Thursday, December 30, 2010

Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy Holidays from WVU... again.

Merry Christmas from the Cook Family!




Call them whatever you want, but don't call them late for dinner!


Boop boop beadoop!

The Little Cat says "Hello"



Sniff. Sniff.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The best version... ever.







And a fun version for all the Yinzers...

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Dana Holgorsen to WVU



How about this guy? I know. I know. He's a Fabio/Phil Collins/Bobcat Goldthwait look-a-like, but he's also an offensive genius. He's been putting up huge numbers as Texas Tech's and Oklahoma State's offensive coordinator for the past seven or eight seasons.

Reports say he's going to spend one year as our new offensive coordinator, replacing the much beleaguered Jeff Mullen. Now here's where it gets interesting... he's also going to be our Head Coach in Waiting. That means he'll be replacing Bill Stewart as Head Coach in 2012.

At this point nothing has been confirmed by WVU or Oklahoma State. I expect it will be soon, however. There are far too many reports on this information. The WVU Athletic Department will make an announcement within the next 24 hours and save Mountaineer Nation from certain meltdown.

Welcome aboard, Bobcat... er, uh... Dana. We're looking forward to your first BCS Bowl.

Pies and Pints in Charleston

We used to have to drive an hour east to enjoy one of our favorite restaurants. Not anymore! Pies and Pints has finally opened its Charleston pizzeria.



Monday evening we enjoyed our first pies and our first pints. There were so many flavor options we couldn't decide on one pie. So... we split one. My wife's half was a Black Bean Pie. That included "seasoned black beans, cheddar, jalapenos, salsa, cilantro and creme fraiche." My half was the Spinach Garlic Pie. It included "spinach, red onions, gorgonzola, fresh garlic and roma tomatoes."

I washed it down with a Yellow Snow IPA from Rogue and my wife had a draught root beer. It certainly looks like she's drinking a beer, but as much as she wishes it was one, it wasn't. :)

Christmas Music Week



Last Thursday Mrs. Little Cat, myself and Mrs. Little Cat's parents attended the annual Joy to the World performance by Bob Thompson and his Unit.

Another year, another solid jazz performance. I think this was his 18th year in a row.





And then Friday night we attended the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra's annual Christmas concert, Home for the Holidays. As usual, Conductor Grant Cooper put together a spectacular show... elf shoes and all.

The highlight of the show for me, Mrs. Little Cat and probably the rest of our section was when Santa hit the stage and sang Jingle Bells. As he came out, a young man a few rows in front of us (probably seven or eight years old) lost his mind. He yelled and yelled for Santa. He said "Santa! Santa! Santa! Up here. I'm up here! Hi Santa! Santa! Santa!" It was completely adorable and 100% innocent. He really believed it was Santa. He seemed a little disappointed when his mother finally made him sit down and quit yelling, but the rest of us appreciated seeing someone be so genuine.

Good times. :)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Nick Saban to WVU?




Looks like a pretty good fit.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Sunday, November 28, 2010

A Tribute to Chris Henry



Here's a tribute to former WVU wide receiver Chris Henry. Immediately following his death, Henry's mother donated his organs to transplant patients waiting for another chance at life.

This is their story.

Bill Stewart to Retire???

There's chatter on major news websites, but nothing confirmed.

Even CollegeFootballTalk.com is discussing it.

Pretty crazy

WVU vs VMI in Charleston

Everyone's seen random WVU basketball action shots, but here are a couple of my favorite candids from last night...



Huggins with his patented "WTF?" look.


I love it. Cracks me up every single time.




And here's Darris Nichols on the right. Yes... that Darris Nichols. The same man the Little Cat is named after. After playing basketball for a few years overseas, he's come back to WVU as a graduate assistant while obtaining his master's degree.

And for good measure, here's a couple of Darris Nichols highlights.



Eat Sh!t Pitt!!!

Last Friday WVU destroyed Pitt in the 103rd edition of the Backyard Brawl. The final score WVU - 35, Pitt - 10. Apparently a number of WVU fans were feeling giddy at Heinz Field and decided to turn a popular Neil Diamond song into an insult to Pitt fans.



Hilarious.

Happy Thanksgiving!



