Snow my God

7" Friday night seemed pretty bad at the time. Very heavy snow, took me an hour to shovel and snow blow. That seemed like a lot till Sunday morning when we added another foot or so. And the plow totally put a 5' mountain at the end of my driveway.

90 minutes more shoveling, no chance of the snow blower this time as it was way too heavy for my weenie snow blower. My back was toast but I got enough done to get the cars out.

2 hours later I was off for hockey, barely able to walk. Surprisingly I had a pretty decent game and we beat the 1st place team for the 2nd straight time, 6-3. We're 1 point behind them now I think. Unfortunately I blocked a clearing attempt with my elbow and it's swollen up like a golf ball. Not good.

Snowed again last night. I went to work for about an hour then decided to come home as Sazi was having a rough time and I didn't want to leave her alone and I knew I had to get the rest shoveled again. Another hour of shoveling and now I can't get up. Plus my elbow is throbbing. Bowling in 2 days? I doubt it...

Here are a couple pictures. First is from my office window looking at the condo behind us. Second is of my driveway from the front door. I can see the sunday paper mocking me but I didn't get to it for 4 hours.

Rejuvinated Ball

The work to restore my bowling ball paid off last night. It was back to normal and I felt a lot more comfortable with it. Shot 650 with 244 and 235 to start. Third game was a combination of bad luck and a couple bad shots. I left 5 10-pins in that game. Missed one and had 1 really bad shot that resulted in a big split. Only shot 171 the 3rd game. Felt like I was back in the groove though. We'll see if it can continue tonight.

We ended up going 5-2 again and our lead is 2 points now as the 3rd place team went 7-0 to leap frog the 2nd place team and inch closer to us.

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How much longer can I continue to watch Lost? Once again they promise big and fail to come through with much more than trivial answers to questions I didn't even have. Of course NEXT WEEK is supposed to be the one you can't miss. Of course it is, it's always next week, that's how they keep you hooked in. Oh sorry, we didn't tell you anything this week but if you tune in next week we'll for sure tell you the thing you really want to know. Sure you will... I'm guessing their ratings are falling like a brick.

Well, that didn't take long

After only one day as number 1, the Badgers fall to Michigan State. A combination of poor shooting and rebounding along with Drew Neitzel going bonkers lead to Bucky's 3rd loss of the season and 2nd loss in the Big 10.

That kind of takes the steam out of Sunday's matchup with Ohio State (which ESPN was touting as 1 vs 1 during the game). They can still win the conference with a win Sunday so it didn't hurt them that much but they most likely will drop in the polls come Monday regardless of what happens against OSU.

The game was a back and forth affair, with the Badgers taking a 4 point lead at 49-45 with 7:07 left and then proceeded to go ice cold, despite many chances to blow the game open. Both teams went about 2 1/2 minutes without scoring until Neitzel buried a 3 to cut it to one and then followed with a wrong handed runner in the lane. Once the Badgers got behind they started to panic and take really bad shots when they still had time to work for a good shot. They ended up jacking 28 3's and hitting only 9. Landry and Tucker combined to go 8-14 from 3-land but the rest of the team combined for 1-14, many of them poor looks down the stretch.

Bo Ryan will undoubtedly use this as a teaching lesson and should have them ready to go Sunday. Only time will tell how the players will respond. Despite all Bo's talk of not talking about being #1, I got the impression the players felt the pressure and were playing not to lose instead of focusing on doing what got them there.

