Why I Oughta...

We spent a recent Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium watching the Fighting Irish with Nat's parents (both ND grads) and to answer the first question:  yes, I wore an Illini football shirt.  A little different than I did with my big orange sweater back in 2011 .  This time, I covered it up with a blue sweatshirt.  No one was the wiser, I guess. And while I bleed orange and blue, I will be the first person to tell you that there isn't very many better football 'celebrations' than what they pull off in South Bend.  And that's the part of the game that I like the most:  the circus that surrounds the game.  We arrived a few hours before the game and made ourselves comfortable at a few different tailgates and drank Michelob Ultras and downed a few hotdogs.  Then, it was in the stadium for me.  I wanted to see the warm-ups.  I wanted to see the punters and long snappers do their thing.  If you ever wanted to read more about MY experience as a punter - as a player on the

I had to pay "Big Rob" this weekend in cash and that required a trip to the bank to pick up some cash.  They dole'd it out in 'big bills' including just one of these fancy new One Hundred Dollar Bills. The ink well and feather pen on the right side of the photo and the super bright purple streak right down the middle are new additions, aren't they?  I don't deal a lot with benjamins, so I could be wrong?

Each January, I take in my change jar to Harris Bank where they tally it up for me.  Starting last January, the proceeds have been heading to a savings account we set up for the Babe.  Prior to that, I think I just stuck it in my checking account and went on with my merry way.   I keep a quart mason jar on my desk and every time I have a few coins in the bottom of my pockets, I try to stick them in there. This year, the total was $19.60. Plus a few Canadians and a green marble (all of which I put back in the bottom of the jar). Which, when looking at the online records from last January, was pretty light.  2009's haul was more than double that at $53.51.   Maybe that's an indication that either I was spending less cash this year or that I was better about using available coins during my transactions.  I'm not sure.  But...next year, we'll have a third data point and that means we can start to claim things are starting to "trend"!