I heard it through the grapevine.

I've seen a rumor that was mentioned in three different places (SO IT MUST BE TRUE!!) In case you haven't noticed Bush has been reshuffling his team. He put Negroponte in as Deputy Secretary of State. The rumor is he did this so he can become Secretary of State when Condoleezza Rice leaves. Now why did I say "when" and not "if"? Well the rumor continues that sometime next month Dick Cheney will step down next month and then Condi will become our first female and first black vice-president. How's that for a bombshell?

I might talk about Bush's troop "surge" plan later. But I think if I do it deserves its own entry. So keep that in mind.

Some of my contenders and pretenders list I did is already slipping around. Connecticut lost its 3rd game in four tries so it's getting close to being cemented as a pretender. Duke is struggling early in conference play so I may have put them as a contender too early. And I've been singing Butler's praises for a while. They promptly lost last night. It's not all bad news though. Indiana may be better than I realized in Kelvin Sampson's first year. They're looking like a contender right now. And Missouri State has moved ahead of Butler (for now) as the most dangerous mid-major. They've started 4-1 in the difficult Missouri Valley. They might be favored in every game for the rest of the season. Don't expect them to win them all. The MVC is tough.

I'm sure you're all excited that I keep talking about stocks. But (knock on wood) Lenox may have been the best purchase I've ever made. If I sold at this moment in time, I'd have locked in a gain of 23%. And I just bought it on Monday! I'm not foolish though. It's probably going to have some bad days. It's just been up since I bought it because it had lost such a huge portion of its original value. But so far we're off to a good start. As are the rest of my stocks. As of yesterday's close, I had gained 2.84% since the year started. If I keep that pace up my portfolio will nearly triple this year. I know. That's insanely unlikely. But that certainly would be fun. And it would help provide finances for when I go to graduate school. Notice I said "when" and not "if". I'm looking at you Wake Forest and William & Mary.