Sunday Observations - New Year

- Welcome to 2009. Cheers to a New Year.

- My friend Ruth started her New Year with a torn ACL. She was hiking. MRI next week. Wish her luck.

- I knew it was coming: the football letdown. The Yellow Jackets got thumped in the Chick Fil A Bowl on New Year's Eve and the Dolphins lost their playoff game today. Not a good way to end my football season. I won't be able to eat Chick Fil A for a long time.

- Oh Charles... why do you do what you do? Charles Barkley got picked up for possible DUI. This was after I blogged about him last week and also soon after I finished reading his book "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?". Like I said, I like Charles. He actually said a lot worthy things in the book, especially about the value of education and the importance of accountability. By the way, the premise of the book: a discussion about race. It had interviews of Samuel L Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and others talking about racism, what Barkley calls "the cancer of my lifetime".

- What to do about Gaza. Hamas has no right to volley rockets into Israel. Israel has a right to defend itself. But have we exhausted all diplomatic means? Does the reported 500 dead in the Gaza Strip send the wrong message? I think that history is going to show us that one of the follies of our time is that in our efforts to stop and fight terrorism, we've done an outstanding job of helping it grow.

- A 12-0 Utah team that beat Alabama should get consideration for a National Championship. They won't, but they should. That's why we need a playoff, to give everyone a chance. This is not Hawaii getting pounded by Georgia or Boise St beating a good, but not great Oklahoma team on two great plays. This is a "midmajor" soundly thumping a team that was ranked number 1 for almost 10 weeks.

Crush of the Week:

Emily Bradford is one of my favorite people. She was visiting for the holidays last week. The only bad thing that Emily has ever done to me is move to Alaska. With her went my most consistent biking buddy, a heck of an Ultimate player and a pretty awesome friend.
Emma and I are trying to plan an epic bike ride this summer. It would start in Skagway, Alaska and take the only road out. About 100 miles later, you end up in Whitehorse, Yukon. The loop goes along the Yukon River to Haines Junction before dropping south and back into Alaska. If you are up for some time in Alaska, then let me know. You don't even have to bike. Two people to drive support would be SWEET!

Here's our planned route:


Here is Emily's blog if you want to catch up on her Alaska adventures.

Sunday Observations - Dec 28

Sunday Observations took a week off last week. Between the Myers wedding and leaving for a wrestling tournament on Monday, it was just too much. But here are my observations over the last two weeks:

- Christmas is here and gone. Great to see family. Glad it's over. Best presents? A Where's Waldo book and a nice, fluffy pillow.

- I read O. Henry's Gift of the Magi on Christmas Day because it was printed in the Citizen-Times. I'd forgotten what a great story that is. Worth reading every Christmas. As far as secular stuff for Christmas, I would read Gift of the Magi, listen to the Chipmunk's Christmas song and watch Charlie Brown Christmas every year.

She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

- Have you seen the Charles Barkley/Yao Ming commercial for T-Mobile? I love Charles Barkley. I don't always agree with Chuck, but he makes me laugh and he says what's on his mind. Good stuff.
"Eat the head!"

- How about them Dolphins? 1-15 a year ago, 11-5 and AFC East Champs this year. Lots of kudos go to Bill Parcels, Tony Sporano, and Dan Henning. Also Jake Long, Ronnie Brown and Joey Porter. But the best thing to happen to Miami was Brett Favre coming out of retirement. His signing with the Jets allowed Chad Pennington to come to Miami and Chad has been the difference. How he's not a Pro Bowler is beyond me.

Crush of the Week:
Jeff Myers was one of my college roommates and one of my favorite people. He finally got married last weekend and I was fortunate enough to be part of the wedding. We've shared a lot of laughs, camping trips and bike rides. Now, Jennifer gets to share some of the adventures with us. Congratulations to two wonderful people. Best wishes and much happiness in your new life.

My fantasty foursome

I read this funny piece by Rick Reilly today.

Made me think, if I were to create a celebrity foursome, who would it entail? I'm not a professional, so I want to play golf with people I like so that golf will be fun. Hitting three balls off the tee into the lake is not fun. In fact, it's terribly frustrating. But with the right foursome, a bad day on the course is still better than a day of work. These would be the other three members of my foursome:

1) Maria Sharapova because she's got a nice [tennis] swing, she's smart and I bet she's a pretty good golfer. Plus, she's not bad on the eyes.
2) Jennifer Love Hewitt seems fun, intelligent and interesting and doesn't have some of the baggage that comes with some other celebrities. Plus, she's not bad on the eyes.3) Charles Barkley is hilarious and not afraid to tell the honest truth. He would keep us laughing. Two things he has going is that I am going to be the more attractive man in the group and I will definitely beat Sir Charles. I may lose to Maria and Jennifer, but there's no way I can lose to Chuck.

Check out his swing (I love that he asks God to bless the ball in the first video):



Check out Tiger impersonating Charles Barkley's swing: