Football Saturday

I could do without this view out my kitchen window today. What the eff!?



About to head downstairs and make some sausage balls for E & M's Halloween party. The Rachel Berry wig is making one more appearance this year before I stash its hairy, itchy, shedding self in a closet. I look so much better as a light brown/blonde. This experience has made that extremely clear to me.

Then tomorrow to the Arboretum to watch the parade of adorb kiddie costumes. Then starts the countdown to Thanksgiving at mom's new place just outside Austin. Hooray! By then, the renovations should be all done and the furniture delivered. And we'll get to enjoy our first Thanksgiving together in a loooong time.



Her patio looks out over a putting green. Which means it's nice and quiet and beautiful, but also means you get the occasional surprises. Let's hope we don't end up with a golf ball in our cranberry sauce.

Be true to your school

First the story finally came out and it was like, Ahhh, gut punch. Did you need to have been there to read it and cry? If you weren't there, did you still read it and cry? I cried, but I'm a cry-baby (and I was there) so..



There's so much water under that bridge, but I just love Pam and loved working with her. And I think she did so right by the subject matter. So yeah, there's that.

Then there's this. Which I won't say much about because I have some friendships I'd like to maintain and everyone has bad weeks (like us last week) so what goes around comes around and whatnot but still...



..sometimes my school does me so proud. And that's all I have to say about that.

Semi-hormonal football geek-out

A rainy Saturday, so I have no reason to feel bad about sitting on my couch all day, crocheting, knitting, and watching my beloved college football. I'm such a bum today, I didn't go to pilates this morning. And I wanna bake brownies, but don't feel up for running to the store for some eggs. I'm mean, I'm just completely slumming it. Whatevs.

You might recall last fall's "which team has the hottest quarterback" poll. Almost all of the contenders are back this year, and to replace USC's Sanchez, Pete Carroll has brought us freshman Matt Barkley. Jeeze, Pete. What do you do, recruit based on looks??



Not that I'm complaining. And I guess if that tactic ain't broke, don't fix it. Sanchez did you well. Even got himself a cheesy GQ fashion spread with a hot supermodel when he split with one year of eligibility left to head to the NFL.



Good grief dude, have you no self respect? I'm officially over him. But Mr. Barkley is quite a cute one. Jury is still out on whether the idea of starting a true freshman at quarterback will turn out to be a giant FAIL idea. Good luck kiddo!

It also sorta made my day to see the Herbstreit boys on College Gameday this morning. They're so adorable, all blonde-haired and blue-eyed just like their dad. Sweet.

Okay, I'll stop my semi-hormonal football geek-out now. Anyone wanna fetch me a carton of eggs?

This coffee shop is noisy

I had to get out of my apartment today because they're re-doing the roof of my building. All this is still part of the recovery from that giant thunderstorm in May that blew over one of the chimneys and, oh yeah, blew out my living room window sending rain, hail, and shards of glass all over nearly every square foot of my 588 square foot apartment.

Oh football, how I love thee. You've got to allow me some blog space to make a fuss. First of all, due to an extremely early morning on Saturday, I passed out in the afternoon and slept through nearly all of the Vandy-Auburn game. Thank goodness I caught the end. "And the nerds shall inherit the turf." I just love it when the underdogs win.

Also, everyone is getting into such a lather over the Texas-OU game this coming weekend. Me too I suppose. But geeze, I was like, can we finish going over this weekend's games before you guys go cuckoo over next weekend's? And really, have either of these teams played a worthy opponent so far this season? Do they deserve those rankings? I guess we're about to find out. PS, who is the hottest QB?

OU's Sam Bradford



or UT's Colt McCoy?



The correct answer is neither. Really it comes down to these two:

USC's Mark Sanchez



or Florida's Tim Tebow?



Yeah, Tim's got the advantage of loads of cute kids piled on and around him in this photo. How sweet. But he needs the assistance since he's up against Sanchez who is knock-down hot. Please bear in mind I'm not a fan of either team. This is based on cuteness factor only. Please register your votes below.

Did I miss anyone? Make your opinion known. Chase Daniel was ruled out because his neck is just a little too thick.

On an unrelated, yet probably more interesting note, is it wrong that these little hair feather doodads are becoming less appealing to me because Kenley from Project Runway wears them all the time? Because, you know, she tends to come across as really obnoxious.



And one last thing. I know Ike is in the rearview for most of us, but I just recently came across this clip on YouTube. Gotta love those folks who are like, "Hey, there are going to be loads of camera crews on the beach. This is the perfect time to debut my new bear suit!"



All our love to ya Galveston. You're a special, special place.

I has a bank - noo they be stealin mah bank!

No bank. Not as of last night. Okay so no job (check), no bank (check). Looking sorta bleak these days. Oh wait! I just checked and my unemployment funds came through. YAY!! Okay, that provided happy feelings for about 30 seconds. Then I remembered these are unemployment funds. Sigh.

