Yesterday was Jessica's birthday, and She went out with some girls for dinner. Some of them surprised her and I think the evening went well....

...and also... why is it that EVERYTIME someone says they are delivering something/fixing something at your house and they say "we'll be there between 1 and 4", you can count on 4:15? We are gettin a new fridge today... one of those fridge on top, feezer on bottom gigs... but it doesnt have an icemaker on the door. had to sacrifice that gadget... But it has far more room and the sections are more readily available for I-man to come down and get his juice and leave the fridge door open for 8 hours...

classic ..just classic....

well. Clemson takes the gaspipe...AGAIN ... in what is increasing not just a trend with everything Clemson, but perhaps tradition, Clemson success is often tragically tinged with ultimate defeat... It just seems that there is a palpable air about Clemson. it is a sense that it can succeed but there is always a tragic flaw...be it an inability to throw the ball when 8 men are stacked against you, or hitting simple free throws 75 percent of the time... I can list off a veritable sadsack list of Clemson Achilles moments, from that baseball team in the 90's that went something like 60 and 10 with Ken Vining, Chris Benson and a slew of other now major leaguer pitching, yet when the got to the Series found that the team suddenly couldnt hit homeruns in a field 450 feet to dead center...or the many Danny Ford teams that had NFL players 2 deep that would lose to Duke ( oh wait, that STILL happens), or the team with Elden Campbell and Dale Davis that lost on a full court, no time on the clock, turn around jump shot against Uconn, springing that program to national prominence and Clemson Basketball into a spiral it didnt recover from until it lured Barnes, who of course,used Clemson to springboard to Texas, where they are now a powerhouse in basketabll. Funny thing is that if THAT basketball team would have hit its freethrows, they win. perhaps they go even deep in the tourney, lure more recruits and become a national Power, with Cliff Ellis being mentioned in the same breath as Roy Williams, etc... oh I could go on, but...i just dont care anymore...

American Idol has jumped the Shark

...now, i dont watch American Idol. But you cant miss hearing about it all the time from everyone else who does watch it. And i have seen/heard the clips of this Sanjaya fellow who obviously should not be singing on what is suposed to be a talent show of this level. As far as I'm concerned, if the voting "public" votes off the Sligh fellow (who actually has shown some level of talent) and keeps that Sanjaya guy in, then American Idol has no credibility with me and I can just call it what it is...a popularity contest. But, then again, isnt that what it is all about anyway...as I have said before, it is more about looks and marketing. Think that wasnt marketing when they showed that girl cryin the other day? Like i said before, place this contest in the 60's, take a young Stevie Wonder, or a young Ray Charles, or Roy Orbison and those guys would not have even made it pass the initial auditions....but when the "public" voting is young, white girls between 8 and 18, you can see why this contest (sic) is a farce and is losing credibilty every year...

There's Faith, Hope and Love... and the greatest of these is Love.... That's cool.

-Garth Brooks

tsk, tsk...

So...the Tarheels go and pull a Clemson in overtime today. i mean, like...that is something that would happen ( I should say, DOES happen) to Clemson in that type of situation. Blow the lead, then just take the gas pipe in overtime...oh well...

...Battlestar Galactica.???... hmmm...I knew what was going to happen, but even still, i was kinda caught offf guard by how it was shown. And I now have to gofind out what happens next season, in what has to be the last one.

race was 2 laps race, 1 lap caution. a wreckfest...but it was cool.

BRISTOL BABY!!!!

here at Bristol... tailgating watchin Harwoods satelitte tv, and connected to the internet via Verizon Broadband...isnt life great? Race starts in about 3 and a half hours...

ever wonder why?

why is it that the feeling of getting into bed at 10:30pm is so different than, say, getting into bed at 10:30am? The bed just feels so much better at 10:30am... and its just weird how that works...

I think I have seen a game that i need to get for my Xbox 360. its Burnout Revenge. i downloaded a demo and itseems pretty cool...of course i gotta read up on reviews first before I pull the trigger on a purchase... if anyone has any experience with this game, let me know... i also have toconsider that I-man will want to be playing this as soon as he lays his eyes on it.

I think my legs are just about recovered from how sore they were following the weekend. one more day and i will be fine... and I think I am going to start moving up bedtime from about 11ish every night to 10ish every night. It seems that we are getting p later and later every morning....

busy weekend...

...the twins saw Grandma Friday evening/night. We then did I-man's soccer match on Saturday morning. after which we headed down to Columbia for Uncle Wes/Aunt Ashley's reheasal dinner... did the rehearsal dinner, crashed at a local hotel, then did the wedding on Sunday. I took pictures for the wedding and I'm hopin they turned out satisfactory... I will have to do some slight edits to a few pix as outdoor situations and the constant change in lighting creates a challenge...


Ryles was a flower girl and I-man was a ring bearer. I was extremely nervous about them doing the event but they held up fine. But they just have reached the age where the can be trusted to stand still for the 20 minutes it took...

We finally got home a little while ago and Ryles and I-man watched a Thomas the Tran video...on my bed...of course they fell asleep and I've now got to figure out a way to get them to their rooms without waking them up. But the somewhat busy weekend is over...and Ashley is now added to the roster.

On deck for next weekend...headin to Bristol on Saturday with Harwood in the big black ambulance...

and where did this come from?

