WOW

The West Virginia Mountaineers played their first Big XII game yesterday and WOW is all that I can say. I've spent a lifetime watching the Mountaineers and it would be hard to find a more exciting game than we witnessed yesterday.

Two high flying offenses and they did not disappoint in what turned out to be a 70-63 Mountaineer victory in a match up of two ranked teams and two offensive Juggernauts.

Geno Smith put up numbers tat you put up playing a video game, not a real football game and at the Division 1 level. He was 45-51 in passing for an unbelievable and a school record that will probably live forever 656 passing yards. Prior to yesterday the school record for overall team yards was 655 total yards that we put up against Marshall earlier this year which eclipsed the long standing record of 654 Total team yards set in 1993. Geno passed for 656 yards as the team put up a new school record of 807 yards of Total Offense. Throw in 8 Touchdown passes he threw and his boxscore looked like this. 56-51 8 TD's O INT's 656 yards.

Geno wasn't the only one that lit it up, Stedman Bailey caught 13 passes for a new School Record 303 Yards a another new school record 5 TD receptions. All-American Tavon Austin had a modest 14 receptions for 215 yards and 2 Touchdowns. JD Woods had 13 catches for 113 yards and 1 TD. Andrew Buie carried the ball 25 times for 82 yards and 2 Touchdowns.

I could go on and on about this game, it had to be one of the most exciting football games much less a Mountaineer Football game that I have ever seen in my lifetime.

No time to relax, a top 10 matchup in front of what may be the largest live crowd we will will have ever played against is up next week when we visit Texas and their 100,000 seat stadium next Saturday Night. Hopefully I can catch my breath by then.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, a household where everyone with the exception of me is in a land of somber and dreams. I'm up early once again with the movie Good Burger playing in the background collecting my thoughts.

We made it to the University High game last night but left at halftime, those metal bleachers were doing a number on a part of my body so without our ass cushions it was not very pleasant. The Hawks went down 13-0 but managed to pull out a big second half and win 32-13 for a Homecoming win. Arron was playing Defensive Tackle and was playing against someone just smaller than his some 6'6" 280 lb frame and was beating him on every play.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have assured the streak of non winning seasons will continue last night. They lost their 81st game of the season in less than honorable fashion. Throwing our ace he held the Reds to a 7 hit game and 1 run, however Red's pitcher Homer bailey threw a gem that we refer to as a No-Hitter against the Pirates. A no hitter is a rare piece of work, we had a couple of friends attend yesterdays game including a co-worker of Michelle's who is a big Red's fan. I think I would have only enjoyed this if Josh was up with the Reds but he's not.

Mountaineers will be playing today at noon against Baylor. There will be an added treat, during the first quarter they are going to take a Gigapixel photo of the game. This is a very high resolution picture that will basically let you zoom in to see about anyones face in the crowd. Should be quite the treat and WVU will have one. I'll share the amazing link after when it becomes available.

Let's Go Mountaineers!!!

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!

If you are looking for some good food, the Preston County Buckwheat Festival is in full gear right now. Head on up to Kingwood and grab yourself some Preston County made Buckwheat Cakes. Last year we stopped at the United Methodist Church in Masontown and there was no big lines and no big crowds if you are looking for the cakes.

High School Football, undefeated and #2 University High will play host to 2-2 Fairmont Sr. Morgantown will travel to Preston County to take on Preston and undefeated Clay Battelle travels to Wetzel County to play Valley Wetzel in tonights High School football action.

The Mountaineers start the Big XII portion of their schedule tomorrow at noon when they play host to the Baylor Bears. Hopefully Geno and the boys can win what looks to be a heck of a shootout.

Not sure what Michelle and I will be getting into, Arron is playing tonight and we want to get our Sam's Club shopping done. I would like to be able to get our shopping done and get over to see him play some time this season.

Anyone want to order some popcorn for a good cause. I know a certain little boy (Christopher Toth) who is selling popcorn to earn a badge for the cub scouts. If you're interested in buying some popcorn and having the money go to good cause, let me know.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all of my pictures that I have stored on my computer and look for just one special picture to tell a story about. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not so easy, it is however always a lot of fun.

