Tonight the University of Cincinnati football team has their biggest game of the year so far. Thus far most of the teams they’ve played were unranked, but that will all change tonight when they take on #21 ranked South Florida all the way down in Tampa. I believe that the Bearcats are favored by a few points, and it should be a great game to watch. Tune into ESPN at 7:30 eastern tonight to watch it all unfold.

Speaking of football, I had another weekend of going 1-2 in fantasy football. I can proudly say that somehow I am no longer in last place in any of my leagues. Though I’m not exactly winning anything either. I’m pretty much two or three teams out of last place in all my leagues. I’m doing alright in my pick’em leagues, but of course none of those have any money involved. I’m also still alive in my survivor league, one of only eight guys remaining. Finally, it seems that I’ve figured out a few things with salary cap and I’m now in fifth out of fifteen teams.

Friday night Kim and I headed to the season opener for the #1 ranked University of Denver hockey team.   Their opponent for the night was the University of Vermont Catamounts.   Despite a huge student crowd, the arena was much less crowded than I was expecting.   Our seats were on the student section end, which we like, but we were down a little to far and would have spent the entire game standing.   Fortunately we were able to move nearly anywhere we wanted in the higher rows to find a good sitting view.

Me and Boone, the unofficial mascot of DU.

The game started off a little rough for the Pioneers with Vermont scoring the first goal of the game.   Denver was able to quickly add a goal of their own, but Vermont added another before the end of the first period.   The scoring didn’t stop there, with Vermont adding another five minutes into the second.   Again, DU was able to score one of their own, only to have Vermont add yet another, making the score 4-2 at the end of the second.   The third period was all DU.   They added a goal within thirty seconds of the start of the period and were able to sneak in two more before the end of the game, the last one coming with two minutes left.   It was good to see a 5-4 win for the Pioneers, but I think everyone was expecting a little more.   Unfortunately they went on to lose the rematch on Saturday, 6-4.

Another season of hockey started last night.   I’m still playing with a few of the same guys from last season, whom I’ve played with for years now, but most of the guys are new teammates.   We’ve moved up a division, and the speed increase is pretty noticeable and a nice change.   Our team is partly sponsored by the Hockey Guild, which I hope will provide some opportunities in the future for other teams and/or tournaments.

Our game last night started off really well, even though many players on our team have never played together.   We had a few quick goals to take an early lead.   Eventually the other team started scoring, but we never lost the lead.   I had a nice shot from the point (playing defense again) that another player tipped up for one of our earlier goals.   When it came down to the third period, we started to lose some of our momentum and eventually the game was tied with just over two minutes to play.

Then, one of the referees called a weak penalty on us, which most felt should have let slide in such a close game.   The other team took full advantage of their power-play to get another goal and take the lead with around a minute to play.   We tried our best to tie it up again, but it didn’t happen.   Despite the loss, I felt our new team played really well and we will only improve from here.   I believe we have a week off already, so hopefully we can all remember how to play at our next game.

Today is opening day for one of Colorado’s ski resorts, Loveland. They only have one run open, but have an 18 inch base of mostly artificial snow. This is their earliest opening in 40 years. Next to open is Arapahoe Basin, which is one of the resorts on my season pass. They plan to open this coming Friday, their earliest opening in history. Though I doubt Kim and I head out this weekend, it won’t be long until our weekend plans nearly always revolve around snowboarding. Last year we had around 15 days on the slopes, and I am hoping to have even more this year.

I really wanted to have another set of Alaska pictures ready for today, but I haven’t had the time to get completely through them.   I’m starting with over 400 pictures from Day 5 and currently have it down to 250.   I still have lots of cleaning up to do, but hopefully tomorrow (or Monday) I’ll have them ready.

With that said, here’s a quick update on my fantasy football leagues.   I won my game in one money league and lost in the other.   That makes my record 2-1 in the first and 0-3 in the second.   I’m really getting beat up in my father-in-law’s office pool.   I lost in my other regular fantasy league on Monday night.   I was winning at the end of Sunday, so that always hurts.   My record is 1-2 in that league.   I remain tied for second place in college pick’em.   I’m also tied for 7th in a pro pick’em and winning another that only has a few people in it.   I’m still alive in the survivor game, with my pick of Baltimore over Cleveland last weekend.   And I am still really clueless in the salary cap game.

For the first time, the University of Cincinnati Bearcat football team has cracked the top 10 in the AP top 25. And I was there to watch the victory this past Saturday that propelled them up in the rankings. The 28-20 win moved their record to 4-0 and their #10 ranking in the AP poll as well as a record #11 in the USA Today poll.

Whiteout game – crowd in nearly all white.

It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a game on the ever evolving campus, though not a lot has changed inside the stadium. Yes, you can still buy beer, and they seem to have added Christian Moerlein to their selections. One thing that has changed is that the tickets are actually selling out now. That’s much different from when we could walk into the games while I was a student by just flashing our ID’s, no ticket required.

Catskeller bar inside the new TUC.

One of my favorite changes is that you can head inside the completely renovated Tangeman University Center during the game, including the Catskeller, an awesome new bar/restaurant. We headed that way during halftime to sample some of the wonderful micro-brews that are available for really affordable prices. Just take a look at this beer menu, which rivals some of the better beer bars that I’ve ever visited. Needless to say, the game was a blast!

