Sproing-g-g-g!!

Spring has sprung, although it's a cool 36 degrees in our little burg at the moment. Brrrr ... may wait an hour or so before I take my morning walk. It's not like I don't have 12 other things on the to-do list to keep me busy until it warms up enough to stuff myself into the walking clothes and set off. This is one of them (really - it says "blog", right there on line 9).

I've had a lot of things on my mind lately, so I'm probably going to muse on them all here. In all likelihood, there will be no rhyme, reason or point to this post. You'll just have to forgive and bear with me.

Junk mail. For about a week, I didn't clean out the messages that found their way into my 'junk mail' folder and kept track of how many I was getting every day. Don't ask me why I did this - I was just curious, okay? I was astonished at the results - 33, 25, 26, 11, 28, 32 and 14. That's 169 pieces of garbage cluttering up my Inbox from people I don't know, don't want to know, and don't want bothering me. What is up with junk mail, anyway? Do people actually get paid to create and send junk to every Tom, Dick, Harry and Sally on the planet? Why? How can this be productive? I can think of so many things that would be of greater benefit to mankind. I know of the old saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure." Pfft. When it comes to junk mail, I just don't get it.

There are no hedges in Phoenix. The WGH is an eBay junkie. I could list a gazillion things he has in his garage that he purchased online. In the last couple of weeks he decided we needed hedge trimmers. So he goes to eBay, finds a gas-powered hedge trimmer that's very nice, bids on it and wins it. Woot. So this package is coming and he's tracking its progress ... turns out the seller was in Phoenix. Now, I don't know about you, but the first image that pops into my head when someone mentions Phoenix? Not hedges. Cactus, maybe. Granted, it's been a while since I visited the area, but still. Hedges? I talked to the WMVR about it. She obviously thinks a lot more reasonably than I do most of the time. She said that the person probably had hedges where he lived before, but had just moved to Phoenix and as he no longer needed the hedge trimmer, he sold it on eBay.

Okay, I'll buy that. But still, wasn't your first thought, "There are no hedges in Phoenix"? With the same inflection Tom Hanks used in A League of Their Own when he said, "There's no crying in baseball"?

Tournament time again. As most of you know, I love love love basketball. On any level. So my blood really gets pumping around March Madness time. Sadly, our poor alma mater had a less than stellar season, but with Coach Crean at the helm I feel confident that in a few years, Indiana will once again be a force to be reckoned with. Bring back the glory of the Knight era, only softer (Coach Crean is a much calmer man on the sidelines).

The WGH and I printed out brackets and filled in our picks. I actually took the leap and went all the way to the championship game this time (normally I go round by round). My Final Four: Louisville, Duke, UConn and North Carolina. I picked Louisville and Duke in the final game and Louisville to win it all. Call me crazy. I don't really put much stock in picks, anyway, because I firmly believe that any team can defeat any other team on any given day. Case in point - #12 seed Western Kentucky's defeat of #5 Illinois last night (although I should mention that the WGH did pick WKU to win that one, and I'm 13/16 so far in the first round). That's okay. I don't think the Hilltoppers will get past Gonzaga in the next round. I could be wrong. It's happened before.

Paint. One of the items on my to-do list for this, the first weekend I haven't had to work the day job in about 6 weeks, is to prep and paint the foyer and the living room. The WGH had a painting accident a couple of weeks ago - slipped and wrenched his ankle - so he's out of commission for a while, at least as far as getting on a ladder. But that's okay. He wants to do yard work. It's a fair trade - I hate yard work and like painting, and he hates painting and likes yard work. Isn't it convenient how that works out?

A writer's life. One of the other things on my list, of course, is to get this manuscript into shape and start submitting again. It's really almost there. I know what you're thinking - it was there last summer, and it was. Kinda. I did submit it a few places, but when some very kind and constructive comments came back from several agents, I decided it needed a little more tweaking. The BMWs have helped with that as well, and it's an even better book now. So don't hold your breath, but do keep your fingers crossed, pray, and send good vibes my way. We'll be there eventually.

Since the to-do list won't check itself off, I'm working on it. Number 9 is now complete.

Read a book. It's good for you.

=) JB

"I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience."
-- William Shakespeare, English dramatist and poet (1564-1616)