Conner's Blog

I’m sorry to disappoint everyone, but there isn’t a Where? this week.  What happened?  Well I moved, drank to much on Monday, and felt like crap all day Tuesday.  On top of that I don’t have an Internet connection at home yet so I can’t dig through my archives from work.  This means no Where? this week, but I promise a return next week, and it will be better than ever(maybe).  

Even though I didn’t get a Where? up I’m still sharing a few things with everyone.  First, I’m trying to cook once again.  After hardly touching a frying pan in months, I am attempting to cook myself meals on a daily basis.  Last night I made tacos.  Nothing too exciting, I did  try out Doniree’s tortilla recipe, which was good but not great.  This wasn’t because of the recipe but due to the fact I used whole wheat flour.   I made beef taco meat and fresh guacamole.  The tacos were good and definitely worth the effort.

Of course the best news is that Thursday is tomorrow  The next four days are some of the best times of the year for a sports fan.  Of course everyone knows March Madness starts tomorrow which is the one of the best sporting events of the year every year.  I love the first two rounds because you never know what to expect.  Too make things even better, there are two local angles.  First the  Gophers made the tournament.  Second the NDSU Bison made it and are playing at the Metrodome.  Now, I am a UND grad so I have a bit of a bias against these two teams, but I still wish them well.

On top of the NCAA basketball tournament kicking off, the best hockey tournament also comes to St. Paul this weekend.  It’s the WCHA Final Five, and the Fighting Sioux are scheduled to play on Friday night.  They will be playing either the Golden Gophers or Duluth, depending on who wins the game on Thursday night.  I’ll be honest, I despise the Gophers, but I almost want them to win so I can see the Sioux beat them on Friday night.  I won’t be cheering for them out loud, but a little piece of me will be secretly happy if they score. I’ll be at the game on Friday night and know the Sioux are not going to disappoint me like they did last year.

What is the deal Minnesota, our sports teams have been taken over by aliens.  At least that’s the only explanation I can come up with for the moves that have happened in 3 of the big 4 sports franchises.  I’ve lived here for 2 years and nothing close to this has happened in that time. Maybe the front offices forgot to pay their heating bills, froze, and are just now thawing out.

The Timberwolves

The Wolves might not have made big headlines, but they made a move I wanted them to make before the season began.  They traded away Rashad McCants and another dead weight contract.  They didn’t get much back, though I think Sheldon Williams could turn into a solid contributer.  McCants will always put up numbers if he gets minutes, but his teams will never be winners.  I liked this move and consider it addition by subtraction.

The Vikings

Ok, this deal hasn’t officially been completed yet, but it looks like the Vikings are going to get Sage Rosenfels for a 4th round pick.  This is a move that I really like.  Not that the team is perfect, but a big part of the issues last year was because of inferior QB play.  Gus Ferotte won some games, but he lost just as many.  Tarvaris has occasional shown flashes of brilliance, but he definitely isn’t the answer for the leader of the football team.  Getting a solid young quarterback who can grow alongside A.P. is huge.  They don’t need to pay him top money for his position, which means they may be able to upgrade one of the offensive line positions.

The Twins

This is the move that I liked the most.  Signing a player like Crede to a good contract is exciting.  I was ok with them giving him a guaranteed 7 million for the year, but the Twins stuck to their guns and came back with a much better deal that won’t hurt them nearly as much if his isn’t healthy.  Having a solid power hitter in both corners of the infield will be great, and his defense fits right in with the Twins program.  Really the best thing about this deal is seeing the Twins front office defrost itself and actually make a move that might pay off.  It’s been too many years since they did anything more than sign aging stars and trade away our best talent.  Hopefully this move works and they continue to try and improve my favorite team.

The Wild

I’m just appalled by this team.  Something has to happen, and hopefully seeing the other three teams make a move will force them to take action.  They need a new head coach and probably a new GM.  It doesn’t require a high hockey IQ to see something needs to change.  For a team that hasn’t had to worry about selling out a game since they came into existence, they haven’t done much to repay the loyalty of their fans.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate commercials.  It’s not the concept, I understand they are necessary, it’s the way most of them are done.  Right now I’m watching the Sioux-Gopher game on FSN.  If you ever watch FSN you will see the same 5 commercials in rotation for an entire evening.  Right now there are three culprits that are making me want to throw a rotten orange at my television.

The first is the Burger King “Angry Whopper” Ad.  Now the Angry Whopper sounds like a thing of beauty.  It’s spicy stuff and bacon on a burger, you can’t really go wrong.  But the ad drives me crazy for a variety of reasons.  First the farmer is such a stereotype it’s ridiculous, he has bad teeth, wears flannel, and looks like he hasn’t showered in eight days.  The only authentic quality is his hat.  I grew up in a farming community and most farmers are not like that.  Second, the torturing of the onion is just stupid.  And third who would order the Angry Whopper while wearing tie.  This whopper is made for a black t-shirt, it’s going to be messy and you are not going back to work with the breath that thing would give you.

The second annoyance during this game has been the Car Soup commercial.  These are always bad, but the current version where they say “something sells good”  is ear and eye gouging worthy.

The third commercial that is causing me fits is the new McDonalds McCafe commercial. It starts out with two women complaining about their boyfriends,  checking out guys and generally acting like your stereotypical women out with girlfriends.  Then, at the end of the commercial it just happens to be that they just started talking and didn’t even know each other name.  So they introduce each other after having this conversation and just walk away, no exchanging phone number or email addresses.  Would this happen in real life, wouldn’t they at least give each other a business card if they hit it off that well?

Fine, maybe I’m just annoyed because Alex Kangas is playing out of his mind and it’s 0-0 after the Sioux played a much better first period.  Hold on,  the Sioux just scored at the top of the second. It turns out those three commercials don’t bother me that much at all.