Love Thee Notre Dame! Spring Football Weekend...

The Notre Dame Blue Gold Game is this weekend which ends Spring football practice here in South Bend. Friday night they unveiled "THE SHIRT" for 2011. If you are not familiar with this tradition, every year since 1990, students submit designs for a shirt which will be the uniform of choice for any self-respecting Notre Dame fan come September. They even ship them overseas to our troops. It is HUGE. Half of the proceeds go to students afflicted with illness and the other half to various programs to benefit students. This year's design is one of the best ever. Even though it is not traditional navy, green or gold, this is my favorite shirt of all. The Four Horsemen - awesome!

It is going to light up the stadium come September! I cannot wait - 140 days until kick-off!

Today, the weather could not have been any worse. Cold and windy with driving rain. I have never been more soaked in my life. But, alas, we sat out there to watch the Irish play. Our attendance at the game was never in question - it is what we do - we bleed blue and gold. We are ND!

We started the day with a luncheon in a tent across from Notre Dame Stadium. Coach Brian Kelly stopped in to say a few words as did the cheerleaders and the leprechaun.

Nothing fancy - just typical tailgate fodder. On this raw day, the hot chocolate and warm chili was quite perfect.

We headed to the stadium and watched the game. We stopped and snapped a picture of Touchdown Jesus. We saw all of the daffodils in bloom. Taylor Swift was on campus - she is at Notre Dame quite a bit because her brother is a student here.

The water was just pooling on the ponchos and everywhere. We were soaked from head to toe! Ugh!

Even as we left the game and started to make our way home, it just poured. What an awful day!

We took refuge in the bookstore until we just decided to brave the elements and walk back to the house. We gave up on the idea of the 5:00 Palm Sunday Vigil Mass at the Basilica. It was so nice to slip into warm dry clothes and enjoy some hot chocolate. Go Irish!