New Link on The Royal Heffernans!

Colin was bored at work and decided to do something productive! Check out the new link on the right side of the page, "The Colin and Liz Picture Blog". I turned my old blog into a dedicated site to link to Sony Imagestation so everyone could view our photos! I got jealous of Ted having his website look so fancy with photo updates that I decided something must be done. I have only linked the pictures from Thanksgiving 2006, but from there you can view any of our past photo albums. The plan is to update the site whenever we have new pictures. Everyone enjoy!

Time Marches On

As much as I hate to make work for anybody (especially me), I have to say that our "family photo" on the Royal Heffernans blog page is getting out of date. Since the debut of our blog, two new faces have been added to the group, viz., Bryan and Molly. In a few months, DC Baby will be here, too. I beseech the digital wonderworkers - whoever they may be - to consider my observation and create anew our family's public image.

Weddings and babies and trips, oh my!

I admit I was shamed into this post by Ted's comment that our blog is losing its originality! I'm a girl, though, so y'all have to suffer through this one. :)

I'm just so darn excited about all the events happening this year! It seems like when it rains, it pours with The Royal Heffernans. Remember '03, when we had Ian & Steph's wedding and five graduations all within a few months of each other?! Craziness. I think '07 will go down in history, too, what with the arrival of Molly,

and Ian and Steph's little bundle of joy,

and lil' ol' me getting hitched,

and - of course - all the parties and showers that go along with it all.

Here's to 'o7! I can't wait to celebrate with my family!

Prank War

Since nobody is cool enough to post any original material to the blog anymore, I will do what any good blogger does - embed links to other funny sites!!! We need to keep this damn thing fresh! Anyway, somebody emailed me a link to a web site that is kind of like YouTube. One of the ongoing video series is called Prank War. It is essentially an ongoing war of practical jokes that continue to escalate. I embedded the original prank below. Check it out. It made me laugh so hard I was crying. The joke is so simple, but the guys reaction is just priceless!



Audio Prank! from streeter seidell on Vimeo

If anyone is interested, the ensuing 4 pranks go back and forth on this site within Vimeo. I have to say the most recent prank (Human Giant) is utterly cruel - but AWESOME!

The New Sports Illustrated

About 15 years ago I stopped reading Sports Illustrated (SI) because after Notre Dame won the national championship in 1988 everything SI wrote about them was negative. I gave them an extra few years grace because I assumed they were just picking on the easiest target, but it persisted and I eventually dropped my subscription. A few years back ESPN began publishing their own sports periodical and, while objective to start, it has quickly turned to writing the type of anti- Notre Dame fodder that drove me away from SI. Any chance they get to take a shot at the school, administration, or players, they take. Take for example this mock mock draft posted on espn.com's Page 2 by resident jackass DJ Gallo:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=gallo/070427&sportCat=nfl

Notice anything unusual about the fake picks? How about that out of the 32 predicted first round draft choices the only draftee he disparages is Brady Quinn. I know Quinn is an easy target after quarterbacking ND for four years, having model-esque good looks, and supposedly playing poorly in big games, but he could've shared the wealth. Dwayne Jarrett was involved in a housing/booster scandal at USC, Adrian Peterson broke his collarbone show-boating in the 4th quarter with his team up by 4 touchdowns, there are plenty of other examples. But no, Quinn gets picked on because he's a stand-up kid who just so happens to have been the quarterback at Notre Dame. Guess I'll be canceling my ESPN the Magazine subscription soon...

The Ty Effect

Over the past few days a lot of college football "experts" have been updating their pre-season top 25 lists now that most spring games have taken place. What simply cracks me up is that Notre Dame is not ranked in any pre-season top 25 list. That's not to say that I don't mind - playing the underdog role is always preferable to oodles of unreal expectations - but have you ever heard of a team being the consensus #1 one season, finishing that season at 10-3 (and playing in a BCS game), then being unranked the next? It's almost unbelievable. You pretty much have to chalk it up to a lack of depth - we simply graduated all our (offensive) studs and are left with the dregs of Ty Willingham's recruiting, ahem, efforts. I think there are something like 6 true seniors on scholarship, which is a joke. Regardless, I'm looking forward to a low-key season in which nobody expects anything from the Irish, at least until they win a couple games and everyone immediately moves them from unranked to #6. But we could be worse off, we could still have Ty as our head coach. Have a fun season Huskie fans! Shoot for the moon, i.e. 2 wins...

