Reasons that i am worthless as a blogger

Well, I could list the reasons out here, numerically and plainly, but, i have to go to bed at some point tonight, so, sorry.

But, the basic gist is that i am lazy. Of course, having since becoming employed again this spring, there has also been a steady decline of active posting going on, but, eh, i hate it when all people do in their blogs is apologize for tardiness, so i shall begin to show restraint here and begin to recount the most exciting happenings in chronological order:

So, big news, the NCAA basketball tournament is over! What? I'm an idiot? right. The results of my first annual bracket competition ended with the following folks landing in the top five spots:

5. Joanna Hillman & Brandon Schmitt - 200 points, 50 correct picks
4. Dwight Wade - 202 points, 47 correct picks
3. Liz Blocksma - 203 points, 46 correct picks
2. Rachel Oxnard - 204 points, 48 correct picks
1. Stephanie Clark (nee Bell)- 214 points, 48 correct picks

Of course, the way that the competition was scored was that you only received points for correct picks, and the points were reflected by the # seed of the team that you correctly picked to succeed. SO, while my hat is off to Jo, Brandon, and also Dan Shingledecker for their ability to correctly guess 50 games, they sadly did not pick the most point-beneficial 48 games that Steph did to literally waltz home with the gold medal before the final four had even begun. (She picked Wisconsin to win it all. WISCONSIN. See previous posts for my sentiments on the badgers.)

For the sake of full disclosure, i did horribly, and have no right to mention this sport again. I finished 23rd of 28. yikes. BUT, for the record, i was THE ONLY ONE to correctly guess all final four teams. Not that it made a difference at that point, but, just sayin.

Steph, i owe you your prize, and it shall be coming soon. Scouts honor.

We had Monte and Aubrey up for St. Patricks day, and had a wonderful weekend of cards, comic books and Guiness.

We drove to Iowa to see our friends Zach and Ashley Vandermeeden get hitched, and resolved not to tell the family that we had driven within four or so hours of michigan and not told them. It was a lovely wedding and reception, and I was lucky and honored enough to be asked to stand up for Zach for the whole thing. We got to stay in the Abbey Hotel, which is an old monastery (or nunnery, really) set high on a hill overlooking the Mississippi. very cool.

Following weekend was also met with some travel, but on a much more subdued note, as my Grandma Blocksma passed away rather suddenly in the end of March, and we found ourselves bound for the Grand Rapids airport for a 5 day stop in the mitten.

The whole weekend was fairly somber, but also bittersweet, while I miss her still, she has been waiting to be reunited with my Grandfather Douglas (my namesake) for more than 20 years, and we were also afforded the surprise chance to see friends and family much earlier than we thought we were going to.

Coming home, we celebrated Liz's birthday and I surprised her with another visit from Monte & Aubrey for the weekend, and then a Saturday afternoon at the Spa, and then a wonderful dinner downtown at Nico's Catacombs (Elk.. mmm..) and lastly with a suite at the cute re-built 1920's hotel the Armstrong, which is also downtown FoCo. It was a wonderful weekend - click here for liz's version.

The very next day, though, i drove miss liz down to the Denver airport and sent her away for safe keeping with best friend Laura in beantown, in celebration of Spring Break. (seriously, i need to get into education.) So, i found myself a bachelor for a week, but found a stash of nice notes next to the coffee come Monday morning that i got to open every day with until the nicer smelling half of the household got home. They were so witty that i can't help but share, this is the Tuesday morning card:

Within 48 hours, the patient may feel the withdrawal symptoms most acutely -
headaches, nausea, uncontrollable urges to write sad journal entires.
the patient may regress to a pre-marriage like state of hygiene. These
symptoms are to be expected and braved with confidence.

The week was also broken up by my good college buddy Mavian swinging into town to scope out the Denver suburbs in preparation for her and her (eventual) fiance's June exodus from Michigan to the great square state. See! Everyone should just move here.

And i suppose, lastly, in the last week we have decided to officially put the mini up for sale, and have embraced our Colorado citizenship by investing in the following new toy:


So, it's official, we are coloradoans - we own a Subaru.
It's a wonderful little guy, and i'm excited to strap a bike, some skis, and whatever else we can to it this summer and following winter and get lost in the hills.

There! Happy!? There are also mutliple books and cds to mention, but, that was exhausting.. and now to clean out my email inbox. eek.