Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Well, this looks like the end of the Halloween series (or is it?)

Now that you've seen how Rodney and Jim's halloween turned out, try not to have the same bad luck. In other words:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, Going to Sneak Some Halloween Candy...

Foss is Going to the Playoffs!

Last night was pretty much the best football game we had this whole season. And it was our last one, too.

We had a pep assembly at the end of the school day yesterday, to get everyone excited for the game. They had competitions between the freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, such as a HUMAN wheelbarrowing race, and a relay where you had to get to one end of the gymnasium, chug a whole bottle of water, and then cartwheel all the way back. Then they did 3 or 4 "cheering contests", where each grade had to cheer as loud as they could. It got pretty noisy during the assembly, and one of the band members sitting behind me (we were playing during the assembly, of course) actually had to cover his ears (something I had to do a lot at the assemblies last year).

When I got home, I was beat, ready to just lie down and do nothing. They announced at the assembly that tonight would be the last home game of the year, and it would be the game to decide whether we'd go to the playoffs. I was actually kind of apprehensive that we wouldn't win (even after last week's victory, see my post "Victory is Ours!").

When I arrived at Mt. Tahoma at 6 PM, the wind was blowing hard, and it was COLD, even with my pep band sweatshirt on. The game was against the White River Hornets, and for the first quarter and a half of the game, it wasn't really exciting at all (even Mr. Byrnes, my band teacher, admitted it was like watching grass grow). During 2nd quarter, I took out Cindy's cellphone and played "Jewel Quest 2" (a version of the game "Bejeweled" made by a different company), then took out "Eclipse" (third book of the Twilight series, which I finally decided to start reading a couple of weeks before the end of summer vacation) and read to pass the time. Then, I looked up from my book, just in time to see one of our players cross into the end zone, ball in hand...

TOUCHDOWN!!!

We played the fight song (it's a tradition to play the F.S. when we score), as the score added up to 7-8 (the Hornets had scored earlier on). I was still a little nervous, thinking that we could possibly not get any more touchdowns and lose by one point, but I was soon proven wrong...

DETOUR:

Before pep band, I had no interest in football whatsoever, never understanding what the fuss was about.

Now, after playing at a couple of games, I think I've gotten into it, actually whooping whenever we score. Now that I understand the game, I'm a little more enthusiastic about it. Cool, huh?

END DETOUR.

It was senior night at the game, so we didn't play all the way through half time like we had previously. The senior football players were brought out and recognized, then after they were finished, we played a couple of songs, then when 3rd quarter started, everyone headed to the concessions stand.

Now, us band members get 3rd quarter off at every game. What was ironic, though, was that at this game, we ended up scoring THREE TOUCHDOWNS during that period. It was like nothing I had seen before at one of our games: every five minutes, it seemed, we scored another one. My faith in our football team was much bigger than it had been before, and seeing the current score, 28-8, I had a good feeling we'd be going to the playoffs.

Sure enough, after an unfortunately uneventful 4th quarter, we WON!

I felt WAY better than I had after a game before, and no longer felt exhausted like I had that afternoon. I gave all of my fellow band members that I ran into a high five, and helped carry a snare drum down the steps to Mr. Byrnes' truck. And, as a significant sign that I was feeling good, normally I get furious when I bang my knee on anything, but when the snare drum hit my knee on accident, I actually LAUGHED. I met and talked to the father of one of Mr. Byrnes' T.A.s, and we got a good conversation going; apparently he was really a member of the pep band along with his daughter. That's when Dad pulled into the parking lot and it was time to go home (where it would be much warmer than it was outside. brrrr....)

I was planning to watch some halloween movies on my laptop when I got home from the game, and Tyler (who Dad picked up from school and came home with shortly before he drove me to the game) was also interested. We ended up watching some episodes off of our Simpsons Season 4 box set before drifting off (Tyler dropped out around midnight, I went to bed some time after 1).

And as for our football team going to the playoffs, all I can say is: GO, FOSS FALCONS, GO!!!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, IN!


Oops, I meant: OUT!

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Andrew Brinkerhoff, Where Art Thou?

Victory is Ours!!!

We had our third home game (second I've played at) last Friday night, against Bellarmine Prep.



Now, Friday afternoon was tough for me, because I had the Algebra assignment from H-E-double-hockey-sticks (so hard that today, neither my grandparents, who were up visiting from Alaska, or Mom or step-dad Dave were able to get anywhere with it, and they read the instructions in the book to understand; I still haven't finished the assignment), and I had to get all my stuff ready to go to Mom's (Dad and Cindy got on a plane for California at noon, so they weren't home), only to find my laptop bag was nowhere to be found. I was really stressing, but things got better that night...



