Well, I've been sick then Ellice got sick. I'd like to blame the kiddies at school, but we are all adult enough to realize she probably got it from me. Sorry babe. Not much to tell from besides I had a 100 degree temperature last weekend, and this weekend she cracked triple digits. The snow day and a half we got this week was a godsend, let me tell you. We can't ask for much more than that, for sure.
Other than recovering, I've been watching UK scratch and claw their way to a decent season. The recent string of victories has their name mentioned for possibly making the NCAA tourney. I say they need to just win the SEC tournament to get the automatic bid and be done with the talk. We shall see.
Lotsa homework and a few DVD movies, none to really review. We didn't get out again this week, but if we had, I would have reviewed Spiderwick, Jumpers and Fools Gold. Here are my predictions of what I'd say.
Spiderwick- Fun family fantasy, a little creepy for little kids, about a **1/2.
Jumpers- Predictably Hollywood flare and effects. The cinematography was a little drab for my taste. Reminescent of that lame Covenant movie, but much cooler plot wise. Action was fun, but once you get past the initial hook, then what--yeah, they're teleporters, we get it. **
Fools Gold-Another romantic comedy from Matt M. Not much else to say. Mildly humorous, passable.**
Okay, so my predictions aren't very positive, but I've got a lot on my plate. Perhaps I'll be suitably impressed...
Monday, February 25, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Snow days
Well, after a lot of near misses, we finally got a couple more snow days, a welcome break. The days delay us getting out of school until almost June, but we'll deal with that when it comes.
UK lost miserably at Vandy last night, putting an end to their five-game winning streak. Along with their victory against Alabama Saturday, that brings their record to 12-10, 6-3 in the SEC. While still in contention for the East lead, they are more likely competing for the bye in the first round of the SEC tournament (second in the east will do it). Right now an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament looks improbable. I don't know about other Kentucky fans, but there seems to be a clear message from the officials in the league-Kentukcy will not get a fair shake. The controversy really broiled over some questionable intentional foul calls aginast us a few weeks ago where they said that there was an emphasis on fouls from behind on break-aways, and then last week a player took out Ramel Bradley hitting him from behind and knocking him flat, giving him a concussion. No intentional foul. The SEC officials reviewed the call in their weekly meeting, and the head of officiating declared it a good call as the player was hitting Bradley from the side. Aside from the nature of the play and that Bliss pushed him afterwards leaving him unable to control his fall, a still shot that showed the play labeled "Exhibit A to the league officials" clearly shows that Bliss hacked him from directly behind. Well, the SEC officials are untouchable and to show that they aren't to be messed with, are giving UK no love at all during games. It's petty, and it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but they are human and in a position of power, even if it is just over a ballgame. Very frustrating.
Moreso for the players. When one team can do whatever they want and the other team can't, it leads to frustration. That frustration where one team is beating up on the other without repurcussion can only end one way--a fight. It almost happened last night between Stevenson and Ogilvy; Ogilvy in a scrum through Stevenson violently to the floor and talked trash afterward, Stevenson popped up and there was a lot of anger there. Until there is a bench-clearing brawl, the league will not clean play up. I don't want to see that happen, as such acts tarnish the game, but the officials need to step up to prevent this sort of thing.
UK is not the only victim of this trend. Other teams in the league are suffering from poor officiating and injuries are at an all-time high.
The men from our Sunday School cooked for the women, our Valentine's Day treat for them. They ate it up, literally and figuratively. This may become a yearly thing.
The snow days are proving restful and I'm getting a lot done. Last night I ran from my night class to Volleyball and we only had five players including two pregnant women (I guess that means we had 7) and an asthmatic. The frigid weather mixed with exercise usually presents problems, even with the inhaler. We were down in both games 5-10. The match was exhausting, I could barely breathe, but I played hard and we all played well, taking the match. Ellice's timeouts when they got to 10 points turned the tide in both games. Next week we have an out of class assignment, so it looks like I'll make it to our double-header.
I still haven't finished any books this year and we didn't watch any movies in the theater, so no reviews. Maybe next week.
UK lost miserably at Vandy last night, putting an end to their five-game winning streak. Along with their victory against Alabama Saturday, that brings their record to 12-10, 6-3 in the SEC. While still in contention for the East lead, they are more likely competing for the bye in the first round of the SEC tournament (second in the east will do it). Right now an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament looks improbable. I don't know about other Kentucky fans, but there seems to be a clear message from the officials in the league-Kentukcy will not get a fair shake. The controversy really broiled over some questionable intentional foul calls aginast us a few weeks ago where they said that there was an emphasis on fouls from behind on break-aways, and then last week a player took out Ramel Bradley hitting him from behind and knocking him flat, giving him a concussion. No intentional foul. The SEC officials reviewed the call in their weekly meeting, and the head of officiating declared it a good call as the player was hitting Bradley from the side. Aside from the nature of the play and that Bliss pushed him afterwards leaving him unable to control his fall, a still shot that showed the play labeled "Exhibit A to the league officials" clearly shows that Bliss hacked him from directly behind. Well, the SEC officials are untouchable and to show that they aren't to be messed with, are giving UK no love at all during games. It's petty, and it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but they are human and in a position of power, even if it is just over a ballgame. Very frustrating.
Moreso for the players. When one team can do whatever they want and the other team can't, it leads to frustration. That frustration where one team is beating up on the other without repurcussion can only end one way--a fight. It almost happened last night between Stevenson and Ogilvy; Ogilvy in a scrum through Stevenson violently to the floor and talked trash afterward, Stevenson popped up and there was a lot of anger there. Until there is a bench-clearing brawl, the league will not clean play up. I don't want to see that happen, as such acts tarnish the game, but the officials need to step up to prevent this sort of thing.
