I have been an Ole Miss fan as long as I can remember. I grew up less than one mile from the heart of campus and as hard as I tried to escape, I am glad that I decided to be a Rebel. In this time, I have had the opportunity to watch our football team win games we should have lost and lose games that should not have even been close. All this to set the stage for Saturday’s showdown with #8 LSU. There is no team out there that I have more animosity towards than LSU.

When in college, I travelled to Baton Rouge twice to watch the rivalry. In 1997 as a freshman and in the marching band, we won 36-21 in a day game. I will never forget the near-constant rain of bottles and cups that were thrown at the band throughout the game. That’s classy. In 1999, Jen and I drove down for a night game (in the rain) and we put it to them 42-23. With those 2 results, you might think that we have had the upper hand in the series, but 02-07 found us losing 6 in a row. If you look back on the series tally (since I was old enough to go to games), LSU has held the edge 15-9. All this to say, there is a lot of bad blood between these two schools.

Enter Saturday, Nov 21. The CBS SEC game of the week. The early game was dominated by Ole Miss with a couple of questionable calls that took the rebels out of the endzone twice, having to settle for a field goal and a LSU int for a TD. The defense held strong and we went in at the half down only 17-15.

The 3rd quarter was a field position struggle and the real excitement came in the 4th quarter. Dexter McCluster has been the hero of the second half of the season and completed his first pass ever for a TD with 13 minutes left to go putting us up 17-22. A clock-eating drive gave us a field goal to go up 17-25. Up by a TD with 2-pt conversion with 3:42 to go. What happened next is legendary. A methodical drive by LSU gave them a TD with 1:17 left pulled them to within 2. After 2 tries at the conversion, the rebels somehow managed to hold onto a 2 point lead.

Everyone knew the on-sides kick was coming and LSU ran it to perfection. At this point, I had indigestion. I could just see Ole Miss losing this to a last-second field goal. I could barely watch. The mental vaccuum that is the offensive minds in LSU somehow botched clock management and the tigers ended up on the Ole Miss 6yd line with the game clock expired. For once, things went our way. I waited for 10 minutes (well after the game coverage went off the air) to allow myself to breathe and enjoy the tally mark in the win column. At 8-3 with the Egg bowl left to play, the Rebels are finding a way to redeem what was supposed to be a great season. Will await bowl predictions soon.

The night only got more interesting as we went to a Mannheim Steamroller concert. Yes, the uber-popular Christmas music phenomenon tours and has been doing so for some time. Needless to say, it was a Laser Drum, Laser Light, Laser violin extravaganza. I lost it when the violin player pulled a spin move. It was a good day.

Next: Highlights!

While the ladies manned the fort (8 kids), we went hiking on the Appalachian Trail. We put in at Newfound Gap in the heart of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We hiked northbound on the trail for 5days/4nights. We were weather channel savvy and hiked to the first shelter prior to the monsoon that arrived the first day. Thankfully, we stayed fairly dry. We had gusty rain through the majority of the night.

The following morning (Wednesday), was clear and cool. The hike took us by Charlie’s Bunion and over the sawteeth. Vistas were clear and beautiful. Several spots gave a 180-degree view. I’ll post some photos without many captions (too much effort involved). We hiked shelter-to-shelter backing off a little from the mileage obtained in the previous years. This made for a more relaxed experience. You will notice that there is a photo of a grouse. his name is Ricardo (don’t know how he earned that one) and he is a resident of the TriCorner Knob shelter metro area. Saw lots of bear scat but no bears. I do want to put a plug in for the new sleeping pad I bought this year. It is the REI Lite-Core 1.5. This pad was worth every penny. Light, compact, luxurious. I was not paid by REI to say that, but wouldn’t refuse it if they like the publicity.

The hikers this year were Andy Wells, Micah Lewis, Chad Bailey, and myself. We also had some rain on our hike out of the park, but a steak dinner made it tolerable.

All in all a great trip. Fun Facts about Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN:

1. These two towns have a pancake restaurant/resident ratio of 3:1. I was amused and counted twelve dedicated pancake establishments as we drove the main drag of Pigeon Forge. This is not counting the Shoney’s and TWO Cracker Barrel stores. What gives? Who decided that pancakes are the official food of Appalachia? Did I miss this in my schooling?

