Slowly But Surely

.... I'm getting over the debacle that was Monday night....I'm making positive progress in working through my seven stages of grief:

I've delivered the case of orange and blue wrapped beer to the tennis pro's house, the tennis pro who happens to be a Florida letter winner.
I've delivered our resignation letter from the club to the club President.

I've stopped uttering Tourette's-like f-bombs at random moments.
I've started uttering 'damn' at random moments, but without much venom, frequency or passion. Really. The damns are as ineffective as OSU's defense.


I've stopped throwing Buckeyes at my picture of Urban Meyer. It's no fun to pick on a guy who thinks pleather is still in style.
I've resumed throwing Buckeyes at my picture of Bill Belichick. This only has a little to do with Belichick's collaboration with Meyer, and more to do with the disaster that was his tenure with the Browns. In this house tt will never become unfashionable to throw things at Mr. Bill.

I've stopped the "Urban for Cleveland" campaign. Afterall, he and the SEC are made for each other.
I've started the "If You Give Us Back your Damn Buckeye, We'll Give you A Baby Gator to Carry in Your Purse" campaign for Shelley Meyer.

And the real proof that I'm getting over it?
I can finally offer heartfelt condolences to Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan on the recent passing of his mother, Lilly......wasn't little Billy cute?

TBDBITL Ramp Entrance

The Ohio State University Marching Band has entered Ohio Stadium for every game in a precision drill that's unchanged since the early 1900's. Here's the The Best Damn Band In The Land and the Ramp Entrance.

Top 5 Reasons Ohio State Will Beat Florida

5) Scarlet and Gray accessories look far better than orange and blue accessories, even if you are a Winter. Orange tends to make one look pale and it evidently causes you to wear silly hats.


2) Our O-H-I-O beats that crazy gator chomp:


3) The SweaterVest. No illustration necessary
2) Script Ohio:
And Finally, the Number One Reason The Ohio State University will beat the University of Florida.......we do not have a SuperFan:

Amusements from the Internets

Places to go to kill time until 7 pm when my crush Kirk Herbstreit and his fellow College Gamedayers begin coverage of the game (I'll update this throughout the day)....so again, if you've come for anything other than OSU junk, you'll need to come back tomorrow when we resume our regular blogging about Maine and cooking:
Stewart Mandell breaks down the keys to Tressel's success
Pat Forde thinks Troy has "the look"--the same one he had before other HUGE games
The premier sports blog on the planet (Every Day Should Be Saturday), breaks down the game position by position. Be warned: It's a Gator Blog.
MZone, despite selling out its Big Ten brethren, picks OSU/
We Are the Boys has predictions of a Florida upset, although based on the links they've chosen, it' doesn't look like much of an upset. It looks like Florida is heavily favored.
Jeff at Buckeye Battle Cry has a few thoughts
11 Warriors has just published their prediction.
We might lose as a punishment for this. (Caution: link proves excessively embarrassing to anyone from Ohio.)
Florida might lose as a punishment for this (Urban's wife carries a buckeye in her purse for good luck.)
Fox predicts an OSU win in a GREAT game.

It's GO Time, Baby

Apologies if you've come in search of tidbits about Maine or a recipe or anything but Ohio State football.

Today is all OSU Buckeyes, all the time. Non-blogging time is being spent lying on the couch in my Ohio State Hoodie, wearing my Woody cap watching (in this order) the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, the 2005 Ohio State Michigan game, the 2006 Ohio State Michigan Game and some selected YouTube videos such as:
6-0
Boom
Troy Smith for Heisman
15 Top Plays.

How will it end? I don't know. I don't have a great feeling about this game. Why? Well first off, we've had so many happy endings recently it's almost time for karma to catch up to us; then there's the fact that Troy has always lived up to that big game expectation. He's only human and how many of these can he string together?; then, as everyone tells us, Florida stands no chance against us; and that only serves to put a big chip on their shoulder pad and a bullseye on our jerseys; add to the list that Lllloyd isn't coaching the Gators; and finally, OSU's record vs. SEC teams is abysmal. It does not look good, does it?

On the other side: I am a superstitious ex-athlete. I watched (or rather listened to) the second half of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl with my cheek pressed against the cool tiles of my bathroom floor, having caught the nasty flu bug that was racing through the Nasty. There's a 97.7% chance that I'll also be listening to (unless we move a TV into the bathroom) the 2007 National Championship Game with my cheek pressed against the cool tiles of the bathroom floor, having caught the nasty flu bug that was racing through our National Sales Meeting last week. So that's a plus.
Ohio State is 3-0 in games that I don't have a good feeling about this season. Another plus.
Then, we have Tressel. Triple HUGE plus.
Finally, even if Troy doesn't have his best game, he seems to find a way to win. Now I feel better.


Prediction: OSU 34-21 (21 cuz Florida cannot kick a field goal)