Yahoo! Might Owe me $5 Million

Since I have spent about 3 hours watching basketball this past weekend and several more hours sleeping and reading while it was on, I felt that I had picked up on enough basketball to make myself a bracket for the NCAA tournament. Matt informed me that I could go to Yahoo! and fill out a bracket for free and then if it's perfect I could win $5 million dollars. As I signed on to the website I was feeling quite optimistic since I know more about specific basketball teams than ever before. Then as I started filling out my bracket I realized I only know a tiny bit about 8 of the 64 teams. So, I resorted to my previous methods of predicting a winner. I considered the following things in no particular order.

1. Have I heard of this school before, are the colors nice, and do they have a reasonable/believable mascot?
2. Do I know someone who went to or is associated with this school and do I generally like or dislike that person?
3. Have I predicted an upset yet for this bracket? If not maybe I better.
4. Has Matt ever mentioned this school and what did he say about them?
5. What is my gut instinct?

For example, I chose Kent St. to win over UNLV in the first round because my friend Jerusha works there, but then I chose for them to lose to Kansas because their mascot is the Golden Flashes. There is no way flashes can beat a #1 ranked team.

In case you are curious I chose Wisconsin (because Matt loves Wisconsin and I do too by default), North Carolina ( becuase I like blue, Michael Jordon went there and the sports announcers seem really hyped about them this year), Stanford (because smart people attend that school) and UCLA (because I have a UCLA sweatshirt) for the final four. Then I chose the final game to be Wisconsin vs. UCLA (see above reasons). And Wisconsin will win 61-57. It'll be a great game.

Luggage Update and Dinner

For those of you following the story, Jerusha's luggage made it to Cleveland at about 4:00 this afternoon. It took 96 hours to get here and less than 24 to get back so that makes up a little bit for the drama of the luggage.

I'm making a great recipe my sister gave me for dinner tonight. It is the easiest ever, we love it, and it makes great leftovers for lunch.

Dump Chicken

1) Dump all ingredients into a glass baking pan (I use a 2.5 quart one)

1 can cream of something soup (I like broccoli)

1 can chicken broth

1 can chicken (DO NOT DRAIN) (find near the canned tuna)

1 cup instant rice (brown or white as long as it is instant)

1/3 cup lite/low fat sour cream

Frozen veggies

As much cheese as you like

2) stir until cream soup and sour cream is blended and top with cheese

3) Bake at 375 for 35-45 min, until rice is soft

4) Eat and enjoy!

Jerusha's Visit: Day 3 and 4

On Sunday we got up and went to church then headed to Springfield to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. We ran out of time so we couldn't visit the library but the museum was great. If you live anywhere near central IL it is well worth the drive and $10 admittance charge. The one strange thing about the museum is there are several wax figures everywhere and they are a little creepy. But other than that it is very clean, educational, and well put together.

Jerusha, me and Matt posing with some wax Union Civil War soldiers.

Jerusha and I couldn't resist trying on the Abe Lincoln masks. They look like apes and probably had so many germs in them but it made for a great picture so it was worth it.

Monday was a very uneventful day but we still had fun. Jerusha and I drove to Bloomington so she could catch the bus to O'Hare (we were having some difficulties with the flights) and we had lunch with some mutual friends in Bloomington. Then Jerusha left and I drove home and took a nap.

For those of you who are interested in the luggage saga, it continues. By Sunday night we realized she was never going to get her luggage so Matt called United and asked them just to route it back to Cleveland. When Jerusha was at the airport yesterday she made the same request and they said they would do that. So, we were all amused when today in the middle of a snowstorm someone from the Bloomington airport called Matt and asked him for directions to our house since they were almost to Champaign with Jerusha's luggage. What?!? Matt directed it straight back to Cleveland so we're praying Jerusha gets it by the end of the week.

To see more pictures of the weekend check out our webshots site.

