Hater in the House

So I thought I would go ahead and call myself a hater since that is what most will say after they read this. Plus, I'm not really going to be PC in this either, so here it goes. And Bryan, I hope your happy. So what is up with Pat Summitt getting a $300,000 raise to put her up at $1.325 million a year averaged out over the next few years. It comes at a time when Bruce Pearl was given a raise up to $1.3 million over the next few years. First off, let me set things straight. In my opinion, Summitt is definitely the best women's coach in the game. And she deserves to be paid so. She has won 6 NC's and over 900 games, but really hasn't done much lately. In a year where you can arguably say that her team underachieved, she was given a $300,000 raise to be bumped up just over Pearl. An argument could be made that she deserves to be paid more than Pearl because she has done more in her career. Well, let's look at some figures to take a look to see if she deserves all she receives.

First, if you take a look at the athletic budget from last year, there are only two sports that support the University by making money. Mainly, football by bringing in over $18 million in profit, followed by Men's basketball with about $1.2 million. Women's basketball is the only other sport with profit of $26,000. If you look across the country, this is going to be true at probably almost every school. But looking at UT's budget only, how can a Women's athletic department that only turns $26,000 a year profit in one sport, and deficits in every other, and receives money from the Men's athletic department to help support itself, afford to give a $300,000 raise to it's Women's basketball coach who really hasn't done anything lately? What about Bruce Pearl getting his raise you ask? Well, Pearl turned over $1.2 million in profit, overachieved greatly in his first year, was instrumental in raising the money for the new practice facility, is bringing in a Top 5 class in '06, and is still at about the average pay for a Men's college basketball coach.

Second, Summitt absolutely deserves to be the highest paid coach in Women's Basketball. But the big issue here is how it was handled. Summitt was quoted as being upset when Pearl got his raise to $1.3 million. The Women's AD, Joan Croanin, and President Petersen then got together and instigated Summitt's raise. Croanin was then caught on a morning sports talk show stating the one of the main reasons Summitt got her raise was because of Pearl's raise. WRONG REASON. What's going to happen if Pearl continues his success, and gets another raise in about 2 years that puts him well above $1.5 million? Will Summitt then demand another raise to equal Pearl's? Anybody with a financial background can realize that UT can't afford to pay her higher in a market that isn't that strong to begin with. And while I'm at it, I don't ever want to hear about the Women averaging more attendance than the Men again. While the numbers were close when Buzz was here, the Lady Vols consistently give away tons of tickets to their games. You want to see the biggest difference in revenue for the two teams, that is the first place to look. It's amazing how much more money you can make when all those in attendance are paying to be there. So there it is. Go ahead and hate away!

Softball Love

No this post isn't about men's softball, but instead, is going to so a little love for the UT Women's softball team. For those that don't know, the Lady Vols played Michigan in Knoxville this weekend for a chance to go to the Women's College World Series. I watched the team play last year when they made it to the WCWS, but hadn't seen any games this year. I had planned on trying to go to the first game on Saturday, but woke up late and wasn't able to attend so I watched it on ESPN. I was kind of glad I didn't go looking at the crowd as it was a huge overflow crowd in that little stadium. I guess it's a good thing they are getting a new stadium. Anyways, the UT-Michigan matchup was basically a WCWS matchup since UT probably deserved a higher seed and Michigan was definately a WCWS candidate, especially since they won the title last year. I'm still trying to figure out how a team (UT) can have the nation's #1 defense, #1 offense, and one of the best pitchers and not be #1. Oh well, the mysteries of life. And the uniforms from Saturday were awesome. The white sleeveless, with orange shirt and orange socks were awesome. I really think the baseball vols need to get some of those. But anyways.

So on to the games. I really have to give props to all the softballers out there, as you really can't make any mistakes out there. Basically if you bobble the ball, the runner is going to be safe. That's a lot of pressure on a person. Speed also puts a lot of pressure on the fielders. That was seen by Michigan, as Tennessee might also be the fastest team in the country. They have a really tough lineup, with Fekete, the nation's leading hitter, leading off followed by India Chiles, possibly the nation's fastest runner. If you get a chance to watch these girls, watch Chiles run, cause that girl can fly. She might possibly be one of the fastest girls I have ever seen. And she is a really good slider. She had some awesome slides that she scored on that otherwise she would have been out. But onto my new favorite softball player of all time, Lindsay Schutzler. She is just a great all around player. She hits over .400 for the season, is fast, and plays shortstop with a cannon of an arm. She made some amazing plays over the weekend. Some of the plays she made over the weekend were just mind boggling. And she is clutch at the plate. She hit in the game winning run on Saturday, and just seemed to be involved in everything over the weekend. Needless to say, if you want to see a great player, watch the softball team in the WCWS. They play #1 UCLA at 9ET on ESPN2 on Thursday night to start the tourney for both teams. If there is any team that can win this, it's UT. As stated earlier, they have offense and defense covered. If they get some great ptiching in the WCWS, then they could definitely come back to Knoxville with the title. Go Lady Vol Softballers!

X3 - No Spoilers contained

So originally, plans were to see X-Men 3 Sunday night after church. Well, some friends and I got together last night to watch X1 and X2, and then decided to go see X3 at the midnight showing. Being that I had gone to see Benchwarmers for the 3rd time after church Wednesday, which the movie doesn't warrant being seen that many times, and then X3 last night, I have already dozed off twice while typing this. Needless to say, 3 AM is WAY past my bed time. So any ways, on to my official review of X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

Where do I start? As I stated yesterday, I am a big X-Men fan, and thus, it was a given that I would really like the movie. Seeing how the movie relates to the cartoons is always really sweet and this movie was no exception, especially with the emergence of The Phoenix. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, Jean Grey was a student of Professor Xavier and is the most powerful mutant thus far. She develops two personalities, Jean Grey and The Phoenix. The Phoenix has always been powered by rage and is one of the most intriguing and dangerous mutants in the world. Needless to say, her emergence in the film as the leading lady of the film added a great dimension to the film. Just being able to see her awesome power is worth the price of admission alone. Most of her scenes in the movie are awesome, as Famke Janssen does an excellent job portraying this very deep character.

Elsewhere, there were some really shocking moments in the movie, stuff happening that left me saying, "Wow! I can't believe that just happened. I would have never thought that would have happened." I guarantee that if you are an X-men fan of the comics, cartoons, or first two movies, that you will enjoy this movie. Not to give anything away, but there are lot's of twists and plenty of great action in the movie. And lastly, don't make the mistake many people did last night and leave before the credits are over. Trust me, if you stay til the end of the credits, it will be well worth your while. About a quarter of the theater stuck around through the credits last night, and we were greatly rewarded for doing so. That being said, go see X-Men 3: The Last Stand in theaters now.

Unexplainable Absence

I have to say that I am sorry for not posting for the last couple of days. I just haven't had the thoughts or want to post anything. I even missed my usual 24 post. Just to let everyone know, the season finale was wonderful and had some unexpected twists, especially the end. I recommend anyone that hasn't seen season 5 to go rent the DVD's when they come out.

Onto the subject of this post, movies. So the third movie in one of my favorite series comes out tomorrow, and for those that haven't figured out what I'm talking about yet, it's X-Men 3: The Last Stand. I guess you could call me a super hero junkie, but I really enjoy most of the super hero movies. Batman, Spiderman, and X-Men are all favorites of mine. Don't even get me started on how much I enjoy Batman and Spiderman cause I could definately go on for days. I watched all three of these cartoons growing up and really like all of the characters. In regards to X-Men, I thought the first movie did a really good job of setting up all of the characters for the audience, so that even if you didn't know anything about X-Men, you could relate to the movie. The second movie was my favorite so far, as it had lots of action and didn't have to have as much setup in it. I also like how the movies have been able to bring in new characters by introducing them in the previous movies. For example, both Iceman and Pyro were introduced in X1 and then became main characters in X2, and look for the same from Colossus and Kitty Pryde in X3. Both made appearances in X2 as Colossus, who can transform into metal, and Kitty Pryde, who can walk through solid objects. There have also been some big themes in the movies as well. In all the movies, but mainly in X2, one of the big themes was acceptance from everyone no matter how different you may be. So X3 has really got my blood pumping for the newest installment of this great series. I have already watched both movies again, and will be doing so once more for each before I go see the movie on Sunday. On another note, I am really looking forward to seeing Beast, as he was one of my favorite characters on the cartoons.

On another movie note, a very freaky movie is preparing to come out. For those that don't know, The Omen is about the supposed son of the devil and the coming of the anti-Christ. The movie actually looks really good and it appears like it was well made, but I don't know how crazy I am about going to see a movie about that subject. And to top everything off, it comes out on Tuesday, June 6. So for those that haven't realized it yet, it comes out on 06/06/06. So if anyone goes to see it that day, then you are officially insane, cause I don't mess with that stuff. Call me scared or superstitious or what ever you want, but I'm staying away from this movie the day it comes out. So on a brighter note, look for my review of X-Men 3: The Last Stand after the weekend. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend, and stay safe.

A Slow Day

So it's a slow day for the blog. There's not much going on right now. I've had a couple of things on my mind lately in regards to church and graduate school. There is a lot of things going on at West End right now, and it's getting really ugly. I'm not going to go into any details here, but lets just say that the whole congregation needs prayers. In regards to grad school, I feel as though I have been given the shaft and there is a lot that I have to think about. Hopefully, I will be able to share a little bit more tomorrow and be a little bit more on the happy side.

Prison Break and 24

So last night was the season finale for Prison Break. What an exciting episode. The escapees make it out of the prison and gradually lose some of the escapees. Haywire is left behind when they pick up the van, and Tweener is left behind when they make a run for the plane. Ironically, both Tweener and Haywire appeared to have split off successfully and are on their way to freedom. T-Bag handcuffed himself to Michael to protect himself from Abruzzi. T-bag and Michael are slowing the group down so the escapees decide to try to cut the cuffs. They use a tree cutter which doesn't work and then Abruzzi grabs an axe and chops T-Bag's hand off. They leave T-Bag behind and then proceed toward the airport. They are spotted and are being pursued. Then the plane gets nervous and takes off and they have to make a run for it. Elsewhere, Veronica travels to Montana and enters Terrance Steadman's home and confronts him. The President is assassinated and the VP is sworn into office after she had been threatened that her support for President would be removed. Last, Doctor Tancredi is found on her couch from an apparent Morphine overdose. It leaves a lot for next season to delve into.

On to 24, with only 3 hours remaining, the season it starting to wrap everything up. Martha Logan finds Agent Pierce and is able to rescue him form being killed. They vow to make all this right and Pierce tells Martha to inform Mike Novick of everything that has gone on. The recording was erased by Myles and he is coincidentally being transferred to the White House. The only lead on an escaped Bierko is through Henderson, who wants to broker a deal for his cooperation. Bierko intends to release the nerve gas on a Russian submarine that is docked in LA being inspected because of the agreement President Logan and the Russian President signed earlier that day. Bierko intends to use the missles that are loaded on the submarine against the cities in the US. Next week's two hour season finale is setup to be a really good one, as here's my prediction, Jack will somehow save the world once again by breaking into the submarine and killing Bierko and his accomplices, and then will hunt down Logan and get him to confess to everything, and lastly, somehow, Jack will be left in limbo as the season ends. Be sure to tune into 24 next week for the season finale.

A great weekend.

So this past weekend I took a trip with four frineds from church down to the ATL for a Braves game on Friday night and Six Flags all day Sunday. The Braves game on Friday night was awesome as we got the see John Smoltz pitch a complete game victory as well as firewroks afterwards. It was quite exciting. But Six Flags definately took the cake for the weekend. We got there before the park opened and were able to ride the first couple of rides without basically having to wait in line. First was Goliath, the newest coaster at the park which just opened this year. The ride was awesome. It was definately number 1 or 2 of the rides there. At a claimed 3 minutes long, it's supposedly the longest, tallest, and fastest coaster in the south. We then proceeded to ride Batman and Mindbender which I had ridden before. Mindbender is where the day got off to the interesting start that was to follow. As we were about to step onto the ride, they shut it down and had to remove a broken car from the track. That was actually really cool to watch, as I had never seen anything like that before.

After Mindbender, we proceeded to Superman, which in my opinion was the best ride there. It's just a different feeling when they lay you down on your stomach and you ride the whole way like that. After waiting for 2 hours through a weather delay, we finally got to ride Superman. We decided to wait for the very front of the ride and it was well worth it. We then proceeded to ride Ninja and Deja vu, which was another interesting time. We ended up waiting 2 1/2 hours through 3 "technical difficulties" and a near fight. Sam, one of the guys that was with us, confronted a guy when he tried to cut in front of us. Luckily, nothing happened, but it could have, and it wouldn't have been pretty, as this guy and his friends had us outnumbered. Anyways, we finally got on Deja vu after it had been shut down 3 times for technical difficulties. Basically the ride pulls you up 180 feet, drops you, does a couple of loops, goes up another vertical pole, pulls you up 180 feet, drops you, and you do the whole thing again backwards. Pretty cool ride actually. Here's a pic from before we were dropped. The one above is form when we were dropped going backwards.
We then went on to ride Acrophobia, free fall drop from 200 feet, as well as Georgia Scorcher, a stand up coaster. Overall, it was a ton of fun, and hopefully, I'll be able to make a trip up to Cedar Point sometime this summer.

Smallville and more

So last night was the season finale for Smallville. And what a show it was. Lex develops Kryptonian powers thans to Milton Fine and shares them with Lana. Lana accepts Lex for who he is which is rather ironic especially when Clark finds out considering that is what Clark was always afraid to do in the first place. Clark is given a dagger to kill the "vessel" that Zod needed to return from the vortex. When Clark discovers that that vessel is Lex, he has a tough decision to make. Does he kill his former best friend who is dating his former love to save the world, or does he spare his life because he is not a killer? Lionel had a great line when talking to Clark about this situation. He said, "The real test of a hero is knowing when the greater good will be served by an evil act." Is it ok to take one life to save the rest of the world? Once Fine begins the spread of the virus, Clark meets Chloe in Metropolis where mass rioting is occuring. This is where Clark finally gets some action. Before he leaves to meet Lex, Chloe says she might not ever see him again, and gives him a big fat kiss. YES!! I think I had been waiting all season to see that. The only thing better would have been to see him and Lois kissing. But there is just something about a woman who stands behind her hero and wishes him well. The scene between Lex and Clark was a little disappointing as I was hoping there would be more fighting between them. However, Zod is released into Lex when Clark throws the dagger at Fine and hits him and thus releases Zod. The show ends with Clark being stuck in a vortex, Lionel and Chloe being attacked in Metropolis, Lois and Martha Kent passing out on a hijacked plane heading for who knows where, and Lex, aka Zod, and Lana making out overlooking Metropolis destroying itself. Next season looks to be an exciting one as almost every character is in limbo as well as the world with Clark stuck in a vortex unable to protect them all.

There's not much to say about softball last night other than the fact that my team gets easily rattled. It seems as though if we get down by just a little bit, then everybody starts to panic. It seems as though there is only me and one other guy that are able to keep our cool under adverse conditions. I'm trying to help these guys out by using some of the Sports Pschology stuff I learned in school, but it's hard to try to keep a whole team cool. Oh well. I'm heading to the ATL this weekend to see the Braves vs. Nationals tonight and then take in Six Flags tomorrow. I'll be sure to report about that on Monday. Hope everyone has a good weekend and Happy Mother's Day.

Acts 18

So in Bible class on Wednesday nights, we have been studying the book of Acts for a while now. Last night, we focused on Acts 18:18 - 19:7. This passage really struck me because I think a lot of people in the church today take what they hear as the truth, in regards to things others might do, and if they have a problem with those things, they spread the gossip instead of going to the wrongdoers and finding out what really happened. I myself am guilty as charged as I have done this many times. Well, here we have one of the first instances of how things should be handled in the church. So let's look at the passage.

Apollos was a very wise man. He came from Alexandria, where the largest collection of books was in the world at that time. He was well versed in scripture and was spreading the news brought to him by John the Baptist. He preached repentance instead of sacrifices, baptism, and belief in one greater that was to come. He arrived in Ephesus and began preaching in the synagogues. This is when Priscilla and Aquila, two of Paul's friends that knew of Jesus, first heard him. So what did they do when they heard Apollos preaching the truth, but a truth that had not been updated? Did they stand up in the middle of the synagogue and tell him he needed to be updated? Did they pull him over after he was done speaking and tell him before those in the synagogue that he needed more information? NO. They invited him into their house where they could discuss things in private. And what about Apollos? Here was a very intelligent man, who was approached by a couple, who were tentmakers. But Apollos went with them and listened to what they had to say. He didn't rebuke these two tentmakers and tell them they were wrong. No, he sat down with them, ate, and together they discussed Jesus.

And this is where I really think we struggle today as a church. When Apollos heard this, what did he do? Did he say they were crazy? Did he jump on the bandwagon right away? No. He packed up and traveled to Achaia, and although it doesn't say this in Acts 18, I believe it was in search of Paul. In my opinion, he wanted to hear about Jesus from Paul. Paul was the one sharing the news around the world and Apollos wanted to hear more. As an intelligent man, Apollos wanted to seek out the truth from someone who knew it. So why don't we do this more often? Why do we often spread rumors throughout the church that often aren't true or a worse skew of the truth? Can we not strive to be more like Apollos, and go and search out the truth from the source?

Coed Softball

So I am playing in a coed softball league on Tuesday nights with Scripps Networks whom I am interning some for. We played our fourth game last night to improve to 3-1 but it brings me to discuss something about coed softball. It's really dangerous. Take our league for example. You have to have five guys and five girls on the field at the same time. And they have to be split evenly, such as two and two in the outfield and also the infield, and the one and one at pitcher/catcher. Most teams that I have seen usually will put the two guys infielders at SS and 3B. This is where I really think it can be the most dangerous. Having played both short and third in this league, when I catch the ball and throw it to first, I don't think about who is standing on first. I catch the ball and then throw it hard or not depending on the runner. This is the part that scares me. You have a guy or girl running down the first base line with no helmet, a guy throwing the ball hard or possibly really hard from SS or 3B, and a girl catching it at 1st. Now, there are some girls that play that are really good and I support them being out there. But there are also some that shouldn't be out there.

Case in point, in our first game of the year, there were two girls hurt in the game, one worse than the other. A girl on our team was struck in the shoulder running down to first by an errant throw from 3B. Two inches higher and she would have been drilled in the head. Could a guy have caught that ball? Maybe, maybe not. That's also a call for helmets in softball, but that's a whole other post. The other girl got the worst end. I was playing third and a ball was hit to LF. She is heading to 3B and I am covering the bag, as the throw comes in, it is low, and goes past me to the pitcher backing me up. The girl rounds the bag, and the pitcher tries to throw back to me to tag her out. Long story short, I couldn't get even close to the ball to protect her, and it hits her in the cheek. The first inning of the first game, and there is already a major injury. This just goes to show how dangerous a coed game can be.

Like I said before, there are lots of girls out there that are plenty capable of being out there on that field with the guys. I just hope its those that possibly shouldn't be that understand the risk they put themselves at when they step onto the field. In my opinion, softball might be the most dangerous coed game to play. It's hard to control something, such as a ball, when it's flying through the air. Most other sports, body control is used to protect a girl, but in softball, it's not really about body control, but more about ball control. And the ball can get away from even the best players.

Prison Break and 24

Last night was a great night for FOX. Both Prison Break and 24 were awesome. So on to the reviews…

Prison Break. WOW! What an episode! Last night, we finally got to see what we had been waiting for all year. The escape took place and everyone escaped, including Haywire, except for Westmoreland and Manche. Westmoreland told Michael, C-Note, and T-bag where his money was hidden and that it wasn’t $1 million, but $5 million. Manche tried to escape but the rope broke when he got onto it and he was unable to escape. The warden was tied up and finally rescued by his secretary when she became suspicious. Bellick is still tied up in the pipe, but will soon be rescued as the warden knows he is down there. Nick let Veronica go and told her to go to Montana to try to find Terrence Steadman. Then Nick and his father were killed by someone, not sure who the guy works for. “The Company” is withdrawing their support for Vice President Caroline Reynolds as she runs for President. That’s the basic outline of the episode. It leaves a lot to happen next week in the finale. I will have a more in depth review next week as the finale debuts.

