Beer, Cigars, and Billiards.

First off, David, over where the water in the commode swirls the other way 'round, wants us too answer this question... "Have you ever broken a New Years resolution?"

Sheeeeeiiiitttt! you mean, have I ever NOT broken one? I don't even do those any more. Just try to be a stand-up guy and mind my own business. Things are easier that way.

Now, back to the subject at hand.

Our recent trip to Wisconsin started with a stopover in Memphis. We found ourselves sittin' in the airport at the Sun Studios Cafe and sippin' a few cool brews between flights. It was a nice place. Great feel to it. We weren't there long enough to sample the food, but I put away a few tall Sam Adams Lagers. Tall ones off the tap. Standards, you know.

Denise pulled her usual gaff. Foreigners! She always orders a "Lager Shandy" when we go somewhere and then has to explain to the waitress what the hell it is. As you may recall, half draft beer and half 7-UP. They always give her a funny look, and then I always give her shit and we have a good laugh over it.

This time the bar tender actually came over after the drinks had been served and wanted to know who the hell it was that ordered such an atrocious sounding concoction. We all laughed and relaxed, both finished off two tall drinks, and left when the time came to get to our gate.

Turns out the only beer she likes to drink straight, without some sort of soda in it is the Yuengling that I brought home from Pennsylvania last year. Thing is, I've only got 7 of those left out of that case and I can't get any more for a good while, so I keep the fridge filled with Shiner, Corona and assorted other things, so she leaves my special stash alone. It's worked so far, but she's been askin' for it lately. I may be in trouble.

Anyway, if you're ever in the Memphis airport with time to spare, check this place out.

When I got to Wisconsin and got to the Hazlett home I found a new taste waiting for me. On the left there is a bottle of Leinenkugel's. They had a case of the stuff at the house, of the Sunset Wheat, and I learned to enjoy the flavor. Tried the Honey Weiss and a few other versions as well. One, the Cherry Weiss, was about the worst tasting crap I've ever encountered. Beware that stuff. Danger Will Robinson. It was new and sounded interesting. You know, when in Rome... Otherwise I enjoyed the rest of it.

The other beer there is a Hacker-Pschorr Hefeweizen. Good stuff. Both of these were available at the pool hall we frequented, and I got to sample each to my hearts desire. There was also a LOT of Stella Artois goin' down during that week. It's Martin's drink of choice. And at one point Denise went out to a grocery store and got me a six-pack of Amber Bock, which I enjoy very much off the tap, but I'm only middling fond of in a bottle.

Damn, sounds like we did a lot of drinkin' don't it? Well...



We also shot some pool and smoked a few cigars. I brought a stash of stogies with me and even shared a few with young Jason here, who turned out to be another budding aficionado. We found that we got along quite well, especially with a beer in one hand an a stogie in the other. I smoked while Martin gave the young lad some schoolin' in the gentle art of "pocket billiards".

Back to cigars. That's a CAO Gold Perfecto in that shot above. Quite a nice little smoke. I had some Macs and a few other things with me, but I didn't really have a chance to smoke unless we went to the local pool hall. There were no other smokers in the house till later, so I had to go out in the garage or the yard with the dogs quite often. I'm not hooked or anything. No monkeys on this back. It's just fun. Don't look at me like that.



The hall we went to was a nice little place close to the house called Boomer's Billiards, on Durand Avenue in Sturtevant. Check it out if you're ever in the area. They had the BIG tables, bigger than the ones I'm used to playing on. Martin is a shark, used to playing Snooker in a league back in Yorkshire. He showed me how to play Nine Ball, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. We hit it off last year when he and his wife's parents came to visit Denise in Killeen. We played a lot of pool then and developed a rapport. That only continued in Wisconsin. After playing all week on that big table, going back to the smaller ones felt weird as hell.



Every once and a while the girls would come along and watch us play. They'd be out Christmas or grocery shopping, or just want to get out of the house. We'd all drink cold brew, eat free popcorn and give each other hell for the occasional missed shots. It was a lot of fun.



The last time we went, Martin got into a game with a guy who had impressed all of us on the other evenings when we'd seen him play. Martin was lookin' forward to a challenging game, and he got it. It was close, but the guy won two games to one. I wanted to get a shot of his t-shirt, but none came out. It said "Stupidity is not illegal, you may go". That kills me.

