Turning 41

Thanks again to everyone for their birthday wishes. Last night, as I indicated I would, I headed out to Gale Street Inn for ribs and drinks with some friends. Here are some pictures from said outing:




Gale Street is close to Milwaukee and Lawrence. Then we headed across the street to a Polish bar called Martinis. Buddies Bill and Jeff are pictured with me in my Polish red.




Jeff, Ricardo and Bill taking time to pose. Joe with the beautiful Anna from the bar. Yowza. She bought us birthday shots!



Nice looking bar huh? The bartender isn't too bad either.

Anyway, Martinis had karaoke going which was fine by us because we were watching the basketball games anyway. The odd thing was though, since all of the patrons but us were Polish, they do the karaoke in Polish!! Too funny. The words are all in Polish and most of the songs you haven't even heard of because they are Polish. I don't think I realized how often the letter "Z" is used in Polish words. It's like our T or S.

Jeff asked Anna to name her top three Polish people of all time. The question arose because he said Copernicus was Polish and I called him a lying son-of-a-bitch and it turns out he was right. Anyway, Anna came up with mostly people we hadn't heard of. Our top three? JPII, our buddy Lech, Copernicus and we also wanted to throw in Casimir Pulaski (just because we get the day off in Illinois). Fun was had by all. Mass at 8:30 a.m. came awful early though.

When in doubt, boil yourself.

Yesterday, as I often do when I catch a cold, or start to catch one, I fired up the jacuzzi tub and took a nice, hot, relaxing whirlpool batch. It really raises your core temperature and mentally at least, I feel better afterwards. Of course, the dehydration aspect isn't good, so you have to make sure you drink plenty of fluids, which I do anyway. This morning I felt much better, but not 100%.

This morning.....was my birthday morning!! My first call of good wishes came at 6:30 a.m. Fortunately, I had woken up 15 minutes prior and hadn't fallen back asleep yet, otherwise there would be one less "morning person" alive today. Two people sang me "Happy Birthday" over the phone and several people sent ecards. Thanks to you all!!!

Mystery solved on the gifter of the Chicago Bears Grill Cover. It was my ex-girlfriend from south of the border (at least heritage-wise). She also bought me a pocket watch that has a clip on it for clipping onto my golf bag or softball bag. Good stuff! It might seem odd to some that my ex is buying me presents, but they are reciprocated and I still love her dearly so it's not unexpected. Ahhhhh, unrequited love.....character builder or mental and emotional lupus?

Tonight, dinner with Ricardo and friends at Gale Street Inn. Should be fun. If I don't relapse tomorrow, some folks from softball are going out in the burbs, so that will be another birthday type celebration. Should be a good way to start my 42nd year on the planet (I'm 41 but this is my 42nd year).

Lastly, some notable passings as I ponder my short time left on this globe. Recently we saw the passing of Denny Sym. Who the hell is that you ask? Dolfan Denny is his better known name and he was a staple at all things Miami Dolphins. Back in the day, you'd see him all the time when the Dolphins were good. Similarly, Wilford "Crazy Ray" Jones passed away. He was the black Dallas Cowboy fan that you saw every Thanksgiving if you took a break from doing dishes to watch the game. Since Thanksgiving is a very important holiday to me, much more than Christmas, Crazy Ray will always be a part of my memories.

Also, Calvert DeForest passed away the other day, not to be confused with DeForest Kelley who played Leonard "Bones" McCoy the doctor on Star Trek and who is also dead. You might remember him as Larry "Bud" Melman on the David Letterman show. He was a funny character that made you laugh just by looking at him.

Finally, Captain America has passed away. While going to prison on several criminal charges (mainly related to not registering as a super powered being), he was shot by a sniper in the back. He died from the wounds.

Playing Doctor

Or more like self medicating. You've all done this right? Doctor tells you to do something and you do it....for a while and then either stop or change it up. Or maybe you start treating symptoms on your own instead of going to the doctor (a favorite of my family by the way).

Well, last night I decided to stop sleeping with my splint on my hand. The reason is that when I wake up in the morning, my hand is pretty stiff around the thumb area and as the day moves on it sort of loosens up a bit. Since there isn't much risk of injury to it now at night, I thought maybe the hand would start out less stiff in the morning and be even better as the day went on. So far so good. It wasn't as tight this morning and is feeling pretty good currently. Chalk one up for Dr. Joe.

Some of you know that tomorrow is my birthday! Yes, 3/22/66 was my birthday (I was destined to be an accountant since even the numbers multiply out 3x22=66). Today I received several cards from relatives, so thank you all! I also received a package from a sporting goods store in New Hampshire. Normally, even though I'm certainly NOT bombable, I'd be very suspicious of a random package. But around my birthday, I'll rip open anything. There's a lesson in there for both bombers and bombees. Anyway, so I open this package and inside is a barbecue grill cover with the Bears logo on it!! Perfect!! It'll replace the one I have now which is finally wearing out after four or five years. So to whomever sent it, thank you!!!

What a difference a day makes

As good as yesterday was, today was that bad (or close to it). Woke up with the beginnings of a cold. Ugh. Tired. Tickle in the back of the throat. Blah.

Then I went to get coffee and instead of making a 2% milk mix by combining equal amounts of whole milk (4%) and skim milk (0%), I mixed Half & Half with whole milk to come up with, what a 27% fat mixture. Ugh. Like drinking a hot shake. So after drinking a little, I went back and added more coffee to make it more drinkable.

Then I went to the office and was thoroughly unproductive and it didn't get any better during the day. Sorry folks, can't think straight so nothing great to write about. I'll try again tomorrow!

Oh wait! Just saw that the Bears picked up a safety from the Redskins, Adam Archuleta, who used to play for Lovie in St. Louis. Unfortunately he lost his starting job in Washington and was supposed to get paid tons of money, so they wanted to get rid of him. The Bears gave up (early reports indicate) a sixth round pick this year and restructured his deal to pay him "only" $8.1 million over the next three years with $5 million guaranteed. Joe thinks this is not a bad deal for the Bears and he might even like it.

What a Great Day!!

Some days are just da'bomb. Today was one of those days for me. Granted, I didn't do a ton of work, but other things went great!

First, the weather took a turn for the warmer which automatically puts the day ahead of most days so far this year. Going down to Starbucks was pleasant again.

Then I sent emails to two women with whom I had bad dates and they accepted my rejection without getting all nasty. Always a positive. It's nice when women act like adults....it's so rare.

After that good response, I had a meeting with the Red Cross's finance committee to discuss the budget for next year. The meeting went well (you'll be happy to know we're doing some great things in Chicago at least) AND they provided lunch: meatball sandwiches and cheese ravioli. I opted for just two meatballs and one ravioli (they all were bigger than normal). It was great.

A quick drive home and then off to the gym for an unscheduled workout (normally I go Tuesday and Thursday when Ricardo goes). After putting in 25 minutes on the treadmill (including four thirty second sprints and a five minute cool down) I saw a woman that I went to high school with who I think is really cute, and we talked for about ten minutes. Even though I know she's not interested, it was nice to see her again.

Finally, I headed back home to start on dinner, which tonight was to include plantains. About ten days ago I bought two plantains and they have finally ripened. A plantain is ripe when the skin turns black, that's when it's the sweetest. It's been about a year since I last made them and while foodies might think it's easy, nothing is easy for me. However, they turned out fantastic!! Yay for me!! Below is the recipe:

Ripe Plantain Dessert

2 ripe plantains
¼ cup butter (or a little less if you prefer)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup cooking wine (sherry)
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Peel the plantains and cut them in half and then cut those in half lengthwise. Sautee the eight pieces in the butter. When done, add the other ingredients and simmer over medium (or lower) heat covered for roughly 15 minutes. Serve warm with the sauce with the main meal or as a dessert either by itself or over ice cream.

You can save any extras in the refrigerator for up to five days (so I hear). Microwave them before serving.

One last thing, if you missed it this weekend, watch for two one hour shows on The National Geographic Channel called Galapagos. They play again at 7 and 8 p.m. on Thursday. These shows, especially on a 50" plasma, are awesome nature shows which not only have great footage of current animals, but they provide a historical context for the islands as well including Charles Darwin's history shaping visit.

St. Paddy's Day is a plot by the English to weed out the Irish!!

Once again I prove to the world that drinking and blogging are NOT good things. While my post from Friday night/Saturday morning wasn't too embarrassing, I probably wouldn't have written it in the light of day. Yet another instance where one of my inventions (a breathalyzer that is required to turn on your computer) would come in handy.

So on the heels of drinking too much wine on Friday, I opted to drink too much beer on Saturday. My buddy Rich and his wife kindly invited me to join their friends, Fred and Jen, and others at a bar downtown. Though it was snowing at times in the morning, some folks in the group (ok, only the women) wanted to go to see the parade for just "ten minutes".

Some background about Joe: 1) I hate parades. When I was 10 or 11, I was forced to march in a Memorial Day parade when the temperature was about 40 and it was raining. Worst two hours of my life and to this day I hate parades. 2) Standing in lines to pay a cover charge is close behind on the list of things that bug me. (so the count is up to four things that piss me off if you include falsely accusing me of something and hypocrites).

Back to yesterday: we all left Logan Square and headed by train down to check out what bar we could get into and some of the group were going to watch the parade for "ten minutes". Well, that's too long for me so I headed for the first bar that I could get into (The Boss) and I found a willing accomplice in Fred who had no love lost for cold weather parades either. After an hour or two on our own in the bar, Rich came back to get us to tell us they were at a bar down the street. After we finished our beers, we headed down only to find that there was a thirty minute line and a $15 cover charge. Ugh. To top it off, just before we got in, I was called by an eHarmony date, who I hadn't met before, who wanted to come by and meet in person. Unfortunately she showed up about five minutes after Fred got in, so I had to wait outside in line AGAIN for another thirty minutes with the prospective date.

When we finally got in (and paid the cover charge) I was a big baby about the whole thing and took it out on Rich since he wouldn't relocate the now ten people he had collected, to the bar Fred and I were at. In retrospect, another word for "cat" is probably more appropriate. Fortunately I was able to apologize to Rich and Jodi today and I think they understand that part of my problem was the disappointment with my eHarmony prospect not to mention the alcohol.

By the way, pizza, hamburgers and drinking beer for over 12 hours is NOT the way to lose weight. I'm not weighing myself until Tuesday because I don't want to see what damage was done.

Did you see The Pussycat Dolls skit on SNL yesterday? Ha! I'm ahead of the curve. See, read my blog and you'll be hip! Hopefully you didn't miss the new episode of Robin Hood on BBC America. Another great show. The character development is really intriguing. Robin Hood is not just a guy that robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Like any human, he has an ego. He wants to be loved by the people he's helping. It's pretty interesting.

Yet another blog entry without ANY mention of Tank Johnson going to jail or stupid moves by the Bears. Soon I'm sure though.

Interesting Day AND Night

Soooo many different things to talk about tonight, I'm not sure where to start. But since it's already Saturday morning, I'm not sure how long I can type either! Tonight I was the third wheel, yet again, with another great couple Tim and his wife Helaine. The interesting thing about them is that I went to Tim's bachelor party in Vegas, met both of their relatives, had such a great time with them all that they forced Tim to invite me to the wedding even though I had yet to meet Helaine. Since I've been married, I know it's really the bride's day, so I declined the very generous invitation from Tim to attend the wedding in New York. What do you think? Did I make the right decision? Now that I've met Helaine (two or three times), I feel like I should have gone. Wonderful gal.

For future reference, I have two pet peeves: falsely accusing me of anything and hypocrisy. One insecure date recently wondered into the realm of the former of the pet peeves. I picked her up at her house and we went out to dinner. After doting on her for almost the entire night, my date accused me of flirting with the waitstaff!! I mean, I was not only doting on her, we were sitting next to each other at the table for dinner just so we could be closer to each other. Really, do you think I would hit on a waitress in that situation? Puhlease. She pulled off the twofer though by also accusing me of being a player (note that she was a reader of my blog in the past). Wow, two false accusations in one night!! Actually, they were within five minutes of each other. Outstanding. The night ended relatively abruptly as you might imagine.

Also on the dating scene, as some of you know, I'm on eHarmony after being tired of women misrepresenting themselves on Match.com. So far I haven't had any different experience on eHarmony, which is unfortunate. I'm still hopeful though! Well, today, for the second time, I've been matched up by the site with a person I know!! The first time was an ex-coworker, so no big deal. This time it was one of the five women I went to game night with just last month!! How about that? So should I have less or more faith in the ability of eHarmony as my newest match and I have been friends for years but have no sexual attraction? Interesting question. Happy St. Paddy's Day all!!!

Hey, a foodie entry!

Yesterday I caught some flack for "gorging" on fish and vegetables (read the comment section). Trust me, half a bundle of asparagus, a large portobello mushroom (with flavored feta cheese), a six ounce portion of salmon and a six ounce portion of trout is very filling!!

"So how did you cook the fish Joe?"
"I grilled it."
"Yeah, I know. That's what you wrote in your blog, but HOW did you cook it?"
"I grilled it."
"Urghhhh, but with what did you season it?"
"I grilled it."
"How about the mushroom? How did you cook that?
"I grilled it."
"The asparagus?"
"I grilled it."
"Did you prepare the vegetables in anything?"
"Oh, yep. The way I grill most things: marinaded in olive oil and balsamic vinegar."
"Both of them? You prepared them the exact same way?"
"That's all I know....I grilled them."

And THAT'S why I don't cook for foodies. I'm a hack. Food to me is a means to an end (not dying) and if I can add flavor, that's awesome. If you give me a small portion that took 18 hours to prepare and has rare herbs and flavoring, I'll probably just say, "Where's the rest?"

Speaking of food, my diet continues to hold steady. For some reason, I can't get under 189. Usually that reason is that I get to that point and then either go out to eat or cook like I did the other night or something like that. I'm not feeling too bad though. I'm five pounds under my softball weight this summer, so it's all good. The reason I went on the diet in the first place was to get into shape for Tampa and the softball tournament. I have to claim success there!!

Oh, 300 on IMAX was AWESOME!!! You have GOT to see it if you're a guy or if you're a gal who likes guys who are ripped and doesn't mind seeing guys who are ripped apart. The women sitting next to me seemed to squirm a little. Funny because I asked them why they came to see a guy flick. They said, "300 ripped guys in speedos." Touche. They didn't seem as happy with their choice at the end of the movie though. Two hours of dismemberment and dead body stacking (seriously) could do that I bet.

Two more really good tv shows if you have the time to watch: Raines (premiered tonight) and The Black Donnelly's. Good stuff both.

Gorging and The Pussycat Dolls

The warm weather brought about an uncontrollable urge in me.....firing up the grill. Though the Lean Cuisines were calling from the freezer, the urge to grill some sort of living beast was very, very compelling. So off to the store I went. It started out pretty good as I was going to go with an old standard: grilled asparagus and salmon. Unfortunately, while walking through the produce section, I noticed one large portobello mushroom left. Mmmmmmm, that would be good grilled too. Then I walked past this piece of rainbow trout for like $3. Ahhhhh, what the hell. I'll get that too.

The other uncontrollable urge I have, which kicks in when cooking, is to cook too much food. Ugh. It was all delicious though.

After eating to excess, I sat down to watch some boob tube....literally. There was this show on called The Next Pussycat Doll. Sounds like a stripper show of some sort doesn't it? Well, for those people who aren't hip (like me), The Pussycat Dolls are a "band" of nubile women who, if I had to bet, have studio singers performing most of the singing while they gyrate around on stage. Apparently they are pretty huge around the world. Anyway, this show is one of the most unwatchable shows I've seen in some time. If not for the truly, truly gorgeous women on the show, it would be completely unwatchable.....though after about 15 minutes I switched channels so maybe the hot women isn't enough.

The weather started off great this morning at about 60+ degrees, but by noon it was into the 40's. Made me feel pretty stupid for wearing that short sleeve shirt. Crap.

Tonight I'm going to see "300" on the IMAX screen at Navy Pier. Should be fun. I'll give you the highlights tomorrow!

Featherweight versus Heavy Weight

In this corner, fighting out of Albuquerque New Mexico, weighing in at 126 and
1/4 pounds, the IBF Featherweight champion, the WBO Bantam weight
champion, formerly the IBF and WBO Super Flyweight champion of the
wooooorrrlllllllddddddddd, Johnny "Mi Vida Loca" Tapia!!!!!

His opponent, hailing from Bolivia and fighting out of every major city in the
developed world; after taking out everyone from rock stars and athletes to
business executives and whores in every single one-on-one competition. Weighing
in at just under 4 oz, your #3 contending recreational drug of choice after alcohol
and marijuana.......cocaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnneeeeee!!!!!!!!

Tapia didn't stand a chance and ended up in the hospital last night after overdosing.

On a separate note, I was reading the comics last night, as I do every night, which is in the Tempo section of the Tribune along with the weather forecast. Unfortunately, due to parties and my general night time activities, I'm about a month behind, so I'm reading the comics from early February. On the back page was the weather forecast for the week and it said for the highs: 10, 6, 2, 0 and 10 again. Ugh. What a difference 30 short days can make!! Yesterday it was 62 and today it was even warmer!! Summer's coming!!!

Mmmmm, the Caribbean!

Ol'Lefty still isn't up to snuff yet and it's getting a little frustrating. While I can turn doorknobs again (think about that for a second........pretty damn annoying huh?), twisting off container tops is a bit of a struggle. Shaking hands is still out of the question, because I can only give the limp handshake and I'd rather not give one at all than do that!

The weather has seemingly turned a corner here in Chicago and I welcomed it in by doing what? Working. What's wrong with me? Honestly, some times I'm just a little ass-backwards.

On my list of things to do this year, if you recall, was to go somewhere warm on vacation. After a problematic weekend, I decided it was time to get moving on that trip with my buddy Jersey Ken. So we're headed down to Turks and Caicos in April, but choosing between one of two weeks right now. The only thing holding us back at this point is that they have two choices for rooms: one king sized bed (not in this lifetime Ken!) or two twin beds. That's right, twin beds. These things are tiny!! One meter by two meters according to the hotel. Who the hell can sleep on that? So, if available, we're each going to get our own room with a king bed. It's a little pricier most likely, but seven nights on basically a cot just isn't going to work.

Here's an interesting section of ESPN that I found. I know sports isn't for everyone, but this section takes significant events in sports history and ponders what would have happened if the event took place differently. Interesting stuff.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2786702

Chicken or Egg?

After church today I headed out to my parents house in part because it was a beautiful day to be out and about and partly because I hadn't seen them in a coon's age. When I showed up though, they weren't home! Where do parents go on the weekend? Well, these parents took a drive of their own out to Farm & Fleet on route 30 (far west.....think almost Iowa, at least in my mind). When they got back though, they did have one interesting nugget to pass on.

As it turns out, today was "free chick day". Now, when I heard that, the idea of moving to the suburbs jumped dramatically on my life goals list. Maybe I've been going about trying to meet the right woman all wrong? Apparently in the suburbs, if you go far west enough at least, they just give them away! Take your pick. Wow!

Alas, no, that is not the case and the suburbs are not some type of utopia. In fact, "free chick day" actually meant free baby chickens or turkeys. I thought this was quite odd. A mess of farmers actually go to Farm & Fleet and, of course, they do have chickens. Interestingly enough, both of MY PARENTS had chickens growing up. Really? Yep, my dad's family had a rooster and four hens. Now, I know nothing about chickens, except they provide the essential parts of both my Denver omelet and Hooter's wings. Mmmmmmmm.

So let's have a little chicken education. According to Wikipedia, hens can lay up to one egg every 25 hours and my parents confirmed that they lay pretty much every other day (which I thought was pretty amazing). With four hens, you could easily have a dozen eggs a week, not bad for any family much less a depression era family in rural Pennsylvania. Here's some more good info out of Wiki that I found interesting: "Chickens will try to lay in nests that already contain eggs, and have been known to move eggs from neighbouring nests into their own. Some farmers use fake eggs made from plastic or stone to encourage hens to lay in a particular location. The result of this behavior is that a flock will use only a few preferred locations, rather than having a different nest for every bird."

Where else are you going to find that kind of information except on my blog?

Did I mention this show on BBC America called Robin Hood? It's on Saturday evenings and if you haven't seen it yet, you have to set up your Tivo to record it. There have only been two or three episodes, so it's still early in the series. WATCH this show! It's awesome.

Clean Sheets

Happy Friday all!! Actually had a pretty busy work day today, but that's good. However, it means many of you won't even read this post until Monday if at all. No sweat though. That leads me into one of my topics: Why do I write a blog?

Well, to tell you the truth, I enjoy writing and trying to come up with interesting topics on a daily basis. Granted, I know any mention of sports automatically tunes out 90% of you, but without it, what would dejesus freak comment on? Would he ever read? :-) Actually, sports is a big part of my life, so naturally I gravitate towards interesting stories in that area. Anyway, writing is kind of fun for me and hasn't always come easy, which is possibly why I find it satisfying.

So I read a story on gas prices which I found interesting. The price of a liter of gas in Iran is $.08. That's not surprising or terribly interesting is it? Well, it turns out the price is subsidized by the government and they are not only going to kick the price up to $.10 a liter, but previously citizens could buy unlimited quantities at that price. Now the government is going to limit the amount of subsidized gas an individual can buy through a card that tracks their consumption. Turns out the government spent $4.7 billion (yes billion!!) to IMPORT refined oil from neighboring countries. Amazing. Because of the cheap price, they have to import 30 million liters of refined oil a day. A DAY!! It's crazy.

Look back up at the title again: Clean Sheets. Doesn't that just give you a nice feeling all over? I did laundry the other day (as I usually do after el supremo de nm leaves town.....sort of a fumigation process) and did my bed sheets as well. I tell you, I was looking forward to going to bed even more than usual!

Finally, further updates on the fiasco that is the Bears offseason. We did indeed lose two of our back up safeties and best special teams players: Todd Johnson and Cameron Worrell. Ugh. Add them to the list of losses along with players we didn't acquire, like Dominic Rhodes, RB for Indy and Willis McGahee, RB for Buffalo who was traded for a 3rd round and 7th round pick this year and a 3rd round pick next year, providing further evidence of how badly the Bears were pantsed by the Jets in the Jones deal. Randy McMichael, TE, just signed elsewhere as well, so there goes another quality tight end. Nice job Angelo. Are you going to pick ANYONE up or just rely on Grossman and Benson next year? Ass-munch.

Jeff Garcia QB, Brad Johnson, QB Trent Green QB
Kyle Brady TE, Daniel Graham TE, Randy McMichael TE
Ahman Green RB, Dominic Rhodes RB, Willis McGahee RB
Joey Porter LB (for as much money as Briggs is balking at!), Adalius Thomas OLB

Lost: Jones RB, Todd Johnson S, Cameron Worrell S

Nice to have pickups: Jake Plummer QB, Travis Henry RB, Brandon Stokely WR, Rueben Droughns RB

I added these last two categories because they may end up being significant as well. The first class are players definitely better than what we have currently. The second is self-explanatory and the third is players who could have easily competed for a starting job and might have won. Obviously the last class is a little more iffy.

Just call me lefty

Today was the big day: a trip to the hand specialist to see what was wrong with my hand which I hurt the week before the softball tournament in Tampa. It's been almost three weeks and it still hurts, so I was very much concerned about a break or a torn ligament.

My appointment was for 9:30 down in Hyde Park at the University of Chicago. Not a bad trip trip, but during rush hour, it's not fun. So I left my place around 8:30 and traffic at Belmont was all backed up due to some construction along Sheridan. That meant I wasn't going to make it on time or I had to find a different way to get onto Lake Shore Drive. Being ever ingenious, I opted to go NORTH to Irving Park, even though I eventually needed to go south. It started off fine, but then ended up in an alley with exit. Mind you, there previously was an exit, but now there is a chain link fence blocking it off. Nice.

While turning around from said alley, I ended up on a slope with the trunk of the car significantly lower than the front. Unfortunately, the sun had not made its way to the alley in days, so the slope was covered in ice and not only were my front tires just spinning, my car was actually sliding down the slope towards a parking structure. Not good. After sliding to an angle though, I was able to extricate myself from the alley and onto Irving.

The rest of the trip went smoothly until I got to the parking garage where, apparently, every sick person in Chicago was already parked. Finally, on the last of six very large parking levels, I was able to find a spot. Even with all that happening though, I was waiting in line to check in with three minutes to spare.

The doctor came in, said hi, looked at my chart, said "This isn't right." and left the room. About ten minutes later a resident came in to examine me. Finding nothing conclusive, she sent me for x-rays. After waiting again, I finally got to see the doc. Diagnosis: a sprain for which I would need a splint to keep it from being irritated. In the grand scheme of things, the diagnosis was about as good as I could expect.

The good folks in the hand rehabilitation area made a custom molded splint for me and 30 minutes later I was on the road. It was noon and time for lunch.

Rats and Sports

For the first time in several months, I saw an indication of rats in the neighborhood. I haven't been able to find anything in writing that says rats hibernate, but it certainly seems so. It could just be that they went inside someones home for the winter, but why leave then come spring? Well, fortunately they only briefly set foot on our property last night (there was a dusting of snow and you can see their prints). Still, I don't like the idea that they are that close. Although I shouldn't necessarily say "they" as there was actually only one set of prints.

The other day a sports anomaly occurred that I found interesting because if similar feats happened in other sports, they would have made big headlines. The feat? Two opposing basketball players in the same game scored a combined 100 points. Doesn't seem all that fantastic does it? Ben Gordon of the Bulls scored 48 and Michael Redd of the Bucks scored 52 points. I seriously didn't give this story a second look. Then, on the radio, I heard that in the last 30 years, this has only happened something like four times. It's on par with perfect games in baseball, four home run games by the same player in baseball and 500 yard passing games in football. All are much more notable headlines.

Daniel Graham, TE, signed with the Broncos. Another miss by the Bears. However Trent Green might become available from the Chiefs at quarterback!! Go after him you idiots!!!

Jeff Garcia, QB Jake Plummer, QB Brad Johnson, QB Trent Green QB
Kyle Brady, TE Daniel Graham, TE, Randy McMichael TE
Ahman Green RB (especially if losing Jones!)
Joey Porter LB (for as much money as Briggs is balking at!), Adalius Thomas, OLB

Amsterdam newspaper headline: Bears screw themselves

It's THAT big of a blunder. The Bears decided their oft injured running back Cedric Benson, is good enough to win a Super Bowl, even though can't seem to stay healthy longer than three consecutive games even with splitting the carries. So even though most NFL teams are going to the two running back system, the Bears have decided to trade the more successful of their two running backs, Thomas Jones, and their second round pick (62nd overall) to the running back-less NY Jets for their second round pick (37th overall). They gave up a starter who had 1,200+ yards two years in a row for not a whole hell of a lot. Moving up in the draft is fine, but it's no guarantee that you're going to get a starter the quality of Jones. Jets fans are ecstatic. The means it wasn't win-win. It was win-got screwed.

Why would the Bears do something that according to all football experts that I have seen thus far, amounted to them getting "pantsed" by the Jets? This coming season was Jones' last under contract and he wanted a new contract and was unhappy splitting carries. If you don't sign him to another contract, he would leave at the end of the season, probably, and you would get nothing in return.

The alternative course which the Bears chose, was turning the running game over to someone with limited carries in three seasons, who was the last player signed in all of the draft after being drafted and the only player to actually miss games by holding out after being drafted and has been hurt several times, including his knee in the Super Bowl. Once he goes down in game three, my current figure for the over/under on Cedric getting hurt, the Bears will be stuck with Adrian Peterson carrying the ball. Who? Exactly.

Now back to the list of players the Bears should have picked up to replace current players:

Jeff Garcia, QB Jake Plummer, QB Brad Johnson, QB
Kyle Brady, TE Daniel Graham, TE (not signed yet), Randy McMichael TE,
Ahman Green RB (especially if losing Jones!)
Joey Porter LB (for as much money as Briggs is balking at!), Adalius Thomas, OLB

There are some good safeties out there too that could take the place of Johnson and Worrell or possibly take over a starting role, but we'll see if the Bears go get one. Ugh.

Ahhhh, the good old days of the BBC

One of my many fond memories of growing up was of a British television show which we were able to watch here in the States on public television (WTTW in Chicago). It was aired later on Sunday nights and I would watch after my bowling league ended. The show was called Dr. Who and starred Tom Baker, though there are many incarnations of the good Doctor who ages in reverse (gets younger as "time" passes).

While flipping channels this weekend I noticed a marathon of Dr. Who shows on the BBCA channel. If you were a fan of the show, it is still very compelling, but with better special effects. The big surprise to the 2006 series was that the Daleks are back even though the Doctor though he destroyed them all. It was fun to sip coffee while sitting in the sun on my chaise and catching up with the good Doctor. Ahhh, the memories.

The ten faces of Dr. Who and a Dalek circa 2005. Tom Baker is the upper rightcorner and the guy I was watching is the lower left.

By the way, BBC America also had a great show on called Robin Hood. If you have Tivo or are home while it's on, check it out. Very compelling.

The history channel had some good religious programming on talking about the devil and its creation and the end of days and such. As you know, the mark of the beast is 666 and many believed Ronald Wilson Reagan was an agent of the devil due to each of his names have six letters. I hope they are wrong said Joseph Edward Sutton.

No significant signings that the Bears SHOULD have made, though Ahman Green went from Green Bay to Houston. Great move for Houston, but we don't need a running back. The Cowboys signed a solid offensive lineman in Davis away from Arizona, but they paid top dollar for him and I don't think he was worth it based on what the Bears have now. Unfortunately Lance Briggs is now pissed about making $7.2 million a year and is going to "do everything in my power to keep from playing" for them. Nice. Way to go numb-nuts. Screw up a solid defense because you want $10 million instead of $7 million. Ugh. At some point, it's about winning and not about the money.....just ask Peyton Manning, who you might have considered sacking or at least pressuring during the Super Bowl. Bitch.

My hand still hurts and is weak, so I made an appointment to see a hand specialist whom I've seen before. It's not until Thursday morning, so I expect to be healed by then. Isn't that the way?

Schitzo entry today

Another day, another lunar eclipse. Actually it's the first one in three years, though another one is due on August 28th. Though I was thinking about it only 30 minutes before it was to start, I ended up inside a Hooters during the show. More on that later. Here's a cool photo:

It's the lunar eclipse with Big Ben in the foreground.

After sleeping in following the fish fry last night, the same third wheel couple from the fish fry (Greg and Kim, Hi guys!) gave me a call to say they couldn't make it over tonight to watch a pay-per-view Ultimate Fight match because they too got a late start and were still in the suburbs shopping. Then they asked if I wanted to join them in going to a movie, Ghost Rider. Sounded fun to me, so I drove out to York Town Mall, met them at Kohl's, went to Hooters for some quick food and a drink(every place was freakin' packed on Saturday at 6, ugh, even at Hooters we had to sit at the bar) and then hit the movie. If you haven't seen the movie and are planning on it, you might want to skip the next paragraph where I critique some scenes.

I realize with movies that there is a suspension of disbelief, and I'm fine with that, but inconsistencies bug me. For instance, while in Ghost Rider form, the character gets stabbed and the next day while in his normal form, he is getting the injury sewn up. Fine. Then later in the movie, he is shot up hundreds of times by the police and there is no problem the next day. I'm fine if you can't hurt the Ghost Rider, that's great, I'm all that. But don't do one thing and then contradict it later. His regular leather jacket never had holes in it either and that bothered me. Cage's character saying no to the unbelievably gorgeous Eva Mendes is just absurd. There's not enough weed on the planet for me to smoke to believe that's going to happen. Unfortunately they don't really have any chemistry on stage either, which is a shame. Also, towards the end, the old Ghost Rider rides his horse while Cage's character rides his motorcycle to the old ghost town 500 miles away. Then the old Ghost Rider just turns back to normal and dissipates. Why the hell make the trip if you're not even going to help fight satan's kids in the ghost town? Just stupid. I think I actually threw my hands up in the theater at that point.

Ok, on to other topics.

I think I've finally gone over the edge as a Bear's fan. Now, more so than in the past, no matter what happens in the NFL, I somehow relate it to the Bears. The latest thing that's been mentally taxing on me is free agency and the opening of trading season for the the NFL. As such, I've decided to keep track of everyone that switches teams through free agency (and possibly trades if it's for a draft pick) who I believe could have helped the Bears or is a better player than what we have at that position. Obviously MOST if not ALL quarterbacks are better than Grossman, so they will make the list almost by default. I'll leave off the obscene contracts that we couldn't afford (i.e. Nate Clements at cornerback, Eric Steinbach at guard).

So let's start the list!!

Jeff Garcia, QB Jake Plummer, QB Adalius Thomas, OLB Kyle Brady, TE

Daniel Graham, TE (not signed yet)

I anticipate the list growing quite long. Ugh.

Finally, I thought this was interesting when I ran across it on Wikipedia today. Can you name the last five vice presidents? Extra credit if you can name the sixth past VP. See yesterday's entry for the answer.

Third Wheel

Today I had lunch with Ricardo and his wife. We went to a great sandwich restaurant downtown in the west loop, which I need to get the name of before I forget. I just love these two folks. While probably many guys would have some problem with hanging out with a buddy and his wife, I have to tell you, they are two of the more enjoyable people I know and couldn't have envisioned a better lunch duet.

So what did I do for dinner? I had a fish fry with a childhood buddy of mine and HIS wife! Yep, third wheel two meals in a row. Again though, I just adore these guys and we had a great evening. The last time he and I got together for a fish fry, Newcastle and Jameson were passing out free booze along with our all you can eat fish. Today, oddly enough, the good folks from Guinness were there offering free samples of Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks. Awesome. The fish, conversation and drinks were fantastic. I tell ya, people often complain about being the third wheel, but when you have friends like I do, you'd just feel lucky to be invited. I'm fortunate to know such fine people!! And there are two or three other couples who I would be more than happy to go out with because I enjoy their company so much.

Hopefully I'll be able to find a fourth wheel that will fit in nicely to my fun meals!!



Answer to tomorrow's quiz: Cheney, Gore, Quayle, Bush, Mondale, Rockefeller

Damn that hurts

One of my goals for the year was to take a trip somewhere warm. Now in January I went to Vegas and in February I went to Tampa, but that's not the type of trip that I was intending. Somewhere in the Caribbean or Mexico is what I really want to do. However time is running out! Now, my buddy, Jersey Ken, is more than willing to go with me pretty much whenever I want and he's just waiting for me to pull the trigger. The beach, scuba, snorkeling, golf, drinks, women in bikinis......geesh, I have to get that trip booked. What am I thinking?

Almost two weeks ago, I think mentioned previously, I was hit in the hand with a softball thrown by a teammate at probably close to 75 mph. Needless to say, it hurt....a lot. But I iced it and took some ibuprofen and thought I had it under control. Well, in the morning I still can't grip a cup of water and throughout the day simple tasks elude me: turning door knobs, twisting off anything, carrying handled bags, etc. So at what point to I break down and go to the doctor to get this thing x-rayed? I'm thinking next week, after el supremo de mexico leaves town is the right answer. If it's not feeling better by then, something is seriously wrong. Hell, something might be seriously wrong now!!

Just watched the hour long version of Are you smarter than a fifth grader? I basically learned two things: clearly I'm an idiot and Jeff Foxworthy is one of the worst hosts of a game show I've ever ever seen. With whom is he in competition? Well, it's been too long since I had a Wikipedia reference, so let's go explore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_show_hosts
Mike Adamle really was bad, but that whole Gladiator's show was terrible. Gene Rayburn of Match Game fame? He was terrible but in a moronic way that actually made him watchable. Michael Reagan, Ahmad Rashad, Betty White, Mario Lopez, Joe Garagiola, Anderson Cooper, all were probably bad hosts, but their shows weren't on long enough to find out. Foxworthy though...ugh.

Random Thoughts at 10:30 P.M.

Hopefully you all had a chance on Tuesday to spend time with the most miserable people on the planet. Yes, election judges. Now, THEY aren't miserable people to be with, they are just miserable doing what they are doing. They have to be! A decade ago I performed that civil service for the princely sum of $100. I had to be there at 6:30 a.m. I think and didn't get to leave until about 9 p.m. When I am on my deathbed I will remember time wasted in my life doing two things: being an election judge and watching Soul Plane. Someone has to do it, but now I leave it to the bagger at my local grocery store who can probably use the money and has to deal those ungrateful bastards anyway. Ugh.

Today, out of the blue, I received a call from a good friend. He and his wife want to meet me out for a fish fry on Friday, have a few beers and catch up. Seems simple enough, but it was a real pick up for me. They're fun people that are great to be around. In a similar fashion, I went into my office today and it was really nice to see Ricardo again after not seeing him for a week or so. Even though I was off having fun in Tampa, I missed my friends! They're cool and I enjoy hanging out with them. Unfortunately Ricardo's wife was already going out with some people, so he an I hit Jack's Bar, conveniently located a block away from my church.

Maybe you heard about this raid on a pharmacy in Florida that was selling various drugs to pro and minor league athletes over the internet. I saw a story that mentioned attention was drawn to the pharmacy because its sales went from $200k-$300k about 7 years ago to over $30 million in sales last year. I mean c'mon. How are they NOT going to be investigated?

Have you seen this show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? It pits an everyday person against questions that fifth graders or younger can answer. The show is actually pretty interesting and even more so to me since I essentially had the idea about 30 years ago while watching Jeopardy! Oh well, yet another million dollar idea I left on the table. Just for grins, here are some questions they asked:

1) In what month does Columbus Day fall?
2) T/F In the wild, polar bears typically feed on penguins.
3) A trapezoid has how many sides?
4) Who was the first U.S. President to be impeached?
5) If a triangle has an area of 16 square inches and a base of 8 inches, how long is its height?

Answers at the bottom of yesterday's column.

C'mon Meat, hit me the ball.

Going into the tournament weekend our team had some problems already.
1. Just a week before, I hurt my throwing hand
2. In the same game, a teammate caught a ball with his face leaving a nice gash on his chin.
3. The day before heading to Tampa, one of our best hitters and a good utility player, had to back out as his father had a heart attack.
4. The day before the tournament started, but while down in Tampa, our starting pitcher spilled cologne in his luggage. Not a big deal right? Well, some got into his contacts case so when he went to put the contact in his eye, instant chemical burn and subsequently a scratched cornea. Unbelievable.
5. Our backup pitcher was only going to be there on Saturday as he is a teacher and doesn't have a ton of days available to take off.

We were definitely behind the eight ball going into games on Saturday.

In addition, the tournament was supposed to start on Friday, as early as noon, but Thursday night we found it wouldn't start until Saturday morning and even then we'd only play two games. That meant Sunday would be a long day with potentially eight games and the championship wouldn't be played at 3 or 4, but 8:30 p.m. Unfortunately, we had 5-6 people leaving on an 8:00 flight, not to mention our only pitcher now wouldn't be there for the majority of the games!

One last bit of bad news, they changed the field we were playing on from one that was 10-15 minutes away from our hotel to one that was 30-40 minutes from our hotel. Thanks guys!!

Despite all that, we showed up at 7:30 a.m. for game one against a team (actually called Team 727) from Florida who had more than one guy who looked like Barry Bonds. Though we went up 12-5 after four innings, our bats went silent and we lost 17-14. Then came a four hour break before our next game, which we won to provide us a little momentum going into Sunday morning's 7 a.m. game against a team from Georgia.

Fortunately, due to the bad weather in Chicago, our #2 pitcher couldn't fly back on Saturday night, so he changed reservations to later on Sunday in order to pitch for us. He turned out to be our MVP for the tournament.

So Sunday morning was our third game of a three game minimum tournament. With one loss already, if we lost again, we went home. When we showed up to face our first opponent at 6:30 a.m. for our 7 o'clock game, they were already on the field taking batting practice. Looked like we might be in trouble. However, we hit well and rolled through them something like 17-6. That gave us one hour off until we would have to play four in a row, provided we kept winning. Our fourth game of the tournament and second on Sunday was against a team from Maryland and we handled them as well in a close game...12-7. Our third game of the day was against a team from New Jersey and we shut them out 3-0 in a pitchers duel as the wind started blowing in from left field and kept all fly balls up in the air forever. In one moment of self-glorification, I turned a key third to first double play on a ground ball late in the game to kill their rally.

At the level of ball we play, you're not allowed to hit home runs over the fence. I know that seems odd to some people, but there are a ton of guys who can hit a softball out of a major league baseball park with regularity, so they divide up the levels of competition into five levels and at our level no home runs are allowed. To put an exclamation point on the rule, if you hit a home run, your team is charged an out and the other team is given a run. The next time you hit a home run, the other team gets two runs, and so on. Very strict. On with the game summary.

Our fourth game of the day was a rematch against Team 727 from Florida to whom we lost in the first game. We jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first half inning and maintained a lead into the top of the seventh when the score was 10-6. We were the visitors for the game so we were hitting in the top of the 7th and last inning. With two on and one out, our starting pitcher (with the scratched cornea) hit a bomb over the right field fence for a home run and a second out for us. It killed our rally and made the score 10-7 going into the bottom of the 7th. For brevity, I'll jump ahead to the score being 10-9, two outs and runners on first and third. It looked like they were going to come back yet again to at least tie us if not beat us again. Their third baseman was up to bat, a leaner kid about 25 who had good pop in his bat and a great glove.

Here's what I was thinking:
Where is he going to hit it? He's a pull hitting right handed batter. He hit up the middle yesterday, but that was game one. He's played three games today and might be getting tired. He's going to pull it. He won't be able to get his wrists around fast enough to hit it on the line though. With the runner at first, the shortstop is a step over towards second. He's going to try and hit the hole between me and the shortstop. C'mon Meat, hit me the ball.

Less experienced players usually don't have these thoughts, quite frankly because they don't need to. They can react quickly enough to get to balls hit in their direction. Older guys like me have to think more to get the first step edge. And this time it worked out.

The batter hit a screaming two hopper into the hole between me and the shortstop. I dove to my left and gloved it; popped to my knees and hit the second baseman covering the bag at second to end the game!! I was immediately mobbed by my teammates. It was a huge win and put us one win away from a top four finish. We couldn't have been higher going into what would be our last game of the day.

The opponent was a team from Taylorsville, North Carolina (pretty much an hour or two from all of Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Asheville). We again started off hitting well and playing solid defense as we jumped to a 8-2 lead by the fifth inning. In the sixth though, two errors by our first baseman (a line drive in his glove that somehow got away from him and a ground ball double play ball that he kicked) led to an 8 run inning and a 10-8 lead and eventual victory for the NC team. Our tournament finally ended.

We were 5-2 though and these out of town tournaments have a way of pulling the team together. We'll be better for having gone and are looking for bigger things this year.


Answers to tomorrow's quiz:
1) October 2) False, they live at opposite ends of the globe 3) 4
4) Andrew Johnson 5) 4 (2 parallel and 2 non-parallel)

Still in Tampa, thankfully.

Monday is a travel day for me, but I thought I'd fire off a quick update on the weekend. The weather was gorgeous here in Tampa....mostly in the upper 70's and sunny during the day and a little chilly for sleeping at night. Good stuff. Chicago is experiencing some snow and a ton of flight delays and cancellations. Looks like we picked a good week to hit Florida!!

The short story on the tournament is that we only lost to one team that we didn't also beat and that we ended up tied for 5th place out of 25 teams from around the country and Canada (one team). We were 2-1 against Florida teams, beat a team from New Jersey, a team from Maryland and then won one more game. We lost to a team from Taylorville, NC 10-8 in which they scored 8 unearned runs in one very bad defense inning for just one or two people on our team. It was our fifth game on the day, which combined with the sun, heat and humidity made our tournament pretty respectable. More on the games tomorrow!!

Illinois (and Arkansas) vs. The World!

It's a travel day for me (heading to Tampa) so my entry will be shorter today. The day already has a bit of bad news though as Ben, one of the nicest guys on our team (and resident drunk---see Bears playoff entries), called the coach this morning to let him know Ben's father had a heart attack so he was heading to Michigan to see him instead of to Tampa with us. Not only is this traumatic for Ben because of his father, of course, but he has also been working like a dog (as a plumber) and was really looking forward to the time off. Being only 24, I can't even imagine what he's going through right now.

Yesterday I was looking at ESPN's website as I often do, just to see what's going on in the sports world. If you don't go there often, they have a poll of the day and you can see how people voted on the question based on geographic location. The question of the day was whether the Bears defense would be worse off without their defensive coordinator Ron Rivera. Personally I feel a big part of last year's playoff loss and this year's Super Bowl loss fall on his shoulders, so I don't think they'll have any problem without him. Heck, he took a demotion to be linebackers coach in San Diego after the Bears didn't renew his contract. Every state in the Union, except for Illinois and Arkansas (who thought they knew football?), and the world collectively, said 60-40 the Bears defense would be worse off. Arkansas was basically split, but teetered over the edge at 52-48. Illinois was 67% that the defense would NOT be worse off. I guess the rest of the world just thinks Rivera is "da'bomb", but they haven't had their hearts broken by his inability to adjust his defensive scheme. Good riddance I say!

"Hey, you have something on your.....oh, right, Ash Wednesday."

Today is Ash Wednesday for us Christians and is the start of the Lenten season which last until Easter (through Holy Saturday). While I could easily go off on the religious significance and all sorts of religious facts, I'm only going to touch on one aspect before moving on.

Many people equate Lent with some form of fasting, giving something up (like chocolate, alcohol or coffee). While fasting is one part of Lent, it's actually just one pillar of a trilogy. The other two Lenten pillars are charity and prayer. So if your are Christian and taking part in Lent this year, when you fast, donate the money that you would have spent on whatever it is that you're giving up to a charity of your choice. For the prayer pillar, my church provides a free little booklet with a different story for each day of Lent and I read it before bed. Going to church an extra time during the week is also a goal of mine every year.

Chicago is warming up and the snow is melting away. Prior to the 8-10 inch snow storm that we had, there really wasn't much snow, if any at all, accumulated. In regular (non-global warming) winters, we receive layers of snow and interesting things accumulating during the cold months. When it all melts, it's a bonanza of gloves, shoes, hats, all sorts of things. This year is proving much less interesting however. The only interesting thing I've seen is several properties and bills from a Monopoly game. Have you ever found anything really odd or interesting after the thaw? How about just laying in the street while not associated with a thaw? My best "find" was a $100 bill that I found in Anchorage. A few years ago, across the street, I found the wallet of someone from Minnesota and was able to actually track them down even though their license wasn't in the wallet (thanks AAA).

Self-serve wine, just like a gas station.

Went back to one of my favorite Chicago places last night: Just Grapes. Here's the link. http://wineshop.justgrapes.net/ While relatively inconvenient for foot traffic and cars, you can indeed get there with minimal effort if you know the 'hood. There are usually spots on the street a block in either direction which only cost you a buck for an hour and you only have to feed the meter until 6. So after work, driving's absolutely a viable option. And that's what I did last night and what two of my "guests" did as well. It is close to the Metra station, so it is convenient in that sense. Being located west of the Loop and the river, not a lot of people are going to be walking by though.

Anyway, one of the reasons I like this place is that they have a self-serve tasting machine set up. It holds probably 24 red wines and doles out a 3 oz serving or so for a price that varies based on the cost of the wine (normally $.40 to $2, but one bottle of $150 wine had a $7.50 sample price). You charge up a prepaid card, insert it into the self-serve machine and choose a wine. It's just that easy to get all liquored up. And the best part is on Monday nights, it's half price!!! There's also a machine that dispenses white wines that holds 12 bottles I believe.

So last night it was me and two lawyers with whom I work at one of my many jobs (guess I'm only down to two now though since I fired the one client) and my buddy T-Rex Tim. After getting good and snookered on wine, we headed over to Izumi restaurant for sushi, a patterned I've repeated more than a few times. The food was great as usual and a fun time was had by all.

Now I have to get serious about what I'm packing to take with me to Tampa on Thursday. We're playing in a softball tournament down there and I haven't decided if I'm going to take my golf clubs or not. It's a three game minimum with the first game on Friday. There are 22 teams, 18 from Florida. We should be able to finish in the top five, but if we don't for some reason, the golf clubs might come in handy. Maybe I'll just rent them if I need them.

Free at last, free at last....from my car and a client!

Sorry about missing a few days here folks. No real excuse available other than a hangover and mucho lost time in my car this weekend. Some of the lost time was worthwhile, but most of it was not.

My first battle with the roads came on Thursday with a second date out in Geneva with the woman with the beast of a dog. A normal 60-70 minute trip took over two hours! Ugh! There didn't seem to be any accidents (or reports of them) just a crap load of traffic. It was a brutal trip, but a lovely lady awaited at the end of the adventure, so it didn't seem so bad. The dogs seemed more friendly towards me too since it was the second time I've seen them.

Friday brought another battle, but this time it was just a long trip, not bad traffic. It was a semi-traditional game night whereby I get together with a couple of women that I used to work with (MJ and Monique), a friend or two of theirs, my ex girlfriend and possibly another friend or two. At this particular event, it was me and five women! Turns out six is a really good number of people for game night and we had a blast (two teams of three for a few games worked well). The kicker was that we were having it at MJ's newly purchased abode in Tinley Park (about an hour plus south and west). Her house was really nice and she has two of the cutest puppies you've ever seen.

Here's one of the games we played: http://www.gdg-games.com/mystify.htm We followed that up with Celebrity Taboo http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11573 Finally we played a game that was a cross between charades and password. Combine all that with pizza and booze and it's a fantastic evening! Another hour plus drive home afterwards though.

Saturday brought another trip to the burbs, this time to meet softball guys to discuss the upcoming season and then to play a double header. First lower Wacker decided to grow a big hole in the middle of it causing traffic to be rerouted and then an accident on 290 backed up traffic for miles. After taking a local road (Roosevelt), the trip ended up taking almost two hours again!! Normally it would be a 45 minute trip most likely. Ugh.

Guess what I didn't do on Sunday? That's right, one trip to church and that was it for me and the car!!!

The last few days also saw me become free from a client that I've for over a year and whom I had to fire at the end of November. Unfortunately I tend to live up to contractual agreements, so I had to give them 60 days notice as well as finish the work scheduled through that time. That all finally happened on Thursday!! Yay for me!

Guns Galore

Coolest pictures you'll probably see today. G-Man sent these from the great white north....or close to it. They were taken from a tree stand, but not by him. He sent them in response to my comment about him needing to park close to his destination for fear of being attacked by wolves.

























I was thinking about what I would do, if anything, if I'm up in a tree stand and saw this going on. What would you do?


a. shoot in the air to scare off the wolves.
b. shoot the moose to put it out of it's misery
c. shoot the alpha-male wolf
d. sit and watch

Legally I'm not sure what I would be allowed to do, but given that all of the options are available and legal I would probably either try to scare off the wolves or do nothing. Is that wrong? It feels wrong to do nothing, but it's just nature doing it's thing. Happens everyday somewhere (everywhere in some regard), but this time you just happen to be watching. This is what National Geographic photographers have to grapple with all the time I bet.....except when dealing with naked pygmies.

The other day I received my Firearm Owners Identification Card or FOID (yes, I know it should be FOIC, but they existed long before I knew anything about them so it's not my fault). On the card it says, "Caution: this card does not permit bearer to UNLAWFULLY carry or use firearms. This does not authorize the carrying of a concealed weapon." Don't these statements seem kind of obvious? Are people out there thinking: hmmm, if I get my FOID, I can go out and shoot people! I'm pretty sure they are not. Though after watching those "village idiot" clips that I sent around via email the other day, maybe that's what people ARE thinking.

Not on my block buddy! Part deux

Thought I should explain further about my anti space saving policy. There's so much to say about it, that I thought a follow up entry would be warranted.

Let's start with the cone-bastard themselves. They park on the street, in the winter, in Chicago. And lo and behold, in snows!! Really? You don't say? And now they have to dig their car out? My goodness. The poor souls. WAKE UP PEOPLE! They know the situation. They know what's going to have to happen if it snows. It's their own damn fault. Don't park on the street if you can't or don't want to dig yourself out and then lose the spot.

Next, let me relate a story to further explain my position. Long ago, but while still living in my current condo, I double parked outside in front of my house while I ran some things inside. While inside, the police came up behind my car and gave me a ticket! They hadn't finished yet when I returned to the car and I got into a little verbal argument with them. They said, "You didn't even have your hazard lights on." Which I didn't because they weren't working that particular day. So I said, "Oh, so as long as I have my hazard lights on it's ok to park anywhere in the city that I want? That's good to know." They didn't take too kindly to that. So back to the cone-bastards. If I can save my parking spot just because I was foolish enough to park on the street during a snow storm, why can't I do it during a lighter snow? How about no snow? Why not year round? Can I then bequeath the spot to my children as long as they have cones? Does the spot then become part of the deed to my condo? The logic is there my friends. You go down that slope at least as far as year-round saving by allowing someone to save it just for shoveling. That's unacceptable and you know it.

So why do I, who is USUALLY unaffected by this whole process, remove the furniture and cones? Other than because I don't like the process for the reasons above, I also park on the street in front of my condo quite often. Being able to drive around during the day, if I can find a spot closer to my condo than my parking spot, I'll take it. Even though I might not be using it right then, spots are relatively limited (at least spots that I might use), so removing it now opens up a spot that might remain there when I DO need it.

But I'll toss furniture and cones anywhere I see them. Why? I guess I feel bad for those people who want to park there, but feel that someone else has some right to the spot, when clearly they don't. Often in those situations I'll think to myself, "What if my mom was trying to find a parking spot and passed this one up because of these cones?" It may not be my mom (ok, I KNOW it's not going to be my mom), but it could be someone else's mom. Someone else who didn't see the cone-bastard's attempt at annexing public thoroughfares.

Wax nostalgically if you wish with your "practices that make Chicago, Chicago" or with your quaint tales of "how it was when I was a kid..." or justify it by somehow blaming mother nature for your bad decision, but not in my neighborhood buddy. Not in my neighborhood.

Not on my block buddy!

If you're alive, and in the country, you know that Chicago and the Midwest was socked with a crap load of snow and some nasty wind conditions last night and today. It's Chicago though right? You kind of have to expect it a bit in the winter.

That said, I have a 7 a.m. meeting one day a month at my church and GUESS what day the meeting was this month.....yep, today. Ugh. Fortunately it was worse just getting up at 6 and on the road by 6:30 than actually driving through the snow and such. Tell you what though, today was another great day to have a remote starter! Thanks again for the idea Kenny from Jersey!!

As the snow was piling up today and minimal traffic was going up and down the street, I looked out the window and saw the one thing that irritates me to no end when the snow falls: someone had put orange cones out where their car was parked as if to save their spot. First of all, we had a bunch of snow but it was on top of nothing so it's not like they had to dig out. So, as I tend to do at least once or twice every winter, I went out, picked up each cone and threw them into the deepest snow banks that I could find. And not just one snow bank, three different snow banks. You should see what I do to furniture that gets left out there to save spots!!

Thanks for the picture Ricardo!

Now, I realize there can be some faults with my actions: 1) the person who eventually takes the spot has no idea the cones were there; 2) the cone-bastard who set out the cones will eventually return and be unhappy; 3) the cone-bastard may exact revenge on a perfectly innocent person. I figure, for every cone-bastard that does exact revenge on an innocent person, another one, somewhere, gets beat up by said innocent person who happens to be returning to their car while the cone-bastard is exacting revenge. Most of them just move on though and find a spot like the rest of us (though I do have a rented spot).

That's my winter fun though. On really good days, I'll just walk down the street tossing cones and furniture left and right opening up spots for everyone!! I'm like the candy man.

Does it always have to be work?

Ok, taking a risk putting this entry out there, but I guess I can always delete the entry if necessary. It just seems that maybe there aren't any women left who are easy to date based on the various dates that I've come across lately. There's one particularly amusing story about a near relationship that I had back in the fall, but that one gets saved for the bar......a little incentive to take me out for a drink!

My last date originated when my friend's wife emailed me (and God bless my friends that set me up because they are great people, I mean it if you're reading!) to ask if this description sounded good:
"okay, how does this sound? 36. adorable. petite. blond. fun. career woman. educator. never married. no kids. lives in the burbs but wants to move back to the city. great conversationalist. "

Well, what? Am I gay? How does she not sound freakin' awesome?! What, do I suddenly NOT like adorable women? Do fun people suddenly suck? I was all over this seemingly fantastic opportunity.

Well it did involve an hour plus drive to the suburbs, which I knew going into it, but that was pretty much the only downside. We spoke on the phone first and it turns out that her work day is 6 a.m. until 3 and then she calls it a night relatively early (around 9). Ok, I can adapt possibly. We had a great conversation and set up a date. She was exactly as described....minus two huge dogs and two cats. No big deal though right? Well one dog is a large English bulldog. No sweat, I owned one and they are, despite their appearance, harmless. The other dog however, is about 120 pounds if it's an ounce, part American bulldog, part boxer and ALL huge. Holy crap. This monster was happy to meet me and wanted to play, but I was concerned whether "playing" meant "leave a limb behind". The dog was chewing on a femur for cripes sake! This bone was enormous. I asked my date if it was from the last boyfriend or date. She just smiled. Not the reassuring response I was looking for!!

We went for dinner (which was very nice) and then back to her place. What seemed like her "safety" call came at 8. This theory was actually proposed by my friend Judi and with whom I rarely agree on anything, however I think she's right in this case. A safety call is a call from a friend who gives you an excuse to bail on a date if it's not going well or you just want it to end. I have a feeling it was closer to the latter, but that's only because we have since talked and set up another date. She really is adorable, nice and fun, so if I can survive, it will be well worth the effort. More to come....until she starts reading!!

On a separate note, here's an outstanding website that none of you would think I would visit or put on my blog. Ha! You're wrong. I have an artistic side you bastards. Every day people send in postcards with a secret written on them and this guy posts them on his site. Pretty cool stuff.
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ Please visit. Especially with Valentine's Day coming up, there's some interesting posts.

Multiple firsts, this time in church!

Not everyone will follow part of this entry, especially if you're not Catholic. Sorry about that.

After not getting back from the suburbs last night until 2 a.m., I opted to sleep in instead of going to 10:30 mass as usual. Fortunately my religion is flexible in scheduling services, realizing that many of my kind are nothing if not lazy. So 5:00 mass it was. As I walked in I was recruited, by the Pastor no less, to help distribute some information, collect the responses and then help take in the collection. Though I've been to mass thousands of times, I've never helped in the collection. As usher, you walk down the aisle with a basket on the end of a stick and collect peoples' weekly contributions. Normally, I think, there's a whole group of volunteers that are "trained" in doing this kind of thing.

Apparently the 5:00 mass is very understaffed with volunteers. For the first time that I can recall, there were no alter boys or alter girls on hand. Not that they are particularly instrumental to the mass, but it's a little weird when you expect to see them and they aren't there. Just odd. But the weirdest part of the entire mass, besides me running laps up and down the aisle, was that while the priest is presiding over the occurrence of the transubstantiation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation an alter boy/girl is supposed to shake the alter bell(s). This was the first mass that I can remember that didn't have any bells. Seems like a simple thing, but again, when you are soooooo used to hearing it and then you don't, it's a little weird.

While perusing Wikipedia, as I'm oft to do, I had to back track a page because I could have sworn I saw a familiar name just as I clicked a link to another page. It's an unusual name, so that's why it stood out. Turns out to be a pretty interesting Wiki entry. I wonder if my buddy is related to ol'Hipolit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Cegielski_-_Pozna%C5%84_S.A.

Light weekend entry

It's a busy Saturday for ol'Joe. After working a good chunk of the day, instead of being up at Rich's cabin, my church is having a fundraiser that starts at 6:30 and goes to 11. Unfortunately I also have a softball game at 11 in a dome in a suburb which is about an hours drive away. I hate the late games!! It means I won't get home until probably 1:30. That makes for a long Sunday. So I'll go to the church event for a few hours and see what's going on and then come back and change for softball.

To top it all off, in an effort to get a little warmer I turned my portable heater on high. Well, that led to blowing a fuse. If I had a little more wood and wasn't leaving in an hour, I would have built a nice little fire. Instead, I had to reboot my computer and tv (yeah, my tv) and I was hooked up remotely to a computer in Connecticut at the time of the fuse going out, so now that computer needs to be reset as well since it thinks I'm still on it. Ugh.

That's about it for me today. I refuse to mention the whole Anna Nicole Smith thing and the idea that any of three men could be the father of her child, including a prince married to the 90 year old Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ugh.

Cool Advertising That Ends Up Annoying

Here's a billboard that was recently up at the corner of LaSalle and Ontario in Chicago:




















It's been circulating now in an email as being legit. Unfortunately, you can go here to find the REST of the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/business/media/24billboard.html?ex=1311393600&en=57604c242c99b89d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Damn, that would have been cool if it really happened.

Due to your demands, I put a picture of me up on the Tuesday blog next to JK Simmons. Judge for yourself if we look alike!

This weekend I was supposed to go up to my buddy Rich's cabin in Wisconsin with three other guys for a weekend of gambling and winter activities (skiing and snowshoeing). However, I was feeling a little rundown after last weekend and a few long days at the beginning of the week and opted to stay home instead. Now, in addition to softball on Saturday and my church fundraiser also on Saturday, I have a crap load of work to finish by next week otherwise one of my clients won't get sold. Oh well, with the cold weather, it's probably for the best.

Today I reconnected with a buddy of mine that I used to work with, I'll call him Big C. Big C is out east now and runs his own company, but back in the mid-90's, he was working with me at Morningstar. One night, after a company party I think, a whole bunch of us headed out to The Vic for nickel beer night at Brew-n-View. That's right, beer was a nickel a piece and they would play 2-3 movies on the big screen. Tables were set up, but you could sit in the regular theater seats too. People were talking during the movie and such, but it was still very, very fun.

Well, on this particular night, most of Big C's department went out with us, including one person who just started (I think, the day before, but certainly that week). This girl didn't know a soul and, as we found out, didn't live downtown. So we're drinking and having fun and this girl gets more and more drunk until she's throwing up all over the place (in the beer pitcher, in the bathroom, on some guy's shirt). So Big C and I try to take control of the situation, mostly because we didn't want to go home yet. We get her wallet and it says she lives in Calumet City, a freakin' life-time away from downtown Chicago. Then we went to a pay phone (watch Seinfeld and you'll see cell phones weren't readily available as they are now) and called information looking for relatives of hers in Calumet City. Getting lucky, we find her parents, take $40 out of her wallet and pour her into a cab with an empty popcorn bucket. In retrospect we shouldn't have left her incapacitated with a cabbie, but it seemed ok at the time and we were much younger.

Now think about this girl though: first week of work, doesn't really know anyone she's going drinking with, doesn't know anyone downtown and drinks for like four hours until she gets drunk and passes out. So if you think Big C and I used bad judgement putting her in that cab, what about her?!! Maybe Big C can fill us in on whatever became of that drunken filly.

A Plot to Keep Us Fat!

I have stumbled upon a plot, an international conspiracy as it were, the likes of which we have not seen since Pearl Harbor or Iran Contra. The plot has probably been in development for years, as near as I can figure, but I stumbled upon it only recently during my current weight loss exercise (still down about 10 pounds by the way).

As many of you know, I've been on a reduced calorie diet: burn off more than I take in is the plan. The core of that plan are Lean Cuisines. For breakfast I have cereal usually and then a LC for lunch and one for dinner. The diet started in early January, when many diets start. The LC's I bought were $2 a piece (though advertised as 5 for $10). So for $20, I'd have lunch and dinner every business day for a week! Not bad. If only it would stay that way.

The other day I went to the store to buy some LC's for lunch. However, the cost was now $3.66 a piece, almost twice what I was paying!! So after Nestle (a Swiss company) hooks you with the low price right after New Year's resolutions, they double the price. Naturally a good chunk of people are going to stop buying the LC's and gain back all of the weight they just lost. What a scam!! The Swiss are not as neutral as they first appear.

Game time! Today I went up north to get my car's brakes replaced and some other stuff done. It was going to take a few hours, so after doing some work in the waiting room (free wi-fi), I headed out for lunch. Which place did I go to and why? Pick one place and one reason why. The answer is at the bottom of yesterday's blog:

a) Taqueria El Norte
b) White Hen
c) Hella's Gyros
d) Habeebi's Middle Eastern Cuisine
e) Franko's Pizza


1) looked clean
2) seems like the ethnic fare of the neighborhood
3) next door to the dealership
4) diet friendly
5) had a two for one special

Pick one letter and one number!

Commercials and getting falsely accused in front of 1 billion people

Long title today, but it's not all about length....right? Sorry, easy joke. Half the people who watch the Super Bowl are watching for the commercials and normally I take a keen interest in them as well. Even with the Bears playing, I was still very interested in the commercials (and not just because we had a pool for the first commercial after various events). Now I don't have a list of the commercials in front of me, but some definitely stand out to me. Here's a link to watch them again. http://www.youtube.com/superbowl The Dorito Check Out Girl ad, which I believe was produced by a small time independent creative team, was probably my favorite. The Federline ad from Nationwide was pretty funny. Tell me, was the guy working the register JK Simmons(who more than one person thinks looks like me):

























The quick Letterman/Oprah spot was funny, but you had to know the history. The NFL's It's hard to say goodbye ad wasn't bad. I kind of liked the Sprint Connectile Dysfunction bit too. Nice take off on the copious drug ads we have to endure. Oh, and I almost forgot the Sierra Mist Comb Over ad with Jim Gaffigan. Too damn funny.

Now, imagine 1 billion people (or so) are watching around the world (130 million in the U.S.) and the broadcaster blames a key touchdown on you, only it's not your fault. Ugh! That would suck. Sure the team loss sucks too, but this is like salt in the wounds. On the wide open pass play by the Colts that Reggie Wayne caught to make the score 7-6, Phil Simms came on several plays later to "analyze" the play and make a special point to mention that Chris Harris blew his coverage assignment. Unfortunately for Mr. Harris, he didn't blow his assignment. If you watch the tape (like I did.....and yes, I have a problem), you'll notice that Chris Harris was on the other side of the field and that it was rookie Danieal Manning that broke up from his safety position to cover a running back who was already covered by Urlacher. Blown assignment by a rookie.....well, that will happen. Just a bad time...much like Grossman's turnovers.

Tomorrow's quiz answer: location A and reason #2.

Ugh

That's about the 30th time I've written "ugh" today (31). It's really the only word to describe how I feel after the Super Bowl showing by the Bears. It would be easy for me to wax on and on about stats and reasons why, but that's not going to change anything and will only make interesting reading to a few of you. That said, if you told me Grossman would be 20 of 28 passing for 165, Jones would run for 112 yards, Hester would return a kick for a touchdown and it would rain pretty much the entire game, I would have bet you just about anything that the Bears would have won. The interceptions and fumbles came at inopportune times though and they really weighed on the defense in the end.

Yesterday was quite a busy day with all the cooking I had to do and making sure I had some last minute things. Here's a bit of advice, don't go to the grocery store at any point on Super Bowl Sunday. It was a madhouse! Fortunately I only had three things or so to get, so I was able to go through the express self-checkout line. Since I was putting everything together myself (cooking, cleaning, setting up the betting games, etc) I needed all of the time to prepare before guests started showing up. As it was, I barely made it!

On the cooking front, we had my three pepper chili (not as hot as usual though) and beef sandwiches as the main courses. As appetizers, I made bacon wrapped shrimp, dates and figs, mini bagel dogs, guacamole and chips, and vegetables and dip. Almost everything was eaten! I forgot about the bag of wings that I had and was going to heat up. Probably better off for everyone.

Again I forgot to take pictures, but someone was snapping them at the end of the evening so I'll try to get a hold of them. 261 days until the season starts again and I think 10 days until pitchers and catchers report. This loss will hurt for a while though.

Holiday Heart

A good name for a movie or a novel huh? Not the case though. Much to the chagrin of my dinner friends from last night who chastised me mercilessly, Holiday Heart is indeed a medical condition. Here's the reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_heart_syndrome

I expect to see the apologies in the comment section of this blog!

The topic came up when discussing staying up all night, a feat which I have only undertaken and accomplished three times in my life and they were on consecutive days at a bachelor party in Vegas. Upon my arrival home, my heart would beat uncontrollably (not that you normally have control over it) and it felt like maybe I was going to have a heart attack......at the ripe old age of 38. A few days later I was at a fundraiser and met a heart doctor. After determining that he was a nice guy, I asked him about my potential heart ailment. He said it was probably just Holiday Heart and since it seemed to be mostly better already, if it wasn't completely gone by the next week to give him a call. It was so I didn't. However, my dining partners last night thought this was the craziest thing they've heard (until I told the stories about some recent dates I've had) and were convinced that the doctor was just placating me. Ha...looks like I got the last laugh!

Yesterday I read on the web somewhere that Halle Berry's father was Fred Berry. Anyone remember Fred Berry without checking out the picture below? That's right, he was Fred "Rerun" Stubbs from the hit show "What's Happening?" I thought that seemed unlikely, but they did have the same last name. After a little research, very little in fact, I found out it was not true. Interesting proposition though.