College Football Is Back!

I've got my spreadsheet ready to go for my BCS Rankings.
This year I'm going to do predictions on Big XII games.

My guess is we open up 12-0.

Punny, Part Deux

This blogpost in December introduced my annoyance with the phrase "no pun intended" and how unnecessary it is.

Jemele Hill is the latest offender. Look at the second paragraph above the Arenas photo.

Punny

One of the things I've been annoyed with recently is the trend of writers and podcasters to say "no pun intended." Well, if you didn't intend a pun, don't tell me you didn't intend a pun, because then you sound like you intended the pun.

Say for instance that you've been sitting all day and your bum is a little sore. You tell your buddy next to you "Man, I could really stand to get off my bum." If you added "no pun intended", then your buddy would have to think to himself, "What did he mean 'no pun intended'?" It messes things up too much. Sure, most of the time if you're on your bum, you have to indeed stand to get off it.

So, something that wasn't intended to be funny in the first place, or at best an inert statement, now discombobulates everything around that part of the tome/conversation. So, don't make things awkward by introducing this insipid phrase. Just let it hang.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/1764/friday-mailbag-iowa-s-moeaki-to-return
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/2033/michigan-state-schedule-news-spring-game-recap

It's a...

BOY!!

Check out our Facebook pages for the announcement.

Here are some pics and a silly vid from the day:

No, we're not the type to post his parts for the entire world to see.

Sweet sister kisses

Munchkin wanted to take a picture of me with the flowers.


Sure, this video is corny, but what do you expect from me?

Back When

I really like Pandora radio. One of the cool features is having the lyrics for the song.

Well, Tim McGraw has a song entitled "Back When". It's a fun little tome about how things used to be. It's got a catchy chorus:

Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when

But the most ironic lyric is this: Cause they put pop in my country

Well Timmy, you might've sang about the evils of pop invading country music, but you sir, are a perpetrator. This song was released on 2004's "Live Like You Were Dying", well after you'd gone the way of syrupy ballads and cross-over pop-tarty sound. Hypocrite.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Who are those crazy kids?!

We've celebrated NINE of your birthdays together. It's hard to imagine that I've spent a third of your life with you, but the math doesn't lie.

We've had a lot of great moments during this span. Pixar has been nice enough to release their summer blockbuster most of those years, so it's been a fun little tradition of ours. We've been all over the Midwest and Europe, seeing lots of your extended family on the way. We have two wonderful children and a third on the way.

I wonder what adventures these next few years will have for us.

I love you.

Hope you have a good nap.

Our Little Picasso

Munchkin is a much better drawer than her old man, especially at the age of four.

I guess this is me.

I really like the ears.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey Babe,

I'm so blessed that you are my wife and the mother of my children.

I'm glad that the Lord has blessed us with another tiny soul to shepherd.

I look forward to dedicating the next baby Carrell on Mother's Day next year.

Love,

Me

Four Things I Love About You

1. You still like to plop down in my lap to read books.

2. Your sweet singing and the songs you make up.

3. You still say gym-natch-tics, even though you've been doing them for over a year now.

4. The way you half-asleep sputter and mumble and cling to me when I take you for your 10:15 potty break.

Happy Birthday Munchkin!

Love,

Daddy

Word Whimsy

Here's the challenge: See if you can use the following words in the normal flow of conversation this week.

1. Panacea
2. Genesis (just regarding a beginning, not the first book of the Bible. that'd be too easy)

Bubble Watch

Joe Lunardi posted his weekly Bracketology on Monday.

I know I'm going to take some flack from my fellow Texas alumns and diehards, but I don't think we deserve to go dancing this year. If I was on the NCAA Selection Committee, I would pick A&M ahead of UT. We just haven't had that many marquee wins, and those wins are close. We haven't consistently blown people out.

Now, will UT get into the tourney? Probably, assuming they don't get creamed at Kansas on Saturday and win two games in the Big XII tournament. They're the Arizona of the Big XII. Even if they don't have a great record, it's almost as if the selection committee believes they have a birthright to the tournament.

I think yesterday helped clear up the picture.
Minnesota and Wisconsin switch places with the Golden Gophers in and the Badgers out. Either way, the fewer rodents the better.
Say bye-bye to Miami. The ACC is 6-bid conference at best, with BC not helping its cause by gakking at NC State.
The SEC is down this year, as noted by Kentucky losing to an 11-18 Georgia team. It's hard to deny the Wildcats, both the program and Billie Gillespie. I know Pat Forde would have a heart attack.
Same goes for Florida. Not much margin for error.
I think Tulsa played its way in.
A&M is on an absolute tear lately and owns non-conference wins over LSU & Arizona.
San Diego State and UNLV are battling for the 4th MWC bid.

The Big East is a good conference. However, I don't think Providence has done enough to get in. Seven bids is good for this league.

I think URI takes one of the bids from the ACC or Big East.

[Editor's Note: The above portion of the column written at lunchtime on 3/5/09]
Here's last night's scoreboard.

Well, Providence sure spit the bit last night. Thanks for making me look smart. :o)
VMI is the feel-good story of the year, taking out Liberty by 20.
Did Tennessee switch places with South Carolina or just push themselves onto the bubble a little further?
I think Penn State cemented its place in the Field fo 65.
Cal pushed Arizona firmly out of the Dance with a road win last night. If you have 12 losses and you're not from a traditional single-bid conference, you have no place in March.

Tune in these next three days to see what movement happens as the low- and mid-major conferences wrap up their tourneys.

[Editor's Note: The previous two paragraphs were published before Joe's Bracketology update today.]

Joe's new arrivals? Minnesota, Texas A&M.
Joe's first out? Arizona, Kentucky & Providence.
The second out? Miami.

Thanks Joe for confirming my thoughts.

Overheard This Weekend

Tiny One to her doll Emily on the dark car ride home Friday night:
"You can't see Honeybunch!"
"WeeHee Emily!" repeat ad nauseum

Tiny One to me Saturday night during Munchkin's 10-minute resistance to eating her green bean:
"Don't get frustrated Daddy."
When a 2-year-old is calling you out, you know you need to work on tone and body language.

Munchkin when presented with her black shoes to wear with her red dress on Sunday morning:
"Christmas shoes! WooHoo!"

The Good Things

It hasn't been all bad lately.

The girls have been playing very sweetly together a lot, becoming friends in addition to being sisters.

Tiny One has been really affectionate toward me, which revives my soul. There's been lots of Daddy hugs and air kisses. She's also been really into running to a spot and jumping. The gymnastics have been good for her.

Munchkin continues to be our little artist. It's fun to see the creativity she has with her designs and colors. She is very good at coloring inside the lines and cutting things out.

The weather is vacillating between mild winter and mild summer. The weatherpersons and newscasters are so annoying because they're always overly thankful for the warm weather. Alas, our 3-week allotment of winter weather is finished. I wonder what it would be like to live in a place where there's actually four seasons and summer doesn't last from May to October. A man can dream.

Viva Fernando!

What a concert!

I thoroughly enjoy his music and his time with us tonight was no exception. His off-the-wall rabbit-trail humor lends itself to a more familial tone, which is rather endearing.

I was a little bummed he only did one of his funnier songs, but was quite thrilled by the overall experience. The sound was amazing and the cello accompaniment was fabulous.

Thanks to MT for taking care of the girls for us.

Crawling Out From Under The Rock

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been stupid busy at work. Yes, I just said "stupid busy".

Long story short is that we lost a couple of people in the lab three weeks ago and I've absorbed a lot more responsibilities. And one of my tests hasn't been working, compounding the extra work. There's been a lot of early mornings, late nights and weekend trysts with my GCs.

I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything. My esposa pointed out that I have a smattering of stress on my face, which I've been trying to combat with frequent face washings. So if you think of me, send up a prayer on my behalf, specifically that I'd be efficient with my time and that I'd be humble in my successes, as well as having the energy to be a husband and father when I am home.

Thanks.

Grace Memories

One of the founding couples of our church mentioned some of the memories they had in what will soon be the old sanctuary.

I thought I'd give some of my favorite memories of the old facility.

Got married to my beloved wife.
Dedicated both our children to the LORD.
Played saxophone for the music portion of worship.
Fernando Ortega and Andrew Peterson - Behold the Lamb of God concerts.

I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting; I've been a regular attender since January '98. Leave a comment with your favorite memories.

R

Super Bowl Reaction

So, as a parent, the days of sitting down to watch a full game are well done and gone.

The play that many talking heads are touting as the greatest play in Super Bowl history (probably), and even all of sporting history! is what I'm going to rant on.

Great play by James Harrison, including the high-stepping routine down the sideline. Deion Sanders would be proud.

HOWEVER!!!! that was a poor play call. I put that on the offensive coordinator. Does he have Greg Davis as his special counsel? YOU'VE GOT LARRY FREAKING FITZGERALD! HE LOVES THE BALL AND THE BALL LOVES HIM! HE IS THE JUMP-BALL KING! I throw at least two fades to him. At the very least, vary the snap count! Imagine if they gave the hard count on that ill-fated play? Guess what? Arizona football at the half-yard line. Think about if they started the play with the motion left and Warner swivels around and boots to the right to have a tight end pulling across the grain? So many options. Especially since there's not much room for the defense to patrol, you don't want to have a short pass. Everybody's coming forward.

Oh well.

Great game. Congrats to the Steelers. I know my manager is a happy woman.

New Building

Grace Transforms.

It's a catchy phrase. It was the theme for the campaign to build a new sanctuary. Not only was Grace Covenant Church transforming with the new facility, grace was also supposed to transform our lives in such a way that we'd be willing to give sacrificially to this project. It isn't supposed to be just for us to enjoy. It's for our Creator. And it's for the people of Austin to have a haven in their time of need.

Well, we were treated to a special sneak preview on Christmas Eve. I snagged this short panoramic video during one of the songs. You'll notice how packed the new auditorium is. This is mainly due to all the kids being there as well as the fact that was the only service of the night.

What a special time it was. It was awe-inspiring walking into the new place for the first time that night.

I hope you enjoy. If you can get past the blurry blackness.

Made it Into the Mailbag

Granted, it wasn't the Sports Guy's mailbag, but it'll do.

I'm a loyal reader of Tim Griffin's Big XII blog on ESPN and I sent him a question last week which made it into his mailbag.

Here's the text:

Ryan from Round Rock, Texas, writes: Tim, Why does everyone fawn over Josh Freeman? I know he has prototypical size for a QB, but he's maddeningly inconsistent. He's Chris Simms, except in a purple uniform. If I were Bill Snyder, I'd make him Kerry Meier 2.0 and put in a signal caller that can really read defenses.

Tim Griffin: The scouts I talk to all love Freeman's size and arm and his ability to move in and outside the pocket, but like you aren't enthralled with his consistency. I think he would do better to return to school, but I think some NFL team will make him a first-day selection if he was to declare.

And with all of the talk about the upcoming rookie salary scale, I think we'll probably see more players than ever declare for the draft this season.

Ruined!!

On our way up to visit family this weekend, we spent some time playing the alphabet song game, where you come up with a song that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

You know the song "He's got the whole world in His hands"?

As soon as we started singing it, my mind went to the scene in "Con Air" when they're leaving the old abandoned airport and Steve Buschemi is singing that while clutching the girl's doll. It's forever etched in my brain and I can't hear that song without thinking about that scene.