Sometimes having your own blog can be a drag. Like many great publications, you run out of material that is really newsworthy and you start to grasp at .... straws. But not today no sir. I have plenty to say, due as you might expect to the fact that....I had to take my car to the bodyshop.

My new car insurance agent recently was able to help me navigate a thorny problem. Over a year ago I had been rear-ended in a fenderbender and had been told my deductible would be waived. But when I attempted to call in the claim, I got a different answer and decided to just keep driving the car since the damage seemed inconsequential to the operation of the vehicle. For all your lawyers out there though, this doesn't mean I assumed the car's structural integrity was completely intact...just that I could drive it without problems and the reason to fix it would be to make sir if I was hit again the accident wasn't worse.

So after some research I settled upon a place recommended to me that had a car rental desk on site with Enterprise. But because I wasn't at fault...I went out of my way to ask for a direct bill to the insurance company. Otherwise I would have serious economic disincentive to fix the thing if I had to pay for a multi-day rental.

Upon arriving at the the bodyshop...which was clean and nicely furnished and inviting and all that...I basically found out I needed to do almost nothing to actually put my car in shop. One signature was it and that was that...but wisely the shop figured if I needed a rental car to go to the Enterprise desk first, get a rental...put my stuff in the rental (like my garage door opener) and then turn my key over to the shop.

And that is where the nightmare began. First, the adjuster never set up a direct bill in the system. That required several minutes of sorting out why this wasn't done...but ultimately they were able to arrange it. I did have to pay something, a $50 deposit. But that was neither here nor the there. They had a black Nissan Sentra which was more than able to meet my needs (i.e. go to work without getting crushed on the freeway.) But then they mention...."we need about ten minutes to get it ready".

The office already knew I would late to work I just didn't think it would be this late. In any case, when they brought the car in, they gave me the contract. Naturally they wanted me to buy the collision damage waiver. I wasn't so hot on this because again that's not making me whole (the reason we have insurance as opposed to just going through small claims court). When I didn't the formerly friendly and young staff suddenly didn't like me very much. I began to think they were on commission because they kept insisting I would be sued and all this other junk. Now, I know my rights...but moreover the agent who did my estimate weeks ago said that CDW's only replace you paying a deductible, and that in a major accident the car rental agency still hits your insurance.

Now while that might sound fair...what you don't know is....the rental company is self-insured. Which means even if the driver had no insurance whatsoever...the victim of an accident would still be compensated...and the rental company would break even. CDW's are sold purely for profit....and that was told to me by an Enterprise intern I met back in 2001 when Sophia and I went to San Diego. I know you think to yourself....dude what does an intern know? Answer...lots....Enterprise heavily recruits college students in their management intern program.

As it were...you can't really get on Enterprise though. All car rental companies do the same sort of questionable practices largely because no one is eager to regulate them that stringently. Moreover, car rental taxes are lucrative revenue streams in certain states. What did it for me, was what happened next.

The Enterprise rep then says "we don't ask for a full tank,  we just ask that you bring it back with the same amount of fuel as we give you". That happened to be an 1/8 of a tank but they were nice and said I could return it empty. Now, the 1/8 was hilarious because that meant another detour...to put more gas in it than I would use in a week. (Essentially a $20 gift to Enterprise.) But still, I figured this was it.

Then as I turned on the vehicle, I noticed this odd light popping on. The tire pressure gauge was low. Given that I had turned down the CDW, I walked right back into the body shop and told the Enterprise reps about it. They were in disbelief because the car was just serviced. Sure enough though, a body shop tech took it back to the tire gauge and found the tires didn't have enough air. Then they had to drive it around until the tires expanded (which took more time) and burning even more gas.

Exasperated, I asked the guy where the closest gas was....He tried to help me out telling me where the cheapest gas was. But unfortunately his directions took me to an empty patch of Indian land. (This is not an exaggeration.) However, realizing his directions were bunk, I knew where another station was close by. I drove over there and had one last discovery. As I popped the fuel door I noticed brown sludge all around the fuel cap. It looked like mud...but as you can imagine I didn't want to touch in my shirt n' tie. In any case I drove to work without incident.............just in time to go with the new hires to lunch.

Somebody was talking about a stock market crash or something...but hey...I have real world problems to worry about. I can't concern myself with dismal play of some football team, or the imploding lives of all those Wharton MBA grads on Wall Street...or Jim Lehrer's awful questions in the Presidential debate. I've got my hands full keeping dents and flying pebbles away from my rental this week.

Wednesday was my one year anniversary. I've now spent a whole a year in Alta Sonora and at my job. The novelty of it all has faded away and left me to confront what should be the cold hard truth.

Except that's not quite true. Sure, the novelty of living in a new neighborhood has disappeared and I don't spend nearly as much time playing tourist around town. I've grown more passive seeking new friends and more eager to furnish my apartment or office than even lounge at the complex pool. But I haven't turned into Peter Gibbons.

Or Ferris Bueller for that matter...or even William "Bill" Foster. In fact, I'm not sure of any cultural or literary allusion to my situation.

Basically the situation is thus. I feel as if I've struggled to make friends since moving here. But that may be a perception problem based on how quickly Duane and Rita (and others) assimilated by having particular particular affinity associations. Rita, for example, began searching for local mom clubs as soon as her Internet was connected. Duane could have already known where his local LDS ward was before stepping foot in the desert.

In my case though I didn't have the benefit of such associations. If I was going to make new friends it would be because they genuinely liked me and because we shared interests. Now onto the second part of that sentence. I've been curious to pursue new hobbies and interests since starting work. But it's largely been a dry hole because of one thing: money.

Every time I start to think about buying a kayak or taking a cooking class...I remind myself 35% of my after tax income goes to paying off debt. Moreover, the constant presence of debt makes me anxious and pensive...constantly afraid of bills in the mail and my credit rating getting beat up even worse than it is....(my score these days in the 500s).

It's hard to know when I will have money for "fun things" too because as my income goes up so will my loan payments. Yeah it feels like....yeah you know....a treadmill that doesn't stop. Or perhaps ... Sisyphus' rock.

On the other hand, it's not like my job has been without reward. It has transformed my career outlook just as I had hoped, even though I am far from realizing my true potential. But all work and no play makes Thomas a dull boy, as you can see. I also don't think it's particularly healthy to always let one's work act as a shield from dealing with the outside world. That's something that my mother did too often, and I think it haunted her until she died.

Hence, I'm still looking for the appropriate counterweight to my professional life. I'm sure it's out there...I just can't claim to be hot on its trail.

...or maybe 1999. Or at least, that was the last time the University of Arizona beat UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Back then, it was the third straight loss for the Bruins, who were on their biggest losing streak since 1994. This time....well um, yeah. While the sports page would make you believe it was close...Rita, Chey, and I knew we were in trouble when it was the fourth quarter and UCLA's offense had yet to score a touchdown. It's games like those that make you feel stupid for planning your whole weekend around watching your team.

But then again, so many of my friends (and fellow alumni at both UCLA and USC) are such diehard fans because they are inherently competitive individuals that love pageantry and bloodsport. Still, no matter how poorly the game goes, you never feel stupid for actually going there and being an alumnus. The pros meanwhile, represent something far different, and something far more detached from my life and my sense of being.

Moreover, I don't need an excuse to watch college football. Heck, I get excited looking at the TV listings on Tuesday or Wednesday, eager to know just what seemingly irrelevant games might be televised. If the Bruins play at 12:30pm or 3:30pm I'm always quick to plot out what game I'm going to watch before and after until...the day turns to night. I used to look forward to closing out with the University of Hawai'i from 9pm to midnight but sadly...those telecasts are no more on Fox Sports West 2.

Truth is though, last weekend's slate of games was hardly compelling. I had figured I'd spend most of my time on interior decorating. No...I'm not talking about my apartment (which really could use a filing cabinet and bookcase). I'm talking about my new office. Yes, one of the strange products of Duane moving on is that I was offered his office....actually I was offered any vacant office on the floor. I even had a choice of one with a window.

I picked Duane's old haunt because it had more space, no window AND most importantly the computer was in a right-hand configuration. (I know you don't believe it, but my now-old office had a left handed person before me and I had to constantly twist my arm over the keyboard to use the mouse.) In any case, the Duane-ster did an excellent job with interior design of his old box and I'll be lucky to do so well. I'm confident I can, but it might take a while to find what I am looking for. In any case, when it's "done" I'll be sure to put up new pictures.

