Fa-la-la-la.....ah,forget it.

In order to maintain the blogger status quo (that is, using a blog primarily to display negative emotional frustrations), I would like to take a moment of your life to talk about poor, poor pitiful....me.

We have a health insurance policy at the studio that is designed around an individual HSA (health savings account). There are monthly payments made into my individual account by the employer that can be used towards medical bills, prescriptions...pretty much any medical purpose large or small. My employer has failed - for over two months now - to make the required deposits. This was discovered some time ago, and brought to the attention of the appropriate managers. The grapevine has provided various explanations for this over the last few weeks, but today I got the real answer.

The boss didn't think anyone would notice.

What? Yes.

We're experiencing some financial issues right now, so one of the steps to "stop the bleeding" is to go ahead and cut benefits. Okay, I'm a big boy, let's talk about that, or let me know at least. It's like that movie Office Space...this one person figured "hey, the problem will just kind of solve itself here. Win-win!" Lame. I'm pissed. I was already upset that it was being forgotten, then to find that it was purposefully secretly withheld...totally l-a-m-e. Unprofessional.

Let's add to that, shall we? Employees at my company receive a little under a dozen paid days off each year, and that's it. No "personal" or "vacation" or "sick" time off, just paid days. Not a big deal, because we typically get a couple of weeks off at the end of the year for Christmas time. That time off has shrunk over the last couple of years, but it was still always a decent justification for the minimal paid time. Well, you probably already guessed where this is going....yes, that's going away. Initially they said "Christmas Day, that's it." Christmas Day is a Tuesday, and so I guess we come in for one day on Monday, but even that went crazy when they said "well, it'll probably only be a half day." Are you seriously telling everyone to come in on a Monday, work for 4 hours and then go home for a day? Seems it would be a little unproductive. All of this is not a big deal except 1) a lot of people already made their Christmas travel plans under the old rules and 2) they're already screwing us one way during Christmas this year, and this isn't a nice second hit to take. I usually use the extra time to do year-end wrap up stuff for TradeWind Productions...guess not this year. Ahhhhhhhhh.....it's just lame to start cutting benefits, WITHOUT prior notice, during Christmas of all times, and acting like it's no big deal.

I'm just about ready to move on...this company got a good chunk of my post-college life already, so maybe it's time to find a new challenge.

That's the end of that, so now I'll move on.

Hey, UGA is in the Sugar Bowl!!! Woooo!!! Seriously, if you told me after our 2nd loss to Tennessee (the first was South Carolina) that we'd be playing in a big New Year's Day bowl, I would have told your mama you were spreading lies. It's a nice end to a pretty good year of UGA football. Would the national championship game have been better? Of course. Could we have beaten Ohio State? I certainly think so. Does LSU deserve to be there playing in that game? Just as much as anyone with 2 losses, I suppose (Oklahoma and Virginia Tech chief among those, along with UGA). But I will side with Mark Richt here...if the voters in the polls weren't happy with UGA being next in line with their previous votes, why didn't they vote someone else ahead of them then? Obviously, Georgia was penalized for not playing in or winning their conference, and I'd agree that should be a component. However, the BCS rules committee has twice voted down a chance to make that a prerequisite, so.....how does UGA fall from 4 to 5 just because of that, not even considering a #2 spot that they would have "mathematically" been bumped to after this weekend?

Still, UGA made good in what was looking like a bad season at first, so kudos to all of the players and coaches. The lesson they learned is a valuable one....don't lose as many games, and people won't be second guessing you so much. Win your conference, and you can legitimately contend for that national championship game. Steve Spurrier is laughing his 6-loss butt off up in Columbia right now for beating UGA in September.

In other news....Christmas is fun, really fun. Especially the kitschy music on the radio stations around town. Decorations are pretty much complete here at the Jolly house, might just grab one more strand for the trees out front, but that's about it.

Getting the nursery ready, first step was cleaning and painting the walls. Next we'll be getting the furniture in from Babies R Us, and then we'll have some semblance of a nursery as we get the various wall hangings and such put up.

