A Sad Day

GET OUT AND VOTE!

I have done my civic duty for the day. I waited in line for an hour and a half this morning to cast my vote. The lines were long, but everyone was in good spirits. I voted at the Phelps Center, and the poll workers were doing an excellent job getting everyone taken care of. I personally am supporting John McCain and Sarah Palin, but I encourage you to get out and vote regardless of who you support.

Rocky Top

(I am experiencing technical difficulties with getting some of my pictures uploaded.

I will add them as soon as the problem is resolved.)

I am thoroughly enjoying Alabama football this year. That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed it in years past, but this year has been great so far. Maybe it's because we have done so poorly in the last several years and we are finally back on top of things. Regardless, it's a lot of fun.

A month or so ago, Mark Tyner, whose family sits beside us at Bryant-Denny, called and asked if I was interested in making the drive to Knoxville for the Tennessee game. We had no idea that Alabama would be playing well and that Tennessee would be so awful. I told Mark that I wanted to go and we got our tickets. The last time I had been to a game at Neyland Stadium was when I was in college, more than 10 years ago. So I was excited to be going back.

We left Friday morning about 11am. It was rainy and messy and pretty much stayed that way all day, but our Bama spirit kept us upbeat and persistent. Mark had a new GPS and was trying it out for the first time on a long trip. For some reason he called it Agnes. So the entire time we were gone, we were at the mercy of Agnes and just hoped she took us where we needed to go. And she did.

Our first stop was outside of Gadsden, where we ate at the Waffle House. We thought that would be easy and quick. I guess it was, although Mark's hash browns had onions in them and we had to wait for awhile for the waitress to come back to our table so he could tell her. It would seem that they had some Waffle House VIP coming in for a visit and our waitress had to make sure she had cleaned the bathrooms and windexed the front door before he arrived. We heard her telling the other waitresses all about it. While we were waiting her to finish the bathrooms so we could pay, we met an older man from Florida who was heading to the game as well. He struck up a conversation with us and I began to wonder if we would ever get back on the road. Eventually, we were able to get out of the Waffle House and back on track.

We made a detour outside of Chattanooga and took the back roads into Gatlinburg. It looked like the leaves were trying to change, but the weather was so dreary, we really couldn't tell a whole lot about them. We got into Gatlinburg about 6pm. Mark was determined to make it from Tuscaloosa to Gatlinburg on one tank of gas, and when we pulled in to the motel, his gas gauge said "0 miles to empty." We settled in and decided to get out and find some dinner. Guess who didn't take a jacket. Yup... that would be me. I had a polar-fleece vest, but nothing with sleeves. The weather Friday night in Gatlinburg was cold and wet. We found a TGIFriday's across the street from our motel and decided it sounded like a good place to grab some supper. After we ate, we walked up and down the street, looked in some shops, and basically just took in the sights and sounds. There were quite a few people dressed in crimson and white like we were, and we got several Roll Tide's.

The next morning, we got some breakfast and walked around in Gatlinburg some more. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we could see that the leaves were indeed turning colors. I think that by next week, the leaves will be at their peak. My goodness they were pretty! We shopped a little more and then headed to Knoxville for the game.

It took a while to find parking. I forget sometimes how spoiled we are to have a regular parking spot for Tuscaloosa gamedays. We ended up parking at the First Baptist Church and walking to the stadium. I would estimate the distance to be about as far as from Tuscaloosa City Hall to Bryant Denny. Not terribly far. At one point, though, it seemed that we had dead-ended at a chain-link fence and a railroad track. Then we noticed people walking through the weeds and through a hole cut in the fence and then into the woods. I figured there was safety in numbers so we followed and came out at a large parking lot at the edge of the stadium. Mark said he wasn't going back that way after the game in the dark (but we did! Again....safety in numbers!).

We were heading to find Chris and Jessica outside our gate, when we realized that the team was about to arrive and unload. So we waited with several hundred other Bama fans, and whooped and hollered and cheered on the boys in crimson. Then we found Chris and Jessica. Jessica had discovered that the band was coming through just outside our gate, so we waited outside and cheered on our Million Dollar Band. After all that pep-squadding, we were hungry, so we decided to go on into the stadium and get some hotdogs.

The drinks at Neyland Stadium were the same size as the ones at Bryant Denny. The only difference was they were $2 cheaper! Yep, we pay $6 for a drink in Tuscaloosa! The hotdogs were the same price though, and are better in Tuscaloosa. They put everything on them for you at home.

