Obviously it’s selfish, but I’m really not looking forward to the political pandering we’re going to get from the presidential candidates on April 16.  I have the feeling it’ll be ridiculously disgusting.

As usual, the Caps are doing just enough to keep my hopes up so that I’ll be disappointed.

Our friends Abbi and Matt got to watch this phenomenon firsthand during the ACC basketball tournament, where VT was leading the entire game only to lose in the last second.  The whole game I stayed detached, expecting UNC to win at any given point in time.  With five minutes left in the game, I was still very convinced we’d lose.  With two minutes and an eight point lead, I started to think – “hey, maybe…” With one minute it was close and I started to believe!  With 0.8 seconds, we were losing.  And then I spent the afternoon being pissed at myself for believing we could ever win.

The Caps were dead in the water starting at Thanksgiving, and with the coaching change at that time have been one of the best teams in hockey since.  The only problem was that they went ahead and lost most of their games, if not just about all of them in October and November to that point.  So they’ve been digging out of a hole ever since.

They’re perilously close to that eighth (or third!) playoff spot.  They’re 8-2-0 in the last 10, and past that they’re showing a strong 75% winning average.  The problem is that all of the teams they are chasing refuse to lose.  So they’re getting lots of points and wins, but not gaining any ground.  The problem was a few weeks ago when I started to believe they could catch division leading Carolina.  They still can, but it requires the Caps to win their next three games, and for Carolina to lose two of their next three.  That seems more likely than Philadelphia or Boston phoning it in.  It’s unlikely.

And, even if the Caps do make the playoffs, they’ll probably face the Penguins, whom I believe the Capitals always lose to in the playoffs.

The Caps play Carolina on Tuesday night.  If they win, they’re still alive.  If they lose, they’re done.  It’s that simple.  So hopefully they lose, and I can go on and watch the Rockies start by losing every game in March and April, only to have an improbable chance of postseason baseball, but enough of a chance that I might believe they can make it.

But I still think they can do it.  So they won’t! When will I learn?

I thought UVA kids were supposed to be smarter?

Sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell is one of four Virginia football players not enrolled for the spring semester, the school announced last night in a statement. The release did not state whether Sewell or any of the others will play for the Cavaliers in the fall.

I liked Sewell, he throws interceptions.

I’ve been looking for the perfect thing to celebrate the 2008 return to blogging.  VT is going to the Orange Bowl.

Regarding how much passing Kansas does (~36 pass attempts per game) safety DJ Parker says: “It’s going to be exciting.  That’s what we back there want.  We want to get our hands on some balls.”

Nice.

So we agree that the VT costumes were tasteless. Hooray. I’m cool with that.

But the last sentence in this article makes the one of the guys into an automatic giant douche. Freedom of expression is great, but seriously: get over yourself.

I spent most of Saturday running around, pointing to my VT sweatshirt, and saying “champions!”   No really, I did.

College football is messed up this year.  Bring on Kansas!  I think their coach needs his own bus.  Plus he shouldn’t get worked up over football games or he might die of a heart attack.

I’d like to predict victory, but I think VT has approximately two bowl game wins in their last ten tries, or something equally ridiculous. I have the internet, so I could look up the actual numbers – but that’s a lot of work.

I know we just finished with the Miami game, but I uploaded the FSU pictures before we left.  So you can have a look!

I read about the Wine Rack in Playboy.

This excites me.  I was going to try and get one for Anna as a surprise before this weekend’s VT/Miami game, but it turns out that they’re not available for immediate delivery.  So this is a failure.  Sad panda.

I think it turns out that it wouldn’t work anyway.  It lists itself as being for A or low B cupped women, and when full, it will appear as a DD.  Imagine the chaos, and the children for God’s sake, if you would, of a D cupped woman going up four cup sizes.  So basically, if Anna used it, she’d be up in the FF range.  The humanity!

It would probably just look weird.  I don’t think the bladders resize or are custom fit, so it’d probably look like two large lumps on top of… two large boobs.  Hotttt.

Thursday, we got on our two hour, forty minute flight to Baltimore.  Mom picked us up for a one hour, fifteen minute car rid to Springfield from Baltimore.

On a rainy Friday, we spun up the old RV and drove five hours to Blacksburg.  It’s normally a four hour trip – but we had to stop at a Wal-Mart in Woodstock, VA to get new coach batteries and install them into the RV.  There’s always something – the thing is seventeen years old!

Friday evening we went to the VT/Elon basketball game, where Elon’s hopes and dreams were crushed.  Then we went downtown to reminisce about how downtown isn’t really downtown anymore.  It was rainy and cold the entire time.

Saturday – tailgating, and finally, a triumph over Florida State!

Sunday, we drove four hours back to NOVA, got in a car and returned the RV to storage, then got in a car and drove to Baltimore, to get on a plane to Denver, where we eventually got in a shuttle bus to our car, to where we drove forty-five minutes to get back home.  Yesterday was a little bit travel intensive.

But – worth it – it was a lot of fun tailgating and seeing everyone.  It probably wouldn’t have been as fun if we hadn’t won the game – but we did!  So no worries!

We leave for Virginia on Thursday this week, to fly home, to drive to Blacksburg, to watch Virginia Tech play Florida State, who they’re zero for life against.  What a vacation!  This is not an off-Friday week for me, so I’ve been front-loading a lot of my work time so that I can minimize the impact on my vacation time balance.

This means I’ve been getting to work around 6 AM the past three days, since it’s not really possible for me to stay late anymore due to my piano lesson obligations.  The exception is on Tuesdays, when I have class:  it starts at 5:30 and is near work, so I basically just stay at work until class time.  Class is from 5:30 to 9:30.

So yesterday I got to work around 6 AM, stayed here until class started, went to class where I had to do a presentation, and rolled out around 9 PM to arrive home at approximately 9:30 PM.  I believe that’s the very definition of a long day.  Needless to say, my wonderful wife took good care of me, made me a cup of tea, and put me to bed nearly as soon as I got home.
In related news – I have one class left until I unlock my Masters’ Degree achievement (100 points).  On 22 December, unless I fail my last class horribly, I will graduate with honors and on the Dean’s list with an Master of Science in Systems Engineering.  Hooray!

Work contacted me about potentially wanting to get a PhD – I told them to pound sand.  They can call me Dr. Lamb if they want – I’ll print up a degree for myself.  That’s the only way I’ll get a PhD.  I don’t want to put the time into it.  More importantly, it’d probably creep Jen out.