The only thing that would have made it better is if Obama had combined his last two nationally televised speeches, and done a "Real American" post-match posedown over bin Laden's corpse. [If you're not getting the joke, you need to click here... when I saw it, I thought it was the greatest thing I'd seen all week; turns out, it was only the second greatest thing Obama said all week. As deserving a target as that diptard Trump is, I despise bin Laden that much more.]
 
Anyway, even if the rasslin' wasn't so hot (it was, in fact, luke warm at best), it's a good night. So now that we've shared a happy moment together, let's get onto business. Here's what happened at the just-completed Extreme Rules 2011 pay-per-view:

• Opening Montage/Pyro/Etc., and we're live in Tampa, FL. We're welcomed by Josh Mathews, who is flanked by Jerry Lawler and Booker T. And Cole's cubicle is empty. Oh, for  frick's sake, this can only mean one thing: Cole will commentate the second half of the PPV, instead of the first. Which means something awful will be happening in his "match." I hate you already, Vince.
   
  
• Randy Orton beats CM Punk in a Last Man Standing Match. Orton enters first, and is now officially attempting to sport a beard. And failing. He could use one of Hollywood Hogan's magic markers to fill in his bald spots. Punk enters next, and is flanked by Nexus... but that comes to a swift end when the Virtual GM chimes in and bans Nexus from ringside. My immediate response: "Yeah, but this match isn't confined to ringside." Might I be on to something, or am I just being more clever than WWE when coming up with ways for Punk to make use of his boys, afterall?
  
  Punk pouts briefly, but then changes gears: before getting into the ring to start the match, he removes one of the turnbuckle pads, exposing the steel. So he'll have that in his back pocket for later. When the match starts, Orton is on fire to start, and Punk has no choice but to beg off and retreat. This leads to the match spilling outside early on, with Orton still getting the better of it for a few minutes. But when Punk is floored, he reaches under the ring, and comes up swinging a kendo stick.
  
  He goes to town on Orton, starting a fairly sustained heel beatdown. Orton would get his hope spots, but Punk had it covered: when Orton got control of the kendo stick, Punk quickly countered with a back kick that split the stick in two, and when Orton tried to cap a rally with his hangman DDT, Punk blocked it and turned it into a slingshot that caused Orton's head to strike the exposed turnbuckle.
  
  Orton finally got on offense when Punk tried to introduce a steel chair to the proceedings, only to have it backfire. Punk had the first convincing Ref Counts put on him, but he got up at 8. Orton hit another big move, belly-to-back suplexing Punk onto the ringside barricade (ouch); when Punk started getting to his feet at 8, Orton grabbed him and tossed him into the ring. Then, Orton dropped down to pound the mat, but when he attempted the RKO, Punk easily blocked it. That's what you get for telegraphing your finisher less than 10 minutes into a match, dum dum.
   
  In fact, Punk didn't just block it, he immediately hoisted Orton up and hit the GTS. That got a 9 count. Punk followed up with a suplex onto a steel chair. Another 9. But when Punk tried for another chair assisted move, Orton countered with the RKO out of nowhere. Punk got up at 8, and immediately decided to bail out of the ring. Orton followed, and was caught by Punk, who was playing a bit o' possum. Super wicked looking move had Punk put a steel chair around Orton's neck, and then ram him into the steel ring post. But again, it only got a 9.
   
  Punk decided to up the ante, dragging Orton up onto the announce table to attempt another GTS. But Orton block that, and instead nailed another RKO out of nowhere, with Punk smacking the table hard. That got an 8 count, but when Punk got to his feet, he couldn't stay standing. He dropped down, and the ref started another count... Orton decided he didn't want to wait for Punk to get up again, so he decided to line Punk up for the Bootie Kick o' Doom... but Punk dodged it, and Orton rammed into the steel ring steps. But only got a 9.
  
  Punk tossed Orton back into the ring, and tried to follow up with a move off the top rope... but Orton grabbed one of the kendo stick remnants, and caught Punk with a flurry of shots. With Punk slouched on the top turnbuckle, Orton got up on the second rope next to him, and hit a flying RKO. The ref started his count with both men down, but Orton got to his feet at 8, and Punk didn't. Orton wins.
  
