Mom Plans Own Party

Party plans were going smoothly except for making sure both my brother and father where going to be off from work, without telling them about the surprise. No, I did not trust my brother or father in keeping a secret, and the party would be the best success if it was a surprise. It is very difficult to surprise my mother and she actually likes to be surprised. Though I was not sure if she would like this big of a surprise.

Then my mom got a bright idea that she would put together who own birthday party. Apparently it is her friend CW fault for asking what they were going to do for her birthday. Mom didn't like the breakfast after church idea, so once she found out what time my brother was getting off work, she decided to invite family and friends to dinner with us. I received a call from my father saying, "just wanted to let you know that mom is planning to invite about 20 people to dinner with us Saturday night. Is there anything I should know or do?" I was in shock and not sure what to say or do. I eventually said "okay, sounds good, I'll talk to you later." Then I began frantically calling K and CT to see what they knew and what the plan was going to be. Luckily, mom after thinking decided not to call everyone herself and CT and K called friends and family, respectively. This reduced people being caught off guard when mom called. Most of the family had excuses for not joining us for dinner and most of the friends just came on out knowing the rest of the story.

The thing is it was not just for people to come out for dinner but afterwards everyone was going to go to our house for homemade ice cream and cake. Thankfully, we hadn't ordered the cake yet so we halved our cake and with some investigative work at SAMs Club, my aunt made sure that one cake was vanilla and one chocolate and changed our icing color to match the one my parents ordered.

The party was still ago with a little extra partying before. The next question would dinner last long enough but not too long. More to come on that later.

Hiding Out in Paducah for 40+ Hours

To pull off this party, I had to arrive at my aunts early to prepare all of the food. So Thursday around 5 pm, I departed Louisville, grabbing a few last decorations, and driving to Paducah. I arrived at my aunts around 7:30 pm CST and proceeded to go hide my car in my aunts friends garage until Saturday. While we were out, we headed over to another aunts to pick up votive candles and a big bowl for fruit. The rest of the night was spent playing cards with my mom's two sisters and a cousin. We stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning. I am too old for this thats for sure.

Friday morning we arose by 9 to start preparing food. While I was in the shower, one of only 2 aunts that I had not seen yet came over with the youngest granddaughter. She was out delivering tables to the family from a yard sale. She had just left my mothers, probably a good thing she made that stop before seeing me.

After she left, it was time to start preparing food. I cut several big blocks of cheese until my right pointer finger was numb. I just didn't realize how much damage that I was doing to my finger. I then proceed to cut carrots, which my cousin was afraid I was going to cut my fingers off how I was doing it. I think it was actually safer than the other way because laying the carrots flat meant they could roll, but oh well. I did not cut my fingers or hand during the process so all is good. My aunt was making all the different vegetable and fruit dips. I then took over and worked on a dip or two myself while she did some chopping.

The next secret mission was to get a hair cut. Thanks to my friend RP, I actually had a good cover story for getting my hair cut. I was in a hair salon on Wednesday with RP to get her hair cut. But really I went home to my beautician and got a haircut. I will not spoil the surprise of how short it is just yet :-P We survived the trip to the beautician, who knew that it was all a surprise.

::::Side Story:::: So when I got home on Saturday, I asked my father if he noticed anything different. After mumbling and having no clue what I was talking about, he decided that my hair was LONGER. He just saw me in May. I informed him that it was not longer but shorter.

It was then back to the house to finish preparing food about all we had left was cutting veggies, making ham sandwiches, and preparing the croissants to be made up on Saturday morning. Saturday night, we enjoyed my favorite Chinese in town and played cards again until 1 or 2 in the morning.

Saturday, my aunt woke me at 7:30 am to get moving. We went and packed the beverages into the car and headed over to the KC Hall. Snag number two....we originally had the KC Hall from 8 am until 1 am, but they needed it for a funeral meal Saturday morning. This meant we were not able to get in until about 2 pm to start decorating and preparing the food trays and such. I therefore could not be at the KC Hall to decorate because I had to get home sometime on Saturday before my mother killed me for not coming in and staying too long. She already was not the most excited about the fact that I wasn't coming in until Saturday anyway.

We checked out the KC Hall and I gave my aunt ideas of what I think it should look like, though I was not overly worried with the people that were coming to help out. I knew they had good tastes and it would look just fine when it was all done.

Then it was back to my aunts to finish fixing up the sandwiches and making sure everything was together and ready to head to the KC Hall. Next secret mission was making sure mom thought I was leaving from Louisville. So about 10:30 am EST, I called to tell her that I was headed out and got a lot of grief for sleeping in and not moving too early. Though since it is normal for me not to move fast especially on a Saturday it was not a total shock, thankfully she was busy preparing for her ice cream and cake party to really worry about me the rest of the trip. I was prepared to tell her where I was on my journey if she did call though, but I didn't have to this time.

"Arrival" in Paducah

It was officially time to arrive home so after a shower. I packed up my belongings again and headed to get my car out of hiding. I took the back way over to the interstate, back to usual way that I go home, and on to the house. I arrived perfectly on time 3 hours after my "departure" from Louisville.

I walked in the door and upstairs to my room to drop stuff off. I knew at that moment mom had new clue about another party. The house was freshly vacuumed. There was candy dishes throughout the downstairs filled with nuts, M & M's, and other goodies. The cake had not arrived yet though, so I had to make a quick phone call to let the surprise cake getter that they couldn't go yet to pick up our cake. Dad left shortly thereafter and thankfully talked mom out of buying more fruit for her party. While dad was gone, my already warn out hands and arms were back to work stirring up the fixins for homemade ice cream while mom cut up the peaches.

The first batch of homemade ice cream went into the maker, and the all clear sign was sent to the party decorators to get the other cake. Two batches of ice cream were made, peach and banana.

Then it was time to get ready and head over to the Olive Garden to save tables for 22 people. I had the privilege of reserving the tables shortly after 4. Wow, now that was an experience in itself. The lady was not very cordial with me. I was unsure if we would or wouldn't have tables by 5 for 22 people. But after sitting there for awhile I decided that they were trying to clear out the back room for us. It was about 5:15 or so before we were seated, which ended up a good thing.

Birthday Dinner - Mom's Plan

Olive Garden was infiltrated with 20 people to celebrate a 60th Birthday. Three people in the room had no clue what was happening next, while the rest of the party new that there was another party to follow at the KC Hall.

The accommodations were not very good. They didn't slide any of the tables together so there was pockets of people sitting around all in the same room but still. Mom and dad were sitting at a table with several of the other women. A group of men set at one table and then there was a couple other tables of people. I set so that I could get take pictures.

The service on the other hand was a bit too speedy. We were eating shortly after 6 and the party wasn't suppose to start at the KC Hall until 7 pm. So after dinner, we had the waiters send Happy Birthday to her, and a couple of the ladies went out to their cars to get their birthday gifts to slow down the departure process.

The best gift was a hula hoop, which my mother graciously got out in the middle of the floor and showed us her ability to hula hoop, around her waist, arm, and neck. She didn't do too bad for being almost 60 (her birthday technically wasn't until Sunday). We proceed to open gifts and tell stories in order to keep the party going as close to seven as possible.

Another secret mission, half the cake was at the house and needed to get to the KC Hall. So my cousin and brother headed out to go "see my cousin's dog", not sure how that story went over but it did. They went and got the cake at which time my brother found out that he was headed to a party at the KC Hall and not staying at the house for ice cream and cake.

SURPRISE

As we departed the Olive Garden, I took my mother and told her she was going with me for a minute. I had something to show her and that dad new we would be to the house in a bit. At the same time, dad back in the restaurant was getting told that he was not going back to the house but instead he was to go to the KC Hall for a surprise.

Once in the car, I pulled out a blindfold and made sure mom was nicely blindfolded in the passenger seat. This was CT's idea and it work out wonderfully. Except for the fact that my mother has a great sense of direction.

We departed the Olive Garden parking lot and headed back to the house. She continued to tell me exactly where I was and I got a bit flustered unsure of how to get her lost. We first were going to my brother's new place which was interesting because I had no clue where he lived. Then after a few more turns, we were off to Kay's. Another turn, we were in front of the mall and headed to Earline's. I gave and decided to get on the interstate so that I could get to an area that I wouldn't get lost and hopefully could get her lost. On the interstate, we were then headed to Matt and Renee's new house. I got off the interstate and we had bought funeral plots, then it was a new house, then she decided I was buying time and we would eventually head back to the house.

Finally, I hit Lone Oak Rd at the hospital and got her lost. There was a couple spots we could have turned and she wasn't sure which one. I thought I was caught though as I went under the railroad tracks on Jackson a train was just getting ready to go over the tracks. I think I escaped that find though barely. When I finally turned again, she was lost enough and so was I that she didn't know for sure where she was.

After a few twists and turns, trying to remember myself where the KC Hall was. I made it to the Hall and parked on the street because everything else looked full and I wanted no more chances of her figuring out where I was. I got her out of the car still blindfolded and had her walk towards the door.

Well the train that I narrowly escaped earlier was now outside the KC Hall. She was still confused enough that she didn't pick up on where we were. She was greatly terrified after a decent walk that I was going to leave her at the train tracks or take her over them. I didn't quite understand that since there was a train going by.

We got about 5 feet from the door. I pulled her glasses off her head and tried to get the blindfold off, but she backed away from the door and so everyone inside could hear her said "I'm not going in there" and backed away from the door. Everyone inside started singing Happy Birthday and I got the blindfold off so that she could see the party waiting her inside.

She was 100% shocked and the place was full of people from her brothers and sisters to my dad's sisters, HS friends, friends from the telephone company, church friends, nieces and nephews, and even a few grand-nieces. My dad's sister from St Louis was in as well. (Which was another item that luckily did not register for my mom, as they saw her car when they went to dinner. Apparently they wondered why she was in town again after just being in town last weekend for father's day, but luckily nothing was put together in terms of a celebration for mom, so we escaped that one.)

Ready to Roller Skate

Roller skating is coming back to Lexington in a couple weeks. If you haven't roller skated lately, it is actually a blast once you get a hang of it and good exercise. Check out previous post about my last roller skating experience.

Last Couple of Weeks

Since most of you are probably tired of reading about sports and taking random quizzes, I thought I would actually share what has been going on lately.

As posted below, I just finished summer class and moved to Louisville. Prior to that, I have been taking class, autocrossing, going to weddings, and just preparing for the 2nd half of the summer.

Weekend prior to this, I went to South Bend, Indiana for a wedding of a graduate friend. It amazes me how the majority of travel in Indiana seems to be on 2-lane or 4-lane split roads, but not major interstates or parkways. The drive to South Bend actually was not all that bad. There were a couple slow parts as you traversed through towns and then the random stoplight on the 4-lane divided highway. While in South Bend, another grad friend and I took a ride around the Notre Dame campus, as it was right by the hotel. It was a very pretty campus with lots of green space and trees. It was very hard to traverse around campus because it seemed to have lots of gated access. The buildings all looked very nice and not too old either. I am sure that is not the case.

The weekend before that I came to Louisville for a wedding of previous co-workers from SHPS. It was a beautiful outdoors ceremony at Locust Grove with a very romantic and wonderful reception to follow. It was great to meet up with some old co-workers and enjoy a wonderful evening.

Since early May, I have completed now in 3 autocross events. After the second one, I was ready to hang my head in shame and go running off. I don't know that I have ever performed so poorly as I did at UK that day. Thankfully yesterday, I was able to redeem myself a little bit. I definitely was more aggressive and tried some new techniques. The biggest change was working on left foot breaking so that I could accelerate as I let off the break instead of only being able to do one or the either. It is amazing the amount of control you have over your car in that situation. At the same time, it can be easy to get confused especially as you are initially learning and hit the gas with your right and lets hope breaking with your left, when you really want to be breaking and not hitting the gas. That happened once yesterday and sent me into a wall of cones, or well lets just say did not assist in preventing me from going into the wall of cones. The wall of cones were history long before I hit the gas with the right foot instead of breaking more. It was a lot of fun and thankfully, the last run was a clean and fast run. I was actually rather afraid that I had taken out the last cone of the last slalom, but when I looked back in my rearview mirror it was still standing. After the event, I was talking with one of the guys and he said there was not one run that I did not hit that last cone in the slalom, usually on the top with the side of the car, but thankfully, I only knocked it over once on my second best run of the day :-(. Nonetheless, I still took out 6 cones yesterday to make the total for the year to be 11. I am fairly certain that is more cones than I have taken out in the previous three years of racing.

Those are the quick highlights from the past month and half. A tons of other things have happened but I will not bore you with all of that.

Where am I? What am I doing?

These may be questions you are asking or maybe not. Some of these questions, I am still asking myself truthfully, but here is what I do know.

Currently, I am in Louisville and will be stationed here for the next couple of months. Yes, I have escaped Hoosier land for the time being and will be enjoying some wonderful time with family and friends in the great Commonwealth.

I return to Louisville to complete an internship at Bellarmine University. I will be working on a couple leadership initiatives, which shall conclude with a leadership conference proposal for next spring. Besides the internship, which provides housing in the dorm on campus, I am still trying to outline what the rest of the summer is going to consist of. Hopefully, by the first of next week, I will be settled in at Bellarmine and have an update on a couple other possible summer items. So look for more to come next week or the end of this week.

Summer school went well and I actually did not procrastinate up to the last minute on trying to complete the paper. It was for the most part complete by the Friday prior to it being doing on Thursday. It just needed some slight tweaking and review.

With the completion of that class, I now have 14 hrs of class to complete in order to receive a masters degree. It is hard to believe this time last year, I was turning in my resignation at work and preparing to move to Indiana. Now a year later, I am over half-way through the coursework and well on my way to a masters in Higher Education Student Affairs. Who knows what will come next. You will just have to stay posted to find out.

Earnhardt Jr joins Hendrick Motorsports

Gordon and Earnhardt fans alike today are dealing with how to react to the announcement that Earnhardt Jr is joining the Hendrick family. Fans for these two drivers are probably the most against one another and now they join the same larger family.

I wish Earnhardt Jr the best and hope that this move will be beneficial to his career.

Check out SI article.

Stop the real time blogging

Louisville Courier Journal reporter was removed from the NCAA Baseball tournament for blogging the game real time. What do you think?

Louisville's New Archbishop Named

Scanning through the feeds, I found the above article about the naming of a new Archbishop for the Diocese of Louisville. The Archdiocese of Louisville also includes the Diocese of Owensboro, Covington, and Lexington.

Church Teachings: Marriage

Thanks to kasclar for doing some legwork about the Catholic Church and teachings on marriage. In reading over the information, I felt that some of you may be interested as well. It also relates to a conversation back in mid-April on Chris's site about Baptism.

kasclar maybe next week's topic could be on Baptism and the Catholic Church's teaching on who can perform a Baptism.

Computer Woes Again :-(

Any suggestions on what might be the problem:
The keyboard has been continuously deciding it does not want to work anymore. Then all of a sudden it starts working to just five minutes later stop again. Then I finally got it working but it was in a permanent state of Shift key down. Numbers were symbols and the number pad wouldn't work at all. I rebooted the machine and the keyboard refused to work. I have since opened up the computer and tried to remove as much of the dust that I possibly can. Currently, it is working but that does not mean a whole lot. Seems similar to problems from almost 2 years ago though currently it is only the keyboard acting up.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Price is Right

Another sign of the times and change in history, Bob Barker has taped his last Price is Right. I don't know about you, but I definitely watched a many Price is Right shows as a child and some thereafter. He will definitely be a missed icon in the game show world.

Speaking of game shows: What were some of your favorite TV game shows over the years? Don't be afraid to admit you watched a many of them. I remember racing to turn on the TV at my grandparents as a young child to catch some of our favorite shows after school. Well, the actual racing to the television set was to see who got control of the TV for that afternoon, but it often landed on USA Today (I believe is what aired most of the shows back then.)

Press Your Luck (No Whammies!!)
Price Is Right
Let's Make a Deal
Family Feud
Wheel of Fortune

I might come up with some more later, but there is the start of my list.

Pac-Man Receives Face Lift

After 26 years, Pac-Man has a new set of mazes. What are your reactions?

Did you know that Pac-Man was created in 1981? Pac-Man seems like such an ancient game and one that I thought was around prior to me though maybe not by much. I guess I was wrong it I was actually around before it though not by much.

Reactions to $5/Gallon

Are you ready to pay $5 for a gallon of milk? You just thought gas was expensive, but if you are a big dairy eater, the cost of gas may cause even more pain in your pocket book than the gas itself.

How much milk do you drink in a week? I have friends who can drink a couple gallons a week. I probably drink a gallon a week but overtime that becomes a gallon a month because I go shopping so infrequently. Cheese on the other hand is a large staple in my refrigerator and is enjoyed on a quite frequent basis.

Donovan's may not be leaving Florida

This story gets more interesting by the day. The morning news reports that Donovan is looking to back out of the Magic deal and return to Florida. Florida's meeting with ex-assistant coach, Anthony Grant, did not happen as originally planned for this weekend. He has not been offered a job.

Chris you might get to see UK beat Florida under Donovan's reign this year after all. Definitely an interesting change of events, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Which Website Are You?

Which Website are You?

Hot off the Press: Billy D Leaving Florida

Wow, what a new mix in SEC basketball. Billy Donovan is apparently accepting a 27.5 million dollar gig to coach Orlando Magic. Good thing, Kentucky wasn't successful in landing him.

What are your thoughts? I am just in shock at the moment. I didn't expect this, but I guess it is not a total surprise. I was shocked to find out that Florida and Donovan hadn't finalized an extension deal yet either. I thought that was completed a long time ago.

Getting in Shape Take 2

As mentioned in the spring, I signed up to have a student personal trainer to assist with a class in the HPER last semester. Now I am officially on the contact list and have signed up for the summer experience. There are 4 sessions in the next week and a half.

Technically this should have been the second session but the young lady got her time messed up and failed to show on Tuesday. I did go ahead and hit the track and the weight room by myself since I was already at the SRSC. It really was not too bad though I did not have a lot of time nor a routine to follow. I need to get the routine from the last trainer or maybe the new one will have a good or better one. We shall see. I am a bit pessimistic about this young lady compared the young gentleman last semester.

I was a little sore yesterday from my own workout plus an extra hr plus walking to campus and back for the rest of my afternoon activities on Tuesday. Yesterday, I was tired and sore so I walked to campus but caught the bus home. My left knee/leg seems to be giving me some problem so we will see how that goes today.

I have found a new motivator to get in shape, which I forgot along the way at some point. I really want to go canoeing again this summer, if we can figure out a good date for everyone. It would be great to have a little more strength in my arms so my canoe partner is not having to do extra work because I am a weakling. In addition, losing a few pounds would assist us in not having as much weight to push around. We will see if this happens.

I better get ready to go workout again. Hopefully I will be able to continue the process this time instead of getting sick, sunburned, and out of commission for a couple weeks.

First Six Weeks of Summer

Currently, I am enjoying my last planned full weekend in Bloomington until mid-August. It is really hard to imagine that I will not be stationary in this location again for nearly 3 months and a brief 9 months after that I will be graduating with a master's degree.

The past 3 weeks and next 3 weeks has mostly been consumed with the summer class on Sociology of Education. I have rather enjoyed this class in particular the small size of the class and easier ability to communicate and learn from one another. I also rather enjoy the subject matter as well. It is interesting to learn about the education system in particular in America. Currently, I am taking an extended break from writing the one paper for this class. The focus of my paper is going to be on gender in higher education and students pursuance of particular degrees. The research materials have been gathered. It is just the matter of putting it all together into a paper very soon.

Besides taking class, I have made two trips to Kentucky in the past few weeks. Derby weekend was a lot of fun minus the horrific sunburn that I received on Sunday. Let's just say, my legs have never been burnt so bad in my life. If you think you don't need sunscreen on a cool day, please put it on anyway because the pain afterwards is not fun.

I returned to Kentucky last weekend as well. Yes, the main purpose was to go racing. I am really not sure why because I performed quite terribly. I am definitely rusty or something these days. The first two events this year have not been very promising though tons of fun. The next event is June 17. I don't know that I will be much more prepared for that one but hopefully, I will be getting back into the groove. I must improve or will get left out to dry by all of my fellow competitors. Besides racing, I caught up with some church friends which was a lot of fun. We played "God Golf" (what my g-town friends coined it back in college). Saturday, I caught up with an old college friend, which was a lot of fun, and actually got a bit of my book for class read.

This past week was another busy and crazy week as my parents came to visit for the first time. Mom was here when I moved but dad had never been up. They got in late Monday. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the local Greek establishment. Tuesday was spent doing some local shopping and eating at Bucceto's Smiling Teeth. It was quite delicious and rather inexpensive.

Wednesday broke me but at least I have some new clothes, which my mother approves of. We headed to Edinburgh to the outlet malls. We left Bloomington around 10:45 am and returned around 8:30 pm. It was one long day of shopping and I rather hate to shop. But hey I have some new clothes for the summer and a couple for the fall, so I suppose all is good until the bills come in and I am not getting paycheck.

The next three weeks wrap up my summer in Bloomington. A college friend is coming up to visit tomorrow, which is rather exciting. My friends never come visit me, especially when they don't happen to be around the area. Good thing my parents were in this week because the apartment is still fairly clean, minus all the research materials floating around the living room.

The rest of the week will be working at work, finishing my paper, preparing to lead class on Thursday night, and planning a trip to Louisville.

This coming weekend will be partially spent in Louisville. How much sort of depends on a couple other things: the status of the paper, the status of other things getting complete before I leave Bloomington in mid-June, and news about potential updates in end of summer plans. I will definitely be in town Saturday night to attend a wedding of past co-workers. I am looking forward to the evening and seeing a lot of people from my previous job. Plus staying with some college friends.

The weekend following, I will be headed to South Bend, IN for my first HESA wedding. The wedding should be wonderful, and I have never been to South Bend so that too should be fun. I just wish I could find a ride to South Bend so that I could reduce cost and ride back with another friend. We have plans to run over to Notre Dame to see the campus, which is exciting. I will let you know if I make it there and post a few pictures if I do.

Then the summer session ends with the last class on June 12. The paper will hopefully be complete by then as well and it will be time to finish packing and move to Louisville for a two months. More to come on the second half of the summer, once I actually know what is happening myself. I do know that I will be working and living at Bellarmine, but there are a few other things up in the air.

This is definitely long enough for now and I really should see about eating some dinner and attempting to write a paper.

Have a marvelous Memorial Day Weekend!

What Color Car Should You Drive?

So here is what I got the first time that I took the quiz today:

You Should Drive a Red Car

You're the type of driver who isn't afraid to be the fastest on the road. You have a lot of energy built up, and you tend to get your adrenaline fix from driving. Moving at hyper speed, you tend to be annoyed with slow drivers and slow people. Life's too short to be slowed down by someone else!

Now, I did this quiz several weeks ago and got the following:

You Should Drive a Pink Car

You're the type of driver who really loves your car. You can make a car last for ages - or take good care of a vintage ride. You're independent, creative, and very expressive. You consider your car a part of you ... and you want to make it as funky as possible.

I changed from a sports car to 4-door sedan and got this:

You Should Drive a Black Car

You're the type of driver who's totally dominant and even a bit aggressive. You see the road as a "dog eat dog" world... and you're not about to get eaten! You like to drive a vehicle that conveys power. Big engine. Big price tag. You rule the road - and you like everyone to know it.

What Color Car Should You Drive?

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

You Are a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You are a traditional person with very simple tastes. In your opinion, the best things in life are free, easy, and fun. You totally go with the flow. And you enjoy every minute of it! Your best friend: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Ham Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Poll: Your Opinion Appreciated

Over the past month or so, I have been contemplating cutting my hair short again for varying reasons, including that it just seems to be in bad shape. Granted that is my opinion and probably not the opinion of others. I guess maybe after 2.5 years of letting it grow long, I feel the need for a change. It seems to refuse to get any longer therefore cutting it shorter seems the only other option. Plus the other day a friend of the family's thought that I would look nice with short hair, which has gotten me to really think about this more in depth.

Since the majority of you have seen me in the last few weeks, I am interested in your opinions about should I leave my hair long, cut it shorter, and if so how much shorter.

Leave Long
Cut Shorter
- Shoulder length
- Between shoulder and ear
- Ear length
Other thoughts and opinions

And yes, I will wait until winter to cut it short because shorter hair in the winter is what everyone does, or is it longer hair in the winter for warmth. Oh well.

Quick Update

Before I head out of town again, I thought I would say hi real quick. Hope everyone is doing well. What are your big plans for the Derby? Tomorrow (Derby Day), I am headed back to the grand state of Kentucky. Hopefully, I will not get stuck in any Derby related traffic. I have to make a quick pit-stop at Ken Towery's to check out my slow leaking rear tire. Then it is off to see my friends Ash and Nick and their new house before going to a Derby party with some church folks. Not sure whats happening after Derby except for not a long night.

Sunday is another full day. It all starts with a trip to Old Frankfort Pike for my first autocross since July :-( Oh my that was a long time ago. I really hope I am not rusty from not competing nor driving much in the last 9 months. We will see how things go. Afterwards, it may be to my cousin's hooding ceremony. If I don't make it in time for that, it will just be to the graduation party after the ceremony. Then its off to Louisville for a full Monday.

Monday I will work out more details about my summer, enjoy lunch with some previous coworkers. Hopefully catch up with some G-town folks before heading back either Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Tuesday starts summer session I, which I am taking Sociology of Education course. Yes Spring semester is over. Okay, I must get some rest now. I promise to write again soon, though it may not be until next weekend.

For Basketball Fans

Apparently, I have found a new sports columnist (that is according to my father). But I will have to say here is another great article by Gregg Doyel, CBS Sportsline.

Ten for Tuesday: Best of the Best --- and Worst

Enjoy! I promise to catch everyone up on life soon especially tonight, but after a slight incident, I am home a lot later than expected and have a paper to write, one to revise, and one to peer review for tomorrow :-(

Golf and Basketball - The Final Four

"One day, Rick and Tubby decided to get together and play a round of 18 holes. Later in the round, the two finally reach the 14th hole. Tubby taps in his putt and suddenly, without hesitation, grabs his ball, bag, and begins to walk back to the clubhouse.

