Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Here lately

The Wife and I have had a pretty crazy last couple months. Nothing really new happened but we did a lot of traveling this year to more football games than I’ve ever been too! It sure was a LOT of fun. We ended up going to the Alabama vs. Florida International game, the Arkansas vs. Georgia game, the Arkansas vs. Eastern Michigan game, the Arkansas vs. Troy game, and the Arkansas vs. Mississippi State game! Sheesh, that’s a lot of traveling on the road!

The Hogs did as good as expected this year. They had a better season that last, had a LOT of improvement from last year, and came close to winning a couple of the games that they lost. They went 7-5 this year as compared to their 5-7 record last year. And if Ryan Mallet and all the talented players come back next year, who knows what will happen?! But they GOT to work on their defense! All in all, it was a pretty good year for Arkansas Football.

Other than traveling a lot, nothing much else has happened. We stayed home, enjoyed ourselves, went to Little Rock a couple times, and have been raking leaves and gumballs when we have the time.

That’s all the updates I have for now. I haven’t been fishing lately because of all the traveling we’ve been doing. But I may go just one more time before the really cold weather hits. Below are some of the pictures from some of the games we went to this year




"Arkansas vs. Mississippi State"



"Arkansas vs. Troy"


"Arkansas vs. Georgia"


"Alabama vs. Florida International"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I spent the whole weekend in a Tattoo shop!

It was something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do...

And although it hurt...



I'm SO glad I did it!



Monday, September 21, 2009

Call those HOGS!

Sigh… What can I say? Probably nothing that hasn’t already been said. Wow! That quarterback is really something. Ryan Mallett has got so much talent and athleticism it’s not even funny. The hogs REALLY have a stellar offense this year!

On the other hand, the Arkansas defense just plain sucked. No other way of putting it. They gave up 52 points to a Georgia team who, up to this game, was struggling to find out what kind of team they were since they lost their star players from last year to the draft. Although, if you look at the other side of this, the Georgia defense gave up 41 points to an unranked and untested Arkansas team. The Razorbacks have a long road ahead of them. They have some tough road games coming up and if Coach Petrino and Robinson don’t figure out something, we’re gonna have another year like last year.

Now, with that said, although we lost the game, it was one heck-of-a game! There were big plays the whole night. The Hogs and Dawgs went back and forth all nice in a scoring shootout! That stadium was rockin let me tell ya! At multiple times during the game, the crowd got so loud, I could hardly hear myself scream myself! Even though we lost it was a great game! We have really improved from a year ago, but we still have a lot of things to work on.

The Wife and I had a great time at the game. Here are some photo’s from the game!


before the game


Yup, that's Erin Andrews


Band performing


running through the "A"



Calling those Hogs!


Packed Stadium

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fayetteville here we come!

Well, Arkansas had a bye week this last weekend, so they’ve had 2 weeks to prepare for Georgia’s game. Georgia, currently ranked #23, lost their season opener to OSU. This past weekend, they won their first conference game against South Carolina. In week 3, Arkansas (1-0) plays Georgia (1-1) in the first conference game for the Hogs. Most Razorback fans would say this could make or break the whole season for the HOGS. They were a re-building team last year with a LOT of freshman. Now this year, we’ve got more experience and more talent, the guys are more physical and have fine tuning their abilities since last season.

The bulldogs are a favorite by a touchdown I’ve heard, but we’ll just have to see. This first home game in Fayetteville will let everyone know if the Razorbacks will be a contender again in the SEC. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed…

Oh, and by the way, I just found out that I get to go to the game this weekend!!!

Aren’t you jealous…

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Road Trip!!!

Alabama, here we come! As everyone knows, I am a true Razorback fan! However, since I've got connections with games, we were able to get tickets to the Alabama vs. Florida International game this last weekend and the Razorbacks had a bye week, we took a road trip!

We headed out on Friday afternoon and hit the road since the Tuscaloosa campus isn’t too far of a drive from us. We didn’t leave until around 1:30 or so. We stayed in Tupelo which isn’t too far outside of Tuscaloosa. Just a side note, no hotel rooms are available in Tuscaloosa on game day…So in case you are ever going for a game, just a little info for ya.

We made a couple stops on the way, and eventually made it to Tupelo Mississippi. We got checked into our hotel and check out some of the hotel amenities. Then, we took off into town to find some dinner. We ended up eating at Red Lobster. We all ordered the endless shrimp dinner. I won’t tell how much shrimp I ate, but they about tapped me out ;) Love that shrimp scampi!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and went swimming. The pool was outside and it wasn’t anything fancy, but we had it all too our selves! We swam and then got in the hot tub and then back in the cold pool, and back in the hot tub, then back in the cold pool, etc… It was fun! We ended up swimming for about 3 hours and went to bed kinda late.


The next day, we slept in a little bit and got up and grabbed a quick bite to eat at McDonald’s before heading across town to see the birthplace of Elvis Presley! The admission was a little more than we wanted to spend to see the chapel, museum, and his house. Although, we did pay to walk through his house and we went to the gift shop. One of the most interesting facts is that Elvis’s dad got a loan from the bank for $180 for materials to build their house. After being built, they couldn’t afford to pay it back. CRAZY!!! Anyways, we stayed there and took the little tour and checked out the gift shop.


