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!!