minorthird

I’m almost recovered from last night’s game…the Patriots won 12-0!!!

I’m hoping to get a few pictures from Reilly (I spaced and forgot my camera at home) in the next day or so.

It was damn cold!!!

The drive to pick up Reilly wasn’t too bad…the Jeep handled all the road, which, I must add, ranged from almost bone dry to completely unplowed. How is it that a section of road could be covered in snow while the sections on either end are clear? Anyway…the drive from Reilly’s to Gillette Stadium was easy, too.

We got to the stadium around 11:40AM and waited for the lots to open at noon — they let us in around ten of. The lots were reduced to about 50% capacity, filled with mountains of snow. We ended up parking right next to Aram and his boys, and let me say that these guys don’t fuck around when it comes to tailgating! They hit up at least 5 games a year, and maybe a road game. There were about 20 of us and they were ready to feed at least 35!! Here is a rundown of the menu:
Chips and salsa
Buffalo wings
Fried Turkey
Onion rings
French Fries
Shrimp cocktail
Pork chops
MOOPS — marinated lamb chops (recipe)
and an endless supply of the northeast’s finest malted beverages!!

…and that was just before the game!

The stadium was full of snow, so getting up to section 336 was fun. The stairs were nonexistant, as were the seats. We finally got up to our section for the opening kickoff…it was like being the winners of a massive king of the hill game, perched on top of the tallest snow drift on earth.

Half of the concession staff didn’t so up, so getting a beer or a bite to eat was out of the question: we got on line at the two-minute warning before the half, and didn’t move at all during halftime, and finally gave up after we missed the first possession of the second half. That’s ok…if we were hungry, it was soon be taken care of…

The crowd was great and the energy was wicked high! The picture at the top of the post was our response to Pats’ scores…it looked like snow pyrotechnics! A couple of times it turned into a full-fledged snowball fight…a guy in front of us got a snow shovel into the game and was just dumping loads of the edge.

The best play of the game? The Pats going for it on 4th and 9 from the 20 only to have Tom Brady pooch punt the ball to the 1 yard line, setting up the sack in the endzone and the safety! That’s my vote for the play of the year!

Did I mention that it was fucking cold? It snowed for about 3/4 of the game, and I was in at least 7 layers, and had done a sock change before going into the game…my body was warm, but eventhough my feet were dry I was standing on compacted snow: icy toes!!

We got out of the game and made our way back to the trucks. Time for dinner:
Chocolate chip cookies
Beer nuts
Flank steak covered in blue cheese
Kielbasa
Chicken sausage
more beers and soda

We stuck around the parking lot for about 2 hours after the game, watching everyone sit in there cars going nowhere fast! Once the cars got moving, we jumped in the Jeep and headed home.

My toes defrosted somewhere between droping Reilly off and home (an hour drive). I got in around 11:30PM…14 1/2 hours after I left home.

I called into work today and “worked from home” — you HAD to see that coming!

GO PATS!!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2003 at 8:15 pm and is filed under athletic diversions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.