Pitino stands at the 15th hole, puzzled and wondering why Tubby just quit playing and left.

Curiously, Pitino yells to Tubby, “Where are you going? We aren’t finished playing yet?!?”

To which Tubby replies, “Rick, you know I don’t do the final four.”

Borrowed from Chris's Site.

Who is the top NCAA Men's Basketball Coach?

Before you click!!!!
Who do you think made the top 10 best coaches as of April 2007, according to Stewart Mandel?

When posed with the question earlier today? I was afraid to answer but some of the names that came to mind: Kelvin Sampson, Billy Gillespie, Billy Donovan, Mike Krzyzewski, John Calipari. Otherwise, I really had no clue or thoughts.

How did you rank up to the expert?

What do you think of who made the list or was considered?
How about those names not appearing on the list? Should anyone be added?

Quick Note on UK Basketball

I have not been neglecting the UK Basketball scene but unfortunately swamped with numerous other high priority items. I've commented on others blogs about what I think and since most of my readers are not huge basketball fans, I will forgo the diatribe at this time. (Plus yes I have to get back to more school work.)

My father ran across this nice post on Kentucky.com that I thought I would share though Article by a Real Journalist. Enjoy!

One day, I will comment more on the Men's Basketball and future Women's Basketball hirings at UK.

If you have not heard, UK Women's basketball coach Mickie Demoss resigned today. Demoss did an outstanding job at UK brining the Women's team back into the rankings while the men's team fell out of the rankings. It will definitely be interesting to see who they bring in to replace her.

Happy Easter!

Rejoice in the Lord! I hope everyone is enjoying time with friends and family on this Easter Sunday.

After a nice Easter service at St. Charles, I spent my afternoon at my apartment with fellow grad school friends. We enjoyed a wonderful potluck lunch and talking about life. Then it was off to finish papers and readings for the upcoming week.

How did you celebrate Easter this year?

Desktop Computer, Fish Tank: What do they have in common?

I just found this alarming news story about a fire being started by a desktop computer and as I reported over Christmas a fire was started though thankfully extinguished by a fish tank.

How much attention do you pay to your electronics, especially when you are headed out of town?

Land Lines vs Cell Phones in Emergency

Have we become to dependent on cell phones? How many people actually still have a land line? Since I moved to Bloomington, I know longer have a land line because of the additional cost that I would occur. Now if I had a full paying job, I might reconsider this option because I do feel a lot safer with a land line versus a cell phone. Granted if all you have are cordless phones in your house attached to land lines, you are in about as bad shape as if you just had a cell phone when the power goes out.

The issue discussed in the article on WKYT talks about the use of cell phones and how you really do not know where your 911 call is being received. Though this is outlining an issue on the river, the same could be true between towns.

Two things to remember:
- When using a cell phone to call in an emergency, remember to give state, town, and then the address.
- If you have a land line, make sure that at least one phone is not cordless or power dependent.

Orlando, Here I come

By this time Thursday, I will have hopefully landed in Orlando, FL. Thursday through Sunday morning will be spent outside of the city in DeLand, FL (home of Stetson University). A Georgetown friend, his girlfriend, and their dog live there, where he works as a Chemistry professor. It has been a couple years since I have seen my friend and since I failed to go see him while he was at UNC, I figure I should take this opportunity to visit him. I am looking forward to a few days of fun in Florida.

Then Sunday through Wed April 4, I will be at the Gaylord and Marriott hotels for the ACPA/NASPA Joint Conference. ACPA and NASPA are the two largest student personnel associations in the country. They hold a joint conference very rarely and are expecting close to 10,000 participants. A ton of things are going on and I hope to learn a lot and meet some outstanding individuals.

Now you know why you most likely will not be hearing much from me the next couple of weeks. I will update you all on my return and look forward to catching up on whats happening with all of you then as well.

Spring Break 2007

It was another return to the grand state of Kentucky for Spring Break, March 10-25. The semester thus far had been very busy therefore the trip was not well planned out, but nonetheless I had lots of fun. It was wonderful catching up with so many friends and hearing about their lives.

Friday - I had dinner in Louisville with a Georgetown friend. We ate at Mimi's Cafe on Hurstbourne. I enjoyed it though ate way too much over the course of the day. Then I drove to Lexington to stay with a church friend.

Two random things happened, one as we left our meeting spot at Sam's Club-Blankenbaker. A car was stopped at the stoplight crossing Blankenbaker on Bluegrass Pkwy. On Tuesday, I found out that the individual who owned that car was past co-worker from SHPS. An hour later the car was towed and fortunately was fixed by Tuesday. The other misfortune was that I left my jacket in my friends car. Luckily, it was not too cold the remaining part of the weekend.

Saturday was a rather relaxing day and after Kentucky, Indiana, and Louisville had all lost in their respective tournaments. I was not as determined to watch basketball the rest of the weekend. Instead, we rented two movies: Annapolis and ?????.

Saturday evening, I joined YAACK for dinner and bowling. I enjoyed meeting some new people and bowling a couple rounds. My team at least improved the second game with Chris getting 150 or something close to that.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Jeanine and I went to church and then lunch at Ramsey's. That evening I went to Georgetown to hang out with a friend and we watched Something New. If you have not watched this movie, I strongly suggest doing so. It is a very good movie about a young black woman who works too much and then falls in love with a white man. After that, I headed to Louisville to stay with another Georgetown friend.

Monday included lunch with my SHPS lunch partners at our usual Mexican Restaurant, El Caperol. Then I had a meeting at Bellarmine University with the Director of Student Activities to talk about a potential internship there for the summer. The conversation went very well and I liked the possibilities.

After my meeting, I had several hours before my dinner date. So I headed to the public library in J-town, where the librarian was kind enough to let me on the computer for an hour. I checked my email quickly but the main goal was to fill out as many brackets as I possibly could. I was unsure if I would be at a computer again prior to the tournament starting. I succeeded in completing: 5 ESPN, 1 Yahoo, 1 WPSD, 1 WKYT, 1 CBS plus 1 Round by Round at CBS. I believe those are all of them. Needless to say, I could not tell you who I picked, but at least brackets were completed.

Then the most random event occurred, I still had 3 hrs before dinner and could find no friends in town that were free. So remember the jacket that was left in the car, it was in Shelbyville and luckily my friend works from home and was there. So I took off for a nice drive to Shelbyville to get my jacket. Thankfully, it was a beautiful spring day and wonderful weather for a drive.

Monday evening, I had dinner at my cousin's sister-in-laws house and finally met her husband. We actually went out for dinner at Bristol, which too was very good. I even got to talk a little database and technology, which was fun. And smidgen of me missed it, but the rest remembers what else is involved.

Tuesday was another meeting at Bellarmine University. This time with the VP of Student Affairs talking about internship possibilities with him. Again, I left very excited about the possibilities and unsure of what I wanted to do. Plans are being finalized now for me to work part-time this summer at Bellarmine.

After the meeting, it was off to my favorite Japanese restaurant Ichiban to meet a couple other individuals from SHPS for lunch. We had a wonderful conversation catching up. Then I was again free with nothing to do until about 6 pm. First, I headed over to Sam's Club to fill up the tank again. Amazing how many miles I had put on the car in such few days. I also went in and did a bit of shopping before heading to a park in J-town to read.

Yes, I actually read for several hours and caught up on some schoolwork in the process. It was a beautiful day and it was fun reading and watching the children play.

Tuesday evening, my friend and I enjoyed a relaxing evening at her place. Where she fixed a nice taco soup full of ingredients that I do not like, but truthfully it was quite good and filling. So filling that I think I proceeded to take a nap on the couch after dinner.

Wednesday, we hung out all day at her place, worked on the crossword puzzle, watched a movie, chatted, and thought about going for a walk until we realized it was about to pour.

Wednesday evening, I headed back to Lexington for YAACK's reorganization meeting which went quite well. It was great to see so many new faces there. I left there and headed to Sawyer's for CKRSCCA member mtg. There were few there and they didnt stay long. Afterwards, I went and stayed with another church friend. We stayed up way too late talking and catching up. She was telling me all about wedding plans. We updated the YAACK blog and so much more. It was also nice to pray the Rosary with her and her fiancee.

Thursday - I stopped by the ODK office briefly to say hello and pass on some information. Then I went into Georgetown, where I headed to the Library to check my email and work some more on my brackets before the tournament started. Again, you had to sign in to use the computers and my library card was outdated and since I dont live in town anymore I couldnt get a new card without paying. Thankfully the man at the desk signed me in as a visitor and let me enjoy about 2 hrs on the computer. I checked all my brackets, found out I could complete 5 brackets at Yahoo so proceeded to do so. I also received word about a SHPS pool on Yahoo and had to make sure I liked my bracket for the one and only pool that I would be apart of this year. It was ok but I had no clue what I didn't like about it.

