Diamonds are a Girl's Worst Enemy - Pg 18

If You Don't Run

Good morning everyone, and off we go...  In the near future, some of my college friends are helping to sponsor an event aimed at raising money for young people, the event being a 5K run.  One of these bright young ladies came up with a slogan which obviously won't be used for the event, but I LOVED IT:  "If you don't run, you hate children..."  :)

I went 6-4 on my football picks this week, bringing my record to .500 for the year (46-46-2), and I am now 19-11 against the spread over the last 3 weeks (I know that you couldn't bear to wait until Friday for that information)...  I am ashamed to say that I gave up on the Steelers game at halftime yesterday because the officiating was so blatently awful in the first half.  The game fell right into the wheelhouse of my current sleep schedule, sleeping days to work nights, and I was getting tired, but after watching the officials give the Giants two touchdowns as the result of a phantom pass interference call and a "fumble" where Big Ben's arm was obviously going forward (LAUNCHING THE BALL compared with similar instances where I have seen the same play ruled as an incomplete pass), I had had enough...  Since I left early, the final score was:  Steelers 24  Giants 20.  The Steelers have now beaten the Giants, Jets, and the Eagles (among others), while losing to the Raiders and the Titans (and Broncos)...  We are a mystery wrapped in a riddle...

So tonight I will be getting on a bus with a bunch of my friends and heading about 15-20 minutes south to New Braunfels to experience my first Wurstfest.  I have heard that a lot of food and alcohol are consumed at this event, but my group is strictly a "milk and cookies" type crowd, so it will probably be a pretty boring trip...  ;)

If I am sober enough to function tomorrow, at some point in the day after I write my blog (well, after 2 p.m. to be exact), I will be pricing flights and hotel rooms to Las Vegas for the month of December.  Tuesday afternoons are the time when the maximum number of seats are supposed to be made available for flights on airlines.  Hopefully I can find a price that I can justify paying so that I can see my Vegas friends, bet some college bowl games, and play some poker...

Recently I have heard two great lines that I intend to add to my repertoire (yes, I had to look up the spelling of the word 'repertoire', and this will bring the total number of great lines in my repertoire to two...).  Somebody at Harper's (a customer or a coworker, and I can't remember which) used this one - it's appropriate after you say just the right thing to that person you're trying to zing:  "Would you like some ice for that???  BURN!!!..."  (HEY, I like it...)  The other is from our friend Grrouchie, and for those of you who didn't see this in his blog, this is for the times when you come up short of that goal you're trying to reach:  "It was a big fat fail with a side of not even close..."

What would my ramble be if I wasn't ripping off other people???  :)  Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow (maybe)...  ;)
   

Poor Man's Ramble

Good morning everyone...  Okay, first off, if you know me at all, you would know that EVERY RAMBLE that I write is a poor man's ramble (rimshot - ba dump, ching!)...  On the advice of my friend, I went back to bed and actually went back to sleep after my initial three-hour nap earlier this morning, and I just woke back up.  I had said under this new blogging schedule that Sunday is a day for random topics, and a rushed, clipped ramble is definitely random.  I also saw one of my most loyal readers of the blog last night, and I'm talking since its inception, and she was totally on board with the idea of me doing three rambles per week...  :)  Okay, after waking back up, and actually finding that "extra hour of sleep" that is supposed to be afforded to us for setting our clocks back, I realize that it wasn't a dream - I DID go 4-1 on my college football predictions yesterday.  Now the strange "I'm going to hurry up and finish this blog entry" part of this is that 4 of my 5 picks for today involve the early games, which begin in about 5 minutes...  Also included in this bunch is my pick for Lucki Duck's contest, where I took the TEXANS Alyssa...  Anyway, I am going to get myself together and rush down to Harper's since I have the whole day off, and I am going to start it by enjoying some lunchtime football.  I posted all of the picks that I am referring to in Friday's post if you want to keep track.  A 9-1 week would be very sweet (and redeeming).  Heck, a third winning week in a row would be MIRACULOUS considering the start that I got off to this year...  ;)  In other news real quick (and yes, you'll still get a "real ramble" tomorrow, and yes, I still have something for you Mojo...), I haven't touched any of the cokes in my refrigerator in two weeks (other than to throw the previously mentioned two stale already opened cans away).  I am eating more vegetables, and salads are RUNNING when they hear my name.  I am going to Wurstfest for the first time ever tomorrow night, and I will probably be mentioning what that is all about in tomorrow's ramble.  Oops, it's noon folks, and I've got to get out of here...  Enjoy what outside of my window looks like a beautiful Sunday, and I will see you again tomorrow...  ;)

