Wednesday

As reported earlier on my Twitter feed, we'll do the March Madness weekend in Woodbury this year.  The Hampton there is not much different than the one in West Des Moines.  Plus, 1.01 gets to sleep in her own bed, and 1.1 gets to participate as well.  He would have been a no-show in DSM because of officiating duties.

Those of us in Nebraska and Iowa will be trekking North on the 18th, hopefully arriving in time to at least see some of the afternoon games.  Travel from NYC is now being scheduled.  A true Gathering of the Clan.  Again.  Very cool. 

So I have to admit, I was too busy to catch the SOTU speech last night.  I mean, LBH, there was nothing going to be said that hadn't been spun to the public before.  (Those re-runs of NCIS on USA Network were much more illuminating.)  And the political posturing between the sides today as the pundits tried to generate some enthusiasm was similarly predictable.  Ho-hum.

Sticking with another of my recurrent themes here, there's a ripple in the force at Starbuck's.  Seems like the corporate visionaries see a need to upgrade the logo.  I missed this in the news when it came out after the first of the year.  The new logo will not have the name, just the mermaid.  I don't think that the change is near as egregious as a couple of the others discussed here previously, but speaking as a sufferer of Sometimer's, those marketing eggheads are expecting a lot out of us.

I read in the paper that today is Wayne Gretzky's 50th birthday.  What caught my attention was that they say he still holds 60(!) records in the NHL.  He's been retired over 10 years, and he remains one of the most recognizable names in what now amounts to a fringe sport except in Olympic years (and maybe in the original 6 cities that constituted the pre-expansion league).  The Great One.  #99.  (Didn't his wife get in trouble for betting on the odd bets for a Super Bowl?)

Now headed over to get 2 for the Augie game.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT