Tag: holidays (Page 18 of 19)

Post-Christmas

December 26, 2004 / DB

I hope all of you had a fine holiday. It was a good Christmas in the home of ye olde blogger. From the wife, I received a sweater and zip sweatshirt from J Crew, an iTunes gift card (sadly the only thing I got from the Apple Store), and book six of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. From my secret Santa, which this year was my brother-in-law who’s in school in Boston, I got book seven of the Dark Tower and a Red Sox World Series hat that he personally purchased at Fenway Park. A wise man once told me that shirts, hats, etc. that are bought at a sports stadium are somehow better than those you pick up at the mall. For the wife, I purchased a Nike watch, some new running shoes (shockingly not Nike, but she picked them out), a couple CDs, and a diamond and silver bracelet. Santa visited M. a few weeks back, but she did get some new binkies from us then some new clothes and toys from the family. I was getting quite worried, as Mr. Hankey had not visited as of 9:00 last night. Fortunately, he arrived with a vengeance that seemed to please M. greatly. How could she believe in him if he didn’t show up for her first Christmas?

I did kind of suck on the Christmas movies this year. We watched Elf the night after Thanksgiving, then I didn’t get around to watching any others until early last week. I knocked off Christmas Vacation, but with split attentions since our speakers were acting funky that night. We watched It’s A Wonderful Life Thursday night, then I snuck in A Christmas Story Friday morning. A Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street sit unwatched on our DVR.

As for music this season, my elaborate playlists produced these songs most often on the Mac and iPod:

Do They Know It’s Christmas Band Aid 9 Times
I’ll Be Home For Christmas Frank Sinatra 9
Merry Fucking Christmas Mr. Garrison 9
My Little Drum Vince Guaraldi 9
Christmas is Coming Vince Guaraldi 9
Silver Bells Dean Martin 8
Winter Wonderland Dean Martin 8
Jimmy Fallon’s Christmas Parodies 8
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus John Cougar Mellencamp 8
Hallelujah Chorus The Mormon Tabernacle Choir 8
Have A Merry Little Christmas Mr. Hankey 8
Maybe This Christmas Ron Sexsmith 8
Christmas Time Is Here Vince Guaraldi 8
Theme From Christmas Vacation 8
Let It Snow! Dean Martin 7
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Death Cab for Cutie 7

Classic Christmas Gifts

December 22, 2004 / DB

My golden age of Christmas gifts ran from roughly age 8 to 13. After that, I really didn’t ask for any big ticket items anymore, since I knew my parents weren’t buying me a car, and my list was dominated by clothes, books, and such. Those pre- and early teen years, though, were filled with items I dreamt about for months before they finally arrived. Here are a few of my all-time favorites:

1979: Mattel handheld, electronic football. Star Wars Millennium Falcon. The football game was a surprise gift from my uncle in New York and my first entry into the digital world. Also my first experience with carpal tunnel syndrome! The Falcon was a pipe-dream thrown on the list to see how guilty my parents felt. They had just ended separation #1 and would be divorced by the following Christmas. I was a Star Wars freak, like most eight year olds at the time were, and figured, “Why not?” I remember my dad taking me to Sears and making me sit in the car in the rain for an hour while he was getting my mom “some towels”. The “towels” turned out to be the Holy Grail of late 70s gifts.

1980: My parents divorce became official two weeks before Christmas. I knew I was going to strike the mother-load as everyone in the family tried to ease my pain. (Like I cared whether my parents were together or not.) This year was bittersweet too, though, since I also knew that our already meager financial status was going to get worse as one income disappeared from the household GDP. I was taking whatever I got, because who knows when I’d next clean up. I did end up getting a lot of sweet stuff that year, but what I remember most is what I didn’t get: an Imperial AT-AT from The Empire Strikes Back. An aunt and uncle went to get one for me, but all the stores they went to were sold out. They gave me a card saying my AT-AT would arrive sometime in January. January came and went, I cried when the 49ers beat the Cowboys, but I never got that AT-AT. Shortly after, I wrote off all things Star-Wars.

1982: Dungeons & Dragons. My mom had read the novel about kids playing D&D, freaking out, and going on killing sprees or something, so as I discovered Tolkien and D&D in the fall of ’82, she kept insisting that I shouldn’t even bother putting the game on my Christmas list. I listed it anyway, and the same aunt and uncle who failed to deliver the AT-AT produced the basic D&D box on Christmas morning, much to my mom’s chagrin. What was fun about this gift was we had all been out at Crown Center in KC shopping together (back when it was a whole mall rather than just a few shops) and I saw the D&D box in one of my aunt’s bags. I pretty much knew I was getting it for a month, which made the anticipation even more pronounced, but I also wondered if it might not actually be for someone else. Sadly, I never lost my mind and wandered in the sewers answering only to the name Frodo during my brief D&D career.

1983: Banner year. I received a Pioneer boombox; ten cassettes (Not albums, not CD, but cassettes) including Journey, Foreigner, Men at Work, and Pat Benatar; and the early 80s Holy Grail, an Atari 2600. I was a year, if not two, behind pretty much all of my friends in getting my Atari, but then that’s what you get for living with a single mom, I guess. I remember that Christmas being bitterly cold, so rather than enjoying the vacation playing football and basketball with my neighborhood chums, I sat in my beanbag playing Pitfall, Pole Position, and Q*Bert while working through my new tape collection for hours on end.

1984: I asked for, and received, an electric typewriter. If there was any doubt I should have gone to J-school as an undergrad, here was the earliest sign. Also, I think this explains why girls pretty much didn’t talk to me until I was a junior in high school. It’s tough to overcome being tall, skinny, wearing thick glasses, and admitting that you wanted a typewriter for your big Christmas gift.

In my wife’s family, we pick names so you don’t have to buy gifts for nine other people. I’m not sure if it’s a function of our age (everyone over 21 now) or just the times we live in, but no one requests cool things. Gloves, candles, maybe a scarf. Oh, cologne of course. It seems that if we want something fun, like an iPod, a PS2, or whatever, we go buy it for ourselves when the mood strikes rather than wait for Christmas. I certainly could have waited to get my iPod, and it would have been super cool to find one under the tree Saturday morning. I suppose that’s yet another reason why I’m excited to be a dad. In a couple more years, M. will drive my insane for two months telling me everything she wants from Santa. But then the payoff will come when she opens her gifts Christmas morning and I see the excitement, wonder, and pure joy I haven’t had since I was a kid.

Observations From The TV

December 17, 2004 / DB

Things seen on TV last night.

1 – A Charlie Brown Christmas. M. cried, keeping up a tradition her dad started many years ago. I was a sensitive little lad, and the overwhelming negativity of Peanuts animated specials were always too much for me to take. Whether it was the ridicule of Linus while he waited for the Great Pumpkin, or the persecution of Charlie Brown in pretty much every show, I always got upset while watching the Peanuts gang. Things came to a head when I was 5 or 6 and watched Snoopy Come Home. My mom warned me that she wasn’t going to let me watch Peanuts specials anymore if I continued to get so worked up over them. Well, Snoopy Come Home is pretty much the saddest animated show for kids ever, so within 15 minutes I was hiding between the sofa, a large fern, and the crate my parents kept their stereo on quietly sobbing away. My mom peeked into the room, didn’t see me, and searched until she saw me curled into my small hiding space. I had been crying silently up to that point, but when she saw me, I lost it. I don’t think she even let me see that Snoopy did indeed come home, she just sent me to my room, where I wept the good weep of a small boy until I fell asleep. Thankfully, after reading Amazon’s reviews, it seems like a lot of kids in the 70s bawled while watching Snoopy Come Home. I might as well keep M. away from Charlie, Lucy, and Linus from here on because she definitely got the gene.

2 – Fred Hickman hosting Sportscenter. Not sure where he’s been hiding, but the former CNN sports host has surfaced after many years out of the national eye. Young readers may not recall this, but once upon a time Sportscenter actually had competition from CNN. Fred was ok back in the day, I remember stealing a few of his lines for stories in my high school paper, so I’ll hope he keeps his schtick to a minimum and doesn’t try to compete with the other hacks in Bristol.

3 – Speaking of no competition for ESPN, I guess that’s why they can run their Dale Earnhardt movie 3 on ESPN, then immediately after, again on ESPN2 while they’re simultaneously trying to sell a DVD of said movie. Makes perfect sense. I’m sure they promoted their next movie during each commercial break on both networks as well.
The network did show one of the reasons why they have no competition by providing excellent, in-depth coverage of all the action in baseball’s hot stove league during Sportscenter. Then again, they’re showing some high school kid’s press conference in which he’s going to announce what college he’ll be playing football at on ESPNews. This isn’t LeBron James or Greg Oden. Just some really good player most sports fans have never heard of. I think any high ground the network tries to claim when discussing the overexposure of athletes has been lost. Overall, C-/D+ for ESPN last night.

