Reflections on March Madness

It's here!! It's the best weekend of the year for basketball fans. It's the first rounds of the NCAA tournament!

Here are some of my comments on the season:

1. Yes, BYU won a game. Apparently it's been 17 years since they last won an NCAA tourney game. It's great for the conference. It's great for the west. Blah. Blah. Blah. It's still BYU and well . . . Do you think Jimmer looks like this guy from "Father of the Bride?"

2. I got an e-mail/text from James yesterday afternoon. It said, ". . . P.S. Byu is 47 Florida 42 14:24 in 2nd half. I hope they don't win. It would mess up all of my brackets." I was so proud of James. I don't think he had ever really participated in this yearly ritual until he started hanging out with me and now he is totally into it. (Note to self: brainwashing successful.)

3. On Sunday night after dinner, we all sat around and filled out our brackets. Even Elliott is participating this year. Annie would read him the names of 2 schools and he would pick one. For a while yesterday, he only had 1 loss and was doing well. After tonight, though, my dad and Willie report that he's no longer being quite as successful.

4. I may have taken the March "madness" a little too far with some blog comments. My friend Brooke blogged about hanging their Duke flag on their house and I commented:

". . . Seriously, though, what is with this Duke obsession? I think they totally robbed the brackets. They don't even have any teams to contend with in their region. I think they are involved with the mob. Oh well."

Apparently I was out of line since Brooke responded in a post:

". . . As I have learned, people either love Duke, or hate it. We're Duke lovers (and no, Haley I don't think Duke has connections to the mafia. If that were the case we'd know Coach K as "Peach Lipinski" and JJ Redick would have been "Jackie the Lackey" or some nonsense like that). They are just consistently that good because of strategic coaching and talented players . . . I know each of these teams have "haters", but I think the negative comments just come because of sour grapes *cough- Tar Heel and Ute Fans-cough*."

I couldn't resist but comment again:

"Ouch - a stab in the heart!!

Just because my dear Utes have forgotten how to play ball and averaged more turnovers a game than rebounds this season doesn't mean I'm totally a "hater." I just hope we don't have to wait 17 years for another NCAA win.

For the record, I don't "hate" Duke. I just don't like them. I would cheer for them over Kentucky, though. And Coach Kryzermascheskewsilewki is only a suspected mafia man. Rick Pitino, on the other hand, definitely a godfather (interesting that he is connected to Kentucky, hmmm).

Oh, and Washington? Go Huskies!!! Purple! W! Woo-hoo!! (See, I can be positive!)"

5. That's it. I'm done with this post.

Teen Spirit

I came across this video while trying to find some new stuff for Chase, one of my guitar students. I thought it was kind of funny. I've never really understood what this song was about. My first introduction to Nirvana came from this girl named Fran in my 7th grade French class. She wore a Nirvana t-shirt at least every day.

Chase and I talked about how Cobain killed himself and was a major druggy and how that's not cool. We have discussions like this sometimes. Chase says "Yeah, like Jimi Hendrix and Bon Scott?" I said, "Yeah. Cool rock musicians sometimes do stupid things." Chase said, "yeah." It's important as the guitar teacher to teach good wholesome values. Learn to separate the rock-on music from the stupid decisions of some of it's makers.

Happy Anniversary #3

This week James and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. The actual day was Tuesday, March 9th, but that was . . . well, a Tuesday. James was working. I was working and then had lessons. We both had homework and James had a test to take online. How did we celebrate? I think we probably told each other "Happy Anniversary" and then went about our days. I brought Arby's home for dinner after lessons. That was pretty exciting, especially when I ate mine and then James ate his a half hour later.

I did actually give James a gift. It's what he's always wanted . . . . a bookshelf! Believe me he was thrilled to get such a thoughtful and exciting gift (note sarcasm). We really needed another bookshelf, though. As you can see from the picture, it is nearly full already and that was just from simply picking books off the floor in one room. My goodness. Thank you James for putting it together and putting all of your books on it.


My spring break is in 2 more weeks and I am planning to clean and reorganize my house (including reorganizing and adding more to this bookshelf). I am getting the carpets cleaned and cleaning out a corner in our room for little Artichoke baby. I need to purchase a dresser/changing table type piece of furniture and set up the bassinet.

