UH football - Heart-Attack-Game!!!

Along with the million plus residents of Hawaii, and the unnumbered expatriates like us, I was thrilled as the UH football team began its 12th and last regular season game last Saturday night.

“All” they needed to do was beat a 4 and 8 Washington team to have a PERFECT season and thus achieve something NEVER before achieved by a UH football team—receive an invitation to a major BCS bowl and gain nationwide recognition and respect.

And we were playing at home in the Aloha Stadium, packed with ti leaf waving fans ready to witness history being made.
I think you need to have some background to appreciate this story. Those of us who lived in Hawaii where there are no professional sports, know that UH football is the only serious game in town. Over the years the faithful fans have suffered through opponents reluctant to put UH on their schedule, top Hawaii high school football players going to mainland colleges to play, rather than UH, and mediocre coaches that produced sad teams, winning only occasionally. Then came Head Coach June Jones, former NFL quarterback and head coach, willing to come to Hawaii and endure those conditions at a meager salary, far below that of mainland coaches. Could this be the Solution?? We all hoped so.
Jones’ is a long story, but for today it’s enough to know that he slowly rebuilt the program over several years to the point that UH had gone Undefeated this year, which brings us to Saturday’s game.


On the West Coast, where I was going to watch it, the game started at 8:30 PM. Washington scored first, then second, then third! UH fumbled and stumbled like the sad teams back in the day. I could barely stand it. By the end of the first quarter it was 21 to nothing. No team could overcome that, I thought. Mom was recording the game, so after the third UH turnover I turned it off and wearily went to bed.
The next day there wasn’t time to watch the rest of the game before we went to church and I didn’t know if I even wanted to see it. Might as well learn the score, so I turned on ESPN. The score came across the bottom of the screen as a crawler “Washington 28 (groan) University of Hawaii 35 “ WHAT? WE WON?? The other team must have left at half time and went home.

After church I watched the DVD. The poor crowd. 2nd qtr UH finally scored then Washington scored again. At the end of the half it was Washington 28, UH 7. Auwe. Since I knew the final score I realized two things: Washington would not score again in the game and UH would score 28 unanswered points in the second half. Must be a blow out. But it wasn’t. It was a hard fought battle on both sides. UH didn’t tie the game until late in the 4th quarter. The fans were hoarse (and probably taking Maalox)
Could Heisman hopeful QB Colt Brennan* do it one more time?? If I hadn’t known the final score I would have been taking Maalox. There was only 44 seconds left in regulation time when Brennan’s five-yard pass to Grice-Mullen put UH ahead and bring the victory home!!
*He’s the one who bleached his hair blonde and had the map of the Hawaiian Islands sculpted into the hair on the side of his head.

Well, now we know UH, with a final ranking of 10th in the nation, 12-0, will play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, in New Orleans and win or lose, will receive a 4 million dollar pay day (twice the annual UH football budget)
The Star Bulletin used an immense font to announce the story “PERFECT”. Next to becoming a state, there may not have been a bigger story in Hawaii’s history. For many UH fans June Jones could be Governor and Colt Brennan Mayor. But of course Jones and Brennan are needed for important work. Bring on the Bulldogs!

Becca Documents DownTown Disney

Becca loves her new phone. She keeps it in her pocket and pulls it out more often to take pictures with it than to talk on the phone. She is a freelance photographer which means she feels free to take pictures of anything she throws her eye on. She take time to frame her subject and if she feels she may have missed something she takes a few more just in case. This shot of the Build a Bear Workshop is wonderful but shouldn't have come out. It was late in the afternoon, the window was in the shade, the lights were on inside not to mention the glass window for reflection.

These figures are high up on the wall of the ESPN building. Becca's photo shows them as still but they were actually moving--well their faces anyway. There were actually 4 figures which represented different sports. Becca has only included the side that has the baseball player. She knows that baseball is Papa's favorite sport.

This is obviously a pizza place. Does this sign seem just a little scary to anyone else? Why does this guy have a mask on? And what in the world is that stuff pouring out on the left side of the sign? I guess they were hoping we would just see the pizza and not ask so many questions.

Of all the restaurants in Downtown Disney this is the only one that specialized in dessert.

On their way back to the car, Papa invited his girls to take a look at the store next to the Bakery. Becca took lots of pictures of the shelves and clothes and toys. This one is of a game that must be a new version of the Candyland game that was popular when she was 3 or 4 years old. Maybe we should play games with her more often.

Becca took this picture IN the store. Perhaps she wanted us to get it so we could remember that the rest of the family was experiencing snow at this time of year.

Have Lunch, Will Take Pictures

Becca took this picture with her little Nokia phone. It appears here just the way she framed it. The amazing thing is that it is a Close-Up with a camera phone. (Kelly, what is the model number of her new phone?) We are really pleased with it. Becca asked her Dad to take a picture with her camera. He said he didn't know how it worked--which was true. She said sweetly, "Watch and learn."

Melissa, Rycharn, the waiter, Chris, James, Stephanie & Kelly were all good friends by the time The 3 Connellys reached the meeting point, the LaBrea Bakery. The waiter made a special effort to learn all the children's names. (Kelly probably knows the waiter's name.) That was a great idea. All the children responed to being called by name. All the teachers in the family, primary, young men/women, Relief Society or regular school, can use this same "technique" in their classrooms.

When we came to the end of the day

At the conclusion of our Dinner/Lunch, the Freeman Kids were anxious to get back to Disneyland. Gramma, Papa and Becca were ready to walk back through Disney Town and prepare for the end of the day. I don't want to say that it took a long time for them to walk, but the sun was still up when they left LaBrea Bakery and it was dark by the time they reached their car. They turned left when they should have turned right, so an hour later they were on their way home (with about 6,000 other people). Most of them were not happy in the lane they were in on the freeway, so they swished back and forth in front Papa's car as if he weren't there. Fortunately all 3 possible accidents were avoided by Papa's lightning fast reflexes (Like Lightning the Queen). They offered grateful prayers that they made it home safely and expressed a desire to never have to travel that freeway again.

Good Enough to Eat

This is the drink that Becca always orders. The waiter knows it as "a Diet Coke" even though Becca orders it as "a CocaCola Light", which is what she learned to call it when we were in Jernamy (Germany)

While the rest of us had both hands into our lunch, Becca took the time to take a picture of her lunch before she started to eat it.

When we were all finished with our fabulous lunch, we were really full but we couldn't resist having "just a little something" more. Most of us had New York style cheesecake, which was delicious, but took us a half an hour to eat. Becca just ordered LaBrea Bakery's version of ice cream.