Nowhere

I had a dream

2010-04-04T09:34:00.001-04:00

Hello! I'm breaking a seven month silence to tell you about a dream I had last night. I want to get it down now before I forget about it and its too long for a Facebook status, so here I am.

To understand the dream you have to get some real world context. Two points:

1. We have been having computer problems. Our main household desktop got a virus on it a few weeks ago. I got it cleared off as far as I can tell, but it's still being hit with those fake antivirus ads and my antivirus won't update and Windows Update won't run either. I run antivirus and malware scans (of course, my definitions are a month out of date because I can't update them) but they don't find anything. Oh, and I'm getting these annoying fake captcha things too. Grr! Anyone have any ideas on that one?

2. I am immersed in audiobooks of The Wheel of Time during my commute. I'm currently halfway through The Great Hunt. Good stuff.

So, my dream. I was fighting with the computer, trying to get my antivirus updated. As usual I was getting the non-connect messages and everything else. Suddenly, it started updating out of nowhere! Cool!

I heard a noise outside the window and looked out the window and saw a man walking through the yard. He was tall, with red hair. I recognized him. It was Rand al'Thor! He's ta'veren! That has to be why the computer updated! I yelled for one of the kids to go ask him to stop and invite him in. I wanted to make sure he stuck around long enough for my updating to finish. I woke up. No idea if he came in or not.

For those of you who have never read The Wheel Of Time, ta'veren are people who can affect events in the world just by being there. Events tend to center on them and just being in the area would be enough to cause a computer to update despite hidden virus debris.

It was pretty cool.

What did you dream last night?

On the road

2009-10-01T22:49:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been to Dawsonville, Georgia? It's about 40 miles north of our place, straight out Georgia 400. My Uncle Bubber and Aunt Pauline lived there a few years ago and we used to go see them.

There's some pretty cool stuff to do out that way. Bill Elliott Racing maintains a museum in Dawsonville. Supposedly it has all sorts of "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" memorabilia and stuff. It's free, I think. There's also a nice outlet mall up that way that's not too bad. It's centrally located for Dahlonega and Lake Lanier and Amicalola Falls and some of the other North Georgia sites to see. It's a nice area.

You know why I'm telling you all this about Dawsonville? So when you come visit us up there you'll have an idea of what there is to do. That's right! The Brady Bunch is MOVING TO DAWSONVILLE!

That's right--we're leaving Sandy Springs behind. Some friends of ours rented a house up that way that has 3BR/2BA downstairs, and a completely separate upstairs wing that also has 3BR/2BA. There is a kitchen separating them and each wing has its own entrance and exit to the outside.. They invited us to move up and split the house with them, and we decided to take advantage of the offer.

They will live in the upstairs wing, and we will live downstairs. It will be like a duplex. We're calling it the "duplay" in an effort to sound all highfalutin'. We'll split the kitchen and all the bills, so we expect our expenditures to go way down. We're going to see if we can actually save some money now.

We're really looking forward to it. There's a park not far away that is part of the Lake Lanier system, so we might get the chance for some aquatic fun if things work out. The kids will be going to Dawson County schools, and we are hoping the change will work for them. The school they are in down here (as well as our neighborhood) has been going downhill the last couple of years. We don't feel it's as safe and neighborly as it used to be, so we are jumping at the chance to move into a better environment.

Hopefully it will be a good move for everyone. Darlene's and my commutes are going to be a lot longer but we feel it is worth it to be in a better place. We started the moving process yesterday with Darlene bringing some boxes home from work. We're hoping to be fully moved and have the kids starting school up there on October 19. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, whatever you do for luck and good fortune, do it for us as we move. I'll keep you up to date with what's going on as the next couple of weeks go by. We'll be going up there Saturday to take a load of stuff. We'll try to get some pictures and I'll post them as soon as I can.

in other news, for you Sandy Springs FFC fans, this past weekend marked the first win of the season, a 57-41 thrashing of Sea Stags, raising the record to 1-2. The 57 points is one of the highest in franchise history. Might be the actual highest, but I'm too lazy to check. "Mojo" Maurice Jones-Drew scored three TD's and Percy Harvin ran a kickoff back for a TD. Between them they scored 36 points and everyone else did what was needed. It was a good week. This week's opponent is 2-1 Hook-Ups. Should be a good one.

Take care for now, and support your local blogger.

Lordy, Lordy

2009-09-24T22:05:00.000-04:00

I turned 40 on Tuesday. I'm not going to ponder on it because to me it's not a big deal. I had another birthday. We ate at Golden Corral. Whee! Happy Birthday, me!

Sandy Springs FFC fell to 0-2 on the season. Week 1 was a 31-25 loss to MacBain, and Week 3 was a sad 26-15 defeat at the hands of a previously toothless Lethal Weapon 4 squad. Tom Brady didn't do anything for me. Week 3 is next, with 2-0 Sea Stags on the schedule. Karl's guys are always tough. We'll see what happens.

Not much else going on, so I'm out. Peace. Support your local bloggers.

Catching up is hard to do

2009-09-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Ich bin ein Blogslacker. It's been a long time since I've updated here. I've done a bit of updating on my my writing blog from time to time over the summer, but not here. I've spent most of my free time on Facebook playing bloody Farmville. I haven't even played my Webkinz lately--only three times in the last two months or something. Poor Fletcher is probably sitting there all, "uh....".

So much has happened this summer. It's hard to figure out what exactly is the coolest thing to tell you. I suppose the coolest thing is that Lynn and Brad, our friends from church, adopted a lovely newborn baby boy named Bailey and asked Darlene and me to be his godparents. He's about two months old now. That was cool, and we've enjoyed getting to know him (and them) better over the last few weeks. We babysat today, in fact, and Darlene and me, and her parents, and Bailey all went to IHOP. Bailey had French toast. It was cool.

I'm still digging my job and the rest of the family is back in school. The twins are in the 6th grade and Steven is in the 8th. They're all at the same school and their school has made the big switch to wearing uniforms this year. That's been different. Sage is in the 3rd grade and is having a good time, and Darlene has started a new year with 2,000 clowns in the cafeteria. Gracie is just a clown in her own right, as usual.

I've been doing some writing on and off. I submitted a short story to an online SF/Fantasy magazine about a month ago and am anxiously awaiting a response. Nanowrimo is coming up in November and I'm going to be making a push on that again. Like I said above, I updated my writing blog a few times during the summer. I will be doing a restatement of purpose over there in the next few days--laying out what I hope to accomplish over the next few months. I do that from time to time so I can actually have a list of goals to look back on in February and say, "Man, I meant to do that." Keep an eye on the writing blog. Here's the link again. Set a bookmark. Hit the RSS feed, whatever. Check it out!

The other thing that's going to be trying to bring me back here over the next few months will be my fantasy football updates. My UFFL team is currently behind in Week 1, 31-19, with Cousin Tom Brady and Wes Welker playing tomorrow night. I have a couple of other teams on Facebook and Yahoo, but as usual I'll try to limit my fantasy sportswriting to the UFFL front, as that's my first love as far as fantasy football goes.

I think that's all I really have to say right now. With football starting up I should be a more frequent poster. Summer is always a slow time for the blog. Autumn should pick it back up nicely. Take care, and please support your local blogger. And add comments, darn it!

Lake Junaluska NC

2009-07-04T20:38:00.003-04:00

Bring on the fireworks!

Father's Day loot

2009-06-21T22:02:00.003-04:00

This was a good Father's Day. I got some great presents from the crew.

Steven gave me a t-shirt--sleeveless for those hot days on the summer weekends.

The twins each gave me a book. I got The Children Of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien and Warbreaker, the new one from my favorite author, Brandon Sanderson.

Sage gave me a cool action figure of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch dressed as Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars. Check it out!

Darlene got me a new Webkinz, the sea otter. He is on order but once he arrives I'm going to name him Skipper (in honor of Skipper Of Otters from the Redwall series by Brian Jacques).

Thanks, guys; I really appreciate the awesome presents. I love you!

Touched

2009-04-27T00:08:00.002-04:00

I was trying to go to sleep and just couldn't. It's been in my heart all night to write about what happened at church tonight and I finally decided I needed to get up, come back in here, and do it.

My wife talks about "getting a blessing" at church. Usually this means something has happened during a service that has touched her and made her remember why she goes to church and connects her to her faith. It might be a scripture or a line from a sermon or a song or a prayer or something completely obscure to anyone but her, but when it happens it is a real connection, and the meaningfulness of it cannot be denied. I don't get that sensation myself nearly as often as she does. I'm not as religious as she is, nor as faithful. My blessings at church usually come from watching other people get blessed, and seeing the joy she gets from it. When she's happy, I'm happy. When she's blessed, I'm blessed.

Tonight at church I got a blessing of my own.

It was because of the kids. I've written on here before about the wonderful youth group we have at our church. Our church is small in terms of membership, but we have a disproportionately large number of kids. This morning when the kids got up and went to children's church more than half the congregation left the sanctuary. We have a large, vibrant youth group. Tonight, the youth that were at the evening service had rehearsed a couple of songs in sign language that they performed for us, then the singing began.

Usually on Sunday night we'll line the kids up in front of the platform and sing a few songs with them, then they'll take a seat and the grown-up Praise Team will take over. Tonight, for some reason, someone had the idea to put the kids in the choir section (usually empty on Sundays) and turn on the overhead choir mikes. They had a blast. There were maracas and wood blocks and tambourines for them to bang away on--one of the girls was using Beverly Boggs's big tambourine and I saw a couple of other kiddie-sized ones getting used as well. There was singing and clapping and dancing in the choir like I've never seen on a Sunday night. Some of the adults in the crowd were joking that the Sunday morning adult choir better be looking over their shoulders. At least, I think they were joking.

I stopped singing along at some point and just started listening to the kids sing. It wasn't particularly melodious--at one point I think some of them must have been having a contest to see who could sing the loudest--but it was passionate and honest and pure. It touched me. More than once I had to wipe away a tear, even during some of the more upbeat numbers.

I don't know if I can remember everyone who sang but I'm going to try: Jewel, Jessica, Morgan, Jazmine, Kayla, Brendan, Bailey, Matthew, Hunter, and Dylan. I think that's everyone. I don't know if the other Hunter was up there singing or not. If I left anyone out, I'm sorry, and I hope someone will please comment and remind me who they were. Kids, thank you for a wonderful night of music, and thank you for giving me such a blessing. It's nights like this that make me glad we found this church. I've always said it feels like a family. Tonight showed that to be true yet again.

I want to thank whoever had the idea to put the kids in the choir area tonight. Watching them perform gave me hope for the future of the church. It's a small church, and seeing the next generation getting into the spirit of the music tells me the future might be in pretty good hands. After the service was over I urged the pastor, as well as Lynn (the youth leader) and Mark (the music director), to make children's choir a permanent part of Sunday night services. I think it would add so much to the service. The church bulletin always lists the Sunday morning music as being provided by the Adult Choir. I'd love to open a bulletin someday and see that the Sunday night music is to be presented by the Children's Choir. I think that would be pretty cool.

Three years and counting

2009-04-15T01:02:00.000-04:00

Today is our third wedding anniversary. I could go on for pages and pages about how lucky I am and how in love with this wonderful woman I am, but I'm sure she's tired of hearing it. If you're married, though, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. If you're not married, hopefully you'll feel it one day.

I will say this: there was a time not too long before we started dating that I was seriously starting to think I would never be married. Luckily, she and I got together and I was proved incorrect. Darlene, I love you, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Happy anniversary, my love.

Second draft is underway!

2009-04-07T02:24:00.001-04:00

Keep an eye on my writing blog! I began working on the second draft of Silvershield tonight. I'll maintain a progress bar here, but if you want the blow by blow as revisions proceed you'll have to go over there. Wish me luck!

One of those months

2009-04-04T00:43:00.002-04:00

It's been one of those months. There's been a lot going on but nothing to really blog about. I feel like I should be posting more often, but there just hasn't been a lot to say. I went through that introspective phase a few weeks ago and that just sort of shot my wad as far as having anything relevant to say. I hope you haven't felt too neglected.

Darlene's mom is doing well. Her radiation is progressing well and we're happy to report that spirits are high all around. This upcoming week is Spring Break so Darlene and the kids are going to go to Maggie Valley to visit her parents. I'll be doing the bachelor thing. Hopefully I can take the time to get caught up on 24 and Dollhouse and get some writing done. Keep an eye on the writing blog to see if I manage to pull it off. Actually, I'm going to post over there when I get done here about some books I've been reading over the last few weeks. Check it out if you want some good sci-fi/fantasy recommendations!

Today (well, technically yesterday, since it's after midnight now) was my nephew Jackson Tyler Brady's 2nd birthday! He's getting bigger all the time and I just want to take the opportunity to wish him a Happy Birthday from Uncle Bubba, Aunt Dar, and all the kids. We love you!


The birthday boy (pic courtesy of The Brady Blog)

My parents have an exciting summer coming up. You may or may not know that they are full-time RVers and have been living the gypsy life for several years now, since they retired. Last summer my dad took a seasonal job with the United States Park Service as a Ranger at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. He had thought he was going back there this summer, but as it turns out he is going to a different park instead. He'll be heading west to Glacier National Park in Montana. We're hoping to be able to take a road trip out there this summer to see them. That would be exciting. It's more than 2,000 miles from here, across most of the country. It would be a great chance for us to see a lot of places and things we've never seen before. Yet another reason for you to keep your eye on the blog this summer--to see if we get out west.

Huh. I said I didn't have anything to say and it turned out to be pretty newsy after all. How about that.

Go Braves!

Sleeping With The Past

2009-03-13T00:16:00.000-04:00

I've been feeling introspective lately. I think part of it is that I recently realized I'm six months from turning 40. That would make anyone angsty, I suppose. I joined Facebook too, and am encountering a lot of names and faces from the past, stirring up memories and feelings that have been laying dormant for a long time. That's not always a good thing. I've also been seeing promos for some new TV show that seems to be about a woman who gets sent into her own past to solve her old problems and fix her life. I don't remember what it's called or what channel it's on and I am too lazy to go look it up. Still, seeing the ads really hit me where I live.

I'm an infamous dweller-onner when it comes to my past. I used to get into these melancholy, emotionally self-abusive moods from time to time and spend days rehashing my past and thinking about all the things that I wish were different about it--decisions I wish I'd made differently, people I wish I had spoken to, jobs I wish I'd had--and beating myself up over everything I thought I had done wrong. I would think about how my life could have been different if I hadn't stuttered in high school, or if we hadn't moved in 1985, or if I had gotten that job, or dated (or not dated) that girl, or whatever else I could come up with to use to flagellate my emotions. Truth is, I probably should have spent lots of quality time in a therapist's office sorting out my volumes (I used to tell people, "I don't have issues, I have volumes."). I never did, though, and my volumes have continued to live, festering and Gollum-like, in a dank little cave in the back of my mind, bubbling to the surface now and then to make my life miserable.

I built up some huge emotional walls over the years. My teenage years were...unpleasant. I came out of them emotionally crippled in some very significant ways. By the time I started working on my major in college my self-esteem was all but nonexistent and my self-confidence was shot, which led directly to a rash of bad decisions during the early 1990's that have populated my volumes ever since. My walls have been coming down slowly but surely over the last few years, but I'm still not the confident, fully emotional person I'm capable of being. I doubt I ever will be, to be honest with you--my walls were high, y'all. I don't think they'll ever come down all the way. I've come a lot further than I ever thought I could, though.

One of the biggest sources of dwelt-upon regrets about my life is that I've never cared for the arc my career has followed. I like my job, don't get me wrong, but I really can't stand the field I'm in. I never wanted to be a "computer guy" and it's bugged me for years that I made decisions during and after college that got me stuck in this field. Over the last couple of years, though, I've finally come to realize that the things I always wished were different about my life don't matter. I'd rather have a family to love and support me amidst doubts about my career than a job that truly satisfies but no one at home. If I had done things differently in 1992-93 I might have a more satisfying career, but Sage would never have been born and I would never have met Darlene and her kids. Whatever else may be screwed up in my life, having those people to love me and to love in return has been the best cure for toxic nostalgia that I could have ever imagined.

