Awesome Football Day

During college football season, some Saturdays are blah. No good teams play each other. This is NOT one of the those weekends. The outcome of today's games won't determine who will go to the BCS bowl games, but it will have a lot to say about who doesn't go.

Right now I'm watching undefeated #8 Texas Tech play #23 Kansas (big bowl game winners from last year. Lots of points are going to be scored in this one. I like the upstart Red Raiders in this one.

The two best teams in both the Big 10 (Ohio State and Penn State) and Pac 10 (USC and Arizona) play tonight. Next to the Vols (and I'll get to them in a minute), USC is my fave college football team (probably because they were so good when I was a kid), so I'll be rooting for them. My dad went to Penn State and I'm tired of watching Ohio State get their asses kicked in the BCS championship game. So, I say go Nitany Lions. Of course, an Ohio State loss would not knock them out of the Rose Bowl (the Rose Bowl loves keeping Big 10 vs. Pac 10 matchups, no matter what, like last year when Illinois was fed to USC). This could setup another USC-Ohio State matchup, which would suck.

The Vols play their biggest rival, #2 Alabama, at home tonight. On paper, 'Bama should crush them. But, like beating Georgia last year, ya just never know with the Vols. Beating the Tide would definitely make their season (and, unfortunately, save Fulmer's job).

#7 Georgia plays at #13 LSU in what is essentially an SEC playoff game. The team that loses will have a tough time making it to the SEC championship game. Georgia hasn't been playing that well, and LSU's gotta be pissed over the ass kicking Florida gave them. I think the Tigers will take are of business at home.

#1 Texas is at #6 Oklahoma State. Texas controls their own destiny for the Big 12 championship game and the BCS championship. OK State become a real player with a win and would throw the BCS rankings into a tizzy. But, right now Texas is just playing too well, and I think the Longhorns will win.

Game 3 of the World Series is scheduled for tonight, but there's a good chance it will be rained out, so there will be more time to watch football and more WS when there's no football--woot!

Hookey Day

The HB and I made it to the golf course today. It was a short, nine-hole par-3, hard against the freeway. He was psyched as he had a new bag of clubs (well, new to him, I got them from a buddy who used them when teaching his son to play) and got to play of a "real" course. He seemed to have a good time and was hitting the ball better until he got a blister on his right hand (which is odd since he's a right handed golfer). So, I wrapped up the last few holes and we got him a golf glove later in the day.

Since the NZS wasn't suiting up tonight, we didn't go to his school's football game (which they won). Rather, we grabbed some dinner and went to the LA County Museum of Art, where they have jazz on Friday nights. It wasn't until we saw the banners than I remembered there was an exhibit of Vanity Fair covers. I figured this would be a good diversion for the HB (he'd recognize at least some of them) as there was not way he was going to sit for the music for more than 30 min at a time.

So, we listened to a set and checked out the exhibit. I promised him I would tell him who all the famous people were. Most were pretty easy, and there were a few "teaching" moments, like when we came across photos of Jesse Owens and Ernest Hemmingway. We listened to a bit more music, then grabbed one of the to-die-for brownies (for the wife after she got home, of course) and headed home.

Sleeping in tomorrow would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

More Bachelor Days

The wife's been out of town the last couple of days (she gets back tonight) and the HB, NZS and I have been making the most of it. Catching both World Series games (can someone tell me what happened to the Phillies hitting with runners on base?) and enjoying seafood extravaganzas (grilled salmon with ginger, cumin and garlic last night), etc.

The NZS has tendonosis in his knee, so I think his short-lived high school football career is over. Not because the injury is serious, but because soccer is really his sport and he'll want to get physical therapy and rest it for that season.

To take advantage of a day off, I promised the HB that I'd take him golfing for the first time. We've gone to the driving range a few times and he seems excited about getting on a real (par 3) course. If he likes it, then he'll get to enjoy the lifetime of frustration that is the game of golf.

World Series

Here's my third (and final) post of the night, so you may need to read further down.

By the time this gets posted it will be after the game's over, but right after I get done watching the first game of the World Series on DVR. I do want to go on record saying that I'm pulling for the Phillies. Nothing against the Rays, who vanquished the hated Red Sox, but not only do I have lots of family in Philly, but it's been forever since their sports teams won anything.

Now, you're saying, "But Chat, the Rays have never even BEEN to the World Series. Doesn't that count for something?" and you'd be right. Here's the thing. The Rays have only had 9 years of futility, but the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, so folks in Tampa are not exactly long suffering for a championship.

