And the winner is...

...Furious D, ridden by Bart Simpson!
Actually, I still have to stick with I Want Revenge.

After an exhaustive analysis, I am now prepared to offer the complete order of finish. That way you can even clean up on the last place betting pools. Please remember that all betting advice is offered for entertainment purposes only and any loss of money is not the fault of this blog operator or any of his subsidiaries.



Before making my picks I reviewed all the major preps on youtube, and checked out the work times from the last few days. I still stuck with I Want Revenge, but Pioneerof the Nile moved up a lot in my estimation. Dunkirk dropped off my list.

I'm likely to have a few opinion changes between now and Saturday evening. I'm feeling especially wishy-washy about the two Dubai horses-Desert Party and Regal Ransom. Either one could move substantially up or down my list. I'm a little iffy on Papa Clem, too. He might drop off my superfecta ticket.

Last year when I handicapped the whole race I did pick the winner. But I had Eight Belles finishing 16th. So if you would like to hit the exacta, I'd suggest I Want Revenge/Flying Private.

Or if you'd like another exacta angle, you might try any of these well-matched names:

Join In The Dance/Mr. Hot Stuff
Hold Me Back/I Want Revenge
Desert Party/Nowhere To Hide

Isn't there some sort of state law banning this?

That darned Lumbergh got me at the end of the day today. I believe they're going to need me to come in to work Saturday.

I still have two days to appeal to Ebenezer's Derby Spirit, however, so I'm not giving up hope. But outright pleas would probably be treated as if I'd asked for more gruel.

(Sorry, I seem to have mixed my Dickens metaphors)

If I can just figure out how to make a fraction of a cent off every one of my company's transactions, I am so out of there....

It's bad enough she's become so promiscuous. Does the Courier-Journal really have to advertise it?

Poor Ken.

Spring Game

Today in Commonwealth Stadium, the Blue team beat the White in an upset of historic proportions. Ecstatic Blue fans who stormed the field and tore down the goal posts later paraded their prize all the way to Two Keys Tavern. There were three arrests.

Okay, not really, but how cool would that be?

Instead, we have a fan base that glances at football, shrugs, and asks about John Wall.

I wish I could have gone today. It's just a glorified practice, sure. But it was a nice day for cornhole and beer and a good day to watch football.

Derby Week!

Like Andy Williams said, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
Though he might have been talking about something else.

Lately, some people have started putting their Derby decorations up in time for Thunder. Not me. I always wait until the first balloon lands or the first runner finishes the Mini-Marathon, whichever is earlier. I guess I'm just a traditionalist.

Originally, I wanted the previous post to look almost exactly like the one before it, but with the strikethroughs. I thought it would be funny. But after spending 20 minutes figuring out how to do the strikethrough on a Microsoft Works word processing application, I then discovered (as I should have already known) that when I pasted it onto the post the font just changed back and the strikethroughs disappeared. There may be a way to do strikethroughs on the blog, but if so I couldn't figure it out. Thus, I had to make the picture.

All in all, a fair amount of work for a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm glad I didn't wait until tomorrow to post it because I might not have gotten it done until Tuesday or Wednesday.

The day after my encounter with the German Shepherd, I shared the story with a couple of people at work. The consensus there was that- in that instance at least- I was a jerk. They didn't seem to understand my point of view at all.

I protested, but they definitely concluded that I hate dogs.

I tried to explain that I most definitely did not hate dogs, and that though I don't have one myself, I have in fact been known to quite enjoy petting dogs and playing fetch etc.
I just don't trust stray dogs. Especially big ones. And I didn't care for the guy who entrusted the retrieval of his nuisance 70 lb. dog to his 60 lb. daughter.

Tonight I had a run-in with a pair of dogs. It brought to mind another run-in which took place a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd write about both instances.

Several weeks ago, I was walking through the Kingsley subdivision when I saw a large German Shepherd approaching at a trot. He was about a half-block away, loping through yards and heading in my direction when a jogger passed me on the other side of the street and then turned right at a T-intersection.
The dog saw the jogger and ran after her. I was relieved for myself and apprehensive for her. I watched as the dog reached her, sniffed around at her heels and generally made a nuisance of itself as she tried to go on her way.
Then he (for some reason I think of all dogs as 'he') lost interest and wandered off into another yard.

I continued on my way, and hadn't gone far when a little girl (I'd guess aged about 8) passed me going the other direction, calling her dog with loud yells of "Rusty! Rusty!" (Or maybe it was Buddy. Or Fluffy. Or Stumpy. I don't remember for sure. But if I remember Mark's stories correctly, Stumpy would be a good name for a dog in Wyoming.)

So I kept walking. Just as I was passing a guy working in his yard, helped by another little girl of about 6, I heard the "Rusty" calls again and looked back to see the dog running in my direction.

I picked a hefty stick from a pile of yard debris, just in case. Then I kept walking, but glancing over my shoulder frequently. The dog came right at me, I turned, prepared to whack it a good one across the mouth-

-and the dog veered off a little just as the guy in his yard also starts calling the dog, and I realized that the older girl and the dog both belong to him-

-and I walked a little farther and the dog came back, and I turned again, ready to whack it if it jumped on me-

- and both girls started crying and screaming because they thought I was going to hurt their dog, and the guy yelled for me not to hit it and kept telling me the dog wouldn't bite me'

-and I answered, still poised with the big stick, "You're damn right he won't bite me."