Well, the last holiday post is coming up. It's about the family and Christmas. I think you'll like it. Cheers.

OK, let's take a short break from the Hazlett family Christmas so I can tell you about somethin' I saw today on base.

After lunch I was standing outside the college office which is situated across from one of the headquarters buildings. The music caught our attention and then we saw the crowds and the buses coming up. Soldiers were coming home, and their families were waiting to see them.

They let about 5 bus loads of soldiers out on the opposite side of the road from the building where their families were waiting, which has a huge field of grass behind it for just such occasions. They got the soldiers in formation, flanked by cavalry soldiers on horseback in 1870s era uniforms and equipment.

The buses drove away and the soldiers fell into the view of their families for the first time in 15 months! They marched in formation up to where their families were, their commander said something over the loud speaker that we couldn't discern, and then they were all cut loose to finally reunite with one another. It all happened very fast.

There was a surge as the soldiers and family members came together. It was like watching two medieval armies running into one another and coming to blows from a distance, only it was cheering and laughter that filled the air, with a few balloons slipping into the sky as mothers, fathers and children lost their grip in the emotion of the moment.

One of my colleagues mentioned the big welcome home party the 4th I.D. soldiers got when they came home in 2003, after the initial invasion. They had Lynnard Skynnard and several other big entertainers here and a huge bash. I said "Yea, that was back when we thought the war would last 6 months", and they grunted an agreement. Now the homecomings are more circumspect, but no less meaningful for the participants.

As it wound down we saw one soldier, obviously without a family to greet him, walking through our parking lot with what looked like an 80 or 90 pound pack on his back and another slung across his chest. As he walked by, obviously tired beyond tired, I shouted "Welcome home man!". He turned with a huge grin and said "Thank you sir!", took a few steps more and then tossed part of his load on the ground to wait for his ride, and grabbed a cigarette from another soldier.

I tell ya what, I love this job, and the opportunity it gives me to see this stuff for myself each day. And I love these people. Many of them will be in my classes in a month or so. Here's hopin' they all spend the rest of their lives in the warm embrace of their family and friends and that everything they go through in the rest of their life is easier than the terrifying crap that's now finally behind them. Here's hopin'.

The swimmin' hole.

One of the attractions at the Holiday Inn Express in Sturtevant was the heated pool and hot tub at the back of the first floor. As you can see from the shot above, we could sit in the comfort of the hot tub and watch some poor bastard scrape ice off his car. The life!

I had been instructed ahead of time that I should bring a swim suit and that the kids, who would be staying in the same hotel, would want to go swimming when we got there. Denise wondered if I'd mind going swimming with her grand kids. Of course, I was stoked. I've been a good swimmer as long as I can remember, and it would allow me to try to develop some sort of rapport with these kids.



I've always had a way with little ones. I guess they start out amazed by my size, and the fact that I can easily toss them around. My own nieces and nephews will tell you about the times they would beg me to pick them up and swing them around by their feet. It's like I was some sort of walking, talking circus ride. I loved it, and it gave me a way to connect with the little nippers.



If there was sound to this shot you'd hear Colin giggling as I tossed him off my shoulders. We'd shift from the pool to the hot tub and back on a regular basis, and I'd do my "Jaws" routine (one of my favorite things to do), sneakin' up on the little nipper under water and grabbin' at him as he'd try to get away. He'd say "You can't catch me, you can't catch me", and with one kick I'd be half way across the pool and nippin' at his heels. It was a lot of fun.

Imagine something the size of an elephant seal coming at you under water, intent on pulling you under or tossing you around. The adrenaline gets to pumpin' pretty quick. The pool was small enough that I could easily swim it's length under water, so Colin would try to copy me and want to race. Next thing you know my eye's were burnin' from the chlorine and my ears were poppin' from the water. Oh well, the wages of sin, as it were.



His older brother Bryce also joined us in swimming, but the vibe I got from him was much colder. He wasn't interested in getting to know me, so I left him mostly alone. I saw later how much affection he has for his grandfather, Denise's ex husband, so I understood the scene. Anyway, I've never been able to relate to teenagers. Even when I was a teenager I didn't relate to teenagers, so there you go. We practiced peaceful coexistence, and let it go at that.



