Yesterday, Tim the sewer guy and Danny the Gravedigger came out to tackle my frozen sewer. Turns out that the ice build-up was right at the junction of the pipe from the house and the tank, a problem which was fixed in about two minutes after they started running hot water in there.

I have never been so grateful for indoor plumbing! I am still enjoying it.

Gleeman argues at length that the Twins probably swung and missed on this deal. Livan is slightly better than Ramon Ortiz, but not much. Why do the Twins continue to rescue pitchers from the National League scrap heap?

When you have eight young starters with great potential, isn't it better to let a batch of them use up the innings for experience and get a 5.00 ERA than it is to watch a washed up veteran rack up innings and give up five run per nine?

It is starting to sink in: Unless something turns around soon, Obama is going to win the nomination. Clinton has been out-organized on the ground by the really well-managed Obama forces, something you would never have thought would happen to the Clinton machine.

Sen. Barack Obama swept three states yesterday, and by huge margins. The Clinton camp issued a press release which showed by how much Obama's campaign outspent the Clinton campaign, implying that the Clintons hadn't really tried in those states and instead are looking forward to Texas.

Rudy Guliani tried that gambit. He waited for Florida. Now he's gone.

Frank Rich writes about the Clinton campaign, and I think he gets it about right.

Got home last night, before it really started to blow. Thanks to Dad, who turned up the thermostat, the house was toasty warm.

I got on a roll and washed two loads of clothes and took a whirlpool bath. Nice to be back in my house.

Then I went into the garage and found the floor full of water. The sewer had backed up into the floor drain in the garage.

I decided to go to bed an hope the problem went away.

It did not.

So, this morning dawned at -12 degrees and I got the shop vac and sucked up the water and dumped it outside.

A couple of years ago on the way home from Tucson, I drove up through Kansas on US Highway 81 and nearly ran out of gas. To get to the nearest town, which was 20 miles away, I drove into a farmyard. Nobody was home, so I took some gas and left some cash. I thought nothing of it, but my column readers let it be known that they thought it was a little cheeky.

After having breakfast with cousin Chad, his love Kathy and their two tiny children, I headed across the plains east of Denver. The weather was good, but--you can't get decent coffee in Nebraska. I have found this before. You go to a gas station and the stuff is nearly fatal.

So, unable to consume the cup I purchased, I tired out about 5 o'clock central and stopped at Kearney, NE.

There is really nothing to do in these towns, so I had supper and flipped channels and cruised the net and got caught up on the news.

By being away from Minnesota, I missed a chance to take part in a historic event: The first time Minnesota has held a nationally-recognized meaningful caucus, and the first time that a single day national primary has had such importance. Super Tuesday was created twenty years ago, but this is the first time it really was of great importance.

It appears that Hillary and Obama fought to a draw.

It also appears that Romney is in hot water. Huckabee, meanwhile, showed some surprising signs of life.

Star Tribune blogger Howard Sinker comes out and says it: He hopes Johan's left elbow falls off in spring training and that the New York Mets have to eat the entire $150 million.

It would be sad to see Santana injured, and Sinker wasn't seriously wishing him ill, but I will be pulling against the Mets. I don't want them to win a World Series with Santana in the rotation. They shouldn't be rewarded for their foolishness.

You know, I have always liked John McCain, but the enemies he has earned himself make me like him even more. Ann Coulter has said he is "without honor." Rush Limbaugh is having a cow. People are showing up at his rallies with posters accusing McCain of being a Benedict Arnold.

Well! In the same article in which Coulter says McCain is without honor, Coulter takes a slap at Obama's middle name: "...as if we need a president with Hussein as a middle name."