five friday favorites #5: week of nov. 7, 2014

So I'm doing my Five Friday Favorites on Saturday ... again. It's been a super busy week with work and family things keeping me from blogging. But I did, finally, find time to get this posted!

1. Going to the Nebraska-Purdue game
My aunt had tickets to last Saturday's Nebraska-Purdue game, and, after my cousin turned her down (crazy kid), she invited me! Of course, I said yes. I don't get to go to games very often (the last game I went to was Nebraska's surprise comeback win over Ohio State in 2011), and every time I go, it's special.

We had so much fun! My brother and sister-in-law live in Lincoln, so Andrew let us park at their house, and then he chauffeured us to and from the game, which was so much better than dealing with parking. We got to the stadium plenty early, so we had lots of time to visit before the game. The game itself was, well ... let's just say it's a good thing we were playing Purdue instead of next week's opponent Wisconsin! The defense looked good, but the offense couldn't seem to make anything happen. The final score was 35-14, but it felt a lot closer than that. But all in all, it was a fantastic day!

Clockwise from top middle: 1. Aunt Eddra and me. (This was before the sun went behind west stadium--we were in north--and we started to freeze.) 2. The band--called "The Pride of All Nebraska" for some reason. 3. Army parachute jumpers parachuted into the stadium right before the game. (Here's an article about it.) 4. A kickoff and the sea of red. 5. People started leaving at the beginning of the 4th quarter. We were completely smashed together until then, so when the people in front of us left, I had to document the fact that I could finally stretch out. The guy you can see is former Husker and two-time Olympic medalist Curt Tomasevicz. There was a guy in the row behind us who was very excited to see him.

2. The Mid-Term Elections
Politics is something I rarely discuss--either online or in real life. While I'm not a "straight down the line" Republican, and I don't believe either party is the answer to America's problems, I definitely identify more with Republican ideology.

Honestly, I don't pay a ton of attention except during election season, and on election night, I'm glued to the TV. Then I go back to not paying much attention until the next election cycle. (Should I pay more attention? Unquestionably.)

I watched FOX News all night, basically because the major networks weren't covering election results until 9 p.m., and MSNBC raises my blood pressure to unsafe levels. Throughout the night, they interviewed several would-be presidential candidates, and I learned something: you can tell which politicians are mulling a run at higher office by the way they put forth their agenda instead of answering the questions asked by the network talking heads. Rand Paul was the worst about this. I don't think he answered a single question asked of him! The three politicians who impressed me most were Kentucky Senator-and-probable-majority-leader Mitch McConnell (This surprised me a ton. I really liked his victory speech.), Ohio governor John Kasich (Yes, I did just have to look up his name. He came across as very intelligent and likeable.), and Texas Senator Ted Cruz (If I had to choose the next president based solely on Tuesday night's interviews, he'd unquestionably get my vote.). Keep in mind that I know virtually nothing about these men save what I saw on Tuesday night, and I do research the candidates before I actually cast a ballot :-)

I enjoyed more than the actual results on Tuesday night (though I liked those a lot). I loved the FOX News coverage. I've always really liked Brit Hume, and I enjoyed listening to the others on the panel, too. It was my first exposure to Megyn Kelly, other than seeing her as a punch line on Huffington Post and other liberal-leaning sites. No doubt she's smart ... but she can also be a bit dense at times. Or maybe she's just bad at banter. Either way, I can see how she could be an easy punching bag. But perhaps my favorite part was when Kelly went back to the "Decision Desk" to talk to the men in charge of making the projections of winners. Kelly's commentary got a bit tiresome, but the men she talked to? Give them their own show! (Or maybe they have one ... how would I know?) Here's a link to part of the conversation.

Some of you may disagree with pretty much everything I just said. That's fine. But I refuse to get into any type of political debate on my blog. Let's be friends and keep it civil, no matter our political leanings.

3. Waking up before my alarm
Getting up in the morning is so, so, so difficult for me. Part of it, I've just learned, is that I have very low cortisol levels in the morning, so that's on my list of things to discuss with my endocrinologist in December. Anyway, the time change definitely worked in my favor, at least at first. On both Sunday and Monday mornings, I woke up a couple minutes before my 6:30 alarm went off--and on Monday, I actually got out of bed right away! I wasn't bursting with energy or anything, but getting up was definitely easier than normal. Same thing on Tuesday. Then Tuesday night happened, and I simply could not force myself to stop watching the election coverage. Add in a couple more late nights, and I'd say my body is now fully adapted to Standard Time. Sadly.

4. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
My mom carved a jack-o-lantern for her Awana lesson last week, and I asked her to save the seeds for me. I remembered how she always used to roast the seeds whenever we had a pumpkin around, and I wanted to try my hand at it. So last weekend, I did--and it was a smashing success! I used this recipe from Food Network. Too bad the seeds only lasted a couple days ...

5. The Return of Eyal Lavine
Who is Eyal Lavine? Only my favorite part of Covert Affairs--high praise for a guest star. (I have some serious love for this show, even though some call it a poor man's Alias.)

Though I love the show overall, I did not enjoy Covert Affairs' summer run. They (SPOILER ALERT) killed the "big bad" at the end of season four, leaving a giant "bad guy" hole. Plus, the long-awaited Annie/Auggie romance fizzled rather than sizzled. They are currently broken up, and I don't care if they ever get back together. But you know who Piper Perabo (Annie) has insane chemistry with? Oded Fehr, who plays former (?) Mossad operative Eyal Lavine. Put Annie and Eyal in a scene together, and you can practically see sparks flying off the screen. So when the promo below aired following the summer season finale, well, I may have pumped my fist and shouted, "Eyal!"


I haven't even seen Eyal's return yet--the fall premiere was Thursday night, and I had a work event--but I think I can still count Eyal's return as one of my favorite things of the week. (Besides, maybe it will be a disappointing return ... but Eyal will remain one of my favorites, of that I have no doubt!)

What do you think of my picks? Let me know in the comments, and then be sure to check out some of the other favorites in the link up.