In the end, little Colin decided it was fun to try to shimmy out of his trunks and do some skinny dippin'. I mean, I know the attraction, havin' done it myself on many occasions, but the others weren't havin' it. His brother and eventually Denise swooped in. The next thing you know the trunks were back on. The gigglin' was constant.

That was a nice hotel and a nice little pool. It allowed me to relax, soak in the hot tub, and develop a friendship of sorts with the littlest wiggler in the family. He won't forget me. By the time we left he was teamin' up with me to race the others. He'd tell Denise "We're gonna race you". She'd say "Who?" and he'd say "Me and him", pointing at me. The two of us would run down the stairs while the others rode the elevator, and we'd beat them to the car 9 out of 10 times. We had fun. We will again.

Next... beer, cigars, and billiards.

Like I told you before, the Friday before we flew home, the snow came down in big flakes.

I had scraped the ice off about half the drive shortly after getting there, but now it was time to drag out the big gun.



They had a huge, powerful snow blower in the garage, just waiting for such a time. It's a Husqvarna, and built for combat with the elements.



Of all of us, Jason was the only one who knew how to get the thing going. After a short flurry of tweaks on the gears and a pull on the rip chord, it started up in a cloud of smoke and noise. Very exciting stuff indeed. I was dyin' to get behind it and try it out, but Denise's grandson Bryce jumped at it and I didn't want to get in the way. Wouldn't be cool to jack the girlfriends grandson on the first meeting, so I chilled, and decided to record everything for posterity.



Jason gave him a few tips, like how to shift the snow blower from one side to the other, and before you know it he was goin' up and down the drive and the snow was flyin'. Here's a short video showing the progress he made.



I really wish this camera recorded sound, but you can guess it was a loud bastard. Of course, I had my doubts about trying to blow the snow off the drive while it was still snowing, but I was the weird Texan, so what did I know. Anyway, I think it was more about getting to play with the toy than anything else. Gear heads out there will be able to relate.



Jason, Martin and Lynn, Denise's younger daughter, all stood in the garage and "observed" from a distance. The Stella Artois was goin' fast by then, as were other beers to be mentioned later.



Huge fun was had by all... And then we went inside 'cause it was friggin' cold as a witches tit out there.

Next, the swimmin' hole.

Christmas critters.

You guys know me by now. I've always felt more comfortable around dogs and other critters than most people. So when I went to Wisconsin to meet my girlfriends family I was very happy to find I'd be able to spend a lot of time playin' with their dogs.

There were five in all.; two little fluffy numbers that kept to themselves, trying to avoid the ruckus, and three Labs. One Lab, the oldest, was a chocolate named Josie. Another adolescent male was named Jake, and the little black female (mutt, mix) puppy was named Bentley.



Josie was a strong, steady beast, with a cool temperament. There had earlier been an incident when she'd bitten the little black female for getting in her face once too often, so we had to watch them whenever they were together. She also had some of the smelliest farts in Christendom. Another famous farter, Denise's brother Martin, tried to tell us once that it wasn't him. We were doubtful.



With the two of them there in the kitchen, it was a toss-up when the smell hit us...



Until I got a face full on the couch on Christmas night. My eye's watered for hours. Click on that one for the full view of my anguish.



The little black Lab/mix was the comedian/terrorist of the bunch. She kept the older dogs either hidden away upstairs, avoiding the drama, or busy with an ongoing game of tug of war with what was left of an old stuffed bear. That spot on her back is the scar from that bite. She's workin' Jake's last nerve here. Every once and a while she would quiet down and get sweet on us. I caught an image of such a moment here...



She's being cuddled by Jason, Denise's nephew. Jason was the owner of the yellow lab. Jake was my buddy. Every time we sat down for a somewhat formal dinner Jake would end up at my side, with his chin on my leg.



I'd feed him surreptitiously from my plate, but I think I wasn't the only one. Then his folks would show us his special talent.



He liked to clean the plates after they'd been put in the dishwasher. I tell ya, these babies were a constant source of fun and joy. I really know now why some of you talk about loving your big dogs. There was one routine that never got old. That was watching Jake and Bentley doing their tug of war. Here's a short, soundless video for your amusement.



That's Denise's grandson Bryce jumping in there towards the end. After that, the dogs would lay down and take a nap. It was a great time.



Next, Snow blowing. Cheers.

Makin' Fudge at Christmas...

