No. 18 LSU clinches share of SEC crown!

LSU finished last in the west only a year ago. Now with 12 straight SEC wins and 9 wins in a row LSU is dominating. One more victory and they will win the conference outright! A great way to celebrate the 100th year of LSU basketball.

Geaux Tigers!

Conan

This is Conan's last week in the late night slot from New York. I get Conan's humor and he is hilarious. Its been fun watching the recaps of past episodes this week.

Not sure what moving up in time slot and to LA will do to his act. Thanks for all the great, funny stuff over the last 16 years.

Good luck, Conan.

Beast

This is the weekend for the annual Birthday prime rib! Can't wait...

Rifle
This is the Ruger 10/22 carbine. It shoots 22 caliber long rifle bullets. This model of rifle was the first gun I ever bought. Got it in 1980 and had a lot of fun with it plinking everything in the desert around Phoenix, AZ. I loved that gun. Sadly it was stolen when we moved from Phoenix.

So recently I've been wanting to get back into shooting. The boy has also been asking about it as well. So I naturally returned to my old friend the Ruger. I bought the same model and it arrived just last week. Since Texas is all private property the boy and I will head to the range to plink. But it will be good to teach him how to shoot and have some fun together.

Just Because...

Sometimes you have have to laugh at the random crazy stuff on this here internet.

Teenagers

Had to love this quote from a facebook dialog about stressing out over getting into colleges:

"im not stressing out at all. i didnt have to writ essays and im pretty sure the schools im applying to are super easy to get into. haha i dont want to go to a hard school."

Oh my, too funny.

The day the music died...



February 3, 1959

It was 40 years ago...



Jan 30, 1969.

Life...

Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

-Ferris Bueller

ICE DAY!

There is freezing rain in North Texas so the schools are closed! Have fun kids.

As for work that is still undecided :-( It may have to be a "Work from Home" day today :-)

The 2009 List

Part of the reinvention idea is really based on the fact I turn 45 years old this year. So I guess its time for the mid life crisis where you realize the "going to get to that one day" stuff needs to be gotten to!

So the 2009 list does include resolutions that are typical but it also includes new activities I feel drawn to or back to at this crossroads in life. The list (in order of priority):

1) Ask God to be in charge everyday - I always want to do it all by myself but it never works...
2) Daily exercise - no longer an option at this age. 30 min a day minimum, no exceptions.
3) Control finances - yet another typical list item but one that is critical with 2 kids in college
4) Reinvention - subtle changes so I don't get to stale...
5) Golf improvement. The game has been stagnant for me despite myself. It's time to get serious or walk away.
6) Deer hunting. The last time I hunted I was 18. Its time to get back.
7) Fly fishing. I've always wanted to try this and it seems like a good time.
8) A technical certification - got to challenge the mind and keep work skills up

That is it and that is a lot. Probably wont get it all done in 2009 but now is the time to start.

Fit issues

I did do a brisk 30 minute walk yesterday around the kitchen island. So I'm off to a good start.

Then I tried to fire up the Wii fit. But the Wii wouldn't power up. Figure we have a detached cable. Dug though the massive spagetti pile of cables for the TV/cable box/ps2/game cube/fit jumble only to find out it is connected properly. Oh man, fear set in that the Wii was dead. The Wii that took a lot of effort to procure! I pulled out the power adapter and Wii box. Figured I might as well check the power adapter. Who ever hears of a power adapater going bad? But had to check it. I got my trusty digital multi-meter and set it up for a DC voltage measurement. The label on the adapter says it has a 12V output. The meter read ZERO. Problem found. I order a new power adapter which is $20 and will take a week to get here. So now I'm out of a Wii for a week. Ug, nothing is ever easy.

Fitness

The new year has worn off now and any feable excuses I had left are used up. The last one being if the new president doesn't have to start work until Jan 20 well then me too! Oh, so feable I know. So its time to get back to fitness. While I'm not sure I can shed 20 lbs like my friend committed to I do need to unload some and keep the bp down. So resolution one kicks into full implementation TODAY!

The Dream

...From 1776 to 1862 to Jan 20, 2009, was really for us all.

Blogging Drought

Not much to say which means to much going (back on the work bullet train), obsessions, angst, searching, routines, winter, and just getting in my own way!

You know how it is...

And yes, I need to buy new shoes. Both of them have a huge crack right under the balls of my feet! Cheap Kohl's shoes... Ah, and yes, I have only one pair of 'daily' shoes at any given time.

Pop Culture

On my last visit to Chicago this sign was in my hotel room:

'Pop' is a term for sodas in the midwest. We always used the term 'Coke' for sodas regardless of what type it was. And other people actually use 'soda'. And it just so happens somebody studied this and made a map of what term is used where. I found it at the stange maps site:

Blue = Pop, Red = Coke, Yellow = Soda

click here for a bigger image of the map

More SEC football

This has been a couple of days of some exciting games. The SEC really did well (until last night anyway).

South Carolina - oh well, they got to a bowl

Ole Miss - Love the upset and what a great game to watch

Kentucky - Another great game to watch, East Carolina was evenly matched in this game of knees.

Alabama - Wow, where did the Utes come from? I really didn't expect this outcome and am always glad to see another BCS shake up. Leave it to the 'bamers to make a mess of it all. The Utes will go down as number 2 but will have the legitamate argument to number 1. An all to familiar yearly BCS argument ritual.

SEC in bowls:
12 teams total
8 teams went to bowls
5 wins (LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, Kentucky, Vandy)
2 losses (Alabama, South Carolina)
1 left to play for the National Championship (Florida)

Impressive!

To bad the national championship wasn't tonight. Spreading these bowls out all over just doesn't do a whole lot for the sport in my opinion. I know we have another BCS bowl to go (go Longhorns) and their is the NFL to contend with but come on schedulers. I want my college football to end with the holidays...

SEC!!

They said Vandy couldn't beat the BC streak... Vandy 16 BC 15 . Yeah 'dores!!

Then LSU was the underdog to G Tech.. But LSU put that one down 38 - 3!!

Go 'dores!
Gueax Tigers!
Go SEC!!!!

Vacation

Into week 2 now and it is flying by. The weather has been good so that has been a big plus.

Yesterday the boy and I went to the driving range together. That was a lot of fun.

Then Joan and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. This was a really good movie and it was great to have a date night.

Tomorrow night is the annual New Years dinner party with friends. We take the young master to the Grand parents for an over-nighter and the girls go their own way.

One more day of 2008, how did this happen?

Tamale Night

To start the festive season off we had Tamale and Pictionary night. The parents, older brother, oldest daughter with significant other and son, and all of the other children came together at our place on Sunday evening. Earlier I had picked up 5 dozen tamales from Joe T. Garcia's bakery in Fort Worth. The evening started by devouring the delicious tamales. All really enjoyed this and gut busting goodness was had.

Then we had a great game of pictionary. These were the advanced set of cards Joan had made. Two teams were made and off we went. Nothing like the free association that comes pouring out when your trying to figure out what the person is drawing. Lots of family fun.

The highlight was my brother trying to get us to guess zombie. Here he is below as well as the zoom in of the clues. Needless to say we didn't get it. After the timer went off and he was explaining it I'm still not sure I followed his logic. This included his picture of the pituirary gland... So all night the phrase "Chris, is that a pituitary gland?" kept coming up!!



More activities are planned, can't wait!

Merry Christmas yall!