Weekends and other sins...

Is there anything better than a weekend at the lake?

Don't think so. Well, it was just what the doctor ordered anyway.

The rain had given way to an outright summer squall by the time my SUV pulled into the cabin's front yard Friday night. I was still wearing my work clothes (dress pants, big red Shopper-News shirt, loafers), and got soaked.

Important stuff (food and drinks) went first. Then the books, iPod, CD player/radio and CD collection. Then the DVDs. The clothes, fishing gear and unimportant stuff came last.

It rained. It rained some more. I sat out on the back porch downing a drink and watching the storm. After awhile, that got boring, so I watched Gregory Peck retake Leyte Gulf in "MacArthur."

Saturday was lazy. I did make a dent in the David Halberstam book "October 1964," as well as a few of Hemingway's short stories and the library book I picked up last week, "Work and Other Sins," by a former New York Times reporter. Good stuff.

No writing, though. Just wasn't up to it. Did devise an idea or two for a couple of stories. Maybe down the road.

The guilty pleasure was a few episodes of "Dallas" Saturday morning. Ahh, there's nothing better for the soul than watching J.R. Ewing wheeling and dealing. It's almost as good as Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Saturday night was reserved for good music and more Hemingway. I also finally finished the last two issues of Newsweek and an old Paris Review interview with Boris Pasternak I'd left hanging around since before the kidney stones.

Fell asleep somewhere around 3 a.m. The birds woke me up this morning. I didn't want to rise.

Thank God days off only happen once or twice here and there. I could get used to this...

Nightcap: The Tigers just beat the Minnesota Twins 1-0 on an 8th inning home run by Marcus Thames. What a game.

Jeremy Bonderman was brilliant. Twinkies starter Scott Baker was even better -- one run on three hits. But that one hit was a biggie.

Turns out it was all the Tigers needed.

There is a poetic beauty to baseball, particularly to pitchers duels like this one. It doesn't exist in other sports. It's a near-perfection that's simply beautiful to watch.

Perfect way to end a perfect weekend.