CAPITOL LETTERS

1) Is that the dinner bell? Or the summons to enter the chamber? Reminds me of the glockenshpiel I attempted to play in my second grade music class. Or that chime on cruise ships that warns you that it's time to eat (again).

2) It's a rowdy scene -- watching a handful of lawmakers with cowboy hats, with steer-sized belt buckles, with cream-thick East Texas twangs, navigating their tinsel-covered, big-haired wives and hearty, screaming babies across the floor. Talk about a Texas stereotype.

3) "And the home....of the....braaaave." There's so much applause from the gallery I'm craving peanuts and Cracker Jack, fighting the urge to scream "Play Ball."

4) During the invocation we "pray for Texas and HER people." I know boats are supposedly female, ("Thar she blows!") as are some expensive cars ("Isn't she a hot little number"). But states? Texas?

5) Speaking of important Texas women, Nadine Craddick is amusing her and Tom's grandchild ("Tripp, and yes, that's a little Texas Longhorns outfit he's wearing") by wearing a giant hand puppet. Everyone's voting. Everyone's serious. And Nadine and Tom are playing with puppets.

6) What? Are they seriously deciding which resolution to vote on first with a coin toss? (Yes, according to Christy Hoppe. They are.)

7) And the football references don't stop there. It took me more time than I care to admit to figure out that lawmakers are making the "1" and "2" signals with their fingers during votes -- not practicing their "Hook 'em horns" sign.

That's just a start. More to come...