Two major accomplishments to report from the last four days:

- On Friday night, I bowled a 207. A 207. That's a career high. It should be noted that my previous career high was nowhere close to 207. However, I don't know what it was. I'm sure I had cracked 150 before, but nowhere near 200. It should also be noted that this was the third of three games, and probably took place at about 10:30, and that I had been drinking since dinner at 7:30. I had been drinking quickly, as is my habit. I opened with five straight strikes, and closed with a strike to start the tenth frame.

My first game? 106. My second? 127. Pretty cool, I thought.

Yes, a bowling score counts as news.

- On Thursday night, I ran. More than a mile. (Initial estimates were at 1.1 miles, but further gmap-pedometer-ing indicates that it was closer to 1.25 miles. I was using the wrong cross street.) Outside. For the first time since, at least, sophomore year of high school. That is, more than a decade.

And then I did it again on Friday. And then twice on Saturday. And then three times Sunday. Turns out, it's not that tough.

That's gotta be worth something.

Two neighbors waved very nicely. Several others gave me an odd look. Probably because I'm pretty odd-looking.

A note on "Good music to run to." Turns out, it doesn't need to be upbeat or anything. It just needs to be good.

- - - - - - - - - -

I really, really enjoy watching this Chicago Bulls team. They're not a contender yet, but, if they upgrade the Sweetney-Allen starting frontcourt in the draft, I think they become one of the top teams in the East. That is, if their drafted center can give them 13 points and nine boards and, therefore, a real inside presence, they become really, really good.

It's been so interesting to watch Nocioni start believing that he's good. He is so aggressive, and so exciting, and he's clearly their best player.

Paxson's philosophy building this team is simple - Find guys who won in college, and who aren't afraid to work hard - and it's worked pretty well. As frustrating as it is to see Tim Thomas perform pretty well for Phoenix, he didn't fit.

These Bulls are absolutely like a college team. Witness their three-guard (all 6-4 and under) lineup, their three point-oriented attack, and the fact that the most dominant personality on the club is actually their head coach.

I really don't have any actual analysis; I just wanted to state that it's really fun to support a team that tries hard all the time, that doesn't give up, and that seems to get the best out of their skills. And, more importantly, that has a lot of room to improve.

I'm also wondering if any contender in the last 30 years has ever had two white guys as their two best players. The recent Jazz teams are close, but whiteys were two of their top three. Oh, wait, probably McHale and Bird. Last 15 years?

- - - - - - - -

For what it's worth, I can say that I genuinely like at least two of my coworkers, and I'm pretty sure I genuinely like two others. That's a pretty good start, I think.

- - - - - - - -

Pretty good week for phone calls. Tina earlier this evening, and Chuck. Cookie tried to sell me an eliptical before leaving for The Netherlands on Thursday, and I got Didi sometime before that. Sumo last weekend, and Bullshot earlier this week also. Probably about 25 total between The Boy and Gurs and Nemo, and that's certainly worth something. Eight minutes of rock talk with HotPocket on Friday, too. Yeah, pretty good.

- - - - - - - -

The new album by The Streets, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, isn't very good. But "Never Went to Church," which is about his late dad, is pretty darn good, as is "All Goes Out the Window." Both are Mike Skinner "ballads," similar to A Grand Don't Come for Free's "Could Well Be In" and "Dry Your Eyes." I like Hardest Way enough that I'll get his next one.

The new album by The Secret Machines, Ten Silver Drops, might be really, really good. I'm far from getting a handle on it. "Alone, Jealous, and Stoned," the opening track, is an anthem. Fantastic.

I'm pretty sure I really like the new album by The Fiery Furnaces, Bitter Tea. The penultimate track, a remix called "Nevers Again," is so well-sung by Eleanor Friedberger. Matt Friedberger is credited as playing "Other" on the album, probably because he plays 90 percent of the instruments. I'm really looking forward to anything he/they does/do.

If I were asked to rank my favorite albums from 2006, not including the recently-purchased ones listed above, they'd be ordered thusly:
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
The Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics
The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
Robert Pollard - From a Compound Eye
The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

My guess is that The Fiery Furnaces would rank third or fourth on the list, and the other two somewhere in the Lips-Strokes-Pollard area. There's a dropoff after Neko's album, I think.

I hate when I ruin interesting life-related posts with drivel about rock music. But, alas, that's what I do. Sigh.

[Ed: It's probably a stretch to call this post "interesting."]

