Good News, Bad News for the Holidays

Bad News: This Thanksgiving we didn’t celebrate on Thanksgiving Day. Daughter Sarah was out of town. Johnny and his girlfriend had to work on the holiday.

Good News: We ate our turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc. on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It tasted just as delicious. Johnny and his girlfriend have jobs and got paid overtime for working on Thanksgiving. We were all just as thankful as we would’ve been the day before.

Bad News: For the Apple Cup this year, the WSU Cougars were going into it with a 3-8 record and not a single win in the PAC-12 conference. Coach Leach is under investigation for allegations of abuse after wide receiver Marquess Wilson quit the team.

Good News: The Apple Cup state rivalry between WSU and UW was played in Pullman this year. It wasn’t snowing. In a nail-biting overtime finale, the Washington State University Cougars beat the University of Washington Huskies 31-28. I have no doubt that the cheering, jumping, and celebratory whooping it up at our house could be heard in Pullman. 

          My favorite play of the game was when 6’1” Kalafotoni Pole reached up to snag the football from UW’s quarterback and then ran with all his 277-lb. might toward the goal line in overtime. Go Cougs! For more details about the game: Overtime Ecstasy for WSU at Apple Cup

Side Note: I’ve noticed an absence of Cougar t-shirts, and other merchandise at several local stores including Wal-Mart and Victoria’s Secret. They’ve opted to go with just UW stuff. My guess is that someone at the national level is focusing on the area surrounding each university, not realizing that most of the Cougars come from the west side of Washington.

    I’ve launched a one-woman campaign to get more crimson and gray over here, and I’m looking for other Cougars to join me. When there’s only UW purple in the store, ask a manager where the WSU merchandise is. Fill out a suggestion card. Tell them that most Cougars come from this side and that there are more than twice as many WSU license plates than UW (just go look in the parking lot), so we’re willing to spend money to support scholarships at WSU. Thank you to Fred Meyer’s for carrying a great, affordable WSU (and UW) selection!

Holiday Shopping

Bad News Shopping for Quilt Supplies: A few days before Black Friday, I studied the JoAnn Fabrics fliers looking for their bargains. My eyes zeroed in on a roll of cotton batting: 25 yards for $99. That’s a great deal! It was a doorbuster on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I actually skipped Zumba that morning and rolled into JoAnn Fabrics at 9:15. I pushed my cart to the batting section to find my gigantic roll of batting. There was nothing there. I asked a sale clerk where the special batting was, pointing to my flier.

She told me that the store had opened at 8:00 that morning with a line out front. (Hmmm, I hadn’t noticed that on the flier. It normally opens at 9:00). There had been a line of customers waiting for the doors to open. And, the batting I wanted was sold out by 8:15.

Where I should have been lined up ahead of time.

She talked to another clerk and asked about the batting they were substituting. That was sold out by 8:30.

Alrighty then. I found a roll of Warm and Natural cotton batting that wasn’t on sale, but that I prefer anyway. I calculated how many yards of it I could buy for $99 using my 40% off coupon. I bought 11 yards.  

I missed the doorbuster batting, but I also missed standing in the cold rain with a crowd.

Good News Shopping for Quilt Supplies: I got an email from The Wild Rose Quilt Shop in Orting which I didn’t read before their Black Friday sales. Instead, I went on Sunday and got some great deals on fabric. There were $5, $7 and 60% off tables. As if those savings weren’t enough, if you bought two yards, you got the third yard free. Most high quality cotton fabric now costs from $9.99 – 12.99 a yard, and this was the good stuff: Moda, Northwood, etc.     

The Wild Rose Quilt Shop, Orting, WA

        Between the batting from JoAnn’s and the fabric from the Wild Rose, my sewing machine will be humming for a long time.

Good Shopping News Four Ways: I set a personal record. It’s still November and I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping!

Super Mall, Auburn, WA,

First shopping strategy: on what I’m calling Way More Civilized Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. John and I went to the Super Mall in Auburn and got a huge chunk of Christmas shopping done. We parked easily. There were no crowds. Everything we bought was on sale. We found the sizes we needed and things hadn’t been picked over. 

Second shopping tactic:  at 10:15 on Thanksgiving night (mere hours before the official start of Black Friday), even though I hadn’t planned on shopping, Sarah K., John, and I found ourselves at Target.  Parking took a few laps, but there wasn’t a line outside. A thoughtful lady on her way out of Target, handed us her shopping basket, “You’ll need this. There aren’t any inside.”

The three of us walked all the way back to one corner of the store past 32 rows filled with hundreds of people snaking through them aiming for 14 checkout registers.  John got in line immediately. Sarah and I hunted and gathered.

We found the things we’d come for and piled them in the basket. The line was moving pretty quickly, considering.

On our foray, we’d found out that if you were buying any electronics, which we were, you needed to be in a separate line in back of the store. John and I left Sarah with the basket in front, and went back to electronics. I showed him what to get and left him in that line, then went back up front to join Sarah.

