Sly Croom was introduced as the new Head Coach for Mississippi State University this afternoon. I must admit that he wasn’t my first choice, but I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve heard about him and impressed with Croom himself after viewing the press conference. I was (and still am a touch) concerned about his being out of college coaching for the past 17 years. But I think he’ll be able to jump back into it fairly easily. I think lots depends on the staff that he assembles.

These next two months are critical as far as recruiting goes. I’m very interested to see how it all turns out.

LSU is getting a raw deal, Steve. I’m not going to jump on any Tiger Bandwagon. But I have been hoping for LSU success for the past few weeks. I really wish you guys would get a shot at the Big Game, but it just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

I watched the game last night.

Last weekend I was thinking UMiss would beat us by 50+. But then my faulty optimism gland released too much of it into my system again and I began to believe it wouldn’t be so bad. I expected UMiss to win, but I actually thought we might have a chance. MSU could play the spoiler and pull it off. Stupid optimism. Maybe I’ll learn one day. But at least it wasn’t 50+. It was only 31-0.

But now Sherrill is gone, and we’ll supposedly name a new coach in the next week. Some thought it was already going to be done. But my excitement over that is done for. I think just about anybody named will be both lauded and criticized. No matter who it is, this much is true. He has a heck of a job on his hands. The last two years Miss State has only won three games. That was worse than pitiful. But this year, this was the year we brought it out of the pits of despair. But alas, we only win two games. TWO FREAKING GAMES.!! Sheesh.

At least we still have basketball and baseball.

The other day I was home for lunch. I had finished eating and while my wife was cleaning the dishes in the kitchen, I was checking on some important things on the computer…probably managing our banking account or checking some stock investments…or checking the latest rumors on who MSU’s new coach will be (c’mon, Steve! sign it. sign it!). My daughter had walked outside and could hear her calling for us. My wife was in the kitchen, but the door was open to the side porch where my daughter was, and I figured she’d be able to handle whatever situation my daughter was calling us for.

Then my wife started calling for me. Not a “hurry up” tone, so I didn’t rush, but saw through the window as I made my way out there that my daughter was looking off of the porch into the flower bed down below. I got out there and realized there was a problem. She had stuck her head through the railing…and couldn’t get it back through.

My daughter was starting to consider panicing. Not there yet, but on the verge. My wife was going to wait til the little one paniced first. You know, proper order of things, but she was just one step behind.

So I jumped down into the flowerbed and my daughter’s head was level with my belly. So I tried to push her head back through. Not going to happen easily. So I twist it slightly to the side and try again. No progress there either. She starts to get a little more closer to panic when she feels the iron bars squeezing her head when I attempted to fit her back through. So then the options start going through my head. I ask her, “Did you have to push hard to get your head through?” She nods. “Did it hurt?” She nods.

So I think, She’s pretty tough. She can endure the return trip back through can’t she? I test the waters (bars) again and realize that it’s gonna hurt, and I’m baffled at how she fit through there in the first place. I can hear the edge in her voice, “Get me out. Get me out, Daddy! Daddy, get me out! Daaadeeee!” Not panicy, but a few seconds away. Do we have a hack saw handy? How quickly could we get through a bar? Would it bend away or would I need to cut it in two places? My lunch hour is almost over. This sure is happening at an inopportune time. I wonder if I slop her head with dishwashing liquid if it will just slide back on through?

All those thoughts and others were going through my head. Then I remember reading that for most people, if you can get your head all the way through something, then you can fit the rest of your body. DING! DING! DING! DING! So I say, “Hey, here we go,” and twist her slightly, turn her shoulders straight up and down, and she slides right through.

There. I’m the hero in her eyes now. Being a dad isn’t so hard…is it?

I know it seems I make empty promises. How many times have I told you that I’m going to be consistent and regular with some posts. But then I go into a “stale blog” period and most stuff disappears from my front page because I’ve not posted in nearly two weeks worth.

Well I get an email today from a guy telling me he’s putting a link to my blog in his blog’s sidebar. His blog is called The Happy Husband and looks to be interesting. I’m going to spend a little time checking it out. But here’s an except from a post of his where he comments on my blog:

StateDog is a more traditional-format blog, serving as a place for blogger Blake to write about whatever comes into his head. I don’t usually care much for sites like this as they usually seem to be directed at close friends and family members. But Blake often has something worth sharing with the world, sometimes even about marriage and family issues.

So maybe there is some hope that there are more than 4 readers out there! The holidays look to be busy, but if I’m smart (am I?) then I’d know that means more blogging material.

See you in a little while…

The weekend’s been busy so far. I guess the holiday season is upon us.

We went to some soccer games last night to see some of the kids from the youth group play. We left early enough for my wife to get to tape her new favorite television show. We (she) also did some prep work for some paiting we need to do. We got back, watched television a little, then went to bed.

I got up and went to the church to get some stuff done for tomorrow’s Lunch/Fundraiser. Then back home to paint, now watching football. LSU is beating UMiss by 3 (17-14) and I’m hoping they can hold on. That’s so bad of me, huh? Not really.

We’re about to go to a high school beauty review in a few minutes. We’ll see how that goes. I’m afraid it might run a little late. But tomorrow will be a busy day too.

A few years ago I started going to a message board on a newspaper’s website. It had mainly regional high school sports stuff. But there ended up being quite a few people on there. I followed it a little. But before long it was overrun with immature people slamming on each other and putting each other down and saying how big and bad they were. It got really tiring. And I didn’t like the board software.

