Saturday December 12th

Winter is here! A very cold week with snow showers and high winds. I know it's December, but this was a nasty week of wintry weather. It is still officially only autumn until the 21st. That's Rowan on the doctor's table this week. She had a great visit with Dr. Thomas.

Saw the Hoosiers play a solid 25 minutes to only be outscored 18-0 and go down 17 midway through the second half. This Kentucky team will be in the hunt for championships all year. Very talented team. IU has some growing up to do, but it's still so much better than last season. We were down 31-7 at one point last year to UK.

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. As usual, did well in the news one and poorly in the pop one. [Chicago Tribune]

Indiana University's Nobel prize winner, Elinor Ostrom. [IU News Room]

Video game actors? Their voice is their acting. [LA Times]

A store for Peeps! [Chicago Tribune]

A new state in India is causing an uproar. [BBC]

Nice and sunny today...Sunday and Monday could be warmer!

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Dinner

At Grandma Jeanne & Poppa Hans!

Yummmmmmmmmm!

Friday December 4th

The weekly blog is back! Took the week off to enjoy Thanksgiving. I actually had articles ready to go, but didn't have time to sit down and do it. Gave me chances to update with pictures and then the Sunday two month picture upload. Good stuff...

Above is Rowan playing with her new house from Aunt Lynnette.

Had a great Thanksgiving this year. Last week was especially busy for me due to my 20th high school reunion on Saturday night. It was a smashing success! What a great time, I think Brooke had fun too. A classmate of mine writes a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She used her column space last week on our reunion. She and I worked together in the reunion committee for this one, so I wanted to link Monica's article to my blog even if it's a week late. Props for including her senior picture on there too...[Philadelphia Inquirer]

We found out a few weeks ago that Rowan has a susceptibility to the cat allergen found in dander. Brooke's allergy doctor said it would be best to relocate Muki in order for us to be sure that Rowan would not develop worse allergies and possibly allergy related asthma. It's been a tough few weeks finding a new home and then dealing with the fact that Muki will be moving. Rowan loves Muki. Every morning she wakes up and inevitably "KITTY" is one of her first words. We can't take the allergy chance though, and we understand this. Tomorrow morning, Muki will be moving in with Rowan's Great Aunt Karen and Great Uncle Ron. They are big cat lovers and will open their hearts and home to the best damn cat I've ever known. No doubt I'll miss Muki greatly. He's been with me for all but 4 weeks since my return to Fort Wayne over 11 years ago. I mean, the guy comes when he's called! How many other cats do that? It's nice to have him with family though and we know we'll be seeing him every once in a while. I think Aunt Karen took him in cause she'd get a Rowan visit out of it!

Big week for the Ninja Monkeys. The last week of the fantasy football regular season is upon us. I need to win to get in the playoffs. Let's hope the fantasy Gods can smile on me for my birthday weekend. I'm going to need everything Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans can give me. [LA Times]

Movies, movies, movies...it's been almost 3 months since our last trip to the cinema for (500) Days of Summer. We haven't noticed much that we'd like to see recently. Gotta be worth the price of admission (even though caramel corn helps in the decision). A new one this week with George Clooney, Up in the Air, looks good. It's getting some great reviews too (87% fresh), which helps. [IMDb.com & Miami Herald & Rotten Tomatoes]

This week's News Quiz is back...along with the Pop Culture Quiz. 80% on both for me...By the way, if I take a week off and you want to do the quiz on Saturday morning (I'm talking to you Poppa Jeff), the link from the previous Friday will open the new week's quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

Bears linebacker Lance Briggs, comic nut. [Chicago Tribune]

What do perfume and cats have in common? [Chicago Tribune]

Brooke and Rowan in the halls of dear old North Side High School...

Keep warm this weekend...it IS December!

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Picture Update!

At last, I've made the first picture update in almost 8 weeks. That's too long!

Over 20 October 2009 pictures (JDRF Walk, IU, Halloween)

Over 40 November 2009 pictures (IU tailgate, leaf raking, Thanksgiving)

Enjoy!

Sunday

Willie's. Again!

Breakfast

With Uncle Dave at Willie's. Eggs, sausage, and toast!

Thanksgiving

The feast has begun!

Friday November 20th

Rowan's fifteen months old this week. She's becoming quite the busy body around the house as well. Butsu turned 5 years old this week too. Another family birthday this week: Happy Birthday Aunt Sharon in Texas!

