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Iron Bowl, 2009

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

And other assorted Auburn Thanksgiving happenings.

Todd’s dad gave us his tickets to the Auburn/Alabama game, and they watched the children for us to boot. I had tailgated before, but had not actually been in the stadium for a game. The hate was palpable. Beforehand was stellar people-watching, as usual.

These Auburn fans named their children following the Alabama Scotch tradition. I know Todd was hoping they were Bama fans, but nope! AU.

Possibly my favorite moment of the day was cutting through a tunnel of a building on campus and getting caught behind the AU marching band warming up.

We waited behind them as they warmed up, then slowly followed them out of the tunnel as they played.

It is not very often that you have a marching band to lead you in. The sun glinting off Tubas and drums was kinda magical.

We met up with the Reids for tailgating in a prime spot by the theater. Old friends were there . . .

Scarlett and her cousin, Thomas. . .

Ned and Nessie

Brandon and Carlie . . .

And Ned's brother Chris set me up with a Bloody Mary. And the Anne was happy.

My partners-in-crime for the Tiger Walk - Brandon, Carlie, and Vanessa. None of them had ever seen it either!

Then we realized we were right next to the Tiger Walk, so I went to check it out for people-watching research. It was well worth it.

Oh, the people-watching. I adore stupid football shirts like this one.

Did i mention it was a perfect sunny day? Not hot OR cold?

Yep, more dumb shirtage. It was like shootin' fish in a barrel.

Well, good day to YOU, sir!

I don't know what you call these things, but I want a Georgia one, for when I am trying to get the troops at home to clean house.

I wonder what possesses a man to get up in the morning and put this on his head.

Or a perfectly good, self-respecting souther woman to wear pants like these?

I mean, come on, ladies. You look like couches.

I can't say anything snarky about this little girl, because she was just as cute as can be.

My old friend Brett came in town for the iron bowl and brought his girlfriend. They live in Seattle. It was fun to see her in his native habitat.

Lucy gets her picture made with this interesting Tiger setup. It was her first SEC game, and boy did she pick the right one.

Interesting setup here. Todd wouldn't let me go sit down with these kids.

This just cracked me up.

This is Todd's good friend Chuck's sister. Chuck is the friend that couldn't make it to their 20th reunion, so I pretended to be him after his sex change and caused much confusion on the part of former classmates. I highly recommend adopting a fake persona when attending a spouse's reunion. Lying makes it more fun. Corey and I talked about my crush on her sister-in-law.

We saw Todd's friend Jared and his son, Jack.

Todd and Inflatable Aubie

Even the program guys get into the spirit.

This woman claimed to be wearing Auburn panties, but I don't buy it. Blingy, too! These getups just slay me.

Outside the stadium finishing our beer. I love that "right-before-the-game" excitement you get at the gates.

We ran into Adria and Chris on the way in.

I chatted with this woman in the tunnels to our seats. She was nice, and I respect her fashion choices.

There was an eagle on the sidelines. Once again, i got to the stadium too late to see the damn eagle fly. I am starting to doubt that it really does fly.

Todd sitting next to his Bama buddy for the game.

Auburn and Alabama, side by side. I am not kidding - the hatred is palpable in this stadium.

I love catching fans in the throes of anger, despair, or disgust.

He's back! They guy from the UGA game! Todd and i love him.

You know that your marital ties have brought you down to inappropriate depths when you go to an Auburn game and recognize the fans.

First half was good. Then we left (I had enough of the mouthbreather behind me, and of being packed in like sardines.) Second half? Not so good.

To be continued. . . And you know you have to read it, because it is just like you were there, and you can almost smell the November sunshine. Also, the suspense is killing you. Did Todd cry when they game was over?

Tags: Auburn, Football, Iron Bowl, todd
Posted in Auburn, Football, Friends, Humor, Life, Marriage, Photography, todd | 5 Comments »

My Husband, Nosferatu

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

nosferatu1

Tags: Nosferatu, Things That Make Me Laugh, todd
Posted in Family, Humor, Marriage, Memories, todd | 1 Comment »

Temporary Annullment Day: A Retrospective

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

What it’s like to be a Georgia Auburn Marriage: A retrospective. It ain’t pretty.

One of my favorites: 2005.

2006

2007 and more 2007.

2008

Tomorrow should be quite the clash of the titans.

