The Waterstraut Waterspout: March Madness 2022

Man, I haven't blogged in nearly a month! It's not that we haven't done very much, I just haven't felt like sitting down to document it all. But then when I start to fall behind, I get even less motivated to do it. I'm having an issue with my sciatica today, and we have plans to go out tomorrow, so I'm trying to take it easy today, which means sitting down- and there's only so much black history I can immerse myself in in a day.

Lets rewind to the beginning of March Madness. Calib insisted Peyton fill out a bracket, despite the fact that he's in the UK. And knowing Peyton wouldn't fill out a bracket on his own, Calib did a video call and asked him all the matchups. (Yes, I know we can just do this with a few clickity-clicks on espn.com, but we've been writing them out for years and doing our own point tally and Calib will not have it any other way). Sidenote, Peyton was folding laundry while he video chatted. I repeat: FOLDING LAUNDRY. Total bullshit.

It was also Saint Patricks day, so we had some festive food to celebrate. I had cookies left from when Peyton was still here, and we had a "green" dinner, because we're not really corned beef people.

Calib and I, of course, watched all the March Madness Games together, as always. The first weekend is always the best. Except, I picked Kentucky to win the whole thing, and they lost to the Cinderella Team of Saint Peters, and Calib made fun of me for weeks. Asa watches some of it with us, but he needs a good book to get us through, because he can't stand how long the end of games can drag on for.

I guess since March Madness is over, I can just go ahead and throw our finished brackets on here. Peyton was out of the running when Arkansas lost in the Elite Eight. Though, he did so well before that, there was a scenario in which he could have won until Kansas knocked out Villanova.

Calib picked Arizona to win the whole thing. They didn't even make it to the Elite Eight, which I found hilarious after how much he teased me about Kentucky.

Hayden picked Villanova, per the usual. They looked pretty good up until the final four. Still, he was so far behind in points from the other game, he needed them to win the whole thing to have enough points to be the winner.

I did probably the worst I've ever done. Kentucky, my winner, was out in the first round, and I only have one Elite Eight right in Duke (So long, Coach K. Dude was the head coach of Duke my ENTIRE life. And I'm not young anymore, people). Still, after Kentucky lost to 15 seed Saint Peters, I was a total fan of them- they made it to the Elite Eight too, which was exciting.

Asa believed he always picked Kansas, but turns out in a Facebook memory he picked Wisconsin to win it all like 7 or 8 years ago, and they did. But, since then he's been picking Kansas. And, as it turns out it was FINALLY his year!! Not only was he the winner when Kansas just made it into the finals, they then went on to win the whole thing. So, at some point we'll be eating at Portillo's.. Asa's pick for winning the whole thing.

Peyton had flown to the UK on Monday, so we were down to four- but then Thursday night my mom flew in and we were back up to a party of five. On Friday we went over to Blaze to collect our Pi Day Pizza reward. It's the only time when we go to Blaze and everyone gets their own pizza.

And then she took us to Costco! IN person! Without masks! It felt like a total pre-Covid trip (funfact: they also just took down the plexiglass at the checkout.) Of course, we've ALWAYS appreciated our grandma-funded Costco trips. But, this time even more so. Because food is getting REALLY expensive. I mean, it's almost a curse that I know exactly the best deal on every product we buy- because then I know when prices go up. Almond milk in the last two weeks went up 30 cents a carton. And, like I don't want to be the person that complains about 30 cents. But, it's EVERYTHING. Like, I know I should be grateful I own a house and don't rent right now, but I'm still annoyed my insurance went up by $30 a month. All these little things add up! But, ok, that's my complaining. My freezer is full again, so we can coast for awhile, and hopefully things will get a little better.

Anyway, mom told us all ahead of time we could each pick five things (plus all the other stuff she gets us), and so we workshopped what we wanted for like the whole week ahead of time).

And then, of course, no mom-trip to Costco is complete without a trip to Costco liquor.

And then comes the fun of trying to fit it all in the car.

And it's not just the trunk.

My new rug for the back porch and Asa's plants posed a unique challenge.

We also stopped by Aldi for some fun fruity wines. This is how you can tell mom has come to visit...

And since it was a Friday, Asa got his Fish Fry! We got takeout for Calib, Asa, and mom, and then Hayden and I swung through the BK drive-thru.

Since mom was here, I was also showing her how my Cricut works, Hayden wanted a Bowser on his phone case, so I did that to show her how it all worked.

Since mom missed Christmas with us, she brought a long a few gifts. We had to improvise for a tree though.

She had gotten Calib some zebra cakes, and taped a package of his fruit snacks she took last time she was here to them.

At first he was real excited about the zebra cakes.

But then he saw the fruit snacks.

And she got the rest of us a few odds and ends. I even got a new presidents plate.

Of course, the end of March/beginning of April is strawberry season here in Florida. So, on Sunday we went out to do some picking at Parksdale Farm Market in Plant City.

Five pickers meant we could get a lot of strawberries in a short time.

It was something like 60 pounds of strawberries!

And after picking, we swung by the market for some fresh strawberry shortcake and milkshakes.

We also nosed around and bought some produce and flowers. Hayden even got a hot sauce.

So what did we do with all those strawberries? Well, I froze a lot of them- in varying forms. Some pureed. Some chopped. Some sliced. Some whole. We also had strawberries all week, and I made a lot of jam.

We also had a lot of strawberry milkshakes that week.

Mom also took me out craft shopping, and to Kohls. I got all kinds of fun stuff to make more Minnie Ears. I worked on some from Aladdin. I decided I wanted the bow to be the magic carpet, so I did the best I could with layering.

And then I made one Aladdin ear and one Jasmine one.

I think they're awesome!

Calib's had some more time on his hands lately, since he quit Chipotle. Turns out even $12 an hour isn't enough to put up with people's bullshit. So he's been able to help out here around more. He even grilled us hot dogs for dinner one night.