Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Thanks to Grandma Nikki and Mike, Dave and I were able to attend an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party on Saturday night. Edwin spent the night getting spoiled and we spent the night laughing. This picture almost looks like it could be for our Christmas cards...

WEEK IN REVIEW

I don't know about your house with toddlers, but our girls are zombified by cartoons while we get ready in the bathroom. They didn't even look up at me when I snapped the picture. However, if I would have obstructed either one's view, BAM! I would have had an earful of whining!! I am actually surprised how much information that Madeline does learn from the programs they watch. The one that is the most interesting is Sid the Science Kid. Obviously it is right up my alley, but Madeline is genuinely intrigued by it as well. Each episode goes into the explanation of some science/health related topic; such as, the swine flu vaccine, how to get ice from water and vice verse, and answering such questions as 'why are my shoes shrinking?'. It is, also, from the Jim Henson Company ... another reason why I probably LOVE it!!
Madeline did her Santa's workshop this week. She reassured Matt that she would get him something he likes this year (unlike the funny fishing lure). I want it to be something equally out there!!

Firstly, I am done shopping. Thank goodness. Secondly, I have started the Christmas cookie baking . I completed all the peanut butter/chocolate recipes today. And for those who know me, that means I did several today!! Madeline was a big help this year. I can't wait until Meredith can help out (instead of hinder). HAHA.

Last night was my work Christmas get together at a co-workers home. We all brought an appetizer ( I took baked pineapple). What great food!!! I am still not hungry. The highlight of the evening is when we all went caroling in her neighborhood. We felt like we were singing terribly, but the neighbors seemed to enjoy the Christmas serenading. HA.

My Twitter Conversation with SI.com’s Andy Staples

So my beloved University of Cincinnati Bearcats football team finish their season with a perfect 12 wins and 0 losses. Their reward: a meaningless exhibition game against an SEC also-ran. As it turned out, they had been playing exhibition games the entire time, as they never had a shot at the national title as long as teams from the SEC & Big 12 were perfect as well.

What makes this so hard to take as a Bearcat fan is that they finished 2nd in the objective computer rankings, but 4th in the subjective human polls. (I use the term subjective to be nice, as corrupt may be more accurate—LSU’s coach Les Miles had Cincinnati 8th…8th!) And since the BCS ranking are based on 1/3 computers & 2/3 human polls, the Bearcats finished 3rd and out of national title contention. (Check out the final BCS standings here, conference rankings here.)

Now I could almost accept this unfair scenario if the reaction from the national media was something along the lines of: “this is an outrage; a playoff would be ideal, but under the current flawed system, Cincinnati should be in the title game”. I want to see all hell break loose on ESPN TV and the major sports sites labeling this the biggest injustice in the history of the BCS.

But this just hasn’t been the case. Either the Bearcats gets lumped in with (also undefeated) TCU & Boise State in a generic column calling for a playoff, or worse: the conventional wisdom is that Texas is the correct team to face Alabama in the title game. One such example was SI.com’s Andy Staples writing: “Texas deserves national-title shot”.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to get inside the mind of someone who totally ignored the on-the-field evidence. Suspecting it was some sort of asinine smell-test, I opted for Twitter to raise my concerns with some chance of immediate feedback:

@Andy_Staples TX deserves title game based on what? Cincy is the rational choice: tougher sched & conference. TX backers don't bring facts.

Realize, you only get 140 characters with Twitter. I was trying to make the point that someone who thinks Cincinnati deserves the title game (e.g. me) compares the resumes and makes the logical conclusion. Someone who supports Texas (e.g. Andy) just says what he thinks without any stated comparisons. So Andy responds:

@davidedwinross Why is Cincy more rational than TCU?

He’s adding TCU noise that’s really not prescient to the debate. So I respond:

@Andy_Staples I was responding to your "TX deserves natl-title shot". why didn't u mention Cincy's tougher (than TX's) sched in ur article?

After thinking about it for a few moments, I decided to provide him the resume comparisons he conveniently left out of his article (with TCU added to the discussion since he brought them up):

@Andy_Staples computer: UC 2, UT 3, TCU 5. top25 wins: UC 16&17&18, TCU 14&23, UT 19&22. conf: BE 4, B12 5, MW 8. out-of-conf: UC > UT & TCU

I ran out of characters so I couldn’t expand on the out-of-conference discussion. Cincinnati had 2 respectable games: on the road against #18 8-4 Oregon St (who fells 4 points short of winning the Pac 10, the #2 ranked conference) and hosting the unranked 8-4 Fresno St. TCU had one: unranked Clemson (who played in the ACC title game, the #3 conference). Texas had none: all cupcakes. (See complete schedules and results for Cincinnati, Texas & TCU.)

