First off, we wish all of you a fantastic weekend.  Have fun, relax, enjoy a break (if your line of work allows such a thing), stay alive, and resume normal bloggery Monday.  (Not that we won't continue through the weekend, but you understand.)

Second, the holiday weekend gives me a good chance to step outside blogger mode and talk content for a bit.  There's really a lot going on around RTT at the moment; some things have been visible and some have been under the hood.  Let me highlight a few things so you have a better idea where we are and where we hope to go.

1. The RTT Create Your Own UT Uniform Contest is still going, so be sure to jump in if you haven't already.  We've already been pleasantly surprised at some of the uniform ideas; there have to be plenty of other good ones out there.  And don't forget that the winner and runner-up get hardware to go with their bragging rights.
2. The Rocky Top Tennessee 2009 Annual Ships out on Monday.  Pre-orders will be sent straight away; stores will carry them starting on the 21st.  I've had the privilege of a sneak peek, and I really think you're going to be blown away at what Joel spearheaded over the last few months.
3. The 50 Best Games of the Fulmer Era is down to the top 10.  Will will keep on reviving great memories as only he can throught the summer and should provide much-needed relief through the football drought that is baseball season.
4. The Pilot Rocky Top League is over.  Congrats to HT Group for besting News Sentinel and winning the league.  As for us, our coverage of the league was, um, minimal this year - partly because we've been distracted by the annual and partly because of the under-the-hood stuff I mentioned before.  At any rate, there were several Vols who made good showings this summer and we have reason to think that several players have improved quite a bit.
5. Recruiting News is Heating Up.  As the summer camps wind down, we'll begin to hear more about prospects cutting lists down to final 3 or final 5 lists, and we'll hear about some commits (to UT and to other places).  Now that the annual is out, we hope to re-invent our recruiting coverage.  I think you'll be pleased.
6. The Time to Gear Up for Football Season is Now.  It's hard to believe that football is just around the corner, but it really is.  With so much going on this year (new staff, new offense and defense, new stadium look, etc.) there will be a lot to discuss.  This year will probably have more scuttlebutt fodder than we've had in decades.
7. SBNation Keeps on Giving.  Since the end of basketball season, the SBNation blogs have seen a lot of dramatic changes.  Most of the advances have been managerial - things that you probably don't even know about - but if you are regulars on any of the hockey, NBA, or baseball blogs, you likely have seen an across-the-board increase in the quality of blog administration and content.  Seriously, the techies behind the scenes have basically given us a Ferrari of a blog and we've been itching for the fall sports to begin so we can really stretch our wings.

It's going to be a very interesting back half of the year.  We hope you like what's coming up and, most importantly, we hope to provide the best place on the 'net for Vols talk (for both fans and rivals, but especially fans) before, during, and after all Vols events.

And to keep your motor running for football (as if you needed any help), recall this lovely bit of YouTubery: