Madness

Mar 242011
 

This city is going a bit crazy. Well actually it is going mad.

March Madness has completely taken over Richmond! With 2 teams in the sweet sixteen (the only city in the country to be able to say that) things are getting crazy (but in a great way).  All anyone is talking about these days seems to be VCU and the University of Richmond basketball programs. I hear it all day at work, in the stores and every news broadcast. It’s so fun to see coworkers, good naturally rib each other about “their” schools.

 

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Richmond is famous for being a city of contrasts, and so are these two Universities.

U of R is on a small campus, elite some say, set near the outskirts of Richmond with beautiful old buildings and lush grassy lawns. It is known for it’s law and leadership programs.

VCU on the other hand is located in downtown Richmond, it has tons of buildings, small and large, old and new and is so spread out it that students (and visitors) can easily get intimidated when visiting the first few times. I still don’t really know where the campus begins and ends. VCU is known worldwide for its medical programs and is also a very popular “arts” university.

The city is definitely eating up all the free publicity this tournament is bringing to Richmond and being as unbiased as they can be. The mayor has refused to pick a team (smart move I would say) and the city threw a huge pep rally last night for both team.

Why they picked 5:00 pm at the start of rush hour in the middle of the city did they need to do this I don’t know, but since I had to drive right past it to get home and knowing traffic would be a mess I made sure I had my P/S camera on the seat and was able to snap a few pictures:

TV stations set-up and broadcasting the rally live on all the 5:00 news programs

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I didn’t even know Richmond had mounted police

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**The next two pictures are from the locate NBC station’s facebook page**

The crowd arrives for the rally

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and finally Richmond gives it back to Dick Vitale who is went on record after the teams chosen to play announcement saying that “VCU had NO BUSINESS playing in this tournament” and it was an insult to the better teams whose place they are taking.

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Being a Northern VA gal I am not sure who to root for (I wanted George Mason to make another run for it, and of course I was cheering on WVU and we saw how that turned out) so at least for Friday night I will be cheering them both on.

Sunday who knows since wins for both teams tomorrow have them playing each other on Sunday.

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 Posted by kellya at 10:29 am  Ramblings, Richmond, VA  1 Response »

It’s here, it’s here

Mar 232011
 

I decided months ago that I wanted an iPad. All it took was playing with one for about 15 minutes and I was sold. I knew they were expensive so as always I started researching them and it was during this research I learned that the iPad2 was going to be announced “soon” and many were saying to wait on it. This was in October 2010. I decided after more and more reading that indeed I would wait, besides I needed to save up for it, and how long would Apple really take anyway?

For Christmas (2010) I asked that instead of presents just get me gift cards to the Apple store for my iPad. Several members of the family contributed to the fund and I was soon ready to buy. Problem was there was still no iPad 2 and no time frame from Apple as to when there would be.  Come on Apple..

Fast forward to February 2011, finally the rumors really started to pick up that there would be an Apple announcement very soon so I gave Apple my own little deadline. No iPad 2 by March 1 or I would be buying the original iPad.  Not that this threat mattered in the least. Or so I thought because  no sooner had I set the deadline than Apple made the announcement!

The iPad 2 would be available for order and in person on April 11th.  I went back and forth over whether to take off work and chance the lines or to just order it online and get what little discount my office is provided.  I decided not to chance it and so at 5:00 am on March 11th I was up and placed the order.  This proved to be a very smart decision, especially the getting up early to do it part.  It’s the reason I have it now versus 6 weeks from now.

The waiting began for delivery, it took forever to get here (Apple really screwed up this launch) and I was getting very anxious so I must admit I was pretty excited, giddy actually, when I got the call from our mail room that “the eagle had landed”. Yes Manuel, our building mailman was playing games with me. It took about 2 hours more before it was in my hot little hands and then it had to sit on my desk all day Monday without me being able to play with it. As soon as I got home I booted it up and I was off.

Having just had it for 48 hours I am so, so glad I bought it.

For me, it’s a toy more than a productivity tool but such FUN toy!!.

I really don’t want to do a review yet, because I am not sure I know all it can do but I am pretty sure when I do it will be a positive one.  For now,   I am just happy it is here!

Isn’t it pretty?

ipadcombo

32g Black wi-fi/3g with a custom made Gelaskin protective back.

 

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 Posted by kellya at 10:56 am  Ramblings  Comments Off

Perfect Match

Mar 222011
 

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John and I finally broke down and upgraded our entertainment options at the house. We had canceled HBO, Showtime and Cinemax several years ago because they had just gotten ridiculously expensive for what was offered. That left us with basic cable, which while fine most days we occasionally want to watch something else and were bored with the regular offerings.

We both enjoy watching movies but it is rare for us to go to a movie theater because I personally think it is way to expensive to pay what they charge for 2 hours of sedentary entertainment. The last movie we saw in a theater was Pirates 3 if that tells you anything. Well actually we saw Tangled on the cruise in December but since that was free I don’t count it. Pirates we paid for. So yes, that would be about two years ago since we went to a movie theater (we will go in May 2011 though when Pirates 4 is released, Johnny on the big screen is worth almost any price haha)

I had started hearing from our friends how great Apple TV is and at the same time co-workers were constantly talking about what movies they watched last night or over the weekend using Netfix. I was intrigued about both but knew nothing about either.

I knew I wanted a way to play my iTunes library in the lower level of the house besides just having my iPhone as the only option and I really didn’t want to have to buy one of those iHome clocks, mini-players so when I found out that was the main purpose of Apple TV I started looking into it more and called Chris who already had it for advise and more information. One of the things he had mentioned was that that Apple TV also streamed Netflix, so after some more research and questions I was sold on both. I explained the systems to John and what they could and couldn’t do and we decided to go for it. Ordering Netflix took seconds and we ran to Best Buy and picked up the Apple TV’s (yes I said TV’s, as in 2, as John wanted his own for his iTunes account as well) and within a few hours we were set.

We used the combination this past weekend and OMG, how awesome. The integration of Netflix movies streamed through Apple TV is flawless and the screen quality is gorgeous.

If you haven’t looked into this combination for a great entertainment option for the house I highly suggest you do. You won’t regret it.

Have a wonderful day!

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 Posted by kellya at 8:19 am  Ramblings  Comments Off
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