March Sadness...

It's the time of year when my favorite sport shines its brightest, and the whole country takes notice of college basketball. Unfortunately this year, my beloved Cavaliers of Virginia shockingly didn't get selected to the NCAA tournament; alas when you finish 5-11 in the ACC you don't typically have a lot of things to put on your tournament resume. The year started off promising, with an early win against Arizona, at Arizona. Unfortunately UVA had a horrible stretch during the middle of the season in which they lost 7 in a row and basically sank to the bottom of the ACC. Maybe the UVA football team used up all the availalbe karma when it broke the NCAA record for most number of close wins this past season, because the basketball team caught the brunt of several heartbreaking loses. Several losses came in OT, and a total of 7 games were lost by 4 points or less. Injuries certainly didn't help during this stretch, but several of our players never really seemed to "get it" or play with much heart. Sean Singletary, our star player who decided to come back for his senior season, looked tired trying to carry the team on his back. Things started to turn around a bit during the end of the season, Singletary was finally completely healthy and Lars Mikalauskas, who wears his emotions on his sleeve, gave us a spark on the inside. That was enough to win a few games at the end of the season (4 out of our last 6), and to win Sean's last game at JPJ while getting his jersey retired. As an added bonus, that last win essentially eliminated Maryland from the NCAA tournament (if I'm going to be suffering, might as well have Terps fans in the same boat).

The final redemption for UVA has come as a result of an age old adage: you can never have too much of a good thing. Although my Econ 101 professor Kenny Elzinga might disagree with that adage, we now live in the era of three post season college basketball tournaments. There is the famous field of 65 teams that compete in the NCAA tournament every year, the teams that at had an argument to make it on Selection Sunday that play in the NIT, and finally introducing the College Basketball Invitational or CBI. Selecting the best 16 teams in America, after the NCAA and NIT get the first 97 picks, the CBI doesn't even let records tarnish the image of its teams and doesn't have any restricting requirements on "winning" records (just ask 13-18 Cincinnati). UVA takes on Richmond tonight in the inaugural matchup, and if we can't get excited about playing in the third best post-season college backetball tournament in the land, well then I guess we're normal...

Top of the Mountain...

Yesterday was the day we conquered the mountain...Bruce, Dave, and I went to the top of Breckenridge today. I'd like to chart out what we did because it was an amazing day on the mountain, and I was able to do a lot of terrain that I haven't done before.

Even if you have been to Breck, the rest of the entry will be a little hard to follow unless you have a map. I highlighted the Breck map with all the trails and lifts we took, so that you might have a chance at understanding the next paragraph.



After the walk from our rental house to the mountain and a painfully slow lift ride, we ended up on Peak 9 and did a warm-up run (I went on American, I think Bruce and Dave went down Gold King). We then started toward our final destination. We headed down Volunteer and then down Shock to catch the Peak 8 Super Connect at the mid-load station. We did a quick run on Frosty's Freeway to Chair 6. Then it was now or never to the Imperial Lift up to the top of Peak 8. What a view! It was an unusually warm and clear day. The temp at the bottom of the mountain was near 40, and at the top, a balmy 25. Bruce did the final hike up to the very top, while Dave and I did a run down the Imperial Bowl (I have to give props to Bruce for doing the final hike up, I didn't have the energy and we didn't really know how we were going to get down from there). Dave and I did a second run down Imperial Bowl, and fortuitously met up with Bruce. We headed up the Imperial Lift to the top again. Our plan was to ski down the ridge line and head into the North Bowl, but that area was mostly closed. We ended up heading down Pika, then through a tree section and down Northstar all the way down to the base. What a run! Looking back up to the top where we just were was incredible, especially thinking that we hadn't been on a lift for a long time. We ended the day doing some of the Peak 8 Blacks that I'd never done before. We survived and headed back home triumphant.

Here is the top of the mountain in the distance from one of the lifts:



At the bottom of the Imperial Express lift looking up:



Dave and I at the elevation sign:



Bruce on the very top:

Blame Halo 3...

Sarah and I attended competing guys and girls parties on a recent weekend. The guys played Halo 3 all day (even getting some participation from Atlanta with Dr. Fancysocks and his silent guest with the flower icon), while the girls were doing things like watching movies and knitting. Shortly thereafter, I found this fitting clip on YouTube, which was good for a few laughs (I think the girls will appreciate it as much as the boys) mainly because it hit fairly close to home. I particularly appreciated the fact that the host of the party last weekend, Jeremy is expecting his first child. Now I won't say that Jeremy would miss the birth of his child due to Halo 3, but I'd rather not put him into that kind of dilemma...