Watching the days go by

Yesterday was a great average day. In the history of days that will ultimately be forgettable, yesterday was quite memorable. Just the type of normal boring day that should be blogged about because I eventually will forget it ever even happened.

Wednesday November 19th, 2014
5:40am - Woke up, showered, played with the cats.
6:20am - Left for work. Smooth commute, got in 10 minutes early.
9:00am - Left work for the doctor's office. Finally went in and talked to a sleep doctor after not sleeping well for 5 years.
Noon - Got back to work from the doctor's office and went to play basketball. I haven't played in about 3 years, so it was great getting back on the court. Also it was a helluva a workout. The nice thing about my job is that I can go do physical fitness during the workday. Getting paid to work out? Awesome.
2:00pm - Got approval to go to Japan for a work trip. I've never been and I am pretty excited about that.
4:30pm - Left work. Went home, internetted, played with the cats, relaxed and watched some TV.
6:45pm - Left home to go play trivia.  My team played extremely well. Not only did we win the toss-up round which netted us a free shot of bartenders choice, we were right in the running at the end. The final question of the 2nd half I got because of my encyclopedic knowledge of John Stuart Mill which sprung us into first place for the final question. Now this trivia is a little weird in that you can bet it all on the final question a la final
jeopardy. The final question was about a retailer founded in Seattle in 1901. Boom. Nordstrom's. Bet it all. We won.
10:00pm - Returned home a champion of the day.

Another E-mail Post

I suggest starting from the initial email below and then reading my rejoinder. I'm pretty sure I used 6 too many commas in the 4th paragraph.

On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 12:51 PM, Bryan *******  wrote:

Good Afternoon Brian,

I hope you had a good weekend.

Do you have a few minutes this week to speak about last basketball season?  I was hoping to learn about your experience and get some feedback. Please let me know if there is a good time and day to reach you.

I've also attached more information on your season ticket benefits for this season.

Thank you again for your support and I look forward to speaking with you.

Bryan

---------- Reply message ----------
From: Brian
Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 6:09 PM
Subject: Re: A few minutes to speak?
To: Bryan *******

Hello Bryan,

I had an excellent weekend. Thank you for asking. I hope you had a good weekend as well.

I do have a few minutes to speak about last basketball season, but I suspect that I am not the Brian you are intending to speak to. Unfortunately, I have never attended a Carleton Ravens game, although from what I understand, they had a terrific season capped of with another national championship. Congratulations!

Carleton has been kind enough to send me email updates on the team since the fall of 2012. Despite several attempts to unsubscribe from your e-blasts I remained solidly in-the-know regarding the happenings of the Carleton Ravens. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the Women's Basketball Shoot for the Cure this past February, as I live in California.

Don't get me wrong Bryan, I would love to attend more Carleton games but I simply don't make it to Ottawa enough to take in the action. Although I am a fan of Canadian basketball, especially since the great province of Ontario has produced one of my favorite players, the venerable Nik Stauskas, who happens to play for my Alma Mater, The University of Michigan.

You can reach out to me any time. Stay in touch.

- Brian

P.S. I enjoyed the recent write up on the Men's Basketball Program on Grantland.Com.

The Championship Post That Wasn't

I spent the last few days thinking about what I would post if Michigan won the National Championship. By the time Michigan was up 1 at halftime I had a pretty good outline of what I was going to write.

I was planning to start with my own history with Michigan BBall during my college years and talk about how I suffered through the Amaker era. I wanted to touch on how during the 2007 season I could just show up to games, flash my MCard and walk down into Maize Rage without a ticket.

I'd tell some of the stories too. About how in 2008 I bet my best friend that we wouldn't be a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament for the next two years (a bet which I won by the way). How in 2009 Penn State filed a formal complaint with the Big Ten regarding my behavior at one of the games. I wanted to write about how I went down to Crisler in 2009 to watch Michigan get a 10 seed in the selection show and then skipped two days of class to go watch the opening round of the tournament it Kansas City because "who knows the next time Michigan will make the tourney"? It wouldn't all be fun though, I wouldn't overlook having to watch Michigan get bounced out in the first round of the 2012 tourney in Nashville (which I didn't blog about because it was also a bachelor party).

I really wanted wax poetic about the journey the program made between 2008 and now. I wanted to write about Manny Harris, DeShawn Sims and how much hope we had for Zack Novak and Stu Douglass. Then I would transition into how Zack and Stu would have Vogrich type roles with the talent we had on this year's team.

My big gamble would be the centerpiece of the story. About how I was so sure this would be a special team with Trey Burke back that I bet $40 Michigan would win it all before the season began. Yeah, it would be hard not to brag about "calling it" and collecting my $1,000 at the 25:1 odds I got back in September. I'd probably also brag about how my Yahoo bracket of Michigan beating Louisville in the finals put me in the top tenth of the 99th percentile instead of sitting at 88th percentile. I'd ensure the reader that I was never off the bandwagon.

Instead I'm left thinking of all these things, but surprisingly not being that upset (except about all the stupid things I could have spent that grand on). I'm still really proud of how far this team has come since I started going to games in 2007, and I'm even more proud of where this team is going. I'm more excited for the future than nostalgic for the past which has become an ever increasing rarity for me.

Go Blue.

March Mustache Madness

Tonight is the beginning of the first annual March Mustache Madness NCAA Tournament. The rules are fair, the regulations are fair, the competitive balance is fair. It is a 10 dollar buy in between the menfolk of our house and a few friends. Half of the buy in will go to the person with the best overall bracket. The other half will go to the winner of the mustache competition. Each person will have to pick a mustache team and will not be able to shave as long as their team is still in the tournament. The person with the mustache the longest will win the other half the bet. Some rules:

-Your last shave should be Selection Sunday.
-You must shave all non-stache facial hair at least every other day
-$10 entrance fee
-Winner take all in each category ($50 for the Stache, $50 for the Bracket)

Feel free to start your own mustache brackets.