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.)