Philly has teams in the major 4 professional sports. They have not won a championship since 1983. That's 103 seasons of not bringing home the big prize. Only Cleveland, with probably the most heart wrenching defeats, has more at 158 seasons. The only other cities that can even enter the long suffering argument are Buffalo (80 seasons with two teams), San Diego (90 seasons with 3 teams if you include the Clipper years) and Seattle (92 seasons with 3 teams, and they don't even have the Sonics--who won the only championship--around anymore).

So, you nasty, cynical, we'll-boo-Santa Claus mutherfuckers, I'm with ya in this one. I even whipped up cheesteaks tonight with the HB to lend moral support. If that doesn't work, I'll hunt down some Tastykakes.

Tonight's result: Phillies 3, Rays 2.

What's Important For Nov. 4th?

Now that we are (finally) getting to the end of the campaign season, it is even more interesting (to me, at least) reading the election coverage. Most of what I see, even on right leaning websites/papers, is that McCain's campaign is circling the drain. There aren't any states that Kerry won on '04 that have flipped, while Obama has put several in his category, particularly in the upper midwest. The surest sign of a campaign in trouble is when they start talking about the inaccuracy of the polls, or pretending that relatively large differences (like the 6-8 percentage point spread in PA) don't exist.

So, the media is starting to focus on why the McCain campaign didn't really catch on. Was it him? The economy? People getting sick of the republicans? Or, all of the above? One thing is for sure, the media has not quit getting in their whacks on Sara Palin.

There was a story in today's NY Times about her billing the campaign for her shopping trips in NYC (I guess you gotta go to faux America to buy the good stuff). The story also outlines her habit of getting free family travel courtesy of the Alaska taxpayers.

The key question is whether Obama, Biden and McCain bill their respective campaigns for equally frivolous things or, it is a better story when a woman bills her campaign for clothes and makeup. Though, to be fair, Bill Clinton's and John Edwards's expensive haircuts made big news as well. Regardless, you get the feeling that the coverage of her is like kicking dirt on a coffin. Then again, she seems to be shovelling as fast as anyone.

Back from Vegas, Baby

I got back from Vegas last night. All I had was dial-up in my room (the high speed was, like most everything else there, ridiculously priced), so blogging would have been tough.

The reason for my visit was to present at a conference. I had a less than desirable spot (3-4:30pm), but still had a packed room. I'm thinking all of these folks got their asses handed to them at the tables (hm...sorta like I did). The talk went well. Lots of good questions and I had a lot of energy. I doubt that I got any clients out of it, but who knows.

I really enjoy the people who go to this conference, so a bunch of us got together for a great dinner at Chinois (where we kept an eye on the Rays beating the Sox...heh) on Sunday night and some gambling on Sunday. After the meeting Monday morning, most of my buds headed out of town. So, I pretty much went solo. I played some cards with some fun folks from the midwest and hung out in a dive bar to watch Monday Night Football. The bartender was smokin' hot and guys were crawling over each other to hit on her...very funny stuff. My presentation was on Tuesday and I left town immediately after as I was able to get on an earlier flight.

The NZS wants to see Vegas before he leaves in January. I can see the interest, but there really won't be much for him and the HB to do there. But, it will be cool for him to see it, so we'll make the trip and then probably go see the Grand Canyon as well.

RIP

I went to the memorial service today for a guy in my Rotary Club. He'd been a member for about 12 years, but there isn't anyone more committed to the youth in our community than him. The large church was jam packed, as I figured that it would be. There were many eulogies, including two wonderful ones by his eldest daughter and a life long friend.

For obvious reasons, when I go, I wouldn't want a big memorial like that. Hopefully, I'll have enough money to my name so that my next of kin can buy all my friends a drink (or three) in my memory.

I guess there's always someone who introduces a food to a community. Sure, it's probably not the person who invented it, but someone has to take credit. Ever wanted to know who brought nachos to the attention of LA? That would be Carmen Rocha (maybe) who died earlier in the week. So, get some chips, jalapenos and queso, OK?

School Daze

Today I spent 3 hours on the campus of the middle school where the HB would attend if we didn't have him in private school. There's a group of local parents who are trying to improve the local schools, including this one, so that more local kids will attend them. I'm here to say that they are failing.

I found a classroom nearly bereft of computers and other learning aids. Not only that, the walls were almost bare. Very few group projects (although one seemed to be based on a local pizza place's menu) or other evidence of creative thinking. When the students got unruly when I was speaking, as the guest I had to bring order as the teacher (who was essentially having a vacation day) couldn't be bothered.

At lunch we ate in the teacher's lounge. Lots of posters about UTLA goings on, but, like the website, nothing about improving the quality of education. OK, if you got to the BOTTOM of the webpage there is some information about professional development.

