VSS Entertainment - Men's Basketball Conference Tournaments Starting

By VSS Entertainment

Are you getting ready for the "madness" that is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament?

This week, the major conferences will be giving us a warm-up during the conference tournaments, while a few conferences finished up their tournaments this past weekend with the winners earning an automatic invitation to the NCAA Tournament.

However, the BIG boys will be starting as early as Monday and Tuesday, March 7-8 with the opening rounds and everyone seems to be getting in full swing by Wednesday and Thursday, March 9-10.

While some of the conference winners earn automatic bids, this is a good week to start looking at teams and getting an idea of their strengths and weaknesses (especially if you're going to participate in the office pool or in an online pick 'em basketball contest.

Here, CBS Sports has the full conference basketball schedule with links to each conference.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/schedules/conference-tournament
The pairings will be announced Sunday evening on CBS.

Have fun!

VSS Entertainment - Planning An 'Over The Hill' Party

Anytime anyone has a birthday party end in a “0” – 30, 40, 50 and so on – it makes for a great excuse to have a birthday party. 

Some consider 30 to be “over the hill” but it’s probably up to the spouse or host of the party. Generally, we see more “over the hill” parties at 40 and 50, but not too many at 30. That’s still pretty young!

The most important thing about planning and hosting an “over the hill” party is to make sure the birthday boy or girl is good humored and will take the event in stride. You absolutely don’t want to ruin their day and have the birthday guest of honor in tears on their birthday! We’ve seen this happen before!

With all that in mind, here are some tips on hosting an “over the hill” birthday party:

- Decide if this is going to be a surprise birthday party or not. Some people don’t like surprises, but you could plan the party and not let the birthday guy or gal know that the REAL surprise is that it’s an “over the hill” party!

- Pick and plan your location. If you’re looking to host it at a recreation hall; church; restaurant, etc., plan early and reserve your date! If your party is going to be outdoors, have an alternate plan in case of bad weather.

- Make a guest list and get the invitations out as soon as you have the date and location selected. People (especially those with family members) are extremely busy these days, so make sure you get this event on their calendar early! Also, keep your birthday location in mind when inviting guests. If the location is ideal for 50 people, don’t invite 150!

- Have the food catered. This will have you a ton of time.

- Get all black decorations; balloons; plate; cups, etc.

- Plan and order your cake early. Will you order a black cake? Or one in the same of a tombstone, perhaps?

- Will you have entertainment at the party such as a DJ or play some of the guests favorite music via a CD player?

Above all, plan early; get organized and have fun!

VSS Entertainment - What Exactly Is March Madness?

By Christopher Douglas Donohue

Even if you're not a college basketball fan, odds are you have heard the term, "March Madness." Each year beginning in the month of March, for four weeks the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) holds Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments to determine the national champions of college basketball, and these tournaments are nicknamed, "March Madness."

The NCAA tournament officially begins with the announcement of the bracket, which is the rankings and first game match-ups of the teams who have earned the chance to play in the tournament. The bracket also introduces which teams will play in which locations throughout the country for their tournament games.

These brackets become a national basketball fan obsession, with people entering contests trying to guess the outcome of each game in the bracket, ending with the overall national champion and a tiebreaker score prediction.

Many businesses, websites and groups of friends host contests where people can either enter for free or for a fee to compete against their friends or complete strangers to see who can score the most points with their bracket predictions. Prizes for winning these contests range anywhere from bragging rights to cash or merchandise.

The NCAA tournament is notorious for big upsets. Because teams in this tournament are paired against teams from different conferences who they would not normally play against, the outcome of any given game can be very unpredictable. The way the teams are paired up in the first round tends to favor the higher-rated teams, for example a number-one rated teams plays against a number-sixteen rated team, however upsets are not uncommon in the first and second rounds of the tournament. This makes for match-ups that are both fun and difficult to predict, and is part of the reason the tournament is nicknamed, "March Madness."

Getting Invited to the Party

Thirty-one NCAA men's basketball teams get automatic invites to play in the NCAA tournament because they won their respective conference. Another 37 teams are chosen through a selection committee based on their conference record, road record, ranking in national polls, wins versus ranked opponents, and RPI (rating percentage index).

This selection committee also decides what ranking each team will get, called a seed, and which of the four regions each team will be placed in. Each region contains between 16 and 18 teams, with the top-ranked team in each region getting a number-one seed. A lower seed who manages to advance far in the tournament is termed a "Cinderella" team.

Recent years have added four extra teams to the original 64 teams who used to comprise the tournament. These four extras play off in and opening round to earn the chance to officially play in the tournament. After the 64 tournament teams are officially decided, the real tournament begins.

