Finally made it to Friday. And I have next Monday and Tuesday off, so it’s a big weekend. It’ll be even bigger if we win the Mega Millions, which is now up to something like $540 million $640 million. If I win, I hope to do things like vote for Mitt Romney, and tell amusing stories about the time my dad closed an auto plant and laid off thousands or workers. A real knee slapper.

Speaking of Mitt Romney, the poor fella just can’t catch a break. Turns out Eldon Roth – the founder of Pink Slime Inc. (aka, “Beef Products”) – is a major Romney donor. In fact, I think Romney himself is actually 42% pink slime. He should definitely choose Santorum as his running mate. “Slimy and Frothy 2012.”

If he doesn’t go with the Frothman, he might want to consider Michelle Duggar. I don’t actually know who she is, but apparently she has 19 kids and thinks overpopulation is a lie, and anyhow she isn’t burdening the world with her need to breed, because her family buys used cars and stuff. As proof, she cites the “fact” that the entire world’s population could fit in Jacksonville FL.

I am forced to admit being ignorant of this fact. Turns out, Jacksonville is the largest city (area-wise) in the lower 48 – at about 874 square miles. 758 square miles of land, and another 116 or so is water.

So, let’s do the math here. Presumably Michelle isn’t expecting a few billion people to tread water, so, with the world’s population being about 7 billion, that would be about 9.2 million people per square mile. A square mile is 27,878,400 square feet, so that would be about a third of a square foot per person. Seems a little tight.

On the way in to work yesterday, I was behind a truck with a cap on it (which is always annoying, ‘cuz you can’t see through or around it). Anyhow, on his rear window, he had a “Don’t Mess with Texas” bumper sticker in the middle, and two “Bush/Cheney ’04” stickers on either side. And I thought to myself, “gee, there’s a guy I’d like to hang out with.” Alas, we eventually parted ways, and I never got to meet him. In fact, I’m only assuming it was a dude, ‘cuz I don’t really know.

Now, I’m kinda confused, so you’ll have to let me know if I have this right. When the Pope says no birth control, we all have to go along with that, right? But when he says no economic embargo on Cuba, we tell him to mind his own goddamn business. Right? Or does this mean if Rick Santorum gets elected, we can all start smoking Cuban cigars?

I made the mistake of walking around outside last night wearing a black hoodie. Fortunately, nobody shot me. Though, to be honest, you’re more likely to get shot out my way while wearing a brown leather jacket and a fuzzy hat. Especially during deer season. I actually had no idea that hoodies were scary and threatening. I’ve kind been wearing them for years, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t very intimidating.

Oh well, back to work, I guess.

The SCOTUS dog and pony show wraps up today, as oral arguments shift to the concept of severability, and also something about Medicaid expansion. It seems that things didn’t go all that well yesterday, sending liberals into a tizzy. I mean, so Fat Tony was mean to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli (who doesn’t sound like he was exactly up for the job). Big deal. What did people expect? Sounds like the left-leaning justices had to bail Verrilli out.

So, it’s hump day. This has been a pretty crappy week so far. Hopefully the last three days will go fast.

Today is garbage day, which is always pretty exciting. And as if that wasn’t enough, it’s Day 2 of Healthcarepalooza, as anal arguments focus on whether it’s constitutional to make you eat broccoli, buy a health club membership, and stop worshiping at the feet of our Lord God Jesus Almighty. Or something like that. Also birth control figures into this somehow, too, from what I gather.

Speaking of Obamacare, Mitt Romney says that if he is – as David Plouffe put it – the “godfather” of Healthcare Reform, that gives him the right to “kill it.” I’m not sure that’s an accurate depiction of the powers of being a godfather, Mitt. Though it may give you the right to strap healthcare to the roof of your car for a road trip.

The Supreme Court Clerks (great name for a band) are predicting that HCR will be declared constitutional, according to the Crappington Post.

That’s good news. I guess. Except I’m kind bummed that I have to start taking birth control pills now.

So, Obamacare goes to the Supreme Court this week, starting today, when I believe they’ll take up the issue of whether or not the “fee” for not having insurance is actually a tax. If it’s a tax, they effectively punt the ball until 2015 or something, because you can’t question the constitutionality of a tax until it’s actually been levied. Or so the pinkos at NPR tell me, anyway. They make a big deal out of the dog and pony oral arguments show, but I find it hard to believe any of it actually matters, and that they don’t already have their minds made up. But maybe I’m wrong.

