Cojonudo

Tonight about 5 of us from the masters program went downtown here in Madrid. Placido Domingo was performing at the Royal Opera Theater and they were showing the concert on a big screen outside the theater in the plaza. If you know Madrid, you know that the Royal Opera Theater is just across the street from the Royal Palace. So there we were, in the plaza with the Royal Palace behind us, watching and listening to one of the greatest voices that has ever lived on an absolutely gorgeous night in Madrid. After the concert, there were fireworks, both from the roof of the opera house and from in front of the palace. It was amazing.
After the concert, we went for some tapas around Plaza Mayor. We just hung out for awhile, went to about two or three bars for a cerveza or two, then ended up having churros and chocolate at the best place for such a snack in Madrid, the chocolatería San Gines.
Now it's about 4:30 am and I am heading to bed so I can get up and work on my romanticism paper tomorrow.

A friend passed along her pictures from the evening, so I am attempting to put them here. This is my first time posting pictures, so be patient if things don't quite go as they should.

Top picture: Daniel, Susan, Kayce and I in the plaza before the concert.

Picture 2: The sun setting behind the Royal Palace

Picture 3: The fireworks at the end of the concert, a few feet away from where we were standing

Master of my Domain

Master being the degree and Spanish being the domain. Yep, passed the oral exam today with little problem (stupid linguistics and language acquisition theory). So all I have left is to finish my current classes. As far as that goes, two midterms down--93/100 on one and today's was suuuper easy. One more midterm on Wednesday, two presentations in class this week and then finals on the 30 and 31.
Graduation is on Thursday. Why the graduation ceremony occurs two weeks before classes are finished is a bit of a mystery. And ceremony is a bit of an overstatement. Basically, this things consists of all the masters students (about 50) and professors gathering in the patio of the classroom building here. They say who is graduating, the graduates get the chance to make a little speech if they want, and then there is food for everybody. I think there might be a small gift for the graduates, who knows. It also tends to change a bit from year to year. Hell, I just found out today that it is this Thursday. But it is a nice chance to have some free food and drinks, talk to the few other students who I can stand having a conversation with (usually complaining about the other students we can't stand), and getting to talk to some of the professors outside of class.
Updates on the homefront, baby issues and etc will be forthcoming, now that the comprehensive exams are out of the way.

Aprobado!

I passed!

So now with the written tests out of the way, the only thing standing between me and my masters degree now is the oral exam. Well, I have to pass my courses this summer, too, but you get the idea.
My oral test is on Monday at 4pm. That's 9am for you central timers. The good thing about that time is that I have a class at 5pm. The professor who teaches that class is the chairman of my jury. So I am guaranteed an oral exam of no more than one hour. So I have this weekend to study and prepare. The jury of three professors can ask me anything about any class I have taken in the past 4 summers here, including the classes I am currently taking. Today, I talked to the chair of the jury about what I should focus on and if there was any advice he could give me. He more or less told me the questions he would ask me about each of the four classes I have taken with him. So that was very helpful, especially since he taught the literary theory class that was the scariest in terms of remembering all of the theories and names, etc. He narrowed that class down considerably for me, so I am feeling much better about it now. So it's a question of studying everything and then not getting so nervous that I either forget it or lose the ability to speak.
And to top it all off, it is midterm. So I have a test tomorrow in my theatre class, another Monday morning in my dialects of Spanish class, and one more next Wednesday. 4 tests in one week--woohoo!

No more writing!

The wrriten Masters exams are done! Second day went about as well as the first, I rocked the first question, because I knew the book very well and also because it was the book we read and discussed last week in my Spanish Romanticism class! So after writing 3 1/2 pages on that, I moved onto the second question. Luck would have it that the second day the two latin-american lit questions were over books I had not gotten to on the list. But, knowing this the night before, I looked up some of them online and found lots of useful information. There was one author I couldn't find and one I could only find general info about, not really anything about the work of his that was on the list. Which two authors show up on the test? You guessed it. BUT--the wheel of fortune keeps spinning and one question was "Talk about the general aspects of Emilio Carballido's work and what makes it stand out". This was the author I could only find general information on, and the question was asking for general information! I threw in a couple examples from his one play on the reading list that I was able to find and wrote what I could.
So given that it is a pass/fail exam, I would say I passed. But I guess we will see when the results are posted later this week.
After the test, a bunch of us started drinking at a bar near the campus here in Madrid. It was about 11:45 when I started there, then we moved downtown around 4:30. I got home around midnight, because we called it a night early, thinking that 12 hours of straight drinking was good enough.
Today I am reading a play for class tomorrow and working on the presentation I have to give over it. I also plan on going out this afternoon somewhere to watch Rafael Nadal in the final of Wimbledon. ¡Vamos, Rafa!

