The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6).  This team has now won five in a row after running the table this Week with victories over Charlotte, Miami (although that one was really close, 106-104), and San Antonio.  Goddamn that they still are in the Play-In scrum, a half-Game behind The Bastard Philadelphia Warriors for sixth.  But I want to say that there have been many Days where more than one local team has played, and this may be the second or third time in 2025 that the Timberwolves were the only ones that won their Game that Day.  The Wolves have been the only reason there hasn't been more #MinnesotaIsLoservilleUSA tags this calendar Year.  And I and Twin Cities sports fans are grateful.

They travel to take on Denver tonight/Wednesday night, then start a five-Game homestand playing Orlando, The Bastard New Orleans Jazz, and Indiana.

#-2: United FC (Last Week: -1).  The Loons, having a hot start?  There are only two Sides that are a perfect 3-0 (-0), Philadelphia and Vancouver.  And MNUFC isn't too far behind the Union and the Whitecaps as they went to San Jose (and legendary Head Coach Bruce Arena) and beat the Earthquakes, 1-0, on a sidefoot Goal by Striker Kelvin Yeboah.  I don't know if you can chart a team's fortunes based only on three Games, but at two Wins and one Loss, a lot of people are being impressed by United FC right now.  Hope it lasts into their Match at Sporting Kansas City Saturday night.

#-3: Wild (Last Week: -5).  Dropped consecutive 3-1 results in Vancouver and at home to Pittsburgh, then defeated The Bastard Quebec Nordiques in a Shootout last/Tuesday night at the X.  But Colorado had slid past them in the standings and they still are.  The Mild, once the best team in the NHL, now has a Wild Card spot only.  Now, they are eight Points ahead of Calgary, who has the other one.  But this team is still missing Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, and they spend the NHL Trade Deadline trading for two Forwards, Justin Brazeau and Gustav Nyquist (who played for Minnesota before), that might make the whole team slower.  That might help come playoff time, where the rules against interference and close play are loosened up, but it doesn't help in the regular season, where skill is rewarded and penalties are called quite easily.  It's like politics: You want to appeal to your extreme base in the primary, but once you win your party's nomination, you want to tack back to the middle to pick up independent voters.  But there are more disgruntled Wild fans that don't think General Manager Bill Guerin can be so deft.

With the Boys' State High School Hockey Tournaments now done, they have begun a seven-Game homestand, which continues this screening Week with Games against the Rangers, St. Louis and Los Angeles.

#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2).  Dropped two-of-three in their conference-opening series against Purdue at U. S. Bank Stadium over the weekend, then started a two-Game mid-week set with a 10-6 Win at Ooooos-Banhk over Kansas.  Golly, a BcS school coming up here to play the Golden Gophers in baseball -- I would love to go see opponents like the Jayhawks in Tuesday's matchup.  Anyway, they finish up with Kansas this/Wednesday afternoon, then travel to Oregon to play a weekend trio against the Ducks.

#-5: Gopher softball (Last Week: -3).  In the LSU Round Robin over the weekend, they balanced out a pair of one-Run victories over South Alabama with a pair of ass-kickings at the hands of LSU that were so bad, they got mercy ruled at five Innings in both Games.  And they traveled to Beaumont, Tex., and got shut out by McNeese St., 2-0.  Oof.

OK, so this is weird.  The Gophers begin conference play this weekend.  But they are doing so by playing four Games but two B1G foes -- two against Michigan St., then two against Penn St.  Moreover, they will be playing these league Games at a neutral site nowhere near the Big Ten footprint: Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Okla.  

#-6: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -8).  This has been a really crappy past Week in Dinkytown.  Considering that of the four winter sports winding to its conclusion the Gopher women's hockey club fared the best is a reflection of how horrendous the performances were from the big school.

Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on this team.  In their WCHA Final Faceoff Semifinal Friday afternoon in Duluth, the third-seeded Gophs took it to second-seeded Ohio St., tripling them, 6-2.  Then again, if you're cynical enough to believe that the Buckeyes didn't try because they sewed up the playoff position and situation they wanted to sew up, you might not be cynical enough.  Minnesota still had something to play for, however, in the title Game vs. 1-Seed Wisconsin, and they played like it: They tied the Game at 1 (Allie Franco scored 20 Seconds after the Badgers' Casey O'Brien kicked off the scoring), went ahead with three Minutes to go in the First Period on a Goal by Josefin Bouveng, and then tied it up again at 3 late in the Second Period on a Power Play Goal by Natalie Mlynkova.  Unfortunately, with 25 Seconds left in the Third Period, a perfect centering pass was fired in by Wisconsin's Sarah Wozniewicz, and the Badgers denied the Gophers a conference tournament championship they haven't won in a long time.

Now, would winning Saturday afternoon moved the Gophers up past the #4 Seed for the NCAAs?  Possibly.  But Cornell has that, and so, despite getting to play Saturday afternoon's Quarterfinal at Ridder, they play 5-Seed Colgate.  I have a bad feeling about this.  And by the way, once again The NCAA Women's Hockey Tournament has 11 teams.  Eleven!  Why?  How did they come up with the crooked number of 11?  And as I'm on this topic, why in the hell does every basketball conference tournament this season only 15 teams big?  What an odd number to settle on, 15.  That means there are only three tilts in The First Round of a 15-squad tourney.  But that means that there are four First Round and four Quarterfinal contests the two following Days.  Those quadrupleheaders are all played on the same Day.  So why isn't the First Round four Games big?  Why in the hell aren't the conference tournament fields 16 teams big?

#-7: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -7).  What happened last weekend was fucking shocking and humiliating.  In the B1G Quarterfinal series they were hosting at Mariucci, these Goofers lost a three-Game series to Notre Dame and have been eliminated from the conference tourney.  Friday's 3-2 defeat should have been a wake-up call, and they responded the next night with a 4-2 Win.  And yet the message didn't stick because the Fighting Irish -- the last-place Fighting Irish -- blasted the Goofers Sunday, 4-1.  How the fuck??

That upset pushes the U. down the PairWise (Pairwise?) down from third to fourth, being passed up by Maine.  Thank goodness that, at least according to College Hockey News' Pairwise Probability Matrix, it is unlikely that the Goofs will split to fifth and thus lose one of the four 1-Seeds for the NCAA Tournament.  But that possibility was highly unlikely before getting ganked by Notre Dame.  Meanwhile, CHN's Adam Wodon still believes one of Minnesota, Michigan St. and Boston College is coming away with the title.  His belief in the local team has not wavered; for I and I think for many who witnessed that atrocity over the weekend, that faith has been heavily shaken.

The Selection Show is on the 23rd.  The team will have a hell of a long time to reflect on what they allowed to happen.

#-8: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -4).  Finished the regular season with two more Losses, home to Wisconsin last Wednesday night and at Rutgers in Overtime Sunday.  (Aside: Rutgers has two players, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, both of whom many prognosticators believe will be top 5 picks in the NBA Draft in the summer.  A few are saying that those two will go #2 and #3, with Duke's Cooper Flagg being picked first.  You don't need The Fab Five to win a championship in top-flight college basketball; two potential pro superstars may be more than enough.  That the Scarlet Knights will not get into The Big Dance without winning the conference tournament is one of the most head-scratchingest puzzles in college sports in a long, long time.)  Dawson Garcia is the only bright spot with this squad; the loyal returnee was named B1G Second Team by both The Media and coaches.

So a season that had many signs of encouragement -- again (all those Quad 1 Wins, all going to waste) -- will end up with yet another First Round appearance in the B1G tourney.  At least this one isn't going to be in front of a home crowd; the tournament is being played in Indianapolis.  And like their female counterparts, they will be in the kickoff Game, versus Northwestern, this/Wednesday afternoon.  Will they go meekly like their counterparts, the ...

#-Infinity: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -9).  The collapse of the U. Goofers women's b-ball team in its second Year under Dawn Plitzuweit is now complete after going out like bitches in the First Round of the B1G Women's Basketball Tournament last Wednesday, a completely uncompetitive 79-65 Loss to a below-mediocre Washington squad to whom they lost by ten, at home, the Wednesday prior.  They lost eight of their last ten Games.  And what was to be a breakthrough season under a Head Coach known to turn around programs -- Charlie Creme once had the U. pegged as a 10-Seed -- likely ends with another fucking appearance in the WNIT.

The arc of the season is concerning.  That this club, and this program, hasn't improved under Plitzuweit, should be even more concerning.  You cannot say Minnesota doesn't have talent -- or can you?  Everything should be on the table.  It is downright miraculous that there wasn't an exodus the two previous off-seasons, but that can't happen three off-seasons in a row, can it?  I guess the more important question is, Shouldn't it?  I don't know how the state of the program is viewed at the office of Athletic Director Mark Coyle, but there appears to be less panic than there should be.  This wasn't a good season, y'all, especially how it ended, and there needs to be changes, full stop.

The Price(s) Of Going To A Concert

As I may have mentioned earlier or in the past on WAF, I have wanted to see Helmet for some time.  I am familiar with only one song, but it's the song -- "Unsung," featuring the most kick-ass long outro this side of "Layla."  It probably is one of my 15-most favorite songs of all-time, and it could be top ten.

And because of that, and despite me not really being a Helmet fan just because I know the one song everybody else does, I decided to pay money to go to a concert to see the band just for that song.  It may not be efficient, but if I love the song enough, I have decided it's worth spending the money to buy an overpriced beer, stand behind people blocking the view of the stage, and wading through song after unknown song just to hear the one that you've been rocking out to since your twenties.  I didn't buy a ticket to the Dakota when Cowboy Junkies were in town.  "Sweet Jane" may be, IMHO, The Second-Best Cover Of All-Time, but the ticket was just too expensive when I might know only one other song that I have heard of from them.

But Helmet?  The ticket price was more manageable -- at least I thought.  I was going to go, but I really did not want to pay full-price for it.  So, once I remembered that the Helmet concert was last/Monday night at the Varsity -- I've been busy with work -- I waited and checked (when I could, or when I remembered) on scalper sites SeatGeek and Stubhub.  For some reason Stubhub was more expensive than face value and some tickets on SeatGeek were below.  But I also checked the firsthand website selling tickets to the concert and there were still tickets available.  I figured that so long as it's not sold out, people selling secondhand have to offer them for cheaper than full price, and that is where I really want to strike.

I was going to set a drop-dead date for Sunday.  If I didn't find a below-face ticket by then, I will just go to the firsthand website and buy there.  But then I got busy thinking about packing up the house for when my parents come home.  I decided that if I was going to spend any money on Sunday, it would be cash only.  So when decided that Sunday was a no-credit card day, I totally forgot about Helmet.  And so by the time I paid for Chipotle that afternoon and a carrot cake and tea at Caffetto that night, I had committed myself to only purchasing through paper currency, and that meant not using my credit card to buy a ticket to the show online once I remembered the concert.

But, dammit, I couldn't help myself.  If I waited until the next day, one where I would permit myself to go back to using credit cards, the place might be sold out.  So just before I went to bed, I checked Ticketmaster to see if the price of the ticket I saw when I was checking the same site a few hours before at Caffetto.  But the damn page just stalled out, and it gave me an error code.  Oh, shit.  Did they just sell out the show?  Or are they pulling all unsold tickets?

Well, as peeved as I was at myself with hesitating and losing, I decided then that if the ticket was above the price I last saw it as, which was a bit more than $41, I will skip seeing the band.  I tried again the next morning.  This time there were tickets available, but it was for $48.  And I saw the phrase "Day of Show" -- ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, so that's (probably) why I got that error code when I checked for tickets overnight.  They just needed to adjust its price higher.

And yet that made me dig my heels in more over not paying more for a ticket than I saw it as.  Never mind that I kind of screwed up.  Maybe people were still selling tickets they can't use.  So I waited through yesterday/Monday at work ... well, it was easy to wait because I got so wrapped up in all the crap that came at me at work that I totally forgot.  And when I got home, determined I was going to go to the concert, I was equally determined to eat Jimmy John's first.  So I got Jimmy John's, went home, ate, relieved myself, then got back in the car ... all the while forgetting to check SeatGeek or Stubhub.

I remembered I hadn't done so while I was driving.  Shit.  I had to go to a gas station and park while I got out my phone and looked at the scalper sites.  I saw one on SeatGeek going for $21.  Ah, so thinking there would be a dirt cheap last-minute ticket from someone whose friend cancelled did work after all!  And I tried to buy it, but as I progressed through the pages, I kept getting an error message, so when I went back, the ticket was gone.  Goddammit.  I might have had time to buy the ticket if I looked through SeatGeek while eating my sandwich, but I didn't, fuck me.

But I was still on the road, and I wanted to end a bad day at work with Helmet, dammit.  My only thought, then, was to go there and see if there were tickets still available.  Thank goodness the Varsity is not one of those places that has a fake box office, where the person behind the window tells you go to the app instead (that was the case, or at least I think, at the soccer park for St. Louis City).  Indeed, Helmet tickets were available -- and for $37.50.  That $48 I saw that morning included a convenience fee of $13.  So, all in all, buying the ticket the old-fashioned way was cheaper than buying online, at least in this case.  And I still remember the hell of not getting that Frozen Four ticket last year, so maybe I wouldn't've gotten that $21 ticket after all.

And you know what?  I liked the Helmet concert, even the other songs I've never heard.

Have I ever posted a video of "Unsung?"  Well, even if I have, here it is, the second version of the video with the remastered, "known" version of the song remastered once they signed a major-label deal:

Finally Cleaning All The Clothes (Maybe)

I think that the clothes in the dryer right now, as I type this, is the sixth load of laundry I have done in the last three days.  I try to be a stickler when it comes to following the washing and drying instructions.  Not only do you need to separate whites and darks (hey, don't give President Elon any ideas!!), you then have to separate them from whether it's supposed to be washed in warm water or cold.  Then you need to know whether it can be dried at a low setting or a medium one.  And then you have to worry about those "gentle cycle" pieces of clothing; they're living in a parallel universe.  Where a quick wash in warm water would be no big deal for, say, socks, no, these tops and thermal underwear need to be handled with care.  And handle it with care, dammit, or I'll slug you!

Confession: This sixth and final (maybe not -- I just have to freshen up the towels around here) load is just pieces of clothing that has something wrong with them.  They can be donated; in fact, the place I think I should go is right across the street from where my prom date was buried.  But maybe it's overkill to wash and fold clothes that you know you are going to give away.  But, maybe you want to give those clothes you're giving away, as well as the people taking care of them after I give the clothes to him/her/them, a sense of dignity, an acknowledgement that those clothing pieces did their job, kept me warm and (maybe) stylish, and for that, I am forever thankful.  It might be a pain-in-the-ass to think this way, but it's working.