      

Always Evolving

Good afternoon everyone.  Yes, I know that I'm a little late today, and that's after being a little late yesterday.  As I try to straighten out my dysfunctional sleep schedule that I described earlier in the week, my first nap has extended into the 10:30 a.m./11:00 a.m range, so now I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep just a few hours after arriving home from work, and then sleeping another 4 to 4 1/2 hours before I go back to work (do not try this at home folks)...  Tonight promises to be a very interesting night at work as daylight savings time is upon us once again.  Remember to set your clocks back one hour before you go to sleep tonight.  This time change means that we will be open for an extra hour tonight.  The bars in San Marcos, America have to close no later than 2 a.m., but tonight when it becomes closing time..., "HEY, just kidding, we're going to be open for another hour..."  Outstanding...  :)

With my new blogging schedule, today is San Marcos/Texas State day.  I wanted to write a little bit more about Texas State University today because last Saturday was a brief overview of all of San Marcos, America, including the university.  I have/was having a little bit of writer's block, and I am still not sure where this is going to end up, but I am going to write a little bit about how my alma mater seems to always be evolving.  This is the definition of me thinking out loud while I'm typing, so we'll see where this ends up...

When I arrived in San Marcos, America 100 years ago, Southwest Texas State University (oh, and I had a hard time with the name change, and that could possibly be a whole blog entry in itself...) had an enrollment of about 20,000 students.  There was a lot of construction taking place on campus at that time and there was a lack of adequate parking.  Fast forward to the present, and the university has approximately 35,000 students (probably a few more), there is a lot of construction taking place on campus, and there is a lack of adequate parking...  The 'University Star', which is the campus newspaper (you probably couldn't figure that out), once printed an issue while I was an undergraduate that had headlines from an issue that had been published about twenty years earlier.  It was bittersweet to read that parking was also an issue at that time...  I have mentioned here before that I make frequent visits to the campus library, and a few years ago I came across the 'Campus Improvement Plan' on the first floor of the library.  This book had the university's "vision" and construction plans laid out for the next fifteen years.  Guess what folks - the construction on campus at Texas State is never going to end...

When I arrived on campus, I moved into a dorm that is no longer with us.  Thomas Hall (the "Buzzards" being our mascot for intramurals) was located between Jackson Hall and Jones Dining Hall (both of which were around when I hit town and are still thriving).  The J.C. Kellam administration building was the library at that time, and we did not have a student rec center.  So yes, RIGHT AFTER I graduated, the new libary AND the new student recreational facilities opened up - WONDERFUL...  Oh, and the new student center...  Yeah...

When I sat down to type, I thought about intertwining today's little entry with a segue to how my personal life is always evolving, but since that seeps into the blog so often, and seeing how we're going to be open an extra hour at work tonight, I'm going to ditch you until tomorrow.  Tomorrow's topic is very likely going to be 'Wurstfest', which is an annual event that takes place in New Braunfels, a small city about fifteen minutes to the south of here.  I have never been to this event, but it looks like I am going on Monday on a bus with a bunch of friends from work.  Let me tell you one thing that this trip WON'T BE, and that is boring...  :)  Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!
        

Pirate Girl

Raise those Jolly Rogers...

