so, as expected, the funeral was one part somber and seven parts joyous. the very few relatives who didn't make it in this past christmas made it in for the funeral (except for the two youngest cousins, both in fort lauderdale. the youngest, a five-year-old girlm, instructed her mother: 'if you're going to chicago, you better come back with kielbasa." classic.), which meant that a good time - for the most part - was had by all.

that's not the real reason for my post, although the real reason is considerably less important.

the real reason for the post is this: if you have heard of or been told about or been recommended to purchase the latest record by the glaswegian band franz ferdinand, entitled franz ferdinand, do it. now.

it's alternately moody and aggressive and the guitars are skronky and the vocals are manic. it's like a combination of interpol and hot hot heat which, while a bit odd-sounding, works really really well. you don't find the moodiness that some of interpol's first record has, and it's not annoying in the way that hot hot heat is. it's just really, really good.

the best album i've heard in quite a while, i'd say. although i'm often guilty of hyperbole.

but, needless to say, an a+ effort.

the best i've heard this year. (although i think i've only purchased four 2004 albums: franz ferdinand, the walkmen's bows + arrows, elbow's cast of thousands and john vanderslice's cellar door.)

birthday (what!?) recap: slept late-ish and watched basketball on saturday. about 600, headed over to eileen's for lasagna and cake with betsy and eileen. drank some wine. blew out some candles. watched nick and jessica on saturday night live. and that was it.

fielded calls from all three siblings, my parents, gurs and sumo. received a to-be-returned voice mail from unstadt. hilariously, former roomie ben checked in about 230 on saturday, with no apparent idea how super the day really was. we chatted and it was wonderful. sharon checked in via voicemail on sunday. melissa got a real answer last night.

(while not much drunkenness was experienced, i did get one free drink this weekend, when i flashed my i.d. on friday at mac's. mac's, incidentally, is the greatest place in the world. i have a few pictures to prove it, although i don't know if you'll ever see them. citron and tonic was the drink. girly? you betcha.)

sister annie, home on spring break, made a visit on sunday. we watched basketball, for at least a little while. we also broke into the stadium to check out the renovations, failed in our search for john deere, and ate vietnamise (is that how you spell it?) food. mom's credit card paid for dinner, as well as a trip to see that new jim carrey movie, joined again by workees betsy and eileen. good folks all.

the birthday haul: checks from both grandparents (more on that later), a check from the parents, one bad shirt, one good shirt, one balloon, and a pair of shorts from the parents. annie brought two half-cooked lou malnati's - one sausage, one spinach, yum - along with her, as well as other assorted foodstuffs.

the bad shirt will be returned to my local kohl's. i've got that credit, along with $30 in expire-in-one-week coupons. i'm eye-ing a toaster oven because, quite frankly, it's been too long.

ncaa tournament pools are generally f'ed, although i'm technically still in the running in the flax pool. again, the pitt-texas final is my hope. if i'm not mistaken, in my number two pool (the one with florida in the sweet sixteen and the spartans in the final four), i'm left with exactly two - two - of the sweet sixteen. duke's my champ in that one.

work is heating up. three full publications left to put to bed, two by the middle of next week (one's yet-to-be-started and requires about four or five articles), and one by monday the fifth. not much time for sleep...we're looking at 7 p.m. ish departures from here on out (note: i'm blogging at work...not so productive).

in somber news, my grandma dolores passed away monday. wake is tommorow afternoon, with funeral on thursday. it'd been sort of expected, but that doesn't really make it any easier. i'm imagining most of my dad's very large extended family will be around, and it's always nice to see them, under any circumstances. i'll miss most of wednesday's work day, and i'll return on thursday early evening. i'll probably return to work to watch some hoop thursday night. i'll tape the american idol results show, so don't tell me anything.

i know you've been waiting - waiting for my in-depth ncaa tournament analysis, and so i present, as they would have appeared on Tuesday evening, my upset picks to you:

#12 seed BYU into the Sweet 16. The Cougars are big and slow and fundamentally sound. Check out their losses - Cal, Utah State, NC State, San Diego State, Air Force, Utah, New Mexico. Check out their wins - Okie State, UNLV-twice, Air Force, Utah...They only lose to good teams, and they beat a lot of them as well. Mark it down.

