Holiday traveling and the sights we've seen

One could say that the holiday travel schedule officially kicked off for Julie and me back at Thanksgiving. Here's some photos of what we've seen so far. It's safe to say that we'll see even more interesting sights between now and New Year's!

First stop: Thanksgiving! Julie and I spent the Thanksgiving break at her parents in Auburn. We had a wonderful time with the Cormans, the Donaldsons and the Longs. During the visit, Julie and Ellen took a moment to give us the obligatory sister pose.

My father and my sister both have December birthdays. Julie and I traveled to Camden this past weekend to celebrate the aging. I took Julie by the old Camden water tower. I've had to take a can of paint up to the top many times to defend my sister's honor*.

*Copyright 1992 Jeff Foxworthy, Inc.

Sarah Harper and Dad enjoyed their Auburn-themed presents. Dad received his first official "old person gift" from SHB.

We also spent Sunday observing the annual tradition that is the Baggett/Wilder Christmas. Counsins Neil, Katie and Margie Gracie drove down from Auburn for a big lunch and family time. Margie Grace was very helpful in giving out the gifts! Looks like Neil was more interested in reading the paper though!

Julie had the wonderful idea of introducing a time-old Atmore tradition to Margie Grace by giving her a gift ball. Margie Grace definitely liked the surprises found while unwrapping the gift ball but the massive size of the ball tired her out quickly! Here's a great action shot:

Margie Grace came out pretty good with all of her new princess gear!

We'll be traveling to Auburn this weekend for a little pre-Christmas cheer with the Cormans and then back to Camden for Christmas Day. Who knows what we'll see?

Bring Your Old Buddy

I was fortunate enough to play golf for the second weekend in a row. Unfortunately, my concerns about frigid weather came true. Temperatures for this year's Bring Your Old Buddy Scramble started out very chilly and only warmed up to the low 50's. But it takes a lot more than cold weather to scare me off!

My good friend Clay Branch (his wife Emily's blog is here) and I decided that we would play in this event several weeks ago. The deal included a round of golf, our 2010 Robert Trent Jones trail card and lunch for a very reasonable price. Clay convinced his dad and one of his brothers to join us and we decided to take on the Senator course at the trail's site in Prattville - Capitol Hill. The scramble was on Sunday, the day after most of the Birmingham area receive a light snow dusting. As we were making our way toward our first hole, Clay and I quickly discovered that a windshield is very nice thing to have on a golf cart in December. (By the way, RTJ - what's up with that? Windshields are the standard now, aren't they?)

This was my first trip to Capitol Hill and I have to say that I wasn't blown away. I can't speak to the appearance of the Legislator or the Judge courses but it doesn't take a lot of words to describe the Senator: long, treeless, mounds. Each hole was divided by large, grassy mounds and featured zero trees. Most of the greens seemed to be uphill and the par 3's were amazingly long. The tee boxes were the widest I've ever seen. The winterized conditions of the greens and fairways (seen in the pics and vids below) were understandable but made me long for greener sights.

I had a blast and we made a great team. We shot a 55 and were one stroke out of 3rd place for our course. We only parred 3 holes and birdied or eagled every other hole. Everybody contributed and I can't emphasize how much fun I had. Here's some of the action:

Money was raised for charity from purchases of mulligans and throws (throw the ball to extend the position of your last shot). I'm not sure if we executed the throw concept properly but here's Clay warming up. This was on the par-5 17th:



Clay is already used to performing on camera. He's getting ready for the Champions Tour.

Here's a fairway approach with one of my new irons. I thinned the shot a little bit but the ball ended up in about 4 feet from the hole. The team owed that birdie to Julie!

Here's a new view of one of Clay's big bombs off the tee box. This was one of his longest drives of the day and as his dad attests, it was right down the middle!

All in all, a great day! Grand National is still the top RTJ trail site in my mind. Thanks to Clay and his family for two great weekends of golf and a BIG thanks for my wife and family for letting me venture away for a few hours!

Like, Love and Don't Like

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I had a great time with Julie's family in Auburn and we thoroughly enjoyed the long break.

This week, I like the idea of getting a portable sound effect machine for Christmas. I really just need one sound effect to have on standby to use at a moment's notice throughout my day:



I've already got the witty jokes and sharp one-liners. Can you imagine if I had access to this sound effect each time I cracked the crowd up? KILLER!

Of course, Julie probably thinks that my sense of humor is more deserving of this sound effect:



This week, I love putting up the Christmas tree and decorations with my wife. This is our first Christmas as man and wife. Julie originally showed a lot more interest in decorating than I did but I came on strong near the end*. Now I'm checking the tree every morning to see if it needs more water and scanning the mail for new Christmas cards. It's just a shame that we'll have to put everything back up in the attic in a few weeks.

* = not actually true

This week, I don't like cold weather. This will be the second weekend in a row that I get to play golf. I'm playing with Clay "Bocephus" Branch, along with his dad and his brother on Sunday. We're teaming up for the Bring Your Old Buddy four man scramble that the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail puts on every year. We're playing the Senator course at Capitol Hill in Prattville. Last weekend, the weather was almost perfect with only fleeting moments of chilliness. This Sunday is supposed to be downright cold. At least we'll be playing golf! I can't wait!

Finally, one last clip to touch on the national media crisis that is Tiger Woods. This clip is dedicated to my friend Mark Talbott, of St. Louis, MO. Mark is recovering from H1N1. God speed Mark! And Tiger...there's always Fubu!

Chappelle's Show
The Racial Draft
http://www.comedycentral.com/
Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs Black Comedy True Hollywood Story

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like cherry flavoring. I recently consumed a fruit smoothie with cherry flavoring and enjoyed it. I've been using a lot of cherry-flavored lip balm recently too. The strange thing is that I'm not a big fan of actual cherries. I don't like their texture.

This week, I love the text-a-complaint system at Jordan-Hare stadium. I just learned about this neat feature the other day. Basically, you can send a text to some Auburn officials regarding misbehaving fans during football games and someone will be on the seen soon to help with the problem. Kinda cowardly, I know. But it will certainly help out with the fans that think rules don't apply to them. I'm going to try out the system the first time Julie lights up one of her smokes.

This week, I don't like the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Actually, I've never appreciated the BCS. True, it does manage to provide a #1 vs. #2 matchup each year to determine a college football national champion. But that's not always the best game. Plus, it's all the confusion and absurd rankings that lead up to that matchup that aggravates everyone. Check out the BCS Twitter site if you want to see a failed public relations tactic. Our chances of ever seeing a playoff system will remain slim as long as the official BCS website is sponsored by a television network. Fox, who does not cover college football all year, does a terrible job with all of the BCS games. And they absolutely butcher the Cotton Bowl each year. If they have the rights to that game this year, I guarantee you that they will stick Pat Summerall in the booth. He did the play-by-play a few years ago when Auburn played Nebraska and it was terrible. I thought Pat Summerall died years ago!

Have a happy Thanksgiving and remember, if you see someone going for that last turkey leg, have some decency and don't pull one of these: