The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Twins (Last Week: -3).  My fucking God, what a miserable sports week it's been for Minnesota.  So bad, in fact, that after looking at all the records, it is the fucking Twinks, of which I saw a highlight of one Twinks Pitcher (don't remember who) airmailing a pickoff throw to Second Base, has to be the best team this screening Week.  Sad, really.  But they went 3-3, and those three Wins came in consecutive Games Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, the first two of which gave them the series Win over Division-leading Cleveland.  They're still in a three-way tie with Kansas City and Detroit for third, or last.  But this Week, that's enough to climb to the top.

They finish their series at home versus Miami this/Thursday afternoon.  They then host The Bastard Seattle Pilots thrice over the weekend and Houston for a trio beginning on Monday, completing a nine-Game homestand.

#-2: Lynx (NEW SEASON!!).  So they Lynx, who've lost half their team and is without superstar Napheesa Collier until June due to double ankle surgery, began their season Saturday night at home vs. Atlanta.  First Round Draft pick Olivia Miles is the wizard many thought she would become.  There were five or six passes she made that seemed to materialize out of nowhere.  She may be a keeper.

Unfortunately, Miles doesn't yet have a jumpshot.  Also, the reason I hated the Lynx drafting her over Awa Fam (who went third to Seattle) is her unwillingness to play Defense, and besides the Steals she accumulated on the Dream, she was largely a door saloon.  Blowing a 15-Point Halftime lead to lose at the very end of the Game isn't solely her fault; after all, they went on the road and defeated Phoenix, the club that eliminated them last Year, for their first victory in 2026.  But I was at that Loss, and seeing the wheels slowly and then quickly fall off the team is something I begrudge whenever a local team blows a lead and eventually loses.  You might as well tank.

At The Bastard Detroit Shock tonight/Thursday night, hosting Chicago Sunday.

#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -1).  Can't say I feel comfortable that the T-Wolves will somehow pull off the series Win over San Antonio.  Victor Wembanyama is growing into the alien form many are projected him to become.  And at many points this series, the Spurs have acted like they are the better team.  And yet, while the Wolves are down 3-2, they have tomorrow/Friday night's Game 6 at home to make this series go the distance.  It should be noted that in both of Minnesota's Wins, the margins of victory were two and five Points.  In two of three Spurs victories, San Antonio routed them by 38 and 29.

#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2).  Lost two-of-three at home to Michigan.  They actually mercy-ruled the Wolverines in Friday's opener, 13-1 in seven Innings.  But then they lost 9-8 Saturday and 8-5 Sunday.  So the Gophers are in a three-way tied for tenth place in the B1G.  The top twelves teams make it to the conference tournament (which, by the way, is configured in a way I've never seen before: The lowest eight Seeds play double-elimination with each other until four schools are bumped off.  The remaining four Seeds play the top four Seeds in a single-elimination knockout round that begins next Friday).  The only way the U. doesn't make it is if they lose all three Games this weekend and the team in 13th place, Michigan St., sweeps.  The chances of that nightmare scenario happening gets raised a bit once you learn that for their last Games of the regular season, they host 24th-ranked Nebraska this weekend.

#-5: United FC (Last Week: 0).  My fatigue is really setting in, so my grandiose essay about James Rodriguez will have to either wait or be forgotten.  But let me say I finally saw him on the Allianz Field pitch, and even though MLS still hasn't shed its reputation as the equivalent of a retirement home, seeing James make pinpoint passes no one else could see and thus prove he is one of the five best players in MLS doesn't get me up in arms.  The pair of Assists he dished out in the 2-all Draw Sunday vs. Austin at home were sublime.  Too bad he couldn't score in last/Wednesday night's droll affair versus Colorado.  The Loons got an xG of 1.50, but got shut out, 1-0.  Meanwhile, the Rapids accrued an xG of .45, and yet scored on a breakaway.  xG has always seemed to be sus.

