I got a rare treat last weekend - State played Ole Miss in hoops televised on ESPN Classic. It was some sort of promotional deal where the SEC wore "throw back" jerseys & ESPN Classic showed some games. Pretty lame idea, except I got to see the alma mater live!
It had been a hellacious end to the week - 2 sick kids home Thursday with the wife, I took Friday off with same 2 sick kids + a trip to the doctor. Then, the wife had a work event Friday evening, so I had been "on" for close to 24 hours straight. She took the kids to see her mother Saturday afternoon, leaving me alone to watch the game.
The Bulldogs completely dismantled the Rebels by 29 points. It was actually a little worse than that. State led by 30+ the entire 2nd half. One Clarion-Ledger columnist pointed to the death of the brother of an Ole Mis player as the reason they came out flat. I didn't know this before the game, so I spent the entire 2nd half watching closely to figure out if State had turned a corner or Ole Miss was flat or really that bad. I decided that State had turned a corner - few turnovers, tough defense, good rebounding, good shot selection against a tough defense, etc.
To quote Lee Corso, not so fast my friend. Played at Auburn Wednesday night & trailed by 20 early in the 2nd half. Tried to come back & lost by 4. This is a "what the?" moment. In the SEC West, it seems to me, State, Ole Miss & Auburn have been essentially interchangeable all season. If State comes out & is 29 better than Ole Miss, hitting on all cylinders, why are they essentially 20 worse than Auburn 4 days later?
I live in Univ of Maryland country. It seems like half my office are Maryland grads. This Wednesday, they lost at Fla St by 9. You would have thought they lost to a girl's school. The same coach who delivered a National Championship a few years ago & umpteen straight NCAA tournament appearances is no good & should be fired!
This has been an interesting year for both Maryland & State. Maryland has better athletes, but are 16-10 & 6-7 in the ACC. State is 13-13 & 3-10 in the SEC. The difference is probably the coach & these idiots at work want to get rid of Gary Williams?!?!?! I posed the question to a couple of them - fine, fire Gary, then who do you hire? I grew up in Fayetteville, AR & had this same argument recently with my sister. Fire Stan Heath, Arkansas' coach, & hire who? Neither of these groups had a viable answer. My sister got closest, Mark Few from Gonzaga. Yeah, Gonzaga is a better job right now, but Arkansas can offer hella lot more money. The Maryland fools came up empty with a replacement! They point to how Coach K worked under Bobby Knight and Roy Williams worked under Dean Smith. I said fine, hire Coach K's top assistant & take a chance. They didn't like that idea.
Rick Stansbury was an assistant at State for years before taking over the top job 7 or 8 years ago. He was a stud recruiter who is primarily responsible for State's success. This is the first time he's had such a young and small team. Did he turn recruiting over to the wrong guy? Did all the "graduations" & transfers hurt more than we thought they would? Who knows. He was my guy 8 years ago & he's still my guy today.
Maryland folks are speculating whether they make the big dance or not. I say no, but know they probably will, on the coattails of the National Championship & Gary's resume. That's what Gary brings to the table. Meanwhile, State closes out with Georgia, @ Arkansas and Alabama. I see 1-2 or maybe 0-3. We're not even going NIT this year, so why are Terps complaining?
I need to call my Philly boy Jack, the La Salle grad, to actually watch some games this year, instead of just talking about it!
Friday, February 24, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
The Great Schism
I did it - I created new blog called "The Accidental Leader" for all the CSI stuff. Unfortunately, it'll probably have the twice or thrice the posts that this one will, but stay tuned!
Or if you like the CSI stuff, go to accidentaleader.blogspot.com
Or if you like the CSI stuff, go to accidentaleader.blogspot.com
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The Big Split
I should be typing meeting minutes right now - I had a consultant meeting Monday and then an owner's meeting on Tuesday. I need to do both minutes today. However, I keep going back to look at past blog posts. Should I separate this into 2 blogs - one about CSI & the coming year and another about being a Father, Husband, Architect? I'm leaning toward the split right now. I wonder if I can easily copy posts over from this one to a new one?
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Photo testing
Some recent family photos....