So why the sudden change? Who decided last week was moving day? In effect no one...I was asked because the first of our new hires begins this week. The rest may not be far behind. It was a little hard moving out...but I gotta tell you....I do like the new place and am excited to do some decorating.

The whole stock market collapse didn't do it for me. Nor did the whole Presidential election....nah it took some terrorists in Yemen to ask myself it was 2000 again.

You know, the not-so-distant past. My life was a tad different then, with only the faint idea that some day I would go to law school and fulfill my potential. It was the year I went to Hawaii, and then Europe, and then Hawaii again. It was back when I was almost a straight A student and when John McCain, Bill Bradley, and Al Gore all stumped in Westwood. 2000 was when the existing political order in student government was overturned by a gal named Liz Houston.

It was when we started to use the term "rolling blackouts". Paul had moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane Law School. UCLA lost to USC by a last minute field goal...it would be six years before they would get that close again. It was when I'd play "Age of Empire 2" with Sam all night.

I'd eat Puzzles's burritos and Caruso's lasagna because I couldn't think of anything else to do. It was back when my favorite magazine was "The Economist" and I'd never turn off my computer so I could always online with AIM.

In some sense, people might point to 2000 as being the year I began to get lost...when my "master strategy" began to collapse into oblivion followed by leaving law school and falling deep into debt. Looking back though, I realize, I was just doing it all alone. I lacked the sense of security and connectivity that my peers had.

And that is what is making me uneasy these days. Sure, it feels like I'm back on course after a seven year nightmare. But I also feel that way about the country at large...that it really is 2000 all over again. Of course I hope I'm wrong. I'm really do.

What comes to mind is the start of "Fahrenheit 9-11" when Michael Moore asks, "Was it all just a dream?" Can it be that we are going to really get a second chance....eight years later....or are we destined for history to repeat itself? Not in the sense of who wins the election...or where I go to law school. No, it is more wondering if we really do just live on a treadmill or the open sea.

Do people really have control over what happens to them, or are we just a product of the system, of fate, or God's grand plan?

I only ask because I'd rather not repeat the last eight years of my life. I'm not ashamed of it, but I know I can do better. I just wonder if I will get the chance.

Who had the worst weekend? Lehman Brothers, UCLA, or the victims of Hurricane Ike? I spent my weekend watching one train wreck after the other....though I did make it to Costco to run some errands.

I should add that Chey, Rita and their kids came over because the UCLA game was on Versus (which you need to buy the sports tier to get). We ordered a pizza and waited for them to call us to confirm the order. Instead Duane of all people (who is a diehard BYU fan) taunted me on not just one but two phone calls. He asked "so when does UCLA score?". "In the second half" I told him.

Well yeah, so much for that. It's true that everyone has all but declared the PAC-10 (and the investment banking sector). But unlike Wall Street, college football guarantees you another game to redeem yourself. Bad as that weekend might have seemed, there was an undeniable correlation: only four teams in the conference were playing at home. Of those, two won (Oregon State and USC). Washington lost but it was playing Oklahoma now #2 in the AP poll. Arizona State also lost...in an OT shocker. The other six schools all had to play on the road, and not particularly close to home. Cal went to Maryland, Stanford and Washington State were in Texas. UCLA ascended into Utah. Oregon, who managed to win on OT was hosted by Purdue. That's Indiana...in case you were wondering.

The PAC though, always will have a more audacious away slate than say the SEC...why you ask? Because the PAC 10 is less dense than say, the SEC or the Big Ten. (One could argue about the Big 12). That distance certainly can be a factor, as body clocks and jet lags hurt college players who can't adjust their entire lives each week. (Class starts the same time whether you are playing at home or the road.) Moreover, geography also means that outside of the Utah schools or Colorado...a PAC 10 school has at minimum a two to three hour flight to play a quality opponent. Georgia, on the other hand, was a three hour drive away from home in South Carolina.

True to form, Ohio State seemed to play flat at the Coliseum Saturday night. No doubt this because the Buckeye players had to contend with their bodies telling them it was late at night....not 5pm.

Therefore, I'm not feeling particularly bearish about the PAC-10. Next week it's all home games except for Arizona which travels to Southern California to play UCLA. The tropics too, have quieted down now that Ike has rained down upon us. 

As for Wall Street, the financial turmoil is far from over but the eye of the storm there is moving away at least for a while: The Federal Open Market Committee meets in Washington tomorrow morning.