After that I headed to campus to meet up with an administrator for lunch. After lunch, I decided it was time to head back to Bloomington to get ready for the upcoming months. I arrived in Bloomington just in time to watch some more basketball.

The rest of the weekend was rather personally productive though not necessarily school productive. Taxes are almost complete and the refund is very exciting since I earned about 2/3 of what I was being taxed at. I also did laundry, cleaned, and went to the grocery. Who knows what else I did over the rest of the break except listen to a lot of basketball and watch the end of several games.

That is the very, very long version of Spring Break.

Bill Gates on Technology in 1989

Click on the title to learn more about what Bill Gates thought about the past, present, and future of computing in 1989.

Tubby headed to the Twin Cities

Shortly before 5 pm ET, I received a phone call from a former co-worker in Kentucky. He said, "Tubby is headed to Minnesota." I think it took me a good five minutes to a) understand what the heck he was talking about, b) to actually believe the statement was true. I was in shock and disbelief until I saw it with my own eyes on ESPN.com, Smith leaving Kentucky to coach Minnesota.

I proceeded to call my father afterwards to see if he had heard the story. He had not heard anything about it and did not believe me. After hanging up with my mother, he called me back to ask where it was published. He was certain it wasn't on ESPN yet. When I proceeded to tell him that yes it was on ESPN and the senior ESPN writer Andy Katz wrote the article, he finally decided that it must be true. According to that article, we will all know for sure at 1 pm tomorrow afternoon from the Twin Cities, where Tubby will be announced the new coach.

Speculations have already started about who will fulfill Tubby's shoes. I think it will be very interesting to see what is said by commentators and such during tonight's NCAA regional tournaments and throughout the weekend. Even more reason to watch basketball the next few days.

I might just tune into WVLK 590 AM Sports call in show tonight starting at 6 pm. At least, I believe they still have nightly sports radio at 6 pm. The bad thing about moving out of state is you can't stay as abreast on all of the happenings.

What do you think?

Tomorrow will be agony

To my surprise, I awoke this morning a bit sore in the quads and lower back but nothing too terrible. Then just under three hours ago, I improved my chances of not wanting to move after day two. I played basketball for an 1.5, 3 on 3 guys versus ladies and then a mix. My lower back is definitely feeling the pain now and I am sure my legs are going to be 100% stiff by the time I finish writing my case study analysis tonight. There are definitely 2 purple toes and 4 on the verge of purpleness. I hope my left hand is okay after jamming the entire pinky finger at one point. Otherwise, I believe I came out unscathed in the first episode of basketball in a long, long, long time.

I'm afraid I might have overdone it in the first couple days of trying to get into shape. Lucky thing is I have a personal trainer to keep me motivated through the rest of the semester. Another update to come, but for now I must sign off and go write a paper.

Before I Wake in Pain

As mentioned in a previous post, today started my 6 personal training sessions with an underclassman student who is learning to be a personal trainer. My personal trainer is great and I am going to feel it tomorrow. I am still moving fairly well tonight though very exhausted. I definitely can tell that I will be feeling pain tomorrow morning, which is okay. If I don't feel pain tomorrow then, the workout was definitely not enough because I am way out of shape not to feel it.

Overall, the session went great. My trainer is very encouraging and was impressed with my success on day one. I actually met or exceeded his expectations across the board which was great.

Quick run down of the hr:
- Brisk lap around the track, followed by an even brisker second lap, and a third lap of jogging.
- Then it was a slight cool down with some stretching.
- Next it was off for some lower-body weight lifting, not too bad.
- Ab and back workout...that is what I am feeling the most at this point in time.
- Elliptical machine was next for a 10 minute workout. I was sure that I was going to die on this machine within the first minute. He covered up the time and made me focus just on the speed, which helped tremendously. At one point when I thought I was about done for, he suggested rotating the legs in the other direction. That helped though was a lot more taxing on my legs. Next thing, I knew the 10 mins were coming to a conclusion and it was time for cooling down.
- Next was some upper-body workout. Alright, definitely not great though.
- Lastly, he had me run my best for 1.5 mins to see where I was. He had a goal for how far we should get around the track. I exceeded his goal of making one lap by another quarter of a lap. I couldn't breath when we got done and my legs felt luck mush but it was a lot more impressive than I ever thought.
- Then we did a cool down lap, followed by some stretching.

I survived my first of 6 training sessions. I have another one next Monday and then I have a week and half between sessions because of the upcoming trip to Orlando.

PS I promise to post soon about spring break, NCAA basketball tournament, and how sore I really am when I wake in the morning.

Who are you watching today and tomorrow?

Wow what a start to tournament time. There have been some really good, close games in the past couple of days. Some due to good play and others because of mediocre play, but all the same close games.

The question for me today is who shall I root for the rest of the weekend. The teams that I was cheering for are all out now. On top of that, two of the three went into overtime yesterday and the other played double overtime the night before.

Kentucky had a miserable loss to Mississippi St, which I saw the replay of what happened and question the call there a bit. I dont know that it would have made a difference and after loosing such a nice lead that they deserved it, but still. It will be interesting to see where they land in the tournament.

Indiana losses in overtime to Illinois. We all knew this was going to be a close game. The last two matchups this season were down to the wire and probably the biggest competition that we had, even though Illinois hasnt been doing great this year.

Then their is Louisville who just threw that game away. They came back after half-time and did nothing but try to rush the ball around as if they were losing, while the whole time they were up by several. Pitino tried to calm the boys down but nothing really seemed to be working.

(If you cant tell, I actually watched this game. SEC wasnt televised in Indiana and Big Ten wasnt televised in Kentucky. Granted, I am a bit miffed with ESPN because as I was watching the Louisville game they said that ESPN2 was going to go to the IU/Illinois game, which would have made sense with the other game being a blowout. But they never switched over.)

So who are you watching for the rest of the weekend?
Georgetown University - Big East
North Carolina - ACC
Big Ten and SEC - I really dont know who I want to win.

When was the last time you roller skated?

Until Thursday night, I would have answered many, many years ago probably approaching 20. I really don't remember the last time that I went roller skating but considering I dont remember it being very popular through middle and high school. I would say it was sometime during elementary school.

Then on Thursday night, the masters students and some professors hit the roller skating rink for two hours of fun. If you havent put on skates recently, let me tell you those first few moments are very interesting as you try to get your wits about you. But after time, you finally figure out the motions and skate right along. It was nice to have others out there struggling along side you.

I suggest going out and having fun on roller skates. It was a wonderful evening of entertainment and very inexpensive at that, plus its a nice workout. Though be ware, if you havent been working out a lot you might be a bit sore the days following. I am really not as sore as I thought I was going to be, but I can definitely feel it in my left leg and my upper arms. In a little over a week, I am afraid how sore I am going to be after my first personal training session. Update will come shortly thereafter.

Go Roller Skating!!!

Off to Kentucky on Business

Tomorrow morning, I am off to Kentucky to attend a College Personnel Association of Kentucky Conference at the Holiday Inn. A colleague of mine invited me to go down with him, which I am greatly appreciative because it will be a great learning and networking experience, as well as a great opportunity to catch up with some old friends and colleagues from Kentucky.

In other news, another hour of my masters is complete assuming that I passed the final in Law (1 hr, 8 week course). It also means that I have one less class to attend for the rest of the semester, which normal equates to additional free time but not for me. Instead, I will be at work and actually getting to partake in the other half of my job, which is attend University and Bloomington faculty council meetings. I am looking forward to the opportunity to actually experience an entire meeting for the first time since I began in August and actually go to a University Council Meeting.

Next week, I am also getting a student personal trainer. Every semester there is a personal training course and students are paired up with individuals interested in having a personal trainer for the last 8 weeks of the course. I missed out last semester and signed up too late, but was able to get on the list this semester. I am hesitate but at the same time excited about the opportunity to develop a routine for working out. I will update you on my progress as the semester goes.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday was a very interesting day for me this year. I attended a very nice Ecumenical Service in the Auditorium at IU. I had no clue what to expect exactly and was unsure about the delivery of ashes. It was a fairly traditional Catholic Ash Wednesday Service, not Mass. It did make me think what do other churches do for Ash Wednesday, so maybe I will explore that in more detail in the future.

The more interesting part of the day was when my boots began to fall apart. When I got to work, the sole and shoe were separating but it was just a minor separation. Prior to leaving for the Ash Wednesday Service a piece of metal fell out of the bottom of my shoe as I walked to the bathroom. When I returned, 75% of the sole was detached from the shoe. I had about 5 minutes to determine the plan of action. The rest of my day including going to the service and then to SAO mtg, luckily at least in the same bldg. Then I had a 10 minute walk across campus for class and then to a basketball game. Luckily, I drove to school and was parked in the Ed parking lot.

