Peter and Grace in the Pool
Upon arriving in Florida, the first thing Peter and Grace did after lunch was go to the pool.
Peter’s Tournament Picks 2nd Round
Peter did okay with his picks in the 2nd round of the tournament. He correctly picked 11 of the teams that made it to the Sweet 16. Since it is getting complicated to list games he picked as we get deeper into the bracket, I will just list his correct picks for each region.
Midwest
Louisville
Michigan St
West
Connecticut
Purdue
Memphis
East
Pittsburgh
Villanova
Duke
South
North Carolina
Syracuse
Oklahoma
His total record for the tournament so far is 32-48.
Peter’s Tournament Picks Day Two
Day Two was a rough one Peter, as well as many others who missed calling lots of upsets. Peter went 8-16 on this day, for a total of 21-32 for the opening round. None of these missed games have any effect on his bracket for beyond the second round, so he is still hanging in there. Not really sure what he was thinking about Kansas.
Games he missed:
Upsets:
He picked #5 Florida State who was beaten by #12 Wisconsin
He picked #8 Ohio State who was beaten by #9 Siena
He picked #5 Utah who was beaten by #12 Arizona
He picked #4 Wake Forest who was beaten by #13 Cleveland St
He picked #6 West Virginia who was beaten by #11 Dayton
Missed because he predicted upsets
He picked #11 Temple who was beaten by #6 Arizona State
He picked #14 North Dakota St who was beaten by #3 Kansas
He picked #11 Utah St who was beaten by #6 Marquette
Peter’s Tournament Picks Day One
Peter went 13-16 in the opening day of the tournament. That’s a pretty good opening day. He’s what he missed. 2 were upsets, and one he picked an upset that didn’t happen.
He picked #7 Clemson who was beaten by #10 Michigan
He picked #5 Illinois who was beaten by #12 Western Kentucky
He picked #11 VCU who was beaten by #6 UCLA
Peter’s Bracket
My son Peter, who is nearly 11, is a huge sports fan, and has been his whole life. He is also a sports blogger, but he hasn’t posted much lately. I need to encourage him to blog about the tournament, especially since he will be watching it, reading about it and thinking about it for the next three weeks.
His favorite sport to both play and watch is basketball. So he was superexcited to watch the NCAA Selection Show on Sunday to see the announcement of tournament bracket. He told us that he has been waiting for this moment since October when he previewed the whole tournament using a mascot-based system.
After watching the presentation of the brackets and analysis (CBS, not ESPN, as he is not a Dick Vitale fan), he was ready to fill out his bracket. We went to ESPN.com and quickly discovered that you needed to be 13 to register for a bracket. He went to Sports Illustrated for Kids and declared their bracket lame.
For the past several years I have participated in pools that used Yahoo Sports brackets. Last year, I even let Peter fill out my bracket for my work pool. So I joined a group of UNC fans (of which Peter is one), and created a bracket for Peter. He filled in all his picks quickly, armed with the knowledge from the Selection Show. His final four picks are Louisville, Memphis, Villanova, and Carolina. He suffers from that common malady of Carolina fans, that causes him to pick Duke to lose early and Carolina to win the whole tournament. I accept this as a sign of his independence. But I have been surrounded by so many Carolina fans living in Chapel Hill, this doesn’t really bother me.
I will update his progress as the tournament goes on. And hopefully he will too.
Peter the Boy Scout
Tonight Peter crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. The troop he joined loans each boy his neckerchief. A boy can keep it if he achieves the rank of Eagle Scout. If he leaves the troop or turns 18 without earning Eagle, he must give the neckerchief back. Peter likes that the neckerchiefs are Carolina blue and white, since the troop is sponsored by a church next to UNC.
Steeler Victory
Peter waving his Terrible Towel in celebration of the Pittsburgh Steelers victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.
Peter’s Last Pinewood Derby
Peter will be moving from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts later this month, so this was his last Pinewood Derby. His car is called The Heisman and it is modeled after the Heisman Trophy, awarded for the top player in College Football every year. For the second year in a row, Peter was awarded first place in Most Original for his car, and he will compete at the District Level.
It is also my last year as Racemaster. I was the MC for the event, kept the boys moving through the races, and started each race. The best part of the job is I got to wear a Nascar shirt, but I will be passing that along to the next Racemaster.
Here’s a link to the rest of my photos from Pinewood Derby.
Cost of Healthcare
My kids are into Webkinz, which is a line of small stuffed animals that is paired with a virtual world. Buy an animal and you go on line to take care of it. Food, clothing and shelter are just the beginning. They have recreated many popular internet activities for children, like playing games of chance to earn money (KinzCash) so you can buy more stuff for your animal. How many hats and pairs of shoes does a virtual chihuahua really need?
Anyway, here is a recent conversation we had about life in Webkinz World, that seems to be bringing major societal issues to the forefront of kids’ minds.
Me: What happens if you don’t log in and feed all your animals?
Peter: Nothing. If you don’t log in, nothing changes, but if you are there, you need to feed them.
Grace: One of my friends didn’t log in and her animals got sick. She had to buy them medicine and it cost a lot of money.
The Menagerie Can Haz Blackberry
Today Peter was not feeling well and he needed to stay home. I stayed with him at his mom’s house, which seems to be overrun with OPP (other people’s pets). She is keeping her sister’s 2 cats indefinitely. They have been there since September. Jack is pictured above with my Blackberry. He was flopped across the table while I was working. He reminds me of a cat we used to have, so it was nice to have him around.
She is also keeping her friend’s dog, Tucker. He is usually a well-behaved dog unless someone comes to the door, and then he makes a mad dash and starts barking. Today I came in, Grace came in, the UPS man delivered a package and a neighborhood kid came by selling girl scout cookies. Each time Tucker went for the door and would not stop barking. One time Peter tried holding him by the collar and he pulled Peter down.
