Brackety

And so it begins.

March Madness.

One of my most favoritest times of the year.

Nothing compares.

I did my bracket Monday night.

Then yesterday, upon some breaking sports news regarding a certain orange team that rhymes with Myracuse, I tweaked my bracket.

And now I'm ready to go.

My Tigers received a much disrespected eight seed.

That's fine. We'll do our talking on the court.

Be scared, Spartans.

My Final Four features Duke, Missouri, Florida State and Georgetown.

Who you got?

*Yawn* and Go Griz!

So I stayed up too late last night.

And by last night, I actually mean this morning.

I went to bed at 1am.

Which equals only three hours of sleep for me.

I stayed up to watch the Grizzlies lose.

In a 3OT play-off game.

And by 3OT, I mean triple overtime.

Man.

What a game.

Tough loss.

Minimal sleep.

Yawn.

Gonna' be a long day.

But, Go Griz.

Who's your buddy? Who's your pal?

A few weeks ago, we went to the Redbirds baseball game....

The three fellas in front of us were having a very large time....

Especially the one in the middle.....

.....who had gotten to know the beer guy pretty well by the 4th inning....

....of the second game....

.....of a double header.....

Maybe he was texting....

Or keeping the box score....

Or praying....

Nope.

He never moved.

Ever.

Even when his pals left.

It's hot, that's not a pen, and that's no place for water.

The weekend. She was hot.

Like 96 degrees and 358 degree heat index.

Major. Hot.

The Captain, Cooper and I went to the St. Jude Classic golf tourny Saturday morning. We had a good time. Until we all melted.

(Jordan opted to skip the tourny and sleep til noon in her air conditioned room.)

Besides seeing all the professional golfers up close and personal, the highlight of our little golf outing was when we were sitting at the first tee and Cooper grabbed *something* out of my purse (Let's just say it wasn't a pen, or lipstick, or such item) and held it up and waved it around and said "What's this? And why did you bring it to the golf tournament?" Alrighty then.

The rest of the weekend featured more of my favorite things including reading, napping, and watching college baseball.

Another teeny tiny moment of weekend panic happened yesterday afternoon was when I was laying on my bed doing all three of those above mentioned favorite activities and I heard water running down the inside of the wall. Hmmmm. Well, that didn't sound right. Sure enough, the brand new $725,194 air conditioner furnace thing upstairs in the attic was leaking water everywhere and it had filled up the pan thing and overflowed to the pipe thing and was overflowing to the other pipe thing outside. The Air Conditioner Fixer Man came over and fixed it. Some pipe drainy thing was blocked by some other thing. Thank goodness. I would have had my second melt down of the weekend.

I know you are all so jealous of my exciting weekends.

In the meantime, it's still hot. Hydrate people. And have a good day.

It was a par-ty

The Captain and Cooper hit the links last week.

Check out this future super-star.....
I love it.

The stance....

The approach....

The outfit.....

The shoes....

And the SpongeBob SquarePants golf ball.....




And how about picture....

Me: "Cooper, I love the picture of you down on your knee checking out the hole."

Cooper: "Mooommmm, that's called reading the green."


FORE!!

Have a good day people.

Taking it to the hoop

In celebration of the Final Four and the championship game...

...and as a salute to the craziest March Madness ever...

...and as a big WOOT that Kentucky is out of the tournament...

...take a look at this hoopy playing poochy. And, yes, this video was provided by Connie. Who loves all things doggie.

Word of the Day

schadenfreude
[shahd-n-froi-duh]
noun
from the German schaden (damage) and freude (joy)
def "satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune"

see also:
West Virginia 73
Kentucky 66

Ramblings and Other Blah Blah Blah

Who's glad it's Friday - raise your hand! {Me! Me! Waving hand wildly in the air}

And since it's Friday and my ADD is acting up, I'll just tell you what's on my mind and give you a little blah blah blah.

