Multiply 365 Day 76 - Unscripted day off

     The NCAA tournament is barely underway, we are not even through the first set of games yet, but already a couple of upsets occurred which merit mention, since I was bold enough to post my bracket a couple of entries ago.  First was #13 seed Morehead State knocking off #4 seed Louisville.  I'll admit I didn't pick this one, I had Louisville winning this game, though losing the next one, so I am not sure how much it hurts.  Later in the same portion of the bracket #5 Vanderbilt lost to #12 Richmond, which I did pick.  In fact I had Richmond beating Louisville in the next round, the fact that they instead will play a lower seed instead in Morehead State makes me think my pick of Richmond making the Sweet 16 is looking smarter all the time.  Of course for all the patting on the back I am doing to myself for getting the Richmond game right, the big winner out of this would seem to be Kansas, the #1 seed in that region.  With the #4 and #5 seeds both gone, Kansas not making the Elite 8 would be a shocking upset.  

     Those of us in the Burgh can rest easy for a night, Pitt, the #1 seed in the Southeast region, easily advanced to the next round, where they will play the #8 seed Butler.  Thing is, Butler has a big run last year in making it to the title game before falling 61-59 to Duke in the national championship game, and Pitt has been known in the past to fail to live up to expectations come tourney time.  

     I am entered in two bracket contests this year.  One is being sponsored by JT the Brick, host of an overnight sports call in show on Fox Sports Radio.  I usually listen to his show before I go to bed on week nights.  He is doing a contest with his listeners and those people that signed up on his Facebook page were invited to compete.  Of course that means that there are literally hundreds of entries, so I will not end up being the smartest guy in the room, though I am probably among a smaller number that actually had Richmond winning.

     The other contest I am involved in is over at Gyrosports.  Unlike the JT the Brick contest which requires you to pick the entire tournament, at Gyro you are only required to pick one game per round.  Sounds easy, right?  The trick is that unlike just filling out a bracket, in Gyro your pick is against the betting line or the spread in the gambling vernacular.  On the plus side, technically you only have to get 6 games right to win, the prize being $5000, the minus being that the point spread does a lot to level the playing field.  I took North Carolina over Long Island University in the first round, the stipulation being I had to spot LIU 16 pts.  Again I do not expect to win, but there were reasons for signing up, the first being that you got 8 Swagbucks for participating, plus another 5 for picking a game in the first round, whether you were correct or not.  The second being that after each round there is a raffle for 10,000 swagbucks and you get entries for each game you get correct, plus any your referrals get correct.  I nabbed two referrals for the contest, I don't know how active they will be in the contest, but every raffle entry helps.  Besides I need to build up my Amazon account after spending most of my cash over there.  

     I did get my delivery from Amazon today. I called off of work since I wasn't feeling well, which I am sure will piss people off at work, but after yesterday I pretty much don't care. The reps from Pepsi came in the store, to place our order for today and to do some other promotional things, such as retag the coolers for our current 2 for $2.22 promotion on 20 oz bottles, to bring a couple of new glides for the coolers and to talk about the upcoming Gatorade promotion with me.  As part of their visit they left some coupons for the store, including one that says if you buy 2 20oz bottles of a Pepsi product, you get a free 20 os bottle of Sierra Mist (or Pepsi Max, but we have had that product before with limited success, so we have since removed it).  I asked the reps if this coupon was good with the current promotion, they assured me it was so I went ahead and hung the requisite coupons on the cooler doors.  About a half hour later a lady comes in, buys a 20 oz bottle of cherry Crush, a 20 oz bottle of Pepsi and wanted to use the coupon for the Sierra Mist.  Shay, who was on register at the time, proceeds to argue with the customer over the coupon and was in the process of coming down to the office with the Crush in hand, when I asked what was up.  She explained everything to me and I said it was fine, we get Crush from Pepsi and it was part of the promotion.  Since I was headed upstairs anyway, I followed Shay up and they ran the transaction through and then it starts again about how Crush isn't a Pepsi product. To which I say, I buy the stuff every week, I know exactly where we get it from.  Well the bottle says 7 Up, which is true,  but many products are made by one company and another has the distribution rights, in Pittsburgh Crush is distributed by Pepsi.  One would think that would be the end of it, but Shay continues to complain at the register, enlisting another cashier, Stephanie in joining in.  How can they hang coupons about this, blah, blah, blah.  Finally I had had enough after this had gone on for  5 minutes after the customer had left and just bellowed out, "You know, it would have taken 5 seconds to walk back to the fucking cooler and find out for yourself?"  My tolerance for stupidity is non existent, and incessant questioning and complaining about something that I provided an adequate answer to to begin with was just enough to officially piss me off.  So when today arrived and I felt like shit in the morning, while I normally would have struggled through it, today I just didn't care.  It wasn't worth the aggravation.  That means that, unless someone filled the void I left, no order was placed for Friday, nor was I there to help put away the Pepsi order (170 cases) or the Arizona order (38 cases) and more than likely no one bothered to put an order in for our other store as well.  maybe I will get lucky and someone did, technically Tom is trained at Universal and Sammy at our store, but I ain't betting on it.  

     Not that staying home from work alleviated my anger i the least.  Rather I was tucked away in bed, trying to feel better when the phone rang.  Thinking it might be work with a question I strolled over to the phone to see that it was the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the same paper that a few moons back I had a rather blunt encounter with their telephone sales people a few months ago.  One would have thought that it meant they would no longer pursue trying to sell me their newspaper, but it isn't the case.  Just the opposite in fact.  It is not uncommon to receive two and three calls a week from them now, pitching the same tired song about what special the paper is offering now.  getting me out of bed for this was just poking the hornet's nest, so I pick up the phone and instantly the person on the phone goes into her sales pitch.  The woman on the phone starts with the sales pitch, and I say I am not interested.  The thing was, she didn't even break stride, she just kept right on with her pitch.  Again I say I am not interested.  She didn't even stop talking, just kept right on going.  A third time.  The same thing occurs.  Finally I literally say, "Are you even listening to me?" and that doesn't stop her, she is still reading the script that was no doubt right in front of her phone.   That was enough for me, I just cut in, my rant fully rehearsed in my head.  "Listen, I am fucking sick and tired of you assholes calling me two and three times a week.  I don't want your fucking paper and if you continue to call me I will hire a lawyer and sue your fucking ass for harassment.  Now are you listening?"  The other end of the call went quiet, followed about 20 seconds later by a click as she hung up the line.  Apparently that was unexpected in the script she was given.

      While I was off work I did manage to get a couple of small thing done.  Mostly just walking to the mailbox to send my landlord some money and a copy of next years lease that I had signed, and also an entry into he Penguins Cap Trick challenge.  The Cap Trick game is a game sponsored by 7Up, where there are words hidden under caps of 7 Up products (an no, that doesn't include Crush for all of the smartasses out there) and if you spell out certain phrases you can then be entered into a raffle for Penguins tickets and merchandise.  I managed to cobble together the phrase "A Great Day for Jockey", a phrase that former Pens coach Bob Johnson used to say, and mailed it off today.  Not that having the phrase is a guarantee of winning anything, but at least I have a chance now.

      Well I have bitched and moaned long enough, time to retire to a good book or some TV or something.