The plans for the weekend included:
- traveling up to Columbus for the day for Thanksgiving
- On Friday & Saturday, Janice's mom would come down to bake cookies for 2 straight days with Janice....and I would be watching the kids most of the time
- And on Sunday, we'd make the trip up to Cleveland for the Browns game.
So - with us being at home and me not having definte plans, what better way to test my mental acuity than to pick every conceivable game in the NFL, NCAA F, NCAAB, NBA,and NHL during those 4 days! And since Derek was at his house too for the weekend, this couldbe (and turned out to be) a record-setting weekend in terms of phone calls, completely obscure picks and desperate parlays/teasers.
Wed night - after the kids are in bed, Janice is getting some food together - turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes. What is that for?
"It's to take to my brother's house. He flies back from Austria tomorrow. But's it's late - and I need to get ready for tomorrow....."
Would you like me to take it down for you?
"Sure!"
Great......let me hop on the computer, put in a couple of late night parlays......off we go! The night ended up with the last team in my parly - getting 8 - losing in overtime by 11.
Thursday was the drive up to Columbus - and a good Thanksgiving dinner with Janice's family. I was taken aside by one of the cousin - someone who is a golfer, lived in Cincinnati for a while before moving back to Columus - and was admonished for not joining a Country Club. In time, in time. Took a walk with Warren on the 13th hole of Royal American Golf Course. I wouldn't let him build sand castles in the greenside bunker.
That night, Janice and I talked about our plans for the next day. We needed to get a Lego Star Wars X Wing fighter for Freddie - and one option was to get up and hit target & Toys R Us at 6 am on Friday. Ugh. I volunteered.
Friday morning - the alarm did not go off; we awoke at 6:15. I threw on a hat and sweats and was heading out the door and Janice started with the cookies.
I was downstairs ready togo when I see Janice's mom there, dressed,with purse in hand.
"Is Janice ready to ehad out shopping?"
Well, uh, no...I'm heading out on the toy hunt.
"Oh. Mind if I join you? I need to get one thing at Target...."
Now, I have no problem with my mother-in-law, but the thought of:
- shopping
-with her
- at 6:30 in the morning the Friday after Thanksgiving
was not my idea of fun.......
We got back by 9 am; frightened by what I saw on Black Friday I retired to the bathroom with my laptop and made my picks for the day.
The rest of the day consisted of taking the kids to Chick-Fil-A (while cursing my page that it didn't give me updates on the 10:30 am Penn St- Rider game), going to the pool (where Warren had an accident....argh), and a last-minute call from my neighbor for a poker night (which I came ahead $70!). As far as picks, I had a 5-team CF teaser which came down to Boise +9.....it's a layup!
Saturday: A late start; I took Freddie, Warren, and a friend of Freddie's to the Bee Movie. Had an insight that afternoon to take the infamous Jackson St-Hartford over, which just missed going over by 25 points. Went shopping for tailgating; I distinctly remember waling up and donw the bread aisle looking for buns as Derek let loose on a strem of profanities talking about the Stanford football team.
Sunday: 6:30 leave the house with Janice (not bad!)
10:10: Arrive in the Burke Lakefront lot. Temperature was a cool 37 degrees. What a wonderful atmosphere. When I took Freddie up for the Miami game, it was 65 degrees, sunny, adn the Browns were 2-3. No one was really sure where this reason was going. And - I think this is teh most important - the Tribe was still alive and the Miami game was just after the game 2 marathon. The atmosphere then was more frivolous and fun.
Sunday's tailgate was more like the tailgates I remember from 94 (and a little in 02). there was a clear sense of aniticipation. There was excitement - the team was 6-4, and a win would be another big step toward the playoffs. The weather helps- the colder it gets, the more intense it gets. It's a different type of fun - a more serious fun, if that is clear.
10:30: Steve and Susan shows up; the grill is fired up. Steve beats me at cornhole, 2 games to 1. I have 3 Italian Sausages and 3 Killians.
12:10: Time to leave the lot for the game. But - we brought pumkpin pie and Cool Whip but we haven't opened it.....what do we do? Easy solution - take a paper plate and plastic fork, put a piece of pie and a lot of Cool Whip - and walk to the stadium with pie in hand!
Most of the hard core tailates were drinking their last beers while walking in - and there's me, with my William Green #31 jersey, with pumkpin pie. Steve completely disagreed with my actions - pie should not be eaten while walking - but I will tell you, I'm sure there were 300 pound drunk men walking in ogling my pie! (wait, should I rephrase that?)
4:30: I should have a separate post about jerseys people see at the stadium. I think Browns fans are put in a unique situation - we have a history of tradition and supporting our teams, but the jerseys you see exhibit the ineptness of our players over the past 10 (20?) years. Some jerseys seen at the game:
Willie Green (me!), Tim Couch (at least 100 of these), Wali Rainer, Leroy Hoard, Vinny Testaverde, Darren Chiaverini, Kelly Holcomb, Clay Matthews, Webster Slaughter....the list is endless.
And at the end of the weekend, we are 7-4 and 1 game up in the wild card race. Go Browns!
(PS - Good news for everyone here but me; the Case Spartans ended up losing on Saturday. A 2nd round exit for their first visit to the playoffs....)
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