My spies tell me that the Soldier Field parking lot will be open for the Bears game on Sunday. Let me get this straight. The game isn't in Chicago, the Super Bowl is in Miami. The temperature will be about 5 degrees. They are still charging $15 to park there. Massive amounts of alcohol will be consumed.

What could possibly go wrong?

















Meal of Links

Molly Ivins passed away last night. God, was she a thorn in the side of one President Bush, aka "Shrub".

Which restaurant chains are forthcoming with their nutritional information? A notable absence from this list is Cinnabon. If you ever read their info, you'll never eat one again.

The TV "Mrs. Smith" is Jordana Brewster. Trust me, there could have been choices a lot worse than her. I'll watch.

Exercise Yard

I took my Dad to the CSU game this evening. The opponent was the Ramblers of Loyola. Loyola actually won the NCAA title in 1963, which must seem like a thousand years ago to that program. Anyhow, CSU has been on the road for two weeks, which allows the Vikettes to learn a new number and the band to work in that new Offspring tune.

The game was...well...it was another loss. This time, it was 61-57. CSU is now (gulp) 2-9 in the Horizon League. For the game, they shot a stellar 30%. At the half, they were down by 16 and somehow crawled back to tie the score at 45 with seven minutes to go. That's right, Loyola scored only 8 points in the first 13 minutes of the second half, on their way to a jaw-dropping 23% shooting effort after halftime. Renard Fields had a good effort for the Vikings today with 12 points and 16 rebounds. I like him, as he's not the most talented guy, but he's a hard worker.

Down by 2 with 32 seconds to go and plenty of time on the shot clock, CSU's Bahaadar Russell (only 3 of 10 on threes this evening) threw up what may have been the most ill-advised three-pointer attempted in the history of Division 1 basketball. Well, this week anyway. There were so many things wrong with that attempt, I am still thinking about it. Of course, Loyola was fouled and waltzed their way to a win.

Only 3 home games left!

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52 Across: Florida flower? (12 letters) Answer: Orlando Bloom