Ehhhh...

Crock pot chicken chili: Not good. Well, let's call it less than good. Something that I'm not going to make again.

At least, not the recipe I used. Granted, I really messed with the recipe, but the heart of the issue here is the cinnamon and the sweet potatoes. Otherwise, everything is perfectly cooked and actually would be pretty good otherwise.

Really, I'm sitting down with a bowl right now (and avoided one at lunch in favor of the beef stew for the weekend) but I'm sort of dreading it, which is unfortunate, because I have at least another three quarts of this strange-tasting crock pot chicken chili still in my refrigerator.

Now, onto the important stuff.

I know it's early in this experiment, but last night I almost succumbed to sleep on the couch.

Granted, I earned it, for these reasons:

1) Snowpocalypse: State College is about as prepared for snow as Fort Lauderdale. I literally cannot comprehend how this place treats a forewarned snow storm like a complete surprise.

I got to the office after Caddyshack yesterday afternoon around 1:45, closed my office door, and didn't look outside again until it was time to drive over to the Bryce Jordan Center for our media/sports info pre-game game of hoops on the main floor.

I will discuss this in further detail in the future, but of all the considerable perks of my job, I'm not sure any is quite as cool as playing basketball in an empty 15,000 seat arena.

It's the exact same experience as Penn State's players have when they play actual games.

Anyway, great fun playing basketball, treacherous drive back to my apartment downtown no more than a mile from the BJC. When I drove to the BJC in the first place, I made the natural assumption that the roads would be back. When I drove home from the BJC, however, I assumed the roads would have been at least somewhat addressed during the hour I had been playing basketball.

Nope. In fact, the roads were worse, and led to no fewer than three separate near freakouts when losing control of my car for fractions of a second.

I have long-held issues with driving in garbage weather, but I'm nearing irrational fear level.

(In blog note: Herm Edwards needs to stop. In fact, SportsCenter needs to stop... Also, was underwhelmed by SportsDome last night.)

Horrible roads aside, the big news of the night was Penn State's win over No. 16-ranked Illinois, 57-55.

The season ticket holder side was empty, as usual, but the students really showed up and made for an electric atmosphere to go with what amounted to an extremely entertaining game, capped by Drew Jones' putback off Talor Battle's prayer of a layup attempt with time expiring.

Unless you're an Illinois fan, it was pretty fun to watch.

2) (You thought I forgot about the numbers, didn't you?) I played said game of hoops on BJC floor, and was completely exhausted from it, but felt good after.

So, by the time postgame story and notes were done, it was 2ish, and I can't go straight to sleep after writing... it just doesn't work. I have to unwind. So, TV on... Well, it was already on because I watched the replay of the game while writing my post-game stories. But, anyway, by the time the Daily Show (great iPhone segment), Tosh.O (hide your kids, hide your wife) and SportsDome (Ehhh...) were done, and my conversation with FRIEND/arch enemy Ryan Jones was done (he was spying on Battle and the rest of the team while pretending to write at McDonald's on East College until later than 3 a.m.), the lights were off, the TV was still on, the blanket was over me, and my head was on the couch cushion, it was literally a battle of good (get up and go to bed) vs. evil (be lazy and sleep on the couch, idiot).

Due to my incredible inner personal strength, I overcame the odds and went to bed.

On that note, it's time to recap foods made in crock pot with ratings:

- Beef Stew (7.2/10)
- Pulled Pork (6.9/10)
- Chicken Chili (4.6/10)

Congratulations to my good friend Dana Mathews for her Justin Bieber cover, which hit newsstands yesterday. Looks great (although, I haven't bought my copy yet, will do in less than an hour and read at Irving's, proudly).

Furthermore,

Songs I've listened to more than five times today: Justin Bieber - Somebody to Love Remix Ft. Usher (Judge me... trust me, I judge you (ha)... I can't even say it's in recognition of VF cover... it's just a ridiculously catchy song.)
Word I wish I hadn't used in conversation recently: Snowmageddon
Adjective I couldn't recall when needed for hoops story: Authoritatively (in reference to Battle's first half dunk)
Clementines eaten since this time yesterday: six
Hours spent sleeping on the couch or love seat since starting this blog: None