I'd rather not spend the money on private school, but I think that's going to continue to be in the cards.

Tonight we went to the NZS's football game. I gotta say, the team impressed me. The fell behind 17-0, but came back to win 35-17--on the road. Once they cut down on the turnovers and protected their QB, things really turned. The only bad part was that the NZS didn't play (bum knee).

Tomorrow the HB starts on a new theater production. This is a good thing. He's got a bit too much time on his hands during the weekends. Unfortch, while he's there I need to got to a memorial for a guy in my Rotary Club. We didn't always see eye-to-eye, but he cared about the kids in our neighborhood like nobody else. He's already missed.

Health Care, etc.

As a general rule, I like reading the LA Times. Pretty in-depth, has adjusted well to the electronic age, etc. Sometimes they do some goofy things, like putting an article about Howard Stern on the front page, like they did today. However, they got it right in today's Health Section. It outlines McCain' and Obama's health care ideas and research and commentary around them. Pretty interesting stuff. OK, not interesting, but probably worth knowing.

As you probably know by now, the annual fall fires are burning in SoCal. Some are in LA city proper while others are in the 'burbs. None are close to our house, but you can smell the ash in the air and my throat feels a bit scratchy. It sounds weird, but one of them is in a rural part of the city (Chatsworth) where people raise horses, etc. I'm watching some amazing pictures of people hanging out by huge flames. Very weird.

Ugh...I'm beat and going to bed.

Kid Stuff

Earlier in the week, we decided that we would get the HB some sort of clubhouse for him and his buddies to hangout in. I'm reasonably handy, so i figured if we got some sort of kit we could get it up in a couple of hours. There's a place off of the freeway near here that advertises such shit, so we went to their website to check stuff out. Gheezuhs-fucking christ is that stuff expensive! $3k is just way too much to spend. Then we check out the prices of just buying some wood and doing it ourselves, and that was still a lot of money and had clusterfuck written all over it.

Plan B involved looking for some sort of fancy tent like structure. Camping tents that were tall enough had too big of a footprint, so that was a no-go. So, we found a canopy that fit the bill. We figured we could buy some extra sheets or something to give them more privacy. So, we set the thing about pretty quick yesterday afternoon and it seemed to work fine. It came with HUGE stakes that we didnt' really want to put through our weed guard, so we went without since we live in a place with very little extreme weather. Of course, last night, just as we're starting to have sex ('natch) the wind kicks up and starts blowing the bastard all over the place. I'm going to go buy some small stakes today.

We went to the NZS's football game last night. It was homecoming and the HB seemed to enjoy the whole spectacle, which was kind of surprising. However, the MOST surprising thing was the the homecoming king was the DRUM MAJOR. A band geek as homecoming king? Times have definitely changed since I went to HS.

Oh, and the kitchen remodel guy's coming today. This'll be fun (NOT).

Homecoming

Tonight is the NZS's homecoming football game. Now that his knee is healthy enough for him to play, he's asked the wife and I several times if we're going to the game. I'd go no matter what (I've been to some where he hasn't played), but this is the exchange student-mom test for her as she detests football. But, we'll meet some friends there so it shouldn't be too horrible for her. Although, come to think of it, I don't think she's ever been to a football game and not drank a bunch of vodka. I guess there's a first for everything.

I couldn't get myself to watch the Dodgers-Phillies game last night. I guess I'm still a few days away from watching baseball again.

Work is going fine. So far, no cancellations based on the economy (yet) and a new project keeps chugging along. We'll just keep our fingers crossed.

The Return of Dante

Loyal readers remember that my wife and I talked about remodeling our kitchen. Well, it turns out that a woman my wife works with just got theirs redone, it's of a similar size and it all happened in less than two weeks. She checked it out and was satisfied with the quality and now we have the contractor coming on Saturday.

Now, it's just a matter of time as to how often she changes her mind about what she wants done between now and then and between when he comes and we actually order anything.

Angels Lose to Red Sox...Again

OK, now that some time's passed, I think I can write about this.

FUCK!!!!

When I was a kid, the Angels SUCKED. Less than 10,000 people would go to Fan Appreciation Night. But, my brother and I would always get my parents to take us the games. I loved baseball, and the Angels were my team.

In the 80's, they got moderately good, especially in 1986. Most people remember that year as Bill Buckner letting the ball go through his legs enabling the Mets to win the World Series over the Red Sox. For Angel fans, it's the year Donnie Moore gave up the home run to Dave Henderson in game 4 when the Angels were one strike away from going to the World Series (Moore was so distraught that he later killed himself).

