Needless to say, it has been a long time since I have posted. I promised to quit cussing in this forum, so in the name of honor, let me say that I have been feeling like feces lately.

Michelle and I went to Tullahoma to share Thanksgiving with her family, much to the chagrin of my mother. After enjoying a great meal Thursday afternoon, everyone repaired to the TV room to watch "Elf" with Will Ferrell. Since I despise most stupid Christmas movies (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation notwithstanding), I drifted in and out consciousness. I was awake long enough to tell a funny (to me) story about my very brief career in bicycle assembly, though (more on that later). All seemed well until the next morning. I was playing X-box college football, trying to master the option offense. In dynasty mode, I lead the University of Georgia to 5 national championships in a six year span. With success comes scrutiny, of course, so my team got put on NCAA probation for two years. Those darn boosters are always screwing things up. Anyway, I started itching in a couple of places about mid-morning. Turns out I was having an allergic reaction to something, and I got a rash that spread all over my body. From head to toe. Jeez. Itching like CRAZY!! I spent about 3 days in agony, trying not to peel off my skin. About the time the rash went away, I developed my bi-annual sinus infection. So, I have continued to be in agony the past few days. So, I cancelled class today, and didn't even get out of bed until 2 PM. I feel horrible. Oh well. All things must pass.

**In regards to my previous mention of a very brief career in bicycle assembly, let me explain. When I worked at Wal-Mart, I got moved to the toy department one Christmas season. My first assignment was to assemble all the bikes. Management was wanting me to do about 15-20 per day, but the best I could muster was about 3-4. So, after a couple of days, I got moved to a different job. LOL.

I hope I start feeling better soon, because like most people, I simply do not have time to be sick. Please wish me well.

Michelle came over tonight to create a Powerpoint presentation for tomorrow. It was good to see her--she was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreadful day.

We watched Jeopardy Ken lose tonight, after an incredible run of success. He missed two Daily Doubles, and that sealed his fate. He was a class act in defeat, offering a gracious handshake to the winner. We could all learn a lesson in humility.

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Peace...

The new poll in the margin consists of the top 10 greatest songs (in order) according to Rolling Stone magazine. Although I agree with this top ten to a large extent, I would have had a few differences. My top 10 would have been something like:

1. Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)
2. Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
3. Yesterday (Beatles)
4. Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)
5. Hoochie Coochie Man (Muddy Waters)
6. Imagine (John Lennon)
7. What's Going On (Marvin Gaye)
8. Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
9. Born To Run (Bruce Springsteen)
10. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)

Some things I noticed were that Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares to You" is #162, but the highest Pink Floyd song is #314? Hmmmm. Nirvana with 4 songs, Nine Inch Nails with none? Hmmm. Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" is only #250 (its the greatest heavy metal song ever!!)? Hmmm. "Stairway to Heaven" is only #31 (top 20 at least)? Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" is #95, but Elvis' is #423? Hmmm.

Leave some comments and tell me what you think. Peace...

We got back from the retreat with our sanity intact, barely. We were both exhausted, so when we got into town, we went to her dorm for naps. I had barely over an hour before I had to go to a baseball meeting (we laughed about the fact that people who don't know would never guess that baseball season starts in November), but thankfully the meeting was at APSU, so I only had to walk about 2 minutes to get there.

The retreat was great--I think most of the kids had great experiences. I am not sure my sermon was all that great, I dunno. I did the best I could, so I am OK with it. I plan on posting some pics, maybe tomorrow. I need to get them sorted out first.

Friday, about 30 minutes after I got home with my new power cord, the cord I ordered from Dell arrived. That really ticked me off--the fact that according to Dell's tracking, it had not even made it to the carrier yet. So, now I have two cords. I am going to send the Dell cord back to them and get a refund. I am completely infuriated with Dell in general (I have been through 2 hard drives and 2 power cords in 15 months), so I doubt if I will ever buy from them again. I want to sell my laptop and upgrade by the end of next summer, but I have not made a decision in regards to which brand I am going to buy. More research is needed.

The alternator in Michelle's Explorer is going bad, so my brother Tim and I are going to install a new one this afternoon. Michelle and I are going to leave for Tullahoma after that, and we will be driving my truck there. That way, her dad can help me install a new windshield wiper motor. I have been driving without wipers for several months, and have been fortunate not to have gotten caught in any big storms. I don't want to push my luck any further, though.

