Rex Hudler

QUOTE (danman31 @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 04:18 PM) That's a major stretch. NU led the whole game and the calls were bad on personal fouls both ways. As Zoom said, the helmet to helmet one was a no-brainer and before the questionable call NU was a big favorite to end the game on that drive anyway. What was the deal with that f'd up formation when going for the tying 2? Shotgun with 2 RBs to the left of the QB and then a WR going in motion to the right of the center? It's no wonder the center threw it away. What you don't understand is that it is not possible for an SEC team to lose to anyone outside their elite conference without some kind of excuse. It HAD to be the referees fault. Any missed tackles, turnovers or failed first downs earlier in the game don't count whne making such excuses! Danman, I figured you for already understanding this rule....

QUOTE (danman31 @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 03:05 AM) North Dakota State 6, Kansas 3. Setting back football 60 years. So just as one would expect, Kansas scores 14 points against GA Tech in the 1st quarter this week! Don't you just love the consistency of 18-22 yr olds? lol

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Sep 3, 2010 -> 01:00 PM) 12-15 will be out for UNC vs. LSU tomorrow. Seems like a complete mess. Can Butch Davis survive this once it is all over?

QUOTE (He_Gawn @ Sep 3, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) Blackmon is a flat out stud for his age. He won't arrive for a while, but Creans recruiting is really starting to pick up and it is sending a message to the rest of the state. I'm old enough to remember his dad and his dad was one helluva HS player.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 2, 2010 -> 10:29 PM) I don't mind the general idea of icing the kicker, but at some point it shouldn't be possible anymore. Having 3 kicks in the air with 1 counting is just stupid. At some point everyone should know the kick is about to happen, and nothing can be done by the defense to stop it. Simple way of fixing that is to change the rule on kicking plays that timeouts can only be called on the field and not by the sidelines. If a defensive player calls timeout, its much less likely he will time it so precisely and the ball would rarely get snapped, let alone kicked.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) Crean picked up Peter Jurkin and Ron Patterson in the past week. If we can get Zeller or Parea (or both?!) I'd be a happy Hoosier. How about James Blackmon Jr?

Different grasses are used in different climates. Southern clubs use bermuda grass overseeded with rye grass. The Bermuda is a warm weather grass that thrives in the hot, dry South. It goes dormant in cooler weather and turns brown (zoysia also does this) and does not turn green until the weather gets hot enough (typically end of May, early June in Bham). The rye grass is a cooler weather grass and stays green all winter. It dies off as it gets warmer, allowing the bermuda to take hold. If you look closely at southern fields, you will often see unusual wear in late spring when the rye starts to die off and the bermuda hasn't fully taken yet. Watch high traffic areas such as where the umpires stand near the baselines.

It was in my "Chicago Trip" thread. Duke works for Shoreline, which is the company we took. It was an excellent tour, one of our favorite parts of the trip. The tour guide was funny and very informative. That said, they do squeeze a ton in during the hour. I believe Wendell Tours offers 90 minute tours. If I go back, we'll probably do that one just to compare and see if it is more thorough or if they just take their time getting all the information to you. I'd definitely recommend Shoreline, esp if time is an issue at all. http://www.shorelinesightseeing.com/

