Where will Joe be??

Once last chance for your guess at the sculpture below. This view really helped solidify the subject matter for me:



It's a new piece called The Dancer. Really, I walked by this thing for three weeks before figuring out what the hell it was. Originally I thought it was a hideous, abstract Picasso-type piece.....yech. Nope, you tell me it's a dancer and now I love it!! That probably makes me culturally shallow.

Still Africa hot today, but some storms went through and cooled it off a bit. I guess on Wednesday it's supposed to be in the 70's for a high!! Whoo-hoo!!

Found out today my softball schedule could take me to these exotic places over the next two months: Joliet, Rockford, Sterling Heights Michigan, Lake Buena Vista Florida, Aurora Colorado, Salem Wisconsin and Owensboro Kentucky. Can't beat that with a big stick......um, ok...you could beat it. The Florida location is actually supposed to be nice and I've been all of the other cities except Aurora Colorado. They're no Vegas, but not terrible. Missing, ironically, is Indianapolis Indiana. Normally they hold a tournament that we need to play in or hold the finals. Apparently this year that is not the case. I like mixing it up with my redneck brethren!!

Africa hot. Or outback Australia hot.

Yes it was hot and muggy today in Chicago. Africa hot. The other day on Man vs. Wild the guy in the show got dropped in the middle of the outback in Australia (the only continent with the same name as a country by the way). According to the show, it was like 110 degrees with 100% humidity. With that level of humidity, not only does it feel like 150 degrees, your sweat can't evaporate to help cool you. Virtual hell. Unlike the host, I could go to the refrigerator for cold beverage. He had to save and the drink his.....well.....bodily fluids. Ugh. Interesting series though, you should check it out.

It was so hot that lethargy settled in (though softball from yesterday contributed somewhat). In order to accomplish anything today, I set little goals and did small things: bought three much need door stops and installed one of them, collected up the garbage in the house, did some laundry, ironed, removed my old parking stickers and put on the new ones, went to Golfsmith and tested some new drivers. Actually not too bad a day really.

Yesterday, as I'm sure you know, was 7-7-07. In my delirious, heat-exhausted state today, I thought that if I were still dating my ex-girlfriend, we would be in our seventh year of dating. As I know now, she wanted to get married two years ago (though she had an odd way of showing it), so I wonder if we would have picked yesterday to get married if we were still together? Maybe I'm still delirious, but I'd put the odds at better than 50-50. So when people ask you on Monday what you did this weekend, you can say "I didn't go to Joe Sutton's wedding, which didn't happen but might have." :-)

Pictures of my neighborhood artwork follows. Tell me what you think it is. Tomorrow I'll include the name of the sculpture, which explains what it is.

Softball and classic cars

Well, the softball tournament went somewhat as I mentioned, except we went 1-2 and could have won all of the games we played. We were clearly not outclassed by the competition, even with our undermanned team. Depending on the breaks in the games, we could have gone 3-0 or 0-3. While I hit ok from an OBP perspective, .600, I hit into two double-plays, one with the bases loaded and nobody out. Ugh. Definitely a rally killer. My next time up to bat after that play, there was a runner on first and I ripped a single to left that got past the outfielder and I rounded the bases. Technically a single and three base error, but for us, it's as good as a home run.

On the way home we saw an older car, something from the early '60's I'm sure. It was pretty cool and could really move. Cars from that era ran on leaded gasoline though. Now, even the word "lead" is usually dropped from gasoline descriptions (Regular, Premium, etc). So how does this car run on unleaded gasoline? Well, to determine that, I went to my friends at Wikipedia to figure out what leaded gasoline is and then maybe how a car can run on different types of gas.

As it turns out, the lead was an additive that helped reduce knocking, pinging and other engine noises. The leaded gasolines have been phased out now (since 1996) and we've all seen classic cars, so what's the deal? Well, the Wikipedia entry mentions this: "Many classic cars' engines have needed modification to use lead-free fuels since leaded fuels became unavailable. However, "Lead substitute" products are also produced and can sometimes be found at auto parts stores." There you go!

One other question came up is what a catalytic converter does. Wiki has the answer again and discusses how the converter is used to reduce noxious emissions.

Sooooo Full

Actually made an interesting realization today regarding a new piece of art in my neighborhood. Once I get some pictures, I'll post them and discuss my realization. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday.

dejesus freak and I went to dinner at a Mexican place around the corner from me that I've walked by a thousand times yet never ventured in to. While sitting at the Starbucks across the street with some Buckies*, the restaurant was given high marks as far as Mexican places go. While the chips and salsa were good, little else was truly tasty. The chili rellenos was actually chopped up peppers and meat stuffed inside some flat, fried dough. Really not appealing. Actually, while the rest of the food was decent, it wasn't anything to write home about (or on a blog really). Yet, I managed to eat a good chunk of it and was completely stuffed (mostly on chips and salsa I fear). After dinner we went to a local pub and were both barely able to drink one beer before having to call it a bloated night.

Before going home though, we took a hike around Wrigley where Sting was playing in front of a huge crowd of 40,000+. Outside the stadium and at the surrounding establishments within earshot, there were several thousand other fans hanging around. It was decent people watching, but we were both so freakin' full, we were just trying to walk off the bloated feeling in hopes of going back to the bar. No such luck.

Softball tournament on Saturday and Sunday, which means only 2 or 3 games on Saturday with Sunday's games (if any) based on how we do. Again we have an undermanned team due to conflicts and this tournament is supposed to be pretty competitive, so if we win any games at all I'll be amazed.

*Buckies are people that hang out at Starbucks while drinking their coffee and reading the paper. You have to do this almost daily to be a Bucky.

Early to bed for me tonight!

I was a little tired today, but had just a crap load of things to do. Part of the reason I was tired was that yesterday Menards called at 6:30 a.m. to schedule delivery of some custom made closet doors (nothing fancy, just abnormally tall). Yes, they were actually making deliveries on the 4th of July. They called several times in the morning actually, until they woke me up, but anyone calling before 9 gets pretty much the same treatment; me ignoring them. The interruption in my sleep was not appreciated though and made me tired all day.....plus after I did get up and got the messages, having to deal with the delivery people and making them realize that the delivery was actually supposed to happen today was also exhausting.

So today they brought the doors, but didn't call until they were about 10 minutes away. Nice warning. Again, I was in bed, but was expecting their call this time, so I turned my phone on the night before. They dropped off the doors (outside, as the $40 delivery doesn't include moving anything inside) and after Manual Labor Mike got there to help, we moved these beasts inside. Unfortunately, they were the wrong doors!!! They made them each 12" wide instead of 18" wide. Great. Custom ordered doors that have to be reordered. Another phone call to Menards....ugh. Finally got it straightened out and hopefully the doors will be redelivered next week.

That was all followed by an hour+ long conference call. Then a laundry list of other tasks for the day. Actually I made much progress, as did Manual Labor Mike since he was up and over at my place hours before he normally arrives.

My neighbors actually asked me who I got to rip up my carpeting and padding. I said "Me." Now, these folks have two kids: a girl in college and a boy in high school. Are you telling me that they can't do this work? Shit, my folks had me in the crawl space digging a trench for a sump-pump during the John Wayne Gacy murder discoveries....and I was like 12 or something. C'mon, they can't rip up some carpeting? How spoiled can you get?

Maybe I'm just a little grumpy from being tired.

No matter how tired I am though, I would be able to answer this question from Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?: Which continent has the same name as a country? This question was for $200,000 (moving her from $300,000 up to $500,000 and a chance at a million dollars). So what does she say? "Well......uh......um......there's North America....that's a country. South America....that's a country. Asia, Europe, Arctic, Antarctic and......Australia. I guess all of them are country names." Unfreakin' believable. She SAYS THE ANSWER and still fucks it up. That's so sad. At least she was smart enough to know she didn't know the answer and take her $300k and went home. Are we allowed to shoot stupid people yet?

How many ribs can one person eat?

Oooooooooooh, it's Ribfest time of year in the 'ville (Naperville). For the two previous years, this being the third, I've headed to Ribfest with my good friends Naperville Greg and Kleveland Kim. Greg and his family (six siblings) grew up right down the street from me in the 'ville. His mother still lives in the house Greg grew up in and my parents still live in the house I grew up in. Fortunately for us, the houses are about 1/4 mile away from Ribfest and are just about as close as you can get from a parking standpoint.

Since Greg and Kim had guests last night and had to drive them home to the suburbs at around midnight (train problems, ugh!), I decided to scoop them up and that we'd all go out together. It was a very nice drive and it went by pretty quickly. Awaiting us in the 'ville was one of Greg's older brothers, Monopoly Denis (so named due to his prowess at the game when we were young). I've seen Denis probably twice in the last 13 years, which is absolutely ridiculous considering how close we were growing up (he's two years older than me). Anyway, we had a great time drinking beer and eating ribs, while Greg also had a great time listening to Randy Travis. The rest of us listened to Randy as well, but we're not as big fans.

The ribs we tried (and really enjoyed) were Desperado's (first place best ribs and sauce), Mojo's (spicier ribs that we also had last year and enjoyed) and Fast Freddy's Ribs (only Denis and I had these tasty, sweet ribs as Greg and Kim were stuffed).

No Ribfest is complete without a Black Cow, which is vanilla ice cream and root beer, basically a root beer float. Soooooo good.

Finally, the fireworks display was outstanding as usual. Growing up in the 'ville, we always had good fireworks displays which I always have claimed rivaled Chicago's. Actually, about 15 years ago or so, I'm sure Naperville's were BETTER than Chicago's, but the city has stepped it up over the last decade or so and put on a nice show. Maybe it's how close you are to the fireworks at the Ribfest too compared to how close you can actually get in Chicago. Maybe.....

Me feeling up a very out of place statue. Boy was it bright looking back into the sun!!

Life is good again.

Sorry about missing my post yesterday. As I mentioned on Sunday, I was gone golfing all day from 6:30 a.m. until after midnight. We played 36 holes of golf and had a great time, but the course was about two hours away. Afterwards, we headed out to a favorite haunt for dinner and drinks.

Today was a bright sunshiny day (to steal a line from The Brady Bunch) and I was up relatively early after an exhausting day. I couldn't find my sunglasses, which made for a less pleasant walk to Starbucks. Upon my return, the search for my sunglasses began. After scouring the house, car, golf bag and laundry, I called the golf course to see if anyone turned them in.
"I have like 50 pairs of sunglasses between the pro shop and the lost and found. If you want to look through them, be my guest." said the less than helpful attendant.
But I'm in Chicago.
"I don't know what to tell you."
Great. I went back out to the car to check yet again to see if they had somehow escaped my initial search. Finding nothing in the trunk yet again, I was beginning to really feel unhappy. I like the glasses, but not only that, I had just recently ordered replacement lenses for the frame. Ugh. Then, in a stroke of common sense, I checked under the driver seat and there were the glasses!! My whole mood changed! One silly little thing like that changed my day around. Funny.

Circular reasoning

Yesterday, I was too tired to write about anything requiring much thought, hence the softball entry. However, I owe you some detail on a conversation Naperville Greg and I had on Friday over Thai food and Duvel. Now, we discussed many, many things, but this one I can relay. It involved personal relationships, how we define them and how we manage them. The idea was to think of yourself at the center of concentric circles. Then determine if and which friends fall in the closest circle and then the next circle and outside the circles. Here's a visual:

For those having difficulty visualizing concentric circles.

The thought is that you should focus on (i.e. communicate, spend time with, etc.) those people in the closest circle. They should take a priority in your life. Now, the tough part is defining how far out that first circle goes (the circle being defined as importance to you). I haven't had time to conduct the exercise yet, but I will. It should be interesting.

Just wanted to note that I have one less reason to visit Europe: NFL Europe has been disbanded by the NFL after 16 years of operation. A few years ago, the league had their Super Bowl (the World Bowl) in Glasgow, Scotland. Had I found out about it sooner than a week or two before the actual game, I would have made plans to go see it. Since then I've considered going to the "next one" but never did. Oh well.

Last two thoughts for today (tomorrow I'm golfing all day with Ricardo so I probably won't have a Monday entry). As I meandered down the personal hygiene aisle at the supermarket today, I noticed Close-Up toothpaste still existed. Does anyone else remember this stuff? It was big like 30 years ago and was the first flavored toothpaste that I really remembered. It was a gel and was red, as opposed to the traditional white paste. Brought back many memories....

Since it's warm enough to eat ice cream again, you might like to know what causes "brain freeze". Some interesting reading I thought.

