Now that I have a minute to post where I'm not DOG TIRED......

HOW BOUT THEM TIGERS?!?!?!?

The Tigers beat Mississippi, 20 to 13, and we were there amongst the 60,000+ (the 3rd largest attendance in Mississippi history). There wasn't an empty seat in the place.

We left our house Saturday morning at approximately 7:30 a.m. There was a thick fog in the air as we stopped to pick up another bag of ice for the cooler. We arrived at our tailgating destination at roughly 9:00 a.m., and began to set up our stuff. A few others were already there getting set up, and by 11:00, we had the grill going, burgers sizzling, and eating some darn good food. Afterwards, we walked through the Grove, and I was pretty much stunned to see the guys in their khakis, polos and ties. And the girls. They were in their fancy sun dresses and wore their 3-inch stilettos, covered in about 5 inches of mud. To a FOOTBALL GAME! Real impressive. The rumor was true. I can honestly say I'm glad I get to wear my #18 jersey, blue jeans, and sneakers to the games. I could never fit in as one of "them". Plus they can't have grills in the Grove. What's real tailgating without a GRILL??? We got back to our area and it started to rain, so we loaded up some of the stuff we didn't want to get wet and sat in the back of the truck for awhile to stay dry. Then Michael walked over to the Tad Pad to "suit up" (he wears a full-body Tiger suit, minus the head piece...pictures coming later) and then came back to our area so I could paint his face. Once he gets his "game face" on, it's a real site to see, and he can't be contained, lol. A LOT of Tiger fans know who he is now, and they LOVE it. About 5:00 p.m., we got everything loaded up and headed over to the game. It was somewhat of a hike from the Tad Pad parking lot over to the stadium, and on the way, some Rebel fans tried to talk some trash, but it was quite funny. Right before the game, Memphis' band entered one of the gates just below where we were sitting, and the first thing they played before entering the stands was "I'm So Glad", which was totally awesome because it was as if we were picking up right where we left off at last year's bowl game. Just as kickoff was underway at straight up 6:00 p.m., the sun broke through the clouds and shone onto the field, which I thought was rather symbolic. I am not good at recalling plays and stats on the game, but I can honestly say the Tigers dominated in just about every way imaginable, and many Rebel fans were shocked and really thought they had something in Spurlock (their new QB this year), but our defense shut them down enough to allow only one touchdown. By 3rd quarter, a lot of them were getting out of there. There WERE many first-game mistakes on both sides, but their mistakes outnumbered our mistakes by a longshot. After the game, my voice was gone (I was the loudest chik in our whole area of the stadium, lol) and my whole body was sore from my head to my feet. We finally made it back to our vehicle at 10 p.m., and it took us over 30 minutes just to make it out of our parking spot. We finally made it home and crashed in the bed at midnight.

In short, that train rolled on down to Oxford, Mississippi, ran right over the Rebs, then headed on back up 55 and left them defeated and thinking twice about whether or not they should continue the series with us next year.

We had the most fun time we've ever had at a football game (or maybe it was a tie with the New Orleans Bowl in December '03) and we CANNOT wait until next Saturday! The only question I have now is WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WHEN FOOTBALL SEASON IS OVER??? I almost can't believe I'm saying that, because basketball has always been "my sport", mainly because I grew up watching basketball with my Dad, and I haven't always been very knowledgeable in the game of football. But I've been getting "educated", lol, so now it's a lot more fun to me.

About the time we finally get recouperated, it will be Saturday again and time for another game, but we are looking forward to it.

GOOOOO TIGERS!!!!