The Tourney

The NCAA tournament usually begins the third Thursday in March with an intense full two days of games that pares the field of 64 teams down to 32. The next two days games are played that pares the field down again to just 16 teams, often referred to as the "Sweet 16." Games resume the following Thursday, the second week of the tournament, where the field is then pared down to the Final Four teams. The following, third, week of the tournament features the four teams left racing for the National Championship. Even though the Final Four games are played the first Saturday in April, they are still a big part of March Madness. The National Championship game is then played the following Monday.

VSS Entertainment - Making Even More Wonderful Memories Celebrating An Anniversary

By VSS Entertainment

Honoring any anniversary is really a special moment for the husband and wife to think about  a reaffirmation of vows they took at their wedding and also to generally remember yesteryear. And, since it's a special  milestone, it is truly worthy of a meaningful anniversary and remembrance party for the loving couple. After determining a  party theme, you will want to put special effort into unique, perhaps Pinterest - worthy, party  invites, that incorporate lovely media (either 2-D or 3-D), accessories or graphics along with  treasured words of  tribute.  Continue reading to review a few other tips to help your party  planning be even easier.

Why a Party for an Anniversary?

A tribute celebration for a loving coupe shows just how much you care about them and honors  their many successful years of marriage.  With the ups and downs of modern life, it has become  even more rare for couples to make a loving relationship work.  By reinforcing a celebration of their  long relationship effort, it helps the couple cement an even stronger bond together and within their  family.  As a couple reaches numerically higher anniversary years...like their 20th, 40th, they  provide inspiration to their younger family members.  The anniversary party is also a wonderful way  to have a cross-generational party all together that is fun for everyone and special for the couple.   To pull it off successfully does take some planning, however, especially if it is to be a surprise party.   And as families and friends over the years become more far flung, getting everyone together  usually takes some travel coordination.

Noteworthy Ideas for Anniversary Parties

Among the first choices you will have to make is exactly what type of event you'll want to have.    Formal or beachy?  Casual cookout or sit down dinner?   A formal affair might lend itself to being  more of an occasion to invite adults, peers and work colleagues.  A family anniversary party may be  smaller and more intimate.  Maybe if the couple originally had a small, inexpensive wedding due to  their limited finances when they were younger, it might be time to throw them the occasion they  now deserve.  Once you decide on the type of event, think about what type of venue you will need  to get everyone together.  For a formal event, you may want a ballroom or banquet hall allowing for  seating everyone comfortably and dancing afterword.  For a simpler event, a lovely park or hosting  it in someone's generous backyard may be an option.  But you may wish to rent an event tent just  in case it rains.  Some families do escape weekends where everyone gets together in a  comfortable lodge or boutique hotel and celebrates the anniversary couple with multiple fun  activities, including silly reminiscing events, and lots of feasting, for an entire weekend, usually as  an opportunity for a family reunion.

Once you decide on location and number of guests, think about your invitations.  If you are  hand-making the invitations, estimate carefully the time you might need to put them all together  along with lead time so that people can have time to RSVP back to you and also plan travel  arrangements.  Get other family members to help.  You may even want to put together a funny  video and send it out to everyone via Facebook to encourage people to come if it is to be a less  formal event. 

As you choose your anniversary party theme, start thinking about specifics as to whether it will  likely be a home-based barbecue or beach fiesta, or black tie party.  The theme might be selected  based on the particular color of the original wedding or as a symbol of the specific anniversary  milestone number:  a first anniversary is paper, so white for paper or yellow for papyrus.  For the other anniversary years, Hallmark Cards has a helpful gift guide:  {  http://ideas.hallmark.com/anniversary-ideas/anniversary-gifts-by-year/ } and this gemstone site,  Gem Selec, { http://www.gemselect.com/gem-info/birthstones.php } has a list of gems (use this for  party theme color ideas or for presenting jewelry) for each anniversary.  A 9th year anniversary  gem is Lapis Lazuli.  A traditional gift is pottery, a modern gift is leather.  All kinds of ideas  incorporating blues with pottery and leather could really make a special party theme for a 9th anniversary allowing for lots of decor options as a complement.

Having a surprise anniversary party is the ultimate challenge.  Making sure your guests don't tip off  the couple and leak the surprise by having your invitations well-worded and prominent in your conversations with the invited guests will help to not ruin the surprise.  Setting up a simple candlelit dinner date or a romantic cruise for "just the two of them" to revisit their first date is  usually a good tactic which allows for either a simple anniversary for the couple and allows for the other guests to get together to secretly plan the special date.  If possible, everyone can then all  show up later to party with the couple after they have had some time alone to reminisce.

