>>Bummer about the hat. It really got stolen?? Hope it was a fellow Illini fan, although I wouldn't want to think that an Illini fan would do something like that.
>
>I[t] was my oldest son.:-)

You know, I almost thought that's what you might have meant, but I remembered you saying your son is a fan of another university (which shall remain nameless < g >).

>You'll have to excuse me if I'm a little less than happy right now, Rick. I'm really kind of depressed because of what happened yesterday at the Daytona 500.:-(

Yes, that was a terrible shock. My ten-year old son and I watched the race together yesterday. He is a fan of another driver who got knocked out of the race in the big 19-car pile-up, so he turned off the TV after that and we didn't watch the finish. I was out running errands when I heard the news on the car radio. When I got home, I had to break the news to him, and we dedicated a moment of silence for Mr. Earnhardt. A sad day, indeed.