Shot in the Dark

So it turns out we'll probably wind up finding out the sex/gender of our baby after all. We were thinking about keeping ourselves in the dark until the little guy/gal came along, but I'd say it's a safe bet now that we'll just go ahead and find out. I've got a poll up where you can give your predictions (NOTE: if you're reading this on Facebook or an RSS, you'll want to visit http://christianjolly.blogspot.com to do the poll).

Wow, what a crazy college football season we're having here. Seriously, nobody is safe. "Traditional Powerhouse" means absolutely nothing this year, you know? The usual cupcakes are causing a real stir, and I think that's probably a good thing. My favorite conference (and your's as well, I'm sure) is looking like it will have 11 of the 12 teams in the conference as bowl eligible (6 wins or more) by the end of the year. That's unprecedented. Vanderbilt might make it to a bowl game for the first time in 25 years. Of course, bowl eligible doesn't mean that some bowl has to pick you (in fact, I bet there are lots of bowl organizers that would pass on the opportunity to have a best of the bottom kind of bowl). Overall though, yeah, it's a good thing. Keeps the good teams on their toes, makes even the seemingly meaningless games full of speculation and excitement. FUN!!

Who would have thought that after being beaten by South Carolina and walked all over by Tennessee that UGA could be 1) in first place in the SEC East division and 2) ranked in the top 10 in November? I'm very surprised. Of course, if Tennessee wins out their SEC schedule (3 more teams - Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Kentucky) and UGA drops even one more SEC game (2 left - Auburn and Kentucky) then it's a tie and Tennessee wins the division. Nonetheless, there is so much speculation out there and possibility that if things REALLY get screwed up down the stretch here, even Vanderbilt could win the division. Honestly....I think I'd rather see Vanderbilt or Kentucky win that out rather than see Florida, Tennessee or South Carolina in the championship game. It'd be different, and kind of interesting. Mainly, I just really don't like Florida or Tennessee, and though I have no real issue with South Carolina's teams over the years, I REALLY REALLY don't like Steve Spurrier.

I was at the UGA/FL game this past weekend and wow, it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. This is the second time I've seen a Georgia team win out over Florida (in person). The last time in '04 was nice - in fact, very nice - but somehow it just didn't compare to the win this weekend. It had everything you want in a college football game...tricky plays, long-bomb passes, controversy, skin-of-your-teeth touchdowns and a LOT of noise. For the record, I think Mark Richt made the right call in getting the team to pull the celebration penalty. I believe him when he says he intended only for the 11 guys on the field to celebrate, but I still have no problem with the rest of the team joining them on the field. People say it was dangerous, that it could have incited punches and fights breaking out on the field. Look, I know it sucked for the Florida team to witness that, and I wouldn't have liked it as a Georgia fan if Florida had pulled that on us, but it was a legitimate strategy and seemed to work. It was by no means the first time a college team pulled a penalty to gain advantage (pass interference penalties of 15 yards on those looong pass plays are generally preferred rather than the yardage that would otherwise be gained, and all teams know that). If the Florida team decides to start swinging on our players for celebrating and taunting, that's their problem to deal with. Georgia was doing what worked best for Georgia and didn't cause anything but mental damage to the other team, so I say people quit saying what a hypocrite Mark Richt is and get over it.

We had quite a few kids to the house on Halloween, and not that many of the usual teenage+ crowd. You know, the ones that show up with a pillowcase and no costume, staring at you and getting angry when they see 1 or fewer candies dropped into their bag? It was a good group. Jingles would go absolutely bonkers every time the doorbell rang, as if by the 30th ring she wasn't expecting visitors. Nobody showed up until after 7pm or maybe even 7:15pm, and we started thinking "wow, we're gonna be eating a LOT of candy." Sure enough, though, when people started showing up it was all at once and pretty consistent until an hour or so later. It dropped off then and only a few kids showed up here an there until we shut the light off at 9pm (generally, anyone that shows up after 9pm falls into the previously mentioned group of non-costumed teenagers, and they can go buy their own candy).

Back to it...

Back to the beach! And...back to work...

Back from the beach trip, what a great time we had...very relaxing. However, first things first - a few lessons learned in the last week:

• Glass does break when banged against other glass
• T-shirt policy is more of a rule than it is a suggestion (who knew?)
• Biker Week is for bikers, not bicyclists (and there is a difference)
• Pirates are terrorists with boats and parrots - but they're fun!
• Further, you can sell ugly crap for good money when you call it a "Pirate ..." whatever, or if you put a pirate picture on it
• "Red tide" is not the same as "crimson tide," an neither one of them is what you think it would be (at least not what I think it would be)
• Tennis racket loses to rock. Scissors and paper not tested
• Acquire is a fun game
• Jellyfish kinda tickle when they're small.
  
• Breakin' out da rhymes on the beach by yourself at 10am is not cool. No, it is sad, and it's getting worse. Please see a doctor.
  
• Swimming pools cannot be too big, nor too empty
  
• Habit finds it's way into your life no matter how relaxed you're trying to be.
• If someone offers you a paper pirate hat with a kid's menu on the inside, you take it. Don't talk about it, just take it.
• Beer is good.
• Fred Munzenmaier can make a touchdown in a UGA game

This week coming up...well, back to the grind. It's gonna be a long month.

Enough is never enough

I should have put out my "UGA is going to win the SEC this year!" post a few weeks ago when it was still relevant. I guess I'm glad I didn't, now that the odds are lower.

It's still early though. I won't be going to another UGA game until GA/FL at the end of next month. The trip and the tailgate are always more fun than the game - at least for UGA fans - and this year doesn't look much better. Florida appears unstoppable, even though they haven't really played anyone yet (Tennessee doesn't count for much in my book since they hardly showed up for that game). But that's a month away and a lot can happen in between.

Speaking of in between, there's a lot going on for me personally in the next month. For starters, Hilary and I are taking a beach trip with Andy and Abby next week!! WOOOOOO!!! Been planning this one since earlier this year. We originally planned to go with them to Hawaii last year, but getting off of work for me didn't happen...too much going on at that point.

Of course, that hasn't really changed around here, but we're going this time anyway.

Gonna be a great time...no big plans or expectations, just hanging out at the beach, eating a lot of good food, hanging out with good friends and hopefully a whole bunch of sleeping, too. REEEEAALLY looking forward to it.

As of October 1st (roughly), TradeWind Productions will be re-organized as TradeWind Productions, LLC. Why? Liability. Operating as a sole proprietor for these last few years has kept me rather exposed. When you operate as yourself (instead of a corporation, LLC or LLP) then all of you personal assets and business assets are intertwined. The primary problem arising from something like that has to do with litigation. If someone sues me because they tripped over a video cable at an event, damages will be limited to the company. As a sole proprietor, my damages would have been limited to everything Hilary and I own...house, cars, savings....everything. So that's the main reasoning there. Also, I'll be able to organize and manage other areas of the business operations more easily, but that's too much detail for one blog post.

The company website overhaul project will also be completed soon as well. I'll post here when that happens so everyone can go check it out and let me know how awesome it is.

Next on the agenda is Oktoberfest! I think the camping trip to Helen is out for this year, what with members of the group being Full-O-Baby and such. However, that does allow for a couple more options on designated driver. Sorry Abby, that's just how it's going to be. Maybe they'll be serving O'Douls.

After that, I've got the aforementioned trip to Sea Island and the GA/FL game in Jacksonville. This might be the last year for this trip, which is too bad since it has been a nice get-together.

Baby Jolly is still growing. I forget what size it's supposed to be right now...we get another ultrasound one of these days, and I'll post the details here. Just like I posted the last one...oops. Maybe next post.

I need a vacation. Here it comes!

Groups, Friends, Applications - BRING IT ON!

This one goes out to the Facebook crowd (because I'm still too retarded to get real with my MySpace profile)...for the rest of the month, I'm accepting all friend requests, all group requests, applications, gifts, whatever.

I don't even know what half of this stuff is all about or who comes up with it all.

So if you sent me an invitation to join/add something in the past and I declined it, try again. There's no saying "no" this time. I'm going all in.

WHOA!!! A baby on the way!! (also see "Oh Baby!")

Well, big news folks. A few of you are already aware, the rest of you are probably shocked out of your minds...we're having a baby! Hilary is about 9 1/2 weeks along now (still not sure on the math, we'll find out for sure once we have the first ultrasound in a few more weeks).

The baby is due the last week of February. So there's a chance we'll have ourselves a leap baby (February 29th is within the range of possible dates for now...depending on the math).

I'm pretty psyched, though really not sure what's all in store just yet. Lots of doctor appointments, fixing up the house and baby room and all that jazz. There's a little bit of hesitance for the two of us right now, thinking about all the stuff to do. For now, though, the main thing is going to be just staying positive and keeping healthy. We're in the last part of that window where the likelihood of a miscarriage or other complication is still high(er), so we're just going day-to-day and hoping for a healthy kiddo.

I just hope the kid likes ska, 'cause otherwise he/she is gonna be quite disappointed.

So yeah...WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!