USMC Birthday

Today is the United States Marine Corps birthday. Personally I'd rather celebrate this date than my very own birthday, because nobody wants to go for a drink in the middle of frozen January. With Leather has an excerpt about a Marine that should make anyone proud to be an American (thanks Ufford), or at least respect what our military has sacrificed for the sake of us all. The Veterans Day parade is tomorrow and I hope I can attend. Take a look at some of these quotes from Gen. "Chesty" Puller and see if you don't get a spark of patriotism.

Semper Fi!

Monday Hangover – Homecoming Edition

What a freaking cool Homecoming weekend! Totally awesome. Just so good to see everybody. The way we took it to those Cowboys from Wyoming, man I bet they don’t want to come back to Knoxville anytime soon. We showed them who the Vols really are and what Tennessee football is all about!! What’s that? Wait, it sounded like you said we LOST. Ha ha, good one. You’re such a kidder! I was there, I saw it myself…

/alarm clock rings

Damn, it’s Monday.

No Visible Wounds, No Jail Time
Despite the nightmare loss on Saturday things did go pretty well this Homecoming weekend when you consider that we had 2 arrests at Homecoming last year. Due to various reasons we had fewer alumni in town this weekend: hurricane clean up, travel to India, stuck in Utah, etc. So just having less people in town probably lowered our odds of trouble, but that doesn’t automatically prevent bodily harm. Once again I took a drunken stumble, though luckily I didn’t maim my face or draw blood this time. I’ve been told that on Friday night I was running down the street and took a tumble in some wet leaves. Apparently I didn’t account for the turn and went flying into the air, landed awkwardly on my wrist and ribs, and yes they hurt like heck when I breathe. So I’ve added yet another achy episode to the low-light reel while avoiding jail time. Nice!

It’s one thing to elude the authorities - friends and bartenders are a different story. They aren’t going to arrest you and lock you away, but they sure as hell will hold you guilty of drunken “crimes” and won't let you forget things as punishment. I mean, I really enjoy seeing someone a couple of days after a booze session and being reminded how F’d up I was when I last saw them. “You were there, of course I remember seeing you! Right after that 5th shot of _________”… Great.

Saturday & Sunday
What a farce of shit! We gathered our small group of visitors (Polish, the Big Woo, and V) at my pad along with Lord von Lord, Tag Berauscht and his frau for some pre-game drinks as usual. I fully expected to have a great afternoon of football. This was supposed to be the great send-off for Fulmer where the fans can show their respect and support for his lengthy, legendary career. Fast forward to the 2nd quarter when we’re trailing by two TDs, Crompton is on the field (fumble!) and I just lost it. The hat goes flying. An F-bomb is dropped. I angrily stormed out of the stadium clutching my broken hat and sulked all the way back home, alone. I knew our season was already farked in a big way but this put me over the edge. We may lose out the rest of the damn season!!

Needless to say we regroup, reload, and re-drink. Macleod’s is the place in the afternoon, then downtown again for the evening. Plus we made a visit to the Sunsphere Skybox for more bourbon, because we really needed it. The night went a little better than Friday, I think.

Sunday I spent most of the day hauling people to the airport. I could’ve made about $100 if I was a licensed taxi driver. We watched the NFL games all afternoon between shuttle trips to TYS. Polish and I ventured back out for some late night health food (wings, onion rings, Reubens, etc) and beer at OCI. The strip was so dead. Why wouldn’t anyone be out on a Sunday night after a homecoming loss to Wyoming? We went to the Roaming Gnome to see if it was any better; it wasn’t. Although one of the customers recognized me from Friday night and just had to say something: “Man, I saw you out Friday, you were so….”

Yes. Yes, I know. Damn

The Bird
So that was the weekend, ho hum. I’m glad to be back in the safety of my work environment where no one can send over a shot of Jagermeister or Goldschlager, or bring the handle of Maker’s Mark to me and force a gulp. Sometimes work is the best thing to happen on a Monday. And for those of you who thought I’d let the Monday Night Football game go unmentioned – fat chance.

The Bird (aka Arizona Cardinals) host the SF 49ers tonight and I’ll be watching on the big screen at my place whilst perched upon my kick-ass couch.

I’ve invited some friends to come over, and since it’s such a huge matchup and compelling storyline in the NFC west division I expect to have about zero people show up (It’s still the Cardinals after all) I'll talk to some of you fools in a little while...

Awful. Ghey.

UT just lost homecoming. This sucks. Thanks Phil and supporters. Thanks a metric fuck ton.

We're going out for shots. Eat shit and die. Or not.

Big Weekend

Man, I’ve been so…….……..lazy I guess. “Drunk” just sounds so negative and irresponsible, but that is an accurate description too. Work is partly to blame: I’ve been goin’ at it hard since last weekend and it finally let up enough yesterday for me to catch my breath and allow for some weekday drinks. A quiet workday and 2 IPA lunch/snack kinda makes me long for the days of taking a nap at work, but I haven’t done that in some time now. I’ll just work drink through it.

