College Bowl Season Cometh

This weekend the bowl forecasting will start to become clearer. We already know that Ohio State is in the Rose Bowl and their opponent will be the winner of Saturday’s Oregon/Oregon State game. After this weekend, unless Florida or Alabama is defeated, the championship game will contain a SEC team, Florida or Alabama, going against a team from Texas…more likely to be Texas rather than TCU. Whoever looses between Florida and Alabama will get an at large bid to a BCS game…likely the Sugar Bowl.

Rightly so TCU will earn one of the three remaining at large bids…likely the Orange or Fiesta. Boise State deserves one of the at large bids too…likely to be the Fiesta or the Orange. Boise will likely play the last at large team, which could well be either hurting Iowa or Penn State. Without Stanzi at QB, Iowa will have difficulty beating whoever they play in the Fiesta Bowl. As a Hawkeye fan I am conflicted over Iowa going to the BCS when their starting QB is out of the rest of the season. With Stanzi being hurt I suspect that Penn State will receive the last at large bid leaving the Hawkeyes going to the Capital One Bowl against Mississippi or long shot LSU.

LSU would have to have a convincing win over Arkansas and Mississippi loose to hapless Mississippi State. LSU’s poor clock management has likely moved them down to the Cotton Bowl, or worse, the Gaylor Music City Bowl.

I would have loved to see LSU and Iowa in the Outback, but alas it will not happen this year. By the way Josh asked his mother if LSU and Iowa played against one another, then for whom would she cheer. Her wise and simple response is precious, “I will cheer for the LSU band to play and march well at half-time.”

Tailgating at LSU

One of the unique American traditions which is foreign to Canadians is tailgating. While at Iowa we witnessed college tailgating but what happens at Iowa pails in what we saw at LSU. Some people claim their tailgating locations the evening before the game, others the morning before the game.

Following are some pictures of tailgating that takes place throughout the campus. The first three pictures were taken 6 hours before game time. Already people are gathering to visit and party with friends.





The above RVs are in a prime location near the stadium. Another large RV area about a half a mile from the stadium has people camping and tailgating for the weekend.

Tailgating sites are located around academic buildings. Notice the trailer by the curb...we saw a good number of such trailers that people use to store and transport their tailgating equipment.

The above two and those below are taken about 4 hours before game time and a little over a half mile from the stadium. In the one above, notice behind the man in the chair there is a flat screen TV. We saw several people having TVs used to keep track of games that were currently underway. Josh's dorm is in the right background. The last two are across the street from Josh's dorm.

Evie Brought to Tears

Saturday morning Evie was brought to tears.

This September Josh pledged a music fraternity. He is has been going through the pledge period for the last 6 weeks. He is a probationary member along with five other men....five trumpets and one trombone.

On Saturday morning following the practice on the IFF, the six probationary members sang "Blood Stained Banner" to the parents.

The six young men sang an old barber shop love song, I cannot recall the title but it made reference to "you are my gal" and deep abiding love. At the right moment the young men knelt before the mothers who did not have dry eyes.

Mini-Vacation Ahead

Evie and I have been in PA for the weekend. The next two days we will be repacking and getting ready for our mini-vacation. We head direct to the airport on Wednesday. Wednesday evening Evie and I fly to New Orleans from where we will travel to Baton Rouge to see Josh for the weekend.

Before heading to Baton Rouge we will be staying at a old elegant hotel, the St Louis, in French District of New Orleans. http://www.stlouishotel.com/photogallery.html

Thursday afternoon we will drive to Baton Rouge to take Josh out for dinner...the pep band is playing for Friday's volleyball game so we will take him to dinner to a nice restaurant Thursday evening before driving back to New Orleans, about an hour's drive.

Friday we move to Baton Rouge to take in the tailgate atmosphere and the game Saturday night. I am looking forward to hearing the LSU band. We return to Washington Sunday night around 9 and 7 AM Monday I am back to the same airport to fly to Atlanta.

Would You Claim Him As Your Son?

I laughed when I saw this last night. If this was my son….I would not know him.

LSU Band Goes Into Hall of Fame Saturday Night

Last night Josh told us last evening of the “LSU Golden Band from Tigerland” being inducted into the Louisiana music Hall of Fame. I got this google alert on the news coverage. If you watch carefully you will see Josh in the background several times (2:08-2:12, 2:31-2:32). He is in a gold T-shirt and red shorts. At the 2:31 mark he is front left on the screen whereas in the earlier section he is well in the background.



Congratulations to the band on their recognition.

LSU Trombone Choir - Spring 2009

I discovered on YouTube two videos of the LSU Trombone Choir. In the first clip Josh is just to the left of the conductor in the grey shirt. In the second clip he cannot be seen as he is standing in front of the conductor. I will leave it to Josh in the comment section to note what items they played.