10 Weeks!

Well, first of all, let us apologize for keeping our fans at bay the last few weeks. My excuse (Mike) is that finals were very busy and then I was enjoying the break so much that the blog kept slipping my mind. We had some great ideas for blog entries too. There was the attempt to go to a Dallas Mavericks game only to turn around in Bridgeport because of icy road conditions (baby Todd's safety comes first :) ) During that same trip we had the most unbelievable Subway experience. We've brought back a new catch phrase around the house: "Boo-Yaa!" It usually rears its head whenever someone's football team wins in college bowl mania. That leads to another story. Val is dominating our college bowl pool. Her team name? "Val and Nut's Hot Picks." The nut referring to our little one who at 9 weeks was, according to the doctor, "the size of a nut." Which brings us to our latest dilemma. Val is officially ten weeks today. At what point do we refrain from referring to baby todd as nut? I mean, if it's bigger than a nut we can't keep calling it that. Sister suggested "fetus", but that just sounds awkward. What is a little bigger than a nut? A frito? A McDonald's pickle? A pen cap? None of these seems to work either. We'll keep you posted.

Quick Coaches Poll Observations

Coaches that voted Texas #1 Overall:

Gene Chizik, Iowa St.
Todd Dodge, UNT
Rick Neuheisel, UCLA
Mike Price, UTEP


Coaches that voted Texas #5 Overall (Are you kidding me?)

Art Briles, Baylor
Mike Leach, Texas Tech
Greg Schiano, Rutgers


Side note: Mack Brown had it Florida #1, Texas #2, and OU #3

First Gift and Other Ramblings

We received our first baby gift tonight from my Aunt Cheryl, a lovely baby blanket. Thanks! It's quite soft, and looks pretty warm. I'm thinking about testing it out in the deer blind tomorrow morning.

You know how you sometimes hear of refs making "make-up" calls? It's when a referee completely blows a call, realizes it, but by then it's too late to reverse it so he calls a cheap foul/penalty on the opposing team to "make-up" for it. Happens in high school basketball at least 47 times a quarter. Well, am I out of line by saying that the recent O.J. sentencing was the ultimate make-up call?

The Big XII Commissioner made an interesting point tonight that I've never really thought of concerning the whole playoffs vs bowls controversy. He said something to the effect that the players enjoy the bowl experience much more than a playoff experience (he apparently was commissioner of one of the sub bowl divisions that uses a playoff system). That got me thinking. Let's say you're the 80th player on Utah's football's team. With the bowl system in place you get to spend two weeks in Miami during December "preparing" for the Orange Bowl. You receive all kinds of gifts, including extra dough to spend on your vacation, I mean road game. (Believe me they have ways around the system, i.e. the school buys the players first class tickets, they trade them in for coach and keep the change). Anyways, you have a wonderful experience that you will never forget and your team has absolutely nothing to lose. A win is great, but a loss is no big deal. They aren't even in a major conference. Now, let's compare that to a playoff experience. A first round road game at OU, Florida, or Texas. One and done, no gifts, no fun. I'm not saying that this alone justifies that a playoff system is bad, but score one for the BCS.

Can I be the first to make the claim that the head of NFL scheduling has got to be some deranged, neurotic former Buffalo Bill that has never gotten over four straight Super Bowl loses, the last two at the hands of our Cowboys? Perhaps Scott Norwood went absolutely crazy after "wide right," joined the NFL scheduling committee and is doing everything he can to take it out on the single team that could of made everyone forget about that infamous kick. (I picture this happening just like Ray Finkle joining the Miami Police Department as Lt. Einhorn to ultimately sabotage Dan Marino for his "laces in" hold in the first Ace Venture movie). Anyways, does Schedule Chairman Norwood not realize how many days its been since the Cowboys have won a playoff game? (Click on Bob's Blog to get the updated running count). Does he not know that it's always December that kills us? Just when the Boys have seemingly pulled it all together and are poised for a prolific playoff run, ol "Wide Right" gives us this December schedule: @ Pittsbugh, NY Giants, Baltimore, @ The Dreaded and Feared (Philly). Good grief. Just give us the 19th pick of the draft now and let's get it over with.

Morning Sickness: A Complete Misnomer

Sometime around mid-morning yesterday I went and checked on my lovely bride.  You see, she had awoken that morning with the predictable sensation of nausea and dizziness.  My first reaction was a bittersweet one.  Kind of sweet on one hand because it provided one more indication from the Lord that yes, we are indeed pregnant. But quite bitter on the other hand (very, very bitter) since I had to hold Lanie's ears while Val conjured up curse after curse on Eve for eating the freakin apple and brining down this awful curse upon women.  

Anyway, there I was being a good husband as I checked on her status.  Let's just say she was not doing well.  I comforted her with all the comfort I could muster, though, and reassured her that there was good news.  "I need some good news," she exclaimed.  "Well, the morning's just about over.  You should be feeling yourself in about an hour and ten minutes."  She kind of chuckled, secretly hoping I had read something on the internet or something because at this point Valerie had lost a lot of weight.

Well, not only did she not begin to feel better at the stroke of noon, but she got progressively worse.  In fact, it got a little scary there for a while.  I'm happy to report tonight, though, that she is back to her jovial self.  But, I must protest at this point.  Morning sickness? Come on.  I vote we officially change the name of this phenomenon to Nasty Throw Up Your Guts Sickness.  I think that pretty much covers our (okay, Val's) experience thus far.  She began the strategy this morning of munching on cold cheerios before she got out of bed.  This seems to have worked well for one day.  We'll keep you posted.

(Val just looked over my shoulder as I was typing this post and said, "make sure our fans know that I really didn't say actual cuss words toward Eve and/or the fall of man."  Done and done.)

What a Funny Gal!

I told Val that the pregnancy book says no drinking  (yes, we're having a baby, but I figured that  since we started a blog today that a baby on the way was just assumed).   Anyway, I did give blood today and did witness projectile vomiting twice!  The good news was that none of it got on me and the inevitable vomit chain reaction never occurred (even though the nurse that cleaned it up was visibly gagging).

I guess we should go ahead and discuss what you, our fans, can expect from this great blog.  The idea is to use it as a forum to update the progression of being with child, and then of being first-time parents.  We are pretty dang excited, by the way.  However, my enthusiasm waned a tad when I heard a quote yesterday from Eddy Ball, a four-day year old daddy himself.  After baby Isabella (the Linebacker) would not stop crying he allegedly quipped, "being a parent is hard."  

Please forgive me (Michael) if I slip in the occasional HSO (hot sports opinion) into our family blog.  Val suggested that I start my own sports blog, but I reasoned that a divided fandom would not be in the best interest of Baby Todd.  So take your seat, buckle up, and get ready for the ride of your life.

Our 1st Post

Due to popular demand, we are creating this blog to appease our fans.  Michael gave blood today and projectile vomitted on a student.  Other than that, it was a slow day.