Every year in March, each member of our family fills out their NCAA basketball brackets. Middle Child religiously keeps track of the stats, updating all of us via text on our current standings throughout the tournament. At the end, when all the points are tallied, my husband gives out cash prizes to the top three winners. And for once in my life, I WON!
You may wonder, how did Bijoux do it? Does she follow the teams all year and use some sort of sports acumen to determine her choices? No, but I do spend some time in research. For instance, one year I picked my teams based on where I'd rather live. Warm weather colleges beat out cold weather. Another year, I chose my picks based on whose mascot could take down the other mascot. Let's just say, I didn't have much success in my madness/methods. Until this year!
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| Meet The Prayer Team. My motto was, 'On a Wing and a Prayer.' I based my choices on whether the school originally was founded by some sort of religious order. When neither college had a religious background, I chose the one with a winged mascot. Now you might wonder how a person who chose Marquette as their champion won when the championship being played tonight is Kansas vs. North Carolina? Well, I don't make up the rules of these bracket points, nor do I care. I just care that I BEAT these losers/family members: Champagne Super (Villa) NovaBama Mama Rocky Mountain Rookie Make A GPop Great Again The Wild Thornberries Cougar Roaring In lieu of the cash prize, my husband said he would take me out for a night on the town. As I will probably never win again, I suggested this place:   Good Luck to the Tar Heels and the Jayhawks. But I don't care, because I already WON! WHAT’S THE LAST THING YOU WON? |
Congrats to you, Bijoux, on winning and also for naming such a good choice of "prize." The Marble Room looked quite elegant.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was joking on the prize, but maybe some day.
Delete*cheers + applause*
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS!!!!! And I love your research process.
And oooooooh...I also love the looks of The Marble Room. GORGEOUS decor! It looks like it was an old bank building. We have buildings here in Philly that look like that.
Hope you had an awesome night on the town!
Happy Tuesday, my friend! X
Thanks, Ron. Yes, it was a bank for 100 years. It’s in the Garfield building, designed by President Garfield’s son in his honor. Isn’t it gorgeous? I was just kidding about going, but I do hope to go some day soon!
DeleteCongrats. I like your *logic* for picking the teams you did. Clearly a Guardian Angel was with you. Bask in the glory of your success, have a few cocktails even. I'm sure they'll be heavenly.
ReplyDeleteI got a lot of mileage out of the prayer hands emoji during our group stat texts!
DeleteCongratulations! I hope you enjoy your night on the town!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much.
DeleteCongratulations on winning! I understand not caring how, just being happy that you won. You should post about your night out whenever it happens.
ReplyDeleteI think the last thing I won was last summer; a prize in the library's summer reading program. The best thing I've ever won was an all expenses paid trip for four to Disney World when I was thirteen.
I remember winning some cute coasters from the library’s summer reading program a decade ago. I still use them. I don’t enter it anymore since my daughter works there. I’d love to read a post about how you won a huge prize like that trip.
DeleteCongratulations. I thoroughly enjoyed your thought process; it's damn near scientific! Those poor losers, um, I mean family members had better watch their back next year. 😝
ReplyDeleteIn the past five years, we've won THREE coolers full of loot. I don't know how we do it, but our raffle ticket was pulled at different events and the coolers are ABOVE and BEYOND nice. yeti or equivalent and they were all full of really nice stuff. Needless to say, we have a lot of coolers and I love having a selection when we're packing up or in the future: Having parties again.
I’m not sure I can top this year’s win, so maybe I’ll quit with the brackets while I’m ahead! Wow on the coolers full of loot! That would be exciting. I think I’ve only ever won one raffle basket in my life and it was just a little one from a garden club event. Party at your house! Yeah!
DeleteWOW that's awesome! My TG's bracket got decimated early on, and he was moaning, but there was no money at stake. I like the way you make your picks! I would probably do it the same way if I were to do it. I like the Marble Room idea! Fancy schmancy! Make sure to take pics when you're there. My son-in-law is likely devastated at the Tar Heels loss ... he may be the biggest Tar Heel fan of all time who grew up in Pennsylvania, haaahaa! But at least he had the bright spot of Duke getting beat in their last game with Coach K ... he'll live on that for a year. xoxo
ReplyDeleteNice to hear that TG is a college basketball fan like my husband. I really don't think any of our other family members care that much! He sort of does it in his father's memory, who was a HUGE Kentucky Wildcat basketball fan/alumni. Good that your SIL had something to be happy about this year! Ha!
DeleteNo such competition in our family, none of us are sports fans, but I'd like to have won the night out at the Marble Room, it looks pretty swish! Choosing the school founded by a religious order was not only ingenious but came up trumps!
ReplyDeleteI have to come up with some way to entertain myself, since I don’t follow sports either.
DeleteNice! Tara entered a pool at work and was on track to win $100 until Duke lost. Me? I don't know diddly about college basketball.
ReplyDeleteThen again, neither does she...
Your madness method is as good as anything I'd have come up with!
The religious aspect was a winner. I think last year I was The Underdogs and I aptly came in last place.
DeleteWow, that place looks spectacular! I hope you post about your meal there. Nice job with the brackets. A coworker asked me to join in, so I did. My choices were mostly willy-nilly, and I did terribly. It's cool that the "religious" teams one. Kind of fitting. Enjoy your fancy dinner!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Betsy. I was (sort of) kidding about going to the Marble Room, as it’s the swankiest place I could come up with. We’ll see!
DeleteCongratulations! I love how you go about picking your teams.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the last time I won something. I'm one though who likes to lose on purpose because I like others to feel good about themselves when they win. Or, if I'm feeling extra mean, I figure out the other players strategies and try to throw a wrench in their plan just to watch them squirm even when it's putting me in last place lol.
Since I don’t care about sports, it does make it funny how I won. Except for my spouse, I think all the others just want the cash and don’t care about the games. Ha!
DeleteWTG to you for winning!! You have a great system of picking your teams, lol , and it paid off for you this year! I looked at the Marble Room online. Oh my gosh! It sounds like a wonderfully delicious place for your winnings! You'll have to blog about what you got and the experience of it all! It was interesting to compare prices between a "fine" restaurant here and the Marble Room and they were pretty close with what items cost though I thought the sides at the Marble Room were a bit pricey (if I remember correctly $16 for Brussels Sprouts), but then it has been a few years since I've gone to a similar restaurant here so I'm not sure what sides are going for here these days! Regardless, enjoy the evening and time spent with your husband!
ReplyDeletebetty
The Marble Room is probably the swankiest place downtown. Not cheap, that’s for sure. I just told my husband I wanted to go there as a joke. I doubt we will ever go, but who knows?
DeleteI used to do rigorous research, and developed a complex formula based on the Sagarin Ratings and seeding, and got a top-five finish in the office pool exactly three times (never the top winner, but I did get paid). It was always galling to get beat out by ladies who knew nothing about hoops, but filled out their chart on the basis of "I like purple".
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a pretty amazing restaurant. Of course, your husband would never want to be known as someone who doesn't pay what he owes, right? ;)
So much of life is based on luck, that’s why I think my methods are valid! Team Purple isn’t bad. We will see if I ever get to the Marble Room. My spouse generally doesn’t want to go back downtown, after already being there 12 hours!
DeleteCongratulations! I know absolutely nothing about basketball, so you method makes perfect sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Marble Room looks fabulous! Now you have to start working on the lottery!
Thanks, Rob. It seems as though most of my blogger buddies aren’t basketball fans. Have a great end of your week.
DeleteCongrats on the big win and bragging rights for the year. Enjoy your night on the town. I am a Tar Heel fan so I was a little bummed they lost. I think the last thing I won was a wine party but we haven't been able to use it because we got it right before COVID.
ReplyDeleteA wine party? I’ll await my invite!
DeleteI don't watch any sports or play any. I live in Vegas and have never bet on a sports game.
ReplyDeleteI doubt our aunt who lives in Vegas has ever bet on a sports game either!
DeleteCongratulations Bijoux. Many years ago I laid out pieces of card, each with a lotto number on it and picked the ones my dog sniffed!! needless to say I didn't win anything! The last thing I won was first prize of 6 bottles of wine in a Christmas raffle.
ReplyDeleteLol, I like the sniffing method! Too bad it didn’t work. Winning wine is a great prize.
Deletehahaha well that is one way to pick and win. Way to go.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat!
DeleteCongratulations!! The time is coming for a long term win against Leukemia, getting closer every day. That's my biggest ever win and I suspect it may go unchallenged!
ReplyDeleteThat’s great news, X.
DeleteWell, congratulations. I am not a sports person, but I can definitely get behind your choice of a prize!
ReplyDeleteYou’re alive!
DeleteCongratulations on your win! The Marble Room was a nice prize!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteI'm cracking up because I barely understood your explanation of what you won and then you said you don't care about the particulars, just that you won. LOL The Wild Thornberries name got a kick out of me too. I used to love that dumb cartoon. hahaha Congratulations and I hope you're night on the town had you showered with all the glory of a winner!
ReplyDeleteThe last thing I won? I won $20 at BINGO when we went upstate snowtubing. Not a big win, but a win nonetheless.
The Wild Thornberries was my son’s team. I had to ask, as I didn’t remember him watching it. We haven’t gone out on the town yet, but hopefully after Easter. $20 isn’t too shabby!
DeleteWe often do the Nigel Thornberry impression of "smashing", although most people have no clue what we're talking about. LOL
DeleteI had to look that up. What a weird cartoon!
DeleteCongrats on your win Dear friend!
ReplyDelete