Okay, so we got to Mt. Tahoma High School (for those who didn't get to see my post about our last home game, we play at Mt. T's stadium since Foss doesn't have one), and it was pouring down rain. It let up a little, but Mom and I weren't sure if the game would be cancelled or not. I went in through the gate and around the stadium, and sure enough, Mr. Byrnes was standing by his truck with his umbrella, while my fellow band students were carrying the drumset up to the top row of the stadium (in separate parts), and he claimed that Foss never cancels a game for rain. So I got my trumpet and backpack (I could get bored again like last time, so I wanted to have something to do) and said bye to Mom as she drove off to go to the mall (she didn't stay this time), and the game began.

Well, the game wasn't too eventful, although we got a wicked touchdown in the 2nd quarter, which meant we got to play the fight song afterwards! Then at half time we played the same songs as last time ("Land of 1000 Dances", "Iron Man", and "Mony Mony", which we didn't play last time).

No more points were scored for the rest of the game, so we ended up winning 7-0! I felt much better than I had a couple of hours ago, thank goodness.

Oh, and the rain even completely stopped to honor our victory! The Weather Gods must be Foss fans... :)

Andrew Brinkerhoff ran out of sign-offs again. Darn.

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

Now, before I get to the strip for this week, I want to give a little background...

A long time back, someone put up a video on YouTube, called "Peanut Butter Jelly Time", and it became an instant internet phenomenon. Here it is (if you don't watch it, you won't get the strip...)




Now, with that out of the way (you didn't watch the whole video, did you???), here's this week's strip:

Andrew Brinkerhoff, gone with the wind...

Classic Rodney and Jim Wednesday

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Andrew Brinkerhoff, Ciao.

Peppin' it Up...

All right, so last night was our second home football game of the year. BUT, it was the FIRST game I got to play at! (We had a church youth conference out at Uncle Richard's lakehouse the weekend of our first home game).

For those of you who didn't know yet, I play the trumpet:







I started in 5th grade and played up through 7th, then for grades 8-10, I didn't play at all, because I was doing school on the internet (or, in the case of last year at Foss, didn't get right back into band), and I didn't play much anyways because I'd heard my braces would make it hard for me.

But I got back into band this year, under the impression that my braces would FINALLY come off (hasn't it been, like, 3 years?), and yes, I did start out behind everyone else, but it only took a couple of weeks to catch up. My trumpet I used for my first years of "trumpeting" was given to my Mom by a co-worker of hers who was leaving for somewhere, and it wasn't in the best shape, but it's gold compared to what it is now, what with the disconnected parts (along with a zip-tie to hold one thing together) and my slide moving when I don't want it to?


So Dad went to the same music store he and Cindy bought Ellysa's flute at, and I got one that wasn't brand-new, but was still in WAY better shape than my first trumpet. It makes better noise, too.


Anyways, fast-forward to last night...


Dad dropped me off at Mt. Tahoma High School (Foss doesn't have a stadium of their own, so we go to Mt. T for our home games), and along with my trumpet and pep band music, I also had my laptop bag, my winter coat, and this Andrew Jackson biography I have a book report for Junior English, due on 10/25 (Mom was picking me up and taking me to her house after the game, so I had to take all of my stuff that was going to her house with me).


I've never been a football fan, but I decided since we wouldn't be playing music for the WHOLE game, I'd watch just to keep from being bored during those short breaks in playing.


It was a long time before the game started back up again (we came just in time for 2nd quarter), and while the teams were practicing, we played our fight song, "Iron Man", "Land of 1000 Dances", and "Rock and Roll, Part II" (in our sheet music for it, it's simply called "The 'Hey' Song"). Mom showed up just a while before we started playing, and was sitting one row up from me, close to the rest of the band, but no one seemed to mind her sitting there at all, so, no biggie. She got a chance to talk with Mr. Byrnes, my band director, and they got along better than I had expected.

We were supposed to play the fight song every time we scored a touchdown, but not a whole lot happened during the 2nd quarter. Ironically, we got the 3rd quarter off, where we scored a touchdown, but we weren't there to play, yet during the final quarter, we just sat there waiting and waiting and waiting...

"Look, Foss is going to make it!... ohhhhhh, Wilson intercepted the ball."

"Oh no, Wilson's going to make it!... WHOOO, WE INTERCEPTED THE BALL!"

That second one brought up some big cheers, probably the best part of the game if it wasn't for that last touchdown we made at the very end (other than that, it was a LOOOOOOONG 12 minute quarter). We got to play at half-time and after the game ended, but that was it. I really don't want to dwell on the negative about all of this: it was actually pretty fun just being there, but I just expected to play a little more.

Oh, and we lost by one point, 13-12. Oh well, there's always the next home game...

From Andrew Brinkerhoff, trumpet player, to YOU.