Like, Happy Fall! I love the fall! And today, it finally felt like it outside. Wasn't it great? Just a little nip in the air during the 7 am commute, and you almost got a little too cool if you stood outside in the shade for too long. We'll soon be getting into the days where you run the heat in the morning on your way to school/work, and the A/C on your way home from given locale. It's perfect football weather, not to mention perfect FAIR weather. Which by the way, we're going to take the kids to the Fair on Saturday. There's a football game this Saturday, we're playing the UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) Miners. And if you have ball game tickets, you get free admission to the Fair. How cool is that? Of course, we still need a little "Fair Money" for ride tickets for the kids, "Fair Food", and maybe a game or two. So the plan is to go to the Fair a few hours before game time, then to the game at 7 p.m. Speaking of UTEP, they have the COOLEST tradition I've ever seen in college football. They have this pickax, and it's really old and was actually used by a coal miner (hince the name "Miners"), and the head football coach carries it out at the beginning of every game and sinks it into the field. How cool IS that?? Our current plan is to save up here and there and take a trip to El Paso next year for the game when we play them on their home turf. I've never been to Texas, and the cool thing about that part of Texas is that it's just about as far west in Texas as you can get, and very, very close to Mexico (like from here to Memphis, distance-wise).

So did I mention that we went to Tulsa, Oklahoma last weekend? It sounds like an odd, uneventful place to take a weekend roadtrip to, and unless you Rand McNally it (heh, sort of like Google it?), you might think it's like halfway around the world. But if you drive straight through with no pit stops, it's slightly more than 6 hours drive. And it's such an easy-to-find place....not a lot of crazy exits, or loops, or oh-my-goodness-the-lane-ran-out-on-me-without-warning-and-I'm-driving-in-the-
suicide-lane! (i.e. Nashville). So anyway, we made the drive out there Saturday...we left from here roughly 9 a.m. and got into Tulsa a little after 4 p.m. Our room was VERY nice...from now on, we will look for a Microtel when we travel. It was the coolest little room I've ever stayed in, and only $60. It was a sweet suite! We checked into our room, and then headed over to Skelly Stadium to watch the Tigers take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. This was Michael's birthday present, but unfortunately the Tigers forgot Michael's birthday, because the Tigers lost 37-31. We left disgusted though, because the Tigers really deserved to win it. I mean. They played their rearends off, our 2nd-string QB broke his ankle, I lost count how many stupid penalties were called against us, while Tulsa got away with murder. And if I have to hear that stupid siren and see "It's a Hurricane Warning" in 50-year-old graphics on a 100-year-old scoreboard, I think I'll hurl! The game went into overtime, Tulsa had the ball first and made getting a touchdown look as easy as 3 women down on Brooks Rd., and then they MISSED the extra point. So ALL we had to do was make a touchdown when it was our turn with the ball and MAKE the extra point to have the win, right? Well, when we got the ball for our chance to score, it came down to 4th and 3, and a stupid penalty for Lord-knows-what was called on us, so they backed us up 5 yards, so we were 4th and 8. Just 8 yards. C'mon Deangelo, you can do it! He gave it all he had, he literally stretched himself across the field, and missed it by like ONE YARD of getting the 1st down. Before they even had a chance to make sure he DIDN'T get 1st down, Tulsa fans began to storm the field. Jerks! I mean, how dare they have the fortitude to just assume they won! I was just standing there, demanding to know how many yards Deangelo DID get! It wasn't until the next day upon reading the newspaper that we learned that he missed it by one yard. Just sick. Oh sure, we didn't have the most flawless game ever, Lord knows there were lots of mistakes, but after all we had to overcome to make it to that point in the game, and then miss it by a yard...it's just heartbreaking. So as you probably guessed, we're now on our 3rd-string QB, and if he gets injured, who knows WHAT will happen! (FYI, Billy Barefield is 5'10", 175 lbs. soaking wet...may God be with him and his legs that they might not get shattered!) Maybe they'll start having open tryouts for the position of starting quarterback, and Travis will make the cut, lol. He's short enough, he could just run under the guys' legs. :-)

That's all for now folks! I must get to bed...one more day of school for the week! 'Night for now, and see ya Saturday at the Liberty Bowl!