Who's on First?

"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all". ~ Earl Weaver

"I've come to the conclusion that the two most important things in life are good friends and a good bullpen". ~ Bob Lemon

"What does a mama bear on the pill have in common with the World Series? No cubs". ~ Harry Caray

September 30th...Awe, what a depressing, yet extremely wonderful date. This morning I put on closed toe shoes for the first time since April, which totally blows. I hate cold weather; it's so depressing. But as sad as the onset of cold weather makes me, it also happens to be one of the my favorite times of year.

"But, why Dana? How can something that makes you sad make you so happy at the same time? How is that possible?" Heelllllloooooooo! The last day of September means the greatest event of the year is beginning. That's right, October baseball! Bring on the playoffs baby!

Beginning with tonight's BoSox/Yanks game, I will be held hostage by the television, couch and beer until the last pitch of the Fall Classic is thrown. For example, next weekend I'm supposed to make one of my many trips to Memphis to visit my brother and sister-in-law. My parents and I are going to ride together since there is no sense in driving two vehicles. Last night they called me attempting to plan when to leave, etc. (They're big planners and I am so not! My official title is The Queen of Procrastination). They wanted to leave Thursday after work. I said that was simply out of the question; absolutely not possible, as there are Division Series games to be played that night. How can one be expected to miss a minute of postseason baseball? Duh!

This weekend marks the final regular season series at Busch Stadium. Literally hundreds of people associated Cardinals history will be on hand for the celebrations. I have many mixed emotions about the change in Cardinals baseball scenery, as my Cardinal memories are in this stadium but the new digs should be spectacular. So in honor of your namesake; here's to you Busch.

One last thought about this weekend's baseball festivities.......Mark "I'm Not Here to Talk About the Past" McGwire is being bestowed the honor of participating in the Busch Stadium countdown. This is a complete bullshit move by Cardinals management. They are shunning a major hero in Cardinals history (my man Willie McGee) and honoring a man who tainted the game of baseball and the Cardinals organization at the same time. That's right I said it; HE TAINTED THE GAME! I didn't like McGwire before he was a Cardinal and I didn't like him as a Cardinal either. People try to say: "Oh, he's never been caught"; "He saved the game of baseball"; yada, yada, yada. While it was not against the rules at the time, he was indeed caught with the performance enhancing drug Andro. And his horrible dance around the questions performance in Congress only made him look like a complete cheating, jackass. The man is a cheat just like Barroids B*nds. You know what else I find funny; a big majority of the people I know who defend Big Red are the first people jumping all over Barroids for cheating. Hypocrisy if I've ever seen it. And in conclusion ... Willie McGee is ten times the man and baseball player Mark McGwire ever was and CAL RIPKEN SAVED BASEBALL!!!

Okay, no more soap box. Enjoy your weekend of baseball folks.

Black Magic Woman

Have I mentioned that I hate Barroids B*nds? The man is the disgusting, yellow deodorant stain on the underarm of Major League Baseball.

If the Giants end up edging out the Padres in the NL West, I might have to boycott the entire postseason. Even if it means forfeiting my rights to watch my beloved Cardinals play October baseball. I can't take another round of the "let's put the Mayor of Cheaterroidjerkvilleton on a national stage and applaud him" game.

If and when he finally passes the Great Bambino on the all time homerun list, I think I will be forced to lock myself in my bedroom and cry for an entire day. No way does this man deserve to be mentioned in the same baseball lore as the Babe. If only he could be forced into retirement immediately after he hits 713; that would be sweet poetic justice.

Perhaps I should dust off the ole gris gris. I haven't had to use it since 2003, but a little black magic could be in order. ... You all thought Steve Bartman was just a freak thing with a non-thinking fan, didn't you? ;)

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

JOEY: If you ask me, as long as you got this job, you've got nothing pushing you to get another one. You need the fear.

RACHEL: The fear?

CHANDLER: He's right, if you quit this job, you then have motivation to go after a job you really want.

RACHEL: Well then how come you're still at a job that you hate, I mean why don't you quit and get 'the fear'?

CHANDLER: Because, I'm too afraid.

What is this fear and where does one find it? If you know where I can find 'the fear', could you pass that information along please? .... ASAP.

One, Two, Three, Get Loose Now!

I just stayed home tonight. Watched the Memphis Cardinals lose to the Reds and the premiere of Jason "No, you did not read that wrong, I really did name my son Pilot Inspektor" Lee's new show My Name is Earl. Or as my mom so eloquently called it, Who the Hell is Eddie?

