2nd Round Recap

Lots of huge upsets last night threw the brackets for a loop. The best second day score was 12 out of 16. Only 1 of the 95 brackets picked Norfolk State over Missouri, Julie Wemhoff. No one picked Lehigh over Duke. 13 brackets lost their champions last night, 10 for Mizzou, 2 for Duke and 1 for Temple.

The leader after the first and second rounds is Eric Dorman with 25 out of 32. However, he's left with 3 FF teams after Missouri's loss.

In the Squares Pool the double ups started happening in the second day. The biggest being John Shupe's 5,0 square getting 3 of the last 7 games. Amazingly, in the 5 previous years I've run this game, the 5,0 square had NEVER hit. Not once. Then goes 3 times in 7 games.

3rd round games are 2 points each in the Bracket Pool and $50 each in the Squares Pool. All updates on the web site: www.SpydeysWebb.com. 

Let's Go!

2nd Round Day One

First full day of games are in and we have 19 square winners out of 20 games. The only double up was Poppa Hans getting the Gonzaga and Iowa St. games.

4 brackets went 15-1 yesterday in the first half of the 2nd Round.

www.spydeyswebb.com has all the details.

Time to tip off Day Two!

SpydeysWebb Bracket Pool

The tournament is on!

We have 94 brackets in the Bracket Pool with 14 different champions picked:

Kentucky 28

North Carolina 17

Missouri 10

Kansas 8

Michigan St 8

Indiana 5

Ohio St 5

Syracuse 4

Florida St 2

Georgetown 2

Duke 2

Wisconsin 1

Temple 1

Baylor 1

I'll be updating the Bracket Pool after the day's games are over and the Squares Pool as the tournament moves along on SpydeysWebb.com.

Summertime...

Waiting for fun at Disney World

The weather is going to take that turn into real summer this weekend. Both days are expected to be in the 90's with humidity building throughout the day. Joy! Not really, I don't care for days in the 90's where you can't even sit outside and I need to yank some stumps out of the ground too. Only good part of this is no mowing this weekend.

Fort Wayne's Three Rivers Festival kicks off this weekend and runs through next weekend. Should be able to hit Junk Food Alley at some point. We'll miss the parade tomorrow after actually making it last year. Bob Marley Tribute band tonight at the beer tent, that could be interesting. [3RF.com]

Fishing on the pond with Noah

Tonight, Brooke and I will be heading to Fortissimo with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Two local bands and another indie group will be playing with The Phil in a one of a kind event. This should be very cool and we're looking forward to it. [The Phil & Journal Gazette]

This week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

Nebraska joined the Big Ten last week as the 12th member school. Here was a recap of the Big Ten for the Huskers, I thought it was a pretty cool rundown of the league. [Husker Extra]

Neat Op-Ed column about super powers, X-Men, and history. [New York Times]

One of my all time favorite Hoosiers, Calbert Cheaney, is back in the fold. He and I were classmates at IU. [USA Today]

Fishing on the pond with Noah

Paul sent me this link of a real life National Treasure found in India. [Guardian]

In commemoration of the final shuttle launch this morning, here's a sun article on a solar flare eruption with a cool video. It's simply amazing. [Fox News]

Google launched a new social media site this week with a limited release. One of the first to join up was Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Probably just checking out the potential competition. [New York Times]

Hope you all checked out the massive picture update I did last weekend. Lots of great photos of our trip to Walt Disney World. We had a very good time! 

Ziver Beaver (aka Ziva) chilling out

Stay cool this weekend!

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SpydeysWebb NCAA Games - Final Four

What a tournament! Who could have predicted this Final Four group? Paul1 was the only bracket with 2 of the 4 (Kentucky & Connecticut) and jumps into first. The ones that had Connecticut, Butler, or Kentucky are still in the hunt save one bracket too far out. No one picked Virginia Commonwealth who took out three teams that were picked for the Final Four and National Champions - Georgetown, Purdue, and Kansas.

In the Elite Eight games, we had two repeats and two newbies for the squares. The Final Four games on Saturday are $400/each.

Site is updated with the latest standings for both.

Until Saturday night - GO DAWGS!

