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On March 30th I was lucky enough to meet Brooks Bollinger. Apparently he was interested in checking out the capitol and is an acquaintance of former Senator Bob Lessard. I was able to get a picture and an autograph, which was really cool and it will soon be up on the wall somewhere in the Badger Room. It is also posted in the Pictures section. As a student I watched him play in Madison for three seasons so getting the chance to meet him was awesome; he was a really nice guy. When he got to the capitol my coworkers that were going to show him around brought him down to my office because they know I am such a huge Wisconsin fan. It was a pretty good way to end the week. While he and Erasmus James are both Vikings now, I knew them as Badgers first so I wish them both the best of luck this season.

Speaking of quarterbacks, who is going to win the starting job for Wisconsin this season? I think it is going to be a real battle. Allan Everidge definitely proved himself as a freshman at Kansas State, but Tyler Donovan is a fifth year senior and showed some real promise last year when he was thrown into games. It will also be interesting to see how much playing time John Clay will be able to compete for. There are only five months until the season starts and I cannot wait. The Brewer home opener is on Monday and I am pretty excited about that, too, because if the Brewers can stay healthy this year they will have a good shot at winning the NL Central.

In other news I will be in Madison three weeks from today after a five-month hiatus. I am going through some pretty rough withdrawal right now. Tonight I am going to see Blades of Glory; hopefully it is a good one.

PS: Ohio State is just about to advance to the 2007 NCAA Championship game. I hate them.

With a name like Patrick Ryan Daley you can bet I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I find it really odd, though, that I went to UW-Madison, but have no recollection of doing anything on St. Patrick’s Day. I think it is because it was always on a weekday. That, of course, was not the case this year with St. Patty’s falling squarely on a Saturday. I had my outfit of green picked out days before Saturday actually arrived; the only non-green items on my body were my glasses and a black belt. When I awoke on Saturday I ran next door and quickly went through my workout so I could officially begin my St. Patrick’s Day. I jumped in the car and sped down 35W South to the best liquor store in the Twin Cities, Blue Max. I knew I could count on them on such a day to be stocked with Wexford Irish Cream Ale and sure enough a gentleman was stocking the cooler with it when I arrived. I grabbed 12 pints worth and a liter of Jameson’s for good measure and was home before I knew it. I reveled in my Irish brew at home with some friends before we headed over to The Local, which is a popular Irish bar on Nicollet Ave in downtown Minneapolis. We got there at around 3 PM and by the time we left at around 7 PM the line to get in was huge. We drank pints of Guinness, ate some Irish appetizers, and were serenaded by a troupe of bagpipers that marched into the bar. It was a good St. Patrick’s Day.

For the Badgers, however, it was not a good weekend. The men’s hockey and basketball teams both saw their seasons come to an end. The women’s hockey team won their second consecutive hockey championship, which is pretty awesome. All anyone can do at this point is look ahead. The football team is conducting spring practice and the regular season is only five months away.

I have wanted to visit Duluth since I moved up here and this past weekend I finally got my chance. Our alumni chapter took a coach bus up there for the hockey game. When you throw some Badgers on a bus with beer you know it is going to be a good time. The hockey game was pretty boring, though. After one overtime the game ended in a 0 – 0 tie. Exciting. On Sunday I finally got some skiing in at Afton Alps; it was the first time I had been out this season and the conditions were great after all the snow we received. How about that finish on Saturday for the basketball team? It looks like we will be playing Michigan State again this Friday unless Northwestern can pull of a win on Thursday. The Badger game is not on TV so I need to find a place to watch it. Oh, and happy birthday to me today, I turn 25.