UK is not the only victim of this trend. Other teams in the league are suffering from poor officiating and injuries are at an all-time high.
The men from our Sunday School cooked for the women, our Valentine's Day treat for them. They ate it up, literally and figuratively. This may become a yearly thing.
The snow days are proving restful and I'm getting a lot done. Last night I ran from my night class to Volleyball and we only had five players including two pregnant women (I guess that means we had 7) and an asthmatic. The frigid weather mixed with exercise usually presents problems, even with the inhaler. We were down in both games 5-10. The match was exhausting, I could barely breathe, but I played hard and we all played well, taking the match. Ellice's timeouts when they got to 10 points turned the tide in both games. Next week we have an out of class assignment, so it looks like I'll make it to our double-header.
I still haven't finished any books this year and we didn't watch any movies in the theater, so no reviews. Maybe next week.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Another week, another post
Quick summation of the past week and a half...
Giants won the Super Bowl in what is arguably the biggest upset in the Bowl's history, after a drive by Eli Manning that will go down in the archives of football legend. We had a few friends over for the shindig, and it was fun. The room was split on who everyone was rooting for: Ellice and Evan were pulling for the Patriots to close out the season undefeated and Mike and I were for the younger Manning to share in his older brother's success (Peyton Manning won the S-Bowl last year) and pulled for the New York Giants. Nate, as ever, was decidedly neutral during the affair, and just wanted to enjoy the evening. Good times, good times.
Classes have settled into a constant grind, which is a little better than the mad rush at the beginning of the semester. It's not merely a matter of adjustment; both of my professors intentionally front-loaded the semester. I can only imagine it's to drive out those that don't belong.
I actually got to play Volleyball this week and we won, for once. This season we've struggled, as hardly anyone can show up due to scheduling conflicts. My class didn't meet, (we had a home assignment as the prof was out of town, I think) so I thrilled at being able to play again after almost a two-month hiatus. I wasn't quite on top of my game, but I was fair.
UK has mended their losing ways, grabbing a few more wins. They seem to have acquired Coach Gillispie's mantra of toughness, grinding out some tough SEC wins at less than 100% strength. Injuries have plagued the team. After tonight's win against Auburn (on the road, no less), the cats have crawled out of the gutter with four straight wins and brought the record up to 11-9, with a very respectable 5-2 SEC record.
The weather was interesting last night. Apparently, Richmond just had a bunch of trash cans blown around, but reports in Lexington had a fair amount of damage, as did Winchester and other parts surrounding. The storms ravaged Tennessee, and reports are there are dozens of fatalities from the winter tornadoes. Our prayers go out to those affected.
Super Tuesday, and it looks like McCain is going to pull the nomination. Sigh. Too centrist for my taste. And worse, his stance on education is more of the same; let's continue NCLB, and not fund it, driving teacher's time away from teaching and test the students to death, pushing everything to private schools, where teachers make 1/3 to 1/4 of the salary (not joking). On the other side its Hillary and (ugh) Obama. Oi vay.
We find out next week whether we're having a boy or girl; should be fun. Other than that, there is little to report. Notice there is nothing in the way of books, as I have had little time to spare finishing one. I'm plugging away at a handful, but can't read more than a few pages a night. More next week perhaps?
Giants won the Super Bowl in what is arguably the biggest upset in the Bowl's history, after a drive by Eli Manning that will go down in the archives of football legend. We had a few friends over for the shindig, and it was fun. The room was split on who everyone was rooting for: Ellice and Evan were pulling for the Patriots to close out the season undefeated and Mike and I were for the younger Manning to share in his older brother's success (Peyton Manning won the S-Bowl last year) and pulled for the New York Giants. Nate, as ever, was decidedly neutral during the affair, and just wanted to enjoy the evening. Good times, good times.
Classes have settled into a constant grind, which is a little better than the mad rush at the beginning of the semester. It's not merely a matter of adjustment; both of my professors intentionally front-loaded the semester. I can only imagine it's to drive out those that don't belong.
I actually got to play Volleyball this week and we won, for once. This season we've struggled, as hardly anyone can show up due to scheduling conflicts. My class didn't meet, (we had a home assignment as the prof was out of town, I think) so I thrilled at being able to play again after almost a two-month hiatus. I wasn't quite on top of my game, but I was fair.
UK has mended their losing ways, grabbing a few more wins. They seem to have acquired Coach Gillispie's mantra of toughness, grinding out some tough SEC wins at less than 100% strength. Injuries have plagued the team. After tonight's win against Auburn (on the road, no less), the cats have crawled out of the gutter with four straight wins and brought the record up to 11-9, with a very respectable 5-2 SEC record.
The weather was interesting last night. Apparently, Richmond just had a bunch of trash cans blown around, but reports in Lexington had a fair amount of damage, as did Winchester and other parts surrounding. The storms ravaged Tennessee, and reports are there are dozens of fatalities from the winter tornadoes. Our prayers go out to those affected.
Super Tuesday, and it looks like McCain is going to pull the nomination. Sigh. Too centrist for my taste. And worse, his stance on education is more of the same; let's continue NCLB, and not fund it, driving teacher's time away from teaching and test the students to death, pushing everything to private schools, where teachers make 1/3 to 1/4 of the salary (not joking). On the other side its Hillary and (ugh) Obama. Oi vay.
We find out next week whether we're having a boy or girl; should be fun. Other than that, there is little to report. Notice there is nothing in the way of books, as I have had little time to spare finishing one. I'm plugging away at a handful, but can't read more than a few pages a night. More next week perhaps?
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