I don't usually title these things, but this post would definitely be called "You Are a Target Market," because I think that was a name of a Radiohead DVD that came out at some point. I think its a pretty good title, and it would have also been appropriate.

Email received today, courtesy of amazon.com:
Subject: Save on Seventeen: The Best New Music (Hear It First)

I think this is the first time that a Seventeen product has been marketed to me. Hopefully, I'll also start getting the Delia's catalogue, because they've got some funky sunglasses and some awesome existential questions in the margins. I don't recall any of the questions, but I remember them being pretty thought-provoking, at least for my then-12-year-old sister.

Apparently, Seventeen readers have gotten pretty cool lately, because amazon reports that, "We've noticed that customers who have purchased Bitter Tea by Fiery Furnaces also purchased the work of Seventeen: Best New Music (Hear It First)."

The Seventeen tracklist includes artists such as The Shout Out Louds, Faces on Film, Citizen Cope, Apollo Sunshine, The Like, Architecture in Helsinki, Regina Spektor, Tegan and Sara, Iron and Wine, Dirtie Blonde, Persephone's Bees, and Say Hi to Your Mom. I've enjoyed the work of two of these, and heard positive things about three others. I find Architecture in Helsinki good in short (ten-minute or less) bursts.

Pretty impressive list, considering the source, but I'm probably not the guy they're looking for.

- - - - - - -

Job update: It turns out that R/DS is the office pariah, officially, although the title is more understood than acknowledged. I guess that's sad. I went out on Saturday night, and was invited to sleep on somebody else's couch any time I felt the need this summer. I thanked him for the offer and politely turned it down, but not until we had jointly hatched an involved alibi necessitating my move. Alcohol was involved, I think.

- - - - - - -

Job update 2: The goal is, of course, to get out. The goal is always to get out, of course, no matter where I am. I'm pretty excited about the current getting-out target, although I've learned (not particularly well) to not get excited about these things. I've not learned at all how to not write or talk about these things. It's a pretty sick addiction.

On the other hand, I've got one independent person who has already made a call for this job on my behalf, and I've got potentially another one who will also be doing the same thing. However, the other one hasn't responded to an email from me; had I sent the email a week ago (that is, before the opening was an opening), which I thought about doing because I like emailing with this guy, he would have probably helped by now, and unsolicited. However, I finally emailed him about three hours after I found out about the position, and that probably looked a bit disingenuous to him. But it wasn't, I swear.

- - - - - - -

Updating last week's "What CD's I Brought Along" list:
I did not bring Billy Bragg and Wilco's Mermaid Avenue along. It made the round of 86, but was one of the six cutdowns.

I did bring both Robert Pollard's Waved Out and the Robert Pollard/Doug Gillard collaboration Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department. In addition, I brought GbV's Tonics and Twisted Chasers along.

This means that Pollard releases outpace Tweedy releases, six to five (Pollard's got seven if you count Vampire on Titus/Propeller as two releases, which you/I probably should.)

- - - - - - -

Most annoying thing about the R/DS: When writing the full version of the baseball term abbreviated "HR," he writes "homeruns," and not "home runs." When I asked why, he said, "Because spell check accepts it as one word." I didn't have the heart to respond, "But what about 13 decades of baseball [ed: or is it "base ball" ?] history?"

So this just means that I'll subjugate every urge to the contrary and use the term "homeruns," which is not a word, this season. Or I'll be gone.

- - - - - - -

Highlights of two pretty good phone conversations tonight:
1) Nemo thinks I'm a wuss.
2) Gurs will be just fine in the Twin Cities, it turns out.

Awesome.

I don't want to say that my job is awful, because it's not, but my roommate/direct supervisor [R/DS, maybe for the rest of the year] most certainly is completely, completely awful. And, yes, I'm a 26-year-old working as an intern-with-slightly-better-pay and a freakin' room in my supervisor's apartment. I mean, crap.

An indicator of how frustrated I've gotten: Two straight days, I've returned home from work and cracked a beer out of frustration. I never, never, cracked an immediate post-work beer out of frustration during previous offseasons. But when a boring, pointless conversation extends 35 minutes past the scheduled end of the workday, it can get to you. Or, at least, it got to me today.

I left a fantastic voicemail for Nemo on Tuesday, after Day One. If he were to email me, I'd post it, provided nobody was incriminated. Most likely, the posting would be self-incriminating, however, as I'd probably just come across as a villain. A confirmed villain, sigh.

