This year I did two brackets for NCAA tournament.  The first one wasn’t a very likely outcome, but my superstitious nature made me choose what I hoped would happen, rather than what I thought would happen.  Whether or not I believed a team could win was less important than the ramifications of not choosing a team that meant something.  If I didn’t choose my home city and first college, Cincinnati, to go all the way, I feel I would have hexed them; and, the moment they stopped moving forward in the bracket, it would be all my fault…

A swimming pool can bring about many memories; in my book of memories mostly a lot of festive family fun!  My grandmother had a pool and my cousins and I spent what seems like every day of the summer three months in and around Gigi’s pool.  There was nothing better than the anticipation of our occasional poolside lunches ordered from Burger Chef or running down the back kitchen steps with Popsicles and Eskimo Pies dripping down our fingers.  Her backyard was a childhood dream come true and every day brought something new:  Swimming lessons from cousin Doug (a Cincinnati…