The View From Wisconsin

There are three things that the true Predators fan hates to hear:

1. Anything about how Nashville doesn't deserve a hockey team.
2. Anything about the Predators moving elsewhere.
3. Anything about a goaltender controversy.

...in THAT EXACT order.

Like every other warm-blooded American male who has ever attended college (or ever dreamed of doing so), I engaged in blatant "bracketology" this morning.

I'll admit, I cheated a bit - I used Jeff Sagarin's ratings for NCAA men's teams - but I did make some choices on my own to make things interesting.

First of all, I don't think there's going to be a George Mason this year. The closest we'll get to that may be the SIU Salukis. The lowest seed I have going to the Sweet 16 is Vanderbilt, and that's more because I don't think they're going to have much of a challenge in their regional.

My final four? North Carolina, Texas A&M, UCLA and... oh, heck, you think I could actually pick against the Badgers? I've got them going up against UNC in the finals, but I'm not 100% sure about them as the national champions.

That'd be sweet, though. First you win the hockey titles, then you take the hoops tourney... follow it up with the BCS in January?

UPDATE: We have found the Pop-Tarts. A week or so ago, when it was really cold and snowy here in Wisconsin, my wife slipped as she stepped out onto the back stoop of our condo. In the fall, she lost her Pop Tarts that she was going to have on her way to work. We never did manage to track them down... until this morning. The brief break in the weather led to the discovery that they were sitting under the picnic table on our back porch the entire time. No, I have no intention of seeing if they're still good.

Other food issues: I had to throw out an entire jar of peanut butter this morning, because it was one of the Great Value ones that apparently was tainted by salmonella poisoning.

Big thanks (NOT) to the Waukesha Freeman for breaking the non-story of my workplace, Ethan Allen School, being the target of budget cutters. The pair that wrote that article apparently only saw the line that said about how cost effective it would be to close EAS, and NOT the section that said "we don't recommend doing it." Fortunately, the Lake Country Reporter got the story right.

And here we all thought the Penguins were going to go to Kansas City (hey hey). Now it appears that Mario Lemieux's group was so enamored with Isle of Capri, they want to go to Vegas for their new home. Anyone bother to tell them there isn't an arena that's NHL-caliber out there? The Thomas & Mack was deemed "unsuitable" for the NBA by David Stern for future contests, so how does Mario expect that to fly with Bettman & the BOG? Of course, compared to where they are now, even a back yard rink would be a better venue.

I finally got a Targus laptop desk from Office Depot. Basically, it's for the purpose of being able to use my iBook G3 in bed, without having my mouse go all over. I'll report back after I've used it a bit.

Just as I thought it was safe to go back to my local Wal-Mart...

The 2007 Topps Baseball cards are now here. My addiction is renewed once again.

What's more, the next pack of cards I buy will have my 12,000th Topps Baseball card. I've been an active collector of baseball cards for over 30 years now, so it's a significant moment.

I now have (with the four packs I bought yesterday) collected 560 different years and sets of cards since I first bought a card back in 1977. That gives me a current total of 41,228 different cards, from 1952 to present.