Yep, we got it wrong. Our government and medical community have f*&^%d up big time. Below is from an Australian documentary show called Catalyst. Interestingly, the Australian ABC removed it..most likely after too much push back from statin drug makers and sugar/refined foods manufacturers. Ignore this documentary at your own risk.

It all started when Florida’s name was called during the NCAA Tournament selection show.

Team cheers as their name is called.

The team was sent North to State College, PA. This was doable! We frantically started searching for flights and hotel rooms. We already knew we could easily get Tourney tickets from the UAA.

The early departure from State College was rough.

There is nothing more exciting than tournament tickets in hand!

Inside the Bryce Jordan Center.

Our team scouting game one.

A WBB tournament is never perfect unless Alberta is there!

Of course, Joe Paterno still resonates here.

Did I mention it was bitching cold? Bitchin! We got lucky on Sunday morning. We went to a place in downtown State College on the boarder of PSU called “The Waffle Shop” for breakfast. It was a cold day…a very cold day. There was a line and quite a few people ahead of us. But, let me say that it pays to be a couple – the folks ahead needed tables for three or more…therefore, parties of two were seated immediately and so we were pulled inside to sit down, order and eat our breakfast. Fantastic!

We won our first game against Dayton – mind you we’re the 11 seed and they’re the 6 seed. So, a bit of an upset. Penn State won their game and we met on Tuesday evening to play for the Sweet Sixteen. Alas, Penn State was too good for us. We fought hard and never gave up. Looking forward to next year. We’ve got a very good recruiting class coming in – it should be another exciting season.

In my next blog submission, I’ll talk about our amazing trip to Washington DC!

Ciao!

I’m sitting at the red light and look over to read the sign. Ahh, I remember “Foster Frolics” when I was a young elementary student. 

We’re sitting here in Duluth, GA at the Gwinnett Center waiting for the start of the Ole Miss vs Auburn game – the last one of the evening. It’s nice to be inside under cover – the temp is 37 degrees and it hasn’t stopped raining since this afternoon.

It’s great to have the Gator band and spirit squad here to support our team.

The game was close and tense as all our games seem to be, but we won and get to play again tomorrow against Kentucky. We’ve already beat them twice this year. But they’re a good team and we’re going to have to perform well to take a third win. But hey, why not three times! Let’s go get it!

One of the highlights of the game was to have our picture taken with Carol Ross. Sweet!

Both of us enjoy Twitter for a number of reasons. I love it to follow all aspects of women’s basketball, to follow some of my favorite techie stuff, and other things, sports, etc. So, at our last home Gator women’s basketball game we tweeted a couple of times and wound up in the Gatorvision’s “Twitter Tuesday” video below. It was so exciting! Can you find us?

http://www.gatorvision.tv/mediaPortal/embed.swf

We traveled to Columbia, South Carolina this past weekend to watch our Gator women’s basketball team take on the Gamecocks. Traveling to away games is so much fun! Just wish some of the venues were nearer to us.

We stayed at the Springhill Suites on Lady Street. This hotel had been recently renovated and we really liked the room. Usually, our favorite hotel is Embassy Suites because of the wonderful breakfast they provide.

We left Gainesville at around 10am – it’s a relatively short drive (6 hours) and saw no reason to awake god-awful early. After arriving and checking in, we searched for a place for dinner. The last time we were in Columbia we dined at California Dreaming. While we enjoyed our experience there we wanted to try new places, so we chose Blue Marlin – just a ten minute walk from the hotel. It was great! The ambience, food and wait staff were great! And, the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had.

Blue Marlin was at the end of this lighted walkway.

After dinner we walked around downtown Columbia. It was really nice.

Lots of renovation going on. Loved this sign.

We will come back to the Cafe Strudel! Great atmosphere and food! The Sunrise Burrito was excellent!

Whenever we’re in a new city, we’re learning to use our phone apps to find great places to eat. I used Yelp and Foursquare to find ones we thought we’d like. Since, I know some Yelp reviews can be untrustworthy, I cross-referenced to pinpoint that perfect place. And, Cafe Strudel was that perfect place! We got up Sunday morning and walk about a mile to the Cafe. It’s clearly a local favorite – there were already a number of people there waiting for it to open. They had a signup sheet outside. The service was pretty fast considering every table was occupied. The coffee was self-serve which freed up the wait staff to provide excellent service. This is a winner. We will go there again the next time we’re in Columbia.

