Low-key day today with no games, and everything pointed toward our favorite Saint on this Easter Sunday, St. Elmo. We will get to that, but also, a HUGE REVELATION!!!!
07:30 - We are all up and awake.
07:45 - Speaking with Racecar who was just informed about our MERCH STORE for Southwestern Central. Her first comment: "I hope you didn't spend any money for that," followed by her second, "Where is the women's merch?". She ended it with, "You know I am not buying anything from there!" In short: (1) No; (2) We just went live, we will be updating it with women specific merch; and (3) Yes, we knew.
09:06 - Sinickal telling us about his conversation with Allison this morning about trying to figure out how to put our meeting with Sue and her friends into the blog. Allison: "What do you mean figure out? You just told me what happened." Sinickal: "Yeah, but we have to tell it funny." Allison: "You're not funny. The blog posts aren't funny. You are a little clever ... sometimes." We are taking shots left and right. I feel bad for Kevin, he's probably up next.
10:36 - As it is Easter Sunday, we are having our serious conversation about the resurrection. Tony, who had a little incident shaving his head, looks like he is wearing the Blood of Christ. Kev-O remarks that it has filled in nicely.
10:56 - It has gotten really cold here in Indianapolis and none of us are properly prepared. Kev-O notes that he should have thought to bring a light jacket. Tony replies "but, it is not April 25th." Happy early Miss Congeniality Day.
11:00 - In Uber to go eat.
11:11 - Enter Ralston's Draft House.
12:00 - The bartender definitely undersold us on the quality of the food. She previously said that it was, "a little elevated bar food." This was good. Pepster's trio of Waffle tacos was amazing, especially the chorizo with goat cheese. Sinickal's Smashed Patty Melt was spectacular. Tony's traditional breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes was spot on. Kev-O's pesto chicken flatbread was way better than any bar food should be! We picked well.
12:10 - We noticed that ESPN The Ocho is on today. Up first, the Bullshooter Invitational Shootout of Darts. Later followed by Omegaball, and Wiffle Ball.
12:16 - Find out the bartender went to Indiana University. She says she isn't really into basketball, because they aren't very good. "Maybe they will figure it out. Probably not."
12:46 - On a trip for a bio break, Sinickal has to walk past a table of UConn fans. He tells them to enjoy your run since 1999, it will be shortlived!
12:46 - 14:29 - There is not enough time to put in here all of the different topics that this woman sitting behind us has an opinion on. I will say that her friend showed up for an impromptu birthday party, wondered how the lady and her husband were already at Ralston's. Lady said, "When we got the texts to meet at Ralston at 1:30, we were already here.
14:29 - FA Cup Quarterfinal before West Ham and Leeds goes to PKs. (Not on the Ocho!)
14:42 - Pepster notices that in the shadowbox in the bar announcing upcoming events, Ralston's is hosting a Drag Brunch next Sunday. Somewhere Mike Pence's mother is rolling in her grave.
15:00 - AKC Agility contest on the Ocho! The table behind us with the lady starts analyzing all of the dogs in the contest. We start evaluating the handlers as if this is the AKC/NFL combine. Hip movements, backpedal, footwork, hand signals, all on the table. The handlers did not serve the racers well.
15:02 - I am not saying that Dexter came here in a Subaru, but Dexter came here in a Subaru. [Ed. Note - Dexter is a dog in the agility competition and we are evaluating handlers.]
15:18 - Sinickal is trying to find out how to bet on the AKC Agility contest.
15:24 - We have figured out that the AKC Agility contest is broken into categories of dogs by size (height). The 24" category comes out. They stop timing the dogs with a stopwatch and start using a calendar.
15:30 - We missed the start of the women's championship game. TVs turn to UCLA - South Carolina.
17:11 - Trey and Tyler arrive. Trey is Pepe's cousin's husband, and Tyler is his friend. They are joining us for most of the remainder of the evening.
17:49 - UCLA wins. Lauren Betts won Tournament MOP, but that game was controlled by Gabriela Jacquez, causing Pepster to remark, she is Hispanic like I am Hispanic!
18:18 - J.J. Spaun wins the Valero.
18:48 - As we were preparing to leave Ralston's to head toward our dinner reservations, two guys wearing Maguire University shirts enter the bar and sit down. Something is off. Pepster jokes that he found another fake university.
18:48:30 - Kev-O shows us this start of the wikipedia page for Maguire University.
To quote Danny Hurley's mom after Brylon Mullins hit the buzzer-beater to defeat Duke, "Holy Fucking Shit!"
There is another fake school that predates - by a lot - Southwestern Central. The most important thing is that we came up with Southwestern Central independently. It is also important to note that somehow Pepster knew immediately that Maguire University had to be fake. You know how they say "Real recognize Real?" Well apparently "Fake recognize Fake!" It is weird that we have never ran into anyone or anything related to Maguire University before today.
19:02 - In an Uber to St. Elmo.
