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?

Hoops and Tigers

Raise your hand if your bracket took a beating yesterday.

{raising hand and waving it wildly in the air}

Wow.

I'm 11-16.

Blah.

But today is a new day.

And it brings the MEMPHIS TIGERS!

The Mayor has declared today Tiger Blue day.

And it's Jeans Day at work.

But I have some meetings and such. So it's not in my best interest to wear my jeans and Memphis hoodie. And it would probably not be very professional of me to have my face painted blue and wear a blue and silver pom-pom on my head like a wig.

So I'll be cheering from my desk this afternoon for my beloved Tigers.

The Captain and Jordan arrived home from Adventure Camp bearing loads of dirty laundry. I'm glad they made it without incident. And by incident, I mean being thrown from a horse, falling off a 30 foot high ropes course, or drowning in the whitewater river. There were also no fractures or stitches. They must have had their fair share of adventure, because at the time of this writing, Jordan has been asleep for 13 hours. And I see no sign of life from her room.

The Captain was quite surprised that I had moved all that furniture upstairs. I confessed to almost crushing myself against the wall with the dresser mirror. And then I confessed to almost shattering the mirror to a million pieces in an effort to escape said crush. But it's all good.

Since there is no volleyball this weekend (HOOOOT!!), the Captain and I will continue to tackle that wreck of an attic. This weekend will focus on his collection of 38,201 Igloo coolers and all things camo.

We will also enjoy mucho basketballio.

Hope everybody has a groovy weekend.

And please root for my Tigers.

Thank you.

And amen.

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

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

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!

I am tired and my thoughts are disjointed. So is this blog post.

Thanksgiving is next week. Yikes. It's at my house. Must start planning.

Having a second Thanksgiving dinner next week with the Captain's family. We're exchanging Christmas gifts. Whatever. Must start shopping.

And now for today's public service announcement. If you haven't thanked a policeman, EMT or fireman for what they do, I hope you will. Cause their jobs aren't easy. And sometimes they have to deal with things that aren't very pleasant. And to think that my idea of a bad day is jamming the copy machine...The Captain's bad day is a complete 180 from that. So, please give your favorite first responder an extra hug, handshake, or nice little thank you. They will appreciate it. Thanks. {stepping off soap box now}

Tigers take on Kansas tonight. Hope we can give them some what for. Yes, I'm still harboring some pouty sore loser feelings from a year and a half ago. GO TIGERS!!

Seriously Weatherman, today's high is twenty-five degrees colder than Saturday? Seriously?

I have a coworker friend who is moving to Chicago this week. I am sad. There is nothing good in goodbye.

I can't believe it's only Tuesday.

I wish you all a good day. Play nice.

Par-tay

Big party....
Tomorrow night.....
About 350 people....

Let's see.....

Invitations - check
Caterer - check
Florist - check
Music - check
8,213 other details - check, check, check, check, check

Order coat racks - check
Weather forecast shows a sunny day with a high of 74 (Thanks Weatherman!)
Cancel coat racks -check

Have trouble sleeping - check
Have totally weird dreams about the party when I do sleep - check
(Including one last night where I dreamed nobody came. Nobody. No. Body.)

Continue to be so sick of boxes in my office - CHECK
Still to do.....
Finish stuffing 350 favor gift bags (Thank you P. & Bingmama for the help!)
Show up tomorrow 9 hours before the party and start setting up

Things to ignore....
The fact that I feel like I'm getting sick.
The fact that I am already exhausted and the party isn't even here yet.

OK people. That is all. If I live through all this, I'll see you Monday.

Oh - how could I forget - TIGER BASKETBALL OFFICIALLY STARTS TONIGHT!!!!! Go Tigers!!

A Tiger Tale

Thanks for Connie for sharing this little funny....


Four college basketball coaches go rock climbing on a sunny afternoon, Kentucky coach John Calipari, Louisville coach Rick Pitino , UT Vols coach Bruce Pearl, and Memphis coach Josh Pastner. They had been arguing all the way up the mountain about who among them could make the best sacrifice for their fans .

Upon reaching the top of the mountain, the Louisville coach Rick Pitino proclaimed to the other three coaches … “This is for the Louisville Cardinals!” and promptly threw himself off the mountain as a form of sacrifice.

Not to be outdone by a Rick Pitino, the Vols coach Bruce Pearl jumped up and said…"This is for the UT Vols!” and then threw himself off the mountain again as a form of sacrifice.

Refusing to be outdone by the Louisville Cardinals and UT Vols coaches, the Memphis Tigers Coach Josh Pastner rose to his feet and yelled at the top of his lungs “This is for the Memphis Tigers!”

