1. After getting on my own case a little bit about how I'm spending my time at home these days, I laid off hours of solving word puzzles online and returned to reading Jess Walter's book, The Cold Millions. The bookmark I once had placed in this book was gone. I tried to recover where I left off when I put this book down a couple of months ago. As I spot-read places in the early chapters, I suddenly realized I couldn't remember what happened in the book, so I started it all over again. I'm happy I did. I enjoyed returning to this novel about labor conflict in Spokane over 100 years ago and my plan is not to get sidetracked this time.
2. Last week I made a batch of creamy tomato sauce using crab stock and seasoning it with fennel seeds and tarragon. Later, Debbie added beans, mushrooms, and zucchini to this sauce and we ate it over spaghetti. Yesterday, she combined the last of the sauce with ground beef to make a squash stuffing. She baked hollowed out acorn squashes with this sauce in the cavity and it was perfect, especially on Sunday with cabbage salad and today with green beans and wheat berries.
3. I was in for a big surprise tonight when I fired up the Vizio to watch St. John's play Seton Hall. The game was played on Seton Hall's former home floor, Walsh Gymnasium, a cracker box of a gym where Seton Hall hadn't played since 1984. (Tonight's game was a rescheduling of the teams' postponed game on December 20th. The game couldn't be played at the Prudential Center because of a concert.) Not only was Seton Hall playing at home, the Pirates just defeated St. John's on Saturday in Madison Square Garden. I really thought Seton Hall had the upper hand.
I figured my beloved Johnnies were in big trouble and that the difficulties that have marked their season so far would continue.
Was I ever wrong.
I don't know what happened between Saturday and tonight; I don't know what happened on the short trip trip the Johnnies took between Queens and South Orange, NJ; I do know that St. John's, from the get go, played this game with a surge of energy and tenacity that surpassed any of their efforts to date.
The Johnnies pressed and hounded Seton Hall ruthlessly all game long, creating numerous turnovers, getting multiple deflections, and generating chaos that befuddled the Pirates.
Moreover, St. John's leading scorer, Julian Champagnie, only scored five points. He looked lost in tonight's game. His teammates, though, more than covered for him and St. John's crushed Seton Hall, 84-63.
Was this a turning point game for the Johnnies? Will they build on this victory? I have no idea, but I'll be watching.
I'm sure most college basketball followers were not watching the Johnnies because Kansas was playing Texas Tech in the same time slot. I had been keeping an eye on the Kansas game, but lost track of it until Byrdman alerted me that it was a nail biter.
I watched the end of regulation and the TWO OVERTIMES and, against my wishes (!), Kansas prevailed, 94-91.
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