Week 31 - Shockers

This past week was laced with basketball upsets as the Kentucky Wildcats lost to Robert Morris, and the 'Zags blew it against Wichita State. But more surprising than all the "Cinderella" moments was the announcers at the end of the Gonzaga collapse. "The Shockers have lived up to their name, as they defeat the #1 seed". Is it just me, or is it truly a shame that people watching the game see this bound up wheat shock mascot dancing around and ask, "What's that weird yellow dude doing?" That yellow dude is a wheat shock, which is how people used to store harvested grain before we had the modern day combine. Those shocks can still be seen where the Amish follow traditional farming methods. The shocks spread out on top to protect the grain underneath from the weather until you have time to separate it from the stalks manually. Americans have become too distanced from the growing of their food.

Wheat shocks

Wichita State University "Shocker"

With all of hullabaloo the previous weekend, we never really got around to celebrating St. Patrick's. So on Friday, after my class presentation for seminar, I decided to head home early and throw in a ham. I boiled mash potatoes while singing pub songs over a bottle of Bushmill's, and was pretty toasty by the time my wife got home. Friends came over, we had a fire, the Buckeyes won, I tried to make the fire bigger with gasoline, I drank a bottle of mead, my brother took the gasoline away, my wife made me take a shower when I finally came in, and I woke up with a hangover. The best nights always end with, "Why are my underwear on the floor?" I wish I had a dollar for every time something like that happened. But the headache that follows gets more and more difficult. The next day we brewed a cherry wheat, and my father-in-law helped with both that and the hanging of some chair railing for the baby room. We reached 6 months this past week and the time is passing ever so quickly.