Bryce Harper

Good afternoon everyone.  Evidently I underestimated the desire that people have to laugh at my NCAA basketball picks (although I fooled everyone by going 3-1 in the 'Elite 8' over the weekend)...  Anyway, my point is that 'Bikini Hill' is going to surpass the 30,000 viewmark today instead of tomorrow, because I didn't give enough respect to the traffic that the blog would be receiving over the weekend.  Tomorrow I plan on addressing this milestone in more detail, but I'll be very honest with you when I say that it does please me.  During the first 15 months of its existence (I started writing the blog on September 28th, 2011), 'Bikini Hill' received just over 19,000 views.  In the last 3 months, this blog has been visited over 10,000 times.  I also plan on thanking a lot of people for that tomorrow (including you)...  Take a look at the number of total views featured at the top right of this page, because the number should be very close to the 30k mark now (sorry, I have no prize to offer you, and no way of knowing if you're number 30,000)...

So it's the full opening day of the Major League Baseball season...  HOW do you earn the title of the blog on that day you're asking yourself?  I bet no one was asking that...  Well, Bryce Harper of the Nationals has already hit home runs is his first two plate appearances of the season today.  You would be correct if you guessed that Harper is on NONE of my three fantasy teams.  Since I work at Harper's, you think that I would have drafted him at least once...  ANYWAY, I will be watching baseball ALL... DAY... LONG... as ESPN/ESPN2 have games starting at noon, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 CST...  :)  :)  :)  Due to plans that I have next Sunday, today is both my Saturday and my Sunday (Coach, you could have just said that today is your whole weekend...).

Jumping back to college basketball, my heart goes out to Louisville's Kevin Ware, who suffered a gruesome injury during yesterday's victory over Duke.  I have honestly not watched the video yet because all of the feedback that I have received from people who have seen it.  Just the thought of suffering a compound fracture...  They said that as Ware was being wheeled off the court, he was telling his teammates, "just win the game..."  :)  I hope that you have a speedy and full recovery Mr. Ware...

A group that is not likely to recover for a while is the women's basketball team from Baylor.  I just happened to wake up before my alarms went off for work last night, and I was immediately flipping channels between the Spurs/Heat game and the Rangers/Astros season opener.  Well, then I get a text from my brother asking me if I was watching the Baylor/Louisville women's game.  I honestly had not seen a game from the women's tournament yet this season (you know, I've been spending my time making such stellar picks on the men's games)...  Anyway, this was the final game of the 'Sweet 16' on the women's side, and Baylor is the defending national champion, in addition to being the top-ranked team in the nation.  Well, the Cardinals decided to employ a strategy of shooting three-pointers against the Lady Bears, and they were seemingly hitting EVERYTHING...  I think that the Cards hit five in a row once I had switched the channel, and built up a huge early second-half lead.  As you knew they would, Baylor came STORMING BACK, and what had once been a 20-point deficit turned into a 1-point lead for the Lady Bears...  Louisville ended up winning by a point in what was easily the wildest women's college hoop game that I have ever seen.  Check out the highlights on this one if you can find them...

In the near future, I think that I will begin posting on Mondays-Thursdays here, with definite "special posts" popping up from time to time on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  March was a very strange month as I posted just twice a week for a couple of weeks, and then I posted 13 times in 12 days through Saturday's entry.  Again, thanks for stopping by (one of MANY 'thanks' you'll be seeing in the next few days)...  :)

I'm just now realizing that I've been watching baseball for 2 hours today, and that I still have 10 hours to go...  :P

Let me take a moment to give a 'shoutout' to Keri and Gabbie, who let me know over the weekend that they are faithful readers of my little blog, as well as to Laura and Autumn, who have yet to find Bikini Hill (I'm going to tag them today through facebook though to remind them)...  ;)

I hope that you have an outstanding Opening Day, and I will see you again tomorrow!