At New England Saturday.  That's three Games over the course of a week.

#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -1).  I really don't want to give these assholes more oxygen than they can waste.  But with their backs against the wall and playing in an hostile environment, the Mild blew a 3-0 lead to The Bastard Quebec Nordiques and lost Game 5 and the series in Overtime, thus sending them to Cancun.  I'm just glad I was able to see a disaster (MNUFC's defeat) in person that served as a distraction from seeing a different collapse (the Mild) in real time.

What now?  Kirill Kaprizov's mammoth contract kicks in next season.  Quinn Hughes might be asked to be traded.  And the most promising roster in Wild history has fallen short, again.  Do you know the precise moment when the Wild were eliminated from postseason play?  Of course, it's Bill Guerin inviting dirty dumbfuck Kash Patel into the Team USA men's hockey locker room to get drunk on piss beer!  They were damned from that point on.

Is BBQ Supposed To Give You So Much Regret?

So last/Tuesday night after work (and after dropping off my property taxes), I went to this barbecue place relatively close by that I have heard a lot of good things about.  And I love BBQ, so I looked through reviews to see what people really liked -- and I tried pretty much all of the best recommendations, namely this place's pulled pork, ribs, brisket, and mac 'n' cheese.

It came in a relatively small tray.  I thought I would conquer it with ease.  In fact, all the items I bought were essentially half-orders, and looking at what I got, I regretted that I didn't go with full orders like I originally wanted.  Wow, was I wrong.  I finished up with the ribs, and the last two bones felt like climbing the sheer face of a mountain vertically.  After starting up just fine I hit a wall out of nowhere, and I can't help but think that the Unforgivable Wetness of 20 or even ten years ago would've wolfed all that down and ordered the same thing again.

No meat sweats, but even now I feel so logy, let alone fat.  All that meat felt good going down my throat, but now that all of that went through my stomach (and sure, my intestines, too), my tummy aches.  And I'm scared it's going to ache tomorrow.  How can I regret eating such good barbecue??

So Mother said I had to pay property taxes on the house, and they're due at the end of the week.  Also, because she's paranoid, she wants me to personally deliver the check to the receptionist at the county government building.  I would do that if I could get out of work in time.

Saw my schedule when I came to work yesterday/Monday.  The only time I get out of work early (and thus go into work early) is tomorrow/Wednesday ... and dammit, that's when I have to go to the United FC Match playing that evening.  Well of course I would be scheduled to leave work early on a day that I shouldn't.  I sure as hell won't schlep all the way up to the county building only to go back down, pass my workplace, and to the Match.  That's a lot of driving, and I am not going to drive everywhere, especially with gas as expensive as it is now, thanks, Trump.  Moreover, I wish I would've gotten my schedule before I left work on Friday.  Sometimes my boss is able to release the following week's schedule by then.  If she did, I could check back with her and ask to work an early shift on a day other than tomorrow/Wednesday.

Best thing I can do it push my workday tomorrow/Wednesday down a half-hour.  Assuming we'll be offered overtime to key, I could just flow from work to Allianz Field without worrying about excessive downtime, which is what I could be facing otherwise.

Oh, wait ... I'm talking about my property taxes, aren't I?  So yeah, I have no time to personally hand my check over to someone.  Best I can do is drive up there well after afternoon rush and drop my check off at a drop box.  Hope I can find this box.  And I hope Mother will understand, but she won't, so I'll lie about not handing the check over to a human being or something.

Dealing With Too Much E-Mail

I tried.  OK, I kind of didn't.  I had the occasional impulse to go through my e-mails and see which ones I wanted to read and which ones I could delete.  But once that urge went, it didn't, or hasn't come back for months, if not years.