This weekend is Homecoming/end of an era for the Vols and I plan to celebrate and send ol' Punkin Head out in style (Me, not him.) I’m gonna drink a lot, if not more than usual. As a Volunteer fan I have a lot of respect for what Phil Fulmer did for our program and the longevity of his career as a player and coach. I hope we can send him off with a few more wins to add to his resume. I think there will be a positive vibe around campus at the next two home games. I positively plan to ring in whiskey season with the finest Maker’s Mark bourbon I can wrap my lips around.

Like many, many alumni before us, our group of friends will gather in Knoxville to celebrate the good times we’ve enjoyed and hopefully make some memories to share at future gatherings. Fat chance – I can barely remember what I did last week, much less a year ago. Friends will be coming in from all regions of the country, some that I haven’t seen in a year or two. Looking forward to it, but I hope we can keep everybody out of jail this year. The wives are staying home so I don’t know if that’s a good sign or not. It didn’t seem to help much with them here last year, so we’ll test that theory and let you know. We'll miss ya though ladies!

Since I finally have a new place that is large enough to welcome a sizable group of visitors, I guess I need to put together a shopping list. I went to the grocery and picked up some chips, salsa and peanuts for food. Now I need to hit the major items: beer, wine and bourbon.
The first wave of troops arrive tonight around 10, after that all bets are off. Of course I expect him to be all liquored up when I pick him up at the airport so I may have a reprieve of one night. Doubtful, but we’ll see. Here is to Homecoming!

Sage and timely words

I guess a legend and an out-of-work bum look a lot alike, daddy---Little Enos Burdette

Monday Hangover

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. That is what I purchased with the unexpected $38.27 I received in the mail last week as described two posts below. It fit right in the price range. I opted not to go with the Hendrick's gin since 'tis the bourbon season. Surprisingly I didn't crack into it right away (I'd already been to the bar for 4-IPA dinner) and instead waited until Saturday afternoon. Originally I thought I may keep this one to myself and be a stingy bastard, but I'm glad I brought in the support of Lord von Lord and Tag Berauscht to suffer enjoy this one with me.

Halloween night was a wash. I'm old, I was tired and not feeling well, and everyone else had bailed for some reason or the other. I didn't mind one damn bit. This made for an early start Saturday morning: cleaned up the place, did some errands, and got back home around lunchtime. LVL and I had already discussed getting an early start on drinks and met at Cumberland Grill for beers and a burger, plus there was bourbon on the rocks. We were slightly amused by the young girls across the bar so intent on "day drinking" after a night of Halloween hell raising, as they mentioned it loudly over and over and over again. However, we were IN NO WAY AMUSED BY ALL THE DANDIES DRINKING WATER...... AT THE BAR, NO LESS. I almost sent the douche boyfriend that joined the girls a glass of milk to see if that would suit him better than ice water. The bartender was not impressed either.

We finished up there and joined Tag and his frauline back at my place for a minute before heading to Back Room BBQ in the Old City. We were the first ones there and saddled up to the bar with one of our many bartending buddies. In short time we're getting rowdy and loud, cursing (each other, as usual) having good beers and ordered some appetizers. I highly recommend the nachos with pork bbq substituted for the chili. The fried pickles were good too. By this point it's almost time for kickoff so we went back to the urban bunker to watch the game us get our asses whipped and Phil lose to the "ole ball coach".

Before the outcome of the game was obvious we had already cracked into the Old Forester. Let me tell ya, this stuff ain't for the timid. If any of you remember Fire Lad from the review of Noah's Mill bourbon, it elicits a similar reaction. It is strong as hell, weighing in at 96 proof. The initial flavors are sweet (vanilla and caramel) but the "heat" kicks in right away with overpowering spice and complexity that I'm not sure how to describe. Tag and I tried, but the most we could come up with were pepper and, hell I forgot. Anyway we drank over half the bottle, starting neat then on the rocks. We were rocked. Then the Vols got rocked. Anarchy settled in, the place was trashed, and taxis were called. The rest is a blur.

Bye Phil..Crompton Fucked You

Mackey: F Fulmer! Sail on down the line

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg-ivWxy5KE

Lord von Lord: Suck the cock, whore!

Tag Berauscht: (drunk, drinking whiskey)

M: He is fired for sure

LVL: Crompton is the reason he is fired!

TB: Exactly!

M: (where is my dirnk?)

/background (commodores)

LVL: WTF?! He's gone guys!!

TB: Crompton? Most crazy fucking thing ever. We suck!

LVL: You're done Phillup

TB: Sorry, Nick Stephens

/chatter

Tech leads TX: 5-0