march madness

I'm in the middle of it now. I have this bizarre tradition of joining the NCAA basketball tournament pool with my dad and bro, even though I never bother to learn anything about the teams in advance. This year I took some chances on little guys...well, #4 seeds...like Louisville...which is really getting me worried right now!

In other madness, I spent spring break in Pennsylvania, visiting more family members than I generally see in one place. The madness is that is was a COLD place to spend spring break. But at least the driving weather was safe, and the snow-covered hills were pretty. An added bonus...coming home to warmer weather made it easier to get back to the grind. So, I'm going to copy off another blogger, who doesn't read this anyway, and give you my "what I learned on spring break" report:

1. everything I need to know in life, I can learn from watching COPS.
2. 5 designers + 1 remodeling project = bad idea (from Trading Spaces)
3. leasing offshore land is the newest wave in marine conservation..interesting if you're into water law or property law
4. 22 tricks to avoid budget cuts, and 7 ways to hide a deficit! (from Cosmo...no, my finance book)
5. what a real Hoosier is supposed to be (from the movie "Hoosiers")
6. My Florida family lives just a few miles from longleaf pine forests-one of our nation's top disappearing ecosystems!
7. I love musicals! (from a pre-trip viewing of Les Miserables)
8. a dirty apartment will not clean itself while you're gone

woo-hoo! Louisville won! But I'm starting to doubt their chances of making it to the final four!
But check out this upset: #13 Vermont over #4 Syracuse- doesn't help or hurt me in the pool, but it's interesting. How will Michigan State fare against Vermont (assuming MSU wins tonight)? Does this open the door for my favorite team to face Duke, my most hated team (besides U of M)?