At its worst, I had 100,000 unread e-mails unread in my main inbox.  Nearly all of them are political donation e-mails, and goddammit, I totally regret ever donating to those campaigns, though I'm mad mostly because my side lost.  But the donation e-mails haven't stopped.  There was a time I could go through every single e-mail that I got each and every day.  But once those donation e-mails hit my inbox, I couldn't.  So I thought I could let it go for one day ... except one day became two, and then it became a week, then a month, and then 100,000 unread e-mails.

What finally forced my hand several months ago was that Yahoo! Mail said I was bumping up against my storage limit.  Though theoretically I would eventually have to worry about the limit with all the non-political e-mails I still have in my inbox since Day One, it's all those fucking donation e-mails that have taken up all my storage space.  So, with the proverbial gun cocked and aimed at my head, I finally had the excuse to say fuck it, I'll just delete e-mails without looking at them.

But how to do that?  Going through individual e-mails to make sure they were political ones defeats the purpose of a mass delete, so I went with deleting by keyword.  But which one?  I wasn't feeling a sense of urgency.  But I knew, deep down, that I wanted to just get under this limit as quickly as possible, so I just wanted to find one keyword, zap all the e-mails with that keyword even if some innocent and non-political ones get swept up, and be done with it.

I profess I didn't think too long and hard over the one word I decided to use -- "donate."  It seemed to be the one word in every political e-mail I had.  After all, the point of those e-mails is to ask for money.  So I searched for "donate," clicked the all e-mails box, and deleted away.  Yahoo! Mail gives you a box with a final warning.  In this case, it told me that I was going to delete, say, 100 e-mails -- and then gives me the option of deleting, like, 10,000 more e-mails that also have the word "donate" somewhere in the body.  And I'm all, OK!  And Yahoo! Mail actually had to take a few minutes, but those 10,000 e-mails were gone ... and yet there were more even more e-mails in my inbox that had the keyword "donate" but weren't deleted yet.  So I had to go through this cycle two or three more times before it apparently found and killed off all the e-mails with "donate."

Got to be honest: I'm happy.  I was never going to go through the e-mails in the way my ideal self wanted to because I simply didn't have the time nor the inclination.  This massive kill-off is untidy and inaccurate, but it quickly got me down below the limit.  And I had bumped up against that limit a couple more times not too long after this first time, but I guess I had more e-mails with "donate," so zap! they went.  Finally, I'm under, and hopefully for good (so long as I get rid of the political e-mails that will infect my inbox after I die).  I know that I will be sentimental for e-mails that I really, really wanted to keep but unfortunately had "donate" somewhere in the body of that e-mail ... that is if and when I ever realize they're gone.  But I finally dealt with too much e-mail in a way that, if I were telling the truth to myself, I really like and wanted to do.

Can't Believe I'm Talking About The Jynx Game For The Third Time, But ...

... remind me to never buy a ticket to this team until they win a championship again.  I had a great seat, but then I had a great seat to see a chokejob up close.  Goddamn, I'm still so fucking mad.  Just glad af that the ticket was free.

Expenses Without Receipts

Starting from Saturday, May 9:

• Let's go back to Wednesday, May 6 Thursday, May 7, when, before work, I went to the panaderia close to me and got, um, some pastry that was really good.  Also got a small mocha.  With tip (and rounding down because no more pennies), I paid: $12.
• That evening, after work, I went to the National Sports Center.  Minnesota United was holding a practice open only to season-ticket holders.  I was wondering if James Rodriguez was going to be there.  Didn't see him train, but near the end of the session, I saw him pop out for autographs.  And a horde of people, many of them holding either James Colombia jerseys, the flag of Colombia, or both, swarmed to him.  Really nice ... and apparently, if reports are correct, the last thing he will do in Loons-branded gear.  Anyway, there was a food truck there, KCM Eggroll.  Got a jumbo pork egg roll and a strawberry lemonade.  With tip it came out to: $18.
• Then, after that, I went to Chick-Fil-A to get my free nuggets after the Timberwolves eliminated The Denver Nuggets (get it?).  Got a watermelon hibiscus sunjoy, too.  But I charged all that to my credit card.  I was still hungry, and I hadn't been to Potbelly in a while, and it's right across the way from Chick-Fil-A, so I got a bowl of chili from Potbelly.  I was going to throw in a tip, but something got crossed up because the guy paid me my whole change without the tip.  I was going to round up to give a total of $8, but instead I only paid: $7.45.
• ETA at 1:40 a.m. on May 11 that on Wednesday the 6th I went to My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Edition) to see ******a, who had finally delivered on her promise to rub me down.  Unfortunately there weren't too many girls working the stripclub, so the amount of time she could be doing table dances for me was shortened, so I only got 16 from her.  Add that to cover, tips for ******a and two other strippers and security, and a drink for myself (with tip) and I spent: $186.
• Back on Saturday the 2nd I did my annual sojourn to Wings Financial to add money to my account in an effort to keep it active.  Threw in: $20.
• That evening, after watching MNUFC win on TV, I celebrated by going to Zantigo.  Now, I know it's not "real" Mexican food, and that notion has been reinforced by all the Mexican and Central and South American mom-and-pop shops in the area.  But in total those restaurants are a force, and now I'm scared that Zantigo will go the way of the nearby Subway and close.  So I went there and got a "double-stacked" (in Taco Bell terms) taco and some ancho fries.  Zantigo also rounds down, so instead of $7.87 I only had to pay: $7.85.
• We zip back to Sunday, April 26, when ***e* was in town.  Got a quick wank session in with her.  So glad to see her and her hand in person: $120.
• That afternoon I went to this combination antique store/coffeeshop that is right by my house.  If I didn't have to cross a busy street, I would walk there.  Funky place.  The antiques they sell include old Playboys at a dozen bucks apiece.  Didn't buy the mags; instead, I reconciled my monthly expense list there while eating a pesto sandwich with tomato soup as a dip, and I washed that down with an Italian soda.  With tip: $27.95.
• Saturday the 25th ... got a shave from the barbering school close to me.  This dude was much more professional than the previous one.  With tip: $14.
• MNUFC played in the afternoon.  Along the way I saw the local kids selling brownies.  Got one, and this time I did not get a smushed one; see below/earlier.  Cost: $1.
• Later that evening I went to Falling Knife Brewery to attend their Timberwolves outdoor watch party.  Good times, even if it was really crowded.  Saw a bit of the Wild Game before the Wolves started.  That Game was interrupted by Trump's second fake assassination at the start of the White House Correspondents Dinner.  When he came on to do his bullshit press conference, we booed until the brewery changed the channel from ABC to ESPN, where the rest of the Timberwolves' Win over Denver was airing.  Good times all around!  So the Potter's Pasties food truck was parked there, and I got a pastie.  With tip: $16.
• Also there was that woman I see sometimes at the Black Hart.  She sells homemade Mexican food -- tacos, burritos, etc.  Funny seeing her there.  But I like an entrepreneur, so I along with the pastie, I bought one burrito from her at a price of: $5.
• On Friday the 24th I was invited to a party that day (or the day before, can't remember).  I usually don't like doing that, but *****a was hosting it, and I hadn't gotten cranked from her in a long, long time.  Moreover, ****e* was going to be there, and I have seen her at many, many parties, but I have never gotten intimate with her even though I have always wanted to.  I finally arranged to be double-teamed by those two and it was as good as I had hoped.  We three bonded over being water signs, too!  Those two and cover ... wow, that's a lot of money ... came out to: $290.
• And later that evening I went to Bebe Zito for a late night burger and pop (and, well, Caffetto too, but I charged what I got there on my credit card).  With tip, that late dinner at Bebe Zito cost: $8.
• Tuesday, April 21 ... did I talk about the massage I finally got from ******a here on WAF yet?  Maybe I haven't, and maybe I won't.  Anyway, this was the day I finally got a massage from her.  Finally, after ... geez, maybe two decades, I got her to see me naked!  And she was good -- a 90-minute massage cost me: $150.
• On Monday the 20th I went to a stripper party *****y told me the day of.  I have said no to her so often that I felt like I finally needed to tell her yes.  Moreover, ****e was working, and I hadn't seen her in a long time, so I arranged them both to double-team me.  I quivered when I came -- quivered!!!  And man, that costs me a lot of money!  With cover: $320.
• Saturday, April 18: The neighbor kids were selling brownies on my way to the Loons Game.  Got a deformed one this time 'round.  Disappointing, but I figure they knew how to do business, unfortunately.  The brownie cost: $1.
• On Sunday the 12th I got wanked by ******e, who complained about Minnesota again and is planning to leave again.  HJ set me back: $120.
• I bid on this online auction for items from the now-closed institution SexWorld.  I got aced out on several things I wanted, like a few signs and a Shop-Vac.  But I won a hard hat!  It's not branded with SexWorld, rather the construction company that oversaw their renovation.  Yeah, the company just decided to, uh, leave a hard hat there, and it apparently stayed in the back all this time, and the owner made eight-plus bucks off of me so I could very tangentially own a piece of SexWorld.  Anyway, I had to go downtown on this day (and not at the SexWorld site but another place several blocks east) to pay and pick it up.  On my way back, I saw that the Rustica Bakery was open, and I figured I would stop and rest of my feet.  Purchased a chocolate croissant and a small lemonade.  They rounded down.  With tip this light snack was: $10.75.
• Finally, on Saturday, April 11, I went to the library to make copies of my tax forms, both for the state (I needed to make copies of my federal to send to the state) and for myself.  The county next to the one I live in gives everyone who either has their county's library card or has their library card from whatever county they live in linked to their system (like I do) gets five bucks' worth of copies and printouts each month.  (Up until maybe a couple months ago, it was five bucks a week.)  That saves me a lot of money, but I still had to make so many copies that I still needed to shell out money to get all the copies I needed made, even if it was only: $1.