Yeah, things continue not to be where I want them to be.  I was able to take half of the things I want back in storage back in to storage yesterday/Sunday afternoon, but I wanted to keep the other half just in case.  That "just in case" is working through my papers, one last time, just in case I have the wherewithal to recycle some of the stuff.  But that would require having time, and I just spent my time reconciling my monthly expense list, washing the rest of my clothes and sending out a pretty important e-mail.  I might be able to do it tomorrow/Monday, but I think I am going to the Helmet concert then.  I might have time Tuesday.  Or, I might decide to just pack up the other half on Tuesday.  Sigh.

Hottest Babe In The Hooters Calendar: February 2025

This will be the last month I can fully see its women on my wall.  From here on out, at least for the next half-year, I'll have to hide what makes me happy.  Hrmph.

After thorough visual osmosis, I would say the month overall is below average, but of the dozen servers for the month, I think I will recognize five of them.  And by the way, befitting the month, nearly all of the waitresses are wearing red or bikinis -- except for my top pick.  So as a break from repeating the color every hottie is wearing, please assume she is wearing red unless I describe otherwise.  Let us begin:

In fifth place is Cassidy, of Denham Springs, La.  Voluminous and dark hair whose ends hang below her breasts.  She's tugging the string between the two pieces of fabric covering up her boobs.  Nice touch.

In fourth place is Orlando's Ashlyn.  She's got really long, dark hair that is level with her belly button, and she is wearing a hot pink two-piece.  The pose is the thing: She's climbing up pool stairs, and so we can see her really hot body directly full frontal.  Well, actually she's climbing down one or two of the steps.  See, she's not wet at all -- she's posing as if she's emerging from the pool, which would be hotter.  Still, she's hot.

In third place is The Main Girl, Alexis out of Rock Hill, S. C.  Dark hair long enough to reach the bottom of her tits, and she is sporting a light pink two-piece bikini.  She is turned almost fully away from the camera, so we see the front of her body at an angle, but she is posing next to a showerhead, and she puts her hands underneath the running shower.  Better yet, unlike Ashlyn, Alexis is completely wet.  Her hair is wet, and if you look closely, her ass has droplets of water on it too.  It's not as if she has taken a shower when her photograph was taken, of course, but at least she and the photographer went through with the illusion that she has.  I really appreciate that.

In second place is Paris, hailing from Savannah, Ga.  Dark hair that is so long (yeah, I guess a sense a theme here) it reaches her hips.  I don't mind her left arm resting on top of her head.  I really like that she's posing directly at the cam.  The lighting I like as well; it seems to emanate from her right (so the left side of the picture) , so her tight stomach is given a lot of definition, in particular the vertical line cutting through her dark skin.  Lovely.

Finally, in first place is Daniela, of Port Charlotte, Fla.  Dark hair that only gets level below her titties.  Also, she's the only one of the dozen babes this month wearing a white two-piece.  Lovely, toothy smile, but she has a perfect bod that, to be fair, is posed slightly off-direct but is still impressively cut.

I have just realized I selected five Hooters women that all have long, dark hair.  They're all slightly wavy, too.  No blondes have I chosen, which might very well be an all-time first.  In fact, there are only three servers in February 2025 that do not have dark hair.

Congratulations to Daniela and to the other four waitresses.  To make sure I did it before my parents came home, I have already masturbated to them.  Prost!

Know What I'll Miss The Most?

Doing what I want, when I want.  Yeah, I still have panic attacks when I'm lying in my bed and realize that I have the whole house to myself, so that if someone somehow has gotten into the house and kills me, it might be days before I'm discovered.

But there are upsides, too.  Once I got home from watching MNUFC beat San Jose, I started washing the remaining dishes.  This was at midnight.  No way I would be able to do that with my parents home because one of them would be complaining about me making so much noise.  One night ago I was walking up and down the stairs trying to organize my stuff.  I was turning on all the lights and listening to music on YouTube really, really loudly.  This was 4 in the morning, after I had conked before 11:30 p.m. and found myself awake at 2:30.  Of course I couldn't make a racket like that at that time of night if my folks were around.

It is the freedom I will miss the most.

Cleaning update: I am making headway, but not enough.  I no longer am going to go through my things and see what I can dispose.  I am in the mode of gathering everything up and seeing what I have to put back in storage.  That is not done, however.  I wish I could start picking up in my bedroom, but I am pushing that back another day.

I am pushing back a lot of things another day.  I decided I am going to go out to watch the MNUFC Match.  If I have the energy to come back home and continue to gather, I will, although I should get around to cleaning clothes, too.  The final step is putting everything back in storage.  I want to do that tomorrow/Sunday just so that I have three days of having ****e* cum and clean and, if need be, pick up any last-minute items that I can't leave here.  That's why, even though I am operating under some lassitude, I am trying to set an "end" date of cleaning everything up as tomorrow/Sunday.

