My name is Jim Vance and I applied for and was chosen by Raf and Grizz as a front page contributor. I saw a few of you say some nice things about me on earlier posts and I thank you for those comments. I'm sure those comments weighed heavily in the decision.

I'm a grandfather of two beautiful little girls who live in Fort Worth, and my wife and I live on a small ranch just north of there. I have a BA in Management from St. Mary's College of California and I work in the medical supply field and in real estate. I've been a Cowboys fan for a long time.

The Cowboys used to have a practice facility just off of the LBJ Freeway in North Dallas and it used to be open to the public. I have pics of my wife Donna standing next to Tom Landry while he was talking to Randy White and Larry Bethea on the practice field. I had the temerity to yell out, "Hey Coach" so I could get a good shot. He gave me this baleful gaze.... I took the picture but felt very uncomfortable. 

We could barely afford our house payments back then but we managed to scrape up enough dough to get seasons tickets in the end zone. It was great! We're big fans.

So, enough of the childhood memories...we are getting ready to enter a new era in the Cowboys' story together, and I'm glad I have the chance to take part on Blogging The Boys. I plan to just tell you what I'm thinking about and see if it stimulates some conversations. I think it will. I hope so.

Thanks to Raf and Dave