It bothers me that for the 12th consecutive year Jay Leno has beaten David Letterman in the ratings. Jay Leno is the lowest common denominator of comedy and I guess that represents America.

It also bothers me that the Simpson book about how he would have committed murder is outselling the Clinton book about giving. I'm not pro-Clinton or pro-giving but I am anti-murder.

Things that don't annoy me.

At&T wireless emailed me yesterday and asked me to take a survey. At the end of the survey, they invited me to be a part of a testing program for a new cell phone. A woman called me today to firm up the details. She didn't know what product I'll be testing, but I pick up the phone in two weeks, use it for three weeks, fill out two more surveys and when I return the phone, they'll hand me a check for $150. Moral of the story; if AT&T sends you a survey; take the survey.

And last night, I turned fifty American dollars into one hundred and fifty-two American dollars playing a skill game called poker. I wish I lived closer to a legal card room.

Stream of this

There is a return trip to Lynchvegas on the horizon. That's something.

I was notified by email today that I won a lottery in England that I never entered and all I need to do to obtain this money is give them my name, phone number, address, name of my bank and my bank account number. And of course as soon as I got the email, I quit my job.

I'm so over Atlanta traffic. I'm ready to pay a monthly rate to be able to drive in the HOV lane by myself.

I have a possible session gig next weekend in North Carolina. It's a lot of travel, but it's at the same studio and with the same engineer that has worked with this band and this band. I think (read: hoping) that the album credit and experience is worth the time. Now if I could only get my hands on the parts in advance.

We got picked up for a New Year's Eve gig. I dread (sort of) the day when my NYE is not dictated to me. I don't know what people do for NYE. I think we've been booked every New Year for the past six years. This year we'll be spending NYE in Athens at The Melting Point. Other than the 40 Watt, this is the best sounding room in Athens.

My legs are asleep.

I will never use the power of teh internets for evil.

For questionable purposes? Of course.

But never for evil.

I can't believe he answered his own office phone

To: Dr. Michael Adams; President, The University of Georgia
From: Russell Sauve; Class of 2001
CC: Dr. Robert Witt; President, The University of Alabama
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

Re: Alabama Student Reactions

Dear President Adams,

At the conclusion of Saturday's football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama, members of the Alabama student section began throwing trash at celebrating Georgia players. This disturbed me, so I made contact with the President of Alabama, Dr. Robert Witt. I called Dr. Witt's office on Sunday afternoon, planning on leaving a polite voice mail. I was taken aback when he answered the phone. I expressed my displeasure to him and he assured me that he was equally as disturbed and that actions were already underway to punish those involved.

According to Dr. Witt, UA police officers were stationed in the student section. When the bottles, beverages, and pom-poms began being thrown at our players, the police officers began issuing Student Non-Academic Misconduct citations to the offending students as quickly as possible. According to their website , these citations will require the students to appear before a board by which their actions will be reviewed and punished if appropriate.

Dr. Witt went on to explain that the chief of campus police had already provided the list of the involved students. Being fully satisfied, I thanked Dr. Witt for his time and wished him well. The brief conversation was very pleasant and left me with a high level of respect for Dr. Witt and the University of Alabama.

Actions like those exhibited by the Alabama students are not confined to Bryant-Denny Stadium. University of Georgia students have also displayed poor judgment in Sanford Stadium. Does the University of Georgia have a process in place for situations like the one that we witnessed this past weekend? If not, this should be a priority before next year's football season when Alabama visits our campus.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Russell Sauve


Response from Dr. Adams:
I will discuss this with AD damon evans and someone will get back to you. Thank you for your interest. MFA,UGA.

After I left work Saturday night, I listened to Scott Howard and Eric Zeier broadcast almost the entire first quarter of the UGA/'Bama game. I was skeptical of UGA's decision to go with Howard. I love him for basketball, but for football? I wanted more of an personality. I wanted a good ole' boy. To be honest, I wanted Jeff Danzler. Because of the TV versus radio delay, I didn't listen to Howard once I found a television but what I heard was informative, correct, and passionate.

Eric Zeier, the new color analyst, also did a fine job. Everything he said taught the audience something about football, although I got the feeling that he felt he should talk in between every play. If I ran into him on the street, I would have one constructive piece of information for him. Just because ninety-five thousand people are screaming and you can't hear yourself talk, doesn't mean you have to scream into the microphone to be picked up. But that's minor detail and I know it.

At the end of the game and once I stopped screaming that we won, I wondered immediately how Howard called the final play.

The Mark Richt show airs every Sunday (Monday morning) at 12:05. In the intro to this week's wrap up, Howard's voice is heard calling the big moments of the game with the last play included. It wasn't a "hob-nail boot" call and certainly nothing for the ages. But it represented how we all felt. It was perfect.

Bottom line: The Athletic Association picked well. Howard won't embarrass us. He loves Georgia. And he'll never want to leave. He was the right pick.

If you want to hear the Howard call, click here. (Found via Georgia Sports blog) SFW.

It's pronounced "ASK".

A.

S.

K.

Not "AXE". Learn how to fucking communicate.

This is Grit. Grit is not my dog, but the dog of a friend.


Grit died Saturday night. Grit was was a great dog that was loved deeply by his owners.
The news of Grit's passing made me immediately burst into tears. Grit was that kind of dog. I'm going to be a nut case when Savannah dies. Just warning you now.

Rest in Peace Grit.


10 Dog Rules (from a Dog's view)

1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me - it is crucial for my well being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment. I HAVE ONLY YOU!!!

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I'LL NEVER FORGET IT!!!

7. Before you hit me, remember that I have teeth that could easily break the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right kind of food, I've been out in the sun too long, or my heart may be getting old and weak.

9. Take care of me when I get old. You too, will grow old.

10. Go with me on difficult Journeys. Never Say "I can't bear to watch it" or, "Let it happen in my absence." Everything is easier for ME if you are there. Remember, I LOVE YOU.

I'm a little hoarse from screaming or the Jack Daniels but holy xenu what a win. I'm still grinning. And quite possibly, I could still be drunk.

I've never been so happy to be proven wrong in my entire life. But I have no problem being proven wrong. Being proven wrong in a good thing. It keeps the ego in check.

I'll be impressed if we can manage not to screw this up by losing to Ole Miss in our own stadium next week.

Bet this?

'Bama is a three and half point favorite going into Saturday's game. Typically you get three points just for playing at home. With that logic; if this game was played on neutral ground, 'Bama would be a half point favorite. Does that seem right to anyone?

I realize this act has been around for what seems like forever, but that didn't stop me from watching them rehearse.

Trilogy

There has been, or maybe I just noticed, a recent influx of upper end dining and drinking establishments into East Cobb. There is even a new self titled "Ultra-Lounge" on Roswell Road called Blue Olive. After visiting more than my fair share of ULs in Vegas, I'm not holding my breath that one in the middle of a strip mall can really measure up.

But Sunday night, I did venture out to try a new restaurant called Trilogy. The house received a flier announcing the restaurant along with a coupon for 20% off. The first strike against Trilogy came before I left the house. It is located in the building that formally housed.....a roller skating rink. Sparkles to be specific. I wasn't holding out a lot of hope that this dining experience was going to be very good. But I had a coupon, so I went.

Through the conversations with various staff and managers, I discovered that Trilogy is owned by the same people that owned Houck's, a now defunct steak and seafood place also in East Cobb. The owners needed some repairs and changes made made to the property but the landlord refused. So they closed Houck's, bought this property and opened Trilogy.

When I opened the door to Trilogy I was almost speechless. The renovation was amazing. No signs of a roller rink. Muted tones, heavy on browns covered the walls. Glass art hung from the ceiling and various non-obtrusive painting hung in the obvious places. A very nice hostess took a break from her advanced algebra to seat me in the restaurant portion.

The waitress was Amy, a delightful woman that knew all about the restaurant and the menu. The restaurant, as she explained was broken into three sections. The main dining room, the bar and the entertainment room, which also explained the company name. Trilogy, meaning; food, spirits and entertainment.

I ordered a Rogue Dead Guy to start; along with an appetizer of calamari. Amy delivered the beer with a basket of garlic cheese muffins and cornbread both of which I thought were on the dry side, but decently tasty. They were served with a side of cinnamon honey butter, which I did not care for. It tasted fine; if you like cinnamon and honey in your butter, I don't care anything in my butter. Butter should be left alone. Just like coffee and whiskey. The calamari was lightly breaded and not over cooked as so many places tend to do.

For the main course, I had the New York Strip, medium plus with three fried shrimp and broccoli. The entrees come with a choice of Caesar or tossed salad. I opted for the tossed with the ratatouille dressing. This dressing was like a very light Italian garlic dressing but very oily with lots of freshly shredded mozzarella cheese in it. It looked very funny in its side cup waiting to be poured on my salad, but it was delicious. And the salad was very fresh and full of all sorts of tasty vegetables.

