MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

That's just about all I have to say. I hope all of you are having a good Christmas, peace and joy.

Santa Claus brought me a million "toys" since I've been such a swell guy all year. Hope you all got some good stuff too.

Weird.....all that time just disappeared between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and now - here we are.

December 22nd? Are you for real????????

Today is the first day of winter...I'm pretty cold. I'm sitting at home in my boxers. No work today...call it a Christmas gift from my boss. In a way, it's pretty well deserved I think. We've all busted our butts at work since Thanksgiving, so we're closing out the year a little bit calmer.

And wow...been married for 6 months? Now THAT'S something I really can't believe.

Hil and I have had a couple of visitors the last few weeks. A friend of hers from Furman spent the night on her way through Atlanta from North Carolina to Florida (I think it was Florida). Her name is Jennifer. We had a pretty good time.

Then this past weekend, my brother in law Blake came up here to hang out. He goes to Mercer down in Macon, GA. He's on his winter break right now, and came up here to play video games all day yesterday.

I think most of the Christmas shopping has been done. Just a few more little things to take care of. I'll be spending Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day afterward with the folks down in Your Favorite Town (PTC).

Oh, so SCAP played a show this past Friday night down in Your Favorite Town. It was some high school thing. You know, a lot of people fault us for playing as many younger shows as we do. But think about it...that's where the whole industry points its finger. They have the most disposable income...but of course that's not why we play for them (its not like we usually get paid for our shows...we just like to play). See, the other major thing about that age group is that they seriously pay attention to the music, and they just like to have a good time. College crowds are often just there to have a drink with their pals. Hey, no prob there either, because we're still entertaining. But I'm all about the music, so I can identify with that part of the population that feels the same way.

Anyways, as I sort of hinted, I don't care where I'm at, I just like to play.

Family is coming up here today while Hilary is at work to go finish some shopping. That should be a good bit of fun. I like visitors.

I've decked the halls, sang some carols, drank some cider and egg nog, listened to a TON of Christmas music......it's been a good last few weeks. It's sad to have the holidays end so abruptly though. It's the same with Halloween, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. No sooner does the actual day end before people are back to the regular swing. Weird how there is so much leading up to the holiday, and then it just drops. You won't hear a single Christmas song the day or so after Christmas...it's just strange. It's kind of like people have gotten so frustrated with the planning and driving and shopping that they just wanna drop it. You people out there are crazy.

Alright, it is time for a nice warm shower.

So Thanksgiving was actually a lot of fun...the family was all together (we had a big haul of 24 folks at my family's house for lunch!) and everything was pleasant. There were no "I'm gay now" or "I'm having a baby" announcements or anything like that to stir the calm waters.

Football watching was also awesome over the weekend...Ole Miss beat Mississippi State, LSU stomped Arkansas, and UGA beat the livin' daylights out of GA Tech!! That was a good game, too...and then later that evening, Florida State ELIMINATED Florida from any distant hopes of being in the SEC Championship game this Saturday (Dec. 6th). On Sunday, it was announced that UGA was officially declared the winner of the 3-way SEC East tie between Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. So this Saturday, I'll be watching a REMATCH between UGA and LSU. They beat us once this season, so now we can turn it around on 'em. Crazy thing though...since they already played each other, LSU has quality win points for beating UGA. If they beat us again, they lose quality win points (UGA will drop in the polls) AND they lose strength of schedule points (UGA would have another loss). If UGA wins, we automatically move up a spot (LSU is ahead of us and would drop below us). That will give us an automatic bowl bid to one of the big bowl games on New Year's Day 2004. My bets are on the Rose Bowl if we win, in which case we'll probably play against Michigan.

It's been a crazy football season this year, and a "helluva" lot of fun (stealing from the GA Tech fight song...put that in your pipe and smoke it). UGA has a glorious 10-win season, with the possibility of 12 wins. If we beat LSU, that will certainly take the sting out of one of our two losses this year, the only other one being to %!&^*%^*$! Florida, AGAIN. Oh well.

Now I'm knee-deep into Christmas spirit, and all the gift shopping that goes with that. Tonight, Hilary and I are going to go see the Duluth tree lighting ceremony. Should be a "helluva" lot of fun!

Sorry to all those who read this...I haven't posted in a while. I'll try to keep it to at least once a week, but hopefully twice. So that means you gotta check back often. Have a "helluva" good day.

