The Madness that is March

March is perhaps the greatest month for sports.  Spring training is underway, the NHL and NBA are finishing up the last months of their season, and college basketball is everywhere.  This last week there were exciting games on every night and almost every team in college basketball still had a chance, even if very small, to win a national championship.

After the selections on Sunday I have already filled out 10 tournament brackets.  I do a few version of a serious bracket, then several fun brackets.  For fun this year I did things like which place would I rather live, and used a random number generator along with a formula I made for the number range 1 through (10 + (Tourney Seed * 2)).    All day Thursday through Sunday I'll be checking scores, using lunch time to watch games, and checking on my brackets.  There isn't a more exciting time in sports, and I love the madness.

Wyoming didn't make the NIT this year.  I think loosing to Air Force at home may have really hurt our chances.  We are going to be playing in the CBI tournament and get at least one more home game.

I have started prepping things for my garden.  I have a new grow light and seed heating mat.  In a month or so I will start some seedlings with hopes of transplanting in June.  This year I am growing cherry tomatoes, carrots, peas, and pumpkins. I am also going to start some flowers from seeds I collect from last year.   I am trying to decide if I want to build another 8' x 4' Garden box to grow a few more things.  I really like the one i have that I made last year.  As the temperature warms I'll probably do it.

My Kindle Fire

I have been asked by several people to share my opinions about my new Kindle Fire so I decided to write my short review here so I can drive traffic to my blog.  I had an ipad that I occasionally used, but most of the time I found the ipad to big.  I didn't want to lug it around places, and even when watching tv to look up something I felt it was to big and would use my android phone just as much.  I went ahead and pre-ordered a Kindle Fire from Amazon.  I'm usually not an early adopter like that, but I really liked the size and the price.

The Kindle is the perfect size for me.  It is small enough to be highly portable, and large enough to be easy to read on, and consume other web content.  I watched an episode of Arrested development and it streamed just fine and was easily large enough for me.  Since I am an Amazon Prime member I really like having the free streaming available.  I also am a audible user, and the audible app works great too.  I uploaded all of my music onto my Amazon cloud drive and now I have over 15,000 songs I can stream to my kindle.  For the times when you don't have internet access the kindle will hold about 6GB of movies, music, apps, etc.  That is plenty to last me until I have wifi again.  It does take some planning, but that isn't a deal breaker for me.  The device feels really well built.  It is a little thick compared to some newer devices, but is was ok.  The battery life was fine too.  I used it for about three days before having to charge it again.  It charged very fast.

Instead of using the andriod marketplace the kindle uses amazon's android market.  There isn't as good of selection avialable, however if you can download the APK files you can manually install them on the kindle and they work fine.  I downloaded and installed LDSTools and Gospel Library that way since they are not in the amazon andriod market.

a few complaints ...  1. web speed on the kindle is pretty slow.  It streams movies and music fine, but loading a web page seems to take several extra seconds.  I don't know if it is the device or the built-in browser.  I'll try downloading an alternate browser and see if that makes any difference. 2. No hardware button for volume.  I'd prefer to easily turn the volume up or down via a hard button instead of having to go into the settings and adjusting it.

Overall I prefer my Kindle to my ipad especially considering the cost.  I have already given my iPad to a co-worker as I won't be needing it.  It might not be for everyone, but The size and cost are perfect for my needs.

Tailgate Party

I finally have some people coming to tailgate with me this Saturday.  Should be fun - I'll post some pictures.

GO POKES

Tailgating

Chicago again ...

I just got back from my Yearly trip to the windy city,  I was only there a few days, but I was very busy the whole time.  After arriving on Thursday afternoon I took the L downtown to my hotel then rested until Dinner.  I walked over to David Burke's Primehouse.  For Dinner I started with bacon sticks which were extremely thick chunks of bacon which were smoked and served with maple and black pepper.  They had a very intense flavor that stayed with me even for the rest of the meal.  I had a classic caesar salad prepared fresh table side which was extremely delicious.  For my main course I went with a 35 day dry aged bone-in strip steak.  the stake was very good, although could have been trimmed better for my liking, and been a bit larger.  I ended the meal with a roasted banana split sunday with some delicious salted caramel and chocolate ice cream which they mixed on a Himalayan salt slab.  This was my second time dining at Primehouse, and while I do really like it I think I am going to try another steakhouse next time I'm in Chicago.

Friday was a fun day.  I walked around a bit near the Chicago river in the morning then stopped by the billy goat tavern for a double double before catching the L and walking to grant park for Lollapalooza day 1.  I spent the rest of the day watching and listening to many different bands.  My favorite was A Perfect Circle.  I enjoyed a band called the vaccines too.  I watched The Muse play a few songs then walked over to watch most of Cold play's set.  I was exhausted by the end of the day.  I grabbed some BBQ from The weber grill restaurant in my hotel and went to sleep.

Saturday I was joined by Karen and Nathan.  After talking for a bit Karen took her children to the Museum while Nathan and I went to Wrigly field and watched the Cubs win their 7th in a row by beating the Reds 11-4.  Karen and Nathan left after the game and I went to the theater district and walked around for a bit and picked up some garretts popcorn to bring home.  I had dinner at Maggiano's which was great as always.

Sunday I came back home.  It was really pouring as I left the Hotel so I got very wet walking to the train stop.  Nothing really eventfull on the trip home.  When I arived in Laramie I went over the my parents house to visit My brother Joshua and his kids who are in town for vacation, and we all shred in some good popcorn.

I'm already looking forward to next years trip to Chicago.

Sledding in July

Summer Time

It is summer, and past time for a new post.  We had some good lightning the other day - I caught a strike with my phone.  Here is a short video.

My garden is struggling to grow.  I built a garden box this year to try and help me garden.  Below is a picture.

Lastly I got a new recliner chair.  I am enjoying it.

Syatt hits the ... court

Larry Shyatt was hired as the new head coach at the university of Wyoming today.  I was in Arizona when he coached his previous 1 year stint at UW.  I hope we can get back to winning.

Baseball started today - Cubs first game is tomorrow.  I'm headed to SLC for general conference and to hang out tomorrow.  I hope its fun.