So now for 24. A lot happened in this hour. Jack and the copilot were able to land the plane on a highway near LA so that they wouldn’t be blown up since President Logan had ordered the plane shot down. We find out that Audrey’s father, Secretary of Defense James Heller, survived his crash of the cliff. I had a sick feeling when he crashed his car off the cliff that he would survive and I was right. Anyways, I have a feeling he will come back to help Jack since it appears the tape is erased. Back-stabbing Myles is told about the tape and Jack by Karen Hayes. Once Jack returns, he gives the tape to Chloe to prepare for the Attorney General. Meanwhile, President Logan gets out a pistol and prepares to assassinate himself. A well timed phone call from Myles gets a hold of President Logan and tells him he is willing to help him and tamper with the tape. President Logan thanks him for his help and agrees to help him in any way possible. Bierko, who was captured many episodes back, is transferred out of CTU to another holding facility. With only 3 hours remaining, we know that Bierko escapes, the tape is erased, and that Logan is holding Agent Pierce captive. It appears that the next two weeks will have a lot of explosive action as the season finale looms in the near future.

Weekend Happenin's

1) So Friday, Brad and Sam (two of the guys from church) and I went to Cozymel's for Cinco de Mayo. First off, this is Brad's favorite restaurant in the whole world. He could literally eat there every day and order two chicken enchiladas everytime. So we got there at 8 and the place was totally packed. I think it was like a 2 hour wait to get a table inside, so we went around to the side where they had a tent set up. We set down at a table for a couple of minutes when we found out there was about to be a taco eating contest. Well, the highlight of the contest was definately the guy that won. He ate 9 tacos in 3 minutes, but that wasn't the best part. He only had one hand and to eat the tacos, he folded them in half, and would shove them in his mouth with his stub. This was quite the funny site. However, he did win a brand new sweet grill for his victory.
2) I never give a review of this show, but for those that don't know, NUMB3RS is a great show. It comes on Friday at 10pm on CBS. It makes me wonder if there are really people out there that can relate math to anything and solve issues with them.
3) Saturday was awesome. First, Brad, Sam and I went to the UT Vandy baseball game. We tailgated out behind the left field fence and grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs with my boss, Reese, some of the basketball players and coaches, and others. It was hilarious. We rode Vandy's leftfielder all day long. Poor guy, he probably had now idea what he was in for before the game started. Even the basketball coaches were giving the guy a hard time. So after the game, we went and played some golf over at Municipal. If you haven't been there before, let me tell you a little about it. It might have the best front nine in Knoxville as it has some really interesting hole layouts. However, the upkeep and the back nine ruin the course. The back nine is awful and they realy don't do a good job keeping the course weed free. But other than that, it's a good place to go play 9 holes. After the golf, we proceeded over to Carrie's house where we had a game night. Fun times.

So that's about it for this weekend. Stay tuned for reviews of Prison Break and 24 along with my experiences from Six Flags this upcoming weekend.

Smallville

So it's been a couple of days since my last post, but there really hasn't been much to talk about. I was a little frustrated last night as my softball game was supposed to start at 8, which is the time it started raining at the fields and rained our game out. All the preparation and drive out there, and it rains on us right before the game is supposed to start. Oh well. On to my Smallville recap.

So Smallville was pretty good last night, except for the fact that the channel went psycho for about 2-3 minutes and you couldn't really understand any of the sound. But the actual episode was good. With the season finale coming up next week, they set up a lot of stuff for the finale. Lex was infected with some kind of virus that has given him Kryptonian abilities. This is going to make for some good interaction between Lex and Clark next week. Plus, Lionel has become sort of an oracle. He has been writing Kryptonian symbols and finally shares them with Clark. So it appears that Clark and Lionel are going to be friends for now, but I could see that coming to an end, as I could definately see Lex going after him with his new found powers. And lastly, Zod is getting closer to appearing. Brianiac, aka Milton Fine, is trying to free Zod, and that is one of the reasons he infected Lex with the virus. Anyhow, all this should make for an exciting finale next week, as I think it is going to be a two hour finale. WOOO HOOOO!!!!