A Hazlett family tradition goin' Waaaaay back. They asked me if I wanted to stir the fudge, and tried to make it sound ominous (again, get your mind out of the gutter). I was ready and willing. Me loves some fudge. I'd be chillin' in front of the TV or playin' with the dogs when Denise would give me the old sign. No not THAT sign, the sign that it was time to take over the spoon.



Nothin' to it, seriously. The thing is to keep it goin', stirring constantly so that it doesn't burn in the bottom of the pan, until it gets to about 230 degrees. It turned into about a half hour of standin' over the stove. Kids stuff.



Meanwhile the lady of the house had sausage boilin' in a nearby pot (upper right) and sour kraut in yet another. We were gonna have dawgs for dinner and fudge for dessert, and I was ready to dive in. Good stuff.



When the cooks saw that the fudge had reached the desired temperature they poured a bag of chocolate chips into it and a huge jar of some sort of marshmallow like stuff. That's when the stirring got a bit harder, but still kids stuff. I got it all worked together and then we poured it into a pan to cool and solidify.



Then I was surprised and delighted to find out the real reward for doing all that stirring. I got to lick the bowl!



Woohooooo! That stuff was good. That's a naughty boy right there. And yes, my diabetes is doing fine, thank you.



Once it cooled and was cut into cubes they laid it out on this nice silver serving tray. It became a constant temptation. One that I had no problems satisfying. Hope you guys enjoyed that. I know I did.

Next, Christmas with critters.

Ok, finally got the pictures done and I'm mostly over the funk, so here goes.

This is the first of what will probably be three or four posts layin' out different aspects of the trip. I took about 450 pictures and then culled those down to about a hundred. I won't bore you with all of them, but some might amuse you. Some will end up over in the FlickR site, so you can see them there.

You guys know I just spent 8 days in Wisconsin with Denise, visiting her family and ex in-laws for Christmas. Like some of you, I was a bit weirded out at first by the idea that she was still so close to her ex mother-in-law and the family of her ex husband, but when I got up there and learned more of the details, and saw the family dynamic, it was easy to see why they still have deep feelings for one another. I even met her ex husband, who showed up the last day we were there. It was different, but it wasn't too weird. We're all grown-ups, after all.

I was looking forward to traveling with Denise on the holiday. Work has been a real pain in the ass for both of us lately, so we were ready to get away for a while and doing something different. I was brought up travellin', so it's fun and natural for me, and being away from my own family wasn't that much of a big deal. I was REALLY looking forward to going north and getting a face full of real cold weather and deep snow.

We get cold weather in Texas, but the part I live in doesn't usually see much snow, and not deep lasting snow at that. We had snow last Easter, but it only lasted a short time and mostly made the roads crazy to drive on. I grew up with cold weather and deep snow, in England and Missouri, so I miss it a lot.

Well, we heard from the family up in Sturtevant (outside Racine, south of Milwaukee) that the snow had come a few days before we got there, but by the time our plane landed on the evening of the 21st, the temps were climbing and the snow was fast turning to slush. By the time we got to see the house in the daylight on the 22nd, there was grass peeking through the snow and I wasn't happy. The local folks were surprised to hear me bitch and moan about how warm it was. Call me an idiot, but DAMN, I was disappointed.



Here's a shot of the front yard on the first or second day of our visit. We were stayin' in a nice, warm, comfy room at the Holiday Inn Express down the road about five minutes. The roads were clear, but the driveway was covered with ice. It would warm up during the day and then refreeze at night, so I found a shovel and started to scrape it on the first day. I got about half of it done before the shovel broke and I decided that I'd done enough. They were all lookin' at me like I was crazy, but I was havin' FUN. I hadn't shoveled snow in 30 years. All my moves came back like instinct. It was easy.

The next day it was even warmer. Ok, it was in the 40s, but I was expecting deep billowing snow and below zero temps, so this sucked! Then I got a call from my sister back in Texas tellin' me it was in the 20s there at night and the 30s in the day time. "DAMN! It's colder in Texas than it is here!" These folks were thinkin' I was crazy.



Someone had to go out with the dogs about every hour, so I usually volunteered. That's me, fur hat on head, t-shirt and UGGs, chillin' in the back yard, waitin' for the dogs to take a shit. Even with all my bitchin', life was GOOD!