Now, the Angels are good. They go to the playoffs almost every year and they won their first World Series in 2002. However, since that great year, they've flamed out in the playoffs (normally, against the Red Sox). Last year they had a lot of injuries, but this year they had no excuses. They team was healthy and rested since they wrapped up the division so early. And they were playing well the last two weeks of the season.

They weren't aggressive enough at the plate in game one, and their pitching let them down in game two. In game 3 they showed some grit and came from behind to win in extra innings. All they needed was the same kind of effort in game 4 to play the deciding game five at home. They fought and came from behind and had a chance to win in the 9th, but lost in the bottom of the inning. What happend?

It's no accident that they Angels have been this good for this long because Mike Soscia is their manager. He brings a smart brand of aggressive baseball and has been able to teach it throughout the organization. But, in game 4, he made a strategic blunder when he had Aybar squeeze with Willits on 3rd and one out. Why?

Strategically, the Red Sox were better off with runners on first and third and one out, so they were not going to throw Aybar a strike. Terry Francona (the Red Sox manager) also knew that Socscia likes squeeze bunts (the player on third breaking for home while the batter bunts the ball). So, instead of intentionally walking Aybar, he had his pitcher throw pitches high and inside, which are very difficult to bunt. This is what happend for the first two pitches.

Then, inexplicably, since it was obvious what the Red Sox were doing, Soscia puts on the squeeze play. Aybar misses the ball and Willits gets tagged out. So much for the rally and the game's still tied.

So, instead of a one-run lead (assuming that after the walk to Aybar, Chone Figgins would do something good--he was 2-4 in the game and is generally too fast to hit into double-plays) and the best closer in baseball, Frankie Rodriguez, in to pitch the 9th, the Angels have to go with their setup pitcher, Scott Shields, who had pitched 2+ innings the night before. I don't want to recap the rest, but it was the Red Sox celebrating at the end.

I fear that the Angels are turning into the Braves of the 90s--good enough to go to the playoffs each year, but missing that extra spark to win it all. Given how sucky the Angels were when I was a kid, writing that sentence almost seems like heresay. But, when they have the best team in the league as they did this year, another first round flame-out is frustrating.

FUCK.

Comrade McCain

I watched the beginning of tonight's debate while exercising. At this point, Obama's strategy is obvious: 1) Play the cool, thoughtful guy 2) Be forceful on foreign policy 3) Make McCain catch you and don't be baited into insults. If doing those three things makes for a successful debate for Obama, then he did his job.

Obviously tired of being tagged as Bush Jr., McCain busted out with a proposed a program that would buy mortgages from homeowners facing financial problems and replace those mortgages with new, fixed-rate mortgages. His campaign said it would cost roughly $300 billion. I'm assuming that this is on top of the $850,000,000,000 that both he and Obama gave the thumbs up to last week. McCain made the point that this thing was his idea.

Note that on March 26th McCain was singing a completely different tune and last week his veep nominee said, "Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you're not always the solution. In fact, too often you're the problem so, government, .... get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper." I guess that's except when your candidate is desperate. Talk about your flip-flopping.

More importantly, one has to ask Mr. McCain whether or not he truly believes in capitalism or central government planning of the economy. On one hand, he thinks that the free market will lower health care costs and improve quality, but on the other that that it won't fix the financial markets. So, if he were president and a lot of hospitals began to shut down, would he have the government buy them and run the health care system?

It amazes me how quickly the republicans run from their principles. Bush was all about choosing judges that strictly interpret the constitution, then looks for as many ways as possible to circumvent it in the war on terror. McCain espouses free markets, until he's behind in an election. Idiots.

Campaign Irony

Those of us of a certain age remember that when Reagan ran for president that he would use Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA at his rallies. That was, of course, until his campaign figured out that it's not exactly the rah-rah U-S-A, U-S-A song they thought it was.

Well, it turns out that McCain's campaign isn't any smarter as they are using the Martina McBride song Independence Day when introducing Sarah Palin. Y'know, the song where the woman's sick of the abuse from her husband and burns down the house with him in it? Yup, so Peters is going to donate her royalties from the song when it's played during election season to Planned Parenthood. Nice.

There's another debate tonight. I doubt that I'll watch it live. But, since the polls are going against McCain for now, I would imagine he's going to be playing the "character" card pretty hard. Of course, Obama's too much of a gentleman (for now) to respond with, "So John, tell me when you decided to quit cheating on your wife who was in a horrific car wreck and just divorce her and leave her with 4 kids?"

Monday Morning

I really mean to post yesterday, but after getting very little sleep while camping (typical), I took a big ol' nap yesterday afternoon and then went to my parents' for dinner (yum....brisket!).

Camping was a blast. The HB had a good time with the other boys and we did some hiking and bike riding. I went mountain biking with a couple of the other dads. The weather was cooler than expected, but one afternoon when we went to the beach we saw some dolphins. We also heard coyotes at night, so it was quite the Mutual of Omaha weekend.

Last week we encouraged the HB to buy the computer game Spore. Installing it was a bitch because the computer he uses doesn't have a DVD reader. So, I had to upload some files and put others on a flash drive just to get it loaded. Then it informed me that the video card was woefully inadequate. So, after getting back yesterday we went to Fry's and got a new video card and now it works fine. He seems to dig it and should be fun for him. It'll allow him to merge the creative and scientific parts of his mind. Keeping him from playing it 24/7 will be a bit more of a challeng.

So, remember last week when congress told us we had to bailout Wall St. to save the economy? I guess the message didn't get through as the stock market is tanking, again. See ya $700,000,000,000.

The Angels showed some backbone last night to beat the Red Sox in 12 innings. I like their chances tonight with Lackey on the mound. Sure, Lester worked his way out of some jams on Wednesday, but I'm thinking that the Halos will make him pay tonight. I hope.

Post Veep Debate

Christ, that was so booooooooooooring and nauseating. Why did they even bother? For being a 'middle-class' mom, she is so condescending. It's obvious that she has no depth of knowledge of any of these subjects. Clearly, she crammed for the exam.

The HB and I are off to go camping tomorrow for the weekend. Should be warm and we'll be by the beach. Hopefully, I'll get a post in. Otherwise, back atchya on Sunday.

VP Debate

Is there anything more inane than a vice presidential debate? Clearly, all either one of them is going to do is shill for the presumptive boss. And even the biggest VP debate zinger of all time didn't affect the election. So, who cares?

So, I'm wondering which one of the following will happen first:

1) Biden will say something REALLY condescending and come off as a bully/prick.
2) Palin will say something so patently false/stoopid the neither Biden or the moderator(s) will know how to react.

Should be a thrill (zzzzzzzzzzzzz).

In other political news, McCain's quitting in Michigan. So much for the argument that Obama can't win enough white blue collar votes. The wolverine state was always a long shot for McCain, anyway. It hasn't voted Republican since 1988 in a presidential election. The bigger impact is what it means for Ohio, which is a more pivotal state this go around.

Bail Out Pork

First thing's first--the Angel game last night was very dissapointing. Lackey pitched great, except for that one pitch to Bey. The Angel hitters just weren't aggressive enough. I told my buddy that letting Lester of of the hook in the 1st and 3rd innings was gonna bit them in the ass, and it did.

So, the senate passed a revised bail-out bill. You would think that the revisions would reduce the amount of the bail-out or give the tax payers more protections. Uh, no. Actually, it's just got $100 billion in mostly unrelated tax sops (though there is extra insurance for bank deposits). So, where's John McCain, Mr. Anti-Pork? Voting yes, of course, even though the price tag just went up with items that have nothing to do with the banking system or mortgages. Apparenly, some pork tastes better to him than others.

I'm writing my congressowoman urging her to vote no. Not that it matters since she voted yes the first time around, and seeing that one of the new giveaways is to movie studios, I doubt she'll change her mind.

Playoff Fever!

In my nearly 40 years of going to baseball games, I've never caught a foul ball or been to a playoff game. The latter streak ends tonight! A buddy of mine has 5 Angel season tickets. Basically, it's a tax-free (for him) bonus from his boss. So, three of us invested in the 5 for the playoffs thinking that we'd use half and the proceeds from the other have on eBay or StubHub would essentially pay for the games we're going to. Since the HB and I are going camping this weekend, I opted for tonight's game against the Red Sox.

Boston has been a pain in the Angels' playoff asses ever since they Angels started going to the playoffs in the 80s. Hopefully, this is the year the Halos stick it to those fuckers.

In more sports news, both of my football teams (Raiders and Univ of Tenn) are in the fucking toilet. The Raiders seem to only want to play for 3 quarters (maybe the new coach can fix that) and the Vols' problems are too numerous to list hear. Perhaps this is the year they are bad enough to fire Fulmer.

The congress starts looking at revised bail-out bills today. I cannot get over the pissiness and name calling. Some house republicrats are saying they didn't vote for the last bill because Pelosi said mean things about shrub in her speech on the house floor? Puhleeeese. Sure, she didn't have to do it, but to use that as a reason not to vote for a bill that you otherwise thought was worthwhile is a bunch of shit. Quit being a whiny bitch and just say you didn't like the bill.