after another long, hard week at work, i needed to take today off. i did work a little, but didn't quite finish what i needed to for work. i guess that means that tomorrow will be super fun (good thing that steve has to work too, so i won't be alone in my misery).

we went to see the cal bears take on the minnesota golden gophers this evening. my friend derek is an alum and apparently they have trouble selling out their stadium (which is just mind boggling to wolverines like us), so he gets several free tickets for each of his paid tickets. for the upcoming portland state game, i believe he said that he received 12 tickets in addition to his paid 6. crazy!

their stadium is desperately in need of renovations. it's really old and tired and they have to have porta johns everywhere. on the plus side, the setting (nestled up against some dramatic hills) is cool, and it does have a pretty neat history.

not only is it quite tired and run down, but it's right smack dab on the hayward fault line. ew.

so it's good that they're planning a
huge upgrade and overhaul.

anyhow, it was a really different experience than steve and i are used to at the big house. they have a cannon that they shoot off! it's way up on a huge wooded hill on one side of the stadium, which is called tightwad hill because of the (mostly students) that hang out up there, watching the game for free. i can't imagine that they can really see the details of each play (especially when it's foggy like it was tonight) but i suppose people enjoy being able to drink while being sort-of at a college football game. i suppose they also like being the topic of a green day song. (i *love* that they're from the bay area!)

i did miss the availability of apple cider and cider mill donuts, which i *must* have at every michigan game. but it's nice that at cal they have dreyer's ice cream. it was too cold and foggy today for me to want it, but it's a classy touch.

anyhow, that was our day.

we saw a mention in the wall street journal today that david brandon donated a bunch of money to UM, some of which will specifically go to aid in the construction of a neonatal unit at mott hospital. the unit will be named the
'nick and chris brandon neonatal intensive care unit' after the brandon boys,
who were treated for a rare blood disorder at mott years ago. i find this particularly interesting since some of you may recall that i not only worked at domino's, but worked with chris. i vaguely recall going out around ann arbor with him (and nick too, i think) and it involving some sort of hijinks (sharon, can you remind me of some of these details? i believe you -- like me -- were there, and hurting the next day as well)

ahhh... good times!

i can't wait until someone donates some money so that someplace can be named after me.

steve went to college with a guy whose family had a lot of things around ann arbor and chicago named after him. apparently the kid couldn't play some sort of band gig with steve one day because he had to be up at north campus for the dedication of the bell tower, which has bells named after each member of his family. can you imagine having a bell named after you?

i don't really think either a bell or a hospital really fit me. it would have to be something less formal -- kinda like how they have seats named after people at performance venues, but maybe for me it'd be a table at a bar. i like the idea of one of the front booths at old town. i guess they don't really handle donations quite like that at private businesses, though. hmmmm...

i have a friend here who works in development at berkeley. we got into a big discussion at our last dinner party, asking her whether or not the university would turn down a massive donation from a controversial person. others at the party kept pushing her on whether they'd take money from someone like larry flint. she pretty much said they'd take money from anyone that's not convicted of a crime. i then came up with two donations that she said they'd decline:
- donation to the forensic studies school by o.j. simpson (not convicted, people!)
- donation to the pediatric hospital by michael jackson (again, not convicted!)

ew.


i'm kinda procrastinating about going to bed since i have to work tomorrow...

steve's already in bed.

i guess i should go and stop being a lame blogger...