After the Elvis thing, we got gassed up and headed to Tuscaloosa! Once in Tuscaloosa, we went shopping for some Alabama souvenirs and such. The best place to look….yep, you guessed it. WAL-MART!


We went to Wal-Mart and found a couple things. I usually get a souvenir junior football from whichever team we go see. I’ve got a Tennessee and Alabama football. I haven’t been able to get an Arkansas or Auburn one yet, but I will soon! We also got a couple of other things. The Wife got some ribbon to put in her hair and a few other things.

After Wal-Mart, we headed over to Dreamland BBQ (http://www.dreamlandbbq.com/default.aspx?id=5) for some game day tradition! Before we saw anything we smelled it and knew we were getting close! We saw the smoke before we saw the place! When we pulled up, we saw a big tent set up next to the building. So we headed that direction and there were outside tables and chairs and people eating so we had a seat and asked the lady what she recommended.


It was SO GOOD! The ribs were amazing and the potato salad was excellent! Definitely worth the trip! We ate outside with a live band. It was a fun atmosphere, however, when we left, we noticed that people were going inside the building as well to eat. I bet there was a more historic atmosphere in there than there was outside in the tent. Oh well, maybe next time.

From there, I still hadn’t found an Alabama hat that I liked (I’m picky about hats…don’t judge me, women! It’s the only accessory we men have. You have shoes, purses, and earrings!) So we headed to the closest Hibbett store that our iPhone led us to! It just happened to be in a Mall. So when we arrived at University Mall a few minutes later, we pulled in the parking lot and noticed that there were shuttles to the game! About 10 or 15 Greyhound size busses all ready to go! We got lucky on that one. We still had a few hours before game time. So we headed inside the mall, paid for our round trip shuttle bus ticket and took a gander in the mall. We walked around a bit and found the Hibbett Sports store. Inside I finally found a mass selection of Alabama hats to choose from. I got one.


Afterwards, we still had barbeque taste in our mouth and I just needed that sweet tooth something after the rich BBQ. So we stopped at the Great American Cooke and got a cookie. After enjoying our desert, we headed over to the shuttle. We didn’t have to wait too long but by the time we left, there was a long line forming. The 2 mile drive was a tight crammed squeeze, but we finally arrived and saw the Stadium. It was awesome!


The bus drove us right up to the front of the stadium. We got out and still had a little bit of time left. There was a LOT of people there, but there was also some booths and vendors and things outside the stadium so we window shopped for a while and ended up buying two little “stick-poms” for a $1 a piece to cheer with.

Then we headed toward the stadium. First, we headed to the first gate, thinking we we could just go in and walk to our seat. The first entrance we walked up to the lady was telling people NO CAMERAS! Ain’t gettin’ by me with a camera! And we said, well what do we do? Why no cameras? She was like, I don’t know, but you can’t bring it in here. This is the first stadium I’ve ever been to that didn’t allow cameras! That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Maybe not professional telephoto lens, but a regular digital camera? Stupid!


Anyways, we walked away and huddled for a meeting and The Wife and my friend were like what now? And I stuffed our camera down in the bottom of Jennifer’s sling bag and said lets find another entrance. The next entrance we came to we snuck by the camera checkers (this wasn’t hard because of all the people) and go the to guy checking the tickets. He then told us that we couldn’t get to our seats from that entrance, so we had to walk back around. Long story short, we got in with our camera and found our seats.

When we walked in to the stadium, we walked out on field level and on the ground. Then we walked up to our seats 25 rows up. These were great seats. We enjoyed the game and took lots of pictures too!

We left in the 4th quarter and got on the shuttle and went back to the mall. After getting back to our vechicle, we went to get some dinner and stop by Krispy Kreme because the Hot and Ready sign was still on!

The next morning, we got up and checked out of our hotel and went and got breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After that we hit the road and came home.


It was a fun trip but I was dog tired morning. There is just something about driving that makes you really tired and wears you out. It was a GREAT trip and was a blast. The trip was great, the game was a lot of fun, and we just had an all around good time. Hopefully, we’ll get to go back again one day!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

SEC dominates!!!


Other than being one of the biggest (no pun intended) Razorback fans around, I am secondly an SEC fan. I love that we (Arkansas) are in one of the, if not debatable, THE best college football conferences in Division IA football. I mean, think about it. Look at the teams we have!
As everyone knows, or should know, College football officially began it’s season last week. The first game to kick off the season was South Carolina’s win over North Caroline State on Thursday night. Then, as the weekend neared, I told SWMBO, “I’ll see you Sunday”. The reason being is that my weekend consisted of watching the Kentucky game, the Georgia game (which was disappointing. Or course, when you loose 3 star players like Matthew Stafford, Mohamed Massaquoi, and Knowshon Moreno, things aren’t looking all that good), the Tennessee game, the Razorback game on PPV, the last half of the Alabama game, and the LSU game that night. Yeah, I was home…but I wasn’t aware of much else. Haha!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Fishing 6/10/09

Last week, we had some family come down stay with us. They were driving back through on their visit of family in Texas. They arrived Tuesday night and I took off work on Wednesday to take my father-in-law and brother-in-law fishing. They both have fished all their life. They are what you call “country boys”. Even though they didn’t grow up in Arkansas, they have “Country” and “Redneck” running through their veins.