The dogs also loved the snow. One of them, Jake, was just about my constant companion. He'd go out and find one of the patches that still held out and roll around in it. This is about the fourth day. There were only a few snow patches left, and the sun was out.



By the 27th, just about all evidence of winter was gone, the sun was out, and I was loosin' all hope. Then, just as the trip was grinding to an end, a blast of "Lake Effect" snow blew through and all was right with the world.



6 or 7 inches of soft, steadily blowing bliss (get your mind out of the gutter!) Jake had a blast running in the snow with one of Denise's grandsons...



And I was able to get all wrapped up in my winter gear and slog around with the dogs myself. It was like it was 1971 all over again and I was runnin' through the snow in Missouri with the family dogs. Bliss! Of course, the snow closed the local airport, but it was open again by the next day when our plane was scheduled to fly us back to Texas. Everything turned out perfectly. They're still probably laughin' about that big, crazy Texan who wouldn't come in from the cold.

Next up... Makin' FUDGE! Cheers.

Well, we're back...

But for some reason I don't feel a huge desire to post anything, or even surf blogs. In a funk. Got away from bloggin' for 8 days and maybe it's gotten out of my system. I'm sure I'll get back to checkin' up on everyone soon, but don't hold it against me if it takes a week or so.

I had a great time meeting Denise's family, and felt kinda sad to leave that place and come home. Felt a lot like comin' home from that road trip last summer, after gettin' used to bein' away and havin' fun with the folks I got to hang with. Now I'm back here at the house. The cats are happy, and Denise and I are doin' laundry and cleanin' up the mess that's left over from 2007.

I took about 450 pictures and a few little videos, and eventually I'll get around to working on them, but right now I'm just not motivated. There's more house cleanin' to do, online classes to work on, and a new mini term startin' on the 3rd.

You guys have a great new years, and maybe I'll be out of this funk in a few. In the meantime, here's a little taste of things to come.



Took a short little snippet of video, no sound, of two of the dogs playin' in the back yard of the farm house on about the second or third day. The snow that had been on the ground when we got there had just about disappeared (it was in the upper 40s) and the dogs were havin' a good time. They provided us with endless amusement. So, have a great new year, and I'll see ya later.

Here's hopin' all of you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!

First, check this out. I got two wrong. Shocked the hell out of me. Pure luck.

Anyway, I'm flyin' to Milwaukee with Denise to visit her family for the holidays today. We're leavin' the house for the trip to D/FW airport right now. Gonna see some real snow and toss her brother around some more. We hit it off really well when they visited here just after Denise and I started goin' out. Don't know if I'll have the chance to post anything from there, so this may be it till I get back on the 29th. Anyway, so as not to leave anyone out...

For my liberal friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

And for my conservative, right wing, gun nut, meat eating friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And to anyone who lacks a sense of humor, as so many seem to do these days, you might want to click on this...



Seriously, if anything happens along the way, know that I love all y'all to death. You've all enriched my life in uncountable ways in the last year and a half. So here's hopin' you all have a wonderful time and we get to keep havin' it for a long time to come. Cheers.

Since we're flyin' out Friday in the middle of the afternoon...

I'll be takin' dad to eat Friday night Chinese food tonight. It'll give dad his regular night out and me a chance to go over and hand them a few presents. I'll also get my pressin's from the drive-through laundry in Temple before we head out of town for D/FW airport and out trip to Wisconsin Friday afternoon.

The week has been hectic. Gave Finals in Florence and finished up the grades for the 5 classes I had on Ft. Hood. Also finished up an online class and posted those grades. It all was finished in a marathon cession Tuesday night on the computer. All this while we're tryin' to get ready to go to Wisconsin, buy and wrap presents, and then there's the annual Christmas feed at work today. I have a gumbo cookin' for that in the crock pot as we speak, while I write Christmas cards and get ready to get my hair cut at 9:30. Busy, busy.

The traffic here this time of year is nuts, and it doesn't help to have several roads under construction right off the main highway through town. I swear, we've got the worst urban planning in this town anyone has ever seen. None of the exit or on ramps are where they should be, and so now they're all having to be redone. Chaos. I went to Dillard's today to get Denise a prezzy and had to sit in traffic for a half hour just to get off the damn mall parking lot and over to the other side of the highway to the house. Makes me want to go postal. Oh, don't even let's talk about goin' to the post office yesterday. Jesus H.

