I predict the future

So towards the end of junior year of college, the Dog Street Journal, the student magazine, did a little article (takes several minutes to load, p.18) on me about walking on to the basketball team:

It sounds really cool, but really it was written by two of my roommates, and they made up half of the answers to try to make it funny. Anyways, I made a bold prediction in that article:

Fast forward two years from that article to last week, at Trinity University in D.C. for the D.C. sports league winter basketball championship game:

Does that look like a team that just lost a championship game? Didn't think so. I said I'd be winning an office championship in 5 years. Only took two. My psychic powers are even stronger than I had orginally thought.

Bobby McKeys

This past weekend we went to check out the National Harbor. We heard it was a pretty cool place and after sitting around all day Saturday watching basketball and staring out the window at the rain, we decided to head out. We went to this new dueling piano bar called Bobby McKeys. When we got there there was a line outside, but thankfully the Devines (people who also do Pin Dodge) own the place, so we got to cut the line and go right in! I felt like such a VIP even though we're not really anybody at all! I felt even more like a VIP when we got over to our table and were introduced to one of the Redskins who was just hanging out for the night with everyone. People (mainly slightly intoxicated girls and their boyfriends) kept coming up to him asking to take picures with him.

Anyway, back to the dueling piano bar. It was awesome! The performers could play just about anything (except Zac Brown's Chicken Fried for some reason). The most impressive thing was that people at the bar were dropping ridiculous amounts of money for them to play various songs. It was quite the experience and lots of fun. I definitely recommend checking it out to anyone in the area.

NCAA Final Four Update

Hey everybody! We're down to the final 4! In addition to your point total this time, the number in parentheses next to that is the most possible points you can still earn, if all of your picks are correct for the semifinals and finals. If you don't have a number in parentheses, that means that your score is final. This also means that my youngest sister Jessica has wrapped up the prize for last place, so congrats to you Jessie.

1. Alex Heacock 94 (158)
1. Robert Stratton 94 (142)
1. Jennie Thollander 94 (110)
4. Ashley Kramer 91 (155)
5. Patty Stratton 87 (135)
6. Chris Stratton 85
7. Erika Stratton 81 (129)
8. Christina Casares 80 (128)
9. Chris Dias 79 (127)
10. Lauren Hall 76 (92)
11. Liz Ketner 75 (123)
12. Eric Hall 73
13. Bob Stratton 71 (87)
14. Katie Stratton 68
15. Maggie McDonald 67 (115)
16. John/Dorothy Hall 65 (129)
17. Ashleigh Stratton 62 (78)
18. Eileen Duris 49
19. Kayla Locklin 47
20. Jessica Stratton 43

I'll update again before the Championship game next week. Good luck!

Recipe

Well a bunch of you asked for the recipe to that chicken dish, so here you go:

8 slices bacon

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

salt and pepper

juice of 1 lime

1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 romaine hearts, torn into bite-size pieces

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

2 avacados, thinly sliced

4 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded

1 bunch chives, snipped

1. In a large skillet, fry the bacon over medium heat until lightly golden but still soft, drain. pour out the excess fat, reserving the skillet.

2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Wrap two strips of bacon around each chicken breast and secure with toothpicks.

3. Heat the reserved skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken, cover and cook, turning once, until golden, 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes. Discard the toothpicks.

4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the lime juice and olive oil. Add the lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, pepper jack and chives, season with salt and pepper and toss. Divide among serving plates and top with the chicken.

NCAA Elite Eight Update

Hey Guys! We're getting down to it now! Here are the standings with only 8 teams left:

1. Robert Stratton 78
2. Chris Stratton 77
3. Patty Stratton 71
3. Chris Dias 71
5. Jennie Thollander 70
5. Alex Heacock 70
7. Katie Stratton 68
7. Lauren Hall 68
9. Liz Ketner 67
9. Ashley Kramer 67
11. Erika Stratton 65
11. Eric Hall 65
13. Christina Casares 64
14. Bob Stratton 63
15. Maggie McDonald 59
16. Ashleigh Stratton 54
17. Eileen Duris 49
17. John/Dorothy Hall 49
19. Kayla Locklin 47
20. Jessica Stratton 43

I'll provide the next update tomorrow night when we're down to the final 4! Good luck!