AP Embraces their inner Bucky-ness

Rank Team Record Votes Previous
1 Wisconsin (35) 26-2 1,747 3
2 Ohio State (31) 24-3 1,728 2
3 Florida (4) 24-3 1,647 1
4 UCLA (2) 23-3 1,611 5
5 North Carolina 23-4 1,474 4
6 Kansas 23-4 1,403 9
7 Memphis 23-3 1,378 8
8 Texas A&M 22-4 1,283 6
9 Washington State 22-4 1,172 10
10 Pittsburgh 23-4 1,161 7
11 Nevada 24-2 1,146 11
12 Georgetown 20-5 1,009 14
13 Southern Illinois 23-5 962 16
14 Air Force 23-4 831 17
15 Butler 24-4 695 13
16 Marquette 21-7 510 12
17 Vanderbilt 18-8 413 NR
18 Duke 20-7 410 NR
19 Texas 19-7 332 NR
20 Louisville 19-8 286 NR
21 Brigham Young 20-6 264 NR
22 West Virginia 20-6 240 23
23 Oregon 20-7 218 15
24 Virginia 18-7 185 NR
25 Alabama 19-7 177 25

Dead Ball Syndrome and Amazing Finishes

Dead Ball Syndrome (DBS) is something I had never heard about until I started researching why the new bowling ball I have just stopped hooking. When I got it in November it was a big hooking ball. It hooked about twice what my old ball did and it allowed me to play a completely different shot.

Lately though it seemed as though it was hooking less. I chalked it up to the lanes having more oil on them and not to the ball itself. It wasn't until Wednesday night that I realized something else was wrong. About midway through the 2nd game I was really struggling to get the ball to hook at all. It was getting ridiculous, so I switched back to my old ball and I didn't have any problems getting that one to hook. I finished out the night with that ball and did ok. We still managed to
win 5 of 7 points and retain first place so I wasn't too concerned.

Thursday morning I started looking around on the internet and came across DBS and what causes it. I emailed my bowling ball guy, Rob Bailey, and told him about it too. He suggested I come in to have it cleaned. I made an appointment for Friday after work and went to see him. He explained that while the ball looked clean it was actually not. The new particle resin balls have pores in the surface that absorb the oil, which is what allows it to hook. The pores get clogged like a
teenager after a pizza and no more oil could be absorbed so it stops hooking. He cleaned it up really well and sanded the surface back to it's original condition. I also bought some special cleaning solution and need to clean the ball after each night. I've never been good at that so we'll see how well I keep that up. I haven't used the ball yet, this Wednesday will be my next time out.

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If you haven't seen The Departed yet, go rent it or buy it. Bought it and watched it Saturday night. Phenomenal movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Sunday was all about amazing finishes. First, the Nissan Open where Phil Mickelson gagged a one shot lead on the last hole by bogeying before he went on to lose in the 3rd playoff hole to Charles Howell III. Vintage Phil.

The Daytona 500 one-upped that big time with a spectacular finish that saw Kevin Harvick come from way, way back to pass Mark Martin at the finish line to win by .02 seconds as the rest of the field did a slam dance behind him with almost everyone crashing a couple hundred yards from the finish line. Clint Boyer even crossed
the finish line on his roof... on fire! It was wicked. I really wanted Martin to win, as it was his 23rd attempt at Daytona and had never won. He led much of the last 20 or so laps but couldn't hold off Harvick who was in about 30th place with 10 laps left.

Then I went to my hockey game (9:00 start so I'm a little pooped this morning). We were down 1-zip right out of the gate. We were short handed and looked flat, plus the other team had the best player in the league and had the best goalie in the league. I was about ready to write the game off but we kept hanging around. Towards
the end of the 1st period we got a rebound goal to tie it up. Then half way through the 2nd period we banged in two quick goals and we seemed to have them on the ropes. But they came through with another goal to cut our lead to 3-2 entering the 3rd. Once again we pushed our lead out to 2 goals at 4-2 only to see them come right back to make it 4-3. It stayed that way and with about a minute left they pulled their goalie and had us scrambling around like crazy as they swarmed our goal. At one point there must have been 6 guys in front of our goal. I was just hitting anyone that came near me. Couldn't even tell where the puck was most of the time. We managed to hold them off and got an open net goal at the end to win 5-3, our 5th straight win to get our record to 10-3-1-1 (tied one game but won the shootout).
We go up against the first place team (12-1-1) next week. We are the only team to have beaten them this year.

