Christopher A. Wheeler

Stupid DISH DVR, didn’t tape the show. No predictions.

LAURENS, S.C. – A former fifth-grade teacher accused of having sex with her 11-year-old student was ordered held on $100,000 bond Saturday.

Prosecutors had wanted Wendie A. Schweikert, 36, jailed without bond, saying she was a danger to the community and a flight risk.
…

OK, I’m not sure, but I can’t it would be exciting for a 36-year old woman to have sex with an 11-year old boy. Stories of teachers having sex with 14- or 15-year olds make a little more sense because by that age the boy is old enough to… perform. I guess I don’t remember exactly but at age 11 I don’t think I would have been up to the task.

FULL STORY: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_re_us/brf_teacher_sex_4

Well, I’m 1/2 with the guys and 1/2 with the girls, so I’m batting .500.

I was right about Stevie and Bobby. Here is what I didn’t predict:

• Becky O’Donohue – she did sing horribly, one of the worst performances of the night. I thought that she would get though to next week based on looks alone.
• Patrick Hall – not a bad singer, he actually has a pleasant voice which is above average. Unfortunately, he did not stand out, and in the end, his performance just wasn’t memorable. To win this competition you are going to have to stand out from the crowd.

Come back next week for more!

Tonight is was the guys time to shine. Here are my predictions for who gets booted:

• Bobby Bennett – sang Copacabana by Barry Manilow. Seems like a really nice kid. Decent voice. Seemed overly obsessed with Barry Manilow though.
• Gedeon McKinney – definitely not one of the worst singers, not too bad actually. But his performance seemed really like a… circus. I just didn’t get in to it.

We’ll see Thursday how I did.

The girls sang tonight. There were some good performances, and some terrible ones.

So far, here are my favorites:

• Mandisa
• Kellie Pickler
• Paris Bennett
• Katherine McPhee

Here is who I think will be eliminated:

• Stevie Scott – her performance was horrible. She wasn’t up to the task at all, and didn’t even seem like she belonged there.
• Kinnik Sky – her performance was ok, but for some reason I’m just not digging her.

We’ll see what happens Thursday.

Today was the burial for my friend Joe. The sky was gray, it was windy, and there was a slight snow flurry. And it was cold. If I were writing a book and wanted to portray the “perfect” burial to set a somber or gloomy tone, this is how it would have been.

It wasn’t all bad though; in fact, it was quite nice. Joe’s father, Dan, gave a short little talk, and his brother Lee gave a beautiful dedicatory prayer. The kids got to let go of some balloons. Kate told Michael and Audrey that they were letting them go to say Hi to Joe. I hope he got them.

Tonight is the Opening Ceremonies for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. I love the Olympics. I am addicted to all things Olympic. I don’t like hockey, generally don’t watch figure skating, and don’t understand curling, but I will watch them for hours and hours.

I love the idea that for two weeks, athletes will come from all over the world to compete against each other in a peaceful setting. I love to see the pride in the Olympians as they are awarded their medals while their national anthems play, to know that all the years they spent training for that moment were not in vain. I love to hear the crowds cheer for their fellow countrymen. Of course, I love all of this even more when it is Americans winning the medals. The Olympics are where national heroes are born, and I love it.

The Michigan-Iowa game today was just unbelievable. Iowa won 94-66. The Hawkeyes were exceptional in just about every aspect of the game. Everyone was moving well, we were finding open people, and just could not miss. Henderson had a couple 3-pointers in a row. Haluska was on fire. Even Alex Thompson had a couple impressive baskets in the 2nd half. The turning point in the game of course was the hard screen that bloodied Jeff Horner’s nose. A little dirty perhaps, Brown pretty much shouldered him. Who cares? Horner came back. This guy is tough.

Iowa should definitely crack back in to the Top 25 again. If they keep playing well over the last few weeks, they ought to get a pretty good seed in the NCAA tournament.

So I saw this vanity license plate yesterday and it reminded me of some funny plates on TheSmokingGun.com, so I decided to post links to more funny plates:

• http://www.thesmokinggun.com/blueplate/blueplate.html
• http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0721041plate1.html
• http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0903041nys1.html

Man, these close losses are killing me. The first two losses of the season were complete blowouts. The next two losses came down to the wire, with the Michigan loss even coming in overtime. I’m not sure which is harder. I know Michael and Audrey were very upset and were tearing up after the loss. OK, I was too. This week won’t be much easier, traveling up to Madison. Wisconsin is really good this year. We’ll see what happens.