This weeks pic takes me back to right after I had graduated but was still working at the NRAC at WVU. I had just saved up and bought my new camera that I was pretty excited about and took it into work one day. One of my co-workers grabbed this picture of me ij the office.

I didn't make a lot of money at the NRAC, but the things I learned there gave me an advantage in getting a head start on my career. I worked with some very talented people and did some very challenging projects.

I spent about four years there as an undergrad and even after I graduated.

Hump Day Sports

I have to love this ESPN Gameday commercial. The Mountaineer standing in the bushes staring down Lee Corso and loading his gun. Maybe you would have to be old enough to remember the 1993 season when WVU was undefeated and ranked #2 and #3 in the polls. Florida State was 10-1 and was ranked #3 and #2 in the polls. Nebraska was the #1 team in the country and they were trying to decide who should play Nebraska for the National Championship. Lee Corso was the biggest and loudest voice campaigning for Nebraska to play Florida State. The Mountaineer should have popped a cap in his ass.

The Mountaineers will enter Big XII play this week when we host Baylor this saturday., Last year Baylor set the record for most points scored in a Bowl game when they beat Washington 67-56. That record didn't last very long, it didn't even make it until the end of Bowl season as the Mountaineers hung 70 on Clemson just a few days later. Gone from Baylor is 2011 Heisman trophy winner Robert Griffin III, but this is still a high scoring Baylor team. Should be a whole lot of points scored in this contest.

Hats off the the WVU Womens soccer team. Earlier this year they beat #1 Stanford and on Sunday they beat #7 Oklahoma State. They are 6-3-3 on the season thus far.

And as for the Pittsburgh Pirates? What the heck, you were 18 gales above .500 after the all star break and now you're either 2 or 4 games below .500 pending last nights results. Two years in a row the Pirates have played a 19 inning game and watched their season tank after that game. AAAARRRGGGHHHH

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is once again behind us, and would you believe that yesterday was the only Monday I worked during the month of September, can't think of a better reason to do a tidbits.

* Michelle and I enjoyed our first date 1,656 days ago.

* 879 days ago I got down on on knee and proposed marriage.

* 416 days ago in front of of our closest friends and family we exchanged our wedding vows.

* There are but 91 more shopping days left until Christmas.

* I was talking to Terri this weekend and told her if she wanted to do Christmas Eve again this year it was alright by me. It seems to be the place everyone likes to congregate to and have the most fun, and that's what it's all about.

* It's starting to feel like Summer is over with. I hit the trails yesterday morning and it was the first time that I thought to myself "I should have worn a light coat".

* BTW, yesterday was the first time since before we went on vacation that I actually made it to the gym. It was just difficult for me to get back into my routine last week, I'm back in it now though.

* Speaking of the gym, it's a cardio day so

* Hi ho hi ho

Happy Real Birthday Kaiden Dalton

Last week I had my dates mixed up when I wished Kaiden Dalton a Happy Birthday. I guess you can say that I had a bit of a brainfart and depended too much on a script that I entered the wrong date on.

TODAY, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Kaiden Dalton a very Happy Birthday. Unfortunately in an act of another brain fart, Chad had my camera in Pittsburgh for the day, so I had to take a few pics with Val and Amy's camera.

Amy and Ralph hosted a nice large gathering of family to wish Kaiden a very happy Birthday. Weather held up and we didn't have any rain and it turned out to be a nice day.

If you want to see the pictures, you may have to rely on Amy and Val's Facebook account, even though I was the photographer, it was their camera.

Happy Birthday Kaiden.

Sunday Morning Thoughts

Once again I sit here in the early AM, I'm the only one awake and everyone else is laying in the silent somber of dreamland and resting. I'm watching the Howard Stern movie Private Parts on NetFlix behind me and surfing around Facebook.

Today we will be heading up to Amy's for a birthday party for Kaiden. I think I got his birthday a little early in my blog as I wrote it for the same day as Calvin's (doesn't he look good in this picture), but I think Kaiden's is actually this Tuesday. I have it right in my calendar but wrong in one of my apps on Google.