Anyways, so even though they have fished all their life, they have never been trout fishing before.




So we got up a 5:45 a.m. and got ready and dressed and headed out the door at a little after 6:00 a.m.




We left early enough to be out on the river and beat the sun for a couple hours before it got hot.




We arrived around 7:00 a.m. and fished until about 1:30 p.m that day. By that time the sun had come out and it got hot, so we knew it was time to leave.




Anyways, I had a good time, and they did too. It was what I call a “hard day of fishing” because it took all day to catch our limit plus a few (even though we released them all). We didn’t tear em’ up, but we had fun and caught fish!







Monday, April 20, 2009

Spring Red & White game

The season doesn't start until August, but the Razorbacks had a Spring Scrimmage this weekend, so we tagged along with my dad. However, because of the weather, we weren't sure if they would have to move the practice indoors. This would have been a bummer if it had, because fans aren't allowed inside the Walker pavilion.


On our way to the game. Gas stop.

Raining on the way! It rained almost the whole way up to Fayetteville.


"The Wife" watching her movie, oblivious to anything.


We got to the game about 2 hours before. Driving by Baum stadium... Yep, still thunder storming and raining!


Standing in line for Coach Petrino's autograph, but he ended up not being there and had to get to the lockeroom before the game.


FINALLY, the rain quit and we had blue skys and beautiful weather. Apparently, the Football gods were with us this weekend. It rained almost the whole time, until we got there and the game started and we had awesome weather. Then, on our way back, it started raining again...


It was nice that it wasn't raining and the nice weather came out.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Fishing Feb 7, 2009

Well, I figured I would post some pictures from this weekend's fishing trip. My "Grand-pappy" went with me on Saturday. This is usually the scene every time we go fishing. I drive, and he sits up front and enjoys being retired. We always have a good time together.



And he always enjoys the bragging rights and rubbing in my face whenever he is ahead of me on the count of how many fish caught. I believe at this point, he was two up on me.


We always release our catch, unless they are ill-releasable (i.e. have damaged them in the process of the catch). In this case, they go in the live well, to be "et" at a later date. See yummy fried trout recipe at bottom.



This is a picture of my newest (and favorite to date) rig. This is last year birthday present, and last year's christmas present. I have a whole-nother rig for fly fishing, but this is my everyday ole faithful. My rig consists of:

Reel - Shimano Sahara 750FB
Pole - Bass Pro Shops BIONIC BLADE (Ultra Light, 5'6 length, 1-6 lb test, Fast action)
Line - Bass Pro Shops XPS Flourocarbon line, 6 lb. test (I use 4 lb. test line when using monofilament. But Flourocarbon is much more highly sensitive, is almost invisible when under water, and has a low stretch feel. This means more sensitivity, even on the smallest "bumps").
hooks - I prefer Eagle Claw brand hooks. They seem not to chip or break as easily as other brands.
Weights - The brand doesn't matter to me. But I prefer BB size split shots with removeable teeth on the back. To be more eco-friendly, I stear clear of Lead sinkers.
Bait - Depends on what the fish are bitin on that day. Usually stick with worms, powerbait, or lures such as the Trout Magnet.



One of my favorite places to be. It was so nice that morning. I had a feece pullover on, so I stayed fairly warm. The weather was around 50-55 degrees, so it was cool, but not cold. We launched around 7:30 and left around noon. The sun never came out while we were there, but on the way home, the sun came out and it started to really warm up.



All in all it was a really nice day. Since I had the camera, figured I would take a picture of myself....I'm a dork, I know.



Grandad seemed to enjoy himself. One of his favorite passtimes.



I don't have any picture of the recent meals of fried trout but you can look back at my camping trip in October of 2008 and see the "remains" of our fish fry.

Brandon's Fried Trout

1-2 clean Trout fillets per person (depending on size of fish)
1-2 cups yellow stone ground cornmeal to dreadge
1-2 Tbl cayenne pepper (more if you like the heat)
1 Tbl kosher salt
1 Tbl garlic salt
Peanut Oil

Mix together in large container cornmeal, pepper, salt, & garlic salt. make sure trout fillets are cleaned well and place wet fillet in meal and press down into cornmeal mixture. Flip and coat other side well.

Let breaded fillets sit for 5-10 mins. During this time, place large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and add enough oil to come up half way up the side of fish. Heat oil to 360-375 degrees. Do not let oil get above 375! Also, while your fish are resting and your oil is heating up, you can clean your prep and breading station.

Once oil is heated, slowly place fish into hot oil. Depending on size of fish, cook between 3-5 minutes on first site, and 2-4 minutes on other side. place on cooling rack inside a cookie sheet.

Enjoy with your favoriate condiment. My favorite is to eat it with raw sliced onion and a little mild hot sauce, with fresh cole slaw on the side.