ncaa update... no bell curve here

mr. blouseclowns is in the 99th %ile of the 2,935,563 espn brackets that have been submitted. pretty smart... but not smart enough to enter the contest to win 1st prize... however, as a consolation prize for doing so well, the mcpuff steering committee has deciding on his prize, assuming he continues to dominate the bracket. he. gets. nothing!

the 1st place leader of the 'in the money' crowd is yours truly. it's tough to be modest when i'm in the 97.4 %ile. i picked all 4 final 4 teams... now, it's pretty much flip a coin, to see who's gonna win it. $50 for first, $20 for 2nd. tom did 2 brackets... "idiot entry" where he tried to score as low as possible, and then his 'thisthing' entry, where altho he didn't try to suck, he did nonetheless. at least he's beating ty, who's 6 yrs old. no, wait a minute, ty is actually ahead of him, too... always next year, idiot-thing...

ribs gone wild... hot n sassy

emailed this to dennis, to rub it in & give him a ribbing (puns intended).. then, thought, what da hay, show the wife's rack to the whole gosh dern world... (would that help or hurt traffic to reagan's blog?)

anyway, night before, w/ thawed out ribs, put a dry mix of brown sugar and spices (and whatever else nices you have laying about) on the rack, then seal the rack in tinfoil. put in fridge overnight.

next day, open one end of the tin foil, and put 1 cup of orange juice (yes, really...) then seal up and cook for 1 hr at 350, 2 hrs at 250. then, uncover, cut into 2-3 bone segments, put favorite bbq sauce on them, and broil them for 5 minutes. voila... the most tender, tasty, juicy, fall off the bone ribs you would ever hope to meet. no knife or fork required... just lots o napkins. throw some triple xxx hot salsa and chips on the side, crack open a fine pale ale, ignore the crying baby and 4 yr old's whining, and just enjoy... soak it all in. and don't share w/ brothers.

(actually, if you want exact mix of spices, etc. let us know... it's from 'alten browne' cook book?)

time to 'get out there and mow'... or at least duke-patrol

retro comic panels... priceless (say, robin, you're looking pretty good in those tights)

tourney time... fill in your brackets

showtime... if you want to fill out a NCAA bracket, and track results automatically w/ other folks in our 'mcpuff sphere of influence'... please do... we're using ESPN again to do this.

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/frontpage
then look for and join the group "mcpuff"

rules:
1. on espn.com, you can create (or remember) your free login name and password. see link above. fill out your bracket before the 1st tip off

2. join the "mcpuff" group on espn.com (no faxes, spreadsheets, paper mailings of brackets accepted as real... those will be deleted, shredded, ridiculed)

3. $10 per entry. decide if you want to 'just play for fun', or 'just play for $10 * # other folks'. if you want to fill out two brackets and submit both of them as possible winners, send me $20 (espn allows up to 5 brackets per user) send $10 for each bracket to: 5975 fawn trail circle, woodbury, mn 55129

4. no 'honor system' for playing 'in the money' (duh)... if i don't get your $10 cash or check, postmarked by at least friday, you're 'playing just for fun'. if you have more than 1 bracket submitted into the 'mcpuff' group, but only send in $10, you need to tell me what is the 'money' bracket (yes, kevin... *before* thursday)

5. feel free to forward this link and contest to whoever. the mcpuff group isn’t password protected, and the more the merrier

6. so far, i'm "in" for $10. i'd expect 3-10 other folks to be in. winner takes all if there’s 5 or under paying brackets... if there’s 6-10 paying brackets, then the payout is 75% for 1st, 25% for second. for 10+ (not likely), payoff is 50% 1st, 30% 2nd, 20% for 3rd), per the points that espn scores it as (1 pt 1st round, 2 pts 2nd round, etc). nothing for biggest upset, fewest points, or for any foo-foo stuff like that.

7. if you don't want to pay, but want to play, that's cool... do it!

coyote ugly

ok, i'm partly responsible for 'taming' a coyote that lives in the back yard... i put all mice i catch out on the log pile, and w/in 2 days (nights), they always disappear. it's either the woodchuck (groundhog) that lives in the pile, OR a coyote. we saw a coyote snaking up to the pile this morning, and looked at the spot where the mice go to meet their maker. so, say what you will about coyotes, i like having them there. of course, i've never had a lil dog go missing due to them... yet.

ok, i won't try to 'pet' this thing... look what they did to a deer inside our fence 2 summers ago...