The salad came and went and it was onto the steak. The presentation was lovely. The steak smelled awesome and very very hot. Garlic butter for the steak was poured into a hollowed out small red pepper, the broccoli florets gently tossed into the middle of the plate, and my three very large shrimp on the left hand portion of the plates served with both cocktail and tarter sauce. The shrimp were fantastic, again not over-breaded and cooked well. The broccoli, was broccoli, just the tops. What do you want me to say? It was broccoli. The steak was a very generous cut of meat and it smelled like meat should. It was cooked as I requested it, although I should have said medium and not medium plus. The odd thing was that there were no noticeable spices on the meat. It was simple a large grilled piece of meat. I'm not complaining. It was tasty, but no seasoning was just odd.

For desert I checked out the entertainment room where Mighty McFly, Radio Cult, and Java Monkey Duo are currently on the calendar. A very small room but a very clean smelling and looking room. With shows starting at 8:30, they are definitely pining after the over-40 crowd. We bellied up to the bar in the lounge (different from the entertainment room) and ended my night with a glass of Knob Creek while talking to the very nice manager, Eric. We ended up chatting it up about the direction they were going, when they opened (this past May), the future, etc, etc.

Overall the dining experience was good. Amy and Eric were top notch and went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed and they did so with a smile and warm heart. The facility is great with plenty of space. You could never feel cramped even on the busiest of nights. The background music needs some work. The best pop-music from the 90's doesn't inspire a whole lot of appetite from me. The food was good; but not enough to make me want to go back. Final verdict. Fine, but nothing to write home about.

Your football team is going through severe growing pains.
Your Special Teams are neither "Special" nor "teams".
Your team is going on the road for the first time.
You're going to a location that you've only won at once.
You're going up against the team with the largest train of positive momentum behind them this side of the Mississippi.

Did ESPN really need to get involved and add the pressure of bringing Game Day to Tuscaloosa?

May I be proven wrong.

We are going to get our asses handed to us this Saturday.

I will end this post with the greatest cheer ever. NSFW!

UGA is not a good football team and I'm not going to live in denial anymore. Georgia's chances of being bowl eligible are as low as my ability to drive a vehicle this past Saturday night.

Don't take this as me being down on UGA but more of an honest realization. I'm still going to attend every game I can; I'll always proudly be a Bulldog; and I'll hold dearly onto hope that we'll squeak out 6 wins this season. But if you say to me; "UT going to kick UGA's ass." I'm going to agree with you. Same goes for Alabama, Troy, Vandy, UK, UF, Ole Miss, Auburn, and Tech.

I'm fully aware that since he has been at Georgia; Richt has lost very few games on the road. If you think that trend is going to continue this season; I would enjoy betting large amounts of cash with you. Any takers?

I learned something last night. Guitar Hero, while drunk, is very hard.

Someone from the CDC googled me recently and I wanted to take a moment to say;

"Heeellloooooo CDC. I see you."

I hope I don't have anything contagious.

A little more info about last night.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a cash game in a bar very close to the house. They normally play a $20 re-buy tournament with the top two getting paid out. I've cashed consistently and have only had to re-buy twice since I've started playing there. The payouts have been between 160 and 220; so for two or three hours of work and in close proximity to fresh tasty beer, it's been worth my time. Plus it's nice to play live and get away from the internet game once a week.

Last night I walked in and they had decided to something different. They were playing a .25$/.50$ no limit cash game. Max buy-in $30, re-buy as many times as you would like. I was not happy. There are two problems with this format. 1) I don't play this low of limit EVER. 2) the max buy-in should be 100 times the big blind or $50. But the real issue I had was the time it was going to take me to make enough money to justify my time. I'm not stuck up. The guys are nice and they've been giving me their money since I started playing there but this is about money. I spend about two to three hours a few nights a week building my bankroll. I didn't need to blow a night on a game that was going to frustrate me because there was no real money to be made.

But then I found out that the bar changed out one of their taps. They got rid of Sweetwater Blue (never cared for it) and replaced it with Sweetwater IPA (delicious). Well I can't just let perfectly good beer not go into my tummy. I bought in for $20 and was just going to have just one pint and go home.

As I said, the guys are really nice and I've never had a bad time at this game. After calling off $10 with a losing set, I re-bought for another twenty and buckled down. A 5 dollar pot here and a 15 dollar pot there led to a small but profitable night. After two hours of work, I had $120 or $80 net. $40 per hour. Not too shabby and I got out of the house for a few hours.

