Oh the Green and Gold

In 1909, Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks famously urged graduates to “lay aside for a few days the usual cares of life” and “come back to your alma mater,” to “catch that Baylor spirit again.”

Well, sadly enough this weekend is Baylor's Homecoming, one of my favoirte times on campus, and we won't be able to return. This year is the 99th celebration, so maybe next year for the 100th we'll get to return to our beloved alma mater and fling some green and gold back on campus.

I'm going to miss not being this year, as I have for the past four years since we left, but will always have my Baylor Pride deep within my heart.

And in that Baylor spirit, I post some video of fellow Baylorites who boldly videoed (in color!) their exploits around Baylor's campus and neighboring Cameron Park back in 1939 and 1940.

Now, there is no sound to the video, which I really wish there was, but it's still neat to watch.



The best part? I've been on that same statue of Judge Baylor, been inside many (if not all) of the buildings seen on campus, stood right on that same lookout over the Brazos River in Cameron Park, and even attempted to ring that same bell - even though I swear it's welded now and unringable.

So that's my little shout-out for Baylor this Homecoming weekend. I miss you and hope to return soon. Sic'em Bears!

Give it about seven or eight years...

Jackie and Baylee don't sing well, but if they did you know they'd be singing this.

I think I'm depressed

So today I'm sitting here doing some thinking and realize it was NINE years ago this week I was moving into Collins Dormitory at Baylor.

I'm not kidding, I almost cried at the thought. Granted it's not all nostalgic - I'm overworked, underpaid and stressed beyond capacity right now - but I was wondering if I'd cry right here at my desk.

How could it been nine years ago? My dad and I were in line at 7 a.m. waiting to haul my stuff inside my little shoebox of a room. (The above floorplan was indeed the layout of my room - except somehow it was smaller becasue I know I couldn't open my closet all the way thanks to the bed by the windows.) We were the smart ones with the dolly and everyone wanted to borrow my dad.

I never thought of it as being almost a decade ago, but it was.

It makes me miss college - living in the dorm, crazy random excursions, my sorority, eating bad cafeteria food, meeting friends for said bad cafeteria food, the football games in 100+ degree heat, the chill you get when the band plays the school song in autumn's crisp air, sitting in the library studying into the night, riding my bike around campus, Common Grounds, Lady Bears basketball, and SO much more.

It makes me want to pack up everything and go beg someone to let me move back onto campus and do it all again. I miss Baylor. I miss college. I miss less responsibility.

A brighter day

Once again, I apologize for the delay in this post, but I'm still catching up. But, I did want everyone to see my new office lamp courtesy of my in-laws.

Isn't it pretty? And of course, Sic'em bears.

Bringing in 2007

So, let's get 2007 started with some catching up. We're still out on the road, so the adventure's not quite over yet, but we're now just two states away from home. Which, if you think about it - Texas is really only two states away from Virginia too... only Arkansas and Tennessee stand in between. Anyway, we're holed up for the night in Anderson, South Carolina. We ought to get into Virginia Beach tomorrow at a decent time.


But, that's not what you care about. You want the pictures and me to let you know what we've been up to.


Well, after leaving the Hinckley crew up in the DFW area, we headed south to Waco for a brief layover to see Baylor and the latest developments on campus. Of course Baylee had never visited her name sake, so it was a bonus getting to see her romp all over campus after squirrels.

Here are just a couple of pics...

And then we went on to Giddings to see my sweetie's grandmother (We also saw his other Grandmother in Tennessee on the way out to Texas.) and on to Comfort to spend time with the fam. Believe it or not, but I didn't get one single picture while there. I'm falling down on the job!

While there, we couldn't go fishing thanks to high winds, but still had a great visit. We also got to see some good friends before leaving town too!

And on we went to Louisiana. And where else to spend New Year's Eve than in New Orleans?!? Our night was pretty subdued while waiting until almost midnight for our pizza to get there, but we did see the ball drop and rang in the New Year for both Eastern and Central time zones.

Then, to start 2007 off right, we had the wonderful Cafe au Lait and Beignets at Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter. C'est magnifique! I love that place! It was nice to see a lively French Quarter, but was heartbreaking to see the loads of devastation as we drove out of town. The city's got a long ways to go, and it's hard to see all the debris around in huge piles - entire streets piled up. We didn't even see the worst parts, I know. But if it's anything, New Orleans is resilient.

Here's some pics of today... the first is of classic French Quarter architecture which I love and then there's Jackson Square and the last is us waiting for our beignets and coffee... YUM!

