Wow, I can't believe how quickly this last month has passed. Wasn't April Fool's Day last week? While on the one hand I want time to pass quickly, on the other hand I don't want it to pass that quickly. I'd like to think I haven't been letting life pass me by, but if whole months can pass and I can hardly remember what I did, then I must be missing something. I have vague memories of the time change, Easter, and my birthday, but not much beyond that. I think that my attempts to put work out of my mind have caused to have memory lapses. With my new work schedule that kicks in tomorrow, I'm not so sure that May won't pass by even quicker. I'm all of a sudden headed back to the days of last summer, when I had to close 5 nights a week. I'm not looking forward to having to be at work until midnight (or later) several nights a week, but I am looking forward to being able to sleep in pretty much every day.

Also, with the coming of May means the departure of Jen. We'll miss you here in Appleton Jen, but I'm sure you'll be much better off down in Chicago. Good luck!!!

The only question left to be answered now concerns what to do tonight. Matt called this afternoon, so I'll probably call him back and discuss the plans for the evening, but I'm stalling at the moment so I don't go out too early and spend too much money. Pffft.

It's 7 o'clock. It's raining. I'm lazier than my cats. I could drive down to Oshkosh to see Shelter Belt again, or I could plop my ass in front of a tv and relax tonight. Both are very tempting options. There's something so very bizarre about days off. Wasting away my weekend is easy - it's only 2 days. Time doesn't fly by quite so quickly when I'm unemployed. Oh, to be unemployed. By choice, of course. Probably pays better (no union dues).

I can't believe that I've really allowed the last 8 days to pass without even a single entry. This is crazy talk! As I'm not feeling entirely up to writing a novella here, I'll try to recant the last 8 days in the shortest amount of words possible. Ready? Here we go....

Last Monday, Jen gets a job offer and takes it. Last Wednesday was my birthday - friends came out, I got trashed, I got sick. Last Thursday, I spent the day recovering from Wednesday, while Corey hears he didn't get into Madison. Friday night, Corey and I go out on the town with Matt. Saturday was Jen's going away party. A low-key affair, the Trivial Pursuit game ends at 4:30 am when Felix the cat lies down on the gameboard. Poor weather on Sunday causes many cancelled or delayed flights at work. One aircraft doesn't come in until 2 am, the other overnight is damaged by Midwest's unchocked bagcart. I finally clock out at 4:10 am. Whew... I think that pretty much covers it.

As for the coming week, tomorrow is Administrative Professional's Day, Thursday is Earth Day, and Shelter Belt is playing Tom's Garage on Saturday.

In other news, I'm considering doing away with comments on this website. Not only have I not received any legit comments in nearly a month anyway, but I get an average of 10-20 spam comments a day. Deleting all of those is sort of a pain in the ass. No, it is a pain in the ass.

By the way, I missed it on Sunday, so Happy Independence Day Zimbabwe.

I've made a startlingly pleasant observation in the last couple days. While sitting in the livingroom looking out the big picture window, I can't help but notice that there are some hot, hot young women living in our neighborhood again. Where did they come from? What do they do? It looks like they have kids... are they married? I want answers. It's a little too cold outside to start lying in the front yard with a book hoping to catch them walking by, so I need a good tactic to employ while we await warmer weather. Ideas?

The Twins are holding together pretty well so far despite injuries to Torii Hunter, Joe Mauer, Matthew LeCroy, and Johan Santana. I see Santana is set to start tomorrow in the rubber match with Detroit, but don't be surprised if Gardenhire pulls him after only a couple innings even if the game is close. They can ill afford to be without Johan's services for any period of time. Ah, baseball season....

To Richard Schoenbohm: You lost. Now shut your pie hole and crawl back under the rock from which you came. You said throughout the whole College Avenue bridge ordeal that all the outside forces were forcing something that the people of Appleton don't want. Well, let's see here: The DOT endorsed a four-lane bridge, the Common Council endorsed a four-lane bridge, the Post-Crescent endorsed a four-lane bridge, and now, by a referendum which you needlessly forced, the people of the city of Appleton have endorsed a four-lane bridge. The only "truth" which has gotten out is that you and your rich friends tried to force your will on the rest of the people of this great city, but we showed up at the polls and told you how we really feel. Now it's time for you to tuck your tail back between your legs and go back to being the soulless, money-grubbing lawyer you've always been. Dickhead.

As for the next-most pompous person involved in our municipal elections yesterday, it looks like it's time for Charlie Goff to also go back under a rock. The people of Appleton don't want you or your negative, self-serving attitude. We like the development and progress that has come under Tim Hanna's leadership, so we had no need for Mr. Goff to come in and muck up things. Four more for Hanna.

I received in the mail today my letter of acceptance from NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Science. It came precisely 3 weeks after I received my original letter of acceptance from Tisch. Does this mean that it's now official-official?

Today is election day here in A-town. In addition to voting for a bunch of unopposed candidates for positions like city clerk and attorney, the more important questions involve the mayoral election and the bridge and assessor referendums. An article in the P-C a few days back was a little misleading, making it sound like one could get up-to-the-minute election results online throughout the day. The truth of the matter is that one can get up-to-the-minute counts tonight after 8:30 - long after the polls have closed. Damn you P-C.

Yes, opening day is in the books. What do you know: the pompous ChiSox blew a ninth inning lead by allowing Kansas City to score 6 in the bottom of the ninth and come back to win, while the Twins overcame a slow start by scoring 4 to tie their game with Cleveland in the 8th, and finally won it on a 3-run shot by Shannon Stewart in the 11th. Former Twins figured big elsewhere, as A.J. Pierzinski had a couple RBI's in San Francisco's victorious effort, while Bobby Kielty scored a couple runs in Oakland's win. Former Twin Latroy Hawkins was warming up in the ninth for the Cubs, but Borowski came back and finished off his save himself. Of course, the Twins-Indians and Padres-Dodgers games were the only one's I couldn't get on tv (damn this living in Wisconsin again). Tuesday night we get Johan Santana's first start of the season, but, of course, I won't get to see that either. Grr.