The stadium was full, but definitely not packed. I remembered being very crowded when I was there before, but not this time. We spread out and had plenty of room.

Of course by the time we got into the stadium we were already sick of "Rocky Top." That situation did not improve until the 4th quarter. I'll admit that I was a bit worried at first about us winning the game. Tennessee seemed fired up and ready for us, and they started off playing well. But then the Tide rose up and put poor old Smokey back in his doghouse! It was a great game, and by the 4th quarter the Tennessee fans were streaming out of the stadium. The Tide won the game 29-9 and the Million Dollar Band did what they do best....Rammer Jammer! I tried to get a picture of the scoreboard, but wouldn't you know it, they reset the scores when the game was over.

So the big question after the game has been what will happen to Phil Fulmer, aka Fat Phil, aka Dr. Donut? Only time will tell.

We got home around 6 pm Sunday night. I really could have used a holiday on Monday.

UPDATE!!! Phil Fulmer Will Step Down!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3679810

Catching Up

I haven't written in weeks, and I am sorry. I've actually sat down several times to post something, but just haven't felt "inspired". So I thought I'd take a minute and catch you all up on why you haven't heard from me. Most of this will be old news to a lot of you, but maybe you won't be too bored with it.

To start with, I changed jobs. I no longer work in public accounting. Instead, I have taken a position with the City of Tuscaloosa as Accounting Manager in the Finance Department. The choice to change was not a personal one. It was strictly a career move. I started August 18th, and so far everything is going well. There is so much to learn, but everyone has been very nice and very helpful. I have very little free time during the day though, so there hasn't been much time for blogging.

Also, my father-in-law, Terry, had an abdominal aneurism that ruptured about 3 weeks ago. Long story short, he was flown here from Demopolis and should not have lived. The doctors and nurses have all said that he is a miracle. He stayed in the hopital nearly 2 weeks before going home. But he is steadily recovering and regaining his strength. We are shooting to get him back to Bryant-Denny Stadium by the Auburn game.

Heather has started teaching on Tuesdays up at the hospital. I think she instructs the nursing students who are doing their clinicals. The extra day has really thrown our household schedule into chaos. Add to that, the fact that she is traveling to Demopolis on Thursdays to visit, and also that it is Bama football season, and you can imagine how crazy our lives are.

So that's it in a nutshell. Short and sweet. We're just running around like crazy folks. Eventually I will get around to posting our football stories.

Until then.....

70th Birthday Weekend

(sorry about the pictures in this one.)

(we forgot to take the camera with us, and had to use my phone.)

My dad turned 70 this past Saturday. So, after the baby shower on Friday night, we loaded up Saturday morning and headed down to Jackson. We had previously discussed birthday plans, and has intended to go to Ezell's for supper, but Daddy ate at Ezell's earlier in the week, so Saturday morning we awoke to my sister phoning us to say that we were going over to Silas to east at Bimbo's.

Man! What a weekend full of firsts for me! First the baby shower thing, and now Bimbo's. I had no idea what Bimbo's would be like. But if it lived up to its name, the experience should be memorable. (Bimbo's used to be call Petrimalli's, and was an awesome pizza place, but changed owners several years ago).

We got to Jackson shortly after lunch. Mama had cooked a ham, so we had a sandwich and Daddy opened his birthday present from us. We got him new binoculars. Thanks to Chris Sentell, for helping me pick them out. Daddy really liked them and carried them with us the rest of the weekend.

Mama, Daddy, Heather and I left mid afternoon to head to Bimbo's. We had some things we wanted to see before we went to eat. My cousin, Barney Lawry, has a camp down the road from our house that Daddy wanted me to see. It really was very nice. He has tons of ducks out there. They must have thought that we were going to feed them, because they followed us everywhere.

