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Belinda Barfield
10-24-2011, 3:13 PM
My dad and his brothers and sisters are getting together this weekend at my parent's house. Even though I'm just a lowly neice everyone insisted I be there as well. I've come seeking advice and I'm sure I'm in the right place. Saturday is the Georgia-Florida game. I haven't missed watching the GA/FL game in 31 years. I can record the game and watch it later but that just isn't the same. I haven't figured out how to watch the game and spend time with the family without cloning. Any words of wisdom? I know at least one or two of you have sneaked in a ballgame or two. I guess I can just run out to the car every five minutes or so to check the score. :rolleyes:

Ken Fitzgerald
10-24-2011, 3:25 PM
Record the game as a backup.......tune in the game at your parents house.....mute the sound...turn on Closed Captioning and be delightful...while you watch over their shoulders.

Brian Kent
10-24-2011, 3:30 PM
Some of the most fun I have had a family gatherings is when one room full is watching "the big game". See if you can turn it on and have fun watching it together.

Belinda Barfield
10-24-2011, 3:31 PM
Record the game as a backup.......tune in the game at your parents house.....mute the sound...turn on Closed Captioning and be delightful...while you watch over their shoulders.

Good idea Ken, except there's no way to watch over their shoulders. I'm thinking about encouraging everyone to go outside for a little fresh air and sunshine. I'll turn on the TV and just keep checking the game. This plan will fail, however, if the farmer who rents the land behind their house decides to pick cotton on Saturday. My uncle Kerry is a big sports fan. I may just have to turn on the game for him.:D

Belinda Barfield
10-24-2011, 3:34 PM
Brian, that would work at any other relative's house. My daddy thinks watching sports is a waste of time. He has not ever, that I am aware of, missed an episode of "Cops" though.:eek:

Eric DeSilva
10-24-2011, 6:23 PM
How's their smartphone coverage? Could get updates via smartphone w/video?

Belinda Barfield
10-24-2011, 6:32 PM
How's their smartphone coverage? Could get updates via smartphone w/video?

Virtually non existent. They just recently started receiving sunshine. No cable. Had a rotary dial phone until about two years ago. They live in a technology dead zone.

Actually, I think Verizon covers their area. I have two months before I can get out of a contract with Sprint. Upgrading the phone at that time, so it's more my lack of technology than theirs.

Jason Roehl
10-24-2011, 6:50 PM
Aren't your feet getting sore? ;)

Matt Meiser
10-24-2011, 6:50 PM
Your ETF fees should be pretty low at this point. Ours were $90/line at 11 months to go and they waived one of those due to tower issues in our area that were causing all kinds of dropped calls.

Brian Kent
10-24-2011, 7:28 PM
Sacrifice the game and enjoy the family?

Paul McGaha
10-24-2011, 7:33 PM
My strategy would be to try to get the game on (kind of for everybody) and then watch as much as you can. Hopefully you'll have some others interested in watching the game with you.

I'd try to watch it all. I've gotten away with it at events like that.

PHM

Damon Stathatos
10-24-2011, 9:07 PM
Take a 'shill' with you who 'insists' on watching the game. Then, keep your friend company 'intermittently' (like during all non-commercial breaks).

Bob Turkovich
10-24-2011, 10:23 PM
Belinda,

How about an FM-radio w/ ear buds? If $$ is no object, you could get an Ipod Nano (which is really small and has FM built in) with a bluetooth adapter and earpiece and just tell people it's for your phone and you really need to stay in touch with work.;) (Don't tell me they don't have radio stations where your parents live......:rolleyes:)


As a side note, I've been a Michigan season ticket holder since 1968 (except '74-'75). Since '75, I've missed one U-M/OSU game due to the wedding of my sister-in-law (of my three sister-in-laws, guess where she ranks...) and missed one U-M/Notre Dame due to a neighbor's wedding.

But the oddest was in 2007 - my son and DIL decided on an October wedding (my DIL always wanted a fall wedding). Both were Michigan grads and they scheduled their wedding - well in advance - on a bye week. Schedules changed after the wedding was booked and now Michigan had a non-conference home game scheduled w/ Ball State.

The wedding occurred during the 4th quarter of what was a tighter-than-expected game. As they were walking down the aisle after exchanging vows, they stopped halfway out the door to talk to one of the guests who they had assigned the task of listening to the game on earbuds. They got a 1 minute update on the game and then continued with the procession.

My point is: Where there's a will, there's a way....

Belinda Barfield
10-25-2011, 7:11 AM
Thanks all for your suggestions. I'll probably go with Brian's idea and basically sacrifice the game. I'll have to test the waters when I get there. Maybe after all the BBQ and fixins' everyone will just take a nap.

Paul, I'm basically self employed . . . so I am work. LOL.

If all else fails I'll play the Ace. Daddy's little girl who just loves football, only child, adored neice . . . or something along those lines.:D

Brian Kent
10-25-2011, 11:42 AM
Sounds like a good mix of tactics. Tryptophan is a powerful chemical. Make sure that barbecue is plentiful and has lots of fat. Everybody will be asleep in half an hour and the game will be a simple click of the Kachunka while everybody tucks their thumbs in their belts, lays their heads back and snores.

The ace will be very effective too, except I don't know if a cute, lovable southern accent works on southerners.

Belinda Barfield
10-25-2011, 11:51 AM
Sounds like a good mix of tactics. Tryptophan is a powerful chemical. Make sure that barbecue is plentiful and has lots of fat. Everybody will be asleep in half an hour and the game will be a simple click of the Kachunka while everybody tucks their thumbs in their belts, lays their heads back and snores.

The ace will be very effective too, except I don't know if a cute, lovable southern accent works on southerners.

My daddy is smoking a turkey - extra strength tryptophan. Now if I can just curb my tendency to say unladylike things when Florida scores I may be able to do this. :o My mama breaks out the lye soap at anything over the level of dang or darn.

John Lohmann
10-26-2011, 1:51 PM
My family is trained, they know we are football nuts, Especially UGA vs FL. We used to sneak around to try to see/ \listen to games, but we trained them?

Belinda Barfield
10-26-2011, 3:50 PM
Ha! Where there is a will there is a way. The get together started out as just for a couple of hours Saturday, now the whole fam damily is spending the night. That means at about 3:00 Saturday afternoon I'm going to suggest we move the party to Uncle Fred's house as he has multiple TVs in multiple rooms, and cable. Did I mention that half of the family is traveling up from Florida? Good old family rivalry!

If that fails I'm going to have to "go to town" for something, ice cream, eggs, milk . . . something. It needs to be something exotic like Ostrich eggs so I'll have to go to multiple stores looking for it.:rolleyes:

Sean Troy
10-27-2011, 7:45 AM
Not sure you should be going anywhere with that fever. You're sure to be contagious.

Belinda Barfield
10-27-2011, 7:59 AM
Not sure you should be going anywhere with that fever. You're sure to be contagious.

The great (?) thing about my family, Sean, is they wouldn't care. They would risk the plague if they thought they would get to see me. (or at least that is what they let me believe). :rolleyes:

In all seriousness, I was the one who chose the weekend to do this. It was the only weekend my dad's sisters were both free. We're going to be missing a brother but I couldn't accomodate everyone's schedule. If I tell my daddy I want to watch the game he would absolutely agree to it, but it does seem selfish to take time away from the gathering for a ballgame - no matter how important the game is in my world. There has been a lot of family conflict over the past couple of years and I do what I can to keep the peace. As my daddy would say, "Lord willing, and the creek don't rise" there'll be another GA/FL game next year.