Two College Football Games...before Labor Day

Thursday I went with Yearwood and Darrell to the GT/Jacksonville State game...mostly to catch up with the guys, whom I hadn't spent much time in years. Both are doing well. Jeff went through a tough period at work before changing jobs, a similar situation to what I'm in these days.

Tech didn't look too bad. The unis don't look too bad in person, and the ugly details are tough to make out from a distance. The team looked ok, but we'll see how they do against tougher competition. The backup freshman QB was small, but looked better than the starter. As always, a night game in downtown ATL is always pretty.

Saturday Ceil backed out of taking Will to the Clemson Alabama game...a wise choice on her part. She went to the Decatur Book Festival and chatted with SPdL novelist Elizabeth Goldsmith Musser.

Will and I took MARTA from North Springs. With 200,000 people downtown for Dragoncon, the game, and black gay pride, the parking desk was nearly full. By the Perimeter Mall station, the train was full. We went early to take in the Cenntenial Park events, but there was little to do except drink Coke Zero and collect Chick-fil-A trinkets.

We got into the Dome way early, but by the time the bands took the field 40 minutes before game time, the only way to see was to stand. Stand we did, until the Clemson team let the wind out of our sails...we got to sit during the second half. While we were in the Clemson section, in the Clemson end zone, a small band of young, drunk Bama fans spoiled the fun for the rest of us.

The Tigers would do well to fire their offensive lineman straight into the defense, and let powerful back James Davis plow straight ahead, with a running start. Instead the men in motion get in the way, linemen constantly pull, giving the defense time to penetrate and clog the line of scrimmage. Clemson RBs are handed the ball while standing still, then they begin running.

I was surprised that Will was ready to leave early. We walked to the Five Points station, arriving just in time to board a North Springs train. On the MARTA ride home some were complaining about the defense, though they did admirably considering the offense held the ball less than a third of the game.

This has been going on for years...they beat up on weaker opponents and stay close against stronger teams with a fumble recovery here or kickoff return there. Looks like 2008 will be more of the same. Some were surprized by the Bama loss. Not me.

Aren't You the Husband of...?

Wednesday night before the Braves game I had a very brief chat with Marlins catcher Matt Treanor, husband of Olympic Beach Volleyball gold medalist Misty May-Treanor. While we were speaking, she was in NYC taping the David Letterman Show. He later threw my 9 year old son Matthew a batting practice ball.

Will’s friend Preston was first hollering at one pitcher, saying he was from Tennessee as well. Then Blaine Boyer caught a ball and Preston immediately started razzing him, about how Pope HS was going to beat Walton in every sport…football, baseball, basketball, tennis… Boyer was ignoring this, until Preston said tennis. Then Boyer turned around, with a huge smile, and said “Tennis!? I’ll give you tennis, both not the others!” And they had a quick exchange.

And I’m happy to report that while I took four other teenage boys to batting practice, I was the only one to snag a home run ball on the bounce (Will and David Norman dove under seats and outscrambled others for balls as well). I wasn't chasing balls, but one hit a seat a few rows behind me and bounced to my left, right into my outstreched palm. Really!

Jim was the GT BSU friend of Fred O and Steve Norman…older than guys like me and Yearwood. Chattahoochee Baptist Church I believe is the small church a mile south of mighty Johnson Ferry Baptist in East Cobb. I think a young Rick Statham once served there, as well as at Johnson Ferry, before moving to McDonough.

Becky says the last time she heard, he was at a church in Texas. She thinks that perhaps his kids are grown, and wants to move back to Georgia. Becky also thought she remembered Fred O and Steve discussing how Jim’s theology? was a little different than Fred O’s.

Yearwood googled Jim and found an article from a few years back in the Texas Baptist Newspaper where a Haskell (commenting about the squabbles at Baylor) says he went to Georgia Tech, a place “all graduates celebrate”, and he identifies himself as the pastor of Georgetown (Texas) First Baptist Church. We do not remember meeting him in person – but I think I was three years after Fred O. - so I guess Jim’s coming back home to Atlanta.

Another Post Titled 'Weekend'

Ceil came back from SC last Sunday with a surprise…two tickets to the Clemson-Alabama game. We’re fighting over who will go…either me & Will, me & Ceil, or Ceil & Will.

An out of context line from the NP sermon yesterday…Andy’s standard for a sermon was based on a verse, I think from John, where the preacher was dragged off and thrown off a cliff, because his message shook up the crowd so much. He really hit the old-school church crowd hard.

Nice story about how the Olympic basketball team went out of their way to make Doug Collins a part of the gold medal win, since he was a part of the team that was jobbed so long ago when they gave the game and gold medal to the USSR.

Caught a good bit of Braves action last weekend. It’s almost to the point where I’m happy they don’t get swept, which is bad. It’s going to be close to impossible to get to .500 this year. Next year people will have forgotten all the injuries. To me it looks like Chipper is really in pain, and he’s gutting it out because he’s needed so, in addition to the batting race. He’s made a few bad fielding mistakes lately…tough plays, but ones he usually makes.

CB replied to my post about Randy Johnson!

I’m hoping to go to Wednesday night’s game…carrying a vanload of Will’s friends. Will and I also watched a lots of the top SNL moments, that was E! this weekend. He liked Eddie Murphy’s “Black History Minute” the best, where the crowd laughed when Murphy flubbed a line, then said “so I messed up, shutup!”. That got us looking on youtube at other SNL skits, as well as other Steve Martin videos.

Funny Jeopardy 3000 answer in the futuristic SNL skit hosted by Steve Martin…”Name the SNL cast member whose career flopped when he left the show.” When the name Chevy Chase was mentioned, no one knew to that was.

Olympic guests on Letterman..

There are also Olympic guests on Leno and Conan this week. Interesting that we used to refer to The Tonight Show simply as “Carson”, now all the shows are referred to by their host name.

Misty threw out the first pitch before the DBacks/Marlins game, wearing a DBacks jersey. Her husband plays for the Marlins. He watched the gold medal game over the internet, in the bullpen in SF. Both Kerri and Misty want to have babies in 2009 and then regroup for the 2012 Olympics.

1958

Nabbed this T-Shirt today...Paul would be proud.

Thumbs Down on Tech's Uniforms

I did write to the GT AD and Coach Johnson about the unis, but they didn’t take my suggestions. The new shade of old gold looks good, but not with those modern unis like they chose. I hear they may break out navy jerseys and white helmets at some point. I like the Old School stuff, but I guess the recruits like it. They took one thing from Bama…black shoes with white shoestrings.

I’ll take Bama’s unis any day. I may go to a GT game with Gene Lorenz. Last year Nelson flew me down for the GT/Miami game, and Apostle came.

Larry Legend on the Dan Patrick Show

Will and I watched most of the volleyball final last night, from about 10:30 to 11:45. On the way home last night Dan Patrick was funny, saying Bolt was celebrating before the finish, by texting the Patrick radio show, holding up large signs, etc. Then Larry Bird came on and said he was ok with that, as long as it fired the guy up, and if he could back it up. Bird said he once came out of a timeout and told Xavier McDaniel that Bird was going to hit the gamewinning shot over him...and he did. Bird thinks Kobe is the best basketball player, and that Barkley was unstoppable in the Olympics because no country had anyone to stop him.

I listened to Dan Patrick last night instead of the Braves. Sounds like I didn’t miss anything.

We had a sales meeting last night at “Hi Life”…a fancy restaurant in Peachtree Corners. It was good, but not worth the drive. The little shopping center it’s in isn’t the nicest, either.

Unbeknownst to me, once Ceil left her purse in our locked car in the parking lot of the church we went to in Buckhead. This was around 1990. Someone busted the window and took the purse, and we never saw it again. I had to block all the credit cards, etc.

