Total. Epic. Fail.

Ugh, I'm so disappointed in myself. I started out so strong, and then became a big fat quitter. Please forgive me faithful readers. There's just something about downloading pictures off my camera that makes me cringe. Too many cords and files with 15 numbers attached. Oh well....I've sucked up my loss to the 30 day picture challenge. Time to move on.

So, here's what's buzzing around in my brain lately. August is almost over! This brings joy to my heart for multiple reasons:

1. This summer has been miserably hot, and August is the crown jewel of summer heat. Over it.

2. I'm ready to embrace crisp fall air and cozy wardrobe. I know that technically, it won't be cool until at least October, but September means summer is officially over, and that's enough for me.

3. Only a few more weeks until football season!

4. September = birthday! :)

5. New nephew arrives in September

I've thrown myself back into reading and am currently enjoying/stressing out over

book titled Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's a cool book, but you never really know what's going on, or what's the truth. The narrator speaks like you do, but nope. You only know whatever she chooses to reveal--a little at a time. This is both annoying and intriguing....but mostly intriguing. I'm bad at describing plots, so I'll just refer you to the description on Amazon.com. I'm hesitant to recommend it at this point, since I'm not finished yet. But, as of right now, I say thumbs up, despite the mysterious tone that causes me constant anxiety as I read.

Other items on my Must List right now:

• Project Runway - I'm loving this season so far.

• Mad Men - Duh.

• Pistol and Grits (aka, our dogs) - they crack me up and their little faces make me smile.

• Baja Burger - Kent and I recently discovered this gem of a burger joint where you can not only get curly fries, but also sweet potato fries AND onion rings! And the burgers are amazing with lots of variety

• Inception - still trying to decide about the ending. I'll leave it at that for those who haven't seen it yet.

• Crossword puzzles - I wish every day were Sunday

• Alabama Crimson Tide - new season is upon us. Getting ready for lots of fun and lots of nerves. Roll Tide!

Ok, I think I've exorcised the writer's block demon for now. Have a great weekend!!

Football is almost here...

A few random thoughts before I talk sports. I know you probably came here for a long awaited return to picture posts from Dana. What can I say? I'm not sure why she's stopped doing them, but it's not for lack of encouragement.

Homewood starts back tomorrow, and luckily for me, so do I (I kept my job there - I think it's because I resisted the urge to include snarky jokes about teen angst in my newsletters). I am happy for the new year to start and to see and interact with the kids again - a good sign for working in a school long term.

Dana's newfound love of the dogs continues to grow. She helped me bathe them yesterday. We should have taken pictures of it. Both the dogs are getting too old to fight off a bath the way puppies do. Now, they just sit there now with a look like, "If you didn't feed me every night, I would attack you right now."

As far as any news from us, we've had a pretty uneventful summer. Dana's still quietly taking over her company, and I continue to quietly detest UAB while taking classes there. It was a boring summer all-in-all, but I'll still list some of our accomplishments:

-We celebrated Anniversary #2

-I went 3-0 against Dana in Monopoly.

-We killed our plants on the front walk.

-We got lost in Oak Mountain State Park in what amounted to a 4-hour hike.

-We saw Inception and disagreed on the what happened at the end.

-and I learned how to brew Moonshine in our backyard

Only one of those is made up.

As you can see in the side bar, we've been watching Arrested Development and loving it. I always knew we'd like it, but we finally started watching it and it's been worth the wait. And now I hear there's a movie coming. Also, Gob Bluth takes his place in my top 5 comedy characters of all time. He's fantastic...COME ON!!!

And now for football:

Alabama has stated Fall practice. Saban refuses to refer to the team as defending champs or in search of a repeat - anything that equates last year's team with this year's. It's a smart psychological ploy, but I can't imagine it really working. Luckily, I don't believe it will have to work. Meaning, Mark Ingram, Greg McElroy, Dont'a Hightower are guys that will be motivated regardless of the circumstances going in. We have character leadership. There are some question marks for this season for sure, but leadership -at least on offense- is not one of them. Everyone is talking about the secondary being a possible problem. It might be, but I'm much more concerned about our quality opponents that come off a bye week before they play us. There's six. SIX. Only two SEC teams play Alabama without a bye week beforehand. It's too much to expect another undefeated season if that is the case. In fact, if I were betting on Bama either losing no games or two, I'd bet on two.

List of teams that play Bama coming off a bye week:

Auburn (of course)*, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St, South Carolina, and Tennessee

*not to be all narcissistic, but Auburn's entire self-image is wrapped up in what Alabama does. So, it is not surprising that although it would be helpful towards having a more successful season to schedule the bye week somewhere in the middle of the season to get healthy, regroup, etc., Auburn schedules theirs after 11 consecutive weeks of football. On the bright side, when you beat them anyway, it is extra sweet.

Who I know we'll beat:

San Jose State, Penn State, Duke, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Miss St, Georgia State, Auburn

Who we should beat, but I'm not 100% sure on yet:

LSU, Florida

Who scares me:

Arkansas, South Carolina

Obviously, LSU and Florida should be better than Arkansas and S.C., but our players know that too and will be sufficiently up for those games. Arkansas has a good offense, they're at home, and our defense will not be completely gelled yet. The South Carolina game scares me just because it is a tough place to play anyway and I never take Steve Spurrier lightly...even when he's been an average coach for 7 years.

So here are my top 5 predictions for this year in the SEC:

1) Auburn will start 6-0. Their schedule is set up for this, and it is also set up for a fade down the stretch. I think their new offensive backfield is going to be good. But as they saw last year, leads are never safe with them because their defense was soft. If their defense is good, AU wins 9 games. If not, they will fall flat after that 6-0 stretch just like they did last year. And by the way, I wouldn't mind it being just 5-0 with Kentucky winning at home against these guys. But I just don't see it happening.

2) Tennessee, by contrast will start 2-5. Their schedule is difficult, they have no depth, their coach is new (although he is likable). I keep trying to hate Derek Dooley, and it's not working. My dad pointed out that I haven't seen him on the UT sideline in orange yet, and that is the key to disliking anyone. Good point. My hope is that the UT fans lose patience with him before he turns them around. I wish they still had Lane Kiffin...life made more sense.

3) The SEC East will be represented in Atlanta by Georgia**. This is my boldest prediction by far. I just think that Florida will lose two games they shouldn't, and if UGA is one of them, I'll look pretty smart for this one. It's also bold in that I'm trusting a freshman QB and an unproven defense against a pretty tough schedule. I just think that something's going to be different in the SEC East this year.

**subject to change if Mark Richt allows another ridiculous uniform change for a big game.

4) Les Miles will be out of the SEC this time next year. I think he's going to fall flat this year. He's lost the fans which will lead to losing the players the first sign of adversity. His QB is a Jekyll/Hyde type. And he's certifiably insane. And if he somehow has a great season, he'll use that as his ticket to take over for the fledgling Rich Rodriguez at Michigan.

The room was actually empty, but Les kept taking questions anyway.

5) Alabama will win the SEC West and then the overall championship. Regardless of the way I feel about their chances to go undefeated, I do think that they'll win the important games. I don't want to make any prediction on who is going to be in the National Championship game, but if it doesn't include an SEC team, then the 2010 winner will be viewed as a paper champ.

I'm so happy it's almost here. Roll Tide!

LeTop Five

We regrettably interrupt these picture posts to bring you my quick thoughts on the LeBron debacle...The LeBacle.

Top Five parties that looked the worst because of this decision:

5) Cleveland fans: Am I being obtuse to think that it is NEVER ok to riot and set things on fire? At least not with regard to sports? I understand it was a terrible night and that your sports heart was ripped out and then spiked like a football. But I think that most of those fans were just looking for an excuse to act like idiots. And this seems to happen all the time, when your team wins, when your team loses, when a coach takes another job, everything seems to become a reason to riot and act like an idiot. I'm not saying that there aren't members of my fanbases that wouldn't do the same thing, but I'm talking more about society than this fanbase vs. that one.

Specifically to Cleveland fans, he didn't owe you anything except to do this with a little understanding. He failed. I'm sorry. But let's not forget that you booed him in Game 5 against Boston, burned his jersey within moments of the decision, and said "good riddance" moments after saying "I hope he stays." There is not a more conditional love than the kind in sports.

4) ESPN: There is another top 5 (really Top 500) here. The list of crimes that ESPN has perpetrated in the last ten years is staggering, but last night was a clear case of "Well there's nowhere else for the fans to turn, we might as well grab the ratings because someone else will." All I really wanted was for someone on the show to admit at some point that this was a terrible show and a terrible idea. I also wouldn't have minded a decent freaking question at some point. How bout, "LeBron, do you regret doing this in this way? Would you like to thank the Cleveland fans? If you 'changed your mind again this morning,' who were the two teams you were alternating between?" Anything. My theory is that ESPN used Stuart Scott (Jim Gray was handpicked by James) because they knew that everyone can't stand him anyway, and they didn't want one of their likeable reporters linked to this mess.

