want to explain why it's a good idea to stand in the middle of a hurricane holding a microphone which is emitting some form of electric signal?

Quote of the Week:

Me: "I don't consider hanging out in a bar a good way of finding dates."
Lindsay: "No. [A pause.] You could go through asking for the designated drivers."

***

Grocery shopping in the Toledo area will never be the same again. Bassett's Market is in town and open as of 7 AM this morning.

We were hoping to open yesterday, but that didn't happen because of technical difficulties with the register. We were all fairly unhappy with the techies who didn't make things happen.

So, this morning, there I was at 6:50 AM. Jonathan, the company's President/CEO, and I, went downstairs to open the doors. He unlocked the exterior door, and I opened the interior door. And immediately, the "exit" door, which is automatic, did not work.

Let's hope that one wasn't an omen. And we fixed it pretty quickly.

I have to tell you, it was a pretty awesome feeling putting the "NOW OPEN" magnets over the words "Opening August 27" on our new signs in the front window. I then assumed the position of greeter to the customers-slash-drill sergeant to the high schoolers who are our carryouts. Do not ask whether they want their bags carried out to the car; ask where their car is and take them out. There's no one in Lane 2, so in Lane 2, you should be. Pull more of those carts there. It's fine to stand and wait since all of the lanes are occupied by baggers, but please step forward three steps out of the flow of traffic.

I can sum up my morning's instructions in the following, oft-repeated phrase. For those of you know who the Whipmaster is (don't worry, those who don't, it's nothing nearly as fun as you think it is), it was said in a tone much like his: "Take a look at the title on your tag. Does it say BAGGER? No, it says CARRYOUT." Amazingly, one of the carryouts asked me what the difference was. I obligingly explained to him, in a tone only slightly clipped, that a bagger bags [and, I did not say, then stands by like a bump on the log while his customers struggle with their bags as they walk out the door, only maybe to return], while a carryout carries his customer's things out to their car, loading it while they get in their car and allowing them to cruise out of the parking lot with a smile on their face.

(My new motto? "We don't hire baggers at Bassett's. We hire carryouts.")

**

PS: If anyone out there knows how to make a decent looking Word document out of one's iPod playlist, could you pass that onto me?

Dear Venezuela:

Yeah, our right wingers get pretty comical sometimes and suggest stupid things, and things against commandments like, "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

Myself, I think it's kind of a dumb idea for us to go after your president. Beyond the thorny diplomatic and moral issues, someone's going to want to retaliate against one of our leaders, and we don't want that.

That said, your demand for legal action demonstrates what is wrong with your society. You demand that we take legal action against Robertson for demanding this.

See, that's what's great about America. You can say just about any old thing and the government can't touch you for it. You have the right to be just as dumb or offensive as you wish.

Take a lesson, Venezuela. When you have a Pat Robertson who can be as stupid as he wishes, without fear of any retribution but his countrymen howling at him, you know you're on the right track.

****

meanwhile: My grandma is out of the hospital. My friend is in rehabilitation but just had surgery. The store is going well, and busy. I'm sorry I've been so poor at updating lately.

From the Cincinnati Business Courier, reporting on the list of the least gay-friendly destinations. (Just for the record, I find this interesting because I'm tolerant, not because Im' gay. I have enough trouble with my romantic life without THAT rumor going around:

Ohio has become one of the least gay-friendly vacation destinations in the country, according to a list released this week by PlanetOut Inc.

The site's 2005 listing of unfriendly locations listed four states: Ohio, Alabama, Texas and Virginia. Internationally, the list included Saudi Arabia, Iran and Singapore. [Emphasis mine...GOOD GOD.]

Ohio landed on the list because voters in November approved one of the nation's most stringent constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, PlanetOut said.

Ohio's amendment bans legal recognition of any arrangement between unmarried partners. Though it passed, the amendment drew opposition from varied groups such as the Ohio AFL-CIO, Columbus-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and Republican Gov. Bob Taft. Opponents feared it could also jeopardize arrangements between heterosexual couples and make it harder for businesses to attract talented workers.

PlanetOut, a San Francisco-based Web portal that caters to homosexuals, warned that gay-unfriendly areas could lose business. It estimated gays and lesbians spend about $54 billion a year on vacations.

Top gay vacation spots included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. PlanetOut's top international destination was Spain.

***

Saudi Arabia, Iran and Singapore, people. You NEVER want to be compared to these folks...

in the meantime, I'm being worked like a dog getting these stores open, which is why I've been updating so little lately. I only work from 8-1 today, and then am going to visit my invalids in hospitals across Toledo...