I typed up an email reply today…and sent it to the wrong person! When I hit reply it acted funny, so I just copied the email onto a new email so I wouldn’t lose what I typed. Then I sent it to someone else by mistake.

Excitement at the Pool

Our neighborhood pool is next to the busy Hwy 120, just down a short hill. Just before Matthew and I got there last night around 8 pm, a big white Chevy Suburban had veered off the road, gone down the hill, and smashed the fence surrounding the pool.

See the play where the ump called out the Ray for making a move toward second last night?

Bad call, I thought...makes me root for the Rays all the more. Good comments on Rowlands Office, by the way, regarding a dream Series. Funny about if it was the Rays and Marlins.

"Wilt" has a basketball "camp" Friday and Saturday (the team is spending the night together Friday night). Will chose this over going to SC to see his cousins AND playing golf.

The announcers were also questioning the move to take Reyes out. They were also talking about how overworked the bullpen is. When they send out that Tavares guy, to me it's the signal that they've given up.

I think Kotsay might want to play closer to the West Coast.

Weekend

I had written a pretty long paragraph about Braves pitchers, then the email died out on me for some reason. Seems like 2008 is in the books...Kotchman and Frenchy and Morton have the rest of the year to get back in the groove. There should be lots of free agent money for pitching. Interesting article today about everyone wanting to resign Kotsay, but he's playing it close to the vest. Hear Smoltz on air Saturday night? Pretty interesting.

Got to see a good part of all three Braves games this weekend. At NP Andy asked how many watched the Sat Braves game, and I was one of the few to hold up my hand, though I did so proudly. Did not know about the candidates speaking with Rick Warren, though it sounded interesting.

Sunday night I was goofing off thinking up Braves trivia questions instead of doing other Internet work that I should be doing. Sunday night we went to Chili’s, then Monday O’Charley’s...it wasn't good...I made a poor decision and got something not good, and the service wasn't good either. Everybody had fun, though.

Last Wednesday Anna started going to youth group up at the Presbyterian Church near The Avenue with Will.

I didn't know about Mrs. Swilley...I wish I could've make it Tuesday night. I was going to the St. Anne's Catholic Church thing with Jim, the fellow I went to the Johnson Ferry thing with not long ago.

The Destin condo crosses my mind when a storm brews as well. For years after we decided not to move to Charleston I would track storms in the Atlantic.

Late Nite

Had a bunch to do at work yesterday and worked on the company system entering orders, etc until it went down at 8 pm. Then I had some emails to clean up for another 30 minutes. At 8:30 I realized it would be futile to drive home, then turn around and drive to Johns Creek to pick up Will.

So I paid bills and did other stuff until just before 10:00. By the time I found the house, got to the party and visited, then took Abby home, Will and I didn’t get home til almost 11:30. Abby had ridden with Ceil that afternoon to the dentist, so she could have a ride. Heard the last few innings on the radio.

Are you following this Bigfoot story?

Tied up in meetings for over 2 hours today…most of which were about “other people’s stuff. Got more of the same this afternoon.

Ceil told me just now about the Kit movie at the dollar movie. We won’t go tonight, but soon. Generally, the American Girl movies have been ok. Matthew can’t wait for Kung Fu Panda.

nomination

I recently nominated Will to be the Sports Illustrated Kids Sportskid of the Year. The winner must be strong in Sports, School, and in the Community. Here's what I wrote...

SPORTS...Will exited East Cobb’s Mt. Paran Little League as the All-Time Leading Hitter, Pitcher, and Fielder, setting career marks for Hits, Doubles, Triples, Home Runs, Runs Scored, RBIs, Walks, Stolen Bases, Putouts, Assists, Double-Plays, and Triple-Plays. His pitching marks include most Strikeouts.

