Favorite Football Game; Hook'em Horns

The following was written by by Mike Craven for the Bleacher Report.....

On Friday, November 23, 2007, the University of Texas football team travels to Bryan-College Station for another matchup with the Aggies of Texas A&M.

I don't want to be guilty of overhyping a game which on paper may not appear to be that good, but I must state that the UT-A&M game is the main course of my favorite week of the year.

Monday through Wednesday may not be that noteworthy, but Thursday through Sunday are the best four consecutive days on the calendar. Thursday consists of turkey and dressing, pumpkin pie, and the Cowboys. Add in the surprisingly important Green Bay-Detroit and Arizona State-USC matchups, and you have the recipe for a great day on the couch.

Saturday and Sunday are always the best days of the week for football fans, but this weekend the games will be even better, with the addition of leftover turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie.

But for most Texans, ( and AJ) Friday is the day to look forward to. This is year is no different.!!

Can Texas stop A&M's running game, specifically Steven McGee? Can Texas' offense continue their success running the ball? Can Colt McCoy avoid enough mistakes to win?

Texas has separated itself from A&M in terms of talent, but the Aggies always show up to play against their rivals from Austin. As a Longhorn fan brought up in the late 80s and early 90s, I remember the days when UT was the underdog. Because of that, I have an innate fear of A&M's 12th man—see last year for an example.

For A&M, this is a game that can alter their momentum going into an offseason that is sure to be interesting. Many questions are swirling around this team, most having to do with soon-to-be-former coach Dennis Franchione's contract.

As much as Tech fans may disagree, A&M is the number-two football school in the state of Texas. They cannot afford to get beaten in their recruiting efforts in-state by outsiders like LSU and Oklahoma, as they have in recent years.

Until they clearly re-establish themselves as a dominant force in Texas football, A&M will have to settle for just two or three wins a decade against the rival Longhorns.

Oklahoma's recent troubles have made this game interesting. Texas actually has a chance to go to the Big 12 Championship game if the depleted Sooners can't finish the season.

How ironic would it be if OU lost their last two games and let UT skate into the conference championship? Texas would just need to overcome A&M to turn a very weird, up-and-down season into another ten-win year with a shot at a BCS bowl and maybe the Big 12 trophy to boot. Who knows, maybe they get Hawaii, this year's Boise St. in a BCS at large game.
To make it happen, the Longhorns first have to get past lowly A&M. Who now take this game more seriously than the Longhorns. They wouldn't want it any other way—and frankly, neither would I, nor would I!!!!

New Flag

I got a new flag!! Yes, it is my BIRTHDAY, today. Born in the Morning, on a Tuesday, in 1965!

Thanksgiving Drinks

I am not a fan of jellied Cranberries with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner so I decided to try a Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic. A good idea maybe, especially after working 6 hours and then cooking dinner for 2 hours but I did not like the beer, too tart. I switched to a Sam Adams Lager. Hope everyone had a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!

st ides

It's been an interesting few weeks in the neighborhood. Some of our neighbors were forced to move and new neighbors will be moving in both across the street and right next door.....

I have witnessed 3 drug deals and found a brown paper bottle in my front bushes....yummy...malt liquor=st. ides!

Happy Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite Holidays>>>>Interesting facts......

70 million PIES are sold in grocery stores every year at Thanksgiving.

Wild Turkeys can see 320 degrees without moving their heads.

The Turkey presented on the White House Lawn for a "Presidential pardon" undergoes 4 months of training, including repeated hand feeding, in anticipation of the Thanksgiving Photo opportunity.

Before the mid-1800's Thanksgiving was a celebration of family and community but had NOTHING to do with Pilgrims.

Victory Beer Cake

Golden Monkey Cake......1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 cup Golden Monkey

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F, grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
Combine cake mix and pudding mix in a large bowl. Add Golden Monkey and vegetable oil and mix lightly. Add 4 eggs. Beat at high speed until mixture is thick, creamy and smooth. Pour into greased and floured Bundt pan.
Bake at 350°F for 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Frost as desired or dust with powdered sugar.
A similar cake can be made with Storm King Stout. Simply swap the cake and pudding mixes with chocolate instead.

Great American Smoke OUT 11/15/07

It’s Never Too
Late to Quit …

Join the Great American Smoke-out on Thursday, November 15!!

