seriously, enough!

I'm sick of getting crap about not driving to Elkhart for Easter Sunday. I've been home for Easter a whole 1 time in the past 7 years, so this isn't something new. Despite working 70-75 hour weeks for the past month, throw in the fact that the Final Four is in Indy this weekend....no frickin way i'm leaving town. So seriously, family, enough w/ the subtle hints and quit asking.

Now, w/ that out of the way, my Easter plans hopefully include my quasi-Easter tradition - crashing Tad & Kimberly's plans and joining them for Church, lunch, and some quick visiting time before I eventually end up working that night. Yes, i'll work on Easter...it isn't anything new.

So my brackets turned out alright. 11 out of 16 of the Sweet 16, 4 Elite 8, and 2 Final Four. Good enough to be in the top 98.8% on ESPN and take the lead in my work bracket pool into the Final Four. Am I going to games?? who knows.... I actually turned down free rafter seats. Watching a basketball game from the top row of Lucas Oil Stadium does not really excite me. I'd rather hang out w/ friends at a bar or someone's house and enjoy it in High Def. But if some better offers come my way before Saturday, i'll consider going. I really think Butler can win this. One game at a time, but if they do get to the finals, I think they match up a little better against W.V. then Duke. Time will tell

Diddy and I once again did our annual March Madness challenge against one another. I've never won (0-2 or 0-3, however many years we've done it). This year, i trail by 2 games going into Saturday, so I need to sweep to force a winner take all national title game, which would be fairly exciting...can't get much closer than it is right now.

Liking the warm weather, but really it's just a tease too me until after April 15th. I intentionally leave my golf clubs in my basement until after tax season. I don't even want to be tempted to play right now. I need to restain my deck, so that's probably the first thing on my outside to do list. First time i've had to restain it, so I have no idea how long it'll take, but I assume it'll be a good afternoon's work since my deck isn't that big.

I've been bad about updating my taxable income tracker for 2009. I'm going to guess it's somewhere around $30-33 million. i need to go back and update it for the past 10 days worth of work or so.

I'm also looking forward to getting started on my culinary goal for 2010. Since my dinners are provided for me by the firm, i haven't cooked a real meal since mid-January. I'm starting to get the urge to cook though, so feel free to send me any recipes you think may be good for me.

If only our desks didn't weigh a ton at our office, Diddy and I could definitely do some damage like this. I really love The Office. It's about the only show i've been able to keep up on during tax season. every other show i'm watching is just sitting on my DVR, waiting for my return (24, Justified, Damages, The Pacific, 30 Rock, FlashForward)

Until next time...

March Madness Quickie

tax season, as usual, is getting the best of me. here are my picks (i know a day late, but this was my #1 bracket)

Sweet 16
Midwest - Kansas, Michigan St, Georgetown, Ohio St
West - Syracuse, Butler, Xavier, Kansas St.
East - Kentucky, Wisconsin, New Mexico, West Virginia
South - Duke, Purdue, Baylor, Villanova

Elite 8
Midwest - Kansas vs Georgetown
West - Syracuse vs Kansas State
East - Wisconsin vs West Virginia
South - Duke vs Baylor

Final Four - Kansas over Kansas State, West Virginia over Duke

Champ - Kansas over West Virginia.

Georgetown really screwed me already....oh well. I have saturday off this week, so big weekend of basketball w/ Scott, Andy and Dave. should be fun!

In Diddy's and I annual pick every game against the spread against one another, I jumped out to a 10-6 lead after Day 1. He has owned me in this rivalry (0-3 all time for me)...i'm pretty sure this is the first time i've ever had a lead after Day 1, so I'm fairly excited.

I'm out, more posts in the near future hopefully

Venting

Monday, March 8th....one week till the 1st deadline is past. Last week and it's 73 working hrs in 6 days can go to hell. I think that's the earliest in busy season I've ever worked a 70+ hour week. 5 more weeks total, w/ a slight breather week March 15-20th, where I become useless once the NCAA Tourney begins. Can't wait.

8am on monday morning and i'm sitting here waiting for the roofing/attic guys to show up. Getting the insulation in my attic doubled. Thought about doing that myself later this spring, but laziness and convenience got the best of me. It's the thought that counts. Got me thinking...in the past 2-3 years I've spent a decent amount of cash on my house just to "maintain" and basically my house is appraising for what I paid for it 5 years ago. I suppose that's better than the 25% less....but we all know that I probably couldn't sell it for the appraisal value. Typically I've always seemed to be in the right place at the right time when it comes to these kind of things, but not this time. If I could unload this house for what I paid for it and then go and buy a nicer/bigger house on the cheap all while lowering my monthly payments, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Problem......I can't sell this for what I paid for it, no question. Brand new deck, all new HVAC system, new roof, better insulation, it doesn't matter, too much of a buyer's market right now. Oh well

I'm looking forward to my next post - NCAA predictions! I did so well last year getting a whopping ZERO Final Four teams right, which was the first time ever I've never gotten at least one. I did get 4 of the Elite Eight teams right though. Can't wait, love the 3 weeks of the tourney, excluding the whole work thing.

My mom is on a cruise this week in the Caribbean and of course I took them to the airport Saturday. "Wish you could come w/ us...." she says....yeah, no kidding! Same ship we were on 18 months ago when Buell and I took the ultimate man-date w/ them. It was fun though!

"My" Ritter alumni bball team earned the #1 seed for the tourney and we won yesterday to move into the semifinals. I would say there are 3 other "good" teams, besides us, that have a legit chance of winning the league, and all 3 of those teams are on the opposite side of the bracket. We were basically given the draw that we would have picked ourselves if we were running the tournament. To put in 2010 NBA terms, it's basically the equivalent of the Cavs playing the Nets, Knicks, and Pacers to get to the NBA Finals

7 more days till the first one has passed, breathe, breathe