Will’s ability to make the big play was evident in the TWO Unassisted Triple-Plays he’s pulled, including one at the age of thirteen. While catching Will has picked runners off every base, and even fielded a ball and tagged out the batter before he left the box!

For the past two seasons he Captained and led his Travel Team in most categories, playing his three main positions: Pitcher, Catcher, and Shortstop…leading the team in Home Runs both years.

This season he also played most every inning as a Freshman on his High School team, making great plays against boys sometimes five years older. He also plays Basketball!

SCHOOL...Will attends the Living Science School in Woodstock, GA, where he is a Student Leader. Student Leaders perform a variety of duties, including helping teach in the younger classes and leading Student Groups on Field Trips and Experiments.

He's made several project presentations each year, with subjects ranging from Louis Pasteur to an intricate Rube Goldberg Project. I have worked on the school newspaper and performed in skits and plays.

His grades have risen over the past several years from average to mostly all A’s. Perhaps some credit can go to SIKids, as he has been a subscriber for years!

COMMUNITY...Last year Will's Little League’s coaches voted him as the leaguewide Citizenship Award Winner, for my help instructing younger players, good attitude and hustle, and living the positive characteristics the league puts forth.

This year on Sunday mornings Will is teaching his own Kindergarten class. The past several years he helped out in the four-year old class.

For years he has helped out throughout the neighborhood, by pet-sitting, doing yardwork, baby-sitting, and helping people move things.

Fantasy Camp

I had three fantasy camps to choose from…2 were in Florida. I picked the Cubs because I’d never been to Arizona. As I recall, the Florida teams were the Cards and Reds, I think. I did wear the Cubs jersey once…to a game so Jose Cardinal would recognize and talk to me. He was more interested in the girls in the stands. Some camping buddy.

There were two tickets available yesterday for last night’s Braves/Cubs game, but we had plans…then Ceil had the plumbing problem. Then my boss’s family showed up…they took off for the game before it started raining here in Duluth. Since they just moved from Chicago, his 13-year old son was wearing a Cubs cap and Derrick Lee Tee. Inside I winced, thinking about all the Cubs fans that show up at Turner Field.

My Facebook Braves blog post is posted in several different places on the little Braves sub site. Got ten views in a day, but no comments. I commented that I knew how to spell. I’m thinking about suggesting several trivia questions. Most are about the last few years and some on the run of division championship years, so some questions from the 50-60-70-80s would be nice. Multiple choice and True/False. If you have any correct answers, I can add in appropriate wrong answers.

The family is totally engrossed with the Olympics…Anna stayed up till midnight watching gymnastics.

Braves Facebook Page

I’ve been going on Facebook more often, and have been taking Braves quizzes and trivia contests. My trivia score was rising and I’ve decided to overtake Ben, Will’s basketball teammate. Then I saw some high scores and thought, that’s not too tough. Last night I saw those were only weekly scores…the all-time scores are ten times higher. Never mind.

Then I checked out the Braves Facebook blogs, which are basically just where everyone posts about the Braves in one place. I quickly pecked out a few paragraphs about possible changes for next year and sent it off. They liked it and posted it a couple of days later…and I saw I misspelled a word in the first paragraph.

This weekend I discovered pictures from Will’s rafting trip and forwarded the email that they had come in on. When I got to work Monday my mailbox was “full”…because of the format those pictures had been send in. They’re now posted below…photos of recurring characters Abby, MaryKathryn, Holt, Spencer, and Kyle.

A family from our small group just started teaching first grade at NP during the 11:00 hour, and Will is teaching Kindergarten during the 9 am hour.

Yesterday I was in meetings all day, so I got little done.

This weekend we watched the opening ceremonies on Friday night, attended at season-ending baseball cookout Saturday, and crashed a birthday party Sunday night, trying to pick up Will. Just had a big plumbing snafu at home this afternoon.

Rafting

Nice sequence of professional photos taken on Will's July 3rd rafting trip in Tennessee.

Note Will is rocking a pair of black Nike running shoes.

