Well, ok, baseball is already here at least where college baseball is concerned.  As a matter of fact, Arkansas beat Alabama today with the help of Springdale native Thomas Hauskey.  Go Hogs!

I’m actually thinking minor league, specifically Northwest Arkansas Naturals, baseball.  Season tickets are being mailed out this week!  The season starts Thursday, April 8!  On Friday, Centerfield by John Fogerty came on my iPod and I got excited.  It’s not a Friday night post-game fireworks show without that song being played.

Minor league camp is still in session so the opening day roster hasn’t been announced yet.  One bit of roster news from this past week is that Fayetteville native, former Hog, & recent Kansas City Royal draftee Ben Tschepikow (pictured above) has voluntarily retired from MLB because of injuries that have plagued him since the end of last season.  No Naturals uniform for Ben.

See you at Arvest Ballpark April 8!

2009 was quite a year.  The most important and exciting thing that happened to me this year is that I bought my first home.  I’ve looked and talked and planned for several years.  The pieces all fell into place very quickly at the end of July for me to officially begin my search for a home.  The house I bought was the first one me & the realtor that assisted me looked at together.  Greg (my realtor & Lindsey’s father-in-law) found me the perfect house.

My other major purchase of 2009 was a Nikon D90 camera.  I’ve had fun playing with it this year.  Although, I haven’t ventured far from the automatic settings yet.  One of my goals for 2010 is to learn more about what all my camera can do.

Lindsey, Kelly, Hayley, & I saw the Paisley Party Tour stop in Tulsa in January.  It included Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker.

My mom’s birthday in January marked the beginning of a very bad ice storm.  I don’t remember ever having weather like that.  The ice was crazy.

In March, Kelly & I went to San Antonio for a few days.  We saw a bit of a history at the Alamo, had dinner on the top of the world, and even visited the beach.

In April, we took our annual trip to Dallas/Fort Worth for some NASCAR.  While down there, we visited the Sixth Floor Museum & Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  Jeff Gordon finally won a race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Charlotte, NC to visit Penni and go to the NASCAR races that weekend.  It was a weekend full of rain but it was a great weekend of visiting old friends and meeting new ones.

In June, I went to a couple of concerts.  The first one was Casting Crowns at the Church at Pinnacle Hills.  The second one was Chuck Wicks at the Poultry Festival.  I got to meet Chuck in person twice (once by accident) that evening.  It was great!  He’s hilarious and very down-to-earth.

Lindsey, Shelby, & I made last minute plans to go to Junction, TX in July to our cousin Lacey’s wedding.  We made Mom come too.  We took our time going down to visit Mom’s brother (our uncle) Mark and also to visit Dublin for some wonderful Dr Pepper.

In the beginning of October, Shelby & I traveled to Dallas.  The University of Arkansas Razorbacks played the Texas A&M Aggies in the new Cowboys Stadium.  Shelby, our uncles Mark & Rod, and I went to the game.  It was an awesome game in an aswesome stadium.  I’m hoping we get to go again next year!

In mid-October, I traveled to Phoenix with a couple others in my department for an SAP conference.  Besides the conference, we took some time to do some sight-seeing.

The last trip I took in 2009 was with Shelby the first weekend of November.  We went back to Dallas/Fort Worth for the NASCAR race.

Here are the blog entries I wrote this year related to my year in review.

January 3, 2009 10:57 pm - The Nikon D90
January 4, 2009 5:54 pm - New Camera – Day 2
January 10, 2009 10:32 pm - New Baby
January 11, 2009 2:38 pm - The Red Coat
January 24, 2009 8:56 am - Tulsa Bound
January 26, 2009 6:40 pm - Family Tradition
January 28, 2009 1:34 pm - Be Still!
January 29, 2009 6:32 pm - Tulsa Time
January 29, 2009 8:27 pm - Ice Storm
February 1, 2009 12:02 pm - Ice Storm Aftermath
March 5, 2009 9:00 am - San Antonio Bound
March 6, 2009 9:25 pm - Where’s Dad When You Need Him?
March 7, 2009 8:31 am - 173 Years Later
March 14, 2009 3:03 pm - Life is like a box of chocolates
March 14, 2009 3:59 pm - A bit of history
March 15, 2009 6:38 pm - The San Antonio Zoo
March 15, 2009 6:57 pm - The Texas Beach
March 15, 2009 8:03 pm - Sea World
March 21, 2009 2:40 pm - Tower of the Americas
March 21, 2009 4:15 pm - San Antonio Re-Cap
April 18, 2009 4:05 pm - Who Dun It?
April 18, 2009 4:45 pm - He finally won
June 20, 2009 3:58 pm - Chuck Wicks Times 3
June 27, 2009 4:47 pm - Casting Crowns
August 9, 2009 4:58 pm - My New House
August 23, 2009 5:42 pm - My New House – Before
October 7, 2009 9:52 pm - Long Wait
November 6, 2009 3:32 pm - Shop a Little, Race a Little

As far as 2010, I don’t really have any plans for any major traveling.  I know we’ll go to both NASCAR races in Texas in April & November.  Other than that, this may be a year that I take it a bit easy as far as traveling goes.  I do need to catch up on here with some blog entries.  I really want to share what my house looks like now that I’ve gotten it painted and decorated.

I have been looking forward to this past Saturday’s football game since the series was announced in March of 2008.  The game?  The University of Arkansas vs Texas A&M in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium!

Shelby & I went to the game with our uncles Mark & Rod.  None of us had seen the new stadium up close, much less inside, so we were very very impressed by the whole experience (well, exit traffic not so impressive).

The stadium was unbelievable to see in person.  I’ve never even been to an NFL stadium so that made this stadium that much more impressive.  Here are some of the better shots from in & around the stadium.

On to some football…The game was fantastic!  Arkansas beat Texas A&M 47-19.  The game started with 2 scores by A&M so we were a bit worried in the beginning but then the offense and the defense hit their strides and off we went.  These three shots are from the 2nd touchdown (1st at our end of the field) Arkansas scored.

I love watching good marching bands.  I’ve been lucky enough to have a high school (Springdale High School) and college (University of Arkansas) alma mater with great marching bands.  Texas A&M’s is like none I’ve seen.  Their precision marching was unbelievable and the crowd gave them a great standing ovation when they were done.

The only negative about the whole evening was the traffic getting out of the stadium and back to Mark’s house in Dallas.  We had no problem getting to the stadium and into our parking spot.  We literally did not move within the parking lot for 30 minutes trying to get out.  We finally gave up that route and turned around to try another one.  It still took us another 30 minutes to get to I-30 (a mile from the stadium) and on our way to Dallas.  It then took another hour to get back to Dallas.  The great stadium and game made up for the traffic issue getting home.  It’s just one of this Grrr! moments that we won’t forget.

Here is a slideshow of several of the photos I took outside and inside the stadium before, during, and after the game.  Enjoy!

Today is the first Arkansas Razorback football game of the season.  The Razorbacks are taking on the Missouri State Bears at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  Go Hogs Go!

Some Exciting Former Hog News:

• Former Hog baseball player Craig Gentry has been called up from AA Frisco to the majors – the Texas Rangers.  Northwest Arkansas has been fortunate enough to keep up with Craig’s progress through the Rangers organization because Frisco plays the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  Good luck, Craig!

Brad Keselowski has helped Dale Earnhardt Jr make JR Motorsports a weekly contender in the NASCAR Nationwide series.  Brad has 5 wins in the NW series and got his first Cup series win in April at Talladega.  Penske Racing announced Tuesday that Brad will join them beginning in 2010 and will drive the #12 Penske Dodge in the Sprint Cup series.  Congratulations Brad on this great opportunity!  Just remember that Rick Hendrick & Hendrick Motorsports isn’t out of reach!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals have 3 games left (with only 1 win needed) and they will have clinched a Texas League playoff spot for the 2nd straight season (in only 2 seasons in existence in NWA).  Good luck Naturals against the Tulsa Drillers this weekend!

The 2009 football season has officially started.  The University of Arkansas starts their season this Saturday in Little Rock playing Missouri State.  I’m planning on attending several games this year.  (You can see the list over on the right-hand side of my blog.)  The game I’m most excited about, though, isn’t here in Fayetteville.  It is in Dallas at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  Arkansas & Texas A&M will be playing in what is being billed as the Southwest Classic.

Go Hogs Go!  Woo Pig Sooie!  Here’s to a great 2009 football season!

The house buying process is moving along.  The inspection was yesterday.  It went as expected (& hoped) and now I’m waiting on the appraisal to come back to know which item(s) I may need to fix before I can actually close.  After the appraisal results, I’ll basically be waiting on repairs and the bank to finish up their process.  My real estate agent said yesterday that closing by the end of the month is still very possible.  I hope so!  I’m ready to have the keys in hand and be able to start painting and flooring.  (I’m sorry to say I’m not going to be able to move in right away because it needs some polishing but it shouldn’t take too terribly long, hopefully, to get some fresh paint on the main level’s walls and carpeting cleaned & repaired.)  I’m also ready to cook my first meal in the kitchen!

