Simple as that.
POOF!
And, your bracket begins to die a slow death very early on in its lifespan.
I wonder how many others felt the pain yesterday as game by game their bracket predictions turned out dead wrong.
Happily, dead brackets do not translate into a reason to turn away from March Madness.
The only factor that could lead to that is a Gonzaga loss, and for a while, I was beginning to wonder if the stars had lined up with evil intent.
Then, the first half ended and frustrated fans wrote their frustrated thoughts out loud on Facebook.
Then, the second half began, and after a couple of bumps in the road the ZAGS returned to proper ZAG form, methodically dropping basket after basket.
The final score in yesterday's game in no way reflects the amount of stomach churning and nail biting going on among the ZAG nation.
The win made up for all those brackets gone wrong. Another discovery helped: when I went to check the two pools I had entered, I learned that I was not alone with my bracket-impaired syndrome.
Seems a lot of us screwed up. I did see, however, that Annie made some good choices, and she's leading the Friday Night diners group.
I did not spend the entire day watching basketball because it was also St. Patrick's Day and there was soda bread to be had, along with brownies topped with whiskey-laced frosting.
Jennifer Bair's Home Wood Farm Stand attracted small crowds, even a minute or two before opening time.
I had messaged Jennifer and asked her to save me two soda breads, just in case she was slammed before I could get there.
She did and even delivered them to me in a nice bag and fresh from the oven.
Along came Leslie, our neighbor on North Kootenai Road and then Rick who lives on Colburn-Culver. The Selle Valley locals know to show up early at Jennifer's stand when St. Patrick's delights are on the menu of goodies one can buy on the honor system.
The minute I arrived home with my bread and brownies, a knife came out and slices were sampled by Bill and me.
Yum! Yum!
I also used my domestic skills for St. Paddy's eats. I can't remember the last time I made jello. It's been years, but the lime jello with bananas and pineapple chunks set perfectly and offered a nice dish to our dinner last night---eaten while watching basketball.
And, so basketball, soda bread, bad brackets and some time spent in the sunshine ruled this year's version of St. Patrick's Day.
As basketball watching wore on, games got better and some Cinderella stories, especially St. Peters winning on St. Patrick's Day.
We may not have as much sunshine today, which provides an excuse to watch a good share of today's NCAA offerings, spanning from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Since many other betters are doing badly, I'll probably even keep checking my pool progress.
Also, even though Gonzaga has already played and won, we ZAGS fans have another day of excitement because Arizona (sometimes thought of as ZAGS South because of their coach Tommy Lloyd, a long time ZAGS assistant) will be playing.
Many fans, even those with faulty predictions, think a match-up of Arizona-Gonzaga could happen.
If so, it would be an exciting basketball game where everybody wins.
So, GO, WILDCATS until if and when you meet the ZAGS!
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My friend Holly sent this. It's a bit of residual from St. Patrick's Day but definitely a neat story and some wonderful music performed in a special place.
Enjoy.
Happy Friday.
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