Weekend Wrapup

I'll try to get this in here before The Big Bang Theory starts. It's the only non-sports-event show of the entire week I'll actually try to set aside time to watch. I don't know what it is about those crazy physicists, but they just crack me up (sometimes leaving me gasping for air I'm laughing so hard!)

Here's some quick hits:

-Big win for the Steelers yesterday. Not a must-win, but it's nice to stay ahead of Baltimore because they somehow keep winning with a rookie quarterback and no big names on offense. This weekend, the Steelers are in Baltimore. If the Steelers win, they win the AFC North Division and are looking good for a 1st round bye.

-I actually missed the 4th quarter since I was at choir practice (big Christmas music extravaganza this Sunday), but everybody was getting text updates and passing info along between every song. I wonder if that ever happens in actual church out on the west coast when their team is on the east coast and playing an early game. That would be like 9am for people in California....

-PSU is off to the Rose Bowl as expected against USC. I'm glad that PSU didn't have to face Oregon State again--been there, done that (and crushed them). USC is playing as well as anybody in the country and it'll be a fun traditional Rose Bowl matchup. It really doesn't mean anything other than bragging rights (playoff, anybody??), but it'll be a fun game to watch. Also, I heard JoePa say that he's doing well and hopes to be back on the sideline for that game.

-Speaking of college football playoffs, it's going to be Oklahoma vs Florida. I fell asleep for most of the 2nd half of the OU game, but I guess they took care of business. Now the Alabama-Florida game, I was able to catch most of that. Let me tell you, THAT was a true college football matchup of two GREAT teams. That was such a well-played game (unlike many of the games we're forced to watch from the Big East here in Pittsburgh). If I recall, I believe I labelled the Pitt-WVU game a comedy of errors...

-I've mentioned this once before, but ESPN.com did a neat job with a concept and allowing it to develop with the Kathryn Bertine experiment of becoming an Olympian. It appears that she wrote her final installment for espn.com, and it was a neat story about how she competed in the 2008 World Championships for cycling. She also mentioned that she was at another world championship in Vancouver (her father competed as a 70+ year old at the triathlon world championships). I think what I really liked about the series was how she was a pretty talented athlete, but just pushed herself to such high limits and reached so many goals (....kind of like Beth!). I hope that she can continue to train and maybe have a shot at qualifying for the 2012 Olympics in London.

-#22 Davidson had a nice win against NC State over the weekend. Stephen Curry was himself and they got the job done against the bigger Wolfpack squad. Davidson is still going to play WVU, Purdue, and Duke before getting to their SoCon schedule. They play sound defense and I hope they have another great year. They must have a lot of confidence after being a missed 3-pointer away from making the final 4. Penn State, they're just hoping to be respectable. But, I guess you have to start somewhere. Arizona? They lost against Texas A&M. I'll be honest (and Beth can attest to it), I've grown tired of Arizona's style of play over the last couple of years. It's painful to watch how they just chuck it up and play half-hearted defense. I'll reserve any rash decisions until I'll see who the next coach will be to replace Lute Olson, but I just might jump off that Arizona Wildcat bandwagon. We shall see..

Workouts this weekend:
Sat - Pool workout (400,300,200,100)
Sun - 1:20 run with Beth (Brrr!)
Mon - Box (stepper) workout with the jumpers/sprinters

I'm scheduled to go swimming before school tomorrow with the teachers and then run with the distance guys at practice tomorrow. I hear it may be close to 50 degrees! I'll take rain if that's what it takes to be 50!!!!!