Random thoughts ...

First of all, my home state is NOT pronounced "Illi noise" - the "s" is silent!! I was just watching the local news and someone pronounced it wrong and it irritated me.

Second, GO TIGERS!! My Missouri Tigers are now ranked #1 after a resounding victory over Kansas! Hmmm, fried Jayhawk anyone?

BJ was very proud of me given that I watched the game AND actually understood a good portion of it. We did have to occasionally pause so he could point out what was going on around the line of scrimmage (you mean the offensive linemen and the defensive linemen are different players?!?!) and I learned a few new things like what the safety does and how overtimes work. I did fall asleep in the 4th quarter, but in my defense I had gotten off work at 7:30 a.m. and just slept a few hours that day.

Third random thought, I am so sick of credit card fraud. I had a really bad incident about 10 years ago when my wallet was pickpocketed out of my purse by someone I *thought* I had bumped into, and they charged over $10,000 on my cards at Best Buy and Circuit City within 2 hours. They had my driver's license and opened up accounts in my name at several stores and continued to try to buy things for several months. It was a flippin' mess! Earlier this year, someone used my Citibank card number to charge $300 of foreign purchases in Germany, and now this weekend apparently my debit card number was compromised. Of course in this case they used it to buy some things AND pay off a T-Mobile bill so I'm hoping the culprit is tracked down. At least when my wallet was stolen a decade ago, I KNEW that there was illicit activity going on. In both of my recent cases, the cards have been in my possession all along. I know that I'm not going to be responsible for paying, but somewhere, someone is having to eat these costs.

Fourth, I need to pass along a miraculous discovery! I'll never have to scrub a toilet again!!! Momma K works in the plumbing industry and she introduced us to the Sparkle and Clean device that you attach to your tank. Apparently those bleach tablets that you drop in the tank are BAD BAD BAD and they corrode out the flushing mechanism. This device adds the bleach to the water in the bowl only so it's not bad for your toilet. My toilet has sparkled this past week, it's the best thing ever!!! I can only comment on the bleach one (which my Mom uses as well) - don't know about the blue ones, but you can get them at any home improvement store.

Fifth, I had posted a while back that I wasn't sure about my wedding dress?? Well I tried it on for my Mom when she was here and we both LOVE it!! I think the purple rocks!! And since we're eloping and it won't be seen amongst our general acquaintance in person, the link here has a few sneak peeks!!

Last random thought, I have the cutest damn dogs in the world! BJ's Mom stayed over last night for a quick visit and the dogs thought it was the best thing ever. As she was leaving this morning, they sadly looked out the door....

Woo Pig Sooie!

I'm not a fan of football - never have been. I was raised in a town where the high school didn't have a football team so basketball was the major sport. I understand basketball, I was a cheerleader for basketball, I GET basketball. Now football is an entirely different animal. When I changed high schools I suddenly found myself in major football territory, as a matter of fact I would have been shocked if our men's basketball team could have beaten most of the women's teams in town. I spent four years in the marching band on the sidelines and in the half time shows at football games, but I never understood or cared what was going on. I cheered when others cheered, exclaimed in disgust when others did and basically just chatted with my girlfriends the whole time.

In college at Illinois State, football was not a big thing. I think I went to one or two games as part of a sorority/fraternity mixer but honestly I was in it for the tailgating and beer. In nursing school at Mizzou, I often had clinicals on the weekends as part of my program or I was working so again - no football, no care.

Now I find myself in the midst of football fanatics and apparently I'm marrying not only BJ, but his season tickets to the University of Arkansas Razorback games..... yippee for me ... NOT! Now before you give me grief, let me make it clear that I did NOT misrepresent myself in regards to sports. I am certain that we covered sports in our first lunch date which lasted 6 hours and my thoughts on football were not sugar coated. The only sport I enjoy watching is college basketball, if I'm plied with liquor I can watch hockey or go to a baseball game (I'd rather put my eyes out, however, than watch it on TV), when the Olympics come around I can sit and watch various sports for hours, but that's it. I have had many opportunities in my life to care about football - for example, my stepdad coaches my former high school team, my stepbrother played college ball for four years, I've been to more Super Bowl parties than I can count
and still I don't like football.

All of that clearly has to change now because I'm in love yada yada yada and marrying into a family that not only watches their own personal teams, but has to watch ESPN and see highlights of every other important game going on in the country - UGH! Since I do want my marriage to work, and I was told that nothing gets a guy hotter than seeing his main squeeze dressed up in his team's colors and loudly disputing a crappy call, I boldly went to my first Razorback game this weekend.
Let me be clear that I still don't really understand football, though I was making a concerted effort to make some sense of the madness on the field. I'm a pretty sharp gal so once I actually *sigh* started to pay attention and care, the downs, yards, penalties and strategy were starting to make some sense.

For those who don't know Razorback football, let me just say that these people are nuts! Grown women and men were passionately cheering for this team, booing the opponents, exclaiming loudly at the "unfair" penalty calls. I seriously would have feared for my life if at a quiet point in the game I decided to shout, "I think the Razorbacks suck ass!"

Another distinctly Arkansas tradition is to call the hogs. This is done prior to the team taking the field and as a type of cheer at all of the kick offs and other special moments. It had been demonstrated to me half- heatedly by BJ once and very enthusiastically by my future brother-in-law prior to the game (who interestingly enough is an Auburn fan). After seeing what it means to call the hogs, I told BJ outright that I was NOT going to do that, but I did compromise and wear a ball cap with the "hog call" on it.

So picture this, tens of thousands of men, women and children at the beginning of the game .... standing up wiggling their hands in the air "spirit finger" style yelling "WOOOOOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOIE!" Seriously the first time I saw it, I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee. This video clip gives you an idea ... seriously the ENTIRE stadium was participating!

In the end, the football game was not a horribly painful experience, by the end of it I felt like i had some vague understanding of what was going on. I wouldn't mind going two or three times a season but I don't know if and when I would ever feel so moved as to want to call the hogs.

One other fun part of the weekend was getting to meet BJ's sister and her husband for the first time. She's a dyed in the wool Mizzou and Georgia fan while he can be found wandering around aimlessly shouting "War Eagle!" (click here for reference) They flew in for the game to sit in the Auburn section and we all had a rousing weekend of football together - and thankfully there was plenty of beer to dull the pain for Jenn!!