The thing is, the R/DS is not a bad guy; he's just incredibly boring, and has no sense of when people are disinterested. For instance, he was watching an episode of Law & Order this evening. I mentioned that I hadn't seen it, ever. He proceeded to take me through the list of characters that had been written off the program and who had taken their place, as I kept my head down while eating dinner. Then he said, "Have you ever seen Dirty Dancing?," apparently referring to a character in both the show and the movie. I said, "Nope." He said, trying to better explain the actor to me, "Well, if you ever see it, he's the ..." I seriously doubt I'll see it.

I just finished watching an episode of The Office. During the preview for ER, I said, "That's John Leguizamo. He's was in To Wong Foo." His response: "Yes he was, and I have it on DVD if you want to watch it." Wong Foo! On DVD! What the...

The ridiculous things he's said are too numerous to name. At least, however, my suspicions were confirmed this afternoon while working with another co-worker. I asked about R/DS, and he basically said "Avoid being in the same room at all costs, not because he's a bad guy, but because he's so damn boring." I, of course, can't avoid him, but can confirm that he's boring. The story is also that he's a liar, although I've not confirmed that yet. Sigh.

But, again, the other six or seven people with whom I work seem nice enough. Unfortunately, I don't share an office with those six or seven people. Oh well.

[This just in: He also talks to his video games. 'C'mon, that was fair,' he just said. Dammit.]

- - - - -

D-Lee's hurt. Bad. Crap.

- - - - -

Spoke with Dirtbag a few days ago. He's still married. More importantly, married life has provided him with health insurance, which has provided him the opportunity to play company softball with no concerns about being health insurance-less.

Dirtbag was a pretty intense third base coach when he showed up. He also was suspended from a league in which he was substituting, after pegging a showboaty opposing baserunner in the chest. Dirtbag plays hard.

I wrote extensively about company softball last fall. A part of me is hopeful that Dirtbag will forward me his company softball reports. I'd dutifully repost them as written, although somehow I doubt it'll come to that.

- - - - - -

If you saw Conan O'Brien twice in two days, would you approach him while he was eating his lunch? What would you say?

Suggestions:
"Where's the masturbating bear? I thought you traveled together."
"Congratulations on your daughter!"
"You're far paler and odder-looking in person."
"I've always wanted my hair to puff up like yours. Not!"
"When you go on road trips from your desk, does your desk actually move?"
"How could someone who sucks so bad still have a show?"
"Will you get a chin implant when you take over for Leno?"
"How does it feel to be taking over for the worst talk show host ever?"
"Be honest with me here: The Finland show was completely unfunny, wasn't it?"
"Where's Andy?"
"Is Max really a creepy, creepy dude?"
"Are you more scared of Joel Goddard's gigantic mouth, or his odd ponytail?"
"Could you put me in an 'If They Mated' sketch? Please? Me and Britney Spears, preferably."

Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Several have done it before, but Monday marks my first-ever "pack my life into the two-door car" trip. It's exciting, in its own way.

Concern:
I'll forget something stupid.

Solution:
I've brought two towels, my printer, and several books I'll never read again (or have yet to read).

Concern:
I'll not know where I'm going. This is pretty likely, when it comes right down to it.

Solution:
I've Mapquest'ed it. I even know my new address - credit card, bank accounts, and four magazines were updated last night.

Concern:
I'm not sure I'm really that excited about this job.

Solution:
It won't be the first time someone's not that excited. Chin up, chin up.

- - - - - - - - - - -

She's far, far more interesting than me. She's my sister, and you can find her here. I waived any probationary period, and I hope she doesn't let me down. It should be noted that it's been one full week since her first entry, although she promised me that there was a near-completed one in the works. It should also be noted that she started her e-venture only to secure a recommendation letter from a professor. Happy reading.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Highly-productive final ten or so days, I can proudly say. I think - think - that I spent quality time with every person with whom I could have reasonably hoped to spend some quality time before my departure. (If you're in the area, and I spent no quality time with you, well, I don't know, we'll probably get over it pretty quickly.)

- - - - - - - - - - -

Wednesday was a nine-to-five errand-running day, for the most part. I dropped several hundred dollars on various "necessities," which is never easy for me to do. It would have been several more hundred dollars had I gone to see an eye doctor who could deal with my misshapen eyes. That'll wait a few weeks. (He said, "Go see somebody in Michigan. No charge." That was nice, I guess, alhtough he probably would have known that he couldn't help me if he ever actually checked my records in advance. It happens.)

