Busy Fun Week in the 305

So we've shaken off the last of the jet lag and have gotten back into the swim of things in the 305. I actually put in a few solid work days -- with my partner Paul, I'm trying to get cases in my office moving with greater alacrity. But, alas, some habits die hard or not at all... Monday, Norman had a great idea -- we ought to go watch the Canes baseball team try to advance out of the Regional playoffs. I love Canes baseball but due to sheer laziness, haven't seen a game live in 3 years. So after battling the traffic caused by UM's renting out the basketball arena for MANY high school graduations, I cruised into the ZBT House lot, and met up with my good friend. We walked over to Titanic, where Mike met us -- and the three double Canes drank and ate well, talking, of course, about days gone by. We walked to the stadium as the strong sun was setting, and watched the Canes take on Columbia -- a team that surprisingly made it out of the Ivy League championship and shut out the Canes the night before. As I watched their pitcher warm up, my years of playing and watching baseball told me he had the stuff of a high school kid, and this would be a long night for Columbia. Happily, I was correct -- the Canes shelled them, and won 20-3. With that, they host a semi final this weekend against Virginia Commonwealth. I'd go, but the games are at noon, and my laziness and aversion to sitting in the heat might well keep me tuned in instead of attending. Last night, we met old friends Dave and Maureen and Dave's LI buddy Richard in the Gables. We ate salads at the only resturant the penurious Maureen likes -- California Pizza Kitchen, and heard Richard's tales of his lobbying -- guns and marijuana. Unusual guy... We then went to Books and Books for a talk by an author who anaylzed Nobel Prizes in medicine, physica, and chemistry, and how an absurdly high proportion went to Jews. The talk was attended by mostly...wait for it...Jews, but one fellow there was the former president of FIU, Mitch Madique, apparently a buddy of the writer's. I got to meet him afterwards, and found him brilliant anc charming. He's the only college president in US history to have his school start a med school, law school, and college football program all under his watch. He told me he's writing a new book tentatively titled "Cubans -- the Jews of the Caribbean," and we chatted about that Cuban-Jewish connection in Miami. He loved it when I told him that my dear friend Jorge, a Catholic Cuban, is by far the strongest Zionist of anyone I know -- my orthodox rabbi friend included... So the slow times of the Miami year are upon us, and yet there's plenty to do...I still think I might need a cooling off respite come July or August.