AJ finding his toybox! :-D He likes the squeaker toys the best! 
He actually doesn't like this little bed, but I put him in it, and he'll stay until I leave the room and then get up as soon as I leave. James' thinks its super funny...I think it's kind of cute. He's trying to do what I want him too! 
He loves to nap in the kitchen, and he sticks his legs out to make him as long as possible. And he makes you step over him if you come in the kitchen. Sometimes he'll lift his head, but he's usually zonked out.
His name was Rudy, but since he didn't respond to it, we decided to change it to AJ. Why AJ? People keep asking us if it's Angela and James...but it's not. For all of you Hokies out there, AJ is different colors of gray, like hokie stone. And since James and I spent three years of our time at VT living in the dorm, AJ (Ambler Johnston), we thought it would be cute. Yes we've been called dorks...but let's be honest...we are. :-) We ventured to Austin on Saturday, despite the bad weather. The weather was sooooo bad that we had to stop on the side of the road for about a half hour. 
I seriously thought our car was going to blow away and was very thankful that it wasn't tornado season, or I'm fairly certain we wouldn't have made it! So…note to anyone thinking about going out in a Texas storm…DON’T! Trust us! But, we made it!! And the people from Lil Paws were soooo sweet and really encouraging! They said that AJ would need alot of work, because he has alot of energy and he has never been trained before, but he has really been great so far! 
He knows he's on a trial period, so he's trying to be good! He just loves to be around us, and he feels right at home already! His favorite place to sleep is on hard stuff, and he loves to nap on top of my binders, which I think is really funny! We can't wait for you all to meet him! He's sooooo sweet!!
In celebration of Marly's half birthday (yeah 22 1/2!), we spent Wednesday night at Crickets bar and grill. You may remember if you have become a regular reader that this was the first place all of the history grads hung out on a 
Wednesday night after orientation those very many weeks ago in Waco! In celebration of an amazing girl, who reminds me alot of Mary, we gave her a mini light up tiara and wand, as well as brought fun beads. And Ann was awesome and brought a cake. Because nothing gets you through school like pretending to be little kids again! It was nice sitting out on the deck enjoying the warm Waco air. Happy half birthday Marly!! :-D
It was actually quite entertaining, and I found myself in awe of the balloons lighting up...it was sort of relaxing. Perhaps the best part was when they played Toby Keith's boot song. When they began playing it, we were all excited and wondering if a Baptist school would play a song that said ass....and they did...and it was AWESOME! Especially the sign language interpreter interpreting that part of the song. She was amazing…and it was classic! I don't think we would have ever experienced something similar to it anywhere else in the country. The event was mainly for the local community, as there were not many students who came, but a ton of families with little kids. 
I’m glad the university is doing something for the community, as there is no real connection between the city of Waco and Baylor. Such a connection would surely make this place better!! It was fun to see the little kids get excited about the balloons! They were dancing and screaming, and having a blast. I am very glad that we went. If you ever get a chance to watch people blow a flame into a hot air balloon...you should definitely go. I've always wanted to go on a balloon ride, and this only reinforced my desire!
Watching the game at a bar was exciting, given the large TVs and other games shown. We were tracking Cincinnati’s upset bid over Ohio State with particular interest. The Hokies played well, and we saw the slow maturing of our offense. While I am a die-hard Hokie, I don’t think we are a top-10 team just yet… but we are 3-0 and UVA is rather pathetic this year. 
The Dallas Hokies tended to be older, and graduated from Tech well before Beamer started coaching at Murray State, thus they were not the most energetic crowd. However, one guy had just moved to Texas after going to every home game for the past 15 years. He grew up in Texas then went to Tech for college and didn’t want to leave Blacksburg. His girlfriend finally made him move, but he was missing Lane so much he had about 10 beers in the first half. The other side of the bar was the Ohio State Alumni club, who were worried about an upset most of the game. We may check out the Austin Hokie Club for next week’s game.
