The festivities began Friday night with a family excursion to the Elkhart Memorial High football game against Wawasee, which featured the Kilmers' daughter Kelsey dancing in the flag corps. First we got together for some pregame chow at the Kilmers' house, along with the families of several of Heidi's friends in the immediate area, plus another old friend and her family who were visiting from Arizona. (This particular friend was the only one from the group who actually attended Memorial High, plus she had grown up in the house now owned by the Kilmers. So in an ironic twist, the girl from out of town was arguably in the most familiar environs of any of us. But I digress...) Anyway, Memorial won the game (49-20), and good fun was had by all.

On Saturday, we endured the painful experience of watching Notre Dame blow an eleven-point lead against North Carolina, mostly due to FOUR careless turnovers in the second half. The officiating was horrible, but neither team was clearly getting the benefit. The ultimate result, however, was a ridiculous circus of an ending, where the Irish were given a last-gasp opportunity that they never should have had, only to have that opportunity swiped away again by an equally bad call. Pssshhh.

Anyway, now that the pain of the loss has waned, I believe that this will be a net positive for the team, especially going into the bye week. The offense has learned that, while they can score on anyone, they can't be cocky and careless with the football. The defense has learned that, while being very opportunistic all year, they can't just sit back on their heels and wait for something good to happen. And kicker Brandon Walker has learned that, yes, he CAN hit field goals from beyond 40 yards! Clearly this team cares about excellence and is hungry to get back in the win column. In two weeks against Washington, I have little doubt Ty Willingham is going to be even more humbled than he already is.

On Sunday, we returned to Charger Field at Memorial for the final game of Trevor's EYFL season, as his Bears took on the Welch Packaging Raiders on the big stadium gridiron. The Raiders have a solid team. They tackle as well as most high school teams do. But here's the thing. The EYFL has a "must-play" policy for all the kids, so that everyone gets opportunities to participate on the field. Well, the Raiders have found a rather unethical pathway around that rule. Many spectators at the game noticed how small the Raiders' roster was compared to our own. Purportedly, that's because the Raiders' coaching staff tends to actively discourage the less talented kids from continuing in the league until they all quit, leaving only the best players to pay on both sides of the ball. Nice.

Our defense played well, but some poor tackling on a few key plays in the first half resulted in two Raider touchdowns. On offense, we put together some key drives, including the longest pass reception of the day: A flare-out pattern by the tight-end for 19 yards by none other than Trevor Trowbridge. (Basically the same play as his touchdown reception last week.) Unfortunately, a couple of the drives ended in the red zone with turnovers, and the final score was a 14-0 loss. Now we need to find a league in the area where Trevor can compete next year as a seventh-grader.

We got back home and nursed Trevor's injuries--he got some nasty strawberries on his arms when he was basically thrown out of bounds onto the outer track. The news didn't get better for Trevor as his fantasy football team lost, while my own team is currently trailing by 13--but I do have some hope left, as both Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs play tonight. We'll see what happens... and then we'll move on.