Mir on the Bridge Over the River Congaree.

Walking back to the hotel we stopped to take a few pictures of the river. It looks pretty cold but it was actually in the mid to high 40s and very pleasant for walking.

Another view of the river.

Our team warming up before the game.

The Colonial Life Arena is a great basketball venue. Just loved it. Sure do hope the renovation of the O’Connell Center results in as good a venue. I tell you, it’s embarrassing walking into some of these SEC arenas and then walking into the O’Dome.

Coach Butler intense during a timeout.

Kathy Cafazzo, our Gator information director, took this quick video of us at the game. Go Gators!

In case you’re wondering, we lost the game. Our team played really hard and we’re very proud of their effort. If you were to look at the rosters of both teams, you’d wonder how we were even in the game. We’re getting there – our team is oh so close to competing for an SEC championship.

Really disappointing with the officiating.

The officiating this year is really inconsistent. They’ve done a good job of controlling the hand check but everything else has seemed to fall to the wayside. Not sure what is going on with them – they’re frequently out of position and seem to anticipate fouls instead of watching the entire development of the play. It is this writer’s humble opinion that officiating has produced more blatant bad calls this year than normal. There’s always going to be missed calls – but, please, not so many (and yes, missed calls on my team, too)! Since I live with a former basketball referee, I get the inside scoop on positioning and what each official should be watching. Sometimes, too many eyes are on the ball and not watching what is happening in front of them – or, they’re not positioned properly to see the play. Okay, that’s my rant.

The trip back was uneventful – did get into some rain but not too bad. Did I say I love smartphones? We listened to the Rutgers women’s basketball game on the way home as well as several different podcasts. It was great!!

This was also the first time our pet sitter has stayed with both girls. It seemed to go well and so, we’re set for the SEC Tournament!

That’s all for now! Ciao.

PS. The title of this blog “Cocky in South Carolina” refers to “Cocky” the Gamecocks mascot. I guess I should have take a picture of him – the mascot uniform is a bit embarrassing. I wonder how Gamecock fans really feel about him.

TNT hosted a “Bubbly Tasting” party last night. As you can see from the pics, Terry put together a beautiful snack table.

Now, this was a serious tasting. We each brought a bottle of bubbly. Terry organized and numbered each bottle. We spent the next hour blind tasting each and writing down our impressions. The goal was to pick the one you liked the best. We also wanted to compare taste to price as the costs ranged from $12.99 up to $140.00.

What I learned is that my palate cannot tell the difference between any traditional champagne. They all tasted exactly the same to me. This is good news – I’ll never have to buy expensive bubbly because I would never be able to taste the difference.

The bubbly I gave my high mark to was this one below. A rose from New York. It was very lovely.

It was, as it always is at TNT’s, a very wonderful evening!

Temps dropping into the 30’s on Christmas!

Emma had put up her little tree and we gave it a little love by taking its picture. Tis the season!

The Nochebuena meal was prepared by Emma and Nancy. They worked diligently during the day to create a traditional Puerto Rican dinner…it was a meal to remember! The centerpieces of this gastronomic endeavor were the pernil and the pasteles. Forbes had a really good, and very accurate, article about pernil – it’s worth your read – click here.

Clockwise: pernil, brussel sprout, avacado, pasteles, sweet potato, beans and rice.

This rum cake was excellent! In fact, one piece was not enough…

“Shuffling” the dominoes actually does require a bit of skill. Here Miriam takes over as my attempt caused pieces to overturn.

On the way home, we tuned in to NORAD to keep track of Santa’s locations as he delivered presents to boys and girls across the world.

Merry Christmas or Feliz Navidad to all and to all a good night!

It’s the weekend before Christmas – and a relatively quiet one. Our women’s basketball team hosted it’s annual Holiday tournament and won both games!

If you look closely at the picture you will see “Buddy the Elf” – aka soccer Coach Becky Burleigh!

This is our little tree. We’ve simplified Christmas to reduce stress and it has worked wonderfully!

We also added a few lights outside.

And, of course, we walked up to the Thomas Center for the luminaries, music, and fun.

I’ve been playing around with a new phone app that creates a watercolor out of an image. My target image was of Sydney. She stays put longer than Peanut so it’s easier to snap a shot of her.

And another…

I’m kind of liking the look of these images. Next will try to get a good pic of Peanut…

Merry Christmas to you!