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Posted by: David Bunch

My Dad is in Indiana this week. He'll be spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his parents (my grandparents....obviously). My travel plans are highly restricted this holiday season for reasons I'll enumerate later on. But suffice it to say my heart is right there in Indiana with my Dad. It's a great state...beautiful countryside, fond family memories, and good sports. At least for right now.

That's because the Indianapolis Colts are still undefeated after 10 games! This has the armchair quarterbacks looking for the first undefeated season for an NFL team since the 1972 Dolphins. Now, if you are like me, you are thinking that with 10 games won with 6 left to go, we're barely 2/3's of the way through the season. There's a lot of football left to play. But apparently, the consensus is that the rest of the Colt's schedule indicates a good shot at a perfect season, with the toughest two opponents coming in to Indianapolis to play. And, the Colts seem to be doing everything right both offensively and defensively.

As you know from my commentary on the World Series, I'm all about teams that are in a position to break or tie records, especially long standing ones. So I now have the keenest interest in the Colts and their future performance (though I really have no favorite NFL football team).

Now on to college hoops. My Indiana Hoosiers won handily on Friday, but then that was against a tiny college from Thibodeaux, LA called Nicholls State. The real reflection of how this team will likely perform this season will come November 30th against number one ranked Duke. I'm not looking for a win, but I do want to see these boys compete and stay in the game.

In college football, the mighty LSU Tigers dominated the Ole Miss Rebels and woke up today to find themselves ranked number 3 in the nation. The Tigers are playing well, and it's interesting to note that their only loss was to Tennessee in overtime. Do I think they are headed for a national championship? Well, that would be nice but it seems to me it's a long shot at this point.

So now you know that part of my loyalty to the Indiana Hoosiers stems from my family ties to the state. If they are good enough for my Papaw, then they are good enough for me! Seriously, I've heard "Hoosiers" all my life, and have followed them to one degree or another since the Bobby Knight days.

By popular demand, I've been asked to tell you about the exciting event upcoming in my life, which is also the reason I'll be sticking close to home this holiday season.

The Bunchienda is all aflutter in preparation for the January 12th arrival of Baby Bunch! This will be offspring number one, and it's a boy! Baby Dawson will be here in less than 7 weeks, and Mama Bunch just doesn't need to be doing a lot of traveling. Besides, with a January 12th due date, even a two week early arrival would push it back to right after Christmas and just before New Year. So we're taking no chances!

We are extremely pumped about our soon to be delivered bundle of joy. I just hope the stork has good directions to our place. As we have not yet picked out a middle name, I am open to suggestions. I will tell you that Benjamin is a front runner.

Why Dawson for a first name? Well, besides the fact that we like it, the name is translated from the Welch or Gaelic or something as "son of David". Pretty fitting, eh?