Let the games begin!

Today is the official start of our "Civil War Week". For those of you not familair with U of O football, this is the week leading up to our big game with the other major Oregon football team, the Oregon State Beavers. A very big game for O fans. Emotions run high and everyone shows their colors... parties are planned... and football leads most conversation as you shop, etc.

Last Friday I was dissapointed that I had to miss the Duck game. Randy taped it for me and stopped watching himself at the half so that he would have surprises when we watched together as soon as I got home.

That of course was Black Friday. It was busy and I was exhausted by the non stop ringing up and bagging. How many times can you say "Did you find everything you were looking for today?" and not sound like a robot?

The funny thing was that at a quarter to four, it stopped dead. The game was about to begin. People were pouring chips into bowls and popping the tops on beer all over town. Meanwhile I suffered a weird let down of sorts. As I said, it was an exhausting and busy pace all day long until that moment. Time flew by but by four o'clock, each and every minute was at least ten minutes long. Normally, my last two hours go fast and I feel elated that I am about to go home at last. This time, it took forever to get to the point where I could remove my till and count it out.

The drive home, which involves a trip through a busy part of town and a freeway looked more like it was three A M than six thirty P M. No cars. I sat at red lights and seriously considered driving through them since no other cars shared the road. As I neared my exit... which is also the Autzen Stadium exit... there was a big sign telling me that it was closed for football traffic. That put me a ways past my house and a bit of back tracking to get there. Several homes have their lights up, so at least I had pretty things to look at.

For some reason I had it in my head that I'd be working through the civil war game. Crap! Then last night Randy pointed out that I have that day off. YAY! I can hardly wait. For my birthday, T and K gave me a nice Duck shirt... which I will wear that day. You gotta show your colors right?

Mom and Ron are going to take tickets at the game in the VIP section. They earn money for their charity doing this. Mom is a Duck fan and poor Ron, is a Beaver fan.
I think we are all feeling sorry for Ron at this point. The Beavers are going down.
Not that it won't be a heck of a game. It will. Too much emotion and history are in this game. Look what happened to BSU this weekend. We don't want to count our ducklings too much before they hatch! But I do believe!

Meanwhile, I will work. Sigh. In fact, I have to go suit up now. So have a great day everyone. I hope you do something that you enjoy today and that many smiles grace your face. Big grins!

M I A

Goodness, what a busy week! A weird one too. Nothing serious, just unexpected stuff. Randy's old computer was giving him fits and our service kept going in and out. I'd be in the middle of trying to post and it would go down... I'd lose everything and got so frustrated that I took some days off.

Then Randy got a new computer and I loaned him Hal's (my computer) monitor, mouse and key board so that he could transfer stuff from his old one to his new one. So Hal is currently down until that is completed. Meanwhile, Hal is off at the computer spa getting the works. :-)

Our service is still going in and out. They are coming to fix that and hook up more cable for us in our family room that we are trying to get moved into for winter. So I've no idea when things will be normal. I will continue to work on Randy's new one until Hal is re-set up inside the house. The time for patio computing is over for the year.

I had two interviews this week. One was yesterday and I think it went very well. Ironically, I didn't want the job that I thought I was applying for... only 10 hours a week, but the Emp. Div. says I have to apply. When I got there, very relaxed because I didn't care if I made a good impression or not, she told me that the short job was filled but would I consider more hours. Suddenly I was very interested in making a good impression. Ha. For once I think I did very well in the interview process. I'll keep you posted.

This weekend... off to T and K's for pulled pork BBQ and watching the Ducks Vs The Trojans at the Coliseum. There has been a lot of flack aimed at the Ducks from USC, but we retain the higher ground on mannors. The game should be a good one with high emotions adding fuel to the fire. The point has been made that since USC can't do a bowl game, this is their big fight for the year in the Pack 10.
Yikes! But I believe in my Ducks and hope for the best. Good luck to both teams.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping a close eye on BSU... scoping out a possible match if we go that far into nationals. All that blue turf! Ha... they call it "Smurf Turf". It seems to me it might give them an advantage, as it matches their uniforms and they sort of blend in... but I think that's an illusion because games are filmed from above and it's not 3-D. Anyway, they are looking good.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Sorry I've been off so much. No worries... its all great here. Big grins everyone!

YOU CAN HAVE MY HUSBAND

I had to use this one! Gave me a great giggle under my particular circumstance with the frog pond and new divorce.

"WELL, MY MAN HE'S LITTLE
AND HE LOOKS LIKE A FROG
BUT WHEN HE STARTS TO LOVE ME
I HOLLER, OOH, HOT DOG"

New Years Eve was fun. Mostly spent watching other football games and getting revved up for the Rose Bowl. Good company and happy spirits. I may have tipped my elbow a bit too much... but hey, it comes once a year. I was not alone and no one drove anywhere. It was a hoot.

Well... the Ducks lost to the Buckeyes... congratulations Buckeyes! It was a good game. The Ducks played well enough to have earned those Rose Bowl rings... and are still #1 in the Pack Ten. I'm proud of them. I had a lot of fun watching all the Duck fans who made the trek in the stands. Mosuli and others will be there next year... there is always next year.

Saturday was actually the best day on my visit to DH's. I'm going to tell you about that over the course of three posts. Yeah... 3 posts worth of information and photos. Imagine that! We managed to pack quite a bit into the waking hours of that day. Fun stuffs! DH has a wonderful Stevie Ray Vaughan collection. All the CDs and a bunch of DVD of performances. We spent a lot of time watching those. I've put another Stevie Ray Vaughan clip at the bottom for you. But that was our evening fun... I'll start telling you about our earlier in the day tomorrow.

For now, I am a bit exhausted. My car was not up to snuff... so I got a brain storm and took the bus. Cost about as much as gas one way for a car. Should have thought of that sooner! The trip down was a breeze! Less than two hours on the bus and only one stop inbetween. Zap... I was there!

Unfortunately the trip back was more of a fowl wind. Weird-os like me, as I have pointed out before... and sure enough, one found me. This old guy reeked like road kill. YIKES. And he spit when he talked... which was almost non-stop, though to be fair, he was just talking in general, not really to me. Babble babble. You can't have everything. Of course not stopping at every possible town between would have been nice. My return took over 4 hours.

I was never happier to see my oldest in my life. Save me! Take me home! He did. Tomorrow its back to the grind at work. But I return refreshed and happy. I had a lot of fun at the end of my vacation and thats the way it should be... weird-o aside.

How did your New Years go? Did you do anything special or fun?

Now for that other video I promised... Stevie Ray Vaughan and his big brother Jimmy Vaughan of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Woot! Yes... they are both playing the same guitar at the same time. How fun is that? You might want to give it time to load first by pausing it until it finishes loading.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan - Pipeline