Several of my out-of-state friends asked me to do some investigative reporting on the mysterious "Brewers girl," who sits by herself behind home plate at Miller Park.

I shook off the request, as my stalking skills could probably be used for better journalistic endeavors. Fortunately, Deadspin took the ball and ran with it, and discovered that she's Amy Williams from Oshkosh.

And yes, she has a Twitter profile. "Front-Row Amy" is @BrewerGirl823.

Mystery solved, dudes. You're welcome.

One week ago, I took the nuclear option on the herniated disc that has been causing me almost crippling back pain for the better part of eight months. After two cortisone shots, months of chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture and acupressure, I gave in and had the surgery last Tuesday.

It's perhaps too early to say whether the microdiscectomy to remove the bulging goo between my L5 and S1 vertebrae was a complete or even a partial success. All I know is that my butt and my leg still hurt in both new and old places, but the pain is ... different.

The neurosurgeon said the surgery went well, and that the herniation was even bigger than my two MRIs showed. It's now fairly obvious that the Rock 'N Sole 10K run over the Hoan Bridge was probably the straw the broke the camel's back, but believe it or not, I have no regrets.

My only question is if the pain will go away, and when.

My follow-up appointment is Wednesday, and I know the doctor will tell me to continue to be patient, that damaged nerves can take a while to heal. He noticed increased strength in my left foot one day after the operation, and today, I walked 3.5 miles around the neighborhood (walking is encouraged; lying around is not). It actually feels good to walk, and expect for bedtime, I might be done with the powerful and incredible painkillers they prescribed me. A few of my toes are slightly numb, but I'm walking without a limp and my left foot isn't turned out to compensate anymore. The incision site barely hurts, and other than the presence of a bunch of metal staples, you might not be able to tell I just had surgery; you'd just think I'm a slow walker.

Why should you care about any of this? Unless you're a friend or general well-wisher, you probably don't. But I'm telling you this partly as a confession and partly as a pledge.

First, the confession: if you've ever had sciatic nerve pain that's hurt so badly you've found yourself limping, you'll understand that the pain has made it especiall…

A while back, I blogged the question, "Has anyone ever actually seen a tornado?"

Well, had I been at our cabin in Wausaukee Friday evening as planned, I would've.

One touched down maybe a few hundred yards from our little mobile home, just across the lake, at about 5 p.m.

The tornado actually killed a man on the other side of town, after it skipped east on Long Lake Road. I saw the damage myself on Saturday.

It was extensive.

Amazingly, not so much as a lawn chair was tipped over at our cabin, but on the other end of the lake, trees were snapped in half, taking down power lines and sitting on top of propane tanks. A day later, the road was closed, but I drove through, anyway. This was right on my running route. If the tornado would've been any closer, we might've suffered the same fate as the man in his trailer on Mud Lake.

Locals we talked to Saturday said the sky turned a creamy yellow, then black. Some said they heard sirens, others didn't. Of course, we have no basement at the cabin, so I'm not entirely sure where we would've gone had we headed up Friday instead of Saturday.

Kinda scary, isn't it?

I won't make a bigger deal of this near miss than I already have, because the odds of a another tornado hitting our little lake, in our little town, are probably close to zero. But it still gives me pause.

Had things shaken out just a tiny bit differently Friday, I might not be sitting here back in Milwaukee writing this blog.

I've been complaining about the coverage of AT&T Wireless for three years, since the day I switched from Verizon. My iPhone doesn't work where I need it most: at home, on top of the Hoan Bridge, on vacation in Door County or at the cabin Up North.

But where I'm most bothered is by the inconsistent and spotty service at Miller Park. Even when my phone says it has four bars, it's often impossible to send a text or post a tweet. Calls are just as bad.

Obviously, just as soon as the new iPhone comes out, I'm breaking my contract and switching to Verizon. But in the meantime, the PR agency that represents U.S. Cellular heard my plight and asked if I'd do a head-to-head test.

Sure, I said, so I jumped up to the Miller Park press box, which has the best view in the house, and during the first three innings of today's Brewers-Dodgers game, I conducted five different unscientific tests between the AT&T iPhone and U.S. Cellular Samsung Mesmerize.

The results were a bit surprising, as AT&T worked as well as I've ever seen it here in Miller Park. And that's not saying much. The U.S. Cellular did well, too, with, a few hiccups.

Here are my unscientific results:

Web browsing from U.S. Cellular Android to OnMilwaukee.com
Time: 92 seconds

Web browsing from AT&T iPhone to OnMilwaukee.com (cache cleared)
Time: 65 seconds, it said "could not activate cellular network" and service dropped to "Searching ..." Site did not load. Four bars of Edge came back, and it timed out, not fully loaded at 3 minutes, 15 seconds

Text from U.S. Cellular Android to AT&T iPhone: "At the Brewers game. Wish you were here."
First attempt: 8 seconds
Second attempt: 9 seconds
Third attempt: 9 seconds

Text from AT&T iPhone to U.S. Cellular Android: "At the Brewers game. Wish you were here."
First attempt: 13 seconds
Second attempt: 8 seconds
Third attempt: 10 seconds

Picture message from U.S. Cellular Android to US AT&T iPhone:
First attempt: unknown seconds (outbound), 36 seconds later showed up on iPhone
Sec…