So I went to My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Version) (because it's weird to visit a stripclub these days with my parents in town) last/Friday night.  And I've been on a high since -- not just because it was great to see my ATF, but also because there may, may, be a chance for her to give me a massage at her place.  We just talked about it a little more, and I hope I have earned her trust to try it.

Yeah, I dreamed that there would be more than that.  It was a nice three-hour nap I just had.

The Place Where Pop Bottles Are Still Cheap (Well, Not Anymore, At Least Not Quite)

As I've gotten older, I have gotten more attuned to how much things cost.  I guess I could have been more aware of that earlier, but maybe that ignorance is a sign of how blessed/privileged I am.  Still, inflation is a thing (though it shouldn't've been enough to throw Joe Biden out of the race), and even I am beginning to grouse about the price of things.

To wit: Pop.  It increased the past several years to the point where I reconsidered that a second reason (the first being that it's bad for you) to cut back on drinking it as much as I have.  Emphasis on the past tense: I might be a caffeine addict or have a sugar tooth, but after cutting back, the withdrawal was too much for me to take, and I have been back on my pop tip since.  But still, I notice.  And I have tried to counteract that by keeping a mental list of how much a bottle of pop is at the grocery stores and gas stations I buy them from, so that maybe I will patronize places that sell it regularly for cheaper.

There was one place that consistently sold it for cheaper: The mom-and-pop grocer not too far from here.  While a bottle was going for $2.79 and up, this place was selling them for, get this, $2.19.  Whoa!  Now I fully understood the concept of comparison shopping.  Why in the hell would I buy the same bottle of pop for sixty cents more -- sixty?!  The problem is that I did not patronize buying bottles of pop here as much as I should have.  I usually succumbed to convenience -- for example, since I was already at the gas station to get gas, I might as well buy the pop there, even if it is $2.79.

And now I feel regret about not exploiting that financial disparity.  For one thing, I went to a gas station to get gas for my car late last/Thursday night, and I noticed that they are, ugh, $2.99 there (although you can buy two for $4.50 or something, I think).  More unfortunate, however, is that the mom-and-pop grocer recently, and finally, raised the price of pop bottles they sell -- to $2.49.  Yes, it's still a pretty sizable bargain compared to what you'd get at other places around town.  But I swear a bottle was selling for $2.49 everywhere not too long ago.  And the reason I didn't hoard bottles there at $2.19 is that my parents would yell at me for indulging in such a sugary drink, and they're coming back soon, so I can't hoard at $2.49, either.

At this point, the grocery store will ratchet it up to $2.79 soon enough, and then I'd have to question how much of a difference it would be to buy there instead of anywhere else.  But for the longest time, a bottle of pop there (and it was both Coke and Pepsi products) was just $2.19.  Those were the days, man, those were the days. ...

So we got socked with a lot of snow overnight and through yesterday/Wednesday morning.  I had no time to get the measuring stick out -- turned out I was an hour late getting to work -- but reports I saw from spotters around where I live pegged the amount as between seven and eight inches.  Yowza.  Glad the snowblower got through, oh, three-quarters of my driveway before it conked out for the second time.  Have to get that carburetor cleaned.

Unfortunately, I have only so much energy.  I got to work late, and considering all the work that has come in, I thought I had to pull another ten-hour day, so I would get home in the heart of the evening.  But I didn't; with some help from another co-worker, I got out there after working only an extra half-hour.  That was great because I used that extra time getting home early to clear up almost the entire driveway (a driveway, by the way, that lost a lot of the snow and ice that was on the ground; man, the Sun's rays this time of year can attack the deepest of snowdrifts, including the one made yesterday/Wednesday morning).  But I had no energy to do anything after that, and this was the day I was going to stay home and start cleaning up my stuff.  But the damn snow was the priority.  I'll have to put my stuff off yet another day.

---

My supervisor is going to shadow me at work today/Thursday.  I think she's cool, and this is only because she's trying to streamline the work we all do so, well, we won't have to pull ten-hour days on the regular.  So why am I so nervous?

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: United FC (Last Week: -7).  I really thought the Loons were going to drop their home opener to FC Montreal Saturday night.  We have had a good stretch of weather where the temperature was well above freezing ... except for Saturday.  It was warm before then and it was warm after, but a pustule of cold air went over the Twin Cities that day.  No matter; Tani Oluwaseyi's attempt on goal found the bottom of the right (?) boot of Kelvin Yeboah and he stuck it home to give MNUFC the 1-0 Win.  Not bad -- and good enough to take the top spot in this Week's WMNSS.

At San Jose Saturday.