The Mountaineers managed to beat the Maryland Terrapins 31-21 yesterday here in town. Watching the game on FX (They do a much better job than Jefferson Pilot) I was wondering if we were going to have a repeat of last years Marshall game at times with the storm clouds looming, but they never really hit. The Mountaineers moved to 3-0 on the season and get ready for our first Big XII game next week against Baylor.

The Steelers play this afternoon at 4:00. We missed last weeks game when we were coming back from vacation, so we'll try to catch as much of this one as possible.

Have a great day.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Once again here I sit in a quiet household. I'm the only one up as everyone else is in dreamland sleeping the night away with the exception of me. I've always been an early riser so that's really nothing new.

It's game day once again here in Morgantown. The Maryland Terrapins will be here at noon today for an early kickoff for the days events. The Mountaineers are 3-0 and lead by the current Heisman Trophy favorite Geno Smith and the Air Raid passing offense. This will be the first home game in three weeks as we were off two weeks ago and played James Madison in DC last week. I'm sure the tailgaters are getting ready to line up and there will be people with "I need tickets" signs everywhere.

I did get a chance to work on Mom's computer this week. It was slowed down terribly and she loves to surf the net, so I had two options. One was to optimize it and clean it up, but that could have taken a few days and two just reformat it and make it like new again. I chose to just reformat it so I could get it back to her in the shortest amount of time. I took it back last night, I'm sure she was happy to get back on Facebook.

The new iPhone 5 released yesterday. I stopped by the local AT&T store for a co-worker to let him know how many people were in line. at 6:45 I counted 15 people at this one, David said by the time the store opened the line was around the store. He's having his shipped to him today from Chicago and he was there to get one for his brother. He asked me to get a status update of the line for him when I went to work so he knew what he was in for. He had talked about camping out at 3:00 to get one for his brother (he has a 64 GB coming in today from Chicago).

All three local High Schools won last night in High School football action.

Let's Go Mountaineers.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!

Looking for a little bit of High School Football action? The undefeated University High Hawks at 4-0 travel to Parkersburg to take on Parkersburg South this evening. Morgantown coming off a loss last week to Martinsburg hosts Anacosta from DC and undefeated Clay Battelle is at home to take on St. Johns Ohio.

I got my IOS 6 for my iPhone. I won't be getting the iPhone 5 until next month, that's when Michelle will be eligible for hers and I'll just wait until then to get the new phones. I have to say I was NOT impressed with IOS 6. I think they took a huge step backwards with the mapping program and AT&T blocked Facetime unless you change your plan. Lot's of disappointment I have to say. Steve Jobs would never have allowed that release to go out like this, the mapping is absolute junk.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out to look back through all of my pictures that I have stored and find just one picture to write about. Sometimes it's easy to find one, and sometimes it's not so easy. It is however always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture is the end of an era. I have played softball at BOPARC for better than a quarter century. It was one thing that I always looked forward to and loved to play.

This weeks picture is actually from my last game that I ever played. I had singled in my last at bat and had made it to third base by the time this picture was taken. I don't remember if I scored or not, but this was the end for me. My last bat, my last game and the start of my retirement from softball.

I was lucky and was able to play on some very good teams through the years and I played on some not so good teams as well. I loved all the years, games and teams I played on and against. I was able to create a number of memories that will last me a lifetime playing a sport I loved.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well the first two days of this week are over with, at least for all of you who have worked all week. Now if you look over the lunchtime hump you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the distance.

Well we finally did make it back to work yesterday, and we both seemed to have survived the return from vacation. I did learn that I am signed up for some training on Columbus Day which is a Federal Holiday. It's part of the WVAGP training session that is going on at WVU and our boss paid for our training if we were members of the WVAGP.

We tried to make our favorite dessert from the cruise last night. Carnival makes a Warm Chocolate Melting Cake  that we both really fell in love with. When we got back into town we immediately went out and purchased a nice set of ramekins to make the cake with.

