Weekend Update 2-8-2015

Dean Smith

I am saddened to hear legendary Coach Dean Smith has died. Coach Smith suffered from Alzheimer's / Dementia for a number of years. He's one of the greats.

Superbowl

Went to Chip and Erica's last Sunday for the Superbowl. I brought a veggie tray and dip (thank you Harris-Teeter). Chip fixed home made pizza. Erica made wings. Everybody else brought the beer.

We were all pulling for Seattle since most of us went to NC State and Seattle has 3 Wolfpackers on the team - especially Russell Wilson.

Had a good time. Well, except for the end of the game. Worst play call in Superbowl history.

Basketball

Watched Dook - ND and UNC - BC today. Dook blew out ND. So much for needing Suliamon. A little later will be the Louisville - Virginia game.

State lost to Wake Forest last week. We are now in solid NIT territory.

The StateFansNation.com comment forums are going nuts.

Yes, just a couple short weeks ago (after the Dook win) we looked like a team on the rise. Headed for national ranking and a good NCAA seed. And we should have kept going. But - instead we've regressed. I'm obviously not happy - but - it's a young team.

Frankly, I'm OK with going to the NIT. Hopefully we're a top 4 or 8 NIT seed so we'll get home court advantage. I'll enjoy going to the extra games.

Next game is Virginia at home on Wednesday. On paper, should be a loss. But with State - you never know. We could be up by 20 or down by 20. But don't ever change the TV channel or leave the game - you never know what the heck is going to happen. These kids still play hard to the very end of every game. I really appreciate their efforts.

Frankly NC State is pretty much right where it was predicted / expected to be. There was that false brief ray of sunshine that we might rise above ourselves - but reality bites. And bites hard.

Football is only 5 and a half short months away. And the regular season ending game score is still NC State 35 - UNCheaters 7.

Saturday

Did not even leave the house Saturday.

I did do some house cleaning chores and got out the slow cooker again.

Nuke liked the pot roast a couple weeks ago so much he's been hinting we should do it again. I looked for a good standing roast to cook in the oven for a true roast beef but nothing looked that appealing. Ended up getting a pork loin on sale. Three pounds which I cut in half and put 1/2 in the freezer.

I used this recipe - http://addapinch.com/cooking/balsamic-pork-tenderloin-recipe/

Didn't have any broth so I used plain water but pretty much everything else went by the book. I also put in some baby carrots and a half onion which turned out very good with the pork and the white rice I also made. I put the liquid in a small sauce pan at the end, added some more honey and reduced it down a bit. Made for a great juice to pour over the pork once it was on the platter and pulled apart for serving.

It was pretty good. Cutting it in half to 1 and 1/2 pound was just right. There were no left overs except for a small bit of pork which is about enough for maybe 2 sandwiches.

And the other half is in the freezer to be slow cooked a couple weeks from now.

Sunday

Just got in from running some errands. Nice day outside but nothing planned. Maybe I'll do a little garage sorting and cleaning. I've been meaning to get to that for a couple years.

Or maybe I'll do nothing.