Game Day!!! Whooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Game day has finally arrived. The day I have been waiting for a week. Here is why. The NFL does a lot of stupid things. Banning local cameras from the sideline, fining guys for wearing socks wrong, not allowing goofy celebrations, ignoring their vetrans in their final years, basically stupid stuff. BUT they do a lot of things right. This is why I love the NFL. Game day at Lambeau Field is amazing. The game wasn't until around 5:30pm but the stadium was jumping by 9am. I remember a sign outside of Krolls when I lived there. It said, "Game Day - Restaraunt Open 10am Bar Open 8am" That is what I am talking about.

The Tailgate at a NFL game is insane. I am sure about 10 percent of the people that were at the stadium did not even have a ticket. People just come out to be a part of the atmosphere. A lot of them dress up and spend more time taking pics with people than doing anything else. Like the Packer Elvis. Elvis lives and he is for sure a Packer fan. He certainly would not be a Giant fan. Sponge Bob Cheesehead was there as well as St. Vincent Lombardi. Who took time to pose with me. The guys who dressed up as the actual Frozen Tundra had a lesson to teach us all. Just read what is on their tundra. "I am the Frozen Tundra" The more I thought about it the more I agreed with them. I am, as a diehard Packer Fan, the Frozen Tundra. Marty said it also, all of us there at the game, ARE The Frozen Tundra. That sure is deep.

Every year I hear about a CFL marketing guy from Edmonton or Regina going down to Green Bay to study the game day operations of the Packers and how they could use some of the things that the Packers do on game day to make the CFL experience a bit more exciting. BUT, every year nothing changes and the game day experience at the CFL is show up and go to the game like you are going to a movie. I will give the Riders credit, they do have a decent atmosphere, but tailgating would bring it up a notch. Too bad the city is afraid to let the fans have fun. In Edmonton they always said that they did not want people walking through the neighborhoods drinking and pissing on lawns. Well the neighborhood that Commonfilth stadium is in, you can see that on every day of the week. Anyway the point I am getting at is that this is why the NFL is so great. Sure the game and the players have a bit to do with it, but with out the game day experience this would just be another football game.

Nordic Man and I headed to pick up Marty and go to the stadium. Marty actually spent some time outside last night to get used to the weather and his clothing set up just so we would not give him shit. After we picked up the So Cal loser we headed to the Holy Land. Lambeau Field was jumping. Oh did I mention it was cold. Here is how cold it was. Look at the icicles in the picture. The wind was blowing so they froze sideways. When have you ever seen that? Not too often do you see water freeze sideways.

First thing on the agenda was to find a Bratwurst. Krolls West had the hook up, and man was that a good Brat. Marty took the time to record the quest for the Brat on his camera and I will have that posted here as soon as I can get it into the computer. After the Brat was found we made a lap around the stadium before we went in. I had my picture taken with some NY fans. I also yelled like the drunk fan at a camera for Best Damn sports show. Like I have had about a billion times in my own camera. Payback is a bitch I guess.

Here is where I got a bit mad. Why is that fans from other teams in the league feel they need to deface cheeseheads? Can't they come up with something original to make fun of the Pack? I know it is hard to make fun of the Pack but this is just lazy. Buy a cheesehead and paint it blue. Write Blue Cheese on the side. Lazy, lazy, lazy. They should confiscate that shit at the door. You don't come into our house and deface a statewide symbol of the Packers. Just don't do it.

We managed to get some members of the University of Wisconsin band to play a bit of On Wisconsin for us, Nordic Man had lots of people shake his hand because he was wearing his turn out gear from the Gillet Fire Department, and we took lots of pics and video. Got this great one by the statue of Vince.

After Marty's hand was frozen we made our way into the Lambeau Field Atrium. Which kinda sucked. Since it was soooo cold, for the record it was 6 below, all the non regulars took to hanging inside the atrium. Lots of them just were camped out on the floor. Literally laying on the floor watching the Cheatriot game. I managed to get another Brat whilst Marty and Nordic Man stood in line for a beer. Wouldn't you know it the tap went dry right when Marty got to it.

Not to worry, the Leinie Lodge was right inside the stadium. That is where we holed up until it was time to go inside and yell at Eli that he sucks. The beer taps at the Leinie Lodge had these little alcohol burners beside them to keep them from freezing. Get this they had to keep the beer WARM! Awesome.