Weather permitting this morning, it;s going to be a cardio day and my first lift in two weeks.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is now behind us, and so is my lengthy vacation that we have enjoyed. Now it's time for me to get back to work, for that reason alone I can't think of a better reason to do a tidbits.

* It's been 1,649 days since Michelle and I had our first date.

* It's been 872 days since our engagement.

* 409th day of wedded bliss. I take a little time out each day to reflect how lucky I am.

* There are only 98 shopping days left until Christmas, it's starting to get a little closer.

* I finally got all my pictures from Vacation up on Facebook yesterday. I also got the ones that we took under the water up after we went yesterday and had them developed.

* We have been waiting all summer at Sam's Club to drop their price on their Cuisinart Blend and Cook Soup Maker. The price dropped a few weeks ago and we bought a new one yesterday. Michelle loves soup and has had her eye on this thing for a while.

* The new iPhone IOS 6 should be released tomorrow. The new iPhone I think also is released the same day, we're going to order a couple of new ones but Michelle's contract isn't due for an upgrade until next month. So we'll wait to all the hoopla dies down and go and get them.

* cardio day

* Oh no oh no

Happy Birthday Kaiden Dalton

My how the time flies by, today is Kaiden Dalton's fourth Birthday. It was just four short years ago today that Amy and Ralph were blessed with their first little bundle of joy Kaiden.

I'm still a little out of the loop due to our vacation, but I'm pretty sure that Kaiden's birthday party will be this Sunday afternoon at Amy and Ralph's home.

This just happens to be one of my favorite pictures of Kaiden, it was taken a couple of years ago at Calvin's birthday Party.

If you happen to see Kaiden today, make sure you wish him a very happy 4th birthday today.

Happy Birthday Calvin McClain

I would like to take this opportunity out to wish a very Happy Birthday to my nephew Calvin McClain. If my math is correct, and it's not always correct, he should be turning 17 years old today.

He is a tough one to get a picture of as he tends to be one who likes to avoid being in front of the camera. So I had to look around a little for a picture of him that I had not used previously.

I think Pam had his birthday party this past weekend while we were away, but I'm not 100% positive on that.

If you happen to see or speak to calvin today, make sure that you take a little bit of time out to wish him the happiest of birthdays today.

We're Back

We are back in Morgantown, we got back yesterday afternoon after a day of traveling. I see that all of my pre-written blogs posted when they were supposed to, so that is a good thing.

The vacation? Beyond expectations. It was absolutely beautiful out on the Atlantic, especially the further south you went. The waters were crystal clear and blue and were clearer than a swimming pool.

I think our favorite stop was Half Moon Cay. This is a private island owned by Carnival and was absolute paradise. I could retire there and be happy for the rest of my life. Only problem is only 12 people live there and they work for Carnival.

The one thing we like to do was snorkel. We had a blast snorkeling in both Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay, we saw a number of fish and was something that helps you bring your own life into perspective. I did see one fish that appeared like and angel fish that was probably bigger than me, we did get some underwater photography but Michelle's camera busted on the first day.

I would strongly advise anyone if they ever get the chance to at least do this one in your lifetime. You can book it almost up to three years in advance and take all that time to pay it off. Everyone should experience this in their lifetime.

We did take a number of pictures with my camera, I have to extract them and will be uploading them sometime today.

Now the question needs to be asked, would I do it again? Already put a deposit down on a future cruise. We're going to do it again next year.

The Return Home

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

Today we will once again arrive at the point of our departure. We weeks worth of a marvelous vacation is now in our memories and that starts to close out at about 9:00 this morning when we are getting off of the Carnival Pride for the last time on this trip.

Today it's going to be repacking and exiting the ship, it's going to be a day of going back to the hotel and getting out car and starting our drive back to Morgantown. A morning that I woke up in the middle of the Atlantic and will go to bed this evening in my own bed.

It has been the memory of a lifetime for both Michelle and I. It will be the ending of the longest and most fun filled vacation of my life, let's see if we can match or top it in 2013.