I forgot to post last week after Michelle's birthday. It was a really nice day (especially for her!!), as I showered her with gifts. LOL. I got her a Keith Urban CD (which was free with the purchase of an Eric Clapton CD, so it was win-win), a basket of things plus a loaf of bread from the Apple Barn, and a new set of tires. Nothing says true love like BF Goodrich. LOL. The new tires are not yet installed, so I will get that done when I have a minute to breathe.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will miss not being here with my family, but I am sure they will survive...LOL. Peace...

Michelle and I are getting ready to leave for the fall retreat. We are really excited. We have 15 from our church going, so it will wild getting them there and back. I will be delivering the message tomorrow morning, so keep me in your prayers.

I was assigned the task of giving a sermon on the topic of "peace". I decided to talk about spiritual peace, instead of political or eschatological peace. I feel that spiritual peace is a precursor to the other two, anyway. I am going to play the George Harrison song "Give me Love, Give me Peace on Earth" as part of the sermon. I hope the kids will get the point. Wish me luck.

I got tired of waiting on my power cord to be delivered from Dell (as of last night it still had not been sent to UPS), so I bought one at Batteries Plus on Wilma Rudolph. It seems to be working well, and it has a 1 year warranty. I am leaning towards selling the whole unit and upgrading, maybe sometime in the spring. I dunno yet.

Earlier today, we stopped by Rossview High School so I could drop off some stuff for Richard McWhirter. While we were there, we went to see Sandra Black, who teaches there. She and her family have been good friends for a long time, so it was great to see her. She told me that her daughter Rachel reads my blog, so I am going to stop cussing. LOL.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Peace...

Today is Michelle's and Jessica's birthday. I would like to send a shout-out to both of them. I hope they both enjoy their special day. Michelle's suite-mates are cooking dinner for us tonight, so it should be a lot of fun. I am looking foward to it.

The power cord for my laptop has died. This is the second time that this has happened in the 16 months I have had it. Boo hoo. Seriously, this stinks. So, my computer access will be somewhat limited in the next few days.

I was at Grinder's yesterday at about 5 PM, and I ran into two of my philosophy professors who were there separately. It was funny, but kind of weird. The strangest things was that I was reading a book that was written by one of them. I made sure to point that out, so maybe I will score a few brownie points. LOL.

Michelle and I are taking the youth group to the Nashville Presbytery's annual fall retreat this weekend. It should be a good experience for everyone. I am preaching on Saturday morning, so for the past week or so I have been working on a sermon.

Sunday afternoon, my college baseball umpire's association is having its annual meeting. It promises to be 2 hours of sheer boredom. Oh well.

My football game last Friday was really exciting. CPA was leading Mt. Pleasant 14-0 after three quarters, but Mt. Pleasant scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to win the game. That was the first time I had ever been to Mt. Pleasant, and they treated us real well. I would not mind going back there again.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...

I will be leaving shortly for the bustling metropolis of Mt. Pleasant, TN, for my football game. It promises to be a wet, nasty affair, as the weather is horrible. I am packing all of my cold-weather gear, to be safe.

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Peace...

This morning, I was unable to get online at home. After doing some trouble-shooting, I concluded that it was a problem with the cable(I have Charter alleged-high speed) since the "cable" light on the modem was alternating between blinking and steady off--when it should be steady on all the time. So, I called Charter, and after spending 15 minutes with the automated customer service lady doing stuff I had already done, I got to speak with a real person.

Benjamin was a nice fellow, but something strange happened on the way to getting the problem repaired. We both deducted that the problem was indeed in the signal, so he began writing up a work order. While doing this, he suddenly screamed, "Wait!! Stop!! We are being ambushed!! We are being ambushed!! At this point I am nearly ready to shit my pants, thinking someone is walking around Benjamin's office with an Uzi, ready to take out their frustrations on the world. In reality, "ambushed" is Charter-speak for the act of receiving a ton of calls about a specific problem from a specific area. It seems that most of Clarksville was unable to get online, and the office was being deluged with calls. So, the work order was cancelled, and Benjamin told me they would investigate the problem and that I should try to get online later in the day. Whew!! I was thinking, "Jeez, what will I do if people die in an attack while I am on the phone?" I am glad nothing like that happened!!

As you may surmise, I am now online again, so it appears the problem has been solved. Without violence, thankfully.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Peace...

Let me recap the events of the last several days:

Friday:

I showed up at Michelle's dorm at the prescribed time, to find that she had transformed her room into an Italian bistro, complete with warm mood lighting and great decorations. We enjoyed a wonderful lasagna dinner, and watched a movie afterward. It was a blast!!

Saturday:

I worked 3 football games, and forgot to apply sunscreen to my face. The burn has receded, but at this moment I look like a reptile that is molting. LOL. I was at Books-A-Million this morning, and some guy gave me a weird look. LOL. Whatever.

