It's a Win for the Ladies

We've neglected the blog pretty much the entire semester. A few weeks ago, however, we took the annual Halloween trip to Vermont for a rugby tournament. What a difference a year makes.

Last year in Vermont, the Albany Law Women needed to borrow several players from Vermont (as they did for every game). This year, they not only had enough players to field a whole team, they even loaned a few out.

Their first game of the day was against Green Mountain. The women returned the opening kickoff for the first Tri (think touchdown) of the year and the day. It was the team's second tri since Hers has been on the team.

The women dominated Green Mountain. By the end of the game, the women had made a habit of standing Green Mountain up, ripping the ball out of their hands, and running it the other direction. I managed to snap a few pictures from the sidelines.


When the ball goes out of bounds (or into touch as they say), the teams throw it in on a line out.


You can see an Albany player on the ground while the rest of the team fights to dig the ball out.


However, the highlight of the game occurred when Hers got the ball around the 15 yard-line. She put her head down, turned up field, knocked a few girls to the ground and dragged two more toward the trizone. She stretched out the ball and just managed to get it into the trizone for the score. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the score justice:

Meet My New Nephew Brayden

On October 8, my sister gave birth to Ronald Brayden Woods (or Brayden) making me an Uncle for the first time. He was born at 5:54PM, weighed 7lbs, 12.5oz, and was 19.5-inches long. As my Dad noted, the cute little guy is already getting cutter every day. That's a curse inherent in the Denton DNA. Mom and child are doing are just fine and Hers and I are hoping to meet the little guy over Christmas break. Here are some pictures of my new nephew. Also, you can sign her guest book on the hospital Website.

At Long Last Our Husker Nation Nightmare is Over

I'll agree with Harvey Perlman that there's no joy in seeing Steve Pederson go. It would be far better had Steve done the kind of job everyone expected of him when he took the job. Unfortunately, after the last four years, I think it was something that had to be done.

I couldn't agree more with Steve Sipple's column yesterday (Pederson Brought About His Own Timely Demise). Pederson seemed like somebody who was determined to leave his own stamp on Nebraska football and that met making dramatic changes. I don't believe the firing of Solich was about a feared slide in mediocrity. It was Pederson wanting to make his mark regardless of whether it was the right thing to do at the right time. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have gotten rid of Solich, but it's hard to convince a new coach to come in and take the reins when you fire someone for going 9-3. Perhaps it was the right move, but it wasn't the right time.

So with Osborne back at the helm, the question becomes what will happen to Callahan. I agree with Hers that something needs to be done defensively and I assumed that this would be Cosgrove's last year. Reading some of the statements coming from Osborne and Callahan, however, I'm beginning to think we might have a whole new coaching staff next year.

First, when asked how he'd feel about Osborne returning as AD, Callahan made this statement before the Osborne was officially announced as interim AD:

I would welcome anyone who’s going to be in that leadership position and be my immediate supervisor. I’ve got tremendous respect for whoever’s at the helm.

Translation: They could give the job to Chimpy to the Retarded Chimp and I'd have to respect because he's my boss. Notably absent is anything about respecting Osborne for who he is and what he's done for the state and the Nebraska football program.

Then there's Osborne's remarks about his aspirations for the job:

I've spent the majority of my life working with the athletic department at the university and I want to do what I can at this point to continue in the pursuit of excellence that has been previously established.

Sounds a little like Tom saying the pursuit of excellence has been lacking of late.

And no one is being very kind to Pederson. Perlman had this to say when asked what Pederson's biggest flaw was as AD:

I don’t think I want to go there. My instinct tells me at this point Steve was not the best person to lead this program into the future and I think we ought to leave it at that.

And then Osborne had this to say prior to accepting the Interim AD position:

I feel bad about it. I thought Steve would do really well.

When the best thing TO can say about you is that he thought you'd do really well, you're having a bad go of things.

At any rate, Steve Pederson was clearly not the man for the job. It should be an interesting off-season.

Hers on her Husker soapbox

His and I were so disappointed after this weekend's debacle neither of us thought there would be a bright spot in Husker football this year. We were wrong! Steve Pederson is gone and Tom Osborne is back (well, only as some sort of AD to be determined later).

I've never really been a huge fan of Steve Pederson and I'm not sure I can pin-point exactly why. The recent articles in the always credible Lincoln Journal Star have seemed to affirm my initial reaction. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to link to them) . Will there be more changes? Should there be? This are all exciting questions that are keeping me from my evidence text.

