gulf

Beauty whispers beauty in my ear
liquidy splashed brilliance
sparking another significant year
searching for lonely unpaired socks
beyond casual vision
between glittering thought docks
after lip swimming sweet Athena skin
unwritable quiet knowledge
negated temporary human win
sharing the jungle with boredom logs
giving delinquents fire
burning hourly beneath Italian dialogs
saving the wistful, muscular and lucky
voted uneven fair
to celebrate the wise, honest and plucky
smiling, leaning on Beauty's shoulder
sharply nudged rear
unlearning the truth about "older"
daydreaming Ashley Olsen empire
locked above oxygen
unbreathing the mass opium pyre

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UT vs. Duke

Number 4 Tennessee defeats Number 10 Duke at Durham. I went to a football game last year at Duke and saw Cameron Indoor Stadium. It looked like a French church to me. It was designed by Julian Abele who studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. It was locked up and we didn't get to go inside. So tonight, Candace Parker, probably the best women's collegiate player in the country, and Tennessee handed Duke their first home loss in 25 games. It was a fantastic game. Abby Waner hit an incredible three-pointer with about 48 seconds left in the game to tie it. Parker efficiently sealed the game with a tight leaner at 22 seconds left. Duke turned it over and then had to foul Parker with 4 seconds on the clock. She hit one and missed one but Duke only managed a 65-foot prayer shot that didn't take wings.
Fantastic ballgame.

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winner, Australian Open

7-5,6-3

Why am I still awake?

Just got back from an NCAA women's basketball game. Number10, Duke defeated number 23 Georgia Tech. That Abby Waner is an incredible athlete. She runs the whole game. She runs all over the place the whole game. Wanisha Smith is a great basketball player. She creates so much on offense. She can drive and shoot from distance.
Duke's defense just shut Tech down. Chante Black and Joy Cheek instead gave up almost zilch. I've always believed that to win consistently, the inside has to be established. Tech didn't do that this evening. They did try though. They kept banging and driving inside, but Duke just had too much. (I'm too sleepy to write anymore.) Oh, yeah. It was knuckle breaking cold. 36f when I as standing in line to buy a ticket. brrrrr

HeckfreakingYEAH

Atlanta Dream
I'm not really a pro sports fan. Give me the student/athlete any day of the week who is playing the game. From about the age of nine until age sixteen, I could have told you the entire starting line-ups for every NFL team. It was a slow transition. Living close to a college town, I've been to a slew of college football games. The great Keith Jackson referred to it as "the pageantry." The history and intensity of college football is a beautifully sharp, two-edged sword that cuts everyone in its path. No pain, no gain, brother.
My grandfather used to watch every Braves game that came across the airwaves. I watched a bunch with him. One of the best memories of my life was watching the 1992 NLCS with Granddad. We were both jumping up and down when Cabrera drove home Justice and Bream in the bottom of the ninth in game seven. Man, that's a great moment to remember.
So I'm hoping to enjoy the WNBA in the ATL.

189

8000

Went crazy tonight and implemented a play to our offense. If I had waited another week, they wouldn't have picked it up by the end of the season. It might be just enough chaos to generate an extra point or two in a game. The key to any designed play in any sport is execution. The key to execution is timing. The key to timing is repetition. Over and over and over. We practice once a week for an hour. Even though it's a simple play, it takes more than hour to even remember it by each player. Keep in mind that these are 1st to 3rd graders. For some, it's their first experience in organized ball. We'll see how it all shakes out on Saturday. Show time, baby.
The IRA dude visited us today at the Company. I like him. Word on the street is that by thirty he was a millionaire. Of course, a million dollars isn't what it used to be. The market was at about 8000 when he started talking to us in 2002. Even with the recent market carnage, it's still way up. I'll never be money wealthy. My wealth is my ability to see and live Beauty. I've danced and sung with Beauty on high mountains, beneath the ocean, and behind my grandparent's home. I don't know how to sell it, not that I would. I wouldn't trade it, even if I could. I'm just putting american dollar bills in a place for the next generation. Remember that brilliant niece whom I mentioned a few days ago? She's my next generation. Money just doesn't like me. People think of me as a kind person. When it comes to money, I'm mean. Yeah, money runs when it sees me coming. Money looks like a "spent piece of used jet trash" after I get my hands on it. We've all got a pothole or two in our personalities.

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chilly

5:23am
Good morning bloggers. Got a two hour trip to get started on. It's dark and cold. 26f, feels like 19f. Right now it's 14f, feels like 1f, where I'm going. 0% precipitation is the key number though. Plentiful sunshine with a high of 40f. Have a good day. Prove your love.



pm

Life is fast

6:22pm
Cold and wet. It will probably start snowing here in a few minutes. It's dark now, so if I kept on blogging I wouldn't know it. I'm not going to blog into the late evening though. Nope. Gonna get into my internal combustion machine and drive to an outfitter's shop. Need to purchase a small backpack for tomorrow. Should have already done it, but I started watching Maryland vs. North Carolina and it was too good of a game to leave. Maryland defeated number 1 and undefeated North Carolina in a whale of game. Both teams have excellent coaches. I've always been impressed with Gary Williams, the Maryland coach.
It was raining pretty steady before our game this morning. Most of the players arrived at the gym wet. On Tuesday at practice, I really stressed defense. They did a lot better this week. We only practice for an hour once a week so it's difficult to cover every aspect of the game each week. This week, we'll go over passing beneath the basket. We did really good today. One player asked me at the end of the game, "Is it over already?" That's a good day.

going

am
Today my niece will be Amelia Earhart. It's 4:55 and I'm about go to work. After a few things get done, I'll drive over to her school to see the "play." Each student was assigned a historical figure and will have a few lines to perform associated with their person. I was really glad that she was assigned Amelia Earhart. AE was one tough "chic." Of course, my niece is brilliant so this is a great assignment to incorporate into her life.