It's also helped that I've written a lot over the last year. I think I wrote more words in 2008 than in any other year of my life. Between losing my job last spring and the havoc it wreaked on our finances and Darlene's mom's recent health issues, I've been under a tremendous amount of stress for near on a year now and I haven't always handled with it with aplomb. Along with a loving family, though, writing has been the best therapy I could have asked for. Blogging has helped a great deal. Just knowing that I could express myself at any time by just spilling it all out on the Internet has been a fantastic outlet for me, even if I didn't take advantage of it as much as I should have. My noveling has been a source of inspiration as well. I spent many late nights last summer getting my mind off my increasingly futile job search by writing about Khan and Elaine and Tazzeter and the other denizens of Raelan. Last November the bills were still piling high as I learned my new job. NaNoWriMo helped me keep my head above water as I journeyed through my developing nation of Sov with Declan Combe and his army. Even now, as the light at the end of tunnel is turning out to not be an onrushing train after all, I find myself turning ideas for Silvershield revisions over in my head. It's time to get started on that. It's time for the next step in my recovery.

I've been feeling introspective lately. I'm looking back again, yes, but not with regret, not any more. Life is good. I like where I am. I just have to get used to feeling that way and everything will be OK.

Update on Grandma

2009-03-02T22:24:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! Darlene's mom is home safe and getting better after her surgery last week. Darlene has posted a newsy update on the surgery and how her mom is doing on her blog. You can view it at http://darlenebrady.blogspot.com/2009/03/update-on-mama.html.

A fork in the road

2009-02-17T23:52:00.003-05:00

Despite slacka indications to the contrary I really do have intentions of working to get a book sold to someone this year. With an eye toward that goal I have decided to split my blog into two parts.

The Writing Excuses guys were talking last week about marketing yourself as an author on the Internet. While trying not to sound pretentious by referring to myself as an author, I decided that part of their advice made a lot of sense. They said that if you were going to blog, you should take a close look at what is posted on your blog, especially if you are an "aspiring" author. If agents or publishers that you are trying to sell your book to Google you and see a lot of rants and personal posts on your blog, is that something you would want them to see? Is it professional?

I decided to treat my writing like a job--not as an extension of my personal time, but as a part-time vocation that is as separate from my family life and my personal posts as my day job is. I don't post about my regular job on my blog. You never know who's going to surf in; there's no sense taking the chance that a post about work is read and misinterpreted. I decided to treat my writing the same way.

Rather than stop blogging about my writing, though, I created a new blog. I copied all the posts from this blog that deal with writing--the Mother's Daughter posts, the NaNoWriMo updates, the Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss paeans, the word count anxiety, all of it--to my new blog and deleted them from this one.

As a result, this here blog is now going to deal with my family life and any other stories I want to tell or rants I want to emit. You'll see pictures, videos, birthday wishes, high school reminisces, and (possibly) the occasional haiku. You'll see everything, that is, that you've always seen here, but you won't see any updates on my writing. I'll let you know when I start something new and keep a progress meter posted, but for in-depth coverage you'll have to check out the new site.

The new blog is at http://sambrady.wordpress.com/. Set a bookmark. I was going to set it up at Blogger, but the sambrady username was taken and I really wanted to use my own name for the blog (again, for potential marketing purposes). I was going to do it at Livejournal--even went so far as to grab the available sambrady userid--then remembered that I came to Blogger in the first place because I didn't like Livejournal's blog entry interface. I went and looked at it again, since it's been a few years since I used it. Still didn't like it. So I checked out Wordpress. I like it well enough to use it. I don't think it's quite as intuitive as Blogger, but I like it better than LJ, so there you go.

The name of the new blog is The Chronicles of Sov. Sov is the name of the nation that my stories are set in. The word "Chronicles" in the title means simply that I will be chronicling the creation of stories set in Sov. It has nothing to do with Benjamin Temko. There will be no Kia dealerships nor BMV offices in Sov.

At this moment all that is up at the new site is the material I have moved over from this blog. You've seen it before, but I invite you to click over anyway and check out the new surroundings. Hit me with a comment when you get there so I'll know you've been by. New postings will begin whenever I start revisions on Silvershield, which will hopefully be soon. Please keep checking both blogs, to see what is up with the Brady Bunch, in Sandy Springs as well as in Sov.

Support your local blogger!

Grandma

2009-02-09T22:05:00.003-05:00

I've been a blogslacker lately. I have good reasons and bad reasons. I've been getting caught up on Battlestar Galactica and 24, I've been re-reading the Mistborn books, and I'm developing a Facebook addiction that gets me into trouble with my wife from time to time when she starts to feel neglected. Depending on your perspective, those reasons are some combination of good and bad. The main reason I haven't done much blogging lately, though, is that we've been spending a lot of our time cheering for Darlene's mom. I've dropped some hints about her status from time to time, but today things went a long way towards getting cleared up, so I thought the time was right to sit and write about it.

A few weeks ago she had a biopsy run on some tissue in her throat. She had been complaining of strep-like symptoms but antibiotics weren't doing anything so the doctor ordered more tests. The biopsy turned up some malignant tissue in the area around her tonsil. We were told it was a stage one carcinoma and low-grade worrying began. An MRI was scheduled a couple of weeks ago but was unable to be completed due to her claustrophobia. She just couldn't bring herself to get into the MRI tube. It was too tight. She tried hard, though, and we were proud of her. They were able to run a CAT scan last Monday and the results came back last Friday.

The news was about the best we could have hoped for. The cancer is apparently confined to one of her tonsils, although there is a lymph node they're a little suspicious of. We found out today that they've scheduled her for surgery on February 24th to remove the tonsil and the lymph node (which they will immediately biopsy). She will require five weeks of radiation treatment--not chemo, just radiation. Due to her age and the location of the cancer they want to make sure the risk of spread is lessened as much as possible. We're all relieved the news was good and everyone is making plans to be at her side when she comes out of surgery on the 24th.

She's had a lot of prayers go up on her behalf--three churches that I know of have her on their prayer lists, and we've been sending them up every chance we get--but we'll gladly take more. If you're the praying kind, remember her in your prayers over the next couple of weeks as she prepares for her surgery. If you're not the praying type, send some good thoughts or healing energy, or whatever support you can muster. We'll take all the help and positivity we can get. We love you, Grandma!

That's all for now. Look me up on Facebook if you haven't already and always remember to support your local bloggers.

Happy Birthday, Steven!

2009-01-10T11:44:00.000-05:00

Today is Steven's 14th birthday. We're excited that he's made it through another year and we can't wait to see what the next 12 months bring. He'll be starting high school in the fall. He's not a little kid any more. He's getting big and his mom and I are so proud to see him growing into a great young man. He's still got that big smile and that crazy sense of humor. Here's hoping 2009 will give him the opportunity for more growth and maturity and show him just how wonderful life can be. We love you, Steven! Happy Birthday!

2008 Brady Bunch Year In Review

2009-01-09T21:23:00.003-05:00

Here is our 2008 year in review slideshow. Some of the pictures were ganked from Grandma and from my brother Bill's blog. Music is "I'm Working On A Building" by the Seventy Sevens. Enjoy!

Facebook and YouTube

2009-01-05T23:01:00.001-05:00

I've joined up at Facebook. If you're a member, pop in and say hi. It's cool. I've already reconnected with four people I haven't heard from in more than 20 years. It's a neat thing. Darlene and Steven use MySpace, but I think I like Facebook better. It's just not as cluttered, you know?

I'm also working on a Year In Review picture slideshow. I had one done yesterday but YouTube rejected it because the music I used triggered a copyright violation. So I have to change the music and try to rejigger the pacing and I just haven't taken the time yet to do it. I hope to get it done some time this week.

That's it for now. Keep an eye out here for the slideshow and come see me at Facebook. Support your local blogger.

Joy To The World

2008-12-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Seasons Greetings from Sandy Springs!

It's been a while again since I've posted. Before you ask, no, I haven't done anything on the story revisions. This post isn't about that. I was going to do some good catching up, but my wife did a good bit of that for me, telling all about the kids' Christmas play at church and our trip to family Christmas in N.C. I'm not going to repeat all that. Just go to her blog and read it.

At her request, I'm going to tell you about the Christmas choir performance. It was the Sunday before Christmas and we sang some songs and my parents came and listened to us sing. How was that? Didn't I do great? No, seriously, we had a great time. We did five songs and the show lasted about 20 minutes, I guess. Everyone said it was a good performance. I'm not really sure what else to say, other than the fact that we had a good time being a part of it. Kudos to Mark and Debbie for picking some cool songs and to Mark for his fine direction. Lynn rocked the solos as well, and I rocked the man-soli that one time we had to hold out that note while the women sang the chorus underneath it. It was cool.

We've had a great Christmas season and are looking forward to the New Year. The Falcons are in the playoffs, the Hawks are better than they've been in 20 years, I'm reading a really cool book, the kids are the kids (which is a compliment, even when they act a hot mess), my job is secure, and my wife has a sexy butt. Life is good heading into 2009. Hopefully yours is as well. Support your local blogger!

Jessica's new glasses

2008-12-16T17:15:00.002-05:00

Check it out!

I'm back!

2008-12-11T00:16:00.002-05:00

Did you even notice I was gone? You haven't missed much. The fantasy football front was pitiful. SFC split the last two games of the season and missed the playoffs, finishing #10 in the Power Ranking. We lost to Lethal Weapon 4 15-2 (that's right; we only scored two points the week we played the team with Keyshawn Johnson starting at WR. Gack. Then we turned around in Week 14 and beat a decent Hook-Ups team 20-16. Go figure. Maybe next year we'll have better luck choosing kickers and Tom Brady will be healthy again. Congrats to Rake, though, on his successful season, and Ben, for his successful season in our Yahoo league. Good luck in the playoffs, guys!

Christmas choir rehearsal was chaotic tonight. Kids everywhere, four babies in various laps in various stages of excitement, and in the midst of it all, eight people trying to sing and hear the director's cues over the uproar. It was a great time. That performance is coming up in a couple of Sundays. Wish us luck!

That's it for now. My blogslacking is over for now. Take care, and as always, support your local bloggers.

Another in a series

2008-11-30T18:27:00.003-05:00

$19 for 12 gallons. Oh yeah!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T11:15:00.000-05:00

Among the chaos and confusion of November, I thought it would be nice to sit down and write some nice words about some of the things I am truly thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for my family. My wife Darlene and our four incredible kids (and the crazed dog) have made my life so rich over the last three years. I still can't believe that my life has changed as much as it has. Darlene, I am so happy and proud to be your husband and I am so thankful that you have stuck around through all the craziness and kept me straight. I love you.
Steven, Jewel, Jessica, and Sage, I love you all so much and I am so glad I get the chance to be your dad. I know I am too hard on you guys sometimes and I will promise to try and do better. I always wanted a family and with you guys beside me, that's what I have. I love all of you.
Gracie, you're an insane doggy clown. You lick me too much sometime, but I'm glad you're part of our family. I love you.
I am thankful for my parents and my in-laws. Darlene's folks are with us today, and my parents are crossing the Panama Canal on their cruise. I'm thankful that they're all young enough and energetic enough to travel and experience the world in their own way. I love all of you.
I'm thankful that we have found a church to guide us and give our kids a path to walk on. The Shirey kids decided last night that they wanted to give their hearts to Jesus. That was such a huge step for them to take and I think it reflects the maturity that they have gained by being part of such a vibrant church community. Darlene and I continue to enjoy Christmas choir, and I am so glad that we are able to go each week. To my church family, I love you as well.
Finally, I'm thankful that we all have our health, that Darlene and I have good jobs, and that we all have each other. It's been a wonderful three years. There have been ups and downs, but at the end of the day our lives are all so much better than they would have been otherwise because we are able to share our lives with each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in 2008.

Down goes SFC!

2008-11-26T15:16:00.000-05:00

We lose! MacBain beat Sandy Springs FFC 32-17 to drop SFC to 5-7. Neither RB scored, and Leon Washington had 18 points on the bench. Leon has more points this season than Slaton does but hasn't started a game for me. I think it's time for a lineup change, especially with the Jets playing Denver this week.

Chunky Soup clinched the division, but SFC is still in the hunt for a wild card slot. Here are the SFC playoff scenarios directly from the UFFL website:

* Earn playoff spot with 2 wins and 1 Men O'War loss and 1 MacBain loss.
* If win 1, lose 1: will earn playoff spot with 2 losses by MOW and 2 losses by McB and Bake-O's loss in Week 14.
* Eliminated with 2 losses.

I guess that's it in a nutshell, innit? This week's opponent is Lethal Weapon 4, who are 1-10-1 and have 11 of their 18 players that aren't even active in the NFL. They can't even put a full lineup on the field--Keyshawn Johnson is one of their starting WR's. That's a big reason they've only won one game this year. I'm not getting cocky, but I'm hopeful. MOW and BAK play each other and McB plays Munchen Mavericks. I'll be cheering for BAK and MM.

Again, wow

2008-11-25T07:41:00.002-05:00

Some personal business

2008-11-24T22:29:00.006-05:00

We got some tough news over the weekend. Elton Ford is a football player who graduated last year from the school where Darlene works. He was awarded a football scholarship by the University of Arkansas. He won a starting position at safety as a freshman and was having a good year. We found out over the weekend that a couple of weeks ago he was injured in a game and is out for the remainder of the season with three fractured vertebrae. It's not considered career-threatening, apparently, but it's still a scary thing to hear. We're sending prayers and healing thoughts his way and ask everyone out there to do so as well. Darlene says he's a good kid and we're hoping he'll be able to come back to full health.

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! Mom and Dad are on a Thanksgiving cruise this week. They're presently in Cozumel and are headed to Costa Rica and Panama later in the week. On Thanksgiving Day they'll be on an excursion crossing the Panama Canal. A nice way to celebrate your birthday. Congratulations on making it one more year. I know there'll be many more years and adventures for you and Mom. I love you!

SFC Week 11, Part 2

2008-11-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

So the big win held up. 44-12 over Bake-O's. SFC won the week in the league and moves up to #9 in the Power Ranking. We're in third place in the division, just a half-game out of second and a playoff spot. Next week's opponents are MacBain's 69th Highlanders, owned and operated by former Jeopardy contestant and all-around whimiscal guy Rod Bain. MacBain is 4-7 on the year, and their logo features Dick Butkus wearing a kilt. They have a fantastic three-headed RB corps and a decent lineup elsewhere. Looking at their roster I'm not sure how they've only won four games. Hopefully they won't get their fifth this weekend. Tune back in next week for more UFFL updates.

Good news!

2008-11-17T22:02:00.001-05:00

Fantasy football was good this week. Sandy Springs FFC kicked the jamba juice out of Bake-O's. winning 44-12. As of this writing it SFC is still in line to have the highest score in the league this week, for the first time all year. RB's Mojo and Steve Slaton both scored 12 points, and K Neil Rackers picked up 17 big points to lead the charge. Yes! I picked the right kicker!

I won't know the full implications of the win until tomorrow. Monday Night Football is ongoing and there are games still up in the air. We're 5-6 and in the middle of the playoff hunt, though, and have the last two weeks. Mojo has come alive, with 5 TD's the last two weeks. Hopefully he'll stay alive for a while longer.

November birthdays (and other business)

2008-11-14T01:11:00.007-05:00

I told you last week about Darlene and I joining the Christmas choir at church (I haven't decided if I want to sing in the regular choir or not). We practiced again last night after church. It went well. We had four men there and five or six women. It's a good group of people with a good mix of vocal ranges. On top of all that, the songs are a lot of fun to sing. I think it's going to be a good time.

I also want to correct some omissions from my blog the last few days. Last Thursday (November 6) was Jewel and Jessica's birthday. Tuesday (November 11) was my mom's birthday. I should have mentioned these at the time and I didn't. I was so caught up in NaNoing and blogging about NaNoing that I forgot about those important birthdays. Today (November 13) was another important birthday--it was Darlene's mom's birthday. Our moms were born two days apart in the same year. I think that's kind of cool. To you four wonderful ladies, Happy Birthday from your stepdad/son/son-in-law. I love you all, and I'm very glad to have you around. I hope your next year is as full of wonder and joy as your last one was.

Mr. Mojo Rising

2008-11-11T07:08:00.000-05:00

We take a pause from NaNoWriMo to bring you fantasy football news. Sandy Springs FFC goes to 4-6 with a huge 38-14 victory over Munchen Mavericks. That is the highest point total of the year. The charge was led by "Mojo" Maurice Jones-Drew's 18 points off of three TD runs. I also started the right kicker, going with Neil Rackers, who put up 11 points. SFC rises to #10 in the Power Rankings

Next week's opponents are arch-rival Bake-O's. These two teams have a long history, having battled for division titles and playoff spots many times. Each team has sabotaged the other more than once. This season are both teams are 4-6 and the winner could possibly move into 2nd place in the division, depending on what happens with Men O'War. That doesn't necessarily mean we're in the playoff chase, as the top 6 teams in the other division all have better records. Tune in next week to see how the big game turns out.