Best purchase:
An oversized bottle of Little Penguin, which I considered a hit at the Treem-fest on Friday, anyway.

Worst purchase:
One of those pedometer things. Let's be honest, it'll never get opened.


Wednesday also marked the official end of Rud-Pod v.1, which served dutifully from December 25, 2003, through April 12, 2006. Its first major usage came on a trip from Chicago to Detroit for the 2003 Motor City Bowl, joined by Deedz and the Boy, and featuring the pleasant sounds of, well, Mason Jennings. Its last major service came on Sunday night, April 9, blasting the sounds of the surprisingly entertaining Tapes 'n Tapes on the way to the Cubby Bear for Cubs-Cards. I believe Destroyer's Rubies was the final record it played on Tuesday night, although I can't be sure.

Wednesday also marked the beginning of the lifespan of Rud-Pod v.2, updated to the white, 30-gig variety. Who needs more than 30 gigs? Not me, I hope. With the extra space, much updating was done over these past few days. RPv2 is currently filled to approximately 75 percent capacity, although I'm reasonably sure I could easily cut that number to 50 percent with little regrets.

The first three records I've played on RPv2 that, due to space constraints, were left off RPv1:

Mary Lou Lord - God No Shadow, which isn't really that good.

Freedy Johnston - This Perfect World, which, contrary to what I may have said one week ago, is not actually among my top 50. Although it's probably top 150.

Mark Lanegan - Field Songs, which is really that good.

- - - - - - - - - -

With physical space constraints limiting the number of CDs that can be moved, I restricted myself to 80 CDs to make the trip; the rest were boxed up, never to be opened again, most likely.

(Not) Interesting notes from this group of 80:

- My initial filtration sense was pretty good, as I chose 86 during the first runthrough. This was quickly cut down to 80.

- Albums that I'll probably not listen to, but that were brought for credibility: Wire's Pink Flag, The Velvet Underground and Nico, and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Of these, VU is most likely to get played. It's also the best. I think it says something not-good about me that I'd bring Wire as a credibility choice.

- No Nirvana made the credibility-related cut.

- With both Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes lent to an intern and never returned, the only Guided by Voices CDs traveling north with me are Vampire on Titus/Propeller, Isolation Drills, and Half Smiles of the Decomposed. I don't believe that I brought any Robert Pollard solo work. This could be considered a major upset, and probably a lapse in judgment. Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department is a great album to wake up to.

- I guess this means that I brought as many Decemberists records as GbV records, as Castaways and Cutouts, Her Majesty the Decemberists, and Picaresque all made the cut.

- I might be wrong, but I think Wilco gets credit for the most albums brought along, as Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Being There, and Mermaid Avenue v.1 all are coming. Add Uncle Tupelo's Still Feel Gone and Anodyne, making Jeff Tweedy is the most popular songwriter.

- I decided not not to overload myself with Beatles stuff. Rubber Soul was the one I selected.

- This is quite possibly the most boring portion of a boring post ever. Congratulations if you're still reading. Or, rather, I'm sorry.

A few brief thoughts:

- Congratulations to Nemo #2 (a reference to his ranking in the age, not cuteness, hierarchy), who will apparently lose to his younger brother by a mere 20 months.

I hear they're planning on having a Panamanian band. And when you're thinking about Panamanian bands, the vote has to be for either Julio and the Zuletas, or the El Caballo All Stars.

- The moment of truth is upon us. Vote for Guided by Voices' I Am a Scientist here. They're currently neck-and-neck with Tom Tom Club. The freakin' Tom Tom Club. I'll thank you later. Or perhaps you'll thank me later, for doing you do a good deed. (Also, there are opportunities to support Nirvana, and R.E.M., and XTC. Give yourself legitimacy here.)

- The "leaving town" thing hit me pretty hard today. The last four months have been about the best four months I can recall. It's one thing to leave friends and life comforts when you're obsessed - obsessed - with a "career;" it's quite another several years later, when you realize that there's more to life than your "career." But, then again, the prospect of a "career" is pretty cool, too. Ahh, life. 26 and disenchanted? 26 and life to go. Sing it, Sebastian.

- How do you celebrate 12 weeks of holing up in an office-cave, staring at a computer screen and speaking to nobody? (After all, it was supposed to be a two-week gig, for chrissakes!) With an hour-long lunch with four co-workers, including one to whom you had said a total of, well, less than ten words (not an exagerration), of course! Awkward attempts at small talk, then witnessing shop talk. It was truly, madly awesome, in its own way. And lunch was at Nevin's, and free. Score one for Rud.

