Hello, Ugly.

You can probably guess from the title of this entry that I'm back in Tampa covering the Yankees. It's only been three years since I've lived here but it seems I've already forgotten how to properly handle the traffic without blowing a gasket, gah. I hate me some traffic. The upside to hitting 4 p.m. traffic for a 7 p.m. game is that I finally managed to get a seat in the Yankees press box that offers a view of the field. (I'm usually sitting facing either, a) a photo of Babe Ruth, or b) a grey wall with no electrical outlet and no hope of knowing what's going on the in the game. Today I'm in the second row with a view of the field and, more importantly a great view of the TV which is tuned to March Madness games. Epic win.)

Anyway, it's the Rays first road night game so it was nice to be able to sleep in this morning, get up and clean/decorate, make lunch and generally be lazy until I left the house at 2. (Quite a welcome change having to be up at 6:30ish).

I finished fixing up the downstairs area the last night, a process that took so long I completely forgot about St. Patrick's Day until my buddy Ryan texted me, "GREEN BEER!" Oops. Ah well, maybe next year.

Today marks my most favorite day of the year, not only because we're in the middle of spring training but because March Madness officially kicked off today. (This, I maintain, is the only concrete proof I have that God both exists and loves me. Sometimes.) Only about five games in and there's already been some major drama: No. 2 Villanova nearly lost to No. 15 Robert Morris (73-70 in OT), Old Dominion upset Notre Dame (11 over 6), Murray State beat Vandy by a point (13/4 upset), and Florida pushed to BYU to double overtime before losing by seven (10/7). This is the most wonderful time of the year, and if the folks at Mackinder-Harkins would get their stuff together and post our brackets already, I'd be even more excited by being able to follow the Madness as it relates to my potential winnings. :)

As I write this, Ohio (14) is up 17 on Georgetown (3) with about 10 minutes left in the game. Because of this I have completely lost interest in the baseball game I'm covering. If there are people out there who don't LOVE college basketball in March, they are no friends of mine.

I had a dream last night that a centipede popped out of my ring finger (I need to stop falling asleep to CSI) and when I woke up, my finger was bleeding. I feel like this game is NEVER going to end. I missed Cortney while she was in town, but will try to make it out to see Shane before the Astros break camp. I like pickles. OK, that fills my nonsequitor quota for the evening, time to be constructive and baseball-y now so I'm not stuck in the pit that is "George M. Steinbrenner Field" any longer than I have to be post-game.

Toodles, kids.

-Sportsgal