I just spent a lovely week in the middle of Michigan's upper peninsula, sitting around/looking around, reading things by Tolkein, doing crossword puzzles, playing Scrabble, off-roading on my mother's bicycle and thereby damaging my haunches for life, drinking calimochos, and catching up with folks, namely my brother who I probably won't see for an eternity of sorts. Highlights of the week, aside from the deluge of word-games and other word-related activities, included watching my brother drink all my dad's beer, and listening to the last half of the ND vs. BYU game alone in the car. Sad.

It was a delight, though not quite as delightful as getting to see a number of friends and/or Interlochen folk in Ann Arbor at the beginning of the weekend. Hagan let me stay on her couch and use her bathroom excessively, thereby leaving her boyfriend with an AMAZING impression of me, I'm sure. Plus, I got an inside tour of UM Dearborn (mostly of its bathrooms, too, though I did see some copy machines. And the food court.). *AND* the "bday throwdown" of sorts was entertaining in many ways -- to continue the bathroom theme, I endured an interesting experience during which I was stuck inside Shaw's because his butter-flinging roommate had removed the handle. Awesome.

The winner of this whole bonanza of the past week's activities, though, is the ND/Mich game yesterday, which I listened to in the car with Dave all the way home. The entire day, because of its lovliness and lazy-college-Saturday feel, which I haven't experienced in ages and ages, made me kick myself for missing out on an ND bonanza, including Slobs & T.C. #4, a Think Pink shirt of incredible quality, and an unparallelled football game. Blarney! So be it, idiot. Go Irish.