Thank you for reading along this past week. We will be home this afternoon, and off of work once again tomorrow, but I imagine there are a number of chores we'll have to do.

Day at Sea the Return

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

We are once again going to be spending the entire day at seas heading back towards the port of Baltimore. We have spent the last three days visiting places that we have only dreamed of seeing. Now we are on our way back, but we can still have a whole lot of fun on our way back.

The image that you see is actually right above our stateroom. It's the water slides in the rear of the boat in that pool. Yes our room is located under all of this believe it or not.

We'll be spending our final full day on the boat today and just enjoying the scenery and reflecting upon the memorable week that we just spent in a tropical paradise. I will have probably taken a great number of pictures, hopefully have captured some nice video and have created a lot of memories.

Freeport Bahamas

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

Today we will be making our third and final port of call when we arrive in Freeport at 7:00 AM. We will once again spend most of the day here, but we will be scheduled to re-board the ship by 1:30 this afternoon.

Just take a look at this picture, and tell me you would not want to spend the day looking at this beautiful scenery. White sandy beaches and crystal clear water is always some thing that I have seen on TV and only imagined, today Michelle and I get to stick our toes inn this sand one more time.

This has always been one of the locations I have wanted to visit in my lifetime. I guess you can call this part of that dream accomplished.

Have a great day.

Half Moon Cay Bahamas

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

Today we will be spending in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. It's actually a private island owned by the company that owns the cruise line we are on.

People have always said that they would like to have their own private island, well half Moon Cay is one you can rent believe it or not. I just thought that little tidbit of information was kind of comical.

We will be arriving here at 9:00 AM and are set to depart at 5:00 this evening. This is going to give us a good solid eight hours of a beautiful sandy beach and time in some crystal clear ocean waters. This will be a day I have always dreamed of.

I can't wait and I assure you Michelle is probably more excited about this than I am.

Grand Turk Island

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

Today we are landing on our first port Grand Turk Island. This will actually be the first time either Michelle or I ever set foot on land of a foreign country, or even outside of the United States.

One thing that we want to do today is make our first ever trip and visit to the Margaritaville Caribbean which is just outside of the port. Something tells me these two parrot heads actually will be having two cheeseburgers in paradise today. It's only appropriate since we manage to make the trip to Pittsburgh every year to go see Jimmy and the Coral Reefer Band. It was the one thing I mentioned about any of the ports that made Michelle's eyes light up.

We'll dock at 8:00 AM and are scheduled to be back on the boat at 2:00 PM. Obviously this is going to be a short day, but anytime white sandy beaches and blue oceans are involved I'm, all for it.

Another Day at Sea

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

We are once again spending another day at seas today and will be once again enjoying all the amenities of the boat. The picture that I have posted is of the Atrium of the boat, this is the center of the boat where the glass elevators are located. We're on the 8th floor and just under the top entertainment deck. Just above us is the adults only pool, but at this time of the year I'm not too worried about any kids being around.

There is a beautiful theater that has Las Vegas style shows that I know we want to take advantage of, there is on demand room service at any time of the day, there are fitness rooms, casinos, pools and all kinds of entertainment.

I found another video of the staterooms, this is also like our room but not our room. It is however on our floor.

We Are at Sea

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

It's a day at sea for us today. We've left the Port of Baltimore and we are heading way down south to the Eastern Carribean. We'll be spending both today and tomorrow out at sea, but don't fret. Remember I have an extended balcony on the top deck, so as this posts I'll be looking at a beautiful sunrise out over the ocean as everyone else enjoys getting up and going to work today.

If you are curious what our room looks like, I found this video. It's not our room, our balcony is twice the size of this one plus we are in the rear of the boat with an unobstructed view.

Enjoy, we are.

ALL ABOARD!!!!!!

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

It's here. After all of the countdowns, all of the planning and preparation the day is finally here. THIS is the day our dreams become reality and all our planning finally pays off, this is the day we actually GET ON THE BOAT!!!!!!

