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A busy weekend

Well it was a busy weekend for the Cornish house, but what else is new? Actually, it was a very busy Saturday, followed by a restful Sunday where we actually even played hookie from church so we could relax a bit.

The Texas Longhorn football team wraps up their spring practices every year by having the annual Orange and White game, an inter squad scrimmage that is open to the public, free, and combined with a kids carnival and concert. The whole event makes up what they call The Spring Jamboree. What it really does is give the new freshman players a chance to see a simulated game atmosphere in the actual stadium, complete with thousands of fans, the Longhorn Band and spirit groups. It also gives fans like me a chance to catch a glimpse of some new guys, and give us some artillery for our armchair quarterbacking. But mostly, its 1 day of football in the midst of a very long, sometimes painful off season. It will be 151 more days until we will see these guys suit up for the season opener against Florida Atlantic.

There are rules to these types of engagements. See, if the Longhorn football team is suiting up for a game at DKR Memorial Stadium, then that means we MUST gather outside the stadium with friends for good food and good drinks! So dutifully we gathered for grilled Italian sausages, meatball subs and our favorite beverages, along with the camaraderie of fellow fans and friends. We even had a couple of our Arizona residents make the trek.

Now, we might have felt a bit overzealous for gathering to celebrate this occasion if the scrimmage was the only event of the day. However, we decided that breaking from our tradition of gathering before the game for our tailgate party in favor of gathering after the scrimmage would allow us also catch the UT baseball game against Nebraska.

So the perfect plan was drawn up. We headed downtown on Saturday morning, truck loaded down with all the various accouterments needed for as successful tailgate party, ready for our day. Now, I still don't know if I made this decision out of supreme faith, courage or stupidity, but nonetheless, it was a deliberate decision. See, I decided to let Brenda head off on Saturday morning for a well-deserved and long needed hair appointment. So for the first time, it was just me to load up all the gear, finish the prep cooking duties, double-check the diaper bag and set off for the stadium without Brenda's help. Also, I would be solo for the scrimmage, and for most of the tailgate party time until Brenda was able to meet up with us before the baseball game.

Sure, I have spent many days, just Grace and I. We have even spent many of those days out and about on the town. What made this such a difficult task was that I knew going into this that there would be no midday nap for Grace, and she would be up well past her bedtime. Oh, and she is on her second round of anti-biotics for a double ear infection. The potential for a meltdown of enormous proportions was very, very real. And Gram and Granddad were off in Colorado for a wedding, so there wasn't even a safety net!

But if you are expecting a post here about my miserable failure, you will be disappointed. See, Grace was a trooper. She could be characterized as mostly angelic, with only a few minor mishaps and a propensity for removing her shoes at inopportune times. For the baseball game, we sat down the left field line, where Grace scored her first foul ball (thanks to Mr. Jim!). She did suffer a busted lip after a close encounter with the concrete wall seperating us from the field.

It was a rough weekend to be a Horns fan. The scrimmage was fun, but did not offer much to be excited about for next season. The baseball team lost a pretty forgetable game on Saturday, 2-0, which followed a loss to Nebraska on Friday night, 14-4 (where Nebraska scored all 14 points after being down 4-0 early). The Horns also bowed out from the NCAA tournament after a convincing loss to Memphis on Sunday. Although, to be fair, an Elite 8 finish is nothing to apologize for. However, it was a great day to be a part of the TEXAZ Cactus Caucus. It was a chance to see some friends we won't likely see for several more months. It was a chance to get our horns up and sing the "Eyes of Texas". It was also a chance to cheer on the burnt orange and white, which we do win or lose. Brenda and I saw a t-shirt months ago that I thought summed it up nicely. "We may not win all the games, but we have never lost a tailgate party!"

Hey, there are a couple of new albums available on our public photo album. There is one from Easter and another from Saturday. See the link on the right to get to the album.

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