It had been less than one day that the University of Phoenix Stadium hosted a professional football game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Green Bay Packers.

As the final fans were filing out of the stadium, workers began assembling to transform the venue from the NFL to college football. Since the University of Phoenix Stadium opened in 2006 it has been the home not only to the Cardinals but also to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

Because vendors and sponsors are different between the two events, workers would spend the night taking down signage from the NFL and replacing it with signage for a college football bowl game.

It would start with the banners around the field and would continue to the concourses of the stadium. The turf would have the Cardinals logos removed with the end zones and midfield repainted to feature college football names and teams.

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is one of the Bowl Championship Series bowls meaning there will be a national audience that will tune into the telecast or experience the game in person. Besides the stadium, the parking facilities also go through a transformation.

In the adjacent park area a fan experience area has been erected with inflatables, stages, and other activities. These will be open and available all day and during the game allowing fans who do not have tickets to still enjoy the game’s festivities.

For the first time in Tostitos Fiesta Bowl history, the game consisted of two non-BCS football teams with the undefeated Boise State Broncos facing the undefeated Texas Christian University Horned Frogs.

This is a game that leaves me struggling on who to root for. On the one hand I’m originally from Idaho and would love to see Boise State win. On the other hand TCU plays in the Mountain West Conference and a win by the Horned Frogs would benefit BYU’s season ending ranking. In the end I’ll just root for whoever has the ball.

When the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl ends, the fans will file out the door leaving stadium workers to begin the process once again to get ready for the National Football League playoff game that will be held here on Sunday. The work never seems to end which is a good thing for Arizona sports fans.

I should probably preface this by saying I am not a huge follower of college football; at least not to the extent that I follow baseball. That being said, I do keep tabs on how the season is progressing and of course I follow my alma mater and the local teams.

Given my foot injury this past weekend and the fact that I have already watched all of the baseball games I have on the TiVo at least a million times I turned my attention to the college football games on the television.

I watched as Alabama dissected the Florida Gators and came away believing the Crimson Tide have to be considered the favorite to achieve a national championship. Shortly after that game ended I flipped over to see how the other side of the equation would play out in the game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the University of Texas Longhorns.

Like many other sports fans I have taken my share of shots at the Bowl Championship Series and lamented that there is no playoffs for college football. Each year as the season ends it seems like we are left with more questions than answers as to who the national champion should be.

This year the table was set for a nightmare. With number one Florida losing to number two Alabama some of the complaints would be satisfied since it meant there was one less undefeated team in the country.

TCU of the Mountain West conference has finished their undefeated season and going into the weekend they were ranked number four. Boise State likewise ends the season undefeated and they too have an argument to be included in a BCS bowl despite not playing in a BCS conference.

When the Cincinnati Bearcats came from behind to beat Pittsburgh they finished the regular season undefeated and staked their claim for a chance to play for the national championship.

The stage was set for what could be a disaster for the BCS when Texas took the field against Nebraska. For most of that game the Huskers walked all over Texas. While the score was close, the play really wasn’t.

With time running out on the Longhorns, Heisman candidate Colt McCoy made a critical mistake lobbing the ball to the sideline with time running out. The game clock went to zero and Nebraska players rushed the field in celebration.

Not so fast, the officiating crew huddled together and decided one second should be put back onto the clock allowing Texas a chance at one last play. In a scene reminiscent of the 1972 Olympic basketball game in Munich where the USSR is allowed a second chance to win, the Longhorns kicked the field goal leaving Nebraska players, coaches, and fans wondering what had happened.

With Texas winning, that meant there were five undefeated teams. Obviously all of these teams could not play for the national championship and with two teams coming from non-BCS conferences it was even more unlikely that the bowl system could produce an undisputed national champion.

Almost as soon as the clock expired (a second time) in the Texas game people were already clamoring for the abolishment of the BCS in favor of a better system for crowning a champion.

