Rolandes Ramblings

So, after Ohio State got trounced by Florida back in January for the National Football Title, they are incredibly playing for the NCAA Basketball Championship against each other. What are the odds in the same season that this could occur? After all, Ohio State hasn’t gone this far since the 1960’s. Florida romped on Ohio State back at the beginning of the season by 26 points. So, if that is any indicator of how the game is going to go, we could repeat another national title embarrassment by the same school, no less. The sports analysts locally are all joking that they hope that Ohio State doesn’t score first. That could be a bad omen. Florida just tore UCLA apart the other night with offensive rebounds almost every time down the court. If Greg Oden can’t stay out of foul trouble, the Buckeyes are going to get hammered down low on the boards. They got away with it against Georgetown, but that won’t fly against Florida.

So, after almost 9 years since the last time I played hockey, I have finally gotten back into it this season. I went and played a little pickup hockey last Fall and realized how out of shape I was. So, I joined the Adult Men’s league here in Columbus and started playing games once a week and going to a drop-in session usually once a week. It has definitely helped get my legs back in shape quite a bit. I have a ways to go but it is night and day difference.

Here I am with Olivia and Emma just after a game a couple weeks ago. The girls had fun coming to watch daddy, but they had even more fun playing with other kids in the bleachers.

I have been enjoying being back on the ice and getting back into the game. It is so much better than sitting in front of a computer all week and then coming home and vegetating. Not to mention, I have a few extra pounds gathering around my mid-section that I could stand to lose.

My team actually made the playoffs for our division this session, too. Kind of hard to believe after a 0-4 start. Our record is at 5-6 with 2 overtime losses. I have actually had a few Assists and finally got a goal last week off a beautiful drop pass from a teammate. I one-timed a slapshot just inside the left post as the goalie was screened by his own defenseman. I should have had a second goal about 5 minutes later on an identical play from the opposite wing. Unfortunately in my rush to get the shot off before the goalie could react, my stick hit the puck just a little too close on the heel and my slapshot hit the post. I had nothing but net on that one, too. Oh well, at least I am finally improving each week and getting a lot more puck control and shots on net.

His parents must be really proud of him now. Did they think it might be a problem that he sat in front of the TV playing games for 7 days straight?

So, a little over a week ago I get the email from Microsoft that they are having a local Launch event for Vista and Office 2007. Knowing there would be freebies involved and the fact that I have been completely out of touch with M$ latest developments, I signed up.

I chose the half day morning event for what they called “IT Pros” covering Vista deployment, Office 2007 features and benefits, and Exchange 2007. The Vista walk-through was totally as expected. Lots of cool eye-candy, marketing, and some value-add functionality. Ooh…aahh…

However, to their credit, they actually have done a little more than the superficial repackaging of XP SP2 and started to take some steps in the right direction. They have incorporated Read more »