Thursday

March Madness has officially begun.  The conference tournaments are all underway.  (Over for the Hawks, Clones, and probably tomorrow for the Irish.)  It's a great time to be a college basketball fan.

Boy, are the Big East and Big 10 games physical!  If there's no blood, there may not be a foul.

I didn't realize it, but the Big XII men are back in KC for their tournament this year.  There's a new downtown arena (the Sprint Center), but when I went down for a couple of Big 8 tournaments in the 80's, the games were at Kemper Arena.  The Clones were pretty good those years, and there were lots of Iowa State fans in the stands.  Country Club Plaza, warm weather, and basketball.  Fun times.

It might have been 60 degrees here today.  I'm officially declaring Winter as being over.  The only snow piles still around are those in the shopping center parking lots that were several feet tall just last weekend.

An interesting point of discussion that came up on ESPN's Mike & Mike In The Morning show today involved yesterday's announcement of the retirement of Mia Hamm's husband (also known as Nomar Garciaparra). Nomar had arranged to sign a one-day contract with Boston so that he could say that he retired as a member of that team.  Although Nomar had spent the last few years with other teams, his best years were at shortstop in Boston, and it was appropriate that this ceremonial retirement was held in Beantown.

Apparently in his emotional speech, Nomar made repeated references to his desire to retire as a "Redsock", as opposed to a member of the "Redsox".  An admitted afficionado of language, I guess I had never thought much of a singular "sox" (whether they be red or white).  I guess I fall on the side that says that a Redsock is a bit silly, and something that might belong on a weather vane.  It may not get you past an English professor, but a ball player is a Redsox, even by himself.

I'm not sure if I noted here that my Wells Fargo billing service story had one final, unexpected twist. After the second payment that was sent to The Gap was returned, I thought all was right with the world.  I had actually received a new invoice from Chase for the February billing cycle, had confirmed the purchases and scheduled payment for later this month.  Then I got another alert from Wells Fargo Bill Pay to advise me that they had corrected the mis-sent payment, and had then sent it to Chase.

When the Customer Service rep had talked to me on the phone, there was no mention that they would be doing anything once they got the money back from The Gap.  Oops.  So, bottom line, I still ended up double paying Chase.  (And had to cancel that payment that I scheduled for the new billing that I had received.) And that payment/re-deposit amount appears at least five times on my bank statement.  Like a normal person might be able to figure that one out.

The bartender at Geneva didn't have my wine on-hand Wednesday night.  He pleaded his case by saying that he had it on ordered and that it should be on-hand for the weekend.  We'll see.

The politically conservative websites that I read all give Matt Damon's new movie low marks because of it's anti-war orientation.  I haven't read much about the flick, and I've been a fan of the Bourne movies, but the politics of Hollywood has always been left of center.  I never viewed the darker Viet Nam movies (Apocalypse Now, Platoon, etc.), and I'm guessing that Green Zone will fall into that category as well.

The plan is to sneak over for 0900 spin in the morning so as to free up Friday night for some Tuscan red.  If the rain holds off, I could be on the road this weekend with my pal Pete.  Suite.

Hope y'all have a great Friday.

BCOT