Only bad thing about next Sunday's game is that it's at 4:30 and the Badger/Ohio State basketball game is on at 3:00 which means I'll miss most of the 2nd half. I'll have to tivo it and try not to hear who won but it'll be impossible.
And with Florida losing Saturday, there is a good chance OSU and UW will be 1-2 in the polls. I hate to look ahead but there is a very real chance Wisconsin could be number 1 come next Monday. First up however, the dreaded Spartans of Michigan State tomorrow night.

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Also, the Amazing Race all-stars started last night and of course, the team everyone seems to be gunning for is Rob and Ambah. They better keep gunning because they're all behind those two. I'd really like to see them get knocked down a peg. Like someone in the race said, "don't you two have your own network now?"

Phew, I need more coffee. Have a great week.

Has 24 Jumped the Shark?

I was asked last week at bowling if "24" had "Jumped the shark" yet. According to Wikipedia, "Jumping the shark is a metaphor that was originally used to denote the tipping point at which a TV series is deemed to have passed its peak, or has introduced plot twists that are illogical in terms of everything that has preceded them." It comes from Happy Days, when Richie Cunningham was gone and some of them moved to California, where Fonzie water ski jumped over a shark, despite never having water skied before.

24 has always been on the edge of reality, pushing the boundaries of what we can actually believe. I mean, how many times has Jack Bauer died already and been brought back to life? Plus, if you've ever been in LA, you know it is impossible to drive across the entire city on surface streets in 10 minutes. But the show is still pretty close to the original quality it started out as.

However... it now appears they are going to assassinate another president, who happens to be the brother of the previously assassinated president. Ok, they're starting to push it now. I'm starting to feel like they have pushed it as far as they can and in order to 1-up the previous seasons they have to go beyond what is believable and I fear it's the start of the end.

This can only end one way. Just like "The X-files", it will have to end in a blockbuster movie. Unlike X-files however, it won't be to try to deliver answers and close the story. It will most likely have to be an even more spectacular and unbelievable scenario. My question is how is that possible? I mean, they've already detonated nukes in LA this season. What's next? End of the world? Global warming? Will Al Gore have to come in to save Jack? Will Dr. Evil be involved? Will he have his sharks with lasers?

At that point I think it's safe to assume they will have jumped the shark (laser included).

18 = Heat wave!

Amazing that 18 degrees can actually feel warm, but that's what it felt like this morning coming to work. No need for gloves or a hat or a heavy coat. That's what happens after 2 weeks of sub-zero temps though. I remember playing outdoor hockey when I was a kid, wearing just jeans and a t-shirt if it was over 20. I'm not saying I'd do that now but temperature is all relative.

It does get to you though. I spent some time online yesterday looking for some place to live in northern Arizona. I thought about Sedona, which is a beautiful area, recently visited by the Grinder on his great american road trip. I searched for residential land available and found a half acre with mountain views... only $385,000. That's just for the land! Ok, we'll have to look elsewhere.

I found an area closer to the Nevada state line (driving distance to Vegas, a bonus). Reasonable prices too. Only kicker? Average high temps in the summer hovered in the 108 range. Ok, not sure I could take that. I'd like to be more in the mountains where it is a touch cooler in the summer but still within driving distance of some warmth in the summer. Is that too much to ask? Ok, I've still got 20+ years before I have to decide so we have some time.

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On the bowling/drinking front, Friday's event was pretty fun. Scores didn't mean anything (though I did have a 650-something, wasn't too bad), but the drinking is what mattered. I can't even remember how many Guinness's I had, but it was in double digits by the time we left 5 1/2 hours later. Luckily Cdubya came down so we left my Murano there and came back to get it Saturday. It was not happy to have had to spend the night outside and struggled to start but she got going.

Saturday night we bowled again and by this point I was not feeling like bowling at all. I did ok the first 2 games but just had nothing left the third game and started screwing around. More Guinness as well.

Sunday rolls around and I want to do nothing, same with Cdubya so we watched tv and she and the dogs took a nap while I played a couple hours of GoldenEye - Rouge Agent on the PS2.

Then we had hockey last night and we were short handed so I ended up moving back to forward for the 2nd time this season. I was ok for the first period, assisting on our first goal with a nice pass on a 2 on 1 for an easy conversion and scoring our 3rd goal on a partial break away. The 2nd period I played center (we had 2 centers each period with 3 pairs of wings rotating) and I was completely out of gas about half way through the period. Luckily I went back to wing the 3rd period and only had a couple shifts so I got plenty of rest. We ended up winning 8-2, our 4th in a row, and 7th in our last 8 games. We've outscored our opponents 30-11 over those 4 games. Next week we have to play at 9pm, which is just brutal on a Sunday night. Not looking forward to it. Fortunately, it's our last 9:00 game of the season.

Have a great day. I hope my snow blower works tonight.

Rough day 2

Warming up in bowling is very similar to warming up in golf for me. If I hit the driving range and am doing great there I can guarantee I will play like shit once I hit the course. Same thing seems to hold true in bowling. I couldn't miss in warm ups yesterday, one strike after another. Sure as shit, game starts and I couldn't find my ass with both hands.

Washout, split, missed spares, you name it. Anything but a strike. Ended up shooting a whopping 155 the first game. Got it back on track in game 2 but totally blew the 10th for a 212. A 193 final game gave me a smoking 560, only 76 pins under average. Yuk. I'm surprised anyone lets me sub in that league any more. I'm pretty sure every team I've subbed on has lost at least 2 of 3 games.

My average has gone from 256 after the first night down to 210 now, after 14 weeks. Of course, that's down around my NORMAL average but I have only bowled over average twice, makes it very hard to win.

Today's bowling is just for fun, a big company outing thing. We bowl at 3:00. I'm bowling with my cousins so it should be fun. Just a drunk-a-thon from what I can figure. Of course, I left my bowling balls in the car overnight and they're still there now. So what you say? Well, it was -5 on my way into work today. That's so what! Ever stuck your fingers in a frozen ball? It ain't fun. Oh well.

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In other news, Anna Nicole Smith died yesterday. I told the guys in my room when I heard and one smart ass pipes in with "I bet she didn't die of shame." That... was funny.

In other other news, Survivor started season 73 yesterday. Someone actually quit right before the start so they ended up with 19 people. So far, I don't really see a clear favorite but it's only been 3 days and one competition. No one stood out either positive or negative. I do like Yao-Man, an old Asian computer engineer. I think he's got a lot to provide to the team. He's definitely not a physical threat, maybe he can stick around awhile. I doubt he's got enough game to win it however. The rest of them? Meh...

Recovery

We couldn't have gotten off to a worse start at bowling last night. We got our asses handed to us by a bunch of geezers, taking possibly the most lopsided loss of our team's history, losing by 222 pins the first game. But, we showed our metal and responded by winning the next 2 games to salvage 4 of 7 points to hold on to our tenuous first place lead.

It was quite a struggle early as the lanes were very slick with oil and we all fought it the whole game. We were way below our team average with Korey being the only one to hit his average with a 181 game. I had a 175, 31 below my average. Soup chimed in with a whopping 126.

I seemed to figure something out in the 2nd game as I reeled off the first 5 strikes before leaving a 7 pin in the 6th frame on a good shot, easily could have been a strike. I finished off by striking out the rest of the way (including an ugly brooklyn on the last ball) for a 279. Just a tad better than game 1.

I kept it going for the first 3 frames of the 3rd game before starting to leave corner pins and a split on a decent pocket hit. Ended up with a 212 for 666.

Can't wait to read what the Grinder has to say about his team-low series last night. He was so ready to take over the team and carry us the final 2 months. Might have jumped the gun a bit there. :)

We're on to day 2 of 4 in a row today. Good thing I have a big bottle of Advil.

Good Eatin'

Well, yesterday marked the passing of another year for me. One step closer to death, I guess. Looking back it's pretty hard to see where the years have gone. Seems like I just moved back to Wisconsin after 15 years in Seattle, but that was 9 years ago now.

My years of baseball and softball are behind me. I'm still managing to keep playing hockey though my skills, speed and stamina are all degraded and I've been relegated to playing defense. I'm still bowling at the same level and I figure I've got a few years left in me before I'll have to change how I bowl in order to lessen the pain in my arthritic knuckle. I'm golfing more than ever, mostly because I now have the money to do it and courses that are very accessible. I think I'm getting better but it's a gradual process.

One thing is for sure, the older you get, the faster the years fly by. Kind of like how water spins faster the closer it gets to the drain... Of course, I plan on living well into my 90's but now I have to take this retirement idea pretty seriously and planning for it is now priority number one.

Wow, this is a depressing post!

Ok, something better. We went to PF Changs for dinner last night. I love that place, such great food. I had my usual, Kung Pao Chicken. It was awesome, I ate all of it, followed up by these pastry things filled with hot chocolate that you dipped in a carmel/peanut butter mix and rolled in toffee. Mmmm, now that's good eatin'. I'm still full this morning.

Today starts my 4 days of bowling in a row. Not sure how that is going to work out. Friday won't matter as it's mostly just a company drunk fest.

On the bright side, it's supposed to get up to a balmy 8 degrees today. Yay! We had an inch of snow or so yesterday that was very slippery, causing massive pileups on the highways, including a 4 hour closure of Interstate 90 to clean up a 20 car mess.

Well, that's all for now. Stay classy Madison.

Rex is funny

Once again Rex Grossman provides comic relief for me. I have to laugh every time he pulls some bonehead move, knowing full well the Bears fans are weeping and swearing simultaneously. The guy may be an NFL quarterback but he is a complete idiot. He rarely proves me wrong.

I guess there were three things I was unhappy about. 1) The Colts didn't win by 50. (2) Manning was the MVP, I thought Addai or Rhodes or both deserved it. (3) Of the umpteen million numbers I had in several pools I never got close. It all started with that stupid missed extra point.

I will now spend the rest of the week asking all my Bears fan friends if they enjoyed the game. :)

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It seems a bit chilly out today. Is -14 F cold? That was our temp at 7am today. I thought it was cold yesterday when I went out for beer and it was 0 with a -15 wind chill. Turns out that was as warm as it's gonna get for awhile. At least it's too cold to snow. All the schools in the area are closed, guess the poor little kids just aren't as tough as we were at that age. I can remember going to junior high in -60 wind chill readings. We couldn't even close the doors to our car (if we could pry them open in the first place. Had to drive holding the door shut with a rope or you'd fly out (we didn't wear seat belts back then).

Ah, good times.

Stay classy, San Diego

Mixed Blessings

On a night when we struggled bowling as much as the Badgers did on the court in Indiana, we were able to overcome our problems and come away with 5 of 7 points to retain our hold on first place.

The Badgers, on the other hand, could not handle Indiana's small and quick lineup and their zone defense. They packed it in against Tucker, who somehow still managed to get 23 points, and forced Bucky to beat them from the outside. And continuing what has been a bad trend lately, they couldn't hit from beyond the arc. Adding to the problem was some very poor choices and a loss of composure once they fell behind. Continually jacking up 3's with plenty of time left instead of being patient and getting 2's.

I knew they would eventually lose a couple of big 10 games, it's just too tough a conference to waltz through it unmolested. They still have some very hard games coming up, at Michigan State and at Ohio State. I wonder how far they will drop in the polls. I'm thinking just to 3 with UNC passing them. We'll see. It may be that the writers have just been waiting for a reason to drop them much farther, although many of them have been jumping on the Badger bandwagon of late.

Only time will tell.