Softball, softball, softball

Today was nothing but softball. Unfortunately, our tournament was played on just one field. I believe there were eight teams so our schedule was: play game one at 10 a.m.; game two was at 1 p.m.; game three was at 4; game four was at 7 and then every hour from there on. This is the problem with playing on only one field: we had played only three games in the first 9 hours that we were out there. If you remember two weeks ago in Champaign, we played 6 games in 8 hours....much nicer.

You might think that we'd like the rest and sometimes and hour off is good, but it's really easy for the muscles to start tightening up if you're in a multi hour layoff. Really, just playing back to back to back is much better than over 9 hours. Plus, if (heaven forbid) you lose twice, you still have the rest of the day to do stuff.

Well, we went 3-2, which doesn't sound impressive, but it got us third place. The two teams that we lost to were playing in the championship game, so that's some consolation. We didn't have a full squad though and didn't play as well as we should have played. While sometimes brutal in the field and sometimes spectacular, I was 13-18 at the plate for a robust .722 average, including 6-7 in our final two games. Not a bad day at all. Lots and lots of sun!!!

"Today is my casual sex day."

That's what I read on a shirt in a store window. Laughed out loud as I walked by, so now even more people in my neighborhood think I'm a little off.

Had to sleep in today after a long night of drinking and good times with friends and business associates. I'm fortunate to have that ability, because today I really needed it as exemplified by not getting up until 10! Since I have a softball tournament on Saturday, I had to do laundry to get my uniform and other articles clean. Some business calls and a conversation regarding another new door that I need installed and it was already time for the Cubs game. The pitcher for the Cubs, Rich Hill, gave up five runs to the division leading Brewers from Milwaukee in the first inning, so watching the game was no longer a priority.

What was a priority was getting rid of my damaged carpeting and figuring out how to remove the last of my wet padding that was sitting under my desk. In order to do that though, I needed some help and Naperville Greg was just the man for the job. Despite being tired from a long week of work, he volunteered to come over and help with whatever I needed done.

Our first task, take the removed carpeting out to the curb. With two people, it wasn't too bad. By yourself, it ain't gonna happen. Next step, was to cut and remove another large piece of carpeting that I've decided wasn't going to be useful to keep. Again, with two people working on it (one holding the carpeting taunt and the other cutting from the back) the process was pretty quick. The final step was to remove the padding under my desk, while keeping the carpet at least for the time being.

If you think about my "L" shaped, very heavy desk, moving it all at once would actually require three people to do effectively. I really only needed to get at half of the padding under my desk as the water didn't reach all the way to the wall and the second side of my desk. So as Greg put up with me making various suggestions about how to move the desk, he said "Why not pick up one side and push the edge of the carpet past the edge of the desk? Then you can rip out as much as you want without moving the desk." I tell you what, that made the whole night successful!! I never would have thought of it. After moving some other furniture around, we were done and off to grab some Thai food and a few beers. Tomorrow's story: what we talked about over dinner.....or at least one of the topics.

The Cubs came back to win the game on a two run home run by Ramirez in the bottom of the ninth, 6-5.

Not much going on but water.

As you know from my previous postings, my basement flooded. It's really annoying more than anything as I have to rip up the carpet and padding underneath only after moving everything around to dry "land". Unfortunately, some things are a little too heavy or awkward for me to move, including my desk at which I'm not writing. Is there wet padding underneath my desk? Probably. Will it mold if I don't rip it out? Most definitely. How am I going to move it? I have no freaking idea.

My desk is an "L" shape or more like a spread out "v" with the computer at the apex. It's probably three feet on either side and heavy as all get out. Even with two other people, all of the cords and things would make it really difficult to move. I'm going to have to do it though, but it'll be a chore.

Since I didn't have a dehumidifier at home, I borrowed the one from the office (which was installed to fight the flood aroma there) on Wednesday night and have emptied the little monster several times a day since then. At least now I can sit down here and work without sweating from the 80% humidity (no joke!) and suffer from the musty odor (most of which is gone).

I'm going to call upon Greg from Naperville to come over and help me take outside the carpeting from the back room and maybe get this last bit of padding up around the desk. Hopefully we can do both things relatively quickly and then grab a beer. Saturday brings a softball tournament for me, so at least I'll have that distraction.

