The Good: I am in Austin. Football season starts tomorrow officially, but unofficially tonight since we have a few parties to go to. Wooo hooo!

The Bad: We will not have internet access until next week. The cable company did not come out to mark their cables for the water sprinkler guys, so they cut the cable. I don't know how we will make it, but thankfully we have it at the hotel and my families. That will get us through until Tuesday.

The Ugly: Work is like he**. The project I am on is killing me and the other Project Manager. Trust me, I will party hardy when it is all over.

Three final reasons for happiness:

Day 29: This day was very stressful at work. I was glad it was over.
Day 30: Same at day 29.
Day 31: I had a vacation day.

Here are the rest of the bloggers who participated in the August Happiness Challenge:

Pretty Purple Princess (the originator of the challenge)
Big Orange Michael (found out about the challenge from him)
Kristina
Southern Girl
Sarah
Blue Grass Mama
Empress
Primo Donna - My Mom!!!
Call Me Grandma
Buzz Stuff
Cathy

I ended up missing the pre-game stuff since a friend who was getting tickets from us could not find parking. We now have a new rule. If anyone is meeting us for tickets, they have to come at least 4 hours before game time. It gets way to crowded and a madhouse. Plus you miss out on all the tailgating.

We were able to see the new video display.

My comments? WOW! This thing is huge. Next month it is supposed to be in full screen (this week they only used half for the replays and game shots). I can't wait.

This game is one of the top 5 hottests games. Even with sunscreen we are burned. We sweated it off in the first 30 minutes. The heat was also very distracting to watching the game, but other than that, it was a fun one. Between the 5 of us who went out to dinner, we drank about 4 big pitchers of tea.

Oh ya, it was fun sharing Rose Bowl stories with everyone. One of my friends said it was the most fun she has ever had with her clothes on. I am using that one.

Tomight we will relax at our hotel, maybe go out for a late dinner, and sleep in tomorrow.

Twelve years ago today, I married my husband. When I ask him if he thought we would have been married so long, he replies "Why wouldn't we?"

I have posted this before, so it may be a repeat for some. Here is one of my favorite wedding pictures.

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, by parents will be celebrating their 36th. My Mom has started a posts to celebrate and share her memories. Check it out here.

This weekend we play Ohio State, who is ranked #1. We are ranked #2. It will be a good game.

Still no internet connection at home and work is to crazy to get caught up. I don't know how long I can survive without internet. Thankfully we are at my Mom's.

More later since I need to get a good nights rest before tomorrow. The game is at 7pm, so the day will be very long.

Vickie worked for Marsh & McLennan as an Executive Secretary. She was a wife to Sean and mother to Lauryn.

Friends, co-workers and acquaintances have left tributes on several sites and there is a reoccuring theme. She had a great smile. She was friendly. She handled stress well. She loved to travel and take her friends with her. Her boss spoke highly of her. She was a happy person. Many people left comments that wish they had known her better and I am now included in that group.

Read more here and here.

Snippet of a conversation:

Me: Tomorrow is National Wife Appreciation Day.

Hubby: It is?

Me: Link to story

Hubby: It looks like that would be like Hershey sending out a press release for a national candy day.

We have been without internet for over 3 weeks. I don't know how I survived it! Now I have so much catching up to do. Blogs to read, entries to post, blog designs to get back to work on!

Before the game was great. We were able to show Texas hospitality to the Ohio State fans, despite what happened last year. (Previous posts here and here.) We invited many to join our tailgate. Even some guys from New York joined us. They travel to one big college game a year. They commented on our friendliness. But the best part was waiting to get some yummy brisket. Behind me were some Ohio State fans. Of course, I am going to put my wording into it, but the girl said something like this:

During the game: Not good. _{(We lost 24 to 7.)}

After the game: Very silent drive home.

We watched this game from home since my husband did not have enough vacation days (new job) to make the trip reasonable. Ya, we are die hards, but, then you take into consideration that the next time the cable company could make it to our house was on Sunday between 8 am and 11 am, and we were without cable 3 weeks at that point, we were staying home. (How is that for a run on sentence?)

The game was enjoyable and my 5 year old daughter made the best comment while we were eating dinner and watching.

"I can't believe you are not at that game."

Pre-game was good. Same old good time.

The game was pretty good. No emotional rollercoasters. The weather was more interesting. The morning started out cool and cloudy, but by game time is was sunny and hot. About 3rd quarter the announcer warned us of a storm coming and everyone cheered. We wanted to be cool! With about 15 minutes left in the game, they asked everyone to take cover since lightning was sighted on campus. We ended up leaving and heading out to dinner. They started the game back up about 1 hour and 15 minutes later, so we were able to listen to the last 7 minutes on the radio.

Not much blogging fodder, huh?

Becky's post is here. She askes this question:

Can you guess what our passion is? We love going to the Texas football games, but it is not just about the football. We get to visit with great friends, get time to ourselves, and the girls are spoiled by both set of Grandparents while we are gone.

As far as problems? Two of our biggests fights surrounded a game. Not going into the details on those. After a loss, Mark is not much fun to be around and sometimes it takes him a week or so to recover.

But that is minor compared to the fun we have. We have made lots of friends, have some great memories, and will continue to do so.

Oh ya, have I ever mentioned that we planned our second child around football season? We wanted her to be at least 3 months old when it started, so we backed up 9 months and had our cut off date. I can remember saying to Mark "This month is it or we have to wait until next season." He shrugged and said "OK." Luckily we made our deadline and now have another beautiful daughter.

He may not know what the "best" shade of orange is (see the comments on this post), but he did link to a another great blog. And I can't pick a favorite, to many good ones.