've had over the past several years we really needed this one to go our way.  Another blown lead would have been very hard to take.
Oh well, live to play another game.  Go Pack Go

On Tuesday me and The Glue went up to St. Louis to see the Blues take on my favorite team, the Boston Bruins.  It wasn't a very fun trip up with winds gusting to 40+ mph.  One good thing was that from Murphysboro to Nashville I had great mileage while we had a tailwind.
We got to our hotel, The Drury, a little after noon.  After checking in we went to get something to eat and checkout some new places.  We'd stopped in at Schlaflys last year and the food look real good so we decided to go there for lunch.  I ordered fish and chips and The Glue had a cuban sandwich and we both had their hefeweizen beer.  Both orders had big portions and looked great but were only ok.
Next we headed out for Bootleggin BBQ but they didn't open until 4pm so we went down the block to a Mexican place for a quick beer.  We were excited when we saw Dos XX Amber on draft but they were out so we settled on a bottle.
With the help of Yelp we headed down the street for the Sliced Pint which was really cool place.  They are a pizza and draught beer place with 36 mostly local beers on tap.  We both had the O'Fallon Irish Red which was very tasty and had a nice discussion with the bar tender as there wasn't any other customers except a guy who stopped in to get a couple growlers refilled.  They have 1/2 price refills on Tuesdays but you can't drink them there.
We were meeting our nephew at 4:30 so we started working our way back towards the hotel.  We were going to stop for a quick on at Hard Times bar but The Glue didn't like the look of it so we skipped it.  In her defense it looked rather shady so we decided to head on the Molly O'Briends where we were meeting Josh. 
I ordered a Maggies beer which turned out to be the same Irish Red we'd just had.  Josh showed up and we had a nice time talking with him.  They had Harp on draught and I hadn't had a Harp in decades so I had one of those and it was real nice.  My final beer was a Blue Moon which is much better on draught than out of a bottle and then it was back for a quick change before heading to the game.
The game itself was a blast.  Our seats were awesome, by far the best we've had.  They were a little higher and at one end and it was much easier to follow the action than the iothers we've had.  The only drawbacks were the stairs were narrow and my big feet didn't fit on them very well plus the seats were in the middle of the row and the walkway was tiny.  I smacked my shin twice the first time I got out. 
Lots of good action in the game which the Bruins won 5-3.  There was a good fight and some shorthand action including a 5 on 5 and a 5 on 4 which was cool.
It was then back to the hotel where I picked up some toasted ravioli to help soack up the night.
On the way home we stopped in Ruma at Mary's Bar and Grill for lunch and it was real good.  The Glue opted for fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans while I had trash wings.  Both were very good and we'll go back.
After that it was a quick stop at the Chinchbug and then on home to see an excited Otis.

After a sluggish start in which they were lucky to still be in the game the Packers got hot.  After some dropped passes limited NY to a couple field goals the Pack got a short field and were able to forge ahead 7-6.  With time running out in the half McCarthy used some time outs in hope that we could get the ball back.  I don't recall this ever working and usually it winds up biting us in the ass.  This time however we stopped them and needed a little more yardage to get in FG range, Luckily Cook dropped a pass over the middle that would have allowed time to run out and with six seconds left Rodgers arched a hail mary that found it's way into Cobbs hand for a 14-6 lead at half which caused a very loud erruption in the Melvin house.
The Giants got back into it some when McCarthy went for it on fourth and one on the wrong side of the 50 and gave the Giants a short field TD to make it 14=13.  From then on it was Rodgers and the Packers as they pulled away to win 38-13 in a game I had my doubts about.
Now it's on to Dallas and the much despised Cowboys.

Food note:  on Saturday I did my first set of ribs on my Akorn smoker and they turned out as some of the best I've ever done.  We finished off one rack and then sent a half rack to my nephew.  Soome left overs went to school for our daughter and the rest were enjoyed after the game yesterday.

2017 is here.  As has been the trend lately we didn't go out for New Years Eve.  Instead we went to Big Muddy in the afternoon for a couple beers.  We left there and picked up a long lost high school buddy and headed to Brews Brothers for a few more beers.  It was a really good time telling stories and swapping lies and getting reacquainted.  We had a few more than planned which put me behind fixing steaks for Bailey and Shad when we got home.  The steaks turned out pretty good though.  I was in bed by 10 and The Glue was shortly after.
We actually stayed up later last night since the Packers had an evening game.  The Redskins lost earlier in the day so both teams were in the playoffs which took a little edge off the game.  Somehow after losing four straight and being 4-6 the Packers "ran the table" and finished 10-6 which was good enough to be division champions.  Thanks Aaron Rodgers.  Recent nemesis the New York Giants come to Lambeau next Sunday for the opening round of the playoffs.  It's going to be a tough match up for the Packers especially since we have so many DB's hurt and our top two LT's left the game with injuries.  Go Pack Go!