i was close...

Well, my pre-season prediction for the Huskers was that we'd go 9-3 or 10-2, but I was an optimist and said 10-2...9-3 ain't too shabby...I'd rather we had 9 impressive wins instead of impressive wins over crappy teams and ugly wins over better teams, but the offense really isn't that good this year...

How crazy would it be if we could upset Texas, though? The TV people say we've got a shot with our defense being so good this year...I agree that they'll keep us in the game...if the defense can score and we can score on special teams and the offense can do anything against UT's defense (not holding my breath on that one)...who knows...I'm recording the game on the DVR just in case it's the greatest football game of all time...but almost every time I record a game it ends up badly...here's hoping :)

I'm gonna be a daddy!

Okay, so for most of you, that's not exactly news...but still...holy crap, I'm gonna be a daddy! I've known this bit of information for about 4 months now and I still don't know that I can wrap my brain around it...those of you with children can relate, I'm sure. People tell me I'll be a good dad, a fun dad...I certainly hope that's true...there's so many things I hope for our child...I hope he/she is better at school than I was...I hope he/she is more outgoing than Joyful or me...I hope he/she knows and loves God...I hope I don't screw it all up. I hear the whole thing is a lot fun and really frustrating. I'm so glad that we've got a great church family at Heartlands that we can lean on...I'm sure we'll be leaning on the Moores a LOT. It's so neat all the little milestones we've had so far...Joyful got to see our baby moving around on her last ultrasound (I didn't get to see it because we didn't know they were going to do an ultrasound at that appointment)...before too long I guess she'll be able to feel the baby moving around...I bet that'll be really neat and weird at the same time. Here in a week and a half or so we'll find out (hopefully) if it's a boy or girl...that'll be nice to know.

So far people have been really good for keeping their advice to themselves...I hope that continues. We'll gladly accept help...and stuff...turns out you need stuff...but for the most part we could live without everyone's advice.

Crazy stuff...I'm gonna be a daddy...

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned the big 3-2 today...not that 32 is any special age...I think Joyful and I are going to go to dinner somewhere since it's the Dine Out to Help Out night tonight...we're taking a little trip to Chicago this weekend to catch a Cubs game one more time this year...so I guess that's my present from us :) I was reminiscing about my 30th birthday...that one was sweet...got a surprise party at Teds with all our cigar buddies and then we did a surprise party for her parents' 50th anniversary at our house that weekend and since all that family was around we did a party for me that weekend, too...got a ton of presents! That was a fun one...but it'll be nice to just have a nice quiet dinner with my amazing wife :) I got myself a lovely birthday cigar which I'm enjoying right now on the porch (wanted to lay in the hammock but it keeps raining...). Big parties are fun, but nice quiet nights are great too..

I can smell it...

Ahhh...football season in Lincoln, NE!! Only like 26 hours until the first game! Joyful and I are going to B-Dub to watch the game, thanks to a lovely birthday gift card from Alice (thanks so much)...we had thought about getting the PPV, but now we'll go there...it'd be more comfy cozy at home, but it's fun to watch the game around a bunch of people. We're going to do the fair in the morning/early afternoon and then get over to BW3 early so we can actually get some seats...can't wait!

39 days, 3 hours

Ahhhhh....August is nearly upon us, which means that Nebraska Football is nearly upon us! I would like to remind everyone that last year I correctly predicted our season record before the season started...I'd have to look, but I think I might have even gotten every game prediction right...basically, I rule.

This year will be an interesting year to watch since the defence should be noticeably better than last year, as should most positions...the real question is at QB...we don't even have a declared starter yet...presumeably it'll be Zac Lee. Hopefully he'll do well...he's been around for a while and in the Red/White game he looked good, for whatever that's worth. If he can do well, I see us having a really good year...if he can do an adequate job, I think we'll still do pretty well...

I could see us going 10-2 this year with losses against Oklahoma and either VT, Missou or Kansas. I'd love it if we "upset" VT...I think they're overrated this year (as they're the preseason pick to win the ACC), but I'd rather lose to them and do really well in the Big XII. I think we have a really good chance to win the Big XII North, but that all depends on how well the QB does...but either way, we've got a pretty favorable schedule this year and could feasibly go 9-3 or 10-2...so I'll be the optimist and say 10-2.

We're still deciding how many of the PPV games we'll get this year...we got all 3 last year, and it was a lot of fun to have people over to the house to watch football...I assume we'll definately get the game against perennial powerhouse Louisiana LaFayette since that'll be Nebraska's 300th consecutive sell out...unless we magically acquire tickets to that game.

Ahhhh, hooray for football season!

long time...