My grandma's surgery went very well yesterday.

Still waiting to hear on my other friend.

Meanwhile, here's an example of where I think some NIMBYism would be a good thing.

Some folks want to save the endangered species in Africa, by putting them in the plains states.

Lions, and tigers, and elephants.

Oh, my.

thanks to those who commented and/or called. It means a lot.

As it turned out, both my grandmother and my friend got "bumped" today. So, they will try again tomorrow.

As for me, I worked from 10 AM-9:30 PM, so I'm plum tuckered out.

More later.

I am back from Las Vegas.

I have lots of cool photos I will upload later.

Work seems to be going fine. Will update about that later.

Big news is this.

My grandmother (dad's side) is having triple-bypass today.

Seriously. My grandmother is almost never sick.

Decided to go in for a heart cath because she hadn't felt quite herself lately and had some pains that made her and her doctor think this might be the thing to do.

Triple bypass.

My grandmother.

Outtatheblue.

Need to be slowed down? This phrase'll do it: your grandmother is having triple bypass tomorrow.

Your grandmother = the person that's taken care of you, watched you, loved you, understood being a college student also means being poor, listened to you, still keeps your first cast from when you were less than god knows when.

triple bypass = the heart. THEY'RE WORKING AROUND MY GRANDMOTHER'S HEART. This is profoundly disturbing.

tomorrow = wow.

I started to wig out a bit last night and then got calmed down after talking to a friend about it, and was doing fine today until I recalled my grandma saying she'd get communion this morning.

Something about my grandma in her hospital room getting communion from a priest before going into surgery. Her, her prayers, God, and the surgeon.

Wow.

Anyway, if you can, say a prayer, do a chant, a rain dance, or whatever it is you do.

Meanwhile, across town, another dear friend of mine, a former teacher who's like a second mother, will also be having surgery today.

Her third in four months.

She's had a horribly rough road.

More prayers.

Good grief. I'm starting to feel like Typhoid Michael.

Have a good day all. I'll update later.

It's 9:04 AM Ohio time, which means I am awake, and 6:04 AM Las Vegas time, which means my brother Charlie is sleeping soundly (or not so soundly; I just heard him roll over.)

I do again apologize for the infrequency of my updating lately. Amazing how I was able to do several updates a day through most of barzam hell and now I find myself doing two or three a week. I plan to be better, I promise!

OK, so, here's the deal. The original plan for the MRB-Post-Barzam Tour was this: I was going to come to Las Vegas on Thursday; then on Monday go to my grandpa's in Florida on Monday.

Well, I'm in Las Vegas, and I'm leaving on Monday, but plans have changed.

This all started last week when I came home overnight and my dad asked me whether I'd like to interview people to work in the two new grocery stores we are about to own. I pointed out this is something I have never done, but he assured me that training could be provided. (Apparently, he was also of the opinion I was trainable.) Then, on Tuesday, they decided to send me to the Lucas and Wood County courthouses hunting down vendors' licenses and health department stuff. So Tuesday was a bit of a long day. I started out at 8:30, made the circuit from Sylvania to Medical College -- dagnamit, University -- of Ohio, to meet someone at a food show to get paperwork I'd need, to Bowling Green, to the Wood County Health Department, to Toledo's government center (where I was told the Auditor's Office was on 8...oops, 7....oops 6...) to the Toledo Health Department, where I asked the lady who they'd ticked off, because they haven't had a remodel since, say, 1973, and their decor has been out of style since the mid-sixties.

From there, I attempted to go south on 280, forgetting that right now it is impossible, well, very difficult, to go south on 280. If one is dedicated enough, one can go south on 280, but this will involve what barzam people would call detours and frolics, my favorite frolic being when you make a complete circle to proceed south on 280. (Why the second time around is different than the first is not clear to me, but somehow, it works.) I arrived in Port Clinton and then sat through a five-hour -- :-/ -- school board meeting. Then went back to Sylvania. I wouldn't have driven that far to get back at 10:30, except...

the next morning I was out the door at 7:10 to go to the Perrysburg Holiday Inn Express. My journey there went fine except for making the wrong call as to whether I wanted to go north or south at the 75 split, and then having great difficulty finding the hotel when I finally did figure out where I needed to be.