#9 Charlotte into the Sweet Sixteen. There are two key facets to this pick. First, immutable law of NCAA Tournament picking #1: Bobby Knight always - always - loses in the first round. #2: St. Joe's is so focused on disproving their doubters and pleasing coach Phil that they'll forget to do the research on the mighty 49ers. Mark it down.

#11 Utah into the Sweet Sixteen. BC's over-seeded because they're from the over-rated Big East. Utah's under-seeded because the MWC doesn't usually perform well in the postseason. But dig this: One fringe-bad loss, to New Mexico. They come in red-hot, off the tourney title. They're playing for the bed-ridden fat man in a red sweater. Talk about inspiration.


Don't be tempted by this upset:
#5 Providence - big - over #12 Pacific. And then mark down their victory over Kansas, and probably Kentucky. Doesn't Ryan Gomes feel a bit like, oh, Austin Croshere did six or seven years ago? Sweet Sixteen at least.


Of course, I was wrong on all of this. I was right on Manhattan, but that's about it.

It's funny, because I filled out three pool sheets this year, and named 12 different Final Four teams. I've already lost Michigan State, but that was in my #2 pool. Problem is, I also made gambles similar to those above - Arizona into the Sweet Sixteen...(even Florida into the Sweet Sixteen once) - that my pools are pretty much done.

What's strange is the fact that, while I fill out my sheets generally randomly and generally independent of each other, I picked BYU and Providence and Charlotte (see rule #1) and Western Michigan in every pool. It's strange, I think.

At least I've got all four left in the flax pool...and I've got PITT over Texas in the final. If that happens, I'd say hopes are probably good. And I like both teams a lot. I think Wisconsin's done - even with the home-crowd advantage.


In other news, Northwestern recruit Brandon Lee is leading Peoria Central in the state semifinals right now. He led Central in a big win over Farragut yesterday. Seems like a 'floor game' kind of guy. I haven't seen anything *outstanding* in the 20 minutes or so I've watched.

i was cautiously hopeful, but not really. the game, sadly, played out a bit like i expected.

just real, real frustrating, because it came down to the fact that 'michigan state can shoot, and the cats cant.'

and so jitim's career ends with a loss, and i'm still struggling to think of a crucial late-season game that the cats have won. (not that they've had many crucial late-season games since that NIT run by the Kevin Rankin team) but really, think of their slide at the end of the season in 99 (the triple-team esch stretch), or the one in 02 (when vedran got hurt and they got blown out by illinois at the end of the season) or this season (when the team didn't play a good game after the indiana game...think about it).

i'm a bit bitter at the schedule-makers, because they continue to schedule in a manner favorable to michigan state. you'll notice that the spartans last played last tuesday, while the cats were playing for the fourth time since then.

oh well. the prospect of a parker-hachad-doyle-vedran-thompson lineup with davor and seacat and williams and lee all coming off the bench is pretty exciting. i'm honestly - honestly - thinking top four in the conference and honestly - honestly - anticipating an ncaa berth next season.

november can't come soon enough for me. i'll probably be in iowa. jitim'll probably be in finland. or in evanston, selling programs.

it was not pretty at all, but it was a win.

cats top the nittany lions this afternoon, 57-52, and this time it was a 19-2 run that did in the nits. (last time, a 30-2 run, you'll recall.)

the cats played a pretty awful game, and probably wouldn't have beaten any other team in the conference with a performance like that. thankfully, they played well enough to beat their opponent on this given day, which is really all that matters.

i'm going to place my attitude regarding friday's crucial michigan state game as 'cautiously optimistic,' although it's probably closer to 'cautiously hopeful' (which, to me, would reflect a little less confidence).

i didn't seen the second nu-msu game (dave eanet was my source), a ten-point loss, but it certainly seemed that northwestern played with state for most of the game. (not unlike the second illinois game, in which a quick spurt by the illini put the cats out of commission midway through the second half.) in the second msu game, the spartans hit a hot 9-for-18 from the arc, while the cats were 2-for-16. but, then again, michigan state's a really good three-point shooting team (.397 - tops in the conference), and the cats stink (.315 - bottom of the barrel).