I'm getting ready to go see the last UGA home football game of the year this Saturday! Whoo!!

I guess next week's game against Georgia Tech could be considered a home game, since WE OWN THEM. But that's another story (sorry Michael, sorry Chris....oh, wait, no I'm not).

Tonight is "try to make an impossible black bean soup" night. I was gonna make some with some dried beans, you know, go for the freshness, but apparently that's a process that takes a couple of days, and no, I'm not exaggerating one single bit. So I'm making it easier by going with CANNED black beans. Take that, nature.

Got some Little Debbie Christmas Cakes yesterday. Man, I'm so glad they didn't decide to start calling them "Holiday Cakes"...seems like the cool thing to do lately is ignore Christianity. I mean, look - I understand that not everyone is Christian, but there is a lot to celebrate about Christmas even if you're not Christian (of course, the real purpose of Christmas is for the "non" Christians anyways...)

I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year, what with all the decorating and togetherness and family. I love my family and all my friends, even more so now that I'm seeing them all less and less. This stuff is important, so people out there need to stop making Christmas illegal. I mean, some schools are now outlawing the word "Christmas" altogether. WHAT? Yeah, you read that correctly, and it's real. Talk about NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH. That's a pretty good lesson for the administration to be teaching, wouldn't you say? Ah well, I'll cut it out for now, but I'm for real....I really do get tired of people de-emphasizing the importance and fun and joy of the Christmas season and holiday.

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, the day we celebrate all the money we're about to blow at the mall...nah, just kidding. It's the day we GIVE THANKS FOR all the money that we are about to blow at the mall. Well, anyways, Thanksgiving is actually one of the big holidays that I've never been 100% into. I fully understand the significance, but in a way, it takes away from Christmas, which is more important to me. They should bump it up a week or two, or make it part of a Halloween weekend. Yeah, you could go out, get a bunch of candy, eat turkey the next day, and have some candy for dessert while you pass out in front of the TV watching football. Being with family is nice though, so I appreciate the day. And the food (except I don't like the turkey so much).

That's gonna do it for now I think. I'm gonna go see my wife now.

I had a pretty good birthday/birthweek. Hilary and I went out to The Olive Garden for dinner on Thursday (I had to work late on my birthday) and then we ate so much salad and breadsticks that we had TONS of leftovers from our actual meal. Man, the salad/breadsticks there can hardly be beat. And unlimited? Yes, very good...

Hilary got me a neato optical wireless mouse for my birthday, along with some pajama pants and Christmas boxers. She also gave me the soundtrack to the TV show "Smallville." If you've never seen it, check it out on the WB...Superman is fun.

I got a bunch of other gifts from family. It was all good.

This past weekend, Hilary and I went to a wedding in Nashville, TN for one of her friends from Furman. We stayed at my younger brother Michael's house (he and his wife live just outside of Nashville)...I hadn't seen their house since they bought it. It's pretty nice, and they had it all decorated for Christmas, which I totally dig.

And also on Saturday, UGA beat the $%^&*% Auburn Tigers at home in Sanford Stadium!!! It was a shut-out until 3 minutes left in the game, then Auburn got a touchdown, and the game ended 26-7. Got it on tape (THANKS MICHAEL!!) so I'll probably watch it sometime this week (oh, yeah, the wedding was during the game, so not only did I not get to go to the game, but also didn't get to watch/listen). The wedding and reception were still fun, and I had gotten to know some of the Furman folks over the past few years, so not too many awkward "I don't know you" moments.

Tonight I'm gonna eat so much pizza that I'll be sick tomorrow. Oh wait, that's what I did LAST night....buy one get one free at Papa John's....Hilary and I do this once in a while, where we'll split one pizza one night, then split the second pizza the next night, and then be sick for the next week. We always swear we'll just cut ourselves off early....but man, it is SOOOOOOOOOO good.......I'd eat the whole thing if I didn't think it would kill me.

Headline: "Man eats pizza, dies of overwhelming digestive joy"
Papa John by-line: "Good ingredients, great pizza...deadly in large doses"

I'm young, high metabolism, strong like bull. And I'm getting hungry...

Happy birthday to me...yep, today is my birthday. In fact, I was born about 10 minutes ago on this day in 1980, making me 23 years old now. "One of these days you're going to have to grow up" I've heard....well, technically speaking, that would be today.

In honor of my birthday and the upcoming Christmas season, Hil and I started decorating our apartment last night. We got a new Christmas tree from Home Depot (my mom got it for me as a birthday present). My bass player/old Skapartment roommate/future brother-in-law Graham ran off from my parents house with all the Christmas decorations and tree - a la Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas - except that he didn't do it in spite. However, didn't keep my mom and sister from helping him to load all the junk in his car and head off to Athens. You didn't see Cindy-Lou Who helping the Grinch stuff the tree up the chimney, did you? Anyways, a new tree is nice anyways...the other one was a tree that my family had for years and just replaced after we moved to PTC (or as my friend Mike likes to refer to it, "Your Favorite Town"). It wasn't ugly, just old, but now we have parted ways. Speaking of ways, I need to find a way to get over to Athens to pick off a couple of things that I really can't allow the Skapartment to have, things that mean more than a strand of lights or plastic tree.

Tonight I have to work late, so when I get off of work, I'll be headed home to have some homemade (wife-made) cake and ice cream, and open some presents. Probably gonna do some more decorating and then go to bed. I can't really remember the last time I didn't have to do a bunch of work on my birthday. Oh well, that's the working world for ya.

I just got started finally capturing clips for my wedding video. I've been sitting around with these lists forever, but just haven't really had the time to set up a batch capture. So with that done, the really time consuming part is done. Next, I have to finalize the layouts for everything (the cermony won't be too hard - I just have to blend the cameras together where necessary and then export it entirely). The reception material will probably be the hardest to get done. Either way, deciding which shots to use took a couple of months (over 10 near-full 60 minute tapes to look over). I think I'm ending up keeping about 70% of the material that I have on tape. Gonna be one heck of a project.

Anyways, I'm at work taking my lunch break, but now I've run out of lunch to eat, and so now I must get back to making movies.

And no, it is not weird to be decorating for Christmas already. It is time consuming, and what's the point of starting after Thanksgiving, finishing around December 15th, and then enjoying it for a week or so before you start packing it away again? I like to get the most out of the Christmas season...and besides, its always sort of a neat birthday treat for myself to start putting this stuff up right now and enjoying it until New Year. I think everyone should do it (except people who don't celebrate Christmas (but they should)).

Friday afternoon, looking ahead to a weekend at home...wow, just thinking about the traffic in midtown this afternoon makes me tremble.

I don't really have much to say. I've got a ton of stuff on my "to do" list, but since I'll be away from home this weekend and next, it won't be happening. For one, I've got to get head first into finishing up the wedding video from my wedding. I'm gonna have tons of special features and all, throwing it all on a DVD. Nope, not gonna sell it or anything, but seeing as how it was the biggest thing to happen in my life (since birth...that's also very important), I've got plenty of coverage of the event, and events leading up to the event as well (no honeymoon footage though...sorry).

Alright, everyone (which is possibly no one)....have a good weekend!

Wow....yesterday was scary. I got a call at work from Hilary's supervisor telling me that Hilary was picked up and taken to the hospital after passing out work. I jumped in the car and headed up to Gainesville to see her at the hospital and make sure everything was alright. They took some tests to find out the cause, but nothing came of it - their conclusion was that "this stuff happens," more or less. Everyone kept asking if she had been eating well or if she was pregnant, but neither of those was the case. I guess it's just one of those things that happens.

So I drove her home (left her car overnight, a friend picked her up for work today) and took the rest of the day off yesterday, I guess just to make sure she would be alright. She went back today, no problems. My boss was nice enough to afford me the time to stay with Hilary.

When things like this happen, it really does make you realize how easily life can be changed or even lost. If she had landed the wrong way or hit something on her way down, she could have been seriously injured (there was a person between her and the desk nearby - the person more or less cushioned her fall).

Today's weather is kind of crummy...clouds and rain. This weekend will be another one of those weekends away from home, as I meet up with family to celebrate some birthdays (including my own - next Wednesday, November 12th). I'll be 23 years of age, which of course feels very strange.

Speaking of which, my mom always asks for "wish lists" from everyone WAY in advance of Christmas, and for me I am also supposed to hint at things I'd like for my birthday. Well, of course, I have no such list. It'll be a surprise because my parents don't know what I want (well, at least they can't afford what I want...the nice Panasonic DVX-100 24p MiniDV camera or something of that range of sophistication). So yeah, whatever they give me will be a surprise. It doesn't get any easier than that.

I've been meaning to catch some Atlanta Thrashers games with Chris and Mike, et al. Hilary has wanted to go out and be social, too...of course, being p-p-p-p-poor makes socializing difficult, since it usually means going out somewhere to eat or movie or things of that nature. We both agree though, as soon as we win the lottery, we'll paint the town red (and please, someone tell me what that really means anyways). Of course, there is always the issue of actually finding the time to do the things you want to do.

Alrighty...Sea Island pics are up now in the pics section, and here's a before and after presentation of that disgusting pumpkin that was falling apart on my porch:

 

See? I told you it was disgusting.

I'm putting together some changes on my pics section. Adding ONE NEW SECTION today/tonight with my pictures from this previous weekend at Sea Island, GA. There won't be any GA/FL game pics because there was not much good to look at...

So check that out later tonight. I'm gonna have some meat loaf from my mom (thanks mom, that stuff is delicious) and play on the computer. Hilary is going to do a dinner thing with some other new employees she works with, so I'm on my own for a couple hours. Scary.

Long time no post, I know....

Went to the GA/FLA game in J'ville, FL this past weekend. Of course, UGA lost [again] to the crocs, but what else do you expect? Hey, I support my alma mater, and I've got Bulldawg pride and all that...I just get tired of losing to those suckers from the swamp. New year, same dropped [perfect] passes. No QB protection. Sound familiar? Always does.

Now that I've said that, I did have a good time. It was my first year of actually going to the game, so that was cool. Went to Sea Island on Thursday with my grandpa (dad's dad), uncle (dad's bro-in-law) and cousin (uncle's son). We stayed at The Cloister, which is a super-nice place to go. My grandpa paid for it, so much appreciation goes his way. We ate a TON of food, hung out on the beach, and had an overall good time. It was also the first time Hilary and I have been apart since the wedding, so that was weird.

I have pictures from this past weekend, but I've got very few from the actual game. In fact, I have none. I do have a bunch of pics from the beach - just stuff I thought looked "pictureseque." I'll put them on the site here eventually.

Today is a special day - today is the day I get to scrape the imploded, rotting pumpkin carcass from my porch and launch it into the bushes behind our home to feed all the mutated forest creatures roaming around back there. It is seriously disgusting. In fact, I'll even take a picture of it for you all to see. Turned that smiley jack-o-lantern face into a frown. It smells like roadkill.

Today marks 4 months of marital bliss for your's truly. And yeah, even after years of marriage I'll be able to remember our anniversary. See, I know that it's stereotypical guy stuff to forget important dates, but I'm a little more on top of my game than your average guy.

Hil and I carved a pumpkin this weekend with an AWESOME carving kit we picked up from Williams-Sonoma. And yep - as is typical of me and knives, I gave myself a couple of surface wounds. This pumpkin is awesome...I'm gonna try to get some pics up here of that.

And hey, that reminds me of a story...story of a man who always talks about updating his pics section on his website but never does. Roughly the same could probably be said about his "family" section of afore-mentioned website. Okay, so I'm gonna do it one day, swear to it. I've been scanning pics like crazy for almost a year, but for some reason I have yet to format them all and stick em on the site here. Trust me, it's coming, be patient.

And I seriously doubt my family page will ever be complete since it expands faster than my stomach at the Golden Corral. More info on that soon to come....

I think that's it for now. I know you love it, so I'll bring it back to you all soon.

Something old...
Can't you see What has happened to me?
Stuck in these same old times
It's all I've come to know

Something new...
In a minute, so much happens
But if you miss it well it comes back around again
When you're thinking but you don't know what you're thinking
Who can you turn to? Who will be your friend?

The fair...that's what I was talking about....

Got some corn dogs (awesome, but not quite as good as they were in previous years). It was kind of cold that night, too. That was the first night this fall that it really got kinda cold. So then we all split a funnel cake (my family and I, in case you forgot who went)....it was better than the corn dogs. That's the thing about carnival food - it will kill you. Talk about needing a stomach pump. But hey, I guess that's what all of those fast-spinning rides are for, eh?