Good through May 9.

Oh, and one more thing about the Lynx Game today/Saturday: I realized that since I went downtown to watch English soccer this morning, I am going downtown twice, which seems like a waste.  I guess I could rationalize it by noting I am going to two different areas of downtown, and I won't be crossing paths twice today, but still.  Maybe it couldn't be helped.  Nonetheless, it's quite weird.

Yeah, about tonight's/Saturday night's Lynx Game ... as always, I get up to two tickets, and as usual, I don't use one of them and go by myself because none of my friends are sports fans.  But I got yelled at by one of my friends, or "friends," when I posted about the other ticket I got for the Timberwolves playoff Game in which they eliminated Denver.  He wanted a direct message.  I'm thinking, "Bitch, I have to cater to your ass over everyone else I know?"  I guess I understand that people get busy, but the more I think about it, the more entitled he sounds.  The hell does he get off asking me for special treatment?

And yet I don't want this ticket to go to waste.  And finally, I want to DM him about this offer to see how grateful, or even normal, he will act if we sit next to each other to watch the Game.  I can't believe he'll behave like a dick who thinks he deserves to be waited on hand and foot.  But if he does, well, I'll have proof beyond doubt to never offer anything to him again.  So, should I do it?

More Doing Stuff

I had plans tomorrow/Saturday.  I would wake up early to watch the EPL downtown, then there is thing called Open Doors where many famous buildings open up their business sides to see how its guts look, and then I need to get a haircut, and then I would go home, have a shower, eat a frozen pizza, make myself a cocktail, and veg out.

But no!  My friend got a ticket to tomorrow/Saturday night's Lynx season opener.  I'm not feeling really good about this squad; they lost half their team, and Napheesa Collier got double ankle surgery and might not be back until June.  (The draft next year will be loaded, so I think they should tank and get into the lottery, but that's just me.)  So I've got a feeling they're going to lose to an ascending Atlanta Dream team.  But hey, this ticket is free, so the pizza can wait!