We met a friend from work for dinner at Boston's last night. I was expecting have to explain to yet another person why it was that I stayed to myself so long, and why it was Denise who nabbed me. I'm about to start tellin' folks to kiss my ass and mind their own business. Anyway, happily, it never came up. This person did give Denise hell though for wearin' the Packers sweatshirt to the game Sunday. We had a great time, and then Denise and I made a trip to Wal Mart and then came back here and I wrapped a few more presents.

I'm off from work now till the 3rd, when my Mini-term begins. Both classes have made, so I'll be busy with that for three weeks in January before the regular term begins. Also even though one online class just ended, truth is that online classes never really end, so I still have to check email regularly while were in Wisconsin.

Well, I'm off. Gotta go to Salado and get sheared. Need to get me one of those Flowbee things like I think Mushy's got and just adopt the Gulag look. Think that would work for me? Later. Cheers.

Tryin' to get caught up with you guys now that school is mostly over...

I surfed through Phlemmy's site and wandered into somethin'. She posted a thing with Rita Moreno, and when it ended I surfed through the other clips and found this one.



Damn, I forgot how cool that guy was. Buddy Rich. Used to see him on the Tonight show ever so often. Nice noise. That got me thinkin' about good drummers, and that led me to this...



Ginger Baker... Maybe the greatest drummer and band ever in modern music? Oh, wait a minute...



Damn, see how my mind works? I know, there are others. Too many to choose from. Just crank the speakers and drift off into something like bliss, and just thank God you grew up when this stuff was around. Damn, I'm gonna have to watch that second one again. Bliss.

OK, now bear with me. Here's some different drumming. This is purely tribal. We're talkin' about deeply embedded genetic memories here. This'll make you want to strip, paint yourself blue with Woad and swing a battle ax into something, or someone. Dig it.



Well, that's how it effects me anyway. Of course, no one needs to see that.

Maybe that's why all these drummers have had such an effect on us. They tap into some ancient tribal beat that's wrapped up in our DNA. Anyway, I love it. To each his own. I'm out. Peace.

Well, that sucked!

I mean, the night in the hotel was fun, and bein' at the game was cool, but I just wish the fuckin' Cowboys had showed up to play. The people that came out in Cowboy uniforms Sunday may well have been bussed in from the loony bin. I kid you not, it was the worst the team has played since 2004 (last time they went without a touchdown) and the worst they played all year. They saved it all up for me. God bless them.

And what made it all super extra special... The woman who purports to love me was actively rooting for the enemy. You see, Denise is a Packers fan.



She spent most of her formative years wedded to a joker from Wisconsin, and has yet to see the error of her ways. Oh, she ditched to guy, but she still roots for his friggin' team. We watched the packers beat St. Louis on the big monitors in the stadium before kickoff, and then she rooted for the Eagles, hoping they'd knock Dallas down a rung and make things easier for Green Bay. Eagles fans in the Stadium kept noticing her Packers sweatshirt and sayin' they wanted to do the Packers a favor. She even bumped into one other guy wearing a Packers jersey at the bar, while she was getting me a beer. Yep, she kept me well supplied with booze, and she even paid for the tickets, so what do I have to complain about, right?



Well, I paid for the room at the Hyatt Saturday night. I love this place. It's beautiful inside. The room was nice. King sized bed and all the amenities. We brought our own bottle of wine and had a good old time. Woke up Sunday morning and decided to go down and partake of the breakfast buffet there in the hotel. Food was cold and greasy, so we won't do that again.



There were lots of folks there at the hotel who were in for the game, and we ended up sitting next to a family who'd flown in from Philly. They were puzzled to find Denise, a Brit, living in Texas and rooting for the Packers. See, I'm not the only one who thinks she's weird.



Even though we got there way early, we still had to park somewhere on the outskirts of Houston and ride a shuttle in to the stadium. The walk back to the car after the game was ridiculous. I was warned about this by the guys we got the tickets from, so we didn't act too shocked when it happened. Goes with the territory.



This strawberry daiquiri and my first beer of the day cost most of twenty dollars! I'd also been warned about that, so we both had a lot of cash on hand.



