Indianapolis Colts 31, Arizona Cardinals 27

Today Beth and I crossed off a 'one of these days' item - more for me than her - and went to the Colts game in Indy. The ZB Club at work offered some discounted Colts tickets a few weeks ago, including "Banner Club" level tickets, for $70 each and I snapped up two. The Banner Club includes holding the Colts banner on the field during team introductions and slightly better nosebleed seats than regular game day tickets. We thought about getting a hotel overnight Saturday evening but with Beth's second hotel error of the last few months a couple weeks ago, in the end I decided that we'd just drive down to Indy early. I reserved a parking spot on ParkWhiz and we arrived there around 10:30 or so, plenty of time. Parking and getting in was no problem. We proceeded to the bowels of the stadium where Banner Club was staging. The banner is just that - a big banner that is basically the width of the field and about as long, solid blue with a big Colts horseshoe on it. I was in the anchor line, directed to plant my feet on the goal line and stay there while the opposite side stretched the banner out, and hold it taut without waving it, all through the team introductions. Then, as soon as Jonathan Taylor was introduced, start furling it back up, gather it up onto our shoulders, and quickly carry it off the field again and line up on the sideline for the national anthem. A different (enormous) crew was doing the same thing with the flag (the size of the whole field) that we did with the banner, only they waved it at the appropriate time. Then carry the banner back into the bowels of the stadium and stage it where it was when we got there. Very fun and very cool! After wrapping up, Beth and I went to find some lunch (got some bratburgers, which were terrible) and climb up and up and up to our seats in section 402, row 17. We missed the Colts first touchdown drive while eating and making our way up, but had really good seats I thought, behind the northerly end zone and with good sight lines to the entire field. The game itself was a good one, especially the 2nd half. A couple 3-and-outs for both teams early, traded off picks, but then nobody stopped anybody and every drive ended with a score except the Cards last one (failed on 4th and 7 from the Colts 9 yard line... whew!) and the Colts last one (one first down and then kneel downs). That last Cardinals drive really had a do or die moment... how often does a game come down to one play? Literally how that one last play went, either team would win. But it was an incomplete pass in the end zone on 4th down... although maybe they got away with a hold...maybe. After the game, getting out again was a nightmare. Beth was really hurting, so she wanted me to pick her up just outside the stadium but it was a mess of one-way streets going the wrong direction, streets blocked off, and streets under construction, or all 3. I had to walk back to her and tell her that I could find no way to pick her up curbside and she was going to have to walk for a while. Eventually I left her on the sidewalk by a hotel and went to get the car, but it was still so tricky to get to her again that she had to walk out into traffic and get in rather than me pulling over to pick her up. But we did make it, and got out of the jam in time to meet up with PJ and Linda at Upland Brewery, where we have met before. Although this was the first time we'd met Linda. They were on their way to an Elvis Costello concert on that side of town, so we had a nice dinner and visit before they needed to get there and we needed to hit the road. We got back home sometime around 11:00.

Meanwhile. Alex is away by himself. He and some online friends got an idea to go to Comicon in New York City which is this weekend, so he drove himself all the way there, found a motel and made all the arrangements himself. I did suggest he split the drive in half and stay at Laura & Thomas's house overnight on the way there and back, which he did. He got there in two good driving days (apparently New York is "three hours of driving hell"), got checked in, and was hitting Comicon today. The downside: at about 9:30 we got a message from him that the motel had checked him out this morning so they didn't have him as being there tonight. And all his stuff that was in the room is gone. And they don't know where it is. They were able to get him checked back in (someone from Hotels.com had to call them to straighten that out) but he has nothing with him. SO we just have to hope that the morning shift can find it before he has to hit the road tomorrow.