Army Victorious Once Again Over Navy

That's what the headline would be if you only spent time watching the two academies march on to the field. Not to say that the Midshipmen's marching was bad, but the Cadets of West Point certainly have marching drilled into them. Too bad for them that Navy came to play football and the march-on was a secondary event!

Cheri and I headed down to Pine Brook, NJ on Friday afternoon to meet up with Deb and Scott. The trip was uneventful except for the time and traffic you have to deal with on a Friday. We got to their house at a reasonable hour and were treated to a great steak dinner.

Saturday morning the four of us got up a little early (not real early for some, but weekend early for others) and headed for Philadelphia. The game was at Lincoln Field, near the site of the old Veteran's and JFK Stadiums that we went to when Scott and I were Midshipmen. March on for the Midshipmen was a 9 a.m. and the Cadets were to follow right after. Security was tight for the game since President Bush was coming so the lines for getting in were long, and everyone was thoroughly checked.

While in line we kept looking for Tim and since the lines moved so slow we had plenty of time to look. Of course the temperature was only in the high 20's at this point so standing around was not the most comfortable position.

It wasn't until we were in the Stadium that we finally found Tim. He was directing traffic and getting Midshipmen to their correct seating area.

You can tell he is official....he is wearing an armband.

Of course Midshipmen have a tendency to ignore other

Midshipmen who just happen to be wearing an armband.

Once inside, our seats were on the Club Level which made it nice for us to have an indoor area behind the seats to keep warm and to wait out the time before the game festivaties started. You can see that Deb and Cheri decided to sit awhile so Deb could check text-messages from Laura and Cheri could just sit around looking good.

After a while another group came and asked if they could sit with us. It turned out to be Rear Admiral (two star) Victor See, Director Naval Space and Warfare (SPAWAR) who is a member of the class of 80. His wife started to talk to Cheri about knitting when she saw Cheri's felted bag. We had a nice time visiting with them and Scott took a picture of me with the two women.

Eventually we headed out to watch some of the pre-game activities. While inside we could see the Presidential motorcade come to the stadium and outside we were able to watch President Bush walk around the field and shake hands with many of the players.

President Bush shaking hands with #3
Then, since it was an Army / Navy game, people started to jump out of airplanes....

Some of the Army Jump Team heading into

the Stadium

Then came a Navy Seal Team.

Of course these two had to enter together and spun around almost all the way to the ground.

The last one in brought Ol' Glory

If that wasn't enough, it was time to call in the big guns! This doesn't happen at all college football games.

First through are a few Navy F-18 Hornets

Then a few Army Blackhawks

After all that, the some of the plebes from both sides lined up on the field to form a funnel for the teams to enter the field through. Army came out of the locker room first and they were wearing new uniforms with camouflage helmets and football pants. Navy then took the field.

Army taking the field

Navy taking the field

Finally we got down to some football. The weather didn't get any warmer so we all bundled up and got warm in our seats. It's always nice to have a personal seat warmer alongside.

At half-time President Bush made his way from the Army side of the Field to the Navy side of the field. This is what typically happens when a President attends the Army / Navy game.

For the third quarter Scott and I headed down towards the sidelines. When purchasing the tickets Scott had also gotten two tickets in the front row near the 35 yard line behind Navy. We went down to watch the quarter a little closer. It was nice to be near the action, but the higher level Club seats were better for watching the overall game. From so close to the field you can not always see the play developing or the player with the ball.

While in these seats we had in front of us an interesting (or possibly scary) individual. I am not sure if this is someone dressing up like Kevin Kline in A Fish Named Wanda or if it is a cross between the Village People and Philadelphia's finest....the picture doesn't do the tight pants and high boots justice...... .

We went back up to the Club seats for the fourth quarter and to watch the end of the game. In case you didn't figure if out earlier, the actual title for this blog should be:

Navy Crushes Army for the Seventh Year in a Row!

In case you can't read the scoreboard it says Navy 34 Army 0

Following the final play of the game we were once again priviledged enough to see one of the best sportsman activities in college football. First all of the Army players went and stood before their classmates and sang their alma mater. The Navy players stand at attention respectfully behind them. The winning team gets to go last and the Navy players then stood before their classmates, with the Army players behind them, and sang Navy Blue and Gold. What also makes this special is that the alumni from both schools stay in the stands for this event and stand for the other Academy and sing along with their own.

We waited around inside the Club area after the game to let the crowds clear out and to wait for Tim. He met us at the car and we set the Navigator and headed out for dinner. Tim needed to head back to the Academy that night so Scott had made reservations for dinner and then we needed to get Tim to the bus loading area.

