Thank you, Dawgs!

As much as it hurts to swallow the Sweet 16 loss versus Louisville, this fan is overjoyed about how our season turned out. To be named a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney is only the beginning of the Washington program. I can criticize the refereeing all day long, but that will not make me feel better.

No matter what, this season has been more than successful. It is the beginning of an era in Husky basketball. Go Dawgs!

Spring Break of Ups & Downs

Unfortunately my Spring Break week just came to an end. Classes resume tomorrow. Doh.

What a week of ups & downs. Last Tuesday, I found out from my sister that my Lolo Ven passed away. Thank you for all the childhood memories. My only regret is not visiting the Philippines after you moved back there. I will miss you, Lolo.

Thursday, the Washington Huskies kept the No. 1 seed winning streak intact versus the Montana Grizzlys. The superstition bug has hit me. I can't cut my hair nor wear another shirt on game days besides my #3 (Brandon Roy) away jersey until the Huskies lose or when tournament ends. Even though my hair is already getting out of control, I'm hoping it's the latter for the Huskies being crowned as the 2005 National Champions would have a nice ring to it.

Friday, it snowed a reported 20 inches in 24 hours. I should have stayed home instead of going into work, where I got stuck in the parking lot. I had to get my roommate and his officemate to come help me push my car. That probably has been my worst driving experience in the Minnesota snow. On second thought, it would be my second worst after the time I did two 360's on the highway.

Saturday, the Washington Huskies advanced to the Sweet 16 with a convincing win over the Pacific Tigers. After shoveling the driveway for 3 hours, we also hosted a huge party at our house for our friend's birthday. Plenty of beer, DDR, college basketball, karoke, and hot tubbing. It was the first time I've ever jumped into the snow the into a hot tub. I thought it would be cool, but I found out the hard way that it's not as fun as advertised.

Sunday, finished a fantasy baseball draft with my friends back in Seattle. I will give myself a draft grade of a C+ . It could have gone better, though last year I thought my team was terrible, and I made the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row. The Mariners on my team are Jeremy Reed and Adrian Beltre. Go M's.

That pretty much wrapped up my Spring Break week. Ironically, it didn't feel like "Spring" nor much of a "Break".

Surprised on Selection Sunday

The Washington Huskies are a No. 1 Seed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament!!! This is unbelievable. After winning the Pac-10 tournament, I thought it locked us up for at minimum a No. 3 seed and possible No. 2. But when Kansas, Kentucky and Wake Forrest all lost, and a win over our conference foes in Arizona...I thought there was a 1 in 50 chance of being seeded so high. I thought it would have taken a loss by Duke today to slide into the No. 1 seed.

But when it's all said an done, I feel like our program was recognized for it's quality wins (Zona twice, Utah, Alabama and Oklahoma) and consistency through conference play. What a turn around for our program, which has been nonexistent through much of my lifetime.

Now with a bullseye on our backs, proving that we are a worthy of our seeding will be a great test for the Huskies. The door is now open for the Dawgs, no we just have to step through it. Going to the Final Four would be a dream. Then again, one dream came true today. Go Dawgs!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney05/news/story?id=2012348

Test This

I despise exams. I had a midterm in my electrical engineering class today, and it didn't go well. I hate the feeling of knowing that no matter how much you study, a test like today's comes along and puts you on your rear end. The test was more than doable; however, not in the time allotted for the test.

Back in the day, I used to fair better on tests than homeworks. But old habits die hard. Well, at least I wasn't the only one complaining about the test as other students were too. So I'm not the only passenger on the boats of complaints.

Oh well, one test down. One final exam to go.

Finally Caught One

After 3 winters of ice fishing, I finally caught a fish. And it's about time. If 3rd time wasn't the charm, then I was going to hang up my ice fishing rods for good. But the one thing about ice fishing is that it's really not about ice fishing.

On Day One our house (Dan, Mitch and myself) caught 17 fish, and only had to throw 2 back because one was too big and the other too small. However, the low lights of Day One included 2 broken fishing rods by Dan in a matter of 5 minutes. At least he was able to catch both of the fish that broke his poles. The other mishap of the day was when I helped Mitch try to bring up the Big One and as his line broke, one of my poles got sucked into the icehole and disappeared underneath the ice. Needless to say, I was pissed.

Day Two, the bad news is that we only caught 4 keepers and a lot of little fish which we threw back. The good news is that not only is Dan the expert fisherman at catching fish, but by some random chance he also was able to reel up the line from the pole I lost the day before. A miracle that was to even get it back. But just when I thought my luck changed, I caught the last fish of the day. Well, I don't even know if you can call a burbot a fish because it doesn't even look one.

Next year, I'll have to redeem myself by catching the Big One whom almost took my pole away.

Here are the few lessons I learned on the weekend trip:

1. How to filet a walleye/sauger.
2. Beer for breakfast is allowed when fishing in freezing weather.
3. There is such a thing as eating too much beef jerky.
4. How to play The Mexican (a drinking game with dice).
5. There's nothing nastier than a burbot (aka eelpout), and they stink too.
6. Never bet when it comes to fishing contests.