Travis: Well, Halloween wasn’t quite the neighborhood event we’ve grown accustomed to. Cade is ten now and I am beginning to see him losing interest in the labor of it all—why do I have to knock on all these doors for candy when mom and dad can just buy a big bag and we can stay home and eat it? Cash is still fully engaged and he had a cool morph costume thing that covered his entire body. He complained that the fabric covering his face bothered his eyelashes so I cut holes out and he was able to get by. It was pretty cold down here where we stay so a few of the dads and I only made it down to the cul de sac and back before we came inside to watch basketball. The moms toughed it out with the kids and made the full loop. Then they all came back, we ate pizza, and the kids poured out their sacks and started cutting deals with each other. We’ve been doing it for so long now that it’s a bit sad to think it’s winding down, but I guess that’s a part of it all. The kids will eventually grow up. How was Halloween where you stay?

Seth: The town where we stay shuts down one of the main roads, Houston St., with some of the older homes and there’s no cars just a lot of kids. We scarfed down dinner beforehand, and made our way to Houston St. where things were just getting started around 5:30. We walked up and down each side of the street and we were home, yes home, by 7:00. It was perfect. Yes, it was cold here too and that made it a bit uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I think cold hands were the main problem for the boys, but nothing huge. The boys still get a kick out of it, Fitsum, although he’s 9, still absolutely loves Halloween and would like to remind everyone about Summerween, set for the 3rd Saturday in June. Set your Palm Pilots.

I’ve got one of those things that I’m not sure what to do with. Last week, my wife approached me and said that we needed to do a “Thanksgiving Tree”. You basically take a Christmas tree and decorate it in fall colors. I’m telling you this was a new one on me and my wife also bought these things that look like tags for presents, but they’re made of some sort of chalkboard material (probably painted with a chalkboard material) and we rotate, each one of us, writing down one thing we’re thankful for as we head into the Thanksgiving day holiday. If you would please pass along your wife’s email, I’ll gladly send her this idea with lots of pins saved from Pinterest.

Travis: I can’t wait for Summerween. We’ll definitely have to do an impromptu convo that week.

And I will respectfully pass on the Thanksgiving tree idea. I was informed last week that we’ll be putting up our Christmas tree the week of Thanksgiving so that’s going to be a four or five day affair as it is already. My wife spends a lot of time thinking how best to get every room decorated so it’s a grind. I try to claim a spot outside and hang lights but it never works out well. I do consider myself a bit lucky though because a few years ago she wanted to get one of those upside down Christmas trees and hang it from the ceiling. That would’ve been an extremely difficult task so I was glad when she backed away from it.

We did get a new tree last year and it has a model train that’s attached about halfway down that drives around the tree making semi-audible train noises. The boys love it and it’s pretty cool I guess. I complain some, but this really is my favorite time of year—heading into Thanksgiving and then onto Christmas. There’s a bit of a void this year since Claire isn’t playing basketball but we’re trying to push through it.

So I saw on Twitter that Florida State is looking for a new coach and I wanted to get your opinion. Would you rather FSU hire Matt Campbell and we never have to worry about him again in the conference or would you rather they hire Mike Leach and we can all finally see what Leach could do in an environment where he could potentially land four and five star studs on offense?

Seth: Don’t be the last one to hop onboard on the Thanksgiving Day Tree Train! Woooo! Woooo!

How do I delicately say this, but from a blogging perspective, Mike Leach at Florida State would only embolden a handful of commenters who think that he does walk on water (which he might) and for my own sake, I don’t know how much more I can deal with that. Honestly, I think that Leach does best punching up, but as you’ve said, we’ve never seen him punch down. I tend to think that a program like Florida State is really weird. Like, I can’t figure out why Jimbo Fisher left, he had a down year, but that thing literally fell completely apart. I don’t know if Fisher just stopped recruiting, but high-tailed it out of there for some reason and I can’t figure out what that reason is. Maybe it is a program that has a ton of booster influence and if you’re not going to recruit at an elite level in Florida, then you’re probably going to just be a .500 team because you have to compete with Florida, Miami, Alabama, Georgia, and probably LSU for the top talent in Florida. I think Leach is a fantastic coach, but maybe his calling is punching up? I think I like him better that way and he’s always an underdog that way.

But my greatest concern, more than Leach, would be for Texas Tech to do well, so if that means that Rhule goes to Florida State and Campbell goes to USC, then I’m completely fine with that.

Basketball season is here (well, the day we’re emailing back and forth it actually arrived, which was Tuesday). Any thoughts on Texas Tech’s season or thoughts from Cade or Cash on how this year’s team will do?

Travis: I feel the same about Florida State in a way, it’s a weird situation. Jimbo Fisher hightailed it out of there like he stole something and the program has just completely fallen apart. And I’m with you for the most part regarding Leach—I think being a perpetual underdog has served him well. I’m not sure how successful he’d be at one of the blue blood schools, but it might be cool to try and find out. But for all we know he might be settled in enough at Wazzou to never leave, so who knows. I’d definitely be ok with Rhule and Campbell moving on down the road.

And yes my boys and I are fired up for basketball season to kick off. I told them about the Peavy commitment yesterday and they were thrilled. I don’t see any reason why Tech won’t be able to knock on the door for another conference title and make another deep run in the tourney. Beard is just different and he gets every ounce of talent out of the players he has. Such a joy to have him on campus. And the funny thing is that whenever I talk Tech basketball with any of my friends or co-workers they always ask how long we’ll be able to keep Beard. My answer is always the same—I might be naïve, but I really believe this is Beard’s dream job and it would take a lot for him to walk. For now though, I just want to enjoy it all.

Speaking of my boys though, I have a question. They are absolutely addicted to YouTube and from all indications, it’s an epidemic amongst young kids. We can be watching a basketball game on TV and one of them will sneak his way to the ipad and pull up basketball videos on YouTube. It’s so strange. They watch guys talking about basketball rather than the game itself. Have you seen this in your boys at all?

Seth: I mean, I’m the guy that’s got the YouTube video problem. I regularly find myself looking for content on YouTube rather than on regular TV, mainly because the things that I want to watch are related to running, outdoor activities (yeah, activities), and stuff like that. So it’s me that’s constantly watching watching YouTube and it’s me that is subscribing to channels and watching things. And yes, my kids do this too, but it’s mainly Fitsum who likes watching other people play video games. This I completely understand, but I think it stems from the idea that kids want to see a video game completed, they aren’t good enough to complete a level, so they watch other people actually do it.

I know that’s it is just a matter of time before Youssouf is pulling up highlights from the night before to see how Luka has recorded his next triple-double.

Well, we have an old friend coaching for West Virginia, Neal Brown, is the head coach and apparently the entire team is in the M.A.S.H. unit (some people will not understand that reference). Any thoughts about notching a win in Morgantown?

Travis: It’s an 11am start, our defense isn’t playing well and we’re still missing Bowman. So I’m saying we’re definitely gonna win.

Seth: I’m placing my bets!