Top 10 Signs You're Watching Too Much College Basketball

This Top 10 from David Letterman includes a Butler basketball player, and it's funny, so read it.

Go Dawgs!

For the second time in five years, the Butler men's basketball team has made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. Last time it happened, I was a senior and we were all celebrating on the mall on campus honking our horns and running around screaming and cheering. It was so fun to be a part of. So now it's fun to see the team make it this far again. And of course we're playing Florida -- jerks...it'd be awesome if we beat Florida and put them in their place. This should be a good game on Friday, so let's hope they make history and Butler beats Florida and makes it to the Elite 8!

Kick Ball...coming soon to a park near you

Angie, Karin and I are starting a kick ball team. That's right, kick ball. That game you played in the neighborhood with whoever was around during the summer time (when I was little, I was the youngest in our neighborhood, so my "outs" never counted). Or at recess, you and another kid got to be the captains and pick your teams, ultimately leaving one or two kids feeling like they sucked cause they were picked last. The good thing is, everyone is recruited at once. No one's a loser. It's all in good fun! So far, Stacy and Taylor seem to be sure things. Taylor said he's confident in Stacy's kick ball abilities. She'll probably be our ace. Aunt Katie said she'd be an alternate. Another friend at work is a "maybe"... Looks like we're shaping up to be a strong team. If you live in the Twin Cities metro and want to join our team, let me know by March 29! Or if you live out of town and want to visit and sub in for a game, I'll be sure to squeeze you in. Stay tuned for more details about our team name, t-shirts and of course, our stats when the season starts.

Social commentary on my new choir

I recently joined the Twin Cities Women's Choir with my friend Angie. It's fun to be singing regularly again, but I just need to make some comments here. Consider this the "truth table." What happens at the truth table stays at the truth table.

Okay, so first a little background. Ang and I sang in choir in high school and were used to being section leaders. Then we sang at All State with really talented girls (everyone had to audition to be in it). I definitely didn't feel like the best singer there -- it was a kind of intimidating group to be in, and sometimes I felt like it was a fluke that I ended up there. However, I find myself feeling kind of snotty sometimes in this new choir. Not because I know the music any better or think I'm better, but because of the middle school-type goofing around and wasting of time that goes on. If we're using my free time to do this, I'd like to be productive and have fun at the same time. But some of these ladies are just like those kids from middle school who craved a lot of attention or laughed too loud at people's jokes. It's like I'm coming to that sad realization that the groups you're put in as a kid (either advanced or "regular") pave the way for how you behave in social settings for the rest of your life. Then again, the All State choir back in the day had some divas who thought they were much better than everyone else. At least in this choir people are down-to-earth and nice. Some of them are just stuck in that weird mindset where everyone probably was at one point in their lives (but usually it comes around adolescence and then only reappears when the timing is appropriate or when you're drunk).

PROPOSED SOLUTION: I need to morph the two types of people from the two choirs to form one group of women who love to sing and want to have fun, but they also are serious about learning the music, singing the right notes, blending in with everyone else and not wasting everyone's time. Is that possible? Ang?

The other thing is e-mail. I love e-mail. It's useful, quick and convenient. BUT, when you send people 10 e-mails a day, that's a little much. Maybe you're overdoing it. As Ang says, "e-mail is the worst thing that could have happened to this group."

ANYWAY..... besides my venting session here, I am enjoying singing again and plan on staying with it through the spring season. We are performing this weekend at The Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul along with some local musicians. It's a lot of woman power music -- a celebration of women, if you will.

Our spring concert is performed on both May 4 and 5, and it's called "Divas & Desserts." There's a silent auction, lovely desserts, coffee, tea, wine and of course, lovely music coming from the crazy, dysfunctional (I mean beautiful and talented) choir. Check out our performance listings here.

Honestly, we don't sound half bad. I'm probably just being a snob.

I'm done now... I promise. Thanks for listening.

Fat Face

So yeah...I just got my wisdom teeth out yesterday and am finally with it enough to sit up and type on my computer. Earlier, my home was either my mom's recliner or my old bed in the spare room. It's also been 17 hours since I took my last narcotic, so that means the pain isn't so unbearable anymore. However.... I do have a fat face. I look like:
a) the guy from the TV movie "Mask"
b) I stuffed a whole bag of marshmellows in my mouth
c) a "special" person who rides the short bus (I know...that's wrong on so many levels....)
d) all of the above

All I remember is talking to the doc about the procedure and then he told me that as soon as he injected the meds into my IV that I would start to feel sleepy. At that point, my eyes felt tired, and the next thing I knew, someone was guiding me to a bed. I then woke up to my mom talking to me. Apparently, I just kept telling her how nice the doctor was (a la Kate's wedding when a drunken Heidi kept telling her dad how nice Bob Gabriel was...). So I guess alcohol and anesthesia just make me an overly complementary person.

I'm doing okay now, but my face and mouth still hurt. I'm supposed to go meet with a tax guy tomorrow, so that should be fun and slightly embarassing. At least I don't have any blind dates this weekend. :)

Fun on Lake Superior

I can't believe I didn't post these yet. Both of the following videos were created a couple weeks ago when Paul was visiting. They are bound to amaze anyone who has either:
a) never seen a frozen river/lake/stream/creek
b) never seen me doing jazzercize
c) all of the above

"Snow Angel" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j12l2eCmJXc

"Jazzercize" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd-8QkbXQTU

Blizzard x 2

Two big snow storms have hit the Minneapolis/St. Paul area within the past week. Here are some pics to show you how much snow we've gotten...

Watch some videos of Indy playing in the snow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozwToZf9QmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9-xO_JK-2E

University of Minnesota Grad School

Yesterday, I had the best day ever. I had a really busy day at work with two off-site meetings and just enough time to scarf down a Subway sandwich before heading off to the second meeting. While eating my sub, I decided to check my yahoo e-mail...and in the inbox, I saw a message from the University of Minnesota's Speech-Language-Hearing-Sciences graduate program. I wasn't expecting to hear anything about grad school acceptances or rejections until later in March or early April, so I was sitting there thinking "open it now or wait til later...?" So then I clicked on the message and scanned it quickly for any sign of good news.....and YES! There it was! I have been accepted at the U of M! I was so excited that I seriously started shaking and felt like screaming (a la Olive in Little Miss Sunshine when she finds out that she made it into the pageant). :)

But alas, I was at work and had to keep my mouth shut. It was so hard! Anyway, the U of M is my top choice and the first school out of five to give me an answer about my application. I'll be interested in hearing what the other schools have to say, but at this point I'm just soooooooo excited that I got in here in Minnesota. :) Stay tuned for more info....

Blogger technical difficulties

Sorry for the lag in post time. Blogger.com was giving me problems since they switched over to a new version. I'll have some interesting posts soon...

Winter Wonderland

This is me walking on water. Yes, that is Lake Superior underneath me. Craziness, I tell ya! I was a little scared, but it was safe to be out there. The ice was thick enough for people to be ice fishing, so it was safe enough for us to walk on. It was so weird, though, because you could see through the ice all the way down to the rocks below the water. And sometimes you could see air bubbles trapped within the ice and frozen in time.

My friend Paul was in town this weekend -- he's an Englishman who has never witnessed such cold, so we had a great time touring around the Twin Cities and Duluth.

Here are more pics from our weekend o' fun:

Tubing at Green Acres

Lake Superior light house

Minnehaha Falls (frozen!!!)

Ashlee, me and Paul

Sculpture Garden & View of Downtown Mpls.