- I watched Fever Pitch tonight. I want my 104 minutes back. Insincere and awful, but I knew that'd be the case before it was on. Ugh.

Two weeks, two Sunday night posts that start with "I'm tired"-related whining. But, hell, I'm tired.

My nicknameless friend Duvy (I guess that's a nickname, but he whined at some point last month about not having one; I'm taking suggestions, and I think "Dirtbag" is a viable one) got married on Saturday. It was fantastic. A major recording artist performed at the outset, there was a word scramble before the ceremony, and the house lights went down at one point for an in-ceremony slideshow. Truly, an arena-worthy performance. The pastor also declared, "Duvy, I love your eyes," which was uncomfortable, yet enlightening.

And yet the highlight of the weekend comes at the reception, as that's where highlights tend to come.

[Warning: I'll probably come across like a jerk here. I swear, I'm not a jerk. Gosh.]

You see, there's a mutual former coworker, who shall remain nameless. Nice enough girl, but boring. More importantly, socially inept. Most importantly, very negative. Most most importantly, sucks the fun out of every situation ever. Most most most importantly, has far lower standards for "great friend" than most. (I consider the term "great friend" to mean things like "mutual," and "interested in the other's life," and "occasionally in some sort of actual contact;" I believe her definition is closer to "breathing" and "once talked to me.")

In December, when I was making my final departures, I met this former coworker and another for lunch. She had left the staff in August, so this was our first communication since then. We were both in town, and it was convenient-ish. I mentioned Dirtbag's (we'll try it out here) pending wedding while playing the "So what's [name] been up to?" game.

Flash forward to, say, late-January. Dirtbag gets a phone call, chooses to ignore it. "Hey, this is [former coworker]. I hope everything's going well. I know you're getting married in April, and just wanted to say that I'm really looking forward to it. Give me a call!"

At this point, I took a page from Derek Bell and declared a personal Operation Shutdown with regard to this situation. I would stymie any further communication out of a) Fear of revealing the wedding date, therefore opening the door for an appearance, and b) Lack of interest in further communication anyway. "No pity phone calls anymore," I declared. [And, again, this is coming from someone - me - with approximately two friends. So to drop a potential one is a pretty big step.]

Flash forward to the end of January. Duvy gets an email:
I was just wondering about the date of your wedding. My schedule is starting to seriously fill up for April, but your wedding is definitely tops on the list, what weekend is it going to be?

He chooses Operation Shutdown.

Flash forward to, say, mid-February. Duvy gets an uncomfortable Valentine's Day email. A mass "Wanted to say hello to my friends on Valentine's Day" email. Harmless, but weird, mostly because of the people included on the list. Thankfully, I was not included and, thankfully, it was forwarded to me, with message contents "Are you kidding me?" He chooses Operation Shutdown.

Flash forward to, say, later-February. I get an email. "Blah blah blah. I'm really looking forward to baseball season getting started and to going to Duvy's wedding in April." I choose Operation Shutdown.

Flash forward to, well, mid-March. Duvy gets an email. Not a phone call, but a less-avoidable or forget to respond-able [maybe?] email. A second email. "I just wanted to say that I'm really excited to come to your wedding." [Sadly, I did not get this one forwarded to me; I got the immediate, incredulous phone call instead.]

What to do? Can one continue to ignore? By ignoring her, would he be leading her on? I had previously counseled Operation Shutdown for Duvy but, when it became apparent that she wasn't going away, he did the tactful thing and responded. "My future mother-in-law had 200 people she wanted invited, and my mom had 150 she wanted invited, and we've only got room for 250, so even some relatives of mine didn't get invited. I'm really sorry."

According to Duvy, her response was understanding.

So, now, the long-awaited payoff.

At 8:45 on Saturday night, despite not being invited, and despite not talking to anybody who was invited, she entered the banquet hall, placed a gift on the appropriate table, and begin to mingle. Yes, she showed up. Again, she was never invited, and was explicitly told that she was not invited. And yet, an arrival [in her defense, an after-dinner arrival]. So, at 8:52, anybody with whom she had ever had contact started to make excuses to get away (i.e., lots of restroom stops and trips to the bar). By 9:02, she was alone at the mingling table, and those that had abandoned ship had reconvened at the bar. At 9:09, Duvy's beautiful and piercing eyes gave the most intense look I've ever seen. I believe he said, through clenched teeth, "Can you believe that?" Then we shook our heads, and proceeded to execute Operation Shutdown the rest of the way. It was sort of successful.

