YES . . . . etc.

Seattle's KOMO TV ancher Connie Thompson, Elizabeth Smart and Patti Skelton-McGougan at yesterday's fundraising breakfast for Youth Eastside Services (YES) in Bellevue.

This past weekend at our family gathering in Ephrata, my cousin Patti was talking about final arrangements for yesterday's fundraising breakfast.  That's when we learned the guest speaker for her event would be Elizabeth Smart.  

Patti serves as CEO for Youth Eastside Services (YES)  http://www.youtheastsideservices.org/in Bellevue, Wash.  

A major portion of her responsibilities includes fundraising for the nonprofit which provides counseling, activities and numerous other services for Seattle's Eastside youth dealing with a variety of abuse problems. 

So, to have Elizabeth Smart as this year's guest speaker was definitely an inspirational draw for potential donors.

Patti said the breakfast went well and that Elizabeth is truly an amazing young lady. 

And, of course, we family members think Patti is pretty amazing too!

The organization always welcomes donations, so check out the link above.

Well, we received another dusting of snow last night. As bad as yesterday's sloppy weather was, it was still tolerable because of the warm temperatures.

Knowing that my outside activities would be limited, I went to town and picked up several packets of seeds and some big sacks of potting soil.

More than 60 petunia seeds are now sitting on a shelf near the window here in my computer office. 

More seeds will go into the soil today.  

Comes a time every year when every available nook and cranny near a window in this house gets cluttered with pots, dirt and seeds.  

In this case, my planting schedule is later than usual, but I jump started my tomatoes over the weekend.

Not one green stem was in sight when we left Saturday morning.  I left the planters on an upstairs bedroom floor, covered with plastic wrap with the grow light overhead. Then, I turned the electric heat on.

When I returned Sunday night, almost every tomato had popped up to almost an inch in height.  

Almost had to slow down the growth cuz it was getting out of hand with a couple of stems, well on their way to a Jack-in-the-beanstalk status. 

It feels good to know that those pots can soon move from this house to the greenhouse----with a heater going overnight, of course.

I also got a good start on my bracketology this morning.  For the first time ever, I'm making my own choices on who's gonna win the NCAA dance contest.  

Like my sisters, I've watched enough basketball over the past couple of years to actually know something about teams other than Gonzaga, Washington State, etc. 

Willie used to be my guru.  

He'd fill out the brackets.  I'd turn our sheet in to my colleagues, Ron Hunt or George Marker (keepers and auditors of results), plunk down a dollar or so, and hope.

One year we won second place.  That may have been the same year Marian McNulty won the grand prize and admitted not knowing much of anything about basketball. 

So, it's often a crap shoot, but if a majority of selected teams don't lose out in the first round, March Madness continues to be all the more interesting and maybe even profittable.

I learned yesterday that the price to enter the pool had inflated over the past ten years.

Willie said I needed to fork over $5 this year.   That could lead to a good return, though.

Regardless of money potential, I'm betting on the ZAGS no matter what.  

Hmmm, maybe when it gets to the Final Four brackets, I might have to think about that one. 

Between seeds and basketball, we are marching along with a great feeling of hope in the air.  The hopes may be dashed with the brackets, but with luck, the seeds will keep the hope going beyond March.

Happy Wednesday.