Stocks Drop

The Nebraska Men's basketball team's stock dropped today with their 71-67 loss to Ohio State in the Big 10 tournament in Indianapolis. We trailed during the first 19 minutes and took the lead just before the half. During the opening minutes of the 2nd half the Huskers lead 48-30. I might have jinxed them by mentioning to Elaine that it was hard to believe they could build an 18 point lead that quickly. It took until the last couple minutes for OS to take the lead but they went on to win despite desperate efforts by Tim Miles and the Huskers to save it. I'm afraid Nebraska's stock went down in the 2nd half just about like the DOW did after 12pm. 

March Madness a little early

We are having enough of this weather that makes me think maybe the "Ground Hog" was wrong. It feels like spring is here. I even took a "weighted" golf club driver out on the deck this evening and got in a few swings. The long range forecast doesn't show the bad weather for this weekend that usually comes along with the end of the HS Boys State basketball tournament. Our Seward boys were beat out in the District meet by York who beat Pius today in the first round of the State. 

Creighton just beat De Paul 84-62 in the quarter-finals of the Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden in NY City. Doug McDermott had 35 points. I got my Sports Illustrated magazine today with McDermott on the cover. It has a 7 page story inside. I have already given away the swimsuit issue but I'm going to keep this one. 

Janice and Mark

Sister Janice commented on yesterday's blog that she and her son Mark had visited our house back in the Washington, D.C. area where we lived some years ago. This picture was taken during that visit on May 4, 1977. Mark was part of a school Safety Patrol group and Janice was a counselor for them. We met them for lunch at Smithsonian, took them home with us after work and for supper and then took them back down to their hotel. In checking my Diary, I found that my notes were very brief. My job was very demanding during those years with very little time to write about it. It's always interesting looking at old pictures like this. 

It seemed like very few years between the time these pictures were taken and I rode around with Deputy Sheriff Mark one afternoon while he was on duty out in California. Some of the things in the background of pictures also take on added significance as time goes on. The little cast iron stove showing on the mantle between Elaine and Janice is something that Great Granddaughter Sadie played with at our house a few days ago. The other wall hangings are still very much a part of our decor.  It's been nearly 37 years and most of use haven't held our age as well as the little stove. But if God had intended us to stay the same, he probably would have caused us to be "stoves" instead of his "children". 

3515 Laurel Leaf Lane

This is the last of the 3 homes that we had in the Washington, D. C. area during our 18 years back there. This 5 bedroom, 4 bath house was our home for only 4 years, and we certainly enjoyed it. It was located in the Mantua area of Fairfax County just outside the beltway. We built a big deck with double glass doors off the Dining room on the back side of the house where we enjoyed the big tree-covered back yard. We planted many Azaleas and other shrubs to enhace the native beauty of the trees. The southern edge of the property is just beyond the right edge of the picture. An old air photo shows a wagon trail that led from downtown D. C. out to the Manassas battlefield that went along the south edge of this property. An old Civil War story tells of many people riding out on a Sunday afternoon to see what they thought would just be a local "uprising" and didn't suspect that it would lead to the Civil War.

Carolyn & Tim

 Here are a couple nice looking Wakefield High School students in Arlington, VA a few years ago. Their other 2 brothers were probably involved in some other activity and missed getting included in the picture. It was probably about this time that Tim had the privilege of taking the Volkswagen and going on a date. He stopped at Eudy's filling station a couple blocks from where we lived and ask the attendant to put in $5.00 worth of gas. The attendant laughed at him and asked where he wanted them to put it. In those days gas was about 35cents/gal. and the tank only held about 12 gallons. How times have changed. We filled our Buick up this afternoon at $3.43/gal and it took $37.00 and it wasn't down very low. I suspect Tim might have had something else on his mind that evening.

Carolyn came down to visit last evening and reported on some of Sadie's activities. The years go by very quickly from the time of being a cute teenager to being an attractive  Grandmother. She always brightens our day.

Tim called last night after Nebraska men's 77-68 Big 10 victory over Wisconsin. It was a "stand up crowd" of 16,000 people in the new Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. We also talked about the Nebraska women's 72-65 victory over Iowa during the afternoon to win the Big 10 Tournament. We talked about a few other things but basketball was the big topic. I'm looking forward to telling him about Shane, the President of our Kiwanis Clubs' relationship with Doug McDermott. It seems that Shane and his family lived in Wayne, NE near the McDermott's when Doug's Dad was coaching at Wayne State College. Shane tells of having served as a baby-sitter for Doug when he was a little guy. It appears that he has "turned out" pretty well as have the two teenagers in the picture.

Big 10 Women's Basketball Tournament Champs

 Rachel Theriot scored 19 of her 24 points in the second half Sunday, leading No. 16 Nebraska past No. 23 Iowa 72-65 for the Big Ten tournament title.

It's the first time the Cornhuskers (25-6) have ever won a conference tourney crown, clinching the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. Nebraska also posted its second straight 25-win season and is tied for the second most victories in school history. The Cornhuskers head into the postseason with plenty of momentum after winning 12 of 13.

Iowa (26-8) was led by Ally Disterhoft with 20 points and Samantha Logic with 14 but had a six-game winning streak snapped.

Nebraska never trailed, though Iowa closed to 57-56 with 7:43 to play. Theriot, the tourney's most outstanding player, helped Nebraska pull away with an 8-3 run. She is shown here between Emily Cady and Jordon Hooper. 

Old Times - Old Friends

Between several Nebraska Girls HS basketball State Championship games today, I found time to add some pictures to the "Elaine" slide show which I worked on recently. This one was taken the summer before Elaine and her classmates graduated from Seward HS. It was taken out at the farm where Elaine grew-up and includes Vernon, Jean, Elaine and Skip (Walter).  Elaine says, "this was taken west of the flower garden out on the farm.  The day consisted of horseback riding and fishing in Plum Creek". It sounds to me like a "good time was had by all". 

In addition to watching the Nebraska HS girls Championship games, we also just finished watching the Nebraska UN-L girls beat Michigan State 86-58 in the semi-finals of the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. Nebraska will play Iowa tomorrow for the League Championship-something that Nebraska has never won. The Nebraska girls games are most interesting to me after having watched Junior Emily Cady and Freshman Hanna Tvrdy play their HS games with Seward. Emily has really been a "stalwart" on the team. It was mentioned tonight that she and Big Ten player of the Year, Jordon Hooper started their 97 consecutive game for Nebraska tonight.