i'm sensing sort of a poor pattern that's developed over the last few weeks. perhaps you've noticed, but the pattern is this: do nothing during the week, and therefore report nothing. do nothing during the weekend, and therefore report on football.

i'm not sure that's particularly interesting, but that's a bit where i am.

i'll start with this weekend, when i actually accomplished something. it's not particularly interesting, but it was an actual accomplishment. i cleaned. and cleaned. and cleaned. i started with the kitchen rectangle on friday night, scrubbing down the stove, cleaning the round metal thingees that go below the burners (3 of 4 are spotless), pseudo-mopping the floor (paper towels/sponges and hand-scrubbing), and windex-ing the oven. i then went to the bathroom, where i also pseudo-mopped.

that was friday. saturday, i took eileen to the airport at 645 a.m. or so (she went to boston this weekend), used the 20-dollar gift certificate to jewel-osco my mom gave me (i'm assuming it was some kind of award she got...who wants a 20-dollar gift certificate to osco?) to buy two types of toothpaste, mouthwash, bread, and something called mixed berry 7-up plus (poor, very poor), and returned home. at this point, i made just-add-water pancakes for breakfast, adding some brown sugar to the batter (has anyone ever done that before? it was stunningly good).

at this point, beginning at about 845, i resisted the opportunity to sleep and cleaned again. i returned to the bathroom, where i scrubbed the toilet (scrubbing bubbles are incredible) and the tub. (in the past, i've used the tub and its wall to clean off extremely muddy shoes...i don't have a laundry room, you know...it's been dirty for at least a year.) i got all the mud off the wall, got most of it off the shower curtain liner, and then reversed the curtain liner so that you can't tell the difference. i then moved all the living room-type furniture onto the kitchen rectangle, and then went to dusting. everywhere. the top of the fridge. the wire shelving that i store my cds on. my one picture frame (featuring a picture of jenny, didi, ben and myself from the semi-lame 2001-02 new year's party at e2...where was nemo, you ask? at the bawenaked wadies concewt with mendo, of course...ha!). 10 post cereal mini-bobbleheads and 11 full-sized bobbleheads. my vcr. everything.

before i did that, i loaded all my moveable bedroom furniture onto my bed. this opened the door for a full vacuum swipe.

full vacuum swipe means that i vacuumed for approximately 45 minutes despite the fact that my apartment can't be more than 350 or 400 square feet (i have no idea, really, but it's not particularly big), with only about two-thirds of that carpeted.

after the full vacuum swipe, i moved everything back to its proper place. books reshelved (although not in any sort of real order), papers thrown away or filed somewhere, frequently-used baseball caps placed in the only place i could find, on top of the now-dusted fridge. (tacky!)

and with a final sweep, it was done. the second full-cleaning i've done in my 23 months in the apartment, the first since last november. and, four days later, it's still reasonably clean.

props to: my moms, who bought all sorts of cleaning supplies - including sponges, 'pine cleaner,' windex, and a large bucket - the day before easter 2003. the day of the infamous egg hunt. woof.

the nice thing was that my cleaning was a nice way to get me through the disaster that was the cubs. garsh, saturday was a disaster. la-freakin'-troy. victor diaz and craig brazell. the irish were partially distracting, and watching iowa get destroyed (their fans are the lamest) was nice, but then the cats were awful.

sunday was boring, although it was fun to watch a coworker dress as a gigantic monkey and stand next to our stadium during the qca marathon. i was up by 830 again on sunday. i brought coworker greg a beer and some orange juice as gratitude. at 902 in the morning, he chose the rolling rock (again, thanks to the moms).

sunday was nice because i got to talk to my sister (it was shortened because she had to go act in a lame student film (hehe!) although i found the time to lecture her on not-antagonizing mine and her parents) and my brother (although i'm pretty sure we talked about nothing, but did it for 57 minutes) but not my older brother (i think it's been since june, when i visited his beautiful house...that's pathetic on both of our parts).

