postscript: i did spend some of my points, on newsweek, and espn and spin.

This gives me three weeklies (newsweek, sports illustrated, and one, sporting news, which is godawful and i don't read), a bi-weekly (espn), a monthly (spin, and a, oh, maybe, bi-monthly (magnet). i figure there will be bus hours this summer, and we'll see if i'm able to try to keep up. only si is a cover-to-cover for me, and we'll read what we can of the rest.

gurs had a difficult decision this weekend, and it appears he made the right one (although not the one i would have made). watch the beloved steelers on tv? watch the beloved cats at welsh-ryan and tape the steelers? watch the cats at welsh-ryan and try to somehow follow the steelers via radio? watch only the steelers and tape the cats? very difficult. i would have gone to see the upset in evanston, and attempted to find out nothing of the steelers. but apparently, that wouldn't've worked, sources at the arena say. gurs followed both on tv, and decided that illinois wasn't in striking distance at the half, so he stayed to watch the steelers conclusion. i guess he was right, although welsh-ryan sure would have been fun yesterday. (and here's a question: if eight points and a wouldn't-go-away cats club that seemed to be believing a bit more as it went on wasn't enough, what would it have taken for him to believe the cats were in it? my daddy once taught me (after 'ring in the heroes') 'what though the odds...' and it seemed to me that the odds were fairly good at the half yesterday, better than expected, i think.)

regarding that, let me say that i am really proud of the way the cats played yesterday, one of the few times i've said that in a loss this year. illinois is good. really good. good enough to run the table good. (good enough to destroy wisconsin in one of their toughest games this week good.) and northwestern hung with them until the final four minutes, despite hachad having no impact. we all know he has to play well for the cats to pull a big win, simply because of his energy.

now that i've said i'm proud of their effort yesterday, let me add that the cats are so disappointing this year it makes me want to vomit. 8-8, 1-3. if they win the ones they'll be favored in, extrapolate it to 15-13, 7-9 (maybe), not what was hoped for. this makes the bold assumption of home wins against michigan and iowa, and road wins at penn state and minnesota. the most disappointing facet yesterday was thompson, who looks like he hasn't developed an ounce of a real post game since high school, when he played 6-4 kids. his post game is negligible, and he's got no outside impact, and he can't really defend...but he's big and he's hyped, so he's on the court. i sort of think a duvancic-vukusic-hachad-doyle-parker lineup is the best one the cats have, a change of tune from before.

the good thing is, i still enjoy watching them. they remain easy to cheer for, which is important. (y'know, they better start getting some serious recruits, because parker, hachad, thompson, and vukusic only have 1 1/2 years left. here's a fun though: a doyle-lee-scott led big ten club! haha!)

another situation continued to brew on thursday, in a conversation with former longtime-girlfriend (and now longtime ex-girlfriend) melissa, who's getting married this summer. i've gotta say, we've stayed in regular contact, and i assumed i was a wedding-invite shoe-in from her nu years. however, after small talk last sunday before lost phone batteries, and more small talk on thursday, the conversation went:

her: ummm. so.... ahh... would you... hmmmm... uhhhh.... even want.... blarg... to ... even.... uh... come to .... my wedding?
me: uh, yeah. totally.
her: ummmm. okay...uh...because dustin's...not really sure he's comfortable with you coming...
me: oh. well, tell him it was because of the smell.

so, gurs is on the list, and i'm not - yet. no invitations, although some somewhat-tardy save the date cards have gone out. i'm thinking that i will because, if i'm not, it'll suck for gurs. more on this development later.

finally, our big league affiliate sent some middling 'current' players - triple a-ers adam wainwright and bo hart - and two rebird 'legends' - jack clark and danny cox - to our ballpark on thursday. it was a neat event, with more than 400 people coming out (and paying $10 for the privelege) to get autographs and listen to them talk and have a hot dog and a drink.

the other key was the appearance of cards radio dude wayne hagin, who said 'yeah. send me something. i'd be happy to give it a listen.' and then gave me his home address and phone number. now, all i've got to do is be annoying, but not that annoying.

finally (for real), i know that allen rossum and the defense were probably the biggest stories in the falcons game (i watched the tape without great interest yesterday, having already known the score), but isn't michael-mike vick amazing?

with one day of divisional-round playoffs remaining, you heard it here first: falcons 37, patriots 31 in the super bowl.