Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Author: fish1964

  • Hoops, hoops and more hoops

    OK, I may be dying in my NCAA pool, but I still love the event. Last night (Thursday) all four games were interesting (average winning margin of 3.5 points, including two 1 point games). Southern Illinois proved that their incredible defensive reputation was completely deserved, even in a close loss. Ohio State somehow escaped once again. Texas A&M played a great one against Memphis (truly one of those games that neither deserved to lose).

    And at the same time some interesting hoops news. What does 9 straight 20 win seasons, 9 straight NCAA tournament appearances and one national championship get you? If you coach Kentucky there was a good chance it got you a free ride out of town. So in a pre-emptive move Tubby Smith takes a job at Minnesota. OK, that’s a serious step down, so he must have known he was gone.

    And Steve Alford was about to get run out of Iowa, so he takes the head coaching job at New Mexico. I’m a huge Alford fan as a player, because he was a part of the Indiana national championship team. He was a pure shooter. From the free throw line he was so automatic that the crowd would mimic his shooting routine by chanting “socks, butt, 1,2,3, swish”. He wiped his hands on the backs of his socks, then the back of his shorts, dribble three times and about 96% of the time swish the shot (the crowd would yell “swish” as the ball left his hands, we were that confident).

    But being a great college player and playing under Bob Knight doesn’t always make you a great coach. I hope Alford is good for New Mexico, because I really like him. But his record at Iowa was spotty.

    Speaking of great guards that played for Coach Knight, Isiah Thomas is managing to not get the Knicks into the playoffs, despite being in the weakest conference in NBA history. I loved Isiah as a player, but I can’t stand him as a GM and I’m not in love with him as a coach.

    But that’s the pros. College hoops is much more interesting. Vandy and G’Town in a thriller and Butler gave Florida a good run. More great games…

  • Firefox Add-ons

    I just installed two nice add-ons, both Google map related. Both are incredibly simple. The first allows you to highlight an address on a web page, right click and map it with Google maps. Simple, but something I do all the time.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1886/

    The second is even more useful. Same concept but you set your home address (and optionally two other addresses) and when you highlight an address on a web page you can right click and get directions from your home to that address (supports either Google or Yahoo).

    https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1104/

    To me these show how sometimes the simplest little addition to functionality can make all the difference.

  • Abuelo

    Normally this would be a post about March Madness. But my wife’s father passed away last Sunday, so I haven’t been paying much attention. I did my picks for my pool without much thought at all (and it shows in the standings). At least my team Indiana beat Gonzaga in the first round (and I bet a lot of people picked Gonzaga).

    My wife’s father was Abuelo to our daughter Danielle (abuelo is Spanish for grandfather, if you didn’t know). His death was hard for a number of reasons. Obviously it is hard on my wife. And this is the first loss that our daughter has experienced (other than a goldfish). What do you tell her? When do you tell her?

    Thankfully four year olds have a very short attention span. We were going to take her for ice cream before we told her that Abuelo was in heaven. She cried and talked about how much she would miss him. And then while she’s crying in her mother’s arms, she looks up and says “can we go get ice cream now?”. Ah, to be four again.

    He had a very full life. We got to celebrate his 90th birthday a week before he died, so that will always be a good memory. And at least Danielle got to know him, if only briefly. We have lots of pictures of the two of them together.

    This is Abuelo with some of his grandchildren last Christmas (Danielle is on the right). We will miss him.

  • Adoption Progress

    Things are slowly moving along with our adoption. There have been some strange concerns lately around the Guatemala adoption environment. There’s an upcoming concern about the Hague treaty. This is an international treaty around adoptions and any country agreeing to it must meet certain standards (primarily to prevent shady dealings, coercion, etc.). Guatemala has agreed to the treaty, but hasn’t put the proper procedures in place yet. If they do not do so in a timely manner the US might decide that no adoptions will be allowed until Guatemala gets it’s act together.

    That, however, is down the road and we are far enough along that it should not impact us. The State Department has stated that anyone with an approved I-600A form will be grandfathered and we’re way past that part.

    The next issue was an adoption facilitator in Guatemala getting arrested. It’s somewhat of a strange story. Apparently this adoption facilitator was trying to arrange an adoption for a couple in Washington state. The adoption was completed, the couple came to see the baby and discovered that the baby was malnourished and had other health issues. The couple balked, and went back to the US to consult with a doctor. But at this point the adoption had been completed so the Washington couple were legally the girl’s parents.

    The adoption facilitator was concerned that the couple wasn’t going to follow through and the child would end up in an orphanage, where her condition would likely get worse. So she snuck the baby into the US, presumably to take care of her herself. She got busted for doing that.

    The concern is that now Guatemala is investigating and that this will distract from the regular adoption process in Guatemala.

    But despite all of that, we appear to be about 2-3 months away from adopting our baby. Below is a chart from the State Department with a general overview of the process and timelines. We’ve completed the first four steps (green is completed). Really the first five are the bulk of the process. Once the adoption goes through PGN (Guatemalan Solicitor’s General Office – step 5) you are pretty much done. PGN is somewhat of a black hole. The timeframe of 2 months listed below has a very wide swing. Our adoption agency said 6 weeks to 3 months. But still, it’s getting close. June would be realistic.

    The strange thing is that if this were a normal pregnancy, my wife would be quite large by now and I think we’d be doing a lot more planning. But because the adoption is so abstract to our day to day life, we really haven’t done much to prepare. I guess it’s partly because this will be our second and we know the drill (and we have all the stuff). But the whole thing still doesn’t seem real yet.

    Step

    		 Form No. Description Responsible Office Confirmation/Document Expected Timeframe
    1 I-600A Eligibility of Parents to Adopt overseas (home study, etc.) US DHS District or sub-Office in the United States I-171H and Visas 37 (or Visas 38/39 6 months (may be done in advance or concurrently with other steps)
    2 Proof of “orphan” status (birth certificates, cedula, hospital records) Guatemalan Attorney USCIS form “Autorizacion para iniciar prueba de ADN” 2 months
    (depends on attorney & situation)
    3 DNA test submission Guatemalan Attorney DNA test results 30 days (after step 2)
    4 DNA test approval Embassy DHS/ USCIS Consentimiento (irrevocable release by birth mother) to Guatemalan Attorney 4 weeks (after step 3)
    5   Guatemalan court documents. PGN/ Guatemalan attorney Protocolo/escritura 2 months (after step 4)
    6   Finalizing the Adoption Guatemalan Attorney Adoption Deed 7 days after step 5
    7   Guatemalan Birth Certificate with name(s) of adoptive parent(s) Guatemalan Attorney Birth Certificate 7 days after step 6
    8   Guatemalan passport Guatemalan Attorney Guatemalan Passport 1 day after step 6
    9 I-600 Petition to Classify an Orphan (blue form) and final adoption documents packet
    (Form I-600 is filed in the U.S. for escort cases)    		 Attorney submits to DHS/USCIS at the U.S. Embassy
    (or Form I-600 is submitted to the appropriate DHS/USCIS Field office in the U.S. for escort cases)    		 “Pink Slip” interview appointment letter–Approved petition in US for escorts Normally within two business days following submission to DHS/USCIS at the Embassy
    10   Medical report Embassy Approved Doctor, also called a Panel Physician Sealed Envelope with medical report Completed after step 9 and prior to the Interview. The Embassy recommends that adoptive parent(s) be present at the medical appt if at all possible.
    11 DS-230 Immigrant Visa application Consular Section Approval at interview same day as interview
    12 I-864 (for IR-4 cases only) Affidavit of Support with previous year’s tax returns, etc. Consular Section Approval at interview same day as interview
    13 IR-3 or IR-4 Immigrant Visa Consular Section Visa and sealed envelope with final documents delivered to adoptive parent(s) 3:30 p.m. the next workday following the interview

  • Pitchers and Catchers

    While March is primarily about college hoops, any baseball fan will tell you that March is a great month because of spring training. During the winter as you drive by Yankee Stadium the sign will read “xx days ’til pitchers and catchers”. Just the phrase “pitchers and catchers” to a baseball fan means that good things are around the corner.

    For some reason in baseball more than any sport, spring training is the time of eternal optimism. Columnists write things like “this could be his breakout season, if only he can learn to hit a curveball”. Every team thinks they have a chance, even if they lost 100 games last year.

    And in serious baseball cities, every tiny thing is reported on, discussed and analyzed. A rookie throws 98 mph in a practice session! The next Nolan Ryan! What? He threw it over the catcher’s head? He’ll work that out…

    So I am very happy to report that the Yankees won their first spring training game. Johnny Damon led off the game with a home run. Giambi also went yard. Chien-Ming Wang faced six batters and retired them all (5 ground outs).

    In their second game (also a win) Andy Pettite looked good, also retiring the six batters he faced. I’m a big Andy Pettite fan (my wife is an even bigger fan, though not for his pitching skills).

    So what does this mean? Two spring training wins? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! But who cares? It’s fun. Can’t wait until opening day…

  • Simply comical

    This has to be a political photographer’s dream…

    From a BBC News article:

    Israeli newspapers have printed photos of Defense Minister Amir Peretz trying to watch military manoeuvres through binoculars with the lens caps still on.

    According to the photographer, Mr Peretz looked through the capped binoculars three times, nodding as Gen Ashkenazi explained what was in view.

    He’s the Defense Minister. Surely he’s used binoculars before. Hell, any sports fan who’s had bad seats could figure this out…

  • Humor from The Onion

    If you’ve never seen The Onion, it is a hilarious weekly news satire magazine. For a while a long time ago I lived in Madison, Wisconsin, which is one of the editorial homes of the Onion. It would be distributed free (revenues generated by ads) every Thursday. Like all satire, sometimes it misses, but sometimes it is gold.

    Here is a recent one that cracked me up (warning: hilarious bad language, particularly in the photograph). I still laugh out loud when I read this.

  • March Madness Coming Soon…

    March Madness baby. The best sporting event of the year. Unpredictable. Single elimination. Hugely emotional. Lots of games. And of course, gambling.

    Wait a minute, didn’t I say previously that I don’t really gamble? True, very true. But there’s something about an NCAA basketball pool (there’s an exception to every rule). And it’s not really about the money, it’s just fun.

    So once again I will be hosting a pool. The rules are the same as every year (detailed below). I use CBS Sportsline. The URL is:

    http://fish2007.mayhem.sportsline.com/e

    The group password is fish.

    The rules are as follows:

    $10 to play

    50% to the winner

    30% for 2nd place

    20% for 3rd place

    I will collect money via PayPal. PayPal charges a small fee, so I’ll ask for something like $10.58. Don’t worry about payment up front. I’ll make the requests after people have signed up. I’ve been informed that PayPal frowns on this sort of thing, so you’ll probably get a request for payment for something like “pet grooming”. If you are in the NY office or will see me in person you can pay cash.

    The pool is weighted for picking upsets. Points are determined by multiplying the seed of the winner by the round value:

    1st round: 1 point

    2nd round: 2 points

    3rd round: 4 points

    4th round: 8 points

    Semi Final: 16 points

    Final: 32 points

    So if a 12 seed wins in the second round it’s worth 24 points. But getting the final four right is worth a lot of points also, so you can’t just go upset crazy. Typically you need to get the ultimate winner right. This is, in my opinion, by far the most interesting way to run a pool.

    That’s it. Invite your friends. Wake the neighbors and phone the kids. It’s all about bragging rights. The great thing about an NCAA pool is that it’s so unpredictable that someone who knows nothing about hoops often wins. My favorite betting strategy for someone who didn’t follow hoops involved comparing the mascots and picking the one that would win in a fight (sorry Maryland fans).

    The madness begins soon…

  • Parenting Fun

    Here’s a story that will sound familiar to any parent.

    On Saturday, Danielle had a birthday party to go to at a local gymnastics place. They do good parties, the kids run around a lot and have a good time. And since Danielle just learned to swim we took her to the YMCA (which is next door) for some swimming right afterwards.

    So gymnastics followed by swimming. Then we get her dressed, she gets in her stroller because she’s tired and sure enough she falls right asleep.

    A mid-afternoon nap on a Saturday is a rare event. We know we’ll pay for it later, but any parent knows you must seize the opportunity. So we go for an early dinner. An adult meal, conversation, drinks the whole deal. What luxury. OK, fine, it’s 4:00 in the afternoon, so hardly optimal. But you take what you can get.

    So we’re finishing some sushi, sake (for my wife) and beer (for me) and Danielle starts to wake up. What’s the first thing she does? Throws up. Right in the restaurant (which is thankfully empty other than us – who eats at 4:00?). It turns out there’s a bug going around in Danielle’s school (and all her schoolmates were at the party). So she basically pukes the rest of the day. But it’s a brief bug and she’s ok the next day. She even makes it to another birthday party the next day (it’s apparently birthday season in her school).

    It seems to me that this captures parenting in a nutshell. Plenty of kid-type fun in the parties, very occasional adult fun whenever you can sneak it in, and the occasional puke. And despite the puke, the whole thing is a blast…

  • Luggage found, life is good

    After getting no word on my luggage yesterday, today I discovered that they did find it and they put it on last night’s flight. It will get delivered tonight. Imagine my relief.

    In my previous post, I forgot to mention the other bad thing that happened at Kennedy airport. At the Jamaica airport we bought some gifts for some friends and of course Danielle wanted something. There was a small version of those wave souvenirs, the plastic things filled with two different color liquids that look like waves when you tilt them.

    During the long wait for our luggage, Danielle was half asleep and wanted to be carried. At one point she dropped this wave thing on the floor. So I just picked it up and put it in my back pocket so I could carry her. What I didn’t realize was that it had cracked.

    Now I have no idea what they actually fill these things with, but clearly one of the colors has to be something other than water. Hmm, oil and water don’t mix, perhaps it’s oil based. So I’m standing there holding Danielle, when I start to smell something like lighter fluid. I’m thinking that I’m getting a whiff of airplane fuel from outside. But then I realize that my back pocket is wet.

    This is officially way too late. At this point my pants are drenched with something that really smells bad. So the hour that I spent waiting to find out that our luggage was lost was a very smelly hour. Thankfully lighter fluid (or whatever it is) dries pretty quickly so at least my pants dried up.

    But it took two washings to get the smell out…