March Madness

March Madness begins. In today's games the big news is Morehead State upset Louisville, while few of many picked that. Michigan State lost, so there are 2 of my sweet 16 out. I did pick the Richmond upset so I can have some sort of a bragging rights on that one. Too early to tell still. Penn St did not get the upset I had put them down for. Also I put Old Dominion down for a mini-upset but that didn't happen. More games tomorrow!

Superbowl 2011 predictions

Any gamblers? Not me. For bragging and/or who cares rights, my votes:

Coin flip: Steelers
First to score: Packers
Most penalties: Packers
Leading at half time: Steelers
Winner of game: Steelers
Leading passer: Aaron Rodgers
Leading rusher: Rashard Medenhall
Leading receiver: Gred Jennings
Leading kicker: Shaun Siesham
MVP: Ben Roethlisberger
Score at 1/2 time: Packers 13, Steelers 17
Final Score: Packers 20, Steelers 27
Tears shed in Green Bay: priceless

Twas the night before Thanksgiving

I always remind myself of the interesting fact that tonight (the night before Thanksgiving) is the #1 "bar night" of the YEAR in the United States. More people go out and drink tonight than on New Years Eve. If driving after 6pm be careful for drunk drivers. I wouldn't even go on the roads at 2:10AM. The police will though. One reason why this always puzzles me is that tomorrow is the holiday, and a hangover for a holiday is never beneficial. Wouldn't friday be the day for sleep? Another factor of this holiday is Friday being "black Friday" or "shopping day." I can tell you that I have never been to a store of any sort on that day. Some people tell me to go just for the fun. It is true that I enjoy people-watching, especially at Walmart, the #1 most awesome place to people watch. To see people as a species and how they relate to one another in crowded environments is always interesting.

Tomorrow is an interesting holiday in our nation as some people simply refer to it as "turkey day," and others give thanks for their blessings. This then leads into church services to give thanks to God for our blessings. I was at a mini service on Tuesday, with both thanks and food combined. Would go on thursday but no nursery that day, after all they didn't ask me to come in that day to do nursery. Looks like the plan is to eat food, watch football and visit with others. Enjoy the holiday!

Gram memories

On 10/28 my amazing grandmother went home to be with the Lord. Time to begin writing memories.

Grandma would correct your grammar if you were wrong. As a child it drove me nuts but in hindsight it was very good. And now I do it to people, and drive them nuts. They will thank me later.

Grandma was extremely good at Boggle similar to my mother; but never pompous about it. We enjoyed playing Skip-Bo together. Still to this day, I can't play skip-bo w/o thinking about gram and I play the game at least once a month. When she wanted a certain card she would tap on the deck about three times and say 'give me the card' ... Afterwards she would like to watch the show "Columbo" (peter falk show).

She would forget the names for things. It was quite amusing how she would refer to things as "whatsit" "whoozee" ; thus a person could be "whoozee." When watching Knots Landing there was "big eyes" and "chizzle face" . Also at times the show was called "whoozie"

She would sing to me at night in either language and was the type of grandmother where when mom isn't around for a reason such as work, grandma is there. When my mother worked until 4pm or so (whenever it was) we would go to grams house for an hour (?) or two? and eat fruit in yogurt and watch cartoons before Mom picked us up. Good times.

Unfortunately I lost grandpa too soon and grandma would often say she wanted to see the golden (5oth) anniversary. Now she can join him in heaven. Without faith death would be hard to deal with.

College Football season

This year is year three that we blue fans suffer watching Rich Rodriguez coaching the Wolverines. He is not doing his job well. If they go the rest of the year without a win, they will not have a bowl game. Hopefully they will win ONE game and have a bowl game. If not perhaps he ought to be fired. They did win the first four games. It is now all set that UofM will begin next season vs alabama at Cowboys Stadium. The last time they played Alabama was when Tom Brady was playing for michigan, when they used to win games with Lloyd Carr. Carr has a pretty good record. Historically UofM has been a huge winner in football. They won the 1st rose ball and have I think the most wins of any college football team but don't quote me on that one. When Carr's year had the title that was UM's 11th year for the title. Years ago UM always beat Ohio St in the last game of the season. Younger kids now see the buckeyes as the ones who win this game. blah. From what I hear there might be a Big 10 championship game after the end of the season. So in theory if UM and OSU were tied for 1st and 2nd, they could then play each other twice in a row, the 2nd time for the title??? that is odd. one of my blog readers might comment on this and correct me if I am wrong. he used to live in michigan but he moved away : (


sorry I haven't been bloggin I work too much

US Open upon us

After a wonderful Wimbledon the US Open is here. New York has been nice and hot/muggy which is great for an Open. This is likely Nadal's best chance to have a career grand slam by winning all four slams. Wimbledon has now been twice for him. Federer is back at #2 where he belongs. It would be nice to see the two of them in the finals and see Nadal win. He deserves it.

Andy Roddick would love to win his first slam but I don't think this is the one for him. My vote is for him in the Aussy next season.

I plan on catching as much of the opening rounds as I can though with a lot of work it is difficult to find the time.

French Open 2010

For my blog readers, some may be saying Dan, where is the blogging about the French Open? I had been using the facebook "status" updates but was asked by someone to not say the results of daily matches due to many of us tivoing them and watching later. That is a good point. After all, as I write this blog I have not finished the Jelena Jankovic vs Stosur match. Oh, Jelena.....


I have been waiting to see Jelena Jankovic win a grand title for years. This year I thought it was up to Serena Williams to NOT allow Henin to win. I don't root for Henin. However, Stosur did awesome and BEAT HENIN. No one has ever beat Henin at the French Open. That was amazing. So I was thinking Serena now had an easier chance to make the finals. However, little did we expect, Stosur than beat Serena! Wow. If anyone deserves a shot at the title, she has earned the right. However, I stick to my guns and want to see Jankovic win this. If she can beat Stosur, she can win the title. The semi final match which I currently am watching while writing this is basically the final match for women. I believe that the winner of this match will win the title.






Some may say "who is Stosur?" Well, she is the 7th seed for this Open and has now beat the two best women (though they may not be the top seeds, that is mostly because of Henin's "retirement"). Henin did her impression of Jay-Z. If Stosur does win this final what will he ranking be? That will be interesting to see. I am hoping to see Jankovic win this match but I am not holding my breath just yet. Stosur had two huge wins to make it this far. Though I continue to say Go Jelena!!!!


On to Federer and Nadal...

I was already looking forward to the Nadal v Federer final to then see Nadal win another French Open. Little did we know the same man who beat Nadal on clay last year at the French took Federer out in the 1/4 finals. This is the first tournament in years and years that Federer is not in a semi-final. His record was .... 26? Something like that, 20something straight semi-finals. A record that no one will beat ever, probably. Soderling ended the streak.

We now look forward to a Nadal final where perhaps he will play Soderling.



After all, Djokovic lost too. Five sets of intense tennis led to Novak losing to Mr. Melzer seed 22.



These, the normal 1 and 3 seeders. This might change. Nadal will be number one in the world now if he wins the French. Go Rafa!!!!!