first extended chicago trip since christmas this weekend, and quite a successful one. after a friday night spent hanging in the 'port with the work crew, co-worker eileen and i head east to catch the cats, celebrate gurs' birthday, bask in the glow of sumo saha, and drink lots of beer.

the cats game was absolutely beautiful, with northwestern turning its 25-23 halftime deficit into a 65-52 win that wasn't even that close. i think there was a 30-2 run somewhere in there, and i know that the boys have put together three straight really, really good efforts. jitim is clearly the hardest-working and largest-hearted player in the history of northwestern athletics. it is time to unleash him, i'd say.

gurs, sumo and gurs-roommate dave were, as expected, tremendous game-watching company...i'd say we breathed some young alumni life into the rafters of welsh-ryan arena. but what was more impressive was when the 12-year-old kid next to us, upon hearing us insult jan jagla as looking like dirk nowitski for the entirety of the second half, shouted "go back to dallas" as the game wound down.

after a brief campus tour (i'm awful), we returned to wrigleyville to revel. along with immeasurably great former cats neil and alan, all the crucial med school-ies were there, including tex and both wysock's, and rock and roll music was played. the night's events included domino's pizza, the slam dunk contest, and trips to delilah's, the tiny, and tai's. shots were consumed, martinis were spilled (if you didn't want it spilled on you, you shouldn't have been at the table, and you shouldn't have taken my olives...duh), and, to sum up, a good time was had by all.

today, a bit lower key. bagels for 'breakfast' at about 1230, a return trip to glenview to pick up my laundry (mom's absolutely the greatest), and a car stocked with unnecessary free food from mom and dad for the ride home. they even dropped in some soup and brie for eileen.

home tonight by 9, off the phone with weissman by 25 minutes ago.

my friend mike wrote great review of the tiny, located at metromix.com, if you're interested. it goes like this:
September 21, 2002
Em Dub
Chicago , IL
"Beauty is the first thing that comes to mind after swallowing a cool sip of a tiny margarita at the Tiny Lounge. The lights, woodwork, music, and pleasant faces all say it, "Beauty." This could possibly be Chicago's finest drinking establishment, nestled so sweetly beneath the el. Anyone turned off by its size is missing the picture; less is more and there is to be found a great beauty in simplicity. Hats off to the Tiny."

one note about the ipod as music jukebox party experience: in theory, it's great to take the entire pod, all 1400 songs of it, and put it on extreme random. in practice, you wind up with centro-matic (slow and somber and certainly not party-y) or marvin gaye ('save the BAbies') and two wilco songs (always a good thing) within the first 25 minutes, quickly leading to a change in music source. while i don't think a playlist is necessary (although i've got a pretty good 3.5-hour one), i think you're best to select some party albums from a list, place 'em in the 'on the go' list, and put the 'on the go' list on random.

get those booties moving, is all.