Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like my old-fashioned calendar. My monthly calendar is my last technological holdout. While I do use my Outlook calendar at work to keep track of work events, I absolutely have to have the old standard as well. It’s just something about being able to flip the pages and scanning for available meeting dates that I can’t let go of just yet. I really gave some serious thought to utilizing my iPhone’s calendar app in place of my paper calendar but when it came down to crunch time, I couldn’t pull the trigger. Maybe I’ll upgrade in 2014!

This week, I love my daily welcome-home party. Julie and I have a small column of windows next to our front door that extends all the way to the ground. They’re the perfect height for Graham to view what’s going on in the front yard. Now that he’s more mobile, I’m greeted by his sweet, smiling face when I come home in the evenings. He thinks it’s hilarious! It’s this sight that melts all the day’s problems away. He’s happy to see me and I’m even happier to see him!

Sometimes Graham sees me off to work in the mornings too.

This week, I don’t like this season’s bowl matchups. It doesn’t take much for a college football team to be invited to a bowl game to cap off their season (although winning more than 3 games definitely helps). There’s always a lot of spectacle surrounding these games and they really are a reward for the participating teams. But this year’s schedule of bowl games absolutely stinks. I don’t know if it’s because you have an independent team (Notre Dame) playing in the National Championship game or if it’s because the SEC has so many highly-ranked teams but there are a lot of unappealing matchups to be played. Bowl games have always pitted teams against schools they normally wouldn’t play and the contests always matched up well. That notion has gone out the window. Except for the Fiesta Bowl (Oregon vs. Kansas State), I have no interest in watching most of the bowls in the coming weeks.

I should point out that this lackluster schedule is due in part the vast number of bowls. But some argue that more bowl games stimulate more local economies. One glaring exception to this assumption is Birmingham’s BBVA Compass Bank Bowl, which will be hosting the mighty Pittsburgh Panthers for the THIRD CONSECUTIVE YEAR. Having Ole Miss play in this season’s game might…MIGHT…draw more Birmingham residents to the game but I can assure you that the number of folks that travel from Pennsylvania won’t do much to add to this local economy. It’s just a great example of how the bowl games have lost their way. All in all, I’m sure the players have a great time and get lots of free stuff. Here’s a clip of the teams from the 2012 BBVA Compass Bank Bowl enjoying some of Birmingham’s finer entertainment.