SpydeysWebb NCAA Games Round Two

We had 6 brackets get 11 of the Sweet Sixteen right. There are 5 brackets tied at 48 points. Right now, Taylor R is in first because she has all four of her Final Four still alive.

Games are off until Thursday night when the squares move to $100/game and the brackets will move into the Elite Eight.

Until then!

SpydeysWebb NCAA Games

Jon S. takes the lead after the First Four and Second Round games with a solid 29. Lots of shakeups yesterday with Pitt going home, I think there were 5 brackets that picked Butler into the Sweet Sixteen. The winner may be determined by who picked Butler, Wisconsin, Florida, or BYU into the Final Four.

The rest of the Sweet Sixteen will be determined today. Updates will be available for that tomorrow morning.

Squares are going off the board with many different people winning one. We have a couple of double winners in the $25 games.

Time to tip off this Third Round Sunday!

Enjoy.

NCAA Games - Bracket Pool

We have 83 brackets in the Bracket Pool this year. 12 different teams have at least one bracket with them as champ.

Ohio State 38
Duke 16
Kansas 13
Pitt 4
ND 3
Purdue 2
UNC 2
Florida 1
Syracuse 1
Texas 1
Kentucky 1
Georgetown 1

The pool standings will be updated after every round is completed.

Good luck!

Pitchers and Catchers Report Today!

Rowan style!

Spring must be right around the corner, because the Cubs are starting Spring Training in Arizona! There'll be springlike temps this week in Fort Wayne. 50 degrees on Thursday? We were at -10 last Thursday! Crazy...The winds last night were enough to blow you over, so the weather is changing. [MLB.com]

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

After last week's Snow Farm story, here's the next progression in a snowpocalypse winter, your roof coming down on you. [New York Times]

Did anyone print out the Popdose Oscar ballot? Anyone studying up for the Oscars on February 27th? Here's a rundown of some of the best short film categories, which are divided into three groups: animated, live action and documentary. [Popdose & New York Times]

Toy Story 3 is up for the big one, Best Picture, and the Best Animated film. Lots of time and work went into the third installment. With 10 Best Picture nominations now, films like Toy Story 3 can get into the discussion for the big prize. [IMDb.com & New York Times]

IU basketball is improving in fits and starts. One great game, winning or losing, followed by a real dud. Easy to forget where IU was just two seasons ago. This story about IU student manager Mike Santa reminds us just how far he and IU have come in less than 3 years. [Inside Indiana]

Twitter humor! Fake Twitter accounts are the best at parody and some seriously funny stuff. I follow a couple of these including Harry Caray's Ghost and Not Steve Jobs. [New York Times]

Square Board will be open in two weeks! The NCAA games will be available for anyone this year as all the games move to cable television. Beginning this year they're also staggering the start times so we can see all the buzzer beaters. [SpydeysWebb NCAA Games & ESPN]

Enjoy this great weather!

Who's this?!?

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Getting cold and dark around here!

New Horsey Slippers!

It's getting dark by the time Rowan and I make it home from daycare this week. We still have a month before the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year. Ugh. I really hate the shorter days and longer nights. The cold I can deal with, the pitch dark at 6:30 is another story! Now that we live out in the country, it's really dark. No street lights, no cars. It'll take some getting used to. [Wikipedia]

The IU basketball season has gotten off to a fast 3-0 start. So far, so good. Brooke will be making her first appearance at Assembly Hall on Sunday for the Evansville game. Hopefully they can send us home with another win. [Evansville Purple Aces]

Defending my title in the Fort Wayne Fantasy Football League isn't going well. I've basically been relegated to the also rans, otherwise known as the 9th Place Bowl. The top 8 teams make the Fantasy Bowl playoffs, the other four make the 9th Place Bowl playoffs. At 2-8, I'm one of those teams. However, all is not lost in the fantasy realm. I bought into a solid team in a league my buddy Travis runs in Warsaw. This team is 9-1 and looking really good for the long haul. So not all is lost! I'd rather win in Fort Wayne, but at this point I'll take whatever I can get.

This week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

Peanut bans at the ballpark? Some allergy experts think that's going too far. [NPR]

They're playing football at Wrigley this weekend as Northwestern hosts intrastate rival Illinois. Looking at these pictures of the field I noticed that the one endzone looks a little 'close' to the famous brick walls in the outfield. Seems the Big Ten agrees, as today they announced both teams will head toward the endzone with more room while on offense. [Big Ten Network & New York Times]

Heading out to help Mom feed the horses

The top 10 quirky and weird US houses. [Rand McNally]

Roundabouts could be gaining in use and not necessarily in popularity. Find out the history and how to work them with this link. [Wikipedia & New York Times & Roundabouts USA]

I'm predicting IU football goes down in a ball of awful on Saturday but that the Redskins redeem themselves vs. Tennessee. We'll see...

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Begin the Begin - IU Basketball tips off tonight

Go IU!

Like the Phoenix, IU basketball is rising back up! Great day yesterday to be a Hoosier as we got top instate talent Cody Zeller commitment (sorry to my Butler Bear dad). This is just the latest step in IU's return to the top of college basketball. In the class for next season, we got a top 20 (Cody Zeller) and a top 100 (Austin Etherington) player. For the 2012 class we already have a top 10 (Hanner Perea), a top 30 (Ron Patterson), and a top 100 (Peter Jurkin). Hell, IU got commitments from two of the top HS freshman in the country in September. All but one of those players that have now committed to the Hoosiers are from Indiana. Attention college coaches: the Indiana state borders are now CLOSED! Top instate talent is deciding on the Hoosiers, again. It's about time! I was tired of getting stuck with these tickets. [Yahoo! Rivals & USA Today]

The reason I start off this week's post with this news is because the IU season starts tonight in Bloomington vs. Florida Gulf Coast. Uncle Dave and I will be there, center court row 39 seats 3 & 4 losing our voices and clapping till it hurts. I haven't been this excited for a basketball game in Bloomington since DJ White's senior year. That's a bittersweet memory though, cause it was that year that the walls finally came tumbling down with the Kelvin Sampson fiasco hitting the fan. I'm also well aware that this will be another rough season for the Hoosiers. The Big Ten is stacked this year, many saying it's the best conference in the nation. So a couple of games above .500 with a trip to the NIT would be a great way to finish this season. Begin the begin, it will only get better. [ESPN.com]

Game time 6:30 on Big Ten Network. Look for me, I'll be the one in Crimson.

This week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

Speaking of IU, new unis this year. Not much difference, but they look like they 'fit' better than last year's tired design. [Green Banner Publications & Rivals.com]

Anyone else ever won a pair of Chuck Taylor All Stars? I LOVED my Chucks, loved 'em. Wore my Chucks playing basketball for North Side one season. We could get them from the coach's office for $25 a pair. I doubt I can wear any now because the arch support is basically nonexistent, and my plantar fascia don't play that. However, I may need to figure something out because (Website of the Week) you can design your own pair of Chuck Taylors. Very sweet. [Wikipedia & Converse.com]

Got her started early...It's Indiana.

IU's current roster is all about team and family. Watch out for Oladipo, he's the real deal. [Indiana Daily Student]

Saw one of the most ridiculous quarters of basketball this week. The Indiana Pacers shot 20 for 21 in the 3rd quarter Tuesday night scoring 54 points in 12 minutes to blow out the Denver Nuggets. It was, like I said, ridiculous. They raised their SEASON FG% from 25th in the league to 9th in one night! Here's a video of their first 20 shots that quarter, all makes. [Pacers.com]

Wrap up our Hoosier heavy post today with great news that Martha the "Mop Lady" will be making her return to IU basketball games. Any old school IU fans remember Martha singing the IU school song while mopping the hallways of Assembly Hall in the late 70's - early 80's? That's the time I was growing into the IU fan I am today, nice to have her back. [Inside the Hall]

Have a great weekend! Looks like this may be the last of the 'summer' weather. 70 degrees today?!? Enjoy and GO IU!

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Spring is Good - Friday April 9

Mom, Rowan, and Della at the Orchard Creek

Interesting week for us. We got an offer on our house and accepted it. Next step finalizing things with the sale and then getting a new place where Della can live with us. We all went out to see Della this evening to put a blanket on her for the cold night. Rowan loved the kitties and the horses at the barn. She better, she'll be seeing more of Big D!