Our 1 yr old enjoying his cake
My lovely wife & our youngest son
Big brother & big sister helping with birthday presents
Bid Opening Results
I'm sure you're all sitting on the edge of your seats - the bid opening went VERY well yesterday! We had 5 bidders and 2 were under $7M so it looks like the University can award the Contract and start construction!
The only hitch is the site will not be ready until sometime at the end of March. We had massive amounts of rock to blast out & that Contractor is about 50% through.
The only hitch is the site will not be ready until sometime at the end of March. We had massive amounts of rock to blast out & that Contractor is about 50% through.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Bid Openings
Bids are due today for a building I was thrown into. I joined my firm this past October and the drawings for this building were about 35% complete. I lead a team to complete the drawings by December in order for the bids to be due by the end of January. Due to some site work issues, we delayed the bid due date to today. This is a dysfunctional team and a dysfunctional project. The budget is $7M and I am not hopeful that we'll hit that number today.
For those who don't know the design & construction process, the Architects, Engineers and other designers design the building and its systems and then produce drawings and specifications to tell the building contractors how to build it. The traditional method is called "design-bid-build" in that the Architect's team designs it, a group of contractors prepare bids or the amount of money each requires to build the building, and then the firm requiring the lowest amount of money gets to build the building for that amount. That's how this project will be delivered, so the bids are due today.
I love bid openings because of what contractors put themselves through. I began my career in Mississippi, where all projects with public funding are administered by the State Bureau of Buildings. Their offices are in the big State office building in downtown Jackson, the capitol. Regardless of where the project is to be built, bids are recieved and opened in Jackson.
To get to the Bureau's offices, you stepped off the elevators into a large lobby. At one end of the lobby is a pair of dark-stained wooden doors with no windows. Those lead into the Bureau's reception area. The bids are due at 2:00 PM precisely on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, never any other day or at any other time. Bid are delivered to the reception desk where they are date & time stamped. Off to one side is the large conference room where the bids are publicly opened.
I frequently attended the bid openings and enjoyed one for a project with an $8M budget. On this bid day, a particular contractor that my boss knew well had sent his son to the bid opening. His son, probably just under 30 years old at the time, was learning the ropes from his old man. As my boss & I got off the elevator, the son was in a corner of the elevator lobby having a heated conversation with the father via cell phone. Finally, he put the phone down, walked over and asked us the budget for the job. My boss played his hand by saying "7 and 1/2 million." The kid gets back on the phone & relays this information. Instantly, he starts yelling, "NO! I'm NOT going to f-ing do that!" This exchange goes on for several minutes with several other profanities as 2:00 PM approached. Finally, the kid writes something on the bid form, seals the envelope & turns it in. When the bids are opened, his price was $7,100,000 and he wasn't even the low bidder!
For those who don't know the design & construction process, the Architects, Engineers and other designers design the building and its systems and then produce drawings and specifications to tell the building contractors how to build it. The traditional method is called "design-bid-build" in that the Architect's team designs it, a group of contractors prepare bids or the amount of money each requires to build the building, and then the firm requiring the lowest amount of money gets to build the building for that amount. That's how this project will be delivered, so the bids are due today.
I love bid openings because of what contractors put themselves through. I began my career in Mississippi, where all projects with public funding are administered by the State Bureau of Buildings. Their offices are in the big State office building in downtown Jackson, the capitol. Regardless of where the project is to be built, bids are recieved and opened in Jackson.
To get to the Bureau's offices, you stepped off the elevators into a large lobby. At one end of the lobby is a pair of dark-stained wooden doors with no windows. Those lead into the Bureau's reception area. The bids are due at 2:00 PM precisely on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, never any other day or at any other time. Bid are delivered to the reception desk where they are date & time stamped. Off to one side is the large conference room where the bids are publicly opened.
