12/29/04--Our house is in an uproar

Well, the guys showed up to put in the tile in our living room.  All of our living room furniture is in the kitchen, the dogs have become emotionally distraught, there's dust everywhere, Kim's freakin....and me?  Hell, I put our lounge chair in the bedroom, so I'm doing okay.  You know what I love about guys doing work on your house?
They start working in the living room, they've ripped up the rug....broken all the tiles...and then....
"Uh, Mr. Bowdren....I need to speak to you about something."
"What's that?"
"Well....we've encountered a bit of a problem.  It will entail ADDITIONAL fees."

Naturally.

$300 later, their filling in the cracks in my floor and "leveling" the floor also.

My wife better enjoy this damn tile.

So yesterday I went in for a checkup.  It was a little different than usual, because of the death of Reggie White the other day.  Once they mentioned that sleep apnea could've played a part of it, the alarm went off in Castleberry, Florida and the emails started coming in from Mom & Dad.  So I go in for the checkup, and the doc is happy to tell me that, even though the blood pressure was up a little (but not bad enough to put me on medication)....my cholestral was down almost 65 points!
Hey now!  Let's go out for some BBQ!!  And then the doctor informed me that Reggie White did NOT die from sleep apnea.  He died from a respitory condition that is predominate in black males.  Ahem.  Sorry, I don't qualify.  So I gotta look into the whole sleep study thing again probably, but for now the doctor seemed like he was pretty happy with how I was doing.   Twisted steel & sex appeal baby!

So tonight we had dinner with Dennis & Lori Wiley, who were down visiting from Maryland.  We called for reservations at DiSalvo's about 5:30pm.....7 people for 7pm.  So we get there about 6:55pm...and we're informed that there will be a slight delay.  So about 15 minutes later, I go inside to check on our table (remember, we had a 7pm reservation).  I asked the hostess (way in over her head by the way) when our table might be available, since we were waiting outside and it was a little chilly. 
"Um...I really don't know."
"Uh, we did have a reservation...."
"Let me find out for you."

So then she goes over and speaks to the manager in the proverbial "hushed tones".

"Uh...about 25 or 30 minutes?"

It was about that time we decided to go to a DIFFERENT restaurant.  So here's my questions....why do you friggin take a reservation if you have no intention of honoring it?  If that sounds like a Seinfeld episode, it was.

So then we make our way down to the dreaded Roadhouse, had a very nice dinner
and enjoyed the visit.  DiSalvo's will be getting a very nasty phone call tomorrow.
Possibly more details will be forthcoming.  I personally can't wait to hear the excuse.

Finally, the Fighting Irish finished their season last evening.  It would've been nice for the guys to go out and, as they promised, go out and win one for their former coach.
Uh...well....didn't quite work that way.  They went down 38-21 to Oregon State.
OREGON STATE!  I mean, c'mon....I know that the Fighting Beavers have improved dramatically over the last 5 years, but their still OREGON STATE!
And now this makes 2 times in the last 4 years that they have flat out kicked our asses!  The game in a lot of ways was a microcosism of the team under Willingham.
Dreadful, horrible pass defense...I mean...I'm talking are any of those DB's actually on scholarship--type of pass defense.  WOW!  The run defense was very solid, which is not a stunning development considering how awful the pass defense was.
Let's hope Charlie Weis hires one hell of a defensive backfield coach.  The offense showed its usual brief glimpse that it could be something special.  Brady Quinn really needs to work with a good QB coach (Cutcliffe?) and if he does could be quite good.  Considering that the Irish were playing without 2 of their 3 best WR's, the pass offense was actually pretty decent.  The rushing offense?  It was like "let's run it once into the middle...uh...that didn't work....okay, let's try something else."  There didn't seem to be any sort of commitment at all to the running game.  It was the final game of Ryan Grant and his slow, plodding runs right into the back of his o-line.
Farewell to Mike Goolsby, a solid inside LB.  Let's hope for a return from potential all everything DE Justin Tuck--who has one more season of eligibility and hopefully will take it.
The Charlie Weis era is set to begin, as word has it that a big recruiting weekend is set for 1/7/05, with Charlie in South Bend.  Spring practice can't come soon enough.
At this point, I'll settle for just a little consistency.

Later,
Jeff