March Madness First Week

Our family and friends always have a March Madness bracket tournament that is fun and dull all at the same time.  As the games progress my brother keeps track of the scores and his pointing schedules.  They are a mishmash of ratings of the teams and probabilities of winners.  He loves numbers and probabilities yet knows very little about quantum mechanics and how much he pisses me off with his Spockical logic.

His Email today:  

Here are the point totals (along with how many of today’s games the person can win, followed by any upset picks today):

 

Mike      490  5 Iowa, Wisc.

Kevin     489  6 No. Iowa

Russell  481  7 -

Scott      474  5 -

Gloria    472  6 Hawaii, S.F. Austin

Austin   441  6 N. Iowa, Wisc.

Matt      423  6 Ore. St., Wisc.

Ashley   411  7 –

Mark      401  6 No. Iowa

Ed            392  6 –

Brett      389  6 –

Kelly      381  6 Hawaii

Erika      370  5 –

Ryan    <350  6-

Paul     <350  5 Wisc.

 

Great contest with five people within 18 points of the lead!

I had to reply to his status after the first week of games.


Every year it goes UN-recognized or highlighted that Mike is always near the top until the end where he sucks it.  I am not saying that he spends hours "making the rules that only he truly understands" but as with all good loyal republicans, the house of cards collapses in fine fashion with a hollow, what was I thinking sound.  I have no false hope because I refuse to support in any way and hate Kansas, Kentucky, NC, Duke, Miami and if San Luis Obispo was in there I would hate them.  I forgot where I was going with this.  Notice he could have said six people withing 68 points of the lead but NOOOOOOOOOOO. 

The Sweet Sixteen starts today.   This format is the best format for a sporting event in the world today.  It is really enthralling.


PS     Russel will probably win.  He is kind of obnoxious when he wins, like at the Easter Egg Hunts we used to have at Mom's house but forgiving youth is what older, wiser and more humble people do.

PSS   yes I know that 490 minus 423 is 67 but I never could express myself well with prime numbers so I just do not deal with it.

Best Kiss Ever

Just for an example, imagine that you received a kiss from someone you wanted a kiss from and before hand you were hoping it was not going to be just a kiss but a nice kiss.  The instant your lips touched you knew something extraordinary was going on.  You had "nice" expectations because you like to kiss in general and the person you were going to kiss has good hygiene, nice lips and a great smile. 

With your eyes closed, that first nibble lasted only a second, maybe, but you are now confused with how to breath.  All of your senses have been hijacked.  You are touching the person's shoulders but your hands and arms are frozen unable to move.  Your mouth is still open but not wide and you need air and inhale through your nose.  The scent of her hair and her breath fill your nasal cavity, you can taste the lipstick although you cannot tell what flavor it is. You pull back and open your eyes to see a face in front of you with a similar look of astonishment.  You realize that no other kiss, even with this person will be as intense, as rewarding, as destructive as this kiss was.  It ruined all other kisses, probably for the rest of your life.

Now, stop imagining this kiss because it will just upset you that there are few kisses like this one to go around.

Recently, I had lunch at a little shop in an antique alley kind of place.  I had heard the food here was excellent yet a little pricey.  I am a cheapskate but I felt the need to splurge a bit even though price can ruin a meal for me but I was being adventurous.   I ordered, well it does not matter what I ordered as a main course.  I ordered tea, an Earl Grey variety.  The waiter, a kid of fifteen years quickly brought us a complimentary scone.  It was a blueberry, lemon pecan scone.  I am not sure what exactly a scone is but I can assume it is what he brought us.  My Earl Grey arrived quickly also.  The scone was excellent tasting and I will order scones again assuming it was a scone and not a biscuit in which case I will order a biscuit.  The tea was also quite good.  I opened the tea cup to notice that the grounds were actual leaves, a sign of a quality tea I am told.  We placed our orders and waited in the warm sun at an outside table.  Expectations were high and anticipation was mounting.  As I was gazing off into space watching some such nonsense down the block, our meals arrived.  It was simple fare and with no real frills except nice china and heavy silverware.  The table was so small the young waiter explained we could move the tea pots to the flower bed adjacent to our table.  "That was cool" I thought.  There was not hint of disappointment so far. The open air, the smells and the view.

I grabbed the spoon and without really looking a my food, I scooped up a bit of it and sipped it off the spoon.  I immediately looked down to see what I had just eaten.  I quickly took a full spoon in my mouth.  I looked up and said " Oh holy shit", "taste this". and I offered my guest a taste.  My head was spinning, I literally could not breath effectively.  The expression on my guests face was similar to mine so I knew I was not dying.  As my eyes welled up with tears, I said, " I think that is the best thing I have ever tasted".  I was pretty close to weeping out loud so I did not speak and tried to maintain a little composer. My guest is laughing now and I took another bite of the scone.  I returned to my meal and did everything in my power to make it last, hopefully the rest of my life but maybe seven minutes.  I have had this dish other places, not fancy like this but nothing has ever hit my taste buds like this.  I have no idea how to make something taste like it tastes.

I like food.  I watch cooking shows all the time.  I watch great chefs mix spices and stress techniques. Nothing comes to mind on how this flavor with this dish is even possible.   I have several dishes I call "food of the gods".  Most are traditional old family recipes that really are tremendously tasty.  Some are newer and I consider them special any time I can get them.  I am afraid they are all now mere shadows for my future culinary quests.  I hope the Halupke will still be my ultimate favorite.  I hope the Curry Mango dishes I love will still be there for me.  Today, I do not think so.  I ate some leftover spaghetti and everyone knows second day pasta dishes are better than first day. It was good but somehow weaker, less necessary.  I could give up a life to taste food from this little shop or anywhere this good, even if it was just this dish.  I could give up stuff.  I could end up riding a bicycle to work because of this dish.