#MissionAccomplished...

Well, another exciting spring break has come and gone, and I bet you can't guess what I did during the break. I'll wait while you think looooooonnngggg and haaaaarrrrdddd. That's right. Out of eleven days, ol girl spent eight of them at her home away from home. While I did spend many a long days there, I was able to cross off some things on my fun to do list. 

Watch Louisville make its way into the Final Four while getting my free queso from The Dobe? CHECK. 


Discover the true meaning behind "And I do know what it's like to have a sister, and it's good." ? CHECK. 

#OperationFreakOut? CHECK. 


Being a rebel with my work uniform all week to support UL Basketball? CHECK. 


Finally figuring out that I have an internal alarm clock? CHECK. 

Devour this on the verge of delicious homemade meal? CHECK. 

Dinner That Isn't Out Of A Bag? #winning. 

Make a return trip to the grocery to stock up on ten more Gatorade which now brings me to a grand total to having fourteen more for down the road? CHECK. (And yes, while I do realize having an extra 14 bottles of Gatorade just laying around is on the line of ridiculous, may I say with the weather we've been having, it's going to be a long, and hot Summer.) 

Decide that I am going to at least look around for a historic Final Four shirt, and discovering that the CHEAPEST shirts are $22.00?? Uh, about that.  CHECK. 

Discover our two local Luke Russerts on Twitter? CHECK.  Only to then discover that one of them is returning home to St. Louis to anchor the local news there? CHECK. 

Finding an adorable and may I say adorable cute pair of flats within seconds walking into the store, but finding out they don't have my size in stock? CHECK. 

Order a book off Amazon.com and after opening it up, discover it was an AUTOGRAPHED COPY?! CHECK. 

Cook what I consider a pretty clever and fun dinner for mi familia? CHECK. 


Get a much needed pedicure? CHECK. 


Find my Easter outfit? CHECK. 

Bring a suitcase up to my room so I can finally start packing for Operation Bring Luke Russert Home? CHECK. 


And finally, being able to witness "Armageddon, catered by KFC." TRIPLE CHECK. 

 " All of you non-Kentuckians out there have no idea what brand of deep-fried hell is about to break    loose in the Bluegrass state this week and in the New Orleans Superdome Saturday."

-Sara- 

Battle Of New Orleans...

I'll stop posting about basketball come April 3rd, but what has happened this weekend deserves its own post of its own. So if you're bored of an event of March Madness, you might want to leave.  

     It seems just like yesterday that every time I turned around, I kept seeing tweet after tweet that read, so and so will sit out the game against ______ due to a concussion, or so and so is out for six weeks because of a sprained ankle. The season for UL basketball wasn't looking all that bright, but having grown up in an UL household, of course, I would stick with them through the good times and bad. #dedicatedfan.
     Then came the Big East Tournament. And we all know that outcome. Then it was time for the big dance. A number four seed and playing out west it was. Make it past the first round? Check. Make it to the Sweet 16? Check. That was good enough for me. I would have been satisfied. If we wanted to go farther, we would have to play the Number 1 seed Michigan State. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Make it to the Elite 8? Check. This was starting to get real. After beating the unmentioned team, it was on to take on number 7 seed Florida. We had a slight problem. I would have to work during this game. My stomach had gotten tighter as the day went on, but I kept repeating to myself, "Sara. Chill out. This is just a game. In no way does it affect your life." Well, it kinda sorta does, but whatever. I could deal.  *Note, if and when we would beat Florida, our next opponent? The University of Kentucky Wildcats in a repeat of a dream game. Also known as a repeat of New Years Eve. Yes. A FINAL FOUR NCAA game against our in state rivals. Beat Florida? Check. Next up,  the Number 1 OVERALL seed the UK Wildcats. While I am incredibly nervous, I am so excited to be a resident of this great state. What an amazing week to have Spring Break. This state will be so much fun to watch and to experience.

From Loosing First Round (2011) 

To THIS. See You Saturday. 

-Sara-

Life By Numbers...

32 Hours- That I will be hangin out at the fruit market this week. Did I mention all four days are full eight hour work days? #Adultworldproblems.

37- Days until SUMMER.

21- Days until my once favorite show gLee returns from it's winter hiatus. It's almost like I forgot it was on.

22- Days until Operation Find Luke Russert and bring him home to meet mi familia. MSNBC, he needs to be off for a couple of days.

833- Songs on my never ending iPod library. #LotsofgLeeandChristmasmusic.

7:47 PM: The time that UL basketball tips off in Phoenix, AZ in the Sweet 16 games of March Madness. Ummm, did anyone from the NCAA scheduling committee call and ask my work schedule for this week? Nope.

50- Parking space bumpers that I had to hit before my scrape plate on my car started to fall off. I'm guessing ole Chip missed the body shop.

85°- The HIGH keyword HIGH on the first day of SPRING. Mother Nature, news flash, this isn't June, July or August. It's more like March.

46- Days until the best two minutes in sports. #Yessssssssssirrrrrrr.

April 5th- The day that Grey's Anatomy returns from it's way too weird of a schedule. On one week, off for three, on for two, off for one. I can't keep up with a schedule like that.

8- Long days that I did not blog. Whoops.

6- How many seasons of FRIENDS on DVD that I am currently missing. I finally caved in and purchased Season 8, which brings me to now owning, Season 1, 2, 8, and 10.

5- Local teams that were in the NCAA tournament at one point. Sadly, we are down to three teams, and one of them will be knocked out this weekend.

4- Games that UK has to win before being crowned the 2012 NCAA Men's National Championship basketball team.

3.1- Episode of Grey's Anatomy in which I cannot get Meredith's wise words out of my head.

2- Bags of spinach that went into my personal batch of the infamous Spinach dip. I'll leave it at that.

2- Cups of coffee that I have consumed in the last week. I can't tell you the last time I fixed a regular cup for myself. #Ipreferfoofoodrinks.

1- Class that stands between me and spring break. While it won't be much of a break, it will be nice not having to drive over to school for the week. Instead, I'll be driving to my home away from home.

-Sara-

How You Doin...

Excuses excuses. I know I've been MIA for the last ten days, but seeing as we are still in the middle of Spring Winter, the ideas are not flowing as easily as they normally do during the summer. I can promise you this though. I do have some super fab ideas in the ol noggin. Why don't you ask when I get them? When I'm at work, or school. Non of which I have my computer handy. #Buzzjoy.
     In the mean time I shall leave you with a few pictures of my favorite time of year: #Championship weekend. After an amazing four days of some good some bad basketball, it all came down to two amazing teams in the Big East meeting Saturday night at the famous Madison Square Gardens to decide who would get a better seeding in the big dance.

I. Love. Basketball.  

Sup Big East Champs?  

And just so you can get a good laugh at our traffic cone color uniforms, here they are. FYI: These uniforms have become a rather hot topic in the Derby City, and honestly, I can't stand them. 

"Infra Red?" Whatever That Means... 

After winning the Big East Tournament, we are now headed out to Portland Oregon where we will play Davidson at 1:40 Thursday afternoon. Why don't you ask who will be on a class field trip at that time?? If I didn't have to write a paper on the exhibit, I would seriously consider not going to class. I'm guessing the NCAA committee didn't check with me on my class/work schedule.

     I promise I'll be back to regular scheduled blogging, but in the mean time, this should hold you over. Miss me. 

-Sara-

Heartache Tonight...

* Damaging Tornadoes in February with another round tomorrow afternoon. And I must also add that we did not receive a deep hard freeze this Winter. #OhioValleyWinterProblems.
     Yes, I realize that what you just read, I wrote a mere 24 hours ago.  And if I can, and I will, I wish anything for me to take that back. Yes, I'm not the type of person to hang around when it comes to a good ole fashioned Spring storm. I despise them with everything I have, when I hear of an impending storm, I worry until it's over. There was one point in my life that I thought that I was slowly starting to get over them, and then that thought failed miserably. 
     After experiencing an absolutely gorgeous day Thursday, there had been talks of a severe to moderate risk for Tornadoes Friday afternoon. Insert worrisome Sara. Hearing that sort of news, Thursday night I began checking the local and national weather radars and blogs... like a hawk. The way the local blogs were explaining it said that we would have two rounds of this stuff, with the first round being almost like a warm up, and then somewhere between the hours of 4-7 is when this "potentially dangerous storm" would slam the city I love and adore. And when I say "potentially dangerous storm" I mean CNN, the trained professional storm chasers from the Great Plains and my personal favorite Jim Cantore were called in. Insert my blood pressure just shot up at least 60 points Sara. 
     "Sara, breathe. You're really good at talking yourself out of something like this, and the head honchos said in order for us to avoid the worst of it, the atmosphere needs to stay rainy and cloudy." I kept repeating that to myself, and with the love and support of sometimes I'm not sure what I would do with out them parents, we managed to avoid the center of the storm. Thirty minutes north of us? Not so much. 
     That's why I'm writing tonight. I'm asking you to say a little prayer for the towns of Henryville and Marysville Indiana. Both towns were flattened in a matter of minutes, with the Henryville Junior and Senior high school being demolished and the town of Marysville is non-existent. 
     I'm not going to lie, I never thought something like this would hit so close to home. I wish I could have taken a picture of my Facebook Newsfeed after the storm so you could see the statuses that were dedicated to not only those towns, but others who may have been hurt, or suffered damage to their home or property. 

     As serious as this event was, there were a few comical moments during the day, and one of those happened to be my new found love of obsessive tweeting with multiple hashtags. The other moment? Which happened to be my favorite, when I was checking the short term forecast, (and short term I mean the next six hours) I happened to come across this picture... 

Sunny And Nice? Try Stormy And Windy. 

Again, if there's one thing you do tonight, I ask that you say a little prayer for all the states, and counties involved in this rare batch of early Spring Storms... 


-Sara- 

Daydream Believer...

I'm sure you're starting to get antsy about the time between blogs. And once again, I really don't have a valid excuse. Well, okay, maybe I do. It's the fact that Hollywood has been nothing but boring for the last couple of weeks. BUT then came this past weekend, and then it got exciting. And may I forewarn you, this post is another long "where does she get some of these ideas?" post.

* We all know what last weekend was, and if you don't you probably live in a cave. It was Hollywoods Prom night (or as most commoners know, the 84th Annual Academy Awards) and with Sara being off work, I had a prior engagement in the morning, and after that I was free for the afternoon/evening. So Sara, what did you do all afternoon? Laundry? Nope. Clean your room? Nope. Homework? Yes. Cook dinner? Nope. Watch the seven hour marathon of Oscar coverage? Sure thing. Yes, it got tedious at times, but having Darren Criss and Kermit the Frog sing Rainbow Connection helped break things up.

*As long as we are on the subject of The Oscars, I had the privilege of witnessing Ryan Seacrest being "bisquicked" by the "dictator" (also known as the Borat/scandalous actor Sasha Beron Cohen.) The week leading up to the Oscars, the Academy found out about his promoting act, he (the Dictator) was uninvited, but somehow managed to find his way in. Costume and all. Making his way down the 600 feet Red Carpet, his first stop was the E! platform, and with Ryan having hosting duties, the Dictator "accidentally dumped the ashes of Kim Jong Ill" or just dumped a box of bisquick all over his priceless Burberry Suit. Nbd. Following the incident, Ryan tweeted, "My mother always told me to pack two jackets for the Red Carpet. Now I know why." 


* Along with The Oscars, the geniuses over at NASCAR decided to compete with them, and thought, "Why would boys want to watch The Oscars, when they can have NASCAR?" Not so fast. In the history of the 54 years that the Daytona 500, it has never had to be postponed until the next day. Ol girl was able to see history being made, when the decision was made to post pone the race until Monday afternoon because of rain. Looking at the futurecast for Monday afternoon, they decided to post post pone again until Monday night. Finally at 7:00 the race went under a green flag and dry track. Fast forward three hours later, when a part of the track caught on fire. Yes, I said fire. Something about one of the drivers hitting a jet dryer car, and made it go into flames. And then the driver managed to tweet a picture right after it happened. If you really want details, ask my father. My favorite tweet from the nights incident had to have come from somewhere where it was instantly re-tweeted multiple times, "This is the James Taylor 500. I've seen fire and rain." 


* Bored yet? Told ya it was going to be a long one.

* In honor of the legendary late musician Davey Jones, I have titled this Daydream Believer. When I told Mom of the news, she had found out right after it happened, and her response? "Oh, I wasn't going to tell you. I didn't think you would know who he was." Uh, duh. Yes I do as a matter of fact. I recognized him from the episode of The Brady Bunch when Marsha writes to him to try to be the performer at her school dance. I forget why he shows up, but yes, thats where I know him from, and thats all that matters.

* Tim Tebow and Taylor Swift dating? There have been no comments from either sides "camp"/reps.

* A tedious 29 week wait until the return of The National Football League. I'm not one for the NFL, but it's a lot better than the 27 weeks of the MLB. As long as we are on the subject of the NFL, allow me to express my thought on the fact that because of the political conventions, the NFL does not want to interfere with that, and the honchos of the NFL have decided that WEDNESDAY September 5th will kick off the opening night of the season. Last time I checked it is always supposed to be the THURSDAY after Labor day. Yeesh.

* This past weekend also happened to be The NBA's All Star weekend, and to kick things off,  Friday was the annual Celebrity All Star Game. Because of the hilarious impromptu and much needed family dinner, I saw that it was on, and DVRed it. Before heading into dinner, I saw that ESPN tweeted something about the Secretary of Education making some sort of dunk. Wait. What? The Secretary of Education playing in the Celebrity Game? I know he works with the President, but he's considered a celebrity? I thought nothing of it, and went on. I happened to catch the end of it, and witnessed the Secretary of Education in fact playing basketball.

* The Biebs has officially become an adult. Weird? Maybe.

* My new life's simple pleasures? PFM's White Cheddar Pimento Cheese and Synders Pretzels Old Fashioned Dipping Sticks. I wasn't a fan of the cheese because of the texture, but after checking out a customer with those two items, it sounded good, and the rest is history.

* While serving my time at the PFM, I was lucky enough to answer the phone, and at the other end, it was the representative for the Kentucky Derby Festival Derby Pins, and she was calling to let my boss know that she was sending someone over today with the first official shipment of pins of the season. #TalkDerbyToMe.


* Not to toot my horn horn, (toot toot) but I'm pretty smart when it comes to knowing the simplest things. Attempting (keyword attempting) to put a reminder on our stainless steel refrigerator for someone to put my Gatorade in the freezer in the morning, of course, I used a magnet. It didn't want to stick. I thought okay, defective magnet, lame sauce. I found another magnet. Still didn't stick. Third times the charm. NOPE. FYI: Stainless steel and magnets don't go together. Dur dur dur.

* Damaging Tornadoes in February with another round tomorrow afternoon. And I must also add that we did not receive a deep hard freeze this Winter. #OhioValleyWinterProblems.

* After hearing the sad news of Davey Jones passing, I happened to hear the news that Snooki is with child. Future cast mate of The Jersey Shore?

* Looks like I'll be hopping on the Suzanne Collins hit trilogy of "The Hunger Games" train. I was never a fan of the whole futuristic fantasy genre, but I know people who don't read, and they've told me that they finished the series in less than a week. And thats saying something.

* If you're still reading, you get a gold medal.

* The latest installment of Dancing With The Stars has been released, and I'm sure you're expecting a post on that. Well, I'm giving you a shortened version. Four words. Team Erkel. Team DeGraw.  I'm only giving you that because I don't know who the other people are. I do know who is on the show, I've just never heard of them.

* Speaking of reality TV, the live shows of American Idol have kicked off, and I've found my final four three. Team Reed, Team Colton, Team Skylar, and Team Holly. No where near as good as last years, but they'll do.

* Saturday night cannot come soon enough. After a week of closing at my home away from home, and experiencing a sleepless night (or two) I have devised a plan that has a little bit of what the doctor ordered.

* [A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. -Emily Dickinson

* The best decision I've made all week? (Besides my Saturday night plan?) Adding Kentucky Sports Radio And Card Chronicle Blogs to my Google Reader App on my phone. Instant humor whenever, wherever I want it.

* The UL basketball team lost to University of South Florida on SENIOR NIGHT. It's one thing to loose to a team that has never been to the Big Dance, but it's another to lose on Senior Night. Embarrassing.

* The start of the triple crown of running takes place this weekend. The Anthem 5K is Saturday morning, and compared to this time last month, the weather better be on my side. I don't think I can run another race in cold, pouring down rain. It's just miserable.

* Charles Barkley of NBA and SNL fame, has predicted that UK will win the 2012 NCAA Mens Basketball National Championship. My thoughts? No comment.

* Operation Luke Russert: 40 Days.

* For those of you who actually stuck with me through this, I thank you. This blog has been almost a week in the making, and it has come together quite nicely.

-Sara-