Basketball Savant

A year ago I drove 2100 miles over mountains and prairies, through snow storms, in order to watch my beloved Butler Bulldogs play in the Final Four. As I said countless times before, during and after that trip, "It was an opportunity of a lifetime!" After all, how often would you expect a tiny, liberal arts school to go to the NCAA basketball championship? Then came the 2011 tournament:

Butler 60, Old Dominion University 58

Butler 71, Pittsburgh 70

Butler 61, Wisconsin 54

Butler 74, Florida 71 (OT)

Butler 70, Virginia Commonwealth 62

So it is, friends, that Butler will play Connecticut on Monday evening for the NCAA Basketball Championship. I'm amazed! Astounded! Happy! Proud!

Once more against the odds? GO DAWGS!!!

Opening Day

Yes, today was the opening day of bicycling season. I've been looking at my Kona Dew Plus sitting on the stationary trainer in the basement, thinking about getting it ready to ride. Today, after church, I made my move. I took off the training tire, mounted the road tire, remounted the road tire after figuring out it was on backwards, and cleaned and oiled my chain. Sal and I rode to the bank, cycling shop (chain oil), drugstore, and grocery. It was great to be out there!

Ride on!

Mister at the door

Thanks to Evan's coaching I am now able to embed videos in my blog. Enjoy this touching short feature with Mr. Cat asking to be let in the house...

Better decisions?

I saw an article on MSNBC.com stating that people who need to urinate actually make better decisions. It's something about the part of the brain that engages in impulse control. The article, which you can read Here states that you might want to drink a big glass of water before making that investment decision.

It all sounded reasonable to me, so I had a couple beers to jump start the process. I'm not really sure it's helping.

Time Off

I'm off this week, and perhaps it's a bit overdue. I don't have any particular plans for the week... we talked about going skiing on Monday but did chores around the house instead. I sat around most of the day yesterday and am engaging in the same (in)activity today. My accomplishments thus far today include bringing in the recycling bin AND the garbage can, taking some dry cleaning down the street, and calling the Subaru dealer to schedule an oil change.

It's somewhat of a mystery to me that I don't seem to have any mid-range gears. When working I'm engaged almost non-stop. When not working I don't easily shift my energy and focus to domestic duties. Well, I suppose that it might be a little early to make that judgement, as I've only had two days alone thus far. Perhaps the consideration of what to do during my inactivity illustrates well that I've been at it a bit long, and am having some trouble relaxing and doing nothing.

A Defining Moment

On Friday afternoon in the kitchen I experienced some chest pain... nothing terribly serious, but enough to get my attention. My immediate response was to take something, so I went to the refrigerator, opened a container Sally had filled with thinly sliced Irish cheese, and popped a slice into my mouth.

Now you may not think this a rational response. What good would cheese do were I having some type of heart emergency? No good, but I would die with a really pleasant taste in my mouth.

I have no death wish, mind you. But it does occur to me that, if I thought I was about to leave this plane of existence I would not be carefully counting Weight Watcher points. I'd be eating cheese.

Green Bay 31, Pittsburgh 25

I got to watch the Super Bowl. That might not seem like a big deal to most people, but most people don't work in the church. My viewing of the NFL playoffs was spotty this year as there were meetings scheduled against them week after week. I nearly faced the same problem with the Super Bowl, as a family requested a private memorial service this afternoon. Yes, I could have declined, but I found it difficult to explain to a grieving family that I couldn't help them because I needed to watch television.

It turned out well. The dearly departed was a Packer fan, so the family offered to move the service time to 2:30 so we'd be done before kick off. I did miss Christina Aguilera botching the National Anthem, but that was about all. In retrospect, conducting a funeral is more tolerable than watching the over-hyped pregame show anyway.