Wow

2008-11-09T16:31:00.003-05:00

I didn't think I'd ever see this again.

Singing!

2008-11-06T01:32:00.004-05:00

They were looking for some help at church in the choir for the Christmas season, so Darlene and I decided to join up. This isn't a choir like the one Ben and Wanda have been associated with at St. Philip's. They don't wear robes and sing in perfect four-part harmony. It's a small group (it's ranged anywhere from 3-12 people since we've been going, depending on who's at church on any given Sunday) of regular people who want to stand up and sing. It's a great group of people and it's the kind of choir I can be comfortable being a part of. I'm looking forward to learning the Christmas music. The songs we started with tonight were pretty cool. So now the whole family is involved in the Christmas celebration at church. Darlene and I are in the choir and the kids (even Sage) are all part of the youth group's Christmas play. More updates as events warrant, I'm sure.

Fantasy Football

2008-11-03T21:36:00.004-05:00

Hello all, and welcome to November.

First, I want you to notice the title. Not for the words that are there, so much as for those that are not. I've decided to drop my "In which..." affectation and just get back to regular post titles. After "In which"ing for--what, two years?--I finally realized that it's quite a bit twee so I decided to stop. If you enjoyed it, please comment. Maybe I'll throw one in now and then to placate my many fans.

On the fantasy football front, Sandy Springs FFC has lost again and falls to 3-6. This week it was a wrenching 16-14 loss to Men O'War with the wrong kicker in the lineup. Again. Sigh. Next week is Munchen Mavericks, who are 2-7. Hopefully we can turn it around make a late playoff run. Here we go, quois?

In which 3 is the magic number

2008-10-28T07:12:00.001-04:00

It appears to be, anyway, as Sandy Springs FFC is stuck on three wins for the season. A 29-11 loss to the undefeated Slate River Sharks drops the record to 3-5 on the season. SRS RB LenDale White outscored SFC all by himself, 12-11. I always think that's kind of cool, even when it happens to me. There were enough points on the bench to win, but I wouldn't have started Leon Washington (15 points), Matt Jones (3 points) and Kerry Collins (1 point) over the guys I did start. There used to be some sort of award I'd give on the website to teams with this sort of hypothetical win but I don't remember what it was called and I'm too lazy to go pore through the archives to find it. SFC falls back to #12 in the Power Ranking.

Next week's opponent is 2-5-1 Men O'War, ranked #9. The website has set MOW as the early 6 point favorite, but you never know. That's why they play the game.

In which I found a really cool video

2008-10-22T00:16:00.000-04:00

I found out about this video through another blog, thought I'd share. It's a nifty mash-up of Gwen Stefani's "Holla Back Girl" and the Soggy Bottom Boys' "Man Of Constant Sorrow".

In which Ryan Longwell is the MAN

2008-10-21T19:51:00.001-04:00

Sandy Springs FFC goes to 3-4 with a 23-8 thrashing of Chunky Soup. Ryan Longwell outscored Soup all by himself with 11 points. On the bench, Wes Welker and Leon Washington scored their first TD's of the year, giving hope for the rest of the year. WR Matt Jones is suspended for three games and RB Shaun Alexander did a lot less with Washington than I'd hoped he would, so having Welker and Leon step up will come in handy. Steve Slaton continues to impress in his rookie year as well, scoring his fifth TD of the year. SFC raises back to #10 in the Power Ranking and, even at 3-4, is only one game out of first place in the division aw yeh come on.

Next week's opponents are Slate River Sharks, who are 7-0, the only undefeated team in the league. Their efforts are usually led by QB Philip Rivers and RB's Brandon Jacobs and LenDale White.

Slate River, prepare to take your first loss. WhoahPOW!

In which I try to catch up

2008-10-18T23:54:00.004-04:00

I never wrote about fantasy football earlier in the week. Sandy Springs FFC got beat again, losing to Outlaws 33-25. That drops the record to 2-4. To make matters worse, Jon Kitna went on IR this week, making my two top QB's from last year hurt. I now have a QB corps of Kerry Collins and Jeff Garcia. We'll see. I also picked up Shaun Alexander in a move to possibly strengthen my RB crew. No idea how much work he'll get in Washington, but with Mojo on bye this week he'll probably get a start for SFC.

The other fun from today was that Da Bunch had gender-specific outings. The ladies (Darlene, Sabrina, the twins and Sage) went to the church for a mother-daughters banquet. I suspect Darlene will write about it in her own blog, so I'll only say that everyone won door prizes of some sort and they seemed to have a great time all the way around.

In the meantime, Steven and I went to the opening night Gwinnett Gladiators game at the Gwinnett Arena. They beat the Mississippi Sea Wolves 6-2. It was an extremely chippy game, with penalties all over the place. Gwinnett scored four power play goals. Steven was happy to get to see a fight. It wasn't a very long fight, a couple of good shots and it was over. The Gwinnett fighter won. It was nothing like the fight Wanda and I saw that time at the Knights game when that guy leveled Wayne Gretzky's brother (on his birthday, no less) and the teams fought for 20 minutes. That one was straight out of Slap Shot. I don't know if I'll ever see anything to top that. Still, we had a great night. I wore my Knights jersey. Exchanged greetings with a couple of other Knights jerseys and had a short conversation with a guy who said he was a referee in the IHL. That was pretty cool. It was fun. Hockey is cool.

In which I guess right but it doesn't matter

2008-10-07T20:06:00.000-04:00

I picked the kicker who scored the most points but I would have won anyway! That's right, Sandy Springs FFC defeated Sea Stags 33-27 on the strength of 15 points from K Ryan Longwell and 12 points RB Steve Slaton. RB Maurice Jones-Drew added the final 6 points. SFC is now 2-3 and are ranked #10 in the Power Rankings. Outlaws are the opponenets this week. They are 1-4 and are ranked #12. Their efforts have been led by QB David Garrard and WR DeSean Jackson and they are the early 1 pt favorite. We'll see what happens.

In which I tidy my virtual attic

2008-10-05T01:10:00.009-04:00

I've been meaning to do this for a while now, and I have finally gotten around to it. I mirrored all the entries from my old LiveJournal blog over to this one. It's only nine entries and it doesn't really mean anything other than that all the blog entries I've ever written are now available under one archive. Eventually I may mirror all my Blogger entries over to LJ. Maybe not. I stopped posting to that blog when I started this one in September 2005 but the account is still active. I use it to comment on other LJ blogs from time to time, so it might have some benefit to have all my blog entries archived over there as well. I dunno.

Anyway, if you go to the archives for this blog (calendar thingy over on the right sidebar and down a bit) you'll find the old entries that have been mirrored in the months of September 2005 and earlier. I clearly labeled the ones that came over from the old blog. You'll see what I mean. If you're interested. I wouldn't blame you if you weren't. That is all. Support your local bloggers.

In which we saw a great concert

2008-10-04T22:49:00.009-04:00

Sage is visiting this weekend and it was a beautiful day today so we decided to go to Riverside Park and play. We got there about 5:30 and saw that they were setting up for a concert. We did some checking and found out that today was the last concert in their free summer concert series. On the spur of the moment we decided to stay and check it out. I went home and got chairs and snacks and we wound up thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

The artist was Michelle Malone. She's been a fixture on the Atlanta music scene since the late 1980's, collaborating over the years with artists like Indigo Girls, Shawn Mullins, and Kristen Hall (who was one of the founders of Sugarland). She has a definite blues vibe, from the Janis Joplin/Melissa Etheridge school with some Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow thrown in now and then. I wasn't familiar with her music, but I've heard of her many times over the years so I was excited to get to see her.

The girls went up by the stage and spent most of the night dancing. Darlene, Sabrina, Gracie and I hung out at the chairs. I spent my time butt-dancing and Gracie went to sleep in Darlene's lap. During the intermission I purchased Malone's newest CD, Sugarfoot. She was at the merchandise table so I was able to get it autographed. The second half of the show featured the original members of her early 1990's band Drag The River and they played several songs from their 1990 album. It was a fantastic show.

I would definitely recommend Malone's music to anyone who likes blues guitar and an honest delivery. I came home and immediately signed up for her e-mail list. I'd pay to see her again. Her website is here and features sound clips. Good stuff. I'm glad we went to the park this afternoon.

In which we lose again

2008-10-01T22:37:00.000-04:00

At some point I will blog about something other than fantasy football again, but it won't be tonight.

Sandy Springs FFC lost to Egomaniacs last weekend 29-17 to fall to 1-3 on the season. Steve Slaton and Matt Jones both scored for SFC, justifying my decisions to pick them up. That's always gratifying. 20 of Ego's 29 points came from LaDanian Tomlinson and Nate Kaeding during the second half of the Raiders-Chargers game. If the Raiders could have held it together Lane Kiffin might still have a job and SFC might be 2-2. Oh well.

This week's opponents are Sea Stags, who are currently 0-3-1. It is telling, I think, that the website lists Der Stag as the early 3 point favorite. SFC will be without the services of suspended WR Plexiglas Burress. SS is led by Big Ben Roethlisberger, Larry Johnson, Randy Moss, and Marvin Harrison. Wow! No wonder he hasn't won a game yet!

Anyway, tune in next week and see how we did.

In which we won!

2008-09-23T22:28:00.001-04:00

Whoo hoo!

Sandy Springs FFC is off the schneid with a 17-6 victory over Joe V's Cellar Monkeys squad. Commish Carrier called the victory "lackluster" but I think he's still sulking after I called him a con man a couple of weeks ago. It was a good win! I actually picked the right kicker! And Mojo scored! Steve Slaton got points on the bench so he'll be moving into the rotation next week.

SFC is up to 10th in the Power Rankings and has the honor, nay, the privilege of competing against the number 1 ranked Egomaniacs next week. They are 3-0 and are scoring nearly 40 points a game so far behind the efforts of Jay Cutler, Terrell Owens, and Michael Turner (The Burner). His other RB's include Felix Jones and LaDanian Tomlinson, so you see why he is off to such a good start.

EGOBOYS GOING DOWN. You heard it here first.

Support your local bloggers. And their fantasy football teams.

In which I say hi to my wife

2008-09-16T22:53:00.000-04:00

My wife was looking at my blog this afternoon and fussed at me for not writing about her more often. My bad! So here I am, writing about her now. She's in bed and won't see this until tomorrow, but I wanted to do it anyway.

Yesterday was our 29 month anniversary. We've been married almost two and a half years. It's still the best decision I ever made. I have a friend, a champion, a support system, a lover, a companion, and a critic all in one sexy package. I love every bit of it, even the critic part. Lord knows I need some guidance now and then.

I have become a better person due to my wife and our family, and I have seen and done things I would have never done without their influence in my life. For that and for so much else, Darlene, thank you. You have opened my world to a whole new set of experiences and wonders. You have inspired me in so many ways, and I will never be able to thank you enough, nor will I be able to truly express what you mean to me.

I certainly can't do her justice in a blog entry, but what I can do is say it for the world to read: I love my wife!

In which I still can't pick a kicker

2008-09-15T23:39:00.000-04:00

A mixed week in fantasy football. It was a good one for roster adjustments. I put Tom Brady and Nate Burleson on IR and added Kerry Collins and Matt Jones off the waiver wire as replacements. The Jones pick in particular has brought me ridicule from certain segments of UFFL ownership, but I stand beside my waivery acumen!

As for the game, not so good. SFC is now 0-2 after a disheartening 24-22 loss to Renegade Rebels. Donovan McNabb's Monday night TD pass provided the victory for RR. For the second week in a row I would have won had I started my other kicker. This week I left Ryan Longwell and his 18 points on the bench. I think my method for choosing kickers from now on will be to pick the one I want to start then actually start the other one. Or cut one of them so I don't have a choice any more.

At least I'm not at the bottom of the Power Rankings. That honor goes to Lethal Weapon 4, who have 10 players on their 18-player roster who aren't even active in the league right now. He can't even field a complete team because he only has one WR who actually plays! He started Keyshawn Johnson at WR this week! And I get grief for picking up Matt Jones. Hmph.

In which I'm ready for some football!

2008-09-09T22:29:00.002-04:00

This past weekend signaled the official start of the football season. The NFL kicked off for the first time and high schools and colleges got into full swing as well.

We went over to my alma mater on Friday, Parkview High School, and watched them dismantle the Cougars of Chattahoochee High School, which is where my wife works. It was the second game of the season for each team, and each had lost their game in week one. Hooch had a pretty good team last year, and Parkview was a little down, but Parkview had no trouble with them in a 49-12 romp. Parkview had two running backs near 200 yards rushing. Unfortunately for Hooch players and fans this was a common sight during the game:

(Picture courtesy of CHS's Football Photo Gallery. Lots of great game photos to view there. Check it out!)

Parkview goes to 1-1 and Hooch falls to 0-2. The orange-clad Sam was happy, and the blue-and-yellow Bunch was not. Steven put blue hair gel in, so his tips were blue. It was pretty cool. We sat on the Hooch side (which got me, in my orange hat and shirt, some dirty looks) next to the band, who were rocking, even if their team was struggling. Hooch won halftime by a mile. That's a good band. We're looking forward to going to more Chattahoochee games later this fall.

Along with the beginning of the NFL season (Go Falcons!), UFFL fantasy football got underway as well. It did not go well in Week 1 for Sandy Springs FFC. I was matched up against Hook-Ups, run by Jimmy Woo. To quote from Bill Carrier's commentary:

"HU held on for a 10-7 win over SFC - HU's third straight season opening win. It was a brutal week for SFC, as MVP Tom Brady was lost for the season in the first quarter of Week 1. WR Nate Burleson was also hurt and is out for the season. Rubbing salt in the wound, SFC scored no TDs in Week 1 and only received points from K Ryan Longwell. The loss also broke a 4 game Week 1 win streak for SFC - SFC previously had not lost a season opener since 2002."

That's right. I lost two players to injury in the first week. In a way it's funny, because this solves the bye week problem I mentioned before. All I have to do is put them on IR and pick up (or trade for) players who aren't on bye in Week 4. Then again, it is Tom Brady that I lost, and Burleson was going to be one of my top WR threats this year. Carrier has already made me a trade offer to restock the positions. No idea yet if I'll take it or not. I play him this week, so I have to figure out if he's trying to dump his dross on me just as we're about to play. I suspect he is. He's such a con man when it comes to fantasy football. We have a history when it comes to trades though: I traded him Rick Mirer for J.J. Stokes once. Or was it the other way around? Does it matter? Either way, I'll likely have Jon Kitna at QB this week, unless I can land a stud QB in a trade. There's really no one except J.T. O'Sullivan on the waiver wire, and I'm not sure I'm ready to go there. We'll see. Update later this week, probably.

Until then, I'm out. Support your local bloggers.

In which I talk about football and church and stuff

2008-09-01T00:45:00.008-04:00

I'm doing this post piecemeal. I'm making tea for tomorrow, so I have to keep running back and forth to the kitchen. I know that has no bearing on your reading experience, but it makes for an interesting writing process so I thought I'd bring it up. If you haven't already been bored to tears and clicked off somewhere else, keep reading. It won't be much longer before you bail on me, I'm sure.

The UFFL Draft took place this evening. The league is geared up now for our 17th season of fantasy football. 1992 was the first year we played together and there were nine owners running ten teams (one guy ran two teams). 17 years later there are 14 teams, and seven of the original nine owners are still in the league. I think that's pretty remarkable.

I didn't actually take part in the draft. It was started at 6:00 and we were in church at that time. I sent my draft preferences to the Commish though, so my team still participated even if I didn't. We run what is usually called a dynasty league, which means we carry over our entire roster from year to year. The draft then, is made up of rookies and players who were not on rosters at the end of the previous season.

I exchanged three players. I cut QB John Beck, RB Adrian Peterson (the one from the Bears, not the Vikings), and WR Deion Branch. I picked up QB Chad Henne, RB Jason Snelling, and RB Steve Slaton. Henne is the QB of the future for the Dolphins and Slaton stands to get good playing time in Houston. I just had a feeling about Snelling, who plays for the Falcons.

