Life With Frenchie

Here it is boys & girls. EP & I picked our brackets last night. There is absolutely NO rhyme or reason to mine, so take it for what it’s worth - nothing!

With college football season long gone and the NFL done as of a couple of weeks ago, I am normally pretty sport dormant this time of year. I used to only have to wait until baseball started up to get my sports fix, but as of late, the sport has lost a lot of its appeal. It has nothing to do with The Mitchell Report - my love for the game started cooling off a few years back. But, that’s for another time. At any rate, I have never been accused of being a fan of basketball whether it be pro or college. Every now and then, my buddy would get me wrapped up in March Madness, but that was more because of his excitement over it. However, since meeting EP, I have been introduced to the wonderful world of women’s college basketball. Specifically, the Lady Vols. *GASP* I know! I can’t believe it! ME? A Bulldog fan falling in love with the enemy?!?!? Will they revoke my fan card? I can’t help it. It’s like a dirty little secret.

My first time with them was during last year’s women’s tournament. I got more and more excited each time I saw them play. Once football was done for the year, I found myself being inexplicably drawn yet again to the ladies in orange. Pat Summitt is truly amazing, being the winningnest coach in all of college basketball - women and men!

I am not Catholic, but I feel like I should go to confession. But, instead of a priest, perhaps I should confess my sins to UGA VI???

This one is going to be a randomly updated post because I’ve come to realize my memory is not what it used to be and I’m already forgetting stuff from the 1st half of the game.

While the pre-kickoff events were going on, we flipped it over to Animal Planet and watched a bit of Puppy Bowl IV. I had heard of this in previous years, but never even thought of watching it. For some reason, tonight I decided to give it a try. Well, let me tell you, Gretchen absolutely loved it! Here is a great picture of her being totally enthralled by the Puppy Bowl action! I mean, everything came to a halt for her - she was not taking her eyes off of the television! It was priceless. Eventually, we did switch back to the game. So far, through the 1st half of the game, EP & I have seen a few Super Bowl ads that have “tickled our fancies”. One of those is the Doritos commercial with the mouse trap. As they showed the guy in the commercial setting up the mousetrap, EP is next to me say “No! No! I can’t watch this! No way!” and I’m thinking “There’s no way Doritos is going to show that!” We were stopped dead in our tracks as a giant “mouse” crashes through the wall and tackles the guy with the mouse trap and proceeds to beat the crap outta him! Priceless! Two other commercials that had us chuckling were the “Women like men with accents..” Bud Light commercial and the Justin Timberlake Pepsi commercial. Those were pretty good. So far, the “cute” vote goes to Budweiser’s classic Clydesdale commercial.

But, by far, the highlight of the Super Bowl, thus far, was the revelation that my dancing referee was officiating this game!! For anyone who has never paid close enough attention, you have got to watch Mike Carey when he officiates. He is just too smoove! Particularly when he is indicating a first down or announcing posession after a penalty. There’s something about the way he moves that seems like 1980s Solid Gold coreography. And, if you click the link above you’ll discover what I just did - that Mike Carey is the first African-American to referee in the Super Bowl. I am not sure where this fascination started, but EP is well aware of it. I was seriously upset at the beginning of the season because we never seemed to be watching any of the games he was in. It took a few weeks before I saw him. And now, with this being the last game of the season, I have to endure 7+ long months without him! EP has already informed me that, when an angry black woman shows up at our door asking “Where is she!?!?!?” he’s giving me up without hesitation!

Oh, and yeah, the game. Meh. I hate New England, and I think Eli is a pathetic excuse for a professional athlete. However, I think my desire to see New England decimated, overpowers my dislike of Eli - GO G-MEN!!

Okay, back to the game. Second half highlights later!!!

(Shaq as a jockey!!! PRICELES!!!)

3rd Update: Okay, so we missed a few minutes of the 3rd quarter as a result of a DVR-malfunction. Namely, EP hit a button, and in our rush to cancel it so channels didn’t change, we changed the channel. The Patriots had just won a challenge on whether NY had 12 men on the field and then we jumped to the Giants having the ball and the Patriots had not scored. DOH! But, immediately following that, saw another commercial that had EP and I laughing - the E-Trade baby and him puking on the keyboard! LOL!!!

Anyways, my reason for really updating right now was because when I saw Pam Oliver it reminded me of somthing I don’t remember hearing before tonight - she said “green zone” instead of “red zone”. Can you tell I’ve either ignored commentary this year or have fast forwarded through it. What is the “green zone”??

DOH! I just missed the commercial we’ve been waiting for - the NFL player story that people voted to hear. Rewind…

Oh, that was good! Chester Pitt of the Houston Texans - playing the oboe and bagging groceries to being a 2nd round pick!

But that did remind me of a commercial in the first half that I forgot about - T-Mobile’s “Fave Five” with Charles Barkley and Dewayne Wade. That was hilarious how Wade has been trying to get into Barkley’s Fave Five forever and when he finally does, Barkley turns into a stalker to rival Margaret R. Ray.

Okay, this has got to stop somewhere! Now the Stewie & Underdog Coca-Cola parade balloons commercial is on. Classic! Okay, back to the game!!!

Disturbing ad of the night - A tie between the Wil Farrel movie (Bud Light - “Suck it down!”) and the Amp(?) commrcial with the guy dancing to Push It!!!

OMG! Just saw Eli escaping the sack with less than a minute left. WTF is this guy Tyree???

Oh, I almost forgot, the James Carville and Bill Frist Coca-Cola ad. That was just perfect!

GIANTS WIN!!! GIANTS WIN!!!  GIANTS WIN!!!

The end. Happy Super Bowl Sunday to everyone..and to everyone, a good night!

It’s out boys & girls - The Mitchell Report. It’s 409 pages, so I don’t exactly have time to read it right now, but feel free to peruse through it. I hope to get around to posting my thoughts in the next day or so…unless painting gets in the way!

Woo hoo!!!!! Dawgs win! 42-30. I am so happy!

I was very satified with yesterday’s game. The Dawgs got off to a good start with an early touchdown. The entire team came out to celebrate, gladly taking the penalty so that they could show Florida that they would not be intimidated! On top of that, they got an unsportsmanlike penalty, both assessed on the kickoff. Florida did answer with a touchdown, but the Dawgs would not go quietly. They made the Florida offense work for their 30 points.

I was very happy to see the redshirt freshman, Knowshon Moreno, have a very solid performance against the Gators. He had 33 carries for 188 yards against the Gator defense. It’s promising to see this young talent on this team as they have been working hard to not lose their grip in the SEC over the past few seasons after the amazing senior class, which included David Greene & David Pollack, of 2004 left UGA.

Now, I will be on edge for the remainder of the season as it is now UGA and UT atop the SEC East. Unfortunately, UGA lost to UT earlier this season, so UT would win the East if they were tied at the end of the season! So, I hope that UGA wins over Kentucky and Auburn while Tennessee loses to at least one of either Kentucky or Vanderbilt. Oy! I feel an ulcer coming on.

The one thing I miss about living in the north, or even just a bit further north in Georgia, is fall weather. It’s not that I don’t like the beautifully warm weather that we have here on the Gulf Coast, but the fall weather is what makes college football Saturdays perfect! There’s nothing better than a cold, dreary Saturday when I’m “stuck” inside and od’ing on college football ALL DAY LONG!

Today is the ultimate Saturday for me because it’s the World’s Largest Cocktail Party! Although I love my beloved Bulldogs, I am a realist. I am not kidding myself and saying that they’re going to blow Florida away this year. I am holding out hope though!

In preparation for this glorious day, we picked up a couple of six packs of Stella. We have our tortilla chips, avacados, salsa, and sour cream. To begin the day, we’re having a couple of Bloody Mary’s and bacon egg and cheese sandwiches.

 Aaaaaaaaaaahh!! Tell me I’m not in heaven!