One down, one (two?) to go..

Day 1 of Masters exams is now over. Today was the written test over the general reading list. I went in thinking: 6 questions, pick any three. Since the university doesn't like to share information with us, I found out today that the test was broken into areas. So the test was: Spanish peninsular literature-two questions, pick one; Spanish American lit--two questions, pick one, and Applied Linguistics, two questions, pick one.
This was completely different from how I studied the list. I was under the impression that I was going to be able to pick any questions, the majority of which would be on Spanish peninsular lit. But, I got a little lucky (a lot lucky actually).
The peninsular lit questions was a matter of choosing which one I could answer in more detail--I knew both easily.
The Spanish American section, I was lucky enough to have had one of the books in class last summer, so I answered that question with half of what I could remember from class and half of stuff I made up.
The linguistics section was a total curve ball. One question asked to compare two specific authors and their theories of second language teaching/acquisition. Yeah, right. The other one was discuss the differences between the Spanish used in Madrid and northern Spain vs. the Spanish of Souther Spain and the Americas. Cha-ching!! This was the topic of the past three days in my "Spanish in the World" class this summer.
So, a little bit of luck.

Tomorrow is the test over my chosen area of specialization, which is theater. I am currently conducting a quick cram session on the five Spanish American works on the list--just in case.
I'll find out next week if I passed the written exams. If I pass, then I have to sit for an oral exam over my coursework the past 4 years.
Wish me luck!

The Stones, the Gays, and the Tests

This past weekend in Madrid was an eventful one.
1. The Rolling Stones were in concert on Thursday night at the Estadio Vicente Calderón (home to my beloved Atlético de Madrid, 7th place in this year's Liga). They didn't sell out the joint, I think only about 30,000 tickets were sold. I thought about going, but then the idea of paying 70 euro and missing a night (and part of the next day) of studying deterred me. The next day, while the crew was tearing down the stage, two guys died and two more were seriously injured.
2. The past weekend was also gay pride weekend, or "Orgullo Gay" as they say here. Not only was it the traditional celebration in Madrid's gay district, Chueca, but this year Madrid was host to EuroPride, the gay pride celebration for, you guessed it, ALL of Europe. Huge parade right down the center of the city on Saturday afternoon.
3. I did not witness any of this. Since I have my huge comprehensive masters exams on Thursday and Friday, I fled the city for the weekend. When classes were over at 12:30 on Thursday, I packed my bag and headed to the mountain home of my Spanish family. I spent all weekend there, sitting by the pool rieading and studying, having wonderful home-cooked Spanish meals prepared for me. Afternoon café con leche and a snack, and a perfectly quiet place to study.
Now back in the city, just spent the evening having coffee and reading through my notes. Now I have to read the second half of a play for my theater class tomorrow. I will be VERY glad when this week is over!

Like a machine...

I am blazing through books on my Masters reading list, making up for all kinds of procrastination on my part. I have read three complete books in the six days I have been here in Madrid. In addition, I have read articles and literary analysis of 6 or 7 more and written notes on all of them for studying purposes. As a result, I am feeling a little better about the prospect of taking comps in a few weeks. And just for the record, here is a little rundown of my comps and what I can expect:
Start with the reading list of about 60 novels and plays, plus a big ass poetry list, spanning the whole of Spanish literature, from Middle Ages to the 1990's.
Three tests:
1. Three hour essay test, choosing three out of five possible questions, dealing with the entire reading list.
2. Another three hour essay test, 3 out of 5 questions, this time dealing with the area of my choosing: poetry, prose, or theater. I have chosen theater.
3. If I pass those two exams, a two hour oral exam. Picture me in a room with three professors, asking me questions dealing with all of the classes I have taken over the past 4 summers in Madrid.

