I admit it; I Gained from Todd's Tigers' Loss This Past Weekend

I'm not exactly an SEC football expert. I'm also not really an expert gambler, although I do come from a family that loves to play games and wager - yes, Rollie will probably inherit his great-grandfather's dice - no, i am not kidding, and a Grandma that wouldn't let me win at Sorry!

But for fun, I decided to join the Georgia Sports Blog college football pick'em pool. And somehow, with a few unexpected wins this past weekend, I came up in the top five finishers for the week. (Two first place ties, and three tied for 2nd, so technically, i tied for 2nd.) I jumped from 258 overall, to 174. Not too shabby.

Although I do feel a smidge guilty for benefiting so greatly from the loss of my dear husband's beloved Tigers.

p.s. Brett, did you do this? If so, who are you, and how are you doing?
p.p.s. The user "Dawgter Feelgood" cracks me up.

Voice of My Childhood

Summer evenings growing up, the Braves were always on TBS in the background. And in the Fall, Larry was on the radio. My first solid memory of him is listening to him call a Kevin Butler field goal kick, sitting in my Mom's red Caprice Classic station wagon, parked in the lots at the soccer fields across from the water tower, waiting for my soccer game in pouring, freezing rain.

UGA passed on. Larry's retiring. I'm thinking it just ain't right if we don't win a title after all of this. And I'm thinking I'm not the only lifelong Bulldog shedding a tear right now.

I Needed This

A nice laugh before this harrowing season begins. . . .



Thanks to Jason for sharing it.

DGHG: Dogwood Girl Home and Garden

Baby, I found the perfect new sofa for the new basement.

30 Saturdays

Just 30 more Saturdays until the first UGA game of the season. Woohoo! Some guy from the AJC thinks we might be a preseason #1; My favorite bulldog bloggers hope that isn't the case. Seems that they think that Richt performs much better as an underdog.

Fall should be good. I will also be an aunt by then. And hopefully i will have somewhere to live by then. More on that later.

Iron Bowl

Todd and I took the kids over to his parents' house on Lake Martin, where we did second Thanksgiving dinner (yes, we are complete Hobbits) on Friday with his brother Wade, brother Lyle, and Lyle's wife Denise. Wade was on our shit list for not bringing my new niece, Luci, with him, but he made up for it by bringing her over on Sunday. I ate too much.

On Saturday, Todd and I had to get a new tire for the van, so we got up early to drive to the nearest Wal-Mart, which was in Alexander City ("Alex City" to easter Alabamians in the know). Dear God. Oh, the humanity of a small-town Alabama Wal-Mart on the day of the Iron Bowl! You couldn't walk five feet without someone uttering a "Roll Tide" or "War Eagle" at someone else. People looked at me like I was a Martian, presumably because I was not wearing crimson, blue, or orange, and well. . . why is she not wearing one of those? I think it may have been inconceivable to them that there were other states outside of their own that day. On the day of the Iron Bowl, Auburn, Alabama is the center of the universe. I would be lying if I said that I didn't actually care who won. I pull for Auburn when there is no harm in it, and I have definitely adopted my husband's disdain for the Tide. Good God, there is nothing scarier than a female, middle-aged, bleached-blonde Alabama fan in person. Oh, yeah. And my trivia girls and I have a bit of wager with the Alabama graduate who runs our trivia at Graveyard Tavern. He will be footing the bill for our drinks this evening. I have no kids tomorrow. He should be frightened, very frightened.

After that, we had lunch with his parents and the kids, then headed into Auburn to pick up my friend Brett. Brett and I went to high school and college together and he is one of my oldest, dearest friends. I just don't get to see him as often as I'd like, because he lives in Seattle. Brett has his own family ties to Auburn, so he was in town for the game, but is a Georgia fan, so we decided to meet up for tailgating and watching of the Tech game, and also Ky/Tn.

Despite the fact that Kentucky couldn't pull off the win over Tennessee to send GA to the SEC Championship (which I guess actually gives us a higher bowl berth? Whatever. I am over trying to wrap my little brain around the BCS.), I had an awesome time watching with Brett, and with all of the Auburn and Alabama fans who may not have cared about the outcome of the game, but pulled for Kentucky with me, anyway. SEC fans are the best. They get it.

