an update on things:

- incredibly quick trip from the port to the burbs and back. departed the qca about 5:20, stopped at the grandparents for dinner, arrived in glenview at 10:26. picked up the boy at the airport (he was in lovely arizona) at about 11:15, asleep by 1.

- got my hair cut at 10 on thursday. talked to the incredible roland hemond at 11. watched hoops when they started at 11:15, although my mom home for lunch distracted me a bit. got lunch at the glenview chipotle during halftime of the uwm (they're in my sweet 16 in 2 of 3 pools) game. watched more hoops.

- at about 5, went to costco with my mom. i committed the unforgivable sin of accepting her gift of a one gallon jug of frank's red hot sauce. also purchased fine meats and a bin of mini bell peppers.

- ate dinner at home from about 6:30 to 7. i probably would have preferred to watch hoops, although my dad insisted on keeping c-span on. baseball looked pretty bad. (this was about all i saw of the hearings. the congressmen were relentless, i thought. that's a good thing.)

- watched the second half of the nightcap with high school friends. illinois was unimpressive, and the incredible reign of kevin pitsnogle continues.

- departed glenview at 9 this morning, unshowered. the tv was hooked up, and the groceries were refridgerated by 12:40 this afternoon.

it was a productive trip, i'd say. on thursday night, i was asked by my mom, "why would you come back for such a short trip!?" i gestured to the groceries, and perhaps said, "duh." i also got a tv out of it, which is a first-time benefit.

my brackets sure do look good, although i'm sure most do. i lost none of my sweet sixteen in my priority pool, the bigflax.com experience. i lost alabama (i think bc sucks) and dark horse utep as sweet 16 picks in the high school pool, and sweet 16 pick pitt in the office pool.

i'm highly confident in my utah and uwm to the sweet 16 picks.

i understand the benefits of the pod system, but it really screwed over the charlotte fans. this is because they're essentially guaranteed that two of today's four games will be absolutely uninteresting and that, in all likelihood, both of sunday's will be relatively boring. in the old system, two sites per regional with no unbundling, you either got a 1-16, 8-9, 4-13, 5-12 group or a 2-15, 7-10, 3-14, 6-11 group. it's a lot better to get that than a 1-16, 8-9, 1-16, 8-9 day, methinks. but it happens, i guess.