Yes, I'm gonna' talk college hoops. Sorry, I can't help it. It's a sickness. The Syracuse loss killed me last night. My bracket continues to be mutilated. And the losses of these bigger teams just keeps making Caltucky's road that much smoother. And makes my stomach that much sicker. More games tonight. And that makes me happy.

Rain makes baseball practice go away. And on a Thursday evening when I'm pooped, that makes me happy too.

If it's called "off season volleyball" and there are still two practices and work-outs a week, that's not very "off-season" is it? At least not for the driver dropper-offer picker-upper person (who is also known as Connie).

Let's just say....mission accomplished. And that's all I'm gonna' say about that. Except that I proved there IS a difference between breathing deeply and snoring. The end.

I took my car through city inspection the other day. I waited an hour and a half for my two minute inspection which included checking my blinkers and windshield wipers. Ummmm, yes. They work. It was not without entertainment, however, as I did see a man trying to rig his dangly rear view mirror back up on his window. And I saw what was hands down the World's Longest Mullet. Like a good blogger, I attempted to take a few pictures with my phone. Not sure if you can see Farmer PawPaw's dangly mirror or Mr. Mullet Man, but never let it be said that I am not always thinking of blog fodder. You're welcome.

A ginormous sinkhole developed on our interstate this week. It was the talk of the town. Anything that is 16' deep, 11' long, and 10' wide deserves to be the talk. And also deserves its own Facebook page. Word is they filled it up last night and traffic can resume as normal. Goodbye Sinkhole.

OK people. That's all I've got this morning. Looking forward to more basketball this weekend. I'll pair that with cleaning out the garage. Oh -- and carting Jordan all over town.

Have a super duper weekend!

Not Gonna' Talk About It

I know some of you don't have the Madness like I do. And you don't care about basketball. And haven't even done a bracket.

So my blog these days has been a bit uninteresting to you.

Sorry about that.

So today I'm not going to talk about any of that.

Nope.

I'm not going to talk about the crazy upsets this weekend.

Like Kansas getting beat. KANSAS.

I won't mention how that little loss by the OVERALL #1 SEED has totally trashed my bracket. (Also known as "I picked Kansas to win it all.")

No kidding people. This year's March Madness has totally been a bracket buster. But I'm not going there. Or the fact that out of 4.7 million brackets completed online, no one has all Sweet Sixteen picked correctly.

I will NOT talk about how the fact that some of these big teams going down just makes the road that much smoother for the Team That I Hate That Starts With A K. Which makes me sick SICK SICK.

And it's not worth talking about that I have 9 of the Sweet Sixteen correct. Which these days is probably pretty respectable.

I am also not even thinking - nor bringing up - how my Tigers got beat by Ole Miss (Seriously - of all teams....Ole Miss. Please.) And that I may or may not have gotten a bit teary at the end of the game. Which I will, of course, blame on the springy blooming status of my yard right now. Achoo.

So, for all of my non-basketball-loving blogophiles, I'm not going to talk about any of that basketball stuff today.

In fact, I won't even bring it up again for a few days. Cause the next round doesn't start until Thursday anyway I'm just nice like that.

You're welcome.

Happy Monday people. Peace out.

Wacky Bracky

How's your bracket looking after yesterday's crazy first day of the tourny?

I bet paper shredders across America went into overdrive yesterday.

It was pure Madness people. Madness. One and dones. Overtime games. Double over time games. Buzzer beaters. Underdogs. Pure Madness. It's exciting. And I LOVE it!

My bracket, unfortunately, doesn't love it so much.

I'm 8 for 16 in the first half of the first round.

I am tied with the Captain and Jordan. Cooper is leading the home pack with 9 of 16.

In the meantime, my beloved Tigers are looking good and advancing in the NIT.

Did you see the most awesomest awesome wowest of wow a-maz-ing last second shot to win the game on Wednesday?

Let's watch it again, shall we?




Be still my heart. And GO TIGERS!

Wishing you all a good weekend and the best of luck in your bracket.