19:14 - We are checked in for our 19:30 rezzie at St. Elmo. This place is packed - befitting one of the truly great steakhouses in the country, nay, world. We head across the street to Tom's Watch bar.
19:37 - After ordering and receiving a round of drinks, the six of us find a standing room only ledge and post up. We stand next to a couple in UConn garb, and Sinickal starts up a conversation with them about Syracuse - surprise, surprise - and the old Big East. Delightful conversation which culminated in the guy's spot-on impersonation of Bill Raftery's call of Pitt's Jerome Lane breaking the backboard on a dunk back-in-the day.
19:47 - Pepster receives the text from St. Elmo that the table is ready. Pepster and Sinickal bid adieu to the UConn couple in mid-conversation about Dan Hurley's, um exploits, toward referees, especially how he received no discipline for the head butt in the Duke game. UConn couple calls it the "head nuzzle". Pepster tells them they can soft play it all they want, but a coach shouldn't even be head nuzzling an official. Guy asks, "Are you a lawyer?"
19:53 - At table in St. Elmo. In the basement room. Apparently Jalen Rose is upstairs.
20:01 - We order the first round of drinks. Pepster orders a high-end bourbon as asks if they have big rocks. Sinickal angrily asks why he thinks a classic midwestern steakhouse wouldn't have big rocks.
20:15 - Seriously, if you have never been to St. Elmo and you like steakhouses, GO!!! They have one starter/appetizer on the menu, shrimp cocktail, with the hottest/tastiest cocktail sauce you will ever have! You can see some of the remnants in this photo.
20:47 - A large table of like 16 or so next to us gets up to start going to the restroom and leave, and just general rustling after the end of their meal. We notice that many of them have this somewhat now recognizable green, orange, and white pins, bracelets, and other accoutrement. We ask them about it. THEY ARE WITH MAGUIRE UNIVERSITY!!! One of the guys goes through the story. This thing is apparently huge. They have their own website, a portion of which covers THE ORIGIN STORY. The primary guy talking to us says that we actually just missed the founder as he left a couple of minutes before we started to engage with them. They give us bracelets and pins.
22:22 - Time to leave St. Elmo after a ridiculously good bourbon butter cake. Still flabbergasted by Maguire University, Tyler looks them up a bit and notices that several years ago, "To comply with Title IX," they send a contingent of fans to the Women's Final Four in addition to the Men's.
22:29 - Enter Le Meridien hotel bar. Yes, the Mike Tyson/Desiree Washington hotel bar. We tell Trey and Tyler the greatest bar argument of all time story.
22:35 - Tony's order of a Paloma has one of the bartenders scrambling to find someone else to make it. Not because he didn't know how, but because he is allergic to grapefruit juice. And yes, this is a thing (we looked).
22:27 - Sinickal compliments the bartender on her bunny ears. She remarks that she loves festive holidays and enjoys dressing up for them (except for Flag Day or Arbor Day). Sinickal responds that he also likes festive holidays, which is why he is wearing all black. The bartender says "I like black also." Sinickal replies with "thank you."
23:01 - Pepster and Sinickal start arguing over the reasons Mike Tyson and Desiree Washington were in Indianapolis back in 1991. Pepster believes Tyson was in town for the Indy Black Expo. Sinickal thinks he was judging the Miss Black America contest. [Ed. note - Desiree Washington was a contestant, having won Miss Black Rhode Island.]
23:12 - Somebody looks it up. The Miss Black America contest was sponsored and promoted by the Indy Black Expo. They were both right, AGAIN, in this same bar.
23:45 - Out of context quotation, "This is how an economy gets ruined by AI."
00:15 - Begin actual discussion about AI.
00:43 - Discussions turns to all of the jobs AI is going to take away (or not).
00:44 - Pepster remarks that the only jobs AI took away were point guards in the Chinese Basketball League. Kev-O, who just sits-and-waits for a bad Pepster joke so he can chastise him, gives a Chef's Kiss. [Ed. Note - This was a pretty good joke, but Kev-O might also be drunk]. [Ed. Note - Probably not the only one].
00:48 - We pay our tab and as we are awaiting our Uber, bartender just casually mentions that her best friend's son is Desmond Bane.
00:50 - In Uber, and an automated voice tells us all to put on our seatbelts. Kev-O in the back states how that is too much work. Sinickal responds, "Already did. Not too much work for me." Kev-O's retort, "Shut up Shotgun!"
00:51 - One of us may have said, "No one should ever let me have this many Manhattans!"
00:51:15 - "Sundown, Sundown, Sundown!"
00:54 - Arrive home. Tony calls it a night.
01:00 - Find that Mr. 3000 is on television. Learn that Bernie Mac apparently has good taste in women.
01:39 - Mr. 3000 finishes, Sinickal and Pepster both head up to bed after trying to wake Kev-O from the couch. "He'll figure it out eventually," says Sinickal.
Freaking Maguire University!
