I am back in the game this week after a week of vacation. Special thanks to blog contributor Hayden Sowers and to online editor Todd Vinyard for keeping things going on the blog for a while.

I'll be out two more weeks in during the summer, and they will help keep the blog current again.

I spent the front end of last week checking on folks in Denham Springs/Baton Rouge. Everything is OK down south though where walking through parking lots was a reminder of the impact of high humidity to an already stifling daily temperature.

One afternoon the urge to wander set in, and we ended up at the Bass Pro in Denham Springs. I got some strange looks there, because my t-shirt advertised the University of Louisiana-Monroe and not LSU or the Saints.

Our family spent a few minutes last Thursday gathered around the computer watching a cousin compete in the 100 free in the US Olympic swim trials in Omaha. Congratulations to Mason Norman of Gwinett County, GA.

As hot as its been the last couple of days I have had the good fortune to be around trees and water at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Pikeville, Tenn., and as our church group rafted the Ocoee River Saturday near Benton, Tenn.

If our math is correct this was the ninth-straight year for our group to make the Ocoee trip.

A nice couple of stories from Scott Rabalais of The Baton Rouge Advocate on this historic day in the SEC. Texas A&M and Missouri are official members beginning today. A&M's 100-year decision,  Missouri moves up in class

I had a piece on the buzz around College Station for A&M's move from my visit there with Ole Miss baseball for the regional in early June.

As we were riding back from Ocoee Saturday evening I noticed the Twitter traffic beginning to pick up and count down the official entry into the SEC for the Aggies and Mizzou.

Ole Miss AD Ross Bjork extended an official welcome to the new folks on Twitter.