Kitchen adventures

I am working my way towards learning to cook one small step at a time! Lauren got me a subscription to the Rachel Ray food magazine for Christmas and it has recently started coming in the mail. The best part of it is that her meals supposedly only take 30 minutes to make (I say supposedly because they don't take into account time for mistakes and near disasters). Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for Chris last week since he was getting home late so I found a recipe that included bacon (one of his favorites)! Anyway, besides the bacon the rest of the recipe sounded healthy-ish. It was bacon-wrapped chicken on top of a lime-flavored salad. I know it was really easy, but I was impressed with myself for trying something new. Shoot, soon I'll be hosting dinner parties! Hah...

Basement Olympic Games - Spring

Last Fall we decided to put together an event for any friends that were available to get together and hang out for a weekend. We called it the "Basement Olympic Games". We were all assigned random countries and had to represent them well. The opening ceremonies included a presentation so everyone had to be prepared. The event was a huge success, so we decided to do it again 6 months later.

The 2nd Basement Olympic Games (Spring edition) were held this weekend and competition was fierce. Most notably, the designing of "country-wear" and representation was stepped up a notch. The main difference was that everyone got made-up countries this time (i.e. Oz, the Matrix, Camelot, Rivendell, Narnia, Neverland, LOST, Hogwarts, Whoville, and the Death Star). I was actually quite shocked by the sheer amount of preparation put into everyone's countries! Anyway, we got to spend the weekend hanging out with each other and had fun competing in events. It felt like being back in college!

NCAA Sweet Sixteen Update

Hey guys! It's been a great weekend of some really exciting games and we finally have all the brackets in. Heading into the sweet 16 which starts on Thursday, the standings are:

1. Christina Casares 52
2. Chris Dias 51
Ashley Kramer 51
4. Robert Stratton 50
Jennie Thollander 50
6. Chris Stratton 49
Erika Stratton 49
8. Katie Stratton 48
9. Liz Ketner 47
Bob Stratton 47
Patty Stratton 47
12. Alex Heacock 46
Ashleigh Stratton 46
14. Eric Hall 45
15. Lauren Hall 44
16. Maggie McDonald 43
17. John/Dorothy Hall 41
18. Eileen Duris 37
19. Kayla Locklin 35
20. Jessica Stratton 31

Christina moved up to the top of the standings after correctly picking 15 out of 16, but a lot of people are right on her heels. The next update will be Friday night once we're down to the elite 8. Good luck!

NCAA Pool Round 1 Upate

Round 1 of the NCAA tournament just finished up and it's been an exciting one so far! Here are the current standings (still waiting on a few brackets to show up in the mail so they're not on here, but will be added into the next update)

1. Chris Dias 27
2. Ashley Kramer 25
Chris Stratton 25
Erika Stratton 25
5. Katie Stratton 24
Lauren Hall 24
7. Eric Hall 23
8. Christina Casares 22
Ashleigh Stratton 22
Jennie Thollander 22
Robert Stratton 22
12. John/Dorothy Hall 21
Bob Stratton 21
Patty Stratton 21
Maggie McDonald 21
16. Alex Heacock 20
17. Jessica Stratton 19
18. Kayla Locklin 17

Next update will be Sunday night after the 2nd round! Good luck!

Guzzling gas

On my way home from work today I needed to get gas, so I decided to find a BP because I have a lot of PowerPump gas rewards to use up. First I would like to note that I'm definitely grateful that I just get gas money for buying regular groceries, but unfortunately, there are no BPs on my direct route between home and work. I decided to just type in BP into the GPS and found one pretty close to home. I got there no problems, stuck in my card and started filling up. I sat back down in the car and when I looked back up a few minutes later, the meter was only at about 1 gallon! It was filling up, but incredibly slowly.

I got out of the car and looked at the guy behind me to see if his pump was going as slow as mine. He sort of half-smiled at me and was jiggling the nozzle, so I guessed his wasn't working well either. I decided to just wait it out - I mean, it's free gas, right? The woman on the opposite side of my pump started glancing over, too, probably trying to tell if she was the only one with this problem, and eventually all three of us filling up were trying to politely wait while offering up sympathetic smiles to each other, conveying the fact that we all knew we had better and more important things to be doing (I know, I'm really humble) than be waiting for our tanks to fill at the rate of a dripping faucet.

Eventually the woman, who was a little less patient, but definitely more polite than myself called over one of the gas station attendants. She asked if there was a problem, or if the pumps always worked this slowly. The worker shrugged his shoulders and went inside to confer with his counterpart and finally came back out to annouce "Sorry everyone, we've run out of gas." Umm...seriously?

So...a couple miles out of my way, a lot of minutes out of my day, and I only got about 3 gallons of gas. Lame.

A call for all brackets

Don't forget to fill out your brackets today and drop them in the mail by tomorrow (or e-mail them before the first game starts tomorrow at the latest). Chris will keep you updated after each round on who's winning. I think we have about 14 so far, so it'll definitely be competitive and Chris has promised that the winner and loser will each get a prize :)

I have my entire bracket done (except for who is winning the championship game...I'm so conflicted!) - so if you need any help, let us know!

March Madness Pool!

Okay guys,

The Selection Show just ended and the bracket is out! You can find it here or here. All you have to do is fill one out and send it to us by Thursday. There are a few ways to do this:
1) Print it out, fill it out, and mail it to us. Comment below if you need our address. If you do this, it must be postmarked by Thursday or it won't be allowed. So best is to just do it early and drop it in the mail asap.
2) Print it out, fill it out, and then scan it back onto your computer and e-mail it to one of us. If you do this, we have to have it in our inbox by the time the first games start on Thursday at 1 pm.

Here are a few bits of info that could help you in picking:

My favorite team mascot: Akron Zips or Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks

Favorite player name: Chief Kickingstallionsims (Alabama St.)
2nd place: Dionte Christmas (Temple)

Best school name: Morehead St.

We're not going to award any points for the play-in game that is on Tuesday so don't worry about that. Additionally, somewhere on the bracket, write what you think the total points scored in the national championship game will be. We will use this as a tie-breaker if necessary. If you have any questions, let us know. Otherwise, happy choosing, and good luck! It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Woe is me..!

Chris has to work late again tonight and I am bummed. I know it's lame, but I can't help it! I know he's not happy to be there either, but it's so quiet around here and I just feel like moping! I have a list of million things I should be doing right now (washing the dishes, learning about hemostasis and thrombocytes, going to the grocery store, returning library books, etc, etc, etc.), but sometimes you just need to forget about your list and give in. I turned on the tv, baked some chocolate chip cookies, and am sitting on the couch in my sweatpants until I get the call to go pick him up!

Teddy Roosevelt Island

Everyday on my way home from work I drive under this footbridge that I've wanted to walk over to see if there was anything on the other side. Well this weekend we did it! Ashley showed us the way since she had gone before, and we walked over the bridge to basically an island that looked like a bunch of trees and mud. It was interesting that there was an island so close to us on the Potomac, but it really didn't peak my curiosity as much as I had hoped. Anyway, we walked around for awhile and then headed up to the middle where there is a memorial set up for Teddy Roosevelt. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a statue or sundial or something little to commemorate the president, but the memorial didn't fit the outside look of the island at all. There was a statue involved, but it was much larger than I had imagined! It was a nice cap to the walk and really enjoyable. Plus I felt good about taking advantage of the weekend's perfect weather.

March Madness Pool Heads Up

Hey guys,

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Where college basketball is on all the time. Just so everybody knows, we'll be having a March Madness Pool this year, and we'll be tracking the results on the blog. There will be a prize of some sort for both first place and last place finishers. Selection Sunday is this upcoming Sunday, March 15th. The first round of games starts the following Thursday. So this is just a heads-up to everybody to fill out brackets and either e-mail or mail them to us. They must be postmarked by Thursday, March 19th. I'll put up another reminder this weekend. Happy March Madness!

Senior night

Last weekend we went down to Williamsburg for Tribe Basketball's senior night. It was a great game and they ended up winning, but it was also a little strange. Last year it was Chris down on the floor... A ton of people came down for it and his mom made everyone t-shirts to commemorate his last in-season game. He is definitely missing being involved in college basketball this year and honestly, I am too! March Madness starts soon...

T-shirt dress

The other day Chris and I went to the mall so he could go get his hair cut. I walked around waiting for him and right outside of Macy's I passed this: When we were younger, Grammy made Lauren and me t-shirt dresses. We loved them and wore them ALL the time. She occasionally made matching ones for our American girls, which was obviously really cool. Anyway, Jennie (one of my roommates) has a niece so last year we decided to learn how to make t-shirt dresses with her eventual goal of making one for her niece. We bought t-shirts from Wal-mart and fabric from a fabric store and followed directions we found online. They ended up coming out horrible, but I've never pretended to be any good at sewing. I can fix a broken button, but that's about it...

Anyway, I stopped short when I saw this because this dress is pretty much exactly what our dresses used to look like; a t-shirt with a skirt attached to it. Ours always had a pattern from the skirt ironed on to the shirt though, so it was better than this one! Macy's was selling this dress for $75. It's only cotton! I was shocked! I wanted to share though because it reminded me of being younger :)

This picture is the one I brought back to school with me as an example when we were trying to replicate them. It's of Lauren (if you can't tell from the blonde hair!) and she looks like she's about to attack someone with a croquet mallet.

FreeCreditReport.com Rankings: Champion

Your gold medalist:

Music: Catchy catchy catchy. All there is to it. We got the white guy doing a little bit of rapping and also some singing, almost like Mat Kearney. (That's his new one - you're welcome) But it's up-tempo and fun, and I like it. Grade: 9/10

Lyrics: I know I ragged on him from another video for doing the whole spell-it-out thing, but this time he keeps it short and to the point, and he even tells us what he's spelling out for emphasis. He really didn't have to do that, but he's a nice guy. Huge bonus points in this one for use of the phrases "whack," "looking fly," and "rollin' phat." Reminds me of this guy. Also, the words to this song will be stuck in your head for a long time. And I think that's a good thing. Grade: 9/10

Visual: I really like what they do in this video cause it reminds me of myself a bit. Instead of driving a sweet convertible or SUV, he's rolling in a used sub-compact:

They're also way over crowded in that thing, and that's very reminiscent of winter break of my freshman year, when I was the only freshman basketball player with a car, so all 5 of us large individuals would pile into the White Lightning. Somebody always had to ride in the trunk. I can also appreciate him stalling out while trying to impress some ladies at the stop sign. I was pretty bad at driving a stick shift when I was learning. Major points for this video reminding me of my past cars. Grade: 8/10

Overall Grade: 26/30

There you have it. Your #1 FreeCreditReport.com commercial. This was the third commercial in the series, and normally the third of anything stinks. Exhibits A and B. But this one is that rare gem that really stepped up it's game. Thanks for following along everybody. Hope you enjoyed these.

Long time no blog

Well I haven't posted in a long time! I have a good excuse though...I have been very very busy. I know you all have been enjoying Chris's Free Credit report posts though!

Anyway, this past weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday on campus doing a two-day lab for one of my classes. I am so thankful it's over! It was interesting, but my group got through everything pretty quickly and the weekend involved a lot of sitting idly and waiting for the rest of the groups to catch up. The rest of this past week and weekend I have been studying to take my final exam and finish my first class! I am actually really excited to finish it! I was hoping to take the exam today and get it over with, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get out of all of this snow.

So the part I wanted to share with everyone is this: for our lab we were supposed to wear a covering (such as a lab coat, or just a bit shirt to cover our clothing) so that we wouldn't bring microorganisms home with us. I borrowed a long-sleeved t-shirt from Chris, and it seemed like most people in my lab had the same idea; save one. One guy came into our lab and pulled a full body, zippered, disposable jumpsuit with hood out of his bag. Day one's jumpsuit was white, and day two's jumpsuit was a metallic silver color. I tried to get a picture but wasn't able to. For a mental image, just picture though the guys from E.T. Anyway, the funniest part was that everytime this guy moved or shifted in his seat, it sounded like someone was shaking out a garbage bag until the movement stopped! I really wish I had a picture for you guys, but just know that it was awesome.

On another note, I promise if I have ignored you this week and not returned phone calls or emails that I will definitely get around to it this week!