WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

This past Sunday we attended two Women's NCAA tournament basketball games. The first game featured OSU vs Florida. Unfortunately the Buckeyes never seemed to be engaged in the game. The pace was fast and furious however and the Bucks almost pulled it off but.... The second game pitted the Baylor Bears against the University of California Santa Barbara. Baylor is a no. 1 seed with UCSB #16. This was not a contest. Baylor has the top player in the country with Brittney Griner. She is 6'8" and wow is that tall. The opening tip-off was reminiscent of that one ad where the one kid is so little and the other so big. We left at half-time. Tuesday night we watched Baylor play Florida. The score did not reflect the intensity of the game. And history was made. Brittney dunk for 2 points and that is the first time this season for her and only the second dunk in NCAA tournament history. Finally all of this took place in the new Bowling Green University Stroh Center. It is a very nice venue. All in all a great couple of days.

WHAT DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

Well my Leap Day dinner was great. It turned out that one of the guests had just landed a new job and we were able to celebrate with him. There is an added bonus in that he gets to stay here so we are not going to lose friends. The next day started great. However I received an e-mail that while in Cabo on vacation a friend became gravely ill and eventually was put on a medi-vac plane to the US. He is in Columbus and apparently is stable so it looks good. I was quite worried. Then on Friday, 15 Alpha Xi Deltas from Bowling Green University had a 5:30am flight for spring break. One car left the night before to stay a one of the girl's parent's house near the airport. The other two cars left at around 2am to drive to the airport. A woman got on the expressway going the wrong way and plowed into one of the cars. Three of the young women were killed and 2 are in critical condition at one of the area hospitals. The first car managed to evade the oncoming car. I found out that the passengers in that first car included the granddaughter of one of my close friends. I have talked with her and the girl is ok. I cannot imagine hearing that news. We were having severe weather and with all the tornadoes I called my daughter-in-law to see how they were faring. She said they were ok but that my son had to take shelter at work when the tornado siren went off. Needless to say it has been a few emotional days. Luckily everyone is all right. Please say a prayer for the families and friends of the girls who were taken in the prime of their lives.

HAPPY LEAP DAY

I know it sounds corny but this year when I realized that February had 29 days I thought how often do we say "if I could only have an extra day to do things?" I decided that I was going to celebrate Leap Day. I took the day off from work (not a stretch since I am not scheduled 5 days do to the problem of overtime and I want to pick my day off). I decided to have dinner with friends here at the house. I play bridge on Wednesdays in the afternoon from 1-3 and thought I could even maybe do something fun in the morning. Well, it did not turn out quite like I thought. The main change was that H&R Block decided to have a customer appreciation day and I really did feel like I should participate. So I worked from 8:30am until around 12:20pm. I left work, grabbed lunch and went to bridge. I then came home and dusted and worked on the dinner. Luckily JR cooks and vacuums and thus is a big help to me. I set up the table on Sunday and I think that everything is coming together well. The day started with a chilly heavy rain but ended with sun and temps in the high 50's. The cards were good at bridge and the laughter flowed. So all in all a good day and I am glad that I chose to do it. It is not yet the dinner hour so hopefully everything will go smoothly. I am included two pictures, one of the beautiful weather and one of my table. The flowers are tulips in case you wonder.

ONCE AGAIN SUNDAY

Inspirational quote of the day
Before you go to bed, write down three ‘gratefuls’ for the day and three ‘did wells’ (they can even include something as simple as doing the laundry)—the results can be amazing!
- Carol Burnett

I liked this quote. Somedays coming up with three "did wells" might be hard but it is an interesting idea. Last week and this week are the two killer work weeks. Counting yesterday (our work week is Saturday - Friday) I am scheduled to work 55 hours this coming week. I think my time card said 57 for last week. Even though I was exhausted yesterday and fell asleep in the recliner at about 8:10pm I do not feel as drained as normal. We will see though at the end of this week. Today is Super Bowl Sunday and pretty much everyone I polled at work (fellow employees and clients alike) all said that their team was not in the game. Therefore they were rooting for whichever team did not beat their favorite team. Personally I think that I am looking forward to the commercials. I saw the one with Matthew Broderick already and it is good. I always love the ones with the Budweiser clydesdales. So we shall see which is the best. I am posting a picture taken from our deck this morning at about 8:30AM - brrrrrrrrrr!!!!

ANOTHER WEEK

It appears as though I am going to be posting on Sundays. There is simply not enough content in my week to warrant multiple postings. I was reading an article in the weekend Wall Street Journal about the division among Americans. My take on the article was that it is not economic nor conservative/liberal issues that are dividing us but cultural. As marriage and religious commitments diminish so does the cultural bond among Americans. It seems as though the socialist aspect of our society is greatly creating to the demise of America and the increasing split among our people. It was a sad article in many ways and one with no positive spin.

On a lighter note, I was able to play bridge again this week and I really do enjoy it and everyone that I play with. I also saw the movie "War Horse" on Saturday. I enjoyed it very much and since I am such a sap about everything, I had tears in my eyes often. I had heard that it might be graphically violent but most of the violence of war was implied and not visually on the screen. The horses were remarkable and while I know they say that horses are dumb, these horses were great. Saturday night we played pool with friends. This was something started about 3 or 4 years ago and we only do it in the winter. There are about 20 in the group and we go to various houses and play. We get together about every three to four weeks. We do not have a basement conducive to having all those people over so I provided the main course foods. I bought a vegetable lasagna from Gordons Food Service and made a blush penne pasta dish and added some chicken breasts. It was great fun. Today I am relaxing. I will do laundry, light cleaning, watched DVR'd TV shows and read. Basically relax. Next week starts the build up to our "peak" and that lasts two weeks. I work about 55 hours those weeks. So if there is a gap between this posting and future ones hopefully you will understand.