So, all day Wednesday, I interviewed people. And here was the thing...I enjoyed it. I enjoy finding out about people and learning what makes them tick and thinking, Hmm. This person would fit well. Or, I don't know where they'd go, but we need to get this person. I enjoyed hearing what their philosophies were of customer service and such, as well as the number of people who were truly excited about us coming and think we will meet a need. Plus, every now and then I'd think, "Wow...from Nahmy Bassett pushing a grocery cart in the back roads of Ottawa County in the late 1890s...now we're entering Toledo..."

The part I didn't enjoy was this. I know many of them were thinking, and rightfully so, "I've been in the grocery business for 30 years and my future is being determined by some kid sitting across the table from me?" I felt especially self-conscious interviewing people who had been doing what they're doing since the time I was born. And the only one who hates having a 50-year-old woman call me "sir" more than I do is that poor woman.

But, the good news is that it sounds like I'm not terrible at it. My feelings on different candidates sounded not out of whack with what our HR director would have done, and some of the candidates, who our store manager knows, left the same impression with me that he had. So, that was good.

So, during a break (I had to run back to Sylvania to pack in a hurry), I mention to my mom* that I've enjoyed doing this and I might consider helping Dad further when I get back from my trip.

Well, I get home, and find myself being offered a temporary job working on getting the stores open, at a pretty decent rate of pay.

Only thing is, and this is reasonable although it sucks, my dad wanted me to not go to Florida, so I would be around for the major madness of the next week. Which is great, but I was sort of hoping to relax majorly in Florida after Las Vegas, which, while many things, is not relaxing. But, I figure, I've spent the last two weeks relaxing, so, what the hey.

So, I've got a reservation to go back to Ohio, and once Charlie wakes up, I have to call Orbitz and cancel my flight to Florida. (I have to call because I've already taken the first leg of the trip.) I WILL be going to Florida, probably in late September or early October, once the stores are up and running. I was looking forward to the ten days' vacation though. Oh, well. This'll be interesting.

All right, so, Las Vegas. I got here yesterday, and I had two big thoughts on the airplane:

1. I really wish I had put my digital camera in my carryon. From Colorado west, the topography is just spectacular. Red earth, mesas and buttes and all those other things I learned about in elementary school, and not just flat ground, which is what we're used to in Ohio. (I felt like such a bumpkin the first time I flew over Arizona. I was like, "Whoa! Mountains!")

2. I finally understand the iPod craze. I had run out of batteries on my CD player, and the lady in the next seat was not interested in using hers and offered hers up. I suddenly realized that a smaller, more compact thing that holds 835 songs is vastly superior to the fun of carrying a bunch of CDs and a CD player. Plus, you can attach it to your car, which would solve my broken CD player. And I even hear you can attach it to a stereo???? (IPod listeners out there, please comment!)

So, I got to Las Vegas yesterday around 2. My brother said he wanted to come back to his apartment for a while because, apparently, his August has been sort of carefree (think, like mine, but with more drinking involved), and so his apartment was a disaster. Which I had a big laugh over, because he's generally the neater of the two, and my apartment looks pretty darn good. But I was okay with coming back here and just regrouping a bit.

So, he cleaned, I read, talked to Laura, who's in final padge countdown, surfed the Internet when he wasn't (his computer died recently), and generally hung out.

After a bit, we got out of here and went and ate at a pizza place right by where he lives that has New York-style pizza. (Very, very good.) Then onto the airport, where we were to take a helicopter tour of the Strip. (I note that when I talked about this last week, I erroneously referred to it as an airplane ride.)

OK, so, we got there, and they had us sit down to watch a video on the safety features of the helicopter. Which was pretty interesting, especially the part when they said, "Should the helicopter door come off in flight, do not panic, simply alert your pilot."

I have two thoughts on this subject.

1. You damn well better believe I'm gonna get panicked. VERY, very panicked.

2. It's a HELICOPTER. I would hope the pilot would notice.

We waited, and another group came in, and they had to watch the safety video. So, we watched it a second time.

Yet another group came in. Unwilling to say I had spent ten minutes of my life learning that a helicopter door coming off in flight isn't a big deal, I went to the gift shop.

OK, so, then we got on the helicopter tour, which was pretty cool, except the cd they play through the headphones. It's apparently based on the principle you can record this and expect the tour to follow it. I've never believed this since I was five years old and my aunt took us to the CN Tower in Toronto, where if you turned your head, these headphones you bought would tell you what you were looking at. Of course, I didn't stay still and there was static. Likewise, Elvis (who is apparently back from the dead and giving audio tours of Las Vegas) kept telling us to look to our left when the thing he wanted us to see was behind him. The best part of it was a recording of "Luck Be A Lady" by Frank, Dean and Sammy. Listening to that as we flew over the Strip was, no other word for it, completely awesome. Memo to Papillon Helicopters: just play Rat Pack music while we fly over the lights of Las Vegas and your customers will be delighted.

