Posted 12:37 PM by Mike
It's called a "buffer zone". What's a buffer zone you may ask? Well, its the distance that you live away from your family when there is all kind of drama going on. As much I miss living in northern Minnesota, near my family and friends, there are points in time when I appreciate my 250 mile buffer zone. I must say, now more than ever, I like my buffer zone. Put yourself in my shoes for a minute.....this has been my routine the last couple of months.........I get a phone call from my mom. After the usual, "Hello, how are you doing?...What have you been up to?", I get the low down on what my sister has done to piss my parents off this time. This is usually a long winded rant from my mother that most of the time has me talking to her in one word sentences like, "Uh huh", "Yep", "Oh really" (ok the last one was two words, but you get my drift). Now before my sister and her boyfriend broke up and she had a phone, this was usually followed up by a phone call from my sister as well, usually complaining about my parents and what I can do about it. Me. Not what she can do about it, but what can I do about it. Both my parents and my sister have major issues and for some reason they both tend to come to me about how things should be handled. I'm not sure when I was elected moderator, but I want to contest the election. My sister is in dire need of growing up, a kick in the ass, or both, but why should I be the one that has to do it. For some reason they feel like she respects my opinion more than theirs. I somehow don't feel that way because for some immature reason, she is incredibly jealous of me. She's always had this stupid notion that I'm the golden child and can do no wrong in my parents eyes. Not the case. I just chose to respect my parents a great deal more than my sister does. My sister is also an alcoholic but won't do anything about it, but that's another story..... All right....enough of that!!!

Spent last two weekends traveling. Last weekend traveled down to Muscatine, IA for the weekend for my mom's 50th birthday party. It was pretty fun. My parents, sister, and nephew stayed at my house the day before and we all went down the next day. I only stayed down there for the weekend so it was a pretty short trip for me. Over the holiday weekend, Kristin and I went up north for a short stay. One of my best friends had his anual Memorial Weekend party so we attended. Drinking, bocce ball, bullshitting, etc.. A good time was had by all. We came home Sunday afternoon so we could have all day Monday to unwind. Looking forward to this coming weekend of relaxing and spending some time around the house. I was supposed to go back up north again for one of my friend's little brother's wedding, but I'm pretty ragged from all the traveling so I'm going to just send a card. I've only spent two weekend at home since we moved in!!!

Cubs continue to show a lot of resolve. Their three best players, Sammy Sosa, Kerry Wood, and Mark Prior are all on the DL and they are only 2.5 games out of first. Prior is set to start this Friday and Sammy and Kerry are getting healthy. Hopefully they can keep it up until all three get back. Then watch out!!!