Lack of Blogging

The past week I have been slacking on the posts but I have reasons, even if they are lame. The first reason is because I spent the weekend in Shafter visiting family. The occasion that brought us to Shafter was my Aunt Lynn's 50th birthday party. (For those of you who don't know my aunt she can best be summed up in four words: Oklahoma, NASCAR, beef jerky.) All of my mom's siblings were there, including my Uncle Joe, Aunt Felicia, and cousin Robert. Everyone was excited because it was our first time to see Robert.

The party was on Saturday but Friday my mom and grandma threw a baby shower for Christina and Aunt Felicia. We came away with a car full of stuff (literally) and are very thankful to everyone who gave us presents. I used the baby shower as an excuse to hang out with John and watch basketball. Dana was also supposed to be there but he got "sick". I just think he wanted to stay home so that he could continue his redneck science project.

One of the great things about my family is that everyone knows how to cook and there is always plenty of food. Whether it is my mom's tacos, Aunt Lynn's fried fish, Aunt Susan's Rice Crispy chicken, or my grandma's biscuit and gravy our family is always full.

The second reason I have been behind on my blogging is because we have started the first season of 24. This is a show that I wanted to start watching at the beginning of the series but for some reason I did not catch the first few episodes and have been hesitant to jump into the middle of it. But now we are 18 hours in and are hooked.

I hope to not have such sporadic posts in the near future. So stay tuned.

One Shining Moment

If the title of this post gives you chills then follow this link to a story about the composer of the famous tournament highlight song.

Update: I first saw this hilarious ad while watching the tournament and am sad to see that it will no longer be airing. One random side note to the Amish Drag Race ad is that Kip directed it.

Today's Top Story

I found out today that I passed the final part of the CPA test. For those of you scoring at home my grade for the Auditing portion of the test was a 76, with 75 and better passing. I may have barely squeaked by but it is finally over.

Spammers

Thanks to those wonderful few, I have had to turn on the word verification for the comments. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Ideal Baseball Lineups

With summer just around the corner I have decided to link to a few hypothetical baseball lineups. The first one is a guide on how to fill out the lineup card if your team consisted of classic Nintendo characters. This second link is the "ideal roster of an American League baseball team composed only of famous Davids without obvious athletic ability." And if you Kevin Costner fans are feeling a little left out then you need to read this. Of course every manager wishes he could pencil in this guy every day. (Yes I did just link to a very lengthy, analytical break down of Bugs Bunny. What is worse is that I actually read the entire thing.)

And to preemptively answer all of your questions: No I did not use any of these pick up lines on Christina.

The Dance

I refuse to title this post "March Madness" because every one else has that for their blogs. I also refuse to write about my picks that I entered in our office pool because in all honesty I could care less what everyone else picked so I will assume the same for you and spare reciting my entire bracket to you. I will tell you that I am running the office pool this year, which brings back memories of the tournament during college.

In the four years of college I think I only went to one class during the first round of the tournament (and that was only to take a required test.) My favorite March Madness memory is creating the giant wall sized bracket in our apartment my junior and senior year. Another great memory was during my freshman year some one walked into our dorm and said they could hear us cheering across campus.

Here is some academia for you SAT style, Gonzaga : Jimmie :: Kryptonite : Superman. They have busted my bracket five straight years and it looks as if the are primed to do it again this year.

This year I decided to not take time off from work to watch the first round of games. This has turned out to be a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I am still following the games via the March Madness on Demand, the CBS scoreboard, and TiVo but I miss talking basketball with my friends. Last year Dana, Craig, and I had a great time during the first two rounds of the Tournament discussing the games and trying to find the Cingular "Bars" during their new commercials. (One problem with watching eight hours of basketball a day is that you always see the same commercials. I was glad that last year Cingular began airing their commercials that had the "Bars" in every single shot. It allowed watching the same commercial over and over enjoyable because it was like playing Where's Waldo and you needed numerous viewings of the same commercial to try to find every "bar".)

Finally, I love this Sports Guy mini-column showing the thought process of his wife and mother as they fill out their brackets. It really hit home with me this year because 80% of the office pool I am running are female. Of course, their results most likely will blow my bracket out of the water but that is what makes this time of year so crazy.

WBC

I am very glad to see the World Baseball Classic has been so successful. Before it began I was reading a lot of bad press about how it was a terrible idea and no one will care about it. Though the latter may still be true here in the US it appears to me that the WBC has taken hold in the other participating countries. I can now see why the World Cup is so important to all soccer fans.

My one beef with the WBC is due to ESPN's decision when to air games. I can understand tape delaying games last weekend when conference tournaments were being aired in prime time but can anyone explain to me why the US-Korea game was not being aired live last night? Has ESPN not learned anything from the recent Olympics? Do they not know that Americans have no desire to watch sporting events on tape delay in this age of information?

Though Team USA has been a huge disappointment (thanks for nothing Dontrelle Willis) I have been very excited to see meaningful baseball games in March. Bud Selig may have a bunch of black marks during his tenure as commisioner but the WBC has a chance of becoming something special in years to come.

More Random Thoughts

I can only hope that this rumor is true (link via Dodger Thoughts). Even though I will not order Showtime just for Arrested Development the thought of new episodes being created gets me excited.

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It continues to snow as I write this post. I will spare you the pictures but just imagine another foot of snow on top of the few inches from my previous posts.

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Once a month I have to go to Sacramento for meetings. The meetings are designed as a place for the 58 counties to get together and discuss any hot topics. They are very informative and a great chance to network with my counter parts in other counties.

It never ceases to amaze me the lack of respect that people have when it comes to cell phones. Every single meeting there are at least five different times that cell phones go off. What aggravates me even more is when the person decides to answer the phone but refuses to leave the crowded room, letting 50-75 people hear their conversation. I can forgive you if you forgot to turn your cell phone on silent but to think that your call is more important than this meeting is just disrespectful to everyone in the room.

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You can easily read anywhere on the internet that Saturday Night Live has lost its edge and is no longer funny but I really enjoyed the Sports Guy's take (about a quarter of the way down the page, or to be more exact the ninth question and answer) on the "Lazy Sunday" video.

Also, here is a good interview of the four new cast members.

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For those of you who have Hotmail, let me recommend that you sign up for Windows Live Mail. Let me warn you it is in beta so there are some random glitches but it is still a lot better than the regular Hotmail. It looks and responds a lot like Outlook which is a huge plus. My favorite upgrade is the viewing pane. This allows you to see the email without having to wait for another page to load. And since it is in beta you are given a chance to let Microsoft know what is and is not working.

Baby Registry Update

The baby registry is now online for anyone interested. Click here to take a look. I have also added a link on the sidebar.

Snow (birth)day

This past weekend Christina and I had a house full of visitors. My parents, grandma, sister, and niece came up to Sonora to celebrate my birthday. All the ladies got together to cook a wonderful Mexican dinner on Friday.

The big highlight of the weekend was the fact that for the first time in my life it snowed at my house on my birthday. Now this may not be a big deal for the January babies that live in the northeastern part of the country, but it is a cool thing for someone who has lived in the Central Valley his whole life. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Taylor and Otis waiting for the grown-ups to get dressed so that they could go play in the snow.

Depending on how you look at it here is Taylor helping to build her first snowman or trying to get to the candy mouth. If she is anything like her mother it is the latter.

Taylor loved playing in the snow until Uncle Jimmie threw some of it at her and it stuck to her nose.

Oh Canada and the Queen Barry

San Francisco may be a city with high tolerance but even this should be unacceptable. Speaking of Barry, wearing this to my next Dodgers-Giants game in SF may hinder me from keeping score.

This is for Craig. Look on the bright side though, at least your favorite player is not dressing in drag.