March marched on . . .

• The March Madness of the NCAA Basketball Tournament is winding down. On one of my bracket sheets, I actually picked 3 of the final 4 teams. That doesn't really matter, however, because I selected way too many teams to win that eventually lost. I am rooting for the NC Tarheels to be the outright winning team this year only because I like Tyler Hansbrough, a key player on the team and one who played all 4 years (no early exit to the NBA draft).
  
• My parentals celebrated their 58th Wedding Anniversary on March 19th. In this era, it's pretty amazing that couples stay together forever like my parents. Congrats Mom and Dad!


• My favorite late night television host, David Letterman, married the mother of his 5 1/2 year old son on March 19, 2009, in Montana. I am pleased he finally made the commitment. He and his wife have been together for a decade or so.


• Finally, my bad luck has persisted in March -- I was in a parking lot, one of our schools, last Wednesday, driving away, when a kid on a razor scotter came through some parked cars and crashed into me (my car). I thought I'd killed him, but I only ran over the handle bars of his scooter. I made him wiggle everything, I checked with a witness and she reported that the kid had jumped from the scooter and landed on his feet, he kept himself from falling with his hands on my front/side bumper. Arrggg . . . . .

Have a great "last day of March!"

Brackets Ready?

The "Ugly Betty Special" is going to the Big Dance!

It's March madness for me and my fellow basketball junkies. I think I've watched a dozen games just this past week -- JR Jazz tournament games, college conference tournament games, and more. It's just what I love to do.

On Thursday night the Runnin' Utes played the TCU Horned Frogs in the MWC Tournament. Joe Cravens (a former assistant coach at the "U") was the color commentator on the "Mountain" (station covering the game). It was not the prettiest game I've watched. It was one of those games where you find yourself moaning and groaning at the missed jump shots, bad passes, turnover after turnover, and more. At one point in the game, Cravens commented that he felt like he was watching the "Ugly Betty Special" as the Utes struggled to get their game going.

The Utes went on to win that game and eventually the tournament championship last night against San Diego State University. It was an excellent game -- just the opposite of the "Ugly Betty Special" from two nights before.

Winning the tournament championship cinched a place in the "Big Dance"! The Utes now play Arizona in Miami in the first round on Friday! Yes! Basketball again this week!

Wolverines -- the Champions!

It was a great JR JAZZ season -- probably the best ever because the Wolverines went undefeated in the regular season and in the tournament, and they won the 8th Grade JR JAZZ Tournament for Salt Lake County. Coach Karl's teaching and on the court learning paid off. The team was spectacular in their championship game! The after game wrap-up brought tears to the coach's eyes -- his players did what they were suppose to do, everybody scored, it was huge! My son was the leading scorer and re-bounder for the season -- he has some sweet basketball skills!

Happy Anniversary Haley and James!

You are great kids! Hope you've had an anniversary-type special day!

(The following is from a wedding anniversay site. I could have written it myself, but I ran out of time. Copy and paste comes in so handy!)

While many people believe that the individual years of a marriage are not as significant as the 5, 10, 20, 25 year increments, the truth is that each year of a marriage is special and unique. Each anniversary is an important milestone, and should be considered a significant step forward in your life together.

Many people follow the traditional themes of celebration and gift giving for their anniversary, a practice we (I) wholeheartedly encourage. In this tradition, each year celebrates a specific quality symbolized by a particular material. The more commonly known expressions are the silver (25 year) and golden (50 year) anniversaries. The traditional and modern gift recommendations for each anniversary have symbolic meaning associated with the path of successful marriages, and are a great way of reinforcing the hard work that goes into making a happy marriage.

The traditional recommendation for a second anniversary present is cotton.

Cotton symbolizes durability and versatility. Two years into a marriage, you now have the experience to realize that these traits are necessary for a successful marriage. As 2 years is early in the life of any marriage, cotton also represents a practical material that can be used in building the household of a new couple, such as bedding, table cloths, bath robes, towels, clothing, and of course underwear!

Weird things can happen more than once . . .

When I took Willie to school this morning, I couldn't help but notice how dirty my car was. The wind was pretty vicious yesterday -- blowing dust and gunk everywhere and a lot of it stuck to my car.

A couple of summers ago, after getting gas at the Conoco I decided to get a car wash. I think Willie, Meranda, and Parker were with me. The car wash ended and the exit door was slow to open, in fact it wouldn't open at all. I honked the horn thinking someone from inside the gas station would hear it and come to our rescue. We hoped another car would get in line behind us and trigger the door opener. Finally, I called Karl to have him look up the phone number so I could call and get someone to help get us out (I wanted a little sympathy, too). Karl's response was go out the "man door". I had no clue what he was talking about, I didn't see any door anywhere but the exit one to let us out. We were laughing so hard in the car that I couldn't really understand the phone number but eventually got it from Karl. The employee who answered the gas station's phone didn't quite understand that we were stuck in the car wash. Eventually, some intellectually challenged person came to our aid. We laugh about the experience all the time.

You probably know where this story is headed. I stopped to get gas on my way to work this morning. My car was so filthy dirty I decided to include a car wash. I was the only one in line probably because the roads were a little wet from a late night snow storm. At any rate, I got the car wash, and you guessed it, the entry and exit doors wouldn't open to let me out. Stuck again! I called 411 to get a number and tried several times to contact someone in the Conoco (same one as before). The line was busy (yes, I remembered to dial 801). I got out of the car and shimmied to the exit door. It was wet an gooey, but I managed to lift it opened but not without having streams of black water drip down my arms onto my long sleeved white shirt. I looked to see if anyone had noticed my predicament. Sure enough, there was some dude filling up his car and just watching me.

Not sure I will do the car wash at that Conoco ever again.

First place is slipping away . . .

Rats! The UTES have the two toughest basketball games just days apart at the end of the season on the road, and, well, you guessed it, they lost both. They let the Cougs kick their behinds on Saturday, and they choked in the second half of the game in the UNM "pit" tonight. Now all that's left is a share of the conference title and a run at the conference tournament championship next week. They had it, they had it, they really did, but they let their defense down, missed a bunch of shots, lost their focus and composure, and now the games are history.