Launch fever

Spent the day at kennedy space center. Saw STS-121 sitting on the pad. Took a tour etc and I'm getting a little excited about saturdays launch. Weather aint great but we'll see.

USA Today says 177 Tennessee national gaurd have volunteered to help patrol the mexican border in texas. Its a big border and might take a few more than that. This might seem cynical but I'm not that worried about the Mexican border. Its those pesky Canadiens that concern me. I never did like hockey or those mounties hats. Are they British? English? French? Let's watch the northern border, texas can handle our part.

On the road

In new orleans headed towards florida for the launch of the space shuttle on july 1st. Still lots of work going on around here with roofs etc. Iife appears to be returning to normal but the reports we're hearing say the french quarter may be a little sporty these days. The national gaurd has been deployed and there is a lot of stealing, looting etc. Local folks say they aren't real excited about nightime activities there. But businesses are back and quite a few people are around.

Tomorrow we head towards the cape on a long driving day. Hope the nintendos are fully charged.

All my favs are gone...

It was knockout weekend for me in the World Cup. The US, Mexico, and the Netherlands have all gone packing. I still sort of like England, kinda like Argentina, and could always root for Brasil if need be. It appears to me to be a lot like the NCAA basketball tourney. Upsets happen in the early games but the big dogs settle in for the later rounds.

Ghana will exit tomorrow when they play Brasil, which would've been the US's fate anyway. Mexico played great but couldn't win. The Netherlands should've won by 2 or 3 but couldn't keep from hitting the crossbar on open shots.

Flame Out

OK, so Ghana (wherever that is) whupped us in soccer and we're out. Now we just have to cheer for the Orange. Dissappointing game.

The Rocket is back. This is the first step towards this years World Series championship, the first for Houston.

Dallas lost the basketball championship. Sad for them.

El Tri Is In!

Mexico has advanced to the 2nd round! And they lost both games they played! That's what you have to love about futbol. You can never figure out what it takes to advance.

Their coach was pelted with rocks boarding the team bus, after they qualified to advance.

My favorite team is still the Netherlands. All Orange all the time. Even orange socks.

World Cup Madness

Tough Question

Inking the Post

Irony

Paul McCartney turns 64 on Sunday. I wonder if he'll be banging his head with Maxwell's Silver Hammer....

Beware the Couch

We bought a couch about 6 months ago and today I decided to remove the tags. We like to leave them on for a while (a la Minnie Pearl) so the stuff still seems new. One tag I took off was a "Safety Warning".

I thought to myself what dangers are inherent in couches? You might fall off? Get fat watching tv? Muscle atrophy from lying prone? Drown in slobber after falling asleep?

Turns out it's a warning that the couch will burn if you put flame to it. It warns against smoking on the couch, putting it too close to a candle or trying to mend your car fender with a blowtorch while watching the Astros in high def. So I suppose it's a good warning, although I would've figured out that flame to the fabric was probably a bad idea in the first place. Anyway, no smoking on my new couch please....

Braves get Smoked

Went to the Astros game yesterday with the Jeff City crowd. It was a perfect game to watch. There were 7 or 8 homers, 27 total hits, and the Astros won 14-4. Balls were flying out all over. Jeff Francouer of the Braves hit two balls over 420 feet and both were caught. The pitcher of the Braves got hit in the head by a line drive (ouch). All in all, it was exciting.

Our guests got to eat a BBQ tater, a Dome Dog, cotton candy, peanuts and more. They got to sing "God Bless America", "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", and "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch.

And we followed it up with a pork-out on fajitas at Pappasito's. A great day......

Seeing as I'm a renaissance man and apprecaite sophisticated, international things.... herewith are my predictions for the premier sporting event in the World. Volunteer fans bear with me, but soccer or "futbol" is important to a lot of folks.

Group A: Poland upsets Germany in the shocker of the tourney. The host country doesn't make it out of round 1.
Group B: England struggles with Trinidad and Tabasco, England advances.
Group C: Visions of Maradonna dance in their head, Argentina advances.
Group D: Angola puts up a great fight but the Tri-Colores advances...Mexico it is.
Group E: Italy is strong but the good Old US of A is stronger. Americans move on.
Group F: They advance cause their fans are the funniest. Brazil.
Group G: What, no France? Switzerland in an upset.
Group H: Underachiever Spain sits again. Ukraine advances.

My favorite team? Besides the US? It's the Netherlands. Go Big Orange. More predictions after Group play concludes.

Today is Princes' 48th birthday and Tom Jones 66th birthday. Now that you mention it, they do sort of look alike...

We have Tennessee guests coming in this weekend so we'll catch up on everybody's personal history. I hope you don't have any secrets cause we'll hear about 'em....

Us in Your Paper

Walters State eliminated San Jac yesterday and is headed to the championship game. Clear Creek's quarterback last year, J.P. Padron, was listed as getting a big hit for San Jac. So one of our local boys made the Knoxville paper.

And Big Orange girls beat UCLA, Fran and Ollie yesterday to advance in the women's softabll series. Nice job.

Coincidence...NOT

On this day...in 1796 Tennessee became the 16th state.

And....today is also Andy Griffith's birthday.

Coincidence. Hardly.