It was very wet outside and how the heck do you tape boots together that look somewhat okay and will survive the weather. My supervisor had an extra pair of slip on shoes at her desk, but they were size 8. I wear a size 10 to 10.5. With 5 minutes to decide and really not wanting to try to tape my shoes, I tried on her shoes. My feet fit into them and they didnt seem to bad so I said sure why not. Well the first hour was okay, but then blisters started to form on my heel especially the left foot and my toes were very cramped. I set through both the mtg and class with the shoes off (No socks either because the thick socks and my feet would not have fit into the shoes). Needless to say after class, my left heel was killing me and I walked carefully to the car and went home to get some new shoes. There was no way that I was walking to the basketball game in those shoes. Though a painful experience, it reminded me of the suffering that Jesus went through to forgive us of our sins. I thought it was fitting for the start of Lent.

New Look-What do you think?

The other day I was forced to upgrade my blog to the new blogger format. At least, I was too tired to figure out how to get around it so I did it. Then this evening, I was playing around and decided it was time for a change. My blog was getting out of control. The archive list was insanely long and some order needed to be added to the site. Therefore, I have upgraded the template and a few other items. I added labels to the latest 25 posts and decided that I had no clue what I was doing so I decided to stop labeling. Once I figure out a method to the labeling madness, maybe I will label the 239 posts, excluding this one.

What do you think of the new look? Any suggestions of things to add or remove? Remember I dont have a lot of time to play.

Daylight Savings Time Change - Another Y2K

If you have not yet heard, Daylight Savings Time occurs the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November starting this year. Check out the US Naval Observatory Website for some history of DST.

The big question is what happens to all the electronics. Are they prepared to change for the new daylight savings time periods?

Here are a couple links that I found. I am sure those of you still working in IT might can provide some better and more useful insight into all of this than I.
ZDNet Article
Microsoft Article

If anyone has any true insight of what we all need to do in order to survive the change in DST from April to March, please let us know.

On top of this, I just realized that I will not be in town during the change so will get to enjoy coming back to start the last half of the semester and hope my computer hasn't blown up.

How Well Traveled Are You?

Your Travel Profile:

You Are Well Traveled in the Midwestern United States (50%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Southern United States (31%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (29%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Australia (13%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Latin America (7%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in the Western United States (5%) You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%) You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%) You Are Untraveled in Canada (0%) You Are Untraveled in Eastern Europe (0%) You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%) You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%) You Are Untraveled in Southern Europe (0%) You Are Untraveled in Western Europe (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%) You Are Untraveled in the United Kingdom (0%)

How Well Traveled Are You?

Thanks to Chris for finding the quiz!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Snowy, Icey Valentines Day to many! Please travel safely in whatever your plans are for the day. Personally, my plans are to stay right here and get a lot of paper writing complete. Campus is closed this morning due to the inclement weather which we had Tuesday night into this morning. It reopens at noon but by then, I am off work and my late afternoon class was canceled by the professor. Therefore, I have decided it best to just stay put enjoy the sunshine and daylight.



My car is the blue one with antennas on the windshield and tons of snow and ice :-) and it will most likely stay snow covered til this weekend. My car is in total shock these days. Luckily it had a nice trip to Kentucky this past weekend. Otherwise it pretty much sits right there never going anywhere. The goal is to not get gas until I hit Kentucky again in early March.

55 Minutes of Live Basketball Action - One Day

Wow, what a Saturday I had to continue from the previous post and concentrate a bit on the games, especially UK. 180 miles apart across state lines and fan divide sit Rupp Arena and Assembly Hall. Miraculously, I landed in both venues on Saturday two watch two very exciting NCAA basketball games and 55 minutes of live basketball action.

The IU game was fun, but the UK game was exhilarating. The atmosphere in the two gymnasiums on Saturday is no comparison. UK was lit up though I do think that the openness of Rupp Arena helps the atmosphere over the very enclosed feel of Assembly Hall. You can see the expanse of people at Rupp Arena, where at Assembly Hall I could barely see the score from my seats on Saturday.

Both games were huge though the UK vs Florida was similar to the IU vs Wisconsin game in which the atmosphere at Assembly Hall was much more electric that it was on Saturday at the Illinois game. I was really looking forward to another electric atmosphere in Assembly Hall and was slightly disappointed. I am looking forward to hopefully cheering the Hoosiers on to an undefeated season at home for the first time in many years. Two home games left against Minnesota and Penn State.

Back to the UK vs Florida game. Wow what an exciting game and all those fans who gave up with a bit over a minute to go. Shame on you. One thing I hate about fans in general is the early departure when you think the game is over one way or the other. If you have watched much basketball this year, you know its almost never over until the final buzzer sounds. All you have to do is watch some UK games for that matter.

It was an impressive last minute comeback, but at the same time they were there because of a lot of poor execution in the second half. Granted I can mostly only talk about the second half, since I missed all but the last 5 minutes of the first half. (Yes, we got a few words thrown at us for being late. Trust me fans it was not my intention to be late.)

Synopsis of areas the CATS must improve to be successful:
- Free-throw Shooting (They lost the game right here at the end of the game.)
- Offensive Execution (If you don't penetrate the ball in the 3 is never open and always forced, resulting in 3-22 shooting behind the arc. 2 of which went in during the last minute of the game.)
- Ill advised shots (Stop running down the court and shooting a three with no one around to rebound and a man in your face. Its most likely not going to go in and the opponent will have the ball in their hands again. I really don't understand this one. UK is not the only team that does this. I see IU do it all the time. They are lucky a lot of the time, thank goodness.)
- Scoring and Failing on Defense (I don't know how many times UK cut the score and turned around and let Florida hit an easy layup. You will never win a game if you don't get back on defense.)

I have to say having not been able to attend and search out tickets for numerous UK games this year. I believe I attended two of the more monumental games of the season at Rupp.
- UK vs IU was a 50th meeting of the two teams, though a poor show of talent by both teams.
- Last night, enjoyed being part of a record crowd of 24,465 patrons in Rupp Arena and a very exciting battle against #1 Florida.

Now that I have procrastinated enough this weekend. I better go write a paper or two. I will be going in hiding for the next two weeks. See you on the other side.

Assembly Hall, Rupp Arena, One Day

Yes, I know putting Assembly Hall and Rupp Arena in the same title together may make some of you skirmish around the countryside but here me out. The best way to outline what occurred in my life on Saturday is to give you a somewhat detailed time table of my day. So here it goes, please enjoy vicariously as I enjoyed Saturday immensely.

Approx 9 am - Pressed my blue blouse (Side Note)
11:45 am - Searching for my IU Id and ticket to the IU vs Illinois game
12:05 pm - Packed car for overnight trip and headed to Assembly Hall
12:20 pm - Arrive in section M of Assembly Hall for IU vs Illinois game wearing blue blouse
Slightly before 1 pm - Receive red scarf to finish off my outfit for the IU vs Illinois game (Sampson Out - See Side Note)
1:05 pm - Indiana University vs Illinois Mens Basketball Tip-Off in Assembly Hall
2:30 pm - Depart Assembly Hall with 10 mins to go in second half and a very close game
2:45 pm - Arrive to car, departing Bloomington, listening to the end of the IU game
3:17 pm - IU defeats Illinois 65-61, Turn on to I-65 towards the great state of KY
5:45 pm - Arrive in Lexington, KY for CKRSCCA banquet at the Campbell House
9:15 pm - Two sets of tickets to the UK vs Florida Game with current score of 10-5 Florida, up for auction
Briefly thereafter - Depart with fellow GS competitor with 2 tickets to UK vs Florida
9:45 pm - Arrive in seats at Rupp Arena, mid-court upper arena for UK vs Florida
Approx 11:05 pm - Depart Rupp Arena, after thrilling conclusion but unfortunate loss to Florida 64-61.
Shortly after 12 am - Arrive at competitors house to crash in spare bedroom.

Side Note-IU Athletic Board decided instead of a White Out or Red Out to do a Sampson Out. For those who do not know, Sampson is the head coach of IU and he wears a blue shirt with red tie to every game. I thought it was a great idea since I had to be dressed up for a banquet in Kentucky anyway. Instead of wearing my dress red shirt and getting harassed potentially when I arrived in Kentucky, I was wearing red though I did have my IU pin on the collar initially. One of the ladies whom I have seats with brought me a red scarf to finish off my IU Sampson outfit. In the end, it worked out perfectly because I was actually wearing blue at the UK game versus a potential red shirt or something else, hopefully it wouldn't have been orange.

Would you like to see 52 degree weather?

I am sure many of you said yes to the question posed in the title and hopefully it attracted you to actually read this. Take a 3.5 hour drive west from Lexington or 2.5 to 3 hour drive west and a smidge south. Yes you will still be in Kentucky but at 6:30 pm EST the temperature was in the low 50s. My parents had just been out on some errands , seeing absolutely no snow and 50 degree weather.