The ride was about ten minutes (it was free, which both Charlie and I were happy about), and then Charlie drove me down the strip and through downtown Las Vegas, which was really quite cool. We got back here and I basically passed out because it was 1 AM.

So, today, we're supposedly going hiking up a mountain (Charlie swears it's not that difficult...heh...) and then tonight we may catch a show. Charlie's pushing for Cirque de Soleil's "Ka," which is supposed to be great. The Blue Man Group is also in town; and I am hoping to see if one of my friends can get us tickets in to see George Carlin at the hotel where he works.

Fun times. Have a great Friday all.

________________

* The only one who's been more insistent about not being involved in the grocery business than me is my mom. Well, the other day, I call the grocery store and get this verrrrrrry familiar voice answering the phone. Not wanting to call some secretary "Mom," I just asked for my dad, and I hear, "Michael, is this you?" Apparently, they were short-staffed, and she agreed to be drafted.

Dear Friends:

I'm still out here!!!!!

The past two days have been INSANELY busy. Yesterday was the Bowling Green-to-Toledo-to-Port Clinton-to-Toledo route, which included visits to both the Wood and Lucas County courthouses, and a four and a half hour (!) school board meeting. Today, I interviewed something like 25-30 people.

I'll explain more later. Tomorrow, I leave for Las Vegas.

Tired so my how construct to sense of structure sentence good gone is.


Michael

So, a few weeks ago, I visited my friend Laura's blog and found my name as the title, with supportive words about my luck on the bar exam. Today, it's my privilege to return the favor.

So. Laura. Miss Virginia Coed Pageant to be.

You will win.
The crown wants you.

You will be poised.
You will be talented.
You will be great.

Did I hear you may have a teammate on Saturday night? Oh, please, get a videotape...this I gotta see...

Seriously, for all the Miss Virginia Coed Pageant wannabes out here who are not named Laura and are reading this blog, I'd suggest you call up the hotel right now and see if you can get your money back on your room. 'Cause, when you see Laura coming, what with her megawatt smile, statuesque beauty, incredibe charm and undeniable intelligence,you'll be sorry you wasted your mons. Seriously, I'm just looking out for your best interest here. Stay home and wash your hair. Read a good book. Learn to play cello. Alphabetize your parents' spice racks.

SERIOUSLY. Take my word for it. Practice for next year. Mess with Pennington's Political Pageant Powers and there will be blood on the floor. Yours. You've been warned.

Laura...go kick some tiara.

Love love love!

for anyone whose hoping to see Democrats do better than they have been of late...

A referring link today:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=damn%20NCBE%20character%20report&btnG=Search

OK.

So, the Blogger template has served me well thus far. Simple, functional, no fuss, just what I needed while studying for the bar.

However, I'm ready to create something a little more interesting.

I've checked out Blogskins; I've found a few I like; nothing that really speaks to me, but a few that are options.

Any fellow bloggers who've been through redesigning their blog have any tips for me? How much of an HTML genius does one have to be to maintain it?

Thoughts, please...

As I am writing this entry, I can tell you I am not thinking that it is such a lovely day it's a shame I should be inside.

That is because, my friends, I am outside. I am sitting on our pergola, I have the computer plugged in, and I am connected to the rest of the world.

The most exciting part of this transaction -- apart from the fact that I don't even have to be inside to be on the Internet, which is way cool -- is that I can see my screen just fine. I mean, not a problem in the world.

Anyhoo, it looks like next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, I will work for my dad. Now, please be aware, I have been fairly clear -- OK, adamant -- about not working in the grocery business. I could not bag your groceries if you begged me. I cannot, will not wrap meat. I have struck out on my own; I will be an attorney (OK, proto-attorney for right now.)

Well, other than when they're opening a new store. For some reason, this gets me moving. I like seeing things come together. I like the idea that you have a large project that you have some part of. I still walk into Aisle 3 and look at shelves and go, "Hey! I painted those."

So, next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, I get to interview people for positions at these two new stores we are opening. I am told I will be trained. This is good. That leaves Monday for some research I need to do, and then Thursday is departure day. :-D

Hope everyone has a great weekend! For those of you interested in the War of 1812, come to George Croghan Day on the front lawn of the Fremont Public Library, where I will be the Master of Ceremonies.

