My tournament bracket looks like Christmas. A mix of red and green. Red is for wrong picks. Green is for right.

Best thing is, my final four picks are still playing.

There were some pretty good games yesterday. It is a shame someone has to lose.

I had a call from Miss Ollie. She is wanting me to pick her up Tuesday and bring her here until Sunday. Things aren't going well at her Mom's. Her Mom is trying to take care of Ollie, Addie and Doug. Ollie fell over a pair of Addie's play "high heels". When things with Doug and Ollie are good, they are strained at best. I'm hearing one side of the story but it would appear that they both are competing for attention. It must be a horrible place to be because any time we converse with Doug he has nothing good to say about Ollie. He despises her and she returns the feeling.

I don't think any of them are very happy campers, even in their own private worlds.

My dilemma is trying to decide what I can handle. I already have one patient, can I take on another one. Even for five days. Krl and I kind of have a routine where we can function, but even so, sometimes we have to give each other space. We both get frustrated.

I don't know if the situation here is going to be any better here if Ollie is wanting attention.

Next question is, if she is staying here until Sunday where is she going after that and who is picking her up?

Ollie and I have never seen eye to eye. She has always been her mother's daughter. I will never forget when she was about nine and didn't get her way at our house and got in trouble. She called her grandmother to come get her. She grabbed her bag and set it on the sidewalk in front of the house. I locked the door.

Hey, if you're going to bluff you had better be prepared to play the cards you hold.

I guess I need to become a Maytag man. Three days since we reported the dishwasher malfunction and we still have no appointment with the repair technician. About one more day and I'm going to the retailer and talk to them. It would appear they want to sell them but not service them.

Side note, the Maytag repairman's contract was not renewed. Maytag was purchased by Whirlpool and they want to go a different direction with their image. One of the people that auditioned for the new repairman was the Indianapolis Colts third team quarterback.

You're welcome.

I'm sitting here weighing all the pros and cons of Ollie coming to stay a few days. The girl doesn't like rules, and we have some no matter what age you are. I'm trying to decide what I can stretch on our menu and what would have to wait until our house population returned to normal. Then I have to rethink the surviving menu as to what is and is not on a diabetic diet. I may have to run back to the store and pick up a couple more frozen dinners.

As luck would have it I stocked up Friday when I went to the store, but I only bought in increments of two. We don't do frozen dinners often, but sometimes they are quick and easy. Like last night. Chicken pot pies!

I ran across a group of old saved e-mails yesterday. They were from the office. It was kind of interesting reading some of them. I told Krl that I must have lost a lot of confidence from then. Either that or it is a conditioned mentality.

I've been thinking a lot and a quote Rian repeated to me has been on my mind. It went something like this. "Failure is the result of selling out long term goals for short term gain."

Something to think about.

Have a day.

FATHER, don't let me bite off more than I can chew.