  About 15 minutes, and a bit tame by LMS standards. Plus, the ending seemed a bit premature/anticlimactic/something... and it goes without saying that I *was* out-thinking WWE's monkeys with my theory about Punk taking the fight to Nexus being a clever idea if Nexus was forbidden from coming to the fight. When the match ended, it felt more like the moment that kicks a good match into high gear, and instead it was the spot that ended the match before it got good. It wasn't bad, or anything, just not really good, either. I don't think this even matched their non-stip match at WrestleMania, and their WM match was nothing really special (a solid match, probably the third best one on the show). That's no way to be.
  
  
• Interlude: Jerry Lawler leaves ringside to prepare for his match, leaving just Josh Mathews and Booker T.... Josh and Booker take some time to review all the changes brought on by The Draft... and backstage, Sheamus is complaining to Teddy Long that he does not like being forced into a US Title Match on such short notice, especially against somebody who is not even on his brand, and double especially not in a Tables Match; Teddy Long basically says "Tough shit, whitey"...
  
  
• Kofi Kingston beats Sheamus in an Impromptu Ladder Match to win the US Title. I wonder why Sheamus would be against a Tables Match? It's the match where he won his first WWE Title (by standing nearby while John Cena fell off the top rope and through a table). He should be right at home. And just as I type that, Josh Mathews repeats that very same fact. D'oh.
  
  All of 45 seconds of punchy-kicky to start, and Kofi decides to go outside and start setting up tables. Booker (who has taken to verbally berating Kofi about being soft) approves of Kofi showing that kind of intensity. Sheamus rolls off the first table before Kofi can use it. A second table is set up, but also not used when the match spills back into the ring. Sheamus regains control, and grabs a third table, and brings it into the ring... but instead of setting it up, he uses it as a battering ram and decimates Kofi with it. Once Kofi is KO'd, Sheamus sets the table up, resting on a turnbuckle, and tries to powerbomb Kofi through it, but Kofi flips out at the last second. A more amazing last second save comes moments later when Kofi's on the apron, exactly above one of the pre-set tables... Sheamus shoulder-blocked him, but instead of Kofi falling onto the table, he flies completely over the table and lands on his feet.
  
  Back into the ring for some brawling, and then back out of the ring next to the other pre-set table. Sheamus is dazed, so Kofi goes up to the top and waits till Sheamus stumbles into the exact perfect position so that Kofi can come off the top rope and hit a seated senton that drove Sheamus through the table. New US Champion, which means the US Title is still on RAW, afterall.
  
  About 10-12 minutes, and again, it seemed too short to be particularly memorable, but not too shabby for a match that is essentially an unannounced bonus.
  
  
• Backstage: Todd Grisham interviews R-Truth. Truth opines that he went from being in a WWE Title Match to not even being on the PPV, which can only be a conspiracy. And conspiracies are bad, m'kay? He says John Morrison stole his title shot, and if there's one thing he can't stand, it's a thief. So, ummmmm, did he pretty much just promise to run in during the main event or what?
  
  
• Michael Cole and Jack Swagger beat Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler via pinfall. Cole's wrapped in bubble wrap, which I'm guessing is just as much for covering up his embarrassing tattoos as it is to protect him from being whipped. Then Cole starts talking, because at least that's part of his job description. Still doesn't mean that he's particularly good at it, as his 2 minute spiel was more than enough to over stay its welcome.
  
  Cole started the match to show off his invincible body armor. Which lasted for about 30 seconds until Lawler decided to punch Cole in the mouth, and then removed his bubble wrap as he scurried to his corner to tag in Swagger. Swagger immediately took control, and Cole would only tag in for 8 seconds here and there when Jerry was tied to the ropes with one of the leather straps.
   
  Lawler eventually rallied, and hit a DDT on Swagger. Both men tagged, and JR entered the match enthusiastically, while Cole entered against his will. JR got a few whips in, and eventually decided to use the ankle lock to finish Cole off. But Swagger had recovered enough to make a save... and then, when Ross let himself get distracted by getting rid of Swagger (JR hit a low blow), Cole snuck up from behind and schoolboy'd JR for the pinfall win. I even knew it was coming due to WWE telegraphing it with Cole MIA to start the show, and I was STILL stunned to silence.
  
  Sweet merciful christ, he's not going away, is he? So stupid. If you want to use Cole like this, remove him from announcing duties, because he is now beyond-shitty as a commentator: he is actually a counter-productive distraction. And if you want to use Cole as an announcer, the gimmick has to go, since the waning fan interest is palpable. Match was about 6-7 minutes, and did nothing to entertain me.
  
  
• Backstage: Todd Grisham interviews John Cena, who has nothing of note to say other than professing his desire to regain the WWE Title. Truly an illuminating revelation.
  
  
• Rey Mysterio beat Cody Rhodes in a Falls Count Anywhere Match (via pinFall, in the middle of the ring). Cody once again has Hired Goons handing out paper bags to ringside fans, which Cody implores them to wear because they are all violating his eyeholes with their ugliness. Hokay.
  
  Like the US Title Match, this one doesn't bother wasting any time playing into the stipulation: the match spills outside after about 30 seconds, with the back and forth brawl going up to the stage, where Rey tosses Cody off, and then follows with a GINORMOUS running senton where he had to cover a good 15 feet before connecting with Rhodes. From there, the brawl went out into the crowd, where Rhodes regained control, and started leading Rey up the stairs to the mezzanine level.
  
  And from there, they're out onto the concourse, where Rey takes over after throwing Cody into some dumpsters. When Cody crashes into them and sends the dumpsters flying, one can see stage marks on the floor in bright blue tape, indicating to stage hands where to place the dumpsters. Oy. How professional, dum dums. Rey continues with some more big moves, springboarding off of concession stands and other stuff, causing the assembled fans to chant "This is awesome." A BIT of an exaggerating, but not by much. A couple near falls on the concourse remind us of the stipulation.
  
  Rey then leads Cody back down the steps and into the arena. He flings Cody back over the barricade, but then takes some time to pose with fans, so when he approaches Cody, Rhodes has had time to recover, and retakes command. Crowd has suddenly gone 97% silent, which I think speaks to how just-off-target Cody's gimmick is; he's just not worth caring enough about to boo, and for some reason, Rey wasn't especially over, either.
  
  And as I type that, they decide to take it home. And in a completely out-of-left-field manner. Rhodes had Rey backed into a turnbuckle when all of a sudden Rey busted out the Green Mist. GREEN MIST?!? In this case, the Green Mist has the power of causing Cody Rhodes to stumble backwards and fall into the ropes in perfect position for a (619). So Rey hits one, follows up with a springboard splash, and that's it.
  
  Another one around 10-12 minutes, and for as much as the concourse brawl took advantage of the stip in an entertaining fashion (stage blocking in tape aside), it's still a Falls Count Anywhere Match that ended with a pinfall in the middle of the ring. Dumb. Throw in some awkward disjointedness (the two didn't seem on the same page at times), and another one that -- on the whole -- didn't improve upon previous efforts as much as you'd have wanted given the added gimmicks.
  
  
• Layla beats Michelle McCool via pinfall in a No DQ/No Count-out Match. Michelle jumpstarts the match in back-fighting fashion, but Layla's got spunk, so the brawl is back and forth, both inside and outside the ring. Another match following WWE's trend of thinking it's a good idea to mic the ring so the wrestlers can do audible dialogue. Note, WWE are wrong to think this. Anyway, the "story" of the dialogue is that when Michelle's in control, she's all "You brought this upon yourself, Lay." And when Layla hits big moves (including a very nice Buff Blockbuster), she's all half-happy/half-crying because she doesn't want to lose her friend.
  
  The back and forthiness means there's no real narrative in terms of the rasslin' (they want you focused on the dialogue), but the end comes when McCool hits the Styles Clash after 2 previous failed attempts. [Note: she may have failed to hit the move, but she succeeded in granting us, the Home Viewers, a delicious peek of Layla's ass cleavage.] But then Michelle took too long following up, and when she tried to make a cocky cover, Layla quickly flipped it into a crucifix pinning combo. Even in victory, Layla was half-happy, half-heartbroken.
  
  About 6-7 minutes. Not too shabby for what it was (i.e. a foregone conclusion since it's widely known that Michelle's set to give up her wrestling career to focus on starting a family)... going back to the Diva Search days, I'd been an early supporter of McCool's potential, but after this match, my mind wanders to realizing just how far Layla has come from her days as "Girl Carlito" to being one of WWE's most likeable, most ring-capable (and mostest smokingest hottest) women.
  