(The tea is done. I made some Kool-Aid too, for the kids. Pink lemonade.)

So after the draft, here is the roster for Sandy Springs FFC:

QB - Tom Brady, Chad Henne, Jon Kitna
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew, Steve Slaton, Jason Snelling, Leon Washington
WR - Nate Burleson, Plexiglas Burress, Jerricho Cotchery, Wes Welker
TE - Alge Crumpler, Marcedes Lewis
K - Ryan Longwell, Neil Rackers

I like it. I'm going to have issues in Week Four of the season as all three of my QB's and three of my four WR's will be on bye. We'll see what happens when the time comes. It's going to be interesting. Watch this space for SSFFC updates as the season progresses!

Church was cool tonight. Steven helped out playing the drums during the musical portion of the service. The usual drummer was not in church tonight, so Steven and Tyler (the 11-year old son of the music minister) teamed up on the drums. One would play the snare, high-hat, splash cymbal, and handle the tom rolls, and the other played the floor tom and the ride cymbal. They switched out positions several times during the service and did a fantastic job. Steven has come a long way with his drumming and we are really proud of him.

The girls got to take part too. The pastor invited all the kids to come up and help out with the singing so Jewel, Jessica, and Sage got to go up and hold microphones and sing with their friends. It was great. Sage didn't know as many of the songs as the twins did, but she really belted out the chorus of "I'll Fly Away" and the twins were doing their thing as well. It was really cool seeing all the kids on stage enjoying themselves and taking part in the service.

I start my new job Tuesday. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, send good thoughts, do whatever it is that you do to send good luck to me. I'm so thankful to finally get back to work and get the opportunity to take care of my family again. I was drawing unemployment this summer, but that wasn't a patch on what my paychecks bring in. It'll be good to have that security again.

That's all for now. I didn't get much sleep last night and I need to be sure to get a good night sleep tomorrow so I'm going to sign off, have a quick snack (PBJ, most likely) then go to bed. My lovely bride is sleeping in the living room chair with the remote control, so I'll have to wake her up and get her off to bed. She'll fuss at me for it, but I'm going to do it. I love you baby! You have a sexy butt!

That's it. I'm out. Happy Labor Day. Support your local bloggers.

In which I talk about the summer and the fall

2008-08-23T23:53:00.004-04:00

It was a weird summer. Not having a job was tough, but it did give me time with my family that I wouldn't have had otherwise. We were able to take a nice trip to the mountains to visit Darlene's parents and another one to Tennessee to visit my parents. We wouldn't have been able to take those trips if I had been working. Still, I know I didn't enjoy those trips as much as I should have because I was constantly worrying that we were going to spend too much money, or that someone might call with a job offer while we were gone, or something else.

I spent a lot of time this summer stressing over the fact that I wasn't having a lot of success with my job search. I didn't always handle the stress very well and there were times that I took my frustrations out on my family by being cranky and irritable and (occasionally) downright rude. I just want to take this opportunity to let my wife and kids know that I love you very much, and if I have been less of a family man than I should have this summer, I am sorry. I didn't handle the stress of the job search as well as I hoped I would and you guys caught the bad side of that more than you should have. Again, I am sorry.

I'm looking forward to going back to work, but I will miss being home when the kids get home from school. I'll miss being here when my wife gets home from work. We've had a little time to ourselves the last couple of weeks in that 20 minutes between when she gets home and when the girls get home. It's been nice. It's been nice being able to help with homework and sign forms and all the other things that a parent has to do to for school. I miss out on that with Sage since she lives with her mom, so I make sure to do what I can for the other kids.

This fall is shaping up to be a good one. We're going to get caught up on the financial side of things, and we'll hopefully be going to lots of Chattahoochee football games, since Darlene's buddy from work usually works one of the admissions gates (hi, Robin!). I'm looking forward to September 5, when Hooch travels to Lilburn to play Parkview. My wife's work school vs. my alma mater. We'll be going, I hope, and I'll be wearing my Parkview orange. Everyone else in the family will likely be in the blue and yellow of Hooch. I'll let you know how that goes.

Of course, I'll get back into posting about fantasy football once the season gets underway. The UFFL draft is a week from tomorrow. You may recall that last year I had the third highest-scoring team in UFFL history but flamed out in the playoffs. What will happen this year? Come back and find out! Support your local bloggers!

In which I have good news

2008-08-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

I have a job! After looking for the last three months with little success I actually was extended two different offers on Tuesday. I accepted one yesterday, a data analyst gig with ZC Sterling. The pay is pretty close to what I was making before and the benefits are outstanding. My tentative start date is September 2. My wife has her comments on the matter on her blog. Man, it's nice to end the summer with some good news!

In which a legend passes

2008-08-03T22:55:00.006-04:00

It's been a tough year for my Atlanta Braves. Our pitchers have been hurt, my boy Jeff Francoeur has been in a horrific slump, and they've sunk towards the bottom of the standings. Now, to make things even worse, Skip Caray has passed away.

Skip has been announcing Braves games as long as I have lived in Atlanta. To me, Skip, Pete Van Wieren, and Ernie Johnson will always be the voices of the Braves. They were there when the incredible run began in 1991, but they were also there in the dark days of the late 1970's and late 1980's. Skip's wry humor and Pete's uncanny ability to play the straight man have made Braves broadcasts entertaining for as long as I can remember.

Skip Caray on TBS, after Chicago took a 15-5 lead over Atlanta in the 8th inning, 7/22/2003:

"The fans are now departing en masse. That means a whole bunch of 'em at once."

He was famous for telling us we could walk our dogs before the end of blowout losses if we promised to patronize the sponsors of the broadcast. He was famous for assigning hometowns to fans who caught foul balls in the bleachers ("That one was caught by a fan from Gainesville!"), and he was famous for supporting his team with unabashed pride. I know people who put him down as a homer, but to me, that's what made him worth listening to. He would criticize the team if it was needed, but he always gave the fans a positive side to any bad situation through his love for the team. He was just as big a fan as we were, only he got paid to describe the games.

He called what I consider to be the greatest moment in Atlanta Braves history, even greater than their World Series win in 1995: Francisco Cabrera's hit to drive in Sid Bream with the winning run in the 1992 NL Championship. Even now, 16 years later, hearing him screaming "BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN!" still gives me chills.

A lotta room in right-center, if he hits one there we can dance in the streets. The 2-1. Swung, line drive left field! One run is in! Here comes Bream! Here’s the throw to the plate! He is.............SAFE! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN!...BRAVES WIN!

To the Caray family, our sincere condolences and prayers for your loss. To Skip: I speak on behalf of all the true Braves fans out there. You will be missed. Thanks for all the years you gave us and all the memories you preserved for us.

In which I'm up WAY too late

2008-06-29T03:12:00.006-04:00

I'm going to bed now. You'd think I'd know better than to be up this late on a Saturday night with church in the morning. Church is a lot more enjoyable when I'm not yawning constantly so I want to try and get at least a little bit of sleep tonight. Ah, well. Good night, all.

In which my wife gets older (and more beautiful)

2008-06-24T02:27:00.001-04:00

(or, "Lordy, Lordy, Darlene's 40!")

Today is my wife's birthday.

Darlene, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and tell you how much I love you and how much you have touched my life. I'm a better man for having met you. You mean so much to me and I will love you for the rest of our lives. Thank you for being there for me the last few weeks and for everything you do for me every day.

I love you.

Happy Birthday!

In which I got to see the Seventy Sevens

2008-06-21T02:06:00.010-04:00

I went to a concert Friday night. I got to see my favorite band of all time, the Seventy Sevens. I must have known the concert was coming up, but I suppose it never really registered with me, since I got an e-mail Friday from their mailing list with a show reminder and it was a total surprise. I decided I really wanted to go. Darlene couldn't go because there wasn't time to round up a babysitter, so she kindly allowed me to go by myself while she stayed home with the girls. Thank you, my love. You are a truly beautiful woman.

The Seventy Sevens are, I believe, the finest band out there that no one has heard of. They have been around in one incarnation or another since the late 1970's. Their first album came out in 1982, and the current lineup has been in place since Tom Tom Blues in 1995. I was introduced to their music in 1993-94, just before Drowning With Land In Sight came out.

Michael Roe is the primary singer/songwriter/guitar wizard. He also plays lead guitar in the folk/gospel group the Lost Dogs. The man has serious chops and he showed them off to great effect Friday night. David Leonhardt used to be in the band and still handles rhythm guitar duties on the road from time to time (he did so Friday), and the rhythm section is comprised of the incomparable Mark Harmon (bass) and Bruce Spencer (drums). They put on an incredible show.

They played in Marietta, at the Three Bears Cafe. It was a nice little venue. There was a bar and tables on the floor, and a couple of rows of tables and some random chairs in the balcony. I would guess there were around two hundred people in attendance. I sat in the balcony, in a chair in the very back, so I had a good view over everyone else's head.

June 20 was the release date for the Sevens' new CD, Holy Ghost Building, and they debuted seven songs off the new CD during the set. I bought the CD at the show but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. If the concert was any indication, though, I'll love it, and so will my wife. It appears to be a collection of older, traditional gospel tunes. The show was very bluesy, featuring several long, jammy numbers. They dipped into their new wave origins in the encores before closing with a tune off the new CD. The set list was as follows:

1. "Self Made Trap" (from The Seventy Sevens, 1992)
2. "Dave's Blues" (from Drowning With Land In Sight, 1994)
3. "I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers" (from the new CD)
4. "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning" (from the new CD)
5. "I'm Working On A Building" (from the new CD)
6. "Stranger Won't You Change Your Sinful Ways" (from the new CD)
7. "You're Gonna Be Sorry" (from the new CD)
8. "I'm Gonna Run To The City Of Refuge" (from the new CD)
9. "The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes & The Pride Of Life" (from The 77's, 1986)

Encores
1. "Someone New" (from Ping Pong Over The Abyss, 1982)
2. "Ba Ba Ba Ba" (from All Fall Down, 1984)
3. "He's A Mighty Good Leader" (from the new CD)

The show opened with an introduction in Mike's trademark dry humor: "Please welcome the best band on this stage at this moment, the Seventy Sevens!" Mike also brought out the humor when, while pausing to tune his guitar at one point, he told the audience, "If you come to Hendersonville, TN tomorrow night you'll see this exact same concert, only better rehearsed."

The opener was a long, winding, ten minute jam that really set the tone for the night. A couple of the songs included quotes from other songs inserted into instrumental breaks, Zeppelin-style. "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning" segued into "Riders On The Storm" by the Doors, and "I'm Working On A Building" quoted the Sevens' own "Perfect Blues". Before playing the final song, a reverent reading of "He's A Mighty Good Leader", Mike told us that they were going to close it with one that would remind us what it's all about. No humor in that, just belief expressed through music. It was a moving way to end the show.

I saw the Seventy Sevens in 1997, the Lost Dogs in 2002, and now the Sevens again in 2008. All three shows will stay with me for different reasons. I'm glad to say I've gotten to see these amazing artists at different stages in their careers. The show in '97 was completely different from the show Friday night in the way it sounded and felt. It's almost like I've seen two different bands, which to me, is really cool. It's a testament, I think, to their talent, that they've covered so much stylistic ground in their history--from new wave to R.E.M.-style jangle pop to anthemic rock to blues to gospel, they've done so many things so many different ways.

Even beyond the Seventy Sevens, Mike Roe's personal body of work is immense and so eclectic that it's hard to believe the same guy has appeared on all of it. He has put out acoustic solo albums that are achingly beautiful and fragile, and his work with the Lost Dogs is completely different again, veering more towards country and rootsy folk and down-home gospel. He and Mark Harmon have even collaborated on some jazzy instrumental stuff that is unlike anything else the Sevens have done.

I'd like to thank my wife again for giving me the chance to go to the concert, and I'd like to thank Mike, Bruce, Mark, and Dave for putting on a fantastic show and for so many years of great music.

In which cool stuff happened

2008-06-09T02:25:00.002-04:00

You can find out about a couple of cool things I've been doing the last couple of days by clicking on some links (support your local bloggers!):

My brother's blog has some pictures of the playhouse Steven and I helped him work on this week. It's not done, but progress pictures will be continuing as the work moves on, I'm sure.

My wife blogged about our search for a new church. We've been talking about looking for one and we finally got around to it. She's got all the details (and is a lot prettier than me) so go check out her blog as well.

In which I flabble a bit

2008-06-03T00:27:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow is a big day. Jewel has spent the last week at Grandma's in Maggie Valley, her first time ever away from her twin. She's called home at least 50 times a day, so we've been well appraised of events in the mountains. Tomorrow we're going to drive to Clayton, Georgia (about halfway to Maggie) to meet Mom and Pop. They're going to give us Jewel and we're going to give them Jessica. She'll stay with them til next week then they will come down to be with us on Father's Day. Jessie is looking forward to having her alone time with Grandma and Pop. Steven is looking forward to another week with only one sister to deal with. Darlene and I are looking forward to another week with a lonely twin sleeping in our bedroom. No, really, we are!

Anyway, that's about it for our news. I'll get back into the writing groove tomorrow night unless I completely lose it in the meantime. Thanks for your patience and lack of flames during this brief period of inactivity. Support your local bloggers.

In which I take a break

2008-05-30T23:35:00.003-04:00

We did some rearranging in the house today. We have a chest freezer in the kitchen now so we moved the computer desk into a corner in the dining room. It's actually more roomy, the light is better, and the outlets are more accessible, so I'm all for it. When I get doine here I'm going to go through the drawers and clean a bunch of stuff out. My brother is supposed to come over this weekend and bring us an old recliner that he doesn't need any more. We're always on the lookout for seating so we were pretty excited when he told us he had it available.

Not much else is going on, so I won't drone on and on. I've seen signs of more visits to my blog this week. It's pretty cool. Thanks for stopping by. Keep coming back over the summer to see what is going on in the life of the Brady Bunch. Feel free to comment while you're here. It's always nice to get an idea of who is stopping by. That's it for now. I'm out.

Support your local bloggers!

In which I talk about Battlestar Galactica

2008-05-08T16:12:00.002-04:00

This is getting better and better each week. Tyrol's losing it, Starbuck lost it a long time ago, Tory's becoming some sort of holy warrior, I don't know what the hell is up with Baltar, Roslin is dying, Apollo has suddenly turned into John Kerry, the Cylons are all killing each other. I have no idea where it's all going (somehow, I don't think it's Earth, though). I keep waiting for either Starbuck or Tyrol to just snap, utterly and completely, and start fragging everyone in sight (that's fragging, not frakking, btw, although that would make for an interesting episode as well) as Baltar prays for their immortal soul, then both teams of Cylons show up, then all hell really breaks loose just as they take their midseason hiatus and we all slit our wrists because really, who can wait until next March or whatever to see how it all ends?

In which I post some new links

2008-04-17T13:36:00.009-04:00

I added some new links over on the sidebar. Since they're new I thought I'd post a quick description of them here, in case anyone is curious about what they are. Check them out if you want to. All sites come recommended by me. Take that and a dollar to the Dollar Tree and you can buy something for the kitchen.

Websites I Check Every Day

Brandon Sanderson
This is the Livejournal blog of fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. It gives some interesting insights into his writing processes from time to time.

Robert Fulghum
If you're a Fulghum fan, you'll like this. It's just a regular blog that reads like one of his books. Quite enjoyable.

Television Without Pity
Television recaps and forums and pop culture blogs. It's not the site it used to be, but it's still pretty darn good.

Things What Things
Linda Holmes used to write for Television Without Pity, where she was known as Miss Alli. Now she's off on her own, posting her thoughts on TV and other pop-culture tidbits.

Writing Excuses
A writing podcast moderated by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler (creator of Scholck Mercenary), and horror novelist Dan Wells. Topics are usually sci-fi/fantasy based and range from the business of writing to the creative process to the genres themselves. Very insightful if you have an interest in the writing process.

Webcomics

Garfield Minus Garfield by Travors
Garfield strips with Garfield digitally removed from the images, making it a strip about Jon and his various neuroses.

The Order Of The Stick by Rich Burlew
The sword-and-sorcery adventures of a D&D-style adventuring party, drawn as stick figures. It's a lot funnier than it sounds, especially if you've played D&D.

Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler
The continuing sci-fi adventures of a comedic band of military soldiers-of-fortune. Frequently features bad puns, which is always a plus in my book.

Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams
A deadly but hilarious combination of magic, a switchblade-wielding rabbit, a hyperactive ferret, a woman who can turn into a camel, explosions, slackers, and beer. And that's just within the main cast.

xkcd by Randall Munroe
Stick-figure comedy for the mathematics/science geek in all of us. Some of it is pretty esoteric, but it has its moments.

I will probably add to these lists as time goes by and I discover new and exciting places to go on the web. If you have sites that you think I should know about, add a comment below or shoot me an e-mail. I'm always looking for new things to waste my time with!

In which it's been two years

2008-04-15T09:41:00.003-04:00

To the love of my life:

You always tease me that I never write about you in my blog. Well, this entry is all yours.

Two years ago today we stood in front of that skinny little preacher man in that beautiful mountain chapel and they played our song and we became a family. I was scared to death. I had no idea what marriage was going to be like, what being a full-time dad was going to be like. All I knew then was that I loved you, and I loved those kids, and that somehow we were going to make it work. And we have.

Two years later, I can't imagine my life without you or the kids. I'm learning more every day about what it means to be a husband and a family man. It's not always easy, and I know it hasn't always been as smooth as we hoped it would be. We're still here though, stronger than ever, and ready to keep moving forward together as a family. Thank you for making these last two years the best of my life. I can't wait to see what is yet to come.

Happy Anniversary.

I love you.

In which we finished our season

2008-04-15T09:40:00.004-04:00

We played our season closing doubleheader last night. We lost both games to finish the season 1-9 and in the league cellar. In game 1, Bo's All-Stars (who came into the game with an 0-9 record) beat us 11-7. We scored four runs in the top of the first inning then couldn't hold them off. I was 2-3 in that game, caught a pop foul behind the plate, and tagged a runner out at the plate. I almost tagged another one out later, but the throw was just a little late.

Game 2 was a rematch with Wild Wings, who beat us 11-7 in the first game of the season. This time they beat us 14-4. Again, we took an early lead, with two runs in the first, and again we couldn't hold it. I went 1-2 with a double (the ball wound up rolling all the way to the fence in center field, my hardest hit ball of the season) and an RBI, and I threw a runner out at first on a little swinging bunt. I almost tagged a runner out in this game too, but the throw and the runner arrived at the plate at the same time and the ball popped out of my glove. All in all, probably my best night of the season. Figures it would be the last one.

We'll probably be playing again in either the summer or fall season, so hopefully I can carry some momentum into the next season, whenever it is. I'll have recaps then, too. Whee!

In which we play well but lose anyway

2008-04-08T23:16:00.003-04:00

We're 1-7 now. We played LifePoint Church. They beat us again, then they prayed with us again. It was only 13-3 this time, so we were a little better than before. It's too bad, really--we hung close then gave up like 6 runs in the next to last inning. Same thing has happened three or four times this year. We close the season next week with a doubleheader vs. Wild Wings (who beat us 11-7 earlier this year) and Bo's All-Stars, who we haven't played yet, and who have yet to win a game. Maybe we can win that one! We'll see.

Mom and Dad came to the game. Mom brought her camera and took a bunch of pictures and shot some little videos. I've got some of them here. Enjoy!

Your faithful blogger

Here's the pitch!

Eat your heart out, Bob Uecker

Keeping an eye on the ball

Didn't miss this one!

In which we were a man (and 10 runs) short

2008-04-01T14:58:00.001-04:00

We played last night with only 9 players. ESAB was the opponent and they came into the night undefeated. They came out of it undefeated as well, beating us 13-3. It was another case of us playing well and staying close, then giving up 6 runs in the next to last inning. We had only three outfielders and they took advantage of the wide open spaces to rack up several inside the park HRs. I got on base once via a walk and was 0-2 in my other appearances, my worst night of the year at the plate.

Darlene and the kids came, as did my parents and my niece Mia. They all had a good time cheering. I wish we could have won it for them. We fall to 1-6. Next week brings a rematch with LifePoint Church, who beat us 17-1 in the first week of the season. As it turns out, going into last night that has been their only victory of the season. Figures. Hopefully we'll do better against them next week. Maybe they'll ask us to pray with them again.

In which we really got hammered

2008-03-25T09:59:00.001-04:00

The softball season took a turn for the worse last night with a sound 24-3 thrashing by Foul Balls. They were good, y'all. They are the highest-scoring team in our league and now I see why. They actually have people who hit it to right field on purpose. In slow-pitch, that's a good thing. Our poor right fielder was running all over the place. It was cold, too, which didn't help. Brrr! I was 2-2 with an RBI. Neither of my hits traveled further than 15 feet down the baseline. It was a swinging bunt night for me.

We fall to 1-5 on the season with four games left to go. Next week is ESAB, and one of the umpires told me last night that they are also a good hitting team. Whee! Go us!

In which we came really close to winning...

2008-03-17T22:33:00.003-04:00

...but fell just short.

The Tornadoes beat us 12-4. We were ahead 4-2 going to the last inning, and out of nowhere they started beating the cover off the ball and before we knew what had happened they put 10 runs across the plate. Kristin pitched a great game, and the defense played well. They just got off the schneid and started hitting the ball right there at the end, darn it! We fall to 1-4. I played the whole game at catcher and avoided crashing into the pitcher this time, which is always a plus. I got on base all three times I came to the plate, but two of them were fielder's choices so officially I was 1-1.

We had a pretty good crowd cheering us on. There were a couple of sets of player parents and dogs in the crowd as well as other friends and family. Darlene and the kids came again, and Darlene's mom was there as well. She had her camera with her and took a couple of pics of the man himself in action behind the plate.

Foul Balls are the opponents next week. Hopefully we'll get a win!

In which I flabble about a few different things

2008-03-11T17:54:00.007-04:00

We played softball last night. Alpharetta First United Methodist beat us 15-5, dropping our record to 1-3. This is the second time a church team has beaten the paint off us. Why can't we compete with Christians? Steve and I were talking about it during the game and decided it must be like Notre Dame football. God just cares more about their teams than He does ours. Hmph. They didn't even invite us to pray with them, either, like the other ones did. I only played a couple of innings at catcher. A nondescript 1-1 at the plate. A pretty dull evening all around, at least until we went to Krystal on the way home. Mmmmm....Krystal... We play the Tornadoes next week.

Has anyone ever tried to read Umberto Eco? If you've tried and actually succeeded, you're a more diligent (read: masochistic) reader than I am. I started Foucault's Pendulum the other day. My God. I didn't even make it through the first 50 pages. I got so tired trying to wade through all the words to find a plot that I just put it away. All I could figure out was that someone was trying to hide in a museum and I think there were flashbacks, but I never really figured out why they were flashing back or why he was trying to hide. I was lost before I even got to page 10. It's been a long time since I put a book down without finishing it, but this one... Oy. I've heard Eco makes his books obtuse in the beginning on purpose, to drive away those who don't want to make the effort to read them. Well, I don't, so I am hence driven away. I don't want to work that hard for my reading pleasure. Dune was hard, but at least I found a hook and got into the story. Here, there was no hook, at least in the first 45-50 pages. If there's one after that, sorry, I'm already gone. Hopefully my own book will be a different experience for the reader.

So I put it up and started Nightfall again instead, for about the 10th time. I can always read that one. No fuss, no muss.

Support your local bloggers!

In which we win!

2008-03-03T21:18:00.000-05:00

We played softball tonight. Darlene, the kids, and Kayvontay (Steven's friend from school) came and cheered us on, and we won! We beat Exide SuperCranks 11-9, mainly because their starting pitcher couldn't throw strikes.I played catcher again, and actually tagged someone out at the plate! Whoo! I also had a massive collision with our pitcher when we both chased a pop fly and neither of us called it. She held onto it for the out, though. I had another good night at the plate, 2-2 and reached on a fielder's choice the third time. 1 RBI, scored 2 runs. Not too shabby.

This was the first game ever won by CPS on the field in this league. The last team was 1-9, and that win was a forfiet. A historic night, and I was glad to be part of it. Our record is 1-2, and we're all looking forward to next week! See you there!

In whch we got swept

2008-02-26T11:43:00.010-05:00

I started the softball season last night. That's right, I'm playing on a company softball team. It's not an "official" company team, and not all the players are from our office, but most of them are. The last CPS team to play in this league went 1-9, with the only win coming by forfeit. I was not part of that team, obviously. There are several new players on the team this year, so hopefully there will be more success.

It's a co-ed league. This means, among other things, that there cannot be more men than women on the field. There are other rules, meant to offset the alleged physical advantage that men have over women. I say "alleged" because in our second game, most of their women hit better than our men. Oy. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We played two games last night. Our first was against Wild Wings and we lost 11-7. They didn't bring us any wings, either. I played catcher, which means I had little to do in the field. Catchers in slow pitch don't do much. All my throws back to the pitcher were accurate, though, and my right shoulder hurts today, so yay me! Our pitcher, Kristin, went to Parkview and graduated in the same class as Jeff Francoeur, which means she was four when I graduated from Parkview. Oh--the game? Right, sorry. As I said, we lost and I played catcher. I was 2-3 at the plate, with a double, 2 RBI's, and I scored a run--I tagged up at third and scored standing on a deep fly to left. I beat out an infield grounder for my second hit when their 1B couldn't dig out a throw in the dirt. Not a bad game for me.

So of course, I didn't play in the second game. We had nine men show up, and since only five can be in the field due to the co-ed rules, four of us had sit out each game. Our poor women: only five showed up, so they all had to play both games. Lifepoint Christian Church beat us in the nightcap, 17-1. Again, I didn't play. Coincidence, or a bunch of Christians who would have hit the @#$% out of the ball no matter who was on the field? I suspect the latter. The mercy rule was invoked after the fourth inning, sparing us further indignity. They invited us to pray with them after the game. Probably because they felt guilty for the caning they gave us. I coached first base when we were hitting, so at least I got on the field.

It was fun. I haven't played on a softball team since I was in the Air Force--1996, maybe? I had forgotten how much fun it can be, even if you're not winning. Running around, yelling and cheering, swinging a bat--it's a good time. We have eight games left over the next seven weeks. I'll post little recaps after each game, if I think of it. The league is run by the Alpharetta Recreation and Parks Department and plays out of North Park in Alpharetta. We play every Monday. If you want to know when we're playing, drop me a line and I'll let you know. Come out and cheer us on! You know you want to.

In which Gracie and Girl met Rosie

2008-02-23T23:05:00.002-05:00

MAGGIE VALLEY, NC - Greetings from the mountains! We're in Maggie Valley for the weekend, and today we went to the dog park. There's a new dog park in town, and Darlene's folks have taken their dog (Lil' Girl) there a few times. She usually stays on her leash; she's pretty aggressive with other animals, so they let her run but don't let her run free. There are two pens at the park, and one of them was empty when we arrived, so we went to the empty one and let both dogs off their leashes to run around.They went nuts.

I had never seen Gracie running at a full sprint off her leash and it was a lot of fun watching her explore. Her Jack Russell half really showed with the way she was moving. Eventually another dog came by, Rosie the Basset hound. We spoke to Rosie's mom over the fence for a few minutes and she decided to bring her in and let her play with our dogs. We kept Girl on the leash for a while, but eventually we let her off and all three dogs had a great time playing together. It was the first time we've seen Girl interact with a "stranger" dog without a lot of barking and growling. It was cool. We got their phone number, so maybe Mom can get together with them again another time for Girl and Rosie to play some more.

Supposedly there is a dog park under development at home in Sandy Springs, so we're going to look into it and start taking Gracie. She had a great time today, and so did we. I think it would be fun taking her to meet some new dogs closer to home. We'll keep you posted.

In which I borrow a PEN

2008-02-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

Hello!

I haven't felt much like writing lately. It's been busy, and I've been down with the flu since Tuesday. I'm finally starting to feel a little like myself again, so I thought I'd sit down and yarn a bit. I promised the PEN Pals story a couple of weeks ago and never got around to writing it. It's a good one.

Before I get into that, though, a couple of congratulatory notes:

1. Congrats to Steven, who wrapped his first season of basketball last night. He played for the 7th grade team at his school, and they finished the year with a 5-1 record. Steven was one of the guys who came off the bench, and he was usually good for a rebound or two and a lot of good effort. I feel like his biggest contribution to the team was that even when he was not in the game, he was watching and cheering for his teammates. He would jump up and cheer, give high-fives, and keep everyone encouraged. He was a good teammate, and when he got the chance to play he worked as hard as anyone else did. You had a great season, Steven, and I'm really proud of you for being part of the team. I can't wait until next season!

I have some pictures, and maybe a little bit of video, that we shot of Steven in one of the games. I'll have to see if I can find it, then I'll post it under separate cover.

2. Congrats also to Lee Wright. Lee is one of Ben's friends who I met a long time ago, in an apartment far, far away. We share an interest in writing and Star Wars, among other things, and we have always been enthusiastic readers of each other's writing. Well, Mr. Wright has recently been named winner of a playwriting competition in Chattanooga. He will have the chance to see his play produced on the stage in late March and early April. I'm happy to see Lee get some recognition for his writing. He likes to do Southern stories with characters you'd swear you knew back in the day. I can actually say I know a "real" writer now! That's what's got me inspired to sit down and write this today, and I have a short story I've been sitting on for two and a half years that I'm going to start messing with too, and see if I can get it finished. Who knows, maybe I can be a real writer too. Whoo!

So, the PEN Pals story...

It was my senior year of high school. In fact, I might could go so far as to tell you it was November 14, 1987, but I'm not entirely certain that's the correct weekend. Anyway, it was a Saturday, and the Parkview High School Panther Marching Band had gone to Columbus, Georgia for the Fountain City Marching Festival. This festival was hosted by Hardaway High School back then, and it was huge. We went every year and it was always a great trip. It was held in Memorial Stadium, which is a cool old granite stadium that hosted UGA-Auburn football games way, way back in the day. We would bus down to Columbus and spend the whole day at the festival, watching other bands until it was our turn to get our uniforms on and perform, then stay through the evening until the awards and the screaming and the foofaraw was over. If you've ever been to a band festival you understand what I mean about the foofaraw.

My senior year, we got down there fairly early in the day. We all went into the bleachers (on the left side of the stadium, if you're looking at the picture I linked to above. In fact, keep that picture up. It might help you imagine what I'm describing) and watched a couple of bands, then we started to break up. We were on the left side of the stadium because the main press box for the stadium was on that side, so that is the direction the bands were facing when they played.

There were merchandise tables at the lower end of the field (in the grassy space above that bottom parking lot), and we drifted through there, back to the stands, all around, until me and a group of 12 or 15 others wound up on the other side of the stadium, sitting in the middle section of bleachers, underneath that smaller press box. Of course, from that side, you couldn't hear the bands as well, but we weren't really paying attention anyway. We were sitting and chatting and having a good time. We were the only people on that side of the stadium, I believe.

The way these festivals work is, one band plays, then the next comes on, and so on, all day long. There's usually 5-10 minutes between performances, as one band marches off, the next one comes around, marches onto the field, and goes through their preparations. During one of those down periods, watching the previous band march off, someone in our little group said, "Hey, let's do the wave." So we did. Of course, there were only 15 or so of us in a little clump, so it was more like a ripple. Still, our schoolmates on the other side of the stadium cheered for us, so we decided to put on a little performance of our own.

As the next band came around and began to take the field, we formed various shapes--lines and circles and squares--and "waved" them. By this time the entire crowd on the other side, not just our group, was beginning to cheer for us. We had to do something to top it off. Let's spell a word, someone suggested, one letter at time, and wave each letter! Yeah! OK! What word? Hm, we're a bunch of hormonal high school boys, right? Yeah! Which means we're stupid too, right? YEAH! OK! Let's spell PENIS! YEAH!!!

So we form a P. Well, by this time the next band is on the field playing. We don't care. We form our P. Wave (cheers from the Parkview crowd, who naïvely assume we're spelling PHS or something pedestrian like that. Girl, please). We form our E. Wave (fewer cheers from the Parkview crowd, who now have no idea what we're doing, as the band on the field continues to play). We form our N. Before we can wave it, we see our director Mr. Beach, our drum majors, band captains, and others, coming around the top of the stadium towards us. We scatter.