I frequently attended the bid openings and enjoyed one for a project with an $8M budget. On this bid day, a particular contractor that my boss knew well had sent his son to the bid opening. His son, probably just under 30 years old at the time, was learning the ropes from his old man. As my boss & I got off the elevator, the son was in a corner of the elevator lobby having a heated conversation with the father via cell phone. Finally, he put the phone down, walked over and asked us the budget for the job. My boss played his hand by saying "7 and 1/2 million." The kid gets back on the phone & relays this information. Instantly, he starts yelling, "NO! I'm NOT going to f-ing do that!" This exchange goes on for several minutes with several other profanities as 2:00 PM approached. Finally, the kid writes something on the bid form, seals the envelope & turns it in. When the bids are opened, his price was $7,100,000 and he wasn't even the low bidder!
More days in Paradise
Had a crazy weekend with both boys' birthday parties & my sister in town. To top it off, our van wouldn't start on Sunday morning. I diagnosed it as the starter, wrestled the old one off, put a new one on & it didn't work. Then, we lost some of the dashboard lights, so I gave up. After dropping my sis off at the airport, I rented a Taurus, since I drive a Ford Ranger pickup that only fits myself & 2 kids.
Had the van towed yesterday, locked myself out of the house, kicked in the back door & broke the front door lock. Bad day. The dealership called & said the van needed a new starter. I said no way, that one is brand new. I went & picked up the starter from the dealer & took it back to the parts store. The kid tested it - bad starter. Dad says that's fairly common with starters, he doesn't know why. Parts store gave me my $150 back, so I called the Ford dealer this morning & said put a new one on. That way, its his deal if its a bad starter or it doesn't fix the problem, etc, there's no finger pointing about where the starter came from & who "owns" it.
Took over control of the CSI Chapter web site yesterday. Don't have a lot of confidence in the guy I took it from. He used some strange ftp method of uploading. I tried it last night & it seemed to work. Problem is, I altered his "index.html" file & reuploaded it. The edited info came up like its supposed to, but I lost some of the background graphics! Very strange.... Should be exciting in the coming weeks as I become Web Master. My wife looks to be a HUGE help with it, as usual.
Spoke to the President. He's starting to get nominations in order for next FY. We're supposed to notify the Institute by the end of April as to next year's officers. He shares my concern that the 1st VP won't move up. I told him, after the last discussion I had with her, she can't decide, so if we let her, she'll take til June to decide. Pres said that's not acceptable, so we'll push her to make a decision in February. I suspect, I'll be President next year. Hence, one reason I started this blog.
Had the van towed yesterday, locked myself out of the house, kicked in the back door & broke the front door lock. Bad day. The dealership called & said the van needed a new starter. I said no way, that one is brand new. I went & picked up the starter from the dealer & took it back to the parts store. The kid tested it - bad starter. Dad says that's fairly common with starters, he doesn't know why. Parts store gave me my $150 back, so I called the Ford dealer this morning & said put a new one on. That way, its his deal if its a bad starter or it doesn't fix the problem, etc, there's no finger pointing about where the starter came from & who "owns" it.
Took over control of the CSI Chapter web site yesterday. Don't have a lot of confidence in the guy I took it from. He used some strange ftp method of uploading. I tried it last night & it seemed to work. Problem is, I altered his "index.html" file & reuploaded it. The edited info came up like its supposed to, but I lost some of the background graphics! Very strange.... Should be exciting in the coming weeks as I become Web Master. My wife looks to be a HUGE help with it, as usual.
Spoke to the President. He's starting to get nominations in order for next FY. We're supposed to notify the Institute by the end of April as to next year's officers. He shares my concern that the 1st VP won't move up. I told him, after the last discussion I had with her, she can't decide, so if we let her, she'll take til June to decide. Pres said that's not acceptable, so we'll push her to make a decision in February. I suspect, I'll be President next year. Hence, one reason I started this blog.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Another day in Paradise
My sister flies in from Arkansas today for the boys' birthday parties. My oldest son's birthday is January 9. On alternating years we seem to get his party close to the day. That was last year. This year, his party is February 4. My youngest son's birthday was February 1, so we're hitting his the weekend following the day.
This week has been a lot of house work. We're not the neatest people in the world, plus with both my wife & I working full time & handling the 3 kids, housework is an afterthought. We did it a little better this time, by 11 o'clock last night, I was vacuuming & that was pretty much the end. Then, the belt on the vacuum broke! Before going to the airport today, I get to stop by Sears, get a belt & hopefully finish vacuuming. Oh, that's after picking the kids up because they have noon dismissal from school today.