Oh, I almost forgot, we managed to smuggle some hooch into the game. Just for your future info the cops check under the arms, around the waist and lower back. NOT the boots. Just stick a few of those airline bottles in your boot and you are good to go. Not that we are condoning smuggling illegal booze into an NFL stadium. Oh, yeah, we are. We of course did all our smuggling right in the shadow of the Vince Lombardi statue. I am sure he would have condoned our activities. Or fined us. One or the other. Probably fined us.

After we found our seats, which kicked ass, we commenced our NFC Champion experience. I must admit the Man Tears were frequent and frozen at the start of this game. The anthem had me going but the fly by put me over the top. When that dude turned the after burners and rumbled the whole stadium it was over. Then the game started and we were all business.

Since I have been back I managed to watch the game on the PVR. I will tell you, the Packers looked better on the TV than they did at the stadium. Besides that 90 yard bomb to Driver we were all a bit upset with the play. The Packer D just did not seem to come to play and the offense was a bit offensive. Play calling was terrible. Okay don't get me off on a rant, I will save that for later.

More importantly, the beer was freezing. Not so much in the bottles but if you bought a glass of beer it would be frozen before you got back to your seat. I purchased a few Cokes for our rum and the instant they opened the bottle it turned to slush. The beer in the bottle is less likely to freeze but if you don't drink it fast enough it freezes at the top and you can't get the beer out. That was kinda depressing. Marty managed to video tape some of the proceedings inside the stadium and we did a podcast at half time. CLICK HERE to listen to the Podcast or just go and use the link at the top of the page. I will get the video up as soon as I can.

I will tell you that when the Giants kicker lined up for his last second field goal in regulation that I invoked the spirit of Vince Lombardi and asked him if he could do anything for us. Well come to find out, he did. He reached down and swatted that ball out of the air and stopped it from going in. He also got us the coint toss for OT. But that is where the luck ran out. He could not help Number 4 in overtime. He also could not help out MM with his shitty play calling.

Well, now it is time to explain why I thing the Pack lost this game. Well first off I will blame Sports Illustrated for putting them on their cover. Why? Put the damn Patriots on the cover, screw the Patriots. They should know better than anyone that putting the Pack on the cover is death. Screw SI.

Second, the coach, in his infinite wisdom decided that he was going to keep the team inside all week for practice. WHAT? Even Marty knew he had to go outside and practice his cold weather survival. Inside all week? You fricking live in the cold, get your ass outside and play. The Giants spent the week outside. Jerks. The boys just all looked cold and did not want to be there.

Third, and I have already gone over this, the play calling. Mike McCarthy just did not have an answer for anything the Giants did. Third and ten and he throws a quick out pass to the sideline? Wha? He needs to concentrate more on the game plan and less on his contract extension. Yeah, I said it.

Either way, I was asked if I would trade my weekend for a Packer win? Well, that is a tough question to answer. You all know I love the Pack. I made sure that McKenna, when she was born, that within her first hour she had the official Green and Gold touque on her head. The nurse at one point told me to "relax I will get it on her head soon." I am a die hard, I want that team to win every year. I think Number 4 is the greatest to ever play the game. Some have even gone as far to say that I have a bit of a man crush on Favre. Which I have decided that Man Crushes are just as legit as Man Tears. Don't even try to debate me on this. I love the Pack. BUT would I trade my weekend for a win? Man, I had a good time. Trade for a win? I don't think I can answer that. Really, and what kind of question is that? Leave me alone.

I had a great time with Marty, Nordic Man, Hauser, Preacher, and 72 thousand of my closest Packer friends. I don't think I would have missed this for the world. So I guess I answered the question so leave me alone. GET BACK TO WORK!!!

The Tilted Kilt has great, ahem, food...

First thing I want to say is congrats to Cory Blashill, of the Edmonton Blashill's, on proving to the world that he still is operational. Cory will be a dad again on October first. Nice work cory, you're free time just got cut in half.
Day one in Green Bay was killer. Spent most of the day cruising the city by the bay. Decided that we needed some food and the Nordic Man decided we needed to go to a fine establishment called the Tilted Kilt. The Tilted Kilt offered us a chance to hook up with our old friend, and TundraTalk Nation member, PreacherMan Mike Banazynski. Mike was so excited to see me he promptly sat down, ordered a beer and watched a 10 year old hockey game on the TV. Nice to see you Preacher. As he said, he loves his Red Wings a little more than Sign Boy.

During our fine lunch the Nordic Man was chatting up the waitress when he made a discovery that just about ruined my weekend. The waitress, Olivia, was 18 years old. Wow, half my age. I am old. We decided it was illegal for me to even talk to her so I ordered through Preacher, well that is when he wasn't watching the game. Loser.

We also recorded a bit of a podcast at the Kilt. CLICK HERE if you want to listen to the madness. Or just click on the link at the top of the page.

I go to the proshop also that day and picked up a few things for the family back home. That place was a zoo. I think everyone in the city decided to go all at the same time. Crazy.

Hauser and the boys all got together out front of the stadium to take a pic. It was nice to have the boys all together again.

After that we made it to the Stadium View for a few more cold ones and I noticed a button in a display case that I absolutely HAD to have. I will wear this one proudly every year during viqueen week. Sorry Shane, not ready to upper case them yet. Even though the guy who made the button uppercased it. He is just a bit confused and in need of an education.

Oh, by the way it was around 6 below here in GB today. Not cold enough if you ask me. I wanted a bit of snow to go with it but I am not a weather guy, I just play one on TV.



Since we had such a good time, errrr meal, at the Kilt at lunch we had already decided that this would be the location for our evenings merriment. Marty calls me at dinner time and tells me, "Hey, I know where we are going tonight. Tilted Kilt!!!" as if we just got off the boat. No kidding Marty. Thanks for the update.

Those in attendance later at the Kilt were Marty, Nordic Man, Marty's bro, Hauserinskinov, Preacher, and later Angie, the lady who sold us our duckets. In fact that was a highlight moment when we got our tickets. Hauser took time to sit down for the Podcast that does not suck, TundraTalk, and we recorded a keeper. CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast or again just click the link above to pick what you want to listen to.
Well we got our ticket, we got our drink on, and it was a great evening had by all. Only thing left to do is tailgate, drink, stay warm, and win the NFC Championship.

More to come on game day.

"It's better here, because we are HERE!!"

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it. - Vince Lombardi

Okay, I will get to my weekend after I take care of a few of you playa hata's out there. Kinda funny how all you queen fans come out of the woodwork after a loss. First up is queen Gene Principe, of the Edmonton Principe's.....

Pack Suck..Retire already Favre..

Happy Viking Fan in Edmonton

Gene

Well Gene, who did your team play last weekend? Ya, I thought so. You and your team suck and you still owe me dinner.

Next up is Shane T Keller, of the Hollywood Keller's. He is a bit more respective, or shall I say introspective. Whatever he wasn't an ass...

Hi Chris, Sorry about the loss. I have NEVER wanted them to win so badly as tonight, come on, the Giants? I hate them and the Vikings beat their ass in the regular season (and we don't even have a QB).....I understand that there were many foleys tongiht. Farve was not at his best, seemed like he had other things on his mind, whatever, he is still the best Quartback (in my opinion) to play the game. But I want to cut to the chase, you are a man of honesty and integrety. I know and I think you know too that if the Vikings Defense where playing for the Pack in this game, The Pack would be on there way to the Superbowl. If you truly believe this in your heart, then I challenge you to admit it on the Tundratalk and to spell the Vikings with a CAPITAL V. Show us what you're made of my friend, P.S. I found a "Chili John's" in Burbank. The only other one is in Greenbay where it originated. A friend of mine from Greenbay turned me onto it. That's what he grew up eating on Game Day. It's awesome, you can by the entire kit (including meat etc.) throw it in a crockpot in the A.M. and you are good to go. Thought you might enjoy the Greebay connection and if I know you, you are well aware of "Chili Johns". Have a good day, Shane

Thanks Shane for the words. I will admit that the queens had a decent D this year. But as for them playing for the Pack on Sunday, they might have won, IF THE GAME WAS INSIDE. But we all know that that game was not played inside. The queens in general suck, but outside in cold weather, they REALLY suck. They lost a lot of their bite the minute they moved to that lousy stupid baggie dome. If the Packers had THEIR defense playing on Sunday they would be on the way to the Super Bowl. I am still pissed that they spent the week inside practicing. McCarthy has made some bad decisions this year and that was probably the worst.
I will give you props for your kind words about Number 4, but to get me to stop spelling the queens with only lower case will take a bit more. Not sure if they deserve that respect, yet. Win the big one and we can talk.
As for Chili Johns, yes my friend, I know it well. Mmmmmmm chili. Which reminds me, I need to start planning for the Brett Favre Chili for the not so Super Bowl.

