Just One More

I have way too many Braves caps, but I just figured out one more that I “need” – an all-black Braves cap. Black logos, front and back. Can wear in the winter when its cold to places that aren’t quite as casual, when I’m around a bunch of old people.

Since 1946, Tech has played UGA every year except 2020. They’ve lost their last eleven games wearing their traditional gold helmets, white jerseys, and gold britches. Tech’s record against UGA, by uniform...

W - L helmet jersey pants

15-32 gold white gold  

00-05 gold gold white

00-04 white white gold

02-01 white gold white

04-04 gold white white

04-05 gold black gold

00-01 gold navy gold

Obviously the prior record does not factor into future uniform choice decision making process. Without exception, for the past 45 years (since 1981) against Tech the Dawgs have worn red helmets, silver britches, and either a red or white jersey.

Leo shared an old Portuguese saying: “If you hide, the beast will find you. If you run, the beast will catch you”. Kinda like “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.

Every December coworker Rachel wears a different Christmas sweater every day – at least 25 different sweaters. Yet whenever the office has a Christmas sweater contest, she never wins. It’s a shame.

Brain health article of the day: eating 60 peanuts every day will improve your brain function by 6%. That’s one peanut every 12 minutes, for 12 hours a day.

Went back to Cheeseburger Bobbys for the last day of the free cheeseburger deal again. Come January I won’t be able to do these deals.

FRED McGRIFF [SABR Bio] was the first Atlanta Brave to hit a home run in his first World Series at-bat. McGriff took Cleveland starter Orel Hershiser deep leading off the 2nd inning of Game 1 of the 1995 WS in Atlanta. McGriff played for the Dodgers in 2003. Toward the end of McGriff’s rookie season, on 14-Sep-1987, the Blue Jays set a major league record that still stands: ten home runs by one team in a single game against Baltimore: Ernie Whit (3), Rance Mulliniks and George Bell (2 each), and Lloyd Moseby, Rob Ducey, and McGriff with one apiece. McGriff grew up four blocks from Al Lopez Field, the longtime spring training home of the Cincinnati Reds.

Denison: top ten most sinful cites in America ranked: Vegas (1), Houston (2), LA (3), Philadelphia (4), Atlanta (5), Denver (6), Miami (7), Dallas (8), Phoenix (9), New Orleans (10). Memphis was 15 and NYC 17. Not sure what the definition of sin was.

Christmas Movies

Do you like the Christmas movie Elf? It’s one of the best. Bob Newhart. Ed Asner. James Caan. Mary Steenburgen. Will Ferrell. That girl with the funny name, from New Girl. Other Christmas movies that I like: The Polar Express. The Santa Clause movies. John Grisham wrote the short story “Christmas With the Kranks” which was made into a pretty good movie. Trading Places is kinda a Christmas movie. These off the top of my head. I’ve never seen It’s a Wonderful Life.

Other classic Christmas movies: Home Alone, A Christmas Carol, The Family Stone, While You Were Sleeping, Miracle on 34th Street, Scrooged, White Christmas, A Christmas Story.

They’re decorating our office at work for the “holidays’, with a “holiday tree”, presents, etc. There’s been a wicker reindeer that’s been part of the lobby decorations for years and years. About ten years ago I started moving the reindeer around the lobby to see if anyone noticed. Well the ladies in  purchasing sure did – they were MAD! They were trying to get security camera footage to see who was messing with their decorations. Those ladies have long since retired, so every year I move the reindeer around the lobby. This year I will really have to go big on moving the reindeer around, perhaps upstairs to the breakroom and to other departments.

When Santa arrived at the end of last Thursday’s Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, Ceil noticed that Mrs. Claus appeared to be Asian. Was hard to detect Santa’s ethnicity. Then I saw the new Lexus Christmas advertisement, featuring the same Mrs. Claus as last year – though she appeared to have colored her hair from all white to black. Could’ve been Asian, not sure.

The Chick-fil-A milkshake: always a good choice. What flavor? I got me a peppermint milkshake from CFA last week.

