ESPN Hardcourt Challenge

As many of you know, I am addicted to fantasy sports.  The last couple months have been dominated by ESPN Streak for the Cash and another streak game on Covers.com, but this weekend starts the best month of year for fantasy sports (other than the 5 months of the year where there is fantasy football).

I'm in 4 brackets this year and am doing a couple side games.  If you're interested in getting in my bracket, here's a link...just sign up and get your picks in and get me $5 by this weekend.

I'm also doing ESPN's Hardcourt Challenge, which is a contest where you pick a starting line-up of any 5  players from any team in the tournament and score points based on their stats during the first weekend.  So, if you pick a player on a team that loses its first game, you won't get any points for a second game because that player will be sitting at home watching on TV.

I feel like the first weekend is pretty straight forward...pick top players on teams that you are confident they will move on to play a second game.  Here's my line up...

You can also pick a TEAM.  The team scores points based on their seed and if they win.  If you pick a number one seed, they score two points per win.  If you pick a #13 seed (like I am), you will score 26 points per win.  So (seed x 2) = points per win.

I'm going big with this and picking Belmont.  They are a 13 seed and I thin have an opportunity to win two games.  This will pick either make or break m chances at beating everyone in the country and winning a $2,000 gift card to Best Buy..so Go Belmont!

Riverbanks Zoo

Last weekend, Jen and I were in Columbia again for a variety of reasons.  For starters, two of Jen's friends were getting married so I got to tag along as her +1 for that.  It also happened to be the South Carolina/Clemson baseball weekend series, but that's an entirely different post.  The wedding was on Saturday at 5, so we had some time to kill during the day and decided to head over to the Riverbanks Zoo and check things out.  We're both Association of Zoos and Aquariums members, so we got in free (after confusing the girl in the entrance booth, who had no idea what the AZA was). 

Statue at the entrance of Riverbanks Zoo.

I'd visited Riverbanks Zoo once before on a previous trip to SC, but we basically just buzzed through it, so I was excited to go back.  And I mean, it's a zoo...and I don't get my animal fix everyday anymore, so I was like a kid in a candy shop.  And Jen was more excited than I was to go to the zoo, which is saying a lot.  Did I mention that she's perfect for me? :)

Jen volunteered at Riverbanks when she was in college and worked with the fish and animals in the aquarium, so she was excited to see all of her old exhibits and show me her old stomping grounds.

A keeper cleaning the tree kangaroo exhibit while being supervised.

Probably the coolest/cutest thing we saw was a keeper cleaning the tree kangaroo exhibit and the tree kangaroo watching her intently.  The tree kangaroo watched the keeper's every move like a hawk and seemed genuinely interested in how things were going. 

Jen on the carousel (riding a panda of course)

We decided that we weren't too "big" to ride the carousel and hopped on.  It looked like it was made by the same company as the Binda Conservation Carousel at Binder Park Zoo, though I'm sure that the one at BPZ is newer. 

Lion at Riverbanks Zoo.

I just recently got a new Droid X phone and I'm still learning how to use it.  It has an 8 megapixel camera which I used to take all of these pictures.  When we got to the Lion exhibit, it was a mote style exhibit so they lions were too far away to get a good shot with my phone...until Jen pointed out that I could use the zoom.  I told her that it didn't have one, which I really didn't think it did.  After a minute of playing with it, I found the zoom and had to admit, not for the first time and definitely not the last, that she was right and I was...incorrect.

They had a lorikeet feeding area, which was a lot of fun.  You get a cup of nectar and the birds will come land on your hand and stick their face into the cup and drink the nectar.  I'm usually not a big bird fan but I love any kind of interactive experience with animals.  

It was cool to see the different personalities that each bird had.  The more aggressive ones would fly up and land directly on your hand once you walked in the door while some of the slower ones would come up and land on your shoulder or your arm and wait their turn.  Lorikeets are very pretty birds and make for some great photo ops.  Kudos to Riverbanks Zoo for putting together a solid exhibit and guest experience!