I'll be back soon...more posts would be the norm in a perfect world, eh?

Steps to a Successful Birthday

Today's my birthday and hey, so far so good. It's looking to be a nice one, so I thought I'd share my plan-o-perfection with you all so you can perhaps follow in my footsteps and enjoy your own wonderful birthday the next time it occurs.

1) Kick off the birthday celebration at least a few days beforehand
Let me tell you...this is a whole lot more feasible when your birthday is a) a paid day off at your workplace, b) occurring on a Monday and c) starting with a MAJOR stomping of Auburn by the world's favorite football team, the Georgia Bulldogs. Seriously. If you saw that game, you know what I'm talking about. We're still savoring that win today. Awesome.

2) Enjoy a nice dinner at Bahama Breeze
Really, what birthday would be complete without it? We ate way too much, but it was good - even better, we have leftovers for today! If you go, try the house beer Aruba Red. Or try two. Or...well, whatever you can handle.

3) Meet with an accountant
Not really...but we're doing that anyway. Best time for the wifey and I to meet with the guy at the same time to go over year-end personal/business tax garbage. It's only an hour, and it's a freebie so that's good, too.

4) Blog about it
I'm doing it right now! Wheeeeeeeeee!!!

5) Decorate for Christmas
This is a tradition dating back to the Skapartment days at UGA. We always started going overboard with the Christmas decorations on the day of my birthday. It just kind of worked out that way, I guess, but now....well, it's kind of nice to make the deco last a little longer. I mean, it takes forever to get everything out and in place, might as well enjoy it longer (it's not like we have a whole lot of Thanksgiving decorations).

BONUS POINTS - sleeping in, NOT doing anything at all, watching movies, eating cookie cake and/or having a celebratory Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Did I mention how UGA managed to BLACKOUT Auburn? It was awesome, much better than the UGA-Auburn game on my birthday 2 years ago (we lost, doh). Coach Richt is the man. Those black jerseys looked way cool.

That's it for now, I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my day off.

"It's a little baby...."

So we went to the G-Doc the other day to do the checkup (so far I've gone with Hilary to all these prenatal appointments) and do the ultrasound. We got one once before, early on, just to be sure it was all there and okay, but this was the big one - the one where we find out (or don't find out, our choice) the sex/gender of the baby. We both figured that, boy or girl, we'd be equal parts excited and disappointed. So, if it's a boy that's good for GI Joe, but then all the My Little Pony toys are going in the trash. If it's a girl, then here comes Barbie, there goes Transformers. You get the idea...basically, there is something to look forward to on one side or the other.

The they put the Liquid That Must Be Spread Evenly across the belly and started rolling the soapbar all over to check things out, measure, account and so forth. The ultrasound technician confirms with us that we want to know the sex and then says, "ah....I know what it is." We say, "what is it?" His response, quite dramatic and slow, was, "it's....a....little....baby.............boy."

Of course it is, that's my boy!

So we were pretty excited, and glad to know after all. Makes the shopping/planning somewhat easier, and it's just fun to know. We've already named him (we actually agreed on this name for a boy years ago, probably while we were engaged I think). His name is going to be Caleb Jolly. We're deciding on the middle name right now.

Before you all ask me about it, yes, it was confirmed to be a boy (quite clearly, trust me) so we're good to go on that one.

So there you have it, more great news from baby land!

On a somewhat less exciting note, my dad fell off a ladder this past weekend and busted his heel on the fall (thankfully nothing else was injured/broken) and now he's going to be having surgery. Bed rest and medication are required for 8 weeks or so, and that puts him out until the end of the year. This is especially frustrating because he was out with all kinds of damage last year from the beginning of September until early into this year. So he's upset about it, but at least it's not as bad as it could be (he wasn't really all that high up anyway). That sucks even more because it cuts my dad out of the rest of the UGA games for this year - including the SEC championship if Georgia is fortunate enough to get into it after all. Life goes on though, and that's the good news.

Here are some pics from the ultrasound. He looks like one jolly little kid, eh?

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.