random thoughts

Is Michael Finley going to suck shooting the ball all season? Ditto Horry?

If Utah continues to board the way they have this season, they won't be leaving the top of the standings anytime soon. From what I have seen this season, they are the cream of the crop. Dallas and San Antonio won't be going anywhere either, but this team is for real.

I went to a conference today about writing case statements for non-profits. And while that sounds like a complete yawn, it was actually quite good. I learned a great deal and hopefully will be able to apply some of it.

Arsenal hosts Tottenham on Saturday in the first matchup since the food-poisoning incident at the end of last Premiership. It also marks the Spurs first trip to the new stadium, and it is time for us to open up a big can of whoop-ass. That's all I am saying.

I really am falling head over heels for this new gal. This is unlike anything I have experienced since Becky's death, and I mean that in only good ways.

28 hours

I don't know that there are words to describe how quickly my life has changed. Katie went to Austin on Friday night to spend most of the weekend with Becky's mom, and I got to spend Friday evening and most of the day Saturday with Kim.

There was this moment Friday night that was seemingly like any other. But Kim looked at me and in that moment I knew that she loved me and that she couldn't help it and would love me to the ends of the earth. I don't know how I knew that, but I did and do. And I also knew that it was reciprocal.

And so there we are. This is the big one.

a relaxing weekend

It was a good weekend here. Pat and Bonnie (and Tony, I guess, since he is pretty much stuck with Bonnie for a couple more months) came down for the weekend. Katie was a co-hostess of the baby shower held on Saturday, and she was a very serious hostess.

Kim and I went to see Stranger Than Fiction on Friday night, which has to be one of the all-time greatest date movies. And since we were on a date, that worked out well for me. I like this woman, and I will leave it at that for now.

Saturday while the girls were all at the shower, the guys got to hang out and watch football and do nothing important. And then we met up with Bonnie's family at a Mexican restaurant they really like. It has never struck me as being anything particularly special, but it is good and they love it. Which is good enough for me.

Today we all met for breakfast, though I skipped because I wasn't feeling great, and then we all went to Mass together. It is good for me to do that because I realize again that as much as the Catholic church is my home and always will be, I make a really terrible Catholic. But the homily was wonderful, though I am not sure how the mother fox ended up with neosporin, and even if I think he missed taking on the fundamental point of the gospel reading. But it was wonderful nonetheless. He is a wonderful priest and will be missed after his retirement.

And then we just had another relatively quiet day around here. The Chiefs were disappointing in Miami, but if that is my biggest complaint of the weekend, I will take it. And now I am off to bed.

GREAT BIG DVD

http://store.greatbigsea.com/catalog/product.aspx?Id=CV000001

Go there. Buy this.

This is a Great Big Sea concert DVD. The first one is fabulous, and the songs on this DVD are even better than the songs from the first.

I saw a concert from this tour in April, and it was an absolute blast. If you have ever heard this band and liked them, you will love this DVD. If you are not a complete fuddy-duddy, then you will enjoy this DVD. Trust me.

The only bad thing is that it is so close to the holidays that I feel honor bound not to buy this for myself but home that someone thinks of this for me.

thirteen years

November 4, 1993 is a day I will remember as long as I draw breath.

Becky and I had been friends for over a year, and for a little while we had been becoming more than that.

And then on November 4, we had our first evening that would be described as a date. We went downtown and had dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse. We walked along the river, and then we had cheesecake somewhere on the river.

And then we went back to school, and I dropped her off at her dorm room.

And she kissed me.

And I would never be the same again.

speaking of pictures ....

Here are a few of Katie in her Halloween get-up.

glasses

Well, we went to the eyedoctor today. Katie had been sent home with a note about her vision test earlier in the week, and so off we went. I had my eye test first so that Katie could see everything that happened and know nothing was scary, and then she did hers, and sure enough, she has the same eyes I have, nearsighted with astigmatism.

And so she is getting her glasses tomorrow.

She picked out the frames, though she had to be talked down from some obnoxious, hot pink, thick, goofy looking frames. And so she ended up with some understated, cute thin pink frames. Hopefully, I will get some pictures up of her in her new glasses fairly soon.

She looked about 11 years old when them on, I must say. She is growing up so fast.