Georgia Tech 67 (16-2)
N Carolina State 63

On Sunday, Georgia Tech plays Maryland. Tough game. Weather permitting, I'm going to be here on Sunday.

Peace and Love

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pm
7:08

The performance was thrilling. They put zip to it and some of those kids showed strong stage presence and charisma. Very glad to have experienced that. I believe in tomorrow because I saw it on the stage this morning. On the way back to work, the sun beamed warm and bright. Then computer girl dropped in for a visit and actually touched my keyboard. There's a warm-fuzzy to enjoy during a forecast of snow. That's right. At three am Texas is sending us some precipitation to meet up with some chilling yankee air. If it doesn't snow and stick, my team takes the court tomorrow morning and we've got a fresh can of hustle to open. Pop and swish.

Heal and Grow

South winter

You know that sound similar to chipmunks dragging tinfoil up and down your driveway and then jumping up on the trees and wrapping the leaves in cellophane? Well, that's the sound that I'm getting now. It's a wintry mix in the South. We don't do well with a wintry mix down here. Personally, I'm really simple. Give me snow or non-snow, just don't mix it up. It's nine-thirty pm and little kids, big kids too, are so excited right now that something other than rain is falling from the sky that they can't contain themselves. The big kids are going to get aggravated with the little kids for not going to sleep but then get so excited that they forget about it and both bigs and littles will get carried away planning all the things that they are going to do on their "freebie" day off. The bigs are going to stay up half the night looking at weatherchannel.com and the sky. They're going to wake in the morning tired, then get irritated that it didn't "freeze over." Been there, licked that. It's just going to be a miserable day tomorrow at work. Really, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Well, gotta go get in the mix of it all. Make sure the roads are still on the ground. Do-gooders never rest.
Goodnight Gorgeous.

191

$4

That's all it cost to see an NCAA women's college basketball game. I went to Atlanta and saw Georgia Tech beat Miami. It was very exciting. The game started at 2pm on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Georgia Tech took a quick 6-2 lead and then seemed to sleepwalk for the next thirty or so minutes of the game. Miami came in to the game with an 8-9 record. Maybe Tech took them lightly. Miami shot about 67% from three-point range in the first half. It only fell to 64% in the second half. Tech wasn't finishing off plays. They would make good passes, play solid defense, and then just fade. With 6:11 left on the clock in the second half, Tech was down by eleven points. Then came a 23-9 run for the home team, ending with a three-pointer at .9 seconds by a freshman, Alex Montgomery. Whew! That was exciting. My favorite player is Jaqua Williams.
Georgia Tech 68
Miami 65

I just got finished watching Duke vs. Maryland. Duke has a new coach this season. Maryland's coach is thirty-two weeks pregnant with twins. They bring down the desk chair from her office to sit in during the game. She can't travel to away games. Maryland is loaded this year. Currently, they are number four in the nation. The attendance at tonight's game was 15,000+.
It's been ten years since Maryland has won at home against Duke. From the outset of the game, I thought Kristi Toliver looked stronger and even more confident than last year. One of my favorite players from the past few seasons has been Marissa Coleman. She looked very impressive as a freshman. She's unstoppable now. Toliver and Coleman are a one-two punch that few teams can withstand. The scary part is that both are juniors. Coleman put in 30 and Toliver got 21. Seniors Laura Harper and Crystal Langhorne, the all-time rebounding leader in Maryland's history, men or women, scored 13 and 16.
Maryland 85
Duke 70

Duke's a few steps away from being an exceptional team this year. Gone is the number one pick in the WNBA draft, Lindsey Harding. She's a great ballplayer and is not replaced in a season or two. Abby Waner can carry the team with her fire on defense and potent three-point shot. She only hit one three-pointer tonight, scoring 15. Jasmine Thomas is an incredible freshman who just needs about three more tough games to get really seasoned. She got 17 points in the loss. Then there's Wanisha Smith who also scored 17. Duke is tenth in the nation and are just a few steps away from coming together as a formidable team.

188.5

basketball

We had our first game of the season. They did great. They smiled a lot and got sweaty. The score wasn't kept so we all won. Beautiful day. Youth sports should be about fun and teaching. Those parents who get in fights with coaches and referees are pathetic. We don't have that in our program. It's a very kid-centered system. I need to expand the way that I give. This is one avenue for giving.
There is a different way to measure victory. Be sure that you don't end up with zero at the end of the real game.

sad

Share a good thought, warm hug, and love in memory of Meredith Emerson.

Fire is warm

190

Life is good, not perfect

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