Last words

Moving article and video from the Wall Street Journal. (The video is PG for language.)

I found it moving and sad - not sad because the guy is dying, but because God seems to be irrelevant to him in his most critical time. He has seemingly learned and experienced much in life - but I wonder if he has learned the most important thing.

Hopeful Iron-y

Spent Thursday and Friday at a great event hosted by Convoy of Hope at the Sawgrass TPC. It was a last-minute generous invite.

For those of you that don't know, Sawgrass is home to the PGA headquarters. We got to play the Dye Valley Course on Thursday, followed by the TPC Stadium course on Friday. Steven Porter and myself played the two-man scramble together, shooting an 82-80, finishing 2nd in our flight. (Yes, we were in the bottom flight.)

One great moment was on the famous 17th hole on the Stadium course. After making it safely on the green with my tee shot, I had almost the exact same putt as Tiger's famous "better...than...most" shot. His was better than mine, too, when mine BARELY lipped out. Still, a par there felt pretty good.

Got a few pictures (including some of the hotel that I didn't post) including the 17th and 18th holes, plus the clubhouse.

Convoy raised over $800,000 at the event to help their efforts around the world. Ironically, while I was there, I found out that my nephew, Nathan, is currently interning with COH and will travel to China in a few weeks.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. And what takes more hope than golf? Especially on a world-class course like the TPC?

More great stuff from my new favorite sports columnist

Gotta love it...
Adams: UT not keeping pace with Florida : Columns : GoVolsXtra.com:

"So the Vols went out and supposedly signed one of the top groups of receivers in the country. One of those highly touted wide receivers, Brent Vinson, had a chance to demonstrate his talent on a reverse against the Gators. He lost 9 yards."

Knoxville Sentinel Writes About Tebow

The only thing better than a good putdown of your rival is when it comes from their own fans...

Adams: Tebow power drives Gators' show of force : Unknown : GoVolsXtra.com:

"Leading 42-20, Meyer wasn't even thinking about playing it safe from his own 1-yard-line. Instead, he sent a message to one of Florida's three biggest rivals when he had Tebow throw from his own end zone. The message: 'You can't stop us.'"

Shiver Me Timbers

A heads-up just in case you forgot...tomorrow is one of the best holidays on the calendar. Even though it's not really a holiday (because we don't get off work and no cook-outs are involved).

Break out your eye patch - it's Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Best of all, the card companies haven't caught on to this and we don't have to troll the card aisle for a ridiculous card to waste money on.

Yo-ho-ho.

99 Cents for something I already have? I don't think so.

If you have an iPhone - and I know more of you are getting one everyday - make your own ringtones, without paying Apple for the "privilege". Read this article and use this program from Rogue Amoeba. Have fun!

Friday Night Lite

Just got done with our Friday Family TV Night Tradition Thing. We love to watch Monk and Psych, two shows on the USA network. They have a weird schedule, where they show about six shows, then take a few months off. So, now we have to wait until January for new episodes. Sigh.

Numbers comes back (on CBS) in a couple of weeks. Another favorite.

Mr. Bean's Big Adventure

Trudi and I saw the new Mr. Bean movie the other night. Pee-Wee Herman is Mr. Bean's American cousin. Stupidly funny.

Fantasies

September means football and football means...fantasy football and pick-em's and all sorts of other time-wasting activities associated with football.

So, after week 1, here's the update on my fantasy league pursuits...(and no, I don't spend much time on any of this - much.)

Game: Pigskin Pool - USA Today Pro Football Picks

League: PPL2007 - This is mostly members of Headquarters in Springfield. (invited by my sister, Tammy)

My Team: Great to Be a Gator - that's  a name that says it all.

Results so far: Tied for 2nd after picking 13 right in week one. Not bad.

Game: Pro Football Pick'em

League: Exit Pick'em Football - league started by our youth pastor, Jason Goss, and includes students and adults. (Exit is the name of our youth group.)

My Team: Controlled by Monkeys - don't you ever feel that way?

Results so far: Tied for 2nd after picking 9 right in week one. If only I would've used my USA Today picks.

Game: College Football Pick'em

League: Exit College Pick'em. ibid.

My Team: Own Ohio Renting the Other 49. A maybe-not-so-obvious reference to the Gators' total domination of Ohio State athletics in the last year. Big news if you haven't heard - the NCAA won't allow Florida and Ohio State to play each other anymore. It turns out that slavery is illegal.

