Gratitude

Thanks for reading. I am amazed, every time, when someone new tells me they read this. I doubt I will ever get used to it. Plus, unlike the team, RWD readers never stress me out. Thanks for the fun comments, and the emails, and the couches to sleep on, and for buying Peanut Butter Hjelle Time shirts, and the drinks, and the zany cheers and signs, and the RWD links on your sites, and the fantastic friendships, and the inspiration, and the incredible memories.

Happy Thanksgiving!

SharpCast

Anaheim Ducks podcast with MacGregor Sharp!!

Nerdy podcast man takes a shot at college hockey in the middle there.

Grand Theft Bulldog

UMTC 3, tUMD 4 (OT)
UMTC 2, tUMD 3

Let's talk about how epic this weekend was. I can describe it with two events.

First. When Travis Oleksuk scored the game-winner with twelve seconds left in overtime on Friday, my brother (who was watching at my dad's) jumped up, launching the small dog in his lap across the room.

Second. When I got home from the game on Saturday, I had this email from my cousin:

If anyone so much as mentions that there were hockey games between UMD and UM (henceforth to be known not very affectionately as the "south campus”) at Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, that person will not only not have any stuffing but will also not receive dessert...

Sweep-sweep-sweep, sweep-sweep-sweep, sweep-sweep sweep sweepsweep! (Sing that to the tune of "Jingle Bells." Top 40 material right here.)

How did this happen? I don't even know. Tenacity? Luck? Skill? Determination? A desire to please me? All of these things and more?

I went to both games. There are about a million reasons why I love being a Bulldogs fan, and being at Mariucci reminded me of a few. Like, ticket prices, atmosphere at games, the ability to hear the public address, parking for free or almost free (depending on what time of year), being able to move around during intermission without having to practically crowd-surf...

Being at Mariucci is pretty fun. The crowd really gets into it. I mean, at times there were five whole people in the student section cheering! They are also really nice to opposing fans, and extremely punctual. Nobody came in more than 11 minutes into the game.

Gopher fans simply do not know how to trash talk, and it is sad. I have a lot more respect for someone who runs their mouth the whole game than someone who randomly starts up in the middle of the 3rd period, once the Gophers have tied it up. I love going back and forth with people. As long as they are sane, we usually end up having fun.

Gopher fans are also extremely hilarious when they accuse the refs of a bias against them. Now they know how pretty much every other team feels when they play the Gophers! Ah well. Justice was served.

Now let's discuss some individuals. Of course all of you guys are fantastic but there are a few who I must chat with.

Travis Oleksuk
Overtime goal = amazing. You caused a dog to be launched. Also you shut up so many idiots. Please don't miss any more games.

Jack Connolly
Always excellent. You got Team Cougar a lot of fantasy points this weekend and you made the Gophers look silly focusing all their attention on Fontaine. Mike Hoeffel tried to recreate one of your Friday night goals but failed, swinging away like it was baseball. Additionally, your parents looked very nice on TV.

Chad Huttel
You are a very good goalie. Thank you.

Kenny Reiter
You are a good goalie too, but I do question some of your choices. Playing the puck is cool. But there are five other guys on the ice who can help you out when there are guys from the other team there.

Justin Fontaine
Sorry you had to be triple-teamed, but the Gophers just aren't man enough to go one-on-one with you.

Kyle Schmidt
I thoroughly enjoyed you making Kangas look foolish. You certainly have a talent for embarrassing the opponents. Continue!

Mike Connolly
It was great when you deked out three Gophers. I wonder if they collected their jockstraps off the ice themselves or if the Gophers had to hire someone for that purpose. It would have been incredibly sweet if you had scored, but it still looked neat.

Numbers
Wins until we reach last season's total: 4! (SWEEPALICIOUS!)
Points until we reach last season's total: 14! (Keep rackin' them up!)

My Guys
Jack Connolly: 21! (Still the nation's points leader!)
Brady Lamb: 8 (Obviously jitters at being added to Team Cougar)
Mike Seidel: 5! (Embellishment, my you-know-what!)

Freshmen
Dylan Olsen: 8!
Mike Seidel: 5!
Keegan Flaherty: 2
Wade Bergman: 1
Dan Delisle: 1
Jake Hendrickson: 1
Drew Olson: 1

Connollys
Jacky: 21!
Mikey: 14!

Olsen/Olson
Drew: 1
Dylan: 8!

Drews
Olson: 10
Akins: 15

On Notice
Dan Delisle
Keegan Flaherty
David Grun
Jake Hendrickson
Chad Huttel
Drew Olson

Goals Only
Drew Akins
Rob Bordson
Jordan Fulton
Dylan Olsen

Dirty Dozen

Today is Dirty's birthday.

Dirty is a pretty neat person who I talk to pretty much every day. On the InterWebs, of course, because he lives in the middle of nowhere and we are both sociopaths who eschew normalcy.

