I have made four March trips to Las Vegas. My first was in 2003. I had been working six months at PFW. I lived at my parents' house rent-free. Marriage wasn't yet in the cards. Flights to Vegas were still relatively cheap, especially if you didn't mind stopping in Dallas on the way there and in Atlanta on the way back.

So off I went. Stayed at the Rio. There was a place right next to the sports book that sold $2 slices of pizza. That took care of lunch, and sometimes dinner. I learned that six-team parlays are too often dead after one game to be a reliable form of retirement income.

Three more March trips followed, each on the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. They got progressively more expensive. We set up shop at The Mirage; no $2 pizza there. The dreaded extra trip to the ATM was made once ... or twice, but I had as much fun as I've ever had in my life on those trips. In '05, there was Illinois over Arizona; if not at the Allstate Arena itself, I can't think of a better place to have watched that game. The following year, it was UCLA, looking hopelessly out of it, coming back to nail Gonzaga on the wire. And UConn, trying to become the first team to sleep-walk into the Final Four. And failing.

Of that last group of friends that made the trip in '06, four will be in my wedding this August.

I shall return one of these springs, but not this one. But I'll see some of those guys in the weeks to come, and we will tell our tales of trips past.

A toast to that.