4 – Entertainment Weekly’s Top 15 Biggest Little Things of 2004 on Bravo. Any list that includes coverage of the extended DVD of Showgirls is worth watching. Actually, it was a very good run down of the biggest issues in entertainment this year. A little snarky, but not the surfeit of snark that VH1 will no doubt provide in their year-end shows.

5 – Thanks to the DVR, a couple classic episodes of Cheers. For fans of the early days, TVLand rolled the tapes over last week and are still in season one if you’d like to go back and watch the brilliance of Coach or the early days of Sam and Diane’s relationship. One episode I had recorded was Tortelli’s Tort, in which Carla attacks a Yankees fan who comes to the bar and harasses the Red Sox fans after another bad loss to the Bronx Bombers. Somewhere, Carla Tortelli, Sam Malone, and Ernie Pantuso are smiling now that the Sox have finally won a series.

Cologne For Christmas

December 16, 2004 / DB

Is there a more consistent entry on a man’s Christmas list than cologne? I realized that when I handed my list over to S. the weekend after Thanksgiving. There’s some point in every boy’s teenage years when parents think they require cologne each Christmas. I forget when I got my first cologne, but it was probably in the 12-13 range. I was somewhat chagrined to find a small bottle of Ralph Lauren’s Chaps cologne in my stocking that year. I was by no means a trendy kid, nor a kid who liked to attract attention to himself, so I certainly hadn’t asked for cologne. If I had, I’m sure I would have asked for what every other kid was wearing in the early 80s: Ralph Lauren’s Polo. See, it hasn’t necessarily always been choice on my part that has made me a contrarian. It was out of my hands sometimes.

Anyway, that small bottle in my stocking one year turned into an annual gift of a large bottle of Chaps from my parents. One year my dad even splurged and got me the gift set that included after shave (I was not yet shaving), soap, and deodorant. I remember busting out the deodorant early in 8th grade when I ran out of my regular Speed Stick. Shortly after lunch that day, my underarms broke out in a horrible rash caused by the fragrance in the deodorant. Damn that Ralph! As I said, I wasn’t trendy, so I accepted the annual gift without much fanfare. I didn’t know what else I should ask for, and every once in awhile some confused girl would tell me that I smelled nice, so why mess with an sure thing? At some point, Ralph got a little nutty and came out with a second Chaps fragrance that came in a green bottle. Perhaps in an effort to shake me from the fragrance rut I was in, someone got me a bottle of the alternate version one year. It didn’t go over well. I had a good thing going. I was comfortable with everything about Chaps, from its barely noticeable odor to it’s generic brown bottle. Now someone was trying to mess things up for me. I think I used this new flavor five times at most before the bottle was pushed to the back of the bathroom cabinet, not to be removed and thrown away for roughly ten years.

I went off to college in 1989 and a whole new world of fragrance opportunities opened up to me. Loitering in other people’s dorm rooms while waiting for my turn on Nintendo meant experimenting with new and exciting scents. By November, I decided that Benetton’s Colors cologne was the only thing that stood between me and a huge number of conquests in the second semester. I got the cologne but can’t honestly inform you I had much more success with the ladies in the spring than I had in the fall. Thus began a yearly cycle of me sampling other people’s colognes and requesting something new each Christmas. I’ve lost track of the different scents I’ve donned over the years, although I do know I’ve worn both Hugo and Boss by Hugo Boss, with more success than my attempts to branch out with Chaps.

While I admit I’m wearing better stuff than the insipid Chaps I rocked for most of the 80s, sadly I have fallen back into a rut. This year I asked for either of the Banana Republic colognes for men. I’ve worn and like both options. For the last three years, little else has been sprayed onto my skin. It might be boring, but it is protection. If I didn’t ask for something specific, there’s no telling what I might receive each year. You never know what some long, lost aunt or well-meaning neighbor might try to slip me. I’m only protecting myself, and everyone within smelling distance, if I make sure I get something nice to wear each year.

The question for my readers is: was there a cologne you consistently got at Christmas as a kid, whether you requested it or not?

More Randomness

November 23, 2004 / DB

ABC didn’t exactly take my advice last night, but there was a subtle shot at the haters in the MNF lead-in.
When I’m watching CBS, I see ads for The Amazing Race with the show hyped as “The Emmy Award winner for Best Reality Series”. I’ve watched the show a few times, and like the concept better than pretty much every other reality show. Still, isn’t being called the best reality series kind of like, in Anthony Michael Hall’s words, being called king of the dorks?
Why isn’t it big news anymore when people swim the English Channel? I remember when I was a kid it seemed like it always made the national news when someone crossed the Channel. I checked and 17 people have completed solo swims of the Channel this year. I haven’t heard a news story about a single one of them. I guess now that the Chunnel exists, no one thinks it’s sexy to swim from France to England anymore?
You know what makes me laugh? The ads for Hungry Man frozen dinners. Those are the ads where one guy brags about how his frozen dinner included an entire side of beef, while another guy talks about some rather dainty food he downed. The healthier eating lad is then either blown away by a gentle breeze or knocked over by a child to demonstrate the lack of substance in his meal. These make me laugh because in an age where we know more about the effects of large portions of food on our overall health, Swanson’s is basically calling anyone who doesn’t throw down 1000 calories in a meal a sissy. “Sure, these meals might give you an instant heart attack or provide enough calories to feed a small nation, but you don’t want to be a wimp do you? Come on, eat it!”
Some people across the street put up their Christmas lights and decorations two weeks ago. They flipped the lights on last weekend. I understand putting the decorations up early. People travel over Thanksgiving weekend and this time of year you can never be sure if you’ll get good weather here in the midwest. It makes sense to string the lights when you have a chance. But is it really necessary to turn them on before Thanksgiving? Can’t we celebrate one holiday before we start with the next? With all that in mind, I’ve already had two Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks this season, so perhaps I’m part of the problem too.

Bad Idea

November 18, 2004 / DB

I’m not a big fan of music remakes. If the original version of a song was relatively obscure, I can get down with a remake. But if the OG cracked the top 20, the remake generally sounds exactly like the song you enjoyed ten years ago, except with a new guitar solo or something tacked on. I think remakes of popular songs should be relegated to encore sets at concerts or B-sides of singles. Holiday songs are problematic, though. We would all go insane if there was only one version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” played repeatedly over the holidays. I have versions by The Pretenders, Coldplay, Diana Krall, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Mr. Hanky in my collection. (Even with this variety, you’re likely to go a little mental after one too many Christmas classics.) It is with these conflicting thoughts that I listened to Band Aid 20’s remake of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” today.
As I wrote last year, the original Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” is one of the few modern, pop, holiday classics. It was a song that fit the times it was recorded in, and the environment it was recorded in, perfectly. From the first note, you’re reminded of all that was good about the UK music scene back then. Despite that, it remains timeless. It was the first song of the 80s tribute binge. And it is legitimately a great song. The tune was remade in the late 80s, to little attention outside the UK, but Midge Ure and Bob Geldof decided to once again convene some of the top artists in the UK to record a new version on the 20th anniversary of the original. Members of Coldplay, Oasis, and Blur to name three bands convened last week to set the new version to tape. I couldn’t be more disappointed. Where the original captured the sounds of mid-80s British pop music, the new version is dull and generic. The original version had lively momentum that propelled the listener through the song to the triumphant closing chorus. The new version meanders along and completely loses the ending payoff. Being an issue song, the original possessed a passion that made you believe all these big stars were really down for the cause. This year’s effort doesn’t make me think these artists got together for anything more than good PR and a laugh. Arguably the biggest misstep of the new version is allowing Bono to sing the same lines he sang 20 years ago. I don’t object to him being included, since he is the biggest face in European music. However, I don’t understand how they let him sing anything but an exact reproduction of his ’84 shout to the masses, “WELL TONIGHT THANK GOD IT’S THEM, INSTEAD OF YOU!!!!” If he had cut lose again, I might be able to give it a star and a half out of five, but as recorded, this soulless, insipid version garners only half a star. Let’s hope it’s relegated to the dustbin of holiday tunes and the original version brightens your holiday season.

M’s First Holiday

November 1, 2004 / DB

Baby’s first Halloween was a bit of a bust. Saturday night, we went to a kid-friendly party in full costume. M. never got her late afternoon/early evening nap in, and thus decided to cry for most of the two hours we were at the party. When she really got cranked up, we decided to flee rather than be the people with the kid that ruined the event for everyone. Naturally, as soon as we were out of the driveway and headed home, M. started smiling and laughing at S. Because of our abbreviated stay, there are fewer pics that we had hoped of all of us in costume. We’re going to take some more photos this week and I’ll add those into the album, but for now what pics we did take are available at the usual location. I’m pretty bummed we don’t have more pics of M. in her Little Stinker costume or of S. and I as Ariana and Craig, the Spartan Spirit cheerleaders, in action.
Sunday night, we were going to hang out at our place for a little while, greeting neighborhood kids with candy, then head to over to a gathering some friends were having. We waited for nearly an hour, but had no trick or treaters. Not a one. There was a neighborhood party in the afternoon so that must have sucked all the life out of the kids. As we were leaving our street at 6:30, we saw the first batch of kids heading towards our cul-de-sac. Sorry kids! We threw M. in her costume and made our way to the home of some friends who live just on the edge of the old, fancy neighborhoods and the inner city. There were literally busloads of kids from the inner city who came out to trick or treat in the more affluent neighborhoods. It was a little sad to see how many of them didn’t have costumes; they just had their jackets or sweatshirts on. Our hosts are rather well off and were giving out all kinds of candies, cookies, and bags of chips. Some of the kids would stare at them in disbelief when their bags filled up with all the goodies they were getting.
Hope all of you had safe and happy Halloweens. More to come later.

Happy Fourth

July 2, 2004 / DB

Not much going on today. We have visitors coming in this afternoon (The Belfords, of the Johnson County Belfords) so I’ve got some cleaning to do. The lawn needs to be mowed before the obligatory holiday rain hits. I’m really hoping nothing work related comes up today. It’s nice to turn three day weekends into four day weekends.

Big new baby shout outs to the B’s, who welcomed little Sam into the world yesterday. Sam got his hands on the phone and dialed our number last night. He asked for the Little Girlfriend, but I had to tell him she’s not available for another 4-5 weeks. That kid has quite the vocabulary for a newborn!

As I said, rain is in the forecast here all weekend. We were hoping to go to the Indians game tomorrow night, then sample some famous Hebert smoked meats on Sunday. We’ll see how the game thing turns out, but I know meats can be smoked in any weather.

Everyone have a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday. I’m sure I’ll have lots of new stuff to share on Tuesday.

D’s Notes

January 4, 2004 / DB

I hope you’ve all returned to the office rested and ready to face a new year. Doesn’t January completely suck? Shitty weather, none of the warmth and happiness of December, and all the stuff you avoided in December is now waiting for you with a big grin. The only bonuses are college hoops getting into full gear and Super Bowl parties. Anyway, some thoughts while watching LSU manhandle Oklahoma.

“How was French Lick?” you might ask. Very well, I would answer. We enjoyed our time there. Only downsides were extremely hard mattresses, which even after drinking until 2:00 AM, made it very difficult to sleep comfortably, and the lack of cable TV. We could get all the networks from Louisville, but we weren’t able to watch Sportscenter or any of the bowl games that were on ESPN. It was woodsy and rustic. I kept waiting for the Looney Tunes hillbillies to come running down the drive in their floppy hats, bib overalls, and bushy beards. There were some classic signs on how to operate the various heating/cooling and kitchen devices posted throughout the cabin. I tried to take a picture of one I need to check for focus, but suffice it to say in addition to speaking Kentuckian, the old lady that runs the place is quite fond of using the apostrophe to pluralize words. And yes, this is one of my biggest pet peeves so it drove me nuts. My favorite misspelling was rather than don’t, she used the interesting construction don’not. We had a lot of fun with that one. We also learned that if we were cleaning fish, we needed to put fish parts in the white buckets at the cleaning station. On our way down, I met a very nice Indiana State Trooper who gave me a warning for “excessive speed”. I was doing about 59 in a 55 coming down a hill. He was hiding in the darkness (this was around 8:30 Wednesday night) and got me at the bottom of the hill. We decided he was pulling over pretty much everyone to take a sniff for alcohol or drugs. He was quite pleasant, though.

