Royal Tradition

Following  a 45-year tradition of carrying a torch from the school of our homecoming opponent to Assumption High School, Carter and 17 other seniors began taking turns at 1 a.m. running with a torch to cover the distance of 118 miles.

In one day. Good thing they got to take turns. The cross country runners, who have a meet tomorrow, were limited to a total of 8 miles for the day so they wouldn't be too worn out or tired for competition! After rotating through the runners continuously, the Torch Run concluded at the high school to launch the 7 p.m. Pep Rally.

Here is a video of them entering the gymnasium: https://www.facebook.com/robyn.austin.39/videos/10153223605877569/

Pretty cool for them all.

After that it was performances by the Pep Band, introduction of  fall sports teams, games between classes and a special dance by 10 or so senior boys, including Carter, who I dare say got his moves from me. Ha. That means they were GOOD. Right.

The gym was dark so I didn't get any really good pictures, but take my word for it, they did awesome.

From Justin Timberlake's Suit and Tie to some Whip Nae-Nae, they had quite the choreography. Nice job.

At the conclusion, the Torch Run team lit the A and there was a brief bonfire.

Then it was home to watch the Channel 7 news to see Carter give insight about the neat bonding experience and tradition surrounding the Torch Run. He sounded so grown up. That was pretty cool.

Now it's bedtime for all since the Royal festivities continue another 3 days!

The Bucky Stops Here

Figured I better get back on track and get though some weekend photos before the homecoming madness starts tomorrow here is our Bucky scrapbook from Saturday's game.

Like I said Saturday, it was my first game there in more than 20 years. What a fun and crazy atmosphere! I knows lots of people that go to Badger games regularly, but if you are like me and don't, I thought you might enjoy a peek inside Camp Randall.

Bucky sighting! I did not have a zoom with me so didn't get a shot of the "real" one during the game.

Entering historic Camp Randall.

The Mad Town Mounties?

Cool carvings on side of stadium.

Down by the sidelines during pregame.

Hubby chatting it up with Big Ten Network commentator Jay Wilson, because, well, Jim knows everyone!

Wouldn't be college game day without a house party (or hundreds).

History of greatness.

Since we live outside Kellner, we thought it was funny to see a Kellner Hall there.

The famous UW Marching Band! On, Wisconsin!

Playing Hawaii's song, too!

Moon over Mad Town.

 

Badgers take the field!

Didn't take long to rack up some points. I don't think there is a bad seat in the stadium, really.

Halftime show!

 

Glad we brought sweatshirts along. Little breezy in Badgerland.

The legendary third-quarter JUMP AROUND song! Oh yes, everyone was jumping and you could feel the bleachers shaking. Not kidding. You may notice I have no more pictures. My hands are still shaking!

Totally worth it though, Bucky. Totally worth it.

Memorable March

The crazy super moon eclipsed my interesting blog material from yesterday!

I traveled down to Warrens Cranberry Festival to watch Carter and the Assumption Marching Band in the parade. Since they were unit #63, I knew I could show up after the noon start, find a close parking spot and see them in time. I've had 4 years of practice. I have it down to a science!

It was a gorgeous day – a bit hot to be in band uniforms – so I got a ton of photos. Still haven't finished futzing with them yet, but here's a few.

They played the song "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. You would know it if you heard it.

They had plenty of dance moves, too. It was very entertaining. Right before they got to the turn off of Main Street, though, the parade came to a halt.

This is Carter's "are we seriously stopping the parade in this heat because a woman is giving birth?" face. Oh yes. Fact. About 2 units ahead of them, the ambulance was helping a pregnant shopper who was going into labor. I hope that she names it Warren, even if it's a girl!

I seriously hope Mom and baby are OK. I have it on good authority from Jingles the Clown that the woman was months early. So it was probably a scary situation. And no, I don't know why authorities would tell delicate info to a clown. But hey, this one is a friend so I believe he had the inside scoop!

So I took advantage of the pregnant pause in the parade and got a few photos. Here's Carter with his friend Emily.

And here he is with a few of the other senior brass-kickers, Olivia and Macie.

The parade really was only stalled maybe 15 minutes. I did a little shopping on my way out and this is all I bought, honest...

I swear I can stick to a budget, but not a diet. But dang, who can resist mini donuts? It's been years since I had them. And they got me all the way back to Rapids. With only sugar crumbs to spare.

Everybody loves a parade!

Once in a Red Moon...

