It's a good day to be an Idaho Vandal!

Now that is what college football games are all about!
                                                                         
The University of Idaho Vandals won their second bowl game today, the Humanitarian Bowl. I was at their first bowl game 11 years ago with some of my favorite Vandals (my sister and Sara). Tonight, we were all scattered all over the country but still watched the game and cheered together thanks to texts and cell phones!

With 38 seconds left and down seven points - after a back and forth leading game - the Vandals made it down the field to score the tying points. Then with 8 seconds left, instead of going for a field goal to tie the game and force it into overtime, they went for two points. And made it.

What a game - final score 43 to 42! What a day to be a Vandal!

Thanksgiving recap: 2009

A pictoral review:

I met Macie Marie, daughter of my lifelong (literally, I've known my entire life) best friend Kelli.

Her big sis Cameron loved the hat I made her. And she graciously tried on a hat my mom was making to test it's size out for another little kid.

I also got to hang out with sweet little Jossy and rock star Kellan and their moms. It was a fun night!

This is what happens when I ask my sister to hold my camera for a moment. Clearly we're still 7 at heart.

And wine tasting with my mom and sister at Indian Creek Winery in Nampa (they are owned by Idaho Vandals). They make the best Reisling! If you haven't been on the wine tour in Canyon County I highly recommend it! We hit 5 locally owned vineyards and had a great time!

It was a great trip to Boise as always! Although, I didn't get any pics of our fabulous Turkey dinner. I guess we were too busy cooking and then eating to bother with a silly little thing of a picture.

Weekend Highlights:

My parents came for a visit to see the house for the first time. We had a fabulous time hanging out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

With the help of my dad, we finished up a few odd projects around the house.

The Idaho Vandals won another football game, making them first in the WAC - yes, first place. As in better than the BSU Broncos.

I beat my hubby in our fantasy football league landing me in first place.

I'm back to working on socks for the hubby and am nearly at the heel.

All in all, a prefectly wonderful weekend!

Christmas in July

This is the year that I actually start my Christmas gifts early! And I even whittled down the list of who gets knitted gifts. This year's first project goes to my dad. He's getting knitted socks. I'm very excited about this project because I'm learning how to do socks on two circular needles and I have to say, I'm totally loving this and wondering why the heck it took me so long to get here? It's a pretty simple sock pattern (more on that when I actually buy the book - look for post to come later this week.)

But here's the reason for the socks for dad (aside from the fact that he's the best dad and deserves handknit socks from his kid). My sister and I have a running joke about who's the favorite daughter. It can be for either parent. At any time and for any reason. For example, I was talking to my dad the other day when he got a call on the other line. He went to answer it, came back and said it was Lindsay (the sister). I said, "Did you tell her you'd call her back later because you were talking to your favorite daughter on the other line?" That type of stuff.

When I was visiting the family over the Fourth of July at our place in Cascade, my dad proudly displayed his new favorite toy. It was a gift from Lindsay for Fathers Day. And I can honestly say, I've been dethroned as favorite kid. This gift freakin' blew everything out of the water. No comparison.

My dad now owns a bright orange Boise State University beer bottle opener that plays the Paul J. Schnider final call of the famed Fiesta Bowl game where the BSU Broncos came from behind in the final seconds to win the game. (I hate to do this, but to get an idea of how great this play was - in the minds of Broncos - here's a link to a crappy YouTube clip where the BSU fan actually spelled Boise wrong in the title. It's just classic.)

And the best part, she found it for 99 cents. (Editor's note: personally, I believe that's because no one would want that reminder of a game, but whatever.) So needless to say, he went around all weekend offering to open all of our beer bottles. The rest of the guests were all Idaho Vandals (for those readers not from Idaho, this is the big, massive football rival. It's messy. It's personal. It ain't pretty.) But it made my dad happy. Especially as we all squirmed when the damn thing would go off.

Now, to give my non-Idaho readers another perspective of how beloved this damn game is, it was played about two years ago and if you go into any big store that sells T.V.'s in Boise, they still replay that game on all of their T.V.'s and people still stop and watch it. Plu-eezeee, get over it for crying out loud. Move on. That's what I'm hoping these socks will do for my dad, help him move on past that damn game. And put me back in the favorite daughter throne that I so rightfully deserve.

(Pictures of these fabulous-favorite-daughter-winning socks to come later, my camera battery is recharging.)