Q: Where have I been this whole time?

A: I have no idea. And no excuse. Now, I don't want to underestimate the impact that my blog absence has caused for all of you guys -- or the two or three of you who have ever actually read this blog. Oh well, I've decided that I will try to do better from now on. For now indulge me as I give y'all a few updates, thoughts, observations, and predictions:

UPDATES

• I'm heading to San Diego in six days for a Risk Mgmt conference! I'll try to give some daily updates -- with pictures -- for all you guys who will be in Athens studying for finals. :)
  
• I successfully got into the Terry Real Estate program!
• I have three tests, two projects and two papers due this week!
• We now have an official hammock at our apt!!!!1!11!!!!!1
• All of our roommates are now officially 21!
• I love exclamation marks!!!111!1!!!!!!
• I actually joined an Athens Church community group...which is really exciting for me. And I'm trying to get back into the whole "Christian walk" thing, so I'll occasionally let you guys know what's up.
• I just subscribed to Twitter. Follow me. We'll see how this goes.
  

THOUGHTS

• Not sure...I don't know why I included this category in my list above. I don't really have anything to put here.

OBSERVATIONS

• The weather here in the ol' G-A is annoying. Annoying like the fat guy who always has the seat next to you on a long plane flight. Annoying like the crumbs and such at the bottom of a cereal box that, no matter how you try to avoid pouring them in your bowl, always seem to flood the top and get mushy with the milk. That annoying. Seriously, high of 58 two days ago, misty and windy yesterday morning, beautiful tropical weather today. What's the deal?
• Sometimes you get what you ask for. And sometimes what you ask for turns out to not be what you wanted at all. Case in point the Target case study for my leadership class. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to win a $3,000 scholarship for the group, but I'd also love to keep my sanity this week (see above). I hate it when this happens.

PREDICTIONS

• We've got a lot to look forward to for this season's Dawgs. Below is just one reason.

• Holy crap! And how about this one?

• Get excited. I'm buying red pants. Debate ensues. I look good regardless because I still have these. Be jealous. And I don't have any Friday class(es) next semester, so I'll be rockin' the UGA class all across the great Southeast. But not to Arizona State, because I'm poor.
• The Yankees will right the ship...soon...hopefully. Boy, I hate the Red Sox.
• I will somehow survive this semester and have an incredible summer in Tanzania and Atlanta.

And that's all I've got for you guys. Time for a Visitors Center spring banquet then my community group. If I blog from San Diego, then I've made it through this next week. If not, then I'm probably just being lazy. Sorry for the lack of pictures...I'll try to fix that. In the meantime, chew on this:

"Georgia is a powerhouse right now, and they were at the end of last year with the way they displayed it in their bowl game." -- Mike Aresco, CBS' senior vice president of programming.

UGA's Road to the National Championship

So it's been a while -- a very long while -- since I last wrote anything on this blog. And this post won't be a long update on where I've been all this time. It's just a simple plea to the college football gods: All I want this Christmas -- and I'd be damn thankful for it also -- is for these few things to happen over the next few weeks:

1. USC beats #6 Arizona St. -- UGA moves to #5
Done; I just finished watching the game. USC looked like USC used to, and Arizona St. looked exactly as I thought they would whenever I finally got around to seeing them play.
2. UConn beats #3 West Virginia
After the '06 Sugar Bowl I'll never count myself as a WVU supporter, and this game is no different.
3. #4 Missouri beats #2 Kansas...badly
Who are these teams anyway? The worse Missouri beats Kansas, the further KU falls in the polls, 'nuff said.
4. Kentucky beats Tennessee -- UGA goes to SEC Championship Game
This is the key to the whole scenario, and I haven't been this huge a Kentucky fan since...wait, I've never been a Kentucky fan. Sorry.
5. #7 UGA beats Ga. Tech
Just like last year...and the year before...and the year before...and the year before...okay, you get the point. The Dawgs must win convincingly to persuade the polls to drop Kansas behind us.

End of play for this week: UGA locks up a place in the SEC Championship against LSU; West Virginia, Kansas, and Arizona St. all fall behind the Dawgs in the BCS standings, leaving UGA at #4 (behind LSU, Missouri, and Ohio St.).

6. #4 UGA beats #1 LSU -- SEC CHAMPS!!!
I'll guarantee a victory in this one if we make it to the game (come on, Wildcats!) because there's no way LSU's now-porous run D can stop Knowshon and TBrown. Or just Knowshon.
7. Oklahoma beats #2 Missouri in Big 12 Championship
OU wins the Big 12 and life returns to normal...but only if USC can win the PAC-10 again, just like the whole past century.

End of play for this week: Ohio St. comes in at #1 in the BCS by default because they don't have any more games to play, and -- you guessed it -- that would be the Dawgs sitting pretty at #2 and poised for an incredible BCS Championship victory.

Now I know this might be a long shot, but the first step has already been completed right on schedule, so I don't see why the rest can't shake out. And there's seven steps necessary in this scenario, and seven is a lucky number...and Stafford's number...

We'll just have to sit back and see.
GO DAWGS! Sic 'em!
ET