Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like Andre Dawson. My favorite player from my favorite baseball team (Chicago Cubs) got the green light for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame today. "The Hawk" was everything that was right about baseball. Tall, skinny and broad-sholdered, Dawson smacked 2 homers in the only major league game I've ever been to (vs. the Braves in Fulton County Stadium). Hearing this news brought back a lot of good memories. Here's a clip of "The Hawk" at his finest:


And what about this song?!?! AWESOME!!!!!!

28 (Andre Dawson)Hes a Hero sound bite

(HatTip: Midwest Sports Fans via Deadspin)

This week, I love the new Golf Central set. Lots of BLUE - my favorite color. This show is the daily news/sportscast on the Golf Channel. Yes...there's enough golf material out there to have a daily show (Amiright, Tiger?!?!). The 2010 season kicks off this week and the Golf Channel unveiled its swanky new set. Believe you me, this is a big upgrade.


This looks a lot like the main set of the Major League Baseball (MLB) Network. Hmmm, I guess studies have shown that the majority of viewers (most likely males) prefer the color BLUE.


This week, I don't like being ask that question. You know the question I'm talking about. We've all been asked it over the past few weeks. Let me cut to the chase and share my answer:

"Heck no I'm not pulling for Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game."

How many Bama fans pulled against Northwestern? That's what I thought! I must add that I'm not necessarily pulling for Texas either. I'm an Auburn fan. Auburn's not playing in this game. And please don't make me feel bad about not pulling for an SEC team. I don't get into it like that.

2009 Year in Review

Getting tired of these end-of-the-year and end-of-the-decade blogs? Good. Here's one more. This is MY year-end review. Click on the photos to enlarge the image.

2009 Year in Review

It’s time to kick back and reflect on 2009. This is a good exercise and I suggestion you do it for yourself. 2009 flew by – looking back like this may help you realize that we all accomplished a lot in this quick year.

January
I reached the 1-year mark for living and working in Birmingham. I really lucked up in finding an affordable apartment that was very close to Julie’s house...but I'm glad to be outta there! I can’t believe that I’m beginning my third year of life in Birmingham. I never thought I’d live here.It's not so bad as long as you can put up with the bad drivers. In all seriousness, Birmingham has a lot to offer for those few occasions of free time.

FebruaryJulie and I traveled south to attend a wedding party in Mobile and for her to attend a shower in Atmore. Julie’s dad, brother, my dad and I all toured the new hotel and casino near Atmore. I enjoyed being back in Atmore and wish I could have gotten to see more of my old friends. To this day, I’ve only been back to Atmore twice since moving away in January of 2008. I’ll be going back a lot more when/if the Poarch Band of Creek Indians build a golf course on their hotel/casino site. By the way, I was very impressed with the hotel and thought that the casino and restaurants would compete very well against the establishments in Biloxi.

March
The highlight of March would definitely be visiting a few stops on the Kentucky Bour bon Trailwith Cousin Neil. I’ve got to give credit to Neil for his trip ideas. He spearheaded a rowdy trip to Luckenbach, TX, back in 1998 and I was really glad that he wanted to spend some time with me before my wedding. We stayed with Camden friend Joe Harvell in Bowling Green, KY. Joe went with us to tour the Maker’s Mark and Wild Turkey distilleries. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum! Maker’s Mark was a smaller operation and allowed visitors to be very “hands-on”. Wild Turkey was a stainless steel behemoth with lots of closed doors. It was a very fun trip though!

AprilJulie and I got married on April 18th! Best day of my life! The whole weekend was great, actually. My parents threw a great rehearsal dinner and I got a lot of wise advice from Cousin Jay and my fraternity brothers afterwards. My emotions were pretty high during the rehearsal dinner but I had calmed down a lot before the wedding. My groomsman Clint still calls me every now and then to let me know that our wedding was one of the best he’s seen. The reception was top notch too! It flew by though! Not to sound fruity but everything was just so...magical.

Julie and I left the reception and stayed in Birmingham that night. We left for the Atlanta airport just a few hours later and headed to Bermuda. Oh sweet, sweet Bermuda. How I wish I was relaxing on your shores right now. What a week! First off, NO WORK! Secondly, lots of time at the pool! Thirdly, I got to add to my international golf experience! The best part was just spending time with my new wife. Our honeymoon week was a microcosm of 2009 – it zipped by in a blur. We’re definitely going back to Bermuda soon!