It's been a stormy, moody week with plenty of gray skies around these parts. To blame has been Tropical Storm Lowell, sending moisture our way from the Sea of Cortes. But it's been fitting, as chaos seems to swirl all around.

The softball season started anew on Tuesday. But this time, there's some new faces on the team...including Duane. (He wanted to play last season...but had to help his wife with their new baby). We had 13 guys show, and I was willing to sit the whole game with my injured leg. But it was too humid for the older guys not to have me go in front of the backstop. I also debuted this UnderArmor shirt I bought at the UCLA Store specifically designed for "extremely hot environments". It feels like cotton, but it's not.

The game was an exciting one, with lightning and thunder rumbling off in the distance as we dueled it out with a team that recent drop from the "C" League to the "D" League with us. At first though, it looked like a massacre. Playing in back-to-back games, the other team blew us out 15-0.  No one could get a hit. But in the second game, they switched pitchers. Now, the guy at work who has organized this team for 20 odd years is our starting pitcher and was flying back to town that night and unable to play. But somehow, some way, we managed to take a lead and hold on to it to win. It was 9-6 in the final inning with the opposing team batting last. They managed to get two runs and load the bases only to have one more guy pop out. We were jubilant that even without our resident flamethrower the score still favored us 9-8. Last season it took five weeks before we won a game.

Meanwhile, it does not appear Wall Street is headed for as happy an ending....

My cache of anecdotes appears to be wearing thin. On Saturday I went with Chey and his kids to watch a Sonoran State football game. It was no thriller on the field, but it was nerve-racking another way. We brought in quite a bit of water with us...and we needed it because the temperature (even at night) was over 100F. To make matters worse, Chey had bought tickets about as high up in the stadium as you could go despite them being right on the 50 yard line.

I had soaked my shirt through just making it to the mezzanine. And after that, there were still 36 rows to go. For some reason, I've become susceptible to vertigo when I sit in the nosebleed seats. There's really no explanation for this...back at USC and at UCLA I have sat far up without any discomfort at all. But for some reason, perhaps the steepness of the incline...or heat's proclivity to rise have stalked me out here...especially with Chey choice of "seats".

The next day, my legs were sore. I figured I should put the complex's hot tub to use. When I arrived at the pool however, the strangest scene imaginable greeted me. A few guys were hanging out on one end of the pool. On the their side, where all the pool seating is...a bunch of girls. Well, perhaps they were 18 but no one wanted to ask as there were ten or twelve of them around one poor fellow. His name was Zach, and I know this because he lost his license and credit cards in the water and another guy found them. In any case, the sorority seemed to be relinquishing enough bench space to have me migrate over.

So I did...sitting there...trying to relax my muscles in silence. Within minutes...my neighbor, the dean of the complex, waltzes in with his girlfriend. They were sitting opposite of me, so I waded over to them to chat. My neighbor was disconsolate, Tom Brady had been lost for the season. Of course, that didn't stop us from chatting for a while and wondering about the "sorority".

Before long another long time resident of the complex "The Master of Ceremonies" arrived. Although he and I have seen each other before, this was the first time we were introduced formally. While the conversation was not much of anything to write home about, he did reveal just what "sorority" this was. Apparently all the women worked at high end steakhouse in town, and one of the Master's friends repeated pointed out how young they all looked. (It seems hard to think they were under 18...but it was a little scary.)

My neighbor's girl suddenly began to get bit by mosquitos and decided it was time to go. I didn't realize it but I was getting attacked too, in large part because of the sunscreen on my neck. I tried to talk to Master longer, but he seemed not interested and took off with one of his female friends before long. That was actually preferable to me, giving me recourse to fire up the hot tub and not share it with anyone.  But even that proved to be a Faustian bargain...for the mosquitos continued their assault, forcing me to submerge myself almost completely beneath the foam.

Back in my apartment, I noticed that nearly all the bites were on my neck. That predicated a need to visit the pharmacy and by some Calydryl Clear. As I walked into the store, I realized my legs and muscles were still sore. Sometimes, you just can't win.

I have a confession to make. Even before this week, I knew who Sarah Palin was. However, never in my life would I have picked her to John McCain's running mate. Florida Governor Charlie Crist (also first elected in 2006), that was the guy I figured was custom built for McCain. So naturally when I began to hear names like Tom Ridge, Bobby Jindal, and Mitt Romney floated I assumed that McCain would not think outside the box. But after the fact I realized, Ridge and Jindal were code language. Ridge was actually pro-choice Joe Lieberman and Jindal was in fact Palin. Only when the GOP Elite rebelled at Lieberman did Palin become the front-runner.

