A New Page
Started the second half of our Sunday Pizza curling league yesterday. This half, I'm skipping our team. Since it's not a super competitive team, and most of the people playing are, frankly, not great. But that's okay, they're mostly beginners, and it's an opportunity for me to get better and help them get better too. My team played pretty well yesterday. As skip, I throw the last two rocks (of eight) of each end (eight total rocks for each team). And the good news was that I didn't have to make many great shots to score our points. The game basically came down to one end where I managed to score three points. We had one point for sure, but the other team's rock was just counting for second shot. If I could successfully knock it out, our team could score 4. I ended up missing the shot slightly, but their rock was still knocked out, but one of ours was knocked out as well. So we ended up with three points, which was still big. We kept the other team down to one or two points every time they had the hammer, and scored one or two ourselves, and ended up winning 7-4 (it actually would have been 8-4, but I didn't have to throw my last rock). So, a good start to the second half and my time as skip. Unfortunately, we won't be playing next week because of the Super Bowl, and I'll miss the following week because of our vacation to Paris. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the groove when I return.
Bring your Redskins Mastercard
The Danny strikes again. Shortly after mercifully announcing that ticket prices for the Redskins would not be going up again this year, we found out why. The only way to pay for your tickets is cash, check, or Redskins Extra Points MasterCard. That's right, you can't use Visa, American Express, or any other Mastercard. Just the Redskins Extra Points MasterCard. No word yet on whether the same will be true for your $8 beer and $5 hot dog.
In other regional not-in-season sports news, the Orioles have traded for Sammy Sosa! It sounds like the Cubbies will be picking up a good portion of the salary, which is not surprising. In spite of the bad omens about the trade, it actually looks like it could be good for everyone involved. Sammy gets out of Chicago, where he was rapidly becoming Public Enemy #1, and Baltimore is only obligated for one year (with a buyout in the second year). And Chicago gets a couple of prospects, plus local (Naperville!) boy Jerry Hairston. Hairston had run into some problems in Baltimore since he got hurt and lost his job at second base and had to move to the outfield. The change of scenery could be good for him as well.
American Chopper meets Iron Chef
Hot Rod Kitchenaid mixer, courtesy of Alton Brown's web site.
Granola?
I know these have been out for a while, but who seriously thinks that chopping up Butterfingers or Snickers and putting them inside a granola bar makes it healthy?
Set up
Now that MSU managed to take care of U-M, the biggest game of the Big Ten season is all set up for Tuesday in East Lansing. #1 Illinois vs. #13 MSU. The only time they will meet this season, thanks to the silly Big Ten scheduling. It could be the only thing standing between U-I and a perfect regular season. The Izzone will be keyed up for this one! Go Spartans!
2 + 2
I'm always learning. I've never really grasped pot odds before, until I read this article about how to figure them out (it also incidentally explains why the leading poker forum on the Internet is called 2+2). Thanks to del.icio.us for allowing me to find this. For those who don't know, del.icio.us is a "social bookmark" system. You store your bookmarks on the site and categorize them, and then you can see who else has the same sites bookmarked, or similar categories. Nifty.
At any rate, I'll remember this tip from now on: outs times 2 plus 2.
Post a Secret
At this year's Artomatic show held in DC, over 3000 visitors received a postcard inviting them to share a secret. You can read some of them at PostSecret. Very interesting, but some are a little weird, and possibly not-safe-for-work.
Pay Attention
This Sunday's curling reminded me of a lesson I thought I had learned. Pay attention!
Last year, while playing poker with some guys from work, I was agonizing over a decision, whether to fold, call, or go all-in against one of the other players. I finally decided that if I went all-in, he would likely fold. He did fold, but in my focus on him, I forgot there was another player to act after me. That player called me, and had me beat, because I wasn't paying attention to him.
On Sunday, I was skipping a team, just for fun (regular league play starts again next week, and I'll be skipping for real). We were losing by two points in the 7th of 8 ends. I called my last shot to guard a hole that I figured the other team would try to sneak their rock through. It was only right before I delivered that one of my teammates told me that we had "the hammer", or the last rock of the end. That meant that guarding the hole would be useless, of course, and I needed to try to get my rock through that hole and in for my two points. Thanks in part to my confusion, I ended up missing the shot badly, all because I wasn't paying attention. We ended up winning the game by stealing two points in the last end, but I would have been kicking myself if we had lost because of that stupid mistake.
So let this be a lesson to you all: pay attention to the situation you are in. And pay attention to all parts of it, not just one player or facet. Things will go better if you do.
Treading Lightly
Lisa and Ellie are back from their week in Michigan. Time for me to get used to having a baby around the house again. No blaring the TV late at night, no cursing at the computer screen, no slamming doors after coming in from the cold. And it seems I am back to my old sleeping patterns. Last week I slept pretty well. Last night, I had a lot of trouble falling asleep, mostly because I think I kept waiting to hear if Ellie was waking up. Which she did of course. It's going to take a while to get used to this again...
My Totally Uninformed Oscar picks
Here are my predictions for this year's Oscar winners. It should be noted that I have seen NONE of these films, for obvious reasons.
Best Picture: Sideways. Seems to have a lot of critics raving, if not viewers.
Best Director: Martin Scorcese, The Aviator. I think they finally have to give him one so he stops making crappy movies.
Best Actor: Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda. A movie with a message, Hollywood loves it.
Best Actress: Annette Benning, Being Julia. She's the only one I know who won a Golden Globe.
Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Haden Church, Sideways. Gotta root for Lowell.
Best Supporting Actress: Tossup. I'm going with Virginia Madsen, but I really have no clue (as if I had a clue about the rest of them!)
I'll be sure to revisit this after the awards are given out on February 27.
Books
My Goodreads ListAmazon Wishlist
GSI Outdoors JavaGrind