They chased us down like a bunch of escaped pigs. They rounded most of us up by the merchandise tables. We got a sound scolding from Mr. Beach, although it was more in the sense of "you made me look bad" than "you made the school and yourselves look bad", but that's just the way he rolled. We got to march that day, but only because he didn't want 15 holes in his formations. We got straight ones, which is what every band wants to do at festival. I have a video of our performance that day. I wish I had a video of the band that was on as we were in the bleachers doing our thing. Heh.

Oh, but the story's not over yet.

We got back to school and the shizzle hit the fazizzle. The principal wanted to kick us out of band entirely for embarrassing the school. Beach wouldn't do it, because we had his top tuba player, a couple of high-ranking trumpets, and a couple of good drummers in our group. They finally decided to ban us from the spring band trip to Panama City. There was a big meeting with the parents where this was announced, and my dad was apparently all, "They're kids, they did something stupid, just let it go" and Beach told him no, we're not going to just let it go.

To this day, my dad will tell you that Mr. Beach was a @#$%&, which is why he kept forgetting to call Bill's name during awards ceremonies when Bill was in band. I say no, it wasn't because Beach was a @#$%&; I say it was because Bill was my brother. I could write another 2,000 words about how Mr. Beach couldn't stand me, but I won't. This is already way too long. Maybe another time. Anyway, we didn't get to go to Florida that spring, and we soon came to be known as the "PEN Pals," since P-E-N is all we managed to spell before the Gestapo came and stopped us.

Story still isn't over.

I'm not going to tell you what happened while they were in Florida, because it really doesn't matter (we had some fun, though). I will tell you that we all signed each other's yearbooks that year with things like "can I borrow a PEN?" or "NEED A PEN!!!?!?" Our senior class did a last will and testament and I left Mr. Beach a pen. Heh.

There's two last little postscripts, perfect codas to the whole thing, then the story's over.

The next year, I was a freshman in college, and went back down to Columbus to see the festival performance. My brother was a freshman in the band that year. I was standing with some of my PEN Pal friends who were still in the band, and we were looking across the field reminiscing about what had happened the year before. I said, "Do you want to go back over and finish it?" I managed to keep a straight face long enough for them to look at me like I was crazy, then we all lost it.

The second takes place two or three years later. I want to say this was my brother's senior year, because I don't think there was anyone left in the band from when I was there, by this time. I had come to Parkview for a game and was visiting my brother in the band section. I said hello to Mr. Beach, and was hanging out with my brother, who was the tenor sax section leader. He introduced me to one of his little freshman scrubs. The kid was all yeah, whatever. Bill said to me, "Watch this," then told the kid, "Sam was a PEN Pal." The kid's eyes went all Keanu and he said "Whoaaaa." Four years later, and we were still part of band lore. That was wicked. I wonder if the story still lives on today?

The End (?)

In which I show you something new

2008-01-31T21:50:00.000-05:00

Just a little housekeeping note here. I've added a new feature to my blog. Over on the sidebar you'll see a listing of the books I am currently reading, as well as anything I may have recently finished. I'm also including a link to the Amazon page for each book, in case you're curious to find out more about them. Blogs are supposed to give insight into the person writing them, so I figured this is just another way of letting you see into who I am. It's pretentious, sure, but I figure if you didn't care, you wouldn't be here, right?

Right?

In which Goldilocks turns 7

2008-01-19T14:36:00.000-05:00

Today is Sage's birthday. She's turning 7. She's spending the day with her mom and brother and her friends. They are going bowling. Hopefully it will be a good day for her.

I can't believe she's actually 7! I remember the night she was born like it was yesterday. I was so happy and excited to get to meet her at last, and now she's 7 and in the first grade. She's getting so big. To look at her, she doesn't look like a little kid any more; she's starting to look like a young lady.

She fits in so well with the rest of my big new family. When Darlene and I first got together we wondered how Sage would relate to the other kids. She was so used to it just being the two of us when she came for her visits, and suddenly she had to share me with a wife and three more kids. She immediately accepted Darlene as a stepmother and she and the girls have been inseperable. We have a big family, and she has been an important part of it for the last two years.

I love you, Sage, and we can't wait until we can see you again. Happy Birthday!

In which I pranked my German class

2008-01-18T10:14:00.000-05:00

It's odd, but the subject of pranks came up during my day twice yesterday. Jessica had to leave school early due to illness. I went and picked her up and on our way to the doctor, we stopped off at McDonald's. While we were eating, she asked me for my best prank I had ever pulled on anyone. Then, last night I was browsing on the message boards at TTNMC for the first time in a long time, and found a discontinued thread from last summer devoted to pranks that people had pulled. I got to thinking, and I have decided that there were two pranks that I was involved with while in high school that need to be discussed here. One of them, the German Class Incident, I told Jessie about yesterday, and will tell you about now. The other one is the infamous PEN Pals story. That one deserves its own post, however, so I will relate that story sometime this weekend in its full glory.

The German Class Incident took place during my junior year of high school (1987!). I have no idea today where the idea came from, but I read about it or saw it on TV or heard about it from someone or something, and decided I was going to give it a try. The idea was simple: fool as many people as possible in the class into thinking something was going on when really, the only thing going on was my prank. It actually turned into a fascinating look at mass group psychology/behavior.

The key to success was going to be me having some time by myself in the room before class. That was easier than you might think it would have been. Let me describe the classrooms at my school. The school was laid out like a big square, with classrooms on both sides of the corridor. The classrooms on the right side of the hall were actually double classrooms, with one opening out into the hall, the other opening outside of the school, and an open doorway connecting them.

My German class was in one of the outer rooms, that had the door that went out onto the sidewalk. So, when the class was seated facing the chalkboard, behind us to the left was the passage leading to the inner classroom (and from there out into the school hallway). Behind us to the right was the door going outside. I sat in the far right row, so I could sit sideways in my desk and lean my head back against the outside wall of the school.

Are you with me so far?

I had German in third period. There was a 10 minute "break" between second and third periods (or maybe it was between first and second, I don't remember for sure. Whatever. I had German after the break, so there you go). I never figured out why we had that break, but for some reason they gave us five extra minutes between those two periods. Most people spent that time standing out in the hall chatting. Some would go into their classrooms and set their books down then go back out into the corridors. I was usually one of the first to come back into the classroom and take my seat, and there were always lots of unaccompanied books on desks when I came in.

My idea was to write a note in block letters, "Look on the back wall above the outside door. Pass it on." Realize, of course, that there was nothing on the wall. That was the prank, see. I snuck into the room in the middle of break, before anyone else came in. I folded the note and slipped it into the textbook of the person who sat in the front left corner of the room (all the way across the room from my seat), then drifted back into the hallway. A couple of minutes later I re-entered the room at my usual time and took my seat. The teacher came in and class began.

Frau Neace's teaching style was a lot of chalkboard work, so she usually had her back to the class as she taught. I kept a surreptitious eye on the girl in the front left seat. She opened her book and the paper fell out. I held my breath as she read it, then turned her head to look in the back corner above the outside door. Her eyes narrowed and she frowned, obviously confused. She looked back down at the note, then back at the wall. She clearly had no idea what she was supposed to be seeing. She passed the note on to the person behind her, but she kept turning and sneaking little peeks at the wall.

Over the next ten minutes, the note made its way up and down the first two rows of seats. The entire left side of the room was murmuring to itself as people who had seen the note turned to look and discussed it quietly as they tried to figure out what was going on. People in the next row over were talking to them too, trying to find out what was going on.

A quick aside here. If you ever try anything like this, let one person in on it beforehand. That way you won't have to sit there as the only one who knows what's really going on. For me, it was a guy named Steve. He sat right in the middle of it, and kept shooting me these looks like, "Dude!" For my part, I was keeping my eyes glued on the teacher so no one would see that I was trying hard not to die laughing as the left side of the classroom plunged into chaos.

Finally, the teacher noticed. She turned around and asked what was going on. By this time, the note was halfway up the third row. The person that had the note took it up and showed it to the teacher, saying something like, "We're trying to figure out what this is all about." Frau takes the note, reads it, then looks up at the wall. She looks back at the note, then back at the wall. Squints. She asks the left side, "What is this?" No one knew. It had just appeared out of nowhere and was getting passed around. By this time, the right side wants to know what the note says, so Frau reads it aloud. "Look on the back wall above the outside door. Pass it on." When she said that, every head in the room turned to look at the back wall above the door. It was magnificent. It looked like one of those clichéd shots of a tennis audience you see on TV. It was all I could do to keep a straight face. I looked above the door like everyone else, but I already knew what was there.

Nothing.

Frau threw the note away, and life went on in German class. Steve and I shared laughs afterward, and I never heard it mentioned again. I don't know if anyone ever figured out what really happened or not. If they did, they never mentioned it to me. It was really cool, though, watching half the class get more and more confused and unsettled as the other half got more and more antsy to find out what was happening. Definitely an interesting group psychology experiment, if anyone ever gets the chance to try it. I'd be curious to find out if it works as well on adults as teens, but there's really never a chance in the adult world to do anything like that. That classroom setting is something that goes away after a certain age.

One last observation regarding group psychology and behavior. It's not prank-related, but it came to mind as I was telling that story. I was at a crowded post office a few years ago. I sat and watched the crowd at the door for a while before I went in. There was a double door, but only one of the doors was being used. Someone would go through, hold it for the next person, who would hold it for the next person, and so on. Some were going in, some were going out, and there was actually quite a line queued up to go through this one door. I figured the other door was locked. I went down and pulled on the other door, and it opened! I went through and held it. Someone else came through, and by the time I came back to leave, both doors were in use.

My conclusion based on that observation is that most humans tend to be lazy sheep that blindly follow the lead of others who went before them. Unless someone is brave enough to open the other door first, forget it. It will stay shut and everyone will keep using the same old door. That's why U.S. automakers don't encourage alternative-fuel technology, that's why you never see Libertarian candidates in national debates, and that's why no one wants to coach the Falcons. Sheep, I tell you.

PEN Pals story coming soon. Get ready, Ben!

In which 12 becomes 13

2008-01-10T16:56:00.000-05:00

It's a big day in the Brady-Shirey household today. Steven has a birthday and is turning 13! We're really proud of how he's starting to become a young man. He does his homework, keeps his grades looking pretty good, helps keep things clean around the house, does a little cooking here and there--he's starting to act like he's got some sense! He's about ready to be taller than his mom, too. He's still a kid at heart though, playing GTA on his PSP, harassing his sisters and the dog, and hanging out with his friends. Also, I don't think I've mentioned it here, but he is on the 7th Grade basketball team at his school!

He's come a long way from the kid I met two years ago. He pretty much looks the same (only taller), but he's changed a lot on the inside. I'm really glad I can be part of his life and he can be part of mine. His mom and I are both really proud of everything he's doing, and we're excited to finally have a teenager in the house. I love you, Steven! Happy Birthday!

In which I talk about old music and new blogs

2008-01-08T22:43:00.000-05:00

I usually listen to sports talk radio in the car on the way to work. The hosts don't always limit their topics to sports, though. Today, they all brought in stacks of their old 45 rpm records and they got to talking about music and playing some of their old records. It was pretty cool. One of them had a lot of '70's stuff--disco, Andy Gibb, stuff like that. The older one was into the '60's--Beatles, some psychedelic stuff, some folk; a pretty eclectic mix. It got me to thinking about the music I listened to when I was a kid.

I got my first real stereo for Christmas when I was 12, I think. That would have been Christmas of 1981. It had one of those turntables with the long spindle that would hold six records at once, a radio, and a tape deck. For the first year or so I bought vinyl instead of tapes, because the albums were a couple of dollars cheaper and my allowance wasn't high enough to get me into tapes. When I got a little older and my allowance went up, I upgraded. I didn't get a CD player until I was in college.

I remember the first albums that I got for myself after I got the stereo. Actually, I think they were bought for me as presents the same Christmas, but I got to pick them out and they were mine, not just my parents' stuff that I was borrowing. I got three albums the first time I went to Turtles Records & Tapes (remember the stamp books and gift coins?): Hi Infidelity by REO Speedwagon ("Take It On The Run", "Keep On Lovin' You"), Mistaken Identity by Kim Carnes ("Bette Davis Eyes"), and Bella Donna by Stevie Nicks ("Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", "Edge Of Seventeen"). As it turned out, the Stevie album was scratched or cracked or something, so I took it back and got Stars On 45 instead. Remember that one, with the long Beatles medley thing? I eventually got the Stevie again, years later, on tape. I still have all three of those albums today, along with most of the other albums I got back then. I have a turntable, too, but I don't use it much any more. Every now and then I'll give them a listen. For what it's worth, my first tapes were Built For Speed by the Stray Cats, and Chicago 16. My first CD was the Broadway cast recording of Phantom Of The Opera.

How about you, Faithful Readers? Leave a comment, tell us about your early music listening experiences. What was the first album/tape/CD that was ever really yours?

Before I go, I want to take the chance to officially welcome Amy Heather McCoubrey Buser to the blogosphere. She's been writing a blog in her son's name for a while now, but she just recently started a blog of her own at Blogger, m00kie's world. Check her out and tell her Sam sent you!

Support your local bloggers!

In which I test picture posting with my new phone

2008-01-05T13:43:00.000-05:00

Jonathan Creek in Maggie Valley

In which I refuse to resolve for the new year

2008-01-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

I'm not going to make formal resolutions this year. I was brave enough to do so last year and it blew up in my face, so I'm not going to take that chance this year. They would probably have been similar to last year's, though, since I didn't do so well with them the first time around.

One thing I am serious about is trying to write more often. I've said so several times, but the desire remains strong. Ben's friend Megan has expressed her desire to post something every day in January. I'm not nearly that ambitious; I know I'd never maintain that. I am going to try and get on once or twice a week, though. I did well in fits and spurts last year, but this year I want to try and maintain throughout the entire year.

I'm going to keep messing around with videos, too. That's been kind of fun so far. All I've done so far has been slideshows. I want to try a regular video at some point, and see how that works out. Who knows? I might be the next whoever that guy was who put videos on his blog for the first time then got better at it. Remember that guy? He was awesome.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all. Oh no...my kids are currently giving my mother-in-law a makeover. Lord help Grandma. Support your local bloggers in 2008. Holla!

In which my wife watches football, screams, dances, and her mother mocks me

2007-12-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

My wife has never been much of a football fan. She's always been willing to sit and watch if I had it on, but she's never been particularly interested in what was going on. As this season has progressed, though, she's shown increasing interest in keeping up with the players on my fantasy team. She's especially enjoyed watching the Patriots, since their QB (my cousin Tom Brady) is also the QB of my fantasy team. As the season has gone on, she's also started to get more and more into whether the Pats would stay undefeated or not.

This weekend was the end of the NFL regular season. The Patriots were playing the Giants on Saturday night in an effort to go 16-0. Giant WR Plexiglas Burress is on my fantasy team, but my wife's interest was solely in New England going undefeated. Plax was an afterthought.

We were in Maggie Valley visiting her parents this weekend. I turned the game on in their living room at 8:00, expecting her to spend the time chatting with her mom and maybe keeping half an eye or so on the game (and maybe getting onto me for watching football instead of visiting). Instead, as it turns out, her mom spent the evening on the computer playing online games at Pogo, and Darlene and I sat side-by-side on the couch watching the Patriots make history.

I've never seen her more into a football game. She yelled at the officials, taunted Eli Manning, encouraged the Patriots when they needed it and generally stayed involved in the game like a true football fan. It was really cool. It was like watching a Jets game with Welchie, except without the f-bombs and evil cackles.

The best part came when Laurence Maroney scored a touchdown and did some sort of arm-wiggly-flappy dance. She yelled, "Go, butterfly!" She then spent the rest of the game jumping up and doing the same dance whenever the Pats did something good. At one point I hollered at her mom, "Look at Darlene do the touchdown dance!" Her mom looked at her like she was crazy, then turned to her dad and said, "She's been married to Sam too long." Yeah. Like it's all my fault. I didn't raise her.

:::(=====)::: (that's my halo, radiating innocence)

Anyway, she was a little worried when the Pats were down by 12, but I told her, there's plenty of time. After the next Patriot TD, she started predicting the Giant loss with more confidence after every play. When Moss scored on his long bomb, we both screamed like lunatics and the Patriot victory was met with great satisfaction on the couch.

I got to watch football with my wife. She actually enjoyed herself! That's pretty cool.

In which I show you our Christmas pictures

2007-12-30T23:53:00.001-05:00

This is our Christmas 2007 slideshow video. Music by Vince Guaraldi. Happy New Year to all!

