Bear Down Chicago Bears

It was the 10-4 Chicago Bears versus 10-4 New York Jets at Soldier Field in Chicago. The snow was blowing and the quarterbacks were throwin'. Exciting game. Wonderful outcome. Bears win 38-34. Yeah! Hopefully there is a playoff game in our future.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas. We had Dinner on Christmas eve with with Tom's parents. The annual Bouillabaisse was especially good this year. Then for Christmas Dinner we went to Diane's brothers house. Lynnea made a great beef roast.

Bart got a new cell phone.



Alex had a very Lego Christmas.


Diane got a cool ring with all of our names and birth stones on it.


I was very excited to get an iPad. Its pretty cool. Great toy during travel.




The Hope and Brown families exchanged gifts.


Kayla got to cut the beautiful cake she baked.

Happy Holidays

ILL-INI

Today was the annual Illini Basketball game in Chicago. Usually at the United Center. Many great games over the years. We have been to 9 Chicago games in the past ten years. Last year we lost to a ranked Gonzaga team in overtime. This year it was University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana vs University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Got two Bachelors degrees from the former and was a professor at the latter for 5 years. Big differences in experiences between those two schools. Grew up in one and worked at the other. Make no mistake, I am an Illini fan. We were going into the game ranked 12 in one poll and 14 in the other. UIC has not been very good this year. They were 4 wins and 7 losses. The Illini were 10 - 1. Look at all the orange in the stands. It was a home game atmosphere.



We were getting together with with two old friends from both institutions to go to the game. All were Illini fans. The Illini got off to a sluggish start. But the Illini rebounded and led 49-41 with about seven minutes to go. However, UIC's "Flames" fought back to even it up as the game wound down.




The term the kids use today is "Fail", I guess I would call it choking. Anyway, the Flames beat the Illini 57-54. No Illini fan was happy. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture of Diane at the end of the game says it all.

Go BEARS!

Bears vs Patriots. Snow and wind. It was a classic. I was very proud of the family. No complaining about the cold. It was nearly perfect, except that Bears got pounded. Ackkkkkkkk!

The year of the aquariums- Seattle

There were a couple vaccine meetings in Seattle. The biggest meeting was held by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates talked with the researchers. He was pretty impressive because he knew what was going on. At the end of the Gates meeting we had a dinner at the Seattle Aquarium. 2010 was the year of the aquarium with visits to the Atlanta, New Orleans, and Seattle Aquariums. Man, my blackberry takes crappy pictures.



We have had a big crop of acorns this year. That has really brought in the deer. Here is a big buck on the edge of our yard.