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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

'Long' Weekend

Hey what's up inter-frammers? I know... Site content around here has been a little sparse lately... The long weekend kicked my ass and not in a party party party way either.

Friday I took the day off from work and my wife and I brought the kids to a place called Southwick's Zoo. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to have a good time.

My son was running all over the place looking at all the different animals they had. We could hardly keep up with him. My wife and I ended up just kind of 'herding' him and his sister around the zoo as we took turns trying to keep up with the kids and at the same time push the baby carriage. The kids had fun and that's all that counts so it was a good day.

Saturday I pretty much spent the whole day working on my basement. Anyone sick of hearing about my basement yet? With the help of my father-in-law, I got the drop ceiling framework installed. That was huge. It feels like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this project now. I will be so glad when it's finished... The electrician is going to come in tomorrow to finish up the outlets [he was supposed to come today but we won't go there...] and put in the lighting and then once that's done, I'll put in the ceiling tiles.

After that, I think the next thing to do is to tackle the floor and that is going to be a task, let me tell you. I am actually going to try and take a class at Home Depot on how to install it... Have I mentioned how happy I'll be when this thing is done?

Sunday and Monday were dedicated to getting outside chores done. With all the rain we've had around here lately, my grass was very high once again. It was so tall, I had to go over some areas twice... I don't really mind mowing the lawn but it sure takes out a chunk of the day. I spent the rest of the day Sunday getting a bunch of outdoor stuff done at home and then Monday I went over to the in-laws and helped them out with their work. I'll spare you the oh-so-thrilling recap. There was a cook-out in there somewhere involving beer and brats (as in bratwurst).

Sunday night, I actually went out to meet up with some musicians that I had gotten in contact with through Craigslist. I had put in a new ad a few weeks ago looking to try and hook up with, or start up, a new band and I got a response from a band who was looking for a guitar player.

I was very up front right from the beginning that I could only do one night a week and they were cool with that. One night was all they were looking to do as well so it worked out good.

The second stipulation I had was that I did not want to get locked into doing one 'style' of music. I don't mind playing covers of songs that I'm not really into, as long as the others in the band are open to doing songs that I like to play as well.

The last band that I was in, all they wanted to do was pop songs and any suggestion of a punk or metal tune was completely out of the question as far as they were concerned. I told them I was interested in trying to do a Danzig song [Do you wear the Mark] and they looked at me like I was nuts. I did not really like that, but at the time I was just happy to be in a band so I put up with it.

This time around I decided I was not going to do that again. Like I said, I don't mind playing stuff that I'm not into, but if you're going to ask me to play a bunch of damn Beatles tunes, then you're going to play something from The Clash or Social D along with it.

The good news was that, thankfully, these guys seemed to have no problem with that. Of course, it's only been one meeting, so we'll see how it goes. I am optimistic though. At least they knew who Social Distortion was and had heard some of their songs, so that's a good start.

The really cool thing is that this band wants to do originals. They are actually more interested in the originals than the covers, which I think is great. They played me some of their songs and they were very cool. I actually liked the originals better than the covers, so that aspect of this whole thing has me pretty psyched.

I am hoping this will work out because it seems like a good situation, but they were up front with me too and told me they still had some other players that might come in and try out as well, so I was not 'in' yet. Hey you never know, the next Eddie Van Halen might show up to one of their practices, and if that happens and they tell me thanks for your time, but we've got the next Fast Eddie V here and we're going with him instead of you, that is completely understandable.

I appreciate having all this stuff brought out right in the beginning so everybody knows where people stand. I would much rather know the whole deal up front than go along a few weeks thinking I'm in and then all of a sudden, it turns out differently. That would not be fun.

For now, they liked me enough to give me some songs to learn and told me to come back next week, so I'll just take it from there. If it lasts a few weeks, I'll start to try and figure out how I can get some Misfits tunes worked into their list of covers... I gotta offset those damn Beatles tunes somehow.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Thank You!

On this Memorial Day I'd like to send out a sincere and deeply respectful THANK YOU to all the men and women who have served our country and especially to those who are actively serving right now around the globe.

Remember while you're cooking-out and tipping back your beer, at that same moment there are American Soldiers out there putting it all on the line for you. Thank you.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Sox win, but take a big loss...

It was tough to see David Wells get hit on the knee by a come-backer last night. I'm not Wells' biggest fan, actually if he were not in a Red Sox uni, I really would not like him at all, but to see him just back off the DL and pitching well, and then have this happen... I really felt bad for the guy. I hope he will be ok.

His injury was described as a 'contusion, with no initial signs of serious injury'. Lets hope it looked (and felt) worse than it is and Wells can come back from this.

From a purely selfish, Red Sox perspective, I was happy to see Wells back on the mound. The 5 spot in our current pitching rotation did not exactly fill me with confidence, and with Wells back and pitching well, it was looking like that problem was going to be fixed. Now with Wells out for who knows how long again, maybe forever, The Sox will still have that big empty hole in the rotation every 5th day.

It would be great if The Sox could move Papelbon up into the rotation, but unfortunately, that would leave us without an effective closer.

Keith Foulke just does not have what it takes to step in at closer, at least not at this point anyway... I'm still in his corner, but reality is reality.

Oh and by the way, to the two 'fans' who were hassling Foulke on his way back to the dugout last night, you guys are fucking dick-heads... As a Sox fan, you embarrass me. Way to support your team fuckers. In case you didn't know, we need Foulke to be effective and getting his head all screwed up and pissed off again does not help The Sox, in fact it has the opposite effect. Nice job ass-hats...

Shill goes for win #200 tonight. Lets hope the D-Rays, and the rain, will not spoil his chances...

Friday, May 26, 2006

Oh darn I missed that big important work meeting...

That's because I got a jump start on the long weekend and took today off. Woo-hoo! Long weekends rule.

Of course, even when I'm off, I'm not really 'off'...

Today will be a day spent with the kids. We are planning on taking them to a zoo or something... that should be fun. Then tomorrow it's basement duty, I'm hoping to get the rest of the drop-ceiling installed. Sunday it's yard duty and Monday I'm going to help my in-laws with their yard duty.

All that is still better than a day at the office and I'm sure there will be a cook-out thrown in there somewhere...

As for the meeting I missed today, we can just take it offline. I don't have the cycles or bandwidth right now and at the end of the day, I don't want to churn on this too much. I'm OOTO...

Thursday, May 25, 2006

He's ridin' through your town with his head on fire...

I noticed recently there is going to be a Ghost Rider movie coming out in 2007. Cool. Ghost Rider was always one of my favorite comix. I used to love the ones that were drawn by Mark Texiera (yes I used to be a comic nerd).

The movie is going to have Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze, which is interesting.  Hopefully this movie will be more Spiderman / X-Men and less Punisher [both of them] / Daredevil...

Doin' burn outs and annoying the neigbors with that loud obnoxious music...

R.I.P. A Small Victory...

Long live Faster Than The World.

1-2-3-4! Go!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Go pick a different number rook...

ESPN.com: Bush loses numbers game; back can't wear No. 5.

I don't know why this whole thing got under my skin so much, but for some reason this little, 'jersey number 5', drama that went on with Reggie Bush really bugged the shit out of me.

Maybe the reason I found this story so annoying was because of the fact that Bush has not fucking done anything in the NFL yet?  Bush had a great college career but he's in the NFL now, meaning what he did in college now means shit as far as I'm concerned.

Respect is something you have to earn in the bigs rookie, they don't just hand it out with your new jersey. Now go wash some jock-straps, and when you're done there's some veteran players over there who need you to pick up their shit and carry it out to the practice field...

Monday, May 22, 2006

A quick tale about the Wachusett Spring Fling

Well for those of you who may be wondering, my wife and I had a lot of fun at the Wachusett Brewery Spring Fling. It rained a little bit but thankfully there were some tents set up so we ducked underneath to keep dry. The rain only lasted a short time before it finally stopped.

Now, before I go any further into this mesmerizing tale, I must warn you about a few things not to do at an event such as this.

After drinking a bunch of high-test draft beers on an empty stomach, do not, under any circumstances, finish drinking the left-over iced coffee that's been sitting in your car for several hours, then drive down some back-ass, hilly, twisty, turny as fuck country road while sitting in the passenger seat. DO NOT DO IT. If you do, there is a good chance that you will yack before arriving safely home. Don't say you have not been warned.

Now on with the Spring Fling story:

I had a Monsta Ale for B over in Zurich (so nice of me), as well as a Black Shack and a Country Ale for the other folks who requested I 'have one for them'. Not a problem.

My wife had a Summer Ale and it took her two hours to drink it. In her defense she is most definitely not a beer chick. She's more or a margarita / mud-slide kinda gal.

While we were milling around the Spring Fling, checking everything out, we heard part of the band 'Trebek'. They were finishing up their set and doing some cover tunes. I was not paying a super amount of attention to them because we were walking around and looking at the various things going on at the Spring Fling, but for background music I thought they sounded pretty good and I could have swore when I was standing in line for a beer I heard them doing a cover of 'The Bars' by Black Flag... Which made me perk my ears up and upped their coolness factor a few notches for me. Of course, I could have been mistaken because I was too far away to hear exactly what they were playing but let's pretend it was Black Flag, just because.

My wife did not like them. 'Too heavy' she said. Again, the wife is not a hard rock chik, so no surprises there. I thought they sounded good, so maybe if I ever get a chance to go out and they are playing somewhere nearby, I will go see them.

The beers all tasted great. After I got all my drinking obligations for other people out of the way, I had a few Monsta Ales for myself while my wife worked on her Summer Ale. 'You don't have to drink it if you don't want to,' I told her.

'No, it's alright,' she said unenthusiastically. Obviously, she was not there for the beers. She was having fun watching all the people, listening to some music, and just spending some time together hanging out without someone yelling, 'MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!'

A little while after Trebek's set ended, Clutch Grabwell came out. They always put on a great show and are a blast to see live. John Boyle, the lead singer, came out wearing some kind of crazy scottish getup that included a checkered pom-pom hat and fake red hair, shouting, 'GET IN MAA BELLY!!' That guy is a riot and Clutch Grabwell play great music to jump around to. You can't go wrong with them. Their riffs have a great hook that is just heavy enough for my tastes but with plenty of grrooove from the bass and horn section that the wife gets into them them as well. They have mass appeal those guys.

Except for the puke part at the end, a good time was most definitely had.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

We are a go for Wachusett Brewery Spring Fling!

The sun is out and it's looking like it will stay that way for most of the day, meaning that we are a GO for Wachusett Brewery's Spring Fling today.

I'm going to do some work in my basement this morning, (it wouldn't be the weekend without some quality time spent in the basement) and then this afternoon we will head over to the brewery for a few cold ones and some live music.

I've had a few people tell me to 'have a beer for me while you're there'.

Ok, if I have to.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Overheard in the nuthouse...

Recently overheard here:

-ARE YOU CRAZY!!?? YOU JUST SPRAYED YOURSELF IN THE FACE WITH LYSOL!!

-She only likes me for my body Mom (from the mouth of a 4 year old boy, wtf??)

- Mom, do you like my Devilock? (also from a 4 year old, this time the girl...)

So today I'm sitting at the dinner table, and my daughter says to my wife, 'I like sitting between you and Dad, Mom' and my son says, 'I like sitting between you and Dad too.'

So I say, 'I like sitting between you guys. Where is baby going to sit when she gets big? We'll have to move to a bigger room!'

At this point, my wife interjects, 'Well, someday after the basement's done, I want to build a breakfast island in the kitchen and tile the floor...'

[Stunned silence as my mouth hangs open]

'You want to build and island in the kitchen... and tile the floor... You. Mmmm, hm.'

I look over at the son. 'What am I going to do kid?'

He just smiled back at me.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Baseball Terminology fun...

Not much to post about today.

The Sox lost to the O's (had to happen eventually), the Sun is finally OUT, and if I don't cut my lawn tonight, it will be 3 feet tall by the time I get a chance to mow again. I am a slave to my lawn... (but it looks good, nice and green!)

Yup, not much goin' on in this wape of the woods, neck of the wape right now, but there is a great post over at Two Grim Dudes listing fun Baseball Terminology. So check it.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Ty Law tease...

The last few days on NESN SportsDesk, the tease going into the 1st commercial break has sounded something like this: "...and coming up on SportsDesk, Ty Law visits the Pats! Will Law be making a happy return to The Pats?"

Translation: Now that you've gotten the Sox update, we're going to dangle this little carrot in front of you and hope you will hang around to watch the middle segment of the show...

Yes, Law has been into Foxboro for a physical, but that does not really mean anything. He's just shopping himself around, that's all. He's going to be visiting K.C. and a number of other teams as well.

It would be great to see Law back in a Pats uniform, but I don't see it happening. Ty has shown all along that he is more worried about feeding his family than owning any of the Pats' team records.

I think the current scenario with Ty Law is very similar to what went on with Keyshawn Johnson when he was a free agent. Belichick has a good relationship with Johnson and reportedly he has a good relationship with Ty Law as well, but as we saw when Keyshawn was available, having a good relationship with Belichick does not necessarily mean he's going to pay the big bucks that Ty will assuredly be looking for.

Law supposedly has a good relationship with Herm Edwards out in K.C. too, but I think the person that Law gets along with better than anyone else is Mr. Benjamin Franklin.

Like I said, it would be great to see Law back with The Pats, but Ty is going to sign with the team that pays him the most money, not the team who's head coach he has the best personal relationship with.

I wouldn't be getting that Ty Law jersey out of the closet yet...

In some unrelated NFL news, for some reason, this whole Reggie Bush jersey number story really bugs me. I don't know why, it just does.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Yo, The Hell*??

Despite what my wife might like to believe, our baby daughter loves the Red Sox. She has been all out of whack with the lack of baseball games the last few days due to all the rain. She is never, ever fussy, except when she's hungry, and she was cranky this past weekend. My wife could not figure it out.

'No baseball,' I said.

I got the big, 'you are insane' eye roll from my better half, (but she knows deep down that it's true).

To make matters worse for my little Angel, Dad had to wake up early and go visit some customers on Monday morning, meaning no 5 AM-ish Sports Desk and Bottle... She was all out of whack.

Thankfully the last few nights, we've gotten her back into a routine. Red Sox baseball has been on and the game results have been good. That puts a smile on baby's face.

Tonight we were watching the game together, as is our usual routine in the evenings. She was resting comfortably in my arms while I described what was going on to her, and things were going smooth. Shilling was not dominant but was getting the job done, so she looked up at me, spit out the binky and closed her eyes. She obviously felt the lead was safe enough to head off to sleep. Once she was out, I put her to bed and came back downstairs, pretty much on the same wave-length.

'The Sox are in good shape. Shill is not mowing them down but they are fine. What's the score? 4-1 in the 4th? I think it's safe to pop in that Miami Vice Season 2 DVD that arrived in the mail the other day...' [Go ahead laugh, I don't care. I fuckin' love Miami Vice]. No sooner had Crockett called somebody 'Pal' for the umpteenth time in the 2 hour season 2 premiere, than it was time for a quick 'intermission' for Dad, along with a quick score check first...

"6-5, Sox?? THE HELL*? What happened?? Don' know, but know what, they're winnin' anyway... THEY. ARE. WINNING... Now, back to Vice."

As the season 2 premier ended and Crockett and Tubbs headed back south after a tough job in New York, I clicked back over to NESN to check the Sox game result: "This will be a win when I click it over," I said to myself, just in time to see Pap throw the game ending strike. Game ovah. Sox win.

Nice.

*"The Hell": The origin of this somewhat goofy saying comes from a comment I read once on Beth's site from someone who was talking in the comments to a person who apparently does not watch football. It was something along the lines of, 'The Hell, you don't watch The Patriots??' It was probably just a typo, but I always found that funny so it stuck with me.

Frappr Hacker...

It seems the spammers have gotten their hooks into Frappr.

I noticed the other day that there were a bunch of new maps listed under my Frappr profile that I had not personally added myself to.

At first I thought this might be some kind of new feature in Frappr, since these newly added map links pointed to maps that related to items in my profile's interest list. For example, there was a 'Fans of George Strait' map linked to my profile, along with several other maps that I had not purposely added myself to.

I deleted all the maps that I had not added myself and then checked back a few days later. Sure enough, there was a whole new batch of newly added maps that I had not personally added myself to.

Apparently, someone or something is going around in Frappr adding people's profiles to maps by simply using their e-mail address.

I e-mailed Frappr support about this and the response was basically 'Yup, that's probably what's happening'.  (WTF?)

So I guess the point of this whole story is, if you use Frappr, you might want keep an eye on your profile for any new maps getting added to it that you did not add yourself and then e-mail Frappr if this happens to you.

Monday, May 15, 2006

They come for me, Ministry...

Well, I might not have had any luck getting Patriots tickets this past weekend, but I had no problem getting tickets to see Ministry at the Worcester Palladium in June.

If you're going to the show, maybe we'll... run into each other, heh... (I know, bad joke, wakka wakka.)

In other music related items, I was reading Clutch Grabwell's site the other day and noted with extreme excitement that they will be playing at Wachusett Brewery's Spring Fling this weekend, AT THE BREWERY.

To quote Jeff at Grabwell's site:

Dude. If you know what I'm talking about, then you know what's up. If you don't, then simply call Westminster and ask them. This is it. Do not fumble around and f@#$ this up, ok?

Seriously.

Lets hope it does not rain, because I'm working on lining up a baby-sitter for this one... Wachusett Brew's Spring Fling is not to be missed, not when it takes place at the legendary brewery location...

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Music for Mother's Day...

Some songs for Mother's Day. Might want to save some of these till after your visit with Mom...

Danzig: Mother... Can you keep them in the dark for life? Can you hide them from the waiting world? Oh, Mother...

Cash: When I was just a baby, my Momma told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns, but I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die...

Haggard: Momma tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied, that leaves only me to blame 'cause Momma tried...

Ed Bruce (or you can go with Waylon and Willie's version too): Momma's don't let you babies grow up to be Cowboys. Don't let em pick guitars and drive them old trucks...

Misfits: I'll bring back a souvenir for it's my Mommy's dream...

Mudhoney: Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. Look at your son. You might have loved me, but now I got a gun. You better stay out of my way. I think I've had a bad day...

Queen: Tie your Mother down, give me all your love tonight...

Social Distortion: Mommy's Little Monster shoots methadrine. Mommy's Little Monster had sex at 15...

D.A.C.: I was drunk, the day my Mom got out of prison, and I went, to pick her up, in the rain...

Aerosmith: Keep in touch with Mama kin. Tell her where you’ve gone and been...

Update:
Be sure to check out Michele's fine Mother's Day musical selection as well, and of course, Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Preparing for [Ticket Master] battle...

In a few minutes I will be battling the the hordes on Ticket Master, in an attempt to get some Patriots tickets... The Target will be a Sept or October game if possible, but I'll take anything I can get.

Fingers crossed...

Update:
10:10 AM and Ticket Master is pissing me off so bad.. I've been giving my vocabulary of swear-words a good workout while I attempt in extreme frustration to get a ticket to any game... ANY FUCKING GAME!! WHAT THE FUCK TICKET MASTER YOU SUCK ASS!!

Update 2:
10:20 AM. Well I am sure the tickets are all gone by now but I am going to continue to try for another few min before I throw in the towel. Ticket Master makes you enter a security word to prevent automated programs from getting tickets. What a joke that is. The last one I had to enter was 'gouger'. 'How appropriate,' I thought...

Update 3, Final Update:
10:25 AM. In what I know in my brain is an exercise in futility, I'm making one last run down the list of games trying to get Pats tickets. 2 tickets, any price, somewhere in the stadium. You'd think that would not be so hard. Nothing available.

Instead of making you try to get tickets for individual games, Ticket Master should have a 'just give me a ticket to anything; any game, any price, any seat in the stadium' option.

The sick part of this whole masochistic, exceedingly frustrating process is that I logged into Ticket Master at exactly 10 AM on the dot and from the moment I started in my attempt to get a ticket, nothing was available. 10 seconds after 10 and nothing is available... HOW CAN THAT BE?? The tickets have only been on sale for 10 seconds and nothing is available??

10:35:
I know. Tickets are long gone. But I gave it one last try. El-Zilcho. I quit.

Has anyone ever been successful in getting a ticket to a game through this process? I try every year. Why do I bother? ARG!!!

As my wife just aptly stated: 'It's ridiculous that normal people cannot get tickets to Patriots or Red Sox games.'

[Deep breath] Well that was fun.

On with the rest of my day. I've got a drop-ceiling to install...

One Last Update:
10:40 PM:
I just read Tom's post over at Pats Pulpit and he pretty much described the same experience I went through this morning, just with less swearing. It's a shame that real Pats fans can't get tickets to a game but I'm sure some corporate dick who does not even follow the game of football will get their choice of the best seats in the house this season.

It sucks.

Wait a min... I recall Belichick saying in his post-draft press conference that Scott Pioli was the man and to just give him a call if you wanted to get hooked up with tickets... Hmmmmm...

Friday, May 12, 2006

Quest for the Cup: Best possible scenario at this point...

Now that my 'B' team, the Colorado Avalanche, has been swept out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I can now start looking ahead to a potential best case scenario, from my perspective that is, as to how the rest of the playoffs will turn out:

In the West: The clear choice for me here is for San Jose to advance to The Stanley Cup Finals, but first they have to get past Edmonton and then Anaheim.

In the East: The Sens are the team that I have been rooting for the most in the East, but they are down 3-1 in their series with Buffalo. If Ottawa comes back from being down 3 games to win their series I will be amazed. Of course anything is possible and I would like to see them do it but I don't see it happening.

Assuming that Buffalo does not pull a 'Boston Bruins vs Montreal' [choke, cough, ahem.], The Sens will eventually be eliminated, meaning I must go to my backup team in the East, The Carolina Hurricanes. Hopefully the 'Canes sweep NJ and then get past Buffalo, leading to a San Jose vs. Carolina Stanley Cup final.

At that point, I would be happy with either team winning.

I'd like to see the former Hartford Whalers win a Cup, but I'd also like to see Joe Thornton raise Lord Stanley's Cup overhead as well, and not because I am a bitter Bruins fan who has it out for The Boston Bruins management (even though that is an accurate description), but because I like Joe and would like to see him get his name etched onto The Cup, not to the same extent that I wanted to see Ray Bourque win a Cup Championship, but in that same vein.

We'll see what happens...

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Sox / MFY - Round 4, Pats Rookie Camp...

I've been watching the Sox / MFY game all night while I goof around with this site, making a few changes to links and what-not. I know, really exciting stuff. Yeah. Right.

As I write this, it's the bottom of the 7th and after trailing the entire game, The Sox just recently took the lead in the top half of the 7th. This has been a pretty tight game. The Sox have had about 80 men on base tonight I think, but they have not been able to take advantage.

Wake was solid for the 1st 6 but as is usual when he pitches, he did give up a couple runs and it was looking like the Sox bats were going to leave him hanging again. Thankfully the Sox were able to get a couple runs across, with a little help from a bad throw to 1st by Jeter, to take the lead, currently 4-3...

I have been tired all week and this is part of the reason right here. I should be in bed with my eyes closed but instead I am up watching the baseball game. When it's over I'll get some sleep for about an hour if I'm lucky before the baby wakes up hungry. I have late night (11 PM-ish) and early morning (5 AM-ish) bottle duty. My wife gets the 2 AM-ish feeding duty.

Timlin looked like his old self in the bottom of the 7th. No fooling around. Jeter got on but that was it... E-Rod struck out to end the inning. Hopefully the Sox can add onto this 1 run lead and get a little cushion, just in case... Something tells me they will need to tack on a few more to keep the lead. Of course, I would love to be wrong here...

The Pats rookies will report to camp this weekend. I will be looking forward to hearing the reports on all the new players on the team.

Pats tickets go on sale Saturday and I will once again be trying to get some. I am hardly ever successful at getting Pats tickets by ordering them online, but I will be giving it a shot anyway.

Bottom of the 8th now and Foukie is in there against Bernie Williams. Keith is off to a good start with a strike but then proceeds to give up a lead off double. Oy... A fly ball and an out at 1st base gets Foulkie 2 outs but Williams advances to 3rd.

Papelbon is coming in.

Time to stop typing and watch the game. Lets Go RED SOX!

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Weekend update...

A post just for the sake of posting, so you know it will be good. (Phht...)

This past weekend was great. My baby daughter was baptized on Sunday and we had family and a few friends in attendance. The ceremony was short but very well done and enjoyable.

The Reverend at my church is an extremely nice man who is also a very down-to-earth person as well. He is an easy person to talk to and is able to explain mysterious things like 'church stuff', as I call it, in a way that is easy for me to relate to. He has helped me a great deal over the last few years since first I met him.

After the ceremony we had everyone over to our house for lunch. We kept it casual with sandwiches and various other snacks. It turned out to be a fantastic day weather-wise, so people were able to hang out in the yard, relax and just enjoy themselves.

I turned on the television when the Sox game started and also put an AM radio outside for the benefit of those (myself included) who did not want to miss out on the sunny day but still wanted to hear the game.

I happened to be inside watching the game on television when Tek hit the second grand-slam of his career and I announced Jason's accomplishment quite loudly, 'GRAND-SLAM FOR THE CAPTAIN!!'

The sarcastic response from the women gossiping in the other room went something like, "I think something just happened in the ball-game."

I then stuck my head out the window to inform those outside who might have missed it as well and was greeted by more sarcasm:

"Tek just hit a grand slam.'

'Um, yeah, we heard... How could we miss it?'

Later in the day I got my wife to throw the wiffle ball for me while I took a few at bats. She tried to bean me a few times, prompting me to yell, 'HEADHUNTER!'

She had me swinging at a few balls outside, which drew a comment from my sister in law, 'Aw man you should not have chased that one, that was way outside!'

Damn peanut gallery... I was able to launch a few balls into orbit (the other side of the yard) as well.

I must admit that I was very bad diet-wise Sunday, eating chips, brownies, ice-cream and beer throughout the day, but I (rationalized) told myself that it will be The 4th of July before I allow myself to eat so much junk in one day again, so I forgave myself and got back on the right path with a rice-crispy treat. (Those are healthy snacks).

Friday, May 05, 2006

Cinco de Mayo + Reward Friday

First it was St. Paddy's Day falling on a Friday and now Cinco de Mayo lands on a Friday too?

Combine that with some sunshine and temps in the high 70's and you've got a whole lotta 'Whoa Yeah!'

Is it 5 o'clock yet?

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Quest for the Cup: Round 2 Picks...

Well I think I did ok with my picks for the 1st round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I went 2 for 4 with my picks for the East and 3 out of 4 with my pics for the West.

Now it's on to Round 2 and things get considerably more difficult for everyone involved. With each round of NHL playoffs, the hockey gets better and better (statements of the obvious, yes, that is my forte.)

On to my picks for the Semis:

East:
Ottawa / Buffalo - Ottawa - I like Ottawa, I don't really like Buffalo. The choice is simple.

Carolina / NJ - Carolina - See above.

West:
San Jose / Edmonton - Gotta continue to go with the Sharks and support those who have brought AHL Hockey back to Worcester.

Anaheim / Colorado - My 'B' team or Mickey's team. Hmmm? Obviously, I'll go with the Avs. That took all of a nano-sec. (I don't actually have it out for Anaheim, but you've got to root against somebody, right?)

Touchable...

Well, it had to happen eventually. A run was finally scored off of Jon Papelbon, formerly of the 0.00 ERA. Unfortunately it came during a tie game and gave the Jays the go-ahead run in the top of the 9th inning for a 7-6 lead.

Even so, it looked like the Baseball Gods were going to smile upon the Sox in the bottom of the 9th. On what should have been the final pitch of the inning, the ball got past the Jay's catcher and Dustan Mohr was able to take 1st base.

Pinch runner Harris then came in, stole second and was able to take third when the throw to 2nd wound up in the outfield. Now all of a sudden there's a man on 3rd and I'm thinking to myself that after enduring the rain and cold all night, Iain, who flew all the way to Boston from France to catch this one in person, is going to get to see a hell of an ending to this game. Unfortunately it was not to be. Tek struck out to end the game and that was that. Damn.

Once again, Beckett was not sharp last night. I'm not sure what's going on but it seems like the last few games he has not had the focus and intensity that he had displayed in his earlier starts. Eck's description of his performance as 'mediocre' in the post game was a perfect summation. The Sox left a ton of guys on base last night as well.

After going 3-6 on the last road trip, it's been a long time since we won a series. Toronto is a tough team this year. Hopefully Matty Clement can get the Sox back on track tonight.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The rain needs to stop now...

Normally I don't mind the rain this time of year. It makes my lawn happy, so as long as it does not last for too many days in a row, it's ok, but this week the rainy weather needs to take a break, because Iain from the The Baseball Desert is flying all the way from France to Boston to catch a Red Sox game tonight.

As I sit at my desk writing this, it is pouring rain outside my window. For Iain's sake, let's hope Mother Nature gets it all out of her system early, and hopefully there will be a baseball game tonight at Fenway Park.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Sox / MFY: Round 1...

Sox / MFY. Round 1 of 19. Bottom of the 8th. So far this has been a pretty tight game. I missed Johnny's introduction as I was outside cutting the lawn, but I got inside just in time to see Dougie's return to a standing O.

Somehow I find that rather fitting, as my reaction to Johnny, were I to have been at Fenway tonight, would have been to ignore his existence, but my reaction to Doug would have been to cheer loudly, and that's pretty much what I did, though I was not physically at the Park. Even though I was not there, I still felt part of the collective.

Dougie had a great night. No past balls, threw a man out at 2nd and I thought sure he was goin' long with one of those balls, but the wind knocked it down. I've always been a fan of Mirabelli. It was good to see him back at Fenway.

My kids came in for JD's second at bat and asked me why Damon was a Yankee. They were not sure what to make of Damon in a Yankee uniform. They seemed to be confused and obviously did not understand what was going on. To be honest, I did not have an easy time digesting Damon in that MFY uniform either. It just seemed wrong to me, like in that Star Trek episode where everything is reversed.

I told my wife how Damon got booed and her reaction was perfect. "Good," she said. Fuckin A.

Back to the game:
Big Poppy just absolutely crushed a Mike Myers ball into the bullpen. Even the strong wind that has been blowing in and knocking balls back into the park all night could not keep this one from going out. How perfect is it that the MFY got Myers just for this purpose, to handle Ortiz, and what does David do? He hits a 3 run homer. Ka-Pow! Nice.

The 8th inning is over and they're showing a Dunk's Smoothie ad right now. Let me just take a moment to point out that those things taste most excellent with some Cruzan rum added to them... especially the mango/passion fruit one, for those who might be intersted...

Top of the 9th now and the Sox have a 4 run lead, 7-3. Pap's in to finish it off, 1-2-3, circle the mound, pump the fist and it's ovah, Johnny. It's over!

Johnson wins at Talla-Dangerous

Mark Martin was out of the race only 10 laps in after getting got caught in the always inevitable 'big one' wreck, Dale Jr.'s motor blew up and Jimmy Johnson wound up winning the race at Talladega today.

I'm not a very big JJ fan, so my response to his victory is simply, 'blah'.

Dougie's goin' long!

'Belli's back baby! And just in time too! WOOOO!!

Link: ESPN.com - MLB - Red Sox reacquire Mirabelli to catch Wakefield.

Welcome back Doug! We missed you man!!

*Note in the article the MFY tried to cock-block the Sox in order to try and prevent Mirabelli from returning to Boston. Fuckers.

Pats draft thoughts...

I wish I could offer some in-depth insight on the players the Patriots have chosen in this year's draft, but I have never been a draftnik and I don't follow college football so I really know very little about the Pats draft choices. I'll start to learn more about the new guys on the team when rookie camp starts and when my Patriots Football Weekly shows up at my mailbox to fill me in on the details.

Even though I can't really speak about the players the Pats selected, I can tell you that I was not unhappy or surprised by any of the positions that The Pats tried to fill. When I heard they drafted a running back, my reaction was, 'cool, we need one of those'. The same thing goes for my reaction when they traded up for a receiver, took yet another tight end for the something-eth year in a row, took a fullback/tight-end (versatility my friends) and also a kicker. Wether it was done through the draft or through free-agency, these were all areas on the team that The Pats needed to take care of.

The remainder of the Pats picks provided depth in the O Line with a guy who's played every position on the line except for center and a 2nd O-Lineman that Charlie Weis compared to Joe Andruzzi (would Charlie steer Bill wrong?)

The Pats also added depth to their D Line with two extremely versatile players. The first of the linemen the Pats chose has played in multiple positions on the D-Line, while the second D lineman the Pats picked could actually wind up becoming a linebacker for The Pats.

The Pats also added another body to the crowd in the defensive backfield. As I'm sure Troy Brown would say, the more the merrier.

My bottom line reaction to all of this basically was, 'sounds good to me'. The Pats are not going to fill every hole on the team through the draft, and as Belichick said himself, "We still have some work in free agency to fill out the roster so we can have as strong a team as we can heading into training camp." 

It's all just pieces of the puzzle my friends. I think the Pats did a good job of taking care of a lot of the team's needs with this year's draft and like Bill said, there's more work to be done before camp starts.

In Belichick We Trust

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