To keep it simple, here's how many real-life Sweet Sixteen teams are typed in to my bracket spreadsheet (what? at least I can't spill Dr. Pepper on it during upsets this year) right now:

Dad's Office: 10
Deadspin: 9
Family: 7 (guess the second guessing isn't really paying off)
Fantasy: 3

The good news is, most of the teams I lost are teams everyone else lost, too -- and in my best two brackets, I had Wichita State to the Sweet Sixteen so that helped. It also helps that I detest the Big Ten, so it was only the loss of the top-tier teams (Illinois and Ohio State) that really hurt me. Conversely, I definitely didn't give the Pac-10 enough credit. Maybe because every time they are on TV it's just UCLA crushing someone who used to be good. Anyway, I'm not going to say how well I'm doing in Dad's Office pool right now because I have learned my lesson after last year. But it isn't bad.

In my women's bracket, I still have 14 of my Sweet Sixteen -- but the second round started today, so we can't really compare yet.

So I got my annual birthday haircut on Thursday. It's pretty short, at least in terms of how I define short hair, which is "just barely grazing my collarbone." It's really pretty much the same way I've been getting it cut for about a year now, except more so. Lala says I did a good job replicating the way the stylist fixed it (she saw me the day after), but I think it needs a little more practice.

Man, this Cousin R wedding is a lot of work. I trekked up to Macy's -- on a Sunday -- to do the present shopping, which was frustrating. Bathroom stuff seemed like a good idea as the chances I will ruin a towel on the four different forms of transportation I will be using to get to Memphis is pretty minimal. The good news was, all of the bathroom stuff on their list happened to be on sale last weekend. The bad news -- much of the stuff I was looking for was sold out. But I got it done. Then I went over to the big H&M and found a necklace to go with my dress, and finally gave up on buying new shoes after searching in every bargain basement and closeout store accessible by the D line. I probably shouldn't have bothered, but I thought I might want to wear hose since it's going to be cool there (what's up with that, by the way), and I don't have any close-toed dress shoes.

I'm freaking out about this wedding to a certain extent. That is to say, I am freaking out just the tiniest amount, but I've never done that before, not even back when Married Brother was Engaged Brother. Maybe it's because my entire extended family on my mother's side will be there, and even though they've been really, really good about not pressuring me, I did start to get a few "so are you dating someone?" inquiries last Christmas. Cousin R is my only older cousin on that side, too, so once he gets married it's just me and the college kids who aren't engaged/married/divorcing. I think this may have contributed to the crush craziness a few weeks ago, which has dialed back to an acceptable degree of attraction, thank goodness. Or maybe I've been watching too many Sex and the City reruns. (Actually, maybe what's scaring me is that I've been relating to Sex and the City reruns. Problem solved!) It's not that I'm depressed, or jealous, or not looking forward to the weekend. I just didn't expect the event and the preparations for it to be on my mind so much.

So it's "ten degrees below normal" here. Again. For the fourth straight March. I have yet to live through March in New York where the normal temperature days out numbered ones below normal. Can we just stop pretending and accept that 40 degrees is normal for March? Instead of teasing me like this?