And then he managed to grab the dog collar and drag the dog away, giving me hefty doses of dirty looks. And I continued on my way.

Then tonight when I was getting out of my car, I decided to bring in the large assortment of books, CD's, etc. that had piled up in my backseat. I dropped a couple of things getting out. So I closed the door and bent over to pick the stuff up. I was moving very slowly so as to gather the dropped items without dropping even more, when suddenly I heard little jingling bells and something bumped my behind, and I jumped about 2 feet in the air as I saw a furry blur between my legs (insert dirty joke here).

Luckily, I was able to accurately assess the lack of danger before I administered a vicious kick, because the furry blur turned out to be two very small yellow Labradors. They were about as cute as it is possible for dogs to be.

The owner was in a nearby yard and the dogs had wandered off. He came over and we chatted for a while. The dogs were not quite 10 weeks old, and looked like this. I'm glad I didn't kick them.



I just hope the owner learns to keep them contained before they get bigger, because at the rate the clean-up is going, I bet in a year or two I'll still have no problem finding big sticks lying around.

Lifted from Wikipedia

"The Easter Bunny is very similar in trait to its Christmas holiday counterpart, Santa Claus, as they both bring gifts to good children on the night before their respective holiday. Its origin is disputed but the character was mentioned as early as 1600; some trace it to alleged pre-Christian fertility lore. The claim is that Hare and Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the spring season.
"The Easter Bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have its origins in Alsace and southwestern Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 1600s. The first edible Easter Bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s and were made of pastry and sugar.
"The Easter Bunny was introduced to America by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s."

Lists

While playing with blog tools I decided to add a list. It seemed natural to start with a favorite books list. So I did.

'Favorite' is definitely not the same as 'best'. I think all of my favorites are pretty darned good, but some wouldn't come close to making a 'best' list. My favorites list has all to do with personal affinity. Literary merit is secondary.

I decided to come up with a list strictly out of my head, without looking at my bookshelf or browsing around for reminders of some great ones I might have forgotten about. I thought it would be fun to do that afterward and see how much the list changes after a day, or a week, or a month.

I included the whole Harry Potter series as one. I loved all of them. They were great fun to read, so I felt they belonged on the list. I decided I could count it as one since it was all one story. And that thought just reminded me that The Lord of The Rings trilogy probably belongs on the list, too. So that's the first change, probably. And sorry, Wendell Berry or Jonathan Safran Foer, but I think one of you is going to be bumped.

I will probably add a couple of other book lists, too. It seems like an amusing pastime while watching television, or working. Maybe a 'top 10 books I've always intended to read but haven't' list, or a 'top 10 books that are supposed to be great but I hated.'

Ifs and Buts

I entered three NCAA jackpots. My performance in two of them was quite lousy but in my work jackpot I was quite good. Just not good enough. I'm currently 10th out of 251 entrants, though I have no chance of winning. Plus if North Carolina wins I'll drop another 20 spots or so.

The frustrating thing is, I picked North Carolina to win it all in the other two jackpots. The only reason I didn't pick them again for my work jackpot was that I'd already picked them in the other two. I had a Final Four of Michigan State, UConn, Pitt, and North Carolina, and when I looked at it I thought "North Carolina is clearly my favorite, but I should probably pick someone else just to mix it up a little."

I basically didn't want 1 upset loss in an early round to completely ruin all three of my chances at the same time. So I picked Pitt over North Carolina and then UConn over Pitt. The Pitt/UNC matchup was the only game out of all three sheets that I chose 'just for a change' rather than who I thought (at the moment) would win. It cost me a few hundred dollars. Oh well.

If I'd gone with UNC as I had in the other two, I'd have already clinched first place regardless of tonight's outcome, because nobody within range on points has Michigan State winning. Everybody had U of L (or the race car from Monopoly).

I'm filing this car advertisement away for later re-use. But come November when the UT game is near, will someone please please please remind me to use it? It's nearly as good as the 'Bama fan's "Why I hate Tennessee" video.

Daylight Savings

I heard Michael Feldman read this on the air today ( a rerun, though). It was so funny I looked up the letter as soon as I got home. According to Snopes.com, the writer is actually a lawyer who wrote it tongue-in-cheek, but it's quite funny.

State of Affairs was interesting today. They spent the hour recalling the '74 tornadoes (best team in the North American Soccer League! Yaaaaay! Oh, sorry, different Tornadoes).

The only thing new that I learned was that there was also an earthquake (4.5) that day. I never knew that.

Your assignment today, class, is to write your recollections of April 3, 1974.
I'll get the ball rolling:

I'm not sure I remember a darned thing. I do recall hunkering down on blankets in the basement, listening to the radio. I even remember what the radio looked like, and the blankets. But I'm fairly sure that memory is a compilation of several- for I believe we went to the basement for multiple storm warnings, so I'm not sure if any of my memory is from that actual day.

_____________
I heard several stories today about the debut of Kentucky Derby Barbie.

I must be maturing, because it wasn't until the second time I heard it that I thought of selling Infield Barbie, complete with grass-stained shorts and removable tee-shirt, and of course a little sorority tattoo on her ankle.