  
• After the Match: the crowd is just starting up with "Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye" to taunt the obviously-distraught Michelle when they are interrupted by some ominous music... it's kHARMa, the former Awesome Kong, heading to the ring to make the obviously-distraught Michelle even MORE obviously-distraught. McCool's already had a bit taken out of her by the match, so puts up little to no effort as Kharma lands a couple of pummeling blows, and then finishes things off with the Implant Buster. The crowd pops big for this, and after the original outburst subsides, it's obvious there are some people cheering, and others booing... it'll be interesting to see how Kharma follows up. Pounding on a lame duck diva leaves the fans the option to cheer or boo; her next target will likely be intended to elicit a specific reaction.
  
  
• Backstage: Ricardo Rodriguez is warming up the vocal chords in preparation for ring announcing duties. A decidedly-more-focused-than-usual Alberto del Rio eshews his normal faux smileliness, and tells Ricardo to quit screwing around, because it's time for Alberto to fulfill his destiny.
  
  
• Christian beats Alberto del Rio in a Ladder Match to win the vacant World Heavyweight Title. Huge "Let's go, Christian" chant to start, and Captain Charisma doesn't let those fans down, taking an early advantage. But after a few moments, Christian decides to head outside to fetch a ladder. Del Rio follows, and stops Christian from doing so (as noted on commentary: Christian's the most experienced Ladder Match guy in WWE, so del Rio would be wise to keep ladders out of play as much as possible).
  
  But del Rio's "no ladders" policy lasts only so long, as he decides to get a ladder in to the ring when Christian (for reasons not adequately explained) crawls under the ring. When Christian re-emerges, he grabs a ladder and sets it up outside the ring. As the back and forth brawl continues, del Rio sets up a third ladder outside the ring. Somebody finally uses one of the ladders when Christian goes up to the top rope, and del Rio tries to knock him off, but Christian lands on one of the standing ladders, then leaps off THAT, instead, hitting del Rio with a cross body. Nice.
   
  Back in the ring, and the second ladder spot goes in Christian's favor, too: after a sweet double reversal (the cyclonic cross arm breaker countered directly into an attempted Unprettier, foiled by del Rio), Christian whipped Alberto into a ladder that had been set upright in a corner. Christian followed that with the first Attempted Ladder Ascent of the match... del Rio put an end to that by manfully chucking a fourth ladder from the apron and catching Christian in the kidneys while he was one step away from grabbing the gold.
  
  Moderate heel beatdown commences. Alberto continues to use his small-ish kidney-crushing ladder as a weapon, but makes no actual attempts to ascend. Christian counters a suplex attempt, and it's del Rio who is slammed into a ladder on the mat, briefly turning things around. But then Christian goes up top again, holding a ladder in front of him, intending to slam it down onto a prone del Rio. But Albert leaps up, and does a SWEET run-up-the-ladder enzuigiri. On top of the enzuigiri, Christian also tumbles off the top rope and lands on the ladder. Ouch.
  
  When Ricardo tries to feed Alberto a steel chair, Christian intercepts, and takes control for a bit. He even hits a big Spear, in homage to his buddy Edge. But when he attempts a Ladder Ascent, del Rio manages to get up and climb the other side of the ladder to put a stop to that. Both men tumble off the ladder. Awkward moment when Christian pretty much puts himself in position (laid out on a "ladder bridge" between the ring and the announce table) without del Rio actually doing any kind of set-up move. But it turns out OK, because when del Rio comes off the top rope, Christian moves, and del Rio makes an epic splatter when he lands (clearly, for the sake of pretending wrestling is real, Chrstian put himself in position on purpose, to lure del Rio into making the ill-advised leap).
  
  Christian seems to have a golden opportunity to ascend a ladder and win the World Title, but just as he grabs the belt, Brodus Clay runs in and puts a stop to that. After a big slam from Brodus, del Rio follows up by ramming a ladder into Christian, and then cinching in the cross armbreaker for a minute. Christian is in rough shape, so del Rio sets up a ladder and begins climbing... but 3/4s of the way up, he is interrupted by a a car horn. But it's not HIS car's horn. It's somebody driving a jeep into the arena.
  
  And of course: that somebody is Edge.
  
