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.