Not only did we have a blast that night, my card-holding abilities (along with some dunks, I guess) made it to SportsCenter’s Top Ten plays! Here’s a pretty terrible iPhone video I got of my SportsCenter debut.

SportsCenter Top Plays #10

SportsCenter Top Plays #2

That triple-OT winner from Lauriane Rougeau pushed the Cornell women past Boston University in the NCAA Quarterfinals.

Tonight at 8pm Central the Big Red (30-4-0) will face the second-seeded Minnesota Gophers (32-5-2) in the second Women’s Frozen Four semifinal. Check the schedule at http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule to watch the game live online!

GO BIG RED!

If you’re alone this February 14, let the greatest of all time, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, warm your heart with his thoughtful compliments (“Lookin’ fine!” and “You’re cool!”) and his unintentionally euphemistic declarations (“You give me a lift!”).

Any gal who has ever spent Valentine’s Day alone will admit that she expects at least a little something those years that she is in a relationship. Just trust me fellas, it may be a “Hallmark holiday” but it’s never a good idea to ignore the lady in your life on February 14. If you’re a romantic guy every day of the year, then Valentine’s Day is a lovely excuse to kick things up a notch. And if you aren’t usually the sweet and sappy kind, then use this special occasion to be like that romantic comedy lead she swoons over. (See: Colin Firth in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “500 Days of Summer” and Cary Grant in “The Philadelphia Story.”)

So it’s settled: You have to do something. Just remember, unless you’re dating a materialistic troll, it’s not about the money, it’s about how much thought you put into it. So with that in mind, here are a few fun, unique ideas for all price ranges!

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Living Room Picnic $

Pile up the pillows and blankets on the floor, turn on some baby-makin’ music, fill the room with candles, grab a bottle of champagne and some dinner and give your gal a romantic indoor picnic. Most girls I know would rather have this than an expensive dinner out!

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Paper Source Apron & A Homemade Dinner $$

Ladies love a guy who’s confident in himself and has a good sense of humor, so tie this cute apron on and cook her a special dinner! (And if you treat her right, after Valentine’s Day she’ll be the one putting this little number on and treating you to some home cooked meals.)

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Personalized Charm Necklace $$

Jewelry is always a great present, but personalized jewelry is even more special. Stella & Dot is one of my favorite websites for unique, affordable pieces and I absolutely love their charm necklaces. Pair a few charms together (maybe the first initials of your names with a heart charm and a rose quartz drop) and every time she wears it she’ll think about you.

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Personalized Art $$$

My boyfriend and I bought a condo together this summer and have found some unique ways to make it our own. One of my favorite purchases was customized bus rolls from Geezees.com. Each bus roll lists some of the streets we each lived on before we moved in together on Franklin Street. It’s a great way to remember all the places we called home before buying our first home together.

You could create one with the date, time and location of your wedding day or pair one of your favorite photos with a favorite quote. While you wouldn’t be able to get your order in time for Valentine’s Day, you could give her a beautiful card with a promise for a heartfelt gift to come. Check out the Geezes website for a few more ideas.

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Special Spa Day $$$

A gift certificate for a massage is always a great gift, but the Valeo spa in the JW Marriott is an extra special treat. In addition to more traditional services like massage, manicure, pedicure and facial, Valeo offers body treatments in a clarity chamber that has the look and feel of a Turkish bath. I went recently and it was unbelievably relaxing. I lay down on a heated slab of marble by a roaring fireplace and my personal care consultant Amanda did a full-body exfoliation, pouring hot bowls of water over me between scrubs. She finished with a sweet-smelling citrus lotion then sent me off to enjoy the sauna and steam bath. I left with my skin sparkling, soft and shiny!

And the best part? Valeo has generously offered to give my blog readers one of two special deals. Just mention the promo code SPAIN!

1. A complimentary glass of wine/champagne with each experience 40 minutes or more
OR
2. 10% off the purchase of a gift card of $100 or more.
(Valid until 2/29/12)

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Good luck gentlemen, I hope your ladyfriends reward for your sweetness on Valentine’s Day! ; )

The accompanying photo, from my high school track and field days, is a real doozy.

Now that’s the face of a winner, right?!

I have no choice but to chalk it up to my awkward phase. And I must point out that it’s very difficult to look attractive whilst long jumping. See Exhibits A-D…

Fortunately the blurb was actually quite nice…

■ Sports-talk radio station “The Score” is celebrating 20 years on the air this week.

But the guess here is that the Chicago sports-talk radio personality most likely to go national real soon works at the other station in town — WMVP/ESPN-1000.

Sarah Spain first showed up in the sports pages of this newspaper in the late-1990s as a track star at Lake Forest High School.

She was one of the county’s best in track and field, with the emphasis on “field.”

Her senior year, she was a state qualifier in the discus, the long jump and the triple jump.

Fast-forward to 2012, and she’s now strong as the sports-news reader on AM-1000 during the morning sports-talk shows.

She’s even logged some time as a talk-show host on weekends and when regulars are on vacation, though her strong suit is definitely reading the sports news.

Which, at the ESPN “Mother Ship” in Bristol, Conn., is what the cable-TV network is always on the lookout for.

