Archive for September, 2007

Jacksonville for the Bama/FSU Game • 09.29.07

Lillis and i headed down to jacksonville for the bama/fsu game. you see, bobby bowden was a lifelong bama fan and huge bear bryant fan and even went there to play football. after his freshmen year, however, he decided it was just a little too big a school for him and he transferred over to samford. he had always wanted to coach a game against them, so this one game in jax beach got scheduled. me; i had always wanted to go to a bowden vs bama game if it ever got scheduled. ok, that’s a lie. but i WAS excited when i found out it had gotten scheduled and was stoked to get to have a fun weekend down in jacksonville. my cousin ronnie lives there with his wife katrina and we headed down on thursday to their house. jeremy flew in from dc on friday and we all went out on ronnie’s boat there in the river. as you might remember lillis really loves being out on the water.

even devilishly and weirdly enjoys it (as evidenced by the look on her face here)

here, jeremy demonstrates an unusual move on the wakeboard.

ronnie demonstrates a little more traditional style of wakeboarding.

lillis throws up some spray on the slalom

that night we went out to the landing and met a “roll tide” guy. it was a pretty fly outfit.

late r that night we had waffle house. it was yummy. the next day was the game. it didn’t go well for the tide and i thought we were going to have to throw down with the obnoxious fsu fans in the section who were tomahawk chopping at people as they people were leaving. stay classy san diego. actually a chick fight did break out directly in front of us as an fsu girl walked over to confront an obviously buzzed bama fan. some full on throwing down ensued, punctuated by the bama chicken falling backwards over the chair, but still holding on to the fsu girl’s hair and attempting to kick her. while the actions were very redneck and trashy, i have to respect the stick-to-it-iveness.

after the game, i had to find something for us to do to take our minds off of the game. so, back at jeremy’s friend richie’s abundant tailgate, i came up with keg rolling. ronnie was a natural.

here’s a frog at ronnie’s house.

finally, we have ronnie’s daughter madison sporting jeremy’s houndstooth lid. i’d say she looks mahvelous, but she’s cute anyway, and everyone looks good in a houndstooth lid.



Posted by Picasa

Posted in Uncategorizedwith Comments Off on Jacksonville for the Bama/FSU Game

Alabama vs Georgia Weekend • 09.22.07

lillis and i packed up and headed to t-town for the alabama/uga game. she had gotten to watch the 2nd half of the bama arkansas game at the restaurant that bama fans go to in hotlanta, so she had an inkling of what it might be like, but i still think she was maybe a little overwhelmed. the game ended disappointingly as stafford threw the pass of his life to knock us off in overtime. anyway, on to the pics and (as always, or usual at least) here is a link to the full album

before the game we hosted “gameday’. here chris isn’t happy with something as lee talks about a bunch of games i don’t care about.

lee ended up picking the tide to win……oh, but it was not to be. 🙁

lillis and i pause for a shot during gameday

jason’s brother in law rocky has a pretty sweet bama golf cart that we tour the campus with. here his daughter peers into foster auditorium. the plack denotes that this was the site of the “stand in the schoolhouse door” (as featured in forrest gump). it was also where i learned to play volleyball, and where we practiced, coached and played while i was in school. and, btw, we let anyone come in that wanted.

here is my old house. it’s called 620 (unsuprisingly that was the address). this was the site of near-weekly parties and just a ton of good memories of hanging out on the front porch, throwing football in the front yard, playing ping pong in elaborate tournaments that were never finished, stealing road signs, sitting on the roof after football games, the 620 band, guest stars “the penetrators”, and replanting the front yard with sod from bryant denny field after someone salted my yard and set off a small pipe bomb on the night of my 21st birthday as a hate crime against people with good grades – btw, the party persisted nonetheless.

big al had asked to get his picture taken with us. we obliged

jason and i were stunned when i located a keg in “the locker room” a relatively upscale clothing store just off campus. that’s alabama football!!!

no more discussions of the game that took place later that day…… sooo, starwipe to the next day. we went out to the quad to play some volleyball, and lillis and her new friend michael wandered around and took pictures of stuff (like each other doing yoga on the steps of the library).

michael’s form looks a little more electric boogaloo than ashtanga.

while i was busy demonstrating how to make contact behind your head rather than in front (where it should be). lord, i am out of practice.

it was a great weekend in spite of the tide’s defeat, and the game itself definitely felt like a continuation of a theme of our guys playing with heart and never giving up. that was good to see (for the first time since 1999).

Posted by Picasa

Posted in Uncategorizedwith Comments Off on Alabama vs Georgia Weekend

labor day in costa rica • 09.01.07

soooo, i had been back from africa about a week or two when lillis coyly asked me what i’d like for us to do for labor day. i said it would be nice to go to a beach and asked what she was thinking. it was at that point that about a millions words came out of her mouth – the end result of which was we had agreed to go to costa rica for labor day. she has a family friend in jaco who has a place right near the water. it was a wonderful trip and was (despite all the activity) a relaxing and invigorating experience. my biggest shock was the price of things there “gringo prices anyone?” and that there was virtually no need to speak spanish. i felt like costa rica was one of the exhibits at epcot. however, what jaco lacked in “traditional” costa rican culture, it more than made up for in “wow!” the place is just lush and gorgeous with mountains tumbling down to beaches with perfect surfing breaks. we went surfing, zip lining, and scuba diving in the 3+ days we were there. btw, the reason it was a plus is b/c while we were at the airport and just as we were boarding our plane, another plane skidded off the end of the runway (at which points the pilots jumped out and fled leaving the passengers inside) shutting down the airport. so, we ended up extended an extra day and had to leave by 6am the next morning to beat the incoming hurricane out of costa rica (good to add a little stress right at the end of the trip, but everything went fine). an airport highlight was running into the entire western carolina mens basketball team in the san jose airport, just hours after alabama had beaten them in football. i through one of the coaches a “roll tide” as i was passing him coming out of the rest room. needless to say, it was not something he expected to hear in central america. anway, pics below, with a full set at my picasa site here.