So it's been ages since I actually updated the 'ol blog, so I figured I would :) Turns out the Facebook keeps me from thinking about updating this since most of the people I know have the Facebook...but now Shane's talking about taking links off his blog if people don't update, and I'd hate for that to happen :)

So some thoughts I've had lately...

I still hate the dentist. I went today for my 6 month cleaning/check-up...still hate that place. We even go to a lovely place, my dentist is a really nice guy and generally speaking the hygenist girls are really friendly...but just walking up to the building my heart starts pounding.

I LOVE my new schedule at work...I work open doubles Mon-Wed and then Thursday night. Wednesday I'm pretty tired since when I get done I've got about 36 hours in 3 days, but it's awesome to have a 3 day weekend and still get my hours...so hooray for that. I'd still really like to just work mornings so I could feel like I have a "normal" job, but in theory I'm slowly transitioning to that. I really enjoy working at Olive Garden...they pay me well enough, appreciate me, and take good care of me...I just don't want to work nights the rest of my life.

I am thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather...last weekend Joyful and I sat in the back yard and read and just hung out outside...looks like we should be able to do that again this weekend. It's so nice and relaxing...

Our Chicago trip was awesome...it was great to get away for a long weekend and do fun stuff in a great city. We went to 2 Cubs games and went to Second City (hilarious!!!) and walked around to see the sights...hooray for Chicago!

Hooray Tulsa!

So Joyful and I had a wonderful time in Tulsa this past weekend. We went to the Tulsa Workshop and heard some great speakers. Our favorite was probably Patrick Mead...he had wonderful messages and was really funny, too. It was also great to see Alice and (briefly) Shane. Shane and Terry did a wonderful job putting on the workshop. Were there things I've liked better previous years? Sure, but this year was great, too and I heard the things that I needed to hear. Like someone said at Saturday night worship time...there weren't many people there due to the massive snow storm, but the people that needed to be there were there. I know Shane checks this thing from time to time, so thanks for a great workshop and for letting Joyful and I stay at your house...not that you had much choice...we are family, after all :) And if by some chance Terry Rush should find his way to this, a big thanks to him, too. I was a little sad that we didn't go to first service at Memorial because we made it a whole Workshop Weekend without hearing Terry give a lesson...but he did stop by and say hi when I was sitting with Alice on Friday and was as friendly as ever.

As a side note, when we were in Tulsa we went to the mall and I got a sweet new hat for when Joyful and I go to the Cubs game on May 17th...I think it's pretty cool.

glorious

So you know how sometimes you're really looking forward to the weekend so you can spend time with your wife and relax, and then the weekend comes and after what seems like no time at all, it's already Monday? This past weekend I had the total opposite of that, and it was wonderful. Joyful and I spent all weekend together...we didn't have any meetings to go to or anything specific to do, other than go to church on Sunday...we just enjoyed spending 2 days together. Somehow it seemed as though time was standing still. We sat out in the back yard for like 2 hours on Saturday because it was so gorgeous outside. On Sunday it wasn't quite as nice outside, but we still managed to get the Christmas lights taken off the bushes up front and got started packing for Tulsa this weekend.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I had the nicest weekend in recent memory this past weekend. I imagine this coming weekend will be right up there, too, with us going to Tulsa and all.

awesome

So I got this video in the e-mail today and it's awesome for those who have cats...enjoy.

Hooray for KC!

So Joyful and I had a lovely time in Kansas City. We went down on Saturday for an Outlaw Cigar event. One of the brands that we really enjoy is called Tatuaje. The guy that owns the company is Pete Johnson. Outlaw had Pete Johnson for their event. We had never been to an Outlaw event before, but heard they were fun and sure enough, it was a good time. We went down with a few of our cigar buddies from the shop here in Lincoln...we were able to get a box of really limited edition cigars we got back in November signed by Pete and get our picture taken with him. We got there right when the thing opened so we got to talk with Pete for a little bit and learn about his plans for his next limited edition cigar...he was a very friendly guy and seemed down to earth for a person in his position. Here's a couple pictures for those who might be interested :) I found it kinda funny (though understandable) how incredibly aware of his image Pete seemed. You could tell he very specifically picked out everything he was wearing to achieve the look he was going for.

Pete signing our box of Tatuaje Franks, it says:

"To Todd, Thanks Bro - Pete Johnson"

Me and Joyful with Pete after he signed the box

Our group of friends with Pete

Finally All Better

So I think I'm finally over whatever nasty virus or whatever I had...this week hasn't been a whole lot of fun, but today I feel normal again...I'm being brave enough to drink some coffee and it's so good.

