jakemiller

champions.

 

it is a beautiful thing to see your team anointed the favorite to win it all at the beginning
of the season... and be crowned national champions at the end of the season. 

GO HEELS!!!

forty minutes

just a quick post to say how amped up i am about the championship game tonight. i've actually used the word "giddy" several times today. i'm not sure if that makes me weird or not. 

it's been a great season for carolina. they've had a solid tournament run... and it would be nice to close it out with a victory over michigan state for the national championship. 

i have absolutely no idea what to expect in this game tonight. my gut tells me the heels win, and i don't say that casually. i think we're the better team, first of all. but more importantly, i just think that this team has been on a mission since last year's final four. everyone came back to avenge that embarrassing loss to kansas and win the title... and i just don't see them losing tonight. 

but it's the championship game... and anything can happen. 

so... forget all the media hype, forget the "home court advantage" for michigan state, forget the fact that carolina beat michigan state earlier this season by 35 (which means absolutely nothing, by the way). it's time to play. 

forty minutes to the title.

GO HEELS!!!

thursday thoughts

it's been a little while since i posted. i guess i need to get caught up. this could take a while, but here's what's happening in my world...

• waters edge church turned six years old!
• if you've ever wanted to know why we are who we are and why we do what we do... give this a listen. 
• we're baptizing a bunch of people this sunday. i love baptism. evidence of life-change. there's nothing better than seeing people take the next step.
• my ibook is dying a slow death. it's really quite sad. i'm currently accepting donations for my new macbook...
• only 2 weeks until easter. you won't believe what we're doing. trust me. 
• only 9 weeks until we move into our building. 9 weeks! so much to do...
• work is moving at a frenetic pace right now. i've never worked so hard in my life... but i love it!
• i'm trying to plan our family vacation for june. where should we go? 
• my community group put my "slightly used right knee" on ebay. very funny. 
• speaking of my knee... it's getting better. no more swelling. i'm moving around like a man twice my age, but i am driving again... which is nice.
• surgery is scheduled for april 16th. i've been told i can watch the surgery on the screen above me... which i will most definitely do. they're giving me a nerve block from the waist down, so i'll be wide awake.
• i want to be the first person to give live twitter updates during their arthroscopic surgery. since i'll be awake, i figure i should make the most of it. i've asked my doctor if he'll let me bring my iphone in the operating room... so far, he's not going for it. i'll keep asking...
• my house still hasn't sold. keep praying!
• i never thought i would say this, but... it's entirely possible that i eat too much chick-fil-a. 
• carolina advanced to the sweet 16! i think gonzaga will be a really tough matchup friday night. nothing comes easy from here on out. 
• i'm not gonna lie... my brackets are looking good (for now).
• i'm currently at 98.8% in the espn tournament challenge, currently leading the bloggermadness challenge, and i'm currently tied for 35th (out of 947) in the catalyst marchmaniac competition.
• i'm currently out of things to say.  

i'm with obama...

 

what... did you think i was about to get all political on you? 

in the not-so-important news of the day, president obama filled out his ncaa tournament brackets. turns out, obama thinks the heels are going to win it all. when asked about his selection, this was his response...

"here's what i like about carolina: experience and balance. i'm going with experience, and i think lawson is going to be healthy." he then offered a little message to the heels... "now, for the tar heels who are watching, i picked you all last year -- and you let me down. this year, don't embarrass me in front of the nation, alright? i'm counting on you."

mr. president... i'm with you. GO HEELS!!!

(by the way... you can click on the bracket above to see a larger version of the original bracket filled out by president obama. picture via whitehouse.gov)

now that the president has weighed in... what about you? who do you think is going to win the national championship?

you asked for it...

some of my more... um... curious... readers asked to see pictures of my knee. that's kind of weird. but i'm not one to disappoint. actually, one person asked to see pictures of my acl... but since i'm not superman and don't have x-ray vision... this is the best i can do. 

can you guess which one is hurt?

yeah... it's the one that looks like i'm smuggling a beach ball under my skin...

ouch...

friday morning, i spent some time with my friend rob. he had invited me to join him at the ymca to play some racquetball... which was exciting... it's been a long time since i've played racquetball. as expected, i was a little rusty (read: i lost), but i had a great time. 

before we left, we decided to play a little basketball. it started out harmless enough... shooting around, played a game of "pig"... which turned into "horse"... and then decided to play a little one-on-one. as i was beating rob to a pulp (not really), i felt a little something happen in my right knee. nothing major... just a tweak. right?