Here's our spread! Turkey, smashed potatoes, corn (a must), corn casserole, crescent rolls, gravy (another must), spinach casserole, cranberry sauce, Sam Adam's Winter Lager and some sparkling grape juice. ;)



Let's eat!!



Dessert! Not bad for my first attempt at pumpkin pie. The recipe called for cream cheese, but I think it was supposed to be softened. There ended up being little chunks of it throughout the pie. But heck, there could be little chunks of worse stuff. Ya know what I'm sayin'? It also cracked right in the middle a bit.

Tasted great, however!

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving as well. :)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

I love this song...

and the video.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Our Football Anniversary



It all started with a trip to Morgantown to watch WVU take on the University of Cincinnasti. WVU topped the Bearcats 37-10. It was the first time the Mountaineers had beaten UC since 2007.



After a night in Morgantown we jumped in the car and drove north to Pittsburgh to see the Steelers play the New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football.

This may be the coolest picture of all time, btw.



Here are the SNF announcers... Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels.



Local Steeler analysts John Fedko and Alby Oxenreiter.



Mrs. Little Cat with her favorite Lombardi trophy. She picked this one because she lived in Pittsburgh when the Steelers won it during the 2005 season.



Here I am with the 2008 Lombardi trophy.



The scoreboard reads, "WR Hines Ward has caught at least one pass in a Steeler record 186 consecutive games." Guess what Hines Ward didn't do in this game? Yeah. Believe it or not he was knocked out of the game with a concussion in the first quarter and did not have a reception.

That sucked.



Here's our seats.

We're cute. Awww.



The Steelers ended up losing the game 39-26 and it really wasn't even that close. Big Ben was horrible. Hines was hurt. Tom Brady was taking out his long haired aggression on the Steeler defense. It was ugly.

But...

We still had a great time.

Happy football anniversary to my wife!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Trick or Treat!

Last Thursday was Trick or Treat here in Charleston. So.... I carved a couple of pumpkins for the occasion. The WVU pumpkin is fake. It's made of a styrofoam/plastic mix. I carved it like a real jack-o-lantern, though.

Pretty cool, eh?



And here's The Little Cat and The Big Cat watching over the festivities. They've always got their nose in someone's business.



Halloween is a swell time. ;)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

A Children's Story by Da'Sean Butler...

Yes. That Da'Sean Butler. He tweeted this in the very recent past...

Once upon a time there was a young boy named Da’Sean. Da’Sean was 22 years old and lived in Newark, NJ. While walking home from school one day, a Purple Dinosaur jumped out from behind a Brick Wall and tackled Da’Sean to the ground. But just when he was about to let out a scream for help, Da’Sean realized that the Purple Dinosaur was only licking his face, not trying to bite it off. At that moment, Da’Sean decided to keep the Purple Dinosaur as a pet. And on the way home he decided to name his pet Purple Dinosaur ”Barney.”

When Da’Sean and his new pet finally got home, guess who was standing on the front porch? That’s right, it was Da’Sean’s mother, Koreena. And boy was she surprised to see a Purple Dinosaur following Da’Sean into the yard! ”What in world is that?” shouted Koreena. ”It’s a Purple Dinosaur,” answered Da’Sean. ”Dah, I can see that, Da’Sean, but what on earth is it doing here?” said Koreena. ”It’s my new pet!” answered Da’Sean. ”Oh you think so do you?” remarked Koreena. ”I wouldn’t get your hopes up. You know how your father hates Purple Dinosaurs. But, well, I suppose you can keep him until your father comes home.” And with that Da’Sean grabbed Barney by the scruff of the neck and led his new pet into the house–even though he knew his father was probably going to disapprove.

Once in the house, Da’Sean and Barney played and played, that is until Da’Sean’s favorite television show, ”Family Guy,” started. At that point Da’Sean forgot all about Barney having an unsupervised run of the house. That is until half way through ”Family Guy,” when Da’Sean was brought back to reality when he heard his father shout, ”OMG!! Da’Sean! Get your whoopie cakes in the Kitchen…NOW!!” With that Da’Sean rushed into the Kitchen to see what all the fuss was about. When he entered the Kitchen, there stood his father, Da’Sean Butler, pointing toward the Table. ”Will someone please explain that?” asked his father. Then, as Da’Sean followed his father’s finger to where it was pointing, he instantly knew what his father was so upset about. There, smack dab in the middle of the Table, the biggest pile of Dinosaur doo-doo he had ever seen! ”I don’t EVEN want to know how that got there,” said Da’Sean Butler. ”But you had better get it cleaned up now! And you had better get rid of whatever it is that could have done such a thing!”

