And the madness has begun...

     Having watched 4 straight days of basketball, I can officially say, its "March Madness" in our household. And I am not complaining. I am sure most people would roll their eyes if we told them we stayed up to watch all the games this past weekend, but we love it. (Oh by the way U.S., thanks for springing forward an hour, it makes watching the late games a little easier.)  But these are the times that we look forward to, it gives us a little taste of home or familiarity that is needed every so often over here. No cricket, no World Championship Darts (although I am a huge fan of all the boozing and dancing that goes on at those things) and no spring training games on our SKY cable (British cable). Just straight college basketball. And they even use our US commentators which might not seem like such a big deal but let me break it down for you. We all know how annoying it is to hear Madonna and her faux British accent, right?  Well imagine that you have to listen to her for 6 hours... straight. You can't really pin point what is so annoying about it ( ummmm, she was born in Michigan), but it just doesn't sound right.  Well, SKY likes to use their own commentators in their studio for most sports. It works for some sports but for basketball, not so much. Maybe it's the accent or the phrases or the fact that they are not on site so they are a few seconds behind but in any case, it's not pretty. Believe me, I am not bashing just the English, it would be just as ugly if Jim Nantz did a English Premiership game (soccer) or the above mentioned darts. This ugliness goes both ways people so don't feel slighted UK. I have yet to hear an American use the words boot and pitch with out sounding like, for a lack of a better word, a douche. It's funny but the little things like that make a huge difference for us over here. And something good like that, goes a long way. So needless to say, we were on cloud 9. Factor in the good weather, some BBQ, spinach- artichoke dip, blueberry muffins and that awesome Duke loss, and we were pretty close to heaven. Now, we will use this week to catch up on all the sleep we missed just to do it all over again next weekend. Here's hoping next weekend will be just as crazy. Ahhhh, the life of living abroad.

{Spinach artichoke dip}

{Ridiculously good Blueberry Muffins, I used this recipe. I said ridiculously good, right?}

{Getting the patio 'spring' ready. Twinkle lights, check. Flowers, check}

{Got some use out of this bad boy this weekend}