This guy wanted every last drop.

Gamecock Weekend

Moving to South Carolina was not just change in my career, it was a change in my way of life...and by life, I mean how I look at sports.  Back home, sports culture consisted of Big Ten football and basketball, NFC North football, and maybe some Tigers baseball sprinkled in...if they were good.  By moving down here, I walked into the heart of the SEC.  Talk about a culture shock.  We have rivals back home...but down here, it's legitimate hatred between schools and fans.  Only thing that I can compare it to is my hatred of USC...I mean...Southern Cal (sorry Jen!). Let's just say that if I had any Clemson orange on this blog...I'd lose a few readers.

The University of South Carolina baseball stadium (Carolina Stadium) on a beautiful day on February 18, 2011

For my first Southern sports experience, Jen took me to spend the weekend in Columbia, SC for opening weekend of college baseball season.  Back home I'd gone to a few games to watch a friend, Zach Gentile, play for Western's team and there would be a few hundred people in the stands. Down here, there were over 8,000 to watch South Carolina play Santa Clara.  It felt like a Western home football game.

South Carolina won the college baseball World Series last year and is ranked in the top 5 this year so I picked a good time to start dating a die hard Gamecock fan :).  I was impressed at the level of play, the support from the fans, and especially the stadium and facilities.  They take this stuff seriously in the south.

We tailgated with Jen's crew and  I got all of the introductions, subsequent threats on my life, and advice that it is in my best interest to take care of Jen.  Definitely a group of good people and I'm looking forward to spending some more quality tailgate time with them.  Their tailgate spot is a row of 10 parking spaces right across the street from the stadium (which they rent out every year), which is a prime location with a great view of the stadium and also the perfect spot to catch opposing fans walking in and do a bit of heckling.  They had the grill out and cooked some awesome brats and had a great spread of food.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my Saturday.

Jen dancing with Bryce to "Baby Got Back"

 

Jen watching the game.  This may be my new favorite picture.

Windy Day on the Battery

25mph winds are making for some interesting scenes in the harbor today. Two to Three foot waves, fast moving sailboats, and a bunch of freezing southerners.

The New Digs

 I finally got around to taking some photos of my "new" apartment (that I moved into over two months ago).  It's a two bedroom townhouse that I found by stalking craigslist for a couple weeks while being a bum and staying at a friend's.  It's on James Island, which is only about a 10 minute drive to my office and  a 5 minute drive to Folly Beach.  For the first few weeks, I was in love with the short drive to work.  As the weather starts getting warmer, I'm getting more excited about being close to the beach.

I'm subleasing, so I'll be at this spot until the end of July.  After that, who knows.  I'll need to figure that out soon, but at this point things are still up in the air.  I have a roommate, but our work schedules are so different that we're almost never home at the same time.  We have a big living room, a small kitchen, and I have my own bathroom (selling point #1), so I can't complain.  It's about 3x as big as some of the places I looked downtown and 100x nicer.

I finally went to the South Carolina DMV the other day and transferred my Michigan registration over to SC...and paid a "you're a lazy ass procrastinator" fee for not showing up within 45 days of moving to the state.  Oh, I also had to pay a tax of $28 on my car just for owning it.  Not to mention the $1,500 that I've had to spend (or borrow from the rents) on fixing my car that is nearing the 150,000 miles mark.  Hopefully she'll last me a few more years before I have to break down and buy a car from Markey...

This is the first time I've lived in a townhouse style place and I'm liking it a lot more than a standard apartment.

Here's the living room (notice the poof chair!).  We have a small patio in the back but there is a treeline about 15 feet from the door, which doesn't leave a lot of room. 

I hung my bird feeder up after a few weeks and have attracted quite a few birds already.  So far I've seen a bunch of different kind sparrows, finches, and a few cardinals. 

So for now, this is home.  :)