Halftime: FSU - 58, Purdue - 23

Can I have a show of hands... who feels bad for Purdue? Anyone?

Anyone?

Wake Forest and Wisconsin are tied at 60 with 9:00 to go. Go Wisconsin!

And I just found out that Duke-Indiana will be broadcast in High Definition tomorrow. Booyah!

And thanks to some antibiotics, I'm finally starting to feel better.

Go Big Ten (except for Purdue)!!

SSA

I applied for Social Security benefits Friday night. Whew! Quite a milestone. I don't feel old, but I keep subtracting 62 from 80 or 90. I hope the years start going by slowly. Love, Mommy

Western Illinois

Finally going to catch my first Indiana game tonight against Western Illinois. I hate early games like this because there's no good way to gauge how well the team is playing because we don't know how good Western Illinois is. They were 11-17 last season and 7-9 in the Mid-Continent conference. Street & Smith's and Athlon both picked them 4th in the MCC this season, and both said they could contend for the conference title. Apparently they have a good recruiting class coming in for the second season in a row.

So far this season they walloped Harris-Stowe (!?) 110-55 at home and then lost at Utah Valley State 69-82. What does that tell us? Nothing, I think.

Oh well, I guess I'll just watch the game and see what happens.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

All four of us have colds. Getting sick seems to be a holiday tradition.

I wonder which of us will be sick for Christmas. Me, no doubt.

On the bright side, I got my baking done yesterday so we have homemade bread, pumpkin pie, and cherry pie ready to go.

I hope you're having a good time at Mandy's.

slow

Is this site getting slower and slower or is it just me?

spyware

Thanks for the advice about spyware. MSN did have a freeprogram fromWebroot called Spysweeper which I downloaded and is now running. What is a beta program? I wonder if I will have to stop hating Marshall Strickland? It was a fun game, but the crowd was not "into" it except when Suhr was scoring. Strickland is always good for an aftergame quote. I wonder if he sees himself as an assistant coach? Love, Mom

Killingsworth

I watched the game last night, by the way, hope you're having fun and luck in Las Vegas, therefore, I was surprised to see that the Star (Terry Hutchens) headlined Strickland with a page one headline and picture. You know I couldn't stand pretty boy Strickland and I still can't. But, oh my God, that Marco is a monster basketball player. It's going to be so much fun watching him play, but I'll always be sad that he is a senior.
Since, I've been home, I have heard what sounds like my phone connection hanging up when I've been off line, even when I've been off line since the previous day. Is it possible that some spyware has gotten into my computer and dials up with out my knowledge? Until a few minutes ago, my computer "remembered" my password. After, I finish this, I am going to update my Norton. I usually update it every two or three weeks. I did notice that I have been getting about three times the amount of spam the last few days. Love, Mom

Austin, Texas

I'm in Austin this week attending the WebSphere Architecture Board conference. The conference basically entails locking a bunch of really smart IBMers in a room for a week to work on hard problems. I'm not accustomed to being the dumbest guy in the room - probably a good leveling influence on me. =)

I'm leaving here on Friday morning to fly to Vegas and meet Karen. A nice end to a rough week.

Elizabeth's wedding

Just like our trip to Mary's wedding, the logistics of our trip back to Minnesota for Elizabeth's wedding are an army captain's dream (or nightmare?) Daddy and David are working all day at the University of Illinois today and they drove both of their pick ups; They met at the BP at six this morning. Dave will drive home this evening and Daddy will drive to Aunt Mandy's rather than drive back to Greenwood and then back to Champaign (half the trip to Mandy's). I will start out early tomorrow morning to Mandy's, stop for lunch there (I hear it's shrimp and artichokes) and Daddy, of course. We will then continue to Rochester in the Chrysler and try to make it in time for the rehearsal dinner. Yes, it's on Thursday not Friday, I don't know why. On Sunday, we'll drive back to Mandy's, I'll stay overnight and drive the Chrysler home on Monday. Daddy and his truck will stay at Mandy's for about two weeks, finishing the basement in her brand new condo/townhouse. Not only that, I will drive back up to Mandy's for Thanksgiving. Dave is driving to Mandy's on Monday the 14th (the day I'm coming home the first time) to help Daddy until Friday or Saturday. Needless to say, Daddy is in his glory since all these intricate plans are out of his head. Do you have this memorized? Any questions? You will be quizzed in the fullness of time. Love, Mommy

Las Vegas info

Karen told me you were going to Las Vegas and when and who was taking care of the kids and I have forgotten all that information. That must have been a particularly full conversation for me to have forgotten so much. Anyway, I need an update so I can place you and Carson and Tyler in my musings that week. Love, Mommy

My face was red

I bugged Daddy for two, maybe three days to try our blog site. Then he tells me he wants to learn how to write a blog and I don't know how! I'll ask him this evening if he wants to try again. Mommy

DJ White injured?! And the hits just keep on coming...

So it's November 5th, and the basketball team has already lost two starters to injuries for about 6 weeks. Are we cursed? Cripes!

Yes, I think Ratliff is a starter. Strickland is a senior and deserves a chance to see what he can do at off-guard to start the season, but IMO it's inevitable that eventually he'll get replaced by Ratliff, who is a better shooter, better defender, better athlete, etc. And I think Ratliff probably improved more from his freshman season than Strickland did from his junior season.

White's injury will give more time to Allen and Dinc, so in the end it might help the team. I continue to hear how impressive Allen is is practice, so throwing him into the fire quickly may really pay off for the end of the season. Kline will obviously get more minutes as well, and he's supposedly much improved, but as a senior obviously I'm less concerned about his long-term development.

Still, it's really too bad that we won't be at full strength for the Duke game. Bummer.

George W Bush

From the Washington Post....

Bush's Popularity Reaches New Low

"Overall, the survey underscores how several pillars of Bush's presidency have begun to crumble under the combined weight of events and White House mistakes. Bush's approval ratings have been in decline for months, but on issues of personal trust, honesty and values, Bush has suffered some of his most notable declines. Moreover, Bush has always retained majority support on his handling of the U.S. campaign against terrorism -- until now, when 51 percent have registered disapproval."

Indiana versus Butler

Indiana plays Butler on December 23rd in Indianapolis. How's that for great timing? Any chance of getting tickets?

Viva Las Vegas

Karen and I are very excited about our upcoming trip to Las Vegas.

We're staying at the Sahara. Maybe we'll catch a show.









Or, maybe not.

Big Ten Wonk has his IU basketball preview up

Lots of stats for those who enjoy math.

Big Ten Wonk's IU Preview

What the heck is a blog and why should I care?

So since the blogosphere ("a whole bunch of web logs out on the internet") is taking the world by storm ("some geeks like them"), I thought it might be a good time to get the Bleizeffer family involved ("I like wasting my time in fruitless activities to avoid real work").

A "blog" is a kind of internet diary where people can post their thoughts on... well, just about anything. There's political blogs, economic blogs, expert blogs, satirical blogs, you name it.

One of the nice thing about blogs is that they can be used by multiple people as a way to keep in touch asynchronously - if I have something I want to say to Daddy about Indiana basketball and I happen to be at work or he's at work I can post it to the blog and he can read and comment on it later. Or we can post pictures about what's going on in our lives. It's like email, but it also gets archived and everyone in the family can see it and comment at their leisure.

Since I'm on my computer all frickin' day, this is pretty handy for me., so I suspect I'll do most of the posting, but we'll see how it goes.

What do you guys think? Worth a try?

Carson and Tyler in Disney World.

Kali River Rapids