"So many foreign roads"

Well the weekend visit with my maternal grandparents was great. Filled with several great meals, some good conversations and quality time spent with loved ones. It was a good weekend.

I also went on Saturday to watch my cousin Alex have a phenomenal round of Big Ten tourney golf. He was 5 under par going into the 18th hole. He ended up triple-bogeying the 18th after landing in a trap and missing a couple of tough putts. But it was still a great round coming in two under par, to put him in 6th place for the tournament after three rounds. Just a disappointing way to end the round. Unfortunately, Sunday's round was a complete collapse and one of his worst collegiate rounds so that was no good.

If you have the Big Ten channel (which I think is only Jason) you might see him on May 14 when they broadcast the tourney. He had a few highlights in the round I watched, including 7 birdeys -- one of which was a chip in from off the green.

I'm in Chicago, tired and getting up at 5:45 to leave for Milwaukee. Tomorrow's going to be a long day. Time to call it a night.

"The air is still"

I wonder if after about 650 posts, I've ever had the same title appear twice. I'm sure it's happened a time or two.

The Pennsylvania presidentail primaries were today and it looks like H. Clinton came away the victor. As much as I dislike H. Clinton, I'd almost prefer to see her beat out Obama as the Democratic nominee for two reasons:

1) I think she would be easier to beat in November. I could be wrong about this one... I think a lot more will become more widely publicized about Obama between now and November that could make it difficult for people to vote for him (e.g., his relationship [friendship?] with Bill Ayers, member of a terrorist organization whose book opens "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough.")

2) Obama scares me. Read #1 starting after the ellipses.

Either way, I agree with classic conservative viewpoints through and through, and I'll be voting McCain -- although he wouldn't have necessarily been my first choice either. In any event, Lisa and I shook hands with McCain a couple of months ago when he was stumping in Michigan. First time I've shaken hands with a Presidential nominee.

Maybe I'll do some thorough research on all these yayhoos and post a more thoughtful WebLog on our potential presidents sometime soon. Probably not, but maybe.

"The sunlight barely breaking through the trees"

There's a nice full -- or at least nearly full -- moon out this evening. Today was an OK day. Work weeks seem to fly by these days. I know it's only Monday, but I know this week is going to be a quick one. They sure keep me busy down there. Old man Mercer's been busting my hump non-stop for quite some time. Good thing I like what I do, or I'd likely be downright miserable. I guess I'm quite fortunate in that regard.

This weekend my maternal grandparents will be visiting Michigan primarily to watch my cousin compete in the Big Ten Golf Tournament at Michigan State. I think I'll probably meet up with them quite a bit though. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't seen them since Christmas, so it will be a great weekend visit and just relax with them, hopefully enjoying some good weather and taking in a Big Ten championship for 18th ranked IU as well. My cousin Alex Martin is a sophomore on their team, and a downright good golfer as you might expect.

Song of the Day: "Wreckage" by Ben Jelen

"As if there were a mirror"

About time to take a nap, but thought I'd write a quick note for no great reason. Did anybody watch the double overtime Suns vs. Spurs game? That was unbelievable.

It was a nice, relaxing weekend spent chilling at the house. Watched P2 and Into the Wild. Both were pretty good and seemed to live up to -- if not beat -- my expectations. I really enjoyed Into the Wild. Very interesting tale there.

Why the sudden increase in movie intake? Well primarily because we opened up a membership at Family Video so now we can rent movies for half-price for a month. Even after that month passes, we'll still be paying $2.80 for new releases and $1.00 for other movies. This is in comparison to Blockbuster where it's $4.50 for new releases and $4.50 for other movies. That's right, I rented The Money Pit a few months ago for $4.50. I could probably buy it at Wal-Mart for $6.00, but I wasn't at Wal-Mart so I paid ridiculous fees to watch that movie. In any event, I don't like Blockbuster because of their stupid pricing structure. They'll give me four rentals for $18.00 or they'll sell me four movies for $20.00 most of the time. Stupid. I hate it, almost as much as Wilbe hates Space...not as much though.

If you take nothing else from this post, know that The Money Pit is a funny movie.

"Sky is womb and she's the moon"

Being sick really takes it out of you. Last Monday I woke up with a sore throat and got a fever over the course of the day. After the sore throat got worse all week I finally went to the Doctor and got some prescriptions.

This Tuesday Rogers woke up with a sore throat and got a fever over the course of the day. Somehow she'd been immune to it until after I'd been on antibiotics for about 4 days.

I chalk it up to neither of us eating much yogurt recently as Wilbe pointed out.

Anyhow, I'm doing much better but still tired and recovering. Rogers' fever went away after one day (just like mine had), but she's still got a killer sore throat (sounds familiar).

In any event, it's time to hit the showers and the pillow in that order.

• Last song listened to: "Flume" Bon Iver
• Last Movie watched: American Gangster
• Last TV show watched: American Idol
• Last drink: Hot Tang
• Last food: Baby carrots and veggie dip
• Last article read: Best and Worst NFL Games in the 2008 Schedule
• Last hour spent: Fast-forwarding through American Idol, cutting fingernails, updating my resume, surfing the internet
• Last night spent: Working late while watching American Gangster
• Last weekend spent: Sick
• Last voicemail from: Dad
• Last CD listened to in the car: "Sawdust" The Killers
• Last $5 spent on: Baby carrots and veggie dip
• Last spoke to: Lisa
• Last word typed: typed

"Haunt you like a ghost"

Well after effectively wearing myself out and killing my immune system with the trifecta Margot concert - Wilbe's birthday - Spoon concert weekend, I came down sick this week. Probably the sickest I've been in at least a few years as I've been up coughing nights, had a terribly sore throat and even have some sort of eye infection now.

However, all of the events of last weekend were very enjoyable. The Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos (preceeded by Bon Ivar) was remarkably fun. The new songs were great and I can't wait for the new album. Download fairly good recordings from the show by clicking here.

I've been listening to Broadripple and Carnival over the past few days. Those songs are amazing.

That's about it for today's update. Being sick is no bueno, so I need to go rest and maybe watch another movie. Just finished 3:10 to Yuma... it was sweet.

"Sweet Caroline"

A picture post of things that were enjoyable last weekend

The Cast:

Wilbe, Ricker and Berg

The Events:

The weekend kicked-off on Friday night with two Regional Semi-final games, including Stephen Curry wooping keester all over Wisconsin -- even outscoring them in the second half by himself.

Saturday was jam-packed, but not with basketball. In the afternoon we went downtown to the MGM Grand where Wilbe and Ricker tried their hands at Craps with quite successful results.

After grabbing a quick bite at Cheli's Chili Bar (thanks Ricker) we high-tailed it to the Uptown Paladium in Birmingham to continue the Casino theme with the movie 21. It was entertaining.

With some late night Qdoba and Monster energy drinks in us, we set out to conquer New York in the gangsta boardgame "Blood Feud of New York." That game rocks, but it takes forever to finish.

Sunday was spent discussing whether space sucks over Mexican food, then more basketball. Davidson lost by two, which was too bad, but the boys won some more dough at the Casino and Wilbe treated us with a portion of his winnings to Memphis Smoke in Royal Oak for dinner.

Then Ricky and I played Blood Feud again until 5 a.m. on Monday morning. A fantastic weekend. Proud. Proud.