Hey, in case you didn’t notice, and care, I fixed the RSS feeds. I only checked the RSS 2.0 feed, let me know if the RSS 1.0 or Atom feeds don’t work either. There was a slight bug in the recent security fix, I believe. All should be well now…

Unfortunately it’s been announced that Dee has broken his foot during pre-draft work and will almost positively return for his senior season. Unless he really feels content with a second-round contract, I expect to see him back in Champaign.

Remember Dee had a stress fracture at the beginning of last season as well…this was always a concern, although you can’t say they’re related.

This is good and bad news; we’ll never know if he would have made it via workouts. But I know Illini Nation will welcome him ‘back’ next season 🙂

Following up on a post from last week, and my adventures at the zoo, I had to followup with our experience at Wendy’s on Saturday. We were running late to an art show (yes, I gave in and went, not my cup of tea normally), so we decided to grab something quick at Wendy’s. We made the conscious but later somewhat regretful choice of going inside to order and eat, instead of drive-thru. Unfortunately there was one older lady handling the counter, taking and filling an order one excrutiating order at a time. She moved so slow I think she had foot and/or back problems from standing back there all day or something.

But that was not the big deal, I can handle delays. First, these two ‘locals’ were ahead of us, the one cool-looking Marlboro-man look-alike (let’s call him MM for short), with the splash-resistant shades that covered his whole face. He stood way back from the counter, telling his friend to order for him. MM had obviously gotten annoyed with the wait. So his friend orders, gets MM a Frosty. As the lady is going to fill the Frosty cup, he yells ‘Give me vanilla.’. She looks at him (amazed) and says ‘we only have chocolate’, as if who in the world doesn’t know this. He snaps back, ‘I don’t want it then! Give me a Dr. Pepper instead!’. Which pry cost more, but the poor lady had already rung up the order, and decided to just give him a soda. I waited with anticipation of him making the same request, for Vanilla Dr. Pepper, but I could only hope as he didn’t

Next, between us and the ‘locals’ in line were a couple young kids, teenagers. They seemed nice enough in ordering initially. Took their food and went to sit down. So we get up there and order, start waiting for our food to come, and I notice one of the youngsters hovering behind me, like he needed a refill, etc. Turns out he had a couple of his sandwiches in his hand. I slide aside, let him finish his business, he grunts at the lady, ‘I ordered Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers, these are Jr. Cheeseburgers’. The lady thinks for a second, thinks ‘no, can’t be again’, and says, ‘well, you could take the bacon off’. Suddenly the kid realizes the err of his ways, and decides to lip off, ‘Alright then, f*** it!’, grabs them and goes to sit down. Ha, what a punk! Talking like that to someone else…I would’ve booted him and his friends out. Turns out though, as we were sitting down, I noticed he was there with his parents. I wanted so badly to say something…ass!

Finally, I realized a trend as I writing this, that on Sunday we went to fill-up on food at Byerly’s, as it’s so awesome being able to drive-up and have your groceries loaded for you. Well, of course Byerly’s seems to hire mainly young kids (high-schoolers) and senior citizens, at least a strong majority from my experience. I only mention this as usually the young whippersnappers are the ones outside loading the bags into your car. Well, apparently it was ‘shift change’ outside, as a few other baggers and produce guys were out talking to the loaders. Couldn’t believe the language! Let’s say I heard the extremely derogatory word for a gay person (usually male) quite a few times as one of them repeated a phone conversation with his lady-friend.

Now I’m not a prude, I had a bad mouth as a kid as well, but that particular word was not really used that often, let alone in inter-gender conversations….I swear I wonder where this world will be in 20 years or so as these punks take the reins; some of the stuff I hear come out of their mouths (constantly)….

Well, hopefully they won’t be reading this blog then, as they may be my boss at some point…hee, hee, just joking Boss!! <wave><wave>

So The Wife and I finally went to the Como Zoo, which is very close to where we live (supposedly we should be able to hear, from our backyard, the lions roaring in heat in the early summer). Let me just say 2 things. One, it is very cool having this in your neighboorhood, all the lions, tigers, etc. albeit a different story should they ever escape (Calvin, get ’em).

But two, it is amazing the people-watching you can do there! I mean you thought the Minnesota State Fair was interesting, try someplace that doesn’t charge a fee to get in! And on a holiday, no less…Minnesotans have some of the tackiest tastes in clothing, etc., even the rich ones in the Lake Minnetonka area, just try going to the Red Stone in Minnetonka sometime. But in general the sights at the zoo were amazing; tank tops, muscle shirts, muscle shirts plus shorts with suspenders…priceless!

Now I’m not a fashionista by no means, and am not a snooty know-it-all who feels he can comment on everyone else and they should listen; but they went out in public like that, I know my limits, and a T-shirt and jeans do not compare….

OK, onto 2 hilarious comments I overheard as people were enjoying themselves. First, while we were watching the orangutans, a little kid yells to his dad, “Hey, a monkey!”, dad replies “No, no it’s not”. The kid tries again “A gorilla!”, dad replies again “Nope, not that either”. Finally the kid begs “What is it?”, and dad replies “Well…[long pause]…I’m not sure, but let’s go…” ….all I needed to hear! 🙂

But the funniest moment was when we were walking over to the Timber Wolf area (no, the real kind, not Wally Szczerbiak and friends). Their area/cage was rather large, to let them roam, and while walking up you noticed none were outside, probably inside their ‘den’ which you couldn’t really see into from the walkway. But as we’re walking up, a lady walks by on her way out and mentions to her friend they must be inside there. Right behind them a second group of people, more elderly walks by, and I hear the guy say, “They’re not out”, to which his lady-friend replies “How do you know?”, to which he replies “Cuz that lady was Native American.” Ha ha ha ha ha ha….nice! Plus she wasn’t, she was Hispanic.