Lame

Seriously, how hard is it to make a kelly green t-shirt that says either 'IRISH' or 'NOTRE DAME' (on two lines) on the front with a big freaking shamrock on the back? Everyone in the world would by that shirt and it would even cost less because they wouldn't need to silk-screen 87 colors onto the image that eventually just ends up cooking your back in the September sun because it's 4 inches thick. And is it impossible to maybe pick a standard color and stick with it from year to year? Maybe then our fans could have a unified look rather than 1/4 in yellow, 1/4 in navy, 1/4 in forest green, and 1/4 in some other hideous, greenish hue.

I think Notre Dame should consider dropping the engineering school in favor of some sort of fashion institute. Good God almighty - it's looks like this was designed by Saint Lucy, but she was only given a 16 pack of Crayola crayons and all the primary colors removed. If you ask me, 'The Shirt' has an unnecessary definite article and one too many R's...

(spit) On Wisconsin

Bret Bielema, head coach of the Wisconsin football team, is still a bit perturbed that his team did not make the BCS. Who does he blame? ND. Check it out, what a cry-baby.

HERE

Let The Speculation Begin

Notre Dame released the format and rosters for this weekend's annual Blue-Gold game this morning. What immediately struck me is that the teams seem to be separated by first-team offense and first-team defense. One the Blue team you have Travis Thomas, Armando Allen, and Luke Schmidt in the backfield, David Grimes and George West at receiver, and John Carlson at tight-end. Meanwhile, the Gold team has Zibby, Maurice Crum, Lambert and Wooden, Toryan Smith, and Trevor Laws.

The big story, as has been the case all spring, is that the Blue team's quarterbacks are Clausen and Jones while Sharpley and Frazer will lead the Gold.

Given the lean towards offense on the Blue team, I can't help but speculate that Weis has Clausen and Jones as his #1 and #1a at the point, in no particular order. According to the release the starting QBs will be determined by a coin toss prior to the start of the game...

UPDATE: The results of the coin toss are in and it appears that Clausen and Sharpley will be the starters...

Screw Off Credit Cards!!!

Oh, what a momentous day! I just checked the balance on my two credit card accounts, and both read $0.00. Ali and I have finally emerged from credit card debt! For all of you who haven't shared this burden, I congratulate you. It is a hell from which we have now emerged.

My credit card history is a long and exciting one, so I'll regale you all with the story! Like many before and since, I got my first credit card during freshman orientation in college at Notre Dame. I'll never forget my first credit card purchase - the Totally 80's double CD set!!! What a great purchase! Throughout college, I had a nice $500 limit on my Citibank card. I never had any problem paying it off every month. That pattern continued through grad school and my first job. I had a zero balance when I started medical school in 1999. I also had a pretty new Platinum card and a very sizable limit, as the credit card companies continued to entice me to make larger and larger purchases.

Unfortunately, med school gives you a meager living expense stipend that inevitably would run out 6 weeks before the next loan check arrived. Unlike law school (I'm not bitter), med students do service projects in the summer for free, and attend clinics year around after the second year, so we can't earn any cash. So I would resort to using the credit cards to pay utility bills, car payments and even buy groceries. When Ali and I got married, we needed a honeymoon - thanks Citibank! Of course, the balance grew. The end result was a significant amount of debt.

We did the smart thing and did a giant balance transfer to a new American Express Blue card - with 0% interest on balance transfers. We slowly paid it down while making only rare credit card purchases from there on out. Finally, we paid it off last month! So now I will happily close out that AMEX Blue card and put the old Citibank card away. Screw those companies and their ever increasing interest rates. I will be very happy to use my debit card! Secretly though, don't we all long for the final scene from Fight Club? You know I do!