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This last weekend was a nice, long weekend. On Friday, Erin and I went to Milwaukee to visit my older brother and his family. While there, we saw the Black Crowes and Tom Petty at SummerFest. We came back on Sunday to see the Cubs play the Nationals, a team I didn’t know existed until I looked at the ticket stub. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my machismo, and that not only should I know who the Washington Nationals are, but I should be able to recite a long list of stats from the past fifteen baseball seasons. But I don’t, and it’s because baseball is just plain boring. I know that’s un-man, and un-American…but come on! Football, hockey, bicycle racing- all exciting. Erin even made a comment that it doesn’t seem like players were running hard enough. Hell…without beer, the sport of baseball might not even exist!

Erin and I started this last weekend off by seeing Martin Sexton at Navy Pier’s Skyline Pavilion. The pavilion is an excellent place to see a show, with nearly perfect sound and refreshing lake shore breeze floating through.

Erin and I saw Bela Fleck (with Bryan Sutton & Casey Driessen) tonight at the Old Town School of Folk Music. We were both really amazed at the level of communication and understanding between the three artists. Although they spoke between songs, not a word was said while playing. The sounds were playful and curious, with lots of quick tempo shifts; the timing was measured and precise. Really cool stuff..

Erin and I took a knife skills class last night at The Chopping Block. It was a lot of fun. When we first walked in, I felt like were walking into the set of Kill Bill…there were lots of big sharp knives. By the end of the night we were slicing up vegetables like pros.

My friend Dan Stephenson died in a car accident on February 4th in New Mexico on his way back home to Chicago from a visit in California.

I think about Dan all the time and still can’t believe it. I’ve never lost someone close to me. I got the news from Erin while I was sitting in a meeting the next day. I didn’t answer the phone the first two times, but I knew there was bad news when she called a third time. When I answered the phone, Erin was sobbing and told me the news. I didn’t believe her. I could hear the words she was saying and feel the pain in her voice, but I wasn’t mentally ready to accept what she was saying. I was numb for the rest of the day…everything seemed completely meaningless. I wasn’t ready to accept it until the next night. Erin and I were sitting at our kitchen table talking, and I broke down.

The weird thing about the phone call was that I had been thinking about Dan that morning. I was driving to work on Lake Shore Drive, looking out at the lake and thinking about all the times Dan and I swam in Lake Michigan together with our two dogs. Thinking of those memories made me happy, and I made a mental note to call Dan later in the evening to figure out when he was coming home from California.

Since I heard the news, Dan has been on my mind every day. I wonder why he’s gone. I wonder what his last thoughts were. I think about the time we got into a fight over a simple miscommunication (and it was all my fault). We didn’t talk for months…and man, what a couple of jerks we were to each other. I think about all of the great food he introduced us to. I think about the first day we met and how I instantly knew we’d be friends for life. I think about the last conversation we had – Dan was leaving for California the next day, and the last words he said to me were “I’ll see you in February, J-bone”.

It’s just funny how things happen…how life moves so quickly. I just want to be honest with myself and give everything I have to the people that I care about. To my friends and family, you have my unequivocal love and respect. I’m here for you when you need me.

Happy New Year friends and family. I hope you have a great year!

Here are a few things that I found interesting today:

The Way We Eat Now (Harvard Magazine) We’re fat, we’re getting fatter, and we’re ok with it. The best advice I’ve heard about slimming down: eat slow and decrease your portion size. If you’ve ever sat down to more than one meal with me, you’d have seen enough to know that I eat every meal like it is my last. So, it’s a new year and I’m going to slow down…and eat less.

An old beating on the hood of a cab I was walking to the gym this afternoon and I saw an old man blocking a cab from driving through the intersection at Wacker and Jackson. From what I could deduce, the cab driver tried to jump the intersection too quickly and almost clipped the old man. The cabbie noticed the old man just shy of an ‘old-man-on-the-pavement’ incident, and the old man flipped out on the cabbie. Go old man!

Smashing Pumpkins: Drown (bootleg) I haven’t listened to the Pumpkins in a long time, and this bootleg kicks ass. I love it when I listen to a CD that re-introduces me to a great band.

Happy holidays to you all! Best wishes and big kisses….

Erin and I tied the knot yesterday - and it was the happiest day of my life.

We topped off our weekend by seeing back-to-back Wilco shows at the Auditorium Theatre. Tonight we’re going to cook up a big feast and scare the piss out of trick-or-treaters.