Sno Cone of Luv

So I have just left the parking lot we will be tailgating in tomorrow. I left Brandon there (with others) to tend to the hog they will be roasting all night. I can't even begin to describe how full the lot was, the number of people grilling up stuff already, the amount of tents people have set up to sleep in tonight, and just the overall spirit that is going on. There is security there, but they are being polite and letting this happen. It's truely amazing. Twenty-four hour tailgate, sure why not. Oh and it just started to rain.

For those of you not in the know, Iowa is playing #1 Ohio State tomorrow at 7pm, but apparently most of Kinnick decided to start tonight. I can't wait to see what it looks like when I get back tomorrow morning at 5:30am.

Wish each of you could experience this just once.

Posted by Jenniffer at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So as Brandon tells me nearly everyday, "You just sounded really Minnesootah when you were talking." I'll admit it, it's true. The accent is getting to natural to do and I've picked it up too quickly. I think part of that is because of the people I hang out with and my color guard girls. (they of course don't say anything about it) I really don't even notice anymore until I'm called out on it. I'm even known to throw in a "ah jeez" every now and again without blinking an eye. I'm really okay with this and it just makes it much easier to break into a Wisconsin or Fargo thicker accent.

Now go back and read this elongating the o's. That's what my internal monologue now sounds like too.

Posted by Jenniffer at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my this was my first Friday in quite sometime where I really had nothing specific to do. No Govies, no high school football games, and no driving somewhere for the weekend. It was actually quite nice and I thought I would just share that fact with anyone who actually reads this.

My night started with a quick trip to IKEA. For those of you without one in your backyard, be jealous. For once I went in and spent less than $100 dollars, which is quite good for me. When the rooms are done that those new items went into we'll update some pictures. After IKEA, I buzzed down to our apartment (yes we still have it through the end of the month). This is where my Friday becomes way fun, I spent the evening cleaning the apartment. The pro is, now we can finally turn in our keys on Monday afternoon.

I know, not that exciting, but people want us to write more, so this is what you get.

Posted by Jenniffer at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So we kind of forgot to let people know that we moved. Here is the short version of “the scoop”. We started looking at houses in mid/late July. We found one in mid-August. We closed on September 8th. In that time I still had Govies going on and we was out of town during Labor Day so people like parents/siblings found out, but many others did not. Then I waited this week until I was ready to put some pictures up. Well the pictures are ready for you now in the Gallery so enjoy. We’ll update with more pictures as we do some improvements on the rooms. Also, not to fret, I will send out the address in a mass e-mail soon.

As an open invitation: We have plenty of space to house people if you are ever in the Twin Cities.

Posted by Jenniffer at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I’ve put this off for a little bit because quite honestly I thought Brandon wrote about this in the last post, but then I realized he wrote that after prelims so many of you don’t know what happened at finals. Well, we won. The Govenaires are the 2006 DCA Class A Champions. (and we won the guard caption again) It was great. I have a gold medal and everything. Unfortunately I have no real pictures I can post here, but there are a few websites where you can see some pictures from our show. The first are the picture that Jolesch took. There really aren’t any good ones of me in that set. Then there are the pictures from Corps Reps Some actual decent pictures in that set.

The season was great, and my best yet. I’ll have to watch the tape from finals at some point again, but I know it was my best performance and I really can’t remember any major mistakes. I would highly recommend that any of you who can join us next year, you’ll have a great time and well it’s our 80th season next summer.

Of course I am sad that the season is over, but it is nice to get some normalcy back in our lives. Seeing Brandon on a regular basis is a bonus as well.

Posted by Jenniffer at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’m not happy.

I don’t really have the time or interest at this point to get into a deep, philosophical discussion of what it means to “be happy” right now. The fact of the matter is there are other places I would rather be right now.

The Hawks kicked off their 2006 season yesterday with a win over Montana. I haven’t seen an Iowa game since I left for Dublin last October. It’s OK. I’ll get over it.

This weekend Jenniffer is in soggy Rochester, NY with the Govenaires for the DCA finals. Thursday night she took part in a flag solo, taking 8th out of 15 competitors (Jenniffer, I TOLD you that you wouldn’t get last!) She also put together a comedic flag ensemble performance as well as the first ever Govie Chorus (drum corps people singing. . . be afraid.) Again, neither of these groups took last either.

In about an hour they will take the field in the Class-A finals. After semis yesterday, they led their division. Things are looking good for tonight, and I wish like Hell I could be there not only to support her, but the group as a whole.

I, however, am in the not quite as soggy, but soggy nonetheless, Twin Cities. I have to work this weekend. This sucks. I know working weekends goes with the job, but sometimes when I watch the games the other reindeer get to play, it starts to wear on me a bit.

There may also be the small issue of being scheduled to work on the Friday night of a weekend I technically have off. This happened last week, and I thought it was a bit of an anomaly. Well, last night I looked at my updated schedule and wouldn’t you know that though I don’t have to work the weekend of Iowa’s homecoming vs. Pur-don’t, I AM scheduled for that Friday night. To top it all off, I learned that in those situations I do not get paid at the weekend rate for that Friday night. Others working Friday through Sunday get paid at the weekend rate for that night, but technically I’m not working the weekend. This is B.S. Yes, I will be speaking to my manager.

I understand there are plenty of scheduling perks as well. I realize this, but just let me be bitter for a bit. At the moment I am of the opinion that this night/weekend/holiday thing is for the birds.

As I type: listening to Ben Folds “Songs for Silverman”

Posted by Brandon at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)