lillis LOVED surfing even though (as i’m told by surfing expert bill and surfing groupie stephen) the waves at the beach we surfed were terrible. to be fair, though, lillis was excited about pretty much everything we did in costa rica (except the airport – and she didn’t even really mind that).

i look undaunted here, but i was actually quite daunted. btw, i’m wearing stephen’s surf shirt. i was glad the pectoral region wasn’t stretched out to far to fit me without bagging up.

here is part of lillis’ face. it is the bottom two thirds.

here lillis flees a wave at hermosa beach (where the last scene in endless summer was filmed, i’m told).

and this is a look down that same beach

this was at an even quieter beach called estrella – um, i think. it was gorgeous right before sunset as the fading sunlight dusted the tree line

group portrait (no one to take it for us so shadow outline will suffice)

this is lillis before the hair is done. she uses a magic headband.

diving was awesome except that we couldn’t see anything b/c of all the runoff from the rivers in the runny season. we also learned that a good way to drown is to have a beard when you go scuba diving. there are numerous pictures of me holding my mask onto my face. it was fun to learn how to do it, though (lillis is a pro). in this picture however, a bubble has severed her head from her body. bad stuff, actually, those bubbles.

here’s a shot of us wondering if i’m going to survive without rupturing and eardrum. note that lillis has hair horns.

here lillis kisses me since she can’t kiss costa rica, but she’s really excited to be there.

we had our driver take one more pic for us along the road back to san jose. just a beautiful place, and an awesome trip. it was so much fun just to go and do and not think. to just be in a beautiful place and enjoy it. many many thanks to lillis for making it such a wonderful trip with her energy and sweetness and amazing attitude.

Posted in Uncategorizedwith Comments Off on labor day in costa rica

  • You Avatar

  • RSS Latest From My Blog

    • Camping Weekend June 9, 2007
      sooooo, i was able to convince john and stephen that it would be a good idea for us to spend a weekend out in the woods with no food and no hair dryers (more a concern for stephen than for me - and less so every day). we found our way up to the greater […]
    • Volleyball End of Season Tourney April 29, 2007
      we went to huntsvegas for our end of the season volleyball tourney with the tsunami club i've been working with. below are a few picks of my team (13 black). we had a tough opening day, but did manage to upset the #1 seed in the tournament on day 2 before bowing out.below, allie poses […]
    • My Second Nica Trip April 16, 2007
      i took a second trip to nicaragua in april. this time brent nix (the mystery 4th in our group) and john headed down as well. it was john's 3rd trip and we were taking a look at a couple of places that he had visited before as well as some new places that peter wanted […]
    • Half a Brain March 25, 2007
      sorry, no pics for this one. soooo, Atlanta was hosting the inagural ING marathon on March 25th. several of my friends had been training for months, but i had been nursing a sore leg and had not jogged for about 2 months. for some reason my friends (most notably jason, drew and blake) thought it […]
    • 2007 YouAreMyFantasy Baseball Draft March 17, 2007
      well, i'm sure everyone was jonesin for an update on the fantasy baseball draft update. i know it's like a monkey on my back. well, we were very excited that our draft angel was still there this year and had not indeed been killed by the fans of the Dominican team last year. as you […]
    • The WHO in DC March 10, 2007
      soooo, i decided to wing on up to DC to check out the WHO at Verizon Center with my friends Jeff and Todd and my brother Jeremy. We had a pretty fun weekend there, highlighted by either the girl who claimed she had political asylum, or the one whose belt was "Hermes" (as i was […]
    • Shred or Die March 3, 2007
      all apologies for my lateness in getting this post out. the lesson here? i'm a slackass. a special note, going forward, all blog pictures will be clickable. clicking them won't make you smarter, but it will increase the size of the photo. this service i supply to you free of charge.sooooo, stephen, jason and myself […]
    • Coaching the Girls February 11, 2007
      soooo, as you may know (if YOU are indeed reading this, and it's entirely possible you're not) i am now coaching volleyball. i'm coaching a girls 13's team that plays out of Woodward. often times those practices are the highlight of my week. there's something really amazing about having 12 people scream your name every […]
    • Lift January 23, 2007
      i usually try not to really mention what i'm thinking here, as it is my general supposition that no one really cares, but today will be an exception. i'm not even going to pretend that any more than 3 people in america might find me insiteful, but i figured i'd just put it out here. […]
    • My First Bass January 21, 2007
      nothing really to tell here. drew and i went fishing. i caught my first bass (more of a fly fisherman, i am)you may remember my phat hat as being the same one i won for catching a barracuda on drew's bachelor party. it still looks every bit as good as it did the day i […]