Hurricane Halloween...

I guess it's becoming an annual tradition...hurricanes in New York City! Last year it was Irene (who ended up being pretty boring), this year it's Sandy. Five letter women just do not like NYC in the Fall. I think there's a joke in there about the storms earning another five letter name, but I digress...

So far the storm has been pretty tame for us. We are Zone C or D, which means we're not in any sort of danger of flooding. However, with the subways shut down it is a ghost town out there. Just in case we lose power we have plenty of water and crackers...and some wine. We're just hunkering down til everything blows over...

Speaking of "hunkering down"...Sloan's first Georgia-Florida game was this weekend! She almost ate through kickoff, but Mom reminded her that when Uncle Verne comes on it's time to get serious. 

Sloan's gameday finest

As you can see, Sloan wore her best gameday attire (shirt/burp cloth courtesy of Mrs. Casey, and shoes of Uncle Bernie). She even had on a pair of Silver Britches! I'm pretty sure this is why we won the game. So, from now until the end of time, she will be required to wear this exact same outfit for every UGA/UF game.

For anyone that did not watch, it was quite a game. The first half alone gave us six turnovers (forget the O Line, Aaron Murray should take the Defense out for ice cream this week) and approximately 8,472 personal foul penalties. Things got pretty heated out there and Evil Richt came out. I'm a pretty big fan of Evil Richt, and now Sloan is too...

Gators Wear Jean Shorts!!!!! 

All's well that ends well though, and the Dawgs prevailed 17-9 despite every effort to lose the game. Sloan stayed up for most of it and was nice enough to behave herself so Mom could really watch it.

Afterwards, cousin Emily came over to babysit so Mom and Dad could go to a Halloween party. A huge Thank You to Emily - she was an excellent babysitter and Sloan slept for a full 4 hours for her!

Bacon and Egg

The next day we went to a neighborhood Halloween party thrown by a group called Bowery Babes. We only knew one other family there, but met a few others. It was definitely an eye opening experience - and glimpse into our future - to be around all the kids singing 'Wheels on the Bus go round and round'. Our crayons were a hit though, and a big Thank You to Sloan's Grandma, Vanessa, who made the purple outfit!

Red + Blue = Purple 

Finally, a quick update in Sloan's progress: she is weighing in around 7lbs now and has outgrown her preemie clothes (!!!). It's all Newborn sizes for this little girl!

Emptying the Archives...God's Country

If you Google "God's Country" you'll get a whole assortment of results...  Apparently there was an old Western film, U2 once sang a song with that title, and some place in Potter Co. Pennsylvania claims to be it. But I would like to define "God's Country" once and for all:

Damn straight...that's Athens, Georgia.

I suppose if one wants to extend the circle just ever so slightly to include more of the Southeast, I would not argue too emphatically (although I would argue some). Anyway, over Memorial Day weekend Barry and I packed our bags and headed to a friend's wedding in Tuscaloosa, AL. We flew in and out of ATL, so we made a special stop in Athens one night...

It Never Leaves You.

The wedding was for our dear friend Russ and his fiance Lauren. Russ is from Tuscaloosa and they both went to school there, so the location was ideal. I've been to Tuscaloosa several times, but this time was a bit unique because school was out and there was no football game.

It's not a blog post without a few food shots.
City Cafe goodness. 

Waysider breakfast. 

Bryant Denny, empty. 

ZTA house at U of A - an exact replica of the one at UGA. 

Barry and I before the ceremony 

Bridal party waiting for the bride...

The NY crew. L to R: Jay, Richard, Jen, Julie, Huston, David, Barry, Kiley, Courtney, Randy.
Not pictured: Heath who was in the wedding. 

The happy couple's first dance

Reception was at the Tuscaloosa Yacht Club (who knew?), beautiful sunset over the lake. 

