This past Saturday my parents threw a welcome home party for us, which also allowed many of my extended family members to meet Trey. That evening was also the Kentucky Derby. To get everyone involved and interested in the race we allowed partiers to place as many $1 bets on as many horses as they wanted. Whoever had tickets for the winning horse would split the pot of money.

The eventual winner of the race was Animal Kingdom, at 20-1 odds. At our party Animal Kingdom was the second favorite horse to win the race. Either our party was full of horse betting experts or we got extremely lucky. Actually of the seven winners at our party over half of them were children, so I guess we were just lucky. These seven winners got to split the $77 pot.

Another interesting thing was that Pants On Fire was also tied for our second favorite, despite starting the day at nearly 30-1. This was also true with the official odds as at race time it was closer to 6-1 odds. At our party I attributed the popularity due to the horses name. At the derby I’d say the fact that the horse was ridden by a female jockey increased the popularity of females spectators.

Eventually my mom should have some pictures from the party on her Flickr page.

Despite the rainy weather in Cincinnati the last couple of weeks, I’ve still managed to go outside for a run a few times. And when the weather is bad, Kim’s parents have a treadmill setup that I can use while working from their home. I’m trying to get three workouts in each week and have been able to do it so far. Today I took advantage of the great weather outside for a nice lunchtime jog around a nearby neighborhood. It felt great to be outside again!

I managed to spend eight days on the slopes this past season, even with Trey’s birth and all the surrounding events.  That doesn’t compare with the 15+ days I’ve been able to have on the slopes each of the past four years but we have had a lot going on.  Even though the quantity was low this season, I feel that the quality was actually really high.  Breckenridge just broke the record for the most total snowfall in a season, and I think the other resorts we visit have had similar conditions.

Here is a list of my days for the season:

• Keystone – 3 days
• Breckenridge – 2 days
• Vail – 2 days
• Arapahoe Basin – 1 day
• Beaver Creek – 0 days

Obviously next season may be even lower since I won’t be living in Colorado, but I hope that we can visit some resorts that I’ve yet to ride.

I finally made it to my first Avalanche game of the season on Sunday. With Kim being pregnant most of the season, and the Avs doing so poorly, I found it difficult to shell out the money.  Sunday was different though, as I had a friend in town who was heading to the game and he invited me to come along. We thought that we already had some tickets lined up, but when that fell through, I used a discount email that I get nearly weekly to secure some seats. We opted for the $20 tickets in the upper level, but that didn’t stop us from watching the entire game in the lower level. It is pretty easy to do as you please when the crowd isn’t very large.

For this game the Avalanche were taking on the Calgary Flames. We arrived a little late for the start and watched as the first period ended in a scoreless tie. The Flames managed to get a goal in the second, while the Avs were routinely stopped by Flame goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. About half way through the third period, the Flames managed another goal to go up by two. Finally the Avs scored with just five minutes left, and though they had some opportunities toward the end of the game, that is how the score ended. With three games left in the season, my Avalanche spectating days are over and their season nearly is as well.

Over the weekend I played in an adult hockey tournament called the Dawg Bowl put on by the Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation. I actually have played on one of the Dawg Nation teams for a few games in a tournament a year or two ago. Anyway, my team from the last few seasons entered the tournament in the second highest division. Many of our normal players weren’t able to play, so we teamed up with half of another team in our league to form a new Santoro’s team. Though we didn’t win the tournament, we did finish 2-1 and barely missed the championship game. It was also cool to take a couple of shifts with recent University of Denver alumni  Chris Nutini, who joined us for our last game of the tournament.  Plus we were able to have some fun in the sun between games, all in the name of charity.

This past Saturday I enjoyed what could be one of my last days on the slopes for this season. With April around the bend, resort closing dates getting near, and lots of other things going on, I may not be able to make it back out. Even if that were the case, I still feel like I got my money’s worth this year with eight really good days on the slopes.

Saturday was definitely another good one, easily in the top half of my visits. I headed up to Vail early Saturday morning with the usual suspects, my friends Ken and Rob. We made it all the way to the lift lines before they even opened at 8:30. With so much time on our hands, we took our time getting back to Blue Sky Basin and enjoyed a few runs in Game Creek Bowl, Sun Down Bowl, and China Bowl. The early morning snow was great with a reported six new inches of powder.

When we did eventually make it out to Blue Sky Basin we enjoyed multiple runs in Pete’s Bowl before the crowds built up at all. At that point we enjoyed more runs in Siberia Bowl and Sun Up Bowl, before moving all the way back to the Game Creek Bowl where we started the day. All in all I rode over 25,000 vertical feet, which was easily the most I have done all season. By the end my legs were completely beat! I think that is the sign of a good day.

This week in sports was filled with a lot of closure.  My hockey team lost our second playoff game on Wednesday night and thus our chances at a championship are over.  I still have a separate tournament coming up the first weekend of April that should be a good time.

Last night was also the end of this bowling season.  My average was 130 going into the night, but it will likely go down even more.  Last night was not my best night, and actually maybe my worst of the short season.  My scores for the three games were 102, 120, and 119.  I think I am going to retire from this frustrating sport.

My hockey team was off this week after our disappointing loss last week. We will play again next week and if we lose again we are out of the playoffs.

Bowling last night wasn’t my best. I started off with a respectable score of 123. However this is a bit below my 132 average. I was definitely worse in the second game and finished barely over 100 with a 102. I even had one frame with back to back gutter balls. It seems that somehow my right leg got in the way of my ball on the first one, causing my arm to swing right and therefore the ball as well. The second gutter could be blamed on a number of things. I was still laughing at the thought of my first gutter, I was trying to overcompensate for the leg and threw way to the left, or perhaps it was just a terrible frame. I had my highest score of the night during the third game, but still 128 was below my average. I was hoping to get closer to a 135 average, but that may be impossible since next week is the last one.

My picks in the NCAA tournament fared pretty well yesterday. I predicted twelve of the sixteen games correctly, though I did lose two sweet sixteen teams, Louisville (I should have trusted my gut and went against them) and Michigan State. The Michigan State pick was a bit of a stretch, but we all know that Florida is the worst two seed in the tournament. My bracket is currently in the 74% percentile of all Yahoo! users, so I’m still doing pretty well.

I’ve made my picks for the NCAA basketball tournament, have you made yours?  I’d love to see Cincinnati go all the way, but I tried to be a little realistic in my picks. I think an appearance in the sweet sixteen would be a great success for the team, but I ended up picking them to the elite eight.  My final four consists of Ohio State, Texas, Kansas, and BYU.  I’m taking Kansas to win it all.  There is still time to make changes, but I’m pretty happy with the way my picks ended up.

Yesterday Kim and I both participated in the Runnin’ of the Green 7K race in downtown Denver. I decided to run with a couple of friends, while Kim opted to push Trey through the course in his stroller. We both did really well. I finished the 4.35 miles in 36:09 according to my timing chip. That’s a 8:16 pace, which is about a minute faster than the pace I’ve been running during my lunchtime runs. I know that races often make you run faster than you are  accustomed  to, but this was really fast and I was very happy with the time. Kim managed to finish the entire run, which is a huge accomplishment itself, but she did it around a ten minute pace! She said that she only had to stop once to assist Trey, and that he enjoyed most of the run.