Getting Ready

Last week I teased that I'd have another light topic this week. Some of you are going to be sorely disappointed in it I'm afraid. So before I get to that, I've been getting some reader questions lately. Let's see if I can knock some of those out. Peppermint asks, "what made you decide to pop the question to the lovely ListGirl?" Hmmm, I'll answer a slightly different question. One night during the dating period, Listgirl was rather sick. So I was pumping her with fluids, making sure she was as comfortable as possible, making runs for drugs, stealing her stuff, oops, I didn't say that last one. And with a moment's reflection I realized that I really would not want to be doing anything else at that moment. And that wasn't just because I was intimidated by my Electromagnetics homework. That's when I decided I was in lurve. And said so. With the passage of more time, marriage became a foregone conclusion considering that we stayed together throughout college. Christi wonders, "What is the most romantic thing you've ever done for listgirl?" Wow. That's a tough one to answer. Which tells me that I haven't done anything particularly romantic since regular posting started on this blog (gulp). How about we go way back to the wedding day itself when I wrote and performed a song at the reception. These days I sing all the time but back then I horrified at the idea of singing in public so that was pretty brave on my part. Tracey asks, "About the cougar story...what did Todd think about these 'ladies'??" Hmm, I think my HR department reads this blog so let's censor... There's not much to censor actually, I didn't have much of a response. Just chucked to myself. Anonymous, I mean Cathy asks, "Todd, have you heard about the Jack In The Box that is testing the new fancypants Coke machine? It's up in Vista." No, BUT I MUST GO! Jay queries, "Have you tried Coke Zero? Coke Zero Vanilla is a gateway drink to other diet sodas!" I like Vanilla, and Cherry, and Lime. But I get sick of them in time if I drink them too heavily. Unlike the real (diet) thing. I like Coke Zero slightly better than Diet Coke. And after Erika read about my love of scholastics, she pointed out "I too always loved the university and campus air, it was very fun time, but I wouldn't want to go back now. Working has too many advantages, like pay and no homework." Hmmm, that's a pretty good point. On to today's brief topic. Football season has arrived and naturally that means I went shopping. Here is something that is absolutely true about me: I love to stock up! After all, you wouldn't want me to be Coke or popcorn-less would you? Ahh, Cokes as far as the eye can see. Our team's most difficult game will be played this Saturday. We will naturally celebrate that by bringing a few football-loving friends over who will eat our food and laugh at our misfortune if things don't go our way. What are friends for, right? I will save the bulk of the football talk for another venue since I know that's not why most of you come here. Suffice it to say I gave my team a 35% chance to win a couple of weeks ago. I raised that to 50% when USC installed a freshman quarterback. But a couple of days later, I dropped it back to 40%. For reference I gave OSU a 20% chance of winning in LA last year (they didn't) and in 2002 I gave them a 25% chance of winning the national championship (they did). My odds making is usually pretty good. OSU played better than I would have hoped in that title game. But there is a 100% chance I will have a blast. I stopped letting the performance of 20-year-old kids bother me years ago. Win or lose I will enjoy seeing my alma mater in the spotlight, enjoy the traditions and pageantry, and reminisce about earlier days. Including those early days with Listgirl both sick and well.