"Bickley's Birthday Bash"

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear old fart...uh...I mean Bickley! Happy Birthday to you!" We celebrated Bickley's 40th Birthday with family and friends at Dave & Buster's. A great time was had by all; Bickley was touched by everyone who came to enjoy the evening with him. Thank you for making his big 4-0 one to remember!

Another big Thank You to Ann Zanon of Dublin Cake Cottage ~ she was the creator behind Bickley's well-designed and tasty birthday cake (complete with chocolate peanut butter filling!). "WE MOURN THE PASSING OF YOUR YOUTH ~ JIM BICKLEY - AGE 40"

Bickley has a few words of thanks for his guests...he really is a sweetheart.

Holly, Tiffany, and Jennifer enjoy having some time to catch up

Jamie and Jennifer cut the cake and serve the guests


Carrie, Lindsay, and Matt look on as Bickley opens his presents.

Lesley and Ted (above); Bickley gets a chuckle out of one of his gifts...thanks, Cramer! (below)

Matt and Tiffany (above);Jeff and Josh smile for the camera (below)

Bickley catches up with Joel and Laurie (above)
Dear friends Dave and Lisa come to celebrate Bickley's birthday as well (above); Josh and Jaime ~ aren't they cute?!?! (below)

Christina, Julia, and Todd smile for the camera too (above);

Carrie and Kent have a good time with friends (below)

The Bickleys
"The Men of Darby Glen" ~ Bickley, Ted, and Paul

BCS National Disappointment

We were excited to be in Phoenix, AZ!

Seeing family (Bickley's mother and stepfather

and sister and niece live there) and watching the Buckeyes

win were on our list of things to enjoy.

...well, I guess 1 out of 2 ain't bad. Our first night there we decided to take a chance

with our luck at the Gila River Casino;

Bickley came out a little ahead with Blackjack.

(I guess that little handheld Blackjack game

the kids got him for Christmas is really paying off!)

I was up and down with the slots, but no real harm done.

Heather (Bickley's sister) and Anne (his mother) also enjoyed the casinos. None of us made it big enough to move to Hawaii and retire anytime soon. Oh, well...we'll keep trying.

Sunday we ventured over to Tempe, to Tempe H.S., where TBDBITL (all of you Ohioans know what that means ~ "The Best Damn Band in the Land") practiced and ran through their pregame and halftime shows. They really are awesome! Great job, guys! They did a Hollywood Movie theme ~ songs from "Titanic", "Star Wars", "E.T.", and more.

Check out the mountains in the background; pretty breathtaking!

Bickley and Jennifer all smiles in their "Buckeye gear".
The family poses for a Kodak moment with the band in the background. (Milt, Anne, Jennifer, Bickley, and Heather)
After watching the band practice we were off to Chase Field,

the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB).

It was at their field that OSU held their "Buckeye Bash",

the biggest pep rally I've ever attended!

This was before the pep rally even started;

Buckeye fans spread from one end to the other and even

the second level started to fill up. It was pretty amazing.

We know one thing, the Buckeyes didn't lose

because of a lack of fan support! (Oh, sorry if I ruined the ending for you.)

We thought this was a pretty creative display of Buckeye support. This "gator" has what looks to be a look alike of Woody Hayes riding its back!

The team captains and Coach Tressel have a few words for the crowd. That's center Datish speaking.

Former Buckeye great Pete Johnson gets the crowd pumped!
No Buckeye Bash is complete without Brutus and the OSU Cheerleaders!
You would think with the Glendale/Phoenix area having a street name Buckeye, and even a town name Buckeye that it would be a little good luck spread our way....
Sunday night we headed over to the Scottsdale Princess;

the official hotel of the Ohio State University Buckeyes and team.

The College of Education was holding a cocktail reception there

for alum, and we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse

of the team as they were going into their pregame (evening before) meeting. Heather got center Datish to come over and take a quick picture with me. You know, us Pittsburgh fans need to stick together!

The team and coaches enter the ballroom to discuss tomorrow's big game.

After the cocktail reception we headed over to Old Scottsdale

to the Acme Bar & Grill, where the "Varsity Club" and OSU Phoenix Chapter had set up for a hineygate-style shindig. We had a great time! Thanks, Heather, for chauffeuring us around!

Yep, Buckeye fans can spell, and they're creative! Can you think of a better way to recycle all those empty cans?!?!?

GAME DAY!!!! We were pumped...the sun was out....it was a warm and toasty (to us Ohioan) 76 degrees...the parking lot was filled with Buckeye fans and scarlet and gray!

Spielman...I mean Bickley and Jennifer pose for a picture. Believe it or not, we had to explain to a few Arizonians what the necklaces (i.e. Buckeyes) were!
Ohio local TV personalities Jerry Revish and Andrea Cambern broadcast from the party at the Westgate Center in Glendale.
This is the Westgate Center where Buckeye fans and Gator fans

could party from 11 A.M. to 2 A.M. We pretty much saw Scarlet and Gray everywhere we looked. I think the planners of this party took some notes from Lane Avenue on Buckeye Saturdays. It was awesome!
We're still all smiles....only an hour and a half until game time!

Bickey was having the time of his life...I think we might have caught

"Bowl Fever" after this whole event!

...there's nothing like another Spielman

to get you pumped up for the game!

Steve Klueg, Bick, and Matt Keech pose for a pic. What a coincidence that Bick ran into alum from Sandusky St. Mary's Central Catholic H.S.!

TBDBITL does their pregame show

There's nothing like "Script Ohio" to get a Buckeye crowd on their feet and ready to go!

Pinch us! We can't believe we're actually here!

Thank you, Brittney and Brad, for making this all possible!

You both really are one in a million!

Senator John McCain presides over the official coin toss.

The Buckeyes take the field and we're ready to go!

Ted Ginn runs back the kick for a touchdown! The Buckeyes are up 7-0. This is the last time we're ahead.

Just before halftime the Buckeye's score again;

we have 14 points on the board...but we're still down.

All we need is a good pep talk in the locker room, right?!?!

The OSU Band does their amazing half time show; the song here is from "the Pirates of the Carribbean".
...and now I choose to not include any more pics. of the game after the second quarter; partly because the Buckeyes never scored again and partly because the 14-41 blowout is still so painful. We could come up with a list of reasons as to what went wrong. At the end of the day we were out-played. Plain and simple. The other team wanted it more. But the season was still a great one, and if you're a Buckeye fan you can always relish in a victory over "that team up north". Right? I will tell you this, we're not fair-weather fans; we still proudly wore our scarlet and gray on the airplane and we were reassured that we weren't alone when we looked at the other passengers. There's always next year....

A big THANK YOU to Anne and Milt for taking us in too! We appreciate your hospitality and getting to spend some time with you. We hope to see you both soon.

Thanks again to Heather for running us around and cheering on the Buckeyes with us! We had a great time; we hope you did too! We hope to see you at a Buckeye game in Columbus this fall!

While waiting for our plane at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, we realized we were on the flight with another Buckeye great, Green Bay Packer star A.J. Hawk. If you look at the back of the picture, by the pillar and pay phones, you'll see he and his wife (Brady Quinn's sister) cuddling together. No we're not stalkers, just big Buckeye fans!

GO, BUCKEYES!