But cheer up bitties, because tomorrow is College Football Saturday! And you, sad little unemployed girl, have a ticket to a game at your alma mater on Saturday afternoon! Hooray! So tomorrow morning I hop in the car and drive east a little ways and then get to root, root, root for the home team. Until about halfway through when they start really bombing (they're not so great these days), at which point I will start craving a sports bar something fierce, so I can switch over to a game that's a little more exciting.

Kinda like I did last weekend. How 'bout that LSU-Auburn game?? I love when they come down to the wire like that. Sweet. Speaking of, did I really miss that Oregon State-USC game last night? WTF? How did I miss that game? Oh right, because I never would have thought to watch that. I mean, it's USC. They beat everyone. Man, do I love upsets. Wish I had watched that one. Well I guess maybe there's hope for my team after all, then, if the Beavers can take down the Trojans.

Okay enough football. Today's subject is now.. clothes! Wha?



For five years while I was in New York, I was always having to squeeze in visits to The Limited when I was out of town. I had shopped there since I was in high school and suddenly there were NO Limited stores nearby. So then I move back to Austin, and finally they open their online shop. Ta daa! Um, thanks.




There's not a ton in there, but they're adding more. As I type, it seems. And maybe it'll be like J. Crew where I can raid their sales online. Speaking of J. Crew, they have a chiffon trim cardi, much like J. Crew has right now, except at the bargain price of $27.65! Way to shop for a bargain, girls. The economy is not in a good place right now. Save your nickels.



Seriously, though, I've had some major brand loyalty to The Limited for easily 10 to 15 years now. They're very consistent. Back in high school I was all over the Limited and Express. Now, I can't even go into Express stores anymore cos the music is too loud (makes me sound like an old lady, but it's true). Plus all the pictures of the models look like they want to kill me.



Okay, much to do before I leave tomorrow for the game, then around town to visit friends in Houston before coming back on Monday night. Must pack. And cook those collard greens in the fridge so they don't go bad while I'm gone. That'll be my debate activity.

One last thing. There are these shorts that it seems like every girl on the UT campus is wearing these days. Seriously, you drive up Guadalupe, and every fourth girl has em on, in various colors. So I get on the interwebs. They're Nike Tempo track shorts. How did these become such a fad? Are they some sort of uniform?



Oh, I see. Jessica wore 'em. Now I get it. If you're in your late teens or early 20s and wear these shorts, please stop. Or buy another pair of track shorts. You look like a lemming.

If polar bears played football...

This morning at 9 am, I dragged my butt out of bed, pillow in tow, and migrated to the couch in the living room. Then for the next two hours, I drifted in and out of consciousness while listening to the sweet sounds of Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, and Chris Fowler. That's right, it was time for College GameDay, because this weekend was the start of the college football season.



Many of you who know me already know this, but I am a college football fiend. I could do without pro football, I'm not one for basketball, and baseball's alright. But I go nuts over the college football.

Of course this Saturday morning ritual was a lot easier in New York, where I didn't have to drag my butt out of bed until 10 am to see GameDay. AND, I had DVR back then, so if I overslept, no big whoop. But now it's 9 am or bust. And I had to do it because for me, Saturdays in the fall are sacred. First, I gotta watch GameDay. And then I gotta decide what games I want to watch. If I go out that evening, I often try to position myself so that I can see the TVs in the bar. Then when I get home, I watch SportCenter, often while drunk. If I don't need to go anywhere, I can easily watch college football for hours, shifting from game to game. Usually CJ and I do this while spooning on the sofa. Speaking of CJ, he's doing much better. Thanks for your well wishes. He's a good boy.



I'd still be watching football right now, whilst knitting, except that I made the grave error of cycling through the channel guide while my mom was present. She spotted a romantic movie on the Hallmark Channel and had a fit. And since tomorrow is her birthday, and since she is leaving on Wednesday for two years in Europe where she will have no Hallmark Channel, and - oh yeah - since it is through her generosity that I even have cable right now, I gave up the battle and came in here to blog. I'm not sure what the movie is but it has Lisa Hartman Black and Rue McClanahan in it, and this has made her exceedingly happy.

Which is just as well, as there's something more pressing that I want to address. Did you know that Sarah Palin hates polar bears?? She does. Or rather, she loves oil more than she loves polar bears. Hrm. Apparently, back in January, she wrote this piece for the NYTimes about how she doesn't think the bears should be listed in the Endangered Species Act. They get listed anyway, and she sues. Why pitch such a hissy about cuddly bears being listed as endangered?? What did they ever do to her?



Because it would severely interfere with plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Which she is all for doing. WTF? On top of that, the Anchorage Daily News found out that the state's own biologists disagreed with her, even though she claimed that the state's researchers backed her up. Um, no Governor Palin. And it wasn't like I was going to vote for your ticket anyway, but you mess with the P.B.s and you are dead to me.

Well, speaking of politics, after swooning over Obama's speech on Thursday evening, I flipped over to Comedy Central and saw this genius bit on The Daily Show. I heart Jon Stewart. But you probably figured that out by now.