Day 11 (9/5 - Sat)

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!? Today marked the start of full-swing college football in the US, '09. It's a rite of fall, every year, and one that I have come to enjoy since the start of my grad school days at the college-football-crazy University of Iowa ("Go Hawks!"). I started following sports much more when I was attending a school whose football team stands as the de-facto state "professional" team, given that there are no professional major-sports teams in Iowa. Heck, my last year in Iowa City I even lived in a house directly across the street from Kinnick Stadium, and on game days it was college football central! There's nothing quite so uniquely festive and crazy as that kind of midwest, college-town atmosphere. I particularly miss the "foot-long corn dog lady" who was one of about 9 vendors that set up in our front yard. I'm sure she was there again today to help feed the over-100,000 people that converge on Iowa City for home game days. And I'm proud to say that today the Iowa Hawkeyes pulled out a dramatic (if unnecessarily close) win over Northern Iowa by blocking not one but TWO field goals on consecutive plays, all within the last seven seconds of the game.

So, I basically watched college football most of the day, while simultaneously eating food, learning to tie knots (I bought a book recently, they're fun to work on while watching TV!), or even reading a few chapters out of (you know I wouldn't make this up) The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology.
But today's picture is from the football game that held the most international significance of the ones I watched -- now this is real futbol!



I watched the US team defeat El Salvador in a crucial World Cup qualifier match, y todo en Español. Those Spanish-language sports announcers really know how to get excited.
GOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL