Moved!

In case you didn't know, I officially moved my retarded rantings here:
http://blog.myspace.com/offensive_j

So feel free to jump over and read up. Don't worry, the material is just as bad as ever.

What's the Story, Morning Glory

Here's a little something from the obvious file:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14165243/
Fat people are at a higher risk during anything. Hot, cold, emergencies, not causing an airplane to crash from being over-loaded. Of course you're at a higher risk of heat stroke if you have a thicker layer of insulating fat on your body. Common sence. Not sure why we needed some doctors to tell us about that, but whatever. Gotta keep those that didn't do so well in med school doing something. At least they aren't trying to work on people and have instead focused their energy on common-sence studies and endorsing infomercial products.

Peanut Alergy in Schools
I actually slightly changed my point of view on the topic yesterday while 'discussing' this with Hayley. I have a huge problem with our current society and its focus on making everyone happy all of the time. God forbid 1 person out of 100 is uncomfortable while growing up. It's a concept that I really hate. And nowhere is this more displayed than with public schools. Dodgeball is banned because it singles out the weak kids. Christmas is outlawed because the jewish kids might be offended. I'm surprised they don't stop offering advantaced classes for the smart kids because it'll make the dumb ones feel dumber. Guess what kids, it's a horrible world out there. The weak and dumb get punished and made fun of. And not just in grade school, for the rest of your life. You get shitty jobs, you work shitty hours, live in a shitty apartment, and are the butt of jokes for everyone else. It's not fair, but neither is real life. So why should we pamper them at a young age instead of getting them ready for real life?
So Hayley and I got into over banning nuts in schools if 1 kid at the school has an alergy. I get all pissed off at the concept and get all worked up. Hayley sees the other side and likes everyone to be happy and safe. I don't see why an entire school of children should be punished and prevented from having any nut-based product because 1 child has an alergy? What if peanut butter is their favorite food? What if that's all their parents can reasonably provide for them? What if they just don't think it's fair? I'm all for creating a peanut-free area of the lunchroom. Designate 1 table that no nuts can be eaten. Even go as far as making sure no one in their specific class eats a nut product. But if you're a 6th grader and suddenly can't eat peanuts because some 1st grader that you'll never come within 100 yards of is mildly alergic to peanuts, how is that fair?!
Hayley did make 1 point that made me think. Kids of that age aren't aware enough to be safe. They don't constantly think about what they are touching and whether or not it's safe to be around it. So the alergic child isn't going to be thinking about that when playing with the other kids. And the other kids aren't going to think about whether or not they should touch the alergic kid based on what else they've been doing. But... If you are so alergic that merely touching a peanut will send you into a potential fatal reaction, you should not be in a public school. These are schools, not hospitals. Just like being out in public at restaurants, bars, movie theaters, etc, you can't keep things 100% nut-free. Therefore it's just not safe for that kid to be there.
So it's a sticky point for me. There is a point where kids just can't comprehend what's going on and you have to account for that. But there is another point where you need to just take the alergic kids out of the school for their own safety. There is a limit to the restrictions you can reasonably place on the other kids.

Breakfast
I know it's silly, but I'm chaging up my breakfast routine now. Normally I'll eat a bowl of cereal pretty much as soon as I'm out of the shower. I wake up hungry and need to eat right away. But then I'm hungry again by like 10am, cause it's 6:30 when I eat. So now I'm going to start trying to wait til I get in to work before eating. I go to the cafe every morning with Jake, why not just push breakfast back til then. So I can get a bagel w/ peanut butter for $0.90 in the cafe, which is pretty good. Probably about the same cost as the cereal and milk I'm having now. If all goes well, I may step it up to my own bagels and PB.
Right now Hayley is laughing her ass of cause she knows how stupidly anal I get about my little routines. I get into ruts for certain things I hate changing them. I'm free and loose for most of the day, but I have some routines that I'll be damned if I'm going to break. Breakfast used to be one of them.
Speaking of which, time to eat some damn food. Where the hell is Jake?!
PEACE!!

Israel vs. Hezbolla, Trades

War in Middle East #2
I happened to flip past Geraldo's terrible show this evening while looking for something else to watch. And I heard him make some comment regarding Hezbollah using civilians as shields to prevent Israel from retaliating. You know what I think? I think Israel should bomb the hell out of any building that rockets or missiles are launched from. If Hezbollah is going to use civilians as shields and hide behind them, then those civilians are going to pay for it. I feel awful saying that, but if the civilians choose to stay there and let the militants operate from their buildings and home, then they take on that risk. We need to send the message that the militants using innocent people to hide behind are the monsters, not the other way around. But it's really just a shitty situation no matter how you cut it. Either Israel sits back and gets hit with rockets and can't do much to fight back, or they do fight back and innocent people die. Either way it's lose-lose. Funny how most wars are really a lose-lose proposition.

Baseball Trades
The deadline has passed and all the deals are done. The biggest headline was the Yankess, as usual. They picked up Bobby Abreu and Corey Liddle for just some minor leaguers. That really puts the heat on the RedSox and the rest of the AL wild-card teams. Yet the Sox really did nothing. A little surprisingly considering the holes they have in thier team. They are a very good team, but I'm not sure they are good enough to win it all this year. Too many teams got better this year.
The Cubs have once again parted ways with Greg "Mad Dog" Maddux. At least this time it was on his terms and ended well for both parties. He had the option of turning down any trade, giving him the final say in the deal. He was dealt for a guy that looks like a pretty decent SS. Not sure exactly what they're going to do with him and Ronny Cedeno, but I'm sure they have something in mind.
To complete the day, the Cubs also dealt Todd Walker to the Padres for a minor league pitcher. He'd better be a great prospect to be trading away a guy like Muzzle. Only time will tell. And that move clears the way for the speculation that Cedeno will be asked to play 2B and Isturez SS. All things that I'm sure will be cleared up in the coming days. I'm expecting there to be a release from managment tomorrow telling us what the plan is.

Well, I just don't have it tonight. So I'm going to be just sit back and watch some baseball and Shark Week, then hit the sack. I tell ya, nothing is more fun than watching sharks. Amazing and magnificent animals. Ruthlessly efficient in what they do. Perfect for what they do. Truely an example of what nature can do when you just leave it alone.
PEACE!!

Cubs, Movie Trashing, etc

I'm typing this as I'm watching the Cubs vs. Cards game on ESPN (and enjoying a few adult beverages) so I may drift pretty far off topic at times, and they'll be game comments laced in here. And for those that are worried about my healthy with all this drinking tonight, do not fear. I get up to do stomach crunches at least b/t every inning, sometimes every 1/2 inning if I'm feeling fresh.
And to update.....GET UP GET OUT! Muzzle and Catfish went back-to-back in the first inning to give us a 2-0 lead. Rookie Rich Hill is back up from AAA tonight to see if he can duplicate his outstanding work in the minors. And as I was typing, he gave up a 2-run HR. Great. This kid is lights-out in the minors, but can't figure out how to pitch up here. It's pretty rough. But as soon as he figures it out he's going to make a very good starter.

John Tucker Must Die
I know that every movie requires some level of "Suspention of Disbelief". The Matrix trilogy, Star Wars, any comedy movie, Lord of the Rings. Even romantic movies require that you blindly believe that miracles do happen all the time. But his movie is asking too much. We're to believe that the most popular guy in high school can be dating 3 girls without anyone knowing?! Think back to high school. If anyone in the clique starting dating someone new, even if they were just hooking up with someone, everyone knew about it. Even the kids that hated the cliques and rejected everything about them knew about it. That's how high school works. You have no secrets if you're popular enough. And if you're the top dog, forget about it.
(Luna just cranked a double off of the wall to put the Cubs down 2-3)
But, the movie does feature Jenny McCarthy. So there's a better than zero chance that I'll rent it at some point on a lazy night. Maybe curl up with the lil lady for a bad movie and some beers.
Oh, and I'm sorry but there's no way a fellow white kid is going to be able to do a front summersault slam dunk. Especially a high school white boy. To be honest, no one in the world can do that. But it's just funnier to point out that he's a white kid.

Floyd Landis
I'm not a cycling fan. Never have been, probably never will be. But I do have friends that are. So I wind up having a mild interest in the Tour de France. Mostly just so I'll understand what the hell they're talking about. So it came as only a minor surprise that Tour winner Floyd Landis failed a drug test for elevated testosterone levels. With all the doping rumors and issues that have flown around this year it's just no surprise. And when you include all of the issues with Lance....
What I haven't heard is exactly what failed. I do know that the olympic drug tests are only concerned with the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, not the raw levels. So if you're juicing you'll commonly take some epitestosterone to help cover it up. Both levels will be higher than normal, but the ratio will be right where it should be. I don't know if the Tour drug tests employ a similar thinking or if they check for the raw levels of both. Either way, it's a damn shame. Just when things seemed to be okay in the Tour, this happens. It's just such a shame that the sport has to be bogged down so heavily in all of this controversy. Baseball gets somewhat of an easier ride because MLB doesn't really want to mess with it. From the top down they want nothing more than to just act like they're doing something. As long as people keep filling seats they don't really intend to do anything.
Cycling is 100% different. They go as far as they can to rid their sport of doping. Tests after every stage of the race. Tests for pretty much every substance you can think of. Tests for tons of various body chemical levels. It's really the way it should be. I'd love to see them test players after every game. It'd be expensive and players would do their fair share of bitching. But until they prove that everyone is clean and they only need to do random occational drug tests it needs to be done.

And another great scoring chance in the process of being wasted by the Cubs. Runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, DeCaf up. Putting the ball in play pretty much anywhere will get a run home. What does he do? Bounces back to the pitcher. Pathetic. Now we have to hope that Muzzle can come through...
And he doesn't. Grounder to 2nd. Had Pierre hit that grounder we'd have a run and be tied at 3. F'n A.

Hayley Updates
I know she'll be pissed if I don't talk about her a little bit today. Why? Cause that's just how she is. But she will finally be up here for a long period of time. She's got back-to-back rotations up here in Boston coming up! So she'll be living here with me for all of September and October. Should be a great time. At the very least, it'll be the first time in 2.5 years that we'll be together for an extended period of time. So we're about to find out exactly how good things are b/t us. I'm not worried, but maybe I should be...

Well, I need to really focus on the Cubs game. This may be the last game I get to watch on normal TV, so I should focus. Some of that will depend on the TV provider I pick when I move. Cable or Satellite. I hate Comcast like poison, but they would be cheaper for the combo of TV and internet. I'll have to do a little analysis of what I gain the other way vs how much more it'll cost. Put a price tag on the channels and see if it's really worth it. So until next time:
PEACE!!!

War! Huh. What is it good for?!

So the middle east is at war again. At least time it's only indirectly our fault. We're not actively in it, we don't have soldiers over there, and we didn't really have anything to do with it starting. But considering how much military aid we sell to Israel, we can't claim to be completely innocent. And the thing that really worries me is the all the other countries that could get involved. What we really don't need is an all-out Arab vs. Others war over there. There's plenty of tension in that region due to the religious differences, and some of those countries would appear to have zero reservations at just unleashing everything they have. Suicide bombs, terrorist attacks (but if they are in a war, is it really terrorism?), on top of conventional attacks. It could get really ugly and would really be the start of WW3. Not cool.
And while I have lots of complaints and views on the subject, I really don't have any answers. We really do need to get out of the area and stop meddling in their business just to get some oil. But since we did take out Saddam, we do have to shoulder the load to rebuild and get a new government in place. The trouble there is the fact Iraq is nothing but civil wars and unrest right now. And since they didn't start the uprising they aren't in any shape to fix it themselves. So it's quite the pickle we're in.
As for Israel vs. Lebanon/Hezbollah, that's a tough one. There really isn't an easy way to ease all those tensions quickly. Obviously the first step would be a cease-fire, but if we're being realistic that's just not going to happen. Or if it did happen it wouldn't last. This may be a case where you just need to let the 2 countries fight it out and settle it themselves. NATO and the rest of the world needs to just stand by and step in when it's really over. Kinda like a schoolyard fight. Everyone stands around just to watch and to make sure things don't get out of hand. But that's not a great idea for the people that have to live there. I wish I was a master at diplomatic relations, but I'm not.

Hockey
Well, the summer season is off to a rocky start for both myself and the team. We got beat up in our first 2 games. And I seem to have lost the ability to it the puck past the goalie. My shots are good, they just aren't getting past. I've got good speed on my wrister, it's getting up off the ice to about mid-goal, but I either hit the goalie in the chest or they make a slick save. And there's no rebounds for someone else to pick up. So it just sucks all around.
However, in game #3 I finally broke the cherry. After getting into a little arguement with a ref....
I pick off a bad pass at about our blue line and start to head up ice at full speed. I'm looking down cause I don't quite have a handle on the puck. I end up running over one of their guys who was just standing in the way. I didn't see him, so I had no chance to avoid him. I then get called for an interference penalty and just lose it. 2.5 games of frustration come out and I just start jawing at the ref. Every time he came within earshot I had something to say. Until he finally told me "One more word out of you and you're going to the lockerroom". He was really pissed at me, I was really pissed at him.
So then in the 3rd I get another break, cut hard around a slow defender, and lift it top shelf from a really bad angle. I was 10ft from the net and almost right on the side of it. I'm not sure how it went in, but it did. Hopefully now I can settle down and start playing better offensively. I need to just relax and check out my options. If the pass is there, dump it off. If not, aim for the corners of the net, not the middle.

Okay, it's late and I'm tired. So I'm cutting it off here and heading to bed. I'll see if I can't throw up something tomorrow while I'm at work. I'm just doing stupid data analysis this week, so I get bored pretty quickly.
PEACE!!!

Tribute to Jack

As I'm sure most of you reading this (assuming people read this is a stretch, but one I'm willing to make) don't realize that yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of the death of my former friend/roommate Jack. 1 year ago yesterday I was sitting in the waiting room in the emergency room of Mass General hosptial, waiting to hear if they could revive the guy that I found dying in our hallway. I spent most of 7/20/05 in complete shock about what happened, along with bouts of uncontrolled sobbing. Yes, I do have real feelings and emotions.
I won't re-document the events of that night here, as no one needs to read about that. And the rest of this will likely be rather gay, so you may want to just back out now.
So those of us that remained had a small gathering as a tribute to him and a way for us to get together and cope. We all met up at Anna's mom's house in Natick and spent the evening telling stories, listening to his old iPod mixes, and of course enjoying various fine whiskeys. It's always great to hear the stories from the people that knew him for much longer than I did. I only really knew him for the 1 year that he lived with us, but he definately made an impression on me. It was one of those friendships that instantly clicks. Sure, my liver is convinced that he was around for more like 10 years, but what the hell do livers know?! Anyways, because of him I was able to find some great anime to watch, gained a better appreciation for good whiskeys, saw that not all bird watchers were reclusive wackos, and developed a couple more bad habits. One of which was being required to drink Bud while watching either a Cubs or Red Sox game. The other was our friday night usual. That consisted of picking up a 30 of Bud and spending the next 10 hours playing MarioKart and watching anime. Then at some point around 4am we'd stumble off to bed after littering the floor with empty cans. It got to the point where we couldn't play 'Kart without Bud. If we randomly decided to play a few rounds one of us would just get up and get some beers without even thinking. Sad, and probably a sign of a problem, but that's just how it was.
We also had a large "Pedestrain X-ing" road sign hung up in the hallway near the coach. Every empty can would be thrown at the sign. Thus leaving a trail of beer on the wall, ceiling, and anything else b/t the couch and the wall. Funny to us, but not so funny to Anna when she noticed it. She also was not always assumed to come home on a saturday morning to find the apartment reeking of beer and the living room full of garbage. But such is life.
So in honor of that I'm going to be staging my own Tribute to The Usual tonight. I intend to make this a yearly tradition on the first friday after 7/19 11:45pm. That's the likely time that he actually died, so that's what I'm going with. And it's my holiday, so I can set it however I want.
I'll have my 30 of Bud, my video games, and hopefully some bad anime to watch. That part is still up in the air, as I'd have to rent some, but I'll find something suitable to watch if no anime is to be found. It's a tribute, not a reinactment. That gives me some wiggle room as to the details. And I probably won't make it til 4am.
Anyone in the Boston area that happens to read this today is welcome to give me a call and stop by. I'll have plenty of extra beer with Jack not around to drink his share.
I'd considering pouring one out in his honor, but I don't really think Jack would appreciate me wasting beer like that. Unless his ghost can find a way to drink it before it hits the ground. But then if were to see that going down it may freak me out a little bit. So unless he informs me of his desire to freak me out tonight, there will not be any 'pouring 1 out for my dead hommie'.
Well, I guess that's all I really need to say right now. I didn't realize this day was here so quickly until Anna mentioned in wedneday night, so I'm just now really coming to terms with it. I really haven't given my brain enough time to really figure out how we're going to deal with the whole thing until today. So far I'm just somber and tired. Just going over the various good memories I have, and the events of that last night. Hopefully I'll perk up later today when work is done. That usually cheers me up on a friday afternoon. And I"ll get to see Hayley saturday night, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.
So until next time....
PEACE!!

Stupid Sports News....and Morons

While I'm listening to a guy eating 50+ hard-boiled eggs on Opie & Anthony in 30 minutes to win $1000, I figure I can go off on a few things that got me all riled up this morning.

Barbaro
Is anyone else sick to f'n death about hearing news about this horse? It's a horse that broke his leg in a race. He's not an athlete. He's not a person. It's a horse that is worth a small fortune in stud fees and the owners are going to do whatever it takes to keep him alive long enough to knock up a couple mares. They don't care about what's best for the horse, they just care about what's best for their wallets. They didn't win their triple crown so they need some way to recoup the cost of raising and training the horse. I'm not a strong animal rights activist. I'm just sick of hearing about its recovery. If they keep the stupid horse and its reports off of my TV and off of ESPN's website I'll stop caring. They can really do whatever they want to the horse, as long as I don't have to hear about it. Especially not on ESPN, a network that is supposed to be dedicated to sports. Horse racing is not a sport, it's entertainment. The horses don't know they're competing in a race. They just know that if they don't run really fast the jockey will whip them more. It's all they've been conditioned to do since the time they fell out of the back end of a mare. They were immediately strapped with a saddle and tape on their ankles and the training began. Kinda sad, but whatever.

Terrell Owens
Apparently Terrell not only found his way back into the news, but also found a way to make himself seem like a victim. He claims he has no idea why the media likes to keep talking to him and making him seem like he's so selfish and that he's the problem. Let's see...maybe doing sit-ups and bicept curls in front of a collection of reporters was an accident then. Or all the all-field antics you do are simply accidents (sharpie, spiking the ball on the Cowboys' mid-field star, the rest of the TD celebrations). The fact that every team you play for eventually dumps you because you cause nothing but problems. If it was just 1 team and you seemed like a normal person on and off the field, okay. Maybe it was the team and not you. But when every single team and most of your former teammates say that you are a problem, it's you. And then when you combine that with your behavior in front of the cameras, no doubt it's you. He's an attention whore, plain and simple. And yes, this is exactly what he wants. People talking and bringing more attention to his newly published book. But I still had to vent a little bit.

Vacationing in Israel
There seems to be a new trend in summer vacations this year: Going to Israel. Apparently people don't see any problem with intentionally flying to a country that is actively in a war. This isn't the usually suicide bombs and the like, this is a real war. Missiles and rockets being fired by another country. Soldiers crossing borders and shooting people. I don't care what your reason is, it's a stupid move. If you're going there to support any family you might have over there, why don't you fly them out here instead? Holy Sites? I think God will let you slide this year given that you may be hit by a bomb while you're there. God wants you to follow his teachings, but also survive. You're not breaking any commandments or edicts by living to see 2007. Already had a trip planned and don't want to pay the cancellation fees? No fee is so large that it's worth risking your life to save it. Hmmm....my family's life or $1000. Which is more valuable...
And while you're out there, why not swing by Iraq to take in a little extra culture. I hear it's beautiful this time of year. The gunfire and explosions really highlight the local flora.

The Big Dig
Not sure if everyone in the country hears about this or not, so I'll give a quick refresher. The Big Dig is a giant underground expressway system that replaced the above-ground nightmare that had be built here. It was a hugely ambitious project that was way over budget and way late. But it was quite the improvement over the old network so it was okay. Even with all the battles over the political corruptions, shady contractors, lawsuits over sub-par work, etc, etc, etc. It worked, it improved everyone's commute, and it was done.
But now it's killed. A 3 ton ceiling panel fell and crushed a car. No that's not a typo. They actually had an entire section of tunnel with 3 ton cement panels suspended over the road. All held in place by an epoxy system. You drill a hole in the ceiling, squirt in this industrial epoxy, screw in your bolt, and let it cure. The problem is that there is a very specific and precise way this all has to happen. The hole must be dry and free of all debris. That means using a wire brush and air hose to completely clean it out. You have to use the precise amount of epoxy. You have to make sure it's mixed properly by the bolt you're installing and within a given time frame. Then you have to let it cure for a specific time before you can apply any load to it. The curing time all depends on the temperature. These were installed in winter, meaning the curing time would have been longer than in summer when the concrete and epoxy would be warmer. This is all done by workers who were caught on camera getting drunk at lunch before heading back to work. Fox News (I know, quality programming) used to do shock journalism on The Big Dig all the time. Filming the workers getting drunk before returning to the job. Documenting all of the violations in the contruction, talking to former workers who would list off all of the violations they were told to make by their supervisors, etc. So there is no way this exopy system should have been expected to work as advertised. And sure enough, they've found over 1200 additional bolts that are not up to code. 1200!!!! Thousands of people drive through this tunnel every week. Possibly thousands every day. And because of the rampant corruption in this state all of those lives were put at risk.
Many questions are being asked at this point. Why did you need 6,000lb panels here, when similar sections only needed 700lb panels? Why was construction allowed to continue even after a number of failures were found during the initial inspections in 1999? Why weren't better inspections done before opening the tunnel? And so on. The governer has officially taken over the over-site of the tunnel system and seems to be doing a good job. He's going to use this as a public relations example for his run for the White House, so he's really got to do it well. Good for us. There is also likely going to be a federal manslaughter case brought against the contractor, builder, and possibly the inspectors involved. Someone died because of negligence, so someone should go to jail for it.
So now we wait for a fix to the current problems and cross our fingers and hope they don't find more horrible problems. I still use several sections of the tunnel, as there is no good way around it now. But not the sections that use this style of ceiling panels. I don't want to be the guy that finds the next failure before the inspectors can get it. They've so far closed other sections to inspect them and have found problems every time. And it's really a shame. Everyone involved in this project had a golden opportunity to put their names on something great. They'd be able to use this for decades as a reason to use their contractors and construction companies. But because they wanted to cut corners and save a little money they'll now be associated with one of the biggest fuck ups in history. You can't use your involement with the Big Dig as a good thing. It's nothing but bad PR. Pretty embarassing for a city that constantly tries to get out of NYC's shadow. We're out, but is it really a good thing?

Weekend!!

Weekend, weekend, weekEND!!
God bless Fridays. There is just no better feeling than friday afternoon when you know you'll be done with work shortly and won't have to be back for 2.5 days.
And it's even better today since we have some guy's retirement party at 3pm. Don't know him, never really worked, with him, but we'll be damned if we don't show up to get some free food. Which is what we're doing. Hopefully we'll be able to just slide in and slide out unnoticed. I'd hate to have another incident like we had for Cinco de Mayo.

God's Music
I was reminded yesterday of a great out-the-cuff remark I made to myself last fall. It was right after buying Chimaira's latest CD (which is awesome). I pop it in for the drive back from Strawberry's. No more than 30 seconds into the first song I actually say outloud to myself "Whoa, this is what God would listen to if he was angry!". It was that good. And the rest of the album completely backs it up. Fantastic piece of metal work if you're into that kinda thing.

Protein Powder
So a couple weeks ago I decide that it's worth looking into taking protein suppliments or other such things. I no longer get to the gym as much as I'd like, and don't really go as hard as I used to. So I wanted to look into what I could do to get the most out of my workouts. And maybe find something for before hockey games to give me a little boost.
I left with just a new multivitamin and a tub of whey protein powder. While I haven't noticed any big gains in strength, I have noticed 1 big factor. If I have a quick protein drink right when I get home from the gym, I'm significantly less sore the next day. I can usually tell during a work-out if I'm going to be sore. For example...The last time I did any squats was likely last week on thursday (7/6). After having a couple days off early in the week due to soreness from my baseball/hockey double-header and looking for a new apt I got back to doing squats on wednesday. Hit it pretty hard, too. And followed it up with some leg extention. Normally I'd be pretty much regretting it by the next afternoon. But yesterday I was hardly even sore. A little bit, but not nearly what I used to get after a work-out like that.
I'm still waiting to see if I get any noticable gains in strenth or size. I don't really want any increase in size, as that can cut down on your flexibility and range of motion. Not something condusive to pitching and playing hockey. But you can't really avoid some gain if you're lifting weights.
As for a pick-me-up before hockey, I passed. There are some pretty scary products out there for legal performance enhancement. The whole NOX line you'll hear about if you watch enough UFC, various other stimulants and such. You know you're taking something dangerous if they tell you to use it for no more than 12 weeks in a row then stop using it for at least 4 weeks. Yikes! Not really something I'd like to try at this point in my life. Maybe if I was trying to get a college sports scholarship or a semi-pro athelete and it was my life to be at peak performance. But not for pick-up baseball and C-level hockey. It's kinda fun to browse over all the various things out there. But most are just too dangerous to consider using.

Baseball
Thank God the all-star break is over. It was killing me not having highlights and box score to pour over while at work. And fantasy stats to evaluate and roster moves to think about. It was really making work seem much longer. I had no daily distractions! And it was even worse when the Cubs were given an off-day yesterday. So I had 4 days away from my Cubs. But they are back at it and I'm currently sitting here at my desk watching the game on mlb.tv. So no one rat me out to my boss. It's friday afternoon and he hasn't given me anything interesting or challenging to work on in probably 3 years. I deserve the occational break to watch the Cubs and relax.

Okay, time to hit that retirement party and head home before Hayley gets here. Then we'll be off for some sushi for dinner. Now that I know the place just north of me is good, I can go out for sushi much more often. So I hope you all have a great weekend. Those in New England, get out there and enjoy this nice weather.
PEACE!

Long and Eventful Weekend

Last weekend, in my opinion, completely balances out my extreme laziness on the weekend of the 4th. Party, baseball game, hockey game. All in about 28 hours.
I'll break it down day-by-day, just cause that seems like it'll be the most fun for me right now. And that's what it's all about kids.
Friday night - Leave work, hit the gym, head home. Nothing exciting. Normal friday night gym, too. So pretty empty and the only people that are there are just peeps getting in a quick work-out before the weekend. I then proceeded to stay up til about 2am with a mix of GameCube (Bond - Agent Under Fire) and bad TV. There's not much on normal cable on friday night, so it was tough. When we had paid-for Comcast we had the Action Channel, which had a good set of anime on Friday nights. But alas, no good anime for me.

Saturday - Wake up around 10 or 10:30. Proceed to lay in bed watching TV til about 11:30ish. Exact time are vague. And then I begin the waiting game for my buddy Mark and his crew to head back from Crane Beach so we can go get some sushi. So I hopped on PartyPoker.net to try my luck and see if I've learned anything from watching poker on tv. Turns out I had learned something and did pretty well. Of course the free version (.net) is full of other people that don't really know what they're doing, so it's hard to say exactly how good I did. Did that for about an hour, then got the call. And it turns out the sushi place up in Saugus is actually pretty good. Not the greatest sushi ever, but it was very good. So we load up on sushi, get some booze, and head back to Mark's to begin the party. And what a party. Stud Boy was there to whip up some margaritas. Paul from work definately has a work and non-work side. Got into a heated politcal/societal arguement with a gay guy for quite awhile on the porch. And just general merriment. No real fiascos, no real awful moments, just a great gathering.
So I head home at 2:15 to try and get some sleep before getting up at 7:30am for baseball.

Sunday - Arise at 7:30 and wonder if it's really worth getting up. I do have a hockey game sunday night, so maybe I should just get a good sleep. The decision was really made when I had to pee. And while I was already up to pee, might as well go to baseball. Glad I did. One of the regulars just recently bought a batting cage nearby and donated a dozen balls to the game. With Raised Seems. For those that don't know, that will hugely help any breaking pitch you throw. More friction to generate force to generate a break. So my ordinarily good overhand curveball was a monster. You could really hear the seems buzzing when it left my hand. Needless to say it was pretty much untouchable. I had guys swinging at balls that were bouncing off the plate. A few were WAY out in front. A couple were just frozen as what they thought was a high fastball broke right down the middle. It was filthy. 6 innings pitched, probably 10Ks. I don't really count, but at least 1/2 of those innings I K'ed 2 of 3 outs. So a great day.
Eat my turkey sandwhich when I get home, climb back into bed for a little nap/World Cup. I make it through the first 1/2 drifting in and out of napping. But then at half time I decide to try to sleep for a little bit. Turns out 'little bit' meant the entire second half and the first 3 minutes of OT. Luckily I was awake and ready when Zidane pulled his idiotic move. I don't care what the Italian player said, it's the f'n World Cup final game. The last World Cup game of your life. You're the captain of the French team and one of the best players in the world. What do you do? Act like a complete moron and get yourself tossed from the game with only a few minutes left. Meaning that not only do you miss the rest of OT but also the PKs. Stupid. And maybe because of that Italy gets the trophy instead of France.
Then it was off to hockey. First hockey I've played in probably 3 months. It felt great to get back out there. At least it did in the first period. Then my poor cardio conditioning kicked in and made it a bit of a struggle. I did verify that the extra stregth work I've been doing has gotten me my speed back. My endurance is down, but I've got most of my old burst back and my top speed is back up to where it needs to be. Feels good to be the fastest man on the ice again. I also had a couple great defensive plays hustling back down the ice. Broke up a couple runs by just muscling the puck away from guys in the corner and made a sweet diving play on a break-away. Their guy had beat the defence and was streaking down the boards. I cut just inside of them both and just lay out from about the face-off circle, cutting him off from the net. So to get there, he'll have to either somehow get the puck and himself over me, or slow up and try to go around me as a slide along. There's no way he's going over, and if he slows down the defender on his heels and everyone else has a chance to get there anyway. He pretty much trips over me when he made his move to the net, break-away over. I get bruised ribs, he gets NO GOAL!! Worth it every time.
But alas, we still lose 7-4. The other team clearly had better players and were much more fundamentally sound. We kept it interesting the entire game, but just didn't have the skill or luck to win this one. But it was still very encouraging for the rest of the summer and next season. If we can get 10+ guys to show up and play like that every game we'll do really well.
So for now, maybe it's time for bed, maybe it's time for more partypoker.net. Only time will tell....
PEACE!!!

Looonnnnggg weekend

Ahhh, you gotta love these long weekends and short work-weeks. When you only have to work 3/7 days, that's not bad.
And I really had 2 weekends this time around. I was down in NYC for friday night-sunday, then sunday night-tuesday night of just laying around being lazy. No one around to bother me or nothing. So I was finally able to do some of the crap I've been putting off. Cleaned all my hockey gear, which was getting pretty nasty. Everything besides the should pads, shin guards, and pants went into the washer. Gloves and elbow pads included. Early indications are that most of the awful glove-stink is out of my gloves. But I'll find out for sure on sunday night when the summer season kicks off.
I also cleaned out most of the dust around/under my bed. There was a pretty heavy layer under there. Surprisingly thick layer as it turned out. But after changing the filter on the vacuum, it made quick work of it all. Got all of that and all of the dust that had built up on the shelving unit at the head of my bed. Not sure if all of this will make any differencein anything, but it can't hurt to be breathing cleaner air at night.
I know what you're thinking. I had the greatest 4th of July weekend in the history of this fine country. I can't help that my life is so glamorous. It's just part of being Chauncey.
New Addiction
I've developed another problem. The game "007, Agent Under Fire" for GameCube. I started playing it monday morning for something to do to kill some time and got quickly hooked. You start playing and suddenly hours are just gone. Plus, with the way the game is setup, your frame of reference gets all messed up. You can look up and down, spin, etc, so you get used to that. Always walking around looking for things. Made it a bit fun when I'd jump up out of the chair to go get a snack or something. And then for the rest of monday and tuesday I'd either be playing the game, or thinking about things I could have done better. "Hmmm....in that level if I would have jumped out of the ventilation duct and used the Golden Gun...." Shit like that. It's kinda sad, but whatever.
But this is exactly the reason I don't really want to get Warcraft for my PC. I loved that game in college. A little too much if you look at my grades in a couple semesters. And now that I have a kick-ass PC to play it on I have the urge again. But I know that it'll start sucking up my life just like in college. And now that I have a job, I have less free time for it to suck up. Soon I'd be staying up all night to play, then going to work exhausted from not sleeping enough. It's a slippery slope that I don't even want to start. But yet the urge remains....

Ooooh, I also cleaned the K&N air filter I bought for my car last summer. It really wasn't all that dirty, but it was one of the things I wanted to do. Turns out the entire process is really not that hard. Spray on the cleaner, let it sit for 10 minutes, rince it out real good with water, let it dry, then re-apply the oil and you're done. The drying was what took all the time. The rest is easy. I think after 2 more years I'm money ahead. And that's without any milage gains that I'm getting with it, so who knows. But even if it's just even-money at this point, still worth it.

Cubs: Now the Fun Begins
Well, it's about to be interesting for the Cubs. The GM, Jim Hendry, said that he'll be taking the long weekend to evaluate where the Cubs are at and what needs to be done. Dusty's job, the players we have, everything. I'm expecting Dusty gets canned first. He's just not doing a good job here these last 2 years. Yes, there has been a lot of injuries. But the players that remained just didn't play well. So it's not like he did the best he could with what he had. He had plenty to work with and just didn't get it done.
There should also be alot of great trades. Something like 1/2 of MLB is still in the race for play-off spots. So there should be plenty of teams looking to add a few pieces to get them over the hump. And we've got plenty of guys we'd like to dump. Plenty.
And the kids should start popping up any day now. Time to call them all up from AA and AAA and see who can play and who can't. Who needs more time, who just doesn't have the tools to make it. We have alot of guys that may be ready right now, and the rest are about to get some great experience. Nothing teaches you your weaknesses like a trip up to the big club. Then you really find out what you need to work on and what you do well.

Okay, I'm spent. I'm uber lazy today from the time off and being up til midnight waiting for people to stop lighting off large fireworks. But at least the weekend is only 2 day, 2 hours away. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
PEACE!!

Long time!

Ooooof, it's been awhile. Good thing no one really cares, or I'd have an angry readership pounding down my door.
Hopefully I can make ammends today, but probably not.
Worst. Championship. Ever.
So I'm flipping through the channels the other day around 5:45pm. I was too lazy to go to the gym, so I just came strait home. Leaving me with some extra time to kill. But I figure that either ESPN or ESPN2 will have something awful that I can watch to amuse myself long enough for the good evening TV to come on. Turns out I was right about 1/2 of that. ESPN2 is apparently so out of ideas for programming that they're willing to show anything they can find that seems to be vaguely related to sports. Things that you never would have guessed there would be a championship for. Today's wonderful selection: The 2005 Dominoes Championship. That's right, dominoes. That game you see old men playing in the barber shop while waxing romantic about how much better things were when they were young. And these guys were really getting into it. They were focused and had strategies. It was 2 on 2, with your partner across the table from you. They had a graphic on the screen showing what each player started with and they'd gray out the ones they'd already played. In case you wanted to follow along with their stratagy and better your own game. And in case you couldn't keep up, they had 2 announcers (yes, you need 2 guys to properly cover an event of this magnitude) giving a play-by-play. I made it for about 1 game before I started shouting "BUT IT'S JUST DOMINOES!!" at the TV. 1 minute later I had to turn off the TV in disgust and walk away. ESPN had finally let me down. And then repeated the feat on Friday. It was a sad period of time. And now I'm constantly afraid of turning on ESPN2 if I'm home early from work, worried I'll lose even more respect for them.

Random Realization
In case people are wondering what it's like to be in my head, here's something I spent 5 minutes thinking about last week.
We have a picture up in the bathroom of a dog dressed up in a tux and sitting at a nice dinner table. He's got some wine and a full table setting. And there's an arm reaching in from the side, presumably from his butler, setting down a nice plate of steak. The caption: "Every Dog Has His Day". I see it a couple times a day and never think about it. Until last week. Then I started thinking about that phrase. We use it like it's a good thing. You see a guy having a great day out of nowhere and drop that line. But is it really a good thing? No. What you're saying is, "He's a worthless idiot and doesn't deserve anything, but at least he's got this one day." It's clearly a way to completely rain on someone's good day. The nicer way of saying 'The sun shines on even a dog's ass once in awhile." Interesting, isn't it.

Gym Rats
So I'm at the gym on Tuesday and I'm not having one of my better work-outs. I just didn't seem to have it. So as I was starting to wind down things, I decide it's not worth staying to get those few extra sets in. Better to just walk away from a marginal work-out and head home. Put in the extra work when I'm having a better day. My last set of triceps extentions is going to be last set of the day. And just as I'm thinking this, BAM, power goes out. Emergency lights kick on, radio is off, treadmills are off, the works. The only sound that's left: the clanging of weights as people don't even bat at eye about it. Most people just looked around for a second to confirm that the power wasn't coming right back on, then continued on with their workouts. I was no different. Finished up that last set like nothing was wrong. Luckily I was done anyways, or that would have gotten annoying. I just found it really amusing that no one stopped. And there was absolutely nothing said from the staff. No one came out to say that maybe we should stop using the weights now that it was pretty dark so no one gets hurt. Nothing.

Funny comments from Hayley
Hayley has now started making some great comments, completely unaware that she's doing it. Which is probably why they're great. 2 stand out from last week.
1) In the middle of talking to her on the phone she just tosses in "Ohhh, there's blood on my shoes." Not upset, not alarmed, just like it was a normal occurrance. Like a normal person would talk about stepping in gum, or getting a little bit of mud on their shoes. Like it's just a perfectly normal thing to be walking around with someone else's blood on your shoes. Hell, I do it all the time!
2) Not as good, and more of a follow-up to #1. A couple days later I ask if she got any more blood on her shoes. She responds with an annoyed-sounding "Yeah." Like it was rediculous that I was even asking that questions. And then with, "Well, maybe that's just ambiotic fluid."
This may only be funny if you know Hayley. She's really not one to be dropping comments like that out of nowhere. It's probably the same reaction people have when I suddenly show empathy and compation. Or care about the feelings of a stranger.

In case I don't write again before Tuesday, everyone have a great 4th of July. Light off plenty of fireworks and drink plenty of booze. I'll be out trying to score with some shady Winthrop high school sluts during the bonfire/fireworks on the beach.

Whose car is worth less?
I got into a spirited bout of 'Whose car is worth less' the other day on the way to work. For those that don't know, that's the game you play when 2 people are going after the same piece of road. Merges, lane changes in traffic, etc. If you have a shitty car and they have a nice car, they'll likely back off first. Other way around and you should yield.
So there is a section of the drive to work where people exiting out of a rotary merge onto the road from the right. It's a long, slow merge lane, so you often get into conflicts with the people not yielding like they should. It's fun at 40mph at times. But when there's bad traffic and it's backed up past the merge it's even more fun. You get 2 lanes of people in the merge lane trying to get into only 1 right-hand lane. All while creeping slowly along. And because this is Boston and most drivers are horribly impatient and feel they should never have to be put out, regardless of who has the right-of-way, it's even better. So it came down to me vs. a merger inching along behind a truck. Neither of us wanting to budge. I just didn't want to give up cause I was bored and this is how I get my thrills on the way to work. I know all the little confusing parts of the drive and like to punish others for not knowing them. Yes, I have a problem.
Anyways, I was up against a guy in an early-90s minivan with a banged up front corner. So when it really got down to the point where we were running out of room to be 2-wide, I had to give up. He was clearly going to take it to the point of collision, and had nothing to lose. I had an un-smashed body panel to lose. Thus, I lost the battle of Whose Car is Worth Less. Not really a bad thing when you really think about it.

Armageddon
So while I was in Minneapolis for a wedding (not sure if I mentioned it already, probably not. But I was there with Hayley for her roommate's wedding. Good enough?) I had alot of time to kill. Hayley was in the wedding and her friends were hung over. So I got to just lay around and watch bad TV. And Armageddon falls into this category. It's a great movie to watch, but not of the highest quality. The movie ends and I suddenly have the greatest idea for a terrible ending. So you see NASA and everyone celebrating their victory over the space rock. Jumping around, high-5s, the works. Then suddenly some nerdy tech shouts out "Hey guys! There's a 2nd meteor behind it!!" A 2nd rock hiding in the tail of the first rock is discovered, which then slams into the Earth and kills everyone. It's mean, it's sick, but it's also funny. And a terrible way to end a movie. But wouldn't it be awesome if a movie studio had the balls to do something like that?! That suddenly the 2 hours of movie you just watched, all the trials and heroism you just witnessed, it was all for nothing. People would definately leave that movie feeling awful.

Northwest Airlines
This may be the most ghetto airline I've ever flown. Granted I don't take many non-major airline flights, but I've been on a couple. For starters, they are shoehorned into a tiny little gate area in the corner of Logan. It's an oddly shaped area with things layed out pretty poorly. They obviously didn't have the sway to get a good area. But whatever, I'm not here to judge their gate area. I'm there to fly on the plane.
Then boarding begins. Most airlines like to board in small sections from back-to-front to make things go quickly. You don't want the people in the first few rows blocking the aisle so the people in the back have to wait. Not NWest! The attendant just grabs the mic and says "You may begin boarding." Everyone just heads for the door at the same time. So you get a huge back-up at the door to get in. Then you get another back-up as people fight to get down the aisle while people are loading their bags into the over-head. So then boarding takes at least double what it should.
But wait, there's more. I settle in and notice that all of the armrests still have ashtrays in them. Which takes a few seconds to really click home. These planes are so old that they still have ashtraps in every seat. Then I notice how flimsy the seats are. If anyone in your row moves, you can feel the whole assembly flex. You can see the frame of the seats in front of you and it's not good. It's all fine and good while you're flying along nicely, but if anything happens during take-off or landing, we're all screwed. Luckily nothing happens and I don't get a chance to see if I was right or not.

2 New Cubs Nick-Names
I came up with 2 new nick-names for Cubs players the other week.
Juan Pierre --> Juan --> Juan Valdez --> coffee. But since Pierre has been having an awful season, even with all the tools he has, he becomes....De-Caf!! Cause he looks like he should be great, but then by the time you're done watching the game you wonder what the point was.
Freddie Bynum. This is a bit of a stretch, so bear with me. Bynum --> Barnum --> Barnum and Bailey's circus --> 3-ring circus --> cockring --> which show up often in bad...PORNO! So he's now Porno.
I really like De-Caf, but Porno is clearly not my best work. But I still like it, cause it's funny.

And on that note....
PEACE!!!

Summer is here!

Well well, summer finally decided to rear it's ugly head around these parts. We went from 70s last week to mid-90s over the weekend. While I don't necessarily mind the hot weather, I'd appreciate it if it could be a slow build up next time. Jumping 10 degrees in a couple days just isn't cool. And it's supposed to go right back to 70s starting tomorrow.

Baseball
But at least it was sunny and clear for baseball yesterday. Hot, but no rain. And given the long lay-off, my body actually felt pretty good. My shoulder wasn't all pissed off, back didn't hurt, knee felt fine. It was like I wasn't all banged up! I proceeded to go out and pitch 6 strong innings, which is definately rare for me. But there was a down side. Here's me yesterday: "Man, I just pitched 6 innings and my arm doesn't even feel tired. Doesn't hurt or nothing!" Here's me this morning when I reached over to silence my alarm: "AHHHHHHH!!!! What have I done?!!"
Needless to say my right arm isn't moving so well today. I'm quite sore today, and quite surprised. I figured I'd be a little sore after not throwing for so long, but not like this. Hopefully it'll get better quickly and I'll feel even better this weekend. I'd hate to start the nagging injury series before hockey starts. Cause it's only getting worse once the hockey season starts up.

Cubs and CDs
I recently took a page out of my buddy Tom's book regarding my music collection. Seems Tom has the nice idea of playing every CD he has alphabetically once every few years. Takes him a few months to do it, but you occationally find something that you forgot you had. So I started this up at work the other week. I'd do it in the car as well, but I'd rather listen to XM on the drive to/from work to help me get through my day.
Anyways, right now I'm at the tail end of my Tori Amos section. Yes, one of my dirty little secrets is being a Tori fan. I'm not so big into her right now, as I'm not miserable. But when you're down, that's the way to go. But it is quite nice to be listening to Tori when you read the recap and box scores from the Cubs games. Cause you'll feel like total shit when that's going on and really need that help. I mean, could this season BE any more depressing for us?! We had 1 chance at temporary bliss over the weekend: Mark Prior's return. And then he goes out there and shits the bed. When you have more HRs allowed than innings pitched, that's a bad day (4 HRs in 3.2 innings). And Prior wasn't the only one that could make that claim. Novoa gave up 4 in only 3.1 innings of work. A terrible day that will likely kill the last of the hope for this season. I think at this point I have to be realistic about it. While still mathematically possible, the odds are pretty bad. We'd have to win over 2/3 of our remaining games just to get to 90 wins, the assumed mark for making the playoffs. We have a .382 winning % now, and would need to jump that by .300 to .680 to get to 90. With a team that is still without it's best hitter and 2 best pitchers. I'm not counting Prior as being back, as he still sucks and we're almost better off not having him right now. Maybe in a couple weeks I'll count him as being back. Needless to say, it's time to start working out some trades. Dump the veterans we no longer need to get some kids to restock the minors with.

Cereal
In a surprising move, I'd jumped to eating Kashi cereals. And I have to admit that it's not too bad. Right now I'm working the Go Lean Crunch. It's kinda like eating a cinnamon-spiced rice cake in a bowl with milk. But better than that sounds. I'm going to give it a couple more boxes before I finalize an opinion, but things are looking good so far. Plus, it would appear that it gives me alot of gas in the afternoon. I'm still not sure if it's something else doing that, but that's the only thing that's been common since last thursday. While not the best thing to have it work, as long as it's stink-free gas I can rip as many silent ones as I want. Which I do. Yes, I'm aware that I can be a rather discusting human at times. But at least I've tightened my criteria on eating food that I've dropped on the floor after the deodorant incident. Yikes!

Okay, times up kids. I'm outta' here.
PEACE!!!

Back in rainy, stupid Boston

Well, I'm back home after my nice long weekend in Chicago. The land of milk and honey if you like the Cubs and real pizza. Oh yeah, and sun. Cause we get nothing but rain out here this summer. It's like I'm living in Seattle! It was raining when I left, spent 4 days in sunny warm Chicago, only to come back here to more thunderstorms. I really hope Anna closed up some of the windows in our apt...
Dad's Status
Dad was finally out of the hospital as of tuesday night. The 2nd operation seems to have been successful at cleaning out the last of the infection. And they hooked him up with a PICC thing, so he can remain on IV antibiotics at home/work. Essentially he has 2 tubes sticking out of his arm on the under-side of his bicept. Both tubes have a little fitting that connects to a pump that he'll wear on his waist. He'll load in a new batch of penicilin in the morning and receive the programmed dose all day long. He's thrilled to be out of the hospital. But not so thrilled to have this thing running for the next 4-6 weeks.
And now we'll start working on camping trip try #2. Depending on how the infection dies down, we should be able to go in September like we normally do. But we're going to have to play this one by ear. We definately can't rush this and go if he's not 100% healed up. Had we been out in the woods when the infection flared up, it would have definately been a life or death situation. We would have been at least 2 days away from any medical care while the infection was spreading up his arm and heading for his heart. And 2 days assumes that the weather is favorably for traveling with only me paddling and we're able to find someone else to head back to the ranger for us so they can send in a float plane. So it could have been a few more days. Definately a scary situation and he honestly could have died up there. It's the downside to camping in such a remote and wonderful place. We should have a good idea in the next couple of weeks.
The Pizza Boycott: Worth it?
Yes, every bite. It was even longer than expected, as we went strait from the airport to the hospital. But that first slice of pizza and first bag of fries was worth every minute of waiting. So was slice/bag #2. Naturally it really only whetted my appetite for pizza, so I'm still dying for more. So I'll likely have to dial up some marginal east-coast style for dinner on friday. Or saturday. We'll see how the week plays out.
But you just can't match the joy of chicago style pizza. It was made for heartier individuals like myself. None of this floppy crust, thin layer of cheese crap they serve out here. Thick crust, loads of cheese. That's how it's supposed to be. As much cheese as the oven can melt.
Moving
My parents are finally moving out of their house into a new one. Brand new, as it turns out. So even though I wasn't camping I was still there over the weekend to pack up what's left of my stuff there. Not much, but things I clearly would like to keep. And as I was leaving I realized that if things go well it'll be the last time I'm in that house. They move in late August, and I see no reason why I would be there before then. If we go camping right after Labor Day, they'll be all moved into the new house. Kinda sad, but I've been moved out and in Boston for 5.5 years now. So I've been slowly cutting the mental ties to that house for a long time. My sister isn't taking it as well, but she never really got herself set up anywhere else. So that's still home to her. But she'll be fine. She's a big girl. Literally, too. She's like a giant. 6' tall. And able to kick the ass out of anyone who stands in her way.
The new house looks like it'll be very nice, too. They just started putting up the sheetrock inside, but you can still get a good idea. And from the details I've heard, it'll be really classy. Oak floors, granite counters, tall ceilings, the works. Working fireplace, too. And plenty of room on the first floor for having groups of people over. SuperBowl, cutglass organization, Christmas and T-Day, etc. Which was really what they were after. And a larger master suite.
It'll be tough to get back and forth to Pat's house when we're both home, but we'll get by. Nothing is going to stop us when it's time to get it on! We did lose our good football field, but we can just set up shop down at his parents' house in the future.
That's enough.
PEACE!!

Well, at least it's Friday!

It's been a rough week again. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I was supposed to be heading out on my father and I's annual camping trip to the Quetico on monday. Fly home saturday, pack up, then drive up the the BWCA on monday, get in the canoe and head into Quetico on Tuesday. 10 days of solitude and fishing. No permanent structures are allowed, no motors, and strict limits on how many people can enter the area each day. It's heaven if you love sleeping in a tent and fishing. And trying to avoid even laying eyes on another human being.
But alas, the trip is off. My Dad came down with a very nasty infection in his hand on tuesday. He spent a couple days in the hospital on IV antibiotics, surgery, the works. It was starting to spread up his arm, heading for his heart. He's fine and the infection is receding, but the trip is off. There's no way he'd be ready to go by Tuesday. There are 1000 ways to get an infection up there, and we're 2-3 days away from medical care. Not worth the risk, so we're just doing to have to postpone it.
So instead of getting a nice 2-week break from this hell I call work, I'll be here suffering. It'll be like Dante in Clerks. "I'm not even supposed to BE here today!" For 2 weeks.
And it continues to rain rain rain here. I'll be in Chicago from saturday to tuesday so I'll be missing baseball anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's rained out. The fields must be soaked from all the rain we're getting, and it's not going to be sunny and windy out. There's just no chance for the fields to dry out. It's cloudy and drizzly every day. Too much rain is better than not enough rain, but this is getting comical.
First Comment
Ladies and Gentlemen! We finally have someone that could pony up and comment.

SkupDogg said...

here are some more of Pat and Skup's nicknames:

Derrik Lee = "The Destroyer" ; cuz he destroys the chances of the other team winning

Aramis Ramirez = "The RazMan"

Neifi Perez = "Louie Bag of Donuts" ; compliments of Dirt Bag Kevin, NYC

See, if you comment, you get referenced in here without having to do something stupid!

Pizza Boycott
Hayley didn't seem to get this concept, so let me see if others can. I love pizza. I love Chicago-style pizza more than anything else in the world. I can't get it out here, though. So whenever I go back home, I have to stock up on good pizza to hold me over til the next trip. Now then, I'm sure we've all experienced the phenomenon of your craving of something going up the longer you've gone between having it. So if I havne't had any pizza in like 2 weeks, the next pizza I eat is going to be awesome. Just based on the simple fact that I was craving it so much. So if I simultaneously build up a craving from not having pizza, then travel back to my pizza mecca, what do you think will happen? Exactly!! That first slice of good chicag0-style pizza is going to seem like the greatest pizza I've ever eaten! Which is my plan. I've been doing my damnest to avoid eating any pizza for 2 weeks now. It's been rough, yes, but it'll all be worth it on saturday when I get home. Hit up Tony V's for a slice of cheese and a jumbo fries. My blood with thicken and I'll take a year off of my life, but it'll be awesome.
Everyone get it? Good.
That's it! I'm outta' here! Enjoy your weekend folks! Drink lots of beer and watch lots of Anime. And once in awhile shake your fist at the sky and yell "Damn you, Jack!!" He'll appreciate it.
PEACE!!!

This was originally going to be more of a play-by-play account, but then I realized how horribly boring that would be to read. Which I’m sure people can imagine. So I’m cutting this down to just important comments and witty banter.

Top 1^st

Coco Crisp: An important part of a healthy line-up. Just match him up with some toast and OJ and you’re all set. I’m sure people have been working that joke over all season, but yet I still feel the need to do it again.

Manny Ramirez works a walk on a full count. This is essentially a waste of my time, as he’s not on my fantasy team to walk. It’s better than making an out, but so is a 2-run HR. I really could use the extra run production right now on my fantasy team, so that’s important to me right now.

Bottom of 1^st

Johnny Damon – Or shall we call him Judas? You can call him Ray Jay for all I care. He lays down a bunt to the left and reaches. Nothing makes me happier than seeing teams play small ball. Especially in the AL where it’s much less common.

Melky Cabrera grounds into a quick double-play to the SS. So we’ve now established that his mom can’t spell and he can’t hit.

Jeremy “Juicer” Giambi hits a quick grounder to first, inning done. Maybe he should try having that pituitary gland tumor back in. And Red Sox rookie pitcher Pauley is out of the inning with only 6 pitches. It’s like he’s facing the Cubs. Except that you can get the Cubs out for 2 innings on only 6 pitches.

Top 2^nd

Jason Varitek dribbles an easy grounder to first. Mark HATES him. Some of it is from the A-Rod/Tek brawl, some of it is from other reasons. But it’s awesome to watch a Sox game with Mark. Nothing is funnier than someone else’s blinding rage. Especially when it’s directed at a player that is quite well liked around here.

Mike Lowell - Could this guy BE any grayer? He’s like an old man out there. Really. Anyways…he hits an easy grounder that the SS boots, but is still given a single. Weird, considering he isn’t the home team. I kinda love the completely arbitrary scoring system in baseball. Hits, errors, strikezone, all of it. Most of the game is really up to arbitrary decisions.

Coco drags his at-bat out by fouling off tons of pitches. He builds up the anticipation and is about to see 9 in total. And then he just pops out to the SS. Right now all of New England has blue balls. I hate when a hitter does that. If you’re going to work the pitcher that well and see all those pitches, at least make decent contact. Otherwise you just look like an idiot. He does succeed in wearing out the pitcher a bit, but that’s all.

Bottom 2^nd

Gay-Rod and his big purple lips, Ks swinging. I don’t think any man in the world is hated more in Boston than A-Rod. Jeter is hated, but people seem to at least respect the guy on some level. Not A-Rod. Just pure hate around here.

During Andy Phillips’ at bat, you get a great comment by the Sox announcer Jerry Remy: “He was way out on his front foot, nothing left to do but drag the bat through the bat zone.” Aka, the hitting zone. Remy is always good for a few little mistakes. They amuse me.

Between innings there is a really annoying FoxWoods casino commercial. It involves a couple doing a little song number that brings in all the various attractions of FoxWoods, while making the claim that it’s bringing them closer together. But they do everything on their own. So the only couple event was dinner, which is at the very end and not really focused on. Pretty annoying. Thanks to Mark for bringing that to my attention.

Top 3^rd

Wong leaves a change-up over the plate and belt high to Ortiz. And right now some poor single mother in Jersey is wondering who just knocked on the door of her trailer hard enough to make a dent and then just took off. Manny follows him and rips one past the 1^st-baseman for a single. Better than a walk, but I’d still prefer a HR and an RBI or 8. With Manny running Trot Nixon smokes a line-drive directly to the 1^st-baseman for an easy double-play. Manny’s fantasy stats so far: 1-1 with a walk. It’s the fantasy equivalent of drinking Near Beer. It tastes like beer, but why.

Bottom 3^rd

Miguel Cairo, an ex-Cub. And because of that, he is blessed with a hit.

Judas manages to lift a weak fly ball to the LF. And with his girlish swing and noodle arms, getting it all the way to the left fielder on a fly is like a normal hitter cranking a 500-ft HR. The Juicer roids up and grounds sharply to the second baseman to end the inning. Wuss.

Top 4^th

Mike Lowell, first pitch, weak grounder to the pitcher. Now, knowing the pitcher’s thrown a lot of pitches, and they aren’t really hitting him well, why don’t you take a couple? It’s the 3^rd inning and he’s pushing 70 pitches. Take a few, run that count up, and get him out of there before the 5^th inning. Make them use up their bullpen and take advantage for the rest of the series. Mike Lowell is actually 1 of 2 people I will never be able to like after the 2003 NLCS series with the Cubs. He was one of the couple players that sank us. He comes off the bench for that huge pinch-hit HR after being hurt for pretty much the 2^nd half of the season. And he really came up with big hits in every clutch situation he was in. Jerk. The other person is Josh Beckett. That kid pitched out of his head that series.

Kevin Youkilis hits a weak grounder to SS to end it. This guy has the gayest batting stance I’ve ever seen. You really have to see it to get it. The only way he could be more gay at the plate is to go up there with a silk scarf around his neck and a champagne coolie in his hand.

Only 7 pitches that inning. Wasted opportunity by the Sox.

Bottom 4th

Posada hits a line drive off the wall in left center. Coco ran after that one until he hit the wall. Wasn’t even close to it, but he still felt the need to over-run it and let Manny get it on the bounce. And it’s not like Manny has some cannon of an arm and had a shot at getting him at 2^nd. It looks like he just ran after it completely ignoring any urge to pull up and play it on the quick hop off the wall. Reminds me of watching a high school game.

Robinson Cano, he’s primitive as can be. And he grounds harmless to first.

Top 4^th

Missed the first couple batters, but it’s my mom’s fault. Apparently my dad has a severely infected finger and is having surgery right now. So here is my summary of the “action”. Blah, blah, blah, E6, double-play to end the inning. Good enough?

And you know what; I’m done with this game. Kerry Wood is pitching tonight, so I shall now shift my attention and play-by-play to the Cubs game. Enjoy the gear shift and be thankful you’re not here for it.

Cubs @ Astros

We pick up the action in the bottom of the 2^nd. Which means Kerry is probably up around 75 pitches by now. And right on cue, he walks a guy. Okay, here’s my cheating version of the 2^nd:

Preston Wilson – Doubles off the wall in left.

Eric Bruntlett - Walks on a full count.

Wandy Rodriguez – He tries to lay down a sac bunt. And does. Kerry decides he needs to rifle it to 3^rd to get the runner there. And chucks it into left. 1 run scores and it’s still only 1 out.

Chris Burke – Kerry reverts to old form and gets behind him and then has to groove one. Drilled to right-center where Jacque Jones has to make a diving try at it. Misses it for a 2-run triple.

Lance Berkman – Jumps on the first pitch and lines it to RF. Luckily Jones can make the nice play at the wall to haul it in. Inning over, 3-0.

Whew.

Top 3^rd

Top of the order coming up, which means they didn’t do much in the first 2 innings.

Juan Pierre apparently grounded out to SS in the 1^st. Not surprising, as he’s become quite the expert on weak grounders to the middle infielders. Now he fakes a bunt, then tries to half-bunt the next pitch and looks stupid. But then he redeems himself by grounding out to first. I guess he thought he could catch that guy napping.

Ronnie Cedeno is possibly the skinniest guy in baseball. Non-pitcher, that is. He is going to make a hell of a SS once he gets some more experience. That time is not now and he flies lazily to right. 2 down without much of a struggle.

Todd Walker, who you may recall has the nick-name ‘Muzzle’. And from the look of it, he hasn’t shaved since warm-ups. He’s got a pretty good beard going, which only helps him to ground out to the SS right behind the bag.

Bottom 3^rd

Mike Lamb lashes the first pitch to right center for a single. The announcers had more of the dumb banter and act like they called that one by ending their long between hitters promo with ‘okay, now you can hit it’.

Preston Wilson blasts a double to the right field corner, another almost HR. Runner doesn’t score, but I’m getting a little nervous about how this is going to end for Kerry.

Kerry’s curve does look pretty good, but he’s still nowhere near where we need him to be. Which means he leans on the curve too much and just walks people. Like Bruntlett right now. If you can throw 95+, why throw so many curves? I’m glad he’s trying to become more of a pitcher and not just chuck fastballs every time, but if that’s your best pitch you gotta go with it.

Bases loaded for the pitcher with 2 outs. This has SportsCenter low-light written all over it. Luckily the pitcher swings like a girl. Nice 2-hopper to first to end the inning.

Unusual comment of the night award, tonight given to us by my roommate Anna. I tell her to make me some damn broccoli, as I haven’t had my daily does yet. She responds with, “If you keep this up every day, you’ll have healthier breasts than me!” Raise your hand if you get it. Exactly, no hands are up. Apparently there was a study done that eating broccoli can stave off breast cancer. I guess all that fiber and calcium is good for you. (Right now Hayley is saying “I knew that, I just didn’t want to raise my hand cause I wasn’t sure.”)

Top 4^th

Phil Nevin, the newest Cub! Traded a guy we didn’t want to Texas for a guy we may be able to use. Not right now, as he grounds out weakly. But maybe later he’ll do something cool.

Aramis Ramirez has been off to a slow start, but is showing signs of snapping out of it. And he responds by slapping a single to right to extend his hitting streak to 5 games. The real problem is that he doesn’t respond well to being the #1 slugger. We need to get Wu-Tang back to take the pressure off of him. Or get Nevin to hit for some serious power.

Bottom 4^th

Chris Burke taps a slow roller towards short. Spyder decides that he wants to make the awkward scoop and throw instead of letting Ronnie take it. He gets the out, so it’s all good. I know the convention is that any ball the third baseman can get to he can make the play on, but you have to use some discretion. And it’s not like he’s a Gold Glover yet, either.

Wood is only up to 67 pitches, but the bullpen is already going. Will Ohman, getting loose. Announcers: “Kerry is pitching tonight, instead of just throwing. That was always the knock on him.” Right on cue, he pitches himself into a long HR to right. I think I’d prefer if he went back to just throwing if this is pitching. And the announcers wondered why the ‘pen was up so early. Berkman’s HR, 425ft.

More “pitching” from Kerry results in another hard shot by Ensberg. Line-drive double off the left field wall, and that’s it for Kerry. 75 pitches, 4 ERs and a runner on 2^nd.

Luckily Ohman gets out of it quickly to end the inning.

Top 5^th

Jones nicely Ks on 3 pitches. If you’re going to suck, might as well suck quickly instead of wasting peoples’ time.

Hey, Henry Blanco hits a nice blast to left center off of the wall for a double. Chugging along with his catcher’s speed, too.

Neifi Perez, or as I like to call him, Neifi “Leave ‘em Stranded” Perez, manages to suck in every situation where a basehit would really help you. This AB is no different, as he lifts a lazy fly ball to short center field. Can’t even advance the runner to 3^rd, as that would have been useful.

Pierre does a good job of working the count and sees plenty of pitches. Exactly what you want your lead-off hitter to do. You’d prefer he actually get on base more often, but I guess that’s asking too much of Juan. He does get on this time with a walk.

Bottom 5^th

Rookie pitcher Carlos Marmol is in for his second big league appearance. He’s apparently got great stuff, so let’s see. Throwing 97 and looks like he’s got a big curve that’s low-80s. Not bad for a guy that was a catcher 3 years ago.

Preston Wilson strikes out on the aforementioned power curve. 82mph 12-6 curve right after a 97mph heater.

Marmol’s stuff is really good. Damn. I gotta wonder why he wasn’t brought up earlier. Gets Bruntlett looking at that nasty curve.

Top 6^th

Let’s see if we can’t rally with the heart of the order coming up and get a few runs. Hell, just get 1 run to get the ball rolling. If we can hold them right here all we have to do is score 1 run per inning and we’ll win in 10. I can live with that!

Muzzle apparently he didn’t get my memo and flies out to left.

We’re defiantly going to need Nevin to pick it up while D.Lee is on the DL. We’re in dire need of some power in the line-up. And as I type that he grounds out to second. Fantastic.

Spyder pops up down the first base line to Biggio. I’m just going to make my broccoli. I don’t even know what to say about what just happened.

It’s amazing to me how inconsistent this team is. We rock the Astros last night 8-0 to back up a near no-hitter by Zambrano. Then we come out here tonight and look like crap. It’s just not right. We’re not even really putting up a struggle at this point.

Bottom 6^th

The pitcher flies out to center. Still pitching, and apparently only on 3 days rest. Thus making our poor hitting performance even worse.

My broccoli is done, but I stay around long enough to watch Burke rip a single past the diving Cedeno. I think I’ll get up now.

In more important news, Anna’s friend Cady is back with her boyfriend Steve. They have one of those Elaine-Putty things going on where they break up and get back together often. This break-up didn’t even last 1 full day. It’s sad, but I don’t know Cady enough to really care all that much. But still sad none the less.

Marmol works his way out of some trouble to strand runners at 2^nd and 3^rd by striking out Ensberg looking. Close call, but with 2 strikes you really need to swing if it’s close.

Top 7^th

Okay, similar situation, but now we need 2 runs in one of these next 3 innings to stay alive for the 10^th. And the heart of the order went down 1-2-3, so I don’t have high hopes for the bottom of the order. Royals fans don’t have hope for any part of their line-up, but they still manage to win games from time to time so I guess anything is possible.

Fly out by Murton, in-field single by Jones, ground out by Blanco, and now Michael “Catfish” Barrett is up for Marmol. He is our best hitter, but there are 2 outs and he’s been sitting all game long.

And of course the announcers work in some brawl comments. They mention he spends a lot of time in the gym, which of course leads to boxing analogies like “think he does a lot of speed bag work” and “I bet all that weight lifting helped him with that haymaker he threw at AJ”. Idiots. Barrett grounds out to SS to end the inning. He bobbled it just to make it interesting, but still threw him out.

Bottom 7^th

One of our big free-agent pickups is in to pitch, Scott Eyre. Chubby leftie, and he does pitch well. It’s hard to say if he and Bob Howry were worth it, as we just haven’t had that many late-inning games for them to work in. When you lose over half of your games, it’s hard to say anyone was worth the money. Cause if you’re not going to be fighting for the play-offs, why go out and sign high-priced people for any position?

I really should stop eating salsa at this point. It’s 10pm and I’m over ½ done with the jar. My morning coffee doesn’t need to extra boost of a stomach full of cheese, chicken grease, and hot salsa to get things moving. In fact, eating this whole jar seems like really tempting fate.

Hayley called and made me miss a line-drive double-play. Ronnie to Nevin. Oh well. She’s working nights this week so I need to talk to her when I have the chance. Stupid Hayley.

So we go to the 8^th down 4-0. But the Astros are into their bullpen, so maybe we can get something going.

Top 8^th

We have 6 outs to score 4 runs. The top of the order is up, so this is as good as we can ask for at this point. The announcers sound about as excited to watch this game as I am. I still have faith we can pull this one out, but I just can’t get too pumped at this point. Juan almost gets me into it with a line-drive to center, but it’s caught for the out. It’s just hard to consistently score runs when you’re lead-off hitter has an OBP under .300. It completely screws up everything else. Pierre was supposed to fix our problems there, not make them worse. I’d rather have the old Corey Patterson back! At least he hit a HR once in awhile to go with all his strike-outs.

The 388^th fan at tomorrow’s game will be the 75^th million regular season fan in the history of the Houston franchise. That is what dominated the talk during Todd Walker’s AB. He walked, by the way. Nevin politely grounds to 3^rd on the first pitch to end it. No sense making this game any longer than necessary!

Bottom 8^th

Bobby Howry is in for what may be our last inning in the field. And now the announcers are talking about some stupid, ugly jacket that the on-field guy wore tonight. The coat is 2-0 so far on the season, so it got some real attention. I mention these things to showcase just how non-threatening the Cubs have been tonight. The booth is fresh out of ideas to spice up the broadcast. Actually, if it wasn’t for Kerry’s awful 2^nd inning where he had that error and gave up 3 runs, this would be a really good game. But it was and it isn’t.

And Howry is walking guys to add to the fun. Cause when you’re down 4-0 in the 8^th you shouldn’t just groove a few for fun. So what if they hit it. We’ve got 5 hits on the night, what are the odds we get 5 next inning?! Groove a fastball down the middle, drill the hitter in the thigh, anything except a walk! And now we get the fun of watching him try to hold the runner on first. Just let him steal second if he wants it. Pitch outs, pick-off attempts, what’s the point?!! I need to drink A LOT more if I’m going to watch these games all the way through. These are the ones I typically just pack it in and go to bed. But I thought it’d be fun to do this, and dammit I’m going to finish it.

I’ve officially muted the game to listen to music. I forgot how Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” went, so I had to listen to it. And once I made that jump, I wasn’t going to go back. On the plus side, picturing Janet rocking out is quite nice at this point. I’d rather see that than this game.

Howry walks them full, but does get a strikeout with a full count to end it. Yes, it’s the bottom of the 8^th inning and he managed to walk them full and then go to a full count on the next batter. And it was a close pitch the hitter swung at, too. Had he took that, it may have been a ball. But like I said earlier, if you’ve got 2 strikes and it’s close you gotta swing.

Okay, now I need to figure out how to build up a play-list with Nero. I kinda like learning new software programs, but I don’t have a lot of patience right now to deal with it.

Top 9^th

Spyder is up to lead it off and is swinging like he should right now: for the fence. Down 4 runs with 3 outs to go, he should be trying to hit the ball to Mexico. He ends up flying out to right, but I appreciate his effort.

Murton does get an in-field single, which then allows Jones to strikeout without ending the game with it. He should buy Matt a new car for that.

Holy Cow!! Pinch-hitting John Mabry hits a double to strait-away center to score Murton from first! Up that stupid hill they have in deep center here. That ball would have been a 2R-HR in pretty much any other park. Oh well, at least the shut-out is gone.

I was just about to make the claim that if Catfish hits a HR here I’ll stop drinking for the rest of the week. Luckily I stopped myself, remembering that I still have a few more Cubs games to watch this week. Whew!! Of course he does just strike out to end it, so I would have likely been safe either way. At least they gave me a little bit of excitement there at the end.