Weekly Poem

Santa's coming soon,
Sugarplums dance in our heads.
Chimney sliding down.
It all happens tomorrow,
I've been good how about you?

I won't be posting again til January 9th. I'm taking a little respite. And your probably on vacation too and won't be reading anyway....so see you after the first of the year.

It's Thursday and Sheeps....

It Ain't Cold Just Yet

It won't get cold til later this afternoon. Why? Because Winter doesn't arrive in Houston til 12:35pm Central Time today. I don't know who figures these things out but that's the truth. Maybe it's coming on a Southwest flight from Dallas or something, I don't know. Must be a great job to calculate stuff like this. I bet it involves fractions though. Brrrrr.

On this day in 1620, Pilgrims stepped off of the Mayflower and onto Plymouth rock. I bet it was cold there.

There are only TEN days left in 2005. If you promised to get something done this year....get busy.

I Can't Add

Somehow when we figure graduation rates of athletes we come up with something like "95% of all athletes entering the program from 1995-2005 graduated." Somehow when the NCAA calculates it, it looks a lot more like 40%. What gives?

And just for a gender jab....all of the women actually do graduate. Like ALL of the women's basketball team graduates, and probably early too. It's just the boys that struggle. Further proof that women are smarter than us. As if you needed further proof.

Strange Time Warp

I musta entered some weird time machine and went back to the Bernie and Ernie days. I just heard that the Big Orange whupped Texas in men's basketball on Saturday. And whupped them real bad. This is the same Texas that was ranked #2 last week, and #7 when we played them.

What happened?? This isn't female basketball. This is the same Orange that has gone whole seasons without winning an SEC road game. And they whup #7 on the road in a runaway?

What's next? The star center gets arrested after crashing his car into Cas Walker's at 2am? The star forward gets arrested for stealing a VCR (maybe a DVD player now)and a flat screen tv from the athletic department?

Home Sweet Home

This here's my house as photographed by space aliens with long telephoto lenses.

It's Thursday and Time for "Sheeps"

As usual, in high definition....

I forgot....

Yesterday I told you the favorite names from Tejas an dthe great SouthWest. Today I'm gonna give you Tennessee's favorite names....and they are a little different than most states. So here are the top ten boys, then girls names from Tennessee....
Boys: Girls:
1. Elmer 1. Elmerina
2. Cecil 2. Cecilia
3. Jim 3. Jim
4. Bob 4. Mary Ann
5. Jim Bob 5. Ginger
6. Jethro 6. Barbie
7. Grandpa 7. Lucille
8. Hey you 8. Elly Mae
9. Hard Rock 9. Sissy
10. Pardner 10. Sister

Name That Young'un

Just in case you need the help...the top names for girls these days is Emma or Emily or Alyssa. For boys it ends up being Jacob or Joshua or Michael. But we Texans are different. Our top boys name doesn't follow other states trends. Only one other state had the same top boys name as us. The answer shortly.

If'n you are going to have doubles, the top boys double names are Joshua and Jacob. And folks naming twin girls called them Faith and Hope most often. I figured it would be Yin and Yang, or Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The most popular boys name in Texas (and Arizona) is Jose'. Interesting.

Toy News

Here's some fodder for talking to that other person in line at the checkout counter at Toys R Us...

Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wrights son. The average kid colors 30 minutes per day. He/She also wears out about 750 crayons by the age of 10. Mr. Potato Head is not from Idaho as is commonly thought. He grew up in Oregon and only moved to Idaho when his dad had to move for a job transfer. Barbie is the same age as me. Midge colors her hair. Nobody has seen Ken for years. The 3-D ViewMaster was used to train troops during WWII. Tickle Me Elmo was the most popular toy of the 90's. Last year he starred in the Survivor WanaWattoo series. He was the first contestant voted off.

Always Entertaining...

The Houston Texans may not be particularly good, but they sure are interesting. I don't think I've ever seen a team figure out so many entertaining and interesting ways to lose. We blow 10 point leads in under a minute, we kick game winning field goals that aren't, and then we miss two field goals in the waning seconds after miracle rallies. Wow.

It's all part of our elaborate plan to get the first pick in next years draft. We have to make it look good, then lose. And we want the other teams to really know we won, then we can lose without feeling bad. Get it? It makes for an interesting sports spectacle. Stay tuned next week for our latest innovation.

Weekly Poetry

Winter has arrived,
A big cold blast came last night.
Almost it did freeze.
Holidays are coming soon
Corsicana and fruitcakes.

Thursday's edition....

It's Thursday and time for Sheeps...

New employee

We have a new employee at my worksite as of Monday. This little fella was born. We don't know whether he's a he or a she yet because his momma is a little protective. He (we think) is a Longhorn calf and I think he has a striking resemblance to BEVO, the Texas Longhorn mascot. Whaddya think?

I'm pushing for s to get some Tennessee Fainting Goats. Entertaining and they eat grass too.

Your Hub...

Anybody seen Your Hub over at KnoxNews.com? It appears to be a place where you can drill down and submit your own news for a community. One of those communities is Carter/Strawberry Plains. So far the entries apppear to be announcing Billy Bob's 5th birthday and Uncle Elmer's serious bout with colitis. But it would be interesting if it got spiced up a tad. Hmmm....

How about them Vols. I just saw where we thrashed Appy State by 8 points! WooHoo!

It's a tad chilly...

It's pretty chilly out there this morning. Get's you in the spirit doesn't it? Could be a little more spirited though. Rapid City South Dakota is expecting a high of 3 today with a low of -10. It's -2 as I write. That's a little chillier. There's a warmimg trend tomorrow , with an expected high of 6 and a low of -3.

That makes my teeth hurt.

Texas Squeaks by...

By the hair of their chinny-chin-chin Texas got by Colorado on Saturday. If not for that late fumble it would have been closer. Now it's Rose Bowl time and undefeated USC.

A lot happened on December 5th in history. Let's see...the first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in 1782...In 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at age 35....In 1848, President Polk started the Gold Rush of 1849 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California....Walt Disney was born...Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades in 1994.

Whew, now that's a busy day in History.

Basketball is upon us....

And strife and division has hit my household. You see, I harbor a Kentucky fan under my roof during basketball season. She rubs my face in it. This year, I told her, we're gonna beat you. As warmup we are working our way around the state. So far we have whupped Eastern Kentucky and Murray State. I hope we have Bowling Green and Morehead on our schedule too.

Speaking of real basketball...many thanks to the Lady Vols for shutting up the Longhorns last night. The Texas crowd here kept talking about 4 in a row over the Vols, about Texas' ability to handle the Vols like no other etc etc. I suppose 102-61 erases the misconception that they are on our level...

It's Time for Sheeps Again...