No Holiday For Huskers; Is This It For Watson?

If you watched the Holiday Bowl, you saw a lot of this from Nebraska.
If you're a Nebraska football fan who watched the Holiday Bowl on ESPN, rest assured that you will not be getting those three-and-a-half hours of your life back. Actually, it was only three hours – because the first half-hour of the broadcast was the fourth quarter and overtime periods of the (insert sponsor name) Music City Bowl featuring North Carolina-Tennessee. Err, make that two hours and 50 minutes, because ESPN also spent about 10 minutes cutting in for Stanford's upset of Connecticut in women's basketball (ending an NCAA-record 90-game win streak).

In between all the (non) action, ESPN played a commercial for Ashland University. Or maybe it was Bridgepoint University. Or some college somewhere. All I know is that 1) I didn't know until tonight that the Holiday Bowl was sponsored by "Bridgepoint Education." (Even the official Holiday Bowl site Google entry doesn't mention the title sponsor's name.); 2) Bridgepoint spent so much money sponsoring the bowl that it couldn't pay to produce more than two commercials.

But the real entertainment from the Huskers' 19-7 loss came after the game. That's when Nebraska football fans highjacked Shawn Watson's Wikipedia entry. Preserved for your reading enjoyment here:

Shawn Watson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shawn Watson is the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. He is a terrible offensive coordinator. He has no idea what he is doing.

Shawn Watson was born in Carbondale, IL on September 21, 1959, and graduated from Carterville High School in Carterville, Illinois.

Coaching career
Watson began his football coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1982 at Southern Illinois; the same school where he had completed his playing career. He earned his Masters Degree in Offensive Mismanagement.

His first full time position was at Illinois, where he started as a graduate assistant for two years beginning in 1983 before promotions to Offensive Tackles Coach, Tight Ends Coach and Wide Receivers Coach by 1986. Illinois participated in two bowl games during Watson's time there, including the Rose Bowl following the 1983 season.

Beginning in 1987, Watson coached in various positions at Miami (OH) University across seven years, starting as Wide Receivers Coach, and moving through positions as Tight Ends Coach, Wide Receivers Coach and completing his career at Miami in 1993 as Quarterbacks Coach and Recruiting Coordinator.

In 1994, Watson obtained his first appointment as Head Coach when he was hired to take control of the program where he started his playing and coaching careers; Southern Illinois. SIU had gone 15-29 in the four years prior to Watson's arrival, and his first year was a rough start to his head coaching career as SIU finished 1-10. SIU finished the next two seasons with repeat 5-6 records before Watson moved on, finishing with an overall head coaching record to date of 11-22. During Watson's three year tenure at SIU he produced 20 all-conference players and an NFL-drafted Tight End in Damon Jones.

In 1997, Watson was hired by Head Coach Gary Barnett at Northwestern University as Quarterbacks Coach. When Barnett was later hired as Head Coach by the University of Colorado in 1999, Watson also followed and continued for a year as Quarterbacks Coach. In 2000, Watson was promoted to Offensive Coordinator at Colorado while maintaining his role with the quarterbacks, and remained in that role until Barnett's firing at the conclusion of the 2005 season. Why Nebraska would want a former Colorado coach is still in question. Experts believe that it was part of Bill Callahan's master plan to destroy Nebraska Football.

In 2006, Head Coach Bill Callahan hired Watson to the position of Tight Ends Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Nebraska, and he was subsequently promoted the following year to the same position he had held at Colorado; Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach. When Callahan was fired at the conclusion of the 2007 season, Watson was one of two members of Callahan's staff that were retained under new Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini. Shawn Watson has consistently lost games because of poor play calling and stupidity. It is suspected that he is taking bribes from Casey Martinez, Taylor Martinez's father, in order to ensure that Taylor plays no matter how terrible his performance is. No one knows why he has yet to be fired by head coach Bo Pelini.

So where to now? John Bishop from KLIN has a terrific piece that he hammered out no more than 20 minutes after Nebraska limped off the field. Particularly interesting is his opinion on ESPN's coverage of bowl games. I completely agree.

Washington used its head to beat the Huskers.

Taylor Martinez spent a lot of time doing this in the second half.

Pelini told reporters afterward that he takes full blame for the loss.

Is this the last we'll see of Martinez as a Husker?

Veronica's New Skirt

Veronica shows off her new skirt from Grandma Aube.

Not Frosty, But Close

Check out the snowman Lauren made on my deck.

Basketball Stats Check

Click to enlarge the first stats report
for Sean's 7th/8th grade girls basketball team.