The father/son golf tournament is coming up in a few weeks, the PNC. Dec 18-21. Trevino. Gary Player. Cink. John Daly. Singh. Annika. Nellie Korda. Did Justin Thomas recently have surgery? No Tiger this year. I completely missed the MLB golf tournament. Smoltz and Michael Harris came in third. Two guys from the Twins won it. The Capital One MLB Open.

A coworker ran the Atlanta Half Marathon last Thursday. I told her that she didn’t do it right – she forgot to talk about it every day for the two months leading up to the race.

Don’t be one of these people…

1. Have the constant need to be right. People who can’t consider other perspectives or admit that they might be wrong. Reveals low self awareness.  They reject feedback and stay stuck, instead of growing as a person.

2. Blame others instead of owning their own actions. They shift responsibility to anyone but themselves, which keeps them from growing.  

3. They talk more than listen. They dominate conversations and ignore what other people have to say. They care more about their own voice than learning anything new.    

4. Refuse to learn. Avoids challenges and dismisses advice. A closed mind keeps them stagnant. Smarter people remain curious and adaptable.  

5. Be overconfident without having substance. They act like experts without real knowledge or experience, often speaking impulsively, revealing and exposing their lack of depth. People can see right through this – they are not fooling anyone.   

6. Judge others too quickly. Snap assumptions and stereotypes show a lack of empathy, and almost always leads to unfair conclusions and strained relationships.

Life In The Fast Food Lane

Monday was a typical fast food day for me (which needs to stop). Free RaceTrac drink on the way to work. Free cheeseburger from Cheeseburger Bobby’s, with purchase of fries and drink. Left the office and stopped for a free junior frosty at Wendys. Then I bought a cookie from Chickfila to save for breakfast today. By buying the cookie I receive a free treat later this week. Plus Chickfila awarded me another treat for December.

 

At Halloween you buy five junior frosty coupons for a dollar, then when try to use one they don’t want to take your coupon. So I’ve been getting a free junior frosty every day. Hits the spot.

Ceil fixed beef stew for supper. The stew was good, but the beef was too chewy. Watched Jeopardy, the new Peyton’s Places with Gronk and Edelman, and the Manningcast with Danny Devito, a Giants fan. Crazy play involving Younghoe Koo, who inexplicably failed to swing his foot through the ball on a field goal attempt. Not sure what happened. Could be the end of his career.

Just happened to stumble across this article last night: the best places to stop when driving cross country, and the worst.

The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Ohio: Buckeye Lake State Park…not great.

Pharmacy Burger Parlor in Nashville.

Dolly Parton’s White Limozeen in Nashville

Rendezvous BBQ in Memphis

Cheers Restaurant in Fayetteville Arkansas

The Blue Whale of Catoosa in Tulsa.

The Philbrook Art Deco Museum in Tulsa.

Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo

Stonehenge in Odessa

Stockyard Station & Cowtown Museum in Ft Worth

Santa Fe: Ojo Santa Fe Thermal Spa & Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Arizona: Petrified Forest National Park & the Painted Desert Inn & Newspaper Rock

Sedona: Cathedral Rock, Yavapai Apache Fry Bread & Jewelry.

I need to come up with my own list of places that I want to visit on my cross country trip. Except now I hate to drive, so it probably won't happen. Off the top of my head: New Orleans, Austin, Four Corners Arizona, White Sands National Park, Alaska, Mount Rushmore, Green Bay, Milwaukee, the Field of Dreams in Iowa, Nashville, Memphis, Key West, Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Japan. Also other national parks that our kids had visited out west. Not that we’re going to any of these places, but it’s fun to list them.

Route 66 runs from Chicago to Santa Monica…2448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica. Attractions include…

Pontiac IL: Route 66 hall of fame

Springfield IL: Cozy Dog drive in and Lauterbach giant figure.

St Louis Gateway Arch & Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

Stanton MO: Meramec Caverns

Cuba MO restored hotels

Galena Kansas service station inspired the movie Cars

Baxter Springs historic downtown

Catoosa OK blue whale

Tulsa art deco downtown

Oklahoma City

Clinton OK route 66 museum

Amarillo Cadillac Ranch & Big Texan Steak House

Vega: midpoint, classic cafes

Tucumcari classic neon signs

Santa Rosa auto museum, blue hole swimming spot

Albuquerque Old Town Plaza, historic downtown

Holbrook: Petrified Forest National Park & Painted Desert.

