September 20 - NC State vs East Carolina - (W) 34-20 (OT)
     November   8 - NC State @ Duke           - (W) 27-17
     November  15 - NC State vs Wake Forest   - (W) 21-17
     November  22 - NC State @ UNC-CH         - (W) 41-10

There may not be any official award for being the "State Champion" in college football, but when you beat all other teams in your state, I think that's something you can claim. They've been doing it in Florida for years.

The past couple years, my expectations for NC State football have been low.

Coming into the Tom O'Brien era, I hoped that NC State could beat Carolina and go to a bowl game. Last year, in the first year of his tenure, we accomplished task number one. We beat the Tarholes, 31-27 in Raleigh. We fell short of goal number two when we finished the season with a 5-7 record, one win shy of being bowl eligible.

This year, we started off with even lower expectations. People were picking us to finish last in our division, and the beginning of the season gave us no reason to believe any different. However, much like last year, the Wolfpack have put together a series of wins late in the season to put us on the verge of being bowl eligible. The extra benefit of the late wins this year is that they have all been against in-state rivals.

So, whether whether we win or lose this coming Saturday against Miami, I consider this season a success, but it sure would be nice to accomplish task number two this time around.

Parting shots...
You can buy your very own "State Champions" t-shirt from the Go Pack store.

The NC State ticket office is running a "Thanksgiving Special", where you can get a ticket to the football game this coming Saturday against Miami and a ticket to the NC State vs UNC-G the same day for just $30.

Labels: basketball, football, nc state, sports

This weekend I read a good post on the Deep Green Conversation blog. The article addressed some of the arguments against recycling, namely:

(1) that the problem they were intended to solve (overflowing, dangerous landfills) never really existed
(2) that the the benefits of recycling are scant and the costs too high
(3) that recycling actually harms the environment

I enjoyed the post. I had never thought much about those three critiques. I have pretty much unquestioningly assumed recycling was a good thing. I thought they did a good job addressing each item.



The Deep Green Conversation is a site that plans to be "an interactive site full of content and resources that help you integrate your faith into a deep green lifestyle". The site is new, but the blog is pretty good. I look forward to seeing what else they add to it.

Do you recycle?

Labels: blogosphere, green, recycling

Please take a moment to say a prayer for Kim's step-dad and her whole family.

He was experiencing some chest pain yesterday so he went to the ER. They did an EKG and it came back abnormal. He was admitted and they are going to do a stress test today. Her mom made it seem like it was a GERD issue and not a heart issue, but right now, we don't know.

Any prayers would be appreciated.

Labels: family

This weekend Kim is in Emerald Isle for a girls' weekend with nine other ladies. So, I decided to pack Palmer up and head to Alamance County to have him hang out with his cousins.

Friday night. we spent some time at grandma's house (We didn't get to play the Wii.) hanging out with Jalen. Then, after grandma had given the boys their baths for the night, we headed to the Alston house to put the boys to bed.

This morning, Constance, my sister, had to work and Joel, my brother-in-law, had basketball practice. He asked Jalen if he would rather go with him to basketball practice, or stay at the house and play with Palmer. He chose the latter. So, I got to take care of two kids for the majority of the morning and early afternoon.

The interesting part is that the difference in the ages of Palmer and Jalen is roughly the same as the difference in the ages of Palmer and our Baby Numero Dos. So, hanging out with these two was sort of a preview of what life might be like with our second child is Palmer's age.

Overall, it wasn't that bad. I think I managed it quite well. After Constance and Joel had left, we played inside for awhile. At first, I tried to maintain some state of order, but soon I gave up and decided that a mess was inevitable and we would just have to clean up at the end of the day.



Later, we had a snack and after that I started thinking about lunch. I decided to be brave and take the boys out for lunch. I had decided to take them to CiCi's for some pizza. This had potential to get ugly because we were pushing nap times, but it turned out great. The worst part was the ride there, when I heard "Are we there, yet?" several times. The boys behaved great and both ate really well.



I did manage to lock us out of the Alston house. So, when we got back from lunch, nap times were pushed even further back because we had to play outside until Joel got home. We had a good time playing with Jalen's "roller coaster" and we even had a visit from a neighborhood dog.





Once Joel got home, we got the boys inside and down for nap time, which they were resistant to take part in. At that point, my life with two kids experiment was over.

Like I said, it wasn't that bad. I don't think for a minute that a few hours is indicative of what it will truly be like with two kids, but at least it was a glimpse.

You can see all of the pictures from our trip to the Alstons' here.

What did you do this weekend?

Labels: family

Anne Jackson, blogger extraordinaire, has partnered up with Soles4Souls, a shoe charity giving shoes to those in need, to create The 50,000 Pairs in 50 Days Challenge.

The goal is simple – to use social media (blogging, other social network tools) to raise awareness and have 50,000 pairs of shoes donated in 50 days.

We are offering you a way to make a one time $5 donation and purchase 2 pairs of shoes. It is that easy to make a difference in someone’s life.

It only takes two minutes of your time and $5 from your wallet.

Who's in?

Labels: activism, blogosphere

We host our photos online using flickr. We put them up under a creative commons license that says you can use our photos non-commercially. I'm no professional. If someone wants to use some of our work, I don't have a problem with it.

This has come up before when the Schmap Orlando Guide wanted to use one of our photos.

Well, while we were on our cruise, I got a message from someone else saying that they had used one of our photos in a video. This time it was more of a kind gesture to let us know that they had used it, which is not required under the license, and not them requesting permission.

The photo they used was one of Jeramie and Joye in front of their house just after they had bought it. You can see it at the 5:15 mark.



Disclaimer: The election is over. Please don't comment on anything political. I just thought it was cool that my photo was used.

Labels: creative commons, photography, politics, video