Okay let's get this ball into play. Back it up. To start, as I was watching the Giants beat the Cowgirls on Sunday I started looking into tickets to the NFC Championship in Green Bay. Well to my suprise I could buy one in the end zone for around 349 bones. Reasonable. Well about 5 minutes after the game was over they were 500, and 15 minutes after that they were all gone. Amazing.

So I started planning on how I was going to get my way into the NFC Championship at Lambeau. Long story short, I emailed the Nordic Man to see if he knew anyone with a few spare tickets. Yeah, right, I am sure he has tons just laying around the house. Well, his mom had four, but she sold two of them to his brother and sold the other two to brokers. She did not think he wanted to go. Uh yeah, who would want to go to that game?

Anyway Nordic Man found someone with three extras and he contacted Marty and me and we decided to make it a weekend. Well, at first I was going to drive but Mel B, of the Northwest Airlines Mel B's made me an offer I could not refuse. She offered to give me one of her passes to fly to Milwaukee. I said ya, and it was on. Well Marty was not having the luck I was finding transportation. It was going to run him around $2500 to fly to Milwaukee. That is a lot. The airlines knew something was going on so they jacked the prices. Mel B then suggested we both fly to Minneapolis and road trip it to The Holy Land. Done.

I was so excited I was packing on Tuesday for my Friday flight. I have not been back to the Holy Land since 2003 so you can only imagine how geeked I was. Friday finally came and I hopped the flight in Regina. Guess who I saw in the airport? Let's see, Regina airport, could it be Tom Cruise? Slyvester Stallone? Ric Flair? Nope, Kent Austin, of the Grey Cup Champion Roughriders, was flying to his new job down south.

Wait, it gets better. As I am sitting down in my seat the guy sitting next to me is sizing me up. I wonder what his deal is? He asks me if I am going to the game, I say yes. I ask him if he is going to the game, he says yes. I look again. Ask him "Are you John Ryan's brother?" Yup. So here I am on the plane with the punter from the Packers brother. Nice. My weekend is starting out great. Even better he had a 5 hour layover in Minne and we got to Green Bay before he did by driving.

So I land in Minne no problem and who do I see walking down the hall but this guy from LA who dissed my truck. Marty is in the house!!!

We rent our car and after Marty whines for about 10 minutes about how cold it is. It was only 7 below zero farenheit. Wuss. Been in LA too long. So long that he FedEx'd his jacket and cold weather gear to Wisconsin. Anyway we hit the road in search of a win at Lambeau and more importantly at that moment, food. What did we find? Famous Daves. Nice. We had all the goods, corn bread, ribs, spicy sausage, bbq chicken, and to top it off a Leinies. Nice. Served up to us on a garbage can lid. Too sweet.

After dinner is was off on hwy 29 to Green Bay. We managed to stop along the way for a beer or two in Wausau. At this point I said for the first time of the weekend as I drank my Leinies, "It is better here, because we are HERE." Basically, Leinies are good when I drink it in Regina, or Edmonton or where ever, but it is better because we are in Wisconsin. Everything is better in Wisconsin, including the football queen fan. Get over it.

We also took the time to do a bit of a podcast. That's right, TundraTalk was taken on the road and done on the roads of Wisconsin and will be live, kinda, at Lambeau Field during the NFC Championship. Sweet. Click the link at the top or CLICK HERE and listen to the Podcast that will kick your ass, pick you up, and then ask you if you fancy another. Go get some.

We arrived in Green Bay around 11pm and were drawn like a tractor beam straight to Lambeau Field. It was all lit up and looked amazing. Then, we of course were drawn by a similar, but equally effective tractor beam to the Stadium View Bar and Grill. We needed to soothe our parched gullets. It was also noted that it was better here, again, because we were here. Whilst I was at this fine establishment I managed to purchase my new campaign button for the '08 elections. I hope you all jump on board with these candidates because they offer so much more than those other stiffs. Funny that a sports bar is getting involved in politics but in this case I am glad because I believe in these candidates. Notice that the button is blue NOT red. Wisconsin I beleive is a blue state. Especially after Rudy decided that he did not want to sign a Packer hat. Loser.

