My Mom Knows Kurt Warner's Grandma-In-Law

Because of several regular weekday evening basketball games being postponed due to snowy weather earlier in January, we are now making up games on Saturday afternoons. Due to the cows needing milked in late afternoon, Husband cannot attend these afternoon games. Today's contest was on the other side of Cedar Falls, so I made arrangements to pick up my daughter at UNI, and my mom, who lives in Cedar Falls, so they could accompany me to the game.

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On the drive to Cedar Falls, I wished for scenery other than the dingy blanket of dirty snow which now covers the landscape. A-ha......here's an old, delapidated barn sitting along C-57 north of the twin cities of Waterloo and Cedar Falls. The remnants of red paint were intriguing......as was the checkered look of the old cement silo staves......and, the spindly, bare tree branches interspersed. (Sorry.....the mood may be ruined by that swing-set sitting in front of the barn.)

This next photo is nothing to write home about......I know that......its blurry, but I liked the ball hanging in the air above the basket, with the flag behind it. This scene will be in honor of my husband's nephew who just left for a one-year tour of duty in the Middle East.......in fact, I just received an email from him saying he is in Kuwait right now, enroute to his base in Iraq.
Another bad shot, but good action going on........my son going up for a layup, which he did make.

Our team squandered a ten-point first-half lead, and the score ended up tied with .9 seconds left on the clock. That's right.......nine-tenths of a second, making me fairly certain---and dismayed----that we would have to endure watching an overtime. The other team was throwing the ball inbounds on the side by their basket.......a high lob pass sailed toward their tall guy.......both teams were massed together and the whole group fell down together in a pig pile. Incredibly, a referee blew his whistle for a foul. We couldn't believe it......no time left and a foul was being called in that mixed-up mish-mash of players. "Eeny-meeny-miny-mo" and the referee's hand was pointed at my son! Oh, ____. No, I don't use bad language, but the guy next to me sure did.

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The kid made his two free-throws and the game was over.......with us losing, which is inconsequential in the whole scheme of life, of course, but it was one of the crappiest endings to a basketball game that I have ever seen. I heard our coach say to the referee, "Thanks alot.......you handed the game right over to them." So it goes.

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After dropping my daughter back at her dorm, and my mom at her house, I stopped at Pizza Hut so as not to arrive at home empty-handed.

While stopped for a red light at the Oster-Regent Theater corner in Cedar Falls, I tried to snap a shot of the cute "Cup 'O Joe" windows. The photo is blurry, but hopefully you get the picture......of this unique coffee shop on the downtown parkade.

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Goodness gracious.......I almost forgot.......this post's title needs some explaining. Mom and I were pulling into her driveway after the game and she suddenly said, "I have ridden to Knights of Columbus suppers with Brenda Warner's grandmother." Another random remark from my mom, I thought.......racking my brain for a moment.......Who is Brenda Warner? Then Mom continued, "Brenda's grandma speaks very highly of Kurt." Oh, then the lightbulbs went on.......Kurt Warner, who will be quarterbacking the Arizona Cardinals tomorrow in the Super Bowl. Duh, Jeannelle, that's right......Kurt Warner is from Cedar Rapids and went to college at UNI in Cedar Falls, and met his wife, Brenda, there. Leave it to my little, white-haired mom---who possesses miniscule knowledge of and interest in professional football---leave it to her to have a connection (however miniscule) to a Super Bowl quarterback!

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