In which we wish you a Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T16:59:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from Sandy Springs and Da Bunch! We've had a fantastic weekend, with Santa coming to see everyone and lots of family love and fun all through the weekend. Sage was here with us, and we spent Christmas Eve with my brother and his family opening presents. We had a fantastic time. We took lots of pictures, and I plan on putting together a Christmas slideshow to post here soon. For now, I leave you with Season's Greetings, and hopes for a happy 2008.

In which the season comes to an inglorious end

2007-12-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

"That's all we got? Six g**d*** points?"
Harry Doyle (paraphrased)

With all the fantasy football talk on the blog lately, I figured I should let you know that the dream has ended. Sandy Springs FFC, the second-highest scoring team in the 16 year history of the UFFL, went out with a whimper last week, losing to Chunky Soup in the first week of the playoffs by the punk score of 9-6.

9-6?!?

6???

That's right, Faithful Readers. Sandy Springs FFC, the second-highest scoring team in the 16 year history of the UFFL, only scored 6 points. After averaging over 32 points a game during the regular season, it all fell apart in the playoffs, as nobody scored except the kicker.

To be fair, it has been slowly falling apart for the last six weeks. After the first nine weeks of the season SFC was 8-1 and averaging almost 38 points a game. Since then, counting the playoff loss, the record was 2-4, and the scoring average was way down. Plexiglas Burress and Maurice Jones-Drew lost their scoring touches late in the season, the Patriots have been running the ball more, and I have seemingly lost my ability to decide which of my kickers will score the most points in any given week. I guess it's somehow fitting, then, that the only points scored in this fiasco were by the kicker.

When I was doing the UFFL newsletter every week I called a game in which only the kicker scored a "Chip Lohmiller" game, in honor of Ben's early-days UFFL efforts, when his kicker (and only consistent scorer) was Chip Lohmiller. This was my only Lohmiller of the season. A fine time to pay tribute to my old friend's early-1990's mediocrity. Pfaugh!

Anyway, I'm out of the playoffs after the most successful season I've ever had, statistically speaking. Watch me score 50 points the next two weeks. Sigh. Maybe I'll hire Bill Parcells to run my team next year. Oh, wait, he's gone to Miami. Never mind.

In which we review the year 2007

2007-12-13T16:30:00.001-05:00

Stealing an idea from Rake, here is a little video slideshow I put together showing off some of the Brady Bunch's great moments from 2007. The music is by Genesis, the good times are courtesy of Da Bunch. It's about five minutes long. Hope you're all doing well as the holidays approach!

In which I tell you about SFC v. BAK

2007-12-04T22:50:00.000-05:00

I lost the fantasy football game. It wasn't 59-2, but Sandy Springs FFC fell to Bake-O's 31-21. To his credit, Shim hasn't yet gloated. I started the wrong running back. If I'd started Leon Washington at RB instead of Chicago's Adrian Peterson, I'd've won. As a result of the game, Bake-O's moves into first place in the Barney Division and can clinch the title this weekend with a win over Men O'War. SFC plays Lethal Weapon 4, who have Peyton Manning at QB, but not much else. If SFC wins and Bake-O's lose, SFC pulls out the division title. If SFC scores 45 points, they capture the all-time scoring record. That's not likely to happen, with the Pats playing Pittsurgh, but hopefully the W can still come through and give us the division title. More updates as events warrant. Wish me luck!

In which I ramble on for a while

2007-11-30T23:51:00.000-05:00

Gr, dudes.

It's been a while since I posted anything of note. I was sort of inspired tonight while channeling around on the TV. The high school football game of the week on CSS featured North Gwinnett vs. Newnan in the AAAAA quarterfinals. I stopped and watched for a few minutes. I have Newnan (not necessarily the school, but the town) associated in my mind with The Rake, who tends to comment frequently on our family blogs, and seeing Newnan on TV reminded me I hadn't checked his blog in a while, which further reminded me that I hadn't written in my own blog in a while either, so here I am. No idea how the game turned out. North was winning, last I checked. My wife is watching her stuff now, though, so I'll have to wait for Operation Football to find out the final.

What's up with Evel Knievel dying? He made it through all those insane stunts back in the day, hardly seems right for him to just pass away from an illness. I always figured he'd go in some spectacular fiery schmeer of some kind. One of his old friends was quoted as saying, "It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" That's exactly what I mean. At least he settled his stuff with Kanye before he went. Which reminds me, I saw a clip of Kanye on the Grammys a couple of years ago, when he won some award. He said, "A lot of people were wondering what I was going to do if I didn't win anything." He paused, held up the trophy, and said, "I guess we'll never know." I figure it's sort of like this season for the Falcons. We'll never know. Except they haven't actually really won much of anything yet, have they? So it's really not like the Falcons at all. My bad.

Then there's the whole Sean Taylor situation. Last I heard, they they had arrested four people, all under the age of 20, in the murder. They say they thought the house was empty. Apparently they knew who lived there, and they just wanted to rob it, figuring a wealthy NFL star just had to have something worth taking. Lord, help me if I ever become famous. I don't want it. I wouldn't mind winning $200,000 on Don't Forget The Lyrics (hosted by my cousin Wayne Brady) like that crazed odd-dancing woman did tonight, but I have no desire for fame and fortune. Case in point: Britney Jean Spears. I sort of feel like if she had never become famous, she'd just be living in her little Louisiana town, raising a family, maybe waitressing at a truck stop somewhere, singing songs off the jukebox for tips. Instead, her every move is hyper-analyzed, her every decision--for good or ill--is under a microscope. Girl, please. Put your pants back on.

Oh, man! We've just this week discovered that ESPN Classic shows old American Gladiators reruns every night at 7:00. We've watched the last couple of nights. What cheesy fun. Remember that show? Huge spandexed men and women with names like Nitro, Blaze, Laser, and Gold competed against athletic mooks off the street in "beat each other up" style competitions. It's a lot of fun, and seeing Todd Christensen's epic curly mullet is like warm beef stew on a cold winter night. NBC is apparently preparing an updated version of American Gladiators that seems like it's going to fill the Sunday Night NFL time slot after the season ends. Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali will be the hosts. Whee!

Not a lot going on around the house. My wife tells you all about our plans for the weekend on her blog. If you haven't already read it, read it.

My fantasy football squad is 9-3. I lost a squeaker last week because my cousin Tom Brady only had one TD pass, and Neil Slacker missed a chip shot field goal for Arizona. I'll probably cut him tomorrow in a bitter fit of pique. Long live Ryan Longwell! He's been a kicker on my team since 1997 or so. With a name like "Longwell" you figure he's either a kicker or a porn star. Maybe he secretly lives a double life. Kicker by day, foot-fetishist by night. OK. Ew.

Anyway, this week's game is YOOGE! Sandy Springs FFC vs. 8-4 Bake-O's, with Barney Division supremacy and a first-week playoff bye on the line. Bake-O's is owned and operated by the inestimable Dan Shim. I tried to trade for one of his TE's last week, but he was conveniently "out of town for Thanksgiving" and "didn't get home" and respond to my e-mail until after the trade deadline had expired. I think he was actually at home and concocted some weird travel story because he didn't want me to have Chris Cooley because he knows that TE has been my weak spot all year. Funny, Shim. Funny like a crutch. The crutch, actually, that Cedric Benson is now using, allowing Adrian Peterson to start in Chicago and score points for me all over the place. Go AP, it's yer birthday! I just realized that Shim is 8-4, but has actually been outscored by his opponents on the season. He's only scored 235 points, and his opponents have scored 237. Meanwhile, I've scored 398 points (giving up 227) and am on pace to be the highest scoring team in UFFL history (there's 15 years of history there) if I can total 66 points in the last two games. That's right at my average. Of course, having said that, watch Dan beat me this weekend, 59-2. Go Patriots!

OK, I'm going to go. I've long since missed Operation Football so I'll need look to elsewhere to see what Newnan did (it appears that North Gwinnett won 38-35). Parkview (Class of 1988 here) is way out of the playoffs, as is Chattahoochee (where my wife works), so I have nothing more to look forward to, high school football-wise, except for Brookwood losing. Then again, they already lost, to North Gwinnett last week. HA! North Gwinnett! That's ironic, unless it isn't. Ben would know. Hell, I don't know what's going on any more. It really is time for me to get out. Peace. Support your local bloggers. My wife has a sexy butt.

In which I have nothing to say but post anyway

2007-11-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

I have nothing to say. I could tell you about fantasy football or my job, but...enh...where's the pop and excitement in that? I don't even know why I bothered to log in.

Enh.

In which I say, "Happy Birthday, Twins!"

2007-11-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

Today is the big day! Our twins are turning 10 years old. As one of them said yesterday, "We're hitting the big one-oh!" I thought I would take a moment before I started working today to tell them Happy Birthday, and to let them know how much I love them and how happy I am that they are part of my life.

I first met them two years ago, just a couple of weeks before they turned eight. Now they're about to be 10. How time flies and how they have changed just in the last two years. They're starting to grow into young ladies and I'm so proud of them. Jessie's our chatterbox, Jewel is our Little Gangsta. Look at them together, and you have a couple of wonderful kids.

Their mom woke them up today with a birthday song and I dropped them off at school with boxes of cupcakes for their classmates. Tonight we'll do something as a family to celebrate. Not sure yet what we're going to do, but it'll be worthy of turning 10, I can tell you that! Jewel and Jessica, I hope you guys have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I love you!

In which WRV began to recover

2007-11-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

I went outside to walk the dog this morning. There was still a fire truck in the parking lot. They'd been there all night looking out for hot spots. I asked the driver how things looked inside the building. He said it wasn't as bad as it seemed from the parking lot. The worst damage was to the roof and a few top floor units. According to him, the middle and lower floors were actually in pretty good shape.

By the time I got home from this afternoon, a chain-link fence had been erected around the building and people had begun to go back in and were bringing items out. TV's, furniture, computers, even a pink and purple Dora pup tent had been set up next to the fence. The mood was much happier and more relaxed. One of the ladies who had spent part of yesterday trying to beat the fire and get important papers and pictures out before they burned, and who thought she had lost everything else, appeared to have salvaged quite a bit. That made my wife happy, as they had spent a lot of time yesterday talking.

There's quite a bit of work to be done to get the building back in shape. We still don't know whether a full rebuild will be needed or if they'll be able to use what's there and just redo the top third of the building. The board is confident that insurance will pay for it, and that there won't be an assessment. Our fingers are crossed. Things are a lot more optimistic around here than they were this time yesterday. That's always a good thing. Now, if only the Falcons can start winning...

In which I tell you about the fire

2007-10-31T22:51:00.000-04:00

We had a fire in Winding River Village today. We're all fine; it wasn't in our building. It was the building next to ours. I was at work and received a frantic call from my wife to come home. I rushed home and we spent the next three hours watching the efforts of the Sandy Springs FD. They did a great job and contained a fairly nasty fire to just one building. It was a very emotional experience for all of us. It wasn't our building, but it was still part of our home. We all tried to pitch in; Steven actually went into the building before the fire spread and helped some others bang on doors and roust all the residents out. Darlene and the girls helped guide people out of the immediate area and I gave inspiration and hope just though my comforting presence. No, not really. I went back and forth between the parking lot and the rally point the condo board set up in the clubhouse and tried to keep everyone in our area of the parking lot informed about what was going on. No people were hurt as far as I know. A couple of cats are still missing, but everyone else is present and accounted for. Steven got to talk to a couple of news crews, so he was feeling like the shizzle before he passed out asleep on the bed. We haven't seen him on TV yet, but if we do maybe I can get a video posted. I want my blog to be all multimedia and stuff like Rake's.

Anyway, we tried to end the evening in a normal way with a little trick or treating and a trip to McDonald's (the McRib is back! Whoo!). Right now we're all exhausted--the kids are long since in bed, the wife is probably asleep on the couch, and I'm soon to bed after I get done with this post. For those with concern, we're fine. Shaken, stirred, and emotionally worn, but fine. We're all safe and we still have a home. That's what matters.

Here are some pics (taken with my camera phone) of the fire, the SSFD in action, and Steven the media hound.

edited a few minutes later: We just saw a report on Channel 2. No sign of Steven's interview, but there was a quick shot of the twins in one of the crowd pans. Pretty cool, if it wasn't such a tragic situation. 12 families out of their homes. Trick or treat, indeed. Not the kind of trick I like.

In which I (hopefully) resume blogging

2007-10-27T23:54:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are. It's almost November. A perfect time to review the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year. I was all aslather with fervor and hope and optimism. HA!

I was going to write in my journal every week. HA! I haven't written anything but a pathetic little haiku since March.

I was going to see my friends at least once a month. HA! I haven't seen Walter since that meeting in January that I was so effusive about in that other post. I've seen Ben and Wanda once since then, I think.

I was going to lose 15 pounds. HA! I've gained five.

As you can see, my resoluting skillz are not up to snuff. I should just learn to avoid setting any sort of goals. A wise philosopher once said, "I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations." Words to live by.

I'm not going to promise to write more frequently. I'll try, but see what I just said about expectation. The less I promise, the less I have to uphold. I like it that way. I'll write when I think to, and I'll try to keep it fun.

Two more things, then I'll be on my way for tonight...

My fantasy football team is kicking major bootay this year. Sandy Springs FFC is 6-1 in the UFFL behind the efforts of my cousin Tom Brady, Plexiglas Burress, and Maurice Jones-Drew. I've made some prize money, and am leading the league in scoring. We'll see what happens this week.

Finally, Steven is blogging again. You can find a link to his new blog over on the sidebar, or you can click here. Tell him Sam sent you.

Thank you for coming by. Support your local bloggers.

I'm out of things to say.

A Blogslacker's Haiku

2007-09-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

Blogslacking since March.
Read my pathetic haiku.
An update? Um...

Not.

Okee-dokee Buck Rogers!

2007-09-03T15:11:00.001-04:00

In which we went to Maggie Valley

2007-04-07T09:30:00.001-04:00

...and it snowed...

In which I tell you about last weekend

2007-03-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

Man, what a month March has been! I didn't get the chance to post last week. It's been a busy month at work. Our department is a couple of people short right now after one person got promoted and another one walked off the job in the middle of a workday, and everyone left behind is stressing over extra work to make up the slack. I've been too tired to do much of anything. I wanted to tell you about a couple of things that happened last weekend, though, so here I am!

We went to the Gladiators game on Saturday evening. It was St. Patrick's Day so I wore my special St. Patrick's hat that I got from Darlene's Uncle Ray. Unfortunately we didn't charge the camera before we went to the game so I don't have a photographic record of my seasonal haberdashery. I do still have it in the closet, though, so just holler sometime and you can see it.

We had a big Brady crowd at the game--13 of us went. The six of us in the Brady Bunch, my brother Bill, his wife Liz (who is 8 1/2 months pregnant, so I guess we had 14 people there if you count the internal Brady), their daughter Mia, my parents, Darlene's cousin Anthony "The Man" White (who came from Waynesville, NC just for the game), and Steven's friend Courtney. It was quite a group. The girls all had a lot of fun singing and dancing and screaming (Sage was the one who didn't even like hockey and didn't want to go to the game at all, and she wound up saying it was "her first fun hockey game!"), the boys chilled, and the grown-ups watched the game and chatted. Gwinnett won 5-1 to solidify first place in their division. The coolest thing of all was the fact that the ice was green. Pretty cool! In my opinion, the puck was easier to follow on the darker ice. It wasn't a shrill Irish green, more of a sort of pale pea-soup olive. It certainly made for an interesting experience at the game.

The next night after we dropped Sage off at her mom's house, the other five of the Bunch plus Courtney went to Chili's. The meal was great, but our waiter left a little to be desired. He was doing well until a female friend of his and her mom came in and sat at the table across from us. From then on, he was overattentive to that table and neglected the other tables in his area. The people next to us got a little cheesed off, but we pretty much kept it together until Courtney asked for a to-go cup for his milkshake. 15 minutes later the guy had been to his friend's table at least five times, squatted down to flirt with her and to look down her shirt for extended periods, but had not brought us our cup. Keep in mind that we had already paid, so unfortunately his tip was locked in. We just needed a cup so we could leave.