I am usually one of those opponents but as I thought about it I realized that abolishing the BCS and the bowl structure that is currently in place would be the worst thing that college football could do for their sport.

If you stop to think about it, the faults of the BCS each year means that sports fans throughout the country continue to talk about college football for weeks or perhaps months. The discussions usually swirl around the lack of fairness but regardless of the discussion content people are still talking about the product.

If the BCS was abolished and a playoff format was implemented, the drama that comes from a team being slighted disappears. College football would get sports coverage during the playoff itself but once that is over, discussion pretty much stops until next season.

With the current format they can almost guarantee that somewhere someone is talking about college football and the BCS almost every day of the year. There really is something to be said about creating a flawed system.

Everyone wants to fix the problem but by doing so the NCAA has assured them of interest that they would never get if they really solved the issues of the BCS.

So the one thing you can about guarantee yourself is that with the final whistle on January 7 the discussions will continue for weeks about what the NCAA can do to fix the national championship problem. As the old advertising adage says, you can’t buy that kind of publicity.

For the past several years all we have heard was that man was ruining the environment and that the planet was on the verge of revolt. Terms such as “global warming” and “carbon footprint” were bantered about each being used to describe the impending doom we are about to face.

Scientists throughout the world lamented of melting polar ice caps and large holes in the ozone layer. We were told again and again that if things did not quickly do an about face we could face extinction much like the dinosaurs eons ago.

During the summer months in Arizona I would have to agree the temperatures seemed hotter than I had remembered and I wondered whether I could actually melt. Despite the intense summer months I somehow survived.

Part of the reason we moved to Arizona was the weather. Living in Idaho we were never warm. Even in the midst of summer it still felt cold. And when winter arrived at what seemed like the same time as back-to-school the weather turned bitter.

I can still remember weeks at a time when the temperatures would not go above zero. Tires would freeze to the ground creating flat spots that would thump as you drove until the tire warmed up from friction.

Trina challenged me stating I could never find a place too hot. That is the kind of challenge that I thrive on. When we moved to Arizona it was April with temperatures in the mid-70’s and gorgeous blue skies. I remember thinking it was perfect. Trina of course was still not warm but things would soon change.

By the middle of the first summer here we were wondering whether we had actually taken a wrong turn and was now living in Hell. Later we would find out this wasn’t Hell because even Satan leaves Arizona during the summer because it is too hot.

Those with more years experience in Arizona told us that we would soon get used to the heat. I honestly don’t believe it. These of course are the same people who say, “Yes but it’s a dry heat.” My oven is a dry heat but that doesn’t mean I plan on living in it.

To a certain extent I have to admit you learn to tolerate the three months of extreme heat in the summer because while the rest of the country is freezing their tails off during the winter you have perfect weather for nine straight months. Well that is until today.

When I awoke this morning I went to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway. Standing there in the coolness of the morning something strange happened. I could actually see my breath! This was definitely not right.

Suddenly I realized that my feet were freezing. Looking down I realized that all I had on my feet were flip-flops. I ran as quickly as a guy can run with only one leg back into the house and dove for the afghan that Trina normally has lying on the couch.

Once I checked all extremities for frostbite I huddled up in the blanket and shuffled into the kitchen desperately searching for hot chocolate.

As I put a mug of water into the microwave and set the time I watched the water rotate on the microwave merry-go-round and wished for a second I could crawl inside that mug like a hot tub.

The thermometer outside said it was 40 degrees. Forty degrees? I don’t think I even keep my refrigerator that cold! Something was definitely amiss. For the remainder of the day I would stay huddled in a blanket trying to remember what it felt like last summer when I was actually warm.

The next time I run into one of those climatologists who is proclaiming, “global warming” I think I’ll respond in my best impression of Inigo Montoya from the movie The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

If that doesn’t work maybe I’ll just use the line, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” That’s bound to get someone’s attention.

