Dave's Thoughts of the Day: April 7th

So the streak is over!!!!!

Undertaker goes down to Brock Lesnar in Wrestlemania 31 and his undefeated streak in Wrestlemania matches comes to an end.  He *was* 21-0... now he's 21-1...  Reminds me a little bit of the Patriots, actually!

Wrestlemania, with its strange twists and turns and groan worthy moments, sounded like a great success, and for someone like me who didn't see the show, I really got in on all the details through the magic of Twitter, and ohhhh how magical it was!

The "people's champ" Daniel Bryan also won a WWE Championship on this night.  Congrats to Mr. Bryan.   The writers worked that storyline perfectly.

This year's NCAA Basketball National Championship game might be the most improbable matchup of our young decade.  Would anyone have predicted UConn vs Kentucky to decide the title?   That's as improbable as a storyline featuring Undertaker *losing* a WWE Wrestlemania match.  Oh ho!

It all came down to UConn's defense.  They made teams look UGLY.  It started with Villanova, well let's be fair, Villanova plays ugly basketball anyway.  HAHA.   Then they roughed up Michigan State.  Lastly, they made fools out of Florida.   That's incredible accomplishment when you think about it.   Plus the fine work of Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatwright in their backcourt.  It was, as has been said, a sight to see.

On the other side, Kentucky has really gotten me burned the last few weeks.  How many more wins will they pull out of their butt?  Well, rather than bemoan their lucky wins, I shall denote the incredible run by the Wildcats and one Aaron Harrison, who has just been as clutch as can be.   Can you believe the impossible shots he's made to win two big games in a row?   Near buzzer beaters in both instances, from long range, with a defender all over him.  I was indeed shocked to see it happen twice in a row.   Props to Kentucky.

Will Kentucky have the size and talent to rise up once more for the title, or will UConn's Cinderella story close with a spectacular finish?  Time will tell.

My friend Coach, a UConn alum and huge fan of the team, was so excited after that win on Saturday that he wanted to maintain all the same foods and snacks we had on Saturday.  When we gathered to watch the game, I brought in four Peanut M&M packs, four Orange Gatorades, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and a giant Pepperoni, Sausage, Bacon, and Ham pizza from "Grey Block Pizza."   I ate two of the M&M packs and drank two of the Gatorades.  Coach even brought in a 5th Red Gatorade.

So for *tonight*, we have to get two more M&M's, two more orange gatorades, one more red gatorade, one more bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and that enormous pizza.  That pizza cost over 30 bones, but it was amazing... to be fair 8 of those bones were for delivery charge and tip.  I think I'm going to just go drive over there to pick it up this time around.  Good luck to Coach's Huskies... and well, I gathered a few extra bones in the same interest.  Or put another way, we have selected:

UConn +2.5, which also means they could lose by 1 or 2 and they'd cover.  That's probably what's going to happen knowing Kentucky.

Is anyone's bracket still alive?  Probably not.  Incredible isn't it?

Remember our entry about the "Tourney Ten".  ALL OF THEM were eliminated from the tournament.  Wisconsin was the last one standing and they lost in heartbreaking fashion to Kentucky.  So of these ten teams: Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan State, Michigan, Iowa State, Wichita State, Arizona, Louisville, Kansas, and Virginia, none of them won the title this year.   That's extremely rare.  To put it in perspective, ESPN tells us that only two other times since 1979 did we have a National Title game without at least a 1 seeded team or 2 seeded team in contention.  Those two other times were 1989 and 2011.  Uconn also was featured in the 2011 game, the most forgettable NCAA game I can remember against Butler where neither team could shoot better than 35% from the field.  Butler shot 18% from the field.  It was awful basketball.   However, this year's game really should be a lot better.  I look forward to it.

As a result of this unusual occurrence, neither Coach nor I won the taco restaurant bet that we had.   We each picked five of the tourney ten teams, and the person who has the winning team would receive a free meal from "Tacos Por Favor" furnished by the losing party.   Instead, we have a push.

Some other assorted thoughts...

It's going to be very strange to go the next five months without regular access to Dodger games.  My only workaround is through my Dad's account on the Time Warner Cable app.   It's very weird.  I need to buy my Dad lunch to thank him for letting me use it.

Either TWC or DIRECTV, mostly DIRECTV, really needs to get with the program.   DIRECTV can't go more than a month without having some dispute with somebody about channel carriage.  They went REALLY cheap on us over the last five years.  Remember when DIRECTV was cutting edge and they'd be the first ones to carry the latest channels?  They'd do it without any hesitation.  Today, every frickin channel that they add is like pulling teeth.  The Lakers channel, a presumed slam dunk, still took them nearly 3 months into the season to launch on DIRECTV.  The archived Daveblog entries will indicate as much as I moaned about it almost every week that year.

Anyway, the whole thing is a mess.   C'mon DIRECTV.  I read somewhere they deleted the Weather Channel.  Really?!  The Weather Channel!  How big of a circus do you have to be to pick on the stinkin' Weather Channel.  Unbelievable.

It's tougher for me to absorb alcohol these days.  Yes, EVEN TOUGHER.   I had a beer on Saturday night and struggled to sleep most of the night.   Just one!   I'm not sure what the problem is... I had plenty of water to go with it too.  I didn't feel inebriated for much of the night.

Grey Block pizza puts a bagel style garnish on its crust.  Do you like garnish on the crust of your pizzas?   From what I've had so far, it's tremendous.

I had a craving for ice cream for a while, and I suppressed it briefly with some trips to Menchie's.  It's a frozen yogurt place, with many fresh ingredients.  I like it, but still I yearn for the real thing: ice cream or some soft serve.

Of all places, Chick Fil A serves the best soft serve of any fast food place I know.  I think it might even be better than Foster's Freeze out here in California.  It's delicious!  Creamier than any kind out there between McDonald's and Burger King (albeit a worthy competitor there).

Tony P's, in Marina Del Rey, is serving up all you can eat Fish and Chips on Fridays for the lenten season.  THAT is excellent!  Haven't had the chance to try it out yet, but I have one more shot at it this coming Friday.  We'll see how it goes.

I've been about 3 days without my Kale/Grape/Carrot salad.   It's been busy and lazy simultaneously for me.   Sunday in particular was extremely lazy.  I went the entire day without changing out of my pajamas and I *loved* it.  I have not done that in at least six months.  Good times.  Hopefully I can re-up tonight.

Whenever Monday comes, and we all dread Mondays at work, all you want to do is get through that Monday.  Who cares about the details, just cling and survive the Monday and you can work out the rest of the week from there.  For all those who work on Mondays, my advice is, do what you gotta do, but never try to overwork yourself on Monday.   Manage your stress, I'd say it's all downhill from there.

Maybe not so much in my case - I find Tuesdays much tougher workdays than Mondays, but that's a unique case to my department.  Nonetheless, Mondays are wonderful once you hit the last two hours of the workday.

Imagine what work was like before the internet?   Did we depend on little radios that brought the best hits of the 70's, 80's, and 90's?   Were the moments between tasks spent playing Solitaire and Minesweeper?   Ooh!  And how about in the days before computers?   What were the options then?  Newspaper crosswords maybe?  Comic strips?  Wow, this is funny to think about.

Or maybe people just got more work done.   That's what the "get off my lawn" types would say, but somehow I'm not convinced.

Have a great Monday, whatever you do!  We'll catch up soon.