Andy’s response:

@davidedwinross Because I think Texas would beat Cincy head-to-head. OU played a tougher schedule than Fla. last year, had same rec and lost

Good. Now, I can ask him to justify why he thinks the way he does:

@Andy_Staples so objective metrics call for Cincy, but your subjective thoughts call for TX. plz explain your methodology.

Finally, Andy confirms my initial suspicions with his last retort:

@davidedwinross Eyeball test. Gut instinct. Call it what you want. Just too bad they can't settle it on the field in a proper tournament.

OK. So I got what I needed. No need to spend any more time on this conversation. We always knew when comparing undefeated teams, that a traditional college power would trump the upstart (tougher schedule usually being the reason cited). We now know that even when the aforementioned upstart does indeed play a tougher schedule, the traditional power wins out anyway based on perception.

The funny thing is, BCS supporters point to the integrity of the regular season a key reason to keep this unfair system rather than switch to a playoff. Right now administrators from Columbus to Norman to Los Angeles are looking at Texas’s spot in the title game and making the collective decision to schedule regular season campaigns with a lot less integrity going forward.

I wonder what Andy’s eyeball test was based on anyway…uniform colors?

--

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WEEK IN REVIEW

Another whirlwind week for the northern Ross family. Tuesday was a preview night for family to enter their tickets for awesome raffle baskets at Madeline's school. Awesome really isn't the most accurate word to describe how great these prizes were. Unfortunately neither myself or Mary Lou or my dad won anything. BOO!!!!! Some day I will get lucky; oh wait, I guess we only win Wii products. HAHA.

At this preview night, however, SANTA came to visit. So Matt stood in line for an hour + to wait for the girls to sit on his lap and tell him their Christmas wish list. Santa in this situation is a chatty Kathy who wears work gloves instead of black leather ones. Check it out! I am so proud of Meredith. She walked right up to Santa and told him her name and got on his lap. We didn't even have to translate Meredith's language for Santa! About halfway through , she got that look in her eye that this might be freaking her out. Madeline was of course brave and told Santa she wanted princess Barbies, 2 Doras, and Yo Gabba Gabba toys. (Meredith just wants babies). Mommy and Daddy will have to figure out what the Doras are. ;)

On Friday, we had my work Christmas dinner at Alberini's restaurant. It was a 6 course meal and man was there a lot of food! The problem at the beginning was the timing b/w courses... about an hour. It did eventually pickup , but I was worried. The girls kept asking for more food. It turned out to be a nice evening.

Saturday we were off to Columbus for ZOO LIGHTS! Matt and Jody (my dental school friends)and their 2 girls met us there for the weekend. I guess we couldn't be so lucky to have 40 degree weather while walking around the zoo. Nope! It was in the 20s. brrrr. We were dressed appropriately, had hot chocolate to drink, and stops at indoor exhibits to keep us warm.

Sunday we headed to Christmas wonderland at Dave's (our high school friend) house. He had about 6 totally different trees; the biggest tree measuring 9 feet. Quite festive indeed.

Sunday evening we finally got to visit with Dave, Mindy, and Edwin who were in Pittsburgh for the Pitt and Steelers games. The girls just love Edwin. He is finally at the age we can "play". Hooray!! We can't wait for Christmas so we can play some more. Edwin is saying 'Melinda' in this shot!

114

No, it isn't how many lbs I've lost...although it is close...

No, it isn't how many shopping days left until Christmas - although I wish I had a bit more time...

No, it isn't how many mini-marshmallows I can fit in my mouth at one time...

114 is how many jobs I've applied for since I got laid off from my last job. It has been a bit frustrating, especially this last rejection letter. For those of you who have been following my every move - I had applied for an Assistant Director of Development position with the UC Foundation. I made it through the phone screen and had a 5-hour/10 person interview...I was happy with my chances of getting the job and know that I was "competing" against 4 other candidates. Last week I received the general "thanks, but at this time we have chosen a more qualified candidate to fill the position" letter from the HR department. I told myself before I heard the news that I would be proud of myself for making it to the actual face-to-face interview and I know I did my best...but this one hurt. I am somewhat disappointed and feeling rejected...but on the flip side...I love every minute of being home with Edwin and know that until something else works out, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.