I Smell Sex and Candy, Here, Who's that Lounging, In My Butt

Tournament fun, Corned beef and cabbage goodness, and a veritable television fiesta sort of summarizes my last several days. I've seen all the good upsets, really enjoyed the Vermont win despite the fact that I kinda like Syracuse. Its always fun to see kids in that environment get that kind of opportunity, their coach is hilarious, and while the drama didn't quite stack up to Wake Forest's loss in double OT last night, it was pretty solid. I think Hippo has a pretty solid case of March Madness as she has spent most of the long weekend here on the couch with me. She has been climbing up on the laptop to check her bracket every couple minutes. She seems to be big into UW-Milwaukee, but she lost a final four team with UConn's loss earlier today. I've been brushing her all weekend and her coat is in pristine condition. Hippo gives everyone a shout out and promises to update her blog a little later.

I went to the Fireside Lounge down the street for Corned Beef and cabbage, since the Irish place was jammed to the freaking rafters. I figured that at least it was a steakhouse type joint and would have a higher quality brisket than the Greek or family restaurants which had signs indicating their Irish wares. The cabbage could have used a little salt and was more mushy then I would like but it was still delish. I don't eat alot of corned beef during the year, but when I do I prefer it to be perfectly done and the Fireside succeded there. If I ever again get the chance to celebrate St. Patrick's day with one or more other people maybe i can enjoy more than one green beer in the process. As it was I came home and dyed a couple of my remaining Summit's a pure Kelly green and enjoyed the late games.

I did some work on Friday and decided that the best use of the afternoon's tournament was to make a good solid meal and enjoy it near the conclusions of the first set of contests. I whipped up a couple of tasty tuna melts and some fresh cut fries. Since the oil in my deep frier was on its last legs I was on my way to empty it when I noticed a pack of Double Stuf Oreos (I had earlier been telling Katie something I wholeheartedly believe, which is that Double Stuf Oreos are so vastly superior to regular Oreos that they should simply become Oreos and normal Oreos should be Half Stuf or Oreos for people who suck it). Hmmm, I thought, Deep Fried Double-Stuf Oreos. So I did some recipe searching and made a tasty plate of crispy melty cookie treats. You can see a shot of them at my moblog.

I have also had a couple chances to catch up with the enormous amounts of TV we had stored up from the constant debate stuff. In the process I found three funny moments whose lack of recognition at large is really pissing me off. First is "City Court with Aaron Neville" from the SNL with Hilary Swank a couple weeks back. Seriously, Horatio Sanz as Aaron Nevile may make "cocoa butter" even funnier than "bottle of pineapple schnapps." All the references to it on the interweb are panning and one even cited it as an example of how SNL sucks this year, an assertion I categorically deny. The second had at least a couple positive reviews, that being Kelesy Grammar Presents The Sketch Show. I was a little hesitant at first, since the show is the kind of thing that hasn't really been on TV since Laugh-In, a series of comedy bits which are mostly just acted out puns or one liners, a very rapid fire approach to sketch comedy. Every 3rd or so sketch would be about a minute or two, but the average length was certainly less than 30 seconds. Some is crap but at least two were LOL style and the show does feature two people who were once on Mr. Show, which is about as good a job of casting as you can do. Finally, the Hollow Men, a sketch troupe ala Monty Python or Kids in the Hall who got a show on Comedy Central. I taped the first episode just to see what was going on and while alot of it was pretty stupid (too much fascination with naked dudes and british slang for genitals, even for my taste) the final sketch was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. I won't repeat the whole routine, since I am confident that at some point I will be able to find a copy online. Suffice to say that the vag badger is a permanent fixture in my vocabulary.

Katie has been gone for like three full days and me and Hippo are ready for her to be home. I think Hippo enjoys sleeping on her pillow, but finds it much more fun to attack her in the middle of the night. Its not like Katie's head being there has ever prevented Hippo from taking a nap where she wanted to, but still. All of Katie's teams were in the hunt to clear as of last night and it looked like Meiches was off to a good tournament as well. Josher had one of day one's biggest wins, taking down Dartmouth CS (probably a top 5 first round, or near there at least) so mad props go to Californ-i-a in all regards.

Alright, Hippo has some questions about the tournament selection/ranking process and the basic system of college conferences that may take a while, so I am going to enjoy Vermont's last moments of the season (so it seems). Hippo sends ya'll a big meow.

Peace,

MB-K