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 5, 2010 -> 09:34 PM) Rex? How was it? Hey, thanks for asking. It was a whirlwind, but a lot of fun. I'm still tired from the trip I think. We caught most everything on our agenda and a few things. Some thoughts... 1. We did squeeze in a couple of hours at the Field Museum after the game Saturday. Fortunately, we found out they were staying open later because of Taste. Two hours was enough for me. Museums in general aren't my thing. We saw "Sue" and the new Mastadons & Mammoths exhibit. Both were pretty cool to check out. 2. I was a little disappointed with the Museum of Science & Industry. Parts of it were pretty cool, but others were too kid oriented (I think it was ss2k who referenced that earlier). We have an interactive science museum here and it reminded me of that somewhat. Too many loud kids running around. We did have to fly through it, however. There were parts I would have liked to spent more time on, but we wanted to get in as much as possible. 3. The Robie House was pretty cool. I'm not into architecture a whole lot, but it was very interesting. Defiitely worth checking out. 4. Loved the architecture cruise. Went on the 60-minute cruise from Shoreline. Next time I think I'll take the one that is 90 minutes (Wendell?) and see how different they are. Our guide was excellent. He crammed a ton of info in 60 minutes and made it all interesting. 5. The games were just okay. Enjoyed hanging out at the Cubby Bear and Wrigleyville on game day, but I didn't really care who won and the seats were just so-so. 6. Tufano's was good. Maybe not as great as I was expecting and not very busy at 8:30 on a Thursday night, but a nice place to check out. 7. At pizza at both Lou's and Giordano's. Lou's was good. I've had Giordano's before and was disappointed. We had to wait almost 2 hours. They told us to pre-order after 45 minutes. I think our pizza was probably done and sitting around for too long before we were finally seated. If I had to do it over, I'd have skipped Giordano's and the wait and checked out someplace else. 8. Loved the Blue Man Group. Very entertaining show. 9. Stood in line for an hour to get Garrett's popcorn. The stuff was damned good, but not sure I would do an hour again. Maybe 15 minutes? 10. Hotel was great. Right at Rush and Bellevue, across the street from Gibson's on one side and Lux Bar and Original Pancake House on the other. Would definitely recommend the Sutton Place Hotel. 11. Had breakfast at the Tempo Cafe, Ann Sather & Lux Bar. All were very good.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Getting ready to head to Nashville for the evening and then flying out in the morning. Should be a fun trip. It's been 5-6 years since I've been up there. I'm really looking forward to it!

Leaving Wed for Nashville and flying out of Nashville early Thursday morning. Almost ready. 2 questions... 1. Are reservations available/necessary at Tufano's (Thursday night after 8pm) 2. Going to Lou Malnati's Friday night. Should there be any preference between their Lincoln Park (Wrightwood) and River North (N Wells St) locations? Lincoln Park would be closer to where we are coming from, but River North is not far from hotel.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 28, 2010 -> 12:34 AM) If your hotel has a business center, I highly recommend the Google Maps transit schedules. It tells you the best buses to take to Science and Industry/Shedd/Field etc. The El is useless for those areas. Thanks for the tip. I found that by accident last week. Part of the reason for scheduling everything is so that we can figure out where to go and how to get there. I've already entered all directions into my wireless phone through Sat. Working on Sunday today. It is very helpful. I noticed last night that a route I had previously looked up did not show up. Eventually I realized that it was because I had not changed the departure date and time and it was only looking up options available at 1:00 am. Once I corrected the date/time, the route was there. For about 15 minutes I was thinking I had messed up the first time and it was driving me nuts. The other tip I have for those traveling to Chicago and taking public transportation is to order a transit card in advance. www.transitchicago.com sells 1 and 3 day passes which allow for unlimited use on all trains and buses. No need to worry about money to pay at each stop. You can order them in advance and have them mailed to you.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Jun 27, 2010 -> 08:21 PM) The Shedd is great, but get will call tickets if you do it. 90% of my time at work is spent running the taxi's from the Shedd and you're looking at lines that easily strech to 2-3 hours just to get in on the weekends. People love that aquarium. You don't do taxis all the way down to the Museum of Science and Industry, do you?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 26, 2010 -> 09:23 AM) Yes. You'll be perfectly fine there. Keep walking a bit and check out the U of C campus. Its really nice. Cool, thanks. I appreciate your help and from everyone. In the past, I've either met friends up there who knew how to get around or we just got tickets to games and winged everything else. I'm typically not much of a planner so this is different for me. My girlfriend's never been up there and wants to see a couple of things so I need to make sure we have the time. It should be fun. Another question I have is about travel. Heading back north to the hotel around 3:30 or 4:00 on Thursday. Would I be better taking the #2 bus (Hyde Park Express) along Lake Shore Drive for the scenery or taking the #55 bus to the Red Line @ Howard to Chicago and walking from there? Would traffic be an issue taking the bus? Anyone use the public tranportation enough to know?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 26, 2010 -> 09:11 AM) Not sure where that is. Be careful moving west from the museum to your destination. Most of the area north is the University of Chicago which is ok, but the rest of the area is terrible. Englewood is west of there past the highway and is literally the wild west with shootings. This help? Walk to Robie House

Anyone see any problems with walking from the Museum of Science & Industry to the Robie House (5757 S. Woodlawn)? It looks to be about a 20 minute walk. It's basically a straight shot on 57th St to Woodlawn. No potential safety issues? It would be in the middle of the day.