Happy Birthday's this past week to cousin Gus and Nana Brenda. Gus turned 2 on Thursday and Nana, 29 on Wednesday!  ; )

Just how did they come up with Hot Tub Time Machine? The movie director and John Cusack have worked together several times in the past and that helps. Only 28 days to Iron Man 2., could it be as big a hit as The Dark Knight? [IMDb.com & Chicago Tribune & LA Times]

News Quiz and more after this jump!

SpydeysWebb NCAA Pools Championship Game

Tonight's the night! Butler vs. Duke for all the marbles.

In the Bracket Pool, there are 6 brackets still in the money hunt depending on who wins tonight.

In the Squares Pool, everyone still has a shot at the $1,000! Walt Steffen and Eric Dorman took the Saturday squares. Each bought 4 of them to start the game, and got double their commitment back on Final Four night.

SpydeysWebb.com is updated for Squares and Bracket standings.

On to the final game!

NCAA National Semifinals - Saturday April 3rd

Happy Easter!

Butler and Michigan State tip off in about an hour. Dad's already there in his seats that Uncle Depune procured for him. Great seats right in the front row of section 545. There's going to be a lot of people there tonight! The games tonight in the Squares Pool run $400/each. Nice.

I'm predicting Butler 68 - Michigan State 62. In the other game I'm taking West Virginia 74 - Duke 70. Let's get it on.

We got out to see Hot Tub Time Machine last week and we both really enjoyed it! Quick 100 minutes, very funny parts, solid script from start to finish, great 80's music...good times. The new movie this week is the redo of Clash of the Titans, and it's getting slayed by the critics (31% fresh)! May have to double think that one...34 days until Iron Man 2. [IMDb.com & Rotten Tomatoes]


Opening day for Major League Baseball is Sunday night with Yankees and Red Sox. Cubs begin the season on Monday afternoon in Atlanta vs. the Braves. Got the SpydeysWebb Hardball fantasy baseball league off and running last night. Great group of guys: Depune, Paul, Ben, Matt, Travis, Shlater, Buzz, and myself. Only Cub I have is Geovany Soto.

This week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

I didn't have many articles for this week, so I'll included them in the next update. Go Dawgs!

SpydeysWebb NCAA Elite Eight Results

Since this is my last email in March, I wanted to thank all you SpydeysWebb visitors for making this month the most viewed month in SpydeysWebb.com history! Over 3,500 page views on the main page and we still have three days.

Unique Final Four to say the least! Butler, West Virginia, Michigan State, and Duke will meet up in Indianapolis on Saturday night to determine who plays for the National Championship next Monday.

With 45 brackets for Kansas and 20 for Kentucky, when those two go out of the tourney then there's some brackets that are D-U-N, done. 85 brackets turned in for the Bracket Pool and 55 of them are finished. No more points possible! Easy to score the remainder of this tournament. 15 brackets had 2 FF teams, that was the most. Only 1 bracket had Michigan State and 1 bracket had Butler (and no, Butler Bear wasn't that one). Obviously the Duke/West Virginia game will determine the champ in the Bracket Pool.

In the Squares Pool, Saturday night was pretty special for Frank Waterman as he won both games. On Sunday Brett Beer and RE Girls took the two squares.

Saturday night's games are worth $400/each. Good luck!

All Squares Pool info and Bracket Pool standings are updated on SpydeysWebb.com.

SpydeysWebb NCAA Sweet Sixteen Day Two Results

The Elite Eight for the 2010 NCAA Tournament is set! It looks like a good one.

The four square winners last night had mostly repeats and one newbie. Don Harreld's other square won one, so he took 2 of the 8 games this week. Tank and Poppa Jeff picked up their second square win of the tournament and Berles got on the board with his first. I told Berles last night this guarantees his appearance on the 2011 board!

Changes were afoot in the Bracket Pool. Three are tied for the lead with Etzler1, Peffley2, and Brian W2 at 65 points. The Peffley2 bracket had the most Elite Eight picks right with 6. The Etzler1 bracket is the only one of those three with their champ left, West Virginia. Tonight's Kentucky/West Virginia tilt will go a long way to determining the Bracket Pool champ this year. We're almost to the Final Four, so another reminder to get your bracket money in!

