Playing With a Traveling Bode-Man

Happy Labor Day Eve to everyone. Hopefully you've all been good so the saint of the working class (aka the Obama Ticket) brings everyone who contributes the bare minimum to society their government-provided entitlement...

But enough with politics (although I must say I do agree with the voters who picked Sarah Palin as the nation's hottest governor--check her out in a bikini in Governor's Fancy on pg. 34!!!). What a busy weekend we've had. Nana and Granddad (aka Ashley's parents aka my in-laws) arrived Friday afternoon. Bode quickly proceeded to show them how mobile he has become.
Of course, all that moving around makes a little guy tired, so Bode needed to take a nap. Evidently his crib was occupied, so Granddad's lap had to make due...
I'm sure everyone knows Saturday marked the start of the college football season. Yes, I know there were games on Thursday and Friday, but let's face it: the season does not begin until Auburn has played their first game. Unfortunately, Auburn didn't play until 7:00 pm on Saturday. Therefore, we had some time on our hands. There was a big festival going on at a local high-school. It's called "Alterfest," because the name of the school is Alter High School. I thought it would be a typical (lame) school festival. I was dead wrong. This event is HUGE. There were rides, tons of food, bands, big screen tv's, tons of beer (sort of surprising since Alter is a Catholic school) and real-no-kidding gambling. Theoretically, you could get on a hot streak and make it so the event lost money. What was the coolest was the visit from the Budweiser horses. Here are some photographs--check out that horse's a*s in that one picture.
The horses are very large. I put in a shot with a guy standing real close to them to give you a sense of scale. I'm an (un)impressive 5'9" tall, and I come up to the horses' tails. I certainly wouldn't want to get in the way of a Cyldesdale (although I do think Auburn could take on Bud, the dog...)

After Alterfest, we anxiously awaited the start of the Auburn game. Thankfully, Auburn won the game against Lousiana-Monroe (no jokes about the opponent), although, and I'm quoting Ashley here, "They played like fussing spit!" (Yes, I cleaned it up some). Still, a W is a W, and do note Auburn is an undefeated 2-0 in the Bode-era (he was here when Auburn won their bowl game on New Year's Eve).

Today we went down to Mason, Ohio (20 miles south, near Cincinnati). There was a professional beach volleyball tournament being held. For those that watched the Olympics, the names Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Phil Dalhouser, and Todd Rogers probably mean something to you (for those that don't know, they were the gold-medalists in women's and men's beach volleyball respectively). We were able to see the semi-final matches for each of these teams. I was able to take lots of pictures. For some reason, I took a lot more pictures of the women's game than the men's...
I remember watching the Olympics thinking, "Those sure are some short uniforms the ladies wear," but after watching them play, I realize how important it is for the ladies to be in the proper beach volleyball attire. Anyways, we had fun in the sun at the tournament. Surprisingly, the team of May and Walsh lost in the event finals, breaking their 100+ match winning streak.

A quick movie. Ever want to see a rottweiler in full-attack mode? Here's a movie of Auburn trying to attack a toy ball.

The obvious question is, "How did you find out Auburn reacted like that? Do you, Jeff, spend a lot of time sitting in your hallway idly throwing the ball against the wall? No wonder that novel isn't yet written..." Actually, one evening Bode crawled into the hallway. I rolled the ball to him and he started giggling. I bounced it off the wall and he started laughing. The more the ball bounced, the harder he laughed. He even found it funny when Auburn came charging into the hallway barking at said ball. It certainly is amazing what tickles a baby's fancy...

Tomorrow (Monday), we will probably go to a parade just up the street and relax. JoAnne and Frank are staying until Tuesday, so Bode gets one more day of hanging out with Nana and Granddad, not to mention Mommy and Daddy get one more day of an extra set of hands helping to entertain our rapidly growing boy :-)

Pleasant Labor Day to all.