I'm glad I'm feeling better because I didn't want to miss out on all the Super Bowl munchies on Sunday...I'm looking forward to that. It'll be fun to hang out with friends and family to watch the game on Sunday...I just wish we got NBC in glorious HD...stupid Dish Network, we get ABC and CBS in HD, but not NBC or FOX...I'm still tempted to run out on Saturday and get a powered antenna so we can pick it up over the air; our little rabbit ears inside can't get it.

I believe I'm going to root for the Cardinals in the Super Bowl...I'm guessing the Steelers will win, and I'm always a sucker for the underdog...I just hope it's a good, close game.

So we settled on the name of Adora for the new kitty. She's doing really well. I brought her in to work with me this morning to get the stitches taken out of her leg from the injury she had when they found her. Cosette and Adora are getting along really well considering she's only been here for a week or so. They both sit on my lap together!

Our New Fluffy Friend

For those who don't know...we got a cute little kitty recently. I got it from my morning job at the vet...someone had found it out at Wilderness Park and brought it in. It had an injury on one of its front legs and the tendons and nerves were jacked up, that leg won't ever work. It's really friendly and super cute, so I couldn't resist bringing it home...but now we can't seem to figure out a name for it. We e-mailed people to get suggestions and then narrowed it down to 2, and asked people to tell us their preference, but it's basically a tie, so I thought I'd put it on the blog and see what people think. Here's the names and why:

Journey - because she's been on a journey to get here
Adora - an homage to Princess Adora (SheRa), plus the cat's so ADORAble

I put a poll over on the right for people to vote for the name they like...for whatever reason, I can't get Blogger to upload a couple pictures for me, so I'll put pictures up of the cat when I can, but do vote on which name is cooler.

long time...

So turns out it's been over a month since I updated the 'ol blog! I guess I've been facebooking too much...

So it turns out that I am, in fact, a psychic...either that or I really know my Huskers...on Aug. 22nd, I predicted a 9 win season, counting a bowl win...sure enough we ended up 9-4. It was nice to see us win the games we were supposed to win...that Oklahoma game was sure ugly, but for the most part it was a very nice season to be a Husker Fan...I doubt we'll end up top 25, though. Looking at next year's schedule it's set up to be an awesome year to be a Husker fan. Check this out:

Florida Atlantic
Arkansas State
Virginia Tech
Louisiana-Lafayette
Missouri
Texas Tech
Iowa State
Baylor
Oklahoma
Kansas
K-State
Colorado

The games that you can most likely chalk up to losses are the Virginia Tech and the Oklahoma games, but past that...Missouri is going to be a shell of itself next year, ditto for Texas Tech, Iowa State is going to have a new head coach and they just stink, Baylor's getting better, so that one might be a better game than most people think it will be...Kansas is losing its qb and good receivers, K-State is a mess and so is Colorado...our schedule next year reminds me a lot of Kansas' schedule last season...they ended up with a crazy record and in a BCS bowl mostly because they had a horrible schedule...I think we should win the Big 12 North...who knows how we'd do the the Big 12 Championship game, but I think we'll be real good next year...we'll just see who ends up being our starting QB and how he does...

back home

We're back from a lovely trip to California...it was nice to see friends and family for a while and get away from chilly Nebraska...Saturday we were in Santa Cruz walking down the boardwalk right next to the beach and it was like 70 degrees, there was people in swimsuits playing beach volleyball and I was nice and warm...we flew back to Nebraska and it was snowing a little bit...so it goes...

Here's a couple pictures from the trip:

Us before we had our Christmas

Me and Joyful in front of the big Christmas tree on Pier 39 in San Fran

Me and Joyful in Yosemite

Turns out we're tree huggers :)

People heading out to surf in Santa Cruz

so close....

I'm so happy we're leaving for vacation soon...I don't know how some people go years and years without going on vacation...I couldn't do it. I've only got 2 1/2 days of work left...I'm pretty much already on vacation mode at work, though...I'm hoping I don't have to actually work hard or think too much the next couple days...I got myself basically packed today, and I got plane and rental car confirmations printed out...made reservations for dinner in San Francisco at Supper Club...love that place. If you're ever in a city that has one, I recommend going (but only if you like fairly weirdo metrosexual places to eat)...we went to the one in Amsterdam when we went there since that was the original one, and it was a lot of fun...you eat reclined on a big giant bed, and you eat what they bring you...there is no menu...but it's declicious food.