  Del Rio is -- as all good heels are required to do -- overcome by stupidity, and just stares in shock at Edge until Christian can recover and tip the ladder over (sending del Rio flying from the center of the ring to ringside, where he lands on the conveniently located Brodus and Ricardo). Then Christian sets the ladder back up, climbs it, and grabs the gold. The crowd pops something huge, proving that no matter what Vince McMahon thinks, *WE* believe Christian is World Title material.
   
  Edge hops in the ring to join in a celebration that reeks of awesomeness, but powders out after a couple minutes to let Christian enjoy the win on his own, too. A very good 16-18 minute ladder match, with an even better ending.
   
  
• Pure Awfulness: Randy Orton's in a movie, and WWE's pretending it's not horrible even by their almost-non-existent standards. Why are we paying $50 to see WWE showing commercials for some shitty movie? Either we're very stupid for doing so, or WWE is criminally shameless.
   
  
• Big Show and Kane beat Wade Barrett and Zeke Jackson in a Lumberjack Match to retain the Tag Team Titles. Notable: the champs enter to Kane's music, which either means (1) the other team wins or (2) Show will get the pinfall for the team so they play his music after the match. This is a long-standing rule regarding Kane in tag matches.
  
  Out of the gate, they go for Lumberjack Shenanigans, and in the chaos, Zeke blindsides Kane, allowing for a brief Formulaic Heel Beatdown. Kane's the face in peril for about 2 minutes, and makes a quasi-hot-tag to Big Show, who can't crank it all the way up to "house afire," and settles for being a condo asweltering. Instead of dominating, Show actually goes back and forth with Barrett, allowing for a chance to tag Zeke back in. More back and forth, culminating in Zeke hitting an impressive body slam on Big Show. But Zeke can't follow up because Barrett blind tags himself into the match. Zeke is miffed, but Wade wants to finish things off.
  
  Bad idea. In all his posturing, Wade's given Show time to get his senses back, and as Wade is picking Show up for Wastelands, Show quickly and easily counters into a chokeslam. One, two, three, and it's like I said: Play Big Show's music, because he got the pinfall win.
  
  
• After the match: the other Corre members (Slater and Gabriel) try to attack the champs, but that ends futilely after dueling chokeslams. An inoffensive palate cleanser between the two title matches.
   
  
• Backstage: Alex Riley is trying to pep talk Miz, but Miz is in no mood for his apprentice's foolishness. He's all business as he says it'll take the performance of his lifetime, but he'll overcome the 2-on-1 odds to remain Awesome.
  
  
• John Cena wins a 3-way Cage Match over the Miz and John Morrison to win the WWE Title. Morrison enters first (announcers remind us his story is that this is the first time he's ever headlined a PPV). Cena enters second (announcers remind us his story is that he hasn't been the champ in almost a year, so he better capitalize on this opportunity). Miz enters last (announcers remind us of the fact that the three-way format is unfair to the champion). Also: it is necessary to remind everybody that -- unlike the mind-numbingly stupid 3-way cage match 2 months ago -- this one has pinfalls and submissions allowed, which should alleviate said stupidity, assuming they stay away from Escape Attempts (save for a few well-timed ones) and focus on the other methods of winning.
  
  So of course, as the match unfolds, they go right to the escape teases. Ugh. Miz gets the hot start, selling his intense "all business" attitude coming off the backstage promo. Then Miz powders out, and Cena gets a flurry. Then Miz gets back in, and gains control long enough to attempt to escape the cage. He's halfway out when Morrison stops him. Then Cena joins in, and the two of them double superplex Miz off the top of the cage, with f'n SCARY results. Miz -- already suffering a concussion at WM27 -- lands wrong on his head and neck. I have no idea how, but he's apparently not hurt, and tells the ref he can continue.
  
  As things move forward, Morrison's the one who keeps going for escapes. Miz stops his first one, following up with a rally that includes powerbombing Morrison into the cage wall. Then Cena and Miz team up to stop a second escape in really cool fashion: as Morrison is trying to escape over the top, Miz tries to escape out the door. As the door opens, Morrison decides to stop escaping, and manages to slam the door back into Miz's face. And then, Cena ends Morrison's escape by clubbering him, causing Morrison to repeat that one spot from the only ECW PPV (where Morrison fell off the top of the cage to crotch himself on the door).
  