Flinging some Green and Gold...

UPDATE: Yeah, so my Bears lost. We put up a pretty good fight too.

It's just too bad that A&M had to manhandle our quarterback and tear his ACL after we blocked their stupid field goal. That's soooo sportsman like there, Ags.

Maybe next time you stuff a good play of ours we'll let the bear loose to eat your stupid dog. That's fair, right?
--------------------------------------

I'm sorry to bore my devoted readers with yet another post about my beloved Alma Mater, but it's what's on my mind this grey hazy afternoon.

For those who don’t know - Baylor (4-4 overall, 3-1 Big 12) finally appears to be seeing the fruits of Guy Morriss’ refining (he came to Baylor after the ’02 season).

And as we head into Saturday's game against No. 22 Texas A&M (7-1, 3-1), some people are calling it the biggest game for Baylor since Grant Teaff was coaching in the early ‘90s.

You see, Baylor is off to its best Big 12 conference start in school history, The Bears' 3-1 record in Big 12 games is already more conference games than the school has won in any season since the circuit started in 1996.

It's also rekindled the Bears' bowl hopes for their first postseason appearance since 1994. (That drought is tied for the third-longest among schools in BCS-affiliated conferences, ranking only behind Vanderbilt (1982) and Indiana (1993). Duke (1994) last played in a bowl game the same season as the Bears. )

"To play in a conference game in this particular stage, the ninth game of the year, is significant," Morriss said this week. "It's probably the biggest game that we've played here."

Tomorrow's "Battle of the Brazos" ought to be interesting for all sides.

Baylor and A&M have turned into some-what bitter rivals over the past few years but that wasn't always the case. A&M held a 17-0-1 record in the series from 1986-2003. Yeah, I know – OUCH!

Then, in 2004 the Bears took a overtime victory in Waco 35-34, winning the game on a gutty two-point conversion in overtime. (A&M came into the game ranked 16th - It hasn't been ranked that high since then.)

Well, last season A&M came back in a 16-13 overtime win in College Station in a game that Baylor dominated. (To make it worse, after the game, Coach Morriss claimed that A&M’s coach Franchione ducked him in a post-game handshake and instructed his assistant coaches to avoid talking to the Baylor assistants. Franchione denies it.)

And all that leads us up to tomorrow’s game.

Baylor’s got some proving to do. In order to make a bowl trip, Baylor needs two wins against four remaining opponents -- Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech – which ain’t gonna be easy folks.

So join with me in a big holler for my beloved Bears. Show some Baylor pride and maybe even send up a little prayer.

After all, Baylor’s Baptist - God’s got to be on our side, right?

Would YOU eat it?

So, I was made aware of the sad news this evening that in fact Bevo the XIII, the beloved retired longest-serving mascot of the University in Texas in Austin, has moooooved on to greener pastures. (Couldn't help it. I had to do it.)

I'm sure he had a wonderfully happy steer life and he did live to 22 years old.

But now, the real question is - what do you do with a dead 22 year old steer? Yes, yes - he was a mascot. But come on folks - he is a huge hunk of beef too.

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram's Startle Grams blog on the matter, Bevo Burgers, he wouldn't be good for burgers any more thanks to his age. They recommend stew meat or such.

But even that would worry me. I mean, that animal has been pumped day-in and day-out with mass quantities of drugs and tranquilizers to make him such a well-behaved critter. Now, maybe since his retirement in 2004 he hasn't been given the high doses of meds. But still, for several good years he got all the good stuff most longhorns would give their entire rack for.

So do you eat the guy and hope not to get a buzz or do you let him return to the earth and pray the grass doesn't grow some odd color or shape??

Decisions, decisions.... I'm hoping someone feed the Texas football team some Bevo stew before the Baylor/Texas game on Saturday and the team starts tripping out and looses all touch with reality for the game and Baylor stomps them into the ground (where Bevo should have been).

Again, I'm only dreaming here.... but a girl can hope, right?

Two in a row!

Well ladies and gents, miracles do indeed still happen.

Baylor pulled off another win against another Big XII team today. Of course poor Colorado hasn't won a game all season, and sure it was in triple overtime. But it's still a win folks.

That makes two Big XII wins in a row for our beloved bears. I'm proud.

Want to know what will make me even MORE proud???

How about a win against Texas next week? Come on Guy, it's do-able. Sure it will be against all odds and would most likely require major illness to spread unmercifully through the ranks of Texas' all-star line up. But it technically COULD happen.

Fingers crossed and a little bit of prayer and who knows?!? I believe in miracles, don't you?