Don't all yell at once.

I'm back on Catawba for today and probably tomorow; I came back last night to attend the annual Ottawa County Democratic picnic. (Great turnout, great food, great people.) It was a lot of fun.

On my way there, my brother called me. Now, he's the lucky first leg of the MRB I Survived The Bar 2005 Summer Tour, which hits Las Vegas next Thursday and then West Palm Beach the following Monday. Somehow, he got a gift certificate for an airplane ride, and he told me we had our choice of flying over the Grand Canyon's North Rim or the strip at night. We decided we'd like to do the Grand Canyon, even though I've done an airplane flyover once; and so he said he'd make the arrangements.

So, I went into my picnic, came out, and had a message from Charlie. It turned out that it was a five and a half hour drive from Las Vegas to go to the Grand Canyon.

So, we're doing the Strip Tour instead. Which should be pretty cool anyway.

Meanwhile, Bob Novak, who has been referred to as the Prince of Darkness in some corner, is apparently losing it. And I'm not sure what it was he lost it over.

You're going to hear a lot from Republicans in the next few days over the fact that the Republican, Jean Schmidt, won the Ohio Congressional District 2 special election over Democrat Paul Hackett. It was a closely watched race and was considered to be a bellwether for the 2006 election.

As they say this portends future victories, please remind them that Ohio's 2nd Congressional District is among the most Republican in the state. In 2004, Rob Portman, the Republican congressional candidate, won with 72% of the vote.

Yesterday, Schmidt got 52%.

In southern Ohio.

I'd have liked to have picked up the seat, but that didn't happen. The next best thing is cutting 20% out of the GOP's vote totals.

One of my favorite Mark Twain pieces is "Answers To Correspondents." This was from a time when people actually wrote letters. Now, we leave comments on people's blogs and search them in search engines. Fortunately, through the wonder of StatCounter, I know what people who come here via search engine are looking for, and tonight, I thought I'd try to give them what they are looking for.

"MBE." - If you are not familiar with it, count yourself lucky.

"blog july mbe bar impossible." -- Yes, everyone agrees, the afternoon was horrid. It may have had to do with the Feinberg lawsuit. Everyone nearly went to sleep around 2 or 2:30. You are not alone. It is done, and none of your tears nor your piety will change the answers you gridded. However, there's still time to work on your capitalization.

PMBR & "Alaska bar exam." -- At first I thought this might have been an igloo-bound Barzam taker; then I realized that part of the reason the MBE was impossible was Feinberg was caught trying to take notes out of the Alaskan bar exam a few years ago. Thanks, Alaska.

"Illinois bar july barbri disappointment." -- I am unsure whether you were disappointed by Illinois, a bar in Illinois, the bar in Illinois, a bar in Illinois in July, or BarBri. Thus, I fear my blog was of little to no help to you.

"Steve Palmer" & PMBR. -- Please tell me why in the world you were searching for Steve Palmer, and then assure me this is not a sexual attraction of any kind. Thank you.

"post bar exam depression" -- If you are depressed over your perceived performance on the bar, this is understandable. If you are depressed over the bar being OVER, then please, by all means, seek help immediately. If you're sitting home crying over the fact you don't get to study for ten hours a day, write practice essays and take practice MBEs, this could be a cry for help.

"Eve." (OK, you didn't leave me any comments and you haven't searched me either, but it's been too long since I left you an embedded commnt.) -- I have no doubt, as a loyal reader of your blog and a follow of your MDs, both M and M, that you will have no problem being gainfully employed until you receive your positive bar results in NOVEMBER. And if, by chance, the dog ate your barzam, you will make things work until you pass the February bar. But that will not be a problem.

And last, but not least, Losingit, who commented thusly:

Ohio Bar Property Question: I have a question that has been driving me nuts all day and last night. I know I shouldn't even be thinking about this stuff anymore. But I cannot remember for the life of me what the property question was about. I'm starting to think I didn't answer the thing! I mean, I know there was a property question, but my mind goes blank after that basic knowledge. In your post about the bar you called it quasi contract. Even that did not trigger any memory. I've been reading your blog and it sounds like you did well. Good luck to us all. I thank you so kindly in advance if you can tell me the answer to this burning question.

I'm hoping to start feeling better about all of this real soon. Or I'm in for a long three months.

"Losingit" -- I'll first answer your question, so that you can findit again.