After a while it became a war of attrition between Darlene and the waiter. She was determined not to ask again for the cup. Courtney was taking copious, noisy swigs from his shake every time the guy walked by, hoping to draw his attention. No joy. Finally, Darlene grabbed the shake and headed for the door. One of the kids asked me, "Is she going to steal that cup?" I got up and followed, saying, "Looks like it." She didn't, though. She went to the hostess and proceeded to tell her exactly what had been going on at our table and the one across the aisle for the last 15 minutes. Then she told the story to the manager while the hostess got our cup. Needless to say, the manager was not pleased.

It was neat to see my wife cut up a little and "get ghetto" (as she calls it). She didn't raise her voice a whit, but she let them know that she was unhappy. It was a side of her I haven't seen before. Remind me to stay on her good side. I love you, baby! Your blog is better than mine and you're so sexy!

In which it's time for pain

2007-03-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm an evil husband. I introduced my wife to Snood tonight.

For those of you who haven't been infected, Snood is the most insidious, evil, addictive game in the world. It's even more addictive than Tetris, and that's saying something. Walter introduced me to it many wasted hours ago. I hadn't played it in a long, long time, though, and rediscovered it earlier this week. Darlene is a Tetris addict, so I thought she'd enjoy the new challenge. We spent the evening on Journey, alternating levels, just seeing how far we could go. We had a good time, and she's now addicted to Snood as well.

"End it now!" - Snood Guy
"I just did! HA!" - my wife

In which I got soul (food, that is)

2007-02-27T22:55:00.000-05:00

We had "Soul Food Day" at work today. Each month, someone in my department chooses a theme and we all bring in a dish that matches the theme and we all eat and enjoy. Last month was the first month we tried it, and we did hot dogs. This month, the theme was more challenging: soul food. The menu was wonderful--smoked turkey, collard greens with pear relish, macaroni and cheese, yams, potato salad, cornbread, and banana pudding for dessert. My contribution was...meatloaf.

That's right. Meatloaf.

I made meatloaf.

All by myself.

Shut up, Ben.

I have never done anything this ambitious in the kitchen before (Marcel I am not (although I would love to have hair like that)). Yes, it's only meatloaf, but when your previous masterpieces are taquitas and Hamburger Helper, you take your ambition where it leads you.

Soul food was the theme, and my first thought was collards. Unfortunately, someone had already ganked collards, so I was in a quandary. I thought of meatloaf, my mouth began to water, and in a strangely lucid (yet not, considering my culinary history) moment I volunteered to make one.

I went home and e-mailed my mom for the recipe for her famous meatloaf, a staple in my childhood home, and did it up myself. Darlene was going to help, but she fell asleep on the couch watching Deal Or No Deal. I hung around until Tater Cake won his money, then I headed for the kitchen. I soaked bread in milk, cut up an onion (for the first time in my life, no lie), cracked eggs, measured other stuff, smushed it all up with my hands (a treasured childhood memory: watching my mom make meatloaf and smush it all together. I'd always thought it was so disgusting when she did that. Subconsciously that's probably why I wanted to make a meatloaf in the first place, so I could do that) and put the bowl of meatloaf-to-be in the fridge. This morning I woke up, turned the glob of meat paste into a loaf and baked it up. The morning house was filled with the delicate aroma of onions and lean ground beef. Mmmmm!

After it was done I covered the dish in aluminum foil and packed it up in the casserole sling thingy Walter gave us for our wedding last year (thanks, buddy) to keep it warm and headed out the door. Of course, on the way out the door I dropped the *&%#*$% thing!!! The whole thing turned over as it fell and landed right on its head. I started leaping up and down like a lunatic and cursing, scaring Steven to death, as tomato sauce leaked forlornly out onto the carpet. The loaf itself, though, was fine, having been trapped in the pan by the foil and the sling. All was well and my leaping about was for naught. Steven said, "I've never seen you like that." I was happy that he felt he could say that and mean it.

I added a layer to my burden, wrapping the dish in a towel before putting it back in the sling to keep the heat in (since lunch wasn't until 11:30), and headed to work. My boss told me my wife must have packed it for me, since apparently wrapping a towel to keep the heat in is a woman thang. I told her nope, it was me all the way. She was impressed. I figure I'm just in touch with my feminine side. I didn't tell Teresa that, though.

Lunchtime came, and the meatloaf, as well as the rest of the soul food menu, was a huge success. Everyone told me how much they enjoyed it (and some of them even managed to not sound surprised that I had successfully cooked meatloaf) and a couple of people even asked for my mom's recipe. That made me feel good. I had done it! Later, my mom told me I have to make meatloaf for them when they get back from Arizona. I can do that. I'm a meatloaf maker now.

Eat your heart out, Paula Deen

In which I shamelessly beg for validation from my readers

2007-02-23T16:29:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the "I'm just banging out a few sentences so I can get credit for having written something this week" portion of my blog! It may not be much, and it certainly may not be relevant to anything going on in the world around me, but that's what blogs are for--pointless blathering. And boy, it doesn't get much more pointless than this (unless it's nothing but a random picture like my last entry was).

Now it's on to the shameless begging part: If you read this entry, please leave a comment by clicking on the "comments" link at the end. Tell me who you are, where you're from, who your favorite American Idol contestant is--whatever you want. Just please say something! Don't leave an anonymous comment, though; please put your name on it so I'll know who you are. I know there are people reading, but I don't know who you all are or what keeps bringing you back. I'd like to. If you popped in, whether I know you or not, please say hello. I'd love to know who I'm actually writing for.

Over/under on actual comments left by actual readers: 2. I'll take the under, but I'm a cynic, so there you go.

In which I test mobile blogging

2007-02-12T16:36:00.000-05:00

I took this picture with my phone. Now it's on the Internet.

In which we lost, but it was ok

2007-02-11T22:48:00.000-05:00

Augusta Lynx 7
Gwinnett Gladiators 4

On paper, it looks like a depressing night at Gwinnett Arena for the Brady Bunch and the other Glads fans. In reality, though, we had fun, even if the power play was inconsistent and the legendary Dan Turple had an off-night in goal for Gwinnett, giving up three goals in the second period alone, and six overall (Augusta scored an empty-netter in the final seconds to nail the coffin shut). To the good, our boy Vig had two assists, and Colton Fretter scored his 34th goal of season, a franchise record.

Our seats were magnificent. Just to the left of the goal, five rows off the ice, in the rowdy end of the arena. We knew it was going to be good and loud around us when the game started and the chant went up on our end--the opposing goalie's name three times, followed by a rousing chorus of "You SUCK!" Steven got a big kick out of yelling that one all night. Later, after we scored a goal, their goalie was informed, "It's ALL YOUR FAULT!!!" Ah, good times!

I loved that the pregame video presentation featured Denis Lemieux's television interview from the beginning of Slap Shot ("You do that, you go to the box. Two minutes by yourself, and you feel shame. And then you get free."), as well as the "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius..." speech from Gladiator. A powerful moment from a movie I like quite a bit, and a good start to the pregame foofaraw.

Sandy from my office and her family we at the game as well, and they sat behind us, as it turns out. They've been coming to Gladiator games all year, so they knew the ins and outs of being a fan. They took the loss a little harder than we did, I think, but Turple is practically Sandy's son-in-law (or so her daughter wishes), so they were disconsolate at the loss.

We had a fantastic time. I was going to get a jersey, but they didn't have my size in stock. Maybe next time. We're definitely going to go back; the St. Patrick's Day game is going to be played on ice that has been painted green. No way we're missing that one. Hopefully the result will be more pleasing to the hockey fans in the house. Win or lose, though, we'll have fun, just like we did tonight, and we'll do it as a family, which makes it even better.

Chin up, Gladiators. You'll have your vengeance, in this life or the next.

In which we're Glad to be here

2007-02-07T20:50:00.000-05:00

Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
-Maximus Decimus Meridius-

The Brady Bunch is into hockey these days. We went to our first Thrashers game a couple of weeks ago, and now we're getting ready to go to our first Gwinnett Gladiators game on Sunday! The Glads (as the cognoscenti call them) are the AA affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers. They play in the ECHL and are currently in second place in the Southern Division of the American Conference, one point behind the dastardly Texas Wildcatters, who are apparently a collection of hoodlums, if my friend Sandy is to be believed.

They're playing the Augusta Lynx on Sunday. Augusta is in fourth place in the Southern. All I know about them is that they were coached at one time by Atlanta Knights legend Stan Druuuuuuuuuuuliaaaaaaaa (that's Drulia, for those who never went to a Knights game). Ah...the Knights....I could write about some Knights memories. Maybe I will. (note to self: add "the time the Knights had that huge fight with Salt Lake" to the list of potential blog topics)

We got free tickets to the Gladiators game. Racetrac gas stations were sponsoring player appearances and we went to Cumming and met number 21, forward Mike Vigilante, who was a nice guy. I mean, he was great. He was friendly and congenial and seemed to have all his teeth. He signed autographs for all the kids and has one of the greatest names ever for a hockey player, in my opinion. We also got to meet Maximus the mascot, and got free tickets. We'll be in Section 111, right behind the goal, in Row E. Five rows off the ice (aw yeh come on)! We'll get to see some old-time hockey from there, I bet!

We're all looking forward to it, and I'm sure it's going to be a great time. I'll write about the game after, and let you know how it went. Go Gladiators!

In which I give mad propz and compose haiku

2007-02-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

I'm on record as saying for years that Peyton Manning is the most gifted quarterback of our generation. He's extremely intelligent, has a broad knowledge of his offense and the game as a whole, and seems to be a genuinely nice fellow off the field as well, even if he is from Louisiana. Still, something has been lacking over the years that took me out of the cult of Peyton. I've always called him a "head case" and never thought he would win a big game. I certainly didn't think he would ever win a Super Bowl.

Well, now he has. It's about time.

Bravo, Peyton, and congratulations to Liz, Heather, and all the other long-suffering Peytonites out there. He's still got a couple championships to go to match my cousin Tom Brady, but I'm glad he finally won the big one. I'll concede that he deserves it (I'm still not a fan, so don't go thinking I'm getting soft in my middle age), and it looks like the Colts are going to be class champions. I can accept that.

Here's my haiku, Super Bowl-style:

The rain beads on the
Lombardi Trophy while I
go start the dryer

With that said and done, now let's figure out a way to get Mike Vick a Super Bowl ring.

In which I resolve and stuff

2007-01-31T19:38:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

I realize that the last day of January is a little late to be saying that, but as usual I'm way behind in my writing, so here I am now.

Before I get to the meat of the entry, I want to report that the Brady Bunch attended their first hockey game the other night. We went and watched the Atlanta Thrashers lose to the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 at Phillips Arena. I was the only one who had been to a hockey game before. We all had a blast and fully intend to go back, either to the Thrashers or the Gwinnett Gladiators (an ECHL team that plays in Buford).

On the way to the Thrashers game

With the New Year comes resolution time. I'm already a little behind on one of them, as you'll soon see, but I wanted to put on the record what I intend to do with my life in 2007. Of course, this doesn't include the "common sense" stuff like being a better husband and father, working hard at the office, and perfecting my Irish accent--everyone has those aspirations, and renews them year after year. My resolutions are the things I intend to do differently this year--the things I want to change about myself.

Write more often

Every entry I've entered in this journal over the last few months has stated my intention to write more regularly. I've never followed through. I really want to make an effort, though, to write at lest once a week. It's hard for me to keep to a schedule--heck, I'm still two hours behind on 24--but I'm going to really buckle down and try to build the discipline it takes to write on a schedule. It's an outlet that I've always loved, and over the last few years I haven't indulged in it nearly as much as I would like. In 2007, that's going to change.
Lose 15 pounds

Even thinking of writing those words leaves one side of my brain saying to the other, "Yeah, ok. Let me know how that works out for you." The other side then responds, "I know you are, but what am I?" and pandemonium ensues. Next thing you know I've polished off a package of Sugar Wafers and gained another pound. I spent quite a while between 212-215 pounds and lately have gotten down to the 207-208 range. Darlene is on Weight Watchers so I'm going along for the ride and am trying to eat better; partly to support her, but also to achieve my own goals. I'd like to get down to 190-192 pounds. My cholesterol was a little high last year and my potbelly, no matter how sexy my wife thinks it is, is starting to bug a little. Both are areas that need improving. We'll see what happens. I'll post updates in my written-more-regularly entries.
Socialize more

Since I have been married, my family and friends haven't seen me nearly as much as they did before. They haven't seen much of my wife and kids, either. I want us to plan on getting together with my friends at least once a month, and my family as often as we can. We got off to a good start on this one a couple of weeks ago as Ben and Wanda, Walter and Merry, and Bill and Liz (and Mia) came over for a celebration of Steven's and Sage's birthdays. It was great seeing everyone again, and Walter took pictures out the wazola. I still need to get those from him. Walter: send me a clicky, you goobahed! To my friends--see you in February!

That's really all the big ones. Write more, eat better, and spend time with the people I love. That's the ingredients for a pretty good year, I think. Hopefully they will result in habits that will continue into 2008 and beyond and won't need to be resolutions any more. Common sense rocks.

See you next week!

(Don't you love my optimism?)

It's been too long since we took the time...

2006-12-19T21:34:00.000-05:00

It almost does feel just like starting over. I don't write here nearly as often as I'd like. I haven't reached that phase of marriage yet where I'm really comfortable doing my own thing, away from my wife. I feel like I want to be with her every second, and it's hard to take time away from that to write.

She's dozing on the couch, though, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to write and get everything caught up. I'm going to have to pause in a few minutes to go make sure the kids are in bed, but other than that I should have some time to put some words into the ether.

It's been a busy month. Work has been busy, for me and Darlene both, and sick kids to boot, on top of it all. Jessica got strep again a couple of weeks ago, but the upshot was that the doctor finally agreed it was time to take her tonsils out. Last Tuesday she went in for a tonsillectomy and came out like a champ. Her Grandma and Pop came down from Maggie Valley to support her and babysit during the week. She was out of school all last week, and won't go back until after the break. She's feeling a lot better lately, I think. She's certainly starting to act silly again.

Jewel is making good headway in learning her multiplication tables. She passed her 6's the other day and as far as I know is still working on 7's. We're certainly proud of her for what she's doing.

Steven is a beginning drummer and had his first concert the other night at school. He played bells and snare. It pleases this old trombone player to see a musician in the family. Of course, Jewel and Jessie have decided to join the band too, when they are old enough.

We have a new addition to our household this month. Gracie the Jack Russell-dachshund pup has come into our lives and filled our home with joy, wonder, chewed-up bits of paper, and little piles of poop. The girls call her the "four-legged ankle biter." She's a trip, and we're digging having a dog.

Darlene and I recently passed eight months of marriage. That amazes me. Two years ago I was on the verge of thinking I would never get married and now here I am, eight months into the rest of my life. It's been the best eight months of my life. Our first Christmas as a family is approaching, and I can't wait to see what 2007 brings.

Before I go, a quick shout-out to Ben and Wanda with luck and paternal thoughts as the Great Wall process continues.

I'm reading Dune again. Good stuff.

That is all. Thanks for stopping by. I'm not going to promise to write more often because I keep doing that, then I keep not doing that, if you get my meaning. So I will just say I'll write when I can. Take care, Happy Holidays to all, and love from the Brady Bunch.

In which I finally get it over with

2006-10-25T16:09:00.001-04:00

You ever heard the word "blogslacking"? I picked it up while trolling the Ben/Wanda/Megan blogumverate. It means you have a blog but you don't write in it. My name is Sam Brady and I am a blogslacker. By trying to cure my blogslack, I have now become a workslacker as well, in that I am writing in my blog when I should actually be working. Lo, I am a master of the myriad forms of slack-fu.

I've been meaning, at some point, to tell the long, sort-of-funny, fully annotated version of the stove story but it's been four months now, so what's the point any more, really, you know? I'll beat that long-dead horse by giving you the down-and-dirty, then move on with my blog and my life. Our stove caught on fire in June or July (might have even been May). Twice. In one day. Pithy e-mails were exchanged between my wife and me. We eventually got a new stove, but it was too big for our stove hole. My brother came over one night and made our stove hole bigger. Yay Bill! And Steven helped. We have been enjoying our new stove for many weeks now. I think it's this one. If it's not, it looks a lot like it, so roll with it.

So that's the stove story. I'm sure you're saying, "We waited all this time for that?" Talk about your anticlimaxes.

I know I had other things to tell you, but I really can't think of any of them right now so I'll go away and try and get some work done before I go home. Hopefully the amount of my blogslack will decline. I'll do my best, but no promises.