Those "Rascals" were right.....

To quote their hit song from the 60's: "Its a beautiful morning. I think I’ll go outside a while, An jus’ smile....."
That's how I feel anyway after what (to me) was a great Thanksgiving/football weekend. DKW and I had a nice Thanksgiving meal with my youngest daughter, oldest son (& his wife & son) and my mom. With just a small touch of drama - but we let it pass - and had a pretty enjoyable weekend.
Sophie (my 18 lb Chi-Weenie - see pic)made out like a bandit. It's been our habit (for several months now) that when I run to town on Sunday mornings to get the newspaper we stop in at the Sonic Drive-In and I have a junior breakfast burrito and she gets a small order of tater tots (except for one or two that I eat). Well, I got up Friday morning and ran to town to get my Sunday paper - ooops! The town was packed. We stopped at Sonic (I had promised after-all) and then headed back home. Other than actually going to town Sunday for my paper (when Sophie got her second order of tots) - the rest of my weekend was spent at home. Primarily because with all the damp, cool weather my leg (injured in the wreck last year)was killing me.
Friday night my Starkville (MS) Yellowjackets played the Ridgeland Titans for the North Mississippi 5A title. After a first half that saw the Jackets fall behind early, the Jackets pulled away in the second half to win 28-7. On Saturday (December 3rd) SHS will play Picayune for the Mississippi 5A State Championship. I plan on being there (in Jackson,MS) along with my oldest grandson to see the Jackets win (hopefully) their first state championship since 2001!
On Saturday, the MSU Bulldogs played their in-state (& SEC) rival - the Ole Miss Rebels. And I'm happy to say that it was pretty much all Bulldogs! With the victory the Dogs become bowl eligible for the 2nd year in a row. There are 3 possible destinations being tossed around but we won't know for sure until Dec. 4th or 5th. The 3 are: (1) the Music City Bowl in Nashville,TN, (2)the Liberty Bowl in Memphis,TN, or the BSAV Compass Bowl in Birmingham, AL. The most likely destination is Nashville, but we won't know until the invites go out. I'd rather they went to Birmingham - cause we could visit friends and I could go to the game. There were a couple of other things (besides beating That School Up North) that made the game special: (1)for the first time in 70 years MSU has beaten TSUN 3 straight years and (2)Vick Ballard finished the year with over 1000 yards rushing.
And on Sunday, my Raiders completed the (for me) football trifecta by beating the Chicago Bears 25-20 and at 7-4, remain in first place in the very tight AFC West.
On a related football note - the nearby (Scooba,MS) East Mississippi Community College Lions will play the Arizona Western Matadors in the 2011 El Toro Bowl (in Yuma, AZ) on December 3rd for the Junior College National Championship. Among JUCOs, AWC is ranked #1 and EMCC is ranked #2. Both teams are undefeated going into the game. Should be a good one!
Everyone have a great day