After a day of awesome football at College Station, we decided to support the Baylor team. After all, we are grad students here and they were playing TCU, a ranked team. Interesting side note…TCU and Baylor BOTH used to be in Waco, but the little town of Waco must have been two small for two religious schools with highly different ideas. In fact, Baylor moved into TCU’s old buildings…just a little bit of random history James found online. We went all out for this game…I mean…we even bought Baylor ‘gold’ (but really a gross yellow color) shirts to wear, because they (the mystical powers that run Baylor) asked us too. 
The stadium is very cute, and is actually really nice. It is fairly new, but it is a few miles from campus in not the nicest part of town. I am a believer in having your stadium on campus, but when you don't have room for it, what can you do? We weren't going to go to the game, because Baylor decided that graduate students do not pay enough in student fees to qualify for free tickets, but someone changed their minds and we were able to get free tickets!! Kudos for whoever pulled that one off! :-) 
Perhaps the coolest thing I've seen at Baylor thus far is the Freshman Line tradition. To make the freshmen feel more like they are a part of the university community, each are given a free "golden" jersey with their name on it and their graduating class year. Then, on the first game, they sit in a special section together and get to make the entrance tunnel for the team...hence...the Baylor line. I think that is awesome, and a great way to get your students excited about football! :-) More beef I have with Baylor though...they play Enter Sandman when their team comes out too! And...it does nothing. James and I immediately started jumping up and down and screaming, because it’s a natural reaction. But, as we realized we were the only ones in the stadium doing so, it became awkward and we stopped. Instead, we joined the stadium in the Baylor Sic' Em Bears thing...in which you put your right arm up in the shape of a claw, and you shake it and yell. Which, is kind of cool, but that's all that they do the entire game, so it got old.
Jersey drivers are slow in comparison). We parked on the edge of campus and took off in search of the bookstore and Will Call. What we entered was very familiar, meaning that Texas A&M is Virginia Tech on a Texas scale, so VERY BIG. Seeing hordes of maroon clad folks was comforting, as well as walking through a large, imposing campus. The campus felt "right", unlike Baylor's tiny excuse for grand campus planning. Except for the immensity of the place and omission of mountains, we really could have been on Blacksburg on Game Day. The bookstore was conveniently placed adjacent to Kyle Field, which is one IMPRESSIVE structure. 
We bought Aggie shirts to fit in, and waited to enter the stadium as the corps of cadets marched by. Finding ourselves in the north endzone, we had a view of the field similar to the Marching Virginians in Lane, except the Video Board was gigantic behind us (it was new). The north endzone reminded us of Lane Stadium's new South Endzone, just bigger. The East and West stands mirrored each other with several large decks. We decided that if the fans got into it, this place could really rock (close to 80,000 people showed up for the game against I-AA Citadel). At this point we were really excited and felt normal, until the fans started acting strange. A&M has no cheerleaders, just five male "yell-leaders" who have the power through weird hand movements to incite mass student choreographed responses. 
The responses were amazing, seeing 40,000 people move in unison, but seemed odd to us. Further, when some Aggie song is played, EVERYONE in the stadium locks arms and sways. We did it to fit in, but felt too much like UVA students. Overall we felt that the stadium was impressive, but not as intimidating as Lane Stadium. Texas Aggie fans were simply not drunk for one thing, the smell of bourbon was not in the air, which of course resulted from poor tailgating. We encountered little tailgating near the stadium, which results in poor cheering. Except that the A&M fans were not drunk so they could better study the game and respond to yell-leaders orders... Thus, the fans do not get loud unless told to. Virginia Tech fans like to get into opponents heads, A&M fans simply hold to traditional movements. However, overall the atmosphere was great and felt like REAL football, especially in connection to Baylor... The Texas A&M football team seemed poorly coached as they had many turnovers and bad execution all game keeping the score surprisingly close. 
They should not have fired R.C. Slocum. We left after the third quarter when everyone started swaying again, plus we had a late night drive through dark roads to Waco. On the way to the car we were passing the "century oak" where Aggie couples traditionally went to propose. An older man walked by and stated bluntly if we were going to the oak to become engaged... which brings up interesting questions such as, why would anyone ruin a nervous man's proposal? We are already married, thank you. On the way out of town we discovered a Jimmy-Johns and a Kroger... College Station = Blacksburg. So far, Waco = Lynchburg.