the other thing i did this past weekend was damage control. somehow, and i'm still not sure how, the ipod's contents were sliced by about 80 percent on friday. i've been using it with the computer at work, and i've never 'updated the library.' on friday, the computer's itunes magically 'updated' my library, cutting the ipod's contents from the 10 or so gigs it had held to about the 3.5 that were saved on the computer's hard drive. i was seriously depressed - like, not talking to anybody and being generally petulant - for about 90 minutes after this happened.

i calmed myself down friday afternoon. i borrowed eileen's computer this weekend. i ripped 75 or so cds to mp3, and then burned the mp3 to cd-rs. tomorrow, i'll try to add those cds back to the pod. some order will be restored to the world.

sunday's cubs game was awful. three freakin' free runs in the bottom of the first. alou taking a borderline strike three with the bases loaded in the fifth. monday's was beautiful...an actual laugher. tuesday's maddux implosion was upsetting, and this afternoon's hawkins-implosion was uber-depressing, if not, sadly, unexpected.

the bosses are gone from work for the next few days. therefore, my usual at-work following of the cubs shifted from internet radio to the actual television broadcast. i watched with a fellow die-hard beginning in the seventh inning. we saw the cubs take their lead. chris joked about how it's fun to say 'i knew hawkins will blow it' at the start of the inning, because you look smart if he does and nobody remembers if he doesn't. of course, he did, and i was pissed. not at chris, at latroy.

fortunately, the game ended shortly before five, so i left immediately afterward. i was pretty legitimately sad.

the neat thing is, when i returned home, brian wilson's smile was awaiting me. i'll simply say it's unbelievable. an absolute aural experience. i think i can comfortably say its one of my ten favorite records ever. i've owned two separate bootlegs for three years now, and i can say that the recorded version truly does outshine them all. new lyrics for good vibrations (i can't believe that) make it even fresher. the incredible opening to blue hawaii..."is it hot as hell in here, or is it me." using the word 'grits' to rhyme with 'lickety-split' in i'm in great shape. the simple, sublime beauty that is our prayer and surf's up. and the backing of the wondermints (i think it's just the wondermints, although i'm not exactly sure) is absolutely authentic.

fact is, smile did make me happy. it's pretty incredible.

i'm sort of interested to watch the debate thursday. i wonder if bush still has the bush-face (lips semi-pursed, odd blinking of the eyes and twitching), and i wonder if kerry will somehow come across as a friendly, hard-working everyman. (isn't it fascinating that bush, who comes from 'patrician' roots and was actually born into money and advantage, can successfully pull off the 'i'm just like you mr. nascar and just like you mr. farmer' while kerry, who actually had to work some to get where he is, comes across like an upper-crust snob?)

there's this fascinating commercial out right now, from one of the independent right-leaning organizations, that says 'bush didn't start this war, but he's the person that can finish it,' or something to that effect. of course, the war they're referring to is the 'war on terror,' rather than the 'failed war in iraq.' but the fact is that, of course, the 'war on terror' isn't over because bush decided to initiate the 'failed war in iraq.' the point is this: he started the 'failed war in iraq' at the expense of the 'war on afghanistan and, therefore, terror,' and yet he's being touted as someone who can end the war. point is, going to iraq sure was a dumb idea.

and then there's the kerry commercial touting his two-prong plan for iraq: 'get international aid.' and 'teach the iraqis to defend themselves.' i find it unconvincing, but probably preferable to the 'screw the world, i'm a shoot-from-the-hip texan (you notice my twang, don'tcha?)' strategy we have at this point.

now, there's a chance i won't watch the debate live on thursday. mike watt and the secondmen are playing in iowa city on thursday, and it would be neat to see the punk legend on stage. i don't even really know what he looks like, although i sure love the minutemen's double nickels on the dime record. i guess there's a chance that i'll not go see mike watt until the debate is over.

i may also go to iowa city monday, to see the mendoza line. i've not heard much of the mendoza line, although jenny lewis sure sings like an angel.

i might also just watch the debate friday, and watch football saturday and sunday. hey, whatever.