two recent communications have convinced me to reenter the blogosphere, although i'm not completely sure how long it'll happen.

to summarize recent events:

- late june marked the mwl all-star game in cedar rapids. rather than taking the time off (as i've done in the past - graduation-2002, royals-twins in kc-2003), i joined the staff in going to the game. And while, thankfully, there was beer consumed on the bus (left at noon), i spent much of the actual night working. (my scorebook was in impeccable shape, and i took some winning pictures.)

- i made the biggest blunder of my professional life sunday morning, when i slept through a 5 a.m. bus trip to dayton, ohio. (i had stayed at the stadium overnight, expressly to avoid this, but the alarm didn't do the job.) i woke up at 540, yelled "F#*$_)@#," went home, and went back to sleep. i got up at 1030 and drove to dayton in time for the game. also got to hear marty brenamann (i can't spell it) on the way out there.

- the trip continued to kane county this past weekend, which brought me chances to a) eat postgame with dad, thursday; b) drink postgame with didi, friday; c) eat postgame with parents and parents friends, saturday; and d) return home to spend the night, sunday.

- sunday night was uber productive. i returned home in ratty shorts (i've got three pairs of shorts, featuring a) gigantor crotch hole, b) tattered/safety-pinned pocket, c) accidentally-highlighted crotch), and my mom responded "we've got to get you new shorts." i said i didn't need them, so she went to the store and bought me four pairs of beautiful new shorts herself. woof.

- i then continued to the city, and spent about 2 hours with gurs and em-dub at the gingerman tavern. although jenny was sadly out of town and didi wanted to get actual "sleep," the night was tremendous. gurs + em-dub + a combined three minutes with neil, marc and dave makes for a tremendous night.

- monday and tuesday marked back-to-back off days. i didn't do much of much excitement, really. drive home. wear my new shorts. do the entire previous week worth of dishes. buy together we're heavy by the polyphonic spree. clean my room and do laundry. watching crazy ken break the million-dollar mark on jeopardy (he's just not that fun). this changed when, strangely, one of the local tv guys called and asked if i wanted to eat dinner at his house last night. it was fun. free steak. playing with his kids. watching a few hours of all-star game. (tv guy jay and i are convinced that piazza was telling al hitters what was coming. even it it's not true, it's fun to talk about.) neat.

- that's all i've got. if jeannie zelasko and chris berman were to die, we'd all be better off.