This was Denise's first professional football game. I took her in to see the field before we went upstairs to find our seats. She was so excited, it was a huge blast for me to take her and show her around. The last game I saw here was in about 1982 (Dallas lost to the Redskins), and the last time I was in the stadium was in about six or eight years later when I saw Pink Floyd there a few times.



Our seats were great. Section 120, up high, with an unobstructed view of the action. The only thing wrong with the seats was the hole in the roof that let the sun in to blind us for about the first half of the game.



I mean, the warmth it provided was welcomed (temps in the 50s - in the 30s when the sun went down), but the glare obstructed the view of the field and made it very hard for me to see the screen on the back of my camera. This is a shot of the opening ceremonies by the way.



We got a bit of relief when the sun shifted behind this big speaker thingy hanging from the roof. Thing is, the game was not the spectacle one would wish to see when you've spent this kind of money and trudged all the way out there. There were no long bombs that hit their targets or spectacular catches by ether team. Just a defensive slug fest where both teams are shut down and unable to make much headway. I turned out that the Eagles Defense was a bit better that Sunday, and the Cowboys were unable to make the points to win.



It was fun to watch the 'boys try to move it down the field, but with one "3-and-out" after another, by both teams, the frustration began to build.



McNabb is just about to be sacked in this picture. THAT was fun to watch, but they paid Dallas back by sackin' Romo about three times.



This over hyped, over payed dufus didn't complete a single pass to a wide receiver in the first half, and threw three interceptions Sunday. By the end of the game I heard some fans reviving that old thing about "Romo the homo" from last year. It wasn't pretty. Turns out he hit his hand on a helmet in the third quarter and messed up a finger, and they didn't take him out. What the hell was Wade Phillips thinking?



Of course, it wasn't all dreary. The cheerleaders came out at the end of every quarter to perk up our... spirits. Some things never change. God bless them.



The most frustrating thing about the game was the way it ended, with the Eagle player running in towards to goal and then sitting down in front of it, and then having them take one knee after another to run the clock down. I mean, it was brilliant, but I wanted to beat someone I was so pissed. Seemed like a chicken shit way to win at the time. Go ahead and get the touchdown and then let Dallas try to get a touchdown and a field goal in the last two minutes. In stead, he took a knee, over and over, eating up the time. If one of those loud, drunk Eagles fans had nudged me a little harder on the walk down the ramp after the game I might'a ended up in jail. That would'a capped the night off.

It turned out in the end that Dallas just didn't have what it was gonna take to beat the Eagles. It was their day to lose. It's just too bad it was the same day I chose to show up to watch. What are ya gonna go? Denise had a wonderful time. I was happy for her... OK, that's a lie. It was all I could do to bring myself to speak to her for about twenty minutes as we walked back to the car.

We drove to Ft. Worth and had dinner at Pappasito's, all the familiar stuff you've seen before, and more booze, and then we drove home two-and-a-half hours to my place. You know, I'll get over it, but I have to admit I'm in a quandary. OK guys, you tell me.

I've been a Cowboy fan all my life. Even when we lived in friggin' Missouri in the early '70s when the Chiefs were winning games, I walked around in a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt and took the shit. I gave it back the next year when the Cowboys won the big one. All my life there have been a few teams that I have HATED because of the shit they've managed to give the Cowboy's at the right time of the season, one year or the other. They are basically imps of Satan, these teams, and they have regularly caused Gods team to suffer horrible vexations. OK, I can deal with that. It's cool. But the woman who purports to love me insists on rooting for ALL of these teams right in front of me. She does it in my house! The first time I realized this it was the Giants she was pulling for, while sitting on my couch. I was like, "Get the fuck out of my house! You can't root for them in here!" Then she flashed those blue eyes at me and my resolve melted. Satan, I tell you, is in this woman. An exorcism may well be in order. I could do one. I've seen the movie.

Anyway, it sucked, but it's just a game, and there'll be another one in a week or so. If I can live through all the other heart breaking losses I've witnessed in the last 40 years I can learn to live with this one. It was a lot of fun to be there, even with the way the game went. It was fun to take Denise to her first game, but I'll have to think hard about ever goin' to another one.

Oh, I have all these shots and many others on FlickR , so you'll be able to click on it and check them out.

Well, I hope you guys had a good weekend, and all your teams won... OK, that's a lie too. Anyway, see ya later. Cheers.