Yesterday in more detail

Here's what I was writing yesterday before I came across my flooded basement.


Where to I start today? Well, maybe with yesterday when my "check engine" light came on. My five year old Camry has never had that light come on, so I was concerned immediately. I knew I had to bring it in to have it checked, but when? el supremo de NM is coming to town Tuesday night and we're driving around until I drop him off at the airport on Friday. So I decided to make an appointment for this afternoon but later in the afternoon.

Today started by heading into the office to get working on various client stuff. After being fairly successful, I headed back home the two miles straight north. Now, the temperature was 91 and humid as all get out as I left the office. It took me about 15-20 minutes to get into my neighborhood and the temperature had dropped down to 78!! Then the rains came.....and they came.....and they came....for a solid half-hour at least.

After the rain ended, or what I thought was the end, I headed down to Starbucks for my afternoon coffee. Unfortunately the rain started up again and it poured....and poured....and poured some more. Finally, I had to leave otherwise I wouldn't make my car appointment three miles north.

I thought I'd just hop on the Lake Shore Drive and head north. Unfortunately, the underpasses that allow you to get onto LSD were flooded! The water in Irving's underpass actually had whitecaps on it!! Worse yet, it had a van with water over the hood of the car stuck underneath. I tried the next underpass with the same results....exactly. Another van stuck in the same spot underneath the overpass. So I decided to head inland and took Broadway up north instead. That's right, I said I decided to head inland. Crazy.

Pick up the story today:

Well, I made it to the car shop and spent $330 for repairs to my thermostat which controls the coolant to the engine (seemed like something I should have fixed). Then I headed home. It was all of three hours after the last deluge that was so intense it had caused manhole covers to flip up and go askew. Now however, it was like nothing happened. Maybe my basement didn't flood, I naively thought.

Well, it did and I spent the next six hours vacuuming up water so that I could tear up the carpeting so I could vacuum the pad underneath so I could tear it up and throw it out. You can't move the carpet if it's soaked and you can't pick up enough padding wet padding to make progress, so you have to use a wet-vac on both before you do anything with them. Ugh. Made enough progress by midnight though that I was ready for a hot shower and bed. Plus my back couldn't take anymore.

So I turned on the water and waited for it to get hot...and waited....and waited...and waited. Fifteen minutes later I realized something was up and it was probably the pilot light. Bingo. We have two water heaters for the building and both pilot lights were out. After another fifteen minutes, I was able to get one lit. The other remains unlit to this very moment. We can get by on one as long as not everyone is showering at once. Didn't help me at 12:30 a.m. though as it takes a while to reheat that much water and for it to reach me, so it was a cold shower and then bed. Not ideal by any stretch.

The Flood Cometh

Had another entry almost written, but then I found out my basement flooded. Ugh. Now I'm working on ripping up the carpeting and the padding underneath.

Thanks to stef for picking up el supremo de NM at the airport so I can continue to clean up!!

Fired from volunteer service!!

Busy day today working with the Red Cross. I head up the investment subcommittee of the finance committee. We had a meeting for the subcommittee prior to the regular meeting, so it ended up being a four hour trip altogether. Interestingly enough, I was told at the finance committee meeting that no one from the finance committee was returning to the finance committee at the September meeting, because it was just passed down from the national office that all finance committees of local chapters will be made up of board members from that chapter in the future. At first I said, fine; it's not like I was getting paid or anything. Then I thought, everything we did on the finance committee had to ultimately be approved by the board, so now they are going to really have to be leery of group think since they are going to be doing the work AND approving their own work. Yikes. They want me to stay on to head up the subcommittee, but homey don't play that.

Afterwards, I hit the gym, running my two miles and then lifting some weights. By the end of my workout though, it was 4:30! Then I had to get home, have my afternoon coffee and make up for lost time. Ugh.

If you didn't see the Cubs game, they were killing Colorado 8-3 going into the ninth. Colorado scored 6 (six!) times in the ninth to take a 9-8 lead. Nice job Bob Howry. Technically he only gave up three of the runs in the ninth after Scott Eyre had already given up one and had let two more guys get on without getting anybody out!! Howry obliged Colorado by serving up fastballs over the heart of the plate to allow not only the two guys on base to score, but three more runs. Ugh. Fortunately, with two outs and one on, the Cubs got a single and then were the beneficiary of an error before Alfonso Soriano (0-5 up to that point) hit a single to right to score two runs and pull it out. The place went crazy!!!

Hey, Stephen Colbert just did a bit on the killer sand story which I reported last week. Ha!!

In honor of me being fired from the Red Cross, I pass along these pictures which were just sent to me this evening by coincidence. Subheading for pictures: "The reason why you are escorted out after being fired as opposed to just finishing out the day."*






























*Thanks Pop.

"Gay Pride" or "Why didn't I go golfing again today?"

Today was the 38th annual Gay Pride Parade in Chicago. Even though I've lived in the 'hood for about 18 years now, I've actually only hung around to see the parade about three or four times. Though I didn't watch the whole thing today, I did see a good chunk of it. Local politicians, some walking, others on a float. One guy, the recorder of deeds, was just sitting in his van and waving periodically. Didn't see anyone LESS interested in being there than him. The Grand Marshal was John Amaechi, the ex NBA player who came out earlier this year. Somehow I missed him ride by.

I started off standing by the Starbucks at the end of my block (the parade route went up Halsted at one end of my street and down Broadway at the other end of my street). For some reason there were tons of people right there at the intersection though and I couldn't see anything (which, in some cases, was a good thing). Seeking a better vantage point, I moved north on Broadway behind a bus stop bench. Perfect. The bench gave me some personal space and provided some space for viewing purposes.

"Hey Joe." I heard after about five minutes of standing there. Uh oh. Who could I know here? It was Ms. Maria's brother and three of his friends. We haven't gotten along in the past, a long involved story, but we've become fairly cordial in recent years (possibly because Ms. Maria and I are no longer dating). It was actually good to have him and his friends there because next to wearing very little clothing and/or buttless chaps, the gay community loves to form organizations and use acronyms. "PFLAG" for instance is Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. I mean c'mon, do you really need a group for them? Hell, a McHenry County online support group had their own float in the parade! I can't remember what they were called, but even Ms. Maria's brother didn't know that one.

Shirt sayings I read today:

Worn by a girl: "I like girls who like girls."
Worn by a guy: "Oklahomo"

Saw several women with unattractive chests exposed (isn't that the way?), but I did see one woman who I think was heterosexual flash some people up on a balcony. She was alright. That took place on my way to get some food. On the way back, the same balcony of people got some guys to drop trow. Fortunately my view was blocked.

Best marcher was a guy with a sign that said, "I survived a hate crime attack." That takes guts....and some built up hatred I imagine. And of course, the parents of homosexuals also have a group and they always get a big round of applause. Heck, I even clap for them. Tom Skilling (long time weather man in Chicago and brother of ENRON CEO Jeffrey Skilling) was on the WGN float waving and having fun. He seems like a nice guy. Oh, and of course, my favorite float person was Anna Davlantes from NBC. Yowza. She makes a pair of jeans look really good.

All in all it's a fun day, but the neighborhood is treated like a garbage can first, a urinal second and a parade route third. If not for the amount of taxpayer dollars spent by the streets and sanitation department using brooms to push the garbage into the street so it could be picked up by a fleet of trucks and street cleaners and then the over-the-top police coverage (at weekend overtime rates no doubt) it wouldn't be so bad. I'm not a parade goer, but the fans of this parade can make a mess in four hours like nobody's business. Ugh.

Golf Day (Sports entry!)

Today zoomed by as I slept in and didn't have much time before I had to leave for my golf outing with a shotgun start at 2:30. It was raining all morning and while we were at the practice range on the course, but after the second hole or so, the rain stopped. We were playing on the far south side of Chicago at a Cook County course called George Dunne National. The course itself is very challenging and they have even considered holding PGA events there.

We were playing a scramble format where everyone hits a shot, goes to the best one, hits from there, goes to the best one, hits from there, etc. At other courses, my team's average score is -20 or so. Today we were only six under par and it didn't look good for us to repeat as champions of my church outing.

As a side note, in addition to sponsoring my foursome, The Podolny Group sponsored the outing as a whole!! It would have been bad to NOT win while being the sponsor. Two guys on the team were new in that I haven't been in a scramble with them before. On the front nine I really carried the team unfortunately. It's not bravado that I mention this point, but to point out how you DON'T want one person carrying the team, unless that person is really good (which I'm not). On the back nine, two of the guys stepped up and did the majority of the work and we ended up shooting -3 on both the front and back. Some better putting and we would have been at -10 pretty quickly.

As I said though, we were -6 and as it turns out, we won by two strokes with that number!! Yay!! Hopefully I'll be able to post a picture soon.

Pie Hole

As many of my faithful readers know, I live in the heart of Boyztown. As Sunday is the Gay Pride Parade, it's particularly appropriate to mention this fact. One of the fortunate things about living in my neighborhood is that soooooo many things are within walking distance. Today I was walking back from the bank and saw a sign out in front of a local pizza place called Pie Hole. Actually a pretty cool name for mostly sub-standard, over priced pizza joint.

Now, you have to understand this neighborhood fully to really get the whole picture. On two of the corners next to Pie Hole are two gay bars (Cocktails and Roscoes). Next to one of Cocktails is another gay bar called Sidetracks. Across from Roscoes is an eclectic clothing store best used by straight folk for Halloween costumes, but can become every day attire for homosexuals in the neighborhood. Across from there is a 7-11 catering to all of your condom and gay porn needs....oh and milk if you run out.

So I'm walking by Pie Hole and they have a sign out: "Our hole is always open." Nice.

Yesterday at the soccer match they kept showing ads for Comcast Sports Net, the local sports cable channel. The ads are showing up on the tv screens all the way around the stadium. Who is on the ads? None other than Peyton Manning, the quarterback who embarrassed the Bears in the Super Bowl. And in the Bears' home stadium no less!!! Unbelievable. Naperville Greg and I were appalled.

Finally found out how I did in the tournament last weekend from a hitting perspective. My On Base Percentage (OBP) was .737 as I was 14-19. That was second best on the team and .100 pts better than the #3 guy. Most of the team hit between .500 and .600, which is expected when we're hitting well and playing against good teams. Not bad for a 41 year old!!

Today I had a great, reaffirming luncheon with a client. Actually it was the new COO hired by a client. She and I went to Cafe 28, a nice little Cuban themed restaurant near their office. She said the owner spoke so highly of me (and el supremo de NM) that she wanted to have lunch and talk about what we were doing as well as how that would dovetail with what she was working on. Like I said, it was very reaffirming that a client would vocalize their appreciation of the work we do...if not to us, at least to someone else. Good stuff.

Tonight dejesus freak and I went to the bars for some grub and beer. I really need to do this more often, both go out with df and go to the bars. There were plenty of attractive, eligible and interested women there and df and I had some good conversation as well. To tell you the truth, I was too tired to make much of an effort going after the women, but it really wouldn't have taken much. However I did find out that df and I had very similar quasi-relationships lately. Interesting when you hear about someone else going through nearly the exact same thing that you have gone through.

Anyway, since the place was pretty open (windows and doors) and there was good air circulation I wasn't overwhelmed by smoke. If not for me being so tired, who knows what could have happened.

A Maple Leaf in a Bear's Den

Tonight was an evening that I've been awaiting for a few months. Some time ago I was given the chance to buy tickets to either two CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-final games or the final game. I opted for the double header, 8 rows up and just off midfield. It was pretty cool!!

Joining me for the evening were Naperville Greg*, his wife Kleveland Kim and Ms. Maria*. We met near NG and KK's home south of Roosevelt on Michigan avenue, a short walk from Soldier Field. We met at some nautical themed bar called Weather Mark Tavern. It was actually not a bad place at all. Dry Dock, you'd love it!! In the bathroom was a nautical map of northern Lake Michigan which included Beaver Island, a summer vacation haunt of mine growing up in and around Detroit.

First up was USA versus Canada. After going up 1-0, the US team was awarded a penalty kick after a cheap shot by the goalie on one of our players on a break away. Donovan successfully converted the kick to go up 2-0, a virtual blowout by soccer terms. Canada came back with a goal in the second half to make it 2-1 and that's the way it ended. The stadium slowly filled throughout the game, but even at the end of the USA game, the stadium was no where near as full as it would get.

The second game started at around 9:00 and showcased Mexico and Guadeloupe. By game time of this second game, the stadium, while not completely full, had way more fans than for game 1. The Mexican fans were out in droves!! One cute little section of Guadeloupians (that's what I called them) were just a section over from us. I was all set to cheer for Guadeloupe, until they read off the name of the lineup. They were all Frenchies!! Lord knows I don't like the French...or French colonies.....or French territories....or French fries!! Ugh. I still cheered for them a bit as the massive underdog, but I wasn't happy about it.

Since we weren't going to get out until late (11:30ish), my assumption was that NG and KK, both of whom had early wakeup calls potentially, were going to leave early and possibly not even see the second match. We were having so much fun though, their leaving was never an option. They are fun to hang out with, so I was happy they stayed!! I knew Ms. Maria was going to hold out until the end as she's a Cubs season ticket holder so she's used to attending sporting events until the bitter end.

*I was remiss in wishing both Naperville Greg and Ms. Maria a "Happy Birthday" here on my blog, so while it is belated, it is still heartfelt....Happy Birthday!!!

The Threat Below

The predator lurks close to shore....waiting....waiting. The average victim is a male and around 12 years old. You've seen the victims, usually sitting on the waters edge building sand castles or digging holes in the sand.

In the United States alone since 1985, at least twenty victims have been confirmed. "That's only one a year", you might say. Why is this blog worthy? Well, first of all, I've written about far, far, far less interesting topics. Second, this story is pretty horrifying when you think about the number of times you've been walking along the waters edge, oblivious to the looming danger. Hell, I was just in Sarasota walking along the beach-Gulf of Mexico border, completely focused on shelling and not considering my possible demise. Prior to that I was in The Turks and Caicos and we not only walked along the beach, but were swimming and kayaking in the ocean. As it turns out, actually being IN THE WATER was the safer place to be.

You see, the predator was not sharks. Nor was it jellyfish or any other type of fish or even animal. And it's not waves or riptides. The deadly threat is simply......sand. That's right, sand. From 1990 to 2006, there were 16 deaths related to sand holes or tunnels. During the same period of time there were only 12 shark related fatalities in the U.S. So stop worrying about being chum or mistaken for a floating seal and start worrying about walls of sand collapsing on your sorry ass as you fall into a hole dug by the rugrat the next cabana over.

Sammy Sosa hit home run number 600 against....you guessed it.....the Cubs, the only team he had not hit a home run against ironically enough. Plus the pitcher who threw the homer was wearing Sammy's old number while with the Cubs. Coincidence? Destiny? You decide. By the way, I happened to be watching it at the time and Tivoed it, so if you want to watch it the next time you visit, just let me know!

So much success, so little time to f@$#% it up.

So you're a professional NFL player. You've been fortunate enough to have moved on from high school to college and then from thousands of college players to make it to the big time. Unfortunately you're not a star. You got drafted in the 7th round, the end of day two of the draft. After one full season in the league, you only had 2 carries at running back for a total of two yards. Clearly you're hanging onto your position in the NFL by a thread. Off the field, over a 14 month period, you see nine of your teammates get arrested....NINE!! Now it's the weekend, you're celebrating a wedding at a bar downtown at 3 a.m. Sunday morning and the police show up to disperse the crowd. Do you:
a) Realize that your career and way of life certainly hang in the balance and do whatever the police say.
b) Run away and avoid getting identified (though this is in effect what the cops want i.e. you to disperse)
c) Fail to disperse, resist arrest and obstruct justice by trying to prevent the police from arresting your friends thus becoming the 10th player on your team arrested.

Well, if you're Quincy "the idiot" Wilson and play for the Cincinnati Bengals, you opt for 'C' and I would bet effectively end your football career. Nicely done. Unbelievable.

If you have 8 minutes, you couldn't spend them any better than watching this video called The Battle at Kruger. New Jersey Ken sent it to me today and it's unfreaking-believable. It's the natural struggle of life and death between a herd of African Buffalo, a pride of Lions and two Crocodiles. No matter what you think of me while watching it, watch it all the way through.

I'm looking forward to Thursday when I'll be attending two CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer games at Soldier Field. It should be awesome as U.S. is playing Canada in game one and Mexico is playing Guadalupe in game two. Sweet.