Tags: Annual Temporary Marriage Annulment Day, Bulldogs, Football, UGA
Posted in Athens, Football, Georgia, Home, Humor, Life, Marriage, todd | No Comments »

Sleepless: A Tale of Revenge

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I thought that I had a cold that was lingering, but i think it is actually allergies. I have been coughing every night when I go to bed. It is a tickling, itchy cough, and once I get started, I can’t get rid of it. Thinking it was a cold, I took Theraflu Cold and Cough before bed. Didn’t work. Last night, I tried a Claritin, and it either worked, or I was so exhausted that I finally fell asleep during the coughing. I am going to try one again tonight and see what happens.

Anyway, I was in the throes of being unable to sleep, with Todd snoring lightly next to me (not an annoying snore, except that it was adding insult to injury, since I would have loved to be snoring.) The cats were walking all over my legs, trying to find a comfortable place and I was frustratedly kicking my legs to displace them from being pinned down by fat cats. I had been drinking a lot of water, trying to diet, so I had to pee. I got up, and as usual, went into the bathroom, didn’t turn on the light, and sat down on the toilet.

And kept going.

Is there any worse feeling than being half asleep, thinking as you sit down on the toilet that there is a seat down, and finding your butt going farther than you thought it would, and realizing a split second too late to pull up that there is nothing there, and that you are going to be sitting on a dirty toilet bowl rim? (I have a 6-year-old boy – just imagine how disgusting my toilet bowl rim can get.) Or that your butt will be touching toilet water?

I jumped back up, butt wet and images of the most disgusting my toilet bowl has ever been in my head. I grabbed the towel hanging over the shower door and wiped my bottom and back of my legs, then threw the towel down on the floor in anger. I cussed. A LOT.

Damn it! Why are men so fucking incapable of putting a fucking toilet seat down on a fucking toilet????!!!! I should march right in there and punch his lights out. I should scoop a cup of water out of that toilet and go in there and dump it on his fucking head!

I didn’t do any of that. I didn’t even say it out loud. I just threw the towel on the floor and climbed back in bed, hoping for sweet, relieving sleep. Okay, that’s a lie. Maybe I stomped in to the bedroom and jumped back in bed, and sighed a lot, and pulled the covers back over me very dramatically and very loudly. The snoring continued.

This morning, I overslept and Rollie missed the bus, and I had to drive him to school (The principal was the one that helped him out of the car, making me feel guilty, seeing the hazmat site that is my car, and with Rollie clutching his breakfast – a South Beach Diet bar and cup of milk. Oh, the shame!) I got back home, and Todd came down from taking his shower, all clean and dressed and ready for work. I had cooled off from the evening’s toilet adventures and I was drinking my coffee.

Me: “Did you sleep well?”

Todd: “Yeah, I slept hard. You?”

Me: “Not really. I coughed a lot. And baby, I love you, but you gotta put the toilet seat down. I fell in the toilet in the middle of the night.”

Todd laughs.

Me, eyes narrowing: “Did you use the towel that was in there? The one on the floor?”

Todd: “Yeah, why? The kids always pull them down when they are drying their hands.”

Me, smiling angelically: “No reason.”

Tags: Allergies, Comeuppance, Coughing, Sleeplessness, Toilet Seat Revenge
Posted in Family, Home, Humor, Marriage, todd | 7 Comments »

I Love My Auburn Tiger Husband

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

He just decided to turn off his game in complete disgust and take the kids to the beach, thus leaving me alone with Quint the dog in an empty beach house, watching GA on the nice tv. Pouring my second Bloody Mary (V8 for vitamins and minerals, vodka to kill the cold) and thinking how awesome it must be to have the last name Rambo.

Tags: Alone Time, Bloody Mary, Cape San Blas, Drinking, Football, Mixed Marriage, UGA
Posted in Cool Stuff, Family, Football, Georgia, Marriage, Parenthood, Quint, todd, Travel | 3 Comments »

Pop

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

Pop

Pop had photos of him and Grandma made and then, if you look closely, you can see where he signed his “Love, Walter.”

Tags: Palmer Family, Photographs, Pop
Posted in Family, Genealogy, Life, Marriage, Memories, Photography | No Comments »

Possibly Not the Domestic Goddess

Friday, June 5th, 2009

. . . that I think I am.

I was cooking dinner last night (ahem, mac and cheese) and was boiling the macaroni, when the pot boiled over. (Or, “balled” over, as my Daddy with his Savannah accent would say. He also says “aygs” for eggs, “all” for oil, and “tin fall” for tin foil.) Tiller was in the kitchen with me and as the pot boiled over, she looked at me, shaking her head as if in disgust, and said, “That always happens.”