*Special thanks to Connie for the title of today's post

It was dicey there for a minute

This is what played out yesterday morning in my kitchen as I was leaving for work....


Me: I need to get you a bracket to fill out today. The play-in game is tonight.

Captain (pouring coffee, not even really looking up, very non-chalant-ish, almost in passing): I don't think I'm going to do a bracket.

Me (spewing coffee in disbelief and hoping to chalk this up to a misunderstanding): Wait - what did you say?

Captain: I probably won't do a bracket this year.

Me (voice four octaves higher): YOU'RENOTDOINGABRACKET!?!?!? WHYAREN'TYOUDOING A BRACKET?!?! WHATDOYOUMEANYOU'RENOTDOING A BRACKET?!?!?!?

Captain: I don't know. I just don't have time. And it's not that big of a deal.

Me (looking for a paper bag to breathe in): Not that big of a deal?!?! Of course it's a big deal. It's the biggest deal of all deals. You HAVE to do a bracket. YOU HAVE TO DO A BRACKET!!

Captain: When do you think I'm gonna' have time to fill out this bracket?

Me (wondering if this would actually be grounds for a scriptural divorce): Time? TIME?! You MAKE time. It's the priority of the day. The most important thing that you have to do all day. The number one thing on your to-do list. It's March Madness for gravy's sake!!!

Captain (just agreeing with me so I'll shut it): OK already. Give me a bracket.

Me (feeling much better about our marriage and feeling a little bad about the earlier divorce thoughts): That's more like it.

Captain (focusing on the newspaper): Go to work.

Me: Give me the crossword. That's the second most important thing that I have to do today.

Madness

I'll be busy today filling out my bracket. And yes I was still holding on to a teeeeeeny tiny glimmer of hope that my Tigers would make it to the Big Dance. Alas, no dancing for us this year. But hey - no dancing for UConn, North Carolina, Arizona and other big names either.

We'll just hold our basketball heads up high and head into the NIT. GO TIGERS!

In the meantime, I wonder if there really is a chance that that team that starts with a K could win the whole shebang. I'm not sure I could take that. Really. I think I would have to seek some sort of counseling.

Anyhoo...

Alrighty folks, sharpen your pencils and grab your brackets cause March Madness is here!! It really is the most wonderful time of the year.


PS - I'm sure I'll enjoy that extra hour of daylight tonight. But right now, this time change thing ain't much fun. *YAWN*

March Sadness

My Tigers are out of the conference tournament. Out. Like...OUT out.

Seriously.

I'm stunned.

And sad.

And sick.

We have gotten used to just getting through the conference tourny so we can move on to bigger and better things (also known as NCAA tournament).

And now we are probably not even headed to the NCAA tourny.

No Big Dance for us.

My March Madness has turned into March Sadness.

NIT here we come.

Seriously.

NIT.

I can hardly type the letters.

Bingmama and I were sharing the misery.


Bingmama: We'll just have to pick another team to pull for.

Me: Who?

Bingmama: I don't know...

Me: Well it sure ain't gonna' start with a 'K'.

(For those who don't know what that means, read this. And this.)


I'll pull it together and be ready for Selection Sunday.

I'll fill out a bracket.

But it sure will hurt my heart not to write a big ol' MEMPHIS in there somewhere.

Next year Tigers....Next year.

Friday blah blah blah

I don't know about you, but I'm so happy to see Friday I could kiss it on the mouth. It has been a better week with less chaos but I still find myself in a challenging season of my life which leaves me emotionally and mentally exhausted. That's all I'm gonna' say about that. But I'll just end it by saying I may or may not have sent Connie a text this week that said something to the effect of "All I want to do is sit in the bathtub and cry and suck my thumb."

This weekend will the much better. Because I plan to bury myself in the remaining few days of the Olympics. Curling and hockey and bobsled. Oh my! In case you haven't noticed, I am totally beyond obsessed with the Olympics. Seriously. I love watching this stuff.

