9 out of 9...

but starting to get a little worried. The game last night was a great one. The Pac-10 is 0 - 3 which is something that only happens in those really good dreams. The problem lies in the choice of a couple of the bowls to be played on the NFL Network? I don't even know what that is but I don't think I have it. If by some chance I miss the NFL Network games I think I should get some kind of asterisk or something which states the games were "unwatchable" and mean actually unable to watch it not, "the game is so terrible its unwatchable". This morning I got to thinking about this past Christmas weekend and it made me smile. There are a lot of people out there who have no family or, maybe just as bad, they have family and they don't see them. I am surrounded by more family than I know what to do with and they all love me, how great is that. I received much more than I gave this holiday season in quality time, love and presents. It was a great, happy holiday.

Finally I want to say congratulations to Laura's grandparents. Yesterday was their 65th wedding anniversary. WOW! With only one year under our belts that seems like an eternity of time, and I mean that in a good way. Laura and I have had so much fun this past year enjoying each others company and friendship I can't imagine what it would be like to be able to look back on 65 great years just like this one.
Laura, I love you. Here's to at least 64 more years.

"Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."
- Mark Twain

The Bowl Watching Challenge...

was set before me by our recent Co-op here at the mill. Well he didn't really start it was my defense of the current bowl setup that got me into this exciting and interesting mess. The discussion was one that has been carried out around many a watercooler or cups of coffee this football season, "Playoffs vs. Bowls". The arguments 32 team, 16 team, 8 team, and plus 1 seem to always come up in the conversation especially when these first bowl games pit two storied programs against each other like for instance Eastern Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee State or Tulsa vs. Utah. To make a long argument short the co-op, Matt Mullins, stated that the only bowl game worth watching was the national championship because none of the others "mattered". I strongly disagreed with him and my side of the argument was helped when he said that he would also watch the Auburn game. There are 32 bowls - 64 teams that will play in this month long stretch of gift giving, worshiping and celebrating. That's over half of the division 1 football teams and everyone of those schools have students and fans that love their school, even Rice the smallest Div. 1 school that only has 40,000 alumni has something to get excited about this bowl season because their team "made it". So I told him I will watch all the bowl games because I LOVE college football. No Chance he said but so far I have proved him wrong. Now it does depend on what you consider watching a game: 1 quarter, a half, 3 quarters, the whole thing, or just scrolling through and pausing every time you get back to channel 28. I myself consider 3 quarters to be considered a full game watching since there is a chance you might, I don't know, watch a recorded episode of "The Office" during the halftime show and not come back until the game is underway. With that set I am now at 8 of 8 on the bowls so far and those were the hard ones. Two close calls have been games watched while at restaurants but with strategic seat choice I was able to fulfill my obligatory time requirement. I will keep everyone posted on how I am doing and hopefully I will get all 32 of 32. By the way Christmas was fantastic, God watched over us as we traveled along with the rest of our families. "No Tears '06" went off without a hitch. We were able to spend enough time with our respective families to walk away with everyone smiling. Lets hope every Christmas is as happy as this one. I will leave you with a quote I saw over the holidays.

"A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences." - Dave Meurer

After a long day at work...

I like to wind down with a few pages in a good book along with a couple hours on a good video game. Normally I stay ahead of the game in both of these categories but lately I am definitely slacking. I have three books waiting to be started here at the house while I am reading two others - Lost and The Jungle. Which, by the way, might be one of the better books I have read in a while. It's a classic about the meat packing industry in Chicago especially when you think that just about everyone was an immigrant at some point in their lineage. A big surprise for me too is that I haven't jumped into the new "next generation" gaming hodge podge that is Christmas '06. I read today that so far the new Nintendo Wii has sold more than DOUBLE the PS3, and everyone was worried about the name. Nintendo will always be here and if it's not I don't know that I will want to be gaming anymore. There is a silver and non-nerd lining to this post as well. I made the wonderful mistake of sending out my last post in an email so now I have to BLOG more often :) Thanks for the comments family, you know that I love. I am going to attempt to kick it up a notch in the next post with some pictures but until then... PEACE!

"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything." :)
-Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

how funny it is that you make me feel like Christmas is around the corner. I have stockings already hung by the chimney with care ( and monograms). But until that freshly cut down wonder graced the interior of my home it might as well have been June for how close Christmas seemed to me. Now that we have a fire place we are attempting to take full advantage. Last night after getting the tree in the stand we sat back drank our respective coffees and mochas (hot chocolate on steroids) and enjoyed the tree by firelight. There isn't much better. With Christmas fast approaching I have to say God has shown himself to me lately in so many forms. My wife and I have had some trouble picking a church to go to and a direct result of this is the lack of Christ-centered activities. Now don't get me wrong I pray and thank God all of the time for the blessings he has given us but we have recently joined a Bible study and it has literally lit a fire in my soul. I forgot what it was like to weekly brood over the Bible searching through verses and looking for the message. My last run in with this was back in Auburn where the guys and I had a little book club/bible study that really got me into learning more about the Bible and the "background" story that helps so much in understanding it. I challenge everyone this holiday season to read something in the Bible that isn't the Christmas Story (of course read that also) but something else that shows the love of Christ other than his birth.

Secondly I would like to say that I love this season for two reasons.
1. Christmas
2. Bowls, mainly of the college football variety but I will not turn one down that contains food.

I love football and this time of year we get TONS of it. Starting Dec. 19 and lasting until Jan. 8, that's 16 days, there will be 32 bowl games. That's an average of 2 football games a day, BEAUTIFUL! I also found an interesting little site that had the votes for the final Coaches AP Top 25 poll. Each of the 63, well 62 (Jim Tressel is a panty waist), coaches ballots listed and how they compared to the other coaches as well as how each of the final 26 teams were ranked throughout the season.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics/coaches_fb_poll_2006/flash.htm

It's pretty nifty. Well have a great holiday and if I don't BLOG before then Merry Christmas!

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. "
-George Burns(1896-1996)