Memorial weekend recap

Hey all. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I had a very busy, eventful one...and it didn't even really start until Sunday.
Here are some highlights (and lowlights of course):

-saw Star Wars Episode II with Chief and Rex.....great great flick. It was definitely the best movie since the Empire Strikes Back....and I have to resist the new movie urge to say it may have been my favorite of any of the movies. Great action scenes. Awesome setup the original movies (except for a Princess Leia continuity problem). I thought Lucas' idea for Anakin turning to the Dark Side was brilliant...very human and understandable. Thought the acting was much better by everyone (Ewan MacGregor was excellent) and I didn't even mind the Anakin-Padme scenes this time.

-my Mom was admitted to the hospital again. Not sure what's going on...her blood sugar was off the charts and all her body levels were screwed up. I'm becoming more and more concerned about her and everything that seems to be going wrong lately.

-Justin and Jane came to visit...for a whole 10 hrs. It was really nice to see them after almost 2 years and we had a short, good time....went to Packos and went to see mom. I was thinking how very nice to have the ENTIRE Tharpe family at one place...even if it was a drab hospital room.

-attended Chach's party for his favorite holiday of the season, Memorial Day (no joke..its his Xmas...or well half of his Xmas). Another great party this year...they're getting harder and harder to top each year. Played softball, hit ok though not great. Scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th for the victorious Ohio-born and threw out Kristin at home after inexplicably talking shit to her all game. Brandon also threw a softball at my face after saying I was making out with Cheryl (I told you there were lowlights) Chach made some excellent food on the new love of his life...a glorious silver grill! Jen made some awesome sangria and pina coladas. It was a great day.

-today though officially not the weekend (though it was for me) Chief and I spent three hours doing a 5 min chore. Went to BG for Skyline Chili and nerd blizzards. Looked for hotties on the streets. Went driving with the Mustang's top down.

well that's a full wrapup for those who care....hope you had a good weekend too.

Nightmare at Clark and Addison

last one out of Wrigley turn off the lights

*****Cubs Rant Alert, Cubs Rant Alert*****

Well...it's wait til next year time again for the Chicago Cubs. That thud you heard today was the last desperate hope for a playoff spot falling off the pitching rubber at Beautiful Wrigley Field. If you haven't yet heard Cubs pitcher Mark Prior (my favorite player in baseball and one of the best pitchers in the NL) had a ball deflect off his elbow and fracture his elbow. Put a simpler, more horrifying way...Mark Prior broke his pitching arm tonight.
Add him to the incredibly long list of Cubs stars on the disabled list (including Kerry Wood and Nomar) and this spells the end of the season on May 27. It's not that I thought the Cubs had a chance to make the playoffs...I didn't with a horribly inconsistent offense and a just plain horrible bullpen. It just really really sucks that my favorite ballplayer is most certainly done for the season. The Cubs won't say it but come one...its a broken arm. I won't get to see him strikeout NL batter after NL batter. And again I won't get to see him pitch in person this summer.
This sucks! I know I sound like a little ten year old kid but I don't care. Grown men are allowed their sports heroes too. I'm just glad I didn't see the game today...I might not be here to blog about this. The Cubs might finally have finished my life off. Though I have seen the replays countless times tonight of Prior collapsing and screaming in agony.....damn, where did I put that rope?

especially my teams

Thanks to Corey I now know of a way to make people (other than my blood brother) comment on my blog....simply make ridiculous and unsupportable claims about everyone's favorite sports teams. so...here goes:

REDS SUCK
LIONS SUCK
CARDINALS SUCK
TIGERS SUCK
BUCKEYES SUCK
INDIANS SUCK
WOLVERINES SUCK
BG FALCONS SUCK
EAGLES SUCK
BENGALS SUCK
BROWNS SUCK
CUBS SUCK
PISTONS SUCK
RED WINGS SUCK
MUD HENS SUCK
SPURS SUCK
49ERS SUCK
ROCKETS SUCK
STEELERS SUCK
CHIEFS SUCK
METS SUCK
JAYHAWKS SUCK
BLUE DEVILS SUCK
HAWKEYES SUCK
DODGERS SUCK

if I left any of your favorite teams off the list, let me know and then they too can suck!

and just a fun note: the spell check actually wanted me to replace "buckeyes" with "backwash" and "bengals" with "bungles"

a reason to actually go to Iowa

This is kind of a funny map...apparently I'm an easterner through and through. I have been to alot of the western states but I was a baby and don't remember them...so I won't count them.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Washington mania!

on tuesday David McCullough's new book 1776 comes out!! It's an in-depth look at GW and the Continental Army...check it out!!! And there's an exerpt in this week's Newsweek. It will probably win a Pulitzer. This is my Harry Potter! I'm buying it the minute it comes out.

picture testing!!

Thanks to Joe for excellent technical support!

name change

Hey all....just wanted to let everyone know that I decided to change the name of this thoroughly uninteresting blog...well...because it was stupid now that the baseball season has started. And the new name, let's be honest, is one I will NEVER EVER EVER have to change.

Also...can someone tell me how to post pictures on these things? I see that J and Corey have done it but I have not figured it out. Thanx!

wow!!!

I just saw the Northern Lights for the first time...and from my very own driveway in Perrysburg, OH. At 3:30 in the morning. After coming home from a night drinking at Sticks. It was incredibly beautiful....not alot of color in this one but there was lots of dancing, shimmering white lights that lightened the entire night sky. Wow....on a blog where I am mostly cynical and sarcastic...this was truly amazing. I wish everyone I knew could have seen it with me.