...putting Ryles to bed last night, and she starts talking/pointing to her "pectorals, and biceps, and triceps, and trapezoids"...and she is pointing to the right places. i'm like..."uh...what?" where did she learn this stuff. i never knew that stuff when i was 5 years old. and then, when we were discussing cleaning her room, she made made a point to say that our room wasnt clean. hmmm... I can tell that future arguments are going to be testy with her...

the time change

evidently, this time change thingy was a big deal. I had to deal with it at work and it seems people have a real problem if their calenders are off an hour. my only thing is that it is like...8am and it is still dark.

by the way... Clemson Basketball got screwed...again.

..we decided against mounting our new TV but if I come home and find greasy fingerprints all over the screen again, I might have to revisit that decision.

...and this morning came news that Fred Thompson is thinking about running for president. Now that would be cool. I am not sure of his politics, but I would love listening to him.

So...its seems to be decided...

Ok, so we thought initially that the twins would go to the Spanish Immersion school...but...bureacracy raised its head. But, thanks to much diligence by Jessica, the twins will be attending the Academy of Mathematics and Sciences in G-town. Its one of those there magnet s schools, as they seem to be called in these here parts.

so..now the hot rumour is that Anna Nicoles daughter father (or as some people call it "baby daddy") is...now this is rumour... her dead son. Goodness... i can only just shake my head bout that one...

DST

Evidently, this DST thing is a huge deal....like...people are losing their minds. Appointments will be off an hour. Goodness..now... like...Microsoft (and others) have been warning people for like 6 months now. But now, there is a crush of people tryin to get their Outlooks and Exchange servers patched, and the wait time at Microsoft is almost 5 hours for help. heh..heh... and no Josh, i dont want to hear about how there are no problems with Linux or anything like that....... But I guess this is serious stuff... a lot of people are worked up over it. I guess if you have a lot of appointments, etc. it would be a pain...

...and I am wonderin why that chick on Idol is still on there when they punted the black chick a couple of years ago for a similar "outrage". Hmmmm...go figure.

Clemson Basketball takes the gaspipe...AGAIN....

...

DST

Evidently, this DST thing is a huge deal....like...people are losing their minds. Appointments will be off an hour. Goodness..now... like...Microsoft (and others) have been warning people for like 6 months now. But now, there is a crush of people tryin to get their Outlooks and Exchange servers patched, and the wait time at Microsoft is almost 5 hours for help. heh..heh... and no Josh, i dont want to hear about how there are no problems with Linux or anything like that....... But I guess this is serious stuff... a lot of people are worked up over it. I guess if you have a lot of appointments, etc. it would be a pain...

...and I am wonderin why that chick on Idol is still on there when they punted the black chick a couple of years ago for a similar "outrage". Hmmmm...go figure.

Clemson Basketball takes the gaspipe...AGAIN....

...

ok...well, uh...hmmm....

...ok, got the new TV. looks bout like i expected. of course, normal cable tv is definitely exposed for its shortcomings now, but the DVd's and Xbox 360 look pretty spiffy. Thursday, the cable guy returns with the hdtv/dvr thingy. Then we will be getting the HD channels and also be able to record the cool Noggin stuff that comes on while the twins are at school.... I guess the only thing bad right now is that i didnt really think thru how i was going to do the sound switching for the AV stuff here at the house. And the current Amp, for all its goodness, isnt going to be good enough, in the long run. Well, actually the problem is that if it takes me 2 minutes to figure out the 2 or 3 remotes I need to switch from DVD to TV to Xbox or Gamecube, well... i think I know where the twins and jessica are going to on the learning curve here... So I am scouring ebay for a cheap deal on an AMP/receiver with HDMI pass thru so I can setup to be able to switch everything from the amp and not have to mess with changing inputs on the monitor. Whew...

There is this huge argument raging in the Frat (National) message board about alumni and their "rights", etc....I wish I could speak my mind to sme of the people ranting on and on, but..these things have to be timed just so.... and I may have to wait till orlando to speak.

my favorite show, Battlestar Galactica, is winding down for the season, and wont be back till..gulp...next year. Lucky for me that Baseball starts in April, nascar keeps rolling on when comes football, to keep me occupied.

"Life has a melody. A rhythm of notes that become your existence once played in harmony with God's plan. It's time to do your part and realise your destiny."

Oh, by the way..

pretty typical day in regards to the cable guy, and UPS. Cable people call at 8:15am..."we'll be there between 9 and 12 today". So, you know how that goes... cable guys shows up at 12:45pm, just like clockwork. (had to have the lines checked because the signal was weak and the impending HD stuff<see below next post>was having a problem working correctly) Then I am waiting on a delivery, and watching tracking online for UPS. Said the package was out for delivery at 4:45am this morning. I'm thinkin maaayyybe it might arrive in the morn. Well, its 1:45pm...and no glorious Westinghouse 1080p HDTV to bring the realism of the sweat, dirt, grimaces, etc of sportin events. But, i digress... I can wait. gotta get all the cablin correct anyway. That is a mess...

HDTV!!!!

Today, we arrive into the new era. The 1080p 37inch HDTV arrives. Just in time for March Madness, Nascar warming up and...baseball season. also today, I-Man starts soccer practice and games again. Of course, Ryles has her ongoing Ballet and Tap classes...

temps are rising and the schedule is starting to fill up for weekends... Soccer matches, Uncle Wes gettin married, Bristol Spring race, Jessica Birthday, frat formal in Charleston, frat convention in the ATL, Darlington race, All Star Race in Charlotte taking me up to the beginning of June. Always got stuff to look forward to...