have yarn, will travel: This and that

I've got photos, video, knitting, Hawaii, football, and Disney.

First up, video from Saturday's Texas/OU. A few years ago, a poll of over a hundred college coaches ranked the rivalry between these two schools as the third biggest in the nation. My oldest brother has been to 33 straight Texas/OU matchups. I've been to a few. I think my first one was at age 12. The Texas fight song was originally written with a specific mention to Texas A&M. That's still there. But students and alumni have since added their own lyrics. "OU sucks" (sorry, Erin) isn't just said at Texas/OU. It's pretty much a permanent addition to the song, although I have heard other alternate endings, including "go Horns, go" and "make 'em eat $#it".

Texas/OU is held in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas every year during the State Fair. It's an old stadium. Bench seating, folks packed in elbow to elbow. It is always sold out, tickets are hard to get (Rudy gets access to buy them through donating to the university each year) and always fun. As you may notice from the photo or video link above, the fans are split by the 50 yard line. One side of the stadium is burnt orange, the other side is maroon. And it gets loud. Really, really loud.

They moved the bands into the end zone a few years ago to be able to sell their seats, and of course Bevo is there next to the band.

We didn't get to see a flag run. We aren't sure why they didn't bring it, but Rudy guessed it was because rain was forecasted. Rudy and Gary (two of my brothers that I went to the game with) have both run the flag several times. The world's largest Texas flag is run by the UT chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity. I belonged to APO at UNT, but didn't attend UT. I did see at the game that OU went and got themselves a copycat Oklahoma flag to run. It isn't as big as the Texas one, though. :-) I really love seeing the flag runs....sometimes they turn it 360 degrees, sometimes they turn it in a circle, sometimes they flip it on the field. It's always fun. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find a state more into their flag than Texas.

And the Longhorns lost the game, which was expected, but they put up a good fight and it was a good game right down to the end. As soon as the game was over, it started pouring, so we didn't stick around and this is possibly the first time I've ever been to the fair and not had a Fletcher's corn dog. (Is there anything Wiki doesn't cover?)

On to knitting news: I've started C's sweater. Again. I'm 99.9% sure this one is a keeper. I like the fabric I am getting at this gauge. I'm using grey silky tweed and it makes a very thin, lightweight fabric, perfect for a sweater for C. We Texans don't run around in heavy wool very often.

The only thing bad about the pattern, Leo, is that the ribbing is 5/3 and I am not knitting in the round, so on one row I knit 5, purl 3, and on the next row I purl 5, knit 3, and that isn't really conducive to TV knitting.

I have also started a few other things, but there isn't enough to really photograph. Except another Big Black Sock. This makes great TV knitting. I get a little angry, though, when I think about knitting these socks. Is this 1777? Are we at Valley Forge?

Why is it that our troops stationed in the freezing cold are requesting warm gaiters and socks? Can our military not fork out the $2/item China would charge us to make this stuff? Honestly. The greatest military in the world, and they don't have warm scarves or socks? Makes you wonder where all that money is going.

Okay, so I'll end this epic post with a couple of photos. One from the Na Pali coast of Kauii: