I love Twitter as a vehicle for short, decontextualized thoughts and jokes, but sometimes that 140-character restriction is a bear. Half the Mets (and almost all the media) are off to Orlando for a Grapefruit League matchup with the Braves. I had some video business to take care of here, so I’m sticking behind to hang out for the University of Michigan exhibition.

It’s a slow day here in Port St. Lucie, my mind is a bit slowed by five nights of somewhat restless hotel-room sleep (I should really start packing my own pillow on trips), and it’s Sunday morning so I assume web traffic is slow too. So here are some random thoughts that I didn’t feel like limiting to 140 characters:

– Jose Reyes seems really fond of Ike Davis, or perhaps just really fond of yelling, “I like Ike,” whenever Davis does anything. It’s almost always the exact same cadence, high-pitched and very rhythmic, and Reyes must have called it out 15 times during Davis’ batting practice session yesterday.

– I generally cringe at Italian food from chain restaurants, but Carraba’s is pretty decent. It shares a parking lot with our hotel, so it’s a convenient option for meals. Their bread, even on takeout orders, is served fresh-baked and piping hot with a side of olive oil and salty garlicky seasoning. I haven’t done the math yet but I’d estimate the place is about 30 times better than the Olive Garden.

– In some ways, many places share a parking lot with our hotel, because this part of Port St. Lucie is kind of like a huge, below-capacity parking lot. The town is spread out and remarkably easy to navigate, but even the bigger roads just seem to serve as a means of traversing a giant network of parking lots. If you knew the territory well enough you could probably drive the length of the town just snaking your way through lots. Wal-Mart, Publix, condos, movie theaters, bars, Taco Bells, everything has more than adequate parking. New Yorkers here often grumble about the area and if you’re looking for non-chain food it’s a tough haul, but it’s really not an uninteresting setting.

– D.J. Carrasco appears to be a very deft fielder.

– The movie Hall Pass is not very good. There were a few hearty laughs in there, but it does my least favorite thing that happens in comedies: It turns into melodramatic treacle when it comes time to resolve the plot. This is also why I didn’t love another Owen Wilson movie, Wedding Crashers — it was funny for the first half and then suddenly all weepy nonsense. Except unlike Wedding Crashers, the first half of Hall Pass isn’t even that funny. It takes way, way too long to establish the premise for hijinks. Also, it might set a new record for amount of times the title of the movie is spoken during the movie. Normally I am moved to clap whenever that happens, but I honestly didn’t want to seem too supportive of Hall Pass. The upside is Jason Sudeikis is reasonably funny and it has J.B. Smoove in it.

– Follow up on that: You know how in many ensemble action movies there’s that really dramatic shot of all the dudes walking while setting off on a mission, looking all badass, set to cool music? I no longer think it’s funny when comedies do that ironically. I used to, but I think it’s probably time to put that to bed. I’m still down for it in the action movies though.

– Apparently Tim Byrdak also drove up to see the space shuttle launch. I haven’t had an opportunity to ask him what he thought about it yet.

– In Orlando today, a certain Valentino Pascucci will start at DH for the Mets. He’s in Minor League camp, just making this trip with the big club, and I haven’t had a chance to meet him yet. I will soon, though, and it will probably be extremely awkward. I spoke to him on the phone back in 2008 and he seemed like a nice dude, but if he ever Googles himself he’s certain to have seen evidence of my various Pascucci campaigns. So that could be interesting.