People who quit smoking live longer than
those who continue to smoke. Smokers
who quit substantially reduce their risk of
premature death.

The argument that it is too late to quit
smoking because the damage is already
done is untrue.

Quit smoking. We can help.
Call 1-800-ACS-2345
www.cancer.org/greatamericans

The Crew

I don't blog much about my work but at a recent meeting of our Regional office, we had our picture taken for the powers to be at Headquarters in Harrisburg. Probably to be posted in some newsletter nobody reads. I thought I would post the photo here, of the crew I work with. I will talk more about work in an upcoming post. This is a recent photo even though the date is set for 2 years ago. (?)

Veteran's day reading

THE LAST WORD by
Anna Quindlen

Not Semi-Soldiers......It's no longer a question of whether women should be in combat. It's a matter of the regulations catching up with the reality.

Nov 12, 2007 Issue of Newsweek

http://www.newsweek.com/id/67917

Please take a moment and read this article.

Hawk Visit

This Saturday morning a Hawk has decided to visit the 500 block of North Plum St. We saw it attack a squirrel but the squirrel got away. The hawk is watching a tree that has a nest in it, I believe, since I hear something in the tree/nest crying.

Iron Hill Brewery News = Lancaster

Well, it does not look like I will be able to celebrate my Birthday (Nov. 23) this year at Iron Hill Brewery in Lancaster. They are looking for an official opening at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, Nov. 27. BUT a lot has to come together before then.... so everyone is keeping they're fingers crossed.

Citiots

The Anger Is Blowing In The Wind
By Roya Wolverson NEWSWEEK
Nov 12, 2007 Issue

For cash-strapped farmers with plenty of open land, wind-energy turbines offer a sorely needed windfall. But "not in my backyard" clashes are arising throughout the East and mid-Atlantic regions, pitting local farmers against "citiots"—people who "buy a second home and affect community decisions by being there two days a week," says Frank Masaino, spokesman for a mid-Atlantic coalition of wind developers.

Citiots say they're just protecting the unspoiled idyll that they paid for. Louis Freedman, a public-policy consultant in Washington, D.C., opposes a project near his second home in Virginia because the land is "sacred" and more valuable than the energy savings. To him, perhaps.
For farmers, one wind turbine can rake in about $5,000 a year in rent, compared with $300 for corn or soybean farming. "These people can't understand that they're living in the middle of my business," says Steven Schwoerer, a dairy farmer from Normal, Ill., whose effort to put a wind farm on his private land has been blocked by part-time neighbors. Such projects, he says, are "good for my community and for my grandchildren, and if you don't like it, go back to town."

I love the word CITIOTS and I am going to start using it in my everyday conversation EVERYDAY! Plus, I really like Wind Turbines, I think of them as beautiful sculptures.

I voted Today

It has been reported that turnout in this election has been very light and may not even be 20% ??? I do not like where I have to go vote ...it is in a private plumbing business/warehouse, which is loud and crowded plus there are not enough machines....almost like a third world country....and I thought I heard gun shots as I was leaving. I am use to voting in a city owned building or in a school or church.

I'm Not There

Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There, finds his Bobness played by six different actors. Five times that number of artists tackle his oeuvre on this 34-song LP, including Wilco's Jeff Tweedy (''Simple Twist of Fate'') and Antony and the Johnsons (''Knockin' on Heaven's Door''). The pleasures to be gleaned are straightforward, with most musicians offering rarely radical but frequently great covers. And both Dylan himself and Sonic Youth perform the title track — though not, alas, together. DOWNLOAD THIS: Hear Cat Power's ''Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again'' This review is from Senior editor Clark Collins of Entertainment Weekly. So far, I have heard the Cat Powers and Jeff Tweedy's covers and I love them. I can't wait to get this double CD and see this Film. Yes, that is Cate as Bob.

I love Maps Too

I read this today in the current issue of Newsweek....and since I love Maps too, I had to share....

By Malcolm Jones NEWSWEEK
Nov 12, 2007 Issue

I love maps. They're useful. They're pretty. And quite often, they're free. I love all kinds of maps—old, new, Mercator, treasure, you name it. And after poring over The Onion’s latest parody, "Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Planet Earth," I've decided that I like funny maps best of all.

