Rambling Thoughts

A funny thing my daughter said... Last night my daughter asked my wife, "Did you date anyone before you married daddy?" My wife told her she had. Then my daughter said, "I figured you did, because you dated the Raccoon Guy right?" My wife was confused, "Raccoon Guy?" My daughter said, "Yea, you know the guy who did the voice for the raccoon in the movie Over the Hedge." Then my wife understood. My daughter was talking about Bruce Willis. A few years ago my wife told me she thought Bruce Willis was handsome for his age and jokingly told me, that if anything ever happened to me, she would go after Bruce Willis. Every so often after that I would kid my wife about Bruce Willis being her "other boyfriend!" I guess my daughter thought we were being serious. She actually thought my wife had dated Bruce Willis, before she married me. Cool, my wife chose me over Bruce Willis. Boo-ya! How Funny.

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame induction announcements were made today. The only player to be inducted this year will be Rich "Goose" Gossage. Congratulations! I know some of my blog readers are huge Cincinnati Reds fans and I know they are really disappointed that Dave Concepcion did not make it into the Hall of Fame. I would have voted for him myself.

I am ready for Baseball Season. I can't wait until Spring Training and I can start my personal critique of my Texas Rangers. I don't think they are World Series material again this year, but I am interested in seeing how our commitment to the young pitchers and outfielders will play out. Not a big fan of Milton Bradley but who knows, he may prove me wrong and actually act like a grown up in Texas. (Ha-Ha!)

Several months ago I promised to stop eating and doing a few things. (See Time to Give Up # 1 and Time to Give Up # 2. For a while I was very successful. I was eating better and I had stopped many of my bad habits. Apparently the Holiday Season killed my good eating habits. I ate way to much (as did most people around the holidays) and I put on about 8 pounds. My blood pressure has gone back up as a result, so I need to "Give it all up" again. I will do better, I will do better.

Being a political nerd...I am waiting to watch the primary results in New Hampshire tonight. It amazes me how the news analyst are "writing the campaigns of some candidates off" so early in the race. Aren't there 50 states? Why quit after only three states? It's a shame that money, or lack of it, also puts a person out of their bid for the White House. Why do you have to be rich to be President?

I did a quiz with my adult students at the college I teach at. Based on my recent blog about the Presidential candidates I just wanted to see if my "voting age" students could actually identify the candidates for President by sight. I printed pictures of the 13 active candidates (as of Jan. 7, 2008) and presented my students with them. All of my students successfully identified Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Most of them could identify John McCain. A small majority of them recognized Rudy Guiliani. One or two of my students recognized Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney (although they called him Matt Romney) and Ron Paul. Only one student knew who John Edwards was. No one recognized Dennis Kucinich (One of my students said he looked like a Hobbit. I laughed despite myself), Mike Gravel, Bill Richardson, or Duncan Hunter. Update: Jan. 10, 2008 -- Democratic Candidate, Bill Richardson, has announced he is withdrawing from his bid to become President. (click here for official announcement)

I wish could say I was more interested in the football playoffs. I like to support my local teams, especially The Dallas Cowboys. I do know they are playing the Giants on Sunday. My sister-in-law is a huge Indianapolis Colts fan. I just watch the playoff games and the rest of the season I watch when I feel like it. I do like the Super Bowl parties though. Good food!