I have been surprisingly busy the past few weeks, whether it be with papers, tests, road-trips or week-long babysitting adventures. Hopefully things will settle down, but for now I just have a few quick hits that I want to talk about:

1. Madison was incredible, as I expected. The fans there are much nicer than they are given credit for, and while they aren't the most intelligent hockey fans (as a whole), they are still incredibly generous. It wasn’t until Saturday night, I believe, that we actually paid for a drink. The games themselves were great; especially Saturday's thrilling, last-second victory. The Gophers still need to pick up the pace if they want to contend this year, but a split in Sconnie is a start. I would love to see them run it up against Anchorage this weekend, just to get in the groove. As far as the road trip, it looks like this is going to be a yearly (and ideally, multi-yearly) thing.

2. Mark Dayton is not going to run for re-election. This doesn’t especially come as a surprise. He was rich enough to fund his own campaign previously, which set a bad precedent because now he lacks the money to do so in 2006, but people still think of him as wealthy. That won't exactly make it easy for him to get donations. The Star Tribune runs down some of the possible candidates, as does this Hugh Hewitt post. Check them both out for tons of info. At this point, I'd say Mark Kennedy has to be the favorite amongst Republicans despite the fact he has yet to announce (word is that he'll do so this afternoon).

3. Finally, Pride On Ice, the popular Gopher hockey web site, has shut down. The site was mostly known for the smart, civil discussions (though there has been some bickering, mostly the tone is positive) on the message board. The discussions will continue at other sites, but most Gopher fans recognize the importance of POI and its contributions to Gopher hockey. I know I am making kind of a big deal about some small-town web site closing its doors, but it meant a lot to many fans. Count me amongst those that will miss it.