We left Barney's, and headed on to our next stop. Years ago, when I was small, we had a camp on the Alabama River in a small community called West Bend. We went up there most weekends, and my parents were friends with all of the neighbors. I have lots of fond memories of going to the camp. Since we were going to be in the general vicinity, we decided to ride over and see if it had changed. I was surprised at how closely I remembered some things. So much was just as I had it pictured in my mind. The camp is still stained red with black shutters, just as it used to be. And all the trees around were still there, although larger. But some things have changed as well, of course. The old firepit that Daddy and Mr. Earl King built between our camps is not there anymore. It has been replaced with an updated pavilion with a metal roof. And the tetherball poll that stood in the King's yard is gone as well. Tetherball games were a part of our regular routine back then. I think that I was really too small to play the game as it was supposed to be played, but the King kids always helped me out (and mostly let me win). We reminisced about how the river used to get so high that we would drive in by boat and get out level with the deck. We also remembered the time my cousin, Charity, fell off of that deck into the yard. I'm pretty sure she got hurt, but I can't remember exactly how badly. I do remember that one time the King girls had made a tent out of beach towels and a boat trailor. I tried to use it as a hammock, and sailed through the towel and onto the ground. Mama and Daddy had to take me back into town to get my head stitched up. The old slough has grown up and gotten grassy, and I'm not sure if the boat ramp that Daddy built could even be used anymore, but for the most part, things are as I remembered them. The new owners had everything neat and clean, just as Daddy also always did.

After the trip to the camp, we still had some time to kill. So we rode out to the Army Corps of Engineers campground just across the river from Coffeeville. Our friends, Johnny and Patsy Counselman have been spending a lot of time over there in their camper, and Mama and Daddy wanted to see the campground. It really is a nice place over there, and we are lucky to have it available for public use. There were a lot of people camping, and very few spaces were available. It's hard to keep something like that a secret. We got out and walked around a little, and watched the river for a little bit.

Then we rode down to Bobby's Fish Camp, where Daddy had eaten Thursday night with some of the men that he used to work with at the REA. They knew about his birthday, and planned the outing with him to celebrate. I had heard of Bobby's Fish Camp for years, but had never actually seen it. So, there was ANOTHER first for me!

Finally, we made it to Bimbo's. It hadn't changed much from when it was Petrimalli's. My sister and her family got there soon after we did, and everybody ordered the crawfish tails, except for Mama and me. Mama got a pizza. I got catfish. The food was great! We ate and ate, and everybody had food left over. The waitress brought Daddy a piece of cheesecake with strawberries for his birthday. Daddy opened his gift from Sharee (a sign for the cabin that said "Welcome to the Nut House"). Then we wrapped things up and headed home.

After riding all afternoon, and eating so much at Bimbo's we were all worn out. But we had a great day, and I think Daddy had a happy 70th birthday. That's what it was all about anyway.

Couples Baby Shower

Ok, here's a new one for me. We are friends with 2 different couples who are having babies. Greg & Kelli Kitchens, and John and Elizabeth "E" Hall. Well, a couple of months ago, we decided to have a baby shower for them, along with Chris & Jessica Sentell, and Jack & Leigh Kennedy. I've never actually been to a baby shower before this, but we decided that we should do a "couples" shower so that the guys would be able to participate as well.

Over all, I think everything went very well. We had a "Messy Nacho" bar for our supper, and Leigh Kennedy's Sopapia Cheesecake for dessert. We had chips, Rotel cheese dip (with and without meat), salsa, onion, black olives, jalepeno's, sour cream, Heather's guacamole, and lettuce. The party started at 6pm and we started eating around 6:30.

After everybody had eaten, we divided up into teams of guys against the girls, and played Baby Pictionary. There were words such as quadruplets, breast pump, pickles & ice cream, and morning sickness. I'll admit that I had my doubts about this game, and nobody remembered the actual rules of play, so we were a bit slow getting started, but it actually ended up being a lot of fun, and I think everybody enjoyed it a lot. Each team had 10 words, altogether, and the game ended in a tie. I think the girls missed Pickles & Ice Cream. I can't remember what the guys missed.

Then we played "Guess the Baby Food Flavor". For the most part, this was gross. I actually found a couple of them that I kind of liked though. The prunes weren't bad, and I tasted something that was kind of like Chicken and Dumplings that was halfway decent. Of course there were absolutely terrible ones as well. I don't think anybody guessed over 3 out of 8 jars.

After the games, we gave the couples their gift. This was a Diapers and Wipes shower, so most of what they got revolved around baths and diaper changes.

We had a good time getting to see everybody. It was a lot of fun.

Wow. We're getting old.

No News is Good News

We've had a uneventful couple of weeks around our house. We've basically been getting ready for this couple's baby shower thing that we're having at the house Friday night and getting ready to head to Jackson for my Dad's 70th birthday on Saturday.

I'm sure that next week I'll actually have something to write about. So ya'll hang in there with me. My life never stays dull for long!