Extreme Scrabble

No actual content, but this is too cool not to link: The 7 Scariest Places to Play Scrabble.

Put a bow on it

Hi there. Well, i have let the reality of the ending of the basketball season set upon me, and will now report how the Blocksma Bracket '09 ended up.

Don't call it a comeback, she's been here for years: Stephanie Clark (nee Bell) has decidedly won the bracket for the 2nd of the 3 years of it's existence. Be assured that there has been much gloating via email, so i am hoping that after this post we will do nothing but look forward to the #1 preseason ranked Spartan's 2009-10 season.

Here is the full list of results:

Rank	Team Name	Score	Correct	Best Score	Best Correct	Champion
1	Stephanie Clark	396	51	396	51	North Carolina (97)
2	Adam Crawford	386	50	386	50	Michigan St. (125)
3	chris eyle (1)	344	46	344	46	North Carolina (152)
4	Zach Vander Meeden (2)	338	43	338	43	North Carolina (160)
5	Betsy Ruhlig	334	45	334	45	North Carolina (162)
6	Brandon Schmitt	323	42	323	42	North Carolina (90)
7	Tiffany Beuschel	319	45	319	45	Michigan St. (117)
8	Rachel Schmitt	318	47	318	47	Pittsburgh (156)
9	Matt Newmyer	313	43	313	43	North Carolina (163)
10	Dustin Bagby (1)	310	46	310	46	Memphis (130)
11	Anne Vezilich	306	44	306	44	Connecticut (151)
12	Matt Blocksma	306	42	306	42	Michigan St. (135)
13	Bob Aalderink	301	45	301	45	Villanova (140)
14	R Banning	299	44	299	44	Pittsburgh (135)
15	Brian Bishop	290	45	290	45	Louisville (122)
16	dwight wade	284	42	284	42	Michigan St. (106)
17	Kyle Selleck (2)	277	41	277	41	Michigan St. (164)
18	doug blocksma (2)	274	38	274	38	Michigan St. (125)
19	Phil Ainslie	268	42	268	42	Duke (164)
20	Kyle Selleck (1)	268	41	268	41	Oklahoma (152)
21	Liz Blocksma	267	42	267	42	Pittsburgh (146)
22	Josh Edwards	266	40	266	40	Michigan St. (147)
23	doug blocksma (1)	265	41	265	41	Pittsburgh (148)
24	Matt Warner	265	41	265	41	Louisville (127)
25	Tricia Joyce	262	41	262	41	Louisville (83)
26	Sven Welz	259	41	259	41	Pittsburgh (172)
27	chris eyle (2)	258	40	258	40	Arizona (164)
28	Matt Collette	249	37	249	37	Oklahoma (144)
29	sean duggan (2)	235	37	235	37	Kansas (127)
30	Samuel Locke	230	36	230	36	Louisville (152)
31	Jen flint	228	37	228	37	Connecticut (145)
32	Aubrey Faith-Slaker (1)	221	35	221	35	Duke (58)
33	Aubrey Faith-Slaker (2)	218	32	218	32	Illinois (73)
34	sean duggan (1)	210	34	210	34	Pittsburgh (135)
35	Zach Vander Meeden (1)	196	33	196	33	Memphis (150)
36	Dustin Bagby (2)	194	32	194	32	Illinois (140)
37	Chris Hess	194	32	194	32	Syracuse (123)

Once again, my heart did better than my head (that is, my Big Ten heavy bracket fared better than my scientically scouted entry), mostly due to my Spartans running to the Finals. Also, i managed to beat out Phil, who admittedly picked completely blindly and would gloat incessantly if he were to best me. again. like last year.

Stephanie will be drowning her guilt of winning with the UNC Champ pick with a batch of Odell's Easy Street Wheat. Mm.. tasty, tasty guilt.

Fur and Fro

A few updates from the last week:



We are officially pet owners. All it took was one visit to the humane society before I convinced Doug that we should get a cat. Her name is Bailey, short for Baileys, as in, "This coffee would taste great with a little Baileys in it." Or at least that's what her coloring reminds me of. She is a very good cat, friendly with people and dogs, house trained, and very low maintenance. She is, sadly, an economic casualty - she had to be surrendered to the humane society when her owner lost her house. We wish there was a way to tell the previous owner that her cat found a good home. My family was so relieved when I got married because it put an end to their fears that I'd end up an old cat lady. There's still time, there's still time...

In other news, I got a new hair cut this weekend to go with the new cat.


Just kidding. Here's my best attempt at a self portrait. I didn't ask how many inches were taken off, but quite a few. My hair hasn't been this short since I was a senior in high school! I think I will always think of myself as having long hair, but this is a nice change for now.

Birthday Fun!

The beautiful thing about having your birthday fall on a Sunday is that you have a whole weekend of celebrations rather than just one day. I was treated to breakfast at Lucille's, (hands down the best breakfast place in, well, the world), had ice cream cake, and got lots of nice cards and gifts (I'm sure I will write an entire post about my new Santoku knife in the near future).

This birthday was extra special because I got to spend it with my sister, who gave up going somewhere warm with her friends to come to Colorado. We rewarded her with 6 inches of snow. Your welcome. It was really fun having her here. We spent most of her visit looking at colleges and doing our best to convince her to move to Colorado for college next fall. And we fit in some fun stuff as well, like some cutthroat games of dutch blitz and a super awesome tour of the Celestial Seasonings tea factory.

Happy Holy Week

Hi everyone. If the room seems slightly off, like a giant awkward cloud of sadness hanging over the entire blog, well, that's because there is. I'm stewing over many thoughts about Monday night's game, some parts game commentary, another part fandom commentary, but for now it's just generally mopiness for the sake of my team. BUT, thankfully, Noel has pointed out something that made my day fantastic: The Passion of the Christ, via Facebook.

Each bolded word has a link to a corresponding site, and i think my favorite part is Bart Ehrman popping in the feed to express his doubt. Too great.

Back this weekend with liz birthday news, and a other random updates. Cheers.