My Week that Was - January 3

Breakfast at Monty's. 12/27/25 dwm

It was getting close to 8 o'clock, so we were discussing where we should eat breakfast. I had thought about it on the way home from the gym and suggested Monty's Blue Plate Diner.

My wife laughed when she said that's the place she thought of, so with that, we headed to Atwood Avenue and the former gas station now an iconic Madison restaurant.

It wasn't as crowded as we expected but that could be attributed to the holiday weekend. It was great and quite filling. If it was on the west side of Madison we would go there more often.

The Packers played a national TV game for the third straight week and for the third straight week, Green Bay lost, this time 41-24 to the Baltimore Ravens.

While the Packers had leads on Denver and Chicago the two weeks prior, this game was over quickly. On one level, the outcome wasn't promising when before the game it was announced that our starting quarterback, Jordan Love, hadn't passed the concussion protocol and would sit out.

Love's backup, Malik Willis, is pretty good and did a good job, but if the Packers were going to beat the Ravens, they had to find a way to stop Derrick Henry. They did not. Henry ran for 216 yards and scored four touchdowns.

The Packers saw five players leave the game due to injury, four from the defensive side of the ball. Jordon Riley, a defensive lineman tore his Achiles and cornerback Kamal Hadden injured his ankle. Both were taken off the field with a cart, which probably means their season is over. 

1 of 3 Packer ornaments. 12/27/25 dwm

 Because the Packers clinched their spot in the playoffs and can't improve their position, the question becomes who will play this weekend? The game against the Vikings in Minnesota means nothing in the standings, so the Packers want to keep Jordan Love and other valuable players on the sidelines so they are healthy for the playoffs next weekend.

 At this point, it's hard to think Green Bay is going to make a push for the Super Bowl after failing to stop the run or keep opposing offenses out of the end zone; once you're in the play-offs, anything can happen. When the Packers won it all in 2010, they did it as the lowest seed in the post-season tournament.

In other football news, the Fighting Pointdexters advanced last weekend to the championship game of the Sportz Boyz Fantasy league, I'm up against Samantha's Super Team. Both teams are 9 - 5 on the season and according to analytics my team is a slight favorite.

It's been years since we did anything special for New Year's, so we stayed consistent when it was time to welcome 2026 into our lives. New Year's Day is about the Rose Parade and football, well the football part interests me more than other people in the house. I started it like every other day, at the gym. 

We've never been big party people, so this isn't a holiday that creates a big splash for us. On occasion we'll watch one of the shows counting down to the new year on the east coast. As a kid, my parents frequently had a couple over for an evening playing cards. For at least a few years, we took turns either hosting or going to the home of friends from church. That family had two kids, including a girl from my class, and we had fun staying up past midnight. These days, I like to greet the new year while sleeping.

It was interesting watching Indiana University dominate the University of Alabama in the Rose Bowl and advance to the semi-finals for the NCAA Division 1 championship. When we lived in Indianapolis, I saw several football games in Bloomington between Wisconsin and Indiana, my memory may be wrong, but I believe the Badgers won each of those games. The idea that Indiana would someday fight for a national title, let alone, beat a blue-blood programs, like Alabama, would have been so far-fetched no one would buy it.

The cake was ready. 1/2/26 dwm

Buckle up though, this Indiana team is excellent and has earned the number one ranking. It's impressive to watch and I can't help but cheer them on. 

My wife's birthday is usually a pretty big deal when it rolls around, but this year a higher priority was the birth of a baby. It's OK, we can celebrate after she gets some sleep, considering she went to the hospital around 2 am!

Such is the life of a doula's husband.  I had taken the day off for the birthday, thinking about her birthday and not the baby's, but that's OK. 

As the week comes to a close, the plan is to go out in the next day or two. 

I hope you had a good week, and have a happy new year!