An enjoyable Saturday of chores, family and football

Though the outcomes to Saturday's games were not ideal, that was a relaxing and productive Saturday. I watched bits of several games:

Syracuse/Minnesota
Navy/Ohio State
Notre Dame/Nevada
Oklahoma St./Georgia
Washington/LSU

I washed, dried, folded and put away 7 loads of laundry, cleaned, put the finishing touches on my sermon and went for an outing to the park with a little puddle jumping nature walk. The girls, my dear wife and I had a nice early evening. We were fueled by a dinner of fish or chicken tacos with avocado, grilled veggies, Jack cheese and corn.

After a ghastly 0-12 season last year, the Huskies are on a much better trajectory now. They made good calls on offense, showing some flash and talent at the skill positions. Though the defense seems a bit under skilled, Nick Holt had good schemes and a plucky, hard-working attitude injected into the entire defense. I have tickets for the USC game on Sept. 19th with my Dad, brother and some friends--I don't know if they'll be able to offer the same effort against USC, especially when Pete Carroll knows Coach Sarkisian so well. I'm hoping for another good effort with a shot at the win in the 4th quarter.

I will always root against Notre Dame. That nemesis developed in college during the era of the Miami/Notre Dame rivalry known as the Catholics vs. The Convicts in the late 80's. I remember statements by Notre Dame fans that ND represented God and Miami represented Evil and Satan. Those kinds of statements lit my torch, and I could no longer be indifferent to the school from South Bend. I don't loathe them as much these days, but my favorite teams are still Washington, Tennessee, Central Michigan, and whichever team is playing Notre Dame. I have little tolerance for righteousness attached to a football team.

I watched the Minnesota and Navy games only because I could while folding laundry. The Navy game was more enjoyable. I admired Navy for their efficiency, getting the absolute most out of their resources and almost sticking to the boring football of the Big Ten power THE Ohio State University. If forced to pull for a Big Ten team (which I really don't have to do anymore in Pac-10 country) I go for the Badgers and the Gophers. Wisconsin, because the are the best football celebrators in the USA, and Minnesota, because there are alums in my dear wife's family, and they gave my daughter top-notch medical care.

Fall weekends are hard to beat--this was only the beginning. Easily my favorite season of the year.