Ice, Snow, Volleyball

After dodging weather bullets twice this week, with storm fronts that passed through too late or too early, or that didn't pass through so much as pass by, we here in Cornopolis got an early Winter Break, as a layer of dry snow atop a layer of sleet atop a layer of ice was enough to call school for the day. It was a pleasure to go back to bed at 5:15 this morning (after feeding the dog), since Monkey and I stayed up pretty late last night to watch the Women's Volleyball Final Four. The Husker women took the #1 seeded Penn State Nittany Lions to a fifth set before bowing out of the tourney. It was a pretty amazing match, since Nebraska fell behind two sets to none to a team that hadn't lost a set all year, let alone a match. The Huskers stormed back to take sets three and four, and took a 10-8 lead in the final set. The Penn State women were just too much, in the end, however, taking seven of the last eight points to win the last set 15-11.

Unfortunately, the match before, between Stanford and Texas also went to a fifth set, with Stanford coming back after being down 2-0 to advance to a Championship rematch with the defending champions of State College. So the Husker-PSU match didn't end until 11:30. And that is way past maximum bed time on a school night!

But, it all worked out in the end. And, so, winter break is upon us, not a moment too soon. We'll be heading back east next week (weather permitting), and then we'll spend a few days resting up and turning a year older, before school ramps back up again on January 5. Between now and then will be a lot of flying, driving, visiting, toasting, consuming, football, basketball, and Holiday cheer (or maybe that's what all that previous stuff adds up to).