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My birthday weekend was great.  It started with dinner Saturday night with my Dad, Pat, Nancy and Jeremy at Coastal Flats.  I love this place.  It is a part of Great American chain of restaurants and the location at the Fairfax Government Center is perfect.  After dinner you can get some desserts, grab a cup of coffee or see a movie at the theatre.  There is just so much to do there, plus they have an REI!

On Sunday Nancy and I had tickets Skins vs. Broncos game up at FedEx Field.  I was looking forward to getting up there early and doing some tailgating.  I managed to score a green parking pass at a good price on eBay and spent all Saturday afternoon preparing food for the festivities.  Nancy and I got a late start to the field, but made it to the stadium in about an hour.  The green lot we parked in was pretty empty when wee arrived so we took a spot close to the exit.  The weather Sunday afternoon was going to be perfect as well.  The sun was shinning, the skies where blue and the temp didn’t get much above 70.  For a mid-November afternoon you couldn’t beat it.

scoring drive

Minutes after arriving I fired up the grill to get cooking.  We spread out some chairs and cracked open our first beer.  I packed the cooler with four 6-packs and I was not looking forward to lugging that crap back home with me.  We spend the next several hours enjoying the weather and eating a ton of food.  Fortunately we parked near a porto john so trips to the bathroom were painless.  I know it sounds weird, but I love talking to people in line waiting for the bathroom.  Usually at events like this people are drunk and very friendly.  On one of my excursions to the restroom I meet these two ladies from Maryland.  One just moved to the area and the other was a lifer like myself.  Add alcohol and people just start spilling their guts to complete strangers.

We started to loose track of time as the afternoon went on.  We got so engrossed with food, drinking beer and talking we almost forgot about the game.  My sister Tracy and her husband Bobby were at the game and we were suppose to meet them for a little tailgating in the Platinum lot before the game, but that didn’t happen.  He called back saying he and Tracy were going in but he had club level seats if we wanted them, hell yeah hook it up.  We had lower level already, but I would much rather be on the club level.  After Nancy and I quickly cleaned up we headed off to the box office to get our tickets.

packed lounge

After fighting long lines getting into the stadium, by the time we reached our seats it was just in time to watch the Broncos score their first touchdown.  I hadn’t even sat down yet and things were not looking good, a mere 3 minutes into the game and we already were behind.  As the first quarter went on things didn’t look so good, Denver score another touchdown and all we managed to come back with was a single touchdown.  But it was a touchdown and not a field goal at least.  By the end of the first half we closed the gap to only three points.  Things were actually looking good, however we were coming close to our average per game score of 17 and that wouldn’t be enough to win this one.

During halftime we took the time to walk around, hit the head, and for me grab another beer.  We also stopped by the cigar lounge to see who was working, but talked with some random drunk people that were pretty cool.  After the short break it was back to the seats for another half of smash mouth football.

The second half was definitely better than the first.  We managed to score another 13 points in the fourth quarter while the Bronco couldn’t put any more points on the board.  Final score was 27 to 17.  With about 2:30 minutes left in the game Denver tried to make another drive but failed near the goal and suddenly it was our position.  With that Nancy and I headed back to the truck for a little more tailgating.  I had plenty of food and even though we were near an exit, we were in no hurry to head home.  The lot around us emptied rather quickly, but I fired up the grill once again and put on some burgers that were oh so delicious.  Top that off with a victory beer and I was feeling good.

good times

After the game Bobby and Tracy came over to hanged out for a while which was really cool.  We couldn’t believe we won the game, and by such a large margin at that.  As the sun set was snapped a last photo, said goodbye and headed our separate ways.  It took Nancy and I several hours to get home because of traffic across the bridge, but that didn’t matter.  We had good tunes on the radio and the Skins won so we were in high spirits.

I have a set of tickets for the Skins game against the Giants on Monday just before Christmas.  I am sorta looking forward to it.  I think it will be  hard game that we will probably loose, but it should still be a lot of fun.  I can’t wait to tailgate again and freeze my ass off during a crisp winter night.  Lets hope the Skins can give me an early Christmas presents and deliver a victory against one of our division rivals on December 21st.