  A semi-reset, with punchy-kicky until Morrison once again re-emerges as the leading leader. When he makes another escape attempt, it takes multiple attempts by both Cena and Miz, but Morrison keeps fending them off until Cena and Miz are down in the middle of the ring, and Morrison's on top of the cage.... which is when he decides to hit Starship Pain from the top of the cage, onto both Cena and Miz. Wow.
  
  It takes alot out of Morrison, but it takes more out of the other two.... so Morrison is the first one up on his hands and knees, and he decides to crawl towards to the door for a more conventional escape attempt. Which is when R-Truth runs out and attacks Morrison. After preventing Morrison's escape, Truth actually goes into the cage and continues the assualt for a minute or two until he hits paydirt, and then climbs out over the top of the cage (proving nothing, but don't tell that to Cole, who insists it proves that Truth could have won this match if Morrison hadn't stolen his spot).
  
  Now all three men are down, and Morrison's got the worst of it. Instead of going for something sensible, Cena and Miz again default to the silly escape teases, ending up on top of the cage together. They are seated on top, trading punches (crowd goes for the "Yay"/"Boo" thing, with Cena getting the "Boo").  After more jockeying, they switch from the top of the cage to the top rope, where Miz tries to set up a Super Skull Crushing Finale, but is countered by Cena hitting a Super F-U from the top rope.
  
  And that's that. Cena wins, making him champ for the first time in about a year, and making him a 10-time world champ. This one didn't top 15 minutes, and with the emphasis on silly escape teases, there was a lot of contrived time-killing passing for "drama" where I might have preferred "action," so it didn't even feel like an especially filling 15 minutes. Like a few of the undercard matches, this one also seemed to have the problem of the finish kind of coming out of nowhere at a time where it FELT like the match was just heating up for End Game. And unlike WM27, there were no time constraints here; Extreme Rules ended 10 minutes early, so if they had more bullets in the chamber, they had plenty of time to fire them. So it seems they just didn't bother arming themselves for the post-Morrison portion of the match. A bit of a let down.
  
  Cena gets the belt (he'll have to loosen up that spinner to turn it back right-side-up), and celebrates his win for a bit before we fade to black on the "happy" ending (a vocal minority of boos still haunt JonJon, even in victory).
    

And so ends the show. It's not a show I can crap on TOO hard, since (with the obvious exception of the Cole match) there were no stinkers here. But it's a show that can't be complimented for much, either, as Christian/del Rio had the only match worth tracking down on youtube (you are encouraged to do so), or that had any rewatch value.
 
In fact, a case might be made that a couple of tonight's matches were giant disappointments considering the "extreme rules" gimmick... WWE decides they're allowed to serve up matches we've already seen twice in the last month, because they're adding stipulations that (allegedly) make the match "better." Instead, I think Punk/Orton had a better match at WM27 than they did tonight, and Rey/Rhodes came close to doing the same. I don't know if that's today's G-rated WWE getting in the way, or something else, but when you use a gimmick to raise the fan's expectations enough that they're willing to sign on for a rematch, it is vital that you deliver.
 
Tonight didn't do that, and I suspect my sense of underwhelment is primarily due to shoddy work in terms of the core/central storytelling and personalities. If I get vested in a PPV because of gimmicks (and not because I really care about the characters), I'm bound to be disappointed when the gimmicks aren't used to their fullest.
 
Case in point: I couldn't give a poop about the implications of who wins between Rey and Cody Rhodes. I just wanted them to have a killer match for my amusement. Instead, they brushed up against the same level of match they had at WM27, and did a Falls Count ANYWHERE Match that ended, in simple/normal/everyday fashion, in the middle of the ring. As the kidz say: meh.
 
It's a divergence from past Extreme Rules PPVs, where I was mostly impressed by how well-used the gimmicks were, and thought they spruced up otherwise-stale storylines for one last go-round. Something (actually, several somethings, as there was only one match immune from the effect) just didn't click, and we're left with only Christian/del Rio to hang our hat on.
 
And that one may not have been a PPV rematch from WM. But it is a rematch of a contest we've seen 3 times (for free) on SD. Not only was it really good the first 3 times, but they stepped it up another notch tonight, showing everybody how you do do-overs.
 
With that, I'm done. Unless something drastic changes, Pyro rejoins you for recaps starting tomorrow (with The Rock's birthday party), so come on back for that, and keep an eye out for me to show up for another month-long flurry of wordsmithery sometime around mid-2012.
 
Kidding. Kidding...