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#1
May 17th, 2004, 04:02 PM
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Chicago Rush vs. Dallas Desperados
"Win and We're In!" That's what the Chicago Rush had to do on Sunday to guarantee themselves one of eight AFL playoff spots. Let's cut right to the chase. The Rush beat the Dallas Desperados 45-41 in front of 13,071 fans! After the last two weeks of games in Detroit and Grand Rapids, it was good to be back home in a packed stadium full of loud fans and excitement. God bless the Allstate Arena! This was probably one of the loudest games I've ever attended.
 OK, so Steve was a little excited! Many people don't realize that the Allstate Arena (formerly the Rosemont Horizon) was actually the birthplace of Arena Football. The first "showcase game" was staged on February 26, 1987, between the Chicago Bruisers and Miami Vise shortly after a "test game" was played in Rockford, IL to prove the concept. This led to the creation of a four-team league -- Chicago Bruisers, Pittsburgh Gladiators, Denver Dynamite, and Washington Commandos.  The photo that started it all Amy and I got to watch the game from the third row behind the endzone. How did we get so lucky? Blame Steve and his passion for taking photos in the bathroom. Many of you probably read the story I wrote about our AFL game experience on Easter. At the time, I mentioned noticing automatic hand dryers in the bathroom that had digital advertising. They were made by a company called ImpressionAire.  Matthew tosses the ball around at the pregame Family Fest Less than a week or so later, I got the following phone call at home: "Hi, this is Kristine from ImpressionAire!" I'm like, WHAT? "I just wanted to thank you for talking about our products on your website." OK, this is really freaky. Apparently she tracked me down via the registration information tied to my domain name, which is public record. Freaky. She continued to tell me that they've been looking at the server logs for their website, impressionaire.com, and noticed all this traffic coming from me. They tracked it back to SteveandAmySly.com and then tried to find contact information.  Matthew, Kristine, and Amy The company has been around for a couple years and is located in the western suburbs of Chicago. At the time of seeing these things, I was thinking that it's too bad World Dryer didn't think of this idea first. World is the market leader in hand dryers (and an Illinois company). Kristine explained that ImpressionAire is actually a spun-off division of World Dryer. Go figure. I guess the idea actually came from the fact that average people know who makes the most popular hand dryers because they stare at them so much. Why not just sell that space to advertisers? Anyway, as a thank you for the free advertising via our blog, Amy and I were offered the opportunity to join Kristine and her son in their season ticket seats for Sunday's Rush game. And that's how we were just three rows away from the action! How's that for a crazy story?  This was our awesome view of the game The game itself was rather ugly. Despite the geographical rivalries that Chicago has with Grand Rapids and Indiana, our biggest rival is actually Dallas. It all got started when Dallas first entered the league in 2002 and we met up with them for a playoff game hosted in Chicago. The game was physical, full of penalties, and and packed with ejections. Ever since then, there has been this bitterness between the two cities. As expected, Sunday's game had flags flying like crazy and lots of extracurricular action.  Live on NBC: Yellow blob inside the red box is Steve! The fact that we were sitting directly behind the endzones gave us great probability of being seen on NBC's national television broadcast. Those odds were increased by the fact that I wore a bright yellow jacket during the game. And sure enough, when I got home and viewed the videotape, there we were... albeit not up close.  Crazy mascots at halftime At halftime, the entertainment was a football game played by mascots from local athletic teams, both pro and college. Last year this event was done to much fanfare, and this year was no exception. It was hilarious to watch, especially when one mascot got beheaded. The odd part of this promotion is that the Rush itself does not have a team mascot. Maybe next year!  There are two more games left in the regular season. Next week's home game against Indiana, followed by a road game against Colorado. Even though we have clinched a playoff spot, we still need to win these games to get home field advantage. The top 4 teams (out of 8 total playoff teams) host first round games. Thanks again, Kristine!  
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#2
May 18th, 2004, 05:37 PM
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I just recieved the following e-mail from our friends at ImpressionAire.
Quote:
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#3
May 19th, 2004, 09:51 AM
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Like I've said before, I don't think it wont be long before they offer you a full-time position. Hey, you've sold plates, know more than one should know about shopping malls, managed communities where most are dead - so why not bathroom hand dryers?
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#5
May 25th, 2004, 01:16 PM
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My VCR is set so I don't miss this moment in history - NOT!
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