Western Michigan

Vincent the Pooch here, before I turn the blog over to Master so he can give you all of the important information for this weekend's football game I would like to talk to you about rescue dogs.  We're a hearty bunch, survivors you might say, but we do need a little help from you humans from time to time.  This weekend the Stone Cold Tailgating Club will be collecting donations for the dogs (and cats....I guess) that live at the Almost Home Animal Shelter in Lafayette.  My kind and I would greatly appreciate your assistance in the form of any donations. 

The Almost Home humans will accept both cash and "in kind" donations.  A list of donation items can be found below:

Dog and cat treats. No colored biscuits, please.

Cat and pocket pet litter. Any brand, clay, corncob or paper litter only, please. We do not use scoopable litter. Special Kitty Cat Litter from Wal-Mart is great!

Esbilac, KMR and puppy and kitten nursing bottles and nipples

Advantage or Frontline topical flea preventatives

Dog toys. Kong toys, hard rubber bones (Nylabone, etc.), tennis balls, rope bones

Cat toys. Balls with bells, catnip toys, fur mice, etc. Nothing with strings, please.

Food and water bowls, all sizes (metal only; no plastic bowls please)

Pet carriers and cages, all sizes

Rabbit pellets and alfalfa hay

Hamster food and treats

Peanut butter

Heating pads

Chew sticks, exercise balls, wheels, and small cardboard boxes for pocket pets

Towels, blankets or rugs, any size, new or used

Thanks in advance for your donations!  Now I'll turn it over to Master!

Welcome to another season of Purdue Football!  We will have a great crowd at the tailgate for the first game and we're looking forward to seeing everyone! 

Back in 2008 Brendan Less commented to me that at some point our tailgate was going to turn into a "romper room" environment.  Little did he know at that time he would be adding to the "brood" of second generation of Stone Cold Tailgaters.  This first game will be the culmination of that prophecy as we host not only the usual members but eight of their children!  (I hear that Purdue Pete is planning to drop by the house to leave a little something for these second generation tailgaters.)

We will be celebrating the music and attitude of Jimmy Buffet this weekend with our "Cheeseburger in Paradise" tailgate.  Goodness knows that we need the pleasant feelings that weekend at the beach can bring when we are preparing for our football team and I think that a Parrothead tailgate is just what we need.  We all know about the struggles of Purdue Football 2013, but we will try to forget the struggles and remember the great tailgating as we move forward to 2014.

Our menu will of course be cheeseburgers with all the fixin's and of course French fried potatoes as the song says.  The normal selection of hard liquor, mixers, and beer will be available along with a special "Boat Drink" available only for this tailgate.

I look forward to hosting everyone at the house on Friday night, we'll have a great time I'm sure and hopefully we won't scare the kids too much!

Saturday August 30, 2014
8:00 a.m.      Depart the House
8:15 a.m.      Arrive D Lot
10:00 a.m.    Lunch Ready
11:30 a.m.    Depart for Game
12:00 p.m.    Kickoff

We will be leaving the house around 8 a.m., but given that we have so many people we are not going to be able to ride together in just the Ambulance and the Element.  We will determine how many vehicles we will need on Saturday morning.  After the game everyone is welcome to come back to the tailgate to hang out and discuss the thrilling start to the season!

Football 2014

Well folks I wish I could say that I'm crazy excited for the start of football this year but the reality is that we're probably going to suffer through another tough season in West Lafayette, IN.  The team has to be more competitive this year right?  I say that only because being less competitive seems all but impossible given we were outscored 456-179 last year.

One thing that I am looking forward to this year is our tailgating, it should be a spectacular year.  We are once again slated to park in the D Lot north of the stadium.  Generally speaking we were very happy with the tailgating in D last year and hope to build on that this year!

We will be featuring the return of some of our tried and true favorites including Cheeseburgers in Paradise, Kegs and Eggs, and the ever popular Oktoberfest tailgate for Homecoming!  I've been inspired by Wrigley Field's "decade" celebrations this summer and we will be doing our first decade tailgate for MSU where we will be featuring the food, sounds, and looks of the 1970's.

