Friday Fatigue

Today was a challenge at work. Not because of the usual kid challenges, but because of the fact that I got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. Jim and I (along with Bob and Sally) attended the NCAA East Regional Sweet Sixteen play-off games in Syracuse. The first game was between West Virginia and Washington. West Virginia won fairly easily in a sloppy game. But that game took a backseat to the Cornell vs. Kentucky late game (10:05 tip-off). Cornell, a 12th seed, had a definite home court advantage over number one seed Kentucky. We watched the Carrier Dome steadily become a sea of red as more and more Cornell fans filled the stands. By 10 o'clock the crowd was on their feet and cheering wildly for the underdogs. And Cornell fought a good game but came up a bit short when the final buzzer sounded. It was awesome to be in that arena and feel the love that the Cornell faithful had for their team. And who doesn't love to cheer for the underdog. It was a great night at the NCAA games.

However, I didn't get home until after 2 AM, and was in bed by 2:30. I had the alarm set for 7:40, but the phone woke me up at 7:12, so it was a really short night.

Jim stayed the night in Syracuse, in Corey's apartment, last night after the games because he was catching a ride from there to Boston for the National Masters Indoor Track Meet this weekend. I heard from him late this afternoon, saying that he took 3rd place in the 3000, which is pretty good since he hasn't been able to train quite the way he would have wanted to in recent weeks. He still has to run the mile and the 800 later this weekend.

The Syracuse team lost last night in a messy game. I'm glad I was not watching it at home. So it has been a good run for the Orange, just ended a bit sooner than we would have liked.

Tomorrow morning I am going with Sherri to a Young Life fundraiser called Baskets and Brunch. There are about 100 baskets filled with a variety of stuff that get raffled off. Last year the only thing I won was a beautiful necklace that I won in a silent auction because I made sure I was the last one to bid on it! Hopefully this year I will win a basket! Sherri has had good luck with winning the baskets.

Tomorrow night I will go back to Syracuse to see the Elite Eight game between Kentucky and West Virginia. I will cheer for Kentucky because they are about the only team I still have in my 2 brackets! GrandDad is going with me because Jim is in Boston.

Our seats are as high up in the Carrier Dome as possible! We are in row T, and as the usher told Jim, T stands for "Top!" Actually the seats have some advantages. First there is a foot-wide shelf behind the seats to put coats, food and drinks on. No one is dumping beverages on you in their excitement and you can stand up anytime you want without bothering anyone behind you! Here are a couple of photos from last night:

You may be able to see how much red there was in the Carrier Dome last night.

I am falling asleep at the keyboard here so I am going to bed.

Hope all is well.

Go 'Cuse!

It has been a great weekend of basketball and in spite of sitting and watching a lot of basketball on TV I have managed to do other things this weekend.

But first off some congratulations to the Syracuse, Cornell and Purdue teams for their big wins today. I included Cornell and Purdue here because Bob and Sally were over tonight with an early birthday cake for me and we got to celebrate their teams winning too. Syracuse looked good today even with their big man out with an injury and their second big man sitting for a good chunk of the first half with 3 fouls. They play Butler on Thursday in Salt Lake City, but we will have to get updates on the game while we are at the Carrier Dome for the East Regional Play-off games, where Kentucky will play Cornell in one of those games. I will have to cheer for Kentucky (sorry Sally) because I have them going all the way in one of my brackets. Of course I had Kansas winning it all in my other bracket, and that can't happen now that Northern Iowa upset them yesterday. I do love college basketball and March Madness!

So would you rather read about knitting or basketball?! I have done a lot of knitting on my pink shawl while watching the Madness and must have 9 inches or so done on it.

Yesterday I went to my spinning guild meeting for a couple of hours and it was great to have some dedicated spinning time. Maybe I would spin more if my wheel was back in the living room where it lived for a long time.

I got home in time to get outside for a 15.5 mile bike ride. The sun was out but the wind was colder than I anticipated and I never really warmed up until I turned around and headed east, back home. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good I felt on the bike and the pace I was keeping. I did ride my cruiser bike (Roxie) to school 3 days last week and on

Saturday when I got on my new Trek, the riding seemed almost effortless! I do love both of my bikes and they each serve a great purpose.

Last night my bell choir played a concert at church along with the 3 other bell choirs at church and we did OK. Most of us in the choir would prefer not to do these concerts but the director says it is good for us!

So Sally made me a white cake with the frosting that goes on top of a German Chocolate cake (coconut and nuts) and it was yummy. Plus there is enough left over to enjoy it the rest of the week. Thanks Sally!

Back to school tomorrow. I am part of the planning committee for our Jump Rope for Heart event at school on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how generous our community is with their charitable donations during this economic time.

Hope all is well.