Tuesday, December 26, 2006

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

Friday December 22 I drove to Chicago. I left Vinemont at 8 o'clock sharp and exactly 642 miles later, at 5:40 p.m., I arrived at my sister's place on the north side. I spent Friday night and Saturday in Chicago with my sister before driving back to Alabama with her on Sunday. Other that wanting to visit her, one of the original reasons for this brief trip was because she has a nice drum set that she wanted to give the boys for Christmas but we had no other way of getting it to Alabama.

My sister and I had a great visit. Friday night we played Trivial Pursuit and listened to Christmas music. My sister has the Rhaposdy music service on her computer and we eventually made up a really fun game of name that artist. We would alternate playing a song that we looked up and the other persson had to guess the artist. We had so much fun doing this that we stayed up until 3 a.m. doing it, despite the fact that I had driven 642 miles for 9 hours and 42 minutes. The surge of caffeine left in my body from the drive probably didn't hurt either!

Saturday we actually slept in a little bit. After that we did a little Christmas shopping and ate at the Houndstooth Saloon, just down Clark Street from Wrigley Field. My sister bought my meal. The buffalo wings were great! That was a cool experience; a little taste of Alabama in the Windy City. After shopping, I wrapped presents and loaded the drums and the rest of the stuff in the car. We ended up staying up too late again playing muical trivia using Rhapsody.

Sunday we drove back to Alabama, We left at 9:15, stopped very little, and arrived in Alabama after 6 p.m. Christmas eve we hung out with Mom and Dad and looked forward to Christmas with the boys.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Lately...

I don't know if it's writer's block, stress, or what, but I haven't felt as inspired as usual to update some of my blogs, including this one. I have kept up with my weather blog. The weather geek in me has really enjoyed the fog that we have seen in North Alabama during the past week.

I haven't updated the Alabama Crimson Tide Blog and the coach search seems to have been suspended pending the end of the NFL regular season and the college bowl games. The current thinking is that Alabama hasn't given up on Nick Saban (the Great Saban) of the Miami Dolphins. We'll see.

I have missed the boys. They have been with their Mom since last Friday. Last Thursday night I let them open some of their presents because I probably won't see them until Christmas day. I have never been outspoken about anything personal on this blog before, and I will not start now. Suffice it to say that I have been having trouble spending much time with the boys lately, whether it be on the phone or in person. Without going into the gory details, that is sad and wrong. I can't wait until Christmas!

Monday, December 11, 2006

Prattville 35 Hoover 21







Saturday afternoon I took the boys to Legion Field in Birmingham to see the 6A high school football championship game in which Prattville defeated Hollywood High (aka Hoover High) 35-21. Hollywood High was on one of Prattville's signs, obviously referring to Hoover's numerous appearances on MTV and CMT on the show, "Two-a Day's".

The best part of it all for me was telling the boys about my memories of the "old gray lady", Legion Field. The first time I saw a game in Legion Field was 10/25/75 with my Dad when we saw Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide defeat the TCU Horned Frogs 45-0. I saw many Bama games there through the years. The most notable was the 1985 Iron Bowl, when Van Tiffin kicked a 52-yard field goal to beat Auburn. Another one that stood out was Alabama's 1986 defeat of Notre Dame, which was immortalized in Daniel Moore's painting of "The Sack".

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Blog Roundup...

I have been unusually busy with my other blogs during the time I spend on blogging so I haven't written much of substance here in a while. If you are looking for substance you won't get it here today either. My boys are sleeping in but they are about to wake up.

We went to the rodeo last night. The boys, especially Joe, talked me into taking them. I was tired and had no natural inclination to go to a rodeo. But, as usual when I try new things, I enjoyed it. I think the thing I enjoyed about it the most was watching the boys have fun. Things like: Matt laughing his head off at the clown's antics, Joe's description and analysis of the animals and riders, and watching David take pictures. There were a couple of little girls behind us that were Matt's age, who, while watching the cowboy tie up the calfs' legs said, "Awwww...don't hurt him." We thought that was cute and funny.

One thing about the rodeo, it is definitely not the place to go if you are caught up in political correctness or animal rights. The boys and I had good time, though.

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Two weeks ago we visited my parents and the boys and I must have gotten rid of a few million leaves. I climbed up on the house and cleaned out the gutters. I used to love doing that when I was in my teens and twenties. I didn't mind doing it in my 30's. Now that I am in my 40's I think my days of getting on the roof are numbered. My parens' house is a split level house. It is amazing how the human mind works. I do not mind being close to the edge on the lower level very much. But being close to the edge on the second level, especially the part above the driveway, freaks me out. The view is awesome up there, though. David and Joe wanted up there so badly but being the protective parent that I am I told them they would have to wait a few years. I do have a photo of myself, when I was about David's age, of me on the roof painting. Maybe they can take over when I am too old!