The Holtonian

Its a Boy

I had started to blog about this, and worked it all up and then my computer crashed... and when that happens it takes me a few days to work up the mojo to retype an entry. So deflating to work it all up and have the microsoft gods destroy it with the blue screen of death.

But yes we found out a week or so ago that we are having a little baby boy sometime in February. Janelle's got a few due dates around the third week of Februrary. A due date is basically an educated guess so we're not putting too much stock into any of them as Anna-Kate was two weeks late.

We got a name picked out but we're sort of keeping it under wraps for now. Its a great name one that I have liked ever since I was a kid.

Janelle's feeling pretty good, she's just a little tired, and about to get more tired.

We're getting the house in order as best as we can. This past weekend I painted the office and dinning room and once janelle buys some bedding I'll paint the boy's room. We'll probably hold off on Anna-Kates room till she gets a little older.

Other than all that we're getting the house ready for Thanksgiving which will be at our house this year. Going to be pretty cool getting the families together as Janelle attempts her first turkey. It'll turn out great as does all her cooking. And as long as I can have some canned cranberries I'll be happy.

Great Testimony... Update

So I wrote about Paul Byrd inspirational testimony the other day... and it turns out he bought 25,000 dollars worth of HGH. It was interesting too because I'm not saying he's a hypocrite any more than I am as a Christian, but he just got done with an interview about tempations and temptation to cheat and how his faith keeps him strong or gives him direction.

I can't get mad or be even disappointed because I see so much in my own life that mirrors this. I think his book can take a more interesting point of view now, how we are called to live a life above sin and how as Christians sometimes we are the biggest sinners around.

Thrashers first win

Wow, so for those who don't follow hockey or the thrashers, which you should, we need to support our teams here in ATL, especially the halfway decent ones: Braves and Thrashers. So, basically after going winless in six games, the GM fired the coach, Bob Hartley, a coach who took the team to its first playoffs ever and won a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. He's a good coach but can be known to be a tough guy.

He made some bad moves last year in the playoffs, the goalie swaping was terrible, and he's known to not have much patience for rookies, which ATL is a pretty rookie/young heavy team.

So he was out, and frankly after watching the first six games something had to be done because they played like they'd never played hockey before. There was no defense and no teamwork. The only game they played decent in was the Devils game last saturday where they were up, I think, 5 to 0 and somehow they managed to lose it.

Now after watching last nights win i think the boys threw Saturdays game in order to get Hartley canned. The team I watched last night was light years different from the other one from the prior 6 games.

Its total speculation but there are some things backing it up. Kovalchuck, one of the thrashers big stars, was not a fan of Hartley. Neither was Kari Letnonen the goalie, who last year died his hair blue for the playoffs and was told by the coach to shave it.

So is it wrong that they dove to get him outta there? Eh, probably. Pro sports are generallly unique where the boss is held responsible for his workers while the workers get off the hook in some ways. I had one manager in my old job that was so bad that we as a team banded together and pushed for her ouster to upper management, granted she was so bad upper management already knew how bad it was. But us coming together as a team helped speed up an inevitable process.

I just hope the thrashers start playing the type of hockey they are capable of. THough they still need some help on defense as well as some determination and enthusiasm.

The theory is they'll call up the coach of their minor league team (Chicago Wolves) who apparently has worked with a lot of the young guys on the team. I think if they can though they need to make a trade for some stronger defense. So that they don't wait for the trade deadline to move like they've done the past few years.

Great Testimony

I read this great article/interview on ESPN.com about Paul Byrd starting pitcher for the Indians and basically about how he lives his Christian life in the majors.

It was really refreshing to see someone so authentic in his discussion as well as someone really intelligent about his faith in the work place.

I'm really looking forward to getting a copy of his book when it comes out next year.

Ryan Started the Fire

WHat can i say its monday

Thrashers Observations

So in my previous post I mentioned my realignment from a blues fan, to a thrashers fan. And being a Thrashers fan I have watched the first few games of the season and I can see there is one glaring problem... defense. This team looks terrible on defense. The first game they were completely out hussled and out played. Last night again bad matchups and no pickups. No real team work on defense. Maybe they should watch the movie the miracle to inspire them, but what I'm afraid we have here might be a team with a lot of stars that don't have cohesion.

Granted, I'll give them the Senators are one of the premier teams in the NHL. But this team right now is not working well together and either some trades need to be made to get some guys who can be the glue that holds it together, I think Ktachuk did a great job of that last year when he came over from the blues, he's a real good player to have in the locker room. Or the coaching needs to step up.

