Weekend Update 28 FEB 2016

As usual, life is the same on the home front. Nothing new or exciting to report. Just the same old, same old.

Work

At work, management is undergoing some changes.

The appointed Secretary of Administration has moved to another position and we have an Acting Secretary. Along with that, the person who oversees SCO in the Secretary's Office has retired.

So - we have a temporary, possibly permanent Secretary; a shift where we report to a new Assistant Secretary; and the vacant position of SCO Director will likely be filled soon with a new appointee.

To complete the organizational chart - the next position (appointed) is Assistant Director - who is my boss.

We're a very non-political office and therefore very stable as far as management positions go - but - those positions are always subject to change at any moment.

Construction and engineering work is pretty much cut and dried. Concrete, steel and glass really don't care if you're liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican or a Martian. Our work stays basically the same.

State Basketball

The guys had a nice win over Clemson followed by two expected losses - UNCheats and Syracuse. Clemson was, hopefully still is, on the bubble for the NCAAT. It didn't help them to lose to us.

Last regular season home game is Wednesday vs. Boston College.

We should be favored to win - except that Lennard Freeman (pronounced luh-nard' - French for - The Nard) has a stress fracture. Our minimal bench is now down to, well, one. Sean Kirk will likely see some minutes in the remaining two games.

Interestingly, it's still been a lot of fun this year. Our guys play hard and never give up. We've been 'in' every game except for two, maybe three games. No one can complain about effort. Great to watch.

If we hadn't lost three guys (Lacy, Henderson, Washington) expected to be starters or first off the bench - it would have been a completely different season.

eL Superbola

Football is Fun to Watch

Going to Chip and Erica's tomorrow for the annual Superbowl Watching Party. Kind of a stretch to call it a party. Just a few friends getting together.

Both C and E work Sunday and won't get home till 4:00. So, I'm taking care of the food.

Keeping it very simple. Chili in the Slow Cooker + Saltine Crackers + cheese and green onion to put on top; will fix up a tray of fruit + veggies (cucumber, grape tomato, celery, mushroom, strawberry, seedless grapes) with dip; BYOB - and that's it.

Basketball

Dook 88 - State 80

Same team, same story, same ending.

With no bench, our starters get worn out; we get behind by about 10; come back but can't quite overcome the deficit; the guys play as hard as they can but we lose.

The other team is always just a little better - and the other team always has more depth. Just too hard to overcome and win.

Shaun Kirk played a little bit in the second half. He has the wildest black / reddish / blond hair I've ever seen on a guy. It's more blond now than in the photo. Oddly, it looks right on him. He seems like a 'free spirit' fun guy.

Kind of surprised he hasn't played this year, except for just a few minutes. We'll see a lot more of him next year.

60 Orbits

So, after a phenomenal game and win over #15 Miami last Saturday, we went to FSU and laid an egg Monday night.

As I said in an earlier post, our game vs. Georgia Tech (first half) was the worst we've played all year - until FSU. The first half against FSU was even worse - a lot worse.

Even still, we managed to come back and darn near won (again).

Abu missed a critical easy layup that would have tied the game with about 6 minutes to go. We also went back to poor free throw shooting (again). That and we took a few panicky missed shots - we just couldn't get closer than 1 point. Credit FSU with making baskets and free throws at the end when it counted most.

I'm sure Coach Gott is pulling his hair out.

Next up - Saturday at the University of New Jersey Dook.

Home

Made it to 60 today.

I don't look a day over 59.

Average distance to the sun is approximately 93,000,000 miles. 2piR = 584,336,234 miles / year. Times 60 years = 35,060,000,000 miles. That's 35 Billion - with a B!

No wonder I'm so damn tired.

(Yes, we all know Earth's orbit is an ellipse, but we're approximating here)

Superbowl EL

I think it will be a defensive game. The Panther's O-line will protect Newton a bit more than the Bronco's O-line can protect Manning. Newton will use that edge for the win.

Heading to Chip and Erica's to watch the game Sunday (as we do every year). Chip's been trash talking Newton and the Panthers all year. I hope we win so I can give him a ton of bleep. :-)