"Refreshed and ready to go"

Okay. Here we go. A new year. New ideas. New thoughts.
I'm sure most of you have read all of the "top" lists for 2004 and I'm not going to bore you here with my lists. I will however add some links to what I have read over the holidays. Some are pretty good.
D Magazine , always one of the best in town.

Top earning dead celebrities , a little unusual.

Top AOL Searches for 2004 , I hate AOL but the list is interesting.

People Magazine Best and Worse , it speaks for itself.

What's hot, what's not , so long reality shows.

Top ten word list , my new favorite leads the chart!

"Remembering Bowl Games"

Do you remember when you would wake up New Year's Day after a night of celebrating and do nothing but sit and watch college football bowl games all day long. The morning would start "drinking a hair of the dog that bit ya" switching back and forth between the Cotton Bowl Parade , where it seemed like it was always cold as hell, and sunny Pasadena Calif. Then as the parades ended, you would grab a quick shower, ice down some cold ones, makes sure there were plenty of snacks and not move except for an occasional "pee break". Ahhh, those were the days.
First the Cotton Bowl, usually with a local favorite from the then Big-Eight and some other major school, possibly Notre Dame.
Next came the Rose Bowl featuring usually USC, UCLA, or another great Pac-8 school against a powerhouse from the Big-Ten. The half-time shows were always great particularly when the fans at the Rose Bowl would make different designs with colored placards they would hold on certain commands.
You might grab a sandwich or two and grab a look at the Sugar Bowl. Usually a team from the SEC, which everyone thought was alien because these weren't the bigee conferences.
Then finally, the Orange Bowl. If the national champion hadn't been decided by now, all eyes were glued to what was probably going to be a thriller with OU, or Nebraska dominating the Orange Bowl for decades. Yeah, those were the good old days.
Now, we have every bowl game  from the Continental Tire Bowl to the MPC Computer Bowl. Teams that are 6-5 are playing teams that are 5-6. And the Orange Bowl doesn't even come on until Jan. 4.

"Almost back to normal"

It's not that I don't enjoy the holidays, I guess I just am becoming an "old fart". We did have a good time having the grandkids over although we found candy-cane sticky hand prints all over the place. Pattye even found them inside her glass-walled shower. Hmmmm, I wonder how those got there?? We did have a chance to get with the Williams clan on Sunday over at Laura's house. I was very successful in trying every food item that was offered, except for the Costa Rican banana leaf-wrapped tamalies. Clark tried them and said they were pretty good.
Anyway, one more holiday (New Years) to get through and we can get back to a normal routine.

"Happy Holidays"

I hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays. I know for some of my friends and family they had a hard time getting out of airports and off highways, but they did arrive safely.
As usual, Pattye and I worked Christmas morning making sure the carriers got the DMN delivered. We had Christmas with Kelly, Kassidy and Jeremy and the grandkids Lisa and Caleb.
Jeff spent Christmas in San Marcos with friends and Chris and Josey went out to San Diego to visit Courtney and Andy.
We will be going to Laura's home in Hurst tomorrow to celebrate the Holidays with Pattye's family.

"Snow, Snow, Snow"

For those of us living in the warm-weather states be thankful you are not in Ohio. Here's a picture of my bro' Dave this week in Springfield, Ohio, where they are scheduled to get 20" of snow as well as -15 degrees (that's cold) temperature. Here's a link of some more pictures of the Kender's in Springfield