2. You can buy a Funnel Cake 365 days a year in Gatlinburg.

3. There were at least 5 stores that I’m confident sold a Braveheart-like sword.

4. Halloween is creepy in Gatlinburg. Hard to tell who is wearing a costume or just out for a night on the town.

All I know about Glenn Beck is that he is on Fox News and called Obama a racist. I don’t know the context, so have no argument one way or the other. I watched a rant that he produced in regard to the Fort Hood shootings. Regardless of what you think of the guy, I recommend watching this. He’s a little dramatic, but his points are well made. It’s approx 16 minutes long and at times, the dubbing is a little off. Comments?

The One Thing: 11/11.

Yeah, I know, it’s a little late. The Baileys and the Wells came in town and we had a picnic. Also included is a few shots from the mountain house vacation and Halloween. I didn’t take the time to arrange them in the proper chronologic order. Things to note:

1. Avery (jr) is a slip-and-slide maniac.

2. Ghost costumes are cheap.

3. Watermelon is tasty.

4. No birthday party is complete without an inflatable monkey.

Trust me, these are worth the time. I had the Spies Like Us scene playing in my head all day.

Couldn’t resist another.

Can anyone else think of humorous exam clips that I’m leaving out?

Today, Thomas the Tank Engine came to town. We found out too late to go to this last year, so we have had tickets for 3 months in anticipation.

I know that there are a lot of pictures, but it’s been a while since i’ve posted, so bear with me.

I know that there’s a lot of photos, but it was that kind of a day. To explain a few of the photos:

They had a huge tent with 7 or 8 train tables, a temporary tattoo tent, a story-telling tent, a small train, a big train, a petting zoo (seriously?), a costumed Sir Topham Hatt, some kid with a Rat tail(!), a gift shop, and a musician who let the kids bang the fool out a triangle. It was a fun and tiring morning. As expected, Avery had a great time and cried when we left. Gratitude is not his strong suit at this point. Highly recommend the Day out with Thomas experience if it’s heading to your town.

Avery (Jr.) had a banner day in the misbehaving category. His random devious acts consisted of the following:

1. Bold-face lie about going potty when we could see that it was bone dry.

2. Throwing his sippy cup point blank into Parker’s calvarium.

3. Peeing on Parker’s head on purpose during bath time.

Needless to say, not his best day. We asked God to forgive us at bedtime and hope that tomorrow brings a slightly more obedient little boy. The bonus goody I speak of is another flavor of Publix premium ice cream: “It’s Your Birthday Cake.” As described on the box: “Premium birthday cake ice cream with blue, orange and green frosted cookie pieces and swirled with ribbons of blue cake frosting.”  Diabetes 1, Diet 0. Oh well, this stuff is REALLY good and highly recommended. Jen is currently hearing Christina’s engagement story, hope to have some updates on that soon.

In the order of their occurance:

1. Benjamin Baxter James born to Scott and Jaime James at 12:44pm in Birmingham, AL. Their blog is off to the right

2. Christina Wells and Andrus Ashoo are engaged, maybe 3pm ish. Congrats to them.

3. Amanda Mixon and Brad Knight are engaged, 7:30pm ish. Congrats also go out.

Can’t think of a bigger day in recent memory! Don’t have many more details at this point, but just enjoying the moment for all of them.

Here are some shots of my garden as of late. A few are obviously earlier in the season.  I love my garden. I love the flowers and the veggies.  I’m not sure I love the ‘pumpkin vine’ that’s taken over the back half of my yard!!  Actually, I have no idea if it is a pumpkin plant or a watermelon plant.  The one fruit that’s on it makes me think it’s a watermelon, but when I google pictures of the pumpkin plant, this thing looks a whole lot like that. Who knows. I’ll post a pic of it later and let you decide…

Enjoy!  Oh, be on the look out for the carrot pair that looked for all the world like a pair of lady’s legs!! Hilarious.  Visions of ‘A Christmas Story’ lamp come to mind.  And, yes, we did eat them!!