Wunderbar!

After a long week at school and work, we were in the mood to flap our wings and shake our tail feathers. So off to Edelweiss we went! We feasted on German food and danced the chicken dance for our Friday outing this week.

Katie and Ryan are big fans of the chicken dance:


Brett and I loved the brat, knackwurst and weisswurst (didn't we HAVE to order that?), and as always, we raved about the sauerkraut and red cabbage:

Meanwhile, Katie ate a big bowl of Spaghetti Edelweiss:
...and Ryan had (surprise, surprise) CHICKEN STRIPS!Any trip to Edelweiss is a big event for us, and even though we didn't have a specific occasion to celebrate, our dinner and dancing made this Friday special!

Terrific Tuesday.

Ryan and I enjoyed a special day together Tuesday. Because we had his annual checkup, we spent a good part of the day at Cook meeting with our hematologist, hemophilia nurse, social worker and physical therapist. He got a great report! We won't know any test results for a while, but all the specialists were delighted with his health.

After the appointment, Ryan and I enjoyed some great time together! We ate lunch at Dos Gringos, walked around the Kimbell grounds, and took in "The Mirror and the Mask," the amazing portrait exhibit in its last days at the Kimbell.

"What a wonderful Mexican restaurant! I'll have the chicken strips, please."

The Pollo Veracruz: Chicken covered in guac and cheese (Mmmmmm...)

Ryan's pose, inspired by the statue

We saw Picassos, Cezannes, Van Goghs... Incredible!

Headed for home, Ryan content with Harry Potter and his iPod

Remembering...

Deepa K. Pakkala

Who won the TCU-Texas game?

Yep! The winning team is spelled out in frog legs! HOOK 'EM!

Game 2: Texas 34, TCU 13

My drive to Austin began with plenty of quality time on I-35! At least I had some cool rides keeping me company, like this orange Corvette with Longhorn flags and license plate:

Of course, we had our tailgate, which WASN'T so cool. The company, food and entertainment were outstanding as always, but it was H-O-T today!
The heat and humidity didn't keep us from eating well. On this week's menu were fajitas...
and in honor of the Horned Frogs, FROG LEGS!
Everybody had to at least taste the frog legs, including this random TCU fan who happened to walk past our tailgate. (He was a good sport!) And yes, frog legs taste like chicken.
Frog legs were a tailgating first. Another milestone: After dealing with fuzzy broadcast reception, we finally got a satellite feed this week!

We headed to the stadium earlier than last week and made it there in plenty of time for the pregame festivities. As expected, there was a huge crowd for this match-up. There were TONS of Frog fans there, including several right in front of us.
I cannot tell a lie: After last week's game, I REALLY thought we'd lose this one. Down by 10 at the half, I was worried. But once we got rolling in the fourth quarter, it was all good!
What a great ending to a busy day!

I got you, Babe's.

A funny thing happened on the way to Mexican food. We headed up Denton Highway on the lookout for a Tex-Mex restaurant, but it wasn't there. Since we were so far north, we kept on driving to Roanoke for supper at Babe's!


Mmmmmmm! Greasy goodness!



Both kids got a kick out of the jukebox:

And we all got a kick out of the arcade next door! It was reminiscent of an arcade from the '80s with its Millipede, Ms. PacMan and Asteroids machines.




We came. We ate chicken. We logged some high scores!

Meanwhile, 280 miles northeast of Austin...

A report from Guest Blogger Katie:

While Mom was at her football game, we had a great time doing the annual reunion with my Nana's family in Marshall. It was at Ricky and Kristen's house with a pool, diving board and slide going into the pool--with a hot tub right next to it. (For the adults, it was to die for!)

With the football game in HD in the living room and the pool out back, it was a blast! It was like an extreme potluck dinner with all the brisket and dessert that everybody brought. Ricky and Kristen were really nice to let us stay the night at their house like they do every year.

And oh, I almost forgot--the family members! It was nice to see our dad's cousins, our second cousins and their kids. I'm glad we saw Dad's kind aunts and uncle, too.

I'll never forget Ricky and Kristen's daredevil dogs. They are daredevilly! One of them chased us around all the time, and we tried to throw the other one in the pool.

We had such a great time in one weekend! Aunt Linda put the first reunion together, and even though she passed away, we still do it in memory of her.

I wrote this so you could enjoy it! Bye-bye!

A report from Guest Blogger Ryan:

The reunion was so much fun. I had a great time in the pool because the slide was really cool. Kristen and Ricky are really nice. I liked when we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I also liked when we spent the night because we had so much fun staying up late with Alex, Kristen and Benjamin.

I ate so much junk food, I felt very hyper, woozy and really weird. I had 10 or more Oreos, lots of M&Ms, some cake. I had a lot of candy for the road.

We watched The Benchwarmers, which was lame but funny in a stupid sort of way. We did diving tricks, which was super fun, and the hot tub was SO relaxing. It was also cool that Kristen bought a copy of Dad's book. I had fun with Benjamin's miniature slot machine. Before we went home, we had Subway with the family members.

I had such a good time. Ricky, Kristen and Benjamin are so fun to be around!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Finally, after those painful losses last November.

Finally, after a close call against Iowa in the Alamo Bowl.