Two Weeks In A Row

Good morning everyone.  Before I begin with this weekend's football picks, I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of Sarah Campbell, a 2009 San Marcos High School graduate who died in a single vehicle accident here early Thursday morning.  I did not know Sarah personally, but I do have many friends who are grieving right now.  Rest In Peace Sarah.

Last weekend marked the second week in a row that I made winning football picks for the blog here on 'Bikini Hill'.  After going 7-3 last week, my overall record for the season is now 40-42-2.  This gives me a record of 13-7 against the spread over the last 2 weeks, which is a 65% winning percentage, just like those guys you see advertising on t.v. and in those magazines...  Below are my picks for this weekend:

Auburn (-22 1/2) vs. New Mexico State - Finally a team that Auburn can beat?  Sorry Joey...  :)
Alabama (-8 1/2) @ LSU - Bama has been dominant so far...
San Jose State (-19 1/2) @ Idaho - Alma mater beat Idaho by 31, SJSU beat us by 11...
Washington State/Utah (Over 49) - Total of 49 in a Mike Leach game...
Oregon (-8) @ USC - Big opportunity for the Ducks...

Baltimore (-3 1/2) @ Cleveland - If the Ravens lose, the Steelers benefit (Win/Win Situation)...  ;)
Buffalo/Houston (Over 47 1/2) - Lots of offense, not so much defense in this one...
Detroit (-4) @ Jacksonville - If the Lions can't cover 4 against the Jags...  #longseason
Denver/Cincinnati (Under 47 1/2) - Bengals need to keep the score down...
Tampa Bay/Oakland (Under 46) - Not the most prolific scoring teams...

And Alyssa, I took YOUR TEAM in my blogger's football contest, so if you could stop the "mean-mugging" - you know, for just one week, that would be AWESOME...  ;)

I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!


 

I Will Unfriend You...

Good morning everyone.  This is the first morning of November everybody - can you believe it?  It's sad that the best month of the year is now in our rearview mirror, but somehow we'll have to cope...  If you could only understand how much of a baseball fan I was growing up, and to have my birthday in the same month as the World Series (which I don't believe I've even mentioned in the blog)...  Now my favorite band has the word 'October' in its name, and this year the final table of the World Series of Poker was even played in this great month.  The month bids us farewell with Halloween...  October is tough to beat my friends...  When I was walking home from the library on Tuesday evening, and was very close to home, I saw this written on a wall:  "If you're still free, start running away..."  I wasn't even sure what type of context it was being used in, but it sounded like a great idea for some reason...  :)  Reading this happened moments after I passed a pair of people walking down the hill, and the girl was wearing a pink tanktop that said (as I cringe)... "San Marvelous" - now these people have SHIRTS, and all that I am fighting back with is this blog.  Remember friends, it's San Marcos, America...  ;)  Okay, this is the point where the ramble turns from its sometimes cutesy self to a more serious topic.  I am a person who generally has a lot of patience.  I am not one of those dramatic people, always ranting and raving about something or arguing with people.  I am the type of person who doesn't lose my temper often, but when I do, I make it count...  I say this to lead into the fact that I see of lot of silly things on facebook.  Facebook is a way to communicate, and there are a lot of silly people, so seeing silly things follows.  Yesterday however, while reading through the facebook Halloween posts, I read something that resulted in me "unfriending" a person in less than a minute.  This was the status, which was preceded by the culprit adding, "this is the best post that I've read today":  "Well, it looks like New York is dressing up as New Orleans this year..."  Oh, you're HYSTERICAL...  How many people has the storm on the East Coast killed?  How many people died in New Orleans during Katrina?  How many people are currently displaced, or without food, power, heat, a way to communicate with their families?  HILARIOUS...  What amazed me to about the same degree is that TEN people had liked this status up to the post when I had read it....  AWESOME...  It's really hard to understand people sometimes, ya know?...  Thank you for letting me get that out in the open.  It is going to be interesting when I see this person and they ask me why I unfriended them, that is for certain...  I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow with my football predictions for this weekend.