#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -5).  I don't know how good Arizona St. is supposed to be this Year, but they are a traditional blueblood in college baseball.  So I think it's a remarkable achievement that these guys took two-of-three from the Sun Devils -- and at Tempe, Ariz.  They followed that up with a 16-4 quadrupling of Wisconsin-Milwaukee last/Tuesday night.  That's the way to fly into conference play, namely a three-Game set at Das Bank v.2.0 against Purdue this weekend.

#-3: Gopher softball (Last Week: -3).  They hosted their own tournament this weekend: The Gopher Indoor Classic at U. S. Bank Stadium.  And they went 4-1 over the weekend, their only Loss being ... to St. Thomas?  Yeah, the Tommies beat them Sunday afternoon, 8-6 in eight Innings.  That is not good, especially when seeing that the squads the U. beat are North Dakota St. (twice), Wagner and Miami (OH).

This is their final non-con screening Week.  They participate in the LSU Round Robin this weekend down in Baton Rouge, La., where they play host LSU and South Alabama two tilts apiece.  Then they mosey on over to Beaumont, Tex., where they play apparently a neutral-site contest vs. McNeese St.

#-4: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -8).  Defeated the Cornhuskers in Lincoln, Neb., Saturday afternoon, 67-65, on a Three-Pointer by Brennan Rigsby with 4.1 Seconds to go.  This is a stunning fact: Five of the Gophers' seven conference victories are Quad 1 ones.  That should be interpreted as a sign that Ben Johnson, despite his still evolving tenure as Head Coach, gets his players motivated to play a big opponent.  That stat's kind of mind-blowing.

This is the final Week of the regular season for men's college basketball.  They host Wisconsin tonight/Wednesday night, they finish off 2024-5 at Rutgers Sunday afternoon.

#-5: Wild (Last Week: -6).  Started the screening Week with getting their asses beat twice (at Utah Thursday, 6-1, and at Colorado Friday, 5-2).  Ended it with a pair of one-Goal victories (1-0 Sunday at home to Boston, 4-3 last/Tuesday night in Seattle).  Joel Eriksson Ek's return to playing seems more implausible by the day, and the continued blackout as to how (or even if) Kirill Kaprizov is healing from his injury is a puzzling but major concern.  Still, even though this team is treading water, they're still in playoff position -- and still might make one more move before the NHL Trade Deadline.

This Week: At Vancouver Friday, then home to Pittsburgh and The Bastard Quebec Nordiques.

#-6: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4).  Like the Wild, the Timberwolves also had a 2-2 Week where they also lost their first two matchups (at The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers and The Bastard New Orleans Jazz) and then also won their last two matchups (at Phoenix, home to Philadelphia).  But they remain stubbornly in Play-In position -- seventh place in the Western Conference, now a half-Game behind The Bastard Philadelphia Warriors for sixth.  That's why they slide below the local professional hockey club for this Week's Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey.

This Week: At Charlotte and Miami, then home to San Antonio.

#-7: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: 0).  Finished the regular season losing in Overtime and then defeating the Nittany Lions at Penn St. over the weekend.  Then, The Big Ten Conference says that the Gophers and Michigan St. both won a share of the regular season conference title.  If the conference tournament has the Spartans listed as the 1-Seed and the only team granted a bye, and if Minnesota is listed as the 2-Seed and needing to play a best-of-three Quarterfinal series at home versus Notre Dame this weekend, then there is no sharing.  The Gophers fucking lost the regular season title.  Come on, the time for yellow participation ribbons is fucking over.

#-8: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2).  They advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff again (this season it's in Duluth after winning their First Round series over Minnesota State - Mankato.  But they had to do it in three Games because, my God, in yet another example of how this program is far from the indomitable power they were in their championship days, they lost Game 2 to the Mavericks in Double OT.  I want to say that's the first time MSU-Mankato has beaten the U. at Ridder.  They're playing Ohio St. Friday afternoon and they're a lock to reach the NCAAs, but if they can't sweep the Mavs at home, how in the fuck are they going to win it all, which is the only point?

#-9: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -1).  It's been a roller coaster ride at the end of the season for the female Goofs b-ball team, and right now they are on the low side -- the very low side.  They lost yet another Game to a team equal in talent to them -- Wednesday to Washington by ten and (and this part really hurts them) at home.  And then they finished losing by 15 at ranked Michigan St.

They now fall into the First Round of the B1G Tournament and play the Huskies again this/Wednesday afternoon.  And I think they need to make a run to ensure they're in.  ESPN's Charlie Creme has the U. falling into play-in territory -- ick -- but note that there are two huge factors that don't favor the Goofs: They have no Quad 1 Wins, and they have an awful strength of schedule rating, especially when you count only non-conference SOS.  Those are two gigantic red flags that might be too hard to overcome.  I'm really afraid they won't get in if they don't win two, maybe even three times.

Oh, I Might Be Losing A Tooth!

Tonight, as I was eating a Son Of Baconator from Wendy's (haven't had Wendy's in the longest time) and then potato chips dipped in hummus, I was working the upper-right back teeth and yep, they still continue to hurt.

