Month: October 2005

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More signs of the buzz

Today, PSU made its an appearance in the AP and USA Today top twenty for the first time in 3 years.

Look for ESPN to announce, either later today or sometime tomorrow, that Gameday will be headed to Happy Valley.
(Monday morning editors note: While the SID has yet to confirm the student paper has announced that ESPNs GameDay will be here Saturday. Plus ESPN’s TV schedule lists State College as the locale for the broadcast.)

On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated will name Penn State as the #1 tailgating locale in college football.

Happy days are here again.

Monday noon addition:

Students have already started getting in line to be the first in the stadium Saturday.

Paternoville

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The buzz is back in Happy Valley

ESPN.com – COLUMNIST/FORDE – Forde: Something to shout about:
“STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — With the sun setting on a perfect football Saturday and the home team up 30 big ones, a familiar chant shook Beaver Stadium.

‘We are!’ bellowed one side of the stadium.

‘Penn State!’ roared the other side.

Back and forth it went. With feeling. And with good reason.

For the first time in years, being Penn State is something to shout about.

Being Penn State means being a player on the national scene once again. It means a 5-0 record for the first time since 1999, the end of an 11-game losing streak against ranked opponents, an impending national ranking, a ton of hype for Ohio State’s arrival next Saturday and happy chants echoing through Happy Valley. It means the Nittany Lions stand alongside Alabama, Nebraska and Notre Dame in the Resurgent Old Money Program department.”

Go to the complete article

The town was really jumping following our big win yesterday. One point the author failed to note was that Penn State now has the third longest winning streak in the country trailing only USC and Texas. We have quietly been lurking on the national scene this season and this win will alert many to us BUT the real test will be this Saturday when Ohio State comes to Happy Valley for a 7:45PM kickoff and an ESPN national audience. A win there will prove that we are really back.

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Thanksgiving

Lisman’s Mom has asked us to invite Shannon, Mar and Steve to NY for Thanksgiving. She remembers fondly a Thanksgiving with Shan and has been wanting to do it again ever since. Were you here, too, Mar?

Larry, do you have T-Day plans? I don’t remember any pix of you in a Pilgrim or turkey costume, so I suspect you don’t have any annual events scheduled around T-Day.

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That didn’t hurt a bit!

Hello All!

I’m amazed at how easy registering was (once I received a bit more direction from Larry).

Larry and Gary, great job! You are absolutely right… this will be a great way to keep up with everyone’s life!

I’m suddenly finding myself without a whole lot to say… let’s see….

Well, I recently finished putting on a 200+ person event for work (last Monday) that went over really well. Or at least that’s what they’re telling me. Things were completely changed at the last minute (there is a major difference between a room being 51 x 59 and actually being 41 x 49 when you are setting up a trade show. BUT, while things were insane behind the scenes, the public thought that it was the best show yet (it was our third show and the first one that I’ve run). The Governor came (if I master the picture posting I’ll put one up of him and I) and I mentioned that Lisman has worked at Knoll forever (Governor Lynch is/was the CEO of Knoll). He began asking me a series of questions that I couldn’t possibly answer (what department, what location , how long has she been there, etc.) and I proceeded to smile and say, “I will find the answers to those questions as soon as my family’s blog is set up.” Okay, I didn’t actually say that, but I’m sure I’ll get my answers nonetheless.

Many of you met Brandon while we were in Chicago. I am currently planning his surprise birthday party (Chris, Nick and Mom you inspired me) which will take place on “Stevie Ditka’s” birthday (next Saturday). So far so good… he doesn’t seem to have a clue. Actually, I need to call his father because he’s planning on heading up to Freeport, ME to visit with his dad that evening. Something tells me that not having the guest of honor present that night would really throw a monkey wrench into the whole surprise party thing.

Well, it is sunny and 65 degrees in northern New England and the leaves are starting to turn. It is too beautiful to be inside any longer, so I will venture into the great outdoors. Much thanks to Larry and Gary for taking time to make this happen!

Blog ya later-
Shannon

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Health report

Had a visit with the doctor on Thursday.

He still believes I have a mild case of asthma. The asthma causes my lungs to be susceptible to viral irritation so if I get the flu the coughing can turn severe. Right now, under most circumstances coughing isn’t a problem but laughing triggers a series of coughs – the doc that’s typical and that cold weather might also trigger coughs – guess I have to move to Az or Fla 🙂 .

He told me to stay on the Singulair for the next few months – he thinks my coughing will continue to improve and will likely go away. Recommended that I continue to use the QVar inhaler twice a day like I have been (he says I am on the lowest dosage of the QVar) until we have had two frosts (which could happen very soon since we have a frost advisory for tonight). A couple of frosts will evidently kill any pollen that might be floating around causing me problems. After that he says I should just take the Singulair (thank goodness for insurance – the damn pills are almost $3 a piece but insurance covers $2 of it). Also suggested that I call him in a couple of weeks to get a flu shot.

Unless something changes for the worse, I’m not scheduled to go back to see him for almost four months.

When I first when to see him a month ago, my blood pressure was like 165 over something. He said that was “a little high” and I should watch my salt intake. I told him that wasn’t normal for me at all. When I went in to see him today, my blood pressure was 112 over 60 – the nurse said it was “perfect”. I confessed to the doc that I didn’t believe the first measurement so hadn’t changed my diet at all. He laughed and said “who knows, the problem might have been with the person taking the BP not you.” He’s going to run a bunch of blood tests just to make sure my vitals are alright – I suspect he won’t like my cholesterol when it comes back but I’m pretty sure everything else will be alright.

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Nice work if you can get it

When I was out last night I ran into a friend, Pete Lisicky, who is a former Penn State basketball player and is now playing professionally in Europe. With Pete was another former PSU player Calvin Booth. Calvin has been playing in the NBA for six years, usually averaging about 10 minutes per game. Calvin and Pete are in town for the football game today.

Calvin is in a unique situation. The NBA and their players association recently renegotiated their collective bargaining agreement. A new provision of the agreement was the amnesty player. This was a one-time deal where an NBA team could cut one player from their team without the player’s salary counting against the team’s salary cap – that was the team’s benefit. The team still had to pay the player the remaining money on his contract and the player became an immediate free agent – that’s the player’s benefit.

Calvin was the Milwaukee Bucks amnesty player. He then went on to sign a contract with the Washington Wizards for this upcoming season. That means that Calvin will be getting two paychecks this year. Now I don’t know what his contract with the Wizards is but I do know that the Milwaukee Bucks owe him $13 million over the next two years – not bad for about 10 minutes work 50-70 times a year.

That’s nice work if you can get it.

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Huge win for Penn State soccer last night

I got to watch Penn State’s men’s soccer team take on Indiana on national TV (Fox Soccer Channel) last night. PSU has had a terribly disappointing season to date. They were a preseason Top 25 team but fell out of the national rankings with a 2-6-2 start. Indiana has had their normal fine season. They are the two time defending national champions and had been #1 ranked up until last week when they slipped to #5 as a result of two ties. However, they were still undefeated and the game was being played in Indiana so Penn State was a huge underdog.

PSU pulled out a 2-1 win on a Golden Goal six minutes into overtime.

My buddy David Gray, whom you may remember from my post on the dummy blog, had his moment in the sun when the national TV cameras clearly caught him throwing an elbow at an Indiana player (the ref saw it too and it earned David a yellow card).

This was PSU’s second win over a ranked opponent in 10 days (they beat #6 Maryland here in State College last week) and hopefully will propell them to a successful B10 campaign.