The Onion's map of the United Kingdom, for example, shows the burial site of Mother Goose, a literature mine and the world's grayest building. Ukraine's includes the location of a "headless-doll factory." Like any regular atlas, "Our Dumb World" includes lots of facts, or "facts." Wales is the birthplace of the "oldest, longest, least pronounceable language in the world. When spoken, it sounds like a beautiful song, but when written, it looks like the alphabet just vomited."


This is the best parody since the National Lampoon published its phony newspaper, "The Dacron Republican-Democrat," in 1978. But The Onion's atlas is not merely parody. Coupling rage with humor, it transcends its own silliness with Swiftian satire. Take the entry on the Democratic Republic of Congo, which "has endured decades of brutal civil war, in which rebel forces have adopted the gruesome practices of raping women with machetes, decapitating babies, and even … they, they just … with their teeth, they … Jesus f––-ing Christ you don't want to know what goes on here." The Onion's picture of our world is skewed, buffoonish, raging, mocking and often ridiculous. It is not factual, fair or balanced. But it certainly rings true.
© Newsweek, Inc.

I'm watching cartoons again

As my 42nd b-day approaches later this month I realized today how much I am loving watching cartoons again. I am simply overjoyed that Boondocks is back on the air and so far the new season of South Park is the Best!!

Here is the Wiki link for Boondocks, which I recommend everyone watch. I love the comic strip but it is not carried in any of the daily papers I read unfortunately though I have lobbied for them to carry it but to no avail. So WATCH the series!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boondocks_(TV_series)

This Sunday Clocks Fall Back

This Sunday we turn our clocks back an hour @ 2am on Sunday November 4, 2007. I found this interesting fact today that my man, Benjamin Franklin, in 1784 first mentioned the idea of daylight savings time in his essay" An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light".

Acid vandal or copy-cat?

Investigators are trying to determine whether 2 acts of vandalism this week in Lancaster, PA were the work of the County's notorious Acid Vandal, a copycat or a Halloween prankster. Brett Hambright worte the following piece in the local paper: Intelligencer Journal: Two cars, one in Manheim Township and the other in Lancaster city, were doused with a corrosive substance that peeled away the vehicles' paint, investigators said.

Lancaster city police say a recent incident on the 200 block of East Lemon Street wasn't consistent with the vandal's ongoing 22-month spree. Meanwhile, Manheim Township police aren't so sure. A car vandalized overnight Sunday on Jackson Street showed similar damage to vehicles targeted during the spree. The victim said Wednesday night that paint on the hood of her Ford Escort "was curling up like potato chips." Paint was stripped to the car's primer in two square-foot blotches, the victim said. Manheim Township police Sgt. Robert Baldwin said the "acid vandal" may or may not be responsible.

"It appeared to have been an acid-like substance, but we don't know" whether it's connected, Baldwin said. The victim, who asked not to be identified in fear of retaliation, said her car was targeted overnight Sunday. The woman said she didn't notice the damage until Tuesday because frost covered the vehicle when she drove it early Monday. "How dare they do that to me?" she said Wednesday.

She isn't the only person outraged.

Since January 2006, more than 400 vehicles in Lancaster city and township have been hit by the "acid vandal." The vandal is described as a skinny, middle-aged white man, according to a city woman who watched him at work in late August.

Sporadic incidents have been reported in Manheim Township. Total damages from the spree likely are nearing $500,000 dollars. The Jackson Street resident said she probably won't get her car repaired at a body shop for "several hundred dollars." On average, repairs cost about $1,000 per vehicle — more if multiple panels are damaged.

"I don't have the money, so I'll probably sand it myself," she said. "The vehicle is not my life."

In Lancaster city, a vehicle in the 200 block of East Lemon Street was vandalized overnight Monday, police said.
The vehicle was damaged by a corrosive chemical, but officials say they are treating the case as a separate incident. "It's not related, but we can't discuss why," Lancaster city police Capt. John Flemming said Wednesday evening. "It's different in several ways." Police have been telling residents to stay alert and watch for anyone suspicious on their block. The Jackson Street woman said her neighbors often do just that. "Usually, we kind of know when somebody strange is in the neighborhood," she said. "Neighbors kind of look out for each other."

Lancaster City-County Crime Stoppers is offering an $18,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the acid vandal case. Tipsters should call (800) 322-1913.
City police can be reached at 735-3300.