Back to the anniversary . . . James asked me if I wanted a gift. I said, "No, but can we go out to dinner sometime this weekend?" He, of course, obliged and we went to the Rio Grande and a movie on Friday night. The Rio Grande was delicious! We haven't been in quite a while. Then, we went to "the Green Zone." It was rated R and I feel guilty. I don't think I have purchased tickets to a rated R movie since "Saving Private Ryan," so perhaps I justify seeing R rated movies if they are war movies. We probably shouldn't have gone, but I didn't realize that's what it was rated until the tickets were purchased. It shows I don't get out much. It was a decent movie, though, full of conspiracy theories an shoot 'em up war action. James said the uniforms, equipment, and dialogue etc. were pretty accurate and he recognized some of the more prominent features filmed in Baghdad.

Before we left for dinner and a movie, I came home to these roses. They are pretty! Then, we took part of a dinner over to a family in our ward and visited with them for a minute. The mother had been hospitalized earlier in the week after passing out while driving. She is home, but having similar episodes and not doing well.

After we got home from our evening, my swollen feet had filled up the Crocs I was wearing, so I had to peel them off. Oh dear. Wednesday night was the worst puffy feet day this week. My calf's were the size of my thighs. At least it's just bad at night. As long as I'm able to still see my ankles in the morning, I'm not too worried.

Here's to another 3 years (and many more after that, of course)!!

Votes & Boring Blogging

Thank you for all who voted in our recent survey. Here are the results:

What should we name our baby?
Drucilla 1 vote
LaRonette 3 votes
Dorris 1 vote
Karlita 5 votes

. . . the winner is . . . . KARLITA!!!!

(named for Grandpa Karl, who says he doesn't know what to do with a granddaughter since she can't play on his basketball team even though Grandpa Karl forgets that he had 2 daughters playing basketball long before that son of his came along. Dad, do you remember that time we were playing catch in the back yard at Mildred and I caught the ball with my eye and passed out?)

We'll add it to the list! And, please feel free to participate in our next poll.

By the way, my sister said my blog is boring.
She said, "Kleenexes, guns, taxes? Is that all you have to blog about?"
I said, "Yes. What else you you want me to blog about? My swollen feet?"
She said, "Yes. That would be more interesting."

So, when I got home last night I decided to take pictures of my feet. Unfortunately, when I went to load the pictures onto my computer, they were all black. Apparently, I am too stupid to use a camera because I left the lens cap on. And, I was too lazy to repeat the process once I put the camera away. Oh well. Instead, I drew you a picture of my puffy feet in Paint. I'd like to repaint my toenails, but I have difficulty reaching them lately.

Death and Taxes

Ben Franklin said, "nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."

I am a nerd. I get some sort of strange kick out of doing my taxes. Perhaps it's my weird math brain. Perhaps it's the example set by my dad, who spends a whole month each year stewing over his, with papers spread out on a table in the basement. Perhaps it is the feeling of accomplishment of doing it yourself while others have to pay to have their's done. (It's probably similar to why James insists on changing the oil in our cars himself instead of taking them somewhere.)

I did finally stop doing them on paper. Last year I started using H&RBlock online. We make a small enough income to file for free! Yippy. I am too weird to pay for the state file through them, so I then do the State's e-file. It works. I would recommend it if you haven't filed yours yet. I've haven't talked my dad into filing online. He likes to work through the H&R Block questions, but won't file it that way. He just compares it to what he's done on paper and then still mails it in. It's ok. I'm sure he's not the only one.

Anyway, last year James and I got a $22 refund from the Federal Government. That's about the biggest refund either of us had ever received and we also had to pay around $300 in state taxes. With all the talk of a bad economy and budget cuts, I feel a little guilty that this year we are getting a sizeable refund. Hmmm. I double and triple checked everything. I let them sit awhile, then did them again. I forced James to sit with me and look at them a 3rd time. This year, not only are we getting a refund, but it's a whole lot more that the 2 digits of last year. In fact, it's 4 digits! We'll take it, but I still feel a little uneasy. We're even getting a state refund.

Is everyone else in the country getting this? Maybe with the poor economy, the government took the tax credits and tax cuts too far. Is this tax season adding to our deficit instead of fixing it? Who knows. In the meantime, we'll take the refund. It can pay tuition, buy baby stuff, or just sit in savings and go towards a new house fund.