I love poker.

I walked in at 10:30 tonight with $40 and walked out at 12:30 with $120. The only reason we stopped was that the bar was closing. There was so much more money to be won.

I treated myself to Taco Bell. Nothing else was open.

I'm bored.

Thank this

After winning a Creative Arts Emmy , Kathy Griffin in her acceptance speech said;

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this. He had nothing to do with this. Suck it Jesus. This award is my god now."

The fallout of this joke is that the Catholic League has successfully gotten the E! network to censor her speech when the award show airs this Sunday.

I have two issues with the Catholic League.

1) What's worse? Kathy's joke or being a hypocrite? The Catholic League, on their website, beneath their logo states that they are for; "Religious and Civil Rights." But "Civil Rights" defined is "Personal rights guaranteed and protected by the Constitution, ie, freedom of speech, press, freedom from discrimination." Being an American, one of Griffin's civil rights is the freedom of speech. How can a group be for censorship and for Civil Rights at the same time? Because they are only for defending the Civil Rights of Catholics. I'm not making this up. Look here and read. Evidently Catholics have Civil Rights. Everyone else doesn't.

2) What's worse? Kathy's joke or the atrocities that the Catholic church has committed like The Inquisition and over ten thousand sex abuse cases? Quick, go attack a comedian, who's career you just furthered by making a big deal out of her.

Can someone explain to me how anyone can take the Catholic League seriously?

Misc this

I just found out that a college friend and his girlfriend are moving to Georgia. I'm beyond excited. These are two good people that I'm going to love having the opportunity to see more often.


The headline on ajc.com just now read "Bathroom Sex Slows at Airport." My mind immediately envisioned people having sex at Hartsfield but at a much slower pace than previously documented.


A few blogs I read wrote about what they were doing and thinking and feeling 6 years ago today. I was unemployed and had crashed on Brett's couch the night before. Trey came over to wake me up and we didn't move for the rest of the day, we just sat there and watched the news unfold.

I didn't know what to think. I wasn't comprehending what was really going on and what this meant long term. It seemed like a movie to me. It started to sink in a few days later when Letterman came back on the air. Here was someone I had seen thousands of times and he was affected by the attack. Watching him made the tragedy real for me.

That sounds very shallow, but I did not have the emotional maturity to understand 9/11 by watching the news or my friends.

Here is the Letterman monologue from behind the desk, his first night back on Spetember17, 2001.

This was the same episode that Dan Rather was interviewed and broke down repeatedly on camera. Now I hate the guy for being a biased reporter in recent years, but the interview was touching and watching such a stoic man reduced to tears was one of the most powerful moments I had ever seen.

Also during the interview he was very supportive of Bush and Cheney and of going to war. According to rumors, because Rather changed his opinion about the war, Bush and Cheney; CBS aggressively pulled and made other people pull down all videos of this interview from the web; which is a shame for several reasons. I searched but couldn't find any videos from the interview, but I did find a transcript. It is long and doesn't have the emotional value of seeing and hearing the pain both men were under, but it gives an understanding.

It amazes me how united the county was 6 years ago and saddens me how fragmented we are today.

Transcript of the the Letterman/Rather interview.

There is nothing like a comp day.

Here's the list of the items I accomplished.
Slept in
Returned a movie to Blockbuster
Deposited money into the bank
Finished, folded, and put away the laundry
Retrieved Savannah from the groomer
Watched Flight 93
Vacuumed downstairs
Organized the pantry from top to bottom
Cooked some tasty pork chops

If there are any lingering doubts about my testosterone level, I finished my day by watching Oprah.

I have yet another confession.

I am addicted to the lolcat meme.

My favorite sites include; icanhascheezburger and Memecats.

Other sites include lolcats and Macrocats.

Commence the ridicule.

I hate it when Georgia loses at anything, especially football. But I'm confident we'll beat Tennessee. They have less talent and a fat coach that can only find the end zone of a Doritos bag. Plus if Georgia wins at Tennessee this season, they're going to rename Neyland Stadium, "Athens North" or more accurately "Richt-owns-this-gawd-awful-stadium.com".

The day surrounding this past game, sans the actual game and weather that could choke a horse, was fantastic. Alan took a gamble and time and effort to bring up his BGE or as the rest of the world calls it; "Big-Green-Egg-that-makes-really-really-fucking-good-meat-for-me-to-eat.com"

Alan smoked ribs and I know I repeatedly said how good they were to him, but if this blog was a mountain, imagine me screaming from the top of it. "Alan smokes some amazing meat."

