We got a ton of TV time this morning. In fact, they had an opening cut scene of Cocky running down a path in the middle of the crowd and we were right behind him yelling. The sign was very visible during the show and a friend from the other side of the crowd came over to tell us he could read it pretty well.
However, it's a 15-25mph wind today in Columbia and let me tell you... my arms will be cramping up all day... it took every ounce of strength I had to hold that sign up because even with a few holes cut in it we were basically holding up a 14 foot wide sail. The PVC pipes at each end weren't strong enough and were bending which made the top of the sign not as taut as the bottom so it was flopping around a bit.
Regardless, there were numerous TV shots, so it was fun.
Happy Birthday, Brian! My brother turns 28 today... gives him about 2 more good years.
Hope you have good plans for the day and the weekend. For us, it's going to be a busy weekend.
Tomorrow is our new building's dedication celebration at work, so I'll be shooting for that most of the afternoon.
We still need to think more about Halloween. We won't be going out to the big parties Saturday night because of the game obviously. Last year the Tennessee game was an away game, so we could go out. But we are thinking about setting up something on a smaller scale for Tuesday night when trick-or-treaters are coming around the neighborhood.
But first we have to get through Saturday. I think we're going down for Gameday, which means getting up early and being down there around 9:00 or so. Gameday ends at noon, so I think we'll probably break and go get lunch since our tailgating lot where we'll park for the rest of the day doesn't open until sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 that afternoon. I really should come up with a sign between now and Saturday morning. If I do, I'll post it here so that anyone watching Saturday morning can look for it on TV.
ESPN is loving the Palmetto State this year. We've been on ESPN or ESPN2 four times already this year, we have the 7:45pm game this Saturday on ESPN in Columbia against Tennessee, the 7:45pm game the following Saturday in Columbia against Arkansas, and the week after ESPN held their "College Gameday" show from Clemson for the first time, they're coming to Columbia for the fourth time this Saturday for the Tennessee game. Back to back weeks for Gameday in the same state is pretty good.
It's going to make for a very long day though... Gameday starts at 10am and kickoff is 7:45pm. We haven't had the best of luck either on Gameday shows in the past. Of course, unlike Clemson who just beat a very soft Georgia Tech, #13 ranking be damned, we've played #3 Florida in 2001 and in 2002 we played the eventual SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs. But, that's the cost of having Gameday... the matchups are usually against pretty good teams.
Even though we beat Tennessee last year, this is a totally different Tennessee this time around... last year their team finished 5-6 and lost to Vanderbilt even. This year they only have 1 loss so far and they're ranked #8 in the country, so it'll be a lot harder game. Spurrier has a pretty good history against Tennessee's coach Fulmer though, so hopefully we'll get it done.
Now I have to start thinking of a good sign to make for Gameday. If you've ever watched Gameday on Saturday mornings, there are always all sorts of crazy signs.
Got to go on a small photo assignment this afternoon right after work. A group in our School does athletic activity type research and they wanted some photos on the bare walls in our brand new building before the October 27th 'grand opening' party. One of them are involved in the Dutch Fork high school tennis team, so I stopped by and took a few shots before their big match against Irmo High School. Irmo is ranked #3 in the state's 4A division and Dutch Fork is #4.
Anyway, click on the image or the link below it to view the gallery:
Also, you'll probably notice I'm using a new gallery software for viewing images... I still have my Pbase account, but for things I don't want to add there, this Jalbum software works pretty well. Makes the galleries look a lot like you're browsing Windows folders with the style of gallery I chose to use.
Hard to believe I'm getting to the 1 post every month level.
Things really haven't slowed down much at work since the beginning of the semester like they normally do. I've also had a handful of side work lately so I've been busy during and after work.
Other than that, everything's cruising along. Carolina had a tough loss at home against Auburn in a game we could have won when they were still ranked #2 in the country. We came back and beat Kentucky on the road though, so that was nice. Our outdoor tailgate-style party version 2.0 was the exact opposite of last year's. This time the game went fine, but by the second quarter we were rained inside, so the party didn't go as well as last year's. I'll take the trade though.
Christina and I spent this weekend working on a website for the Gamecock message board I post on... he's starting up a business relationshop with a shop here in town who is going to fill the orders and take the payments. So, rather than take a smaller percentage of the sales if they had to make the site, he paid me a flat rate to make it. Christina showed me a bit about Adobe Illustrator since I've only used Photoshop in the past and after the graphics were made I started plugging in the product pages and overall site structure. I'll include a link to the site once it goes live.
Since I'm busy today as always I have to run, but I'll leave you with a bit of advice: Don't pick up outdoor neighborhood cats. Poison Ivy sucks.