Night before last, our babysitter Rebecca got to the house, and I was dressed and saying good night to Tiller. She hugged me then pulled back to study my face, as if seeing me for the first time.
“Mama, what’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Um, that’s makeup baby.”

She keeps me honest, that one. No thinking i am a beautiful domestic Goddess with her around.

Tags: Domestic Goddess, Tiller, Tillerisms
Posted in Football, Friends, Gardening, Genealogy, Humor, Marriage, Memories, Movies, Music, Musings, Parenthood, Roswell, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Chicago

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

So lame with the blog updates. . . just now updating on Chicago anniversary trip.

First of all, I hate flying.

We had a hard time ever leaving. Our first plane had mechanical difficulties, so they gave us another one, but we had to have our seats reassigned. Then we got on and sat at the gate for 25 minutes while they took care of a maintenance issue. Then we taxied out on the runway. Then we turned around and went back to the gate because the pilot “didn’t feel comfortable with the mechanical problems we were having.” Very reassuring. By this time, we were already an hour behind, and I was starting to worry about my Xanax lasting through takeoff, much less the landing at Midway. We got off the plane and went to different gate to reboard our third plane. Of course, we had to go through the whole boarding thing again. I popped another Xanax for good measure.

Takeoff and flight were uneventful, but when we got to Midway, we came in for landing, then before we touched down, the pilot pulled back up and said that he apologized, but he “wasn’t comfortable with conditions on the ground.” Awesome. Just let me clean up this puke on the head of the lady in front of me, and then perform surgery on the broken bones in Todd’s hand, and I’ll be ready to go again.

Second landing attempt was fine, but at that point, i was pretty exhausted from all that concentrating that I did to hold the plane up in the air.

At Midway, we got on the train to head out to Tom’s neighborhood. Tom is Todd’s friend from Auburn. I only get to hang out for snippets with Tom, but I love him. He is funny and a little strange. The first time I met him was around the time Todd and I got married, and then he has visited a few times since. We also stayed with him when he lived in San Francisco. So, Tom met us at the station and then we walked back to the apartment
(I love visiting a great walking city and Chicago fits the bill), stopping on the way to grab beer at the liquor store. That was where I first ran into my new favorite beer:

When I saw it, i got all excited, then looked at the price and said, um, no. So, i took a picture of it. But then I ended up having one later. It was great. More on that later.

It was raining that day, and so we decided to drink and grill out, so we wouldn’t have to walk in the rain. Tom lives with his girlfriend Tara, and their apartment is awesome. Kind of a 20s/30s feel, with tons of space, a porch, sunroom, living room with fireplace, bedroom, dining/sitting area, office/closet and a big kitchen and pantry. For some reason it made me yearn for city apartment living. I conveniently blocked out the fact that I have children and it would be a horrible place to live with them. In my daydream, I guess I was 25 and had a fabulous, exciting high-paying job.

We ended up running out of beer (how did that happen?) and so Todd and i offered to go back out to the liquor store. We borrowed raincoats and umbrellas and headed back to the liquor store. Did I mention that the liquor store had a dog? His name is Cosmo.

I know. Sometimes my travel posts are just about my Pet Tourette’s in a different city. . . .

We walked back in the rain. Vacation is great; even the walking in the rain toting wet bags of beer is fun. Here is Todd hiding out under the shelter of an old fire station.

So, Tom and Tara’s friends came over to meet us and grill out. We had yummy grilled meats and homemade salsas and guacamole – Tom is quite a good cook. By the time the friends all got there I was pretty toasty, but these folks, Lucas and Lizzie, still let me hold their baby, Liam.

I talked to them for a long time and really enjoyed it. One of my favorite things about travel is meeting new people. I know a lot of folks who say that their lives are too busy for keeping up with old friends, much less meeting new people, but I guess I kind of crave meeting new people. It always feels like I have been recharged the day after experiencing new people. It just feels healthy to me. I liken it to when the kids have new experiences and it’s like they are sponges that just soak them up. It is like you can see their little synapses firing after a new experience.

The boys did the grilling. I think Todd is cute when he is happy and hanging out with his Auburn boys:

Here are our wonderful hosts, at the dinner table:

Please note pots on shelf in background. Tom has done all this really great pottery, and I forgot to take pictures of it, which is a bummer. I believe he said something about trying to throw 500 pots? I don’t remember exactly, because I was drinking, but there were tons of them. Attempts to sneak one into my luggage failed

Here are Todd and Tom with some more of the guests, nice guys all:

And one more:

Hmm. Perhaps the reason i felt so “recharged” was all the men hanging around! It was definitely not the uncooperative cold and rainy weather.

There was more rain the next morning when we got up. Even though the weather channel was telling us there was not more rain. We had no idea how to dress, so, we ended up with umbrellas and rainjackets and hats and short sleeves underneath. Layers turned out to be the way to go, as it rained off and on all day.

Tom and Tara had other plans that morning, so Todd and I walked around the corner and a few blocks to Big Jones. Tom had told us that they had “good” grits and fried green tomatoes, but Tom is from Chicago, so i was doubtful. But he said fried green tomatoes and then I had to have them, even if they sucked. They didn’t! Totally the right consistency and batter. Just needed a little salt. Todd’s shrimp and grits were pretty good, too. It felt weird to eat “Southen Coastal Cuisine” in Chicago.

We walked back out into the weather to take the train to the Art Institute. I took pictures of cool signs (one of my favorite things to do, especially vintage ones. Chicago had some great ones.) I loved the wedding cake sign on this bakery:

And the handbells on these imprints in the pavement. Why handbells?

And you can never have too many shots of church signs:

The Art Institute of Chicago was by far my favorite part of the trip. I could go back and spend a week there. I will, too, because the Modern stuff was mostly off exhibit due to the new wing construction they are doing. And the Cubs weren’t in town, so i have to go back for a game.

We saw so much amazing stuff that I couldn’t even begin to name them all. It is truly a museum where you turn every corner and find another masterpiece that you doubted that you would ever see in person. One of my highlights was seeing the three Ivan Albrights on display. I could have looked at them all day. (My photos don’t do them justice.)

We saw this:

And this:

And then Todd and I split up; I wanted to see the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He wanted to see Renaissance stuff. Mine was way better.

I saw this:

And this:

See that lady with the umbrella? She is a couple feet taller than Todd. This thing is huge in person. You could spend an hour looking at it from afar and another hour staring at each little detail up close. See? Here is the monkey:

Check this out:

And this!

Oooh!

Ah!

I really was pretty blown away. My pictures don’t do justice to the individual works, and they certainly don’t reflect the sheer numbers of awesome things we saw. They have whole rooms of Gaugin and Monet. One of the funniest exhibits was a paperweight collection. Who knew paperweights could be so beautiful and varied?
It was just the best way to spend an afternoon. I didn’t want to leave.

Wooh. I think this is going to be a two-parter. . .

Tags: "Art Institute of Chicago", Chicago, Me, todd, Tom
Posted in Cool Stuff, Friends, Life, Marriage, Music, Musings, Photography, Travel | No Comments »

Eight Years

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

I can’t believe we’ve been married for eight years. The time has just flown by. It really goes warp speed once you have children, too. For our anniversary, we went to visit our friend Tom in Chicago. He lives with his girlfriend Tara (she is awesome!) and it was great to hang out with them. It was also great to spend a couple of days with no kids, just me and Todd on an adventure together.

Todd is my favorite person to travel with – he is easygoing, calm, and organized. He usually plans ahead, figuring out the main sites he wants to see, but is always up for detours and unscheduled adventures. He also always makes sure that I find my way to where i need to go. He gets the tipsy Dogwood Girl in the cab, and he holds the fearful Dogwood Girl’s hand when the plane does funky stuff.

He is my best friend. He is my partner in life. He is a wonderful Dad, patient and fun, and he also kicks ass at Jeopardy and trivia.

Did I mention that he is awesome? Did I mention that I would love him even if he didn’t take me on cool trips and buy me the digital camera that I have wanted for years now?

Because I would. I would totally still love him.

But the return on this weekend and my awesome gift will be pretty damn good. That’s all I’m sayin’ about that.

Took lots of photos of Chicago trip and I’ll post about it later.

Todd. I love you.

Tags: Anniversary, Canon, Chicago, love, Marriage, todd, Travel
Posted in Cool Stuff, Dogwood Girl, Family, Life, Marriage, Photography | 2 Comments »

We’re Sorry, Dogwood Is Unavailable

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

She is flying away to Chicago to see M. Ward for her anniversary and will not be able to get back to you until Tuesday. She regrets the inconvenience.

No, actually, she doesn’t.

Tags: "M. Ward", Anniversary, Chicago, Music, todd
Posted in Cool Stuff, Dogwood Girl, Life, Marriage, Music, Travel | No Comments »

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