MayJulie began getting used to having a male roommate in May. I spent some of my May weekends getting familiar with the county dump since most of my bachelor belongings didn’t make the cut. I was just happy that Julie carved out a little closet space for me!

Julie actually got to meet the designer of her wedding dress. I thought that was so cool! Seriously!

Not long after our wedding, we traveled to Auburn for Cousin Katie and Eric Long’s wedding. Julie was the matron of honor. I had to flash my new ring several times at the reception to fend off dance requests.

Julie also turned one year older in May!

June
June was a pretty bland month. Nothing really sticks out to me. The US Open was delayed one day due to soggy conditions. My golf outings picked up in number. All apologies if I failed to recall a significant occasion we exeperienced with you in June.

July
We spent Independence Day weekend at the Corman’s house in Destin with Clay and Emily Branch and Sarah Harper Baggett. Bocephus (Clay) and I teed it up while the ladies sunned by the pool. The weekend was capped off with a great fireworks show.

AugustMy birthday was in August. We also went to St. Louis to see Mark and Kiley Talbot! St. Louis is a cool town. We had such a good time with great friends and even got to go to a Cards game. Mark took me to play golf in Illinois, making it the third state I played in this year.

SeptemberCollege football season kicked off. Julie and I attended Auburn’s games again Louisiana Tech and West Virginia with her parents. Both were great games and gave us a glimpse of some good things to come. Looking back, I don’t know if Auburn could rally back against WVU in a rematch. The effort seen in that game was solid proof that this year’s team did not have the “quitter” attitude seen so often in 2008.

OctoberIt was Halloween before we knew it. I Tweeted that the most common costume seen at our house was “plain-clothed Mexican child with a Wal Mart bag”. Julie fell ill and we opted to stay home for the trick-or-treaters rather than attending the Auburn/Ole Miss game. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the TV coverage!

November
Julie and I spent Thanksgiving with the Cormans in Auburn and kicked off our first holiday season as a married couple. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed a hearty feast with The Donaldsons (Julie’s maternal relatives in Auburn) and The Longs, our fellow newlyweds. We attended the Iron Bowl and watched the Tigers give a mighty effort. Spirits were surprisingly high after the game ended as Auburn fans shouted cheers while leaving the stadium.

December
December – probably the fastest of all the months. Three consecutive weekends of traveling to visit family made the days fly by, but it was worth it! We’ll spend Christmas weekend with my family in Camden.
Julie and I will cool our jets and ring in 2010 by ourselves in Birmingham. I hope everyone has had a fantastic 2009 and have an even better 2010!

Like Love and Don't Like

I managed to hear my favorite version of "The Christmas Song" twice last week. Still not enough!

This week, I like Lindt's Lindor Truffles. A business associate dropped a bag of these bad boys off last week as a little Christmas "thank you". These things are so good I can't begin to describe them. I'm not even sure of the best way to eat them. I've developed two styles. The Caveman style is your basic pop-and-chew method. The Priestly Way is a more methodical, melt-in-your-mouth approach. Attention Julie, friends and family: Lindt makes a white chocolate Lindor Truffle. Just thought you'd like to know.

This week, I love yard work. 14 year old Nick strongly protests but I've come to appreciate yard work and it's therapeutic releases. As previously mentioned, Julie and I are going to my parents house for Christmas. I might have an opportunity to rake some leaves with the old man or something else that will get me outdoors on Saturday. Click here to see a quick video from my favorite TV show of the moment. It's given me some great idea for Julie's yard!

This week, I don't like that "back to work" feeling. It's the same as that "back to school" feeling we all used to get during the last week of summer vacation. The difference is that the "back to work" feeling is more compact and accompanied by more resistance. The feeling can't be avoided and you know it's coming. The best you can do is make the most of your Christmas and try to keep your mind occupied with other things. Like Lindor Truffles.

I hope everyone has a great, wonderful, happy, safe and Merry Christmas. Most of all, I hope your Christmas isn't scary or confusing. Take it away, Raisins!

Christmas Card 2009

I was certain that 60 Christmas cards would be enough, but that was not the case. I will do a better job next year! If you didn't get one in the mail below is a picture of our very first Christmas Card. Merry Christmas to you and yours!