I want some of those argyle pants that the curlers from Norway wear. I think they would be quite slimming on me. Especially since I'm so petite and all.

Three weeks from today we will be kicking off March Madness and the NCAA tourney. And that brings me tremendous joy. It's the most wonderful time of the year. (Are you singing that little holiday ditty now? You're welcome.) I am afraid, however, that my beloved Tigers will not be participating this year. At this point I'm afraid we are not even on the bubble. And that brings me tremendous grief.

Cooper announced last night that from now on he will only eat half of his dinner. He will throw the remaining half away which will then be taken by the garbage pick up people to the dump. And then the homeless people can eat it. It is a most noble idea. I think I will recommend donating some canned goods to the food bank. Especially since I am also convinced the boy has a tape worm and there is no way, even with good intentions, he can only eat half his dinner. He usually eats ALL his dinner and whatever is left on our plates too. Boy can eat. But I am proud that he wants to tackle the plight of world hunger.

Yesterday I got my tires rotated, an oil change, a brow wax and a hair cut. It was a most productive day in the vehicle and personal maintenance department.

Alright people. Let's have a good Friday ok? Play nice.

Oh - and one last thing --

USA! USA! USA!

O. Lym. Pics.

I am totally digging the Olympics.

However, I hate how it messes with any shot of an early bedtime.

I do not understand why the Captain chose to watch Braveheart over women's curling on Saturday.

I like curling but I don't understand anything about it.

It makes me want to grab a broom and slide around the kitchen floor in my socks.

I think I like the Winter Olympics better than the Summer Olympics.

The winter sport athletes are nuts. There is a lot of speed involved. Flying down a snowy mountain. With 2x4's strapped to their feet. Or in a little sled zooming down an icy track. Not me.

There is also a lot of unforgiving spandex involved in the Winter Olympics. Again, not me.

I had huge crushes on those 80's Winter Olympic superstar athletes Eric Heiden and Dan Jansen. Remember them?

I think short track speed skating is my favorite Olympic sport.

I follow @ApoloOhno on Twitter. But he doesn't follow me back. That's too bad. He really doesn't know what he's missing.

USA! USA! USA!

Monday Miscellany

Well whadya' know....today's original forecast of "snow flurries mixed with rain" has suddenly turned into a "Winter Storm Warning with accumulations over 3 inches". Schools are closed. There will be some very surprised people when they wake up this morning and look out the window. Hooray! Happy Monday to us!!

In other news...

Good Super Bowl last night. We only caught the second half cause of church and all. But it was exciting enough. Cooper was for the Colts up until that last game-sealing interception then he suddenly became a Saints fan.

This was a busy weekend which is also called "drive Jordan all over the city to various social and church activities."

Cooper used a roll of garbage bags draped around the furniture to make a wrestling ring in our den. He then later said it was a crime scene. Maybe it was a murder AT the wrestling match. At some point during the weekend, he asked why it was called a ring when it was shaped like a square. Hmmmm, good question kid.

Jordan finally learned how to swallow a pill. Small victories people, small victories.

When I asked Cooper yesterday how Bible class was he said he was pretty sure he has leprosy. Not real sure what to do with that. I'll go look in the medicine bucket for some sort of cream of something.

OK, that's about it for me.

I've already got Pioneer Woman's Italian Drip Beef in the crock pot people. It's gonna' be a good day.

Monday Miscellany

It's Monday. And it's a holiday. But I still have to work. And that stinks.

But it's also....my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!!

Thanks to everybody who entered my first ever giveaway. The winner of the "Tackle the Taste" gift pack is ... Just Mom from Just Mom's Musings! {cue applause} (Just Mom - I will be sending you an email with details on how you will get your prize.) Thanks again to Old El Paso and MyBlogSpark for the goodies!

Are your teams still in the play-offs? I'm still pulling for the Saints. But next week will be a doozie (doozy?) of a game. The Vikings were pretty impressive yesterday when they (cough cough) BEAT THE COWBOYS. Anyhoo, I don't really care about the other game, so I'm on the Saints or Vikings train all the way to the Super Bowl.