NOLA

Last post from the Adventure Archives!
Early January we were lucky enough to attend the BCS Championship game in New Orleans. It was a heck of a trip, made especially fun because so many of our friends are either LSU or Bama fans. I had not been to New Orleans since the 2002 sUGAr bowl, and that trip was mainly for work, so this was quite the treat. A friend showed me the town from a local's perspective on Friday, but Sat-Mon was full on BCS insanity. A few highlights include:

-Spending a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon in Jackson Square
-Running into old friends that just happen to be throwing a party on the balcony of legendary Pat O'Brien's
-40 yard line club level seats at the game!
-All the delicious cajun food you could handle

Long overdue...Football 2011

This post is several months overdue. Either life has gotten busy or I've gotten lazy (probably the latter). Several adventures have taken place since mid-September, but none more eventful than Football Season.
We attended several games this year - UGA v Boise St which I already posted on, UGA v Mississippi St in Athens, and then LSU @ Alabama in Tuscaloosa. My blood pressure swears I attended more games (especially UGA v UF) but those are the only ones I have photo evidence of.

Our trip to Athens was wonderful - perfect crisp, fall morning with a hint of bourbon and football. We tailgated with one of my favorite tweeps Robert Wolfe ("Tweeps": Twitter + Peeps). His crew sets up an amazing tailgate right behind the stadium. If we ever move back down South we will absolutely join this tailgate. They do it right. Plenty of food, drink and TVs to waste the day away. He's only steps away from the Dawg Walk and Coach Todd Grantham (#KTMFD) post game tailgates a few spots away. As you'll see from the photos, many a tweeps came by before the 12:30pm kickoff.

The LSU v Alabama game had even more flavor to it. We always enjoy our trips to Tuscaloosa and this year was no exception. The best place to stay is Hotel Gambrell - named for our gracious hosts, aka Russ' parents. This year it was dubbed as The Game of the Century...#1 v #2. The town was packed and we got the royal tour. On Friday we toured The Zone, which is Bama's answer to the age old issue of sitting in a suite but feeling far away from the crowd. In The Zone, your seats are outside but inside are all amenities you would ever want. We also checked out the suites on the opposite endzone. Our tailgate was hosted by a friend of a friend and was the place to be. The game itself was exciting and very, very cold.

Without further adieu, pictures from our 2011 football adventures...

Gameday

You knew it was coming, it was only a matter of when. This is it, I am talking football. Nothing groundbreaking (my team is 0-2 after all) but the early days of Fall can't pass us by without paying homage to the pigskin. B & I went to the UGA v Boise game in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend. The weekend was filled with anticipation. I was so excited to see the Dream Team in action - would Isaiah Crowell be the 'Next Herschel'? Was Malcolm 'Tampa" Mitchell ready to take over for AJ? Did the off season conditioning really make a difference? Is Aaron Murray ready to be the leader of this team? Are scooters banned from campus yet? So many questions...and so much hope. That is until about 2:30 into the 2nd half, then it was just filled with disappointment.

Alas, the weekend was not completely lost, we did attend #TweetGate 2011. For those that have no idea what that means, the verb of Twitter is Tweet...and I am big on the Twitter (aka Twittah). There is quite a Bulldog community there, so we often discuss UGA football with each other. Those of us that are living in exile also watch the games together (i.e. tweet back and forth about the game plan/plays/players, etc). Anyway, we all got together to tailgate before the Boise game. It was a helluva tailgate for 50 strangers. Video below is courtesy of @BernieDawg and his friend @Namaman, two of my favorite tweeps.




Finally, no post is complete without a field shot and puppies.

 

PS - Jury is still out on the "Next Herschel" nametag. At the very least he has earned the "Next Knowshon". Yes, Tamps is the answer to AJ's departure. Off-season conditioning helped, but we were just too far behind to make up the ground in one year. Aaron Murray has shown that he is ready to be a leader with his mind...with his throwing arm, eh, ask me again on October 30th.

Go Dawgs!