Post #1,000

Yep, that's right: this is my thousandth* post on Mean Green Cougar Red. Which really isn't too impressive, considering that I've been blogging since 2004.

Anyway, the hottest** and worst month of the year is upon us, the Olympics are underway, football season is just a few weeks away, and it's time for me to start blogging again. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't enjoy not having to worry about generating new material for this site for a few months, and I do think the day will come when I decide to stop blogging altogether. But that day is not today.

As it turns out, I will remain a resident of Bellaire, Texas for at least one more year. My landlord and I worked out a deal so I can reside at this house through next summer, which is great because moving is a tremendous pain in the ass that should be postponed for as long as possible. The summer's big event turned out to be a ten-day Alpine Adventure to Austria and Germany, with brief stops in Italy, Slovenia, Liechtenstein (that's 5 out of 25!) and Switzerland. Kirby and my girlfriend went with me. Rather than quenching the travel bug, however, we simply found more places that we want to spend more time visiting and exploring; I'm already contemplating our next trip (which will definitely be longer than ten days...).

Kirby, meanwhile, is just a couple of weeks from beginning middle school. We know it's going to be very challenging for him, but we've already met with his new teachers and administrators and we've come up with a plan that will hopefully work for him. Fingers crossed...

In the coming days I'll try to post some pictures and a write-up of the Alpine Adventure. I also plan to write my season preview for the Houston Cougars before the season kicks off. Needless to say, expectations are high for the Coogs going into the 2016 season, and there's even rumors of a potential spot for the school in an expanded Big 12 (although I'll believe it when I see it). It's also about time for me to write my quadrennial post about NBC's miserable Olympics coverage.

I might even be able to generate an entry or two about November's election, if I can do so without vomiting as I type. I will say this for now: Donald Trump is a vile, miserable, disgusting piece of shit who must not be allowed to become President of the United States. And I say that as somebody who is most certainly not a Hillary Clinton fan.

Otherwise, it's good to be behind the keyboard again.

* This count includes the "retroblogs" that I moved over from my previous website.

** About a decade ago, I came across some data that suggested that July was actually a hotter month than August. This is apparently untrue; according to Eric Berger, August is indeed the hottest month of the year in Houston.