March Madhouse

Greetings from the heart of March Madness ... well, for Rounds 1 & 2 of the NCAA playoffs anyway.

Yesterday we were treated to some exciting action in the upper echelon of the Bradley Center. Or, in layman's terms, the "nosebleed seats." We were joking that we have now officially become members of the "mile high club" -- but I'm pretty sure that refers to something quite different than sitting for 10 hours in the very last row of the upper deck. Yup, the wall was behind us and the ceiling not far above us. So yes, Miss Scared of Heights Robyn, was freaking out. But got over it.

Amazingly, we had good seats! Seriously, the venue is just small enough we could see the action pretty well. We did not miss a single dunk and we even saw some calls the refs missed!

Other than the Minnesota loss, it was a lot of fun and a very cool environment for us "old folks" to hang around in. Saw some close games and not-so-close ones where, being kind-hearted, we just had to cheer for the underdogs.

The last game ran late and we ran to our vehicle in the wind and rain, maneuvered road construction, too, and found our hotel after midnight. It sure felt good to sleep in a soft bed after sitting all day!

Today we played it low-key. Watched some college hoops and a little of the Wisconsin state boys basketball tournament on TV. Then we headed out for some unique entertainment...

Our friends knew of a place called Koz's Mini Bowl, which looks like a house from the outside -- a house with a few beer lights in the window. Inside, we found a bar and a side room that had 4 bowling lanes, about 15 feet long and raised up a foot off the ground. Picture a Skee Ball game with pins at the end. The balls could fit in your hand and were slightly bigger than Skee Balls -- with no holes drilled in them. The other unique feature is that once you rolled your ball down, a teenage boy with a dream weekend job, reset the pins and rolled your ball back. Nothing automatic about this place -- except the fun.

Since I fancy myself a pretty good Skee Ball player (the once a decade I play it), I did well. My inaugural game was a 232! That's right -- I was on a strike streak! My second game fell under 200. The old "my arms getting tired" excuse. We all had fun, though. My friend Christine almost got a 300 in one of her games. I'll share pictures after we get back. In case you get inspired to build one of these at home! (Teenager not included.)

After that, we went to eat at Beer Bellies, a place we visited a year ago when we were in Milwaukee for the Bucks-Celtics game. While we were waiting for our fabulous meal, we saw #1 ranked Kansas lose to Northern Iowa. There go 75% of the brackets! I hope whoever wins ours at work appreciates my 5-dollar donation. Dang.

Even Carter called to let us know (in case we don't have TV in Milwaukee). Funny. None of our brackets have a chance anymore so I just hope our Round 2 playoff games tomorrow are just plain old close and exciting. I think there's a pretty good chance of that happening.

Can't wait to get back to the top deck of the Madhouse!