The question becomes: How could she have even found out the date? Wedding announcements in the paper? Is there anyone she could have spoken to? (Not the beat writers; please, not the beat writers.) Amazing.

She's probably just read this as well. Sigh. "Close friend" lost, perhaps.

On the bright side, it's given Duvy and me a topic of conversation that will be eternally interesting and mind-boggling. He's a pretty good dude.

- - - - - - - - - - -

I'm not a callous or mean person, I don't think, but I just absolutely couldn't believe it. Still can't. Won't ever. Probably, though, I won't think about it after tomorrow. Derek Bell's awesome.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Remember, it's only one week of the season. Just one week, so don't lose your head. But, let's be honest, 4-1 is a lot better than we expected. A sweep of the Cardinals was unfathomable. An effective Maddux on Friday, some clutch-Barretting on Saturday, and a more-clutch Jacque Jones donger combined with Isringhausen pulling an Ankiel tonight? Nemo's already set his World Series ticket price point. It's five digits, and maybe greater than his annual income. I'll just watch Joe and Tim, I think, while it's snowing in Northern Michigan.

- - - - - - - - - - -

My high school senior year-like goodbye tour's been pretty good. Gurs and Mike on Friday, the Quad crew on Saturday, Coach tonight, DBN lunch Monday, fellow former radio guy at the ballpark Monday night, another dinner Tuesday, Wej and Jenny at Wrigley on Thursday afternoon, and the granparents next Sunday. Pretty effective tour, I think.

Once Friday hits, it's two days of packing. Maybe I'll try to catch the Silver Jews show, although it is sold out. I don't know if I'll go to the trouble of heading down there to find an extra. I think I should, because DCBerman is the greatest.

I've not gotten proper sleep, in either length of time or in accommodations (through only my own fault, by the way), in three days; I've just driven for five hours in an awful, treacherous storm; and my right knee hurts like hell for no reason; but I'm going sit up and watch the remainder of the White Sox-Indians game. It's 11:35 p.m. as I type, and Jim Thome's just blasted a three-run homer after a nearly three-hour rain delay.

I am jealous as hell of "real" White Sox fans (the Sox are an amusement for me, not a passion, but I always want the Cubs to beat them in the World Series) right now. Not only do they have a defending champion ballclub, and not only are they led by a cast of eminently likable players, but their general manager actually took strides to improve the team this year. And he did. And that's just awesome.

One team in Chicago added a potential Hall of Famer (Thome), a 28-year-old former All-Star who was the most sought-after free agent just two years ago (Vazquez), one of the most useful and powerful "spare parts" in the game (Mackowiak), a 27-year-old utility infielder who owns a [surprise!] .279 career batting average (Cintron), and one of the best arms in baseball, one begging to be harnessed (Thornton...okay, it's a stretch to be excited about him).

The other acquired, from what I can tell, two past-their-prime one-inning relief guys coming off the only good seasons of their career (Eyre and Howry) and a "power-hitting" outfielder whose home runs are dropping and who is a candidate to break the single-season strikeout record if he could stay healthy enough to play 155 games (Jones). And, I think, that's it. Oh yeah, and an athletic utility guy perhaps best described as "Jose Macias-lite" (Bynum, on Friday).

[Ed: Added at a later date...Also, Juan Pierre, who we all hope is a lot closer to 2003 and 2004 Juan Pierre than 2005 Juan Pierre. Rage got the best of our reporter.]

I think the Sox will win their division, because their manager won't let them falter. He's effervescent. I think the Cubs will finish .500, although I think they'll finish ahead of the "due for a breakout" (translation: young guys with "potential") Brewers and earn a third-place finish in the division. Any team can have a bad century.

- - - - - - - - -

Gurs recently wrote a poignant two-paragraph homage to his time in Chicago. I was asleep on his chair when he wrote it. What a pal.

Also, I agree that the show sounded mediocre at best, from my perspective from the Time Out Chair. Metro Logan and Metro Tim, I'm coming for you. Just kidding. Also, I think my knee hurting is tangentially related to me winding up on the Time Out Chair. I hope it's well enough Monday for me to take part in an extended post-letting myself go Opening Day treadmill session.

Nemo and I called collegiate baseball together today. The broadcast wasn't very good, I don't think, but, God, I'm geeked for May 24th.