And without any hesitation, picked up and flung Coach Calipari off the mountain.

Dawning of a New Day

It's a new day in Tigerville people.

We have a new coach.
Yes we do.

The coaching search is over.
Can I have an amen?
And we can all move on now.
Thank goodness.
It was getting exhausting.
And embarrassing.

But we've got Josh Pastner.
Woot! (Did I really just say woot! on my blog? Oh dear....)

I think it's a fabulous thing.
A brilliant hire.
I am really excited about it.

He's gonna' do a great job.
And I hope he keeps some current assistants.
And some current players.
And some current recruits.

He is young.
He is aggressive.
He is a rising star.
He is a tireless recruiter.
He is passionate about the game.
He is high energy.
He is Go! Go! Go!

Plus, he is a total dish.
Which is just an added bonus.

Time to move on

I'm moving on.

It's a new day people.

Cal is gone. The end.

And yesterday he said hello to Kentucky. And goodbye to Memphis.

I was sad. Yes, I was. And ok, maybe I cried just a teeny bit. Don't think less of me.

We loved him.
He said he loved us too.

But then, he pulled the ol' "It's not you, it's me" break up line.

And he went with another.

And when next season's basketball season starts, he'll be there in Rupp Arena coaching the Wildcats. (At least he doesn't have to buy any new blue ties. Not that buying new clothes should be a concern for him, what with his $31.65 million contract and all.)

And I think when I see him with that team for the first time, it's gonna' kind of be like seeing an ex-boyfriend with their new flame. Ouch. It'll hurt at first. And you hope the relationship will go south and he will come crawling, just begging you to take him back But then it'll be ok.

Oh well.

Bingmama said it's like going through the stages of grief. I am pleased to say that I think I have moved through all of them (denial, anger, bargaining, depression) and am now headed into acceptance. I think she is still stuck on anger because she allegedly spit on her husband's Kentucky sweatshirt. Or that's the rumor anyway. I really cannot confirm or deny that.

Look at where we were a week ago TODAY. Getting ready to play Missouri. Ready to make a run for the Final Four. It was blissdom in Tigerville people. If you had told me last Thursday morning, that we would lose the game, Tyreke would go pro, Cal would quit, and we may lose two other players, our assistant coaches and all our recruits, I would have either called you a liar or maybe, MAYBE bought the Tyreke bit. But nothing else. Fast forward a few days. And here we are with not much. Wow. I get dizzy thinking about it.

And suddenly the Memphis bandwagon isn't nearly as crowded as it was a few days ago.

But the Memphis Tigers will be ok. We will make it through this.

It's not like anybody died or anything.

And life goes on. After all, it IS just basketball, right? It's just Memphis Tigers basketball. The *one* thing that brings us all together. That makes us a non-partisan city. It makes us all the same color (BLUE!). It's the one thing we all agree on. It's the one thing that takes our minds off all the other problems. It's the thing that makes us say "Go Tigers" whenever we see somebody else in Kroger wearing a Tiger shirt. (Don't you do that? Surely I'm not the only person who does that....)

See? It's just basketball.

We'll be fine.

It was Cal's dream to coach at Kentucky. It's the chance of a lifetime. And he had to take it. Didn't he?

But I can't help thinking about next year... a.k.a. The Year. Capital T. Capital Y. .... And what really could have been. *sigh*

And that's just the way it is.

But I don't have to like it.

I'm moving on.

The End.

MelanCALy

What started yesterday morning as just a little rumor hit full pitch by noon....

Cal?

Kentucky?

Say it isn't so!

Didn't he just tell us on Friday that he loved Memphis and wanted to be here?

What happened?

I feel betrayed. I feel like he has had an affair and is leaving us for somebody else. I thought he loved us.

I am very sad. Is that stupid?

And, to top it all off, he'll take his staff too. And some current players. And some future players.

But what about next year Cal? That was supposed to be The Year.

It doesn't seem to be quite over yet. There are offers and counter offers. Insane amounts of money being talked about ... $35 million. It would make him the highest paid NCAA coach. Of any sport.

Reports last night said he was gonna' sleep on the offer overnight. Wonder if he did sleep. I really didn't. Actually dreamed about it all night. OK, that's weird. But I did.

I am wondering if this anguish and grief is an FMLA qualifying event. I'm gonna' need some time off.

Blue. Flu.

I am experiencing a sadness hangover from the Tigers loss last night.

It was painful to watch.

And yes I cried during the last few minutes.

Make fun of me if you want.

I don't care.

And the Captain said, "Are you crying over a basketball game?"

*Sniff* Yes. Yes I am.

I really can't even talk about it this morning.

So I'm not.

Yes, I'm pouting.

It was a stinky way to go out.

And I really didn't want it to end.

And my heart is broken for those boys.



Oh, and.....

Cooper tested positive for the flu.

Out of the blue.

Hey I made a rhyme.

And it took me an hour and a half to get him to take his medicine yesterday.

It was only a teaspoon.

I'm wondering what lies ahead for him over the next few days.



It has been a rough week for me as a parent.

And today is a rough one for me as a Tiger fan.


This week hath stinketh.

And that's all I have to say.

The End.

It's Game Day!!

Tigers play tonight.

At 8:30.

Yep, that's my bedtime.

I am excited.

Really excited.

Like, tums or valium excited.

The game promises to be a great matchup. Tigers vs. Tigers. Speed vs. Speed.

Survive and advance. That's all we need to do. Survive. Advance. But a whooping would be welcome too.

I am wondering if I can really make it through this day. I don't see much productivity or focus in my future.

Let's just watch this over and over until tip-off.

Crank it up people!!

GO TIGERS GO!!!

Saaaaah-weeeeeet!

The Tigers are headed to the Sweet Sixteen. Yes they are!!

The Tigers really did their thing on Saturday. And they looked great!

How about Doneal Mack?!?!...."Ummmm Roburt Sallie isn't getting *my* starting position....."

And Jordan was excited to see Preston Laird come in the game. Any time we see Chance McGrady and Preston Laird, that means the Tigers are sweeping it up baby. I hope those two kids get LOTS of playing time over the next two weeks!!

So all the sportswriters who had been on the Memphis bandwagon, and then hurled themselves off on Thursday, are now chasing the wagon again... "Hey stop!! Hold that wagon!! I want back on!!!"

How is your bracket looking? I've got 13 of the Sweet 16. Not too shabby. The Midwest region really did me in. The Captain has a very respectable 14 remaining. As Bingmama said, as long as my final pick is right....I don't care about the rest of my bracket!

There was some great basketball this weekend. Lots of close games and some upsets. It was non-stop hoops at our house. Man I love March Madness.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Ready for the game

Tigers tip off in two hours. And I'm ready!!

Nobody sitting in "the chair I have to sit in when the Tigers play"? Check.

Cal mask and pom pom? Check. Check.

Memphis shirt? Check.

Rally towel and Tums? Check. Check.

IamsoexcitedIreallycannotwait!!!

GO TIGERS GO!!!!

A win is a win

So the Tigers won.
Barely.
Thank goodness there aren't style points.
Because their performance was less than stellar.
And there for awhile, I couldn't decide if I was gonna' cry or throw up.
Or if Bingmama was gonna' have to pump my chest.
Really.

But they won.
Thanks to this guy.

Yes, the guy whose game average is 4.5 points.
He scored 35 points yesterday.
If it wasn't for him, we would have been greeting the team at the airport last night.

Maybe Antonio Anderson's new mohawk haircut messed with the mojo.
Or maybe all the players need to wear tube socks on their arms from now on.

Because that is apparently good mojo.

Whatever it takes, Tigers. Whatever it takes.

It's Madness

It all starts today.

March Madness.

The Big Dance.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

The Best Three Weeks in Sports.

There are 33 games this week alone. Thirty-three games people.


Tigers tip off today at 11:25.

And I. Can't. Wait.

Am betting there will be lots of long lunches taken today.

And low levels of productivity.



Just to prove that I am not totally obsessed with basketball and the tourny, here are a few other things on my mind:

I am tired of hearing about the octuplets and their mother.

I am saddened to hear about the death of Natasha Richardson.

I am puzzled by the elimination of Alexis Grace from American Idol last night.

I am so fed up with the national sports pundits who remain Tiger haters. Oh wait...that post was basketball related. Sorry.

I am loving this beautiful weather. Memphis is gorgeous in the springtime.


That's all people.

Can I have a GO TIGERS GO!?!?!??!!?

Got bracket?

Got your brackets filled out?

I have studied statistics.

I have poured over comments from national sports pundits.

I have at looked the 5 vs. 12 upset possibilities.

I have contemplated the 8 vs. 9 match ups.

I have studied RPI and SOS.

And now ...

My bracket is complete.

(cue angelic singing)

Amen.

And it will remain in my possession until the championship on April 6.

Worn and torn.

For three weeks of March Madness blood, sweat, tears, and love.

With yellow highlighter marking my wins.

And so people, without further ado....

I present my Final Four:

• Louisville


• Memphis


• Pittsburgh


• Syracuse

Who do you have as your Final Four?

And can I get a GO TIGERS GO!?