Philadelphia is full of good restaurants and Scott got us into a great one. Our reservation was for the restaurant's 5 p.m. opening time, and since we were there a few minutes early we decided to go into the Artful Dodger pub next door. This gave us a chance to warm up while waiting for the restaurant to open.

The meal was great and we were able to visit with Tim for quite a while. We then left him at the Hyatt to catch the bus back to Annapolis, while we drove in the snow flurries back to Pine Brook, NJ. It was a great day and evening and we were glad to have been able to spend time with Deb, Scott, and Tim.

Sunday morning we lazed a little bit and then headed back for Connecticut by mid-morning. Cheri and I realized that we don't have many weekends available before Christmas, so along the way we stopped and picked up two trees; one for the Keeping Room and one for the Family Room.

All in all, the weekend was another great adventure! Beat Army!

The Case of the Disappearing Gobbler Gang

A few weeks ago, while doing some small jobs around the house, I answered the phone and heard the voice that gives me chills....often the exciting kind but sometimes less so.

“Clean out and turn on the freezer in the basement. I’ve got a couple of cold bodies I want to put in there for now.”

When in this frame of mind, Cheri isn’t one to be toyed with. “Yes dear,” was all I could reply while dropping my tools and digging out the Lysol. If nothing else got done that day at least we would have someplace where the bodies wouldn’t decompose.

A little while later she showed up at the house with the bodies in the back of the car. They were wrapped up in netting and not much else. She’d man-handled them into the car herself and she was also able to get them out of the car and into the basement on her own. I took a quick peek and confirmed my suspicions; they were a couple of members of the Gobbler Gang. From what I could see, they still looked pretty firm and prior to this event had a good body on them--firm breasts and nice gams!

The Gobbler Gang had been running wild in the area and started showing up along roadways and in fields across Woodstock. Some sign-waving and protesting also began to take place and members of the community were taking it upon themselves to "thin the herd".

“We’ll dispose of one of these ourselves, and I’m sure that besides some bleached bones there won’t be evidence left when we’re done,” Cheri stated, and then in a nonchalant way added, “We’ll pass off the other one through the Church.” Hmmm, a way to keep the bodies at arms length I thought….laundering them through the Church. Let someone else deal with the leftovers, not a bad idea.

A few days later, Cheri met up with Jamie “The Rev” Harrison and filled him in on our plan for getting rid of the bodies. It seems he too is in the know on the use of the Church as a way to get rid of the gang’s bodies, and it turned out he and Martha had an extra one they needed help with as well. Since many hands make the work go faster Cheri agreed we’d assist, and planning began on the use of the Thanksgiving Holiday to cover the deed. I only hoped it didn't go the way of the St. Valentines' Day Massacre where body parts were left laying all around. This time everything had to go!

In preparation for the day's events, Cheri and I got up early and went to the gym. We didn't think belly massages would be in the plans for later in the day, so better to burn off some calories and make space by attending a spinning class. Then it was back home to some preliminary "grazing" on omelets.

It was then time to move on to the Harrison's house for the "festivities". The two ringleaders of the planned event can be seen in the picture to the right. There was also key support from Martha, seen here beating some potatoes into submission. Since there was such a large body to dispose of, the party also included Denise, Dan, and Susan (l to r) shown with Jamie, plus Jack next to Cheri.

Rounding out the party are Chris Harrison (shown with Jack) and Ben Harrison (seen in a side shot with Martha).

Everything was set. The table was laid out in splendid fashion,

some accompaniments to aid in the disposal of the evidence were put on the counter, and the guest Gobbler Gang member was getting a tan so he would look his finest for the party.

Soon, Jamie was dismembering the one guest who wouldn't be going home after the party and we all sat down to enjoy the fruits of our planning. As evidenced by the end result, the objective of removing all traces of this member of the Gobbler Gang seems to have been well met.

Since, it wouldn't be right to go from a big meal to a big dessert the party took a break to play "Foodie Fight", a trivia game about more eating. There were three teams, Cheri and I were on different teams and suffice it to say that neither of us won at this game....but we gave it a good shot!

Soon the desserts came out along with a little after dinner libation. Party members then graduated to different levels of reclining. This was as close to belly massages as we got, so it was a good thing we had gone spinning earlier.

Our Thanks to the Harrisons for letting us be a part of this celebration. We had a wonderful time.

As for the Case of the Missing Gobbler....it still isn't closed. We still have a "stiff" in the basement freezer.