(backstory... about six years ago i tore the acl and the meniscus in my right knee. i opted for physical therapy and rehab as opposed to arthroscopic surgery.)

after i limped around a little bit, rob suggested we stop playing. we probably should have, but i insisted i was alright (that was stupid). so we kept playing, and sure enough, about five minutes later... snap. i jumped. i landed. my knee popped and buckled. and down i went... in excruciating, indescribable pain. i knew immediately what had happened. like i said... i've seen this movie before.

as i rolled around on the gym floor, rob laughed at me (just kidding). the ymca staff quickly came to my aid. they were amazing... very friendly and tried to make me as comfortable as possible. the trainer did a quick exam, they wrapped my knee in ice, put me in a wheelchair (a first for me) and sent me on my way. rob brought me home, and kristi took over.

we made several doctor's appointments... one with my primary care doc (mainly to get a referral) and one with an orthopedic surgeon (with said referral). it took a little while to see the orthopedic doc because they had to squeeze me in, but it was worth the wait. i'm told that i'm seeing the best group on the peninsula... and when you're talking about an injury like this, you want to see the best doctor there is.

the diagnosis? torn anterior cruciate ligament (torn acl... again) and, my personal favorite - patellar disclocation (i.e. dislocated kneecap). the treatment? heavy pain medication (nice...), a locking knee immobilizer, crutches, and rest. i'll go back tomorrow morning to have the fluid drained from my knee, then back again on wednesday for another mri. the mri on wednesday will determine the extent of the damage once the swelling has subsided. 

surgery is imminent and will happen sometime in the near future. i'll know more on wednesday.

so... that was my weekend. how was yours?

in case you missed it...

ty lawson is the man. 
here's the game winning three-pointer as time expired last night against florida state. 
go heels!

(rss readers, click through if you can't see the video...)

weekend update

weekend update is all about random. what's on my mind, what i've been up to, and all points in between. my little way of getting things caught up. here we go...

• today was a GREAT day at waters edge church!
• i managed to survive my first experience on the waters edge stage. that's a little out of my comfort zone, but i sort of enjoyed it. don't tell anybody...
• sundays are long. four services in two locations. i leave at 7:00am and get home about 7:30pm... and it's worth every single minute.
• our family is beginning to feel at home here. 
• speaking of home... i left the greenville network on facebook. i joined the virginia beach/norfolk network. that's a pretty big deal. almost as big as changing the relationship status...
• i think... emphasis on think... we've found a house. i should have details in the next couple of days. 
• our house in greenville is still on the market. we need that thing to sell, folks.
• it has been ridiculously cold here the past few days.
• spent the day saturday in williamsburg. very cool place.
• i'm so glad 24 is back. television wasn't the same without you, jack. 
• watched hancock the other night. kind of a stupid movie. 
• i realized that i twitter more than i blog these days. i'm not sure if that's good or bad. brent had some interesting thoughts on that same topic.
• after two losses to open acc play, the heels seem to be out of their funk. 
• pretty pumped about seeing a cardinals/steelers super bowl... should be exciting. how can you not like kurt warner?
• fyi... any "expert" that says they predicted the cardinals would make the super bowl is a liar. 

alright, that's all i've got. it's been a long day. i need sleep. good night all.

update... in bullet points

• hard to believe in 19 days we'll be living in virginia... in someone else's house!
• that's still a little strange to me... but really cool. 
• january 4th is my first official sunday on staff @ waters edge.
• people keep coming to look at our house, but no bites so far. keep praying!
• do you know anybody that needs a house in greenville? let me know. 
• had logan's 2nd birthday party yesterday. so much fun. his birthday isn't actually until the 27th, but we sort of have a lot going on around that time... 
• the next three weeks of my life are going to be insanely busy. 
• our good friend heather did a photo shoot with us @ falls park in downtown greenville on saturday. we had a great time. thanks, heather! 
• i love christmas parties. just thought i'd share.
• watched the dark knight again the other night. best superhero movie ever?  
• in case you missed it, my good friend and former co-worker ryan fitzgerald just went on staff at north point. congrats, ryan! 
• speaking of north point... another good friend, david mcdaniel, executive director of campus expansion has started a blog. you need to be reading it. he'll make you smarter.
• speaking of blogs... i wish i blogged more. 
• is anybody going to beat my tar heels this season? will anybody come close?
• speaking of carolina... i'm not usually one to brag, but... the heels went 8-4 this season in football, and well, i called it. here's the proof. 
• i'm headed to the championship game in one fantasy football league, and the semi-finals in the other. nice.
• the killers new cd = awesome. 
• i wish it would snow. since it's supposed to be in the 60's all week, i'm probably out of luck.

greenville :: chapel hill :: yorktown

today marked the second of what will probably be quite a few trips up interstate 85 to virginia over the next couple of months. 

