I have the best in-laws

Back in Scandinavia after a Thanksgiving break done right - relaxation, reading, movies, sports, hot tub, sauna, traditional holiday food. This was in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a peaceful place. I can't thank my mother-in-law Clary enough for the way she opens up her home to me, Jana, Will, and the rest of her family around the holidays.

I also came back with an unexpected treat after hanging out with Jana's uncle John and aunt Mavis, arguably the two most generous people I've ever met. Saturday night, John and I were in the sauna changing room, discussing the Big Ten Network while Will played with a back scratcher. I mentioned that I had watched the replay of the Michigan-Appalachian State game on Friday; John said "What size T-shirt do you wear, extra large?" I nodded affirmatively, and minutes later he returned with the T-shirt pictured below.












As I mentioned awhile ago, John is a big Michigan State fan who grew up in Lansing, and while he pulls for Michigan in most non-Spartan events, he couldn't resist picking up two of these shirts - one to tease his golf partner Rosie, a good guy even if he is a Wolverines fan, and one for someone who truly appreciated the upset. Judging by my 20 minutes of giggling and gushing, I was a good fit.

You can bet this shirt will be in my bag for every future trip to the UP, or anywhere in the eastern time zone for that matter. Thanks again John!

-On a similar note, there's been a lot of chatter on the Web regarding who Michigan's next coach will be. Kirk Ferentz's name has been pretty hot - the Ann Arbor newspaper had a funny blog post about how Iowa's brushes with the law under Kirk would not be fitting of a program with such lofty character as Michigan. Puh-leeze. Michigan is no better than anyone else when it comes to such matters, deal with it. This is the kind of holier-than-thou piety that makes people hate Michigan so much.

To me the bigger deal is that Iowa has taken a big step backward in the last three years after a somewhat meteoric rise.

Also, seems that Les Miles is not a hot UM candidate right now, and that Wake Forest's Jim Grobe might be. Too bad they didn't scoop up Mike Sherman before Texas A&M did, that guy's a great coach ...