Saturday evening we went over to Herbster and Clutch's to check out their new house and have  a few drinks with them.  The house is really nice and has an abundance of closet space which you can never have too much.   It also has a real nice sunporch type.
They had a couple out of town friends stop by and they were going to meet another college friend someplace to eat.  Me and the Glue opted out of going so that they could spend more time with the friends they don't see very often.
As we were walking out the Herbster told me that they will be back with Roll'em If Ya Got'em this coming year so the original team will be back together. 

Yesterday after golfing with Fred and Rod I met the Glue and Little Precious at Gabbys for a late lunch.  The smoked pork chops were really good.  While I was there I got a text from our son that he was watching the Michelson-Woods pay for view golf match with our nephew Aaron.  I wasn't very excited about the match but I stopped in at his house on my way back home just to spend some time with them.  We'd talked about the match on the golf course and none of us really thought it would be much fun to watch but I have to say I really enjoyed it.
I'd got a phone call from a childhood neighbor that her mother was in town and they were going to be at Big Muddy at five.  I finally left the Joe's house after 18 holes to go out to the Brewery.  In addition to Betty one of her sons and two of her daughters were there and some of the grandkids.  Awesome time catching up and reminiscing.

Yesterday afternoon we decided to try Keepers Corner which is in the old McDonalds building on south Illinois where I ate a lot of lunches when I was in college.  They've done a really good job remodeling the building and when we walked in it smelled wonderful.
They only have four taps and we sampled the brown ale and the wheat ale.  I liked the brown ale but both weren't anywhere close to being cold enough so I went with a Stag and the Glue went with a Flat Tire which ended up being their Belgium wheat version.
There were only a couple other people in there but 3pm isn't a normal eating time.  We've occasionally had poor service because the time but the service was real good here.  The lunch menu had a lot of burger choices but was limited otherwise.  We finally decided to split a Cuban and a Rueben.  We upgraded our sides to truffle fries and a sweet potato dish.
The Rueben was good but the Cuban was disappointing, something seemed missing.  The truffle fries were good and the sweet potatoes were real good but it wasn't worth the upgrade price of $3 and $4 respectively. 
Overall it was an ok experience and we'll give it another chance but it was kind of disappointing.

In the fall tournament this year we had a couple of incidents that were out of control and close to becoming fisticuffs.  It's always been a laid back and friendly environment at the bocce courts and it was hard seeing these incidents occur.  Disagreements are one things, fighting is uncalled for over a game.
I only saw a little bit of each incident and didn't see what started either one.  One of the participants I'd only met that day when we played his team but he seemed like a nice guy to me.  One of the other participants I've only met through bocce while the other two I've know prior to playing bocce.
I'm sure alcohol played a part in at least some of the people involved and it's my hope that there aren't any restrictions placed on having alcohol at the courts.  One of the great things about our leagues are that you are free to bring your own refreshments and not have to buy it there.
Our league president, Brad, did a good job breaking up both incidents and not allowing them to escalate.  He put himself between the parties and moved them away from each other.  Nice job Brad.
It's been rumored that one of the players has been banned from the courts for a year.  Apparently this was the third time he has been warned about this type of behavior.  This seems kind of harsh but something has to be done to keep this type thing from happening.
As our daughter, Little Precious, said when we were telling her about it:  "over bocce?", "over bocce?".

When I woke up a week ago on Friday the Glue informed me that the dishwasher was leaking.  I checked all I could before finally having to pull the dishwasher out of it's cabinet space.  This is always ends up being a pain in the butt and this time was no exception and once I got it out my worst fears were realized.  It wasn't the dishwasher leaking, it was the drain pipe.  The drain pipe has leaked before and each time we've replaced the copper pipe with pvc however the last time our friends told us that there wasn't enough copper left in the to connect the pvc to and we'd have to replace it all the way which the floor.  Luckily an old buddy came over in the evening and took care of it for us.  I left the dishwasher out overnight so that it would dry out behind it and then got it back in before leaving for golf on Saturday morning.  Thanks buddy.
Yesterday I woke up around 4:30 and it seemed chilly in the house and when I checked the thermostat it was five degrees too low so I went downstairs to check the pilot light.  Sure enough it was out and it I couldn't get it to restart so I went back to bed for a while.  I tried to restart it again when I got back up and it still wouldn't light so I called my old neighborhood buddy Bryan.  He showed up a couple hours later and replaced a few things and got it lit.  Woohoo but when I got back from my morning walk and an errand it still wasn't warming up so I called him again and back he came.  After tracing some wires he found the problem, a jumper wire that was used to bypass the damper motor had fallen out so he did a splice instead of just replacing the jumper and we had heat.  Woohoo but a few hours later I realized it was getting very warm in the house and when I checked the thermostat again it was three degrees too warm and the burners were still firing.  Once again I called Bryan and over he came.  He had a good idea of what the problem was and got it fixed in a couple minutes.  Heat working and just in time for the last nights 20 degree weather.  Thanks Bryan.
Two Fridays, two problems and neither of them were the 13th.

The Packers have the look of a team that is stale who make a lot of stupid penalties and mistakes.
McCarthy has done a great job in the past but like his GM Thompson it's time for a change.  McCarthy hasn't kept up with the new wave of offenses and his is still mainly built around winning isolation routes and Adams is the only one who can do this consistently.
It also appears that there are some problems in the locker room as the trade of Montegomery and Clinton-Dix along with the release of Whitehead seem to indicate.
It also doesn't appear that Rodgers is totally healthy and is constantly frustrated by the schemes and the young receivers.
I think Gutenkunst is in the process of rebuilding the Packers.  Thompson did a great job drafting in his early years but the returns on the last 3-4 years drafts are almost nil.  These drafts should be the core of your team now.
Pettine seems to have improved the defense but we need some people to pressure the opposing QBs.  Mathews is on his last legs and Perry is almost nonexistent.  Gilbert is proving to be a preseason wonder and not very productive in the regular season.  Fackrell has been surprising.
The Packers were in position to win the last two games against heavily favored teams but made big mistakes in crucial situations. 
It's hard to reshape a team without much production from several recent drafts and a QB who takes up a lot of salary cap but that's what has too happen.