Clockwise from Will (in front): MaryKathryn, her brother (& Will's basketball teammate Holt), the guide, Abby's brother Spencer, Kyle, and Abby.

Farve

Interesting about Farve. Can’t fault him for wanting to play football while he still can. The Packers were in a tough position. So he has a big ego and is media-savy...that's what it often takes to be the cream of the crop.

I always hate to see an old pro go out with a different team…Unitas with the Chargers, Namath with the Rams, Emmitt Smith with the Cards, Griffey Jr with the White Sox, Murphy with the Rockies, Dorsett with the Broncos, etc, etc, etc…Montana with the Chiefs, Franco with the Seahawks, OJ with the 49ers, Eric Dickerson with the Falcons, Wade Boggs with the Devil Rays, MJ with the Wizards, etc.

Olympic excitement for me has gone downhill after 1996. I’ll watch if Ceil is, but I’d rather watch the Braves.

Noticed Terrance Moore’s column on Skip last night…wasn’t that the one where one of the first commenters said it was one of the best columns he had ever written? Nice that Moore shared some personal conversations he'd had with Skip.

Our internet service is with Bellsouth. Today here at work the internet is really slow, just about useless. Don’t know why.

Been swimming a lot at the neighborhood pool, since Matthew has taken to swimming more. We’ve been the last three nights. He and Anna have been swimming more next door with the 7-year old neighbor girl.

Us Against The World?

This AM Chris Rude was talking Olympics, how it used to be us Americans had natural rivals, like the Soviet Union, etc. Now things are more peaceful, and there’s not somebody to dislike. But now it seems like so much of the world is anti-American, that maybe now it’s back to the USA against the world. With China, it could be an interesting 17 days.

Last Friday I did buy a Roots 2004 Athens Olympics T-shirt. Will stole it, but I’m stealing it back. It’s navy, but I’ll probably wear it in next year’s Peachtree.

This week we’re not hearing any complaints about Skip. Seems like everyone at the AJC has written about him, except Terrance. Mark Airum was mentioned on Uni-Watch the other day, I forget why. Also Boog and Joe, who noticed the Cards shirts and pants were a different shade of grey. I’m not that crazy about the new Tech Unis. The white shoestrings with black shoes are a nice touch.

I was thinking my blog has certainly suffered since I got so busy. It is definitely a priority over Facebook. I asked slugging catcher Andrew why his dad recently joined Facebook, and he didn’t know. I smiled, wondering if he joined for reasons similar to me. Andrew always rides shotgun when he rides with me, relegating Will to the backseat…maybe mostly to be in charge of the radio.

Matt Stafford's Crazy Shoes

Weekend

Didn’t learn about Skip until this Am, due to our small group meeting. Got to see parts of all 3 games this weekend. No more Corky!

Didn’t get much rest this weekend…Ceil stayed up late Friday sewing…until 12:30…unbelievable for her. So I turned on Letterman…too bad the guest was Richard Simmons.

Saturday Will, Joel Norman, and slugging catcher Andrew went bowling with the famous Abby, her basketball teammate Kara, and Avery, the classmate we saw in Destin. I was the parent picking up & delivering the guys, trying to stay out of the way.

Friday

Rough week, but month-end didn’t turn out too bad. But today my whole group is still having a hard time catching up due to meetings, emergencies, etc. I’ve been over for several hours meeting with my friend the Ogre, working on a most helpful project. One project me and the Ogre did last month really pleased the Atlanta GM…my boss’s boss.

Nice win last night. Don’t know the weekend plans…nothing much. Will has a meeting, he’s teaching kindergarten at NP this next year and has a meeting tomorrow AM, then bowling with classmates. He’s spending the night to the Norman’s. Yesterday he stepped on a nail and it really bled, last night he was hobbling around. I joked that the Prowlers wanted him to play, and he said he was ready.

Our small group is having a social Sunday night.