Afterwards, Brett headed to the game, and Todd and I went over to Iain's in Opelika to watch the game. Mostly, i drank while they watched the game. We started tailgating around 2 pm and we stayed up til 2 a.m., when I stopped dancing and passed out on the foldout with my snoring Todd, and four dogs.

Sunday was hell. Okay, except for the part where I finally got to meet my first ever niece. She is adorable and cute and little and she doesn't talk back or run into things and bust her head open. Oh, and my brother-in-law Wade makes a kick ass spaghetti with meatballs. Perfect cure for a hangover, and totally got me well enough to drive two chilluns back to Atlanta. That drive usually takes two hours, but because of Thanksgiving traffic, it took 3.5 hrs plus. I now know what my hell is: Driving in the dark fog and mist, for all eternity with two children screaming, crying, fighting, and singing, while the car lurches forward in 10 mph spurts and headlights blind me in rearview and my head throbs and my stomach churns and I am so desperate for sleep that I almost, almost pull over at Hogansville to get a motel room, just to put me out of my misery, but it would take me another 30 minutes just to get to the exit ramp, so I might as well push on.

UGA at #4. How the fuck did that happen?

More Iron Bowl pics.

Thank God for Football

Otherwise, I'd be really bored at my parents' for Thanksgiving.

I am watching USC ream AZ State. It is kinda gettin' me excited about a couple more days of football. I'm hoping that my clueless [about football] mother-in-law will schedule her Thanksgiving dinner for some time other than those where I would like to watch games. Like, say, a possibly upset of LSU by Arkansas. Yes, I'm a poor married soul who has to do two Thanksgivings. In two states. And one of them is Alabama.

Then on Saturday, I will be in a football frenzy of
a) Georgia hopefully not thinking Tech will be a cakewalk.
b) 2nd Favorite Team Kentucky hopefully putting a whomp on my Mama's Vols. [Yes, nothing trashier than "your Mama's a Vol!"]
c) Tailgating with husband for Iron Bowl. Should be an interesting Saturday. We actually won't be going to the game itself, just watching outside with friends. Todd knows better than to take me, his Bulldog wife, to an Auburn game, though, as they are 0-3 with the Bulldog wife in attendance. And yes, two of those were between the hedges.

Pictures of Temporary Annulment Day

For my Auburn friends who want to relive the day as much as I do, my Georgia/Auburn set on Flickr.

New. Favorite. Band.

From an interview with Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell on Pitchfork.

Pitchfork: Is there anything else that you want to get off your chest?

BB: College football starts in about fifty days.

Pitchfork: You're not soaking up the baseball season?

BB: I am, actually. We haven't been near it. When we were in Seattle for those three weeks I got to watch some Mariners games.

Pitchfork: So the M's are your team?

BB: Yeah, the Mariners are my favorite pro baseball team, and the Georgia Bulldogs are my favorite college football.

Holy Shit. And more:

Bridwell, the songwriting force behind Horses' acclaimed debut Everything All the Time, lives in a ranch-style home that will soon be smartly appointed with Georgia Bulldogs football memorabilia. He's just moved in, so only the oblong G doormat is in place. A framed photo of the all-white English bulldog "Uga," wearing a red t-shirt and performing a leaping chomp at a nervous Auburn wideout from the end zone sideline, sits on the hearth waiting to be hung.

And also:

They serve micheladas-- cold beers with soy sauce, Tabasco, and half-limes.

Dear God. This might be love.

Okay, I really liked Band of Horses already. (They were number one on my Top Ten of 2006 list.) But the convergence of good music and SEC football fandom (and my Bulldogs, no less!) really gets me excited in an altogether freaky way.

Thanks to Todd for recognizing this momentous item, giving me the heads up, and being okay with me daydreaming about watching football with Ben all day and then going to watch Band of Horses that night. I will try to make said daydream include a victory over Tech or Florida, rather than Todd's lil' tigers. I'm nice that way.

Sweet Afterglow of Victory

Well, the annual "Temporarily Annul the Marriage Day" went better this year than last.

Georgia 37
Auburn 15

This season still sucks for a GA fan, and the sting of that god-awful Tennessee game and losses to Vandy and KY will never fade, but this does give one hope for next season. It can work.