Lady Gaga In Omaha

So Lady Gaga was apparently in Omaha over the Christmas weekend.

I didn't see her. Neither did my daughters. But we saw the pictures on Facebook and a story in the Omaha World-Herald.

So what drew Lady Gaga – one of the music industry's hottest properties these days – to Omaha? Apparently, her boyfriend, Luc Carl, is from nearby Springfield, Neb., and she wanted to spend the holiday weekend with him and his family.

It would normally be a big deal for Omaha to have such a celebrity in its midst. But not this time. George Clooney drew much more media attention for his two-day stint here in 2008 shooting scenes for "Up in the Air."

But leave it to New York magazine to write, "the town was abuzz!" At least they didn't write something about cowboys and wagons.

Dinner With Grandma & Grandpa

Emily (left) and Lauren with the completed puzzle.
Tonight, we enjoyed a nice dinner of chicken and rice, cheese bread and chocolate brownies at Grandma and Grandpa YD's house. It was a wonderful night away from the apartment and the food was delicious. In fact, we ate everything. An entire pan of the chicken and rice, all the cheese bread and an entire pan of brownies.

Afterwards, the girls enjoyed all the new toys that Lauren helped Grandma pick out. Emily buzzed through a 300-piece puzzle in about 90 minutes. Olivia was a holy terror with a remote-controlled car, Lauren played a mini saxophone and Julia and Veronica played on Photo Booth for awhile. (We'll have to get a few of those photos...)

Sean also took the opportunity to show Lauren how to install Skype, so hopefully she will do that on the girls' computer at home so he can talk to them while he's in Europe.

Presents From Santa

Lauren was all smiles about her cat slippers.


Olivia (left) got silver boots. Julia shows off tiger stripes.


Emily (left) got a pair of warm, grey slippers
while Veronica was surprised with Hello Kitty.

Some Terrific Surprises

The girls show off their gifts from afar.
The girls had some additional gifts under their Christmas tree. Sean brought back a gift bag from his colleague, Georges Lüchinger, who lives in Lichtenstein.

After the gifts were passed out, there was a flurry of opening the little white boxes. Inside were unique, colorful bracelets. And the girls also got a big bag of yummy Christmas cookies. It was quite a surprise and a terrific gesture of friendship from Georges's children, Simon and Julia. Some of the girls have seen Simon and Julia during Sean's Skype sessions with Georges.

Presents From Dad

The girls each received a princess necklace for Christmas.

Santa's Reply

Lauren got the giggles reading Santa's letter.
So Santa left us a letter in reply to all the letters the girls left him on Christmas Eve.

And true to form, he ate most of the two chocolate chip cookies that we left out for him. And he made and drank some of the hot chocolate Dad left out for him, too.

On the subject of Julia's attempt to get Santa to snap a few pictures of himself. Well, that was a bit of a fail. (See the photos below.) Julia even left him a set of detailed instructions. What we did figure out from looking at the photos he took was that he stopped by our apartment between 3 and 3:15 in the morning. No wonder none of us saw him!

Here's the text of the letter he left us:

Dear Weide Girls,

Thank you for the treats. Thanks for the hot chocolate! It warmed me up!

I was going to come through the patio door, but didn't want to wake you.

So I used the trapdoor in your hallway.

Please continue to be good for your dad.

Love, Santa

P.S. I also left presents at your house!!


This isn't Santa's suit. It's part of a present.

And he took a picture of the wall, too.

Letters For Santa

The girls left a couple nice letters for Santa Claus.

Dear Santa and Reindeer:

I am a 5 year old. I wish I could take a ride with you on your sleigh. I love you and your reindeer. I hope you are safe delivering presents around the world.

Love,

Veronica


Dear Santa,

I hope you gave me the toys I wanted or new toys. Thank you for the toys (even though I am not awake.) I've always wanted to stay awake to see you! But I always fall asleep. I hope you love the treat we left. Olivia left some oatmeal sprinkles for your reindeer. Can you take a picture of yourself? Merry Christmas! How old are you? Are the elves boys or girls or both?

Have a safe trip!

P.S. Leave me a note.

P.S.S. I lost my tooth!!!

Love,

Julia

One last question: What does Mrs. Clause do when you leave?


Dear Santa Claus & Reindeer,

I would like you to know that the stuff (Oatmeal and sprinkles) was from me. I made some at school, but I left it at home. So I made some for my dad's house. It is for your reindeer. My name is Olivia. I am 8 years old. I hope you work out when you safely get home from eating all those cookies. If you want to reply do it down below. I love you and your reindeer and Mrs. Claus. You can deliver some toys to my dads and my moms house. Thanks.

