Thursday

Not a lot new at this end. The cocktails last night were a little longer than planned.

As fate would have it, Augie gets to play tomorrow night in the semi-finals of the conference tournament that they host, the same team that stole the game last Saturday on the bad call by the ref. The other team will be confident, so Augie needs to come ready to play. 2 and I are going.

3 reports that she gets to go on an organized trip from the Iowa business school for a private meeting with The Oracle of Omaha next month. She needs to give the readers some details.

Since I don't shop that much, I was taken aback somewhat at lunch today when I stopped in at the local card outlet store to pick up some things, and at the check-out, the first question was, "Can I have your phone number, please?" My response was, "No", and there was no follow-up question as she rang up my purchase. I know from the past that this store would ask for your zip code, but I had never had a clerk ask for my phone number on a cash purchase. I'm sure that it is just more marketing efforts.

I suppose that if you give the number in a situation like that, that they can call you even if you are on the Do Not Call register. If this is the case, I wonder if they can sell the list so acquired to others with that Do Not Call exemption carrying over to that purchaser?

The Hawks continue to surprise me. Penn State on the road and Illinois at home are both winnable games, but a split would still mean a successful regular conference season. Even if they get into the NCAA tournament, what are their chances of getting past the second game? On the other hand, they could possibly host a couple of NIT games which 4 could then attend.

If any of you have seen highlights of this week's pro golf event in Arizona, you have a very accurate comparison of the courses that we played last month in Cabo. Hit it in the fareway, or pull out another ball. The desert is not a fun place to chase an errant shot.

My pal Bill reports that he was at least partially successful in his fight with City Hall last night. I'm not sure if it means that the city relented entirely on the zoning request or whether the developer in question simply declined to fight the fight. At least for the time being, he doesn't have to worry about skyscrapers in his back yard.

The mail to IC did leave until today. Sorry.

I see where they have announced the new Dancing With The Stars celebrity(?) participants. Since I have never watched the show (or American Idol, or Survivor, or any reality show), I shouldn't criticize. But what's the appeal? Then again, I did catch most of the 800 left turns on Sunday so we'll just let this one go.

All from here. Have a good evening.

Be careful out there.