Catch Up Post

It's been a few days since I posted, and I have a few topics that have been on my mind lately, not all of which can/should be posted on a public forum, unfortunately.

1. Spygate

2. Pitchers throwing intentionally at batters

3. The doggies

4. The baby who is kicking me as I write this (thump)

5. The Apple Store

6. House projects and the lack of time to do any of them

7. Airfare



I guess I'll start from the top.

1. Spygate. I read an article about the New England Patriots and their video cheating and such, and the part I found most telling was this:

In Friday's Washington Post, NFL reporter Mark Maske quotes former Giants quarterback Phil Simms contending that stolen signals are no guarantee of victory: "'I've been in games where we knew every signal, every call by the other team, and we still lost,' Simms said by telephone yesterday. 'We [the Giants] had the San Diego Chargers' signals in 1980. We knew every signal. We knew every play. We were calling out what they were going to do: 'Here comes this. Here comes that.' They still scored 44 points.'" After more Simms quotes, the article moved to other matters. Who was on the New York Giants' coaching staff in 1980? Bill Belichick and Ernie Adams. (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080517&sportCat=nfl)

Goes to show that a) even with all the knowledge in the world, true athleticism and human creativity cannot be shut down and b) Mr. Belichick needs to go to cheaters rehab.


2. Steve and I were watching the Orioles-Yankees game on Tuesday night. It was a 12-2 blow out by the Orioles. The starting pitcher, Daniel Cabrera, hit Derek Jeter on the back of the hand with a pitch. OUCH. Jeter was a hurtin' puppy but thankfully got away with no broken bones. Cabrera was visibly upset by this. He was hanging his head in remorse and was not making any scene of it.

I can't remember how many innings later, Orioles batter Luke Scott (O's fans have been calling him Luke Scottwalker) was standing in the batters box. He took one pitch very inside and then took the next pitch to his head. Luckily, Luke Scott got out of the way in time. Before Luke Scott even recovered from the flinch, the home plate umpire had already ejected the pitcher. Luke Scott yelled at the pitcher to not throw at someone's head and the pitcher yelled back and got all defensive. The benches cleared, including the bullpens. No punches were thrown. The over-the-plate camera showed that the pitcher was missing the plate by a mile as Scott was not crowding the plate.

The pitcher's reaction shows me he was guilty as "charged" else he would have reacted like Cabrera did. MLB suspended him for 3 games. I was really happy to see that the ump didn't flinch; he saw it for what it was without even an argument.

I was reading Curt Schilling's (Boston Red Sox pitcher) blog (http://38pitches.com/2008/04/18/intent/), and he was saying in one post that anything thrown behind a batter is clearly intentional to hit him or make some kind of a point. And frankly, I think the same applies to throwing at someone's head. I'm sorry, if you've gotten to the Major Leagues, you know how to control and throw a baseball. You may have off days and can't get the ball in the strike zone, but "wild" pitches like that? Sorry, I don't buy it.


3. Oh how I wish Napoleon wasn't regressing but he is. He's forgotten his crate training and peeing in the crate again during the day. Totally maddening, and we don't know why he's decided to regress. I guess we're going to have to start taking him to daycare again, else I'm going to have to start getting up at 5am and give him a structured walk him for an hour to get him REALLY tired. I don't have the energy for either scenario right now, though....

Napoleon has also been keeping me up at night with his whining. He doesn't want to be in the crate because he wants to be in the bed with us. Fine. IO goes in the crate, Napoleon comes to bed. Except that when Steve finally settles in for the night, Napoleon all of a sudden wants to go back and be with IO. So then Steve has to get out of bed and put Napoleon in the crate. Needless to say, I don't get it.


4. The new baby. I think this baby will be as active/busy as DJ is. This baby is very active in utero, at least I can feel alot. Yikes! It's almost consistent, too. If I settle down for the evening on the couch or sit at my desk at work a particular way, the baby starts thumping me. I feel you in there!!


5. The Apple Store. My laptop has been giving me fits the last number of months. It's been crashing unexpectedly, but most often while playing World of Warcraft. Yesterday, it started shutting off all by itself while I was ripping CDs. Unlike WoW, that's not video intensive. And it was doing it very consistently.

So I made an appointment at the Apple Store, took it in, and of course, I couldn't get it to crash while ripping a CD. Of course. The tech ran some diagnostics, which of course it passed, and then I said, "Let me login to WoW and get myself to a spot that the laptop hates." Sure enough, I hearth into Shattrath and wham-o. The screen goes black and the machine shuts off. The tech was impressed. He's ordering me a new motherboard which, even though it's technically a separate component, will have a new video card, too, because it's soldered onto the motherboard. I should be getting that back on Saturday.

Tonight, though, we're going to get my parents a new computer. We're going to take them to the Apple Store and look at various models and hopefully they can decide what they want. I've been promising them this for months and it's about time I just do it. So voila... we're doing it.


6. In reading Dave's blog, he's doing all these house projects to his new place and it's making me feel lazy. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm tired, I have a toddler, and I don't have the time to do anything. But I want to work on the beds outside! They need attention! Or they need a very strong plant killer. ::sigh:: I also want to clean up the basement, and organize the house some more as we still have boxes that we haven't unpacked since we moved in nearly 2 years ago.... yikes.


7. My folks called to tell me that they'll probably drive down with us to the beach this year because airfare is ridiculous. And to the airport closest to the beach, it is... $600/person is outrageous. We'd do better renting a Suburban and driving than dealing with that! But i looked on Southwest.com, and wow... they have half decent prices, like $85/person one way for a senior citizen. That seems reasonable!!! Except that it's flying into a city that's 2 hours away. Now my brother is flying there, too, renting a van and driving, so... if they don't really want to drive the 8 hours with us, they could make the trip in half the time flying and driving with my brother. That'll be a discussion over dinner tonight.

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were saying that airfares are going up because of fuel costs. Southwest may have raised their fares, but they aren't ridiculous like USAir, who will be charging $15 per bag. Want to charge me for using the bathroom, too? Sure, I'll leave the quarter on the tank.... Airlines = FAIL.