This Epic Weekend In Pictures was definitely not as Epic as most weekends. I had Awesome Girlfriend Megan with me for the weekend, which of course makes my life much much happier. We will start this Epic Weekend In Pictures with Friday morning, at 5:52AM.
Thursday night, I had some fun seeing our besties Jasen and Brendan. We figured that we would see each other at some point throughout the weekend. Friday morning at 5:52AM I'm starting to do the normal day to day work routine things I do for our radio stations. I'm up by most weekday mornings by 5:45, and start listening to our radio stations by 5:50 or so on my laptop. At 5:52, I get an email from bestie Jasen asking "what time can you and Meg come over tonight for Pizza Hut?" I was so worried that we made these plans and I forgot all about them. I reached out to Meg, we were able to confirm that we could join them Friday night for Pizza Hut. This raised a few questions. There isn't a Pizza Hut franchise anywhere near campus in Vernon. I reluctantly asked Jasen if they made those plans after I left their place. He then admitted that they had been planning to do a Pizza Hut night at their place Friday night since Tuesday, they just forgot to tell us. Well, that made planning my Epic Weekend In Pictures much easier by planning out my Friday night for me. LOL. Jasen went and picked up Pizza Hut at some random Oakland location he found. It was a chain pizza, but it was consistent and just comfortable. I probably hadn't had Pizza Hut in ten years when I used to frequent it once in awhile at a Target in Wrentham, Massachusetts and it was splendid. No need for fancy!
We paired that with some yummy red wine and we were happy with that. Excellent pairing for us. The red wine was less likely to give us heartburn than other options, so this decision was definitely a victory. By the way I've been reading the past few years how Pizza Hut is trying to up their online ordering game to compete more with Domino's. From what Jasen told me about the online ordering process how most of what they were trying to order online wasn't working, but everything over the phone worked totally fine, I think Pizza Hut has more work to do on their online ordering game. That being said, the pizza was definitely delicious.
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Awesome Girlfriend Megan had one goal this weekend and one goal only: to cheer on Rutgers! Saturday was Rutgers University Scarlett Knights first football game all season long, a return for The Big Ten. She wanted to watch the game on television and cheer them on. Awesome Girlfriend graduated from Rutgers. She works at Rutgers in their Foundation Department. Two of my three future stepdaughters have attended RU. Basically, I see the bright red R in my sleep. We are a Rutgers family through and through.
I warned Meg that because of Rutgers having their football struggles the past several years, it wasn't likely that we would be able to watch the game without paying some sort of expensive subscription. I researched Friday and learned that the game would be on The Big Ten TV Network. I looked it up on my DirecTV, and confirmed to Meg that I do not get that obscure channel. Yes, I made several ESPN The Ocho jokes throughout the weekend (Dodgeball movie reference.) We then went to The Cottage. As I warned Meg, they didn't get this obscure subscription network either. We had a feeling this would be the case. Meg then found an online radio stream that she was able to listen to on her phone. The image of us at a pub table, while Meg has her ear to the table where her phone is the whole time was probably quite comical to anyone who may have seen us.
Well worth it! Rutgers defeated Michigan State, their first Big Ten victory since 2017. On her social media feeds, Awesome Girlfriend Megan was showing me happy, excited Rutgers fans all over the place. They apparently had a watch party on George Street in New Brunswick. We were so happy to see this. I was championing for Rutgers to bring back head coach Greg Schiano forever. I'm so happy it happened. Even if this is the only Rutgers victory all year, as long as they're competitive in other games we'll be happy. This rebuild won't happen overnight, but in one game they restored a ton of faith and excitement. We'll take it!
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Saturday afternoon we had loose plans with a friend that seemed to start falling through. At one point, I looked at Meg and said "New plan. We are staying in, wearing sweatpants, watching college football, and later ordering pizza." This ended up being one of the best decisions we have made in quite some time. We're always out and about so much, we probably haven't had a night in alone together just watching TV on my couch in several months. This ended up being just what the doctor ordered. It was a wonderful, chill Saturday night in. Success.
Sunday morning we wanted to go for a walk on Maple Grange in Vernon and enjoy what's left of our Fall Foliage. We have to admit that Fall Foliage this year wasn't amazing. Lots of orange and yellow and brown as we're past our peak. I told Meg part of the challenge was lack of rain, and the Maple Reds changed over by mid September. By the time everything caught up the reds were already fallen off for the most part. We were FREEZING. We were surprised to have Maple Grange in Vernon all to ourselves on a Sunday morning. Within seconds we realized exactly why. It was FREEZING. LOL. We're still happy we walked the full lap and enjoyed the gem we are so happy to have here in Sussex County.
Sunday afternoon football PAIN. Awesome Girlfriend Megan's Dallas Cowboys got crushed by The Washington Football Team. She kept screaming "I'm losing to a team that doesn't even have a name." Ouch. Then I made it home in time to watch my Patriots on TV. I was happy to relax on my couch and watch my Pats. We got crushed and humiliated by the San Francisco 49ers. I couldn't wait for the game to end it was so painful to watch. I told Meg I was too sad to even eat and I was just going to sleep on my couch in the living room. The couch in my living room is probably only a 15-20 foot walk to my bedroom, and I didn't even want to do that.
Friends are asking me was it Brady or Belichick who helped our Dynasty run. My answer is still the same, they were both great together, will still be great even apart, but still at their best when they had each other. Just a painful football Sunday welp welp.
Overall, we had a wonderful weekend. I hope you had a terrific weekend too. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!