Don’t be shocked if she’s behind a “SportsCenter” desk there sometime in 2012.

I guess I’ll have to forgive them for the photo…

(H/T @BruceArthur, @JPNikota)

You get the picture.

We rolled 78 deep, with each character from the “The 12 Days of Christmas” represented in full costume. The 12 Drummers Drumming and six Geese-a-Laying did things pretty much by the book, but there were a few rather creative takes on the classic carol, as well. The two Turtle Doves were really Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with wings, the three French Hens were mustachioed men in French maid uniforms with pantyhose-covered eggs dangling between their legs and the 10 Lords-A-Leaping were, well, the Lord himself. Here they are “Tebowing.”

It was our second annual “12 Days of Christmas” pub crawl and it was even more ridiculous than last year’s. I was one of four Calling Birds, navigating the streets of Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood with floppy orange bird feet and a bright red phone holstered to my hip. (Get it, ‘cause we were Calling Birds?!) I made it from the pre-party at 3pm all the way to The Irish Oak at 11pm before I started molting and headed home, shedding black feathers down the street, into the cab, up my elevator and into bed.

My liver thanked me for the early exit the next morning but I worried I might have missed some tremendous late-night antics. You see last year I made it all the way to the final bar of the crawl and, with one shutter click, inadvertently set into motion a truly tremendous prank. Let’s go back to December of last year…

Last year the Partridge in a Pear Tree was a cute little thing we’ll call “Sharon” (all names have been changed to protect the drunken). She was a few too many cocktails in at our final stop of the night, Houndstooth Saloon, when she met a nice young fella at the bar. A little while later I happened to catch her swapping spit with him. The photo of said spit-swapping was up on Facebook for an hour or so before she pulled out the challenge flag and I took it down.. but not until after her friend “Bryan” had saved it to his desktop.

Months later Sharon, Bryan and a big group of friends were out for sushi and the check came. The table was packed with their whole crew; it was the perfect moment for Bryan to finally capitalize on several months’ worth of prank preparation. He dropped his credit card on top of the bill for all to see and, lo and behold, the background image on the personalized Capital One card was, you guessed it, Sharon in full bird costume, snogging the stranger.

It was the perfect prank—embarrassing but totally harmless. I mean, who among us hasn’t “accidentally” made out with a new friend after being over-served? The key, of course, was Bryan’s patience. Had he pulled out the card just a few weeks after the pub crawl the memory of that night’s shenanigans would have been too fresh, but by the time February rolled around, most of the crew had forgotten all about the Partridge making room in her Pear Tree for one more.

Unfortunately, this old lady right here will never know what kind of shenanigans took place at Houndstooth Saloon this year. I was in bed by midnight, already dreaming of next year’s pub crawl.

(a big thanks to Chicago’s best photographer, Will Byington, for capturing all the day’s festivities!)

This year I got an early start on the celebrating, thanks to two of my best party-throwing friends, Marley and Cheri. Sunday they hosted their first annual “Friendsgiving,” which started with an afternoon football game. Here’s my “player card” from the game (as you can tell it’s was a very serious affair).

After my team, the Red Rosses (so named for this episode of “Friends”) grabbed victory on the football field, we all headed inside to find the most beautiful Thanksgiving… er… Friendsgiving table ever.

We feasted on turkey, gravy, ham, cranberry sauce, five kinds of potatoes, two kinds of brussels sprouts, corn bread stuffing, spinach dip, green beans, rolls, veggie lasagna, pumpkin pie, cupcakes, bread pudding and bottle after bottle after bottle of wine. (And yes, I did work out extra hard with my trainer this week!)

The fantastic spread at Friendsgiving got me thinking about some of my favorite holiday treats. Here are some links to a few great recipes that are easy enough for everyday but yummy enough to deserve a spot on the Thanksgiving dinner table.

* Slow Cooker Squash Stew

* Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Almonds

* Beet, Goat Cheese & Avocado Salad

* Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Tonight I’ll head up to Wisconsin with my boyfriend for “real” Thanksgiving with his family, but it’ll be tough to beat the magic of Friendsgiving.

This incredible video inspired Wired Science to post a short piece on the unique and fascinating migratory movements of starlings.

“What makes possible the uncanny coordination of these murmurations, as starling flocks are so beautifully known? Until recently, it was hard to say. Scientists had to wait for the tools of high-powered video analysis and computational modeling. And when these were finally applied to starlings, they revealed patterns known less from biology than cutting-edge physics.

Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.

At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple. When a neighbor moves, so do you. Depending on the flock’s size and speed and its members’ flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes. What’s complicated, or at least unknown, is how criticality is created and maintained.

It’s easy for a starling to turn when its neighbor turns — but what physiological mechanisms allow it to happen almost simultaneously in two birds separated by hundreds of feet and hundreds of other birds? That remains to be discovered, and the implications extend beyond birds. Starlings may simply be the most visible and beautiful example of a biological criticality that also seems to operate in proteins and neurons, hinting at universal principles yet to be understood.”

With so many people trying so very hard to understand the world around us, it’s incredible how much of it remains a beautiful mystery.

Check it out – DJ Steve Porter’s “Press Hop.”