The final standings of our work bowling league were finally sent out.   My team finished in second place, which was a little disappointing after leading the league for so many weeks.   We will have a chance  to redeem ourselves, as they are talking about starting up another league in a couple of weeks.   I ended up having a combined average of 112 with a 108 handicap.   The league average was 108.625 so I am just slightly above average.   My highest scratch game score was 151, which at the time was a 271 with my handicap.   My highest scratch series was 406, or 766 with handicap.   Total I knocked down 3039 pins in 27 games.   I hope to continue to improve into the next season.

Even with our son being born, I’ve managed to continue to make my weekly hockey games.   Last week my team managed to break a two game losing stream by beating a team full of players I used to play with.   The final score in that game was 7-6 and I scored one of our team’s goals on a breakaway.   Our winning continued last night as we took on the fourth place team in the league.   I didn’t add another goal to my stats, but I did get at least one assist in our 7-3 win.   Prior to the game we were in tenth place out of twelve, but our win should help move us up a little closer to the middle of the standings.

In fantasy sports news, I managed to grab first place in a college football bowl pick’em game.   I predicted 20 of the 35 games correctly and scored 397 points.   This put me in the 77th percentile for all of Yahoo! users, one of my highest finished to date.

Today is a big day in Cincinnati.   The annual Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout basketball game is tonight.   My University of Cincinnati Bearcats will take on the neighboring Xavier University Musketeers.   UC is looking to break a three-year streak from Xavier as well as continue their own  fourteen game winning streak.   Overall UC has won 47 of the 77 matchups, so  we are definitely overdue for a Bearcat victory.   Be sure to tune in to ESPN2 tonight at 7pm EST and wear some red and black.   Last years game went into double overtime, so it’s always an exciting matchup.

This past Saturday I finally made it out to University of Denver hockey  game.   I think the season is already two-thirds  over, so I am definitely behind.   Part of the problem is that they don’t have a very strong home game schedule.   For example, the Pioneers’ opponent  for this weekend was the University of Northern Michigan Wildcats.   The Wildcats are not in the top twenty teams nationally, so there isn’t as big of drawl than if they were playing against North Dakota for instance.   They did play the Fighting Sioux earlier this year, but it was up in Grand Forks.   And they’ve also played or will play at Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota, both top twenty teams.

Despite the below average schedule, this is still one of the best values in town.   Tickets are as cheap as $18, and with the small arena there is no need to spend more than that.   Plus we were able to score two seats for $18 total from a couple of students outside of the arena.   That’s about the same price as going out to see a movie!   Not only is it cheap, it is also really good hockey.   I prefer college hockey over the professional level, since it is often more of a team game.   I guess this can be true with most college sports.

Anyway, the game on Saturday started off a little rough for Denver.   Northern Michigan was able to take a quick 2-0 lead through the end of the first period.   From there on it was all Denver, as the Pioneers outshot  the Wildcats 47-13.   Unfortunately the Wildcat goalie played very well and only let in two goals for Denver.   Even with an extra five-minute  overtime period, the game ended up in a 2-2 tie.   Denver is now 13-5-4 and may be  able to move up in the top twenty from their previously ranked seventh position.

Well I had another bad round of fantasy football this past weekend.   As I mentioned earlier, I made it all the way to the championship in one league.   Unfortunately, though,  I lost the game by less than five points.   Had I played the right players, I could have won, but I guess that is all part of fantasy football.   However I still won $80!   I also lost the final game of the consolation bracket in another league, finishing in sixth place.   So my final standings were second, fifth, and sixth places in all three of my leagues.

I did manage to finish the Jenny Challenge, though it required heading out on Christmas morning to finish up the last of the miles.   Though I doubt I’ll continue to run at that pace, I have enjoyed the extra activity and hope to keep most of it up.   It doesn’t hurt either when you shed a couple of extra pounds, as that helps keep the motivation high.   However it will take some effort to keep on running with the baby on the way soon.

Excellent news, I made the super bowl in one of my fantasy football leagues!   This past weekend I knocked off the number one seed rather handily in the semifinals to advance to this coming weekends championship.   I also won games in my other two leagues.   In one league  my play is over and I finished in fifth place overall out of eight.   I was the number four seed, so I did finish a little below but still not too bad.   In the other league, I am now in the final game of the consolation bracket, duking it out for fifth place once again.

With less than four days left in the Jenny Challenge  I am starting to fall behind.   I still plan to run after work today, but so far this week I only have twelve miles.   I am sitting at 78 total miles, so I still have 22 miles left.   That means nearly six miles per day, which isn’t out of the question, I will just have to really make time to do it.   I’m not throwing in the towel yet.   However, my dad has finished the challenge already.   Kim is a little more behind than I am, but she does have a slight disadvantage since she is carrying some extra weight.   She should still end up with more miles than many others in the challenge, which is a great accomplishment!

This past Sunday is going to be  hard to top.   I spent the morning and early afternoon at Breckenridge, which reported eleven inches of fresh snow!   The same group that I’ve been going to the mountains with decided to once again head up on Sunday, and we even added another to our group.   The drive up was pretty easy and we arrived at the Breck  gondola parking lot around eight.   This allowed for us to be on the lifts just after the 8:30 opening.   I spent the day with Rob, as I have done recently.   We knew that we wanted to go up into the high elevations to find powder, but had to wait for those lifts to open.   While waiting we did a few quick runs through Mach 1.   The first time we arrived, they had just opened the trail so we were able to enjoy nearly a foot of untouched snow!

Eventually the higher elevation lifts were open and we enjoyed some more great runs through Horseshoe Bowl, Whale’s Tail, and North Bowl areas.   It wasn’t as easy to find untouched snow, but we were successful on a few different runs.   I managed to ride the T-Bar three more times without falling off.   That takes my record with the lift to 5-0.   Eventually we decided to go check out the recently opened Peak 10 after the lines got bad on the other lifts we were using.   Unfortunately we never found much snow like there was over on Peaks 7 and 8.   From there we called it a day and started the long drive back to Denver.   Not only did the snow create great conditions on the mountain, it also jammed up the roads pretty well.   It was well worth it though.   The snow has continued to fall since then, so I may have to get another day in over the holiday weekend.

After three weeks of the Jenny Challenge  I have put in 66 miles.   Once again I only put in eighteen miles this week.   I was thinking that I would be behind the pace because of that, but I’m actually still ahead.   I have 10 days left to run 34 miles.   We have had something going on every night of this week, so lately all of my miles have been put in during lunch at work.   My dad only has ten miles left in the challenge after running the Rocket City Marathon this past weekend.   His time of 3:43:11 qualifies him for the Boston Marathon.   This has been a long time goal of his, so a big congrats is in order!

I ended up missing my hockey game on Monday of this week.   I was stuck  at work until nearly 9pm.   And the bowling league is official over, though they haven’t sent out the final results yet.

I went 2-1 in fantasy football.   Last week I thought that the playoffs had started in all three leagues, but only two actually started.   In the other league, I still had  a shot at the wildcard spot for the playoffs.   But even with a win last weekend I still finished in fifth place, so I will be hoping for a win in the consolation bracket.   The loss I suffered this week was in the playoffs of one of my leagues, so I am officially in the consolation bracket in that leagues as well.   In the final league I beat up on Kim’s dad to advance into the semifinals this week where I will be taking on the number one seed in the league.   The college football pick’em is over and I finished in sixth place.   As far as the NFL pick’em goes, I moved up one place into fifth.

This past Saturday was a long day.   Not only did I head up to Vail for a day of snowboarding with the same guys as the past couple of times, we stuck around to see O.A.R. play as part of the Vail Snow Daze  event.   Knowing that it was going to be a long day, I decided to drive up later in the morning than the usual 6:30 or 7 departure.   I was hoping to avoid traffic by leaving at 9:30, but that didn’t go as planned.   There was a little snow on the roads at higher elevations, but there were also a ton of cars on the road.   The drive would normally take an hour and a half in perfect conditions, but it took three hours on Saturday.

Since we didn’t arrive out on the slopes until after 1pm, I tried to speed through as many runs as I could.   I made it out to Blue Sky Basin just before closing time, but on my first good run out there a strap on one of my bindings broke.   Since I was as far away from the car as possible, I decided to just do as best I could for the rest of the day.   Despite my heel  lifting up on my back foot during hard turns, I was able to enjoy some of the great snow that had fallen overnight.   Vail reported nine inches that morning, so there was definitely some powder to be found.   I just wish I could have found more of it.

As far as the concert goes, it was a rather cold event.   Normally I would have expected the show to start shortly after the lifts start running, say 5pm or so.   The Snow Daze event starts much later, and O.A.R. didn’t hit the stage until after 7:30.   The crowd was pretty large once they finally got started and I think that helped keep everyone fairly warm.   I decided to keep most of my snowboarding gear on, so I was plenty warm.   I actually watched the first half of the show from fairly deep inside the general admission standing crowd.   Definitely much further  into the crowd that anytime recently.   For the first time in a long while I actually had to deal with crowd surfers.   I thought that was a thing of the past, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem so.

O.A.R. at Vail Snow Daze

The setlist was a mix of old and new popular songs for the most part, which easily appeased the vast crowd.   I was hoping to hear some of the new tracks that the band has been working  on for their next album, but I should have guessed that this would not be the place for any debuts.   I was really happy to hear “Revisited” which I haven’t heard in a long time.   Also “Anyway” was another highlight of the show for me.   I taped the show but haven’t listed to it at all.   It should be  a fairly good recording based on the sound mix I heard while at the show.   Once the show was over and it was nearing 10pm, we made the drive back to Denver.   Though it was late, I was happy to be driving on clear roads with no traffic at all.

My hockey team had an exciting win last night over the fourth place team in our league.   My team was in tenth (out of twelve) so it was obviously a big win for us.   We skated right with them the entire game and may have actually controlled the puck for more time than they did.   I was back on defense for this game but managed to get an assist  when one my shots from the point was deflected into the net.   Regulation time ended in a six to six tie, so we moved  on to a shootout.   The other team shot first, and our goalie made a great save.   Our first shooter found the back of the net rather easily.   Their second shooter also missed, as did our second.   Finally our goalie made another great save on their third shooter to end the game.

After another week of the Jenny Challenge  I have fallen a little off the pace I was setting before.   I only put in 18.7 miles this past week, compared to over  28 last week.   I’ve been pretty busy lately, but I managed to put in another four miles over lunch today.   I’m still well on pace to complete the 100 miles by Christmas.

Finally, the regular season of fantasy football is now over.   I am moving on to the playoffs in two of my leagues, and barely missed out in the other league.   I finished the regular season in fourth place in one league, and fifth in the other two.   Fifth place isn’t good enough to make the playoffs in one of my leagues.   I also remain in sixth place in both the college and pro pick’em games.