Embellishing Your Invites for the Anniversary Party

Before beginning to spend money on supplies to customize your anniversary invitation cards, you  will want to determine if it's a household party or perhaps a more formal event. For formal parties,  your party invites must have a little more formal wording, somewhat like a formal wedding invitation.  And, for timing, you will need to send your anniversary party invites out 4 to 6 weeks prior to your  scheduled event, whether it's formal or casual. If you're planning an anniversary open-house, think  about having it buffet style where your visitors can appear and disappear at whatever time most  closely fits all of them with a period range detailed inside your anniversary invites, get a bit to eat,  mingle, and hug the happy couple.  Also make sure your invitation wordings indicate the dress  code, especially if it's a color-based theme celebration

VSS Entertainment - Super Bowl Party Food Ideas!

Blog Published by VSS Entertainment Riverside CA

Guest Blog by Marilee Johnson

If you're tired of the same old chili and cornbread for Super Bowl halftime food, why don't you change things up a bit? How about a different kind of soup? In general, soups are very easy to make and they don't take much time. If you make them the day before the party, you'll have less to do on the day of the big game and you'll have more time with your guests. Another bonus of making them a day ahead is it gives it time for the flavors to really blend.

A crowd favorite is chicken tortilla soup. There are many variations of this soup but it usually consists of onions, garlic, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, canned tomatoes, chicken stock, yellow, orange or red bell peppers and chicken. Saute the onions until soft, add garlic and cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes and stock. Either grill, bake or saute a couple of chicken breasts and then shred or cut into 1" cubes. To flavor those ingredients, add cumin, oregano and canned chipotle pepper. You don't need much of the chipotle as it packs a wonderful, spicy hot and smoky flavor. You can freeze the remainder of the can, just scoop out and put in a freezer bag. This is just about the best secret ingredient you could ask for! Add the chicken to the soup, simmer for 15 minutes and let cool. Refrigerate until the next day.

You can add homemade bread to go along with the soup. It has made a huge comeback, it's so very easy to make and it would score a touchdown on Super Bowl Sunday. The four main ingredients are flour, yeast salt and water. There is a wet dough process that takes about 15 minutes to mix, then about 2 hours to rise at room temperature. You refrigerate the dough at least 3 hours or even overnight. The mixture will yield 4 boules of bread and will store up to 14 days refrigerated. On baking day, you form the number of loaves you want, let rest for 40 minutes and then bake for 30 minutes. You could even get creative and form a football shaped loaf. That would be a fun and impressive way to present your beautiful homemade loaf on game day.

Since the soup was made the day before, reheat on medium heat. When it's time to serve, ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream and chopped cilantro. Squeeze a lime wedge into the soup for extra tangy flavor.

Slice the bread and serve with butter.

This will offer your guests a welcome change to your Super Bowl menu. It's quick and easy and most of it will be done the day before the game. You can have piece of mind that your halftime meal will be a hit. You can enjoy your guests and actually watch the game and the commercials!

 

VSS Entertainment - Ideas For Your Big Game Party!

Oh, the BIG game is coming up this Sunday and you know what that means?

PARTY!

Friends, family, food (lots of food) and plenty of drinks for everyone and, of course, the game!

Here are a few ideas that will help you host a part without having to spend a lot of money and without having to do a lot of work:

• Have guests bring their own chili for a “chili cook-off.” This provides both a fun party activity and a main course for your party meal, taking much of the burden off the host. Really, any type of potluck is a good idea for a sports party. An alternative potluck idea for beer lovers is to have guests bring some of their favorite brew to share.
• Focus on finger foods. Veggie platters, cheese platters, chips and dip are all great foods for a game day party. For the most part, people just want some easy and tasty snacking while they watch the game, nothing too fancy.
• Have guests dress in theme. Ask your party-goers to dress up representing their favorite team or player (i.e., in jerseys or team colors, or if they want to get more creative, with wigs, temporary tattoos, etc.). As for the host, consider dressing up like a referee – don’t forget the whistle to call out party fouls!
• Have fun with the décor. Decorations for sports parties should be lighthearted and simple.
• Host your own game. Host a quick game of touch football or driveway basketball at half time or before the big game – your ref costume should come in handy for this!

You can use the following decoration tips:

• Cover your table with chalkboard contact paper and draw lines to represent the field/court using chalk and a ruler. Use it as a tablecloth and/or have guests use it to strategize their own plays!
• To celebrate football and other games that take place on grass, cut up pieces of AstroTurf to make coasters or have a faux-grass tablecloth.
• Use food and drinks as décor by setting up a Gatorade cooler for a game-time atmosphere or by serving some foods that resemble the game ball (for example, cookies decorated to look like basketballs).

Have fun!