Let's get the Cubs out of the way, real quickly. I'm not angry or pissed off or anything; I'm mostly past being angry or pissed off about sports results (unless they're the result of utter and unadulterated stupidity, as that Duke loss for NU was.). I've come to the conclusion that these games are entertainment for me and, even if they Cubbies are terrible, they've still kept me relatively entertained for three hours. I mean, what else was I going to do, interact with others or something?

So, yeah, they were terrible. Embarrassingly terrible. Aramis was a waste of space, and that sixth-inning (fifth-inning?) bases-loaded double play was excruciating but, ultimately, expected. TBS came back from the double play and started showing clips of sad old women and sad young children, decades of experience contrasted with those who have no idea what they've gotten themselves into.

The Zambrano decision wasn't the sole reason for the loss but, gosh, doesn't it look stuid(er) now? Win the one in front of you, Lou. Would've been nice to need him for Game Four, eh?

The inability to hit with runners on base was just remarkable, just amazing. That's all.

What strikes me about Cubs games is the amount of #22 jerseys and jersey t's that you see everywhere at Wrigley. It's amazing to think of how much that guy (and Kerry, of course) took over the city in 2003. Kerry's going to be great next year; I'll happily looking forward to Kerry holding the lead in the seventh, Howry doing the same in the eighth, and Marmol allowing a solo homer in the ninth.

There's certainly reason for optimism next year, as everyone but Kendall should be back, it seems. Murton and Theriot and Hill should be a year better, and Lee should show some power all year. Ramirez probably can be expected to perform at the same level, as can Soriano. Z should be good, Lilly performed at about expectations. Marshall's a good-enough one. Howry's legit. Pie certainly figures to be a factor, and I'm not sure whether Jacque is gone or not. The status given to Geo-Soto will be interesting - is he the unequivocal starter, or is he splitting time with Hank White, or what, anyway? I see Eric Patterson joining the roster on an everyday basis, over Fontenot.

The key is, it's not like anybody performed far and away above their expected level; you can argue that their top two position players were worse than expected. (Maybe DeRosa was better than expected? Maybe Theriot? I don't think either were.)

So, hey, the Cubbies gave me six months worth of entertainment, and about an entire month where they were my lone source of joy (not really). I'll look forward to doing it again next year, and I'll continue the tradition started this year by starting it with Chicago style hot dogs.

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Meanwhile, the Cats played a fascinatingly entertaining game on Saturday, and got a victory out of it and everything. I've long since gotten over my "I'm from Chicago - I love defense, and defense alone!" thing, and there's nothing I love more than a shootout like that. (Well, I like 52-10 NU victories more, but I don't expect those.)

I had a great game-watching experience. I left work at about 11:30 Saturday morning (briefly, see below), and mentioned to a coworker that I'd be heading to a local bar to watch - another dollar PBRs while watching the Big Ten Network bar experience. Did he want to come? Sure, he said, to my surprise.

So I returned home, showered, headed to the bar, and sat down in my minibooth, about three plays in. I was, mid-second quarter, joined by my coworker, a 2007 college grad, and two of his friends, both MSU grads. I had come armed with my free Northwestern bucket hat, which is just sweet, and my non-rooting-interest-bearing coworker donned the purple and committed to the Cats.

Generally, conversation was good, game-related and non-game-related, and the game was fun (though EMU-Michigan was the game at the bar that got the sound) and, in the end, nobody was really pissed off even though, on a couple of occasions, I over-exuberantly yelled "C'mon Jeff!" or "Go Eric, go Eric!" or "Take 'em Omar!" It was in good fun, and it was good fun.

Let's Big Ten Power Ranking it, friends:

1) Ohio State (1 last week, Tier 1)

2) Purdue (2 - 2)
3) Illinois (7 - 3)
4) Wisconsin (3 - 2)

5) Michigan (5 - 2)
6) Penn State (6 - 2)
7) Indiana (8 - 3)
8) Michigan State (4 - 3)


9) Iowa (9 - 3)
10) Northwestern (11 - 4)
11) Minnesota (10 - 4)

Picks for this week:
NORTHWESTERN over Minnesota
MICHIGAN over Purdue
OHIO STATE over Kent State
Illinois over IOWA
WISCONSIN over Penn State
Indiana over MICHIGAN STATE

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I got a great call from Tina Saturday, though I was drinking sweet, sweet Ring Fingernail microbrews and chose not to pick up. (As a friend, I should have picked up and said, "Hey, I'm out, I'll catch up with you soon." Since I'm an ass, however, I ignored the call. Had I not ignored the call, I wouldn't have gotten the great message.) Her message, roughly: "Hey Rud. I'm excited about the Cats!, but sorry about the Cubs." So am I, Vuda-may, so am I.

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Friday and Saturday were physically tiring, just about absolutely grueling, but mostly pretty awesome. Well, kind of awesome.

We moved offices, and we did it fairly efficiently. We had gutted our home of three years by about 9 am on Friday, and the trucks were completely empty at the new place by noon. Moving an entire office isn't so glamorous, but it's kind of nice to have a part of, in some way.

We weren't completely efficient, and there was often leadership and organization lacking, but we did our best to keep standing around at a minimum.

We were out by just after 5 on Friday (well, I was out by just after 5 on Friday, as were several others), and, after being told to expect "be here all day Saturday," we were done by 11:30. I was sore, but satisfied.

I scrubbed lots and lots of windows and windowsills, and moved some more desks, and plugged in some computers.

Anyway, I wasn't so looking forward to Friday and Saturday, fired up because of the inefficiencies and the whole, "Um, yeah, Peter, I'm gonna need you to come in on Saaaturday" aspect of the whole thing, but, hey, moving a thriving business is a pretty good experience.

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I did some practice test-taking after moving day on Friday night, and failed miserably. I accounted for this by blaming physical fatigue and the fact that I haven't done anything for four hours straight in forever. I did some more practice test-taking this afternoon, and failed, though less miserably. I blame the fact that this shit is hard.

I'm taking Monday night off - just working through some problem sets, then will take another one on Tuesday. The hope is that I'll be done failing by test day on Friday.

Friday will also mark the start of a fantastic but as-yet-unplanned, from what I can tell, weekend. All that's in-stone is the Cats game, 11-3. Beer before, probably naps afterward. Departure from the 'burbs likely sometime Sunday afternoon, 3 or 4ish.

Gurs is in Friday night. Rico the same. I'm not sure on others. Not sure where I'm sleeping. Need to make plans with Deedz and Jenny. The Boy's there, too, but I don't know if that's feasible. But, dammit, it should be feasible. Maybe he's working in the 'burbs Friday.

That's all on that. Should be excited, and I shouldn't get stressed over it - How am I gonna see everybody worth seeing - but I'm doing it just a bit.

And I get 20 more minutes of sleep tomorrow morning.

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The Packers have a player named Atari. I wonder how his father, Pong, and his siblings, Coleco,
Commodore 64, Nintendo, and PS2 are doing.

Devin Hester is in a Chunky Soup commercial. What's funny is that the fastest guy in the NFL kind of has chubby cheeks.

I have trouble with the math that dictates that there are not 30 NFL-competent quarterbacks in the world. It seems like, if there were an extra, the Bears would have found him.

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Please discover a new link at left. The headline's in Polish, and it's from my sister's friend Sarah. She's smarter than you, clearly. You've probably never met her, I'd imagine. She's in Poland now, on the guv'ment's dime.

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That's all I've got.