and then first thing you see when you get off the plane...

we had some friends in for the superbowl last weekend. they flew into tupelo, ms and so bethany and i drove up to meet them. quite a bit of the airport is under construction which didn't really bother me too much until we turned the corner to enter the building.

you don't normally see a large white tent outside a terminal so this was kind of hard to miss. i glanced at the sign on the outside of the tent but didn't really let the words register. so we proceeded inside to wait for their arrival.

and then it got to bugging me. did it really say that? could it be true? so we walked back out side and sure enough my thoughts were confirmed.

upon arriving at the tupelo airport, the first impression you'll get when you step off the plane is the large white tent that is used for baggage pickup. the plane parks just on the other side of the fence, they load up the trolley and motor some 50 feet to place your luggage on a fold-up table in a tent.

elvis has left the building.

it's a christmas miracle!

in july we moved into our house in starkville, ms. in the backyard, there is a pecan tree of large proportion. from one of the limbs, there hung a reminder of what our house used to be. see, before the people bought our house to renovate it, it was a daycare center. and from one of the trees, hung a play telephone complete with touch pad dialing.

it has hung in this tree for over three years just waiting for someone to take it down. bethany has insisted that i climb the tree and remove it. so far i have resisted the temptation.

but now, thanks to my christmas miracle, i no longer need climb that tree. for you see, as we returned from the store, i spied, laying in the yard, that phone. now truly i have gotten all i could possibly want for christmas.

how i know it's christmas time

there are many ways that people know that christmas is just around the corner. some would say it's the sound of the bell ringing for the person collecting for the red kettle outside of walmart. others might say the sound of christmas carols on the radio. or perhaps the decorations that show up at lowe's in october.

for me, it's something completely different. i know that the christmas season has truly arrived when i clean out cleo's litter pan and i find tinsel from our christmas tree. it just wouldn't be christmas without cleo tasting things on the tree and seeing what she likes and doesn't like.

merry christmas everyone.

just a quickie

i must admit i was happy about the outcome of the elections this past week. i thought that all of the grumbling and complaining would fizzle to complacency when it actually came time to cast the ballot and people would choose to keep the status quo. to my surprise they actually spoke with their votes and changed the course for this country for at least the next two years. let's hope its for the better.

on a side note, i was standing in line waiting to vote in the overly long A-L line when a lady walked up to the M-Z line which had no one in it. the lady working the poll asked for her name which the lady provided. the worker looked up the name and made sure it was in the register and then handed the voter her access card for the voting machine. she never asked for any kind of identification at all. how weird is that? none of the races here were hotly contested but is it really that simple to commit voter fraud? just have to know someones name and get there before they do and vote for them. hopefully something will change before the next election to tighten up this process.

whirlwind

wow, i've done a bit of driving this week. i think i would like to share with you a couple of the things that stand out most. let's call it, the week in review.

let's start with monday. i had dinner with my parents in dillard, ga at a place called the cupboard cafe. i can highly recommend it if you are passing through the area and get a bit peckish. while dining, i made the comment to my parents that i could make the drive to blacksburg, va with my eyes closed. famous last words. while singing along to the boss, i completely spaced out and went the wrong way. needless to say, i won't be making that comment again.

tuesday was halloween and keeping with tradition at the office some people dressed up. i was not one of those people. i usually dress up but for some reason it just slipped my mind. however, it didn't slip vicky's. i was sitting in the cubby hole and she pops in wearing a shirt that is a optical illusion, shorts and sandals. at this point, i wasn't really sure what she was other than comfortable. then she showed me her toenails which she had painted blue and gold, the same color i painted my toenails for the virginia tech/georgia tech game last year. she came as me! i was so jealous. i could have worn shorts to work as well! but that costume runs a distant second to my all time favorite of hers; the whack-a-mole machine.

wednesday we went to troy's for lunch. enough said.

thursday was the beginning of our user conference. this is the second year that we have done one of the these. last year it was well received and it was no different this year. we took a tour of the metalsa-roanoke plant where they manufacture rails for big rigs. we walked through the plant and there were probably no more than 10 people watching the line. it is completely automated and one of the coolest plants i have ever seen.

friday after the user conference we went to the homeplace. it is a family style restaurant and one of the best places at making you miserable for eating too much. z.j. and christy were a bit later getting there and told the guy that seats people they were with the big group. so he took them to a table with about 20 folks eating. uh, wrong group. they did eventually make it to our table.

later that night i went to the cellar in blacksburg with some friends. while i'm sitting at a table i look up to the bar and this guy is waving at me. as i'm trying to place him (i have difficulty recognizing people out of context) another head turns around and its none other than tracy moran and immediately i place curtis. turns out, curtis works at metalsa-roanoke and was sitting in an office when our group walked by and he thought that he saw me. he asked who that was that walked by and his suspicions were confirmed when the fella answered "CCS".

and that brings us to saturday. i drove to gainesville to see my grandparents and nephews. always good to see the family. on my way around atlanta, i was searching through the radio stations trying to find the nc state/georgia tech game on the radio when i came across a station playing christmas carols! it's november 4th and they are playing carols already! well, i managed to get over that and made it home safely to find bethany and arty laying on the couch waiting for me.

it was a good trip but it is nice to be home.

is anyone paying attention?

i'm actually watching a playoff game. this might be the first baseball game i've watched all year. i'm not sure why i've been completely uninterested in baseball but it might be the fact that they are using more performance enhancing drugs than the WWE.

speaking of drugs, what were the players in the miami(fl) - florida international rumble on? it started with a fi player body slamming the placeholder for an extra point attempt and ended with a miami player swinging a helmet. i think somewhere in between a crutch was used and it soon looked like the fight from the movie anchorman.

we have great seats at the mississippi state football games. we sit on the 48 yard line 9 rows up from the field behind the visitors sideline. one of the things that i've noticed is how much equipment all the football teams bring to the games. and then on saturday we played jacksonville state, a I-AA school. what did they have on the sideline you ask? 4 coolers of powerade.

but they brought their band. if you are ever in the neighborhood of jacksonville, al on game day i highly recommend getting a ticket and enjoying the show. hit'em with a little flight of the bumble bee!

tis the season

no, not that season. though i was at lowes the other day and noticed that they have already put out christmas stuff. it's early september and it's still in the 90's here. can we get through halloween before we have to start worrying about christmas?

i'm talking about football season. we're only a couple weeks in and so far i seen the following games:

saints vs colts (nfl preseason)
sc vs ms state (first thursday game on espn)
notre dame vs georgia tech (oh, they should have won that one)
auburn vs ms state (ugly)
tulane vs ms state (almost one of the best comebacks ever)

and my falcons have started the season 2-0 and face the longtime rival saints this coming monday in the first game back in the superdome since katrina.

for a long time the saints and falcons were so terrible that the only good game you would see the other play would be when they played each other.

things have changed a lot since then and both teams are pretty exciting so i'm looking forward to it.

oh, and if you are wondering about my next game, come at visit me in blacksburg when georgia tech comes a calling.