Apparently if you lose the Big 12 championship game and still get invited to the BCS championship game, your role is to roll over and get worked. Nebraska did it two years ago, Oklahoma this year. This one is shocking, though. You figure with a loss and a month, Stoops would have the Sooners raring to go. I’m amazed at how good LSU is. That said, I’m all for USC winning the AP national championship. Let’s split the title this year, and every year there’s that option, until we get a playoff. Every argument against the playoff is stupid. The “sanctity of the bowl system” is already completely screwed, so that one is idiotic. You can easily play even a three week, extended playoff during the period when almost all BCS schools are in winter break, avoiding academic conflicts. I would prefer a three game playoff. Take #1 vs. #4, and #2 vs. #3, and then have winners play winners. I know, then maybe #5 or #6 really deserve to be involved. But teams at that level generally have multiple losses, or a significant difference in strength of schedule, so the controversy is less resonant as the ruckus this year or in 2002.

Loser of the week: Ell Roberson. Dude, what are you thinking putting yourself in that position two nights before the biggest game in the history of your program? I didn’t watch all of the Fiesta Bowl, but when I did switch over for good, it was obvious the entire K-State team started the game in a daze. They were making Ohio State look like an offensive juggernaut. Even when they righted the ship and charged back into the game, Roberson was never himself. He may very well be cleared of any wrongdoing. But he proved that he’s not a leader. And I was shocked, shocked I say, that the K-State administration were able to determine so quickly that no crime took place. I don’t know what the right answer in that situation is. But flatly stating that no crime took place before the local law enforcement has made a determination seems a bit hasty.

Runners up: ESPN and Pete Rose.

ESPN: Thanks for allowing a three hour TV block for a bowl game and scheduling a basketball game immediately afterwards. Between extended commercial breaks and long halftime, bowl games run closer to four hours. I was lucky enough to see the final 5:25 of the first half of the KU-Villanova game following the Peach Bowl. Put the game on the Deuce, for crying out loud.

Pete Rose. My opinion on his whole mess has always been: there was overwhelming evidence that he bet on baseball, and probably on games involving the team he managed. Enough evidence that he accepted a life time ban rather than have the details drug out in public. When Bart Giamatti dies, suddenly poor old Pete was tricked into an agreement he didn’t understand. He never bet on baseball! There was no evidence! Horseshit. I think Pete belongs in the Hall of Fame, but his plaque should say along with collecting the most hits ever, that he bet on baseball and was banned from the game. He should never be allowed to take a formal role in any baseball game. He can go to all the games he wants. He can throw out first pitches, wave to the crowd, and accept awards. But he should never, ever be allowed to coach, manage, or assist in running an organization.
Now suddenly he’s prepared to admit he bet on baseball so he can get his sorry ass back in the good graces of the game. I think he’s more hungry for the continued attention. He wants his book to sell. He wants to gain sympathy. He needs the validation of being a Hall of Famer, along with the no doubt tearful induction speech. Fine, put the sorry, bitter old man in the Hall. But don’t ever let him back in the game completely.

Crap, OU has cut it to seven, meaning I may have to rewrite some of this tomorrow.

Goodbye 2003, Hello 2004

December 31, 2003 / DB

We’re off to scenic French Lick, IN in a couple hours. No, we’re not camping out in Larry Bird’s front yard. We’re sharing a cabin with two other couples for the next two days. I had no idea, but apparently French Lick is kind of resorty. More in a Hot Springs way than a Branson way, but Larry is trying to build a casino there so there’s always hope that we won’t have to drive nine hours to see Andy Williams in the near future. I guess it’s fairly cool down there, though. Every time I tell someone that’s where we’re spending the holiday, they act like it’s a good thing. Or maybe that’s just Hoosier sarcasm and I don’t get it yet.

2003 was certainly an eventful year. I got married (twice for good measure). Was in two other weddings. Bought a house. Moved. Traveled to New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, and California for work. Went to South Carolina and the Caribbean for pleasure. Loved Roy Williams. Cursed Roy Williams. Bought a new Final Four shirt. Bought a Tangerine Bowl shirt. Enjoyed the best Royals season in over a decade. Read a lot of books, listened to a lot of music. Even with some work-related headaches, and other annoyances along the way, it was certainly the best year of my life. I must be doing something right if I can say that when the last five years have been pretty damn good too. Hopefully 2004 is full of excitement, happiness, and good health too.

I’ll not be posting until Monday, probably. (I just realized last night I have to put together some kind of Big 8+4 basketball preview by Monday. I thought the season didn’t open until next Saturday.) I hope all of you have happy and safe New Years celebrations (especially those of you in New York and Las Vegas). And may your 2004s be full of all that you hope and dream for.