We will also be doing our charity events this year.  I really do appreciate everyone that has supported our Charity endeavors over the last four years, I think it is great that our tailgating “family” is giving back.  The events will be as follows:

8/30   Western Michigan – Almost Home Pet Rescue

10/4   MSU – Coats for Kids

11/8  Wisconsin – St. Lawrence Food Pantry

The Stone Cold Tailgating Club is in effect again this year; pay one price and it covers you for the season!  There have been no changes to the pricing from last year.

In addition to the Stone Cold Tailgating Package there is also a lodging package available. With two locations I am going to leave it up to everyone to arrange their lodging each weekend by contacting Brendan and Dawn (goboilerz@yahoo.com) or Susan Franklin (susanfranklin_1814@comcast.net).

The revenues from the Stone Cold Lodging package will be put towards house upkeep, utilities, and improvement work. Each location has a “bucket” for you to make your donations.

I look forward to seeing everyone this fall!

Basketball Homecoming 2014

I'm happy that all of you have decided to join us for the Ninth Annual Purdue Basketball Homecoming brought to you by The Stone Cold Tailgating Club. I'm so glad that all of you can be part of what is now a standing tradition! This will be a great chance for us to get together and see a competitive Purdue game after the mess of a football season we experienced in 2013.

Saturday January 18, 2014
1:30 p.m.    Meet at 1814 Vinton
2:00 p.m.    Depart for Campus
2:30 p.m.    "Bargate" at Harry's
6:00 p.m.     Depart for Mackey
7:00 p.m.     Tipoff
9:30 p.m.     Postgame activities

The late game time makes for a perfect afternoon of "bargating" at Harry's.  We didn't make it there at all during football season and I hear that they're bottom line is suffering as a result!  Wouldn't want our favorite bar going under would we?

Unfortunately we're not going to be able to take the ambulance over to campus.  We have a lot of the tailgating gear stored in it right now and with Dad's recent surgery it's probably not a great idea for him to be muscling that beast around.  As a result we'll have to take a couple of cars to campus.  My parents have volunteered to drive and we should be close to being able to get everyone in the two cars.

Postgame activities will be up to whatever everyone else wants to do.  I'm happy to return to Harry's but I would be just as happy to return to the house as that has turned out to b e a lot of fun over the last few football seasons.  We do have darts, cards, games, and a popcorn machine back at the house so it's like having your own campus bar I guess.  (Plus we sometimes get fresh baked cookies.)

Sunday January 19, 2014
10:30 a.m.     Breakfast

Not exactly sure what Mom has planned for breakfast but she told me that she has a plan.

Tickets
Our tickets are in section 118, row 21.

Lodging

Boilermakers and Indians

The Boilermaker offense showed signs of life last weekend in State Penn one can only hope that they continue to improve this week.  The Illini come to town this weekend dragging a 20 game Big Ten losing streak behind them......and they're still favored by 7.  If we can't beat this team we're just pathetic.

The weather projects to be really cold with the low of 27 degrees and a game time temp of 34.  With that in mind and based on the fact that we will only have 7 of us we'll plan to "tailgate" at the house before bundling up and heading to the D lot.  Just to keep our "tailgating cred" we'll take a couple of road beers to drink on the way from the car to the stadium.

We'll be serving "white flag" chili with BBQ chicken.  We were going to go with a full on Cowboys and Indians theme but the theme of white chili with white meat was appropriate for a season that we've all but give up on!

Saturday November 23, 2013
9:00     Meet at 1814
9:30     Soup's On
11:00   Depart for Game
12:00  Kickoff

The Grind Goes On

Each week on Saturday I wake and hope that this long nightmare will soon come to an end.  I hope to arrive at the stadium to find that we're playing "basketball on grass" with an engaging and endearing head coach on the sideline.  I pray that our offensive coordinator runs a scheme that is current with today's spread philosophy seen throughout the college and pro games.

What I get is a team that can't seem to move the ball past the first yard marker more than 5 times a game.  I see a head coach who seems more worried about ancillary issues like pep sessions, meeting rooms, and helmets.  I see an offensive coordinator that runs a system that only Alabama (with 8 professional level talents starting on offense) seems to be able to succeed with.  Worst of all I see a demoralized and dwindling group of "faithful" filling the stands.

