Sunday

Well, yesterday was indeed and interesting weather day. We had ice, snow, rain, and wind. There were many power-outages in the area, and most social/athletic events scheduled for Saturday night were cancelled or postponed.

The Augie game was played since the teams were in town. Augie won a hard-fought game by 8 points. Basically, they made their free throws in the last three minutes. It wasn't their best game, but it was good enough to take home the trophy. 2 and I enjoyed the game.

Augie should host the first round this coming weekend. The pairings will be announced tomorrow. It's a 64 team field just like in D-I. St. Thomas should be in it too.

SB's in Duck Creek was not open this AM until 10 or so. I got there late for me, at 8 and there was a sign on the door saying that conditions precluded them from opening. I went to the Village Inn and had breakfast, but stopped by SB's later to give the staff the needle. The manager said that she had no staff that could make it at the regular hour, and store policy prevented her from opening herself.

The Discovery boys had to work hard yesterday to keep Levi in yellow. They had a couple of their guys go down in a crash early, and then a breakaway with some pretty good riders got three minutes or so on the peloton. None of the other teams wanted to help the Disco team chase down the break until late in the race when Disco had pulled it down to a minute or so. Then a couple of teams with sprinters came to the front to help as it had become obvious that the break would be caught and those teams wanted to make sure that each of their top guys had a chance at the stage win. The tour ends today with a circuit race in Santa Barbara that they trace 7 times for a 77 mile stage.

One of my favorite riders for Discovery, George Hincapie, was one of the crashers yesterday. Although he got up and completed the race, x-rays showed a break in his wrist so he won't start today.

The NASCAR boys are also in California today. The 24 won the pole. We'll see who has game for the long haul now that the restrictor plates are on the shelf for a while.

I've had to wear my Land's End coat the last few days. My Columbia is airing out. That night I met my client mid-week was in your classic smoke-filled bar. The next morning, my kitchen, where my coat was hanging on a chair, smelled like the bar. Everything, including the coat, needs to go through the wash.

We get a little bit of the smoke business at Biaggi's. I normally sit at a small table in the bar area, and the bar is the only place in the restauarant where smoking is permitted. Usually, it's just the occassional smoker, although every once in a while some guy will whip out a cigar. Then there are the folks from a back room for a group dinner who have to come out en masse for a smoke break at the bar. And so many young people. Don't you guys ever start smoking.

I'm off to do some biking in front of a game. It's snowing out so it will be another low key day in River City.

Be careful out there.