Another great game for Carolina last night as they won the NIT Championship again this year. First back-to-back championships in the NIT since 1943-44 by St. Joseph's.
Many think it's a dubious honor winning the NIT, but quite honestly USC, Michigan, Florida State, Cincinnati, Louisville, and yes, even Clemson are much better teams than some of the 65 teams that play in the NCAA tournament. I just don't let the $$ and the media tell me that the NIT doesn't matter. Sport is sport and there are always a lot of good teams in the NIT each year.
USC was 14-14 late in the season and it wasn't even sure we'd be going to the NIT at all. But that record doesn't tell the whole story. 11 of those losses were by a total of 34 points. We lost more games by less than 3 points in the last seconds of the game this season than I can ever remember. But, they won 9 of their last 10 games to finish at 23-15.
It was the first time in nine and a half years of living down here that USC and Michigan have had to square off in anything major. I was covered though, had my Michigan tshirt on underneath my USC collared shirt last night. We went over to Matt and Karin's place to watch the game. Karin was an undergrad at Michigan and grad student at Michigan State and Matt graduated from Michigan State and they're both from the Flint area. Had a good time and it's a shame that they are moving back to Michigan in June because Karin got a faculty position at Michigan State. Good for them though... it's a good job and both of their families are up there. Judd hasn't started school yet either, so that's good for him.
Anyway, fun couple of games the last few days... Carolina looked amazing in both of them... fast paced, streetball style... great games to watch.
This afternoon I think Christina and I are going to the USC football scrimmage up at the stadium. It's not the annual Spring Game a lot of people go to, that's April 8th, this is just a small scrimmage open to the public. Gives me a chance to test out my new lens, a Tokina 24-200mm. Not an expensive lens by any means and anything that zooms from 24mm to 200mm isn't going to be really high quality on the images, but it's a nice versitile zoom range for something like watching football from the stands. Pros wouldn't use it, but it's nice for snapshot type pictures. I'll post a few tonight or tomorrow.
Bored... still sitting at work. Christina's group is working on a big grant that is due today, so they're working a bit late and of course we commuted today.
Fitting given the day I've had. Went to the doctor's office again this morning to have a rapid strep test done just in case it's strep or tonsilitis. Came back negative which is good, but it doesn't answer why it was hurting so bad last night. I was up until about 3:00am because every time I swallowed I had to wince from the sharp pain. Hands down the worst sore throat I've ever had... and the pain was slow low down (adam's apple level) that Cloriseptic wasn't hitting it.
Anyway, she gave me a z pack (5 day antibiotic treatment) and some funky stuff to gargle with... a mixture of maalox, benadryl, and some moderate form of novacaine. So, you get that creepy after-the-dentist numb feeling where ever the liquid hits. Not quite as numb as the dentist though, but still creepy. Great for the pain, however.
So it's lessening a bit... should be a good low-key weekend to recoup and I should be back up to speed by Monday. I wouldn't even be at work today if it weren't for the fact that Robert and Marty are both out today also with far more serious things than I have and someone needs to be here. At least it's been a pretty slow day. Christina and I went to lunch at Panera Bread and I got their chicken noodle in a bread bowl... great lunch for a sore throat.
Anyway, no big plans this weekend obviously. Lots of basketball to watch though despite my brackets being pretty much crap this year. Carolina has done well recently, winning 8 of their last 9 games. We won through the SEC tournament at the end of the season, losing to Florida by 2 points in the Championship game. Then we went to the NIT and we've beat Western Kentucky, Florida State, and Cincinnati to advance to the NIT Final Four in NY, NY again this year. We won the NIT last year and if we win this year it would be the first repeat champion since sometime in the 40's. We have to play Louisville next and they're a very good team. Then we play the winner of Old Dominion/Michigan. It would be funny if it ended up being South Carolina/Michigan in the championship game. I would have a hard time rooting against Michigan... maybe I just wouldn't watch the game? :)
It's not allergies thankfully. That'd be much worse since I'd have to fight those every year.
Turns out it's two separate things, a viral throat/sinus infection and pink eye. Blah, been a long 6 days.
Anyway, everything's slowly getting better and I have drops for my eye which are really helping. Another day or two and I should be back up to speed.
Also, the other day I was reading a thread on one of the photography boards I go to where people were posting shots of Canon In Action. Basically photos of people using Canon equipment. Some funny ones in there that I may post later, but one thing a lot of the photographers mess around with is trying to take self portraits. They had a lot of good shots, so I gave it try. I may try to do some more creative, clever type shots later too - some of them had some pretty funny self portraits.
I figured out what's wrong with me the last few days. Allergies of all things.
Even though I grew up with asthma and was certainly allergic to a good number of things back then, I haven't had a problem with allergies in decades. I've had sinus infections, regular colds, fevers, etc, but not your traditional allergy sufferer type reaction. Until yesterday that is...
The sore, scratchy throat that I thought was part of some weak cold turned into a constricted throat yesterday that feels like I have a lump in it. And my left eye is completely bloodshot and watery. It's rather gross actually. At least it's not painful and itchy (much) like pinkeye.
So anyway, seems like an allergy problem to me. I've taken some Benadryl and it helps a bit. I'll try some Visine-A for the eye later on today.
Interestingly, I found an article that listed Columbia as the 17th worst city for allergies. I think that was old, because I found a 2005 list that showed we moved down to 21st. Still, you have to love the pollen down here... blah.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day... a day late, but that's okay.
We've been fairly busy lately, so I haven't felt like I've had the time to sit down and do an update in a while. But since I took some new photos this morning, I thought I'd post some.
Last weekend I rented a couple lenses for my camera from an online shop called rentglass.com where they ship it to your house and you keep the box and use the prepaid shipping label to send them back. You can rent them for 1, 2, or 3 weeks at a time with each week getting cheaper the longer you rent them.
Here's a few shots of the two lenses I rented, a Canon 70-200mm f/4L (white) and the Sigma 18-200mm (black):
Today is the big St. Pats festival down in 5 Points... 35,000 or so people supposedly... we've been the last 4-5 years, but this year I'm sick and the bands weren't that great, so we decided to skip it. We did go down for the parade though this morning. We hadn't seen the parade before and like most parades it was pretty boring, but some things were cool and it was a good opportunity to test out the lenses. I ended up only shooting with the Canon L lens, the white one, though, because it's a pro quality lens and it'll give the best results. I was pretty happy with the lens, the shots turned out nice. And renting it for $27 sure beats paying the $700 it costs to buy it.
Anyway, here's a couple teaser shots of the start of the parade and of Christina posing with her "model hair" as I call it.... she had the underside darkened a little a few weeks ago and last night she did her own highlights in the front - her hair looks a lot lighter now than it did before.
For even more pictures, click the link below to visit my Pbase site where I uploaded a ton of shots from the parade today - complete with color commentary when you click on them. Hey, gotta do something to make a parade interesting I suppose.
What a boring week. Spring Break at USC and everyone I work with is out sick and have been most of the week.
Same as I said last year, I really should be hungover on a beach right now for Spring Break and not stuck in the office on a sunny, beautiful, 77 degree day. Maybe some year I'll plan ahead accordingly. After all, you have to have goals, right?
Crappy cell phone picture out my window. Still looks nice.
Christina is loving her new job. Better job duties more suited to her skills, that's for sure.
We went in this morning to hang her degrees and painting in her office. Took a couple pictures... they're a little warped because they are two and three images stitched together respectively. In a small, interior area, it's really hard to take wide photos. All the more reason to get myself a Canon 10-22mm ultra wide lens! ;)
