After a 25-4 softball humbling last night, I came home and went almost directly to sleep. So now, the Southern Fried Road Trip, as Troy has called it in the past, begins. It's 5:15am. Hopefully, nothing happens along the way and we reach Mississippi safely, which we should.

So, until Wednesday or so, this space will probably go silent. Probably.

Well, I don't think Squawkbox is working right, which figures...so there's no real opportunity to comment, I guess. Whatever...I'll spare going on the technology rant.

I'm currently listening to the new Velvet Revolver song that appears on "The Hulk" soundtrack, called "Set Me Free." For those who don't know, it's basically Scott Weiland, the druggie lead singer from Stone Temple Pilots, and basically what's left of "Guns N Roses" (basically just minus Axl Rose). Let me tell you, it sounds pretty damned good...it's good ol' fashioned rock 'n' roll. Well, maybe not "ol' fashioned," but it's pure rock 'n' roll. The DJs on the Zone this morning were saying that it didn't sound like either of the former bands, but I think it has real hints of STP style in it...particularly the early stuff ("Core" and whatnot). At least moreso than G&R. Of course, with Weiland falling off the wagon again, I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm as much as possible.

The next 30 hours or so will be jampacked and rough, but fun as hell, no doubt. Here's the itinerary.
1. Drive to parents' house with Gerard following around 8:30am.
2. Drop off Pontiac so my dad can get brakes and tie rod ends replaced while I'm on vacation.
3. Have Gerard drive me back to Bolingbrook.
4. Have him then take me to Budget so I can pick up my rental car for the trip, around 11am.
5. Drive back into city and then on to Wrigley Field for Sox game at 2:20.
6. Stick around at Wrigley until about 4:30p, when my bro and I will have to leave.
7. Drive back to parents' house to pick up Troy, who will be meeting there.
8. Drive to softball in Oak Lawn and get there by first pitch at 6:30p.
9. Resist going out (which isn't as hard as I make it seem sometimes) and go home and go to bed.
10. Get up at 4:30am on Saturday and get going to Mississippi by 5am, in order to get there by nightfall, which should be easy.

So yeah, me and Troy will be cruisin' down I-55 on Saturday, and I'm praying with all my might I can find the Cubs-Sox game on the radio on the way down, since it's a 12-something game. But I'm not holding my breath. :) I'll be there until Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether my softball team actually needs me or not on Tuesday. It's about 90 percent certain they will need me, since we're going to be near-shorthanded, we're playing the best team and one of our wins was overruled and half the game needs to be replayed later in the year. It sucks. :)

All I have to say is I'm looking forward, big-time, to relaxing down South. It'll be nice, even though it'll be just two days. Every little bit helps. So now I'm off to bed.

New column by me today...and I'm actually pretty proud of it, so read it, dammit. :)

Kazak

If you've read and enjoyed any Kurt Vonnegut books, you'll recognize the name as being the name of the dog that recurs throughout a couple of the books. Kazak (who is a big, mean-ass watchdog) and his multibazillionaire owner (Rumfoord, I think, is his name) are most prominently featured in my favorite book, "Sirens of Titan," by Vonnegut, but they are mentioned in some of his other books too. In "Sirens..." it explains how they got caught in a "chronosynclastic infundibulum" while on a space exploration flight or something like that (it's been awhile since I've read it). In kindergarten terms, that basically means they were vaporized and travel (as energy waves) around the sun in an orbit. When that orbit intersects any planet (like, Earth or Mars), they are able to materialize on that planet. They basically have the ability to travel through time and space as well, which is kind of the basis for what happens in "Sirens..." If you like sci-fi books at all, or if you like imagination that seems so absurd that it isn't possible, I'd suggest "Sirens..."

By the way, I've always pronounced it "KAY-zack," but I think it's pronounced like the name for the people from Kazakstan (of the former Soviet Union)...that would be "Kah-zock," or something like that. But this works. :)

Off to bed now that I've used most of the evening (volleyball-free, given the rain) to drive home, watch "Walking with Cavemen," which was only minorly interesting, play SimCity 4 for a while and type out my radio notes for tomorrow's PFW radio show. All this after telling Troy around 10:30pm how tired I was...I guess I got that second wind. Oh, and I typed out this blog. Off to bed I go...

So I got home late last night, and there was a message from Gerard saying to wake him up because he wanted to talk to me. I did not see Kazak around, so I got to worrying slightly as I woke him up and he went into a story about how Kazak was outside and came in the house and was acting like he was trying to get something out of his mouth, like it was stuck...maybe a piece of wire or something. But Gerard did not see anything in his mouth. He considered taking him to the emergency room, but didn't because he wasn't choking or anything like that.

So I went downstairs and Kazak had manuevered his choke chain into his mouth, I guess trying to use it as some sort of tool. I took that off him, and then he started flipping out in front of me, trying to get whatever it was out of his mouth, once again. I checked his gums and teeth and saw nothing, then laid him down on my lap and pried his mouth open. He had a 1/4-inch wide stick wedged across the roof of his mouth, stuck between his teeth. I guess he must have been chewing on one of the weedy trees outside, bit through it and it got stuck up there. So I had to get Gerard to hold him down, because he was squirming, and then I had to pull the stick out. It wasn't too hard to do because Kazak realized, I think, that I was helping him. No idea why the hell he's eating the trees outside or chewing on them. I guess he's bored, but there's nothing more I can do for him outside except give him the 1/4 acre to run around in. Any toys, he chews apart, and that's no good. So I guess we'll see what happens...he's gotten into the neighbor's yard twice in the last week, and of course, the killing of the squirrel a while ago, so I don't know what's eating him up. I've even spent some good, quality play and walk time with him recently, so it's not like I'm ignoring him. Hopefully, it passes without incident. I just can't wait until I get my own yard someday...then I can regulate things better.