we're spending the next few days in yorktown... getting to know the area, meeting some new friends, and looking for our new home. i'll also spend a couple of days at the waters edge offices this week with the staff getting prepped to come on board in january. it's good to be back up here... can't wait to get back to waters edge church in the morning!

on the way up, we stopped in chapel hill, nc for logan's first experience at the university of north carolina. we grabbed lunch on franklin st., spent some time in kenan stadium, and took a walk around the smith center. the kid isn't even two yet, but his blood is already turning blue. he's a tar heel... i love it.

of course it's convenient that chapel hill is the exact halfway point between greenville and yorktown. it makes for a good stopping point during the long trip... pretty sure we'll be planning trips to greenville around a few carolina games in the years to come.

my life. in words.

 

thanks anne, josh & joe for the creative inspiration.

what do your words say about you? find out here.

round two

well... it's finally here. the much anticipated second season of carolina football under butch davis. 

so much has been written about this team heading into the season, i don't think it's even remotely possible they can live up to this much hype. some of it is valid... a lot of it is wishful thinking. 

first, there were the polls saying they would finish second in the coastal division (behind va. tech). then there was talk of actually winning the coastal division. and now, they're the trendy pick (see point #1) to win the (very weak) acc. excuse me?

personally, i'm not certain that talk of any type of championship is something we need to be thinking about at this point. will they be a much improved team? yes. but let's just concentrate on winning more games than we lose this year... how about that?

last season, as a very young team, we finished 4-8. six of those eight losses were by a touchdown or less, and three of those came in the last minute of the game. that's not bad. this season, we return 18 starters and have a (seemingly) favorable schedule. that, the experts say, equates to a potentially big season in chapel hill. i guess we'll see.

here's my prediction... we start a little shaky, maybe losing two of our first four games (that include va. tech and miami) but we finish strong... just behind virginia tech and narrowly missing the coastal division championship. we'll go to a middle of the road bowl game, and call season two under butch davis another successful step in the right direction. final record - a toss up between 7-5 or 8-4. 

i'll be bold and say 8-4. 

go heels!

fantasy football

football season starts this week, which can only mean one thing... it's time for fantasy football!  

i'm playing in two leagues this year, both of which are 10-team leagues, and both of which drafted earlier this week. overall, i'm pretty satisfied with how my teams look. there's certainly some strategy involved in drafting, but everybody knows it's all about who stays healthy and what kind of matchups you have... and i have control over neither. who cares... it's still a lot of fun!

here's how my teams shape up...

league #1 (i drafted #2)

qb - drew brees
rb - adrian peterson
rb - maurice jones-drew
wr - andre johnson
wr - santonio holmes
w/r - lendale white
w/t - anquan boldin
k - nate kaeding
def - patriots 
bn - eli manning, isaac bruce, kenny watson, chester taylor, anthony gonzalez

league #2 (i drafted #8)

qb - carson palmer

rb - steven jackson

rb - marshawn lynch

wr - braylon edwards

wr - andre johnson

te - jeremy shockey

w/r - thomas jones

w/t - laveranues coles

k - nate kaeding

def - chargers

bn - jonathan stewart, bernard berrian, david garrard, kenny watson

baseball

 

 

tickets to the game... $12

fruit cup and ice cream (in tiny little helmets, of course)... $6

running the bases after the game... free

souvenir baseball... $5

taking my son to his first baseball game... priceless

weekend update

here's what's been going on in my world over the past 7 days...

• we had a great week @ the beach! it went by way too quickly.
• litchfield has become our favorite place to go to the beach. 
• logan is officially a beach lover. it took him a day or so to warm up to the ocean, but we convinced him that nemo was in there waiting for him to come play and he was good to go. 
• i eat entirely too much when we're on vacation. about 10% of it is healthy.
• steered clear of a few jellyfish in the water... while holding logan. that was interesting.
• i managed to avoid getting sunburned @ the beach, i think for the first time ever. 
• did manage to get sunburned while cutting my grass yesterday. go figure. 
• have you ever taken a bath in cold water w/ vinegar? yeah, me neither... until last night. it was a "home remedy" for sunburn... and it stinkin' worked! sunburn = gone. i was shocked. and yes, i was burned that bad. 
• have you gotten john mayer's new live cd? you should. it's fantastic.
• i'm now the proud owner of an iphone. seriously, how did i manage before i had this thing? 
• i think i still smell like vinegar...
• as i type this, there is a preseason nfl game on. that can only mean one thing... it's almost fantasy football time!
• speaking of the nfl... i'm sorry, but i'm so over brett favre. enough is enough, dude. 

alright, that's all for now...