So I am making some progress. I have spent some time on this prior to this week, of course. But now that I dedicate almost all day, every day to the task, it is starting to seem a bit less daunting.
Almost all day is dedicated to reading and studying, but there is always time for Matt Damon. Yesterday I went to see Ocean's 13 for the first time. I know, I am slipping, but I was out of town for a wedding on opening weekend. Loved the movie--this really is the one they should have made last time, as Soderbergh has been quoted as saying.
I also got to meet MadridMan, a dude who runs a website dedicated to Madrid and all things Spain, which I read regularly. The message board is full of dorks like me who live for anything Spanish. There's a link somewhere over there in the sidebar, if you're curious. But MadridMan used to live in Columbus and last year moved to Madrid. We had a few beers after the movie at a rooftop café and it was a great way to spend the afternoon, on a gorgeous day in Madrid. The summer heat hasn't quite started up yet, so it has been in the 70s all week--I am loving it!
OK, back to the History of Spanish Theater in the 20th Century. Woo-hoo.

Estoy en España

Well, I made it here, despite the best efforts of a thunderstorm in Philadelphia. Close to a two hour delay, 90 minutes of which was spent sitting on the plane with a three-year-old screaming at the top of his lungs incessantly. Finally, they put a cork in the kid and we were on our way.
The apartment this summer in Madrid is ok. Not as good as last year's accomodations. Not as clean, not as quiet, and not as close to campus. But it's only 7 weeks, and I can deal with it. As long as I wash the smoke smell out of my stuff as soon as I get home. I'm also keeping my bedroom door shut as much as I can in an attempt to thwart any bad odors, since it is right off the living room.
Yesterday I took the day off of studies, to just relax from the flight and get settled. I unpacked, went shopping to get some essentials (like the electric converter I forgot at home, so I could plug my laptop in). I also bought a fan to help me sleep through the heat, but the weather now is fantastic. It's probably around 65/70 degrees and I am loving it. But I know the heat is coming...
So today, it's off to the grocery store to get some stuff for my little shelf in the fridge. And then I'll be typing notes and doing some serious reading.

One Day More

One day left of school for the year!! Yippee!! I can't wait for it to be over. This has been a very challenging year for many various and differing reasons and I am very glad to see it come to an end.
Now I am preparing for my yearly trek to Madrid for grad school. I leave June 12 and will be back in August. Before that I have a social schedule that is filling up quickly with goodbye dinners and spending time with friends before I leave. We also have a trip to Door County Wisconsin for Colleen's cousin's wedding. And somewhere in there I have to spend some quality time at the library finishing my notes and study materials for the reading list so I can have a shot at passing my comps this summer.
Hopefully I'll have some time between cramming for comps, going to class, and enjoying the Spanish food and sun to keep up with some posting here. If not, shoot me an email to see what's up. Hasta luego.

It's a Boy!

At our last doctor's appointment, we found out that we will be having a boy in September! We have a name all picked out and are in the process of buying a few more clothes in blue (and black and gold, of course!).
Last weekend, we went into the 'burbs with Colleen's parents to do some baby shopping. We managed to spend 4 hours in Babies R Us and ordered a crib and changing table, while registering for other stuff, and walked out of the store with a crib mattress and a changing table pad. Now we have top work on re-arranging everything at our house so we have a place to put things when they arrive. And we want to do this before June 12, when I leave for Spain to finish up my masters degree. We still have our big priorities, though--like seeing Shrek the Third and the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

The long wait is over

I have been accepted to the Ph.D. program in Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!!


Now I have a decision to make. Part of me wanted to just say "I'm doing it" and start packing, especially given how my current job has been over the past weeks. But then I started thinking on a more practical and prudent level and have realized it may be best to ask for a deferred acceptance and see if they will let me start next fall, after my life has calmed down a bit and I am more able to move to another state.

But it's good to know I am in, after waiting for a decision from Madison since January.