After a few fine beers we decided to call it a night and I dropped Marty at his parents and I drove out to Gillet to stay at the Nordic Mansion. What a great start to our trip. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Whooooooo!!! I got my ticket!

Here we are at a fine establishment in GB that is called the Tilted Kilt. The lady in the pic is Angie, she is the one who got us the tickets. As you can see we are very happy. Marty, has a funny look on his face because he is cold. Nordic man is on the right. He is just happy to be out of the house.

Today is the day, we are getting ready to layer up and head to the stadium. I already have some great stories to tell you and a podcast that is slightly under the influence. I know you can't wait. Stay tuned for more on Monday.

GO PACK GO!!!

Hockey, Beer, and Old Ladies....

Hello and welcome to just a little love on a friday,

Well the NHL is toast, do you care? I do. It is amazing how this labour dispute mirrors the one I went through, minus the athletes and all that money. It is like they are reading from a script. When Bettman said "Consider our offer off the table" I looked at Jordi and he knew exactly what I was thinking. We heard the same thing from the Management of the A-Channel. They do that to scare the marginal employee. The one who isn't to keen on being locked out or on strike. Scare them into thinking that it will never end to put pressure on the committee to give in. Funny. It is all just a bluff.

Johnny H says of the latest love......"Thank you I feel 23% more loved" You are welcome Johnny, I do what I can.

Got a message from Shane K about the Leinies gift from Ivy.....

"Leinies, what a GREAT gift. We used to build furniture out of the returnable cases when I was going to school in Mpls. He who drank the most got to sit on "The Thrown" which reached almost to the ceiling of our crappie apartment (allowing for headroom of course). The good old days... now I build furniture out of empty bottles of Malox!

Thanks for the memory,
Shane"

I agree with Shane. Killer gift. Oh by the way, my anniversary is in June, My birthday is in December, and Fathers day is also in June. Just in case you want to plan ahead.

I tried a new thing this week. Audio Blog. Just click on the icon below and hear a song that I posted by phone. It is a song from the movie Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou. Funny movie, and the song is from the part of the movie where I laughed the most. If you haven't seen the movie, go if you want to see a quirky movie that is way out there. Listen and enjoy.

I was reminded of a funny story this last week by reading a post on B-Roll. A photog telling his story about being cocky and knowitallish, but getting shown up and being really embarassed. It reminded me of a wonderful day at the North Dakota State Fair in about 100 degree heat. That would be around 38 degrees celcius, give or take a few degrees.

I was driving my golf cart from one shoot to another, probably from a pig show (not The Judds), to some kid who plays violin with the rest of his oppressive family. If you know the state fair lay out you know that there is one meeting point in the middle where everyone hangs out and basically jams traffic. It is right in front of the KX remote studio. Kind of a crossroads with out the good blues music.

So it was one of those days where it seems every one in North Dakota is at the fair drinking the overpriced root beer and really bad corn dogs. I was making my way really slowly in the golf cart when I came upon the traffic jam. I decided that I did not need to be on time for the violin playing kid so I sat to the one side of the jam and just chilled for about five minutes. I saw my opening. I decided to make my move. If you have ever driven a golf cart, and I know Ivy and Chad have spent too much time on them, you know that to get the engine to start you just lightly push on the gas pedal. I did just that. Right at that moment a lady about the age of 80 or 90, you know the average age of EVERYONE in North Dakota, stepped off the curb right in front of me. Well, she missed the curb somehow and fell. RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY CART. Thank you very much. To make matters worse the crowd immediately dispersed. All you could see was my cart and this old lady screaming in front of it.

Nobody did anything. I ran to the KX building and called 911. I came back out and she was still screaming. I heard this person in the crowd whisper to another person "That's the guy who hit her." No thank you very much. As we were waitning for what was about 5 minutes but felt like 3 hours for the ambulance to get there all I could do was lean against my cart and inconspicuously push it away from the old lady. I did not get it far. The EMS people finally showed up and took care of the lady. But one did ask her where the cart hit her. REALLY LOUD. I could not win. I did not hit her.

After a new hip and a broken ankle, I think, she absolved me of any blame. Thanks, why didn't she speak up at the incident. I was labelled Granny Killer by my boss, and if I remember right Nick lived on that for about 6 months. Nah, that doesn't sound like Nick.

Anyway that was my most embarassing moment, so far.

Here is another WM XIX photo....



Have a good day and GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!