Weekend Report

Friday- Happy hour at work, followed by dinner out with friends, followed by drinks with Tina, who now lives in Geneva, a fact that makes me quite envious. I've been feeling the wanderlust lately...to bad I still have 2-3 more years of grad school to go.

Saturday- Went to see the Red Sox play the Phillies at Fenway Park. Brett Myers did pitch, despite the fact that he was arrested less than 36 hours before the game for beating his wife in public in downtown Boston. I completely agree with Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy...the Phillies should have benched his sorry ass, and the fact that they didn't reflected poorly on their organization. Aside from that, it was a great game. I went with three friends who had never been to Fenway before (Carolina, Jose, and Monica), and we had the classic Red Sox experience: beers at the newly remodeled Cask n' Flagon (it looks great- similar setup, more TVs, cleaner bathrooms) before the game, bleacher seats, Fenway Franks, expensive beers during the game, peanuts, and best of all, a David Ortiz game-winning homer in the bottom of the 10th. The bleachers were packed with Phillies fans. I've never seen so many fans of the opposing team, even at Yankees games. The majority of them had road-tripped in for the weekend to catch the interleague play, and the Red Sox fans in the stands had fun giving them a good-natured welcoming to "friendly" Fenway Park.

Sunday- Watched A Prairie Home Companion, the movie based on Garrison Keillor's popular, and very Midwestern, radio show. The film didn't have much of a plot, but was worth the price of admission just for the musical numbers. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin shine as the singing Johnson sisters, and Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly entertain as singing cowboys. Some of the other characters didn't really do it for me...Kevin Klein as the bumbling detective, Virginia Madsen as the angel, and Maya Rudolph as the pregnant stage manager all fell flat. It was refreshing to see Lindsay Lohan, who plays Streep's daughter, in something other than a tabloid for once. Despite the fact that Garrison Keillor wrote and stars in the film based on his own show, this is Meryl Streep's movie. She NAILS the Minnesota accent, sings surprisingly well, and seems like she's having a great time doing it.