Spring has sprung

We missed the spring "game" last weekend. In the morning on Saturday, we both supervised the ACT test at Kennedy. We got paid 95 bucks for 4 hours of work, most of the time just sitting in the room while the kids took the test. Not bad. Then we left straight from school to go to our nephew's first birthday party. 3 hours roundtrip to watch a kid try to eat some cake and open some presents. Not exactly worthwhile, but good in the eyes of the family. It's good karma for when our little one has birthdays.
I bought Volver on DVD. I saw the movie last summer in the theater in Madrid. Amazing film. Too bad I haven't been able to watch the DVD, since I have loaned it out to people. No worries, though, I 'll get to watch it eventually.
Prom is coming. I am one of the two teachers in charge of organizing and planning with the senior class officers. This currently means that I have to arrive to work early to sit in the front foyer and sell tickets. So far things are going smoothly, but there are still about two weeks to go until the big day.
I have purchased my plane ticket for this summer. I leave for Madrid on June 12 and get back on August 7, hopefully with my masters degree in hand. My wife is thrilled, as you can imagine. This also means that we are trying to rearrange the apartment and get everything ready for the little one before I leave--in less than two months.

I do...

So the recent respite from blogging is due to the fact that I have been planning our wedding. I have to say that I am pretty proud of my fiancee and I for planning such a major life event in a little more than 8 weeks.
But the day could not have been better. I didn't even expect everything to go as smoothly as it did.
The day started off with major thunderstorms, which I have to admit, made me a little nervous. But about two hours before the ceremony, the skies cleared and the sun poked through the clouds, making for a gorgeous afternoon. The ceremony was at Danforth Chapel in Hubbard Park, which was a perfect size for our group of 68 guests. I always pictured myself having a larger wedding (mostly due to the size of my family), but this was just perfect. Yes, there are many people who I wish could have been there, but we will also have a wedding in the Church sometime in the future, so that will be the big guest list event.
But I digress (as usual). We had the principal harpist from the Cedar Rapids Symphony play at the ceremony, which went perfectly with the size of the chapel and the mood of the ceremony. The reception was in the IMU in the Richey Ballroom (formerly known as the Triangle Ballroom). Again, everything went very well and I think everyone had a good time.
Highlights of the whole weekend for me:
1. hanging out in the hotel before the ceremony with the groomsmen, watching the NCAA tournament. Just chillin' with Austin, Roberto, Donor and Marc was calming and it made me realize why these were the guys I chose to be closest to me during the events.
2. All the wonderful things people shared with us throughout the weekend. Donor had the amazing and surprising ability to say exactly the right thing to me all weekend long, most of which made me tear up.
3. Speaking of tearing up, my father-in-law gave the most wonderful speech at the rehearsal dinner that still gets me choked up whenever I think about it.
4. My best man, despite all of the jokes at his expense all weekend about his lack of organization or reliability, was amazingly thoughtful and dependable throughout everything. His toast was very typical of him and although a bit disjointed, I wouldn't want it any other way. He even got a canopy for the front of the chapel when it looked like the rain just wasn't going to stop.
5. And of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the feeling I had when Colleen walked into the chapel. Undescribeable.

We spent a few days in Chicago after the wedding, since we were on Spring Break. It was a good time spent doing the downtown stuff. Shedd Aquarium was a madhouse because as it turned out, the Chicago schools were also on Spring Break, so it was packed with strollers and crazy kids going apeshit.
We did the Art Insitute, Second City, and Wicked. Food was outstanding--the Melting Pot (mmm...fondue), Café Ibérico (mmm...tapas) and our friends Courtney and Gus gave us a dinner at the Palm for a wedding present, so we had dinner there before going to Wicked. It was amazing: great wine, excellent lobster.

All in all, an amazing week. So now I am married.

