Thursday

Just a few lines today. Another bout of snow. I accept partial responsibility for the weather as I washed my car yesterday. I had to. I couldn't see out the side or rear windows.

The game last night was a real treat. After falling behind for a good portion of the second half, Augie did everything right in the last three minutes and came home a winner 64-61. With seven minutes to go, I thought a 10-point loss was in the works. My pal Pete's son hit a trey with 15 seconds to go to seal the victory.

I was able to fire-up the laptop in the car on the way home to catch up on the Iowa loss, and once the story finally got posted, the box score on the Augie game. (On the way into Bloomington, I had been able to get Mapquest directions to the campus, and stats on the host team.) The mobility of this cellular laptop connection is very impressive. On battery to boot.

The athletic facility at Wesleyan was impressive. The arena sat around 1500-2000, and was part of an larger building that had an indoor track, handball courts, weight rooms and other stuff. It was opened in 1994 with funding from the family that came up with the product Beer Nuts. Wesleyan teams have a strong following of fans, students and adults, and a very active pep band. (I don't think I have ever previously been present for a National Anthem performance by a quad of tubas!)

The small-town-ness of the event was evidenced by the numerous coat racks in the spacious lobby areas. After the game, people just came out from the glassed-in arena and picked up their unattended coats off the racks. I'm not sure if I would be that trusting, but it seems to work there.

The small school-ness of this from Augie's end was shown today when I responded to an e-Blast sent out this morning from the basketball office to cheer the team's previous night's effort and success. As I never do, I then sent a brief note of congratulations. And got a personal "Thank-you" response late in the day from the head coach! Neat.

3 pulled an almost-all-nighter last night at work. 4:30 or so this AM. She called from a cab on the way back to work a little before 9 this morning. She is Daughter of the Day.

The Blogger spell-check function may be down tonight. I apologized in advance for any errors.

On the way down to the game last night, I sat in the back seat with Brett's girlfriend, and she was busy texting while I was on the laptop. She had a handset that had a miniature (but standard) keyboard arrangement for input. I hadn't really paid any attention to that feature in a handset, but it sure makes sense. It takes me minutes to go through the letters in my phone to send a text message, and she was IM-ing several conversations at once. Cool. Is that how a Blackberry works?

OK. I'm headed home to shovel. Have a good evening.

BCOT