How do you pass the time when school is delayed? BLOG!

We have another school delay today ... not everyone in Frederick County - just us mountain folks!


The blog is committed to posting more regularly ... the problem is the blogger.

Let's catch up on what's up and what's down:


My poor Ravens ... all of the bad habits that they extinguished in the Patriots victory were re-ignited against the Colts. Not enough running plays ... turnovers ... penalties ... and Ed Reed being spectacularly good and bad on the same play.


We watched the game in Delaware - for a few reasons. Primarily, we wanted to go and hang with Pam's father who was home recovering from knee replacement surgery. It was a long weekend due to the MLK holiday, so we could relax and stay for a while. Raven QB Joe Flacco attended the University of Delaware, so we thought it would create good karma to watch the game in "The First State." Lastly, I wanted Grotto Pizza. Mission accomplished.


Colts vs. Jets? I'll pull for the guys in green, but my head says the Colts are headed to the Super Bowl. I see New Orleans winning against the Vikings, and a subsequent media frenzy about Brett Favre and retirement. Deja vu.


I'm working on plans to head to Florida for a Spring Training "guys" weekend in March. I haven't been to Spring Training since a spring break during college - the year was 1993 (1996 was a cruise; 1995 was a trip home; 1994 was a roadtrip to Florida). Tentatively, headquarters will be Tampa, which provides a central location to take in home games for the Yankees, Phillies, Tigers and Blue Jays. There will also be plenty of March Madness action on TV that weekend, so sports will rule the days and the nights.


We spent a good deal of time this past week working on "the book project." The "we" refers to my work buddy / co-assistant-principal Meg ... and yes, she puts up with me voluntarily. Update - the book project (related to education, but I'll keep the specifics under wraps so no one steals our millions) is now two books. We plan to roll out the book ideas in the form of magazine articles, and then see if that leads to commercial publishing or self-publishing. So, even if we don't become rich and famous, we'll enjoy the smell of duplicator fluid as we hand-crank book pages from an old-school ditto machine.


In case you hadn't recovered from holiday shopping yet, there are two big birthdays right around the corner - Marty and Lilly. I'm February 12, while Miss Lilly is February 16. We haven't posted our gift registries yet, but stay tuned. Oh, and you have permission from your husband / wife / boyfriend / girlfriend to take the money you were thinking about spending on Valentine's Day and get Marty and Lilly something nice.


To quote the Bartles and James team, "Thank you for your support."


Pitchers and catchers report in 27 days - Go O's!