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

I went to bed early last night, then I had work, then I saw MNUFC practice close to my house, then I had to talk to My Mother, who drained me of my will to live (naturally), and so I now have the time to do the WMNSS just less than an hour before the day turns.  I will do this quickly:

#0: United FC (Last Week: -4).  My good feelings for the Loons might be buoyed by the fact I saw this in a crowd, but I'm glad I did.  Saturday they were down in Columbus, 2-0, and they looked like a team that deserved to lose their third Match in a row.  But suddenly, they showed a resilience I haven't seen in these guys, or any local team for that matter, when they were in a bad deficit.  Three Minutes after the Crew scored their second, Kelvin Yeboah pulled one back.  Seven Minutes later, Yeboah scored again to tie.  Then eight Minutes after that, Anthony Markanich scored the Game-winner.  All three came on Set Pieces, by the way, so they shall be nicknamed Set Piece FC.

I can't remember the last time this XI came back to win after being down by more than one Goal, let alone on the road.  But if they can do that, they've got the moxie to never give up on any Game, and that's something I want to see from teams I'm rooting for.  Now, do they have the endurance now that they're coming up on playing three Matches in a calendar Week, beginning with a home date with Austin Sunday, followed by The Colorado Rapids at Allianz Field on Wednesday?

#-1 (tie): Timberwolves and Wild (Last Week, respectively: -1 and -1).  I thought about separating these conjoined twins because their respective Second Round series has been different.  The Wolves survived to pull off the upset of the Spurs in San Antonio in Game 1 on Monday, only to get the shit beaten out of them in Game 2 on Wednesday.  I'm very happy the T-Wolves have home-court advantage in the sport that parcels out the strongest home cookin', but I'm afraid that Game 2 reinforces the prediction most of us have, namely that San Antone would just run Minnesota out of the gym.  Might still happen, but that Game 1 Win allows us to dream.  A-Wooo!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, the Wild look cooked going down 0-2 to The Bastard Quebec Nordiques.  They're a fast, skilled-skating team ... kind of like what the Mild were in playoff seasons past.  Hey, I thought fast, skilled-skating teams usually get drilled in the postseason in favor of bruising, physical ones -- how come Colorado can run rings around Minnesota?  Still, this is hockey, and even though road teams are basically .500 (which means the Mild could get swept), I can feel as though Jesper Wallstedt can get his mind right and bring the series back even just by himself, and I don't need to provide evidence of that feeling beyond saying this is hockey.  Also, they beat The Bastard North Stars, and that means a fuckin' lot to me.

In the end, I couldn't separate the two.  This is the first year where both teams advanced past their respective First Rounds -- let alone on the same night, let alone at home.  They both tie last screening Week.  And if they both get eliminated, they'll end tied this screening Week.

#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2).  In their final series on the road, they won two-of-three at Penn St.  Will they reach the B1G Tournament?  I don't know, I'm not familiar with the format.  They host Michigan for three this weekend.

#-3: Twins (Last Week: -3).  I had to re-check that the Twinks went 3-3 this Week because it felt like they went 3-333.  It's the fault of the Bullpen, who ain't worth shit right now and have piled on more chokejobs.  This organization is not giving any paying sports fans a reason to even be curious about how they're doing ... well, unless they want to see a shitshow in the late Innings.  And yet despite all of that, they're only 3 1/2 Games out of first in the AL Central (and yes, they are last in the Division).

#-Infinity: Gopher softball (Last Week: -5).  Finished the regular season losing two-of-three at Northwestern.  That put them 7-17 in The Big Ten ... which is good enough for twelth and a spot in the conference tournament ... where they lost to five-Seed Washington yesterday/Wednesday afternoon, 4-2, to end their season.  And I don't think there's an NIT or College Basketball Crown or anything like that.  Is Piper Ritter in danger of losing her job?