ECU vs. USM

I don't need to share the result of the game or talk about the halftime incident. I think that everyone is very aware of those things. To start out, I tailgated with Marc and Shelley again, along with a few of their friends. We feasted on some delicious barbeque chicken, which you can see in the video. We also dug into the chips and dip. Thanks to Roy for sharing his Crock-Pot of hamburger dip. Everyone loved it. I brought cream cheese and salsa dip. The recipe for cc/salsa is 1 block of cream cheese and add in some salsa. There is a specific amount, but I just pour some in. There were also some chicken sausages and potato salad. The potato salad didn't have relish...yay! That made me very happy. The chicken was in honor of our match against Southern Miss. Needless to say, no one went hungry. The tailgate was cool and windy, so the lot didn't fill up as quickly as usual. Also, given the game, a lot of people left early. We had a much easier time leaving. No matter the result, it's always great to go to a game at Dowdy-Ficklen.

Monster Dash 8k

On Sunday the 30th, I ran in the first annual Greenville Monster Dash 8k. As you can see, I went as Bat Girl. There were a lot of great costumes: Luigi, Waldo (where's Waldo), a turkey, ice cream sundaes. I was amazed at the creativity. I even had someone to come out there and watch me. Thanks to Tim Garris for taking one of the above pictures. He sat just past the start and got shots of several of us GoRunners. It was great to see some others from the group out there. The post-race food was pretty good. I tried some BBQ and a roll from Texas Roadhouse. Coldstone had ice cream, but I had already gotten my sweet fix by that point. It was a great race and I was pleased with my time: 51:18. That's an average pace of 10:20. All of that torture called speedwork is paying off.

Sweet potato festival

Last Thursday, I went with a friend to the NC Sweet Potato Festival. It's in Snow Hill. If you're not from around here, that's in big 'ol Greene County, not far from Pitt. I rode tame rides, an upside down ride, sat in a few tractors...a an eventful evening, to say the least. This is a picture of me ''driving'' one of the tractors. I think that's as close to driving one as I need to get. I had a hot dog and some sweet potato ribbon fries for supper. Fun night!

Costume party/bonfire

A few of the 20's/30's community groups got together for a bonfire. It was also a costume party, with Halloween being a few days away. The costume winners were Aladdin and little Abu (the monkey), a Smurf and Batgirl. I feel like I'm leaving someone out...please let me know who that is. I was Batgirl and won the scariest costume category. Some of us also checked out the haunted garage next door. Brad and Christie's neighbors set it up. It wasn't scary enough for me. Oh, well. I never did get a really good scare this Halloween. The s'mores supplies included Reese's cups. Someone suggested those once and I now bring them to every bonfire. p.s.- I finished off the bag myself and it was yummy! In case you're wondering, my ''scariest costume'' prize was a big purple hat. We had two fires going and managed to stay pretty comfortable on a cool fall evening.

ECU homecoming game

Before the game, Marc, Shelley and I browsed/shopped in a few local stores. It was fun checking out the ECU baby gear. Baby Birkenmeyer will be a stylish little pirate. We then met up with Curtis and Patricia at Parker's. It was a great meal, followed by a great game. It was a cold one and many people didn't stay for all of it. I was bundled up and had a great time. GO PIRATES!

ECU vs. Navy

We watched this game from Buffalo Wild Wings- aka BW3's. I really get into the games and yell a lot. I scared the boys a little. Darrin, Roy, Ricky and I watched it together. It turned out to be a great game. Navy almost pulled it off, but we brought home the victory. What a game! Not bad food, either. ;)

Operation Inasmuch

Our group served New Directions, an organization that helps victims of domestic violence. First, we worked at their family center. Some people did yardwork. The rest of us were inside. We organized the playrooms and cleaned toys. Next, we headed to the Safe House. We cleaned out a storage area. The donations had really piled up over time. We did some yard work over there as well. There's so much yard work left that we plan to return. It was a great day and the weather couldn't have been better.