I’m glad that it’s football season, but before last weekend I wasn’t able to watch much of it.   We were in Alaska for much of the start of college football.   We were flying back from NYC two Sunday’s ago, the opening Sunday for the NFL.   It wasn’t until this past weekend that I was able to sit and watch some football on TV.   And that meant one thing, heading to Wyman’s for the Bengals game this past Sunday.   This used to be a great Bengals bar, with lots of black and orange on every game day, but recently it has been overcrowded with Bears fans.   However, this past week the Bears had a later game, so we decided to head up to Wyman’s for the game and some great pizza.   Turns out the game was great too, with the Bengals earning their first win of the season.

Unfortunately we will be traveling again this coming Sunday and will likely miss most of the football action.   However, I will be attending the undefeated (and 14th ranked) University of Cincinnati Bearcats game against Fresno State this coming Saturday. It is so exciting to watch my alma mater actually win at something. Our school was always a big time basketball school, but the roles have reversed recently, and everyone is way more excited for football than basketball. I can’t wait to see them play live.

No football post would be complete without a fantasy football update. Both teams in my money leagues lost this past week. I am now 0-2 in one and 1-1 in the other. I desperately need to start winning some more games. In my other fun league, I had a victory and moved to 1-1. In a college pick’em I have somehow moved up into second place out of 19, even after missing the first week while in Alaska. I’m still alive in my survivor league, where I picked Minnesota over Detroit. This week I am not going to pick Detroit’s opponent. Finally, I am still learning this salary cap game but I made a couple of trades this week that I’m hoping will boost my standings.

Having a great time touring Denali on our own the first day, we decided to go a ranger led Discovery Hike up Igloo Mountain on our second full day in the park. The rangers choose these hikes up to a week before the schedule date.   Since the hikes are limited to eleven people, the park service encourages   you to make advanced reservations one or two day ahead of time. Our hike was listed as strenuous, but that really only means elevation gain more than 1000 feet.

Our guide was originally from Colorado, so we had a lot to talk about throughout the hike. I was impressed to learn that he had climbed all of Colorado’s 14ers. He offered advice to us for future 14ers that should be on our list. All of the others on our hike were European, though nearly all spoke flawless English. Most of them had hiked in the Alps many times so it was cool to hear how Alaska’s scenery compared and contrasted. We hiked for most of the day, and though we didn’t summit any peaks, we had some amazing views throughout the day.

Healy on Dwellable

Last night I participated in my first ever Denver Cruisers ride. I would have definitely done one of these earlier, but I have been busy with hockey most Wednesday nights, as well as other travels recently. The Denver Cruisers is a group of 500+ people who ride their bike through downtown each Wednesday throughout the summer. They always start at the Gin Mill and leave in one large group around 8pm.

Starting the ride last night.

There is a new theme for the ride each week, and last night was Pirates, Vikings, and Sea Men. This gave me my second opportunity of the summer to wear my new sailor suit. Last night our first stop was in an old empty parking garage for the “Garage of Death.”   This was a pun on their weekly “Circle of Death” where large numbers of people ride around in a circle, while a few others go the opposite way.   Obviously you aren’t trying to run into anyone, but collisions do happen, which I guess is part of reason for the fun.   With the many bikers, this becomes quite a spectacle.

“Garage of Death”

Cardboard viking ship built around this guy’s bike.

High wheeler bike.

After the garage we made our way through the streets of downtown and to Theorie, which inhabits the former home of the Denver “Real World” cast. I don’t know if it’s planned to keep the bars empty before the cruisers arrive, but when we did the costumed partiers packed the bar. I expected high priced drinks, but bottled beers were only two or three dollars a piece. After an hour or so at the bar, everyone hopped on their bikes again and we made our way to Civic Center Park for the “Circle of Death.” The circle here was smaller than the garage from before, so it was much crazier inside the mayhem.

“Circle of Death”

At this point it was already approaching 11, much past my standard bedtime. I decided to leave from park and head home, despite there still being another bar on the itinerary. My first ride with the cruisers was a success and I hope to join one of the last rides in the next couple of weeks.

Everyone’s favorite time-waster is back, fantasy football.   I am in three different leagues (two for money) along with a few pick’ems, one survival, and one salary cap league.   I’ve played pick’ems before, so nothing new there, but both survival and salary cap are new to me.   Survival is pretty simple: pick one team to win and if they do you are still in the game.   The challenge becomes that you can’t pick the same winner more than once all season.   So far I picked New Orleans to beat Detroit.   That worked, so maybe I’ll keep picking Detroit’s opponents each week.   I really don’t know what I’m doing in the survival league, thought I’m trying to buy players when their stats are down, hoping that they will have a good week and their value will rise.   This will definitely be a learning experience.

In my standard head-to-head leagues, I won one game and lost two.   The one that I won was in one of the money leagues, though the jackpot isn’t as high as the league that I lost in.   I’m playing one league on Yahoo!, one on ESPN, and one on Fox Sports.   I still think I like Yahoo! the best.   They make it very easy to get all the statistics you need to manipulate your team easily.   And go figure, that was the one game I won.   Hopefully I can figure out the other two sites to get some winning teams going there.