Now, either pick would have been a nightmare for Barack Obama and the Democrats. Lieberman would have undercut the Obama ticket among Jewish voters. But moreover Lieberman would have dusted off Abraham Lincoln's strategy from 1864... embrace pro-war Democrats under a bigger tent as part of a "Union Party". 

Governor Palin, in theory, is designed to attract disaffected woman voters upset that Hillary Clinton did not receive the Democratic nomination. But that's not true. Or at least, not the real reason McCain favored her...other GOP power brokers notwithstanding.

Palin's nomination is significant because it tells us about the future of the Republican party. Now you might be thinking I am saying this because of McCain's tender old age and the fact that she is a bona fide heir apparent to him. But it's actually because the GOP is the party of the Miracle Ear. While the Democrats have a deep bench of exciting new talent (all of whom Obama passed over), the Republicans can't stake quite as much of a claim. Of course, your initial reaction is to tell me "hey, hey I know who Bobby Jindal is". Right sure, and you know what Jindal, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Palin have in common...they are all evangelical Christians.

Minor details aside, the Republicans are also hungry for change. This is because the Bush Administration failed to redefine the party in the way hoped by many conservatives. That's not to say that Dubya has yet to make an impact...just that it's cacophony for the Republican Party. Other than a relentless commitment to executive power (a GOP tradition since the days of Lincoln), there's not much legacy for McCain to run on and hope to win. The party of duct tape? The party of torture? The party of .... No Child Left Behind?

In the eyes of the Senator, the reason for this is clear: Jack Abramoff. Or perhaps Bob Ney or Tom DeLay or... it really doesn't matter. McCain believes that the Republican Congress lost control because of the halo of corruption that hovered over it in 2006. This cause the base which had been so faithful to Bush in 2004 to stay home. Now some of these folks called up C-SPAN and screamed that wasn't it....that the inability of Washington to stop illegal immigration was the cause. Whatever the truth may be, McCain intends to act as a crusader against corruption as a strategy to turn out the base and in effect, win the election.

Enter Sarah Palin. She became Alaska's Governor in 2006 after defeating the incumbent Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary. Impressive as it sounds, Murkowski previously represented the state in the US Senate for two decades. So what you ask was so powerful as to undo a man like Murkowski was such huge name recognition?

VECO.

Alaskans were deeply unhappy with the degree of influence that VECO and it's CEO Bill Allen exerted over members of the Alaska state Senate and tossed the bums out. Palin was hired to clean house pure and simple. She blocked lobbyists from visiting her office and signed a controversial bill increasing the tax burden oil companies had to pay, which had been part of the reason for VECO's incessantly lobbying in the first place.

But there's a problem...Murkowski actually signed the oil tax reform law himself...just days before the primary in August of 2006. His approval rating was already down to 19% for reasons which had little to do with VECO. Instead Murkowski had been pilloried for spending money on a private jet and appointing his daughter Lisa to replace him in the US Senate after winning the Governor's office in 2002.

Still perhaps it's important to realize that oil tax revenue accounts for 80% of the state's revenue. And...until the 2006 change, oil companies were taxed on how much they pumped out, not on profits. That meant that Alaska wasn't able to capitalize on the sudden rise in crude oil prices because the state's output has been declining. The state continued to suffer budget cuts while the North Slope's petroleum reserves beckoned. And while Murkowski was convicted of receiving money from VECO, far more of it went to his daughter.

Remember though, Murkowski lost not in the general election but in the Republican Party primary. And that tells you that someone in the Republican establishment deserted Murk and threw his weight behind Palin. His name, Ted Stevens Alaska's other Senator. Currently, he's standing trial for accepting a nice remodel of his house and some $250.000 from you guessed it, VECO. Of course his son Ben was also the President of the Alaska State Senate...that is until it became obvious he had received money from VECO in 2006 to procedurally delay a vote on that pesky oil profits tax. Palin herself acts above the fray but she's really more of Stevens' own political protege.

