what's the perfect christmas gift for someone with no driver's license?
(a gas card, of course)


there are really too many things on my mind to decide what i'd like to write about this afternoon. i am still processing seeing my brother again (although the exit polls are predicting good things for the relationship moving forward.). i've thought about a "year in review", but i guess most of that is somewhat chronicled in the previous 86 posts. i am still thinking about my annual music year review, but i am not quite ready to put that one up just yet. there are all sorts of year-end lists up and about, though, so if you are looking for some guidance on how to spend your best buy giftcards, good recommendations are everywhere. i'll let you see mine in the next week or so. the most intriguing and heavy thought i have currently has to do with a blog that is no longer in existence and that the reason, partially, has to do with me. you may or may not have taken the time to peruse chris perry's blog that's linked off my page. he wasn't the best at updating it (wink, wink) anyway, but it was removed from the blog-iverse christmas day due to some "concerned" members of his congregation. why were they concerned you might ask? because, among a couple other things, he had linked his blog to mine. mine, as you, dear reader, are well aware contains "inappropriate language" and his concerned members didn't think it was right for him to publicly condone or advertise such blatant disregard for the baby jesus as when a fellow christian says, "shit." in short, chris removed his blog out of respect to his "concerned" and whether he should have or not (as well as if i should cuss or not) is worth a great post and a great debate. i am not quite ready for that one yet either, but i will be soon. if you have any thoughts on the short version, i'd love to hear them....having said all that, i've decided to use today to look back on what were my resolutions for the year 2007 and see how i fared. i am a little nervous. i can't even remember half of what i said. here's hoping it wasn't because i had already failed with half of them. let's see.

1) don't get fat. this is my number one every year, and up 'til now, i've been blessed in that i really don't have to try. i've got a pretty good metabolism working for me. i work out three times a week. i play a sport (softball, basketball, and now flag football) year-round. i never eat more than twice a day. twice a year it seems i catch some sort of vomit-inducing stomach virus where i lose ten pounds in eight hours. those are the positives. the negatives? my diet sucks. way too much fast food. way too much of something called trans-fat. don't even know what the hell that is. don't want to know. i just know it's bad. sooner than later, the diet thing is going to catch up with me. i can't make fat jokes if i, too, am fat. most of my "make sarah's eyes roll material" will be lost if i can't make fat jokes. so, again, number one is don't get fat.

done. i didn't get fat, which is great. i had to give up my bench, but i've developed my own little "rocky training montage" workout that is working out, pun intended, ok. i don't feel quite as "pumped up", but i feel like i am doing fine. don't get fat? not this year, dammit.

2) don't die. let's not even wonder how this might affect the people around me. let's just focus on me. i've written about my deathdreams. best line i heard all year was from brand new. "i'm not scared of death. i'm a little bit scared of what comes after." i concur. i kind of "die" every night when i fall asleep. then i wake up, though. my mind is not at peace yet with the not waking up part. should be, but isn't. just being honest. so, right behind don't get fat is don't die.

that you are reading this is full-blown proof that i was successful with this resolution too.

3) be a better husband and father. i did ok with both of these last year. could be better. want to be better. don't let this being third on the list fool you. it's a really close third. you don't understand how much i don't want to be fat and die.

through the first eight months of the year, i feel like i did pretty good with this one. upon caroline's arrival, i backslid a little. that's not to say that i became a crappy husband and father. it's just to say that i could have been a lot more supportive in a lot of ways. the toughest part of the new baby was the simple fact that she was a baby, fully needy and hungry and crying and not able to tell me that i was doing an ok job of comforting her. i wasn't ready to go from my 4-going-on-fourteen year-old hannah to having a baby in the house again. i am getting better, though.

4) make you smile. whoever you are, if you are around me, i want to be a bright spot on your day and not a dark one.

this is probably going to be two straight misses with this one. if i can't claim to be a constant beacon of light in my own house, i have a feeling i wasn't always joe zippity-doo-dah outside of it either.

5) decide on what i am going to do to with the whole church thing. am i going to commit or not? this definitely goes back to the heart vs. brain battle from the last post.

well, i decided. and we went back. joined the "seeds" class. helped usher in a change in attitude and name (to the "weeds" class). here's hoping that whatever is ushered in next year continues to trend positive.

6) try and write more. writing makes me happy. i slacked off a little towards the end of the year. i should try harder.

let's look at the stats. 81 posts in 2006. this will make 87 for 2007 with a likely 88 on monday. technically, i win this one even if i still didn't have a chance to post as often as i felt like i had something to get off my chest.

7) buy good music. at least 25 purchases for the year. do not be "that guy" that resigns himself to the records he has in his collection already. keep buying new music. (soon to be bought: from 2006 - the format and the decemberists...2007 - the shins and fall out boy)

back to the stats. i am sitting at 19 purchases for the year, with maybe one more to go if i can get out to target or best buy by monday. i haven't stopped buying music, but my pace seems to be setting itself more realistic at between 15-20 for a year.

8) go back to an alabama football game. home schedule this year is too good not to.

did not make it to tuscaloosa, but did make it to one of bama's six wins in nashville. this counts, right?

9) keep bad-mouthing alabama basketball. you lose to arkansas by 27 points, you deserve it.

what speaks worse about the state of alabama basketball in my mind? that i bad-mouth the team, or that the team is worth so little attention that i haven't mentioned them all season. this basketball team is my laodicea, and i spit them from my mouth until further notice.

10) fool myself into thinking the braves will be back in post-season this year in order to enjoy baseball.

i did. until a woeful, hovering under .500 post all-star break broke my spirit around the first of september.

11) go back to a falcons game. bobby petrino...meet michael vick. love him. use him. he is the most wonderful toy you will ever be able to play with.

didn't go to a game and this comment is the funniest one, looking back, i made all year. i don't know if petrino ever met vick. he certainly never loved him. couldn't use him. and now they are both gone from the franchise that i had super-high hopes for at the beginning of this year. such a shame.

12) take a vacation.

check. documented it on the blog. a fun trip.

13) see lebron. and steve nash.

tv doesn't count. so, i missed on both of these.

final count? 7 for 13. not too bad. could have been a little better, though. somewhere around mid-january, i'll re-inventory and place some bets on what's to come in 2008 for me and mine. until then, that'll be all.