i sure enjoyed that super bowl, except for the incredibly (pretty) boring first quarter and the incredibly (really) boring third quarter. but that fourth quarter sure was neat, and it sure was cool how "midwest" (michigan state, notre dame, ohio state, *louisville, *houston, not ucla, where's proehl from?) all those touchdowns were and it sure was cool how "south dakota" that game-winning field goal was.

i watched with a group of seven (i think) co-workers, one of whom who was a pats fan and six of whom didn't really care but sort of kind of wanted carolina to win. a strange labor to watch a super bowl with co-workers, even if you generally like them.

but this super bowl experience certainly was better than the last time the patriots were in the super bowl, when i watched with seven women. i like women and all, but that was strange.

made the drive from the 'port to glenview tonight, in the largest snowstorm we've had in the 'port this winter. we're talking "there's a semi on its side in the ditch and i can't see any lines on the road" snowstorm, but ben gibbard and ted leo and fran healy all were great company, as was didi for a time.

i've always hated i-88, which charges 0.95 tolls despite the fact that nobody drives it. but the positive effect of this unnecessarily large toll is that they work hard to keep the roads clean, and i was able to manage a solid 60-65 mph clip for the entire tollway portion of the trip.

had to lame out on gurs tonight, which'll happen when snow gets in the way. miss the j-dub/m-dub experience, but we'll plan to have that experience - plus sumo - two weeks from now.

i've prided myself on giving pretty good gifts, but i think that i pretty much struck out this year. gurs' never arrived apparently, i gave sumo a damn book, and, no matter how michigan nemo is, i don't think he enjoys the messed-up crap he received. my siblings were, of couse, full-fledged busts. i've got work to do next year.

is there any more depressing thing to say to somebody than "as long as you do your best, we're proud of you" ? i mean, the implication there is that the person is about to fail, which is not the proper message.

my mom gave me the "as long as you do your best" speech about 20 minutes ago. i answered by telling her that i was going to "show those frickin' bastards who's boss," or something to that effect.

i'm in glenview, i'm taking tuesday off work, and i've got nothing to do until late afternoon. i uninstalled all the itunes software from this here laptop and i didn't bring the adaptor anyway (still working to get that firewire port working on the home pc), so i can't follow through on my plans to add to the ipod.

i guess i'll read a bit of the tribune tomorrow, and i'm thinking of making a trip to my local borders. two records that i (and nobody else) am anticipating - the mountain goats' we all shall be healed and the walkmen's bows and arrows are there in nine hours.

woof.
yeah, people walking. yeah, hijinks. yeah, john fox is a dumbass.

update, 1:15 p.m.: well, the local chain behemoth record store did not have in stock the new walkmen record, but i was able to purchase the mountain goats' album as well as elbow's cast of thousands. despite having an absolutely awful band name, the reviews for each of elbow's first two albums have always fascinated me. i'm almost through the record, and it's not really doing it for me. but you've got to respect a band who features the lyrics "we believe in love so fuck you." expecially when its a cast of thousands - literally - that's providing the backing vocals. (the vocals were recorded by the crowd at elbow's glastonbury show in 2002. each fan is thanked by name in the liner notes, which is just a cheap ploy to get each of those fans to buy the record. pretty cool, though.)