I Don't Always Know What You're Saying

Another Saturday morning...I've got the girls all day while Deb attends a science teachers' conference in Boston. It wasn't a great week for my sports teams. Last night, I watched the UNH hockey team for the second straight year get knocked off by a lower seed in the NCAA tournament; friggin' Notre Dame just outplayed the much more talented Wildcats, 7-3. They were so good in the regular season and then just didn't show up in the playoffs. Meanwhile, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, the Leafs were officially eliminated from playoff contention by the Bruins, who swept a home-and-home series handily. The Blue Jays, as they prepare to start the MLB season Monday, lost their big acquisition, third baseman Scott Rolen, for six weeks after he broke his finger fielding a grounder. And even my March Madness pool is pretty much toast after Wisconsin lost last night; I had them going to the finals.

Marathon training update: I'm running the Eastern States 20-miler tomorrow; it starts in Kittery, Maine, and finishes at Salisbury Beach. Hopefully the weather will be nice (meaning, not rainy and windy). This is my penultimate 20-miler; I'm supposed to do 15 next weekend and one more 20, and then start the best part of marathon training: the taper. Five weeks to the NJ Marathon.

Snap, crackle and pop:

• We had a bit of a shock this week when the city announced a proposal to redistrict the school system, including turning Hannah's elementary school in an alternative high school and sending her to another school. There's a lot of hubbub and plans for protests, but I've got a bad feeling about it. Seems like a done deal. It's too bad, because the school is nearby and we really like it. More importantly, Hannah really likes it. Ultimately, it's all about money and the city doesn't have enough these days, so this is the solution. It's funny, I used to cover the Peabody schools back when I was in my early 20s, but these issues hit a lot closer to home now that I actually have children that are affected by them.
• Nice to see the good folks at Dr. Pepper still know a good publicity stunt. They announced this week that in honor of the impending release of Guns N' Roses' 15-years-in-the-making album Chinese Democracy, they'll give a free can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in the country (except former GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead). To his credit, Axl Rose crawled out of his bunker long enough to briefly respond to the offer. He then saw his shadow, which means it should be another five years before the album is released.
• Jack Klugman is suing NBC over profits from his old show Quincy. The network says the show lost $66 million; he says it made $250 million. Here's a clip from the classic Quincy punk episode. Oh, and this version of the Quincy theme with lyrics is, shall we say, awesome.