It's About Time!!!

Shannon Sharpe is a Pro Football Hall of Fame member...finally!!! Sharpe was the all time leader amongst Tight Ends in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns when he retired from the Denver Broncos in 2003. He was an integral part of 2 Super Bowl wins for the Broncos and another for the Baltimore Ravens during his "dark years" when he left the Broncos. Still, as a fan, I forgive his "dark years", and remember him as the great Broncos player he was.

I am excited about this! I have a Shannon Sharpe jersey hanging in my closet, right next to my John Elway and Terrell Davis jerseys. Sharpe was a talker during his playing days. The most famous talking Sharpe ever did was during a game against the Patriots. The Broncos were blowing the Patriots out, and Sharpe picked up a phone on the sidelines, near a camera, and said something along the lines of "Call the President, Call the Marines, Call the National Guard because we are killin' the Patriots!" He was the type of player that you loved to have on your team and hated him when he was not on your team.

I don't know why it took 3 years for the Hall of Fame voters to put Shannon Sharpe into the Hall of Fame. Nobody really understands how they decide on the football hall of fame. Thirty guys go into a room and come out several hours later with a list of the new Hall members. But, at least they finally got this one right.

Now, all we need to do is get Terrell Davis, Rod Smith, Steve Atwater, Dennis Smith, and Karl Mecklenberg into the Hall of Fame, and all will be right with the world.

Book Review x 2

The multi-movie review went so well, I thought I'd try a multi- book review. Though, these books are both great and could get their own review.

"The Pawn" by Steven James is the first book in the Patrick Bowers series. Patrick Bowers is an FBI agent who specializes in environmental profiling. Basically, his theory is that criminals have patterns and go through the same things as normal people do, so by looking at the patterns of the crimes, one can identify where and who the most likely criminals are. I'm not doing it justice...trust me it's cool.

In "The Pawn", Bowers is called to North Carolina to track a serial killer who leaves a Pawn with each body. The killer, called "The Illusionist" is murdering young women throughout the Asheville, North Carolina area. Once Patrick Bowers is on the case, The Illusionist steps it up a notch, and Bowers fears that he has finally met his match. Complicating things is that 2 of the murders seem out of place, and Bowers is still struggling with the death of his wife and his new role as father to her 17 year old daughter.

I really enjoyed this book. Apparently it's by a Christian publishing house, and there are occasions in the book where Bowers is really seen to struggle with why God lets things happen the way they do, but it's not the focus of the book. The mystery kept me guessing until the end, and, well, I was wrong. If you like a good mystery, give "The Pawn" by Steven James a try.

"Ranger's Apprentice, Halt's Peril" is the 9th book in the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. This time, Will, Horace and Halt are still on the trail of cult leader Tennyson. Unfortunately Halt gets poisoned by one of Tennyson's assassins. Can Will save his mentor and still stop the bad guy? You'll have to read to find out.

"Ranger's Apprentice" continues to be one of the most fun series I've read. It's not as good as "Percy Jackson" or "Harry Potter" but it's a good, fast paced read with really strong characters and nice stories.

I read on Wikipedia (so it must be true) that there are 12 books planned for this series. I'm thrilled about this. I knew there was at least one more book planned, and I was content with that, knowing that I could read these again with my kids. However, the potential for 3 new books makes me very happy.

The Blizzard of 2011

I still have 2 book reviews to write, but today I feel like I need to comment on the Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music here). It was a cold February day in Iowa. At 1 pm on February 1st, it began to snow...and it continued on into the night. The wind howled at 30+ mph. Sometime during the night, the snow stopped, but the wind continued. At 4:45 am, my place of employment auto-called me to let me know not to come to work. At 4:50 am, my place of employment auto-called my cell phone to let me know not to come to work. At 4:55 am, my place of employment auto-called the home phone (again) to let me know not to come to work. Apparently they really didn't want me there.

Fast forward a few hours, and my wife (bless her) and I were outside shoveling. Yes, we were shoveling because we like the challenge...and because we don't have anywhere to put a snow blower...and because we're too cheap to buy a snow blower. We had a 4 foot drift across our driveway to clear...with a shovel. We managed to get the driveway clear and thankfully our neighbor with a snow blower did our sidewalk. It was about noon at this time.

Around 1 pm, the plow driver (God Bless those men) came by and closed in our driveway. My wife and I went out again and spent another 30 minutes clearing the snow that the plow pushed into our driveway. We have 5 foot high piles of snow at the end of our driveway, and at least 3-4 foot high piles all along our driveway. All totalled, between my wife and I, we spent 3 hours shovelling. I'm going to be very sore tomorrow.

The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) dumped ~13 inches on our little corner of Iowa. I know it dumped greater amounts elsewhere, and is still dropping huge amounts of snow as it moves east. My story is being replayed all across our country (stupid global warming).

But, in the midst of this, I actually find that I'm grateful to God for a great many things.

I'm grateful that...

...my wife is so wonderful and so willing to shovel. In fact, most of the time she does all the shovelling. She likes the challenge.
...my kids were so good while we were out shovelling.
...my place of employment saw fit to give us the day off (sort of, still gotta make up the time)
...we have a warm house and that the power stayed on
...we have neighbors willing to snow blow our sidewalk
...my friend Nuke and his wife got home from the hospital before the worst of the storm hit
...the plows cleared our street, even though they pushed an insane amount of snow into my driveway
...I didn't have to shave (I hate shaving but I look silly with a full beard)

Here's hoping that the rest of you who experienced The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) can find as much of a silver lining as I did.