I am beginning to gain a new appreciation for how the dinosaurs felt as they began their decline into extinction. For a period of time dinosaurs ruled the earth and were the dominant creature that dictated how things progressed.

Depending on what theory you adhere too, there were either outside forces at work that destroyed the environment of the dinosaur or the species simply did not react to changes going on around them and over time nature went a different direction leaving the dinosaur to die out.

During my lifetime I have seen a metamorphosis occur in the music industry. What I am about to describe will no doubt date me and give my children more than enough ammunition to accurately compare me to actually being a dinosaur.

When I was a young boy I remember listening to music on vinyl records. There were the 45’s, which contained one song per side, and then there were the 12-inch albums that would fit several songs per side. The album not only included music but also came in a very cool cardboard jacket that featured artwork on the front and informational tidbits on the back.

The problem with these vinyl albums were that they scratched easily, were susceptible to temperature changes, and were pretty much impossible to take with you to listen to away from home. The music industry adapted and the age of tape arrived. I remember my parents purchasing an 8-Track tape player for the car.

By today’s standards the 8-Track was huge. It had its own issues such as stretching when hot and who could forget the garbled sound you heard as the tape player began eating your favorite tape? I spent many a night helping my father trying to rethread an 8-Track tape hoping it wasn’t damaged too bad.

The great thing about the 8-Track was that it could contain about the same amount as an album so you could carry along the works of a specific artist. The album art was shrunk and now was the label on the 8-Track tape but it still felt like an album.

When I became a teenager the 8-Track was nearly dying. It was being replaced by an even smaller format, the cassette tape. Most of the music from my high school years was on cassette. Rather than having to deal with tracks, we dealt with sides. One side of a cassette was similar to a side on an album. The artwork was shrunk yet again and now adorned the front of a cassette case.

The cassette was the ultimate in portability especially with the invention of the Sony Walkman. You could carry along several albums worth of music and listen to it while you went about your life. The tape players were more durable than the 8-Track but still managed to eat your favorite tape at the most inappropriate time.

The digital age came to music with the invention of the CD. Now we had these little silver platters that looked like a space age version of the vinyl album but in a more compact format. The CD was amazing. It seemed relatively bullet proof (until you left it in the hot car all day). A CD could contain an entire album at very high quality. The artwork of an album again morphed and now was displayed on the front of the CD case.

I remember when the CD came out and I thought it was the ultimate delivery mechanism for music. I enjoy the album experience as you listen to a group and attempt to understand the theme the musicians were attempting to share through the body of work.

At some point though we as a society decided that albums weren’t that useful. Instead we only wanted the hit songs and viewed the others as “filler”. We began creating “Mix CDs” with just a single song from an artist. Everything became a countdown of sorts with music being scattered around.

This concept was further solidified with the invention of the MP3 player and subsequently with the on-line music store. Here you are able to buy just a single song that might be hot this week. Many of the on-line music stores still offer the album but the majority of purchases are for a single song.

The once admired cover art is now an afterthought and the notes and liner data has gone away replaced by an obscure fan site if the listener is interested.

I somehow cannot force myself to embrace this new paradigm. I still like looking at the artwork while I listen and I want to hear the whole album regardless of whether all of the songs will become hits. I want to read about the band and what they were thinking when they built the album.

Now though as recording acts become younger, the concept of the album is beginning to die out. Instead an artist bio is linked to a song or the artwork depicts the artist rather than the album. Songs are single entities designed to stand-alone.

Perhaps I’ll finally come around to this type of marketing or maybe I’ll be like the dinosaur and ignore the environmental changes and slowly fade away as a forgotten market segment.

Besides my unstable fears of being attacked by the number nine the date of “09/09/09” was significant for another reason. For the first time ever many of The Beatles albums were being re-released in Stereo format. This date was selected partially as a tribute to “Revolution 9” from The Beatles While Album.

Growing up everyone heard the conspiracy theory that suggested if you played this song in reverse that the lyrics said “Turn me on, dead man” which were supposed to be clues the band was leaving that Paul McCartney had died.