Finally, after off-season arrests(!!!) and injuries.

Finally, after months of not having sports to distract me from real life stress.

Finally, after emails and message boards and sports blogs and magazine previews.

FOOTBALL SEASON IS HERE--and not a minute too soon!

I was ready for reunions with friends, great food (carbs, even!), Bevo sightings, the Longhorn Band and some SERIOUS YELLING for my team!

So here's my summary of Game 1: Texas 21, Arkansas State 13.

Game 1, Part 1: A field trip with Anne.

Anne dropped by our tailgate Saturday. She was on her way to see a friend of hers play LBJ at the LBJ Library, so Dede and I tagged along!

As always, it was great to spend some time with Anne:

It was neat to see the library, too. I hadn't been there in at least 15 years!

The artifacts there are remarkable. Here's LBJ's notes from one of his first speeches after the Kennedy assassination.And here's Anne with her friend, "Sen. Johnson"! He was incredible--a walking encyclopedia of LBJ information!

We felt like VIPs since we got to cross the velvet rope for a picture with him!
Also impressive is the library part of the museum. It's breathtaking to see just some of the archive boxes on display.


I'm anxious to take Ryan and Katie to the museum when they're on campus for the Rice game in a few weeks! How amazing to have this storehouse of history just a few blocks from the stadium!

Game 1, Part 2: Tailgating.

First, the bad news: Tailgating in Lot 80 is but a shadow of its former self. Last year this parking lot was a happening place. Canopies lined every grassy area (and some pavement), and cars filled the lot hours before kickoff. This year, thanks to new parking policies, few of the old Lot 80 tailgaters had passes for this lot. Half an hour before kickoff, there were still dozens of empty spaces:
Major bummer! It's so frustrating because the new policy reserved this lot for high-dollar donors, people who apparently don't care about the tailgating scene! Meanwhile, the die-hard tailgaters who had turned that location into Fan Central are scrambling to find new spots or having to creatively find ways to get their stuff onto that prime real estate. Ugh.

OK. Now that THAT'S out of the way, let's get to the good stuff. And oh, it was good to see everybody!

First of all, Dede's son, Cole, got to visit the tailgate for a little bit:
Once everything was in place, we were ready to dig into the first Big Daddy salsa of the season:
Of course, there was some serious grillin' goin' on (as well as visits from college friends):
And there was plenty of time to catch up with our Section 1 friends while we were cooled by the September breeze:

(No, the picture's not crooked. We were just set up on a slope!)

It was great to get back to tailgating after the seemingly interminable off-season!

Game 1, Part 3: The scare.

It wasn't pretty, but we won. We were favored by bunches but won by just 8 points. Scary! But as Darrell Royal once said, "Ol' ugly is better than ol' nothin'."

For us, the game got off to a bad start because we had such a hard time getting to our seats! Because of construction in the north endzone, several stadium entrances were closed. Thousands of students were moved to the bleachers in the south endzone, too. Those two factors meant thousands more people were trying to get through the gates we normally use. We left our tailgate at 5:30, which in years past would've put us in our seats no later than 5:45. Instead, we didn't get there until 6:10--LONG after the Longhorn Band's entrance. For the first time in at least 10 years, I missed the stinkin' kickoff. At least we were there in time to see our first touchdown!

Once the game got started, the Horns didn't look like our Horns, that's for sure! We all kept waiting for them to turn it on and put some distance between themselves and Arkansas State. Didn't happen! When Arkie State scored late to make it an eight-point game, we had visions of Appalachian State's big upset over Michigan dancing through our heads. Fortunately for us, we recovered the ensuing onsides kick and were able to run out the clock and hang on for the win.


As the visiting players left the field, they passed right in front of our section. As they did, Texas fans in the lower rows starting standing and applauding their efforts. Row by row, Horn fans stood to give the Arkie State team an ovation for the outstanding game they played. I hope those players understood our applause; they truly earned our respect.

Even though I was disappointed in the parking, the entrance procedures, and our team's performance, that moment reminded me why I'm proud to be a Longhorn.

More scenes from the game:
Nobody puts Bevo in a corner! (OK, so maybe UT does. With the expanded endzone bleachers in place, Bevo's territory has shrunk!)

It really was a gorgeous night for football. We had pleasant breezes all day long (well, except for the eternity we spent in the sun trying to get in the stadium!), and by game time, we were in blissful shade. That's a huge improvement over last year's 100+ degree misery when people were carted off on stretchers during the third quarter!

The LHB performed Script Texas, probably my favorite halftime drill. Godzillatron, our ginormous video screen, was more enjoyable this time around, by the way, thanks to smaller ads and live stats.

P.S. - Accountability.

For the record, I didn't reach my goal of losing 45 pounds by the season opener, but I did get awfully close to my original goal of 40 pounds lost by then. When I weighed myself Saturday morning, I had lost a total of 37 pounds. My summer plateau just lasted and lasted and lasted (I was stuck at 35 pounds gone), but since I've gone back to work, I seem to be back on track. And now that I've lost 37 pounds, that means I'm THIS CLOSE to being halfway to my goal! So boo for one short-term goal, but yea for the big one: long-term weight loss and maintenance!