goodness...a week has gone by

...OK...did Turkey Day. my mother and brother came to town and brought withthem the deep fried turkey. We had mac and cheese, green beans, dressing, banna pudding, vegetable casserole, etc. We then put up the tree and other decorations. Then after my mother and brother left, we wrapped the majority of our presents.... Jessica and the kids went to Florence the next day to see her parents and meet up with Aunt Ellen and Uncle Wes and stayed there till Sunday night.

We are now into the Holidays.

"No matter how hard you work to bring yourself up, there's someone out there working just as hard, to put you down..."

- Dr. Dre

I got Jessica and Aunt Ellen a ticket to NYC for Xmas. They will be going up and staying with Brown. Ellen has never been there so that should be fun for them. I am going to see if they can aquire a "Burberry" handbag for my mother from one of the enterprising sidewalk businessmen. That should be interesting.

Monday morning random

Ok…. Frat voted on bids last night. Sigh…pretty typical conversations. They never seem to realize that the very things they say were said about them when they were not in the Frat. And they seem to want everyone to be perfect. At any rate, looks like over 40 bids will be given out. Probably 20-25 accept initially… between 15 to 20 cross “the burnin sands…”

Clemson sticks it to USC again. That made the weekend, as I now have another year to not worry about those guys. But Spurrier will have those guys cookin in the future.

But then the Panther and the Falcons both went down in flames.

Its always kinda strange now that you can have actual conversations with your kids. I forget now what it was like when they couldn’t talk. Now, its “ I don’t like these chips..I prefer Cheetos, Daddy”.

Holidays now are here. Turkey day on Thursday. My mother is deep fryin a turkey. Then Friday and Sat will see the visits to Jessica’s parents, etc.

Santa is pondering the I-Dog for Rylee and Ian. The Power Ranger Megazord is in hand. Santa has to figure out something for Rylee. Kinda difficult when every commercial on  JETIX has Rylee going…”ooooooooohhhhhh…. I want THAT!”….

Game Night on Saturday was really cool. 10 people were there. Brian and Jessica went all out. About 25 different types of beer, 17 varieties of chips, Brownies and pizza. Played poker for a little while, and I got wiped out real quick. But I got something for them next time….

My online Wish List

Oh, just in case anybody might be wondering about anything to get me for xmas, I made a wish list on Amazon.com. Now, I actually have 2 lists, that shouldn’t overlap. I have a list at home that is for my mother, family etc. And I have this list in case anyone gets brave and goes online or anything like that. Of course, any gift anybody gets me is appreciated, even if it isn’t on these lists. I just know I will get the “ I just don’t know what to get you” stuff, so here ya go. Isnt Xmas fun?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/3FP2RA3VAMFIU

lyrics

Ah yes, the great Garth Brooks…that’s who I am listening to right now, doing one of his covers of Billy Joel. He does a great job at that….

Shameless Written by: Billy Joel

Well I'm shamemeless when it comes to loving you I'll do anything you want me to I'll do anything at all And I'm standing here for all the world to see Oh baby, that's what's left of me Don't have very far to fall You know now I'm not a man who's ever been Insecure about the world I've been living in I don't break easy, I have my pride But if you need to be satisfied I'm shameless, oh honey, I don't have a prayer Every time I see you standin' there I go down upon my knees And I'm changing, swore I'd never compromise Oh, but you convinced me otherwise I'll do anything you please You see in all my life I've never found What I couldn't resist, what I couldn't turn down I could walk away from anyone I ever knew But I can't walk away from you I have never let anything have this much control over me I work too hard to call my life my own I have never let anything have this much control over me I work too hard to call my life my own And I've made myself a world and it's worked so perfectly But it's your world now, I can't refuse I've never had so much to lose Oh, I'm shameless You know it should be easy for a man who's strong To say he's sorry or admit when he's wrong I've never lost anything I've ever missed But I've never been in love like this It's out of my hands I'm shameless, I don't have the power now I don't want it anyhow So I got to let it go Oh, I'm shameless, shameless as a man can be You make a total fool of me I just wanted to you to know Oh, I'm shameless, I just wanted you to know Oh, I'm shameless, Oh, I'm down on my knees... shameles

Sitting here shaking my head..

...listening to the song "Shake that Laffy Taffy". HOW IS THIS BEING PLAYED ON THE RADIO!!!!!! ...now, dont get me wrong. i find the song amusing. But isnt this the type of song that should probably only be pulled out after midnight at the club? Definitely not the type of song you want your daughter to be listening to on the way to dance rehearsal. well, actually...now that i think about it...definitely not the type of song I want my daughter listening to, period. and it certainly makes me look at my bottle of Grey Goose differently....

Eshra Shabazz ( formerly known as Erik Brown)

It is times like this that I am always reminded of the great Erik Brown ‘s saying…”the chickens have come home to roost.”…or was that Malcolm X?...cant remember now, but anyway, so…the Jordanians are pissed that the Gatekeepers of all that is Islam, Al-Queda dropped a few bombs on their wedding celebrations yesterday. Got them taking to the streets and stuff. I bet they aint too happy with their fellow bruhs struggles now, huh? And I thought it funny that Al-Queda comes out with a “see…uhhh…see, uh…what happened was…well, heh, heh, we just tryin to represent, and uh…well…uhhh”  Nothing like ticking off the very people you trying to rally behind you.

…and in matters closer to home, nothing like kinda noting that your daughter was getting some water from the bathroom  45 minutes ago, and when you go into the bathroom, the sink is running full blast. Sigh…..

oh, and another thing....

WHAT IS UP WITH THE USC/CLEMSON GAME NOT BEING ON TV….ANYWHERE!!!!... except pay per view, of course. You mean to tell me that somebody like SCTV or something couldn’t use this as a great fund raising tool? You mean somebody like BMW could ante up some cash and get to run a billion commercials during the game? I don’t know. Seems like USC and Clemson could have figured out how to get this game on free TV somehow…

random

I was transferring my contacts in my cell phone to my new phone, and it kinda dawned on me, especially after last weekends alumni stuff, that I can probably look at my phone list and see the people who matter the most to me. I guess that the only number lacking is John Kennedy, who is down in Florida playing Virgil Ward/Bill Dance, it seems. There are people who read this who I care about as friends, but I guess everyone has a closer circle of friends.

By the way, John, I got your email…and I will respond soon.

Saturday is Ian’s last Soccer match of the season. He is now playing goalie, as it seems that he kinda doesn’t like to mix it up in the rugby scrum that is soccer at this level. Which is kinda cool, if he sticks with soccer and becomes a goalie because goalies have the coolest jerseys…. But I am not sure he will be a soccer guy. I am going to try to seriously start introducing baseball this Spring

for a few moments....

A nice weekend it was…great to see a large turnout of alumni, and friends. I had a great time getting to sit with Dr. Hosler @ the game, strangely enough, it seemed like it was yesterday and nothing had changed…..

Kristen, and her husband Michael and son, Harrison. It was, as always now, way too short of a visit. but i am extremely grateful to have been able to see her in person, even if it was for only like 30 hours....

Kinda strange take on the photo, but i thought it...different

Clemons....

weekend on deck...

looking forward to a different sorta weekend... Kristen is coming to town bringing her husband and son. Aunt Ellen is coming too, so another busy couple of nights at the house. going to homecoming, etc. ..maybe sitting around the firebowl saturday night...who knows...