Rainbow...well not-so-Bright

Hey all...I figured I would write an actual entry in this silly blog, instead of just another quiz to cut and paste. Ok...so I think that most of you who know me know that I am a pretty open-minded fellow. Atleast I like to think so. I don't think of myself as a racist, or a bigot or a homophobe. I have no problem at all with gays and lesbians...I figure the more the merrier actually (better odds for me with gay guys...and lesbians...well thats hot).
So that being said...I was working in the music department of the bookstore when four older, unattractive ladies came in. At once I got a certain kind of vibe. Without sounding too insensitive, they all had butch haircuts, badly dressed, scary kind of women. Not the guy-friendly lipstick lesbian variety. My suspicions were raised when they were discussing what was on Ellen's show this very day. They were confirmed when the leader of this frightening pack asked me where the women section had been moved to. Well we never had a section in music devoted exclusively to women (atleast in the far too long time I've been there). Nevermind they didn't even have the correct name of the Tori Amos-wannabe they were looking for.
Now being a fair and balanced (oh Christ..Fox News is going to sue now) person, I just have to say..no problem here. But for the love of Rosie O'Donnell, did they have to be sooooo damn stereotypical!!! I mean come on. I kept waiting for the following requests, "Do you have the L word on dvd?" "Where is season one of Queer as Folk?"
wow....sorry...think I'm gonna get my liberal license revoked?

if I'm REALLY lucky...

You Will Die at Age 67

67 You're pretty average when it comes to how you live... And how you'll die as well.

What Age Will You Die?

just call me Jed Bartlet

Or Josh Lyman since he gets more girls...

Your Political Profile

Overall: 20% Conservative, 80% Liberal

Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

can I move now?

"Chicago, chicago that toddling town
Chicago, chicago I’ll show you around - I love it
Bet your bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in chicago
The town that billy sunday could not shut down

On state street that great street I just want to say
They do things that they don’t do on broadway - say
They have the time the time of their life
I saw a man and he danced with his wife
In chicago, my home town"
-Frank Sinatra's "Chicago"




>

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Chicago

70% New York City

70% Philadelphia

60% Los Angeles

55% Boston

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Dusty is an Idiot!!!

*****Cubs Rant Alert, Cubs Rant Alert*****

OK.. before I begin to rant I realize that it is only early May and that there is ALOT of baseball to still be played. That being said...
The Chicago Cubs are playing awful, dreadful baseball. It's not that they're losing...it's the way they are losing. Today ended a three game sweep to the Milwaukee Brewers....yes, the Brewers, who are basically a Double-A team. (side note: the Brewers have maybe the two WORST tv announcers in the game...I spent an entire week wishing I could piss on their scorecards.) The Cubs have been playing with no heart, no hustle, no anything. If its not the offense failing to take advantage of opportunities then its the joke of a bullpen blowing leads. And the starting pitching is has been the worst I've seen in 5 years...so much for the best rotation in the NL. I'm not sure it would be the best rotation in the Pacific Coast League. (not even mentioning Kerry Wood and his 5 cent arm)
The Boys in Blue lost last night in a particularly horrifying and embarrassing manner. The Brewers top hitters led off the bottom of the 9th with the score tied at 2. Over the course of a very long inning Dusty Baker, in his infinite wisdom, decided to walk 2 men intentionally...thus loading the bases. Then the Cubs expected their pitcher, who should really be pitching in Double-A ball, immediately find the strike zone to Damian Miller (an ex-Cub). Of course he didn't, he went to 3-2 on Miller and then walked him home for the winning run. Ouch.
Bad move, Dusty. Why the hell are you walking to guys in the bottom of the 9th on the road? Now I'm not (yet) on the Fire Dusty bandwagon that has been growing around the Friendly Confines these days. But I do think that he is already mailing in this season. There is no heart, hustle or fight to these Cubs. They are simply going through the motions. Now the NL Central has been decided by the Cards already again...but is Baker aware that an extra team beyond the three division winners gets to go to the playoffs? Apparently not. He has mismanaged everything this year. He has handled the rotation badly from the start, his lineups have been a joke all year, and he's already worn out a pathetic-from-the-start bullpen.
Now I'm not writing the season of yet like alot of other Cub fans (though it goes against our very nature not to). But they need to do something. It's up to Dusty Baker to get this team playing again...if not for the NL Wild Card (which they can and should win) then atleast for a little goddamn pride. So put down the germ-infested toothpick and get something going! Or Steve Bartman won't be the only one run out of town from the fans in the Not-So-Friendly Confines.



On a more positive side note...I've been watching alot of Dodger games late at night lately (loving this MLB Extra Innings so far!) and I just want to say what is pretty obvious to knowledgeable baseball fans....Vin Scully is an incredible broadcaster. Great voice....unbelievable job. He doesn't have a broadcast partner...which is weird for oh..maybe a minute until you listen to him. He really needs nothing. Does an incredible job calling the game. And he has great stories from seasons past that he throws in for real baseball fans. I knew Scully from some national games and for maybe the best performance in Kevin Costner's For Love of the Game. If you ever get the chance you should definitely listen in. He is one of the few old school broadcasters that makes baseball more of an experience than just a game. It's like listening to your beloved grandfather calling a Dodgers game. And he's really (along with Harry Calais) the only one left in the game, now that Harry Caray, Jack Buck and the legendary Ernie Harwell are gone from the game.

eat me, Stewie

I'm a drunken, academic dog who uses sarcasm constantly....go figure


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