ten work-free days. pretty incredible. over, as of 10 hours from now. (although not completely back working, as these three days before thanksgiving are 'not much doing.')

day by day, starting with:

friday, 11/12
depart the 'port slightly hungover. drop a suitcase and laundry basket full of dirties at home. proceed to the gurs pad. find the key in the flower pot. arrive about 330. fall asleep. leave for ann arbor with gurs and co. at about 540. arrive at the nemo pad approximately midnight eastern. purchase some high life light, and share drinks with nemo and gurs until about 2.

saturday, 11/13
out the door by 9. after finding parking, have a beer at one house. move to another house, have another beer. have a wonderful dollar dog and a better two-dollar polish. head into the big house. enjoy the first half immensely, as the cats hangwiffem. even more immensely enjoy noah's 60-plus-yard rushing td. do not enjoy the rest of the game, in which the cats are put in their place. after the game, get a brief michigan law school tour (!), courtesy of a third-hand friend whose name i'm not sure i remember. eat pizza at the apartment of a new fourth-hand friend, with approximately 25 purple-clad folks (truly wonderful). enjoy an ann arbor bar for far too long. highlights include nemo and carrie's arrival, and an incredibly loud argument over the merits of randy walker as a head coach. final highlight is bell's pizza at the nemo pad.

it should be noted that, while it is maligned as 'cathedral-like' in terms of crowd noise, i found the big house pretty incredible. i think it's a pretty similar environment to notre dame stadium, and i don't remember the horseshoe as grounds for comparison. from what i've heard, camp randall is the place.

sunday, 11/14
early morning drive home. quick return to glenview after the drive to chicago. watch the bears upset tennessee. sleep. eat with the 'rents. watch arrested development with the papa. sleep more.

monday, 11/15
per mom's instructions, buy $130 in groceries. read the tribune. read us news and world report when the mail comes. (unsuccessfully) try to fix the dryer. (successfully, to an extent) clean out the dryer vent. have a beer or two with coach.

tuesday, 11/16
much of the same, as i recall. read to my mom's first graders (a much better story than my previous visit, two years ago). head into lake view with gurs when he gets off work (130 ish). wander the city, including a visit to virgin megastore. eat dinner with the wysock's. hang out at the gurs pad, with dave, neil, wilson and robby playing key supporting roles.

wednesday, 11/17
hitch a 6am ride from gurs back to glenview. do some sleeping. do some reading. eat a 415 dinner with mom. head back to the gurs pad. head to the aragon ballroom to see urge overkill and the pixies. enjoy both performances greatly. the pixies were loud. really loud. they played 'hey' and 'here comes your man' (the encore), although not 'i love you.' played a blitzing version of 'head on' by jesus & mary chain. the show was over at 10:08, and we were at the gurs pad by 1045. returned to glenview that night (a change of plans) to find the door locked. called and woke up my dad around 100.

thursday, 11/18
pack the car and get out the door by 1030. in the 'port, unpacked, by 330. watch tv and eat chinese food with eileen. sleep.

friday, 11/19
up early to take e to the airport. upon my return home, make a fairly successful old guy radio call. purchase a copy of usa today, which will go mostly unread. buy some groceries. watch some iowa state championship football. sleep.

saturday, 11/20
watch the cats. watch the buckeyes-michigan (happily). watch the hawkeyes-badgers (sadly). watch utah-byu. there was that odd 'root for the underdog' factor that had me wanting the cougars to win. but i'm incredibly happy with the result.

sunday, 11/21
watch the bears disappointing result. take a long walk (!). generally kill time. sweep, vacuum, scrub. do dishes. sleep.

other notes:
- i also played the computer simulator game baseball mogul, which is nerdy but fun.

- the cats hoopsters opened up this weekend in alaska, with a win over portland and losses to new mexico state and utah state (both aggies, right?). they finished fourth as the only major major conference team in the top of the world classic, which is certainly a disappointment. we know young will be missed, but it turns out he'll be really missed. still, i'm optimistic, even for the possibility of 'dancin'

- the fantasy team will drop another one this week, hurt by the lack of production by moulds and colbert, as well as the injury to ahman green. mharrison in the dispersal draft is surely looking like a possibility. of course, 4 TDs from trent green tomorrow still could give me a win.

- i didn't see the pacers-pistons thing live. i did see snl's tremendous 'american trainwreck awards' sketch, which ended with a toby keith-josh groban performance interrupted by the pistons and pacers. excellent response to the news of the day.

- i just hope that one of the guys artest smacked was the guy who threw the water at him. i don't think that the players deserved the stiff suspensions they received.

- the fawning over brett favre is absolutely ridiculous. with 3 minutes left and the packers and texans tied at 13, espn flashed it's 'sunday stud' vote, presumably a barometer of the top players of the day. joe theismann chimed in that 'i wish there was a rule where we could add favre to that list, even though he's playing right now.' bear in mind that his team had scored 13 points in 56 minutes. favre's great - in the top five, for sure - but i wish people would acknowledge that he does things wrong.

- the week ahead includes not much. thanksgiving at my aunt's house in the area, preceded by tree-cutting (really). glenview on friday night. it's looking like a probable return on saturday night, after the irish upset the trojans and during the cats bowl-berth victory over hawaii.

that's it.