I don't claim to know a ton as much as I should about the Irish people's history, but I am fairly certain of one thing. These people would not have made it very long as sun worshippers. I've been here for three days and haven't seen the damn thing once. All sorts of sortid details re: Ireland, debate, various Dublin pubs, the Duke of Wellington, indecipherable accents, etc., etc. to come.

"The pipes, the pipes are calling..."

In a few hours, I plan on hopping aboard a plane to DC, another to Amsterdam, and then taking a short jaunt to Dublin. I'll try to post while I'm there.

There for the grace of God go I...

And happy birthday, Jesus (nativity from Swaziland last year).

Dodger Red

Interesting development in Chavez Ravine. In 2002, Frank McCourt, a Boston investor, put up a bid for the Sox before they were purchased by John Henry and Tom Werner. It didn't work out, so he bought the Dodgers from News Corporation instead. Last year, the team went roughly 70-90 for the season. McCourt cleaned out GM Paul DePodesta for his failure to get along with manager Jim Tracy and then fired Jim Tracy for...Okay, I have no idea why he fired Jim Tracy. But now, he's completely rebuilding the franchise. I found it curious that he hired former Red Sox skipper Grady Little to replace Tracy as manager. My suspicions were further aroused though when he signed Red Sox third baseman Bill Mueller. Those suspicions were confirmed just the other day when LA picked up Nomar Garciaparra: Frank McCourt is enacting his fantasy where he owns the team he wanted in the first place, the Red Sox, by loading the Dodger lineup with former Sox ballers. As a Dodger fan, this is somewhat frightening...But hey, if picking up the Red Sox' leftovers is what it takes to get back to the Fall Classic, then I'll take it.

Lawffice Space

Bateson comes up to Peter.

BATESON
Hello, Peter. What's happening? Uh… we have sort of a problem here. Yeah. You apparently didn't put one of the new coversheets on your PPDP reports.

PETER
Oh, yeah. I'm sorry about that. I, I forgot.

BATESON
Mmmm…Yeah. You see, we’re putting the coversheets on all PPDP reports now before they go out. Did you see the memo about this?

PETER
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've got the memo right here, but, uh, I just forgot. But it's not shipping out until tomorrow, so there's no problem.

BATESON
Yeah. If you could just go ahead and make sure you do that from now on, that would be great. And I'll go ahead and make sure you get another copy of that memo Mmmm, k?

(He walks away.)

PETER
Yeah, yeah, I've got the memo, I've got -

He picks it up but Bateson's at another table.

...

Dudding walks up.

DUDDING
Hello, Peter. What's happening? (Big smile) We need to talk about your PPDP reports.

PETER
Yeah. The coversheet. I know, I know. Uh, Bateson talked to me about it.

DUDDING
Yeah. Did you get that memo?

PETER
Yeah. (holds it up) I got the memo. And I understand the policy. The problem is, I just forgot this time. And I've already taken care of it so it's not a problem anymore.

(Dudding nods.)

DUDDING
Yeah. It's just that we're putting new coversheets on all the PPDP reports now before they go out now. So if you could just try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great.

She walks away. Peter's phone rings and he answers it.

PETER
Peter Gibbons. (listens) Yes. (listens) I have the memo.

Photo from the Tribune of my sister Kirsten taken from a Great Falls High soccer game this fall.

Carroll makes it four in a row.

The Carroll College Fighting Saints defeat the University of St. Francis Cougars 27-10 to win their fourth straight NAIA National Championship, a feat no collegiate football program has attained at any level since Augustana's NCAA Div. III stretch from 1983-1987. Hats off to a stellar Carroll program.

WE ARE CC.

Train's comin', Cougs...

12:00 p.m. C.S.T., Savannah, Tennessee.

Things to do for fun when judging World Debating Championship in Ireland

• Wear "USA Hockey" hat (have this) at all times.
• Rotate between "United We Stand," "Don't Tread on Me," and "These Colors Don't Run" t-shirts.
• Should the War come up in any casual conversation, ask, "Well, don't you support our troops?"
• "You don't like America? I bet you hate God, too."
• Reference FOX News for any and all contentions.
• Request Budweiser at all trips to the pub.
• Find anyone from a country that the United States soccer team has beaten this year (esp. Mexico or Costa Rica). Casually bring soccer into the conversation, but act surprised to find out that the U.S. has a team.
• Call it "soccer."
• Inform every Irishman that my great, great, great grandparents were Irish. Posit blood relation.
• EDIT: Mimic accents of round participants during critique.

12 hours, 28 minutes...

The Fast and the Spurrious

Who sticks a spoiler on a Ford Taurus? Come on...at some point you have to come to terms with the fact that you don't drive a pimped out performance machine.

Sign that Law School Is Eating My Brain No. 298

I gave the First Reading at Grandpa Cislo's funeral on Monday. Speaking in front of the entire Nardinger Clan didn't make me nervous, nor did reciting the first half of the passage by memory, but the fear of accidentally saying "May it please the Court" instead of "A reading from the book of Eclesiastes" sure as hell did.

I need to get out of this God forsaken place.

Robert O. Cislo: 1932-2005

I just got back from Montana a couple of hours ago. Wish the trip could have been under better circumstances. My grandfather, Bob Cislo, passed away Thursday morning. I flew home to see the family and attend his rosary and funeral the next morning.

Grandpa Cislo was, without a doubt, the most humble man I've ever met in my entire life. He and Grandma grew up next door to each other and started dating when they were both thirteen. They married about seven years later. He spent a few years in the Air National Guard and Air Force before settling down to start a family. Grandma and Grandpa were blessed with five children, all of them girls.

Once grandkids came around, he made sure to come to all of our games, recitals, and whatever else we happened to do. He was an avid Great Falls High School fan and attended every sporting event the school subscribed to. One spring a number of years ago, GFH's girls softball team was playing in the middle of a snowstorm. The umps couldn't call the game apparently because it was a playoff. The players all donned earmuffs and gloves as the slid around the field. On the news that night, as the camera spanned the crowd, it found just one fan sitting in the bleachers--no parents, no students, just Grandpa. And no one in our family even plays softball.

Grandpa wasn't without his health problems, though. He had three heart attacks and something apparently called "Sudden Death Syndrome," which left him comatose for a few days. When I received the news, I was glad to learn that he'd simply fallen asleep in his recliner with his plaid blanket--no pain, no suffering...just woke up in Heaven.

As per his and Grandma's plans, he was cremated early Saturday. Grandma put his ashes in the perfect urn--a white cookie jar. Today we laid him to rest in a mausoleum in Mount Olivet cemetary in Great Falls, the city of his birth.

The one up side: Kendra and Kirsten attended their winter prom on Saturday. K&K are eight and nine years younger than I am, respectively. I've been in Minnesota for prom every year. This year I finally got to see them off, though it was under rather unfortunate circumstances.

Anyway, it's been a roller coaster week. Grandpa dies, get to see family, have to go to the funeral, get to see the girls at prom, and I actually just learned that my favorite priest at Carroll has passed. I hope finals are at least consistent, if nothing else.