Winslow AZ “standin’ on the corner” park, La Posada Hotel.

Seligman & Oatman classic storefronts

Amboy Crater, Roy’s Motel & Café sign in the Mojave

Victorville / Barstow: route 66 museum, Harvey House depot.

Pasadena roadside architecture to Santa Monica Pier.

Denison on Dick Van Dyke’s lack of belief in the afterlife: I have been amazed by the assumption of so many people that their subjective beliefs about the afterlife will unquestionably correspond to what actually happens to them when they die. I remember a woman who told me, “I don’t believe in hell,” as if hell must therefore not exist. This seems to me like saying “I don’t believe in Australia” and therefore assuming there is no such thing as Australia.

The Girlies Invade Athens

More photos from the girlies first UGA game.

They also went to the UGA Botanical Garden, where Will spent time as a student.

Charles Norman and fam had their photo taken with Santa Blooper. I think someone gifted them the experience. Charles’ wife Addie is having surgery this week. She’s been so courageous. Pray for her.

Three of my coworkers were road tripping to Waukesha Wisconsin this weekend. They left out on Friday morning and stopped in Nashville to eat hot dogs at a place called “I Dream of Weinie”. Spent the night in Effingham Illinois – four hours away from Waukesha. They woke up Saturday morning to find that a snowstorm had passed through. They tried the highway but soon turned back, spending the day in Effingham, playing Uno and eating inside a snow globe diner.    

Have a good weekend? After a busy Wednesday and Thursday, I was a slug on Friday Saturday and Sunday. Hardly did anything on Friday and Saturday except eat, sleep, watch football, and walk Winnie outside. Goose played in the leaves.

Sunday I went to Sunday School. Wasn’t feeling well. Left church and stopped by Dollar Tree, RaceTrac for a drink, and Wendys for a free frosty. The Wendys lady gave me two of the small frostys. I’d grabbed a frozen pizza at Dollar Tree, so that stuffed me for the afternoon. Napped through most of the Falcons game and was facetiming with Millie when they lost the game at the end.

I won a big bad $100 Kohls gift card in the Kohls Christmas Sweepstakes. Grand prize was $100,000.00. For those who say “you’re always winning” – remember, I spend 15-30 minutes a day entering sweepstakes – EVERY DAY – to win one or two things. A solid 7 days of my year. I consider it a hobby, a pastime. Usually I’m entering sweepstakes at night while plopped on the couch watching TV.

Ten minutes of Jay Leno talking about his parents, including the famous “Stingman?” bit.

Scientists Discover Speech Trait That Foreshadows Cognitive Decline. 

Players with 5,000+ career at-bats but fewer than 200 career strikeouts.

Player                     AB    SO      %  games hits   WAR

Joe Sewell........... 7132  114....016 . 1903  2226  54.9

Willie Keeler.........8591...136...016.. 2123..2932..54.3

Lloyd Waner.........7772...173...022.. 1993..2459..29.9

Charlie Comiskey 5796...132...023.. 1390..1529... 7.7

George Miller........5171...129...025.. 1318..1381..19.1

Lou Bierbauer..... 5713... 160...028.. 1385..1524..13.9

Frank McCormick 5723...189...033... 1534. 1711..31.9

Ezra Sutton...........5360..182...034....1263. 1574..32.9

Tommy McCarthy..5120..185  036....1273..1493...16.2

Always liked the old Far Side cartoon about the guy in Hell who whispered to his friend “I hate this place.” Reminds me of the long joke about the guy who’s just arrived in hell, who got to pick out what room he’d spend eternity in. “Coffee break is over – back on your heads!”

Sharing this article so I will remember: Tips To Help Improve Memory and Brain Aging.

1. Get plenty of Omega-3’s and Vitamin B, C, and D. Eat fish, leafy greens, dark chocolate, and rosemary.

2. Take creatine and citicoline.

3. Get plenty of sleep.

4. Keep moving throughout the day.

5. Challenge your brain by playing games and working puzzles.

6. Prayer supports brain health.

7. thinking you're younger helps your mind and body work better.

8. Finding connection and purpose helps with brain longevity.