KNEE UPDATE Had my follow-up appointment with an orthopedist today, and he thinks I may have a small tear in my knee cartilage. Where my knee isn't locking or buckling at present, he thinks it'll be OK over time. I'm not supposed to baby it, but I think I'll keep up at least some ice/heat for a while given that it does still get sore.

FOOT IN MOUTH UPDATE You've probably heard about Howard Dean's comment about being the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. Inasmuch as his phrasing stinks (couldn't he have just called them NASCAR voters?), he does have a point. You don't have to be James Carville to realize that not winning a state more southernly than Maryland is problematic. Even moreso is that, without a Southern candidate, you have to go back to JFK to find your most recent Democrat wins in some of the southern states (most had a brief flirtation with the Dems when Carter and Clinton were running).

I also don't think southern voters will warm to a Vermonter who signed a bill legalizing gay marriage. From what polling I could find in a brief Yahoo search suggests that Wes Clark and John Edwards are up front in South Carolina, Dean is reasonably close, but at least a third of voters are undecided. I suppose if Dean does well in Iowa and New Hampshire that may help. Not sure if John McCain is a good example here or not of how that might not work.

MARRIAGE UPDATE Yesterday marked the one month anniversary. No presents were exchanged, it was more of a "it's been a month?" sort of thing.

CONFERENCE UPDATE The Big East invited five schools to join starting in 2005 - Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, De Paul, and Marquette (the definition of "east" apparently not being an issue). This helps the basketball side, but doesn't help the football side much (Louisville is in and out of the top 25, Cincy and USF aren't within yelling distance, and the other two don't have teams).

CUSA will replace their defectors with Rice, Tulsa, SMU, Central Florida, and Marshall. This gives them a slight bump in football, as they'll now have enough teams to hold a title game. The MAC can hold steady, as they'll only drop to 12 teams (preserving their title game).

The real loser will be the WAC, who will drop to seven schools (one of which, Louisiana Tech, is geographically out of whack with the other schools in the conference). They could try to work a merger with the Sun Belt, though I wonder if they'll try to poach the likes of Utah State, Idaho, and New Mexico State and force Louisiana Tech out, making them an obvious choice for a Sun Belt now centered on Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. As for the Sun Belt, then left with six teams? They could go after Troy State (a football independent), but after that... well, I may be the only person not employed by the conference or a member school thinking about that.