Saturday night, Michelle and I ate at Don Pancho's, the best Mexican joint in town. it was great. We ran into a family from Mt. Denson, so that was funny. Afterward, we went to my house and listened to music for a while, then she went home. Sometime later, I got a phone call saying that I had been assigned a 2nd round playoff game this Friday. Way cool!! I was not at all expecting to get a game, so I am really hyped. I do not know where we are going, only that we are leaving at 2:30 in the afternoon, so I can surmise the game must be pretty far away. We'll see what happens.

Sunday, after church and lunch, I took a LONG nap, about 2.5 hours. It felt great. The youth group meeting was really nice; we had 3 visitors that had never come before. Cool. It's a good sign when the kids are comfortable enough to invite their friends. Michelle and I are really excited about what we have going on with the group.

Yesterday, I ate lunch with the Nashville Presbytery ministers. There is a big Christian Education meeting in Memphis this week, so a lot of the regulars were there. It was still nice, however, to catch up on all the latest gossip. LOL. When I left, I stopped by the church and rearranged some of the furniture in my office. I have been given another bookshelf, so I am trying to decide where I want to put it. I needed another shelf, because I have filled up the one I started with. One of my aunts recently gave me a huge box of books and minister-type materials, so I needed to find a way to store them.

Last night, there was a spaghetti dinner in Michelle's dorm, so we went there and ate. Good fun was had by all. Afterward, we went to the "new" Brary to hang out for a while. That was the first time either of us had been there. I ran into a kid that grew up playing baseball here, and we talked a while about baseball and stuff. I have umpired a ton of his games over the years.

It has been sort of a light week in regard to school, so there is not much to report there. I have been doing a ton of reading lately, trying to catch up.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Peace...

This has been a really crazy week, and I am now glad it's over. Whew. Very busy. Insane. Out-of-control.

I have been instructed to be at Michelle's dorm, nicely dressed, tonight at 6 PM. The rest is still a surprise. Since I don't like surprises, I am a little uptight about the whole thing. However, I trust her, so I am trying to keep cool. I know everything will be fine. I hope.

It has finally cooled off a little, and the weather is great. I love the crispness in the air. Long sleeves are once again de rigueur for me. YAY!

I picked up a couple of football games tomorrow, and a couple next Saturday. I am fairly certain that will wrap up the season.

I have decided to continue umpiring college baseball next spring. I know the time commitment will run me ragged, and readers of this blog can expect me to rant about my exhaustion and misery. However, I love the game too much to give it up, and college ball in particular is so much better than high school ball that it would be really tough to give it up. Being single and without kids affords me opportunities to do things that guys with families may have to miss, and I want to take advantage of the opportunity while I have it.

I have also decided to not work Saturday football next year. I am not allowed to wear my sunglasses on the field, and my eyes are too important to me. An old, out-dated custom was for sports officials to not wear glasses of any kind, be them prescription or not. This was to avoid the "four-eyes" ridicule that was sure to follow. However, I would like to believe that we live in a somewhat more enlightened time, and that ridiculous customs such as this can be cast aside. I liken it to the old idea that people should not drink water during competition, lest they get sick. Yeah, like heat exhaustion is a better idea. Blindness is not a good idea for me. Jeez.

Anyway, sunglasses are not allowed in Saturday football (perfectly OK in baseball), so I will not participate. It is not an issue in JV or varsity games, as those are played at night. So, I will continue to work those games. Besides, my officiating jones can be satiated with fall baseball.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Peace...

Michelle and I have just discovered a new coffee shop in town, called Grinders. It is located on Wilma Rudolph, behind Sprint PCS. We are here right now, using their free Wi-Fi. I think it may be my new favorite place to be.

Peace...

Being a Republican, I was overjoyed to see Bush win re-election. I feared that President Kerry would have brought about a decline in the country's moral values (abortion, stem cells, gay marriages would have all been full-steam ahead), not to mention higher taxes. Since both of my brothers are small business owners, it would have been tough for me to see their taxes skyrocket, as I feel they would have under Kerry.

I think the American people spoke loud and clear about their values by defeating gay marriage in all 11 states where it was on the ballot. Alaskans defeated a bill that would have legalized pot. California showed it is on the far left, by authorizing stem cell research.

Michelle and I watched the returns in the lobby of her dorm. There was a nice party, with an eclectic mix of Republicans, Democrats, and even a couple of Nader-backers. Spirits were high, and attitudes were cordial, so everyone had a good time. I won 3 cans of shaving cream by answering various trivia questions about previous elections, so now I am well-stocked.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Peace...