See, I take a certain amount of personal pride right now in the fact that I grilled those pork chops and the pineapple yesterday, then brought the leftover chop and a couple slices of pineapple to work along with a package of microwavable Green Giant Niblets Corn & Butter and put together a solid lunch today. Now if I could just do this every other day or so, I might not be so poor and so pudgy. By the way, for you bachelor/bachelorettes out there, I recommend the Green Giant microwavable veggie packs. They're awesome. Sometimes, I'll microwave and eat a pack of those for dinner--it's much healthier than fast food. Plus, there's all kinds of variety. I got the broccoli and cheese one, and that's a meal in and of itself. Certainly healthier for me, at least.

On that note, I think I've either lost some weight or my body has redistributed it. After looking at myself in the mirror, I don't seem as round as I did a month ago. My gut doesn't look at round as it did, and the jeans I bought in March fit better now than they did when I got them. Now, I don't have a scale, which is fine. I don't really need one, as I'm not obsessed with weight. I don't care what number the readout says, and I don't need a number to know if I'm overweight or not. I just feel out of shape if I am. I guess playing softball twice a week and hockey/volleyball once a week has made a difference. I know it has, and not just because of the less-rotundness of my midsection or because my jeans (which may simply be stretched out now, who knows?) fit better.

In PFW softball, I typically bat in front of our power hitter, who has 8 HRs in six games. I've scored from first base at least as many times on his other hits. I told him that I appreciate him crushing the ball because I've noticed that it's gotten much easier for me to score from first now than it was the first time. I'm not as winded when i reach home. So, even though softball is more of an explosion-speed kind of sport, it's helping. If I start eating better, I bet I'd shed all sorts of weight. But that requires discipline, which everyone who reads this knows doesn't flow freely through my veins.

For you Medill alums out there, read this. I didn't know the guy or have him in class, but I knew of his legendary-ness as a prof and a person. So yeah...

Oooh boy. I see Blogger now has official gear. Color me uninterested.

Well, let's see, weekend recap. Friday night was softball night. We lost. In fact, we were hammered, 24-13 or something like that. It wasn't pretty. The other team were good hitters though, which was our downfall. We didn't make many mistakes if any, they just hit it where we weren't. Afterwards, we went to a bar called "Murphy's Law" instead of Gilhooley's, because someone had driven by Gilhooley's and said it was packed already. We wanted none of that.

After having a few beers and playing darts with my brother, my cousin and our newest teammate (my bartending friend from Hawkeye's), a couple of us headed to Countryside to a bar called Tooters for afterhours drinking and standing around. Always fun. That friend's birthday is Monday, and she wasn't sure if she would be working, so she wanted to have a good time with all of us for her birthday. Several of us obliged and headed there. My brother was worse than I ever saw him (because our friend kept buying Rumplemints shots for her birthday--after demanding that she buy the shots, not us) and I told him not to drive all the way home--to come to my house which was closer. I was told "Fuck you" in a drunken fashion and he drove home. I found out the next day that he didn't remember going home at all, and my parents said he threw his clothes away in the bathroom instead of into the laundry basket. I told him, next time, there's no "fuck you" and no options. But whatever. I got home at 4:30am, drank a big glass o' water and took two Advils and went to bed.

Saturday, I had nothing in the morning, so I slept until 2pm by design. I woke up with no hangover, despite nearly throwing up on the spot after the second Rumplemints shot...that stuff sucked. Bad. So I went out to Noodles & Co. for a re-energizing kind of late lunch and then went grocery shopping, because I was grilling up my signature pork chops for my dad (and family) for Father's Day on Sunday, before getting ready to go to the two graduation parties I was slated to attend. I went to my cousin's (2nd cousin) party first, in Plainfield. It was cool. I sat around and talked and ate and then played some horseshoes when my brother and parents showed up. My little bro decided not to come, because he was busy at the neighbor's house at that girl's party (which is where the rest of my fam came from). We all shot the shit and it was good, as it usually is.

Then I drove in behind my family to go to the neighbor girl's graduation...by this time, it was basically this girl's high school friends and our crew (her brothers' friends). I stayed there for two hours or so but started to feel tired, so I came home to Bolingbrook and went to bed around 1am. I got up around 9:30 and headed into the city to get some of the prep stuff out of the way prior to going to the Sox game. The Sox lost 1-0, and then I went to my parents' house and got grilling. As usual, the pork chops ruled, and I actually tried grilling some pineapple with a sweet curry basting...it wasn't bad. My family though, isn't a big bunch of fans of pineapple. But everyone seemed satisfied, which is good.

So now I'm sitting here back in Bolingbrook, a bit tired and a bit unmotivated. I could do something, or I could veg out and play SimCity 4 or watch TV. Maybe I'll go for some ice cream or something...I kind of have a hankerin' for ice cream. Ah well, we'll see. Tomorrow begins another work week, though shortened by Cubs-Sox tix on Friday. Then, Saturday, it's off to Mississippi with Troy for some good ol' Southern hospitality. And some sittin' on the porch and sippin' lemonade. Because, dammit, I'm doing that at least once. :)