Monday, September 3, 2007

Roll Tide Roll!



We had a great time at the game Saturday, Alabama vs. W. Carolina (52-6). Wayne & Laura got to T-Town Friday night. We met them Saturday afternoon and did a little shopping at a local mall. I got Katie a cute "Bama" houndstooth cheerleading outfit from "Bama Fever." It wasn't a very big mall, so we covered it rather quickly. After all that hard shopping (tehe!), we headed to my new favorite pizza place, "Mellow Mushroom." If you like pizza and you have one in your area, you've got to try it (if you haven't already). Last time we went to "Mellow Mushroom," we had the Meaty Pizza. This time, we ordered a large Meaty and a small House Special. Oh my gosh!!!! The House Special is my favorite! It has sliced tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese and meat. Yummy! I liked it so much that I had to have two slices. Of course, I ate too much. Luckily, we had a lot of walking to do and walked it off.

We were told to get to the stadium a little early, in order to avoid fighting off the crowd. Because where we parked, we were able to walk along the sidewalks by student dorms and frat houses. We got to walk through several block parties just to get to the stadium. Wow! It's bad when you can smell the beer, but they seemed to be having a good time. Wayne and Laura couldn't get over how everyone would yell out "Roll Tide" when they saw your Bama shirts. We walked past one student with a mega phone. He would stop the fans along the sidewalk and ask them to give a "Roll Tide" through the mega phone. Well, I could see way ahead what was going on, so I began to hide behind Laura in order to avoid the mega phone. Thankfully, he didn't pick on me or Laura. Shoooo! On the way to the stadium, we got to scan through the vendors and looked to see if there was anything we had to have after the game was over. We couldn't have planned getting to the stadium any more perfect. We began seeing a huge wall of people, in crimson and white, develop in the front stadium entrance. By the time we got closer to the wall, the crowd began to roar with excitement and enthusiasm. We were wondering what was going on and Doug announced the football players must have arrived. Sure enough, they were walking between the "spirit lines" towards the building. The players looked very nice and professional with their black suits on. I didn't get to Saban up close, but that's alright. When the gates opened, we had no trouble walking right through. No huge crowd formed around the gate. Because we were all hot and sweaty, I suggested to Doug that we needed to get up in the spiral walkway towards our seats. You can always get a good breeze in the spiral walkway. Sure enough, when we got up far enough, there was a very welcomed cool breeze. Oh by that time, the breeze felt so good. All of us were huffing and puffing and our clothes were soaking wet. We found a concession stand and go something to drink. As you can tell from the pictures, we were in the nose bleed section, but the breeze was great. The game wasn't all that exciting because we stomped West Carolina's little bottom. I couldn't help, but make fun of one of the W. Carolina's players. He had all of this hair poking out from underneath his helmet. It seemed as if every time a Bama player hit him, his helmet would come off onto the field. We don't know if he couldn't strap it on good because of all the hair or if there was some kind of defect with his helmet. Poor soul! tehe! Grant played a great game. As soon as he would get the ball, he was out of sight. Right off the bat, it took him two plays to get our first touchdown. Wow! Doug and Wayne feels the Bama defense could use some work. They seem to be weak. Wayne and Laura said Saban has a history of being a great defense coach, so hopefully he'll be able to shape up our defense team before the next big game. While we were there, we ran into quite a few people that we knew. After the game, our walk back to the car was just as entertaining. By this time, the block parties were at their peak. Students and fans were hooting and hollering back and forth. Walking back to car, we visited the vendor booths. I found me an Alabama purse that I liked. I told Doug it would be my souvenir of the game. The purse is black and crimson with a scripted white "A." I really like it.

We went to "Chili's" for supper and while we were in there, people were going around saying "Roll Tide." Of course, "Roll Tide" began to be an inside joke between the four of us. We all took a turn in saying "Roll Tide," whether it was between us or other people we encountered. Lots of laughs.

The next day, we slept in a little bit and then headed to the Galleria. Woo Hoo! The men went their way and we went ours. We walked all over that mall and when it was all over, my feet were barking. We got a lot of bargains and some Christmas shopping done. Laura has been telling me about this "Bare Minerals" makeup. The last time I went with her to get makeup, I really didn't pay that much attention because we had the girls with us. This time since we didn't have the kids with us, I began looking around. There were so many women in the "Sephora" shop, I couldn't get over it. I'm talking about huge crowds and a lot of the women were swarming over the "Bare Minerals" section. I asked Laura, "what am I missing?" She began talking to me about the makeup and she really sold me on it. I wasn't pleased with the price of the foundation $25, but she told me it will last me 6 months. What? After doing the math in my head (yes, it did take some time), I might actually save money with this makeup. She introduced me to a starter kit $60, which includes 3 brushes, 2 foundations, 1 mineral veil, 1 warmth (sun kissed glow), bare vitamins (kind of like a primer for your face) & DVD to tell you how to use this makeup. Laura said it was a good buy because the foundation and one of the brushes cost $25 each. If I take care of the brushes, they should last me a very long time. I started thinking. In the past, I've tried Clinique, Mary Kay and some Merill Norman. The makeup was either beginning to irritate my skin or it was too expensive. I was buying foundation once a month between $12-$18 a pop. Right now, I've been using Cover Girl Creme-to-Powder foundation and it doesn't last me very long either. With the past foundations, what would make me mad is how I would look awful by the middle of the day. My face would look so oily and my makeup would run down my face. Yuck! Who wants their eyeliner and mascara on their cheeks and chin? Not me! I decided to get out of my comfort zone and get the "Bare Minerals" foundation starter kit. Laura also showed me the new lipstick kits available. She went on and on about the lipstick and how it really last most of the day. The sales clerk said I could wash it off with water, but I might still see a slight shade on my lips. The lipstick kit was $30 and it included the lipstick, lip liner & gloss. The kits were available in the colors rose and berry. These two colors are my favorite lipstick colors to wear. I've always worn a berry or rose type lipsticks. So, I had a hard choice between the two colors and I knew Doug would freak enough without me getting two kinds of lipstick. Anyway, I ended up getting the berry color lipstick kit. I told Laura I would try it for 6 months and decide to stick with it or not. She told me, if I liked it I could get it cheaper through QVC. Of course, this was a helpful tip for me. We barely made it back to "Belk," which is where we parked the car. They were getting ready to lock their gate into the mall for the night. If we hadn't caught them in time, we would have had to walk a long way out in the parking lot to get to the car. Shoo! Too close! I don't know about Laura, but I forgot (at times) it was Sunday. Wayne and Laura made dinner reservations at "The Melting Pot." They asked us if we've ever ate at a "Melting Pot" restaurant before and if we would like to join them. We wanted to try something new, so we decided to intrude on their lovely, romantic evening. If you don't know about "The Melting Pot," it's a type of fondue restaurant where you cook your own food right there at your table. Every table is hooked up to a fondue stove and kettle. There were a few booths with two fondues and we were fortunate enough to get that table. Doug and I liked the bread and cheese dip as an appetizer; chicken & pork as the main course; and I loved the Raspberry Dark Chocolate for dessert. Yummy!! We left the restaurant around 10:00 p.m. and headed home to see our Katiebug. I missed her so much, but we knew she was in good hands with Millard and Peggy.

We had a great Labor Day weekend and hope you did too! Take care and . . .

Roll Tide!

No comments: