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It took my a while to find him, and I could only do so after scanning the picture and being able to zoom.  He’s in the middle without his leather helmet on standing next to the guy in the cap.

If my memory serves correct he told me this was some sort of semi-pro team.  He had this one story about how he and and teammate teamed up to tackle this one guy where one  hits high and the other hits low and it resulted in a broken leg for ball carrier.  They went to visit the guy in the hospital and he said it was no big deal, breaking a leg is just part of the game.

Click the image to biggie-fy.

• Our local grocery store has scented pine cones at the entrance that will automatically put you in the holiday spirit.  I bought some and left them in our SUV, so now it smells like Christmas everytime we go for a drive.
• I mentioned when we visited my father’s grave over the weekend and DaughterGeeding had a lot of questions about death that we answered honestly but still hard for her to comprehend.  When my father was alive I would talk to him as he would get in bed and when he laid his head on his pillow I would brush back his hair and give him a kiss on the forehead, I even did it when he died and I left his hospital room.  I continue the habit when I visit his grave by stroking the top of the tombstone as if I’m brushing his hair back and then kissing it.  This time when I did it DaughterGeeding followed suit and did the exact same thing and gave the tombstone a hug.  She also asked us to take a picture of her next to the flowers and flag we placed on the grave.  I feel weird taking pictures of people in front of a tombstone but blighted.
• I think I mentioned this before, but after I asked WifeGeeding’s parent’s permission to marry their daughter the next thing I did was visit my father’s grave.  At DFW National Cemetery that day I encountered Michael Irvin talking on a cell phone leaning on his Mercedes that had PLY MKR license plate.
• For the last five years or so I had the worst dry scalp and dandruff problem and have tried every shampoo and product out there.  I’m not much for home remedies, but I read that apply apple cider vinegar to your scalp for about 15 minutes and washing it out would do the trick.  I had nothing to lose and to my surprise it worked remarkable well, my scalp hasn’t feel this great and hasn’t produced any dandruff since I tried this about four weeks ago.
• The UIL now has a 6A classification for Texas schools. [hat-tip LiberallyLean.com]
• I follow a lot of agnostic and atheist blogs, and it’s amazing how much they like and respect Pope Frances.  Most of them touched regarding his recent  ‘I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty’ comments.  It’s great to see how he’s connecting with the unchurched.
• Speaking of Pope Francis and unbelievable things, it would be crazy if this were true –  Pope Francis may be sneaking out of the Vatican at night to help the poor
• Dallas is 73 on the list – The Most Post-Christian Cities in America
• Sometimes I think those who complain that Christ is being taken out of Christmas usually don’t put Christ at the forefront of their life eleven months of the year.  I feel similar to those who point out God has been taken out of schools.  And here is your2013 ‘War On Christmas’ Enemies List which is even color coded.
• Speaking of the War on Christmas, the National Republican Congressional Committee is firing up the base by selling t-shirts and mugs with the slogan “‘Happy Holidays’ is what liberals say.”  But did they have to use the Comic Sans font?
• “The problem with quotes on the internet is that you never know if they’re true. -Abraham Lincoln” @Lecrae – I had to stop following @OMGFacts because after a bit of research I found of lot of their facts were incorrect.  And that brings me to a rare disappointment in @HistoryInPics which posted a photo of JFK and Marilyn Monroe snuggling through a creaked door which is obviously fake.
• I think AMC should start a show using the actors that played Mike from ‘Breaking Bad’, Bert Cooper from ‘Mad Men’, and Herschel from ‘The Walking Dead’.  About what? I dunno.
• News from across the pond – Child taken from womb by social services
• Airing up a truck tire with WD-40 and a lighter – GIF
• I wonder if the overhead camera we see for both college and NFL games will be replaced with a drone one day for even more spectacular shots.  Off hand, I’d say a drone would be safer than those cable mounted cameras and they would probably be cheaper.  Heck, it would be neat to have several drones with cameras recording action.
• I know conservatives don’t favor government regulation, so I wonder about their thoughts on drones and how they may become a part of our daily lives.  The cost of drones are very affordable, and you certainly don’t want those things interfering with aircraft or neighbors using them as Peeping Tom or spying equipment.  And ifAmazon.com is able to use them as a delivery mechanism, you certainly want to make sure they don’t hit power lines or drop or hit anyone.
• I wonder when stop lights will advance in technology so if you are the only car coming to one and there are no other vehicles, it will change so you don’t even have to slow down, or based upon certain algorithms can make traffic flow more efficiently and coordinate with other lights down the road.
• If you ever wanted to ride in a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger and smoke a cigar with him, here’s your chance.
• Two-and-a-half years ago Rebecca Black released the song ‘Friday’.  Now, the 16-year-old reviews the video and is embarrassed like a lot of are when we look at younger versions of ourselves.  But I can’t get over how she’s reacting after just a little over twoyears, she just needs to wait until she hits 30 and then it will really hit her.
• The U.S. economy does better under Democratic presidents — is it just luck?
• Watch every ‘Seinfeld’ episode online
• Switched at birth: Son born to rich parents sues hospital after life of poverty
• Mugger apologises to victim 30 years after finding him on Facebook
• The background couple going through the various stages of life during a series of flashback scenes on HIMYM was pretty funny.

• I went a little overboard cooking my turkey this year, but that’s part of the fun.  For you Food Network fans you know that Alton Brown says there’s no other way to cook a turkey but to brine it first, and you Bobby Flay fans know that he prefers to just butter a turkey, so I decided to do both!  My brine consisted of the usual water, salt, broth, and various seasonings, but I decided to add both brown sugar and maple syrup.  After brining I added butter between the skin and meat and threw it on the grill and added some mesquite wood chips for some smokiness, and it turned out great.  I may have overcooked my bird a bit because I undercooked it a bit last year, I just need to practice my thermometer placement.  For the last two years I used the thermometer in which you keep it in your bird while cooking and it will beep when it reaches the correct temperature, only problem is I’m not placing it in quite the right place.  Next year I’ll probably take Buddy’s suggestion of spatching the bird to cook faster, but this time I wanted the presentation of a whole bird.
• For pictures of my grill set up as well as some other weekend photos check out this Flickr set or the slideshow at the bottom of this post.
• The Cowboy game started with a narration from the late Pat Sumerall, I hope CBS keeps that tradition.  It’s hard to believe he was last with CBS 19 years ago.
• We got off to an unusually quick start to Christmas this year.  This weekend we put up the tree, decorated the house, put a poinsettia on my father’s grave, and I completed my Christmas shopping when WifeGeeding went to a play on Saturday.
• That Alabama/Auburn game was fantastic to watch.  I thought Auburn was making  a mistake after their last offensive touchdown by kicking the extra point and sending the game to overtime instead of trying to go for two and winning it, especially since they were playing at home (even though that didn’t work for Michigan that day against Ohio State).  But I did think Saban made the right decision to kick the 57-yard field goal at the end of the game even though it was returned for a touchdown.  The blame for the failure of that particular play for Alabama lays at the feet of their special teams coach not prepping that unit for a possible return.  Auburn had a player waiting to catch and return it, and after Alabama kicked that field goal you can see all their players just standing upright watching the ball instead of getting into position for a potential return.  It’s the little things that matter.
• Bama’s kicker is from the rough streets Southlake and as you can expect is getting a lot of threats through the ‘big muscles’ of social media for missing three field goals.
• The biggest punk of college football this season has to be Baylor’s Ahmad Dixon, without question.  He was arrested at the beginning of the season for assault and the classless Art Briles didn’t have the balls to suspend him, against Oklahoma he was penalized for unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct on one play, and on Saturday he was ejected for targeting and walked off the field blowing kisses to the crowd.  On top of that, he had the gall to tweet an insult at TCU’s quarterback.  Dixon first got my attention against Oklahoma with his “me first” attention seeking attitude when he was busy communicating with the crowd when a play was run behind his back.  Some folks point at the NFL for this sort of selfishness, but you can’t deny it happens in the NCAA as well.
• TCU’s Gary Patterson questioned Briles’ class.  Patterson has enough to deal with getting past the drug bust scandal a few years ago among a few other things.  But I don’t understand why Briles’ coaching staff didn’t remove an ejected player from the sidelines and why his defense (or defensive coordinator Phil Bennett) this year continues to take cheap shots at defenseless receivers. Those players being targeting aren’t making an NFL income and if they get injured, they have nothing to fall back on.
• Hardin-Simmons played Baylor in basketball and got beat 104-59.  I know in football small programs play big programs because of money but I don’t think that’s the case in basketball and makes me question why such a game is scheduled, especially when you take into consideration that Hardin-Simmons doesn’t even offer any athletic scholarships.
• Tips For Jesus – An Instagram of people leaving ridiculously large tips in the name of Jesus.
• I can’t stand Dave Ramsey for a plethora of reasons, and Rachel Held Evans recently wrote a critique about him.  I get her overall point, but I think she was a little off target and as an author, I expected her to frame her argument better.
• ‘Orange is the New Black’ is much better than I thought, and my readers were right in pointing out how interesting the back stories of each character are.  But I was blown away to see how much Captain Janeway has let herself go.
• Something for you ‘Mad Men’ fans, his hair is actually brown and maybe has a bit of a perm – 1980s Sports Illustrated TV Commercial featuring John Slattery
• I heard that John Boehner has a really good turkey brine recipe and when looking for it, I found he has two different government websites.  One is for his Ohio congressional seat and the other is for his position as Speaker.  This is a critique, just an observation as I thought he’d just have one.  Here’s the recipe if you are curious, it’s the maple syrup that caught my attention and it’s where I got the idea for my brine.
• I never heard of Paul Walker until this weekend.
• I find it interesting that Mooyah’s has changed this business model.  Usually these sort of businesses have a certain schtick and stick with it.  You use to go use pieces of paper to select your order and hand it to the cashier, a regular burger was two small patties, and food was always served in a paper bag.  Now you just order at the counter, instead of two small patties you get one third pound patty, and if you eat it there, food is served on a metal rectangle tray.
• Vietnam Announces Fines for Citizens who Criticize the Government on Social Media
• I bet this $5 bill circulated in the South, but I could be wrong.
• ’60 Minutes’ had two great segments last night.  It started off with a profile on Amazon.com and showed how they plan to use drones to deliver packages that weigh less than five pounds to your front door.  That makes me wonder how many kids with sling shots and BB guns are going to take aim at those things.  The show also had a great segment on the construction of the U.S. Capitol and Scott Pelley actually got to go to the very top of the dome which I’m sure was a breathtaking view of D.C.
• I thought the idea of the U.S. and Canada merging was far fetch and ludicrous, but this article about the idea made some good points.
• If you caught ‘The Amazing Race’ last night you got to see someone who never boiled an egg and attempted it by holding the eggs over the steam instead of placing in the water.
• ‘The Walking Dead’ talk:
  • I think we all knew Hershel has been on his last leg for a while now.
  • I guess the actor that plays Hershel can play a mall Santa for the time being.
  • It’s a show about zombies, so you have to take the real of believably out of a lot of it, but even the Storm Troopers in Star Wars are better shots.

  
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  • At least it didn’t happen on Thanksgiving – Early yesterday morning WifeGeeding informed me that the garbage disposal wasn’t working.  I hit the reset button on the bottom of it and thought I was in the the clear as it started up but nothing would drain, which resulted in a trip to Home Depot to rent a drain snake.  Everything would have went well if the PVC pipe covering outside to the kitchen line didn’t break when I was unscrewing it.  I was trying to gently unscrew that thing but the sun and weather made that thing pretty fragile.
  • The TICKET was reporting that the Cowboys will be wearing blue jerseys at home, is Jerry losing his mind?  I know they often wear a throwback jersey on Thanksgiving but I’d really be surprised if they were wearing blue.
  • Now that’s a big quesadilla
  • I guess we started Christmas early as we watched Rudolph last night.
  • Some of you asked via email if I ever blogged about my mother’s passing.  Yup, here and here.  I don’t really write like that anymore I don’t think.
  • My first Thanksgiving without my mother was when she took a trip to Vietnam.  That one is easy to remember because that was when Miami played Dallas on that snowy Thanksgiving day and we all remember what Leon Lett did.  But my favorite Thanksgiving memory is probably the second one without my mother, the one in which she died a week prior.  We left the turkey on the table and forgot and one of us forgot to push our chair in.  DogGeedingII took advantage of it and the next thing we know is we see him gorging with delight on a turkey about his size.
  • One of the crazier battles of WWII involved American soldiers, French prisoners, and German soldiers defending an Austrian castle against an SS division.
  • ‘Person of Interest’ is getting better and better, I just wish it was on a cable network so they could get away with more stuff.
  • A Transparent Cabin Built of Wood and Mirrors
  • Rachel Held Evans brought up a few interesting questions regarding Obamacare and religious liberty.  It’s stuff I thought about, but she’s able to write much better than me.  For instance, if the owner a company can make decisions regarding the healthcare coverage of his/her employees based on religious conviction, what’s to keep an employer who is Jehovah’s Witness from refusing to cover blood transfusions?  And if evangelicals want to prevent abortions, shouldn’t they embrace birth control which would help prevent unwanted pregnancies?  I know some folks don’t think all birth control works the same way, and she lightly touches on the topic.
  • Vladimir Putin spying on Reagan as a KGB agent
  • The latest Christian health/diet trend – The Daniel Fast
  • Someone had the idea that if you have very young children, you should DVR all the latest and greatest cartoons.  When the kids get old enough to watch them, by that time, all the toys associated with that old cartoon will be on sale and they will think it’s the latest and greatest.
  • I watched the first episode of Netflix’s ‘Orange is the New Black’.  It’s different and interesting enough for me to watch the next episode.
  • Black Friday Death Count
  • I keep hearing rumors that the next U2 album will drop in March. Who kno
  • Kentucky Fried Chicken Candles Sell Out in 1 Minute
  • Georgia juror form lists ‘slave’ as occupation
  • Bad Santa – Mall Santa Claus charged with groping elf
  • KKK distributes recruitment fliers to predominantly black, Hispanic neighborhoods‏
  • Composite of Texas State Capitol between dawn and dusk‏
  • 50 Reasons We’re Thankful to Live in Dallas‏
  • Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, and Prince William sing ‘Living On A Prayer’ – YouTube
  • What a Real War on Christmas Looks Like