I have to say there were times that I thought this day would never arrive, but it's here. Our week long cruise to the Bahamas and we are doing it in comfort, we're doing it in style and it was all paid for months ago.

We are scheduled to board early this afternoon and we will be departing from the Port of Baltimore at around 4:30 this afternoon. One of the highlights that I am looking forward to day (one of many should I say) is actually going under the bay bridge for once instead of driving over top of it. I've crossed it numerous times, this will be my first time going under it.

I'll be sure to grab a few pics today and share them with everyone when we get back.

Leaving for Baltimore

Disclaimer: This week I will be on a week long vacation with my beautiful wife. These blogs were pre-written to keep a flow of my blog going and to let people know where we are that today and what we plan to be doing.

Well the day has finally arrived. We booked this vacation all the way back in February and I counted them down from around 200 days from when we actually booked it, now today is that magical day. Today we will be heading out early and heading to Baltimore, Maryland. This is where our cruise departs from and we are going to go down a day early to make sure that there are no problems getting to the cruise ship tomorrow morning.

We're staying a couple of blocks from the harbor and the hotel will be housing our car for the next week until we return from our trip.

We will be spending part opf the day traveling and part of the day just learning about the city of Baltimore. The sites and sounds of the city, neither Michelle or I have ever been to the heart of downtown Baltimore, but we plan on spending the day having some fun there and getting to know the city a little better.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of my long overdue extended vacation and cruise!!!!

Are you looking for a little bit of that High School Football action? The Undefeated and 2-0 University High Hawks will be at home this evening entertaining Brooke. The 1-0 and undefeated Morgantown High Mohigans will be playing host to another undefeated team tonight as Parkersburg South comes to Pony Lewis. Undefeated Clay Battelle will be playing host to Allegheny Valley (PA) in Blacksville.

As for me and the wife, we'll be finishing up our packing tonight as we will be heading out real early tomorrow morning for our vacation. We're going to be heading to the National Aquarium tomorrow morning in Baltimore and spend the day there. We have a hotel that will be watching our car for the week and transporting us to and from the terminal on Sunday. Sunday morning we're setting sail on our cruise and I have written a series of blog already that will post every day until we get back.

With that being said, this may be my last blog I write before the series of automated blogs kicks in. I know we're both looking forward to this as we have been for a number of months now.

One last time for a while...

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

About once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all of my thousands of pictures that I have saved on my computer. I like to select just one image to tell a little story about and write a blog about for that week. Sometimes it's pretty easy to find that image and sometimes it's pretty challenging to find it. However, it is always a lot of fun.

This weeks pic was one that I already knew I wanted to use. It was from Christmas 2005 when we had it at Jeans house. We all gathered there like we had many times before in our youth and were all treated to an absolute fest.

As the evening's activities were winding down I wanted to get a picture of everyone, or at least everyone who was willing to pose. We actually did three takes and believe it or not the one with me looking away was the clearest and best picture of the three so I chose it.

Speaking of Christmas, maybe we should start getting ready to do a little bit of planning. It's just three short months away and our pic nic for this summer kind of was put together at the last minute before being rained out. Maybe we can all get together here after I get back from my cruise and start talking about Christmas.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day Sports

Well we now have two days behind us, even though one of them was quite easy to get through. Now if you look over the noontime hump, just on the other side of a photo flashback, you can see the dawn of another weekend or a weeks vacation for me.

Well the College football polls for the second week are out and West Virginia has moved up to the #9 position in the AP Poll and we are #8 in the USAToday Coached Poll for this week. The second week of the Heisman Trophy voting is out, this is a poll among sportswriters on who they think will win the Heisman Trophy and has nothing to do with the actual Heisman voting, but Geno Smith is #2 in that poll. We have also moved to 31 in the Big XII Power ratings.

The Pittsburgh Pirates who were once as many as 18 games above .500 and looking like a playoff team, are now only 6 games above .500 and are 2 1/2 games behind in the wild card race. There are 28 games left in the season, if they win 13 of them they will break the 18 year drought of not being able to play .500 baseball. It's the longest futility streak in major sports. I'm still a Pirates fan this year, Josh did not get called up and his season in AAA is over.

Lifting and cardio day, and this may be my only day to lift this week as I'll use friday to get everything in order before we travel.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is now behind us, for some of us it was a holiday Monday at that, now we are staring Straight down the barrel of a Tuesday. I can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* It's been 1,635 days since mine and Michelle's first date a few years ago. I have been absolutely blessed every day since.

* It was 858 days ago that I got down on one knee and proposed marriage to the most wonderful person in the world.

* 395 days ago at the Marilla Center in front of our closest friends and family, we tied the bounds of matrimony and feasted like kings.

* There are only 112 more shopping days left until Christmas.

* There are only 5 more days left until Michelle and I take our cruise. This is one countdown I am very excited to see come to an end after today. It started with around 200 days and we are almost there now.

* Speaking of our cruise, despite having little or no internet accessibility in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, this blog will go on while we are away.

* Speaking of this blog continuing while I'm on vacation, I have written the 9 blogs for my vacation early yesterday morning (had to take advantage of the day off somehow). I'll take you day by day where we are and what we will be doing on that day.

* There will not be a tidbits next week nor any other of my regularly scheduled blogs next week. they will all be vacation blogs.

* I did learn this weekend that one of my credit cards was used for a number of purchases in China. This is the second time this has happened to me, the first was with my bank card, and now this one with one of my credit cards. Don't fret, I just happen to catch it Sunday evening and will have arranged to have it all taken care of this week with my credit card company. At least a bunch of kids has a lot of fun at an amusement park, but not on my dime though.

* Three day weekend over.

* Hi ho hi ho

Labor Day

Today will be the first of three straight Monday;s that I will be off of work. Today is Labor Day which traditionally signals the unofficial end of summer (and no wearing white) for most people. I guess you could call it the last hurrah of summer.

We tried to have a picnic yesterday, but the weather just was not very cooperative with us at all. That and the fact that it's a holiday weekend and all shelters were most likely taken were the reason we had to cancel it. Pam has to go back to work today, we're going to do a test run of packing for our vacation next week so it's an improbability that we will have any chance of doing one before we head south.

One thing I do want to do today is write a series of blogs for next week. We can get internet in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but it is slow and quite costly, so we will most likely not be on the net. Because I'm committed to writing every day, and I do take advantage of having a post post at a certain time, I'll be writing a number of them today to post next week.

Have a great day.

Sunday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit in a quiet household collecting my thoughts for the day. Some movie is playing in the background and I have no idea what it even is as I'm not paying much attention to it. Everyone in the household is fighting a losing battle with the sandman and sleeping.

Did anyone see the football game yesterday? We MANHANDLED Marshall 69-34 yesterday in the last game of that interstate matchup. The Friends of Coal Bowl Trophy stays in Morgantown, heck we should give it to Marshall to hold on to for us, just to show them how much we don't care about that game.

We're having a picnic today one way or another. We've been wanting to have some kind of a get together for a while now, so as the summer winds down this is out last chance to get together this summer and we are finally going to do it.

We'll be at Marilla Park today, a site of so many picnics in the past. It's also the site of many water battles and food battles through the years as well.

Have a great day.

It's Gameday

The long wait since the game clock hit 0:00 in the Orange Bowl is now over, the 2012 Mountaineer Football Season is here. Today at Noon the Marshall Thundering Herd will arrive in Morgantown for the final butt kicking of this series.

Marshall is lead by former Mountaineer and long time former WVU assistant coach Doc Holiday. They are lead by a good young Quarterback named Cato and could be a formidable opponent this afternoon.

However the Mountaineers have Geno Smith, Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey plus a slew of a supporting cast and that may be a little too much for the Thundering Herd.

Michelle was heading to work yesterday morning at 5:30 AM and noticed that there were already cars parked on the 705 bypass for the game. People leaving their cars there early to get a good parking spot to get out once the game starts.

I wonder if there is anyone walking around Morgantown with the "I Need Tickets" sign? LOL

Have a great day and Let's Go Mountaineers!