Welcome to the future of Purdue Football.

On that high note, let's prepare for a game that we MIGHT be able to be competitive in at home this year.  It has been so long since I saw a game where my team has been competitive in the fourth quarter that I'm not sure I would know what to do if we kept it close. 

Since we're not going to have anyone attending that hasn't been to our tailgate this year, I'll spare all of the information about where to find us.  At this point the best directions I can offer just follow the stink of failure emanating from Ross-Ade and then head northwest a little bit.

Saturday November 9, 2013
8:30 a.m.     Depart for the Lot
8:45 a.m.     Set Up
9:45 a.m.     Food is up
11:30 a.m.   Depart for the Stadium


Please see our newly launched site http://gethazellfired.blogspot.com/, which as of now has the same content as our head coach: none.

A Buckeye is Just a Poisonous, Useless Nut

Before we get to the game information I want to remind everyone that we’re doing a canned food drive this week for the local food pantry. As we have discussed over the last two years we’re trying to use the Stone Cold organization to provide some service back to the community. Any non- perishable items are appreciated!

After a humiliating Homecoming loss to NIU and another pounding against Nebraska the Boilers went on the road and provided a much better result at MSU.   After a bye week in which we were a 7.5 point underdog, they return to Ross-Ade Stadium this weekend to take on a tO$U team that has been rolling since Urban came to town.  This will likely be another tough one for the Boilers but hopefully we can pull out a shocker much like the last two times tO$U visited us in West Lafayette.

We will be doing our ever popular make your own pizza tailgate this weekend. We’ll have all the toppings you will need to create a personal pie that is all your own! There will also be ingredients for salad if that is more to your tastes!

The weather projects to be cold, so we will plan to have some of the heating elements with us.  As a reminder we do have stadium blankets that can be carried in but we need you to please make sure that they make it back to the tailgate after the game.

We will plan on meeting in the D lot on Saturday morning, hopefully near the Evans Scholars house where we have been for most games this season.

The D Lot can be found on the map on the right side of the blog. We have the large flagpole that extends to 20 feet and an ambulance so hopefully you will be able to locate us easily. We will be sporting either our custom flag, which can be seen to the right of this post, that sports our “Old School Boilermakers” or the upside down Purdue Football Flag.  (Upside down obviously to indicate that our football program is in distress.)

Friday November 1, 2013
7:00 p.m.     Eric and Paula Arrive


Saturday November 2, 2013
8:00 a.m. Depart for the W Lot
8:15 a.m. Arrive W lot/Set up Tailgate
11:15 a.m. Depart for Stadium
12:00 p.m. Kick Off
4:00 p.m.   Post Game Tailgate
7:30 p.m.   Harry's?

Eric and his parents will be departing from the house at 8:00 to ensure that we have two adjacent spots. If anyone else would like to meet at the house they are welcome to but it is not necessary. We have room to transport up to 7 people from the house in the ambulance and Element.

If you are driving separately and plan to arrive at the tailgate later we suggest that you park in one of the following locations: The Northwestern Avenue Garage (Grant and Northwestern), The University Street Garage(3rd and University), or the IM Gold Lot (Just off 3rd Street at McCutcheon.)

The "N" is for Knowledge

The Red Horde invades West Lafayette for the first time in Big Ten competition this weekend.  Nebraska's fans are known to travel in bunches so I fully expect to see half of our stadium decked out in red this weekend.  Never the less, we will be hoping that the coaching staff and players have "found something" in their bye week so we can send those 'huskers back to their cornfield with a loss!

It will be a nice day this weekend with temps projected in the mid-70's and sunny.  Just the kind of "all American" day we would want for our "All-American" menu of burgers, fries, and American craft brewed beer. 

It will be a small crowd this weekend, only 7 of us tailgating, so I'll skip the usual spiel on where to find us. 

If anyone is interested in donating we will be collecting new and gently used coats for "Coats for Kids" at the tailgate.

Saturday October 12, 2013

8:00     Depart the House
8:15     Arrive D Lot
11:30   Depart for Game
12:00   Kickoff

We will "post game" tailgate at the ambulance as well to let the traffic die down a little bit.