Sunday

This didn't get done as early as scheduled.  Really a non-event day here, the furniture delivery to Highland Avenue not withstanding.

This was the scene leaving my neighborhood for coffee this AM.  We had only an inch or so, but it was an unwelcome dusting.  Mostly gone now, but we are in for another day or two of moderately low temperatures.  Winter is unwilling to go quietly.

Selection Sunday brought few surprises.  I actually thought that the Hawks were lucky to even get a bid to the play-in game.  As a 3-seed, the 'Clones have no walk in the park in San Antonio.  They're looking at Carolina Blue in their second game.  Kentucky as an 8 and Okie State as a 9 could both get to the second weekend.

I didn't watch much of the conference tournaments.  I saw one article this morning suggesting that these season-ending conference tournaments had out-lived their usefulness, citing primarily the empty seats at the host sites (particularly at the Georgia Dome for the SEC games).  Hmmm.  I agree that they aren't that important for the "power"conferences, but the games create content for the sports programming networks, and I'm betting that they are commercially successful for the conferences.

I do think that anything before those regional games that second weekend should not be in domes.

Monday is St. Patty's Day.  There was a lot of the celebratory side of the day over the weekend.  The local parade was Saturday, as was the 5K run and I think the bars did their big parties Saturday.  The staff at Sports Fans was all decked-out when I was there for lunch on Saturday.  The Lt. has passed that baton on to others.

One item that goes back to those serious St. Patty's days in C-town in the mid-70's flashed to the surface when I picked up a provisional case of vino Saturday afternoon.  Here's a pic of the box that I randomly grabbed from behind a counter at the Hy Vee wine shop to use for my 12 bottles.  Major Peters is the brand of Bloody Mary mix that I first came across at the Playboy Club on Michigan Avenue in C-town circa 1977.  It was a thick, spicy mix that I really liked.  For many years, I made an effort to track down Major Peter's whenever we hosted friends and Bloody's were on the menu.  I still like Bloody Mary's.

For the record, a few of us on the staff at AA&Co would go to the Playboy Club in the Drake Hotel for lunch, walking The Magnificient Mile from the Loop.  It wasn't that expensive, the food and drinks were good, and the service was...well, I can't remember.  I'm guessing that it looked pretty good.  Additional factoid: there was a time that I actually belonged to the Chicago Playboy Club.  There were discounts involved, of course.

All for today.  Hope everyone has a good week.  Be Irish tomorrow.  Drink a green beer!

BCOT