In other news, my dryer is on its last leg. That's bad news people. Because even though there are four people who live in this house, we generate the laundry of 18 people. I know that doesn't compute. I can't explain it. So it looks like a new dryer in my future. Yeah, I've got an extra $500 laying around.

OK people. That's all I've got on this lovely Monday.

Peace Out.

It's a giveaway! It's a giveaway!

Hooray! Hooray! I have a giveaway!

And it has to do with two of my most favoritest things evah.

Football.

And food.

The super nice people at Old El Paso sent me a "Tackle the Taste" gift pack through the other super nice people at MyBlogSpark.

But that's not the best news. The best news is that they have another one for one lucky reader of the MAMGL blog!

Yessirree!

Just look at the cool things included in this gift pack:
A ceramic football-shaped serving platter (soooo cute!) two free cans of Old El Paso green chiles, two sets of football-themed plates, cocktail napkins, and a themed table runner.

Now, you know that the big Super Bowl is coming up in a few weeks. And everybody will be watching and eating. And this "Tackle the Taste" prize pack is just what you need to spice up your Super Bowl party. Seriously people. Your guests will oooh and ahhh when they see the cutey football themed stuff.

Wanna' win?

Please leave a comment for your chance to win. You can either tell me (1) Who is your pick for the Super Bowl or (2) Your favorite recipe using Old El Paso green chilies.

Simple as that.

What? You wanna' know my pick and my favorite recipe?

Of course you do....

I'm going with the New Orleans Saints.

And it's actually quite hard to narrow it down to just one recipe because I'm a little obsessed with cooking with green chilies. But I sure do love me some chicken enchiladas or a yummy dip. Because we all know that dip = blissdom.

So, go ahead and leave a comment. I will use Random.org to select a winner so it's fair and all. Hurry! Giveaway ends January 17 and the winner will be announced Monday, January 18.

Oh - and please make sure I have a way to contact you if you don't have a blog or email address or I don't know where you live already or whatever. OK? Thanks.


This giveaway is only open to U.S. entrants.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. I was provided a gift pack for myself and also one for this review and giveaway.

All the other legal business blah blah blah stuff.

Many thanks to MyBlogSpark & Old El Paso for this Giveaway Opportunity!

Today....

The temperature is ten. And that is all. Just ten little degrees.

I stayed up too late last night watching an exciting and emotionally wonky football game. It was also the last one of the season. Please observe a moment of silence for this travesty.

However, we do have NFL play-offs beginning tomorrow. And that will work. I'm going with the Saints in case you were wondering. Oh - and whoever is playing against the Cowboys.

I am glad it is Friday. I couldn't do one more day. For a million reasons.

Happy Birthday Elvis.

Okey dokey artichokey. Peace out people. Think warm thoughts and have a good day.

Thriller. Chiller.

Saturday night.

Liberty Bowl.

Arkansas Razorbacks.

Victorious in overtime.

Wooooo Pig Soooooie!

We had a ball!

We also froze our patooties off.

It was cold. No, seriously. It was stinking cold. Like temperatures in the 20's cold.

I had on 18 layers of clothes. I used about 23 hand warmers. I had those babies stuck just about everywhere I could stick 'em.

But my toes froze. Froze toes. I still can't feel my feet.

It was my kids' first "real" football game - other than a high school game. Cooper asked where the yellow line on the field was. Ummmm, that's just on TV kid.

Poor kicker for ECU. Missed two FG's in the last minute to win. Then he had another shot in OT. No go. Felt sad for him. Jordan was kind of hoping he'd pull one of them off in regulation so we could go home. Even though she didn't want the Hogs to lose. Girl was shivering.

And in the end, the Hogs pulled it off.

I was jumping up and down. Partly because I was excited. Partly because I was freezing.

Did I mention it was cold?

Yes, that's me under all of that....