…here’s my video of our countdown to the New Year on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Actually, there are two countdowns. The first is conducted only by me, as I look at my atomic-synchronized clock and count down the final five seconds before midnight. The second countdown, by the whole crowd, occurs one minute later. For some reason, the folks in Tempe were fully 60 seconds late with the “official” countdown — so really, everyone was counting down to 12:01 AM, not midnight. (No, my clock was not wrong. I double-checked it later against my computer’s clock, which is also centrally synchronized. My clock was right; the official clock was wrong.)

When I pointed out that midnight had come and gone, my brother-in-law Casey — who, um, may have been a wee bit inebriated :) from a few trips to the beer gardens — began repeatedly yelling to no one in particular, “DROP THE F***ING FLOWER!!!,” referring to the flower-like object (actually a “sunburst“) that was supposed to drop at midnight. Heh. His yells were audible in my live audio blog, and they’re very audible in this video, so I have to put a Warning: Profanity! label on it. But if you don’t mind the swearing, it’s quite funny. Enjoy:

(For a profanity-free version, showing only the final five seconds of the “official” countdown and then the beginning of the fireworks, click here.)

As you can see, we were quite a distance away from the stage. For a much closer view, check out this YouTube video:

That same YouTuber, “weener09,” has a bunch of other videos of headline act Third Eye Blind performing various songs earlier in the evening.

Anyway, you can also view my photo gallery of New Year’s Eve 2006-07. A few highlights:

Brotherly bonding: Casey and me in the beer garden.

Also in the beer garden: check out the size of that garbage bin! Holy crap!

Shortly before midnight, in a totally unexpected pleasant surprise, we ran into Diane Huffman, my former next-door neighbor with whom I’m been friends since infancy, and her fiance Josh. They just happened to be in Arizona using up free miles that they got during the trip out for our wedding. So, this is a picture of Diane, me and Becky. Note also the stranger sticking his Boise State cap into our picture. Heh. As I noted in this post, there were a TON of Broncos fans there.

Again, here’s the full photo gallery. ‘Twas a fun night. And somehow, I have a feeling that yelling “DROP THE F***ING FLOWER” at some point on New Year’s Eve is going to become a new Zak/Loy tradition. :)