A great weekend in Charlotte and Rose Bowl hopes

We drove to Charlotte for a big, weekend long get-together with a bunch or our friends from both the Raleigh-Durham area and Charlotte.  The kids played soccer, volley ball, and parlor games with their friends.  The stayed up half the night talking and carrying on.  Rex, Linda, and Amy worked for weeks to get the whole thing ready and then worked even harder while we were there to make everything just right.  It was a weekend to remember and for which to be thankful.  We got up at five in the morning to get home in time for meeting on Sunday, but promised to stay for meeting if they do this next year and have the lack of foresight to invite the likes of us again.  It was very, very good for our kids and encouraging for Lorena and I, too.

An old buddy, Kirk, was there with his family.  He started at Oregon State U. just a little after I, but moved to North Carolina after he graduated.  On Saturday evening, I noted that the Beavers were down by one point with less than three minutes left in their game against Arizona.  They had to win to stay in the running to play in the Rose Bowl.  I quit checking the score because I knew they had no chance.  When I checked this morning, I saw they had won on a field goal kick on the last play of the game.  The funny deal is that Kirk and I are about the same when it comes to OSU football.  We are interested in the score and like to see the Beaver’s win, but neither of us are that interested in watching the games or are particularly devastated when they lose.  I always say I like to talk trash about the games over the water cooler at work a whole lot more than I like to see the games themselves.  My favorite team by far is whoever is playing the Ducks.  The Beavers are a distant second.  It is way more fun to hate the Ducks than love the Beavers.  That is especially true after having lived in and around Corvallis so many years.  At any rate, my two favorite teams are playing each other next week:  whoever is playing the Ducks and the Beavers.  If the Beavers win, they go to the Rose Bowl.

A little know fact is that Oregon State beat Duke at a Rose Bowl played close by in Durham, North Carolina in 1942 due to considerations associated with the on-going World War II.  It is amazing that OSU has significant sports connections to this part of the world.  The other big one being that OSU beat the University of North Carolina for the college baseball national championship two years in a row in 2006 and 2007.