I was overcome with joy tonight as I covered the 5th Annual Jimmy Rane Charity Golf Tournament banquet. You may know Mr. Rane as the “YellaWood” guy from the Great Southern Wood Products commercials here in Alabama. He's also an Auburn Trustee, so he decided to hold the tournament at The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National here in Opelika.

The tournament benefits underprivileged high school seniors by raising money for scholarships. Needless to say, ol' “YellaWood” seems to pull in some pretty big names. I got to interview, have pictures made with, and got autographs from the following people. See if they sound familiar:
Mike Shula, Tommy Tubberville, Mark Richt, Ozzie Newsome, Gene Stallings… and last, but not least… LEE CORSO! I emphasize the last one because I had no clue he was going to be there until tonight! Wow! I'm still not off Cloud Nine.

They weren't the only people there. There were 40 sports guys there all total. Those were just the one I got to spend some time with. Some of the other people there that I got to meet are Sylvester Croom, Frank Beamer, Jim Donnan, and R.C. Slocum (and being around him, Stallings, and Tubberville at the same time was incredible!). Philip Fulmer was supposed to be there, but he no showed. I probably would've tried to push his stomach in like the Pilsbury Dough Boy, so that was probably best. Actually, I probably would've punched him in the stomach and called him “Great Pumpkin” out loud.

That was my night in a nutshell. I couldn't keep the excitement in, so pardon me if I sound like I'm gloating. I'm just thrilled. Especially with meeting Stallings and Corso. Stallings is one of my “life heroes.” I have less than a handful of those, so to finally meet one is pretty awesome. The autographs are on the site, as will the pictures be when I get them developed.

Click to see my Star Wars Personality!!

Well, a certain office in D.C. tried to get me into the Cheney fund raiser tomorrow. Didn't work because of White House deadlines. That's cool. It would've been right in the middle of my work day, so that's fine. I certainly appreciate the effort.

However, Eric and I went to the coliseum tonight to set up our equipment for Cheney's speech tomorrow morning. I have a very cool spot just a few yards away from the VP. I'm very excited about seeing him. It's going to make for a very long day, but a very worthwhile one.

I'm going to bed. 5 a.m. is no one's friend…

Well… it's been a cool couple of days at work. Things have gone really well, so this post will probably jinx that. I got some good news today from one of my managers.

I'll be covering VP Dick Cheney's visit to Auburn University Friday morning. You know the dedicated Republican in me will do its best to stay focused for story purposes, right? I'm very excited about this. I probably won't get to meet him, but just getting to see him in person will be cool.

I might be able to squeeze myself into the fundraiser Congressman Mike Rogers has set up while Cheney's in town, but it's $250 a head to meet the Veep. I could bring the camera, but I've not been in contact with Mike's office. I've gotten to know the Congressman pretty well, so it might pay off. I don't know when the fundraiser is, so I need to find out. If it's after Friday, forget it. We'll be in Enterprise with Mom.

Anyhow, now I'm tired. I'm going to play some Guild Wars, then I'm heading to bed.

I think I'll start posting mug shots of the meth addicts (and other arrests) in my new home county. Hey, the Sheriff's Office sends them out, and we air them. That tells me I'm free to do it. What the heck…