My weekend, plus some assorted thoughts

I hope you all had a great weekend (and Monday, too, since this is kind of late). Usually I like to start off the week with a fantasy baseball update, but I started writing this too late at night to do that—my brain has turned off, so doing anything related to stats just ain't happening. So, unfortunately, you'll have to wait a little while longer for the update. (I know you're all crushed!)

I'm back in Phoenix for another week of work. I've got less than a month remaining, so the end is in sight! In the mean time, things are going well. I had a pretty nice weekend, although it was way too short for my liking. Friday was a travel day, as usual, but at least this time my limo picked me up from O'Hare on time—last week I had to wait about an hour. (Supposedly the guy waited for 15 minutes before leaving, but I was the only person standing at the curb. He saw me, so why didn't he take 5 seconds to ask if I was his passenger? What a dumbass.)

Anyway, Saturday was my sister Mary's college graduation party, and it was a lot of fun. Stacey came up and got to meet a lot of my extended family, and I think she even remembers some of their names. (The party was just a tune-up—the real family event of the summer will be my sister Laura's wedding next month. Now that should be interesting...) Stacey mentioned in her blog that it really sucks that we only get to see each other for maybe 6 or 7 hours a week, and I agree. I feel just as bad that I've barely had a chance to spend time with my friends this past month. Thankfully, as I've mentioned, I will be home soon, so this won't be an issue for much longer.

I bought my dad a wireless router for father's day to replace the one currently at the house, which I'll be taking with me to Stacey and my new townhouse in a little over a month. Unfortunately for my dad, I'm also taking the TiVo, which he has grown accustomed to. Now he'll have to go slumming and use the VCR to tape his shows.

Speaking of my dad, I shared a limo ride with him to the airport on Sunday morning. While I was heading west to Phoenix, he was flying in the opposite direction, to Atlanta for a class for work. Our flights were early, so I didn't get to spend any of Sunday at home. So my weekend in Chicago basically consisted of one day. I will be so glad when I don't have to catch a plane every weekend.

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Apparently, Screech from Saved by the Bell is selling t-shirts to try to raise enough money to keep his house from being foreclosed. I enjoyed that show as much as anybody my age did, but anybody who wastes their hard earned (or even their easily stolen) money on this loser deserves a good smack across the face. Instead of sending money, why don't they try sending links to Monster.com, where he can get a real job and stop pretending that he actually has fans—and that these fans would have fifteen whole dollars to give to him. (That'd be at least two weeks allowance for most of them.)

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An article in the Chicago Tribune asks whether the signs above the new open road tollways that say "Open Road Tolling. Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor" are worth the $15,000 they cost to produce. The possible responses to this question are: "No," "Hell No," "I want my money back," and "I still use the (twice-as-expensive) manual tolls—don't get me started on that f***ing Blagojevich."

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Disney has decided to revamp the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland to make it more like the movie which it inspired. Purists have criticized the move, claiming that Disney is taking its marketing too far. The purists then realized that they were talking about Disney, thought about it for a moment, and stopped acting so surprised.

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Before I leave, here's an interesting note for all of you who are fans of the Jack Bauer Power Hour: there's a rumor that 24 might head to New York for next season's series of implausible yet entertaining terrorist threats. Personally, I think Jack should spend season 6 trying to save Chicago from the disaster that is the Cubs, although that might be an even bigger challenge than saving Los Angeles from nuclear missles and biological weapons.

-Mark

Currently reading: Prior Bad Acts, by Tami Hoag