9th Annual Awesome Pumpkin Carving Contest

It is time for the 9th Annual Pumpkin Carving contest. To date, the record is Dan winning 4-2-2 with many votes still under protest. The rules are as follows: The first picture indicates the possible parts; A, B, C and D. You can list your favorite parts in order from most favorite to least favorite.

For example, if I liked the right eye, then left eye, then nose and then mouth my vote would be A, B, C and D. If you liked the mouth, nose, left eye and right eye your vote would be D, C, B and A.

We have included pictures with natural (aka kitchen) light and candle light. Please take into account both pictures before casting your votes. Please vote carefully.

Tonski, Senator, Monkey Car, Mystikal Tarantula, BK, Murdock, and Bustin Steel

43 Fo Life

There are apparently some big Carson fans in Bloomington.

Dinner

Sometimes when you are a father, you really need to set a good example about what you can eat for dinner. For example, I want to make sure that Jeremy knows I eat a healthy mixture of vegetables, starches, protein and rice. Yes, rice is its own food group. On the Fourth of July, since Dan ruined all our traditions by going to a wedding, I had to improvise.

Traditionally, a group of us walk around Indianapolis to build up our hunger, then we go eat 1 pound hamburgers and french fries, then we walk that off, stop by the fancy Marriott visit their lobby and other facilities, walk around some more, have milk shakes delivered, walk around again, then watch fireworks.

In order to make up for a lack of 1 pound hamburger, I had to show Jeremy how a real dinner should be made. It starts with 4-5 brownies in a bowl. Add Angel Food cake, four scoops of ice cream, drizzle on some fresh strawberries and add the hot fudge. Top it off with whip cream, chocolate chips and some Hershey chocolate bar pieces.

Below, Amy faithfully photographically documented my Fourth of July dinner.

Tom approves.

Big Ten Tournament

Graig, Dan, Julie Johnstone, Matt (of milkshake delivery fame), Coach, Kramer's mom, and probably Michael Jordan all went to the Big Ten (formerly Shmig Ten) Tournament. It was very exciting.

First up was Illinois vs Michigan. Illinois won very easily, it only took about 10 minutes. For some reason, they kept playing. We all made friends with a psychopath from Illinois, then he almost killed us, then he got up and left. More importantly, giant hot dogs were eaten by all (even those who snuck off to eat them when they thought nobody was looking). Then all of a sudden, Graig invented bacon meatloaf, which is probably one of the best inventions ever.

It's important to use your laser-vision when taking on a giant hot dog.

Next up was Purdue vs Penn State. Penn State didn't have a lot of fans there. It wasn't their fault, though, because they never knew that the tournament keeps going after the Thursday games. Purdue won, it was their first Big Ten Tournament win at Conseco. Some of the highlights included Kramer dunking (without getting a concussion), coach probably getting interviewed for an upcoming issue of Playgirl, and Kramer's mom yelling a lot. We all had a lot of fun. And then on the way out we we might have been propositioned by a prostitute, which was really awkward.

In a rare moment of not yelling.

Looking good, coach.

Cracklin' Rosie

Back in 2002 Dan tried to set the world record of breaking into his neighbors' townhouse (we were friends so it was ok). Since there was no previous recorded time, it was going to be pretty simple to set the record, so old friend Matt, one of the Neighbor's boyfriends, set a time of five minutes (or so, I'm rusty on the memory) for Dan to break-in. Matt mainly wanted to get into the house so he could hangout. He had been locked out by Brianne because she was out doing something.

Dan, determined as ever, climbed through the Pienad ceiling and went right through the firewall, which had a nice whole cut through it to make fires spread more easily. He was well on his way to coming down and opening the door in well under two and a half minutes when he decided to hot dog it. Dan jumped down the last 5 or more steps and in the process tore his ACL. After he collapsed, he had to crawl to the door to unlock it, since we couldn't get in to help him. Once the door was open, Matt immediately stepped over Dan to go eat Doritos. I being, the good friend that I was looked at him, then I tried to help him up. Dan was having none of that.

Six years later, after saying he would have surgery for the last three years, Dan had surgery on Cracklin' Rosie. For more information on how that went, visit www.lubsenfamily.blogspot.com. Craklin' Rosie is dead, long live Cracklin' Rosie.

Update: Dan wanted to add that in addition to his torn ACL, he also bruised his pride.