Prison Break and 24

So, last night was a definite improvement for Prison Break and 24 over last week. Both shows revealed a lot and are setting themselves up for the season finales. With finales for both shows coming in less than a month, it’s going to be an exciting time On Monday nights on Fox. So now on to Prison Break…

Last night we found out that Veronica has discovered that the calls in Montana are coming from a house registered to Terrence Steadman through different off shore accounts. Also, the prisoners have to move up their escape because Bellick has found out about the escape from Tweeter. Michael has to kidnap the warden to get his brother out of solitary. There are a lot of twists though. Abruzzi is planning on killing all but 2 of the escapees and Nick captures Veronica to take her to the plane to meet Abruzzi. I would be willing to bet that somehow they are connected to the government in this. Michael has to ask Dr. Tancredi for her help and she then ends up confronting her father after she finds out that he is running for Vice President. All this leads us to next week where a lot is going to happen. Will DOC help Michael to escape? Who isn’t going to make it? Will Michael get Lincoln out? What is going to happen to Veronica? And will they figure out why Lincoln was framed? Stay tuned next week for an exciting show.

Now for 24. Most of the show was centered around Jack and the diplomatic plane he has snuck onto. Karen Hayes is now helping Jack and Chloe, but I think her co-worker is getting a little suspicious. Mike Novick is beginning to suspect something about President Logan it appears too. Jack is able to recapture the recording after convincing the pilot to allow him into the cockpit because the co-pilot has the recording. My only issue with this was Jack used his cell to contact Chloe to patch him through to the pilot. Now, I fully believe this could happen. What I don’t think could happen is that you could use your cell phone from 35,000 feet on a plane. I recently saw a study that showed that at 35,000 feet, there is a .6% chance of completing a call from a plane. Now, maybe with the government technology this could be possible, but who knows. Anyways, a lot of people are now aware of President Logan and he discovers they know through his contact with this company he is working with. The President is now aware that Karen Hayes knows about the recording. President Logan now has to make the only decision he can to save his life, and is going to have the plane shot down. This looks to make for an exciting finale as there are only 4 hours remaining in the day. The only question remaining is how is Jack going to get himself out of this one?

Weekend Ramblings

So Friday, I went out to Pine Lakes and played 18 holes with Brad and Sam, two of the guys from the West End young professionals group. We had a blast. Between Sam almost decapitating Brad and Brad hurting himself trying to mess with our cart, it was probably the most fun I have ever had on the golf course. Plus, it's fun to see Sam progress in his game as he has just picked up the game in the last couple of weeks. Trust me, if you don't know these two guys, it's pretty much impossible not to have fun when your with them. And that leads us to Sunday.

So Sunday after church, our teacher who is also the deacon in charge of our group said he was taking his family up to Dollywood and asked if we wanted to come. So, Brad, Sam, Rebecca (my cousin), and Carrie (another young professional) decided to tag along for the trip. First off, Richard and his family are awesome. Richard and Kathy are awesome to hang out with. Richard is basically just one of the guys and Kathy really seems to enjoy being around the young professionals. Plus, their three kids are awesome. Joshua, which is 11 I think, is the oldest, followed by Aaron, 9, and Sarah, 6. They really enjoy hanging out with the older kids. I think they can get a little tired of hanging out with Mom and Dad and enjoy the company of someone younger and in their terms, "cooler." Plus, it was really fun for the rest of us getting to hang out with the kids. None of the young professionals that went had been there in a long time and the park has definately changed alot. Fortunately, it wasn't very crowded and we were able to ride some of the better rides multiple times. The Thunderhead was by far the best ride. It is wooden and has some major turns in it. I think we helped encourage some of the kids to ride the rides too. Joshua, who wasn't a big coaster fan at the start of the day, is now. And Sarah is too, as long as dad is there. I have to give her props though. If I was her size, I would have been scared to death to go on those rides. She is barely tall enough to get on, and rode the Tennessee Tornado. For those that don't know, it has a big drop going through a tunnel and reaches 70 mph before going through 3 loops. Sarah went on scared and came off in love with it. When she got off, she wanted to get on the Thunderhead, but we didn't have time unfortunately. So Sarah, props go out to you. I think seeing us going on the rides encouraged them to try them, instead of just their parents encouraging them. So, all in all, I think it was a fun weekend, and a productive one as well.