Musing about: kidney stones, winter olympics, college basektball and more...

I am not feeling a video blog now or lately so I figured I would blog the old fashioned way (you know, circa 2007).

Kidney Stones

-Elaine is finally recovering, but she has been dealing with a particularly nasty set of kidney stones. They eventually had to remove them and place a stint in the tube that connects the kidneys to the bladder. I thought the stint would be about 2 inches long. Turns out it is close to 24 inches long. It looked big and painful. However, Elaine is doing better and hope to return to work.

Winter Olympics

-Short track speed skating is awesome! I am not convinced that there are any set rules to that sports. I think they just make them up as they go. It is always rewarding to watch 4 people wipe out and then wait for 4 minutes while they sort it out.

-I think Canada put on a great Olympics. It was a lot more understated than Beijing, but that can be a good thing. However, I have seen a lot of posts saying that, "Oh Canada" is on of the greatest national anthems on the planet. First, how the hell do you judge the quality of a national anthem. Second, I think it is a middle of the pack anthem if I am subjectively judging it. I think for an anthem to be truly great, you need to talk about blowing stuff up, mention your national colors, and place a shifty eyed dog somewhere in the anthem.

-Curling is delightful.

 -I can really get behind any bobsledding team that names their sled "The Night Train"

-Bob Costas is a funny guy.

-It would be pretty sweet if the U.S. men beat the Canadian's for gold in hockey. About as sweet as any country spanking us in basketball. What can I say, I like to see the underdog win.

-Finally, this Olympics I decided to root exclusively for the U.S. Previously I rooted for the underdog or someone I saw an interesting story about. This Olympics, I decided to accuse all countries of cheating when they beat the U.S. and insist that they suck after we beat them. It was more rewarding than I thought. Though I think Elaine had had enough by the end of the O's.

College Basketball

-First off, the UNI Panthers are having a great season and I have enjoyed watching them. My wife and I had made it to every home game until she got kidney stones. We missed senior night and were pretty bummed about it. So to any Panthers seniors we have had in class, congratulations you are well deserving of some praise.

-Anyone noticing what Steve Alford is doing out in the Mountain West Conference? Normally I couldn't care about the MWC, but my mother in law lives in New Mexico and Alford used to coach Iowa. I am not an Iowa fan at all. So, it gives me great pleasure to see Alford stick it to the Hawks by getting a national ranking while Iowa is 0 and infinity. Rule #32: Enjoy the small things.

-What a bummer it would be to schedule the UConn women on your senior night.


-I won't know what to do with my evenings and weekends once college basketball is done. I will have to put that time to my dissertation I guess.

Finishing Thoughts

I will try to get more posts up. My mother in law wants me to model the new Jiu Jitsu gi Elaine got me for valentines day. Also, I keeping bringing my flip cam to ISU trying to get some interesting stuff on tape, but there is nothing too interesting going on. Keep coming back I will eventually have something good up. Until then have a great day.

Bill