i'd just like to comment that my older brother dave is officially doing fine.

i bused to milwaukee this morning (10 bucks for a cab, 23.50 for the greyhound), and arrived in beer city at 10:05. at that point, dave picked me up, we got coffee for me and jeni (i think that's how it's done), and we went to casa de dave y jeni.

jeni was making breakfast - vegan biscuits and gravy. (i mean, really...cool, no?)

as breakfast was eaten, i got the grand tour...it's a beautiful house in a nice residential neighborhood. two bedrooms, 1 bath, 1 mini-balcony upstairs. large living room, small dining room, medium kitchen, 1/2 bath, large sun-room/enclosed porch thing on the first floor. rooms all repainted since they bought the house in mid-november, carpet all torn out and hardwood floors sanded and stained since time of purchase. basement was carpeted i think, and houses a new bedroom and storage space.

of course, the key factor in it all resides in the backyard, with their lovely swimming pool. no joke. with old-school waterslide. no joke. three-foot shallow end, 6 1/2 foot deep end.

we ate a fine breakfast, although jeni didn't like it.

then we swam. volleyball. sliding. flipping on the beach ball. i determined it was the first time i've swam in three years. ridiculous.

and that was sort of it. the last bus out of milwaukee was at 445, so i took it. slept the entire time. rearrived in appleton, and ate the hottest wings i've ever eaten at a downtown bar. cabbed back to the hotel. watched game one of the finals. i wish i had mentioned yesterday that i think the pistons are going to win the series. i love the pistons.

(aside: john kruk is an absolute dumbass. he said, in response to jerod weaver's apparent tumbling in the mlb draft due to his association with scott boras 'you feel sorry for these latin kids. they get signed for 50 bucks. and here these guys are holding out so that the draft doesn't work.' does kruk realize that the days of no-bonus latino players is completely gone? that the twins recently signed a dutch pitcher for $800,000, at the age of 16!? that $400,000 and $800,000 and $285,000 and $675,000 bonuses are the norm for premium foreign talent? i'm okay with former players doing these shows. but i sure don't appreciate uninformed former players who spout cliches and 'we worked harder 10 years ago' and offer nothing more. boo kruk.)

perhaps it's a problem when every tri-weekly post begins with ... "sorry it's been so long."

the problem is twofold:
1) i'm not holding up my end of the blog-bargain
2) most people probably stop reading after three unfulfilling weeks.

so, to summarize what i've been doing lately:
1) watching lots and lots of baseball
2) talking about this baseball, mostly to myself
3) remembering to say "foul balls are brought to you by first glass" (and we're talking, like, seven or ten times a game)
4) drinking on occasion
5) sleeping on buses

we've got a rare sunday off day on the road tomorrow (today), so i'll be taking advantage of it in exciting ways. i'm in appleton, and my brother dave's in milwaukee, and i've never seen his house. so i'm going to get up at 615 or so, take a cab to the greyhound station, and take a greyhound to milwaukee. the cab's supposed to be about nine bucks, and the bus ticket is 23.50 one-way, so it's a reasonably priced excursion, especially in light of gas prices and all.

my brother says he'll drive me back, but that doesn't seem to make much sense. maybe i'll bus-and-cab it again on sunday night...we'll just have to see how that goes.

either way, i figure a day eating vegan food and drinking a beer or two and playing in my brother's pool should be fairly fun.

other developments:
- nemo and jenny visited last weekend. we drank at mac's and ordered far too much pizza at 2. it was fun.
- i saw nemo in grand rapids as well, because he's f'in' committed.
- this espn 25 years thing is going to get annoying, in light of the fact that clemens-piazza has apparently out-ranked game seven of the twins-bravos series. (there's only one sid bream.)
- our strength coach told me i sound like steve busby, the rangers radio guy he grew up listening to. i consider it flattering.
- during the previous road trip, i also got to talk to sumo and gurs and didi. sweet.
- i received an email from unstadt recently which said: "quiz. are you alive. yes. no." that made me feel guilty, but also giggly.
- i really like the new modest mouse record, but i like the new the streets record better, i think. were i to spend more time with the mission of burma record, i'd consider it my third-favorite of the year, behind the walkmen (1) and franz ferdinand (2, and, strangely, now an mtv hit).
- i wish smarty jones won, but i won't remember his name in three months. test me. (although the chance is better this year, because his name is better than silver charm or funny cide or the other recent two-in-a-row guys)
- i can't believe mtv axed taildaters and greenlighted room raiders. the former's so much better.
- i may go to the allstar game in cedar rapids later this month, or i may see if i can go to busch stadium for cubs-cards on tuesday night.
- i'm so out of it that i only learned that the new harry potter movie came out last night last night.
- matt pearl called out-of-the-bluish last week. it was a blast talking to him.

unstadt is owed a call. so is saginaw's very own steve weissman, who hobnobs with rachel nichols (she of the flaming red hair.). little wej (all 6-5, 200-plus of him) is staying with me next sunday.

i guess i'm done for now.

perhaps i'll try to post again on monday night, or perhaps next week during the four-gamer at south bend. or perhaps next month sometime.