As His would testify I NEVER blame a coach, most likely because there are a whole lot of coaches in my family and, well, they are always right. And I'm not going to jump on the fire Callahan bandwagon (but don't get me started on Cosgrove). But with comments like these he is going lose even my support.

Callahan said his confidence in his own abilities haven't been shaken.

"I know in my heart of hearts I'm doing an excellent job, a good job," Callahan said.

Really!? You can honestly say that you are doing an excellent job? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, excellence means " Of the highest or finest quality...." I don't doubt your work ethic, coaching ability, or commitment to the program but I don't think it fits in the definition of "excellent." Man up and admit that you could be doing a lot better. How would you respond to one of your vaunted blackshirts saying "Coach, in my heart of hearts I am doing an excellent job" after trudging off the field where the just gave up 38 points in one half to the Pokies? I'm hoping you would say they could be doing better. And that is what I'm saying to you, Coach; I support you, but you could be doing better, much better.

-Hers, now stepping off her soap box.

UPDATE- Looks like I'm not the only one with the same thoughts.

New England Style Anniversary

There’s only one way to celebrate a second wedding anniversary and that’s with generous portions of New England Clam chowder and plenty of lobster. Such things are easier to find in the New England, so we used our fall break to head up into the Northeast.

We left Saturday morning and spent the afternoon in Boston on our way to Portland, Maine, to meet up with a friend we met in Africa. We walked the Freedom Trail because, well, we’re just that geeky. Along the way, we stopped off for lunch at a small tavern called the Green Dragon. The owners claim the tavern is the “Headquarters of the Revolution.” From we could gather from the poorly written placemat history lesson, Paul Revere and a few others used to gather at the Green Dragon and it was at the Dragon that they learned of the British plot to kidnap Paul Revere.

A short distance down the redbrick trail was Paul Revere’s house itself. It’s one of the few remaining private homes on the street.

Next up was the USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides). The Freedom Trail pamphlet says that the during the War of 1812 the Constitution’s sailor’s cried out from the deck “Hazzaa! Our sides of made of iron!” The ship is also the namesake of the aircraft carrier that my father served on.

Sunday morning, we left Portland (after an amazing breakfast of lobster and crab cake eggs benedict) and headed up to Searsport where our Bed & Breakfast was located. Monday we set off to explore more of coastal Maine and started with Fort Knox. As we learned from the audio version of the book 1776, General Knox retrieved the guns from Ticonderoga and was made commander of the artillery during the Revolutionary War and he served as Washington’s Secretary of War after. This Fort Knox was built to protect the coast of Maine from the British (who felt that northern Maine should be part of Canada). It obviously wasn’t much of a priority as it was never completed (the other Fort Knox in Kentucky is also named for General Knox). This is one of the few canons at the fort.

A view of Bucksport, Maine from the top of the fort.

From Fort Knox we continued northward taking our time and exploring the peninsulas along the coast. At the tip of one peninsula, we found Petit Manon National Wildlife Refuge and we took a short hour walk to the coast and back. Along the way, we found a little retirement spot.

Where Monday was overcast, Tuesday was clear and sunny. We set out from the B&B after some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had. We turned inland and took every scenic route we can find. The leaves were almost perfect.

And some of the scenic overviews, such as these two in Western Maine, was amazing.

Dixville Notch is a small town in Northern New Hampshire. At midnight on the morning of the New Hampshire Primaries, the handful of residents in the town cast their votes for President. Many candidates and prominent politicians have had their picture taken in front of this sign.


We ended up spending way too much time winding our way down Northern New Hampshire and couldn’t make it back home Tuesday, so we stayed the night in New Hampshire. This was just one of the many scenes on the drive this morning.

The rest of our pictures can be found here.

Here are to many more years and many more explorations.

FALL BREAK!!!!!!!

So His and I are now officially on Fall Break. We are doing a little New England trip this weekend. We're heading to Boston tomorrow for a little freedom trail, clam chowder, and Sam Adams. From there we are heading up to Portland to visit a friend from our program in Africa. After that we will head farther North in Maine to stay on the coast for a few days where we will do nothing but eat lobster and read non-law books while the wave crash against the shore. (In the interest of full disclosure, my non-law books are about the Supreme Court and written by a former member of the Supreme Court. Man, I'm such a dork.

We're off and hopefully we will have time to post pictures upon our return!