Apparently Ahnold Shchreaezzeneggearer is the new goven-ator over in Cali now. I'm down with that. I think almost anything is worth trying over in that desolate state.

I'm getting kind of excited about this movie that eric and some folks are working on over in Athens, GA. I'm trying to put in some time on it myself, but so far all I've done is read the script (it'll have to do...it ain't all that bad) and raise my hand in support of the project. Hopefully I'll be able to do some good to it...just gotta find the time. check it out right here.

Last Friday there was a homecoming game at my old high school and they asked alumni from the band to come play all the songs and junk in the stands. I thought that would be cool, so I passed the word along to some other folks to see if there was any interest. It ended up being kind of rainy, so I didn't know if I'd end up going, but I still did. Chris Haugh (trumpet player in my band Slow Children At Play) came along, as did my brother-in-law Blake. The current band director gave Blake a hard time because he didn't actually play in the band his senior year....well, we're all taking care of that situation right now, but at the time Blake just played anyways. It was about as fun as I think it could have been.

Watched the UGA Bulldogs stomp Tennessee on Saturday....well, I didn't watch all of it, since it was Blake's birthday. I just checked it out now and then. Saw some other games earlier in the day, so that was great.

This week has moved pretty quickly so far. I'm still working on the wedding video from my wedding. I've just about finished logging all the timecode for the clips I want, so I'll capture it soon and start piecing it all together and cleaning it up. I was planning on having this done by Christmas time, but I'm not so sure about that now, what with all the other things I've got going on.

Hopefully Hilary and I are going to meet up with Chris and Mike for a Thrashers game this weekend. Other than that, the plans are pretty wide open. Maybe I'll catch up on some sleep? Maybe I'll catch up on some work? Maybe.

So I was going to post last week, but I never really got around to it. So real quick...

LAST weekend (not this past weekend...the one before it) Hilary and I went to PTC and met up with my family to go to the Spalding County Fair in Griffin. We had a lot of fun - good weather and no real lines for the rides. In fact, one ride had us waiting for other people to show up before we could ride....I have never ever had that problem. Ever.

The fair is cool and all, but you know, it was strange that not that many people were there that night. Crazy.

Doh, gotta go, more later....

What a week...I'm not sure why, but it's been crazy. Hilary started her new job with the Social Security Agency, and so far she's really diggin' it. She enjoys her coworkers and boss(es?) and she likes being able to use her Spanish more frequently. Good times...she got lost trying to get there the first day, so she called home (she left early and I was still home) and I helped her find her way back on track. Since then, she's had no problem.

My job is still all good. I work and get paid...feels like for the first time in years. hoho

The band is sort of murmuring...we've got a couple of decent shows coming up, but it's getting harder and harder to book shows with everybody's different schedules, especially mine. Well, I say especially, but maybe I'm too busy to really notice how busy everyone else is. Mike and Chris and I were going to go over to Athens to practice last weekend, but it turned out to be a bust. Graham dropped out and then Eric's job came a callin', so no go on that. Chris and I ended up talking on the phone about how little the two of us really needed the practice, and we were the only two who could practice. Pay attention Alanis Morrissette...that was irony.

Anyways, Hilary and I had a brunch on Sunday at our house (it's not gay if you have a brunch WITH YOUR WIFE). Her parents (my in-laws....its crazy, isn't it? answer=yes) came as well as Malia Issac and her daughter Jill (Jill was a bridesmaid in our wedding). It was good, got some complements on the apartment and food. Made us feel awfully domestic....

My mom e-mailed the whole family the other day (fyi - I'm one of 5 kids). She gave us all a heads up on the holiday season, trying to coordinate the plans between the whole family. My opinion? This will be something for the record books if it works out, and it needs to get on tape. Seriously, Nightline or Dateline or whatever...they're already calling for the rights to this one.

That's it right now. God bless America.

Hey everybody! Got myself a mighty fine blog goin' on here now. From now on, I'll be using this to make all news posts to my site.

SO.....I haven't updated in a while, but here's one for now:

I'm married (happily) and living north of Atlanta. Got a beautiful wife (and she's got a new job!), beautiful home, and a new car. I'll elaborate on all of that stuff later.

Real quick...wanna thank mike for helping me set this up. Not that the blogger stuff is hard, but I guess I just didn't have time to educate myself. So three cheers for mike, buy that boy a drink and shake his hand. Appreciate the man.