We brought sexy back

My fiancee and I traveled to St. Paul, MN on Saturday to attend the Justin Timberlake concert. In one word: awesome. Great show, and if you get the chance to see it, don't hesitate. Pink opened and she was very entertaining. Upbeat, funky, and she ended the show singing "I'm Coming Out/Get the Party Started" while hanging upside down from a big fabric/rope. It was very Cirque du Soleil-esque.
Then Justin came out. He did some tunes from his last album, Justified. Such as "Rock Your Body", "Like I Love You" and my favorite, "Señorita". And of course, the majority of the songs were from his current album. We like "What Goes Around", not one of the bigger hits, but a good tune. He surprised with his talent, playing guitar and piano during the show. In fact, there were several segments where he just sat at the piano in the middle of the stage (which rotated while he performed). There was an intermission, which featured a 25 minute performance by Timbaland. This part was the low point. It wasn't anything I couldn't have heard in any club. It was alright for a few minutes, but it started to get a little long. Thankfully, Justin returned and closed the concert with a fantastic, rocking, kick-ass version of "Sexy Back". It was sweet.
The encore was tight. JT came back out in just a t-shirt and warm-up pants, rather than the suit he had worn the rest of the show. He sat at the piano and played one of the ballads from Justified. He also was more chatty here, making the concert seem a little more intimate. He gave the usual "I appreciate my fans" speech, but he comes off as such a cool guy, I found it to be pretty believeable.
And then it happened. The girl two rows in front of us, dressed in a black button-down shirt (her cohorts were wearing the skank uniform--tigh jeans, crazy high heels and some slutty almost-shirt) made me almost go into convulsions of laughter. She stood up at the end of the ballad (nobody else in the second balcony was standing at this point), made the punk rock/devil sign with her hands and screamed at the top of her lungs. It was so out of place and random, it was hilarious. It was almost as out-of-place as the music they played to warm up the crowd between Pink and JT--"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. The same girl in the black button-down sang along to Nine Inch Nails at the top of her lungs before the concert, so come to think of it, her post-encore antics should have been somewhat expected.
Anyway, it was a kick-ass concert and even better because out hotel was connected to the arena by the Skyway system, so we didn't have to fight traffic or walk outside in the bitter cold. And the Xcel Energy Center is a great place to see a concert--much better than its cross-town counterpart, the Target Center.

Here it comes...

The standard, quick blog update. The bulleted list.

• I have realized that I haven't addressed my engagement on here. Part of that is just a privacy thing (mostly a work issue, but God knows who reads this), but now that word has gotten out, I think it is time to tell the cyberworld that I am engaged to be married. So there.
• Christmas was great. Nice to get away form work , spend time with family, yadda yadda yadda. Next weekend I get to enjoy one of my Christmas presents--a trip to St. Paul to the Justin Timberlake concert. Oh yeah--he's bringing sexy back. I want to know where it was all this time. Maybe he'll tell us at the concert.
• Work is interesting (well, at least the ancillary parts of it). Last week a bank robber came into the building to hide out and change clothes. He left without causing any harm and was quickly apprehended afterwards, but my question is, "Why don't we lock the doors during the day so that unsavory characters like this can't get in?" The administration looked at me during the meeting when I asked that, then proceeded as if they hadn't heard it. I guess ignoring the problem can make it go away.
• Winter sucks. My car doors freeze, I have to shovel snow for the first time since I lived with my parents, and it is just too damn cold. There. My annual griping about winter is done and my life can continue.
• Film awards season is upon us. There really isn't a movie that is contending that I am rooting for. Other than The Departed, which I thought was fantastic. But without any individual recognition for Matt, it is hard to really jump on the bandwagon :) If you get the chance to see Volver, the latest Pedro Almodovar film starring Penelope Cruz, do it. I saw it in Spain last summer and it is outstanding! Stupid Clint Eastwood making films in Japanese that will steal the Oscar.

There. I think that does it. Consider yourself updated.

A little quiz about me

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The writing on the wall

It only took a sweeping mid-term defeat and an obvious public outcry at the polls, but Donald Rumsfeld has resigned as Secretary of Defense. The names have changed, but will his successor keep up with more of the same in Iraq?
Also, I think the reaction from outside the US is interesting. This being one of my reasons for wanting to get rid of Bush and his cronies, since I see the effects they have on how the US and Americans are seen abroad.
From CNN.com:
Regardless of the effect on world events, global giddiness that Bush was finally handed a political black-eye was almost palpable throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world" and gloated that they left the Bush administration "seriously weakened."
In Paris, expatriates and French citizens alike packed the city's main American haunts to watch results, with some standing to cheer or boo as vote tabulations came in.
One Frenchman, teacher Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, 53, said it was about time U.S. voters figured out what much of the rest of the world already knew.
"Americans are realizing that you can't found the politics of a country on patriotic passion and reflexes," he said. "You can't fool everybody all the time -- and I think that's what Bush and his administration are learning today."

Post-election musings

What a great night! It finally appears that people are seeing the light about the Republicans and their corruption, ill-conceived wars, and scare tactics. The party that has been so quick to judge everybody else on moral values showed that they are not quite as worthy of the moral high-ground as they thought. Hopefully we will also gain control of the Senate as well, given the current state of the vote count in Virgina and Montana. What remains to be seen is if the Democrats can use this new-found majority to really put pressure on Bush and Rumsfeld to change their failed policies, end the domestic spying programs, and find an effective way to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Although today, the Iowa Republican Chairman was quoted in teh DSM Register as saying this election was a "victory for the terrorists". Apparently, he didn't learn his lesson from last night. People are not buying the "a vote for a Democrat is a vote for terror" song-and-dance anymore. Finally. As if anyone is going to let terrorists waltz right in and attack us. The Democrats believe that we can stop terrorists without taking away all rights from citizens and giving the president total, authoritarian power to do as he pleases. Our rights as Americans do not have to be sacrificed in order to keep us safe, no matter what the Republicans say.
On the state level, we kept that crap-weasel Jim Nussle out of office and his former House seat goes to a Democrat also. Yes, despite how hard the GOP tried to paint Bruce Braley as the spawn of Satan who liked to kill puppies and eat them, the Dems won the 1st district seat as well. Another surprise was the 2nd District. I respect Jim Leach and his independence from his party. Hell, he was an anti-war Republican and in any other election, I actually might have considered voting for him. However, the fact is he is an incumbent and a Republican, which meant that voting for him was voting for more of the same, and this was an election that was clearly set on changing the course of things in Washington. His votes for leadership roles in Congress alone could be damaging (Dennis Hastert). So bye-bye Jim-bo, thanks for playing. And really, 30 years is enough in Congress.
Terrace Hill stays with the Democrats, and now the state House and Senate are in Democrat hands as well. Hopefully this will mean good things for education, alternative fuels, and health care in our state.


And in keeping with the theme of kicking sleazy, no-good, worthless people to the curb, Britney Spears filed for divorce from Kevin Federline.

Where does the time go?

This term, I have been the gracious host to a student teacher. She is outstanding and has done an amazing job in my classroom. This has given me much free time during the day to work on things, such as curriculum details and doing lots of work for school that I normally don't have time to do. I have been researching ideas for a new measurement tool that we are implementing at school as well as working on things for my masters degree reading list.
Surprisingly enough, I still can't find time to update this blog as much as I would like (or as much as Jenniffer would like).
Looking forward to the trip to Minneapolis in two weeks and also looking forward to the last home football game next weekend. This season seems to have gone quickly, and mercifully so. Please God, let it end without too much more misery. Here's to next year!

Another Big Ten Football Weekend

After the craziness that was the Ohio State game, it was time for Homecoming in Iowa City. We kicked off the festivities on Thursday night at The Vine. Wings, cheap steins and good times. It was great. Then Friday I took the day off work to hang with the kids in Iowa City. Lunch at Atlas, Java House and then the traditional pre-parade shots at the bar formerly known as Gabe's. And I still wish for bad things to happen to the person who called the Boilermaker drinks. The parade was death, as usual, but still sort of fun. Then beer band, with the obligatory lame stop at Studio 13. 5 saxes, a baritone and a clarinet do not make a good sound together, and I also think they were annoyed with us for delaying the drag show. Anyway, I called it a night because of the early wake-up call and rehearsal on Saturday.
We gathered at the practice field to catch the end of the HMB rehearsal, or as Sarah so accurately described it, "Snakes on a Field". Their lines were so crooked and scary. And the trumpet girl who was wearing the orange hoodie, jeans, and the clunky shoes needs some serious marching help stat. Zillman tailgate ensued and it was awesome, as usual. March to the stadium, pregame and a big blow out of a game followed, along with a kickline performance in front of the HMB, who are not allowed to do kickline anymore for stupid political reasons (Kastens is such a pussy).
Saturday night's party was fun, but much more subdued than past years. I think it was a combination of the strong sunshine during the game and our advancing age.
All in all, it was a great weekend with great friends and I look forward to next year's game already. But first, we have the rest of this season to enjoy. This weekend the Hawks are in Bloomington to face the Hoosiers, then it's up to the Big House with a possible Rose Bowl berth on the line. Chili and lots of snacks and beverages will be on tap at my house for the showdown with the Wolverines, so consider yourself invited. Fist! Clap clap clap clap clap clap....