Had a tough time getting home from Sacramento yesterday because of the storm clobbering Northern California. It took about 90 minutes to drive the 5 miles between downtown Sacramento and the airport. Of course there were major flight delays at the airport. But I finally caught a flight out about 3 hours after I was supposed to leave. It was raining so hard the airport's roof was leaking.

Day Trippin'

Made my way to Lakeport, the Lake County County Seat for a meeting tonight of the Lake County Democratic Central Committee. They met in the County Board of Supervisors meeting room and voted unanimously to oppose Propositions 94 to 97.

A pretty building in downtown Lakeport. As you can see, it was raining fairly hard tonight.

Before the meeting I had a chance to have dinner at Renee's Diner -- a great little place in downtown Lakeport. Great apple pie!

I spent Wednesday evening in the high desert city of Hesperia, where the City Council voted to oppose Propositions 94 to 97. The drive was a little nostalgic for me since my Fliegner Grandparents lived for two decades in the next town over -- Victorville.

After the City Council meeting I stopped off at Los Domingos -- a pretty good Mexican restaurant in downtown Hesperia.

Good Start to the Year

The USC Trojans defeated the University of Illinois Fighting Illini 49 to 17 in the Rose Bowl today.

This marks the sixth straight appearance by USC in a BCS Bowl Game.

I've been to five out of six of those games. USC screwed me out of tickets to the 2006 Rose Bowl (but I'm not bitter).

USC has won five out of six of these BCS Bowl appearances -- losing the 2006 Rose Bowl to Texas.

Today ESPN named the 20 most exciting Rose Bowl games ever (since they started playing in 1902).

The Number One most exciting Rose Bowl game ever was the 2006 Rose Bowl. (Like I said -- not bitter.)

First stop upon arriving at the Rose Bowl was breakfast in the Clubhouse of the Brookside Golf Course.

This nice Illinois fan, from Galesburg, ended up sitting with me and my guest, Sky Johnson, while we had breakfast. Her family was crowded around the next table watching a bowl game on TV and she seemed to want a little break from them.

Sky grew up in Champaign and seemed thrilled to be surrounded by so many people from the plains.

A fountain at the Brookside Golf Course just north of the Rose Bowl.

As best I could tell from outside the fence, the University of Illinois pre-game party looked pretty fun. I especially liked it when the leader of the band from Champaign pointed out images of the party were streaming live on-line and begged for someone back home to FedEx out some mashed potatoes and gravy because "all there is to eat out here is sushi."

These three apparently didn't get the memo that the NCAA and the University of Illinois have banned images of Chief Illiniwek for being racially offensive.

They also wouldn't pose for me because I was wearing a USC cap.

Perhaps they thought I would post the photo on my blog and make a snotty comment.

You know you're in your seats early when they haven't even started the clock to count down the last 90 minutes before kick-off.

The Trojan Marching Band enters the stadium.

The USC Song Girls had roses in their hair before the game began.

The Rose Queen and her Court.

Emeril Lagasse was the Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade. With all due respect to Mr. Lagasse, why in the world was he chosen as Grand Marshall? Bam!

A Navy Seal delivers the USC flag during the pre-game ceremonies.

The Trojan Marching Band takes the field before the game.

Traveler was on hand today -- and was pretty visible because of USC's high-scoring offense.

Former USC Quarterback Matt Leinart (in a black shirt and blue jeans, with his back to the camera directly behind a photographer squatting down) and Will Farrell (posing for a picture in a red cap and red jacket on the far left of the photo) had two of USC's five side-line passes.

F-18s fly over the Rose Bowl Stadium before the game in perfect formation.

The University of Illinois Band faces the USC crowd with Illinois fans (in orange) behind them.

During the first quarter this woman put her head between her knees and threw up. For some reason, her husband poured water on the puke pile which only made it run more towards the people seated in front of them.

But the most disgusting thing was no one from the Rose Bowl came around to clean it up. They just poured some soak-it-up powder on it and just left it there. And she kept putting her Trojan Crocs under her chair (and into the puke pile) and then placing them onto the railing in front of her.

Nice way to start the New Year. By the end of the game she seemed to be feeling much better. She's probably out partying right now.

My seats were in the second row of the upper section in the southern end zone. These two women were directly in front of me. They thought it would be really fun to stand during the entire game. I wasn't going to say anything, but the people behind me kept yelling for them to sit down. Finally an usher (and two security guards) made them sit down. They started bad mouthing USC fans for "not supporting the team." I nicknamed the blond one "Chanel" (after her sunglasses) and told her going to a football game was a communal experience and she needed to work on being less self-centered. She started to cry and I realized I can mark "Make Someone Cry" off my 2008 To Do List.