A Weekend of Sports

Saturday morning hit -18 on the TrailBlazer thermometer. I've never seen it that low before. And that was WITHOUT wind! Sunday Morning still hit -10 as I was driving around. Unbelievably cold and the winds were strong. Supposed to be "not-as-cold" this week.

Iowa State Basketball is horrible this year. We won't be making the Big Dance this year as we're already 4-8 in the Big 12 after losing our last 4 in a row. They need a big guy in the middle to help as they have all the other weapons already on the team. I also think they could use a new coach but that's my normal thought. If they only got rid of one coach, I'd get rid of McCarney in a heartbeat!

Jimmy Johnson won the Daytona 500. It was weird to watch with all the bad weather and the camera angles weren't anything special due to the "low ceiling". I had forgotten how absolutely horrible NBC's coverage of NASCAR is. Way too many commercials and missed camera opportunities. Plus the announcing is pretty crappy. Thankfully FOX gets the coverage for the next 18 weeks or whatever it is. Someone needs to take Stewart out in a race. That'll hurt him in the standings. And I thought Mark Martin retired? Is this another Jordan-esque retirement?

The NBA All-Star Weekend was fun to watch this year. The dunk contest was pretty sweet Saturday night with a special appearance by Spud Webb!!!! Can't believe that was 20 years ago already:( Makes me feel old again..... But I couldn't get over how it took a lot of the players at least 5 tries to get the dunk to work. And Nate Robinson took 14 tries but still won???!?!?!? How does that work? I don't ever remember Jordan or Dominique missing a dunk. Those guys were at a whole nother level.

And I'll be the first to admit - I'm addicted to curling. I now continue to Ti-Vo the curling and there is not only a lot of skill, but a lot of patience on top of all of the strategy that they play. I'm starting to understand some of it, but not all of it. Two pages I found to help explain the sport (yes, it's a sport since there are no judges scores, but they aren't necessarily "athletes" even though the broom part can be tough.... like golf, it can be played your whole life):

Curling 101 - gives some basics and history of the game.
This Page explains the terminology that the announcers use and don't realize that none of us know what they are talking about. Has some awesome animation to demonstrate what they are explaining.

I'm off to California on Wednesday and back on Friday for work. I'll still blog from out there if I am able. No promises though.

Song of the Day - I listened to Shostakovich Fifth Symphony on Friday night... a performance by the Minnesota Symphony from last year. I need to get to more of their concerts. They have a good thing going up there at Orchestra Hall!

Video of the Day - There's a new commercial out for the new Jordan's. XXI (21st in the series - III were still the best!!) But when you go to the JumpMan23 webpage, click on the Jordan symbol in the middle, then click on the dude with the basketball in the upper left, then on "watch". Wait for it to load, it's worth it!!! I can remember all of those amazing shots too. Very well done commercial;)

Webpage of the Day - For those (Kahn) that are opposed to the iPods (Kahn) - here are alternative (Kahn) MP3 players to the Apple product (Kahn). The Nintendo Controller mp3 player (Kahn) is my favorite..... (Kahn).

Have a great Monday!! ( *WHAM* - "KAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHN!" )