As I said, it was a contract/specific performance type thing. It involved a plumber's lien where the plumber had gone out of business and never recorded his lien on the one parcel; and the fellow who was buying the second parcel for a playground for kids and started putting playground equipment up there. The question was really a property question that badly wanted to be a Contracts question. I threw in a little estoppel and a lot of specific performance.

And that's all I'm going to say, because as I start to discuss this, I begin to feel like I'm taking the barzam again. The room gets slightly woozy and I feel like I am in a maze I will never get out of. In other words, welcome to my life from June 1-July 29.

And I won't go there. Neither should any of us. The bar exam is over. Done. Our answers are sealed away and being graded as we speak. The die is cast. We've passed or we've failed; we just don't know the answer.

But this is Ohio; where something like 70% of people pass the bar exam in July. You read this blog; ergo, you are smarter than at least the other 30% of Ohioans taking the bar. Relax. Breathe. Your being nervous before the bar was useful; your being nervous after the bar will simply drive you, your friends, family, coworkers, pets and houseplants nutty. Instead of being a nervous Neil (or Nellie, as the case may be), you might consider filling your time between now and October 28 by

• reading a good book
• going on vacation
• spending some time with your long-neglected significant other, if one exists
• volunteering for Habitat for Humanity or some other worthy cause, which will remind you there are plenty of people out there who have far worse problems than whether or not they passed the bar
• doing some writing
  
• learning to cook
• cleaning your long-neglected abode
• memorizing the oath of office for lawyers which will be administered November 7
  
• listening to "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5 and admiring the exquisite accompanying music behind it
• thanking those who have suffered through this awful process
• memorizing and being able to spit out the first stanza of "Nothin' To Lose" by Josh Gracin without taking a breath
  
• figuring out the identity of Deep Throat (oops, scotch that; already been done. In the alternative, could you tell me where Jimmy Hoffa is?)

Seriously. Be proud of yourself; you've worked hard and deserve a break. So take one!

PS: I hope you are not offended by this post, but it's worth a peptalk for all barzam takers who are starting to worry. And I assure you, by October 15, I'll be a Miserable Michael waiting for those exams to come down.

PSS: Thank you for saying it sounds like I did well. I'll gladly recommend you for a position grading bar exams in Ohio, so long as they are this July's and you get mine.

Two stories from today's Blade making me shake my head and go, "This is just stupid."

First, there is apparently a Toledo law that restricts riding your bike on the sidewalk to those fourteen and under. Now, if the intent of the law is to give everyone a chance to have transportation, what happens to fifteen year olds? Too old to ride a bike, too young to drive.

Beyond that, shouldn't we be encouraging people who wish to ride bikes rather than drive cars? Wouldn't you rather people drive their bikes, which both gets them into shape and doesn't pollute, rather than hopping in their automobiles?

No, thanks. We'll ticket you.

OK, and if you think that one's stupid, try this on for size. A group of sportswriters has picked Michigan to win the Big Ten this year.

Riiiight. Michigan, who last year could defeat its most formidable opponents, and yet when faced with teams that they should have put away before pregame, lost. Notre Dame. Ohio State. Little Sisters of the Perforated Bowel. You get the idea.

For those of you who don't recall, the Ohio State game especially springs to mind. Some birdbrains had confused Ohio State's not having a great season with Michigan being, and I blush to admit there were people who thought this, better than us. We reminded them how truly foolish that idea was, with the loud cheer at the start of the fourth quarter. There's nothing more wonderful than hearing 90,000 people cheering together: "O-VER-RATE-ED."

Yeah, actually there is. It's beating Michigan.

Seriously. Ohio State sort of stood down last year. Watch out, though, U of M.

Oh, and memo to Lloyd Carr: Have your wife serve your Cheerios on a plate. We're all concerned if they're in a bowl, you'll lose them.

OSU football starts in 32 days.

As Eve-Marie says in a post called "The View From The Other Side," "It's nice over here."

Indeed it is. The thrill of waking up every morning and having to decide whether I'll read or write first -- both of my own choosing.

Making it through 130 pages of Hollywood Animal yesterday.

Actually feeling like I'm writing worth a darn. (Up to 5 pages.) And feeling like my main character doesn't sound like every other main character I've ever written.

Being as much of a social butterfly as I generally like to be. Both Saturday and Sunday night I ate out with friends.

Not feeling guilty about not studying.

Feeling decent about the bar exam.

Not having to go back to school in a few weeks.

Contemplating sustenance. Able to do so without a thicket of bar exam in the way.

This is not a bad deal.