The house was in pretty good shape, but, still, I vacuumed all the rooms and rugs, wiped down the kitchen counters and the stove, cleaned the back door glass and other windows, cleaned the bathroom, and watered the plants.
A sure sign of Maggie and Charly's aging? They don't attack the vacuum cleaner like they used to. Today, Maggie hardly acknowledged that I ran it and Charly barked briefly, but soon lost interest. I asked Christy and Carol how they thought Maggie was doing. We agreed that when she's not lying down, her energy is good, but all of us, including Jane, can tell she's losing weight. Every morning, Maggie urges me to hurry up and feed her by barking incessantly. Occasionally (I should say, rarely), she barks at activity outside the house. Otherwise, she doesn't bark much. She doesn't always make it outside to move her bowels, but she's been very good about urinating outside -- not perfect, but good.
2. Christy prepared a St. Patrick's Day meal, with a little help from Carol and Jane. We started with some olives and a whisky cocktail called an Irish Fix. The others moved to the table, which comfortably seats six, and I acted as server. Christy prepared each of us an Irish Pub Salad featuring lettuce, vegetables, sliced hard boiled eggs, pickled green beans, and a light and creamy dressing. The main course was slow cooker Guinness corned beef with red potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. Carol made Keto soda bread and a dipping sauce to eat with either course. Jane baked a green pistachio bundt cake for dessert and we topped off the evening with Christy making us a White Leprechaun, a refreshing cocktail combining whisky, Kahlua, and half and half.
Having Laurie and Jane as guests augmented the conversational possibilities and so tonight people talked about a wide range of subjects including books and book groups, current events in the Kellogg School District, classroom instruction, family histories around corned beef, and a host of other things. At our last family dinner, Paul handed me a copy of a play featuring C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud discussing ideas and when Paul's spring break rolls around, I think we'll read through the play out loud and talk about if we want to do something with it.
3. I'm not what is known in the world of college basketball as a bracketologist. In fact, I'm lousy at expressing (or having) opinions about what teams should get what kind of seeding and who should or shouldn't get in the NCAA tournament. But, now the brackets are set and here are a few of the games that I'm eager to see in the tournament's First Four round and in the first round itself:
- The last team selected to be in the tournament? A team I hooked the wagon of my emotions to this winter, the St. John's Red Storm. They will play Arizona State on Wednesday in a First Four tilt in Dayton on Wednesday and I'm intrigued because I fell in basketball love with the Johnnies back in January. They are coached by alum Chris Mullin, one of my favorite players of all time. Arizona State is coached by one of my least favorite former players, Bobby (Baby) Hurley and when this match up was announced during the selection show, I physically rose up out of my seat in joy. Go Johnnies!
- On Friday, Oregon plays Wisconsin. I watched Wisconsin play about six times this season and watched the Ducks' last five games. I am eager to see Wisconsin's All-American low post magician Ethan Happ match up against Kenny Wooten and Francis Okoro around the basket and I can hardly wait to see if Oregon's swarming and disrupting defense will rattle the Badgers.
- On Thursday, Marquette plays Murray State. Wow! Whoa! A brilliant match up, this game features two of the United States' best guards, Marquette's Markus Howard and Murray State's Ja Marant. Both were the player of the year in their respective conferences. I can hardly wait to see Marant and Murray State play for the first time, but I've watched a bunch of Marquette's games and I love their squad.
- Remember last week when St. Mary's gallantly executed a perfect game plan and defeated the mighty Zags? Well, on Thursday, St. Mary's will try to slow down and muscle around this tournament's defending champion, the Villanova Wildcats. I will tune into as much of this game as I can because I love watching Jay Wright coach and I'm intrigued by the possibility that St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett might be able to draw up another way to coach his team to a second major upset.
- Another team I couldn't watch enough over the past month is Seton Hall and they play Wofford, a team from a liberal arts college in Spartansburg, South Carolina who won the Southern Conference. They play on Thursday. I haven't seen Wofford play, but when the know-it-alls on television talk about teams from less powerful conferences that are really good, Wofford is always among them. Has Wofford faced dynamic, strong-willed player like Myles Powell this season? Is Wofford, like Seton Hall, a bruising physical team that scraps and fights on every possession, both on offense and defense? I don't know, but I am very eager to find out.
So, I need to write myself out a viewing schedule. I'll want to slip the opening Zag game into my schedule and I'll be ready, if need be, to watch two games at once on television and through my Fubo app on my tablet.
I'm going to fill out one bracket and send it to a friend since childhood to enter hers and her husband's pool. My expectations are very low. As much as I love to watch basketball, I am not at all a skilled predictor of what will happen --- and that's good! It's the unpredictability of college basketball that makes it so compelling.
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