We have a new Neighborhood Watch program... We sit around by the light of the moon and watch a rare lunar eclipse. I wasn't sure why it was the harvest or red or blood moon, until we got into it.

No words needed here. Just the progression of the evening... with me using the neighbor's deck post for a pseudo-tripod. Pictures got worse as the moon got prettier. Go figure.

Good night, red moon! See you in another 20 years or so!

Trifecta Tour

Trifecta: a run of three wins or grand events

Today's whirlwind tour was definitely a trifecta of wins and / or grand events! And since we just got home and it's 1 a.m., I'll share the briefest details.

We headed east before breakfast to go to the Oshkosh Lourdes Academy Cross Country Invitational at Lake Breeze Golf Course. It's such a huge meet – with some 60 schools participating – that the golf course parking lot actually fills with buses so we spectators have to park and take shuttle buses from the high school a few miles away.

Carter ran almost the exact same time as his other races – again. Just can't cut that time. Hopefully his head cold clears up by next Thursday's meet so he can have a performance that satisfies him. On a positive note, though, our varsity boys placed 4th as a team among the 20 Division 2 and 3 schools there. That's awesome!

From cross country, we raced back to Rapids to catch the end of the Assumption Football game versus Loyal. We actually got there right after halftime so still got to see plenty of highlights. Since both teams had only lost 1 game this year it was supposed to be quite the showdown.

But look! The Royals gave the Greyhounds a Royal butt kicking. Sweet! Now we are 5-1. Great, great season and fun to watch.

From high school football we headed to college football...

Yup, I had a double date tonight with hubby AND Bucky. Who's luckier than me? I did the math and figured out this was the first Badger game I'd been to in 22 years. Wow. Good to be back AND witness another great win, with Wisconsin grayscale-ing the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 28-0. So much fun!

Did I mention the weather was mostly sunny and low to mid-70s today? Even with the breeze, it was the perfect setting for our trifecta tour. But right now, my bed is even perfect-er.

More to come tomorrow...

Feeling Accepted

Back in my day, I don't even recall if we have to pay to apply to colleges for admission. I do know we had to wait for weeks by the mailbox for one of two replies: Accepted or Rejected.

In today's world, we applied online and, as we learned in the wee hours of the morning, we were notified of the results electronically, too.

Sometime before 6:30 a.m., Carter forwarded me two emails from UW-Platteville. I didn't see them until he was long gone to school. I told hubby, "Holy cow! Carter's been accepted at Platteville! And here he left and didn't even say anything!"

Turns out, since we had previously been getting post-application emails from schools regarding missing items (like waiting for his transcripts), he didn't really look at the emails today. He just forwarded them on. When I texted him to congratulate him, his response was something like, "Wait. So that means I can go there and attend there?" Affirmative.

He is pretty excited about that and, naturally, so are we. Granted, we have to hear back from two other schools that may not release their decisions until after Christmas. So it is a relief to know he has a place to go! The rest is out of our hands.

Speaking of acceptance, I guess that means I better get off my island of Denial because it. Is. Happening.

And we couldn't be prouder. Nice work, kiddo. Nice work.

Fall (Behind) Lineup

Remember when we had one chance to watch a show on TV and if we missed it, well, it was gone forever? I wouldn't have dreamed of missing Romper Room in the morning. What if I didn't watch and that was the one day she finally said my name??

She never did, by the way.

Decades later, when we realized we could use VHS tapes to record our shows, we occasionally allowed ourselves to miss something, as long as we had the programmable kind of machine (and we still kept our fingers crossed that it would kick in on time so we wouldn't miss Friends or Knots Landing).

Now, with "TiVo" and DVR'ing, it is easy to choose something else to do over television watching. A click of a button and it will record our important show while we get on with life. Then we just have to watch it before the DVR queue gets too full and starts deleting the "old" stuff.

This week was the main start of the fall season on most network and cable stations. Since I was busy every night doing work, going to nail parties and meetings, I have already started filling up the DVR space with Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, The Voice and some new show called Blind Spot, which looked intriguing. Not interesting enough to keep me up late at night, but I'm curious.

Since I got home at 9:30 tonight and have 5:40 a.m. class, I know I won't have time to catch any of these yet. Will have to see what "old" stuff I can delete to make space. Jim is just lucky that I haven't been recording the nightly airing of CHiPS. Oh yes, I am sorely tempted. I can't just watch it live with hubby in the same room. Don't need him catching me drooling.

At least I won't short-circuit the VCR!

Any recommendations for new shows that I may or may not have time to watch this season?