I was very young when The Beatles reached their zenith of popularity. The band’s first album appeared when I was just two and they had broken up by the time that I had really cared about their music. They were a band that although were influential were something your baby-sitter listened to.

As I have gotten older I have begun to realize what an impact The Beatles had on music and culture for that matter. I’ve seen videos of the near riots that occurred when the band would arrive at a venue. It seems inconceivable in today’s society that a band would reach that level of popularity.

Over the years I have had several discussions questioning whether a band could ever have an impact the way The Beatles did. I tend to think it is impossible given the immediacy of the Internet and how news travels. Much of The Beatles impact was a result of building hype leading up to their American debut.

With avenues such as the Internet and MTV, and now YouTube it would be impossible to drive the music industry into such a frenzy as we saw in the early sixties. Further, society has changed and become much more jaded than it was at that time. The Beatles were in the musical equivalent of the perfect storm. They were in the right place at the right time and had the right members to make it work.

I don’t mean to trivialize their impact or importance to the music world. They were an amazing talent and the vocals of John Lennon and Paul McCartney sound amazing especially on the newly re-mastered CDs.

As The Beatles catalog was being re-released I wondered which albums people were most looking forward to. I decided to conduct my own non-scientific survey and asked which two albums you would most like to own if you could only have two Beatles CDs in your collection.

I quickly realized that this band meant a lot to a lot of different people. After collecting data from several social media sites I found that answer to be different for each individual. I don’t think there was a clear favorite. I had expected Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or Revolver to be at the top of everyone’s list but while mentioned neither of these were a clear winner.

An underlying message that was presented was that if you were going to own only two Beatles albums you were in for a very difficult decision and ultimately whatever choice you made you would be happy with.

The re-mastered albums were very well done and the recordings sound better than they did when they were first released. My compliments to the engineers that worked on these; they did a great job. I suggest you go to your local music store and peruse the newly released albums. Pick up a couple and prepare to be transported back to a magical time in musical history.

Today is a day I have both anticipated and dreaded my entire life, 09/09/09. I am a self-proclaimed patterns guy and I am always looking at number patterns and trying to understand them as something more than just coincidental. Whether it be when a clock turns 12:34 or if a date comes up with some pattern I seem to try to place some sort of value on it.

The repeating nine pattern though has me just a little bit uneasy. I would normally be excited about a date such as triple nine but my excitement is tempered by the fact that the number nine has been stalking me my whole life and as a result I am scared to death of what today will bring.

It started the day I was born which just happened to be the ninth day of March. At first I thought that would mean that nine would be my lucky number. After all, the day you came into this world was pretty lucky wasn’t it?

Soon I noticed that nine began creeping into my life unexpectedly. When I reached the age when I could begin playing sports I gravitated to baseball. I loved that game and it became a passion (my wife Trina would say it became an obsession but that’s another story).

I played baseball every chance I could get. Whether it was a pick-up game or an organized game I was always on the field. When it came time to receive our first uniform we were assigned numbers. The number I was given? Nine.

That was an odd coincidence but one that I didn’t think much about. The first position I played was first base which was exactly 90 feet from home plate, yet another nine (9 + 0 = 9). Each team in baseball is made up of nine positions. A baseball has 108 red stitches (1 + 0 + 8 = 9). As I got older I developed a lot of speed and a strong arm and I was moved from the infield to the outfield. I played right field which coincidently is position nine in a baseball scorebook.

It is not just baseball where nine began following me around. I also ran track where I ran the 100 yard dash. My fastest time that put me in the state track meet was 9.9 seconds. The track uniform I was assigned was number 27 (2 + 7 = 9).

When I met Trina I was running track and playing baseball. By this time I could choose my own number and I wanted to put some distance between me and nine. I chose 32 as my number. Trina who was also an athlete wore number 22. We dated all through high school and it took quite a while before I realized that nine had got me again (2 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 9).

