The annual football game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Miami RedHawks, known as the Battle For The Bell, is this weekend. I attempted to find some information about the rivalry so I could make this post more interesting, but I was quickly disappointed with the results. I found a Wikipedia page for the Victory Bell but there was not very much information on it. I’ve long been a big supporter of Wikipedia, but I only recently started editing some of the pages. So while I was reading up on the Victory Bell I added some additional information, like the chart on the right that lists the winners from each game. If I find more time I may try to dig up more information to add to the entry, but for now it’s a good start.

Interesting facts about the Battle For The Bell:

• The first meeting was the first collegiate football game played in Ohio.
• It is the fifth longest rivalry, in terms of games played, in Division I football.
• The only rivalry that predates this is that between Wake Forest and North
  Carolina, only by a couple of months.

Things have been slowing down after work for Kim and I, which is nice since the fall TV season is in full force. One of my favorites, Amazing Race, is back for its tenth season. If you haven’t been watching it, they are only two episodes in so you aren’t far behind. Early favorites of mine are David and Mary, a coal miner and his stay at home wife from Stone, Kentucky, mainly because you never know what they are going to say. Think of them as the Wild Hanlons of Amazing Race. They provide lots of laughs but probably will not make it too far in the race. In my opinion, the teams to look out for are Tyler and James along with Peter and Sarah, but it’s so early that it’s anyone’s game. The episodes only get better as the season goes on, so tune in on Sundays to pick your favorites.

I’ve spent some time today reading the blog of Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist. She is currently inside the International Space Station and has been writing frequent entries to her blog from space! I was amazed when first hearing of this. I’m aware of the fact that wordpress can be configured to add entries sent to a particular email address. Although they do not have Internet access on the ISS yet (that I’m aware of), emails are sent and received three times daily. Regardless of how it’s done, her blog entries paint a vivid picture of what it must be like to spend some time in space. Be sure to browse the blog archvies for September to read all of the entries.

Obviously I am very happy with the Bengals 28-20 win over the Steelers on Sunday afternoon. On the other hand, I am not so happy about the performance of one of my fantasy teams. I finished this week winning in one league and losing in the other. In the league I had a victory I had the highest point total in the league. Yes, it was nice having Houshmandzadeh back on the field, both for the Bengals and for my fantasy teams (I have him on my roster in both leagues), but there were other players with injuries that really frustrate me.

The frustration was with the league that gave me the loss. I checked and set my lineups on both Saturday and early on Sunday. I sat Todd Heap because it was reported that he injured his ankle on Saturday while stretching at home and was questionable for the game. Not only did Heap play, he had his best game of the season! Instead of getting big points from him I suffered with less than a point from my backup.

Laveranues Coles was also questionable according to the official injury report. Instead of getting decent points from Coles, I played Justin McCareins who didn’t play at all in this week’s game. I guess this is what I get for checking my lineups so often. I would have been in much better shape (winning both games) if I would have left my lineups the way I had them on Friday.

I am 3-0 in one league and 1-2 in the other. Combined that would be 4-2. Not bad, but I need to make some lineup changes.

Over the weekend we made the obligatory appearance at the Plaza Art Fair. I say obligatory because I think we’ve gone every year since we’ve lived in Kansas City, even though the only things we’ve ever bought are overpriced beers and maybe a little food. I enjoy some of the works that are on display, especially some of the photography. Other pieces look like they could have been done by Kamala, the painting elephant. Perhaps my opinions are in the minority, but you may want to compare some of Kamala’s paintings to those of artists and even a preschooler. It’s not that we couldn’t use a little art for the house, we could, but no way I’m paying the obscene prices I saw on Saturday.

We attempted to go to our last play of the Starlight season last night, Hairspray. The weather had different plans for us though. The start of the play was delayed for a bit so that a “small storm” could pass by. Well once they finally started the small storm quickly grew in strength and after ten minutes or so they delayed the play once more. We stuck around for awhile but sensed that the weather was not going to get any better, so we left. I’m still not sure if they officially cancelled the show or not, which would entitle us to tickets for another date. Oh well.

The best part of the night was having dinner in the Applause Club before the start of the show. The buffet style dinner is served by Fiorella’s Jack Stack Catering. Thanks to Phil and Doni we had a free meal there with our friends The Martins! The food was pretty good, although I’m not sure that it would be worth the $16.95 door price. It would depend on the menu for the night.

Of the five plays in the Starlight season we saw about two and a half. I guess you get what you pay for and we had discount on the tickets. My definite favorite of the season was Riverdance, the first one we saw. If we are around KC next year I will consider buying the tickets again but likely only for a discounted price.

Here’s a riddle for you taken from Amy’s blog:

You have a person working for you.
You have to pay them at the end of every day they work for you.
They work for you for 7 days.
You have one bar of gold that you have to use to pay them.
You are allowed to cut the gold bare only TWICE.
How do you pay them at the end of every day with the gold with only two cuts????

I thought about this for a long time, trying to figure out how to cut the bar into seven pieces. After banging my head on the desk a few too many times I took the question to Google and immediately found the answer (don’t click the link unless you really want to see the answer). Hint: don’t think about it the way that I was, the answer is not cutting it up into seven pieces.

While you are over at Amy’s blog check out the rest of her latest entries. She is currently in Geneva, Switzerland for work and will be there for the next several weeks.

I’ve been waiting for this for years, an official live album from the Virginia Coalition. I’ve often said that VACO is one of the best live acts around, and this album should help to prove that. However I still believe that you have to see and hear the show in person to fully appreciate it. Anyway, Live At The 9:30 Club is a two disc set recorded live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. It includes many old favorite songs in addition to a few previously unreleased songs, one of which is “Gates Of Wisdom.” After downloading this track be sure to purchase the entire album either online or in a local store! You can also hear more of the album on their myspace.com page. Enjoy!

We may not have the National Hockey League in Kansas City anytime soon but at least we have the other NHL, the Northland Hockey League. Our Sunday night adult hockey league started up this past weekend and the Moose are back in action! Many players on our team, myself included, took most of the summer off so our first game was a little rough. We ended up losing our first game in a heart breaking shoot out. Luckily we still get 1 point for the shoot out loss, so we aren’t completely in last place. Personally, I spent most of the game focusing on my defensive play and trying to prevent the younger guys on the other team from scoring too many goals. Overall I had a pretty good game and luckily it can only go up from here. Our full schedule is now online if you want to try to catch a game. Be sure to wear some green!

Over the weekend I was rudely awaken from my Saturday afternoon nap by the sounds of jet engines. I must have dozed off watching the miserable football game between Notre Dame and Michigan. I immediately leapt from the couch and ran outside to see what the noise was coming from, but it was too late, there was nothing in sight. I knew that the air show was taking place at the downtown airport so I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Stealth B-2 Bomber. I never did see the B-2, but we did drive downtown on Sunday to watch most of the Blue Angels performance.

It had been many years since I last saw the Blue Angels at the Dayton Air Show but their performance was just as I remembered. I recall being amazed by their performances when I was younger and I’ll admit that little has changed. People were stopping their cars wherever they pleased to investigate the rumble from above. Many of these people were probably experiencing this for the first time and I’m sure they were just as amazed as I am every time. For them I hope that the air show continues to be a yearly event. And although I doubt it compares to the Dayton Air Show, next time I’ll try to catch a little more of it.