Which is why the selection of her as John McCain's desired Vice President is so tantalizing. It reveals that the plan for the future is...even scarier than the present. Palin can proclaim to be taint-free, but she's even more in the thrall of Alaska's energy producers. She can proclaim to be against earmarks and the "Bridge to Nowhere", but she still desperately needs that money to underwrite more infrastructure if more oil and gas projects are brought on line. She can hope that Alaska can be Saudi Arabia of the US if only we give them the green light to abandon environmental laws.

But the fact is, drilling for oil in Alaska is one of the greatest false economic shibboleths in America. Alaskan oil can't reach the majority of refineries in the US because there's no pipeline that runs across the nation. Yup that's right, you heard it here first...Alaskan crude has to travel through the Panama canal to get even as far as east as Arizona. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to send those tankers southwest to say....China. That's great if you love Wal-Mart foreign policy, but um yeah....

By now perhaps you've been able to see the genius of selecting her. Her outlook bears such a resemblance to the current Vice Preisdent's it's enough to make you ask, just what is the difference between Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin?

Lipstick.

There I was, sitting in my humble abode on Thursday night. Stanford had cornered Oregon State and the Beavers were trying hard to tie the game up with about 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter. It was great. College football was back. And then, just as the game was about to reach its crescendo, the power went out. At first I wondered what the cause was, but then, as luck would have it I began to hear the wind whipping outside my door. I wandered around for a minute or two before my neighbor knocked on my door to show me what was going on. I opened the door to see a hurricane, literally.

My neighbor was ecstatic and I didn't mind the show. However part of me didn't know what the prudent thing to do was. Storms of such intensity are very rare in Southern California. This was the first time in my life I had seen something quite like this. Lightning was so frequent that I could almost see inside my apartment with the power out. Thunder made it hard to hear Duane or Rita on the phone. Both of them were still with power and the temperature had dropped into the 70s meaning that I was hardly going to cook inside my unit. But part of me seemed to think it would be just a little dangerous to hang out by the window and take pictures. I took a couple, but they didn't exactly come out.

Naturally, just as I was putting my phone back on the charger in case the power resumed, the electricity came back on right after midnight. The rain soon abated and the wind did as well. Only in the morning did I learn that sustained winds reached above 74 mph, which is the demarcation point between a tropical storm and a hurricane. In search for an apt comparison, I thought about the Battle of Britain in 1940. It was as if we were constantly under assault from above with nowhere to run except my bathtub.

With that rite of passage out of the way in becoming a real Alta Sonoran, it was only fitting that in the otherworldly drive to work on Friday I heard the news: John McCain had picked Alaska Governor as his VP. This left me speechless, a stunning masterstroke to counteract Obama. McCain had literally changed history with two words and as such, I'll address this in another blog post soon.

Instead, I spent much of Friday on a site visit tooling around some remote corners of the county. Spending time out in the desert that day I began to realize how much I treasure it. Sprawl is everywhere here and part of me mourns the loss of so much pristine land. Nevertheless it's true that many urban areas were actually farmland first, and hardly pristine. But part of me could only wonder if Alta Sonora had the land management ethos of say Portland. Of course, within Cougar Country natural preservation is actually a big deal, but more on that later.

Of course, the rest of the weekend was absolutely placid by comparison. On Saturday I spent the afternoon with the USC Club watching the Trojans demolish Virginia and vault into #1 in the polls. That evening, I told Rita about this foreign movie I really wanted to see at Cougar Cinema. We went and she was awestruck about how good "Tell No One" was. I wasn't that impressed, but for those people who think film these days is nothing but "Scary Movie" it was an excellent antidote. An almost Hitchcockian thriller, "No One" is a convoluted murder mystery centering on a French doctor.

By Sunday, Chey had already left for Los Angeles with the kids to watch UCLA host Tennessee on Monday night. Rita was naturally eager to do something else, and we ended up going to what I thought was the best miniature golf course around. Instead of being fun and relaxing in the night air...it was a sweaty affair with lightning and thunder in the distance. With both of us staggering and dehydrated, I lost. (Of course, the same happened when I played with Summer and Jakub in Seattle.)

But it didn't matter. UCLA's awesome victory over Tennessee on Monday night redeemed it all. Chey's decision to drive to Los Angeles was validated. ESPN's decision to televise the game on Monday night as opposed to Saturday was validated. The only problem now of course, is that people will think the rebuilding process for Rick Neuheisel is over and its barely started.