Transplanting to Atlanta Hockey

For those of you who don't know, or know me, I grew up in St. Louis and grew up in what I like to call the "Hey Day" of hockey. The blues were working on compiling the longest streak of reaching the playoffs in professional sports history. They were good, with great players playing for them such as Adam Oates, Brenden Shanahan, Brett Hull, Grant Fuhr, Curtis Joseph, Tony Twist (joke), and a few others that went on to be big names else where. Unfortunately none of these guys all played at the same time, because frankly that would have been awesome.

But the Blues have been hitting hard times, actually this season they've started of real nice, especially with the addition of Paul Kariya, they killed nashville last night 4 to 1, which the Preds are supposed to contend with Detroit for the division.

But the strike, coupled with living here in the south has made being a blues fan near impossible. NHL games are rarely televised and when they are its either big match ups or the thrashers. And unlike the cardinals who come to Atlanta for 3 to 4 games a year the Blues never come to Atlanta.

So basically I've taken it upon myself to give up some of my St. Louis roots, and stop rooting for the Blues and give my full allegiance to the Thrashers. Instead of 'Bleeding Blue" (the Blues theme a few years ago) I will "Believe in Blueland" (the thrashers odd theme this year).

Something that is making this transition easier is the Thrashers new jersey's...

Which is a vast improvement over there old ones

Many teams have tried to do a red motif on the jersey, the blues went for it and everybody hated it... I tried finding a picture but couldn't find a decent one.

Anyway, I'm excited to go to some games as Philips is a great arena to watch hockey (and concerts) in.

Pumpkin Patch

Not too much is going down in Holton town. We all got a cold this past weekend and have been recovering from that.

We went to a pumpkin patch up near Canton, GA this past weekend. It was pretty cool, Berry Patch Farms I think it was called. Free entry and they have some cool animals, pigs, a calf, some goats. You aren't allowed to pet them, they bite, but Anna-Kate still liked looking at them. They also had crafts for older kids, again all free. The trick is you go out on a tractor ride and pick up a pumpkin which costs 55cents a pound, not a terrible price but you have no idea how much the pumpkins weight till you get them back to the barn and it can be a bit of sticker shock. Still with everything else being free its a good time if not dang far away.

Janelle's going to a women's retreat this weekend so it'll be a Daddy Daughter weekend. I think we'll go see a movie, maybe the new Saw 4 movie... that's a joke.

Not sure what we'll do, probably go to the park or something, take the wagon out for a spin.

Pictures from the pumpkin patch to come.

Football Frenzy

Man so much good football yesterday. USC was of course the best, finally going down. What was so annoying was it was on VS, which tends to stick to ulitimate fighting and bull riding... the announcers were terrible....

First one of them said "This is the biggest upset in football history.... bigger than App St over Michigan...." Yeah hate to break it to you dumby but Appt St Michigan was way bigger. Stanford and USC are in the same conference and a bit of a rivalry.

Then when Stanford scored the winning touchdown he goes, "USC SCORES THE CLINCHER!!!" Wanted to smack him.

And the MOST annoying thing, well the "biggest upset" thing was the worst, but this was a close second, they had on Vs. USC ranked number 1... and they weren't they were number 2.... and we saw last night why they were number 2. Stupid Pac 10.... how bout that UCLA eh? I rest my case.... Pac 10 = Lame 10

Then LSU's comeback win was pretty cool too, though I think I wanted Florida to win and then for them to have a rematch in the SEC championship. But oh well. Miles was ballsy to the point of being insane.

And then my old home state Mizzou destroying Nebraska.

A. Can't remember the last time they beat Nebraska
B. Can't recall them ever destroying them
C. Really can't recall them beating a ranked Nebraska

Oh well make Mizzou ranked number 1 now... just kidding.

TN GA not too surprised about, the final score was not what I was expecting but you knew TN had to win to save face this season.

And Wisconsin Illini, well I don't think anyone truly cares but nevertheless an exciting upset.

Jim Tracy Fired from Pirates and what that means for the Cardinals

I'm in a prediction mood lately. Here is what Jim Tracy's firing means for baseball.

Background: Tracy and GM and a lot of the staff were let go including the GM a few months ago.

What happens now?

Walt Jockety who was let go by the Cardinals goes to the Pirates as a player development/front office leader.

Larussa comes over to manage and whip the team into shape.

My reasons for thinking this:

Jocketty represents a jewel of a GM and he likes a challenge and probably would like the chance to stay in the NL central to stick it to the Dewitt.

The reason I think they'll get Larussa is this following quote:

"Huntington has an "internal list" of potential managerial candidates.

Asked what kind of manager he wants, Huntington said, "A manager with energy, with passion, ... who is a tireless instructor, who will instill some discipline, is an exhaustive communicator and wants to return the pride to the Pittsburgh Pirates.""

No one out there represents that more than Larussa. Torre would be a good second choice but frankly he's not the instructor/discipliner that LaRussa is.

If I'm right and Jockety and Larussa go to the pirates, well the cardinals will have their hands full in a few years. The Pirates will also have something to be excited about, which frankly they're do for a winning season.

A Music Video that represents me?

I came into work today and a couple of women that I sit next to said they saw this music video the other day and instantly thought of me.... I think i might giving off a bad impression

Playoff predictions

I actually called every game yesterday, granted I don't have it in print so you're probably like, "yeah right."

Here's how it will break down:

Yanks over Indians 6 to 4

Cubs over Dbacks 8 to 3

Rockies over Phils 3 to 2

The way the series will end up

AL:
Yanks in 4 over Indians,
Redsox in 3 over Angels

Redsox in 6 over Yanks

NL:
Dbacks in 5 over Cubs
Colorado over Phillies in 4

Dbacks over Colorado in 6

World Series: Redsox in 5 over Dbacks

Thats not what I want, thats just what I think is going to happen.

The indians are still too young in my mind to get over the hump. They need some real veterans on the team, some people who've been to and won a world series.

Angels don't have much to offer and won the weak AL West. The AL West will always be weak as long as it has only 4 teams.

And the sox just have too much on the yanks in terms of talent. The AL championship will have some drama, Clemens will undoubtedly do something stupid, but the sox, shocker, will be more professional and be able to take care of business. The starting rotation of the sox is just far superior to the yanks. The yanks have Wang and thats about it, Clemens is washed up and hurtin, Petite is ok, but nothing special, and Mussina and Rivera are running out of gas career wise.

NL:

Cubs are the cubs, and frankly I don't think they're ready for the World Series. Pinella was dumb to pull zambrano last night, nobody on base and score only 1 to 1. Frankly the dbacks are the best team in the NL for a reason, they have talent and I think they're surprising people with said talent. Granted their pitching isn't as good as it needs to be but neither is the cubs. Really the cubs have two starters in Zambrano and Lilly, and frankly Lilly has been more dependable than zambrano. Marquis is terrible in the playoffs and will probably show that.

And as far as the rockies and phillies, its really anybody's series but I'm leaning to the Rockies because they're hot and the phillies are the phillies.

Iran... so far away

Watch this before SNL shock troopers shut it down

This is why I'm not so keen on seeing Ryan Adams In concert

I'm a pretty big Ryan Adams fan, nearly own most of all of his cds, with the exception of some truly awful ones that no one should own... 29...

Everyone in my office asked if I was going to go see him at the Fox in October and when I told them probably not they looked at me surprised. But after hearing about this I feel all the more confident in my reasoning.

I would want to slash his tires if he pulled something like that after I shelled out 70 some bucks to see him.

Mechanic Update

Well the dealer mechanic wasn't as painful as it could've been. I went there expecting to shell out my life's savings but with some new brakes, oil change, and inspection I feel I wasn't taken to the cleaners too painfully. Though they pulled me out of the waiting room to show me that basically some part may have to be replaces (I think it was the thing that holds the entire brake to the rotor) because it was rusted, which would have been a hefty 200 buck plus labor. So that didn't sound too good, but luckily they said it was just one bad screw that they were able to take care of.

My assumption is that if I go to the dealer I get superior service even if I pay at a premium. With the Sentra I took that thing to every tom dick and harry and feel like a few of them took me for a loop. I know some of them charged me for nothing.

And I think the jiffy lubes and quick brake places I've taken the accord too have been bad on the car. I know the walmart experience emotionally drained janelles honda. (which if you'll recall if you're a regular reader, which I don't think anyone is) [basically walmart is the worst excuse for auto service there is].

But I've been pretty impressed iwth the honda dealer on cobb parkway. Though ask me if I am after I start shopping for a minivan... got a bit of sticker shock looking at them today... ow

car mechanics

Car mechanics are just ao fun to deal with. You go in for a brake change and come out with a complete overhaul.

The only thing worse is car dealers.

And this latest trip to the repair man wouldn't be too bad but I had to hand in my laptop this morning to get an upgrade which takes 4 to 6 hours...

Enough complaining.