BG

We had an early Thanksgiving this weekend, with the whole family together. Nice. Everything went off without a hitch, which was kind of surprising given the number of babies in the house. We slept as a family of four in one room, and it was actually kind of fun. It was one of those humbling experiences when you realize that you can get by with less than you have.

There was a sour moment on Sunday, when we took some cousins out to Conneaut Hill for some tackle football. A few plays into the first game, my brother Tim caught a pass (on a nice out-route) and met my cousin near the end zone. My cousin made a nice open-field tackle on Tim, but unfortunately Tim landed with his full body weight on his shoulder. Pop goes the collarbone. Tim heard it, my tackling cousin heard it, my cousin on the sideline heard it. Yeouch. A trip to the Wood Co. ER ensued, and Tim is all wrapped up in a sling and brace with a "nice" break.

We successfully fulfilled the stereotype of grown men playing football and someone getting hurt. We weren't playing very rough, and the field was actually pretty soft, but there you go.

Maybe we should stop the family football? Two years ago I sprained my brother-in-law's foot when I landed on it after jumping for a pass. Last year, a different brother-in-law tore his ACL when we were running and throwing the football on our way down to the Horseshoe after OSU's big win over Michigan. Yikes. But its so fun, I don't know if we could not play!

Off to BG

We're headed to BG tomorrow afternoon. It'll be our first time in NW Ohio since August. And I can't wait.

The agenda includes a family football game, an early Thanksgiving dinner, and a trip to Polleyes for some breadsticks.

Did you know that you can order breadsticks unbaked, and take them to go? We did this over the summer. They turned out really good - with the smallest of dropoffs in taste due to the freezing and thawing. But really, they were fantastic.

Personally, I'm a chicken and cheese with ranch type of guy. I've also tried the pepperoni & cheese (does a number on my internal plumbing), pineapple and cheese (my brother's favorite), pineapple and tomato (just gross), and roast beef and cheese (I think this was Steve Jenkins' idea).

But I've never found the perfect beer to go with the chck/cheese combo. Any recommendations? I usually try to go with a somewhat light-in-color beer, like a Pilsner (Bud/Labbatt) or a pale ale (Sierra Nevada/Rolling Rock). Outside of Polleyes, I generally enjoy darker beers, but I don't think they would go well with such heavy food. Your thoughts?