Fiesta Bowl

If, while watching the Fiesta Bowl Monday, you happen to see a small group of men wearing body paint, orange mountain man-type beards, and orange sombreros, sit comfortable knowing that one of those men is my K.

I'm so dang proud of my sports fan hubby...

This is an actual press release written by real journalists (not like me) about K and the gang. Since then, K has been contacted by varied media sources about this. By the way, he sooooo owes me a pair of diamond earrings. I think all the guys on the trip should chip in.

FOR TRUE BRONCO FANS, GETTING TO THE GAME CAN BE HALF THE FUN

Within five minutes of the close of the Boise State Broncos' regular undefeated season, as fans rushed the field in Reno and commentators mused about the football team's upcoming appearance at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, alum K H of Boise received four text messages in rapid succession.

All of the messages asked the same question: "How are we getting to Arizona?"

Within 20 minutes, H, a 2001 English secondary education graduate of Boise State, had talked his mother-in-law into letting him borrow her RV for a road trip to Tempe, Ariz. As his friend and fellow Bronco fan Alex Baxter puts it, "It wasn't a question of if we were going, it was a question of how."

For the group of fans, students and alumni traveling in this RV - at the moment, seven guys are going down for sure, but the party might balloon to 11 on the way back - a trip to the Fiesta Bowl is the cap to a magical season.

"I knew it was going to be a good season," Baxter said, "but I didn't want to say it out loud because it might jinx them."

With an RV ready to go to Arizona, all the guys had to do was get tickets. H and his friends camped out on a street near the Boise State campus the Friday night before tickets went on sale at the ticket office and played NCAA football video games in the RV.

"We kind of tailgated our way through the night," H said.

Baxter came along for support even though he had secured his ticket through a season ticket holder. "If someone in my crew doesn't have tickets, we're not done yet, you know?" he explained.

Now that their places in the stands are safe, the guys can look forward to spending New Year's Day in sunny Arizona - even if they have to make the sacrifice of going without their wives or girlfriends. "My wife had no desire to spend three days in an RV with some stinky boys," H said.

And they're prepared to take one for the team. Baxter said that he'll break out his "secret weapons" at the game to help cheer the team on, including a beer can holder helmet outfitted with Tostitos salsa on one end and Tostitos cheese dip on the other. "It could be pretty hard to suck down," he admits.

Russ O'Leary, a Boise State student and member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, is
traveling in the RV and says that he's one of about 20 current or past fraternity members making the trip. He's part of the face-painting, blue-and-orange crowd that has become so familiar to TV viewers and fans.

It's going to be a great game no matter what the outcome, he says. But as a true Bronco fan he has a prediction: "It's going to be the Broncos, up by 6."

Did you know...

Putting a cap full of vinegar in a water bottle to use on your pets when they're engaging in bad behaviors like barking works really well to lessen that bad behavior.

You can purchase master's thesis on line and pay for them in installments.

Dog training classes really do show results after one day.

A Boise teacher with the same qualifications and experience as a Meridian teacher will make about $1000 more a year.

The national average bra size is 36C.

BSU now has on-line grading.

There are currently zero openings for English teachers in either the Boise or the Meridian school districts.

Onions can grow in your fridge.

Dear Prissy Girls in Short Shorts Who Go to the Gym to Chat,

The gym is a place to work out - not to have your next cell phone conversation. You should be sweating, not talking with your roommate about last night's date. Please stop clogging up the machines I want to use with your worthless prattle - either work out like you mean it or have your conversations over coffee instead of over the treadmill. Did you realize that when you talk on your cell phone while walking, you could burn the same amount of calories as if you just walked around outside - with the added benefit to those around you that your cell phone conversation wouldn't be overheard just because we want to use the treadmill next to yours?

The gym is also not a place to meet men. Stop coming to the gym in your tiny shorts that barely cover your panties, perky ponytails and full makeup. Boys don't come to the gym to meet "chicks," so they're hardly checking out your ass - especially when your ass is sitting around not doing anything.

If you would keep these things in mind during your next gym visit, you would indeed be making this world a better place for all of us.

Ode to My Desk

You're dirty, desk, with tea cups and tape dispensers and lots of pens.
But thank you for not complaining as I pile on more.
File folders and books and more pens and paper clips and extra books and stray papers without a home.
You don't even complain that nothing is tidy, that nothing is stacked - even though at one time it was stacked and I ruined that quickly.
I promise - as soon as my master's thesis is completed, we'll go back to normal. I'll remove the excess books and pens, put away the papers in neat, paper clipped piles, and carry all my tea cups to the kitchen.
Until then, desk, I appreciate you taking the abuse.