Bucket Game this weekend in Bloomington. Brook and I will be in our seats one last time this season. Hope they can salvage the end of it cause it's been a tough stretch for the last two months. Both teams are playing for pride as well as the Old Oaken Bucket. Each team was eliminated from bowl consideration last week. [Bleacher Report]

Indiana basketball got off to an impressive start last Friday with Brooke and I in attendance (that's Brooke on the floor below with The Banners in the background). Nice margin of victory vs. the over matched Howard Bison. A much closer game was had on Monday vs. South Carolina - Upstate...then last night they were pretty much dominated by Ole Miss in Puerto Rico. Let's hope the next two games there fare a bit better...and more competitive.

New movie opening last night...Twilight: New Moon, you might have heard about it? So are you for Edward or Jacob? Or do you really care? Brooke read the four books and I think she's in the Edward camp...[LA Times]

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

Network TV's winners and losers so far this season. We haven't been keeping up well lately, our DVR is about to bust. [LA Times]

Haven't seen this scene at Wrigley in a long time! Not as long as lack of championship, but a long time nonetheless. [Bleed Cubbie Blue & Pantagraph]

Ranking the tallest buildings in the world changed this week, altering the top 10. [Chicago Tribune Cityscapes]

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is under attack. [Dunes Park Website & Chicago Tribune]

The new data center at Indiana University is a pretty impressive building. [IU News Room]

Have a good weekend...60 degrees in Bloomington!

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Friday November 13th

With the Friday updates, we seem to run into this quite a bit, don't we? It's the 3rd one we've had this year! [Examiner]

Rowan had a great time at the IU football game last week. It's so nice to be innocent and not care who wins and loses! The picture at the top is in preparations for the day and the one at the bottom is her and mom enjoying kettle corn in the concourse area of Memorial Stadium. One more game this season and it's the Bucket Game next Saturday. [Wikipedia]

IU's basketball season officially tips off tonight in Bloomington vs. Howard University. Brooke and I are making the trip for opening night very shortly. We're favored by quite a bit in this one, so it should be fun to see. Might be another long season this year, but it has to be better than last year! Still have the two tickets to each game, so if anyone wants to see a game let me know. [Howard Bison homepage]

Fall movies are kicking into high gear this weekend. Several wide releases that are good for action or drama. Two in particular are the back home from war drama The Messenger (90% fresh) and the Earth going down in flames 2012 (36% fresh). I've been reading lots of reviews on 2012 (review 1 and review 2) and it sounds like what you'd expect from the guy who did Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. The Earth is destroyed over 3 hours, which seems a bit long to me. The Messenger sounds like a timely drama about soldiers that tell next of kin that their loved one has died in the war overseas. Solid actors Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play the lead roles. Pirate Radio (56% fresh) also sounds like an entertaining flick, it starts this week as well. [Miami Herald & Chicago Tribune & NY Times & Rotten Tomatoes & IMDb.com]

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

For Veteran's Day this week, I found a great collection of videos showing dogs welcoming their owners home from war. Good stuff. [Mental Floss]

Quick interesting read about smells and childhood. Why do we remember smells so well from our early years? [New Scientist]

Home remedies and dealing with being sick. [Miami Herald]

Web Site of the Week: A blog that has every contract in Major League Baseball, in detail: Cot's Baseball Contracts.

Enjoy another warm weekend!

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Friday November 6th

There was some beautiful fall weather this week. No rain and sunny days, a few of which were quite warm. Gotta love that! Two nights of leaf raking is the only down side. Our trees still have about 25% of their leaves left, so we're not done raking. That's Brooke and Rowan enjoying the leaf pile in the back yard.

Rowan graduated from the nursery room to the 1 year old room this week. She'll be full time with the 1 year olds on Monday. It is true that they grow up too fast! I used to drop her off in the nursery as the biggest kid last week and now she's the smallest in the 1 year old drop off room. She loves it though. I got there early on Thursday to pick her up and she was laughing and playing with the other big kids in the gym room. Very cool.

Aunt Shiloh was moved in just fine last Sunday. Her new townhouse in Indy is pretty sweet. She's stoked because there's a Starbucks right around the corner from her...better than running into the mall for your java like she did in SC. It's nice to have you so close, Aunt Shiloh!

Happy Birthday this past Tuesday to Poppa Jeff. We're having birthday dinner in Anderson to celebrate tonight!

Off to another IU game this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to see it! Wisconsin comes to town. We are looking forward to seeing our friends and hanging out at the tailgate. Maybe we'll win, but I don't think so. First IU regular season basketball game is next Friday vs. Howard. Looking forward to checking this team out this year.

This week's News Quiz. I guessed by way to a 90%! [Chicago Tribune]

Ninja Monkey's starting QB Jay Cutler and his battle with the Big D. By the way, ended up at $1,110 collected for the Diabetes Walk for me! Another thanks to those who supported us. Brooke ended up at $140 and mom collected over $100. Not a bad haul for a three member team. November is National Diabetes Month. [Chicago Tribune & CDC.gov]

Look out for a new and improved Mickey Mouse from Disney. [NY Times]

The Pacers new low post threat, Roy Hibbert. He could be a good one. Thanks for the link Uncle Dave. [Indy Star]

Another one of Brooke and Rowan in the leaves. Rowan is so proud of her little leaf!

Have a great fall weekend! In the 60's both days here in Indiana.

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Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween edition...Friday October 30th

Spooky Halloween week...Rowan will be taking part in her first Trick or Treating experience this weekend. She'll be...wait for it...a monkey! Imagine that. She's toddling around really well now, so she is our little monkey. That's her up there at lunch this week. She's having Chick-Fil-A at the mall food court.

Aunt Shiloh is moving back this weekend. She'll be setting up in Indianapolis and we're moving her in on Sunday. It'll be nice having her back in the Hoosier state and far enough for her to not get Fort Wayne crazy!

This week's News Quiz. It's not easy! [Chicago Tribune]

Twitter gets a lot of their ideas and developments from their users. You on Twitter yet? Check me out www.twitter.com/spydeyswebb [NY Times]

A pretty cool old school picture of Indiana University. You can click on the IU flags for more cool photos. [Indiana University]

Any Dexter fans among my readers? Haven't gotten into this show myself, but it's getting quite a following. [LA Times]

Meet the new owners of the Chicago Cubs: the Ricketts family. [Chicago Tribune]

Rowan shopping with dad at Sam's Club. She loves shopping with dad!

Have a great Halloween weekend!

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Sheridan Pumpkin

His closeup and then from the yard.

His name is Elmo.

Pumpkin Time

Getting ready to carve the pumpkin. What's it going to be?

Friday October 23rd

Well last weekend didn't go exactly to plan. Friday night I hit Hoosier Hysteria with Uncle Dave and we had a great time. Saturday morning, Rowan woke up with what we found out was The Croup. Weekend plan changes! Back home on Saturday night, which was bad and Sunday wasn't much better. She got a few scrips to help out and is back toddling around like normal. [Wikipedia]

Being at home all week gave her the opportunity to practice her walking and she's pretty good now. Time to start working on her basketball skills!

IU basketball team looks bigger, faster, and stronger for this upcoming season. The new freshman coming in are going to help both in practice and game time. Can't wait. [IUHoosiers.com & ESPN]

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. Got lucky on my guesses for the pop quiz this week...how'd you do? [Chicago Tribune]

IU at the forefront of a new super computer network. [IU News Room]

Have you seen the new Apple mouse, Magic Mouse? Wow, that is pretty cool! [NY Times & Apple.com]

Website of the week: The Good Guide. Helps to find what's good for you in food and other products. Linked is their "What's In Your Kid's Food" quiz. It's a pretty easy quiz, so when you're done browse the site for a bit. There's some really great info on there.

New video of Rowan taking a stroll in the back yard...



Have a great weekend!
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Hoosier Hysteria

Hoosier Hysteria! Friday October 16th

Basketball season starts tonight! Going to IU's Hoosier Hysteria with Uncle Dave this evening to check out the new Indiana Hoosiers. Should be a great time. Tomorrow is homecoming vs. Illinois and we'll have the whole family there for that one. Weather will be getting warmer, so we're ready to go. [AP & Indy Star]

Sunday is the annual Sheridan family trip to Brown County State Park for the leaves and cousin Harrison's birthday, which is Monday. We've been doing this for years, always around the time of Uncle Christian's birthday. That was last Wednesday by the way, Happy Birthday Christian! Should have some pictures of our busy weekend up sometime next week. Looking forward to it! This time Rowan might be running around with her cousin. Last year she slept through the day...

Redskins Nation is up in arms about the state of the team. Lots of anti-Snyder campaigns picking up the last week. Dan Snyder is the meddlesome owner of the Redskins. This Sunday's game has been dubbed Black Sunday by some fans. Should be interesting to see what, if anything, transpires.

We need to get out to a movie! There's one that's garnering some attention this weekend: Where the Wild Things Are. It's taken a few years to get this movie from shoot to theater, but I think it'll be a bit of a mind bender. So far the reviews I've read today are mixed. I wasn't the biggest fan of the book, kind of freaked me out, so maybe Uncle Dave can take a turn on the movie review page after he sees it. He LOVES the book, don't you Douglas? One that Brooke and I saw a trailer for a few weeks back is Whip It. It's getting decent reviews and I think that may be the one we see next. That is if I can get Brooke to skip Saw VI. ; ) [IMDb.com & AP & Wikipedia & Rotten Tomatoes]

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. I did pretty well on these this week...[Chicago Tribune]

Here's 25 more reasons to get an iPhone, less things to carry. [Mac Life]

Getting closer to Halloween. We bought Rowan's costume this week. Now, where can you get scared out of your wits in the Midwest? [Chicago Tribune]

Time to start thinking Olympics 2020? Some cities are ready to put their hat in the rings. [Japan Times]

New money making operation for the state of California surrounding Oaksterdam University. [Newsweek]

Rowan at last year's Brown County picnic.

Have a great weekend...enjoy the sunny fall days!

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Friday October 9th

Well fall is officially here. I don't think the temps reached 65 this week and most days it was cloudy with a bit of rain. Saw in the Chicago Tribune there might be snow up there on Monday...? Yikes. This was very similar weather to our JDRF Walk last Saturday. It was a bit cold with a slight drizzle, but we finished the 2 miles. We're over $1,000 collected as a team so far, but I'm shooting for $1,000 on my own. See my page here.

Rowan took her first ride on a carousel this week. In the food court at Glenbrook Square Mall they have a double decker carousel with all kinds of animals. Rowan and mom took the first spin and then dad got on for another one. On the second, she took to a pony that went up and down...and loved it! The picture up there is from her first ride on a stationary giraffe. Looks like she was ready for that afternoon nap before the ride started!

Well, the baseball season ended for the Cubs last weekend. Playoff baseball is upon us and for the first time in 3 years, no Cubs. My AL team has always been the California Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), so I'll root for them until the Yankees win. It's already decided, right?

We had a great time in Bloomington for the Ohio State game. It was good to see so many tailgate friends we hadn't seen since the 2007 season, our last full year down there. They all asked about Rowan, who stayed with Grandma Brenda in Anderson. The OSU game wasn't so great, but you can't commit penalties and turn the ball over and beat a top ten team. Long way to go for the Hoosiers, but a bowl game is still possible. Big IU weekend next week with basketball Hoosier Hysteria on Friday night. Then we're hoping to take her to the Illinois game on Saturday, depending on the weather.

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. Something from my dad, a Golf Trivia Quiz. See how you do. [Chicago Tribune & Cincinnati.com]

The big NASA news this week was their bombing the moon, but this picture of colliding black holes is pretty sweet. [Yahoo & NASA]

Love at the bus stop. [Chicago Tribune]

Baseball and softball are out, but two new sports are in for the 2016 Olympics. [GamesBids.com]

People and their dogs. [IU News Room]

Rowan and cousin Harrison at the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes last weekend.

Keep warm!

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JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

The Sheridan family participated in the JDRF's Walk to Cure Diabetes last week at Franke Park here in Fort Wayne. It was a typical fall day in Indiana, which meant a little chilly, sprinkle of rain, and some wind.

And we had a great time! Team Sheridan consists of Team Captain Brooke Sheridan and team members Seth Sheridan and Jeanne Sheridan. Combined we've raised almost $1,000 to JDRF's search for a cure. You can only imagine how this makes me feel!

Donating is not done just because the walk is! We're raising money for the cure until October 30th. If you've already donated, thank you so much! If you haven't and would like to, go to the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes page and search for me or Brooke. Our walker pages will have all the information you need to make a donation to either of us. If you have any questions, just ask!

Being me, I took a few photos of our walk and made a video of it. You can see the photos on my Picasa page under the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes album. The video is linked to SpydeysWebb YouTube and below for your viewing pleasure.

With your help we can find a cure for the Big D, and that would be a pretty cool thing to do.

Breakfast

Where are my eggies?

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Anderson.