I'm back...

...and hopefully not forgotten. Although I wouldn't blame you if you had forgotten about me. It's been awhile. Normally this is the point where I apologize to you, my loyal readers (assuming there is a single one of you left), but somehow I don't think it matters much this time. Over a month without news? Simply inexcusable.

Some things have changed since the last time I wrote. First, the Wife and I have moved. We're now two hours further west. If we keep up this pace, we should be in Denver in another twelve years. Not to worry, it'll take something like 45 years before we're living on a raft in the Pacific. Second, we took a trip to New England. I'll try to get the pictures up, especially since (and you should already know this if you read the Wife's blog) the entire trip was fueled by free samples, which were mostly sugar. We discovered that at a certain point, consuming a massive amount of sugar makes you even more willing to do stupid things than if you had consumed a massive amount of alcohol. Sounds weird, but it's true. Third, I've started school again, which means that I'm once again dealing with the wonders of the American education system. The wonderful part is that No Child Left Behind seems to be working. The problem, as was pointed out to me by some of those TAs that had been there longer and has since been confirmed by yours truly, is that it might be working too well. Fourth, and finally, as the Wife has mentioned several times, she starts work on Tuesday. This is a good thing. A very good thing. I never realized that someone could go insane if they didn't have work to do. It must have something to do with my tendency to do everything possible to avoid doing work. Oh well.

But I know you don't really care about all that. Especially not today. Not with today being the greatest (okay, maybe second greatest - it seems vaguely wrong not to say that Christmas, with that whole birth of Jesus commemoration isn't the greatest. Although I suppose you could make a case for Easter then too.... Hmmm.... Maybe third greatest?) day of the year - COLLEGE FOOTBALL starts today! Now, I know there may be one or two slightly less informed people out there reading this who think "Wait a second, I saw LSU beat up on Mississippi State Thursday night. College football started two days ago. What's this idiot talking about?" Well, I date the start of the college football season to the debut of one team, and one team only. Thus, college football only starts at 3:30pm Eastern time (2:30 here in JackMO) when NOTRE DAME takes the field.

Of course, like any good Notre Dame fan, I've bought into the hype and the confidence Charlie seems to be oozing out of every pore (this would be the point for any Notre Dame haters to get in a cheap fat joke). The Wife would like me to temper this optimism. I disagree, because at this point of the year I only have two things to get optimistic about - Notre Dame football and the Chicago Cubs. Bitter, bitter, bitter experience has taught me over the years that only the dumbest of the dumb allow themselves to be optimistic about the Cubs, at least until they are only one or two strikes away from winning the World Series, and even then they'll probably find a way to blow it. That doesn't mean that I don't think this is the year (it's always a good year when the Cubs make it into September without being mathematically eliminated), it just means until they're in the World Series, I'm not getting my hopes up too much. I fully expect to someday BE the guy in that new Master Card commercial - about 90 years old, sitting alone in a bar with my Cubs hat on, with the tag line "Tears: Too Many" displayed under my worn, battered face. So, instead of the Cubs, I'm going to latch onto Notre Dame. Sure, they're young. Sure, the schedule it brutal. But it's Notre Dame. Never bet against Notre Dame. Always bet against the Cubs.