It'll be nice to see Joyful's family and friends, but mostly it's just nice to go to new places with my wife :) We tend to cram a LOT of stuff into our days when we vacation so as to make the most of our time and this one should be no different...we'll be gone about a week and we've got an 8 page itinerary printed out...I think we missed our calling...we should quit our jobs and become tour guides...turns out it's fun looking up neat places to see...it doesn't matter how podunk the town is...there's bound to be some cool thing or something with a neat story behind it.
I am sad that we'll be missing my family's Thanksgiving at Alice and Shane's, but we haven't done a holiday with Joyful's family in 7 years, so I suppose we're due...
I can't wait for Friday...hang out with Stan and Mel for Mel's birthday, go to the Nebraska Cigar Festival, head to my mom's house in Papio and fly out Saturday morning!!!

I just may be a psychic

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was predicting that the Huskers would win 9 games this season, counting a bowl game. I would just like to point out that Nebraska currently has 6 wins, with 2 games left, plus the bowl game. We play K-State and Colorado, both of which should theoretically be wins...K-State's a mess what with Ron Prince "resigning" and Colorado is Colorado...plus, yesterday the coaches handed out the Blackshirts:



So one would think that the defense would be especially motivated the last 3 games of the season...9-4 would be a pretty sweet deal after the last couple years here in Lincoln...

ahhhh, fall...

I do believe that fall is my favorite of the seasons...fall and spring are my top 2 with fall just winning out. It's so nice that it's not hot anymore, but it's not super crazy cold yet (well, we did have those few days of pretty cold the other day)...the leaves changing colors...it's so nice to see the changing of the seasons and see God's hand at work in nature.

I got started putting the Christmas lights on the house yesterday...I need to finish up today. It makes me sound super motivated, but it's supposed to get to 70 again, and who knows how much longer the nice weather will hold out. It's not like I want to be walking around the roof when it's freezing outside. All I have left to do is 2 more strands of lights and run the extension cords so I'm done on the roof...We're really looking forward to decorating for Christmas this year...we look forward to it every year, but this year we're hosting my family's Christmas. We went a little nuts last year with the post-Christmas clearances and it's going to look like Christmas exploded in our house...should be fun.

The Marathon Wobbles

So we just got back from Kansas City where I did the KC Marathon yesterday. It was a nice trip. For those who care, my time was 4 hours 40 minutes and 17 seconds, which makes it a 10 min. 46 sec. mile pace. I'm pretty happy with that. I had to do more walking than I would've liked for the last 5 or 6 miles, but all in all, I thought it was good. I wished I had my music with me...but I thought I'd be a good boy and not bring it since technically speaking mp3 players and the like aren't allowed on the race course (safety reasons). Last night, if I sat down for too long, I could barely walk...it was pretty amusing. My left knee started to hurt at about mile 21 of the run, and it got real stiff that evening...we went to dinner and when I got out of the car I was practically dragging my leg behind me. Mercifully, I'm feeling pretty good today...my knee works right and my only problem is my legs are real tired, which is to be expected...I thought I'd have problems when we got out of the car when we got home just now, but other than being a little stiff, it's not too bad at all...stairs suck, though. Here's a couple pictures for your entertainment:


Me just before the race started...



Me finishing 4 hours and 40 minutes later!!


Other than the run, we wandered around The Plaza a little bit, roamed the Crown Center mall, ate way too much yummy food (had a great lunch at Gates before we headed back today...mmmmm, bbq...)This morning we went and worshipped at the Overland Park church of Christ, which was lovely. Got to see Allen French, who I hadn't seen in years, so that was nice...Jim, since you read this from time to time...Curt Sparks told me to kick you in the shins...

I'll post some more pictures once they're available online from ASI (took all the official pictures).

ps...thanks so much to the Moores for watching the house and pets for us while we were gone!

Live From New York!

Don't know if any of you fine people are Saturday Night Live watchers, or if that's past your bed time...really, we don't watch it very often because it's definately past our bedtime usually. However, the Tina Fay doing Sarah Palin stuff has been really amusing the last couple weeks. I don't know if you watched the Vice Presidential Debate last week or not...Joyful and I have made a point of watching all the debates together (next one is Tuesday night) so that we can be informed voters. I was really interested to see the VP debate mostly to see how Palin did since she hadn't done too many interviews, it seemed like she was mostly working off a script. She really didn't do too bad...though it was funny how if she didn't want to answer the question, she would very obviously change the subject...anyhow, here's the video of the SNL parody of the VP Debate...Queen Latifah did the moderator...not sure who the guy is that did Joe Biden, but he was pretty much right on, too...

Back in Lincoln

So we're back in town after spending the morning in Omaha and Bellevue. I did the Omaha Half Marathon today, and I exceeded my hopes...I got done in 2hr 3min 39sec, which is a 9:27 mile pace. Hooray for me!!!

Then we went to church at Bellevue and saw old friends...that was nice.

Off to the Moore's house for fun times and probably cake!