Also, if I'm a reporter at ESPN and I have knowledge of where LeBron is going the morning of the decision that will air on my station that evening, aren't they telling me NOT to report it? And isn't that the antithesis of a reporter's job? But, at the end of the day, they knew we would tune in, so...

3)Anyone who watched (including me): whenever you want your team to fire the coach, the best way to get the message is to stop buying tickets to the games. ESPN, on some level, knew it was an obscene idea to do this. But they said, "Whatever, people are going to watch." I would bet more than half the people who watched "The Decision" felt the same way about it that you do when you eat a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. "I know this is terrible for me. I know I'm going to feel like crap when this is over. But I have to do it..." And then all of those things came true. I knew going in that it was going to make me ill...and then I tuned in.

2)LeBron James: #2?! Yes, he was smug, unapologetic, clueless, and smug again. It was so sorry to do that to his fans that way. I will say it again, he didn't owe the franchise anything but some base level of manners (a phone call telling them what he was going to do beforehand at least). Some of the blame for this farce on television goes to his management team (all his buddies from growing up), who encouraged him to do it this way. I don't care, he's still an adult who could have said no.

Let me be clear on this though: It was a shrewd basketball move. If he was a greater player, he would have been able to drag Cleveland (and that supporting cast who didn't bother to 'support' him in crunch time) to the Finals again. He knew he couldn't do it (and neither could Kobe when he was in the same situation which is why he asked for a trade on the radio in 2006), and LeBron decided he would never feel this way again.

So, he wants to play with guys he knows he'll always be able to count on, if not defer to in big moments. We all want him to be like Jordan. But he's not. And with this decision he's at least admitting it. People want to talk about his legacy all the time, but can we wait until these guys play together before we decide where to rank them historically? I think Wade will prove to be the more Jordan-like of the two, but let's see first.

I wanted LeBron to leave Cleveland. I felt bad for the fans, but I wanted him to have a better career than the one he was going to have there. I wanted him to go to (in order) Chicago, Miami, Knicks, Nets, and then Cleveland. I wanted to see him in a winning environment, or at least a different one.

So, I liked the decision, just hated the execution of it. Don't go on TV, that's messed up.

1) Dan Gilbert, Cavs owner: Awwww, I feel so sorry for this billionaire who's been "betrayed" by the guy who made his sports franchise increase its revenue by a factor of ten ever since he was lucky enough to win the lottery and draft him #1 overall. That letter was a calculated move by a calculating man to shift the blame from himself for the situation. And this situation was created by......Dan Gilbert. He enabled LeBron. He gave him everything he wanted since he was 18 years old without thinking about how an 18 year old wouldn't know how to contend for a championship. You want new teammates? Ok. You want a new coach? Ok. More money? Sure. You can have anything just stay, please.

How is LeBron going to respect someone who acts this way? Gilbert had one job. Build a winner around this guy that you were lucky to get in the first place. He made the wrong hires, wrong decisions, and the wrong statements all at the wrong times. If LeBron quit in the playoffs, why did you offer him a max contract afterwards? If you hate him so much, why beg him to stay?

LeBron is a spoiled, entitled, 25 year old millionaire...and he acts like it. Where is the maturity from Gilbert? He's a loser. He's as responsible for LeBron thinking he can get away with this with no repercussions as anyone. Why? Because he never held LeBron accountable for anything before. LeBron had one request: get me a team and a coach with some kind of fortitude. Gilbert never could. I wouldn't have stayed either.

Conclusion: I am fascinated to watch Miami games now. I love Dwyane Wade and always have. My hope is that he has the kind of career that makes people say, "See? If Kobe hadn't been such a diva, he could have had all that."

Me Again?

Day 8: Post a picture of yourself.

Apparently this blogging schedule can be a bit repetitive. So, here's another picture of me. Trying to lighten things up since my last post. The only crying here is that of my own embarrassment.

This photo was taken by my good friend Ann Wade as I prepared for a day on the slopes in Breckinridge 3 years ago. I hate skiing, and I think I was attempting to pump myself up here. Nothing like a set of navy blue long-johns to get you going!

Here I am at the end of the day . . . not so jovial.

A Good Cry

Day 7: A picture that makes you cry.

Oh, how I love a good cry. I put off posting this assignment because I couldn't really think of a picture that makes me cry. All that came to my mind were scenes in movies, and since those are technically pictures, I'm bending the rules to showcase 5 "pictures" that guarantee tears and sniffles from me. This is a somewhat random list, and there's no way I could cover all my teary moments, but I think this represents a good cross section.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne's adoptive father, Matthew, dies of a heart attack in their cow pasture. He tells her that she's "his little girl." Takes his last breath in her arms. "Don't go Matthew! Please." Ahhhh

Field of Dreams

Ok, so I know I'm not a boy, but the final scene of Field of Dreams ranks as one of my all-time most tearjerky moments. I cry every. single. time. Main character Ray Kinsella realizes one of the ghost players is his father when he was young. Ray never had a chance to play catch with his dad when he was alive and always wishes he could. This is his chance! As the young man walks away, Ray calls out, "Hey Dad! Wanna have a catch." Flood gates open. And.....Scene.

Forrest Gump

This should be well known and require no explanation from me. Forrest's "mama" was so sweet. When he goes to visit her as she's dying and she tells him "I'll miss you Forrest." Awww, she's so sweet.

Up

This is a new addition to the list, but a strong strong contender. I don't know how many of you have seen the Disney movie Up, but the first 15-20 minutes is one of the emotional movie experiences I've ever had. I was crying like a crazy person and could not stop. The sweetness is beyond words, and I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. Rent it!

Titanic

Ahh, the granddaddy of them all. Clearly I could not make this list without my friends Jack and Rose. I don't care if it is a tad cheesy upon replay, I'll never let go. (heh heh) I remember when my mom and I went to see this movie when I was in high school. She literally had to pull the car over on the way home because she couldn't pull herself together. That deserves a #1 spot on the list. My heart will go on.

Short Holiday

Today's blog assignment was to post a picture that makes me cry. Eek! Call me crazy, but I'm just not in the crying mood right now, so I'm taking 4th of July off. I will resume my pictures duties tomorrow or Tuesday. For now, eating apple pie and ice cream. :) Have a great day off!

Inspiration

Day 6: A picture that inspires you

This picture was taken in a place called Panacea, Florida. If you know me, which I assume you do, you know this is where my family went on vacation for as long as I can remember. It is a very small town in Florida with one stoplight, but it's on the water, has great seafood, and it's quiet and unbelievably relaxing. My grandparents built the house there that our family has used for decades. My mom started going there when she was a teenager. This picture was taken from the dock at our house.

When I was young, Panacea was always a very creative place for me. I read tons of books there, and I was a very imaginative child. Panacea always felt like a place that was full of stories to me. If I were to ever write a book, this would be the place I could do it. Something about it inspires me and makes me want to read, write, listen to music, and be outside. It stirs my imagination and takes me to a different place, and for that I will always love it.

Day 4: RIP Pop Tart

Day 4: Post a picture of your morning.

Enough said.

Day 4

Day 4: A picture of where you went today

So, obviously I went to work today. However I felt a little weird standing outside my building taking a picture of it like a weird tourist, so none of that. After work, me, Kent, and Pistol took a little trip to the nearby school playground.

Pistol has a lot of energy, but spends most of his day fenced in the backyard. When we take him to the playground, which also has a huge, open field, he gets to run free and he's so happy. When Pistol is happy, you can't help but smile because he's so cute.

Running Free

"Do we have to leave?"

Day 3

Day 3: Picture of what you did today.

Welcome back for day 3. I would like to start by thanking my lovely readers for their very nice comments and encouragement! I wish I could reward you with pictures of a day full of fun and excitement. However, it's Wednesday. What can I really do with that?

Welcome to my desk! Try not to be too impressed by the double screens. I'm a proposal writer, which basically means I am right here all day with my computer, papers, coffee, and a variety of colored pens. It has days where it's very intense, and it has days where it's pretty slow. Today, was in between, which is why I had a chance to snap pictures in my office (while hoping that no one would walk by as I did it). I spent the day editing, pulling some documents together for submission, and rewriting a business plan. Kind of a strange line up of activities, but that's the daily stuff. I'm thankful for my friends at work that give me little breaks and trips to the office with candy.

After work, Kent and I ventured to Moe's, but I forgot the camera. Oops. Back home, I started looking through a cookbook that my great aunt and uncle gave me as a wedding present. My aunt passed away last year, so I'm glad to have this gift from her with a sweet note on the inside.

In flipping through the book, I came upon a recipe that sounded delicious, and easy to make. Score! I'm passing it along to y'all and hope to make it soon.

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake

8 oz. uncooked rigatoni

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)

1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

3 cups cubed cooked chicken breast

1 (14.5 oz) can Italian style diced tomatoes

1 (8 oz.) container chive and onion cream cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Prepare rigatoni according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, spread oil on bottom of baking dish; add onion in a single layer.

3. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to a large bowl and set aside.

4. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels.

5. Stir rigatoni, spinach, chicken, and next 4 ingredients into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella.

6. Bake, covered, at 375 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

Make 4-6 servings.

Time for So You Think You Can Dance!