Liz's 3rd Blog: "February!"

Here we are on the 3^rd day of February. We have survived one month of 2009, the NFL season is over with the Pittsburgh Steelers winning the Super Bowl for the sixth time, and Jimmy the groundhog has seen his shadow so we can expect another six weeks of winter! Although I am always excited for spring, I am particularly excited this year. I am excited for warmer weather, Brewers baseball, and of course the best Mallards season yet.

However, I am also excited for spring as I have started coaching softball again. I am the assistant coach for the 12 U Xplozion Softball team. We practice every Sunday for 2.5 hours. Each week the girls are improving and learning more about the game. This past weekend we played in an indoor tournament at the Wisconsin Center in Wisconsin Dells. The tournament was great! It showed us what we need to work on, things we haven’t covered yet and gave the girls the chance to see live pitching, which is always helpful. Although I will not be able to coach all the tournaments this summer, it has been great working with the girls and being around softball again.

As for the Super Bowl, I was really hoping to see the Arizona Cardinals pull it off, but I must say it was one of the most exciting Super Bowls I have ever seen. The game was back and forth the entire time, Larry Fitzgerald had an amazing game, and Santonio Holmes was UNBELIEVABLE. The catch he had to put the Steelers ahead was spectacular. I also enjoyed the halftime show and thought Jennifer Hudson’s National Anthem was phenomenal. What a venue to make your first appearance after the tragedy of losing her mother, brother and nephew this fall. I don’t know I would have been able to do what she did, but I thought it was great!

I was also pleased with the commercials; my favorites were the Budweiser ones. The first Bud Light commercial with the guy getting thrown out the window for suggesting the company stopped purchasing Bud Light for all their staff meetings was the best in my opinion. And I also really enjoyed the one second High Life commercial. I wasn’t very impressed with the Coca Cola commercials; they were too plain and boring. I spent the Super Bowl with the guys from the office, which has become a bit of a tradition it seems. We enjoyed a nice spread of food, highlighted with homemade salsa and guacamole by Mike and John respectively. The salsa Mike made defiantly had some kick which I liked and John’s "guac" was good as usual. I made BBQ meatballs which seemed to go over pretty good; it is always a good thing when the dish you take to a pass is gone by the time you leave!

As far as the Mallards go, we are doing our best to get information out to companies, fans, players, host families and the Madison area. We are all busy making calls, setting up meetings and emailing. One new package we have put together is the Victory Plan Package. The Victory Plan includes one box or bleacher seat to the June 2^nd, June 11^th, July 7^th and July 10^th game. Each of these games that the Mallards win you will receive a FREE ticket to a future Mallards game! That means you can get up to 8 games in this package. The package is only $36 and is available now! Call the Mallards office for more information.

Thanks for tuning in for my third blog and congrats to the Pittsburgh Steelers!

Nick Part III - It's a "Super" week!

For this installment of my blog I had a really hard time trying to think what I was going to write about. I was thinking about work stuff, and the Super Bowl, and the Mallards basketball team, so I think between the three topics I should get to the minimum 500 word requirement.

In the wonderful world of Mallards I have been busy making cold calls, sending emails and trying to gather new sales leads to get the ’09 schedule into people’s hands. Going into this season the Sales team knew it would be difficult to get people to think about group/client outings with how the economy is, but so far most people have been receptive and haven’t really used the economy as a crutch. I mean where else can you be entertained for a whole evening for only $7!

Also during this off-season I have been busy ordering Mallards gear for the souvenir shops. Every spring Vern and I head up to Sports Impressions in the Dells and put our order in for all of our t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc. We will be heading there in the next couple weeks to get all that jazz going. One of my favorite items I have ordered so far was a premium felt pennant, which you can roll up and it does not wrinkle or bend. Another one of my favorites is a Mallards wall clock. And for all of those who missed out on the Mallards foam cowboy hats last summer I will have a new shipment in for this summer!

And on to the Super Bowl. Mallards Manager (CJ Thieleke) put it best as he walked in to the office Monday morning and stated it is a “Super Week”. I am pretty sure I have my pick set in stone for the big game and here are my reasons why.

I like Pittsburgh’s tough defense (Troy Polamalu’s wins the “Best Hair Award”….sorry Kevin) and their experience having been there three years ago. They have played pretty solid all year long and as much as I don’t like Roethlisberger you have to give it to him, he is one tough SOB and can take a hit and bounce right back up. And don’t forget about “Fast” Willie Parker. When healthy he can be one of the most versatile backs in the league.

As for the Cardinals, they have never been to a Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see how they come out and play in the first couple minutes of the game. They are a young team and might have the deer in headlights look. Can “Old Man” Warner lead the Cardinals to the promised land as he did with the Rams or will he be back bagging groceries after the season is over? The thing that worries me the most is that the Cardinals have been streaky to say the least. Some games their offense would just flip a switch and take over a game and on the other hand the offense isn’t there and the “D” gives up 48, such as in the Thanksgiving Day game against the Eagles. You also have to wonder if Anquan Boldin will quit being a baby and just play already? I mean you are in the Super Bowl! I bet there are dozens of other receivers that wouldn’t mind playing a limited role and being in the big game.

Well here is my official pick: Steelers 38 Cardinals 17

Besides the game I love the commercials. I think some years it’s more fun than watching the actual game. I have searched through the archives and picked out some of my favorite commercials from the past Super Bowls. Search YouTube for the following clips:

Electronic Data Systems "Cat Herder"

E-Trade "Freaky Clown"

Bud Light "Rock, Paper, Scissors"

Career Builder "Monkeys"

Budweiser "Clydesdales Football"

I hope you enjoyed some of my favorite clips!

As for the Mallards basketball team we are 1-3 on the season. The losses have been by a combined 10 points. Last night we lost another close game by 5 points.

Until next time……Go Steelers!!!

P.S. If you ever see Kevin Caloia around ask him about his addiction to the word search in the WSJ…..He loves them so much he spends most of his “personal” time doing them!!