Lincolnite: Lincoln's Online Community

Sunday Dog Blogging

May 28, 2006 at 1:00pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

I haven’t posted any photos of Daisy the Wonder Schnoodle lately. Shame! Here’s Daisy eating a scarf:

Daisy romping in the weeds along Beal Slough:

Daisy hanging out on the bed:

Daisy catching some Z’s after a long, hard day:

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I Need…

May 20, 2006 at 1:00pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

I need to wrap up two big projects around the house within the next couple weeks. But to finish them, I need

• a large trailer capable of carrying heavy loads of concrete, and
• somebody to grind out a large stump

Can anybody point me to somebody who can help? I could, of course, hit the yellow pages, but I prefer to shop by word of mouth for things like this if at all possible.

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That Went Well Enough

May 13, 2006 at 7:45pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

I wrapped up my State Tournament reffing assignments today. I was an AR in a match yesterday, and I centered a match today. Yesterday’s game was relatively uneventful. Today’s match was hotly contested, and ultimately the underdog ended up pulling out the victory. I ended up dishing out a whopping six cautions, two of which were issued thanks to the assistance of an AR and my fourth official. Kudos to them for keeping their eyes on the things they’re supposed to be watching behind my back. I also issued a red card (serious foul play) to a player with only 10 seconds remaining in the match. He was a senior. On the losing team. You get the picture. Frustration happens.

All in all I didn’t hurt my chances to get a center assignment in the finals, which has been my goal all season. The assessor agreed with my calls (and non-calls), he liked the cards I issued, and he thought I was positioned well throughout the match. (He gave me a big thumbs-up for being almost literally on top of the play during a messy scrum in front of the goal that had the potential to dramatically alter the course of the match.) In fact, when he finished talking I asked what I could work on. His response: “I’ll have to think about that.” Awesome.

(He did eventually come up with something, but it was a pretty small technical detail.)

I likely won’t find out until Monday or even Tuesday if I’ll get a center, or any assignment, in the finals (Tuesday and Wednesday). I’m crossing my fingers. I’m also crossing my fingers for my father, by the way. His goal has long been to be the oldest referee to center a State Tournament final. I don’t think he’s old enough yet to hold that distinction, but it would still be cool if he could get a center this year. He has worked his buns off these past few years, and he has put a tremendous amount of time and energy into improving his own and others’ reffing abilities.

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State Soccer

May 12, 2006 at 12:25pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

I received my reffing assignments for the State Soccer Tournament yesterday evening. For the first two rounds I ended up with one AR (line) and one center. Both of the games should be pretty decent, but as always, what happens on the field may not match what one expects prior to the game. If you enjoy watching soccer, head on up to Tranquility Park (boys) or Morrison Stadium (girls) in Omaha this weekend.

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A Flying Leap

May 9, 2006 at 10:30pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

Husker Pilot wants me to take a flying leap and go skydiving with him. I’m considering it, and to be honest I don’t think it’ll take much effort on his part to talk me in to it. I used to be afraid of heights. Today I have a sort of cautious appreciation for heights. I suppose falling a couple thousand feet is as good a way as any to get rid of my childhood fear completely. (Or to renew it with gusto!)

Whether or not we actually do it before Husker Pilot has to head off on his military adventures later this summer is still up in the air. I’ll keep you posted.

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Inexplicably Good

May 8, 2006 at 10:40pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

I’m in the midst of an inexplicably good mood. It’s a great feeling. I haven’t received a raise, I didn’t get the day off work, I didn’t win the lottery, and I didn’t get The Call. But I’ve had a smile on my face all throughout this ordinary, unspectacular day.

I have been a little short on good moods these past couple weeks, so frankly it’s about dang time I had one of these days. I’m a good mood kind of a guy. Being cranky just isn’t in my nature, despite my nom de web. And please don’t confuse my frequent cynicism for a foul mood. I’m usually happy even when I think the world is stupid.

I plan to milk my good mood for all it’s worth. I’m going to get some work done outside, play with the pup, and maybe even take a walk around the neighborhood if the rain holds off long enough. You know what would really top off the evening? An ice cream truck. If that happens I don’t see how it will be possible not to believe in divine intervention.

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Four Days Off

May 8, 2006 at 12:25pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

Today is the first of four days of no officiating for me. Hot dog! Don’t get me wrong, I love reffing soccer and umping baseball. But reffing District soccer last week kind of wiped me out. I received an invitation to referee at the State Tournament, but I haven’t been given my specific assignments yet. All of the brackets have some interesting potential this year, so it’ll be fun to watch how things shake out. The biggest surprise, in my opinion, is the absence of Elkhorn in the Class B boys bracket. They probably should have been playing in the finals, but instead an ill-timed loss to a weak team at Districts—coupled with their regular season losses to Class A teams—was enough to lose their wild card.

As for my plans, tonight I’m going to mow, work in the garden, and prep the flower bed. I should also call around to figure out how much it’s going to cost me to get that stump out of the yard. Better yet, anybody have any dynamite laying around?

By the way, a while back I mentioned that a couple cilantro plants had sprung up this spring. They’re going crazy now. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it all. If you have cooking plans that involve cilantro, let me know.

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Under the Lights at Seacrest

May 4, 2006 at 12:35pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

I won’t say too much about the District semifinal I reffed at Seacrest last night except this: it was a very fun, very engaging game, and the players kept me very busy for all 80 minutes. I probably ran as much as I have ever run in a soccer match, both because of the style of play being utilized by both teams (very fast, very aggressive), and because I had to always keep near play to prevent the guys from beating on each other any more than necessary. I ended the match with five yellow cards, my high for the season.

My father recently purchased a GPS device for runners so that he can track his movement patterns and distance traveled while reffing. I wish I had had the device last night. I’ll bet I covered 5-7 miles over the course of the match. I almost never stood still, and my opportunities to walk were pretty rare. I have the District final match on Friday and I’m hoping they won’t make me run quite so much. If one of the teams gets in that I think will get in, then I know their style is pretty controlled. Still, you never know what will happen come game time.

Oh, and I was on TV last night. I think I managed not to look like a complete doofus.

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Big Dogs and Little Dogs

May 2, 2006 at 10:30pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

Have you ever noticed that when the Big Dogs get nervous about a project, the Little Dogs get slapped with a whole lot of extra work in the form of new reporting requirements, extra meetings, and so forth? How, exactly, is that supposed to help or encourage the Little Dogs to work harder and finish the project on time?

Grr.

Not that this little rhetorical exercise has anything to do with real life. I’m just sayin’. Really. I swear.

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A Moment on the Bus

May 2, 2006 at 12:30pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in 625 Elm Street

An actual conversation from the bus ride this morning:

Two high school-age girls sit at the back of the bus. They are chatting the way high school girls chat. A high school-age boy, an acquaintance, gets on.
Girl 1: Hi, Boy.
Boy: Hi.
Girl 2: Are you a virgin?
Boy: [After a slight pause] No.
Girl 2: OK. Do you have any chapstick?

And that was that.

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