The electronics line only had three checkers, so even though that line was shorter, it was slow going for John. Nothing like tag team shopping! Sarah had to go to work at 6am, so once we got checked out, I took her home. Then I turned around and went back to pick John up in the parking lot at midnight, the official start of Black Friday.

Shopping Technique #3: On Cyber Monday, while everyone else was at work shopping online, I was at the mall. (One of the perks of being semi-retired is that I can go shopping on weekday mornings).  As on Way More Civilized Wednesday, the parking was easy, and it was serenely un-crowded. There were lots of bargains for the picking. I even left the mall, coupons in purse, to look for something at a nearby shopping center, and returned to the mall easily with no traffic congestion.

South Hill Mall, Puyallup, WA

When my arms were exhausted from so many reps of shopping bags curls, I loaded my goodies into the trunk and drove around to the other side of the mall, to lessen the odds of my car being broken into. I popped into a few more stores. At JC Penney they didn’t have what I was looking for, so the sales lady told me to check for it online.

Christmas Shopping Technique #4: Following the advice of the Penney’s lady, when I got home, I logged in for Cyber Monday. She was right, they had what I wanted. Amazon also had what I couldn’t find at the mall, and with Amazon Prime it would be delivered to my door in two days.

Bad News: I’d tried to avoid Cyber Monday because I want to support local businesses and brick and mortar stores. I estimate that more than half of my Christmas purchases come from wandering through stores and finding the perfect gift that I didn’t start out looking for.

Also, I missed Waldenbooks and Border’s Book stores. Again, in bookstores, and libraries as well, I randomly search through the shelves. It’s easier for me to judge a book by its cover in person, than online. I’m still looking for a couple more gifts, a specific book, but after a few more unsuccessful attempts, I’ll go with Plan B.

Good News: I should have lots of time to get things wrapped up and in the mail. I’ll be able to sew a few gifts with minimal pressure, and it looks like I may actually wrap my gifts way before my usual Christmas Eve frenzy. Who knew the holidays could be so leisurely? Maybe I’ll also remember where I’ve hidden everything so that I won’t be giving Valentine’s Christmas presents in February.

Laura Keolanui Stark is starting to deck the halls and the rest of the house for the holidays. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Football Craziness in Our Family's Blood

Up here on South Hill in Puyallup, there are two high schools. Rogers opened in the late 1960s. Emerald Ridge opened in 2000. Of course the rivalry between the two high schools is intense, and every football season they play against each other for the unofficial title of “King of the Hill.”

My kids went to the newer Emerald Ridge. When Sarah was getting ready to go to her first King of the Hill football game, I warned her not to go over to the Rogers Rams' side of the field even though she had lots of friends at Rogers. She gave me a vague, non-committal answer. Dressed up in her Emerald Ridge Jaguar fur coat and matching Fedora, I dropped the smiling freshman Jaguar off.

          When I picked her up, she wasn’t smiling. I figured we'd lost the game. But her glum expression was because she didn’t heed my warning. Somehow she sneaked around the police stationed between the rival stands to find her Ram friend Christina. She got booed and had stuff thrown at her. She did find Christina, which was lucky because the Ram mascot spotted Jaguar Sarah, and tried to pick her up and carry her off the field. Christina linked arms with Sarah, and the mascot couldn’t pick them both up.

               Sarah was surprised, hurt, and a little outraged that several of her other Rogers friends didn’t come to her rescue. “I went to elementary school and junior high school with them! They saw what was going on and looked the other way! When Christina came on the Emerald Ridge side, nobody went after her!”

When I dropped her off her sophomore year, I couldn’t resist asking if she was planning on going over to the Rogers side of the field. She glared and then gave me a very definite, “NO!”

In our newspaper, The News Tribune out of Tacoma, there’s a feature called “Around the World.” People travel around the world and snap a picture of themselves at famous landmarks holding a copy of The News Tribune. I always like checking out these photos.

Last month, there was a picture of a guy dressed in a Seattle Seahawks jersey standing with his newspaper in front of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin before the Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers game. The caption read: “Brett Favre threw 3 interceptions and broke his ankle in the Minnesota loss to Green Bay. I was representing our 1^st place Seahawks and was hazed throughout the game!! So much fun!!!”

I saved that picture to show John and Johnny. I watched them carefully as they  read the caption. Both of them had the same reaction. They each got a little bemused smile at the end.

I focused on those last two sentences—“hazed throughout the game!! So much fun!!!” My question to the males in my family, “Why would it be fun to make yourself a target and get hazed throughout the game? What, is that a guy thing?”

“Yeah it is.” More smiles.

“I don’t get it.”

            Shrugs. "It’s a guy-thing!” Full-on grinning.

This Saturday, December 4, is The Apple Cup. For those of you who don’t live in Washington, it’s the biggest football rivalry in the state. The Washington State Cougars play the University of Washington Huskies. Bets are made between the college Presidents. I have a standing bet with a Husky family who are friends and neighbors (see last year’s Apple Cup blog). Some families straddle the Cougar/Husky split. Newscasters broadcast wearing crimson (WSU) or purple (UW).