You know, I have thought for a long, long time they hurt because I grind my teeth while I sleep, and that has contributed to this, shall we say, "carryover" pain whenever I bite down back there.  But tonight, as I was eating, it occurred to me that I might be feeling pain just because my tooth or teeth back there are rotting and the plaque is starting to hit the nerves.  And that sounds like a much more plausible cause.

I should go to sleep.  A fucking winter storm is coming, plus there's a big meeting at work in the morning.

Snow? Still?

The last goddamn thing I need is to deal with a snowstorm.  Haven't been paying attention to the weather report, so hearing last/Sunday night that there is going to be a potentially nasty snowstorm that will start tomorrow/Tuesday morning as rain and switch at some point over to snow by the time it wraps up some time Wednesday was a rude blindside.  And it doesn't help that the initial range of snow forecast is between two and six inches of snow.  I can handle two inches; I might not even shovel.  Half a foot?  Well, shit, I have to break out the snowblower again, and I haven't even tried to clean the carburetor, which prevented the plow from working at its peak.

I have to devote as much time as possible to gathering my things and taking them to storage.  The last fucking thing I need is to take that time to shovel and or plow snow.  Fuckin' A, man.

Calling Ice Out As February 28

I don't know whether there was any snow in my front yard either yesterday/Saturday or Friday, the latter because I was rushing home to see the start of Fox's College Hoops Friday.  (And I did, I was not late, even though I stayed at work over ten hours.)  But considering how warm Friday was, and considering that I don't see any snow now, I will say that the snow completely disappeared Friday, which is February 28.  This is just a note for me to, uh, note.

Time To No Time

I have, or had, the luxury of knowing I had some time to pack everything up and clean the house (or, really, get the house cleaned) before my parents come home.  Right now, I am in the middle of a penultimate weekend.  I have the whole week, then another weekend and then, if need be, two more days before it's all over.  Even considering my procrastination, I knew I had those two days to just throw everything into boxes and make several hurried trips to my storage locker if need be.

Well, I don't know if I have any free time now.  The killer blow, so to speak, is finding out that alternative band Helmet is playing here Monday the 10th.  Now, I only know one song of theirs/his, but it's "Unsung," one of The Ten Best Songs From The Grunge Era.  (Note that it has a long, wordless outro.  It's the "Layla" of the '90s.)  And even though I might not know or even like any of their/his other songs, I am making a point of going to a concert to see a band or an artist even if I am going for that one song of his/hers/theirs.  I in the past have decided not to do so for other acts, but on how I keep crushing on "Unsung," I'll do it for Helmet.

But I had plans on staying home that night, presumably to pack everything up.  Now, I checked online and the ticket is a bit pricey, so maybe I won't go.  But if I do, that's a very important date where I won't be getting the house ready.  And once I envisioned that, it started to feel as though I had no days where I could stay in and move out my stuff.  For example, on Monday I think I am going to that stripper awards ceremony.  On Tuesday I will probably be wiped out from work, but then I'm going to see Captain America: Brave New World just as Putin's Orange Bitch starts speaking in the U. S. House chamber.  Wednesday or Thursday I am eating out at my speakeasy one final time before my folks return, and on Friday I am going to see my ATF at My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Division).  Plus, I can totally see my weekends being just like the one I had yesterday/Saturday: Wake up late, fix me a drink, find something to eat, be so tired from drinking and eating that I take a nap, wake up from said nap, and watch TV all night.  And so I would waste all this time -- again -- when I needed to clean the house.

Maybe I need to stay in instead of exercise, like I plan on doing tonight.  But I just have no motivation to clean my house when I don't want to.  But every day closer to the return of the 'Rents will force me to question that motivation to be lazy more and more, till I ... well, do it or give up.

Just Realized I Bought Too Much Food

I don't know why I still do this, especially as my parents are coming home.  I feel the need to stop spending money ... and I do this by buying too many groceries for me to eat before they come home.

What I did this afternoon is a prime example of this.  The first thing is I went to Dream Creamery -- or, as I like to call it, Dreamery -- to eat a hamburger ... even though I have so much food I have already bought that is sitting in the fridge.  I just wanted to eat a hamburger at Dreamery (by the way, review: This is the second time I've eaten it, and it's good mainly because it's not messy, and I also really like the seasoning, but the patty is really thin).  I then wanted to eat chili at a local grocer because I have so much pop that still needs to be drank, and while I was there, I wanted to buy a lime because, well, I have a lot of liquor that still needs to be drank.  But the grocer's limes were gross.  I mean, they were sickly.  And I was willing to buy a lime for $1.29, but not for limes that bad.

I remember that there is a discount grocer within walking distance.  I'll talk about this discount grocer some other time, but I know their limes were cheap, and I got one from there about last week and it was good.  It couldn't be any worse than what I saw at this grocer, so I walked over there to buy limes ... and they were better, but they were small.  I guess the limes being made right now aren't good or something?  But hey, it's a discount grocer, so they are three for a buck.  I bought three hoping that that would give me enough to make at least one drink.

So right now I have deli meats, deli cheese, several cans and one bottle of pop, a bottle of juice, a bottle of Arizona Arnold Palmer, a bottle of tonic water I haven't even opened yet, three limes and a tub of ice cream I haven't opened yet.  I bought the ice cream because I have a jar of cherries I haven't finished.  Oh, and while at the first grocer's a Girl Scout troop was selling cookies, and I needed to buy the kind that they're discontinuing after this season.  And oh -- before that I went to the panaderia across the street to buy a cookie and a ... malva?

You see, I had this grand plan of finishing all the food I had, but in order to eat them all I needed to buy food to go along with it, and now I just have more food.Man, I am not bright.  And I'm not going to eat any of that food in the refrigerator because I am going to the MNUFC Match tonight.  And I am eating out with a friend for lunch in St. Paul tomorrow.  Oy.

May Have Crossed A (Time) Line I Shouldn''t Have Crossed At Work

This has never been spelled out as official or even common policy, but from what I have been told in the (way) past and from what I have been able to get away with, whenever there is work to be done that needs to be done but can't be done within your usual eight-hour work shift, you can stay up to two hours, or (duh) ten hours.  Because work in The Third Department has been kicking my ass ever since the holidays, I've done ten hours frequently.  Lately, the work hasn't been done within ten hours, so I've left it for the next day and, sometimes, for the person doing in position for me.

Regardless, for many, many years now, I have held that ten-hour overtime standard as sacrosanct, a sort of demilitarized zone.  Not that I've never crossed it; I think I have pulled in way more than ten hours on a couple occasions, although those were under extremely unforeseen circumstances, and I may have clocked out a minute after ten hours once or twice.  But it's pretty much a no-go, a line you don't you don't come back from.  Since the New Year, even if the work has been overwhelming, I have swallowed my pride, resigned myself that I couldn't accomplish all that I wanted to accomplish, and packed up and left at exactly ten hours.

Till yesterday/Friday.  There were tests I needed to prepare.  A lot of them, and that has been a major contributing factor to me staying late whenever I'm in The Third Department.  I have been trying my best to get through them quicker, but I have been making very little progress.  I remember that on Thursday, there was a test that had me so confused that I needed to talk to someone three times to figure out what to do.  I want to say that I spent at least 45 minutes on it, but it could have been an hour.  That was incredibly frustrating, and typical of my problems in trying to get through these tests.  Now add that lately there's been at least half a dozen of them every day I work in The Third Department and that they come in during the afternoon, and you can see how that pushes my day past eight hours.

That happened yesterday/Friday.  However, the tests that I prepared this time around actually were easy, at least easier compared to the ones I usually encounter.  I got through them faster than I usually do.  And that, to be honest, kind of gave me a rush.  It made me feel as though I finally "got it," that I in fact have "mastered" how to do them.

And then I remembered that I have all these other things that should be done before I leave for the day, and that I have, oh, less than an hour to do them.  I still felt good, however; those half dozen or so tests I thought would have consumed the rest of my ten hours, and there would have been a lot of hell to pay by my supervisor and boss for not getting to the other tasks they say should be done.  But I had time yesterday/Friday, and so I delved into that work ... and then my ten hours were getting close to being up, and I wasn't quite finished.  And then I saw a mistake that I needed to fax out again and, after deciding that fax could be done by my co-worker tomorrow, I changed my mind and thought it best I do it -- knowing that would probably push me past ten hours.

And it did.  I clocked out ten hours and ten minutes after work began.  Now, you may say what's the big deal, it's just ten minutes.  Like I have blog posted before, neither of my superiors have lately took me to task for staying an extra couple hours.  Heck, before she left work yesterday/Friday, my supervisor said I shouldn't go past ten hours.  However, I can see, from their vantage point, me staying an extra ten minutes is, to put it in a way, overtime creep.  I should tell you that on Monday, I overstayed my lunch break by ten minutes because I didn't set the alarm on my phone correctly and overslept.  The policy at that point is to stay as long as you overstayed your lunch break.  Well, I did that and worked ten hours total and still clocked out a few minutes later than that because I needed to tie up loose ends.  My supervisor and boss will know that I did that Monday, stayed a few minutes further than that yesterday/Friday, and start to question how long I am staying for OT, and why.

This all could change, and soon.  Next week everyone one of us are supposed to have a meeting about The Third Department, with a goal of getting enough of the work done each day so that no one is taking overtime.  I don't see how that is possible without a second person working in The Third Department at least half the day, but that is my boss' goal.  Maybe what I did this week is a sign to him that changes to this department can't come soon enough.  And maybe this will accelerate scrutiny of my work day and work processes.  Which would suck because, all the stress this job is putting me through aside, I do love making OT money.  I checked my bank account and saw that my latest paycheck is significantly bigger than the one before it.  Will this money train stop?