Guess who?
Stylish
It’s an AIR cast.
It has bunches of pieces that fit together. Then after you are securly strapped and padded in – you get out the puffer device, and fill the air bladders with ………. air.
A bit of the tendonitis, on some big foot tendon.
And in the NCAA, we are watching the end of Michigan State. (Most of it we did not see – cable)
I will post the bracket update after the end of round one (can’t you just feel the tension).
Rain = Seattle = Rain.
That is the reputation, and this month/winter/spring has been one of the reasons for the reputation.
Today was the opening day of the MLS (Major League Soccer) Season.
It started in Seattle. Sounders vs. LA Galaxy.
We had tickets – and we went.
I don’t actually think it rained as hard as it did last year on opening day.
But it did rain. The entire game. Sometimes harder, sometimes not quite as hard. We got wet. Not soaked – too many layers and not enough time for the water to penetrate all the way through.
Afterwards we decided to go to the Space Needle. They do a picture of visitors there and we thought it would be fun in all of our wet rave green attire. We got to the ticket window at 9:27. It closes at 9:30 (the ticket window, not the needle). BUT there was nobody there! We were just a bit put out – and locked out to boot. You could see people in the gift store, but nobody would open the door.
So we went home and hung lots of clothes in the bathroom to dry.
[The Sounders lost 0-1. A very fast paced game. Entertaining, chances on both ends. The Galaxy was a bit faster, and had one rocket shot that got past Keller. But we enjoyed it – rain and all.]
The results are in, and other than fully boloxing up the bracket titles, here are the interesting results.
Ashlan got the overall #1 Seed – Ohio State.
But I will never be able to root for them.
Rey got Michigan – a favorite of mine.
They play against Tennessee – which is Carl’s team.
Carl got Illinois – his almost mater
Jay got Michigan State – her alma mater
Ashlan got Northern Colorado, and Rey hopes that Jay gets a win with San Diego State.
For local teams Ashlan got UW (whom she wanted) and Jay got Gonzaga.
Favorite Team name = the Saint Peter Peacocks.
I am just sure I have posted about this subject before – it happens once a year. But this year it snuck up on me.
The Set-up – Part 1:
I was at work yesterday, and when I called to say I was leaving for home Carl suggested I listen to the last 8 minutes of the UW Huskies vs Arizona basketball game on the radio. So I dutifully tuned in. And I got home in 8 minutes! (Fastest time ever. It is 25 miles, so my average speed was about 187 miles per basketball hour.)
And the game was not over. In the last basket the Huskies tied the game, forcing OT. At the end of OT they scored the buzzer beater to win the game. And as it turns out the Pac 10 tournament.
The Set-up – Part 2:
Rey has a new computer – with a web-cam. We Skype on occassion because the computer has a better connection in his apartment than his cell phone. And now we have pictures. So we were really calling just to see him, and catch up a bit.
The Bracketing:
We discussed the aforementioned game a bit, and then I asked when the March Madness tournament started. I was told that tomorrow (today) was Selection Sunday.
Brief moment of panic.
For many, many years we have done a family bracket. Each member has their personal favourite teams, but the bracket is built on pure chance. We used to make number slips, fold them and put them in a hat, and then draw them out one-by-one. College and careers have required a change to the format. We continued it for a while, with designated drawers for each person. Then it went high tech, using Excel’s random number generator.
But the goal is to still due it with everyone involved to some degree.
It does not have to be done before the selection, but finding out which team you get as they are called can be part of the fun. And Rey was planning to attend a Selection gathering in the afternoon. So it seemed that the time to do the bracket was NOW! (Then?)
No Ashlan – what to do. Called and left a message to join us.
But we resurected last year’s spreadsheet and cleaned to start over. Start the random numbering.
One note about random number generators. Since they are random, if you choose 64 random numbers between 1-64, you are going to have the same number show up more than once, and some not at all. So it takes a few – well several go arounds to get all 64 slots filled in. In the end I was trying to get the last two numbers to show up next to a name with a blank. Then Rey pointed out that both of the last two slots were his, so I didn’t need to keep being random. (The boy still has brains)
About this time Ashlan’s name appeared on the screen, and we added her to the conversation. The only thing with conferencing on Skype was that you lose the video. But, it was still fun to have the whole fam-damily together. I highly recommend it to all of those with far-flung folks.
The conversation only stayed on basketball long enough to note that Ashlan wants UW, she is not so enamoured of Duke this year, MSU is a maybe, UMichigan should make it, root against Northern Colorado if they get in, and I could send the bracket to them later that night. (As it turns out Rey got 2 number 1 seeds, Ashlan and Carl each got 1 and I am shut out of the number 1 slot.)
Concerts, school, upcoming travels and general goofiness filled the rest of the time. And then it was time for dinner, bed and going out – depending on who and where you were.
Today is a rainy grey day here, so we will probably be home-bodies most of the day. Our outdoor sports season is quickly approaching. I am ready for the sun-breaks to become more prevelant. Enough for it to be called sunny, with occasional clouds.
Ashlan=Yellow, Rey=Purple, Jay=Blue, Carl=Green
The name just shows up every now and then.
The first time I was aware of the name, it was really Jimbo (aka the Engineer).
Then on the family history trip to Canada there was James Finlayson, great-great uncle I think. The RCMP foot soldier. They were not M at that time. His diary is around.
