Several things are becoming very evident.

#1. We need to clean house at the white house. Let's have a national work day there and load 'em up and move 'em out! I get so tired of he said, she said and finger pointing. One thing for sure, "W" isn't going to take the blame. Maybe congress should begin proceedings to discipline him.

I'm for it! The fruit trees are blooming and all the fruits are coming out! My favorite? mmmmmmm M-peach "W"!

#2. God is not a March Madness Fan. I have been looking at my bracket and it has so many holes in it I don't know how it is able to stand. I was trying to figure out what my problem was when it came to me. With one exception, Xavier, any school with religious ties has been shown the door at the big dance. ORU, BYU, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame. Gone!

I suppose when I was making my picks I should have known better. I seem to always cheer for the underdog. I always have and always will. Add to this the possibility of a little divine intervention and picking religiously affiliated schools made sense. Besides, if GOD wasn't interested, I figured Oral Roberts could at least pull a rabbit out of their hat and make it to round 2. In the case of BYU, I figured their basketball players would, at the very least, be as persistent as their team of missionaries that knock on our door regularly. I really have no idea what happened to Holy Cross except that their opponent revealed "holes" in their team. But then we all have our "Holy Crosses" to bear, back to campus. As for Notre Dame, surely "Touchdown Jesus" has a cousin who was a basketballer.

But on the bright side, my final four picks are still playing.

#3. There is a reason I am not a gambler. I'm not good at it. Oh sure, I have made friendly wagers before. In fact most of my wagers have been with family or in-laws. I'm not one to pass up a dumb bet though. I would imagine Rian is still in trouble from our BCS wager a few years ago. Course it should make him feel better that when he sent my winnings ($100), Krl and I put more money with it and gave it to charity. One time I called a friend who called a friend to bet on Denver the year they won their first super bowl. I told the friend I wanted to bet $100 straight up (take them even, not the points spread) on the Broncos to win. From the outset, the Broncos were on their game, and by halftime, my friend called asking me why I bet who I bet, and to confess that he didn't think it would matter, (because he thought Denver would lose) but he had protected me from myself. He took the points on my wager and he took half the bet. What this meant was a hundred dollar bet would have paid off almost eight hundred dollars, straight up. With the points, a hundred dollar bet would pay a hundred. I got it in the end though because the Broncos won, but somewhere in the chain of hands, my payoff got bogged down and never made it to me.

To have been a winner I sure felt like a loser! I have often wondered if in fact the friend didn't take the points when he made my wager and the bet paid off the eight hundred. Maybe he can live with himself thinking I think he just stiffed me for half a hundred and that I am to dumb to know the difference. I know he could have sure used the money at that time. Every once in a while he will remember and tell me, "I still need to pay you your part of that bet". It won't happen.

Kind of like when I worked a week for him. One thing for sure, I'll never be broke because my balance sheet will always show two "accounts receivable".

The only thing I ever won was the draft lottery!

#4. It is almost that time of year. I have begun my search for ............. a catamaran. Nothing big. Fourteen or sixteen feet long. And I have a partner! Pat. I haven't told her yet. She may have to finance my part of the purchase and let me pay it out. I still think it is so strange that we had never talked about it until after I blogged about my coveting the small catamaran for sale down the street last summer, and yet she and I both think it would be extremely enjoyable and relaxing to learn to sail. In fact she agreed with me that if she ever goes on a cruise, a clipper cruise would be at the top of her list!

I have been picking up the American Classifieds and looking through the boats ads. When I am doing one of my equipment searches on the Internet or e-bay I may do a catamaran search as well. Be advised. Neither of us know how to sail. But that's O.K., we can learn. I figure Pat can read up on it and either highlite what is important to read or she can just tell me what to do. I don't want to be the Captain, this is convenient especially if she is the one that puts up the money.

Besides, the Captain goes down with the ship.

Call me Gilligan!

#5. I guess I am going through my developmental stages again. Apparently I am developing allergies. Yuk. Dust, grass, pollen. BIG SNEEZE! Again and again and again.

I will be soo glad when I'm grown up.

And #6. One for the weird. I often am amazed with the Internet. I have always said it is a Big Room! I often wonder how it can handle the vast amount of information going every which way and not mix and match it. At times I have even thought that my computer had been enslaved, sometimes not by nice people. The latest happening was a few days ago I posted on my blog and when I clicked on view it in another window, it came up with a comment. I've had comments before that were pretty lame, but this one made absolutely no sense. In fact it was in some other language! I think somehow it got stuck to my blog in the big Internet funnel, because it appeared immediately and all the confirmation filters are in place. I tried to cypher it through but found it was much easier to just delete it!

You are leaving the twilight zone. Keeps your hands and other body parts inside the enclosure.

Spring break is over.

Have a day!

FATHER, if not for YOU I'd be nothing.