bobmacliberty

As a casual Kentucky fan (daughter got her undergrad degree there), I was happy to see Coach Cal go. I was not the only Kentucky fan to feel that way. He has arguably had the best talent of any college team (NBA teams are littered with former UK players) but they were all one and done. No matter how much talent you have as a freshman, it's tough to go against some of the more experienced 3 and 4 year players on teams like Virginia, or Villanova, or Gonzaga. He had a hard time just winning the SEC. Cal didn't seem willing to move away from the one and done model. Worse, he complained every year about how his guys had a hard time adjusting to being great team players. 🙄 Hopefully he tries a different approach at Arkansas and has better success. I think he's still a good coach.

Mark - Have you guys been to Hocking Hills in OH? It's a couple of hours south of Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park so I'm guessing a good 3 hours from you. They have great hiking with lots of caves and waterfalls. Hard to believe it's actually in OH given how flat and boring most of the OH landscape is. Definitely worth staying a night or 2 there, especially in the fall.

We had about 60% eclipse coverage here. It got a little bit darker but not much. We tried too late to get glasses (everyone sold out) so couldn't look at it. My SIL, who works in Dayton, OH, took this picture from the roof of his building. He said it was much cooler to see in person than the picture shows.

Oops. You're correct. That is supposed to say St. Kitts. I've never even been to St. Croix. 🤣

As always, spectacular photos. This one reminds me of St. Croix. Atlantic Ocean on one side and Caribbean Sea on the other.

UConn, especially Nika Muhl, did play great defense that held Clark to 3 for 11 early. But Clark still managed to come through for 21 points including some big 3s with Muhl tightly in her face. She can handle good defense. The foul seemed a bit iffy on first watch, and the timing with 4 seconds left isn't good, but it was definitely a foul when watching the replay from other angles: https://x.com/IowaSportsGuy1/status/1776467266797785500 Hate to see that at the end of such a good game though.

I have it scheduled to be recorded. It was actually a concert from last week (Mar 28) that was recorded and will be aired in 2 weeks. I'm interested in seeing how it compares to the concert that we saw in January. I may have already posted this (memory issues can be scary) but if you've got 2 hours to kill, there was an interesting interview of Billy Joel by Howard Stern last month. Billy is sitting in front of a piano the whole time and often plays something. It's amazing to see his musical talent and the way that he thinks about music.

Never thought I'd see anyone even close to Gretzky's records. His assists and points records are probably safe. Impressive accomplishments for both Sid and Ovechkin. Between Lemieux, Jagr, and Crosby, Pittsburgh always seems to have great scorers.

I remember being woken up in bed by an earthquake while in college. This was 1982 or 1983 outside of Albany, NY. I think it was in the 5s on the Richter scale. It was felt across much of the northeast.

I'm the same with Sailing Doodles. Loved the early days where he actually had 2 Labradoodles (hence the name) sailing with him. Cool dogs. That's when they usually found the cheapest food possible and he usually anchored wherever he went so that he didn't have to pay for a mooring ball. Things have definitely changed. He now has a deal with Navigare Yachting and you can join one of his flotillas (multiple yachts cruising together, which looks like a lot of fun) by getting a cabin on one of the boats for $3K a week.

The trade saves the Bills some salary money, but doesn't really help their cap. They'll still take a $31M dead money cap hit. I agree though that he's on the downside of his career and that he's a locker room problem. The Bills are following the Patriots model of letting him go maybe a year early rather than a year late. Like many Bills fans, my first response was shock, and wondering why they could only get a 2nd rounder for next year in return. Seems like the rest of the league doesn't want to pay much for him and other teams probably have similar concerns. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. You don't just dump your WR1 for next to nothing without a plan. I don't know if that's another trade (Tee Higgins?) or maybe moving up in the draft for one of the top WRs (although they don't have much draft capital). They picked up Curtis Samuel in free agency so at a minimum, he should replace Diggs in the lineup and pair nicely with Shakir. This will be a test for Josh. It never seemed like it mattered to Tom Brady who was at WR...he made them look good. We'll see if Josh can do the same.

I completely agree with wishing that we had better public transportation in the US. I understand though why we'll never really have a broad, national train system (beyond what Amtrak already has). Too many reasons why there isn't enough demand. In addition to being clean, I remember the Japan trains being quiet. Other than an occasional "Moshi moshi" when someone answered their phone, any talking was very quiet. I was with a group of about 10 people from the US who were always talking and laughing. I could see it on the faces of the Japanese people on the train...we were the "ugly Americans".

I love your photos! I visited the Himeji Castle several years ago (maybe 2005??) on a business trip. Beautiful place...the castle itself, the outbuildings, and the surrounding area. I remember there being some unusual (to me at least) flavors in the food that we sampled in that street food area. We also used the trains to travel. The engineer in me loved it. Everything was so precise. You looked at a message board to see when your train would arrive, how many cars long the train was, and where the train doors would be according to symbols on the platform. People would politely line up by the appropriate symbol. At exactly the right time, the train would arrive and stopped exactly lined up with the symbols. People getting on would wait until everyone got off, and then board. Everything was so organized.

Yup. $4100 for 6 hours on CocoCay is more than our balcony cabin for the week.

I wasn't sure if you were serious or joking, so I checked out our upcoming Wonder cruise. Still $4100 for a Coco Beach Club overwater cabana. 😵🥴🤣 Happy Easter everyone!

Looks about right to me. Multiple courses with a little time and a little wine between courses means I'd be full. Besides, I don't have the self-control to NOT overeat when they put huge portions in front of me. Huge portion sizes are a part of the reason that we've got such an obesity problem in the US, and all of the other medical issues that go with that.

Looks fanatastic. I wish we had a CIA near us.

I went to Japan a couple of times on business to visit a manufacturing plant. For lunch, we sat at the VIP table in the cafeteria (because we were from "headquarters") with the local people in charge. They served whole fish which we ate by picking out pieces of the "meat" with chopsticks. It looked quite a bit better than what everyone else was eating at the other tables. Different, but when in Rome...

Same here. I don't remember where we stopped watching but we never made it to the end of the series.

Great photos and a spectacular view from the top!

Is that Anne Burrell? I've seen her Worst Cooks show a few times.

Looks like Amber Cove is Carnival built. No Royal ships scheduled there. https://www.ambercove.com/Port-Schedule.aspx Guessing that you're going to Taino Bay: https://puertoplatacruiseport.com/ Edit: You can virtually walk through the Taino Bay shops and pool area. Looks very nice, although definitely another man made area for cruise passengers. https://maps.app.goo.gl/J9zbjsVmeffAefE1A

My 70-200 2.8 is my favorite lens, and my most hated lens. It's big and heavy so I never want to take it with me when traveling. If I was still using my DSLR enough, I'd love to switch to mirrorless. I was drooling over the R5 for a while. Doesn't make sense for me to spend the money though. There are a lot of other toys that I can buy instead. 😎

That's impressive for any age, especially a third grader. She's got talent.

Or both. 😜