Last week we started offering a new service at work. I notified a number of people about it, and it’s been extremely popular. It’s been so popular, in fact, that I went from not having a very good month to having a very good month because so many people have wanted it. Once things get caught up a little I’m going to suggest it to a few more people and follow up with some who didn’t go for it yet. In fact, the marketing strategy I used for it is one that we’re going to employ often from now on I think.
Also with work today, I met with an old client of ours who runs a bed and breakfast downtown in one of the big old Victorian houses. Or ran, rather. It’s yet another longtime client that I’d never met in person, and I enjoyed the meeting. I even got a tour of the place and a little history lesson, which I really liked. The place had all original hardwood floors and cabinets.
Amy Warkentien came over tonight for dinner and Nick joined us after he got off work to watch Lost. After Amy arrived but before Nick did, we watched Duke lose to Wake Forest. I had my initial annoyance about the game, but I didn’t feel too bad about the loss. It was tied in the final seconds after Duke made a run from 13 points down. Gerald Henderson grabbed a rebound and landed on a prone Jeff Teague, which the refs somehow called as a travel. That gave the Demon Deacons the ball right under their own basket. Dino Gaudio drew up an inbound play and Duke didn’t defend it, leading to a layup with 0.8 seconds left for Duke to try, unsuccessfully, to get a shot off. Final score: 70-68.
It was a good game, and Wake’s a really good team, so there’s nothing to really be upset about. Duke didn’t shoot particularly well (credit Wake’s defense, but there were a lot of missed open shots too), so I look forward to the rematch. The only thing that irritated me was that the Wake Forest students, whose team is ranked #4 or #6 depending on which poll you’re looking at and were ranked #1 last week, rushed the court. Amanda got on me for griping about it, but in the NBA game that followed the announcers there agreed with me. I could understand if they weren’t ranked high, but at some point they should act like they belong with the big dogs.
Amanda got on me for being moody, but I told her all she had to do was let me vent for a few minutes without getting on me about it or trying to counter the things I was saying and I’d be fine, which she should know by now. Even Amy understood it, and she’s never been around for a losing game before.
Anyhoo, Carolina was playing Florida State after that. I watched a few minutes of it until Nick arrived. The Seminoles were winning for a bit, but as the first half wore on the Heels took the lead and started pulling away. We watched Lost, Nick and Amy left and I watched the last quarter or so of that game. FSU clawed their way back in and took the lead late, but they made some boneheaded plays like letting the shot clock run out on their last possession when it was a tie game and playing abolsutely no defense while letting Ty Lawson streak from one end of the court to the other to make a lucky-ass three pointer.
It was not a good night of basketball for me. To be honest, I was more upset about Carolina’s win than I was about Duke’s loss. Duke’s still on top of the ACC by a game, but they’ve also got a tough schedule ahead. There’s Miami, @Clemson, two games with Carolina and another game with Wake, plus a few other games. I’m hoping Duke can avoid an unexpected upset (although they always happen, see: Virginia Tech vs. Wake Forest, Boston College vs. UNC), but even then the Blue Devils are probably due another loss or two. I figure Duke will be doing really good if they can finish the ACC with only three losses. If Duke ends up splitting with both Carolina and Wake, that will be at least three losses for Carolina and two for Wake. If Wake can manage to lose one other game, that would put all three of them in a three-way tie for first in the ACC, and I don’t know which one would get the #1 seed for the ACC tournament. Whoever does will definitely have an easier road though.
Whatever, there’s a lot up in the air and all kinds of things can happen. Who knows, maybe Duke can go the rest of the ACC without a loss. Not likely, and I would never put money on such a thing, but it’s fun to think about.
Milly’s still on Amanda’s nerve.
Zach Dotsey