Dichotomy...

Despite losing to the "University" of Georiga on Saturday and having to restrain Emily from starting a bar brawl at the Vortex post-game misery party, I had a good Thanksgiving. Dinner at the club was better than I was expecting, though my expectations were admittedly very low after the horror stories I'd gotten from Emily and Kenneth. The time off was nice, though always too short. It was fun to hang out with Brian and Tim again and to finally meet Margaret. Not too much else to report. Got a lot of work to do before I leave for the great freezing cold north on Wednesday.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

ESPN and AJC are both reporting that Chan Gailey is out at Tech. There's a GT press conference scheduled for 2 pm, and I can only assume that the official announcement will be made at the time. Despite the crummy season, I said before that I would give Gailey another year and I stand by that statement. However, if the rumors are true, the next order of business is finding a replacement to get some stability and get the recruiting back on track. With the understanding that GT is a run-first team and, as much as I like the idea of briging Ted Roof back on board (look what he's been able to do with Thad Lewis at Duke), it's just not realistic to install that kind of offense at GT. We'll have an inexperienced O-line next year, and yes, we'll have Taylor, but Tashard is gone, and we'll be relaying on a stable of talented running backs instead. We need a coach who can install an offense to take advantage of the strengths that we have available and rescruit the kind of players that we've been fortunate enough to have come through Tech recently. Also, I want a college coach. Gailey seemed like a great hire with his Cowboys experience, but no way in hell do I want a conservative NFL coach on the sidelines anymore. That said, I support the following options (however unfeasible they might be):
Paul Johnson (Navy's current HC) - I think a triple option would be a great choice with Nesbit at QB. He won't have to throw much, and the rare occasions he does throw, we've still got some good targets. Johnson has proven he can recruit and win at a very very tough academic standards.
Ted Roof (Duke's reportedly-former HC) - Would like to get him back on staff, but not as HC. Maybe as assitant to Jon Tenuta.
Jon Tenuta (GT's current DC) - He seems reluctant to take a HC position or I think he woudl have bolted for another school already. I like to promote from within, but I don't want the defense (the only thing we do reasonably well) to suffer as a result. This option only makes sense if we bring in Roof as DC and move Tenuta to HC.
Randy Edsall (UConn's current HC) - successfully brought a program into I-A and respects defense.
I've got a few more ideas rolling around that I need to investigate before I decide whether they make any sense or not.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments

Busy busy busy. I started working out last week. It was unpleasant. But the good news is that my labwork came back and there's nothing seriously wrong with me. Even my cholesterol is well within the normal range. Yay! Bring on the bacon-wrapped steaks!
We're getting a new timecard system at work and a new expense reporting system to go along with it. They didn't roll out at the same time, but you have to know the new charge number formats to use the expense reporting system. Guess which one came out first? Yeah, the timecard app doesn't launch until 12/8. Doing my expense report for my trip to Groton was hella fun. Good news though - at least I'll know how to do it when I get back from my trip to Portsmouth next week. Even more good news - they're expecting snow flurries and highs in the low 30s while I'm there. Goodie goodie gumdrops... I'm not ready for winter yet.
Emily and I are headed down to Savannah for Thanksgiving and then across the state to Atlanta for some good old-fashioned hate. I'm not really that enthusiastic about our chances to win the game. UGA doesn't turn the ball over, and after starting the season strong in that department, we've gotten sloppy. Our defense still puts up great numbers, but, like last year, if the scoreboard starts to light up, we're in trouble. We aren't a strong offensive team and against UGA, we'd better home to keep their scoring in the teens if we want to have any chance of a W. In related news, we stomped their alumni in flag football for our 7th consecutive win. Only two 8-0 teams have a longer win streak than us and we lost to one of them. We're still only ranked 11th in the coaches poll, but I expect to move up. You'll note that I'm not talking about our varsity team's performance against UNC. Could that be because it was less of a performance and more of a train wreck? UNC should have won that game by 20 points. Sorry Tar Heels.
We have a new addition to the family. Emily brought home a hamster from a friend who didn't have the time for him. His name was Chewbacca, but Emily's decided to call him Charleston (as in Chew) instead. I'm trying really hard but I catch myself referring to him as Chewie on occasion. Apparently we're not allowed to have anything in the house named after Star Wars characters unless they're both puns and Mr. Potato Heads. We got a new cage for Zoey and Sonja who moved in last weekend. It took some time to work all the kinks out of it to the point where it's finally relatively quiet. They seem to be enjoying it so far. Daphne moved into their old cage last night and seems rather intimidated by the doubling of space. I'm sure she'll get used to it in no time though.
We bought wedding bands yesterday. It didn't take us that long to find something we both liked. I like my ring a lot and I'm genuinely excited to start wearing it around in a couple months. One more thing to cross off the list. We also made our reservations for our honeymoon in Malta last week. we're taking a delayed vacation in May rather than right after the wedding. The weather should be a little nicer and more things should be going on then too as we're arriving right at the beginning of their primary tourist season. We still need plane tickets, and those won't be cheap, but whatever, we're only getting married once, right? I haven't been this excited about wedding stuff in months! There's still a ton to do, but the list is slowly dwindling and I think it will all come together before the big day.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