Otherwise, it’s just your basic Monday. Winter is back, and it’s not supposed to get out of the 30s today, with a hard freeze tonight. Hopefully that’ll kill some of the bugs.

I’ve basically been in a self-imposed news blackout since Saturday night, so I don’t know what else is going on out there in the world. Not that I need to know.

Oh well, time to prepare for a week in the airless coffin in which I work. It’s kind of like being buried alive.

Yes, it was on this date in 1870 that Syracuse University was founded. Or opened. Or whatever. So they call this “Orange Day,” even though orange wasn’t the school’s color back then. In fact, I don’t think they had any colors to start with, but in 1872 they adopted the truly inspiring combination of pea green and pink. Eventually that became pink and blue, until, in 1890, they got made fun of by students at Hamilton College and adopted orange because nobody else had that color yet. So, here we are.

It would be nice if, on its 142nd birthday, SU could celebrate be making it to the final four by beating Ohio State. It’s yet another game we are supposed to lose – especially because OSU has a big fella at center named Sullinger, and our big fella was apparently too dumb to stay in school long enough to finish the season (to be fair, his English is way better than my Portuguese).

Otherwise, it’s a cooler weekend on tap. Lots of rain last night, and “only” in the 50s today.

I reckon I can deal with that.

Finally, it’s Friday. What a long week it’s been. And I’m a little tired this morning, having stayed up past my bedtime. Well worth it, though. Now, let’s get this week over with already.

OK, this is a little late in the day, but I find myself with a few minutes to kill while running out the clock at work, so I thought I’d get something up here. This is the time of day when my back is on fire and it’s all I can do to sit in the chair. Walking around doesn’t help much (not for long, anyway), unfortunately. So, the Jets got Tim Tebow for some strange reason. With the, I believe, the fifth worst QB (statistically) already on staff, they made a move for the third worst one. Another brilliant move by the men in green. It’s hard to be a Jets fan. I guess there are people out there who hate the Jets, though I don’t really know why. I mean, why hate a team that occasionally goes to the playoffs, but hasn’t really won anything since Super Bowl III?

Speaking of teams it’s hard to be a fan of, there’s a big game on tonight, between SU and Wisconsin. Despite being the #1 seed, it feels like nobody’s giving SU much of a chance. Even more strange, people seem to hate Syracuse. We’ve somehow become the Oakland Raiders of NCAA basketball. I find that very strange, too.

Oh well, if things go badly tonight, I will be very depressed, and will probably not watch any sports or read any newspapers for a few months (the lacrosse team is having a down year, so that leaves football season – and then the real depression can set in).

At least tomorrow’s (finally) Friday.

Congratulations to Mittens, crowned king of Illinois last night. Interesting that Newt finished a distant third. I really thought he had something going with the fake outrage over Robert Deniro making a joke. Of course Ricky trumped him with the whole Obama shouldn’t let his kid go to Mexico thing. Stupid meeting day today. Whoopie.

Yes, as of 1:14 AM EDT, spring has officially sprung. And for the first time in a long, long, time, it actually feels very spring-like. Actually, it feels more like summer, with the temperature supposed to be around 80 for a few days. Yesterday we even had thunderstorms late in the day. And I’ve been pulling ticks off the dogs at an alarming rate. I used to use Frontline ‘cuz it’s supposed to take care of ticks. But it didn’t seem to be killing the fleas, so I switched to Advantage (we have cats, so I’m leery of using K9 Advantix). But with all the ticks, I decided to order some Fiprogard (which is generic Frontline). Hope it works.

In much less interesting news, there’s a big old primary thingie in Illinois, where Mitt Romney is poised to whip Rick Santorum into a frothy mixture of, well, you know. Rick is getting pretty darn nasty to Mitt, and Mitt is saying mean things about Barack (did you know Obama is slowing down this whole economic recovery?). I try not to listen to them all, but NPR insists on shoving it down my throat on my way into work.

Oh well, time to get back to doing whatever it is I should be doing.