Well, knowing his father as well as he did, Da’Sean knew there was no sense even asking his father if he could keep Barney for a pet. So without hesitation, Da’Sean set out to find where Barney was hiding. After a few minutes of looking, Da’Sean discovered Barney crouched beneath the table that Da’Sean did his Playing X-Box and reading books.

”Come on, Barney, it’s time to find you a new home. And hey, don’t look at me that way, I’m not the one who did the dirty deed on the Table!” scolded Da’Sean. ”Thanks to you I’ll never get to have my own pet Dinosaur!! And with that Da’Sean led Barney out of the house and down to the local Game Stop. They had a pet section and Da’Sean knew the owner would find Barney a good home. Da’Sean cried a deep cry. he had lost his only friend in the world.

So after saying good-bye to Barney, and thanking the owner of Game Stop, Da’Sean walked backed home and attempted to drowned his sorrows by slamming down a half dozen Root Beers. But Da’Sean’s pity party came to an abrupt end when his father reminded him about the mess he had neglected to clean up. And low and behold, midway through the clean-up, Da’Sean suddenly became thankful that someone else was going to have to do it from now on.

The End.

Moral of the story: Sometimes you best friends can get your “whoopee cakes” n a lot of trouble be sure to listen to your parents they know what’s best.




Someone took the time to add pictures. Here you go:



Dude must be bored.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Apparently I'm in the Wrong Business

Tonight my wife and I ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant.... and so did the rest of Charleston, WV.


I must be in the wrong business. Sure, everyone has a cell phone, but after this evening, it's obvious that everyone needs enchilada supremes, jumbo chicken burritos and frozen margaritas made from some kinda of crappy tequila. People pay monthly for a cell phone, but pay every Friday night for overpriced fried tortillas.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Happy 40th Anniversary!

Hooray, Tom and Bettijane!



AND... thanks for the visit to these special folks!

Is this photoshopped?




I think the ball is for real, but check out the dude to Tiger's left with the turbin.


lol

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Jason Mraz @ the Clay Center

Last night we went to see Jason Mraz at the Clay Center here in Charleston, WV...


We sat in the eighth row and had such a good time.


He was great.


Here's a clip from the show...





The fun part of the video starts around 4:30.


Turn the volume up. The audio's not very good.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Wow...

How about that WVU - Marshall game last night? I thought it was over. I thought it was done. I gave up. Apparently this Marshall fan thought it was over as well. Be warned, there's foul language...





Yep... the loss was that epic to Marshall fans. They're burning their gear in the streets! To me, it was merely a comeback against a lesser team we're forced to play every year.

Speaking of that... Joe Manchin is a complete idiot and I hope he loses his bid for US Senate. A couple years of that buffoon John Raese is better than 30 years of the republican disguised as a Democrat, Joe Manchin. (It is well known that Joe Manchin forced WVU and Marshall to play every year in football. It's also well known that the idiot was involved with his daughter's bull shit master's degree from WVU. You know, the one that lowered the value of thousands of degrees because she didn't really earn it. He's anti-choice and he loves Big Coal.) Manchin is trash. :)

Rant over.

Enjoy the video, WVU fans.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Gameday



When you roll into Morgantown on a Friday night you've gotta go to the Black Bear... and we did. Here's Dusty enjoying a nice cold Sierra Nevada. Mrs. Little Cat had a tofu salad that was pretty solid and I built my own burrito.




Here's the scene. We got there early to make sure we got a good spot. That and I like getting anywhere early. We were all set up in minutes and had the rest of the morning/afternoon to chill out, relax and socialize with our pals.



Speaking of pals, here's the Slaws. Bill, Josh, Chipps, Stupinksi and a bunch of other guys I don't know. They just happened to be tailgating in the same lot so we combined our efforts.



Look who else made it... Mike C. in the house!



... and Leann.




... and Andrea and her Dad.



