Mutant sunflower seeds

In the light of this past weekend's events, it is meet and right to start off by mentioning that we Gators will officially play for the SEC title this year. Now on to other thoughts...

Valerie and I, along with Natalie, Dan, and Tug (sister, brother, and dog-in-law of mine) made our way down to historic Tampa, Florida this weekend for Valerie's first baby shower! Well, like always it is a great time going to Tampa. The highlight of the trip for me was a fishing trip Dan and I went on during the shower. We didn't catch any fish...and no buzz, but after two handfuls of salty sunflower seeds, I had a random sore throat. I figured it was from the salt, what it actually was, it seems, is that someone inoculated these sunflower seeds with this year's version of the common cold, because that's what I have now.

In other news, we had a newborn baby care class tonight at North Florida, where Carver will be born. I will admit, I have changed only one diaper in my whole life, and that was just a couple months ago. (It was Jack James'). Nevertheless, I am ready to tackle caring for a newborn head on! On a similar note, we were driving back to Gainesville and I started thinking about how the next time Valerie and I will be free to pack up and go for the weekend will be when our youngest child is 18 (yeah yeah, I know we'll be able to get away, but from now on we will ALWAYS have a child somewhere). FYI, I'll be 44 when Carver graduates high school. Granted, that is still young, but what it really made me realize is that life is so fast. I'm so thankful that God's plans for us extend past 80 years or so. Here is a news-flash for you'ins who don't have a pregnant wife, kids, or both, you will realize some s%*t when your wife gets pregnant. I don't mean that this is bad in any way, it is just amazing how much your perspective changes with your circumstances.

I have the day off work tomorrow, because I work at the V.A., and it is Veteran's Day. There are three things I would like to do for my day off...
1) I'd like to finish a Sturgeon hatchery I started this summer at my lab.
B) I'd like to somehow honor some vets.
- Steve and Jon and I are going to brew some spiced holiday ale with our wives.

Now its time to pack up some books, so we can give Dan and Natalie our book shelf. If you are interested, right now I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird and The Way of Ignorance, by Wendell Berry.