Love, Olivia!


How to work camera
1. Look at top of camera
2. Push ON/OFF
3. Go to mirror. Take picture of self
4. Push big button
5. To see picture, press > button
6. Now push ON/OFF
7. It should turn off
8. Have a
9. Merry Merry
10. Christmas and a happy new year

Other wall art:
Lauren's winter scene.

Julia's makeshift stocking.

Emily's Fireplace.

Our Christmas Tree (and a sign on the kitchen wall to tell you so.)

TRON: Legacy

Veronica looks a bit starstruck in her 3D glasses.
We wanted to take in a movie this weekend at Aksarben Cinema. But having already seen "Tangled," our options were a bit limited. So I decided we would watch the original "Tron" and then go see "TRON: Legacy" on Christmas Eve.

"Tron" is not exactly the most viewer-friendly movie. I think I had to see it three or four times to understand exactly what was going on. So it's no surprise that Emily and Julia were asking questions about it throughout. But that was OK. I wanted to make sure they got the gist of it and got the back story before seeing "TRON: Legacy."

The girls seemed to enjoy the sequel – particularly the futuristic look that comes with having a movie in 3D. Some highlights included: Veronica falling asleep, Lauren spectacularly dropping the pop and ice and one of the guys behind us saying, "that was the worst movie I've seen" as the credits rolled.

The girls also were the only ones in the theater who chuckled at the line, "now that's a really big door."

Christmas Eve Surprise

Aunt Bridget surprised us with a gift of a vacuum and new PJs.

Behind The Scenes: The Christmas Letter

Emily (left) and Olivia headed up the addressing process.
Putting out a Christmas letter can be a lot of work. But as I found out this year, involving the girls turns what had been a three-day, hair-pulling experience into an enjoyable, three-hour project.

The girls were involved in the writing and editing process this year. We started that part of the creative process a week before Thanksgiving. But the process of selecting the photos (and in some cases, securing them) took the longest. Four weeks after getting started, I took the file off to OfficeMax for output. When I picked up the girls from school Tuesday, they were anxious to see the finished product.

From there, we really ramped things up. Once back at the apartment, we created an assembly line and switched on some Christmas music (which quickly turned into Emily's music choices from YouTube). It was both a funny and – at times – educational process. Emily often read people's names and address aloud, to which I would note how we knew them. Lauren and Julia kept running counts on how many stamps we had used or envelopes still needed return addresses.

At one point, Paul Davi's name and address became a source of laughter (I still don't know why). I know Paul from our time with the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. He's best known as the creator of the team's distinctive red, white and blue jerseys. I'll hopefully run into him next May at the Amgen Tour of California and we'll share a laugh about his name and address being so familiar to my daughters.

Lauren was in charge of the return addresses.

Part of the assembly line took up the entire kitchen table.

Julia was responsible for folding the letters.

Veronica was also proud of her folding job.

Introducing 'Smiley Inc.'

Remember the name – "Smiley Inc."
Lauren's unique artwork already has its own brand: Smiley Inc. So when you receive something from Smiley Inc., you're sure to know it. She always includes her logo. In this case, we "commissioned" her to create a pair of thank you notes.

This is the logo on the back of the card above.

The inside of one of the thank you cards.

Bicycle (Not) Built For Two

Veronica captains and Julia's the stoker on my BMC.

First Trip To Aksarben Cinema

Lauren looks right at home on this video game.
So the girls have been asking me whether the new Aksarben Cinema was open. I told them it opened while I was in Spain, but that we would try and hit a movie when I returned.

True to my word, we saw "Tangled" and loved it. And we loved the new theater, too. It's all digital and the sound system is terrific. Plus, concession stand prices are not out of sight and there's even some variety to the offerings (flatbread sandwiches and mini hot dogs immediately come to mind).

We'll surely be back very soon. "Gulliver's Travels" looks promising.

This 3-D stand-up in the lobby attracted Veronica's attention.

What did Emily do to Justin's face?

Bluejay Basketball Game

The girls enjoyed their first Creighton men's basketball game.
Thanks to some incredible generosity of our friends, the Lightharts, the girls and I enjoyed our first Creighton men's basketball game together. The Qwest Center was about 2,000 short of capacity, which means there were still 15,000 people on hand. The seats were terrific – fifth row just behind the Bluejays' basket (in the second half) and there were plenty of nice people seated around us. In fact, one of the girls sitting behind us distributes communion and takes up the collection at our church.

Creighton won – and we found out later that viewers at home on KMTV even got a glimpse of us. Here's my attempt to get a photo of the night: