Winter Wonderland

Thursday night, dinner was so much fun with the boys! The Sherman men (Mitchell and Marshall) and Paul Kuppich joined us for dinner at Papa Vino's. Papa Vino's is a great place to take college athletes...they have good food and plenty of it! Marshall and Mitchell arrived first and we waited for Paul to get there after practice. All of the boys looked and sounded really good! They have a great sense of humor and the evening was spent with good conversation and laughter! We all said good night around 9:30.
Yesterday, we awoke and I found out what "lake effect snow" is really all about. We had (have) about 10-12 inches of beautiful white fluffy stuff! We decided that we would hike over to ND for the football luncheon. Here's some pictures:

Outside Inn at St. Mary's - The woods just north of the campus
The guys you see are "scalpers" - they are on that corner every time we come here!

Gary walking down the railroad tracks to the campus
Look how deep the snow is!

Walking the path through the woods - very pretty!

The snowy Grotto

The luncheon was pretty good. The meal was OK, but the conversation was fantastic. Two gentlemen that sat with us were great for stories. Apparently, one of the guys was a high school football coach in his younger days. He was the guy who told Mike Krzyzewski, that he should stick with basketball. He was also praised by Coach Holtz at he statue dedication at ND a few weekends ago. Very interesting lunch.

We headed back to the Inn and then around 4:30 we drove (good choice) back over to campus to see the Sherman's swim at the Rolf. Needless to say, there is a reason why OSU is ranked 11 and ND isn't. It was good to see the boys swim, however, and the crowd was pretty supportive.

About 6 we went next door (actually one gate over at the JAC) to the pep rally - Thanks for the tickets Little Paul! It was very exciting and we had a good time. It was dark but I did get a couple of pictures of Paul and his dad on the floor for senior introductions.

Little Paul & Paul getting their picture taken

Paul on the big screen

Here's an article in the Observer on Paul: http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2008/11/21/IrishInsider/Paul-Kuppich.Tight.End.Joins.Squad.After.Transferring.From.Columbia-3557429.shtml

When it was over, we ran out of the JAC just in time to see the team load up on the buses and take off.

We had a serious choice to make: Go over to Alumni Field and watch the #1 Women's Soccer team take on Minnesota in the NCAA tourney (it was about 20 degrees outside) or head back into the Joyce to watch the #5 Men's Hockey team take on Bowling Green. We decided on the hockey team - it was a good choice. Great Game - Great Win (5 to 1)! By the way the women remain undefeated and advanced in the tourney with a penalty kick win!

We are heading back over to campus around 12 today for the band step off and the game. Hope Little Paul gets in but we'll see.

Later...