Well That Sucked

I had such high hopes for Marquette this year.  I thought they were playing some great, hard-nosed ball, had a last second win against Davidson, and a great comeback vs. Butler.  And after completely dismantling Miami, who I had picked to win it all, I thought MU was going to Atlanta for sure.  I thought the matchup with Syracuse was perfect for them, especially after we took care of them in short order a few weeks earlier at the Bradley Center.

Well it was a total kick to the teeth watching them against Syracuse.  I thought that after they cut the lead to six at the half, I was thinking they were set up good for the second half.  Short of the terrible referees in the game, MU just flat out sucked.  Shooting 22.6% from the field, and 12% from the three point line, there was no way they were going to win.  And they set a record, or tied a record, for fewest points in a round of 8 game (I refuse to call it 'The Elite Eight'), though that really is nothing to be proud of.

So now I don't really need to worry about the NCAA tournament anymore.  It was a good run, and I think MU is in a good position for next year in the New Big East.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter 2013 everyone!

The Final Warm Up

Yesterday we went to see the Brewers game.  It was the final exhibitiongame before the start of the regular season.  Kris happened to hearsomething about it on the radio, or TV, about a week ago.  All tickets were $10, so it was a cheap, family outing.  The only down side was playing the White Sox.  The seats weren't all that bad, We were in the 100 level, which was good.  Now the bad part.  We were on the third base side, and it was about 70% White Sox fans on the third base side.  Some of them seemed to be nice.  But then there were some other loud-mouthed chumps who were really annoying.  And of course, everytime the White Sox did something good, or the Brewers did something bad, they were standing up cheering.  It was almost like being at a Chicago home game. 

Plus, were were on the aisle, so every time people walked up and down to their seats, they blocked our view.  And because it was the last game, Roenicke was pitching by committee.  I think that every pitcher in the bullpen pitched an inning.  And the Sox were pretty much doing the same.  We had a foul ball land about three rows in front of us, and in batting practice, there was a boy on the other side of our section who got hit with a screaming liner.  At least it looked like it hit him.  He wasn't too phased by it, so maybe it missed him.

It wasn't looking to good for the Brewers.  They were losing 4-2 going into the 8th inning, and we were going to leave after the 7th so we could get home to watch the Marquette game.  But we decided to give it one more inning.  And it's a good thing that we stayed, because the Brewers put up a 3 spot in the bottom of the eighth to take a 5-4 lead.  That allowed us to leave a little early and get home by half time of the Marquette game, though with the way that played out, it wouldn't have hurt to stay to see the Brewers close out the ninth.

Sarah's Crappy Laptop

This year, our brilliant school board here decided to purchase laptop computers for all the incoming freshmen for use at school. I have heard that the total price tag was around $65K.  So far that price, I would think that they would have gotten at least some decent units.  Sadly, that isn't the case.

Sarah has a Lenovo laptop, and I have to say I hate it!  She had to do a project for her English class where she needed to make a movie/video and upload it to youtube.  Then they would watch everyone's videos in class and critique.  I remember when she got it, which was about a month into the school year, and for some reason I wasn't able to install our wireless printer on it.  They only got a fixed number of restarts (I think it was four) before everything locked down.  So I never got it installed, which gets to be a problem when she needs to print a paper or something.  But back to the point.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to help Sarah with her project.  The program that she had installed on it wasn't saving the file in the correct format, so I had to convert it.  Which wouldn't have been that much of a problem, but the touchpad was so sensitive it kept clicking on things I didn't want it to click on as I was scrolling through menus.  I was ready to throw the thing against the wall.  I asked Sarah if I could adjust her touchpad settings and she said it didn't matter because as soon as she restarted everything reset, that is just the way it works.  And that happens now because it crashed on her about a month ago where she had to take it to whoever the guy is at the high school who handles those kinds of problems, and he had to reset, or reinstall something.  I forget exactly what Sarah said he did.  Whatever it was it just sucked.  So then, after many attempts, I finally got it fixed for her and ready to upload to youtube, which then took something like 5 hours.

All in all I have to say I HATE when I need to help her with her school work.  I told Kris we should just buy her one for school and have her turn in the one they gave her.  Then I could pick the brand, features, put on the software that would work best, etc.  This is just an example of what happens when you allow the government to be in charge of things for you.

Ali's Book Report

This past weekend I helped Alison with her upcoming book report.  She wanted to do something a little bit different than what she had been doing, which was a simple poster board.  The book she read this month was a story about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, so I suggested that she do it like a newspaper.  I helped her out with fonts and lining things up and this is what we came up with.

I think she did a pretty good job if I do say.  It looks pretty much like a real paper.

My Tax Dollars At Work

Ever since we moved Kris's dad into the assisted living facility we have been having some of his mail delivered to our house because Kris takes care of managing his bills and doctor and dentist appointments, etc.  She told me that when she went to the dentist last week the receptionist told her that his reminder card for his next appointment had been returned to the office as undeliverable, or something like not living at that address.  And this comes after the mail carrier asked me over the weekend when I met her on the sidewalk to get the mail before she got to our house if we were still getting the mail that was addressed to Kris's dad.  Of course I told her yes.

I don't understand why the post office would return a letter that was going to a valid address.  Yes he doesn't live with us, but why would that matter?  If there was no such person at the address, it would be on the people living at that address to return the letter to the post office and notify them wouldn't it?  We never did.  And the forwarding stickers only last for a particular length of time. so there was no reason to put a sticker on the letters at the post office.  Kris spent half the day today trying to get things worked out with her dad's mail so that the important stuff comes directly to us using a c/o line in the address when possible, and noting things in his accounts that if any mail is returned to contact us right away.  And that is one reason that the post office is losing money.  Who knows, maybe they do it on purpose so they can collect the postage twice.

Sarah & Coffee

Over the last few months, Sarah has become "hooked' on coffee.  Not the standard, fresh brewed kind of coffee, but the chocolatey, caramel, latte, whatever that you get at Starbucks.  Short of spending $5.00 on a cup of coffee she has been asking us to get the Nestles instant mocha or Hills Brothers instant stuff from the grocery store.  I have been telling her that it really isn't that good for you and the at her age she shouldn't have so much caffeine, but she drinks it anyway.  Actually, it's our fault for buying it for her in the first place.  But in the last week or so she hasn't had any in the morning on her way to school.  Over the past weekend, she was complaining of having migraine headaches when she wakes up in the morning, and I told her it is from her going cold turkey on the coffee.

I know what she feels like, because I once again have cut way back on the caffeine again for Lent.  It wasn't so much coffee, but cola.  So I went through it too.  I told her it isn't so much that she shouldn't be drinking coffee, it's the type and amount she drinks.  Those drinks are loaded with caffeine and because she doesn't like the bitter taste, she doubles up the packets of instant to increase the chocolate, or caramel, flavors.  Hopefully she has learned a little something.

I Suppose It's About Time

It's been about two months since I actually entered anything here, so I suppose it's about time I updated things.  Things have been very busy here.  I have usually ended up coming home from work and either driving one of the girls to cheer practice, or helping Alison with her homework and then going to get Sarah from cheer, eating dinner, helping with Sarah's homework, then relaxing by watching TV and falling asleep.

Things have eased up a little bit so I am going to try and make a better effort to update things once or twice a week.  I'll try and post a couple of recent happenings, but I'm not going to go back and remember everything that has happened for the last two months.