When we decided to get married we chose June 18. It was the day my grandparents had gotten married and we felt it would be a wonderful tribute to them to be married on the same day. Of course nine had to be there (1 + 8 = 9).

After graduating from college I went to work for the Department of Energy where I was given a security clearance. My clearance number when the digits were added together equal nine. When we moved to Arizona and I went to work for Motorola my employee ID was issued and it too was a nine.

As we started looking for a plot of land to build our house in Arizona, I came across a place that looked perfect. We went in to purchase the land and found out that it was lot 9. The streets had not been put in yet and the houses did not yet have house numbers. As the house was finished so were the streets and we were given our address which coincidently is a nine.

When we found out we were going to have our son Dakota it came as no surprise that he would be a boy after having five girls. After all I was 36 when he was born and Trina’s due date was also a nine. Once again, nine finds a way to invade our lives.

For the longest time I wanted to believe that it was merely a coincidence that nine seemed to continually pop up in my life. There comes a time though that you finally realize that it’s not a coincidence. I am being stalked by a number.

I’ve contacted the authorities to see what my options are for putting some distance between me and nine. Strangely enough, it does not seem possible to have a restraining order placed on a number. All of the legal professionals I have spoken to just stare at me when I ask that question. You would think the founding fathers would have thought of something like this. I will continue to work with my legislature representatives to pass a law that will protect you from being stalked by numbers.

In the mean time I plan on being very careful today. There is just no telling what is going to happen. Tonight I’ll be at Chase Field watching a baseball game wearing my Diamondbacks jersey. What number you ask? Nine.

At this time, as a public service, we are glad to post the following superseding additional supplementary bulletin from the Office of Fluctuation Control and Ceiling Repairs, Bureau of Edible Condiments, Soluble, Insoluble, and Indigestible Fats and Glutinous Derivatives, Washington, D.C.:

Correction of the Correction of the Correction of Directive 943456201, issued earlier, February 2, 2009. First correction: that number is now 943456202. The second correction: please note that said Directive reading “chopped hogmeat” formerly reading “ground hogmeat” formerly reading “groundhog meat” should now read “sausage.”

At this time, as a public service, we are glad to post the following supplementary bulletin from the Office of Fluctuation Control and Ceiling Repairs, Bureau of Edible Condiments, Soluble, Insoluble, and Indigestible Fats and Glutinous Derivatives, Washington, D.C.:

Correction of Directive 943456201, issued earlier today, February 1, 2009, concerning the fixed price of groundhog meat. In the Directive above-named, the price-fixed low-water-level quotation on groundhog meat should read “ground hogmeat.”

At this time, as a public service, we are glad to post the following bulletin from the Office of Fluctuation Control and Ceiling Repairs, Bureau of Edible Condiments, Soluble, Insoluble, and Indigestible Fats and Glutinous Derivatives, Washington, D.C.:

Directive 943456201: As of February 1, 2009, the price of groundhog meat will be fixed at a level higher than the price of groundhog meat on October 15, 2008, with the exception of the low-level water route outline in the Bureau’s directions of 20066, of finding the Kansas City stockyards. Note: slightly higher west of the Rockies.

Throughout my married life I am constantly reminded that I am probably clinically insane and that my wife Trina should be considered for some sort of sainthood. This has always bothered me. Not that I don’t think my wife should be canonized but I think I get overlooked in her candidacy. After all, if she didn’t have to deal with me on a daily basis she would never even be considered as a saint. Usually I just smile and nod like a bobble head doll. Every once in a while though I have to step forward and show that I am not the only crazy one in our relationship. Take today for example, I received an email from Trina with the following.

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

I am both saddened by this news and at the same time very proud of my wife. I think she has definitely the first step towards the dark side. Soon we shall rule the universe with our own brand of humor and craziness. By the way to Mrs. Dough, I am very sorry about your loss; that really bites.