Sunday, March 9, 2008

On the Bubble

So Maryland is on the bubble and needs to win at Virginia tonight to be helped out. Of course, UNC beating Duke last night and American winning again today helps the RPI, which may be the thing we need to get into the tournament. Of course, I will say that losing to American may be the one thing that saved our season. It woke our team up and now we are playing a lot better. What may have killed us, however, was the collapse against Clemson, when we were up by 20 points and still managed to throw the game. That brought me to remember a recent e-mail that my mom got from her co-worker, who graduated from Maryland, who said:

Maryland could be up by 20 points and still find a way to lose.

That was after the home game against Duke. So of course, I as the optimist said that will never happen, and then of course, last week, I probably experienced perhaps the most heartbreaking sports moment of my life so far. I threw my hat, hit it against the chair, stomped on the ground, what have you. It was disgusting, and it really just was not a good way to give the seniors the proper tribute they deserved. Of course, that whole debacle prompted an Uncyclopedia user to post this as the UMD fight song:

Beat Duke, Lose to Clemson, Miss the Tournament!

Too bad we didn't beat Duke this year, or maybe we would actually have a shot nowadays at actually making the tournament. Just might be the NIT for us, along with our nearby "rivals" at American University. Unless of course, they make the Big Dance, and we miss it. That would be really humiliating.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Quasi Flash Freeze

We are experiencing a quasi flash freeze... temperatures that were once in the 60s have fallen dramatically. Expect temperatures to keep dropping as the next round of t'storms comes through. Very windy outside with tropical storm force winds... power outages are possible, as are trees coming down. Next round of storms is rolling through the DC metro as we speak. Winter is not over yet...

Tomorrow is going to be cold as well, but already we will see a warming trend into next week, so the cold will be short lived. But just remember that we are yet to reach spring, and this will be a reminder for a lot of people.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Nationals Opener

Well, I was able to get tickets... but for the exhibition opener, and it's thanks to StubHub that I got them. Two 200 level tickets. But the real farce was when I tried to get tickets for the opener against Atlanta, a process in which I was unsuccessful. I had both of my browsers online waiting to get in for tickets (which it turns out they let people in BEFORE 9 am) and I was calling the hotline. I finally got a computer on the hotline... which said there were a bunch of sections open. Then I heard the computer say something about a technical difficulty. Then I was linked over to a guy who told me that they were all sold out. So then my next step was to try StubHub... which was ridiculously overpriced, so I figured I'd try the exhibition. And I was successful!!! I believe Section 228, Row N... so I am very excited!

That's it from here. Enjoy the amazing weather outside (just ignore the spot of wind).

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Tornado Watch (no longer) in Effect

2:00 am update: Tornado Watch has been discontinued for the DC area. Rain will end from east to west between 2 and 4 am.

Live, local radar from Weather Underground

The folks over at the NWS have issued a Tornado Watch on top of the Flood Warning that's already out for us. Tornado Watch goes until 3 am Wednesday morning... full coverage can be found by clicking on the Capital Weather Gang link on my blogroll.

The map below will update as alerts are issued or changed by the National Weather Service (refresh your browser for the latest map).

Image credit: National Weather Service, Sterling, VA
Legend: Yellow = Tornado Watch, Red = Tornado Warning, Purplish-Red = Severe Thunderstorm Watch, Dark Green = Flood Watch or Flash Flood Watch, Light Green = Flood or Flash Flood Warning

Monday, March 3, 2008

Nationals Park photos at long last!

So I finally uploaded and posted the pictures from my trip to Nationals Park and the neighborhood surrounding it (Near Southeast). I have pictures from the neighborhood, but these are much more important and newsworthy. So here they are... descriptions are underneath each photo...
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View looking north from First at N... you can see the parking garage off to the left of the picture.

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Looking inside the parking garage. This was shortly before I got kicked out of First Street and had to clear out of the "construction zone". So I wasn't the happiest of people, but there are ways in which I could work around that...

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The building that is over the Metro station and the big pit that exists right next to that building. This is all going to be the district immediately to the north of the stadium, but it won't be ready by Opening Day 2008.

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This is the view of the gate that Metro-goers will use. Note the work being completed on the sidewalk.

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Western parking garage, the one that faces South Capitol Street.

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View showing the two parking garages... west is closer, east is further away.

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Detail of the sign on the corner of the west parking garage, showing the different gates that can be used to get into the ballpark.

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Kind of trying to get a shot into the park. I think this is the left field gate, but it didn't used to be there so when I drove by I could sneak peeks in on the stadium's gigantic scoreboard.

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Closer view of scoreboard... bit tough to see, but you can at least see that it is HUGE.

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Another directional sign showing different gates, as well as the team store!

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The curly W's on one of the gates!

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Here is a view of the southwestern entrance... from the median of South Capitol Street. This is where I had to walk down to get pictures of this side of the stadium.

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Looking up South Capitol street. Note that the stadium's facade almost "points" to the Capitol Building.

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Looking down Potomac Avenue... stadium on the left and the lack of development on the right. What an eyesore! Boswell was right...

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View from the Douglass bridge that you see when you drive over the Anacostia River.

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Close up on the Nationals sign that shows itself on the south facade of the park.

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Closer view of southwestern entrance, showing that this path has yet to be completed.

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Another look up South Capitol Street. The Capitol Building is much bigger when you see it in person.

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Another view showing the park and the lack of development.

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There you go... the park points at the Capitol Building. It's about this size when you see it from there... maybe a bit smaller, however.

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Looking up South Capitol again... I'm obsessed with the fact that it points straight to the Capitol.

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From the median again, a bit more zoomed in to show the Capitol a bit bigger.

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Southwestern entrance, but a bit more zoomed in this time.

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Slightly different angle of the western facade of the stadium. It almost doesn't even look like a stadium from this angle.

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Told you the Capitol was much bigger than it appeared in those pictures!

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Gates fronting South Capitol Street.

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Looking south on South Capitol Street this time, showing how the stadium connects to the admin building.

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Viewing decks? Not sure...

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View into the stadium at a few of the upper sections.

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Again, looking south on South Capitol Street at the western side of the stadium.

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Closer in view of the entrance that Metro-goers will use. Note the Red Porch restaurant at the background, close to where I will sit on Opening Day... if I'm lucky!

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View into the stadium. This is about the best view into the stadium I could get without actually going into the stadium itself, as the parking garages are now in place, obscuring most of the view.

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More detail of the sidewalk work that is going on.

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And this is the view from about where you get off the Metro at Navy Yard station. Where the Clark sign is is the actual entrance to the Metro. So it's about a block away from the Metro station. Not like RFK.

That completes our tour of Nationals Park. I hope this thing is ready for Opening Day, because it really is something special that I think most Nationals fans will really enjoy. It really is a treat for this team. I'll try and get some pictures from Opening Day, and I'll update how the stadium looks as it opens!

Blogroll Added

Hey folks!
Added a list of my favorite blogs on the right hand side... so go ahead and check them out when you have a chance! Soon I plan on adding a list of links, but that won't happen for a while, if it even happens. It all depends on how many links I want to add.
So check out those links while I get crackin' on those photos of Nationals Park!