Sunday

Happy Tax-Birthday to 4!

Weather came in overnight. Very quick moving front. Started out as misty rain yesterday around noon. Converted to rain in the afternoon. Freezing rain by night. And then snow. Fairly clear now, but cold and windy. Definitely a Christmas feel.

Broadcasting from SB's this AM.

FFF at the Augie game last night. Good game, but the home team came up a little short against a very good Wisconsin state system team that had some serious three point gunners. 4 did a little filming for a class. She looked very officially newsy. (2 was a no-show because of a commitment to some high school friends who had scheduled a reunion dinner. Her loss.)

More FFF today as we celebrate Christmas with 1 and 1.1. They head back to Minnesota early tomorrow.

The local fishwrap endorsed Hillary and McCain in today's edition. Why do newspapers need to do endorsements for both parties? Not that anything that that paper says is worth noting. Less than two weeks now until Iowa gets rid of all the politicians. Can't be soon enough for me.

The atmosphere in SB's is always a little lighter on a Sunday as parents often come in with kids. Today has an even more festive feel as there is evidence of out-of-town relatives joining in for the fellowship. SB's is one commercial establishment that allows friends and family from all over the country to meet in a common place where everyone can feel at home (when not at home).

That's an interesting thought. Where can you go when you're not at home where it feels like you are in a very familiar place? A couple of easy answers for me: 1) a Main Street bar in a one-horse town on a hot RAGBRAI afternoon, and; 2) Wrigleyville in C-town. Places like Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe and The Plaza in KC are possible alternative choices as well.

On a different topic, how irritating is it to have people in close proximity to you on extended, gratuitous personal cell phone calls in public places, like SB's? While loudly chewing gum? And displaying other annoying habits? But I digress.

It's getting down to the Christmas shopping time for me. Actually, 1 and 1.1's schedule has accelerated my time frame by a day.

A number of businesses have taken off Monday as an official holiday. Not Criterium. With the markets open, so are we. Till noon. But I am certain that it will be pretty quiet. After lunch I can get to my shopping.

I don't think that I mentioned it here, but I did get a clean bill of health from my regular doc on my annual physical last week. This after spending more time in medical offices in the last six months than at any time since I tore up my knee almost twenty years ago. I used to think that only old people needed a line-up card to keep track of their doctor appointments. What's that saying about "them" being "us"?

So I'm off to make a couple of stops. Hope everyone has a great day.

BCOT