Travelers

So I've demonstrated that I'm a lousy blogger. This Euro keyboard doesn't help.

We're in Germany now. So far, so good.

Nadine loved the shuttle ride from the car to the airport, the Singapore Airlines ride, and the Fairytale Gardens in some city we went to next to some castle King Ludwig the frivolous built.

Matthew enjoyed Singapore and getting a sanitary napkin from the lavatory for us so that we could wipe our hands!

More to come, hopefully.

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

So I found the brackets. I did not come in second or third. How about fourth? Beaten by an eight-year-old, my wife and my daughter. At least I could beat the two-year-old. Joseph went 14-1 in the last fifteen games. Picked 7 of 8 winners right into the Elite Eight, and all of the games after that.

Ridiculous.

Unheard of.

I guarantee he would have won any office pool out there. There is no way any "expert" did that well.

I look at my results and am reminded why I should not gamble. I look at Joseph's results . . . .

Save it For Later

So the other catch to this whole blogging thing is that I actually have to find time to sit and write.  And then when said time may present itself, I need to want to sit and write, rather than lie down, sleep or otherwise engage in mindless pursuits.

Anywhey,  I'll play catch up if you'll indulge me.

I left you lastish in the middle of the NCAA basketball tournament and my family's annual grapple to determine just who is the luckiest guesser.  I will now explain how that turned out. . . . no, that will take too long.  Let me sum up.

Joseph won.

A little too simple?  He was the only one to pick Kansas to win, and he stomped us all, winning the coveted Victor's Doughnut.  I would tell you how the rest of it sorted but I'm honestly not sure.  You see, the papers with the brackets were mislaid while I was in Kentucky.  Either Teresa or I took second or third place.  I would like to think it was me what took second place.  Nadine, Matthew and Jensen rounded things out.

Kentucky?  Where did that come from?  At the end of March I had a conference in Louisville, home of Sluggers and hot browns.   My brother, Mark, lives just 2 1/2 hours away, so I went out early, got a car, and went to see him first.  I went in to his office and pretended to be a patient with an appointment.  Had the office staff chasing around for five minutes trying to find me in the records.  Next day he took me over to the local range and we shot a few hundred rounds from his handguns.  I have new-found respect for Jack Bauer and his shooting ability:  six bullets, six dispatched troops from the legions of evil.  Ain't Hollywood great?

In summation, I have never slept so well on an air mattress, Mark fed me well, and we got to watch that Bear Grylls guy on Discovery Channel bite the head off of a snake and eat it.  Ozzy Ozbourne, you ain't got nothing on this guy.

Well, if you aren't tired of reading this, honestly I'm surprised!  I'll try to make next time shorter, more recent, and more interesting.

Performance Anxiety

Okay, so I just read Robyn's blog and her glowing endorsement of the potential for my blog to keep you entertained. Talk about performance anxiety. This is almost as bad as standing at the communal urinal at the ball game with a dozen other men just waiting to see if your bladder will agree to release its contents. We've all been there at least once, haven't we. (Please say, "YES" - men only.) You're dancing all the way to the bathroom, finally get a spot to wedge in at the front of the queue, and the spigot won't turn on. Can't even look down to make sure everything's alright because the Unwritten Code of the Urinal dictates that you stare straight ahead and take an unusual interest in the square of wall directly in front of you. I understand that two guys made eye contact once durning half-time at a soccer match in England. It took three days, four police forces and seven fire brigades to clean up the rioting. I don't want to even consider what would happen if streams crossed.

I was about to say that you women have it easy 'cause you all get stalls and some degree of privacy unless someone needs you to spare a square, but I know better than to do that. I'd have dozens (okay, maybe three) of you reminding me of long lines and unsanitary toilet seats and no squares to spare. Now that's pressure.

Bracket Update

Day 2 was not kind to some of us.

Joseph has come out of nowhere to lead the group at 25-7 by simply picking all higher seeds.

Matthew and Nadine are at 22-10

Teresa and Paul are at 21-11

Jensen still has a winning record at 17-15


All of us Picked Vanderbilt to advance to the Sweet 16.

Only Matthew picked Western Kentucky to beat Drake, which it did with a longer-than-NBA 3 pointer at the buzzer.

Joseph picked Kansas to win it all, so we now have five different choices for champion between the six of us.

One Step Beyond

And so begins the Madness.

We have a tradition in our home where all interested parties fill out a bracket for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. We keep track and he or she with the best guessing ability gets a treat at the end. We just go by cummulative record. Of course, them what know the least about the sport tend to do the best. After day 1, the standings are as follows:

At 14-2 is Teresa. At one point she was 11-0. All next-round picks are still alive.

At 13-3 stand Nadine and Paul, also with no damage to future rounds.

At 12-4 is Matthew, with significant damage to future rounds. He picked BYU into the Final Four.

At 6-6, Jensen is off to a so-so start in his rookie year, but surprisingly his future rounds look okay. His only big mistake so far is picking Temple into the Elite Eight. He picked every game himself, with Teresa reading the names of the team and Jensen selecting. Teresa even heard him wrong once and he emphatically corrected her. She did steer him away from picking American to beat Tennessee, but he wouldn't budge on Temple.

Joseph is abstaining so far, but since he doesn't follow the sport too closely, I'll still try to get him to fill out a bracket in the morning. He was either first or second place last year.

Notes of Interest:

Nadine and Paul missed-guessed the exact same games.

Jensen was the only one who picked the West Virginia-Arizona game right.

Paul was the only one who picked the BYU-Texas A&M game right.

Jensen's bracket was almost destroyed by Belmont, a 15 seed who lost to 2 seed Duke by one point and had a shot to win it. Jensen has picked Duke to win it all.

The five particpants have chosen four different champions.

First Contact

So, I've enjoyed reading other people's blogs so much that I have fanciful ideas of doing one of my my own. I've come up with a name for the blog so now social decorum dictates that there actually be content.

Yeah . . . . . I knew there'd be a catch.

You see, I''m not sure that I'll find personal fulfillment in blogging unless I find personal gratification through people reading my quips and anecdotes, then finding them interesting enough to actually comment on. I suppose that I may have to rely on the odd mercy comment by those who might love me more than others. And that may still be setting the expectation bar pretty high.

I read my sister's blog to keep up on family news and to see if I get mentioned once or twice a month. I read Bryn's blog because she can take the mundane and make it most entertaining. And she can take the embarrassing and funny, and make Jamba Juice squirt out my nose.

That is the extent of my patronage of the arts so far, so I can't expect much from the masses. Still, I will try to be interesting if you will try to be entertained.