While on the other hand all of towards the east are freezing and snow covered. I hope everyone made it home safely. I took the bus into school today with no snow on the ground but some chilly temps to come out of work about 3:30 to see a good 4-6 inches of snow on the ground and sidewalks not cleared :-( I was able to make it safely to class across campus and then up to the bus stop, where I about froze waiting on the bus. I think they were running early or really late, definitely not on time. The roads are still slushy here though they are trying to clear them off. Looks like the snow is done for now, not sure if we are expecting more tonight or night. I am sure tomorrow will be another day on the bus. I find it a whole lot easier than cleaning the car off, driving, finding a parking spot, and most likely walking more than if I had just taken the bus.

Be careful in all of your travels and hopefully I will see some of you this weekend as long as the weather cooperates.

Super Bowl - What is that?

I believe that I am about the only person that I have encountered today that watched pretty much none of the Super Bowl game last night. Yes, a lot of people reading this are probably ready to 100% disown me, and at times today, I have asked myself why I didn't find it important to watch the game. Here is my synopsis of that:

Firstly I am so sick of hearing about the Super Bowl and the fact that its the only thing people can talk about. I would say that the IU vs Iowa game was a big deal in Hoosier land this weekend. This is partially due to my basketball bias and the fact that the Hoosiers played a very critical game on Saturday, which I thought deserved more attention than it received. Yes, I did spend my Saturday watching basketball and getting a play by play report from my father of the UK vs Arkansas game (another story) because it was not on tv here.

Secondly, I have no strong affection to either team that played in the Super Bowl and really did not care who won the game. This will probably get me totally mauled in my current location, but those are my feelings. And from what I read in full news reportings, Indiana especially Bloomington fans, really couldn't lose in the game last night. Of course the Indianapolis Colts being the State team but at the same time a Bloomington HS native and a IU football player both were part of the Chicago Bears team. So it was a win win for all around.

Thirdly, I had slacked off and watched too much basketball on Saturday and so I had to get a bit of studies done on Sunday in order to make it through the week. I know a lame excuse but still.

Did I see any of it? Yes, two commercials and maybe 2 secs of play to find out the score during the early part of the 4th quarter. The next time I remember to turn the TV on the game was over and the Colts were celebrating.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time at their Super Bowl parties and I will be glad when the state of Indiana gets back to the important sport of the day basketball. Oh wait, Hoosier basketball spirit is very lacking, but might be on the up and up.

Happy 60th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my father who turned 60 today.

Go Hoosiers - Basketball Spirit does Exist

Wow...that is definitely one word for tonight. I am still trying to recover from hearing loss and loss of feeling in my hands. I probably didn't yell quite enough to lose my voice tonight though we will see how it things sounds tomorrow.

Hoosiers knocked off #2 Wisconsin tonight at home in a heart pounding second by second game for the majority of the time. I am definitely glad that I had seats in the student section for this game. It most likely will be one of the best if not the best games of the season for the Hoosiers in Assembly Hall. And finally after attending over a half-a-dozen games in Assembly Hall this year, I actually felt some Hoosier basketball spirit. The entire fan base was into this game and so was the team. In addition, I am impressed with the fact that the student body actually had the majority of their seats filled prior to the start of the game, unlike all previous games. (See other post)

It was the first game that I can remember being at that the student body rushed the court, which in itself was quite an experience. And no I did not rush the court and instead slipped out the back and got home before the crowd left the arena and filled the streets.

Caught in Cream and Crimson or Maybe Just Gray

It is Tuesday afternoon and I am sitting in class awaiting the start of class, along comes the professor, who is an associate vp of student affairs. As he walks by me, he tells me that he saw a picture of me, which I in return replied "what". He goes on to say that it was a picture from the IU game and I was sitting in the student section prior to the start of the game. All of which is very feasible logic because I did sit in the student section at Saturday's game and was there prior to the start of the game.

I was very perplexed at the fact that I was in the local paper and had no clue of this, except for a professor telling me that he believed it was me in the picture. I came home that evening and with access to the local paper online tried to do a quick search for such picture. I did not have any luck with pictures tied to Saturday's game in the HT or IDS so I went on to a meeting that I had that evening.

In the meantime, I did send the professor who was teaching law class an email to see if he by chance could provide proof that such a picture exists. I figure he just might still have the paper at his home. He responded back today that he would see if it was and he was not positive it was me, but would see.

Still in search of a copy or proof that I have been caught "Crimson" handed in IU attire, I checked with my supervisor today to see if she gets the local paper and the fact that apparently I was in the paper. She says no but we have it online and must find it. She was very enthusiastic about this and went on a hunt for a picture of me in the HT. I am not sure what word search she used, but all of a sudden I hear there you are. I still was in shock until I finally saw the picture and the related article.

The article was about students not being in their seats prior to the start of the game and the new debate that is going on about changing the student sections around. There has been a couple different controversies around this lately, but I am glad to see someone finally call out the students on not being in their seats. I can see both sides of the story to some degree because student season tickets are fairly easy to come by as long as you have the money to pay for them. The thing is as soon as you make it harder to get tickets and reduce the number of tickets, students are going to complain that they don't get enough seats. Its a win-win or lose-lose situation. We will see what happens for next year. I personally hope it doesn't get too much harder to get tickets because I like not having to wait in lines for hours to get tickets.

Though I rarely post pics on my blog, I will post the pic of me at the game on time, especially since there is no visible proof of the supporting team on my person :-) (wow....i sound like i am in law class)



Picture from the Herald-Times.

1957 Plymouth Belvedere

Have you ever buried something in a time capsule? If so, I bet you never buried an entire car inside of your time capsule. Check out the link in the title to read the full story about the 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa in 1957. During the upcoming centennial festivities, the city plans to dig up the car and see whats awaiting them. Definitely an interesting story and one to stay posted to.

White Sunday Morning

Did you awake like I this morning to a gorgeous white snow covered ground? I would say that we received a good 4 inches of snow last night along with some sleet. When I woke around 6 and took a peak out it sounded like sleet falling. I proceed to go back to bed until the trucks started clearing the parking lot.

I believe this is one of the largest snowfalls that I have seen in a few years minus the 2 feet of Christmas snowfall a few years ago. I plan on staying put until the road crews have time to clean up a bit, which will work just great since I have a paper due tomorrow that is yet to be started. So on that note. I shall attach some pictures of the beautiful snow, grab some breakfast, and start writing.

Winter is Finally Here

Finally on Tuesday morning, I woke to a nice dusting of snow on the ground and a chill in the air. I bundled up and headed to the bus stop and on to work. To close the evening off, I headed off to the IU vs Iowa game in Assembly Hall. For the first time this season, the weather actually felt like true cool, crisp basketball weather. If you saw the score do not be fooled, the game was a blowout. It was a mental issue by the coach and the players that resulted in such a close game at the end. (If you would like me to expound, please let me know and I can. Otherwise I will not bore you with my analysis.)

The first two weeks of classes are over though only half of my classes have met both weeks so there are still lots of questions of how the semester is going to play out. I am a lot more confident about the semester now that the syllabi are in front of me. It will be a busy semester but not an impossible semester. Plus I finally get to attend my first University Faculty Council mtg this coming Tuesday because Law class is canceled to bad its just a teleconference and we are not actually meeting in person.

Funny but true story----
As my friend (L) and I returned to her car after the game, L walked to the passenger side of the car, while I walked to the drivers side. L had the keys to the car and was prepared to unlock the care with said keys, while I on the other hand was ready to wait by the drivers door for her to unlock the car. Then we both looked over at one another and started laughing hysterically at not one but both of our actions of trying to get into the wrong side of the car and at the same time mentally acting as if we were on the correct side of the car. So you may not find that as funny as we did last night, but it was quite amusing. The semester has already made us delirious and it just started.

And on that note my deliriousness is going to work a bit more on a project and see about getting some sleep.

What American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
The West
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
Boston
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

This was a fun little quiz but I believe there are other words and sayings that might depict one's accent better. Not sure that I totally agree with the Midland accent but then without knowing the others it is also hard to determine.

Thanks Chris for the quiz.

How do you manage your contacts?

For years now, I have been wanting a better way to manage my contacts and all their related information. I have debated over and over again about creating an Access database but I really despise Access. I have thought about some of the other free databases out there but that required more thought and work than I wanted to undertake. Plus lets be truthful here and agree that I have had no time to create and learn such.

Then during my extended Christmas/New Year vacation, I was informed by a previous colleague about SQL 2005 Express Edition which is free and available to the public. I considered this and actually thought about starting the project over the break, but never got around to it until now.

