Fooled You!

I’m proud to report that Zachary is a poster child for good nutritional habits. He likes most veggies, and in fact at many meals, eats those first so he can save the meat and/or pasta for later since “he likes that part the best”.

We thought that the good eating habits and the introduction of the “multiple veggies at an early age” plan that we laid out for Zachary would translate over to Liam. But life is like a good left-handed pitcher, always ready to throw a hanging curveball.

Liam got the “good eating” part down fine (including a very funny grumble any time he says the word “hamburger”). Unfortunately, the veggies didn’t make it past the door with him, and he is now in full veggie refusal mode.

Unwilling to acquiesce like so many other parents who cave to the gods of the “brown foods”, we needed a solution. Luckily, the solution was in-house with a gift we received last Christmas: Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook. While there are many helpful tips and recipes, the heart of the book is this basic premise: If you puree veggies and then mix them in your recipes, you can sneak veggies past security and into your child’s body. Last weekend, we engaged with step one and put the kitchen in full prep mode. We pureed squash, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and squash into ice cube trays, froze them overnight, and now have instant sauce and meat mix-ins.

Case in point: tonight’s menu consisted of meatloaf muffins (meatloaf in a muffin size pan to better portion control), mashed potatoes, and peas/celery (celery for me, I don’t do peas). We added cubes of each of the veggies to the meat mixture, and about 3 cubes of cauliflower to the potatoes, and the served it. Everyone gobbled up the meatloaf, and Liam had a good portion of potatoes.

While it’s fun engaging in a short-term spy mission to sneak veggies by, I can totally see up trying to keep this up going forward even if Liam comes around. We could all use more veggies in our diet, and you really can’t tell that they’re being mixed in. Well done Mrs. Seinfeld! We’re glad we didn’t have to turn into this guy that your husband knows well.

Roller Coaster Recap

Rebecca and I traveled back to Athens-town last Saturday night for the home opener of the 2009 UGA season. Our opponent was the fowl to our East, the South Carolina Gamecocks (or as Zachary was coached, “The Chickens”). I had no reason to doubt it would be another close, nail-biting battle, since that’s how this series usually rolls. Nobody I know has a rational reason why since we have better players at just about every position.

One of my favorite annual rights of passage is first glimpse of the hedges inside Sanford Stadium and soaking it all in. Always gets me fired up! The game itself was the longest regular length game I can remember in a long time (maybe forever). And it did not disappoint on the drama front. SCAR bolted out to an early lead after yet another costly turnover deep in our part of the field. Then #2 Brandon Boykin electrified the crowd by running over a defender on his way to 100 yard kickoff return touchdown. Back and forth we went, and our plans for an early escape to the car to avoid traffic would not come to pass.

As we’re reminded many times over, it’s the little things in life that makes the difference. Like DeAngelo Tyson’s HUGE block of the SCAR extra point just as they appeared poised to tie the game. The UGA defense held tough late and Rennie Curran made a great deflection on 4th down with 22 seconds left to preserve the win.

Starting 0-2 would not have made the Cahill house a happy place, so we’re thankful for the win. I must admit that I didn’t realize how loud the stadium was until I watched the TV playback the next day. Either the microphones were very well placed, or there were may hoarse Bulldogs come Sunday and Monday.

I’m going to cheat, but there’s really no Ugly this week, except Spurrier, which is a given. Humility, thy name is South Carolina Football. Just ask Lou Holtz.

The bad is our penalties, stupid turnovers, and lack of sticking with the running game just as it gets rolling.

Lots of good though:

• The aforementioned kick return
• Braden Smith making amends for a fumble by hitting turbo boost on an great reverse TD run
• Joe Cox bouncing back with a pretty good game
• The whole defense, despite the 37 points allowed. They’re only on the hook for 28 of those, and they played stout in the red zone despite being on the field WAY to long.

I have no clue how we’ll fare the rest of the way, but I could easily see this taking a similar turn to 2007 in which at some point the light bulb is going to go on for a relatively young team, and then watch out.

Sunday brought the start of the NFL season and another big Eagles win. Carolina got de-pantsed just like they did in the playoffs last year, and our defense played lights out. I know things will be tough in the NFC East, as usual, but I have a feeling the Eagles and the Falcons are on a collision course this year for top dog in the NFC. Which should make things quite interesting in Casa de Cahill.

The Glass is Half Full

Of course I was bummed after our 24-10 stinker to start the season. I was a junior in college the last time we started the season with a loss. Not a bad streak, and we definitely did not have the worst loss of the opening weekend (Oklahoma, thanks for playing, see you next year for the Nat. Championship). We lost to the #9 team on the road with said team having 3 of the best players at their respective positions. Here's my thoughts, Clint Eastwood-style:

THE GOOD
Defense was tough throughout. Yes, we gave up 24 points, but 17 points were scored on drives of less than 35 yards.

First drive of the game.

Richard Samuel as a blocking back.

THE BAD
All other offensive drives after the first one.

Hey D, can we please get our hands on an INT?

Richard Samuel as a running back. C'mon big guy, break off one of those runs!

THE UGLY
Kickoff Game. Ugh all around.

Offensive Play Calling. Booooooooooooooring.

Wide Receivers not named AJ Green. Did anyone else make the trip?

Note that I omitted the man getting much of the print in the blogs and media, Joe Cox. I don't know if anyone of us really know what his health status was during the game. It's hard to give him anything but an incomplete. I do wish would have had a few more plays with Logan Gray or one of the other speedy backs to help shake things up. Oh well.

I think we'll know a heck of alot more about what 2009 will be for UGA after this coming Saturday's game with SCAR. Until then, I'm not going to fret too much. We're still 0-0 in the SEC, and that's what is important.