Thursday July 1 - Sunday July 4 Any suggestions on what to eat? The lemon chicken looked damn good as did spaghetti & meatballs.

Holy crap, this is getting crazy. I don't think I've ever planned a trip like this. Here is our tentative agenda. Tell me how crazy we are for trying to pull this off. Thursday - arrive Chicago 8:10am -- drop off bags at hotel -- head to Museum of Science and Industry (cab or bus? - will cab be any faster?) -- leave about 1:00 and head to the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie house for a 2:00 tour -- head back to hotel, check in, change clothes -- Head to Art Institue (free admission after 5:00 and open until 8:00) -- dinner at Tufano's (you guys sold me on it, especially after watching the Triple D video) -- probably pass out next Friday -- up early for breakfast at The Bongo Room -- to Navy Pier for a 10:00 architecture cruise -- head back to hotel (if time allows) to change/get what we need for the rest of the day -- head to Wrigleyville for a 1:20 game -- see Blue Man Group at 7:00 -- pizza at either Giordano's or Lou's Saturday -- breakfast at Ann Sather (cinnamon rolls) -- briefly check out Millenium Park or walk to the beach -- head to Wrigley for a 12:05 game -- drink after game? -- dinner at Smoque after the game? -- Maybe head to Navy Pier Sat night? Will there be fireworks? Sunday -- possible visits to The Field Museum to see "Sue" quickly, Millenium Park or to the beach -- Head to airport about noon

Fresh hand-squeezed raspberry lemonade w/ Absolute (pick your flavor but we like orange) and an orange wedge is a nice refreshing cocktail when it's 95 degrees.

Any thoughts or more Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives type places? Any decent places for lunch or dinner around the museums? I think at this point we're going to eat pizza one night (probably Giordano's or Lou's if I can find one), and steak another. I've heard The Bongo Room is great for breakfast so we'll likely try that. Also saw a bit on the Food Network about cinnamon rolls at Ann Sather so we may check that out one morning. We'll likely only do one "nice" dinner so we'll probably do Gibson's or Morton's. I know Gibson's is across the street from the hotel. Lastly, any word on bars on/around Rush Street? Not really looking for dance clubs, but more a nice bar with a nice atmosphere.

What is there to see at the old Playboy mansion?

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Jun 16, 2010 -> 09:41 AM) Pac 10 commish Larry Scott wanted to substitute Kansas for Okie State at the last minute, no wonder they supported the Big 12 deal. Looks like Texas Tech was the lone screwee. I thought Kansas was a substitute for A&M, when it became apparent that the Aggies wanted to go the SEC route?

Here is our thinking at this point. We'll be in early on Thursday July 1. We'd like to squeeze in a half day at one of the museums, an architecture tour and then the Art Institute that night. The Art Institute is open late on Thursday nights. She has a membership to the McWane Center here which is a local interactive science museum. That membership will get us into either Field of S & I. Friday and Saturday we have tickets to games that afternoon, so it might be difficult to do any of the above on those days around the games. We fly back Sunday. Also, are there any Frank Lloyd Wright homes (or anything related) within reasonable distance? At this point, one of the architecture tours seems to be our compromise, but that was one of the first things she mentioned when we discussed going.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 17, 2010 -> 09:15 PM) Field. Science and Industry is a much younger feel. If you have kids, S&I for sure. Would be just me and my girlfriend, SS2K. We're 40ish.

Field Museum or Museum of Science & Industry Which one and why? Let me add, we'll likely only have aboug a half day.