My Coug Out profile pic, WSU pumpkin carved for Halloween.

This year on Facebook there’s something called, “Coug Out Facebook.” To participate, you change your profile picture to the WSU logo, or to a picture showing your Cougar spirit. Johnny told me that one of his friends created it, and sent it to 16 of his friends thinking that was as far as it would go. There are now 22,315 participants. Johnny’s girlfriend Sarah is also one of the creators. Daughter Sarah got into a Facebook insult battle because someone posted something saying that even Huskies bleed crimson and she clicked that she liked it. UW must have something similar going on because I’m seeing the Husky logo popping up as some profile pics.

The two universities alternate between playing The Apple Cup in freezing, possibly snowy WSU’s Martin Stadium in Pullman, or in UW’s probably rainy Husky Stadium in Seattle. This year it will be played at WSU in Pullman. Q13 Fox News showed snow plows and 150 workers feverishly removing 20” of snow from Martin Stadium this morning. My two Cougars are reporting that it’s been bone chilling cold this week with temperatures dipping into single digits. They took their ski coats, gloves and boots with them when they left after Thanksgiving. That’s what they’ll wear to the game.

On this side of the state, John and another WSU employee have come up with a brilliant plan to spectate The Apple Cup. John broke the news to me with that same little smile. “We're (that includes me) going to watch The Apple Cup at Harmon Brewing Company.”

Let’s be clear here. I love football, especially college football, even Cougar football despite several losing seasons in a row. I love a good, fierce rivalry. I went to LSU in the SEC. I understand, indeed embrace, college football rivalry. I also love the Harmon Brewing Company restaurant in downtown Tacoma. But, it is basically on the solid purple, University of Washington-Tacoma Husky campus.

We’ll be proudly (or sheepishly?) wearing our Crimson and Gray Cougar colors. I’m sure we’ll be warmer than our kids. In fact, I’m positive things will be very heated as we watch the game from inside Husky territory. I’m pretty sure that there won’t be a mascot who tries to carry me off. I hope that when the game’s over, we can claim like the guy in the newspaper, “So much fun!!!”

Go Cougs!!!!

If you’d like to see what the inside of snowy Martin Stadium looks like on Thursday, December 02, 2010, click on this link: 

http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/Crews-work-feverishly-to-clear-snow-in-time-for-the-Apple-Cup-111202649.html 

Laura Keolanui Stark can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com. If no more blogs show up after The Apple Cup, please send some Cougars in to rescue us from Harmon Brewing Company in Tacoma.

Betting on the Cougs for the Apple Cup

2009 has been another rough, losing season for WSU and UW alike. Now that we’re just days away from the Apple Cup, I suppose this year the jokes flying back and forth will be more along the lines of, “Well, you’re bigger losers than we are!

Nonetheless, I’m involved in a standing Apple Cup bet. My friendship with Carol started when our sons met on their elementary school’s playground in first grade. Over the years they played soccer on the same team, and went through cub scouts and boy scouts together. But when it came time for college, Tyler chose UW, and my son Johnny, chose WSU.

Their freshman year Carol threw her family’s purple gauntlet down for the Apple Cup bet. I accepted the terms. The losing team’s family had to cook something with apples in it for the winner’s family. I think there was supposed to be an apple quilt trophy that the winning family would get to hold until the next apple cup, but I’m not sure what happened to that. You can see just how seriously we take this, not very.

We keep the trash talking down to a minimum, easy to do since neither team’s been that great in the last four years, and since neither Carol nor I are alums of either school. But, I do try to remember to fly our Cougar flags in the back yard as well as out front. Our yards are back to back and I want to make darn sure that if Tyler’s home, he can look out his window and see that Crimson and Gray flag waving.

Last year when my daughter Sarah was applying to colleges, Carol tried to lure her to the dark purple side, to UW. She and Tyler took us on an amazing “insider’s tour” of campus, and Carol negotiated with Sarah telling her that if she went to UW, she could then eat whatever treat I prepared for them if UW won. She tried hard, and I was worried that we might have a split house. My husband also works for WSU. But in the end, Sarah chose WSU.

So far in our Apple Cup challenge, Carol’s had to cook for us twice. It was delicious both times: an apple cake with caramel icing last year, warm out of the oven. Sarah and I made an apple pie for them once.

On the positive side, this year the Apple Cup is on November 28 and in Seattle. Both of my kids will be here “on the Westside” for Thanksgiving break, so win or lose, I’ll have company to help me eat hopefully, or cook.

I’ll confess, I’ve been keeping an eye out for apple recipes, but when there’s such a fierce cross-state rivalry involved, sometimes it comes down to who’s got more heart. So come on Cougs, pull yourself up by your cleat straps, don’t let those Dawgs get you, they’re all bark. Go Cougs!

Laura Keolanui Stark lives with three Cougars. She can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com. (Originally published in The Herald, www.puyallupherald.com on 11/25/09.)