Griping Works.....

About a month ago, I was supposed to go to the Titans game, we were trying to get a demo done at Digital Dog, so I passed up the opportunity to go. I was angry about it and I wrote this post at the time. My good friend Tara knew of some tickets available for the game today and gave me the opportunity to buy them. Kathy and I talked about it, I bought them as part of my Christmas present. I offered Sarah(doesn't understand football) and Kathy(hates to be cold) the opportunity to go with me, both declined, Chris was jumping at the chance so we went. I took some pictures with my camera phone. It was fun, it wasn't a very exciting game, but the Titans won. Cleveland lost like we needed them to so now as Chris said "All we have to do is beat Indy in Indy and we go to the playoffs"...Oh boy...

We had to go to Goodlettsville to get the tickets, its about a 25 or 30 mile drive, some highway miles...I thought it would be a good drive for Chris to make. He did very well, we went to Rivergate afterwards, he drove there too, a few rough spots, but he's doing well. I can't get over the weird feeling of putting my life in the hands of someone whose diaper I used to change. See Tara's post about Ethan's first drive

I'm not sure which is tougher, Chris driving with me in the car, or me driving with him in the car. He loves to point out the cases where I just might be a skosh over the speed limit....or if I forget to use my blinker...or whatever infraction (minor I assure you) I commit while driving. He seems to think he caught me going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, I introduced him to the concept of parallax which affects the perceived reading of a needle based instrument (such as a speedometer) based on the position of the observer (I didn't mention that a speedometer would read slower when viewed from the passenger seat). I assured him that his dad was a good driver and that the policeman that pulled us over on the way to soccer practice (when he was 5) was just having a bad day....

A note to LSU from the educashun state

Proud of my boy.....

Kathy and I were both band geeks. I was in the percussion section of my high school band, Kathy played clarinet. I was athletic when I was younger, played basketball, baseball and football a year or two. When I hit high school though, I really got into music. Kathy is an amazing woman, however, athletics is not one of her strong points.

Somehow, these two band geeks got together and had two athletes. Chris has loved baseball since he was a baby. At age 3, he had figured out that you could watch the Cubs play during the day and the Braves played at night. Many times he would watch two full baseball games/day. Sarah is not quite as into athletics, though she loves softball and basketball. I think that she's looking forward to giving volleyball a try as well.

Chris has played baseball since he was 5. T-ball, coach pitch, little league, dixie youth, this past summer he played on his first travel team. When he hit 5th grade, he played football for the first time. He's played football every year since then except for one year when he played on a fall league baseball team.

Chris is very gifted athletically, the only thing that is hampering him right now is his size. He'll be 15 in December, many boys at his age are fully grown. He's got friends his age that are 6 ft tall and 200+ lbs. Chris is 5'7" 135 lb. The one thing he does have is speed. And like they say 'You can't teach speed'.

This year, with him being in the 9th grade, he's on the varsity football team. It's been quite an eye opener. They really do work him hard. I've told him since he was small, there are 3 parts to a person: mind, body, spirit. You have to take care of all three. Varsity football is working on the body part for sure.

Chris hasn't gotten to play much on the varsity squad, though he does get to play quite a bit at the JV games. Friday night, the JV squad got to play most of the game because the opposing team wasn't very good. At the beginning of the year, Chris was focusing on being a receiver. It seems like now, they are focusing on him being a running back.

Anyway, Friday night he got his first touch of the ball in a varsity game. He was a slot back on the right side and he got a handoff running a sweep around the left end. He broke it for a 62 yard touchdown! It was cool. The thing that I love about living here is that people really know the players. They've watched them grow up and are just as proud as the parents are when they do well. When Chris came off of the field, the crowd gave him a second standing ovation. It was really cool.

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On another note, I heard a story from Kathy's sister that was too funny. Her sister has 3 children, the oldest is 5. He wanted to go ride his bike so he asked his dad if he could. "No, son, that requires supervision" was the answer. His comeback in total seriousness was "But dad, I have supervision, I eat my carrots!" Too funny.

Go Vols!

UT is doing amazingly well against Georgia, I hate to admit it, but I really thought we were going to get clobbered. Oh, Chris got his face painted now as you can see. The picture is straight from Neyland Stadium...

Go big Orange!

Any idea where Chris will be today?

Last night, I asked Chris if he had to choose between a baseball scholarship at a small school or going to UT with no baseball scholarship, which would he choose. His answer was "I'll go to UT and walk on to the baseball team". For some reason, I've always thought that maybe there was a chance that he would go to some other school. Don't get me wrong, I am a UT fan, but I went to a small college and am somewhat concerned about sending him to such a big school. Last night, though, I think I resigned myself to the fact that he wants to go to UT regardless.

He had the opportunity to go to the UT Georgia game with Kathy's sister and her husband. When they saw his outfit though, they may have wanted to rethink their decision. Oh, he wanted to paint his face too, but we couldn't find the right color orange. He'll probably find some on the way. He took the camera, I hope he gets some good pictures.