Other than the game, Saturday was fantastic. I'll leave out the fact that someone in the tailgating group drank 12 Woodpecker Ciders because honestly I was a little impressed that he was still standing and a little scared that at any moment his wife was going to show up to kick start the apocalypse.

Pictures when I get around to it.

And it's on.

Funkle Ester Reunion show
New Year's Eve
Athens, Ga
The Melting Point

I love knowing what I'm doing for NYE four months out.

Go Dawgs!

Espn's Page 2 had an amusing article about the rules of college football. I've broken number 8 multiple times.

Is it a slow week? Why do I feel like I'm the only one writing on the interweb?

Baby doll dress and baby doll tops are not attractive on anyone. They make the wearer look heavier than they actually are. You don't want to give out that impression. Stop it.

Look, it's booze in a tube.

I just finished watching the DCI finals from this past summer and I have a few unqualified remarks with the following qualifier. My only musical regret is never marching corp. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with how I turned out.

ESPN was done a nice job of improving their coverage of the event.

When did everyone start playing so high? Or did everyone always play that high?

I liked Vanguard and Crown.

I laughed when I heard that the Cavaliers were doing a Billy Joel show. I wasn't laughing at the end.

How, as a guard member, do you do an entire show in a business suit?

"I believe" in not amplifying the spoken word. I'm looking at you Cadets.

Damn Blue Devils. Damn.

I want Brandt Crocker, the voice of DCI, to announce my bar tab after a long night of drinking.

"With a tab of 65.75. Six Five Point Seven Five. Russseeeellllll Saauuuuuuveee........"

I can dream.

The next batch

The next memorable event off of the camera was a gig with Modern Skirts at Smith's Olde Bar.

The whole batch of photos can be found here, but below are the ones I found amusing.

Why Philip was wearing a Backstreet Boys shirt during dinner is beyond me. Why he ripped the sleeves off is another good question. Why he's trying to cut the head off of one of them? Again no idea.



Here is the shirt and vest that Jay was planning on wearing on stage.

No, I'm not kidding. To prove how wrong this outfit was, I took pictures of Jay wearing this outfit to show him. He relented and left the vest in the dressing room.


Then Philip didn't swallow after brushing his teeth.


And Jojo took a nap


There was also a pretty good show, but you can visit the complete gallery for those pictures.

The show was so good that John got a little sweaty.

Balloon Camp 2007

I've finally unloaded a metric crap ton of photos off of my camera and uploaded them to the internet.

This past August I went to Vegas for the 5th annual Balloon Camp, a three and a half day convention for manufacturers, distributors, decorators, and entertainers in the balloon industry. Yes, I know how that sounds. A convention about balloons. When I got home and deposited my paycheck from the event, the look I received from the teller said it all.

While in Vegas I produced three evening events for the conventioneers and put out fires between our staff and the host site. It is an 18-20 hour a day job and when it's over, I'm mentally and physically shot. But every year, I have fun and every year I love what I do, and every year I go back.

Because we were in a new facility this year (and we'll be in a new facility again next year) I didn't have the time to take a bunch of pictures. But I snagged a few that I made time for.

This is one of my two bosses Steve.



This is Steve again. He decided to show me some love when the photographer said "cheese".


This is JoAnn at our final event. Her outfit is made entirely out of balloons.

I'll say again. Her outfit is made *entirely* out of balloons.


This is me and JoAnn. Her squishy face is a direct result of her grabbing my ass when the photographer said "three".


This is JoDee, me, and Dee. They were my designers for the second event. She is from England and he is from Ireland. I can't begin to say enough kind things about these two people. I would love to work with them again but I'd rather just go out drinking with them again.


And finally, our final night entertainment was Beatle Mania Now out of Philadelphia.


This was the most amazing tribute act I have ever seen. Paul McCartney played left handed (as he should) and they each sounded so similar to the Beatle they were imitating. Their crew was very nice and professional and the four themselves couldn't have been nicer or put on a better show. I don't know how we're going to top this for next year.

Three things.

1) I purposely mowed the yard in a pattern to avoid any and all direct contact with sunlight. The yard is now mowed, but it looks like it was mowed by a three year old suffering from seizures.

2) I just watched the Mark Richt show. The great plays and hard hits from the game have me pumped for next week's game.

3) I have a bruise on the tip of my right index finger. I have no idea how it got there but it's annoying.