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski & JR Motorsports on their 3rd win of the 2009 NASCAR season this past Saturday at Michigan!

I got my Razorback football season tickets in the mail over the weekend.  First Fayetteville game is Sat Sept 19 against Georgia.  I’m still waiting on my tickets to the Southwest Classic (Arkansas vs Texas A&M) in Dallas at the new Cowboys Stadium.  I can’t wait for football season!

Until next time…

While I’m waiting on supper to finish cooking, I thought I’d share a couple of pieces of news from this past week that interested me.

No More No. 8

It was annnounced this week that, because of lack of sponsorship, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing shut down the No. 8 team (driven by Aric Almirola).  This leaves the No. 1 car (driven by Martin Truex Jr) as the only remaining original car from Dale Earnhardt’s original DEI stable.  On one hand, I saw this coming the minute Junior announced he was leaving DEI.  On the other hand, I find it very sad.  Dale Sr’s team is slipping farther and farther away.

We’re No. 1?

The University of Arkansas baseball team is having a great 2009 season so far.  After last weekend, the hogs and Arizona St were splitting the no. 1 ranking in various polls.  Arizona St just happened to visit Baum Stadium Tuesday & Wednesday.  Arkansas came up victorious in both games.  Go Hogs!

Update:  Arkansas lost to Vanderbilt last night and this afternoon.  I’m hoping they can pull out a win tomorrow and still manage to come out with a great ranking Monday.  I guess we’ll see.

Tuesday was St Patrick’s Day so Arkansas wore green ball caps.  (The first 1000 fans into the stadium got a green ball cap as well.)

Fayetteville native Ben Tschepikow hit a two-run homerun in the first inning.

I’m not sure I really like this tagline – “You will be in emBAUMed.”  It is a catch phrase, using the name of the stadium (Baum), but it’s kind of creepy too.

Here is a slide show of some of the photos I took at the game.

After beating Auburn yesterday, No. 15 Arkansas is now 5-0 in SEC and 15-4 overall.  They are trying to sweep the tigers today down at Auburn.  Go Hogs!

We (Mom, Dad, Shelby, & I) attended the Arkansas-Texas basketball game Tuesday night.  Arkansas beat Texas by a score of 67 – 61.  This was the 2nd time in 2 weeks that Arkansas beat a top 10 (Big 12) team – #4 Oklahoma last week & #7 Texas Tuesday night.

We got our tickets somewhat at the last moment so we literally sat in the top row.  There isn’t a bad seat in the arena, though, so we had a great view.  (Plus, my new camera zooms wonderfully even in the poor lighting of the top row and without a flash.)

It was a GREAT game.  There are just no words to explain the atmosphere in Bud Walton Arena when the fans are completely involved in the game.  It is loud and ridiculous (in a good way).

Former Razorback head coach Eddie Sutton was even in attendance.  (I’m pointing to him above.)  We were quite oblivious to this fact, though, until John George announced him as being there (which required him to stand and wave to the crowd).  I made sure to glance over at him across the way a few times after that to see what he was doing.  (Was he clapping?  Was he calling the hogs?  Etc, etc.)  Shelby says she saw him clap but I never witnessed it.  I don’t think it was lack of liking on his part of the Razorbacks.  I just figure the coach in him was watching the game too intently.  He did get a good workout having to stand every couple of minutes while we cheered and carried on, though.

Arkansas starts SEC play on Saturday with a home game against Mississippi State.  While I’m very, very excited about our starting 12-1 record, I’m also holding out my extreme excitement until we’ve played an SEC game or two (or maybe even a road game).  I did see someone mention today that the last time we started this well was in 1995, which is when we made it all the way back to the national championship game (after winning it all in 1994).  There have also been several “experts” already predicting what seed we are going to be in the NCAA tournament.  I guess we’ll see how the SEC schedule pans out for us.  Go Hogs!

Here is my collection of photos I took at the game.

Don’t forget to vote for Casey Dick’s pass to London Crawford in the final seconds of the Arkansas-LSU football game as the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the season.  If Arkansas wins the final vote tally, the $100,000 prize money will be dedicated to US Veterans scholarships at the University of Arkansas.  Click here to vote.  Thanks!

(The slogan I used as this post title was taken from a t-shirt for sale in the Hog Heaven store prior to the basketball game.)

After you vote…I’ve had this blog entry from the Fayetteville Flyer in my favorites since earlier this month and thought this would be a good time to share.  It’s a very good article about the Razorback Hog Call.  It also includes the following video of a little girl who seems to have it down pretty good.  So cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th97vOlP_Bw