Goodbye, Brett

Thanks for 16 years of adventure and joy as the Packers quarterback. Thanks for throwing more touchdowns than any other quarterback in the history of the NFL. Thanks for loving the game of football. Thanks for helping the Packers win a Super Bowl. Thanks for being tough. Thanks for being authentic about your family tragedies. Thanks for being able to throw a football really hard. Thanks for winning a lot of games in the last seconds. Thanks for even those crazy throws you make that ended up in the hands of the other team (like your last career throw). Thanks for playing the game with passion and talking trash to defensive players on the other team. Thanks for wearing braces and making me feel normal with my braces. Thanks for continuing to be solid even when you got old. Thanks for throwing for over 60,000 passing yards. Thanks for the good times and the bad times.

You've done enough in 16 years. Enjoy retirement.

The Poor Color Orange

Our guest this weekend, Jerusha, had some airline difficulty so her checked in bags were not available for her when she got to Champaign. So I called United Airlines today to figure out where her bags were out and file a claim to get the bag delivered to us in Champaign. Here was a snippet of my conversation with the baggage claims service agent:

Agent: OK, I'll file a claim to track your bag. I need to know a few things about your bag.
Me: Sure.
Agent: OK, what color is the bag?
Me: It is an orange Eddie Bauer duffel bag.
Agent: One second, let me enter that in to the report. OK, now what airport should the bag have arrived at?
Me: The Bloomington, IL airport was the final destination.
Agent: OK. So I've marked down in the database that it is a yellow duffel bag targeted for Bloomington.
Me: Um, actually I said the duffel bag is orange. It's an orange duffel bag.
Agent: Yes, I know that. I put down yellow for your bag in our database.
Me: But the bag is orange.
Agent: Oh, yes. You see, we don't have the color orange in our database. So I put it down as a yellow bag.
Me: Um, sure.

So just to clarify, the United Airlines baggage database does not allow for the color orange.

Jerusha's Visit: Day 2

We are about ready to conclude our second day of Jerusha's visit so I'm going to recap the events of the day. First we headed to the mall to buy an outfit for Jerusha since she only had the clothes on her back (a pair of sweatpants and a green t-shirt). We picked out a cute outfit and pair of shoes that were 85% off!!!

Then we headed to Thara Thai for lunch where Matt mastered chopsticks, Jerusha nearly choked on her medium spiced green curry and we practiced our yoga balance tree pose.

Next we headed off to Adam and Erin's house so Jerusha could meet their new daughter. We enjoyed hanging out with them for a little bit.

Then we returned home so Jerusha could put on clean clothes and we could go to the library. Jerusha and I try to visit the library whenever we are together and wherever we are. So, I was proud to show off the new Champaign library to her. We spent several minutes reading so Jerusha could take in the atmosphere and we even read outside by the sign.

3-2-1 Pyramid!!! Jerusha has a slight fascination with pyramids so after the library we met up with some Quest people at the bowling alley and built a pyramid. It was amazing. Oh, and we bowled too. That was fun.

Then we headed off to Monical's for dinner and are about to enjoy a movie at home.

If you are interested in the luggage saga, Jerusha's luggage is still in Chicago and might be expected to get to Bloomington tomorrow at 11:30am. We're not holding our breath though! Matt is going to post about the luggage sometime this evening.

Jerusha's Visit: Day 1

Last night my good friend Jerusha flew in to visit and we've already had some grand adventures so I will post about it. I did not take any pictures yet so I have no photo documentation. So Jerusha was supposed fly from Cleveland to Chicago to Bloomington. She boarded her plane in Cleveland at 6:30 pm (Eastern Time) to leave at 7:00 and fly to Chicago. To make a long story short she was on the plane for 3.5 hours before they could take off and arrived in Chicago at 10:30pm (Central Time). At this point her flight to Bloomington had been canceled and she was told she could fly to Bloomington at 1:00 this afternoon. Of course, we weren't going to leave her in Chicago until today so Matt's awesome dad picked her up from the airport and drove her down to I-80 where we met them at about midnight. Thanks John for saving us about 1.5 hours of driving. Then we drove back to Champaign and went to Wal-Mart at about 1:45am. It was very empty. The funny thing is Jerusha only carried on her purse so she needed a few essentials to get through until this afternoon when her luggage arrives in Bloomington. I felt bad for Jerusha that she was on the plane for sooo long but she's so laid back it didn't damper her spirits at all. Anyway, it was great to see her and we have a lot of fun adventures planned for the weekend so stay tuned....