Editor’s note: Here’s another edition of the weekend links – this one for Memorial Day weekend, meaning that it was written right before vacation and thus was a bit hurried. As always, these links appeared first at RandBall, your home for AMERICA!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! It’s always nice when we get to kick off summer with rain and temperatures in the 40s, isn’t it? [Editor’s note: Rand inserted a comment here about it being 70 and sunny. It was cold and rainy on Friday night, though, which is what I meant.]. I’ve got a few links for your holiday weekend pleasure, and in the interest of not keeping you long, let’s get right to them:

*Via Inside MN Soccer: Local company Brave New Media has partnered with the NSC Minnesota Stars to produce some behind-the-scenes videos. The first one for the year – covering the pre-season – is up. Admittedly, I’m even more of a soccer kisser-upper than Rand, but I still think it’s fascinating – especially the story of defender Kyle Altman, who’s deferred admission to med school twice so that he can keep playing.

*Over at Twinkie Town, Stu’s got the news of yet another thing Kevin Slowey’s responsible for. And if you’re tired of watching the Twins blow leads, here’s a list of other ways to spend your hard-earned money than going to the ballpark.

*The Gopher baseball team is attempting to work its way through the loser’s bracket at the Big Ten tournament; they’ve won three in a row there, and now just needs to win three more in a row to take the tourney title. Never fear, though – they’ve got Luke Rasmussen and his over-the-top Minnesota accent, so I think they’ll be okay. (If for nothing else, watch that video for what he calls the team’s starting shortstop.)

*And finally: Nerd-hero web comic XKCD took on sports last week. Speaking on behalf of all of us: ow.

That’s enough for a holiday weekend like this. Enjoy it and stay dry.