Results so far: Tied for 1st after picking 17 correctly in week one. Missed the USF-Auburn game.

Game: Survival Football. This is interesting. You have to pick a winner each week, and you can't pick the same team to win more than once for the whole season. If you pick a team and they lose, you're out.

League: Exit Survival Football.

My Team: If I'm Lion I'm Dyin' - because I'm a Lions fan and they kill me every year.

Results so far: Alive. Picked Seattle to beat the Bucs. This is farther than I got last year.

Game: Salary Cap Football.

League: Exit Salary Football.

My Team: Hair is Overrated. Another obvious statement.

Results so far: Last out of seven. My guys had a down week.

Game: Fantasy Football. This is the kind where you draft players and have to keep up with it over the season. It takes the most time, but I don't expect to spend too much time on it.

League: Exit Fantasy Football. The league has a matchup element, where not only do we collect points, but we are competing head-to-head every week.

My Team: Flaming Platypi. 

Results so far: 1-0, and in 4th place after defeated Yo' Mama. I expect to get better - Ladanian Tomlinson is my main guy and he had an off week.

I won't give updates every week - but I'll let you know from time to time how it's going.

Priceless

Rings: $1500
(Really, I have no idea. I'm sure Trudi could tell you to the penny, but the rings I bought her were from MaryAnn Ballance, who gave me a great price on a custom-made set.)

Reception: $1500
(Again, I'm just throwing out numbers. I know it was quite a bit, and that the only thing she got to eat was the bite of cake and a banana I grabbed on the way out. You can tell we weren't eating much by how skinny we were!)

Tux with tails: $120
(Alright, I really stink at this because - besides the fact that I can remember that I paid $3.88 per gallon for orange juice last week, while I only paid $2.79/gal for gas yesterday - I can't remember what I paid for anything. I do know that I had tails while all the rest of the guys had regular tuxes. And Trudi's dress was lovely and, no, I am clueless about what it cost, although I'm sure she told me, though I don't think she ever did tell me how much she paid for my ring. The bridesmaids dresses were red. The ceremony was at First Assembly in Ocala. Some things I remember.)

Twenty-one years with the love of my life: Priceless.
(It was all about the punchline anyway. Thank you, Trudi, for 21 years together, four wonderful children, and - yes - even the hairy dog.)

Shae's First Gator Game

Got to go to G'ville and let Shae experience her first Gator game on Saturday. It was almost the full enchilada. Rode up with Gary Robles and his son Adam, parked in our traditional parking area, made the walk past the union and up to the stadium, then spent about an hour looking for tickets to scalp.

We were successful - as expected - and got half-price seats, though rather high. (It's a little harder to scalp for 4.)

The only thing we missed was walking on the north side of the stadium past the Krishnas and seeing the band come into the stadium.

But Shae loved it, the Gators won (despite a sloppy third quarter), and we got home safely - about 2:30am.

Go Gators.

Happy, Happy

I've really got to get better at this blogging thing.

Blogs are great places to celebrate your family and friends, and to give a shout out on special days. Sometimes I've done that. But this week has not been good.

So, a late and early Happy Birthday to mom and dad. Mom's birthday was Wednesday. Dad's is coming up this Monday.

Great parents, even if their son is lacking on his blogging.

Laborless Day

Summer thought it was funny that we call it Labor Day, but no one works.

Plenty of people work on Labor Day - firemen, nurses, cashiers at Sweet Bay. And it's a good thing, since I had to go to Sweet Bay for some rock salt.

That's right - homemade ice cream! With cookie dough! It was a great way to end a very lazy day. We ate our ice cream and watched old home movies from "back in the day."

Sweet.


(The picture at right - Summer, back in the day.)

Disciplined Writing

Jeff Leake posted another winner about effort vs. discipline. Great stuff.

Discipline is not the lack of effort. It is FOCUSED EFFORT used with LEARNED SKILL on CLEAR PRIORITIES that will produce LASTING EFFECTIVENESS.

Read the rest of his blog post.

Who Needs Piano Lessons?

If you haven't seen it, here's a kid who taught himself to play the piano by listening to Little Einstein CD's. (I saw this on Jeff Leake's blog.)

The Bean

No, this isn't the best picture of her - but we think she's cute no matter what.

Another big day at the McDaniel hacienda - Sawyer Layne turns 8 today.

Genuine and likable - she is a joy and constant pleasure to her family and friends. We are blessed to have her.

Happy Birthday, Bean!