Notes

From the male grapevine
The best thing about any fantasy football draft is watching the chatter from people you haven't seen in years. (I stay quiet, which is what everyone would expect.)

Yesterday, while I picked players for my team Love Shack*, I heard the news that a reporter I worked with a long, long time ago was pregnant -- again -- and still unmarried. As I hadn't heard of pregnancy no. 1, that kinda freaked me out.

Usually when you hear news of old acquaitances, it's about a new job or move or kid or something that fits into what everyone expects out of life. You file the news somewhere and maybe remember it, maybe not. When they're having difficulties ... I dunno. For me it's like I'm instantly back in the newsroom or at a bar sharing a beer with that person -- far removed from the harsher things life is going to throw at people.


The nuerotic dog
So I took Ginger and left Jimbo here last weekend when I drove to Lubbock. Meredith said he behaved well, but pretty much just moped around for the three days me and the other dog were gone.

Since I've been back, he's gotten better but has still been kind of tentative with everything he does. Last night, I found some bumps on his chest, apparently his glands are swelling and he's fighting off an infection or something.

This is a high-stress dog. When we first moved to Fort Worth, he got some kind of stomach bug, went three days without eating, and spent two weeks on antibiotics.

Damn dog, doesn't understand relaxation techniques.

Bluff Dale, the latest small Texas town to go all Fredericksburgy

The Star-Telegram ran a feature on Bluff Dale, a town that's about 30 minutes away from Hico, and my wife is excited.

They've got a vineyard and winery! A gourmet-casual restaurant! Other stuff!

"I want to go," Meredith said. Then, thinking again, "Of course, now that it's been in the paper, it'll be infested by yuppies."

And, as my buddy David J. used to say, such is life. Small towns like Bluff Dale and Hico haven't been able to prosper in the old way -- when everybody had a 200-acre farm and grew cotton and cows -- for decades.

So, people who spent their life avoiding other people who used words like "lifestyle choice" now have to offer their own lifestyle choice of small-town quaintness in order to keep making money.

I'd be more melancholoy, but this place in Bluff Dale offers duck quesadillas, and I'm dying to give that a try.

Talking football, because my mind thought up things to say and I might as well write them down
After listening to the Tech game Saturday, I'm left vaguely unsettled. I don't know this team. It sounds like they could be good, but you're not going to get anywhere with a personal foul against you every three plays.

It's like they want to prove that they deserve the rankings and hype they've received, so they go out and either try too hard or not hard enough. I can only hope they clean themselves up quickly.

As it is, Texas and Oklahoma are already looking sharp. And so is Missouri, come to think of it. Tech had better focus, and ignore all the temptations and distractions that life in Lubbock can provide.

As far as A&M -- whoa. Didn't see that coming. The funny thing was reading the message boards and seeing everyone already calling for a new coach. C'mon, it's the first game of a new system. Ark. St. ain't that bad. Still, I think A&M's going to have a lousy season. I also think they are going to scare the bejesus out of Tech at Kyle Field.


*The song was on my mind, plus I had this nifty photo of a shack back in Hico that I want to repair. No, nothing nefarious has happened there. At least, not that I know of. It does look kinda creepy, though.