still, i've got this strange feeling. northwestern racked up 22 steals today and, while that's not going to happen, 10 or 12 or 15 isn't out of the question. michigan state, you'll recall, plays six guards (torbert, hill, anderson, ager, brown, bograkos, right?), including zero point guards. the cats on-ball pressure against penn state was tremendous, and jitim's playing for his legacy. (of course, he was doing the same thing on saturday...sigh.)

the cats lost the first game to the spartans, one of two conference home losses this season, in mid-january. maurice ager, of course, hit six threes in the first half of that one. can't think that'll happen.

i don't think that there will be a partisan crowd for either team tomorrow...i think the crowd wants to be won over, and its much more likely for the cats to rally the crowd than for the hated spartans to do that.

cautiously hopeful.


in other news, gbv's bringing out a bunch of new songs on their current tour. (i won't be able to see this current tour for a while, perhaps not before the new record comes out.)

some of the new ones that've been played:

everyone thinks i'm a raincloud (when i'm not looking)
sons of apollo
closets of henry
guide for the winston churchill memorial
window of my world
sing for your meat, leon
asphyxiated circle
the girls of wild strawberries
huffman prairie flying field
gonna never have to die

the first title's my favorite, of course. i've not heard any of the songs, and i don't know which record they're from. (bobby pop's got a solo record in may, and the band's is due in august. it never ends.)

i'm at work. treem just brought the beginnings of tears to my eyes.

i'll try to have more on the cats today.

treem.blogspot.com.

Friends, you probably don't care at this point, or you've probably given up reading, but I'd like to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking.

I don't quite know what I've been up to in the past week - I saw a glorious Cats win [and got a speeding ticket during my return] against the Hoosiers with Gurs on Wednesday, I saw awful minor league hockey with co-worker Chris last Friday, I cleaned a bit and celebrated my Grandma's birthday on Sunday, I saw a disappointingly bad Richard Buckner concert with co-worker and all-around nice chick Eileen on Tuesday - but it's been busy.

We're reaching crunch time in the minor league baseball offseason, only a month away from games (and seven weeks away from our stadium opening)...and that means that my free time is considerably less.

we've got promotional appearances set for this Friday (5-8), Saturday (10-4) and the following Saturday (9-5), and I'll be taking part in them in some regard. we've also got a huge one lined up for tomorrow, as our manager arrives in town for a Q&A with the fans and we unveil our brand-spanking new uniforms for the 2004 season.

it is this second thing - the uniform unveiling - that has caused me to be at work at 11:30 on a Wednesday night. that's right, friends, we're doing a fashion show, and yours truly is in charge of writing the script and MC'ing (i hate the word 'emcee' - what a bastardization) the entire fashion show portion.

this, of course, means that i get to interject a series of witty lines, including:

"Headed to Beloit, Wisconsin, next month? Our next models, _______ and _____, look ready to hop on the bus today, and they're planning to do it in the striking Swing road uniforms. "

and

"And, by the way, no dumpy cotton here. All of our Swing uniforms for the 2004 season are made of high-quality doubleknit polyester…We hear it reduces the need for sliding shorts."

and

"As you’ll notice, _______ is accenting the [Batting Practice] jersey with the home white pants, while ________ is sporting the road bottoms. This, of course, proves that, home or road, the BP top is part of a perfect double-play combination."

Shoot me now.


In other news, when I purchased the last Death Cab for Cutie album, Transatlanticism, it came with an inserted advertisement plugging two things: 1) A web link to a way to get 15 % off Barsuk Records purchases, if ordered before February 29 and 2) Free shipping on online orders of over $30.

This, of course, meant that, while doing nothing on Saturday (the 28th), I ordered three Barsuk releases ($12 per CD)...two John Vanderslice records and DCFC's We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. I figured that I was done with Barsuk forever, until I received the CDs today. There, in the Death Cab CD, another insert..."15 percent off if ordered by June 31st." I'm screwed.

And finally, I work amongst Iowa Hawkeye fans. One has gone so far as to say "Vedran Vukusic looks like a nerd." Well, that nerd scored five points in the final minute, and the Cats guaranteed themselves their first .500 or better season in the Big Ten since 1968. Sweet, ugly victory.

I can't get to the Michigan game (see: Appearance schedule above). I'm really hoping for a win, and a 9-7 conference record, and a four seed in the conference tourney. How wild would that be?