How I Spent My Weekend Could Affect Your Taste Buds . . .

I love the NCAA basketball tournament.  I don’t watch a lot of college basketball during the regular season, but once the tournament starts, I’m hooked.  And the first two days of the tournament, with nonstop games all day long, are the best sports days of the year.

Thursday, I spent the day at work with a “splitscreen computer” – games running on one side of the screen while I was working on something on the other half.  But Friday was another matter entirely . . .

You may recall that last March, my brother Blake and I went to Arizona on the first weekend of the tournament and alternated days of hiking with Dad and days of NCAA basketball with Mom.  This year, we decided to stay home so Mom could concentrate on herself for a change – if we went to Arizona, she would insist on taking care of us instead.  Besides, there were NCAA games at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, a little over an hour from home.  We watched games from noon until almost midnight on Friday – and at halftime and between games we went out onto the concourse and watched games from other sites on televisions!  Then we went back on Sunday for two more games.

How could this affect you?  Well, on Friday the NCAA breaks the day into “sessions” – two games in the first session and two games in the second session – and they clear the arena between sessions (partly to clean it and partly to require you to buy two tickets).  So Blake and I packed a cooler and “tailgated” on the back of my truck, with a glorious view of this electric substation.  You can’t tailgate without a good dessert . . .

So Thursday night, I took a stab at the caramel chocolate chip bars that I teased after the Indianapolis show two weeks ago.  Mine were almost as good as Kaaren’s – and I took lots of pictures while I made them.  I suspect that they will make their way into this space within a couple of days.  Stay tuned . . .