Dirty makes me laugh pretty much every time I talk to him. We are also always simultaneously reacting in the same bizarre way to the most random of things. I really need to start saving examples because I don't know if that even made sense. He'll know what I mean.

12 Hilarious Things Involving Dirty

1. He posted this picture on SiouxSports a few years ago. At least, I think it was him, but if not, I now associate it with him.














2. Last year I had to drive MEg, Dirty, and Dirty's vile henchman to the airport on Christmas Day. I got confused driving in construction and we ended up going the wrong way and I had about a thimbleful of gas in my tank and it might also have been snowing. Dirty was in the backseat of the car yelling like he was a televangelist about how we were never going to make it to the airport. I think you had to be there but it was really funny. They were pretty desperate for a driver, clearly.

3. Last year I named Dirty Blogger Hottie of the Year. It offended people. Just like pretty much every post on his hilarious blog. He did make a typo in the post by saying "a historic" rather than "an historic."

4. USCHO poster Jockstock (rumoured to be Tyler Hirsch) wrote this ode to Dirty.

5. This post on Dirty's Diatribe not only epitomizes his love/hate relationship with Startthebus, but it also is a quintessential Dirty/fan interaction.

6. At a Gopher-Sioux game, Danny Irmen told Dirty he liked his cape, and that his sister had one just like it. Dirty has some great interactions with players. And also Gwoz. I was amazed that that post had 41 comments but pretty much all of them are in Chinese or Korean or something.

7. I Gauntletted Dirty (remember when I used to do that?). It is a terrifying example of how similar we are. Two insane egos fighting for control. I totally claim responsibility for Dirty starting a blog, as I suggested it in the interview.

8. Dirty got in a game-long argument with this 14-year-old kid from Ashland at a tUMD/UND game at tDECC. MEg and I got stuck with this kid this year and sent Dirty a little photo greeting. This kid can not WAIT until Dec 4/5.

9. Dirty was obsessed with Chris "Hollywood" Clark and his spiky hair. He used to give hair tips on USCHO but ran out and now uses a tip from Hollywood himself permanently: "when its minus 20 and u have to go outside.. make sure u wear a winter hat as the mohawk does not enjoy the winter weathe[r]."

10. Dirty makes the most amazing shirts, including a "Tech Fans: Have you seen me?" Casey Pierro-Zabotel shirt or a picture of Dude Love deep-throating a hot dog captioned "I score more than Tech."

11. If I ever need to make an offensive but hilarious comment, I can always always always make it to Dirty and he never finds it offensive and usually is either already thinking the same thing or at least finds it hilarious.

12. Just terrifying.











HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DIRTY!

MACGREGOR SHARP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anaheim Ducks Recall MacGregor Sharp

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is AWESOME news. Congratulations MacGregor! Way to represent the Bulldogs. Let's hope you get more than just a cup of coffee!!

(Just in case you are scoring at home, there are 3 former My Guys who are playing/have played in the NHL: Nisky, Garrison, and Sharp. If that's not an endorsement for enduring my creepiness, what is?)

Multiple Personalities

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I am schizophrenic
and so am I

I think I've used that on here before, but I think it's funny. UMDDogz should know where I got that poem from... let's see if he chimes in.

ALL THAT because holymotherofjustification, I am the TWEET OF THE WEEK on INCH. Biddco let me know!

There's some boring stuff to scroll through, and then:

TWEET OF THE WEEK
runwiththedogs:
about 4 hats on the ice … pathetic

The people behind the Minnesota Duluth Runnin’ with the Dogs blog tweeted this message shortly after the Bulldogs’ Justin Fontaine scored his third goal in Saturday’s 8-1 rout of Michigan Tech (he would add a fourth goal before all was said and done). The message touches on an INCH pet peeve: If you are wearing a hat to a hockey game and a player scores three goals, it is your duty to toss said hat onto the ice.

Don’t want to chuck your favorite lid? Bring one you don’t care about. And
even if it is your best hat, throw it anyway—the good karma you’ll get from the
hockey gods will far surpass the out-of-pocket cost of replacing it.

Just a quick note to INCH: there is only one person behind RWD. One schizoid crazy stalkerific person. Also, you made a spelling error which I corrected.

PEOPLE. IT IS REALLY SAD WHEN I CAN NAME ALL BUT ONE OF THE FOUR PEOPLE WHO THREW THEIR HATS ON THE ICE: BIDDCO, DHG, and a dude who was at Old Chicago whose name I do not recall, I am sorry sir, but I applaud your effort, as I saw that you threw your stocking hat, missed the ice the first time, had someone throw it back at you, and then threw it again successfully. (Biddco, who is always helpful, identified this person as tHendoTwins from tPB.)

IT IS NOT LIKE THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. OMFG. FOR REALS. UNACCEPTABLE. Now, when Jacky gets a hat trick on Friday against UND, you mofos better not mess it up. I am bringing a hat to every game. It will be easy as I will just steal one of Biddcos out of his room.

On an unrelated note, is it bad that it's 7:56 PM and I am drinking my 4th cup of coffee?

A Day Late and a Dollar Short/Eight is Enough

tUMD 2, Fortunate Nerds 3/tUMD 8, Unfortunate Nerds 1

Oh, I totally failed you all this weekend, I'm sorry. Except I did tweet the Saturday game! Awesome! I tried to avoid typos. It was kind of fun, but it also sort of took away from my maximum enjoyment.

So, Friday. Went to the Coach's Show lunch at tSports Garden. Failed to listen to most of what Sandelin was saying as I was arguing with Ciskie's father-in-law. We have differing views on the team. I will leave it at that. Then they had a drawing and called my ticket number and I yelled "THAT'S ME!" and came on down like it was The Price is Right. And I had to run by Sandy to get it at the front table, where Bob Nielsen was sitting. And it was also live on the radio. Fortunately, there were like 10 people at the brunch and most were geriatric, and who listens to the radio anyway? This sort of ruined my plans to talk to Nielsen about the one-sided article in the Duluth News Tribune about the student section, because 1. the geriatrics were monopolizing him and 2. I had sort of wrecked my credibility by looking like a moron. At least I didn't yell "F*** YEAH!" or something. That would really ruin my case.

The game pretty much depressed me. Especially when the Huskies scored in the middle of the 2nd goal lap. And also the sign that I made offended an idiot. It said "EVERY TIME A COWBELL RINGS" and on the back "GOD KILLS A HUSKY," with KILL in red letters and paint splattered on the sign like blood. That's not really that bad. I didn't draw a dead dog or anything. I should have.

Good things from Friday include goals from JACKY!!!!! and Mikey Seidel, with a Brady Lamb assist on the Jacky goal, which means that all of My Guys had points. I didn't think tUMD played particularly poorly, as they had about a million chances that just didn't pan out. Some days you have the puck luck, some days you don't. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. Other good things include seeing my bestie and Biddco after a long period of not seeing them.

Then Saturday.

Saturday we made a bunch of signs including a NORTH WISCONSIN sign with a map of Wisconsin and the UP; a Revenge of the Nerds-themed sign, and one that just said NO. The NO sign was probably the most hilarious. It was so universally applicable.

Then we went to the MTU alumni dinner at tGarden, but I missed out on 1. talking to Jamie Russell and 2. seeing the hottie who is in charge of the MTU alumni stuff. Tragedy. I saw Jamie for like 10 seconds as he was leaving. Then I saw Ross walking like a robot as he was walking to the bathroom to throw up. Before the game. Way to go.

Since Tech won on Friday, Biddco lost the bet he had with MeanEgirl. This meant he had to wear her Kinrade jersey. Then she listed off about 800 things we could not do, including 1. cover the jersey 2. throw it on the floor OR ground 3. throw it in the lake 4. take it off 5. put pins or tape on it or 6. allow anyone else to wear it. Biddy and I got creative and realized he could still ride the pony with it (in front of the Tech parents, which was a bad idea) and also he could hike up his pants and tuck it in like a nerd (ALSO in front of the Tech parents, which was ALSO a bad idea). I laughed so hard I could barely walk. He looked amazing.

He looked ESPECIALLY amazing running EIGHT laps, as tUMD scored EIGHT goals. What? And Justin Fontaine had 4 of them! tUMD fans are lame and only 4 people threw hats on the ice. THAT IS PATHETIC, PEOPLE. PATHETIC. I am going to have to start wearing hats to games simply to make sure I'm ready in case of emergency. Really, there were some stupid hats being worn. Get with the program, people! It's been 5 years since the last one! Did you forget how it worked? I wish I had a YouTube video of Fonz's 3rd goal. Oh my. BIG weekend for Brady Lamb and MCON as well, and former My Guy Rob Bordson. Biddy and I discovered the secret to Rob Bordson's newfound amazingness, although I will not share.

SO incredibly proud of how the guys responded after Friday's loss. Now come down to the Cities and sweep the Gophers.

Numbers
Wins until we reach last season's total: 6! (Let's knock that down some more this weekend!)
Points until we reach last season's total: 18! (Keep rackin' them up!)

My Guys
Jack Connolly: 18! (Another awesome weekend!!!!)
Brady Lamb: 8! (Elevating his game to a new level!!!)
Mike Seidel: 4! (Superb!!!)

Freshmen
Dylan Olsen: 6!
Mike Seidel: 4!
Keegan Flaherty: 2!
Wade Bergman: 1
Dan Delisle: 1
Jake Hendrickson: 1
Drew Olson: 1

Connollys
Jacky: 18!
Mikey: 13! (Catching up!)

Olsen/Olson
Drew: 1
Dylan: 6!

Drews
Olson: 8
Akins: 15

On Notice
Dan Delisle
Jordan Fulton
David Grun
Jake Hendrickson
Chad Huttel
Drew Olson

Goals Only
Drew Akins
Rob Bordson
Cody Danberg
Dylan Olsen