Saturday and Sunday

Pictures: 1. Ice cream and Mike Wask 2. Penguins 3. Shark 4. Building from the city 5. America in a pot

(More pictures from the aquarium and the city at www.australianadventure2.shutterfly.com)

I've been doing anything and everything to keep myself from doing work this weekend. Grocery shopping? Check. Gym? Check. Clean my room? Check. Reading every article ever written by Bill Simmons and then contemplating my life? Check. Next thing in line - a blog update.

On Saturday I woke up pretty early and hit up the aquarium in the city with a couple kids from Loyola and one of our Australian friends Lockie. On the train ride in something fell into my shoe, and I went to pull it out, only to find that it was a big, SHARP piece of glass and it sliced open my finger. Great way to start the day. But the aquarium still turned out to be great! $20 to get in and there was tons of stuff to do there. We saw penguins, sharks, sting rays, tons of crazy looking fish, jelly fish and weird creatures that live in the reef. We then walked across the street to the casino which is along the water and has tons of amazing restaurants in it. We got chicken parm to go and ate it outside near the water. I forgot to mention it was about 75 and GORGEOUS out. We then got ice cream and walked along the water back to the train. Overall it was a pretty solid day.

Today was pretty laid back. Everyone has tons of work to do before we go away for spring break so the stress level is pretty high right now. I went food shopping today and got some good deals. I definitely shop by whats on sale, not by what I need. I definitely didn't need 4 things of peanut butter, but they were $1 each so I bought them. I REALLY didn't need 12 cinnamon donuts, but for 94 cents how could you say no?! I went to the gym when I got home and now have to TRY and do work for the rest of the night. I don't know how well this is going to go.

I also broke my phone AND my iPod over the weekend. My water bottle must have opened up in my backpack, and when I went to grab my keys they were both floating. I don't think I'll be able to dry them out but maybe. It sucks not having a phone, but not having an iPod when I go to the gym is even worse!

Someone just told me that you supposedly can get Monday Night Football games here on your computer. So I'm HOPING that I'll be able to figure it out and be able to watch the Bills on Monday. It seems the consensus is the Bills are going to get blown out AND be terrible all season. Usually going into the first game of the season I'm bursting with confidence and excitement. But to be honest, I have little to none of either right now. I feel like we are already 0-6. I'm trying to be optimistic, but they had SUCH a bad preseason that it's tough for me to think they will make the playoffs, or even break .500. Firing their offensive coordinator 10 days before the season starts? Definitely crazy, but I'm going to hope they made the right choice. I love Alex Van Pelt, and I think playing behind Kelly all those years when they were running the K-Gun will allow him to hopefully help this unproductive no-huddle they are running right now. I hope their offensive line can gel and buy Trent time while also opening holes for Fred Jackson and Marshawn. Also, I love Aaron Maybin. I think he has a huge upside (1 sack in each of his 2 preseason games), but it will take awhile for him to get used to the speed of the game. He's still so young and has so much to learn. I guess only time will tell.

This is going to be a make or break season for almost everybody on the squad, so here's to them making the playoffs. Or at least keeping me from throwing my chair out the window.