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January 31, 2008
Punxsy Phil at Penn State
We in the Department of Meteorology here at Penn State were honored with a celebrity appearance on Wednesday over the lunch hour -- Punxsutawney Phil (and a couple of his handlers)! There was advertising for it all over Walker Building -- even big huge banners *inside* the elevators, it was kinda crazy. 
They had a big reception for Phil up in the 6th floor Weather Station, complete with free chili, chips/dip, cake and whatnot, and it sure seemed like all of Walker Building had emptied and gone up there. I'd say there had to have been probably 150 people up there at the peak. 
And the handlers were giving away free plastic top hats to everyone, as well as groundhog beanie babies and official Punxsutawney Groundhog Club large coins (I made sure to get one of each -- gotta stock up for Saturday, you know!). 
I was hoping to get a picture next to Phil, but there was a $2 raffle for a chance at that, so I had to settle for a picture next to Phil in his plastic cage. That's probably closer than I'll ever be to Phil again. There's no way we'll be able to get quite that close to the stage at Gobblers Knob this Saturday morning, that's for sure!
Speaking of which, we've got a good-sized group of people heading over to Punxsutawney *early* on Saturday morning for Groundhog Day. And I do mean early. As in we're planning to leave State College at midnight. All to stand outside in the cold for hours in the middle of the night, just to see an oversized rodent get pulled out of his hole for a few minutes. You've gotta love America!
We had our second game of the year for Wyld Stallyn IM basketball tonight, and I really thought before the game that we were gonna snap our long losing streak. We played very well in the first half, particularly on defense with our 1-3-1 zone, taking a 17-17 tie into the break. And then in the second half we jumped out to something like a 28-21 lead, but then the wheels pretty much fell off. The other team started draining threes because our defenders left them open a couple times, which seemed to make us stop believing in the 1-3-1 and executing it, which in turn led to even more easy looks for the other team, both from outside and inside. Needless to say, it was frustrating to watch the game slip away and see us lose 45-37 in a game we should've won. For what it's worth, here's my line from tonight:
16 Min, 1-3 FG, 2 Pts, 1 Reb, 2 Ast, 0 TO, 0 PF
And most of my minutes came in the first half, as it turned out. At least I wasn't a negative to the team tonight again, and this time I even scored a basket, woohoo! Baby steps, baby steps... Anyway, we've got three more chances this year to win our first IM basketball game since 2005 (and to be fair, we didn't field a team in 2006). It'd be nice to get off the schnide, finally.
Posted by Jared at January 31, 2008 11:42 PM
Comments
Dude, it probably had fleas or lice. You'd better get someone to check your hair.
Seriously.
Posted by: Joshua Zimmerman at February 3, 2008 03:52 AM
Dude, don't insult the groundhog, the seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators. How would you like it if I insulted your favourite domokun?
Seriously.
Posted by: Jared at February 3, 2008 04:56 PM