Last week I had to go to Groton unexpectedly and on fairly short notice. Late Wednesday afternoon I found out I had to go and was on a plane Thursday morning. Whee! Weather up there wasn't bad for this time of year either. Maybe a couple degrees colder than here in DC. I had minimal problems getting on base this time and fixed the problem within an hour. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a flight home until Saturday morning. So Friday I hung around the sub and did some additional crew training and some more troubleshooting and investigation into the cause of the problem. Still not sure how it got the way it was when I arrived, but given the people working on it before me, I have no faith in their abilities to not totally screw something up. Since its off-season in New England, I was able to stay at the posh Hyatt in Mystic instead of the adequate Groton Motor Inn. That also meant Mysic Pizza was just up the street. Although, you can't get single slices and the smallest pizza available was too much for me to eat in one sitting (or for breakfast at 6:30 am the next day), so I skipped actually eating there and opted for a great cajun place a block or two up called the Voodoo Grille. The trip was otherwise uneventful. I still don't think my presence should have been necessary. But it's always nice to know that my arrival signals a vote of no confidence in a Ph.D.
My sleep schedule was all sorts of messed up on Saturday. I got home at 1 pm and took a nap during the lackluster early-day football games. GT beat Duke by a decent margin, but I understand we gifted then a whole bunch of points, so it should have been much more one-sided. I really hope we can get past UNC to reach .500 in conference, guarantee a winning season (albeit another Gailey 7-5 signature effort), and get some momentum before Georgia shows up on our doorstep.
Sunday our flag football game wasn't until 2 pm, so it was reasonably warm and we had a huge turnout. I like when we have a lot of people, but at the same time, it means I don't get to play as much. Most of the season I've been subbing with one other person, but we had 4 rushers on Sunday, so I only played 2 series, though I did pick up a TFL near the end of the game to help clinch a victory. Iowa walked all over us the first half, but then either they fell apart or we finally woke up. It was all GTDC in the second half as we picked up a 13-12 win. I'm a little dissapointed we gave up 12 points as that matches the cumulative number of points we've allowed since mid-September (also the last time we allowed an point-after converstion). Iowa is the best team we've played since the opener, so I'm glad we beat them. I think we're in great shape for post season as we face an awful UGA team next week and a good UVA team two weeks after that before we close against a medicore Emory team as a rain-delay makeup game. Tim has said he's not going to coach again next year unless we win the championship, so we're trying hard to make that happen.
Now I'm back at work. It feels weird having been out of the office since last Wednesday. I took yesterday off to compensate for having to travel on Saturday, and also for Veteran's Day (how is it I'm always near submarines in mid-November?), and to help Emily make taste-test 3 batches of cupcakes. Plus, thanks to Thanksgiving, I don't have to work another Friday until December. 1 Friday out of 5 this month ain't bad, and that one was backed up with cajun cooking and a swanky hotel (my room had a 42" HD tv and a huge L-shaped couch, a mini-fridge and a wet-bar).
I worked out late yesterday afternoon for the first time in probably 8-9 months. I have to admit that it didn't feel all that great. It's going to take about 2 weeks to convince my body I'm doing this on purpose. Stupid doctor's orders... Speaking of which, I need to get going soon so I can go home and work out before dinner.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

Pure genius!

Posted by Rev. Adam at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments

Any lingering hope of GT defending their Coastal Division championship went down in flames last Thursday at VT mopped the floor with us. It was a depressing game to watch. As I said before, before, with a new AD and a new QB, I'll Gailey one more year. But one more stumble down the strech to Duke or UNC will likely cost him his job this year. Unless we pull off a string of very convicing wins against the NC teams and stomp all over a ranked UGA team to close the season, we're likely headed for Boise, which I'm okay with since we haven't played like we deserve a top tier bowl game this year. Gailey losing to UGA again won't cost him his job since it's nothing new. I just hope we start to play a little less predictably and conservatively at some point. I also decided that with the number of penalties and turnovers we commit inside the 35 that we should just kick a field goal anytime we get into field goal range, regardless of the down. Taylor finds Greg Smith at the 40 and he rumbles up to the 32 for a first down? Bring on Travis Bell. This plan is foolproof.
In better football news, our flag football team is 5-1 and beat what used to be a very good William and Mary team. They buried us last year and we shut them out 21-0 this year despite not having much going in terms of our recent offensive potency. That's our third shutout, and we've held two other teams to a single score. The only team we've lost to is undefeated NC State, who's really a pretty good team, so I'm excited about how our team is doing.
Saturday after the game Emily and I went on a shopping spree and picked up the new Simpsons game which is pretty entertaining so far and Guitar Hero III, which Emily has been playing almost as much as I have. There's also a DDR in the house now which is not mine. ;) We got some things for Ben's birthday and had a little celebration on Sunday with a good dinner and yummy cake.
I had a physical yesterday and everything basically checked out okay (pending some blood work results). My doctor is concerned about my blood pressure so I'm under orders to start exercising more often. *sigh* Not that I mind doing it, it's just finding the time and then getting into a routine. Once I get going again it should be fine. He also put me back on a PPI since I'm still not 100% better yet from my emergency room adventure. Otherwise I'm perfectly healthy. So I guess playing flag football once a week for 4 months isn't enough exercise. Who knew?

Posted by Rev. Adam at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments