Goodbye Sweet Sazi

Sazi has gone to doggy heaven where she no longer has to worry about her seizures. She can run free chasing bunnies and herding sheep with the full use of her legs again. I hope she is watching us from above and waiting for us to join her. She was a great dog and had more love in her than any dog I have ever seen. She loved to lay on the floor with us and snuggle, making soft sounds as if trying to tell you how happy she was.

We will miss her tremendously. That was the hardest decision I have ever met and up until the final moments I tried to talk myself out of it. But the agony she went through every couple of weeks was too much. I still don't know if I did it for her or for us. I tell myself that it's for the best but I still feel like there was something more I could have done for her.

We got Sazi when she was 9 months old. The original owner bought her and a sibling but decided he couldn't deal with 2 border collies (it's not easy and I don't blame him). A co-worker of his took her in but she already had another dog and was single. We saw an ad in the paper for her and went to look at her. We were looking for a companion to Delaney who is full of energy and we thought a 2nd dog would keep her more occupied. Turns out that she had already gone to live with a college student. I knew that wouldn't work so I told the previous owner to call me if it didn't work. A short time later we got the call. We fell in love with Sazi immediately.

Not long after we were startled awake by a violent shaking next to the bed. Our new baby was having seizures. We were freaked out as you can imagine. We went to the vet and were told she probably had epilepsy and it's not uncommon for the breed. We were devastated. We were given some drugs to give her.

A couple months later she started having seizures in the morning and wouldn't stop. We had to rush her to the vet. Her temperature was in the danger zone and he had to put her in ice and give her IV valium to stop the seizures. She had been in one grand mal seizure for 2 hours. She was never the same again. She lost much of the use of her back legs. We took her to the UW Vet school to have specialists look at her to see if there was more we could do. They gave her another drug to try which seemed to help. In the meantime we also found out that her sibling had epilepsy too.

There was nothing more we could do for her than to continue to medicate her and watch her blood levels, continually adjusting the medication. With all the meds, she became lethargic, put on extra weight and couldn't really do much. This continued for the last 4 years.

Sazi loved to lay in the shade in the grass and just watch the world go by. Occasionally she would join in while Delaney and I played frisbee. She was never very good at catching it but she was great and bringing it back and lying down next to me with it in her mouth.

I will never forget the way she looked in your eyes with so much love in her heart. She will be missed forever. Rest in peace sweet Sazi.

Season ending disappointment

For the 2nd year in a row we lost the hockey championship game. This time we got shutout, 2-0. It was quite a game, very physical and hard fought.

Cdubya called me after the game. Sazi is doing poorly again. She started seizing Friday night and it's continued all weekend. She's not moving, just laying in one spot forever. I think it's time to face the inevitable. I'm waiting for the vet to call me back but I think today might be the end. Cdubya is pretty broken up and is at home with her. It is probably for the best. She keeps having these 4 day stretches of seizing off and on and she can't be enjoying life.

On the golf front, I played the Oaks on Saturday and had a good stretch of 4 holes (8-11) but other than that I was off and on. Too many putts for sure (37) and didn't chip particularly well. My 3 wood and hybrids worked really well though. It's encouraging to play well in stretches but discouraging that it doesn't happen more often. Argh, golf is so hard!

NBC HD Hoses me

I tivo'd The Office in HD last night as I do every week. But this time it was an unpleasant experience. 15 minutes into the broadcast the sound completely cut out and it never came back until a couple minutes into 30 Rock. Talk about pissing me off! I attempted to lip read for a couple minutes before just giving up. It LOOKED funny but I have no idea.

The other thing that pisses me off about NBC is that they offer episodes of SOME shows online to watch but not The Office. Earl yes, Office no. Who decides that crap?

Speaking of 30 Rock, it appears Alec Baldwin will not be back next year as he wants to spend more time crafting voicemails to his daughter.

eBay Account Hijacked!

So, Monday, I get an email from eBay that my account had suspicious activity and has been locked. I hadn't been on there in months and I'm not a big eBay'er so I knew it wasn't me.

I reset my password Tuesday and yesterday I got on with live support and they reactivated me and just said there was suspicious activity but had no more details.

After I was reactivated I started checking around to see what might have been going on. No bids on anything, didn't sell anything, couldn't see anything.

Then I went to My Messages area, nothing in the inbox. I clicked on the Sent folder and there were 25 messages sent to all sorts of different sellers. I started looking through them and every single one was the exact same spam email. eBay notified all those sellers to explain that it wasn't me and that my account had been compromised (I feel like I'm on 24).

I forwarded one of the spam messages to my email account and sent it along with a scathing message, containing many 4 letter words that my mom wouldn't be proud of, to the email address listed as a contact in the spam. Haven't heard back yet.

Here's the body of the message:

Dear Sir or Madam,
We are a big company which mainly sell electronic products with outstanding reputation.
The product ranging from Notbook,TV,PC,Camera,GPS,to MP3/MP4 and so on and so forth.
All kinds of electronic products with best quality and lowest price can be found here, what do you thirst for?
Now , You'll find your favorite here on our website: www.violet8.com
So, don't be hesitate to contact us!

Contact us
www.violet8.com
E-mail: violet8_serve@hotmail.com
MSN: violet8_serve@hotmail.com

Feel free to bombard this jackass with crap...

Best Brats Ever

After hearing the Grinder continually espouse the virtues of the new Copps grocery store in Sun Prairie, Cdubya and I went there on Sunday to check it out.

I have to admit, he was dead on. As far as grocery stores go it was top notch. It reminded me quite a bit of Larry's Market in Seattle. The produce, bakery and meat sections were outstanding.

We'll be going back this weekend to pick up some steaks for barbecuing. But last night, I bbq'd brats that I bought Sunday. They were fresh made, jalapeño and cheddar brats, about 8" long that were, in my opinion, the best brats ever. I wolfed down both, enjoying every bite, and announcing afterwards "I will tell everyone I know about these brats." Hence, this post... :)

If you have a chance to get over there and pick some up I give them 2 thumbs way up. They have many different varieties if jalapeño and cheddar isn't your bag.

Mmm, mmm, good.

Golf, Golf and Hockey

Time for the Monday weekend wrap up...

Friday, played 9 at Door Creek with Dr. Mike. We both played ok, good thing we went out before Saturday's tournaments to get used to the greens. They were about 30x faster than the weekend before. My first putt was a 20 footer uphill and I blasted it 15 feet past the hole, yowza!

I was up 2 strokes going into the 9th hole and ended up 3 putting from 10 feet for a double bogey while Mike hit a wedge to 3 inches and made birdie to beat me by 1.

Saturday was the Spring Opener 6-6-6 tourney (6 holes Scramble, 6 Best Ball, 6 Alternate Shot). Neither of us putted very well but we were doing ok plus we had 20 strokes of handicap to play with. We were +2 on the first 6 and +7 on Best Ball but we were still in it. After 15 holes we were sitting at +10. Parring out would have put us at 61, which would have been 2nd place. Instead we went triple, double, bogey and finished with an 87 (67 net), finishing about 15th or so. Alternate shot kills us every time.

Our hockey game yesterday was a do or die game to make the championship next week. We needed to win plus have no more than 2 more penalties than the other team (2nd tie breaker). It was a rough and tumble game that went back and forth. Lots of penalties but they took way more than we did so that wasn't an issue from early on. Just needed to win the game.

We jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the 2nd only to have them come back to tie it at 3 by the end of the 2nd period. We went back up 4-3 but they scored 2 straight to go up 5-4. We then scored to tie it only to have them score right away again to take a 6-5 lead with about 4 minutes left.

At this point we had a faceoff in our own end and we tried a set play that we've attempted many times but never successfully. I was playing center for the first time this year and had to win the draw back to the defenseman behind me. I jumped the draw and won it cleanly to him. He rifled a pass of the far boards to our other defenseman (Jeff) who was streaking up the left side. The right winger (Greg) bolted down the right side as I was following down the middle. Jeff got around the defenseman and fired a pass to the backdoor where Greg one-timed it in the open net to tie the game at 6.

On the ensuing faceoff at center ice our center popped the faceoff past the other center, beat the D and scored to give us a 7-6 lead. We held on the remaining 3 minutes to escape with the W and a chance to win the championship next week.

Yay, it's Friday!

And the temp will hit 68. I'll be golfing at 1:00.

Tomorrow we have the spring opener at Door Creek Golf Course. It's supposed to be 76, what a great weekend we're going to have (79 Sunday).

In other news, I got an email from one of my neighbors yesterday. He's a singer/song writer with a new cd out. His name is Michael Brandmeier. His music is available from his myspace site or from iTunes, among others. Give him a listen.

Have a great weekend!

Hockey Update

I missed our playoff game Sunday due to the golf tournament. I found out that we did win 11-1 (maybe I'm not needed?). The first place team lost in a shootout to the 3rd place team. That means if we beat the 3rd place team Sunday everyone will be 1-1 and it will go to the tiebreakers.

First tiebreaker is goals against in all postseason games. So far, that looks like this:
1st place team: 3
Us: 5
3rd place team: 4

If we beat the 3rd place team by 2 goals we're in.

If we only beat them by 1 we will still be tied with them. If that happens it goes to the 2nd tiebreaker which is fewest penalties. We have 3 fewer penalties than them, so all we have to do is win by 1 and have no more than 2 more penalties than they have and we're in. Piece of cake!

Pirate Master

From my mole at the local CBS affiliate.


CBS ANNOUNCES "PIRATE MASTER," A NEW REALITY-BASED SERIES WHERE 16 INDIVIDUALS WILL COMPETE AS PIRATES ON THE HIGH SEAS IN SEARCH OF HIDDEN TREASURES

The Next Epic Adventure Series From Emmy Award-Winning Producer Mark Burnett Premieres Thursday, May 31

PIRATE MASTER, the next epic adventure reality series from Emmy Award-winning producer Mark Burnett, will premiere Thursday, May 31 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

PIRATE MASTER will send 16 modern-day pirates on a high seas adventure where they will live as buccaneers and travel around the Caribbean island of Dominica in search of hidden treasure that will total $1 million. Over the course of 33 days, these pirates will live aboard a massive 179 foot, square-rigged barque which carries 12, 500 square feet of sail.

Each week, the pirates will embark on extraordinary expeditions where they will decipher clues along the way in search of missing treasure. Gold coins -- real money which the pirates may take with them beyond the show -- will be awarded after each expedition, but only to some. The gold will play a key role as pirates strike deals with each other or plead for long-term security. In addition to claiming the lion's share of the week's riches, one pirate will become the captain of the ship and will assign roles and chores to the remaining crew members, setting the tone for either law and order or betrayal and sabotage, which could lead to mutiny by the crew.

Each episode will conclude on the ship at Pirate's Court, a lively gathering of public speaking and judgment where one individual will be eliminated and "cut adrift." In the end, one will be the first to find the largest booty, worth $500,000, and claim the title of "Pirate Master."

Series creator and executive producer Mark Burnett explains, "Pirate Master breaks new ground in that it's the collision of fantasy and reality. This is a show where, in true pirate fashion, anything can happen with a group of people that live by their own set of rules and usually break them. It's adventure, excitement and loads of treasure. Anyone who ever wanted to be a pirate will love this show!"

PIRATE MASTER is produced by Mark Burnett Productions. Mark Burnett and Lisa Hennessy are the executive producers. Eden Gaha and Page Feldman are the co-executive producers.

Kohler Cup Spring 2007

I have a feeling that I know what it would be like to be hit by a truck. That’s how I feel this morning after hoofing it for 36 holes this weekend lugging my golf bag on my back.

We had planned on riding Saturday and walking Sunday but the carts were restricted to cart path only both days so we walked instead. I was not ready for that. Played all day yesterday in pain.

On Saturday we played the Original Championship course at Blackwolf Run. This is the course the LPGA played a number of years ago for the US Open. It consists of the back 9 of the Meadow Valleys course and the front 9 of the River course. The River course is usually $250 to play while the Meadow Valleys is $150. We got a great deal. I really enjoyed the course layout, much more so than just the Meadow Valleys.

We didn’t play great Saturday but when one of us was messing up the other was doing well so we managed to shoot -7 (64) as Mike made par on 18 and was getting 2 strokes for a net eagle. We were jacked. Finished tied for 2nd after the first round and were 2 shots off the lead. So, what did we do? We got drunk of course. I passed out around 11pm and came to around 4am wonder where I was and what time it was (no clock to be found). Then the sun came up and again, I wondered if it was 6 or 9… Finally just got up and it was 7:15.

We had breakfast, which was hard to eat, stopped at a gas station for Gatorade and beef jerky and headed for Whistling Straits. After warming up for a half hour it was obvious I couldn’t really take a full swing without pain.

Too make matters worse, in a shotgun start we had to start on 18. 18 is a long, long par 5 with a tee shot over a lake and trouble everywhere. It is my nemesis… With trepidation I walked up to the first tee and promptly dunked it into the lake. And then again… I took an 11 to start. Luckily Mike had a bogey for a net par so he saved me.

I stumbled around the course for 5 hours and then birdied the very last hole for my one good hole for the day. The biggest difference on Sunday was when one of us did poorly the other also did. In fact we had the same score 7 holes in a row at one point.

We ended up shooting 76 somehow for a 2 day total of -3 which was good for 9th place (-15 won). Much better than our +20 or whatever it was last year.

After a couple beers and lunch we headed home only to get detoured through a small town because of a massive accident on the highway. That didn’t help matters. By the time I got home my entire body was one huge knot.

Tournament Back On!

My depression lifted yesterday as I realized Kohler did not get nearly the amount of snow we did and the weather forecast for this weekend looks decent (mid 40's, sunny). I called Whistling Straits and they said they hardly got any snow and it was melting fast and they predicted the course would be fine this weekend.

I quickly checked with Cdubya and Dr. Mike and we decided to give it a shot. I called reservations and got back in. We leave tomorrow morning.

And since I wasn't prepared I have a ton of stuff to do today. I'll be leaving at 1:30 to get going on it.

---

Survivor made me mad last night. Dreamz is an idiot and he totally hosed himself and Mookie with his moronic vote of Michelle, which knocked Cdubya out of her pool. This will come back to haunt him when Stacy, Ed and Alex vote he and Mookie out later.

That's all for now, have a good weekend.

How depressing...

Woke up to about an inch of snow and there's no sign of it ever stopping. What a beautiful spring we're having. I'm totally in golf mode now and this is really putting a damper on my mood.

Here's the latest radar (9:10am CDT). Madison is circled in red.
The blue is snow.

Stupid Wisconsin

What the fuck? It's April 10th and they're predicting 4-6" of snow tomorrow. Do they not realize we're supposed to golf in a tournament all weekend? I'm quite angry now, going to have to call and cancel our sweet weekend getaway to Whistling Straits where we were going to drink Guinness, smoke cigars and play 36 holes of glorious golf. Instead I will get to shovel snow...

What a great trade. Al Gore and his global warming can bite my white ass.

UPDATE
Latest storm watch predicts 6-10" of wet, heavy snow tomorrow. I have canceled my reservations.

Brain overload

Well, all the things in my stupid little brain caught up to me last night. Went to bed at 10:30 ready to drop and laid there till after 3am thinking of all the things I have to do this week.

• Fix the part of the fence that fell down this weekend.


• Pay my taxes.


• Oil change and tire rotation on the Murano


• Figure out if I need to cancel my reservations for this weekend for the golf tournament in Kohler because of the weather.


• Pick up the prize money and figure out who gets what for couples bowling league.


• Decide if I want to bowl Wednesday or not for fun night.

Tack on top of all that some major project issues at work that resulted in a 3 hour meeting being scheduled for this afternoon (with about 2 hours of sleep) and I'm feeling a bit stressed. Plus hanging out at my sister's for easter my result in my becoming sick soon since there were sicko's there... sheesh.

I did manage to watch every minute of CBS's coverage of the Masters in HD. It sure was nice to see Tiger not just intimidate everyone in the final round and watch Zach Johnson continue to be clutch down the stretch at a very difficult course. Looked more like an Open championship than the masters the way the balls would roll off the greens. Quite enjoyable to see the pro's actually seem human. Many of the things that happened to them happen to me all the time! Of course, if I played conditions like that I'd shoot 125 so they're still pretty amazing.

Major disappointment

The Masters starts today, always my favorite tournament to watch, especially in HD. Luckily our friends at CBS are showing 3 hours of coverage today and tomorrow in HD before the big coverage on the weekend. I've already got my tivo set up for today and tomorrow's matches.

Speaking of the Masters, I feel a little like Phil Mickelson at the PGA last year this morning. We had the 2nd half bowling title in our hands and we gave it away. Up 2 points going in we got thoroughly whipped all 3 games and lost any chance of winning the championship. We were never in it, never had a lead the entire night. As disappointed as I am, I'm glad it's over. The bowling season goes way too long, I was done 2 months ago. I'm thinking it would be nice to have someone bowl the first and last months for me and I'll just bowl the middle. Wonder how I could work that deal...

Addition by Subtraction

My new Harmony 670 remote arrived last night!

After a mere 3 hours of futzing I have it all set up and I must say it's awesome. No longer do I have to dig through a basket of 5 remotes to find the right one and hit many buttons just to watch tv. It's one button now. I set up 3 activities:

• Watch TV


• Watch a Movie


• Watch Apple TV

With the press of one of these buttons everything that is needed is automatically turned on and switched to the correct input. The beauty is everything is set up through an application on the computer (mac os x included) and you just enter all the devices you have (make and model #) and it does most of the work for you. There are a couple of fine tuning things to program in additional buttons and so forth but it has a learning mode which lets you do that very easily. Once you're done you just connect the remote to the usb port and click the update remote button and you're on your way to tv bliss.

The hardest part was getting the apple tv to cooperate. There aren't any included set ups for it so after googling for some info for awhile I found a way to do it. Basically the set up was similar to a digital music server and there's an entry for Apple in that list. After selecting that and renaming to Apple TV I had to customize the power/stand by feature which requires you to hold the play button down for 6 seconds to go to stand by. Fortunately again, there's a "learn raw commands" option that will learn how long a button needs to be pressed for. I also programmed in the up, down, left and right buttons on the remote for navigating through the apple tv screens. You also have to tell it to turn on your tv and what input it needs, as a digital music server doesn't typically need a tv.

I know that sounds pretty complicated but it's not that bad. And the end result is a thing of beauty. The basket of remotes is now hidden in a cabinet and in it's place is a single shiny remote. Now, the training of Cdubya begins... :)

Poor Start

Hockey playoffs started last night and we got off to a rocky start, losing 4-1 to the first place team. We actually had a 1-0 lead after 1 period and dominated for long stretches but they had the #1 goalie and he made several great saves to keep us at 1.

At the start of the 2nd period, we came out flat and they came out firing, getting 3 quick goals and their strong defense and goaltending never let us get back into it. We did have a goal disallowed late as my left toe was in the crease. I had no idea I was that close and I was on the other side of the goalie, no impact on the goal. It's automatic though, you touch the crease on a shot and they will call it. Of course, they missed about 10 penalty calls as well but I won't go into that.

---

It was a busy weekend at the house. I finally got Cdubya to clean out the big closet in the powder room that had become a collection point for everything she didn't want any more. She filled up 6 large garbage bags and it looks much better.

While she was doing that I was doing some wood work. First I built a U-shaped piece to slide under the tv stand to hide the cables and wires that were visible. I used 1x6s and stained them to match. Looks much cleaner now and when the dogs throw one of their balls under there they bounce back instead of getting caught in the wires.

I also turned a small closet at the bottom of the basement stairs into a new DVD storage area. Click on the My Basement Finishing Project to see the results. Only problem I had was getting the stain to dry with the cool damp weather we had.

---

Watched Lady in the Water on Saturday night. It was better than I thought it would be, but I usually enjoy M. Night Shyamalan movies so I shouldn't have been surprised. Paul Giamatti (Sideways) was very good in the lead role.

Back on Top

We had a good night at bowling last night as we went 5-2 while the first place team bowled with their panties in a bunch and got went 2-5. We're now 2 points ahead of them with the showdown next week. We have to take at least 3 points to win the 2nd half and get into the championship.

I bowled well but ended up disappointed. I was dead on for the first two games, firing 255 and 242, with the only problem being my 2nd ball in the 10th of game 2. I was looking at 256 after striking on the first ball. I started thinking about having more than 500 after 2 games and a shot at the ever elusive 800 series. As I was in my approach I was still doing the calculations and figured even if I didn't get a strike I would still have 245 and have 500 going into the 3rd.... of course what I didn't do was concentrate on the shot and missed badly, getting only 6 and the 242, which put me at 497. Duh... idiot.

The 3rd game I started with 2 strikes and felt pretty good about beating high series in the league at least (743). Then came a bad break with a buried 8-10 split (I never leave those). Another strike and then a buried 9 pin and a 7 pin and a 4 pin. By the 8th my chance at high series was gone. Then came the bad ending. Yanked one in the 9th for a 6-7-10 split, then pitched it way outside in the 10th for a 5 washout and ended with a paltry 178 for 675.

We lost that last game by 100 pins after winning the first 2. I think maybe we drank a little too much and we all faltered in that game. We'll have to be a little more careful next week.

---

Watched Lost when I got home. What a wasted episode! Total filler, focusing on 2 people that were basically extras the whole series. It meant nothing, we learned about them, but who the hell cares about them? They keep doing this to me and pissing me off. One great episode followed by total crap. Grrrrr, get your shit together here people, this is why you're losing ratings!

The Fall of Rome

And just like that the HBO series Rome is done. Only 2 seasons and it's over. It appeared to me that they had planned for more seasons and ended up jamming in 5-10 years into the last 2 episodes to get it to end where they wanted it. There were definitely big gaps in time that were skipped right over and many things that didn't make sense. All in all, I liked the show but it was definitely confusing when in one episode a boy was 5 and in the next he was 10.

A week from Sunday (April 8th) starts the end of the Soprano's as well. 9 episodes will make up the final season. Of course, it's been so long since it's been on that I can't remember what happened last season. I wonder what HBO has in store for us next. The reason I have it is for these series, I certainly hope they come up with another one.

After feeling pukey all day yesterday I seem to have recovered this morning after a good night's sleep. Just in time for bowling tonight. We're coming down to the wire, 2 good weeks and we'll be in the championship. Then we can quit the league, just like we did the last time we won. :)

On the Apple TV front, I'm having some issues with keeping it connected to the network and also to iTunes on our Mac. I'm not sure what the trouble is but I'm guessing it has to do with the cheapo DLink wireless router I have. I'm constantly losing my wireless network connection to it on our Mac. I may have to look into getting a new one. Maybe the new Apple draft N router, it sounds like it's really good and much faster than the G I have right now.

I need more control

With the addition of Apple TV to my maze of devices it's become fairly obvious that I need a new remote that can do everything rather than messing with 4 or 5 different remotes in order to get everything just right.

I'm probably going to order the Harmony 670 remote from Logitech. It's easily customizable by connecting it to your computer (mac or pc) through a usb connection. I think it will give me the control I'm looking for. Now if it can just stop time...

Saturday night was the last night of regular league bowling in our couples league. We're near the basement, didn't matter how we did. I shot a 590 but who really cares? Grinders team couldn't come through with him on the DL with a fractured kneecap and lost out on their championship bid.

First round of golf for the year Saturday. Of course it was so foggy we had to wait an hour to get started and the course was pretty wet (of course, we were buried in snow a couple weeks ago). I shot a 95 (48/47) which is ok I guess, for the first time out. Got really tired the last few holes as I hadn't walked that much in a few months at least.

In hockey last night we won our 10th straight to finish 16-3-1-1 but unless the first place team lost we will finish 2nd. The playoffs start Sunday and we play them right off the bat. They will have first choice of goalie, but hopefully that won't affect us. We also had our team party afterwards where we watched the video of our game and laughed at how slow and crappy we looked. I swear not only does tv add 10 pounds, it makes you look like a sloth...

It's going to be 80 today in Madison, should break the record of 76... and where am I? Golfing? Noooo, at work... :(

Apple TV review

Hooked it up last night and did some testing. Here are my initial thoughts.

Set up: Easy, though I did have to restart my router to connect appleTv to it (more of a crappy router issue than anything else).

Music: Sounded great, love the album artwork aspect. I did have a couple of hiccups playing a song but it was also syncing all my photos so that could have had something to do with it. Didn't retry after the photos were done copying.

Video: Video quality for dvd's I had ripped (at full resolution) looked great and played without a problem. However, I have 2 serious issues that have left me with a bad taste.
1) Sorting of tv shows. The menu does not sort by season or episode, despite that information being entered in iTunes. Just a list of shows alphabetically. At least it separates Seinfeld from Saturday Night Live. I'm thinking I will need to rename all my titles to include season and episode number to get it to sort correctly. I would really rather have a drill down menu by season at the very least.

2) Dolby Digital 5.1 support, or lack thereof. My goal with this was to take my 250 or so dvd's and rip them in their full resolution with 5.1 and be able to pull up any movie at any time and get an equivalent or near equivalent movie without having to hunt for the dvd. Not having 5.1 is breaking my heart. I almost cried when it wasn't playing it. I imagine this will be a deal breaker for many people that are looking at this as being the ultimate media solution as I was.

All in all, it's sooooo close but yet not quite there. I'm hopeful that Apple will hear these issues and address them.

Missed Opportunity

We had our chance to take over first place in bowling last night and fired a near miss. I think we wounded them but were unable to apply the knockout shot.

In a very close first game we managed to come apart in the 10th, allowing them to escape with a tie game. In the 2nd game they managed to come through in the 10th late and took us by 5 pins. We throttled them pretty well in the 3rd game to escape with a 4-3 win. We really missed a golden opportunity to go 7-0 and put them in our rear view mirror.

We face the 3rd place team (they're 10 points behind us) next week and then face the 1st place team again in position round the week after that. We still have an excellent shot of winning the 2nd half and then facing our arch nemesis in the finals.

---

Shake up on Survivor last night as Jeff instructed the teams to drop their buffs and they picked new teams. Of course, one team ended up with all men and the other had the weaker team with 3 women. And of course, the men got all cocky and stated how great they were and of course, they lost the immunity challenge. I could see that coming from a mile away.

They ended up booting Anthony finally, as he apparently is most "woman-like" and that didn't fit with their manly team. Unfortunately for them, they now get Lisee added to their team and that won't be fun for them as she is a total bitch. Personally, I would have gotten rid of Rocky. He's a total buffoon and jack ass who makes me want to punch him in the neck.

I didn't get a chance to watch Lost since I only had time to watch one show after bowling.

---

I have to meet with my accountant after work today to see what the damage is. I have a feeling I still owe another $8,000 of taxes on top of the millions I've already paid this year. Why does my ass hurt after doing my taxes every year?

---

I got a call from Roofer Bob this morning. Since it's going to be nice today and tomorrow they're coming out to do my roof now! Good thing it wasn't yesterday as we had a big hail storm at about 1:30 this morning.

---

My Apple TV is here! It was shipped from China Tuesday, made it to Anchorage yesterday, Indy by this morning early and is already in Madison and on the truck for delivery! It wasn't supposed to be here till tomorrow. I can't wait to set it up.


That's it for now, peace out.

That'll do it

Midwest region pretty much toasted my bracket for this year. The Badger game was depressing to watch. They did their typical can't shoot in the first half thing again and their strong 2nd half comeback again, only this time they couldn't sustain it and UNLV hit a couple clutch 3's and made their free throws down the stretch to send Bucky back to Madison early.

On the bright side, the Badger women won the NCAA championship for the 2nd year in a row. They finished the season 36-1 and allowed less than 1 goal per game.

And in my hockey game we won again, our 9th in a row. We're sitting at 14-3-1-1 with one game left and 1 point behind the first place team still (unless they lost last night).

We were playing the last place team (2 wins) and found ourselves down 3-2 in the 3rd period. We got a goal to tie it and then with about 3 minutes left they took 2 straight penalties to give us a 5-3 power play. I took a feed at the left point and found our center alone on the back door and just like that we had the lead. Still on a 5-4 power play I stopped a clearing attempt and found the left winger along the boards and he fed the right winger for another goal. Back at even strength I ended up with the puck off the face off and hit the center at the blue line for a partial break away and just like that we're up 6-3 and that's how it ended.

Next week is our last regular season game (and team party) and then the playoffs start.

In other news, we traded in Cdubya's Pathfinder for an '05 Acura TL. Black on black with navigation system. It only had 26,000 miles on it and we got a sweet deal on it. She will be keeping this one.

300 and Round 1

Went to see 300 last night at the IMAX. It was awesome, especially with the giant screen and 12,000 watt sound system. Reminded me a little of Braveheart, underdog fighting against all odds for freedom.

The story is based on Frank Miller's (Sin City and the soon to be released Watchmen) graphic novel and is mostly shot on blue screen (90%) and green screen (10%). The entire thing was filmed in 60 days in Montreal and took another year to create the special effects. The result was a bloody, gore filled 3 day battle of 300 Spartans against a Persian army of well over 100,000. Lots of fun!

---

NCAA tourney got underway yesterday. I'm in a couple of pools. I missed on one of my 2 long shots to get to the sweet 16, as Oral Roberts fell to Washington State. I did manage to know that Duke would lose to Virginia Commonwealth but I also missed the Indiana/Gonzaga game and ended up 14-2 for the first day.

Badgers play at 1:55pm CDT today against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Despite their last game I still have them going to the Elite 8 before losing to Florida. I think they have enough experience and depth to make a decent run but their lack of offense at times will eventually be their downfall.

Go Bucky!

Badgers Miss

The Big 10 tournament championship turned out to be just what the big 10 critics wanted, a horrible game that closely resembled a big 10 football game. 2 teams struggling to make a basket, going 5-6 minute stretches without scoring, fumbling the ball, throwing it away, etc. It was disgusting and Ohio State found a way to score more often than Bucky so they won. What a way for the Badgers to get ready for the ncaa tourney.

I didn't want them to get a #1 seed anyway. But I did want them to win. My ideal scenario would have been to thump Ohio State then get robbed with a 2 seed. That would have given them some extra incentive to prove the critics wrong. Now I'm not even sure they deserve a 2 seed. Losing 3 of their final 6 games is not how they wanted to finish the season. We'll see if they can step it up come Friday against Texas A&M CC.

---

I continued my horrid bowling Saturday night with a whopping 514 series. I'm fading down the stretch, the season can't end early enough for me. I think bowling 3 days a week for a couple months really wore me out and took away any desire I had to continue this late in the season. Luckily I'll get the entire week off this week to recharge my batteries.

---

In hockey we won again to run our streak to 8. We're now 13-3-1-1, sitting 1 point behind the first place team, with 2 games left before the playoffs. The top 3 teams playoff for the championship. The incentive to finish first is you get first choice of goalies for the entire playoffs. Just so happens there is one goalie that is far better than the rest. Doesn't look like we'll get him unless someone else can beat the first place team for us. I'm not sure it will matter though, we're averaging 7 goals a game during the streak and we've beaten the first place team twice with an average goalie.

TV Recap

Am I the only one watching "Rules of Engagement" starring David Spade and Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld)? It's on in place of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (strange that one ex-Seinfeld person knocks out another).

Personally, I'm a huge fan of anything Warburton is in. His dead pan humor strikes my funny bone consistently. The show is about 2 couples: Warburton and his wife as the old couple and a younger couple recently engaged and Spade as the single womanizer (I guess now that he's gotten Heather Locklear it's ok to make him out to be attractive to women, but I don't get it).

Warburton is laugh out loud funny as the oaf who isn't too excited about being married and envies Spade's free-wheeling ways. In a recent episode, he had to visit the doc to have his swimmers checked since they were unable to have kids. Here's how that went down:
Doctor: You'll have to give us a sample to test.
Warburton: How much ya need?
Doctor: Just put whatever you've got in this cup.
Warburton: Cool, can you give us the office for 10 minutes?
Doctor: Uh, we have a special room down the hall for that.
Warburton: Nice.
Doctor: There are some reading materials in there to help.
Warburton: Porn?
Doctor: Yes.
Warburton: Nice. Where's the stash at?
Doctor: It's out in plain site.
Warburton: Nice.
In the room... Warburton sits down, puts on his reading glasses and picks up a PlayPen magazine and opens it up.
Warburton: Excellent... an interview with Brett Favre.
Cut to a half hour later and his wife impatiently pacing the hallway outside the room. She finally knocks on the door.
Warburton: Ugggggh!
He opens the door naked except for his reading glasses.
Wife: What happened?
Warburton: I missed.
Wife: What?
Warburton: I had it teed up but you knocked and I shanked it.
Wife: Why are you naked?
Warburton: I had to get the full experience.
Wife: What was taking so long?
Warburton: I was romancing myself. I don't know about you but I enjoy a little foreplay first.
Warburton: I'm gonna need some more time, have to take a catnap.

He just kills me.
Anyway, watch the show if you're a fan of Puddy.

Shows I watch

Drama's:
Heroes is on a 6 week break. How painful is that? I don't get why they do that at all. When they bring it back I will have completely forgotten what was going on.

Lost... Lost and Heroes are following the same path. Lots of gaps and mysteries that are slowwwwwwly uncovered. I thought last week was good but usually they follow that up with more inane bs that means nothing. I'm constantly on the verge of giving up but like when I had 2 Kings and couldn't fold despite knowing I was going to lose, I feel like I'm too invested to give up.

24... rocks as usual. Still the best show on tv.

Medium. For some reason I always enjoy this show.

CSI/CSI: Miami. Visuals in HD are the main reasons to watch. Plus laughing at David Caruso for the accidental humor aspect, he's such a knob.

Friday Night Lights. I feel like I shouldn't be watching these high school kids drinking, having sex, etc... but it's enjoyable.

Shark. Gotta love James Woods.

---

Sitcoms:
How I met your mother. One word... Barney
The Class. Not sure why I watch it but it has improved since it's start. Wife likes it.
Christine. Funny, they're bringing it back next week.
Rules of Engagement.
The Office. Wife hates it, I love it.
Earl. Almost always funny and inappropriate.
30 Rock. Love Alec Baldwin's character and of course, Kenneth the page.

---

Reality/Game Shows:
Survivor... so far rather blah... next week they're supposed to mix the tribes up. It's been completely one sided so far. Maybe this will breath some life back into this show that feels like it's on life support.

Amazing Race All Stars. All Stars my ass. This show ranks high on the suck factor this season. Just give professional reality stars Rob and Amber the million and cancel the remaining episodes. This is right up there with Amazing Race Family Edition for most pathetic Race.

Deal or No Deal. Usually funny and Lisa (#3) is awesome.

Smarter than a 5th grader. Makes me feel stupid and is too slow. I'm probably done with this one. I don't remember learning any of this stuff in 1st through 5th grades. I thinking I was learning to tie my shoes or something at that age.

That's all, thanks for reading. Got some opinions? Please feel free to comment.

Reaching Burn Out Stage

Looks like I fired my stage 3 rocket and am now coasting to the end of bowling season. After a lackluster night I'm ready for some time off. I started badly and ended the same way, sandwiching a 210 with a 150 and 143. I missed 10 spares which is about 10 times more than I usually do. Pretty sick and I had a very hard time generating any enthusiasm despite us fighting for first place. We ended up losing all 7, mostly due to my shitty bowling and now we're tied for first.

Looks like I may get a night off next week as the Gimp returns from knee surgery, I hope. Turns out I also shouldn't have been drinking as my sore throat and cough returned last night. I always do that, feel like it's over and then overdo it.

---

On the plus side, Lost was excellent last night. Possibly the best episode of the year. I won't give it away to those that haven't watched it yet.

Sick and Tired

Well, it's almost 3pm Monday afternoon and I've been asleep most of the day. I woke up at 3am not able to swallow, my head pounding, my body aching... the flu, yuk.

I felt like I was starting to come down with something on Saturday but I attributed that to a long night of drinking and poker playing at Dr. Mike's house. I felt ok as the day wore on. Went out to check out the grand opening of the new Nevada Bob's. They added a bunch of space but they sure filled it up so it's just as cluttered as the old place. I did find a pair of addidas golf shoes I had been looking for but they were so narrow they didn't feel good. Bummer.

After that we went to Dick's Sporting Goods because I had a coupon for a free sleeve of golf balls. I ended up finding that they had their golf shoes on sale and I found a pair of addidas that actually did feel good and bought them for $90. I had a certificate for $80 from my points so they only cost me $10. Now if only the snow would fucking go away! It's March 5th and we're still buried in snow up to my ass.

Even though I wasn't feeling great I went to hockey last night (and got the wife lecture this morning about how I shouldn't have played). We won again, 7 in a row now, 7-4. I got to play forward again, did ok, nothing special. Tried to hustle as much as I could and we did really well in going with quick line changes, keeping them to a minute and getting off. We are still 1 point behind the first place team with about 4 games left in the regular season.

Hopefully I'll be back to work tomorrow as I don't get paid for these sick days.

Five and Two

That's become our mantra for bowling these days. 5 and 2, 5 and 2. We have been able to win by that score each week, keeping us in first. I think we might have had a few 7-0's in there but someone keeps saying "5 and 2" and we always end up losing that game in which he said it.

We bowled the 3rd place team (our arch nemesis who won the first half) last night and expanded our lead on them from 5 to 8 points. The 2nd place team also lost by the same margin and are now 5 points behind us with the 4th place team moving up to 3rd at 6 points back. We have about 5 weeks left of the regular season before position night.

I never did get my average last night but was close and also had a chance at getting the rare triplicate. First 2 games were both 198's and in the 3rd game I needed a spare and 6 in the 10th to get it again. Unfortunately I jinxed myself by saying "I haven't had a split all night" after watching the 13th split show up in that game alone. Of course I left a 6-7-10 split in the 10th, which I just barely missed for a 190. Bummer...

---

In other news... I'm thinking about buying a 2nd PS2 for the living room. When I finished the basement I moved my other one down there, and I do like the set up down there but sometimes I need to stay upstairs and would like to be able to play there as well. Since the PS3 is showing no signs of lowering the hefty $600 price tag and I can pick up a PS2 for $129 it may do for now. Plus I keep getting new games at incredibly cheap prices. Last weekend I picked up Fight Night Round 3 and Call of Duty 2 for a combined $31 at Target. I can get 4 games for the PS2 for the cost of 1 PS3 game. It's a matter of quantity over quality at this point.

You might ask, why don't you get an XBOX 360? Well, I have a reason and it does make sense to me. You see, I went through a lot of work to rid my house of the cable company (Charter) a few years back (DirecTV and AT&T DSL internet service). I'm also trying to do the same with Microsoft products. I now have 3 Mac's and just one PC that I need for work. Buying an xbox would be inviting additional evil into my home and I just can't do it.

---

Fantasy Baseball Keepers... today I had to turn in my 5 keepers for this season. After having my best ever finish (2nd place) I found it difficult to pick only 5 guys I want to keep. There are at least 10 guys I would love to have back again this year. A couple of guys were obvious. Albert Pujols and Chase Utley are monsters, no doubt on them. I went young with the other 3 in keeping stud Twins catcher Joe Mauer, hot shot kid SS Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins and Angels mid-season call up Jerred Weaver. Draft is March 26th.

Today is also the Brewers exhibition opener against the A's. They have a decent shot at making the playoffs this year, IF the key guys can stay healthy.

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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. :)

---

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.

Wisconsin Hoops

I'm starting to get goose bumps every time I watch a Badger basketball game these days. Are they really this good? Time and time again they just win. Bo Ryan seems to have this knack of knowing who will deliver each game and getting them in the right place to do just that. One game it's Kam Taylor, the next it's Brian Butch or Greg Steimsma. Always someone different on a team that consistently goes 8-9 deep.

Of course, there's always Alando Tucker, the pre-season Big 10 player of the year who's living up to every bit of that. I've never seen a guy that can take so many hits, hang in the air for longer than it takes most guys to jump twice and hit impossible shot after impossible shot.

And Bo, the man can just flat out coach, amazing he didn't get his shot till he was 53 years old. Rick Reilly at Sports Illustrated has a great article on Bo here.

21-1 and 17 straight wins with Indiana on deck Wednesday. Who knows where this crazy ride will take us but I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

By the way, between football and basketball, Wisconsin is 32-2 so far. Anyone else come close to that? Florida is 30-3, no one else is close as far as I can tell. Add men's and women's NCAA hockey titles last year and you can see why Badger fans are as happy as a pig in shit around here.

Hardest thing ever!

Thursday I started getting a cold at work and felt pretty run down at bowling after work. I wasn't able to partake in any frosty cold ones and my bowling was mediocre at best. I stayed home from work Friday and rested.

Saturday was a little better but not wanting to make things worse I had to abstain from drinking at bowling again on Saturday. That took some tremendous will power on my part, if I do say so myself. I wasn't feeling bad and watching the others having some cold beer while I nursed a diet Mt Dew was excruciating. Then we went out for dinner and again I had to hold back and have water... painful, I tell ya, just painful. I did manage a 629 bowling, could have been a lot better if I'd carried anything at all. 10 pin after 10 pin the whole night. Grinder shot a 257 game his first game but couldn't follow it up and I ended up beating him... again.

Last night I felt good enough to play hockey and all the rest made a difference as I had way more energy than I'd been having and was able to rush the puck a few times and generated a couple good scoring chances. We won 6-2, which was a little disappointing in that we gave up 2 goals in the last 2 minutes to blow a shut out. In our last 3 games we've outscored our opponents 22-9 and improved to 9-3, still 2 games behind the first place team because we're the only ones who have beaten them. We're off next week for the Super Bowl and our next game is against a team that has not won a game all season, which is rare in our league. Hope we don't have a let down.

After the game I stopped to talk to a friend on another team and when I walked into the locker room, Bill was holding 2 bottles of beer in his hand, one of which was a Red Hook ESB, one of my favorites. He asked if I was drinking and I instantly replied "oh hell ya" and everyone laughed. He must have told them I was sick and didn't drink on Saturday. I ended up having 3, they went down nicely. :)

Our weather is taking a turn for the worse. It's now down in single digits overnight and in the teens for highs, but by Friday we're supposed to have lows below zero with -20 to -30 windchills. Brrrr... Guess I won't be golfing again any time soon.

Speaking of golf, we're planning another trip to Whistling Straits for Memorial Day weekend. They're running another 8 play for 5 special. This will be my 4th trip since last April. It's so much fun.

Well, back to figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing here at work.
Later

Bowling needs more Defense

Sometimes in bowling it doesn't really matter if your team bowls well. If the other team decides to bowl out of their heads you will lose. I think bowling needs new rules allowing defense. Let’s see you get a strike as I hip check you into the next lane. Yeah, that would be fun. You have to juke around the D to get to the lane. Maybe you can pass the ball to an open teammate for an easy shot.

I don't know, I guess that's probably not going to happen. You have to rely on psychological defenses, get in the other team's heads. We spend so much time giving each other grief that we sometimes forget to do that part of the game. Oh well, at least we got free beer for hanging the house again (2 weeks in a row, whoo hoo).

I ended up shooting 641 with 3 consistent games of 214, 212 and 215. Nothing flashy. Not enough to win though.

---

Another month and my AppleTV device will show up. In the meantime I'm busy trying to rip all my dvd’s to our iMac so that I'll be ready when it gets here. I've been doing all the tv shows we have first and man is it slow. The software I use is great though, couldn't be easier to use. It's only available on the Mac though and is called HandBrake. If you have a Mac, give it a try.

---

I'm still undecided about getting a new video game system. I was convinced I would get the PS3 as soon as one was available but now I'm having doubts. First, it's $600, pretty high I feel. Second, there aren't that many games out for it yet. And third, the whole blu-ray vs hd-dvd deal has me concerned about investing in one technology and the other winning out.

I've thought about an Xbox 360 too but I have a couple issues with that as well. First, it doesn't support 1080p for the high def dvd's so the games will never be in that format. Ok, I can live with that. Second, Xbox doesn't have some of the Playstation games I love and I can't play any of my old PS games on it. But third, and most important, is that I hate, I mean hate, Microsoft. It would really be a moral dilemma for me to purchase a Microsquish product. Just as I've rid myself of the cable company I am also trying to rid myself of everything related to Microsoft. How can I justify getting an Xbox then? I can't.

How about the Wii you ask? I've played it. The novelty is there but I wouldn't want to play all my games that way. It would bore me after awhile. I'm not a 10 year old that doesn't get outside to play enough. I'm an adult and I want to sit on my ass and play my video games the way god intended.

So, for now, I'll just play my PS2 and enjoy what I have. I still remember the huge leap that was made from the PS1 to the PS2. Maybe I'll get another PS2 for the living room (I moved mine to the pub room in the basement). They're cheap now and still tons of games I haven't played.

That's it for now. Oh, one more thing… Happy Birthday Grinder, you old fart.

Stupid Bears

Man, I hate the Bears. I really wanted the Saints to kick their butts but they just couldn't close the deal. Now I've got 2 weeks of putting up with the Bear fan transplants in our area, including 2 in my office. Hopefully Indy will beat them like a rented mule. Indy is a 7 point favorite already, which isn't really a surprise considering how the AFC has owned the NFC over the last 10 years.

---

I bought a new Elliptical trainer on Friday and got it set up Saturday morning. It's pretty sweet. You can read about it over at my sports equipment blog, Adubya Sports. After setting it up I was too exhausted to use it so I didn't get around to trying it out for real until Sunday morning. I managed about 11 minutes on it before I felt like I was going to pass out. This thing is definitely a workout. And that was at level 1 of 20!

---

In hockey we played the 3rd place team, whom we were 2 points ahead of in 2nd place. We went up 2-1 after our slowest guy managed to get his first 2 goals of the year, banging in rebounds. We entered the 3rd period tied 3-3 and once again exploded for 5 goals in the frame, just like last week, winning 8-3. It helped that they only had 7 players to our 12. We ran them pretty ragged.

Wow, it's Friday already

What a fast week it's been. We had a production deployment last weekend and the shit's been falling down around our knees faster than we can react to it. The whole week has been one long firefight.

In the mean time I did bowl Wednesday and Thursday with mixed results. Wednesday I bowled my average and we won 5 of 7 again to expand our first place lead a little more. Oops, I'm not supposed to talk about it... you know, the whole jinx thing.

Thursday, on the other hand, just plain sucked. A paltry 537 which lowered my average 3 pins, down to 216. Just a plain old shitty night. I got strikes when I hit my mark, it just wasn't often. No one in the league bowled well so I wasn't alone.

---

On a totally different subject, I've started a new blog. It will be related to sports equipment (reviews, trials, deals, etc). It's called "Adubya Sports" and it's linked on the right.

Yeah, it was the weekend

I'm sitting here thinking that I should write something to recap the weekend and realized that nothing I did warrants writing about... I mean bowling? Yeah, I bowled. Hit my average, we lost all 3 games by a combined 28 pins. Whoop-de-f'ing-do.

Hocky was fun though. We did beat the undefeated first place team 8-4, under my leadership as I filled in for our vacationing team GM. I'm 2-0 in charge now, both times we scored 8 goals. Haven't done it in any other games. Coincidence? You be the judge.

As for the rest, 3 of the 4 teams I picked for the playoffs lost. The Badgers won again and are now ranked number 2 in the AP poll behind 2 LOSS Florida. Um, hello, the Badgers are 17-1 and are the only team in the country to beat not 1, but 2 top 5 schools and also beat Florida State that Florida lost to. You explain it.

That's about it, pretty slow around here, though we did finally get some snow, yay.

Oh soooo close

I could see it already, $3,400 being handed to me, going into the bar and buying beer for the entire bowling league. It was a done deal... only the pins wouldn't cooperate.

They have this little deal at the bowling alley, called the High School Jackpot. Costs 50 cents to play, half the money goes to some high school or other, the other half builds into a pot until someone wins it. Only no one ever wins it.

The way it works is you pick up a slip based on your average and you have to get a strike in every frame that's marked. The higher your average, the more strikes. For me, that meant a grand total of 18 strikes in the marked frames. I play often and I've never made it through the first game still alive.

Until last night. Clean through the first game (222) and then clean through the 2nd game (242). 3rd game I need strikes in the 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th and 12th (have to strike out the tenth to finish, sheesh).

Got the first... got the one in the 4th. Up in the 6th, still feeling good. I let it fly, the ball heads down over the 2nd arrow, skids down a ways, the turns left and drives right into the pocket. I start my fist pump and blam!

7-10 split. Not even a wiggle. Just the 7 pin and the 10 pin. I am dumbfounded. It's over. 1 miss and you lose. I see the money waving at me as it flies away, giggling. There goes being the hero in the bar. There goes the PS3. There goes a trip to Vegas. All in a flash. I feel bad.

I ended up striking in the 7th, 10th and 11th before getting 8 on the last ball. In all I got 16 of the 18 strikes I needed which nets me exactly zero dollars.

Oh, and the 7-10 also cost me 700 as I finished with a 220 for 684. At least I'm starting to bowl well again. I guess I'll try it again Saturday night.

Bowling battle with our arch nemesis

Last night we took on the axis of evil and the good guys prevailed once again, winning 2 of 3 games to take over sole possession of 1st place at 22-6.

After a first game that saw the Grinder, Soup and KS carry us with 200+ games to a 57 pin victory, we were poised to win the 2nd game holding a commanding 70 pin lead going into the 9th frame. Unfortunately we gagged down the stretch and it came down to me needing 2 strikes and 2 pins to win. Luck was not on our side as my first shot crushed the pins, except for the stupid 8 pin which just slid over 4 inches and wobbled like a drunken homeless guy looking for a cardboard box to sleep in. We ended up losing that game by 1 pin.

3rd game we came back, led by my 246 and won by 30 or so to take 5 of 7 points. I ended up with a 611 after my 168 start while the Grinder posted a team high 643.

My hip held up fairly well, though it is a little sore this morning. I have to bowl again tonight and Saturday night and then hockey Sunday night so Monday may be a tough walk in to work.

Sucks to be a Buckeye

One night after getting throttled by Florida for the football national championship, the 5th ranked Buckeye hoopsters had to travel to the not-so-opposing-team-friendly confines of the Kohl Center in Madison to face the 3rd ranked Badgers of Wisconsin.

I, fortunately, was one of the lucky ones to be in attendence as CB came through with a ticket for me (be sure to thank your boss for the tickets, CB). Tickets in our area were going for $175 each on the street before the game, that's what a hot ticket this was.

What a game, phew. Definitely the loudest I have ever heard that place, especially when the Badgers went up 16 in the 2nd half. Fortunately they just held on at the end as OSU's strategy of fouling and hitting 3's was cutting the lead quickly. Badgers couldn't make both their foul shots, keeping OSU in the game. It came down to their point guard just missing a 3 at the buzzer that would have forced overtime and the Badgers held on to win 72-69.

Speaking of hot tickets, Erin Andrews was in attendance doing her sideline reporting thing and looking hot as ever in her white pants and orange sweater. She easily stood out in a sea of red. The boys in the student section chanted her name over and over any time she came near them.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Ok, it's not really my birthday but after seeing what Steve Jobs had to offer today during his keynote speech at MacWorld I went to the Apple Store online and ordered a new AppleTV device (http://www.apple.com/appletv/ ) .

This bad boy will let me stream everything that I have in iTunes to my big screen tv. Want to watch a movie? Bring up the menu, select the movie and go. An old episode of Seinfeld? Same thing. Play a music playlist through my home theater, just pick it from the menu. This is the one item I have been waiting for.

Making all this possible is HandBrake software on Mac OS X which will allow me to rip my dvd's to their full resolution complete with dolby digital 5.1 audio. Now, I figure it will only take me about 4 months at 4 hours per day to rip all my dvd's....

AppleTV ships in February, making it my birthday present says Cdubya. Oh well, at least I know I'll like my present! ;)

Me and Romo

I sure did feel bad for Tony Romo Saturday night. Single handedly blowing the game for your team is sure to be one of the worst feeling ever. I'm guessing he's on a 24 hour suicide watch now. Maybe they can trade him for Cincinnati's holder. :)

I guess I was still feeling sorry for him last night when I went to my hockey game because I did my best to blow the game for my team, including handing the puck to an oncoming forward for a breakaway to give them a 5-3 lead with 3 minutes left, which ended up being the final score. I think I had 2 good plays to go with 20 bad plays the whole night. Sucks having 3 weeks off and not being able to do anything to stay in shape because of my hip.

On the bright side, my hip has fully recovered and I'm pain free. I'll be back bowling this week.

2 interesting sports events this week for Ohio State. First the BCS championship game against Florida tonight. Then on Tuesday they visit the Kohl Center in Madison to take on 4th ranked Bucky in men's hoops. Both UW and OSU crushed their opponents in their big 10 openers Saturday, setting the stage for a huge battle tomorrow. Should be a good indicator as to how the big 10 is going to play out.

Well, I better get back to work. Later!

Vacation plans

If you recall, after our Christmas "Casino Night" party, Cdubya got the bug to go back to Vegas. We love Vegas and have been 6 times. Always fun.

Well, something odd has happened to Vegas. They've now priced me out of the market. Room rates are extremely high and there's no longer a cheap flight that doesn't involve getting up at 3 in the morning. We had already stopped going on weekends because the room rates tripled and the table game minimums started at $20. But this is the last straw. Cheapest room I could get (we only stay at the major casino's, not the dumps) was about $159 a night. Even the Imperial Palace was $90/night and that was for Monday - Wednesday! Forget about Thursday - Saturday.

Here's a good example of what has happened. At the Wynn, we stayed for $149/night (5 star casino, awesome) last time. Now, $169/night Monday and Tuesday (not bad) and $599 for Wednesday! That's for the most basic room. It just goes way up from there. If I was to do something like that I would have no money to gamble with. What are they thinking? Catering only to the extremely wealthy? I'm no cheapskate but that's just sick.

I ended up finding a deal, 3 nights at MGM for $1,100 with air (not a great flight but acceptable, Madison to Denver to Vegas). But that's Monday - Wednesday. I don't feel great about it.

I started thinking maybe there was someplace else that we could go that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg and possibly a torso...

And I found it. Beau Rivage resort in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was wiped out by Katrina but they rebuilt it even better (pumped $551 million into it). It was originally designed by Steve Wynn right after he created the Bellagio in Vegas and modeled after it. MGM-Mirage, Inc ended up buying it and they were the ones who rebuilt it. It's huge (largest in the US outside of Nevada) and has everything. Shows, shopping, fine dining, brewpub and GAMBLING. And I can afford to go over a weekend.

Looks like I can afford to go for 4 nights instead of 3 and leave on Friday, returning on Tuesday. I can also get a cheap flight from Madison through Memphis to Gulfport and I stay in the same timezone (bonus). They are right on the ocean (hence being destroyed by Katrina) and we can watch the shrimp boats coming and going from our room.

They also just opened their own golf course, exclusive to resort guests, called Fallen Oak, designed by Tom Fazio. Of course, it's $200 to play but hey, I gotta check it out. Just opened in November. Looks really nice.

We're still finalizing our plans but it looks like we'll be down there for the Super Bowl and my birthday. Unfortunately, Mississippi does not allow sports gambling so I won't be able to place any bets on the game. But they do have like 17 plasma tv's in the brewpub so we'll have a good place to watch the game from.

Also, it's only 90 miles to New Orleans from there so we'll probably take a drive there to check it out.

---

On other news, my hip is progressing but still sore if I push it. I skipped my 2 nights of bowling this week and it looks like I'll have to miss hockey Sunday too. I want to wait till all the pain is gone before I resume physical activity. Which totally sucks because it's going to be 50 today and I'd really like to be out golfing instead of sitting in this crappy office!

Have a good weekend.

Back to the grind

With a sense of relief, the holidays are over and things are back to normal. There's something to be said for the boredom of normal day to day activities.

After a weekend of doing nothing my hip is back to about 90%. Still walking slowly with a slight limp but way better than Thursday and Friday. I started doing some stretching and strengthening exercises yesterday. Now that I know this is going to be a problem for me I'll try to be proactive in addressing it.

---

On to football... what a great ass kicking the Packers put on the Bears Sunday night. That was fun to watch. Now the wait and watch on Favre's retirement announcement begins. Unfortunately for the Pack they have fallen to the 16th pick in the upcoming draft. That really sucks as I was hoping they could get Troy Smith from Ohio State around 10. Oh well...

The Badgers/Arkansas game was about as ugly as you can get. After watching a 3rd quarter in which the Badgers had negative yards and no first downs I dozed off... Missed most of the end of the game except for the brief periods of conciousness. What a yawner.

I ended up watching the first half of the Rose Bowl (again, dozing in and out) before Cdubya suggested a movie instead of football. I'd had enough so we watched "The Exorcism of Emily Rose", which I really liked, pretty scary. After that we watched "Rebound" with Martin Lawrence. Pretty funny basketball movie.

Well, that's about it, back to work today, trying to remember what it is I do here...
Have a great week!