I may beat myself up after I reboot my computer or try to work on something else later but for now things seem to be going okay. First of all, I had to download .Net Framework 2.0, which was a bit scary because I had heard all the bad things about it 6 plus months ago and have no clue where it stands today, except there are three versions and I just hope I picked the correct version for my PC. I also learned that apparently .Net 3.0 is in Beta. (I am so glad I don't have to work with those individuals who think the latest and greatest is the best solution.) Then I downloaded and installed SQL 2005 Express and have a running database on my system even if there are warnings about the hardware requirements to run it.

Now back to the question in the title. How do you manage your contacts? How do you keep track of everyone's birthday without creating a separate entry for each? How do you keep track of relationships like spouses and children?

I have tried to load information into Outlook but it has no relationship tree and its hard to maintain individual information for everyone's spouses and children for readily available use. I wanted contact info and calendar events to be connected and it all seems too complicated. Therefore, I have quickly put together a database to maintain contact information. I am not positive of my satisfaction with the layout and normalization of the data, but it definitely is a start.

If you are so inclined to examine and offer feedback, here is a diagram of the database layout. Category is used to define contacts as family, work colleagues, school friends, and etc. ContactType is used to define contact information in regards to work, home, parent, mobile, mailing, and other. Input and suggestions are welcome as it is always good to throw ideas out there.

If you think I am insane or have a better way to manage contacts, please share that as well.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone an early but very safe and Happy New Year!
May 2007 be full of bright, special, and exciting moments for all.
May God's love continue to grow within each of you.
Best wishes with the new things in life: school, weddings, babies, jobs, and more.

In a few hours, I am off again to tour the Kentucky lands and land somewhere to celebrate New Years Eve, maybe I will see you. If you are across the world I hope you are enjoying your New Years Eve celebration.

Fire Activity - Not Personally Affected

In my lifetime, I have seen very little real fire activity but in the past week, I have experienced two actual fire activities within close proximity to my family's house, neither of which currently have directly effected us.

The first came on Friday evening after my arrival home. We had a street full of fire trucks and police cars for at least a good hour. A neighbor down the streets house was the focus of attention and fire hoses actually attached to the nearby fire hydrant. Luckily according to information from a neighbor, the damage was mainly smoke because an aquarium which started the fire also ended up busting and putting the fire out before too much damage was done.

This evening as I was soundly sleeping I was nicely awakened by my brother and parents discussing something which sounded like another fire. This is no small fire but instead what seems to be a decent size fire back in the wooded area across the street, where fire trucks cannot get to nor fire hydrants located. Cops and fire trucks are placed at the very end of the street though. The clear night sky is full of smoke now.

Congratulations and Welcome Ava!!

Congratulations to Shannon and Neil on the arrival of little Ava!

She arrived Wednesday, December 27 at 9 pm on her father's birthday.
She weighed 7 lbs. 13 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches.

Next Semester - Spring 2007

A bit over five months ago, I picked up my apartment and life and moved to Indiana. It has been a wonderful and exciting five months, definitely a different lifestyle as well. I have loved almost every minute of it and am definitely glad that I have taken this step in life. Final grades for the first semester came back very positive and exciting. 13 hours of the 41 hours to complete the program are now in the books thanks to a transfer class.

Next semester brings another 11 hours or 5 classes with 20 hours of work.
- Diversity
- Introduction to Higher Ed and College Admin
- Practicum Experience, which includes 7 class periods plus 10 hrs of work in the Student Activities Office on Leadership Assessment
- College Law
- Advising Organizations

Should be an exciting, interesting, and busy semester so I will apologize now if you do not hear a lot from me especially prior to Easter. The first weekend of April, I will head to Orlando for a joint conference of the two college student personnel organizations and a visit with a Georgetown friend. After the conference, things should settle down a bit unless I am still looking for something to do over the summer. You never know I may end up in your area so stay posted.

There is a quick school update more updates to come hopefully.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! May God's blessings be with you and your family this wonderful day of our Lord's Birth. Safe travels to those traveling around the countryside.

It has been a wonderful Christmas season thus far and a great time to catch up with friends and family. Thanks to all of those who welcomed me cheerfully back to Kentucky this past week and half. It was wonderful to see all of you. For those that I was unable to see, I am very sorry and will try to look you up next time I am in your neighborhood.

Currently, I am safely at home in Paducah with family. It was wonderful to see my mother's family on Christmas Eve. The entire immediate family was there minus one cousin, his wife, and daughter. They are in Florida with her family. Christmas Day will be a joyous time with my family and then off to my father's family at the lake. I will report back tomorrow on the Chef's cooking. (My cousin is a chef and is cooking part of Christmas lunch.)

God Bless all of you and your families!

50th Meeting of UK and IU Men's Basketball

On Saturday afternoon, the University of Kentucky and Indiana University men's basketball teams met for the 50th time. The last time in which they met at Rupp Arena was 1988, which also marked the last time that both teams came into the game ranked out of the top 25.

I had the awesome experience of attending the game, after accidentally running across decent tickets Thursday prior. There are two games that I have always wanted to go to UK vs IU and UK vs UofL. With the history of the UK/IU game, this was definitely one to be at. 50th meeting and in Rupp Arena, usually it is held on a neutral site of Freedom Hall or Conseco Fieldhouse, but this year Freedom Hall had a scheduling conflict and it was moved to Rupp Arena.

It was worth every penny plus the drive from Bloomington to Lexington to watch the game. Prior to the game, I enjoyed a little local IU Alumni gathering, and then went into the game wearing all Kentucky. The royal blue shirt with Indiana across the front was stuffed in my coat pocket for safe keeping during the game.

It was definitely not the best played game by either team and the season is not looking bright for either team. The other strange thing about the game was the fact that I new the IU players better than I did the UK players. I suppose that is what happens when attending the third game in week for the same team. But dear UK fans do not worry, I was rooting for the Big Blue, and was in great distress towards the end of the game when UK could not handle the press to save their life.

Thankfully, UK succeeded to pull off the victory over an IU team that definitely wanted victory. I saw a few good things from UK, but there was just as many bad.

The next big test is Saturday at Freedom Hall against Louisville, who too is unranked. It would be interesting to see when the last time these two teams went into the big game both out of the top 25.

Go Wildcats!

1st Semester is Over

Woohoo!!! The first semester of my masters is now fully complete. I put the finishing touches on the last paper first thing Monday morning and turned it in at 1:30 when class meet at the professor's house for a potluck. It was nice to rest and enjoy everyone's company. I did have a class meet late afternoon on Tuesday, but it was basically to hand back the last assignment with a brief discussion. Overall, I believe the semester went well and I didn't fail the classes. There is one that is questionable of how well I did, but overall I feel fairly good about how things ended up.

Tomorrow or I suppose today, since it is 2 am on Wed, is my last day of work for the year. Then I will be returning to good o' Kentucky for the winter break. I am looking forward to traveling the central country side as I did for the past few years and seeing all of my friends, church, Georgetown, and previous work colleagues. I am afraid that the 10 lbs that I lost this semester may be gained right back in the next two weeks.

I will try to post some more during the holiday break because I will go ahead and warn you now next semester will not be one of many posts. I already know that it is going to be very busy with 11 hrs, 10 hr practicum, and 20 hours of work. Plus professional organization responsibilities as the new treasurer.

I would love to see you all over the break so give me a call and we will see where there is a free moment in the schedule. Several group activities are planned as well so if you haven't heard about those give me a call.

One Paper Left

Well since I am reading everyone else's blog and Kerri just remarked on the end of her semester, I figured I would take time to make a post as well.

I finished my last class this evening and now only have 1 15-page paper left to complete. The goal is to have that done by Friday, so that I can come to Lexington on Saturday. We shall see if that happens or not, especially since tomorrow night is an IU basketball game.

The Mind is Mush

Though I am sick of sitting in front of the computer and typing, I found myself here staring at the computer so I figured I would make the most of my time and say hi to everyone.

In a week and 3 to 4 days, the semester will finally be over, but before then I must complete the following items:
* 10 page develop my own theory (started just need to build the theory from the lit review) - due Monday
* Prepare a 5 minute presentation on my theory - due Monday
* Rewrite a Case Study - due Monday
* Complete a Budget Revision Assignment (mostly complete, just needs to be reviewed) - due Tuesday
* Take a Final, which I have skimmed a couple chapters thus far - Tuesday Morning
15 page Applying development theories to my own story - due Dec 11 :-( :-(
* Maybe another revision or two on a couple of the above projects depending on how they went.

Once all of this is over, I am heading back to Kentucky for several weeks and if I can complete that last paper before next Friday, I just might arrive in Lexington for the UK/IU game. I will definitely be watching it with my UK spirit, which reminds me next week is UK Blue week. I will see how much blue I can get away with wearing next week. Hmmmm ;-)

Okay since I am clearly writing with no concise or orderly thought. I believe I will conclude here and get ready for a good nights rest so that I can write and study tomorrow before the IU vs Charlotte game.