And an idea was planted…

I learned of some different software packages that would be able to run online message boards. I did my research, decided on one, and took the plunge just when the high schools were about to let out for the summer. It grew slowly over the summer then increased as the school year got underway. I had “success” that first year I guess. People seemed pleased and enjoyed being able to post on high school sports w/o all the “other junk”.

This past summer was down again. But to be expected. But this football season has been incredible. I remember when I was happy to get 15 posts in a day. Last week we had over 530 in one day alone. That’s not normal, but we’re averaging close to 400 a day for the past week or two. And of course this extra traffic and activity translates in a little higher costs too. So now I have to find a way to try and break even. It’s not just a cheap little hobby anymore.

More to come later on my thoughts on ways to make a buck off of it.

I’m still alive and kicking. I think it was all this blog-spam holding me down. Not really.

Like Jeremy said, I’ve had a lot going on. So I just ask for everyone’s prayers who happens do read this (does anyone visit here anymore?) Can’t go into specifics, but just ask that I can clearly hear what God’s saying to me and my family. Many thanks.

I think I’ve got that spam thing kicked. I downloaded the MT-Blacklist Plugin that should take care of most of it. I might have to update it now and then though.

What’s been going on in my life the last two weeks during my blog silence? My home town lost in the first round of the playoffs. That was surprising. I didn’t expect to win it all this year, but figured we’d get to the 2nd or 3rd round. MSU has continued their losing ways. If we get much worse, Steve Spurrier might not come to turn us around. On the flip side, UMiss has been winning big. Hopefully that will end this weekend when the LSU Tigers go to Oxford. I’m no big LSU fan, but I’m screaming GEAUX TIGERS this weekend, no doubt. And the fact that we might be getting the LSU OC as the next Bulldog head coach makes me a little more interested in the game as well.

MissSportsTalk.com has been blowing the top out of things. Tons of traffic and posts. I remember when I was happy if I saw 10 posts in a days time. We’ve been averaging over 350 the past few days, even hit 550 one day. It’s surprising. But I think it will drop off a little once football is completed. But word of mouth has been our friend.

My fam is doing great. My daughter seems to be maturing more and more every day. Before long she’ll catch up with me! But she’s now sleeping in her twin bed instead of her baby bed (her “Big big big bed”, according to her). She has made the move quite easily. But now there’s an empty baby bed. Maybe we’ll fix that before long. No, there’s nothing in the proverbial oven. But maybe the cooks thinking about it.

My church…where do I start? Let’s just say the church as a whole needs prayer. What’s wrong? Well, let’s just say that a church is made up of people. Nuff said.

I’ve gotten a few “projects” brewing in my head right now too. Maybe I’ll go into more of those later.

Nothing really special. We skipped Halloween by going out to eat then to a high school football game. Our team won (as expected) and finished 2nd in the division (one spot lower than I expected). Then went to a 5th Quarter til Midnight. Came home and watched House Rules with my wife. It’s another reality show that’s sucked me in. Basically you have a huge home store (Lowe’s) who sponsers a contest between three couples to do renovations on some pretty nice homes. They do it room by room and are grades on their work. Of course, they go to Lowe’s to buy all their products. You have the older wiser married couple, the late 20’s/early 30’s couple who is living together, and then the young newly weds who wear Christain t-shirts but slip cuss words when they hit their fingers with a hammer. It’s interesting..check it out.

Then I got to enjoy a Saturday when MSU didn’t lose a football game…they were off this weekend. But I got to see UMiss win their 5th SEC game in a row…(*puke*). My wife took me to Celebration Villiage. A hugh crafts bazzar which wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Then after going out to eat (for the 2nd night in a row) we came back home and watched Whale Rider. Rachel told me it was awesome. The reviews at Amazon said it was awesome. It won various awards at international film festivals. And it was a movie with a good point, but to me it was slooooooooooooooooooow. Yeah, it was a drama, but a slow drama at that. But interesting, none the less.

After a day and night at the church with a lazy afternoon inbetween…I called it a night after watching tv for an hour.

So..there’s my weekend.

I must admit, I loved Halloween growing up. Not so much the candy and going house to house, but when I got older enjoyed hanging out with friends at Halloween parties and going to haunted houses (not real ones, just the fun kind) and all that. But as I got older and began to look into the history of Halloween and all that jazz, I started to wonder if I should celebrating/involved with all of it.

It was fairly easy to stand a distance away and not really make a big deal of it all. I did have to voice my opinion a time or two. But now, with a child, and everyone asking her and us, “What is she going to be for Halloween?” we’ve had to be a little more upfront. I guess some of the hesitation is that I don’t want to come across as judging someone else if they choose to (or let their kids) participate in the holiday.

But I saw this post (you may have to scroll down just a bit if his archives are not working properly) on John’s blog. He’s quoting someone else, but it makes pretty good sense.

And my wife and I are still searching for exactly what we believe/think about Halloween as well.

….I’m a Survivor Addict.

Brad told me about it back when the first one was still in pre-production. I marked my calendar, but seemed that every Wednesday night I had something going on and couldn’t watch it. So the first one I saw was post-merge and I missed out on half the fun of the season.

But the next season they moved it to Thursday nights to battle with Friends. And I’ve seen nearly every episode since then. Some are better than others. They’re not always GREAT! But they’re usually worth spending some time on.

Tonight’s episode was the first that brought back expelled survivors to compete in a challenge for the right to get back in the game. I’m not sure I like this development. But I guess CBS and Mark Burnett are having to constantly look for new was to freshen up the game.

Would I do Survivor? In a heart beat (if my family and work schedules work out …) I think it’d be a fun time.