Square Pool and Bracket Pool standings are updated on SpydeysWebb.com.

The next update will be Sunday evening after all Final Four teams are determined. Have a great hoops weekend!

Halfway through the Tourney - Friday March 26th

Blog's been redesigned a bit this week. If you get the post from email, I encourage you to click the post title and go to the blog online. I think it's a cleaner look. Rowan's ready for cruising the neighborhood in her new power wheels ATV from Aunt Lynnette. She's not real gung ho about pushing the button and going, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it.

Lots of big basketball games last night, tonight, and this weekend, the Pools are heating up. Go Butler!

We've been checking out movies with our Netflix subscription. Last week we finally saw Bond's Quantum of Solace. We both liked it but are eager for the next Bond movie when they reset the story and go in a new direction. This movie was a continuation from 2006's Casino Royale. Next week I think we'll hit the multiplex for Hot Tub Time Machine. It's getting good reviews (and another) and the commercials are working me over. A 1980's period piece, how old am I again? [IMDb.com & NY Times & Chicago Tribune]

A Happy Anniversary to my parents on Saturday: 40 Years! Awesome.

Adding something new this week. To shorten the main page of my blog, I'll be adding a jump to the middle of my longer posts. You can catch the rest of the post by clicking the Read More link below. I'm not sure if this will be included on the emails, if so, click it and you'll go the the new and improved web site! From now on these jumps will be detailed as follows: News Quiz and more after the jump...

SpydeysWebb NCAA Sweet Sixteen Day One Results

Quite a quartet of games last night! Butler makes it to their first Elite Eight, Kentucky to their umpteenth with West Virginia and Kansas State along for the ride. Did you stay up for the finish of the Kansas State/Xavier game? One of the best in tournament history, I think.

In the Squares Pool, the evening's first two games resulted in repeat winners Don Harreld and Jimmy Royal picking up more square money. The nightcap games were taken by two first time winners: David King and my sister, Shiloh. I don't think Shiloh was awake for the finish of that KSU/X game...but winning $100 had to be a nice surprise to wake up too! Four more $100 games tonight before the weekend contests move to $200/each. All the entries in the Squares Pool are paid in full.

In the Bracket Pool, my sister-in-law Sharon remains in first place. While only going 2/4, she had built quite a lead. There were four brackets that went 4/4 last night with my mom's leading the pack and moving her into 2nd place. If you still owe money for your bracket entry, please get it to me immediately!

Squares Pool and Bracket Pool standings are updated on SpydeysWebb.com. Enjoy the games tonight. Hopefully you can sleep in on Saturday!

SpydeysWebb NCAA Day Four results

First weekend of the 2010 NCAA Tournament is in the books. Wow, did some brackets take a beating!

My sister-in-law Sharon Sheridan remains in first place with a 2nd Round best 12 out of 16 picked correctly. However, she had Kansas as her eventual champion, so her stay at the top could be a short one as we move on in the tournament. Brett Etzler's bracket that was in first after Round One remains at the top, and he has West Virginia as his champ. As for the upsets, nobody had Northern Iowa but one bracket had St. Mary's, one had Cornell, and 4 had Washington in the Sweet Sixteen.

In the Squares Pool, the double winners keep on coming. Matt Embry's two squares each took a $50 payout, Poppa Hans hit again at the $50 level, my brother grabbed his first square win ever, and all-time Squares Pool money winner Shlater's on the board in 2010.

Sweet Sixteen games tip off Thursday night. These squares go for $100 per game Thursday and Friday. All squares and bracket info is updated on SpydeysWebb.com.

Enjoy your hoops break early this week and get ready for the weekend!

SpydeysWebb NCAA Day Three Results

Well, like my brother said last night, that sound you heard about 7PM was everyone's bracket blowing up! The 45 people in the Bracket Pool that picked Kansas lost their champ. I'd have to say over 70 of the brackets had them in the Final Four. So it's going to come down to how well you picked the non-KU games.

8 second round squares taken yesterday, with Tony Stites doubling up in the $50 round. A few of yesterdays winners had won in Round One as well, so the rich keep getting richer!

SpydeysWebb.com has been updated with square and bracket info.

Enjoy the games!