When you have all these people there, you gotta cook some dawgs.



Cornhole! Get your mind outta the gutter.



Leann's friend Jason took Dusty and I to school on a shotgun. It was his very first try.



Money shot!



Oh yeah, there's a game, too!



First down, WEST VIRGINIA! "Woo woo woo, clap, first down."



Billy Ray and Mrs. Little Cat.



Billy Ray and I.



At the end of the day... we had a great view over Mountaineer Country. What a great time. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next game. Let's just hope we get a tailgate spot that's even half as sweet.

'til next time...

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Breakin' Out the Jersey

One week, kids and we've got WVU Football.





Good lord, it looks like a frickin' pillowcase. Thanks for nothin', Nutrisystem. Haha.


Anyone notice the Little Cat being cute?

Monday, August 23, 2010

Pies

I've always wanted to bake a pie, and well, today I did.


A few weeks ago I saw Paula Dean make a key lime pie that looked absolutely outstanding. I've had key lime pie before and I didn't really like it. It was way too bitter for my chocolate loving taste buds. But I figured if Paula made it, it's gotta be good. So I went for it...





I had a blast making it. I thought it was especially cool how the egg whites combined with a little sugar made the meringue. Unfortunately, the meringue combined with the condensed milk in the filling makes the pie far too sweet. Plus, it's a little watery. If any of you all think you can do a better job, here's the recipe... link.


Fail.


On the bright side, though, I made a second pie... chocolate pie. And it was sooooo easy. All it took was some milk, pie crust, chocolate pudding and Cool Whip. Just combine the 4 and voila... chocolate pie.





Creamy and chocolaty. Here's the recipe for this one... link.


Succeed.


Who wants pie? I'm gonna need some help eating it since Mrs. Little Cat doesn't like anything sweet.



Oh, and by the way, I know there are a lot of C/cooks that read this blog. Do any of you have any pointers on the key lime? I'd love to hear 'em!

Friday, August 13, 2010

The NFL Hall of Fame

Last weekend a few friends of mine and I headed north to Canton, Ohio to take a look at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and attempt to get into the Hall of Fame Game at a decent price.



We got into the Hall of Fame, but wow, was it ever crowded. You could barely move. It was worth it, though. So much had changed since the last time I'd been there.

Pictured above is one of my favorite exhibits at the Hall... Santonio Holmes wore this jersey when he caught the winning touchdown pass with 35 seconds in Super Bowl 43. Next to it was Drew Brees' jersey from Super Bowl 44.



As you can see we got into the game to see the Cincinnati Bengals play the Dallas Cowpies. I paid far too much for a ticket to a preseason game, but yeah... we got in. Cincinnati fans didn't have far to drive and Cowpie fans are all over the darn country. After this trip, I might actually believe that they're "America's Team." Those SOBs are like a swarm of bees. :)

Overall it was a great trip, though.

I can't wait for football.

Our Back Porch

Last week this happened to our back porch...






Yeah... you can pretty much see nothing but tree. Underneath the tree was this...







Such a sad looking grill. In it's glory days it was a powerful administer of flame, but that's all changed now. It's nothing but a sorry heap of scrap metal.


Poor little grill friend. :(

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

WVU's Greatest Games at New Mountaineer Field

Last year I know I said that going to football games wasn't the same as it used to be and that I didn't have quite the same fire as I did in year's past. Well, that's changed with the prospect of having our own tailgate. We're going to try and revive those old feelings this year. So, in that spirit, here's a list of WVU's greatest games at new Mountaineer Field...

Link

A couple of notes...

Some of the videos are narrated by Tony Caridi (current play-by-play announcer) and some by the late Jack Fleming. Also, #8 Cincinnati didn't take place in 2000. It was actually 1980 and the very first game at new Mountaineer Field.

That said, thanks, Hilltopper for putting this together.

Monday, August 2, 2010

It's almost that time...

... time for some football.





Today I purchased our new tailgate grill. This grill is going to allow us to prepare hot dogs and hamburgers at our very own tailgate prior to WVU Football games this year. It's gonna be simple. It's gonna be easy and it's gonna be fun.

Who's in? Mr. and Mrs. 653, you've already been counted. ;)

Oh yeah... BYOB :)