But, we get up this morning & find concrete in the bottom of both upstairs toilets. My wife had bought this bleach powder to help clean the toilets. In the past, she's dumped a bunch in, it scrubs all night, you flush in the morning, done, clean toilets. This time, for whatever reason, the stuff set up like concrete in the bottom of the bowl. So, before showering & dressing, I had to take screw driver & hammer & beat the stuff out of the bottom of the toilet!
This week has been a lot of house work. We're not the neatest people in the world, plus with both my wife & I working full time & handling the 3 kids, housework is an afterthought. We did it a little better this time, by 11 o'clock last night, I was vacuuming & that was pretty much the end. Then, the belt on the vacuum broke! Before going to the airport today, I get to stop by Sears, get a belt & hopefully finish vacuuming. Oh, that's after picking the kids up because they have noon dismissal from school today.
But, we get up this morning & find concrete in the bottom of both upstairs toilets. My wife had bought this bleach powder to help clean the toilets. In the past, she's dumped a bunch in, it scrubs all night, you flush in the morning, done, clean toilets. This time, for whatever reason, the stuff set up like concrete in the bottom of the bowl. So, before showering & dressing, I had to take screw driver & hammer & beat the stuff out of the bottom of the toilet!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
State Hoops
I am an alumnus of Mississippi State University and I grew up in Fayetteville, AR, home of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. My parents are not sports fans by any stretch. Dad used to watch baseball occasionally, having grown up listening the St. Louis Cardinals games on a transistor. We always followed Razorback basketball. I can still remember several exciting games in the NCAA Tourney with Sidney Moncrief and the crew. There's also the matter of Larry Bird almost single-handedly beating Arkansas on the way to his National Championship.
When I arrived at State in the late '80's, our hoops team wasn't that good & student tickets were FREE! As my college career went on, the team got better, but the tickets were still free. I can probably count the number of home games I MISSED on one hand, the entire 4 years I lived on campus. I did happen to miss one memorable 4 overtime game against Ole Miss because I had a project due.
This year, our team once again is not very good. I can't quite put my fingers on it, but an SEC season-opening win against Arkansas has been followed by 7 straight SEC losses, 6 by double digits. We're a young team, I get that, I think we start 4 freshman. At some point though, these kids have to grow up & have some self-respect and actually beat a team. 1-6 Auburn visits "The Hump" on Saturday. Let's hope we can get the job done then, but somehow, I am not optimistic. I can usually sense when I team is on the cusp on doing something, and I don't get that vibe here.
I love college basketball season, but there's not much joy in Mudville this year for State fans. I have a trip to Vegas scheduled for Final Four weekend, but we're coming back Saturday, so I'll miss those 2 games & won't be able to bet on them! Not that I'd put a ton down, anyway, but still!
I guess there's always next year when our 4 freshman are 4 sophomores...
When I arrived at State in the late '80's, our hoops team wasn't that good & student tickets were FREE! As my college career went on, the team got better, but the tickets were still free. I can probably count the number of home games I MISSED on one hand, the entire 4 years I lived on campus. I did happen to miss one memorable 4 overtime game against Ole Miss because I had a project due.
This year, our team once again is not very good. I can't quite put my fingers on it, but an SEC season-opening win against Arkansas has been followed by 7 straight SEC losses, 6 by double digits. We're a young team, I get that, I think we start 4 freshman. At some point though, these kids have to grow up & have some self-respect and actually beat a team. 1-6 Auburn visits "The Hump" on Saturday. Let's hope we can get the job done then, but somehow, I am not optimistic. I can usually sense when I team is on the cusp on doing something, and I don't get that vibe here.
I love college basketball season, but there's not much joy in Mudville this year for State fans. I have a trip to Vegas scheduled for Final Four weekend, but we're coming back Saturday, so I'll miss those 2 games & won't be able to bet on them! Not that I'd put a ton down, anyway, but still!
I guess there's always next year when our 4 freshman are 4 sophomores...
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