Our friendly film archivist wrote a post today – Sauna Party – about his travels afar. It included
“Plevna (in Finland) It was part of an old cotton mill that had been established by Scotsman James Finlayson.”
This was followed by a reference to the film (Dennis is all about films) actor James Finlayson, who appeared with Laurel & Hardy.
Check out the link above, towards the bottom is a picture of Scotsman James Finlayson and a short reel of the actor James Finlayson.
And, just for amusement – continue down to the bottom for “Turn on the Heat”. Stay through the entire clip – it just continues to grow. Very amusing.
Please note that the title was chosen several hours prior to the Earthquake in Japan – not a good tie-in.
Today was a BLACK day for traffic.
That means that the traffic map you can check on-line showed major back-ups on most of the routes between work and home were full of cars going very slowly. My carpooler decided we should start on our normal route home, then divert up a highway we normally avoid, dodge off through some city streets, ending up on the other bridge (that we usually avoid).
The bridge we usually avoid would be SR 520. It is the narrower than I-90, and any little thing can bring it to its knees, and traffic to a crawl. The little thing today was wind (and some rain). The wind was up to 50 mph gusts. If winds are sustained at 50 mph they close the bridge. But with only gusts we got to ride the wild beast. On the high rises the car was just rocking back and forth. [I don’t usually dream of a heavier car.] Then on the floating part the waves were crashing over – all the way to the furthest lane.
The payoff was that after the bridge it was clear sailing. Apparently the black traffic was just trying to drive around the Seattle/Bellevue Block. (See the map) Less than one hour. Not bad for a bad black day.
This is for those of you that don’t get to commute 25 miles to work. I am letting you live vicariously. Check the map link during normal commute times. Then you can click on cameras and watch all of the cars trying to get where they are going.
Many of my relatives do all sorts of artistic work with fabric and yarn and beads.
My pursuits tend to be in frosting.
This is a small effort tonight, for one of Carl’s kids.
Guess how old he is now.
Count the Fingers!
My carpooler just called to say he was, “On the road.”
I am driving today, but since he moved further away, he now drives to the park and ride next to his old apartment, and his still current coffee shop. I pick him up at the coffee shop.
So I have a minute or two.
Yesterday was a whirlwind at work – mostly getting ready for an evening meeting about extending sewers through a neighborhood. In this case I think it is a good project, but as is always the case – not everybody along the route agrees, and that is a normal situation. The meeting was fairly good. The participants were generally respectful, and not too agressive (term used by one participant after the meeting to describe another).
Actually – they were merely assertive. I have led meetings where a truly agressive person was asked to, “Sit down and be quiet”, by other members of the audience.
And – in the hour before the meeting, the plotter stopped working. So one of my show and tell boards was an 11 x 17 sheet, instead of a 24 x 36 sheet. It was a moment of humor when I put it up.
SHOWTIME! That is how I approach these meetings. And afterwards I feel like I have been in a show. So this morning is rambling – and now I must be off.
A few weeks ago Ashlan was home for Reading Weekends.
She rented Season 1 of a show called Midsomer Murders.
Each show is about 1-1/2 hours long, without commercials.
It is a British murder mystery series, and we have both been enjoying them immensely. It has been around since the late 1990’s, so it may well be old news to most. We tend to miss certain things due to the lack of cable, or lack of searching around. This would seem to be up our PBS stations alley, so maybe we were just busy for several years.
Yesterday we watched a couple.
Those of you that know me well may have realized I have no capacity for recognizing people. Even people I have met with friends may appear to be a stranger to me the next several meetings. Or I will realize I know them, but have no idea where from, or what their name is. Names are awful for me. I actually forgot the name of a guy I was out on a date with once. And once I am searching in my mind, the names only skitter further back from view.
Anyway, we were watching an episode and I realized I recognized one of the actors. Since these are over 10 years old and British, it is not that likely that I will know the actors that happen through the scenes. But I came up with the name, even before Carl realized who it was.
Orlando Bloom! He was a bad boy, and met his fate in the first 1/2 of the show. But he did show up in a few later memories of what had gone before.
We are about to settle in for another episode.
If you have not seen these and like murder mysteries, you have my recommendation.
It could have been a lot of water on the floor, but the washing machine decided to fail in two modes at once.
In truth, the machine has had some minor glitches in it’s 13 or so year existence. But it has continued to provide service without major interruption.
It lost a bit of its rubber o-ring type seal that keeps the water in and the area outside the door dry. And the bit that is gone is at the low point, don’t ya know it would be at the place where it could actually leak. So we have been pushing the door shut with a laundry detergent bucket for a few years. The water leak is minimal, and it all works fine.
Very early on in the machines tenure in our house a bit of the door latch broke off. The latch is a two part affair, with an upper part for the on-off switch and the lower part for the door latch/lock. The lower part was broken, but the previously described laundry bucket did the trick for this as well.
We recently had a friend attempt a home repair.
This actually resulted in us looking for a replacement latch, finally.
Which we found, and installed this AM.
It should work now, with maybe a little leak. But no such luck.
And the laundry bucket that should be keeping the floor dry was not enough to make the machine go either.
A broom handle wedged between the laundry chute and machine was finally enough force to make it think it was OK to run.
Guess we will have to call in a pro this time.
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