Is there anything else to do on the first beautiful day in weeks? Anything at all? Hell no. You, friend, must go to play basketball.

Let me tell you about Tuesday. Tuesday was a beautiful day. Gorgeous. Sunny, warm and not windy. Friends, it was baskeball weather. Hell yes.

Since I had been beat down by the recent weeks of crappy weather, I decided to boldly go where I had never alone gone before: Hiawatha Park. For basketball.

This, friends, is the place I've been talking about. When it's nice out, there's always a lot of people and always a full court 5 on 5 game going on.

On Tuesday afternoon, the place was hopping and I was on the team that won the first 4 games of the day before dropping the 5th pretty badly because we were all dead-ass-tired.

I hit a few nice shots and made some nice passes. Since I was the only white dude there, I was dubbed John Stockton at first. When I hit a 3 while being fouled, for some reason my name became Danny Ferry. I hate Danny Ferry and John Stockton! Hate 'em both! The dude that started the Danny Ferry talk said he meant it as a compliment "He's a good role player and hits shots!" and I just had this huge "I hate Danny Ferry" grin on my face while I was shaking my head.

How'd you play, dude? Well, friend, overall, I'd say I played okay for my first time out. My effort left a lot to be desired, but, hey, it was my first time running full court -- and I did for 5 straight games -- even though I was nearly dead after 2. My defense was probably pretty bad. Total lack of effort.

What should I have done? Pounded the ball inside. I was one of the bigger and stronger dudes on the court. I had an advantage there, but didn't use it at all. I hung around the perimeter and tried to get my jumper going. I didn't rebound offensively, either... Hee... I'll be better the next time out.

I'm also getting the feeling that I'll be able to dunk pretty easily at some point this summer. I'm getting up pretty high pretty easily right now. I'm digging that.

I'll be sure to talk all about it when I finally do dunk. I'm crazy like that. Like a fox!

Well now, it took me 3 whole days to get that all off my chest.

And I'm spent.

Have a great weekend, all!
Eric