Bless her heart; she is forever saying stuff like that. She is not stupid, by any means; more of a combination of ditziness and gullibility. It's almost like her brain works 50,000 times faster than her mouth or her handwriting can keep up with. Like the time she made these helpful signs to label the soda bins at the family reunion. It was a very fun event, and we all enjoyed some refreshing "Sprita". Or how no matter how unbelievably out there of a story my brother and I tell her, she whole-heartedly believes us, each and every time.

After work today she called me and said that my dad really wanted to see that new show that he thought looked pretty funny, but he couldn't remember when it was on. She thought I might know so she proceeded to ask, "Do you know when that Who the Hell is Eddie show comes on?" Sadly, I know my mom so well, that I knew exactly what she meant. I busted out laughing and said, "Well mom, I'm not sure who in the hell Eddie is either, but My Name is Earl is on tonight on NBC." And in keeping with family tradition, I immediately hung up with her and flipped that little phone back open to call my brother and tell him about Eddie. He, of course, laughed uncontrollably then called mom to tease her. She in turn called me back and asked why I just had to call my big brother and tell him what she said. It's our circle of trust, and it keeps us very entertained. Mom knows we love her though.

Regarding Earl; who knows if the episodes past the premiere will be any good, but this first one was good stuff. A few of the one liners from the first episode included: "Patty doesn’t care about muscles. Muscles can’t buy Mad Dog."; and "Towards the end I even pulled out my good boob." I didn't quite figure out if it's the fact that they're stuck in this tiny town and have yet to be exposed to post 90s culture, or if the show is actually set in the 90s, but the 90s references were laugh out loud. I mean any show that gives shout outs to Mad Dog 20/20 and Rob Base in the first episode is alright with me.

In closing ....

"Never underestimate the power of 15 beers, a little enlightenment and MC Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock."

Who Does That? -- Part II

Pilot Inspektor. In case you didn't catch it the first time, let me say it again, Pilot Inspektor. That's right, Jason Lee named his son Pilot Inspektor!

Now this is not exactly new news, as I think the child is a couple of years old now, but everytime I see anything with Jason Lee I can't stop myself from saying "he named his son PI-LOT INS-PEK-TOR!!" Every parent-to-be should have to submit their final three choices for baby names to a committee of about 25 third party bystanders. That should be enough people to ensure that all possible torturous, playground nicknames are thought of and, therefore, prevented.

We all know about Apple Martin, Coco Cox and even Jett Travolta, but I'm not just picking on celebrities here. Normal people name their kids stupid stuff too. I went to school with a kid named after a faulty car part. No lies. Nothing but the truth here. His namesake was a faulty car part!

Who does that?

What's Happening Hot Stuff?

Check out the uber hot picture of myself I added to my profile. :)

That's all for now, but there's an actual post coming just around the corner. Promise.

22 -- The Sequel

Another year? Really? Already? Say it ain't so.

Birthdays are fun, but do I really have to acknowledge the addition of another number? Psh. I think not. So I won't. I turned 22 (again) two days ago.

Since everyone has to work on Mondays, the friends decided to take me out Saturday night. We went out for sushi and drinks, then we moved onto my favorite sports bar so we could continue the celebrations with the Cardinals game and the three football games we wanted to watch. After that, we headed downtown for some dancing and pub crawling. Good times. Sunday (my actual birthday) my mom made me her fabulous lasagna for my birthday dinner. My poor dad does not like Italian food at all, but he suffered through for his little girl's birthday. I'd definitely call it a birthday success story. Stay tuned for next year's celebration; 25 -- The Sequel^2.

Final thought......I hate Barroids B*nds.

Troops, Good Deeds and (More) Football

I just ran across a blog that I used to read fairly often. Actually, Doc in the Box is just one of the many military blogs I used to frequent. I still read them from time to time, but not nearly as often as I once did. If you are not familiar with the life of a military person, especially a deployed military person, I highly recommend reading some milblogs. (Note: Those blogs have been known to contain hefty use of coarse language. Just a warning in case you are offended by such things.) They provide great insight into the everyday lives of the men and women putting their selves out there for us. Whether or not you agree with the the war on terror, these people are heroes and deserve our respect. But I digress. Doc in the Box is a Navy Corpsman, currently stateside, who has been deployed to "the Sand Box" twice. His blog literally has tons of links to other milblogs and military support sites, but what I enjoy most about his blog is his photography. He is an amateur photographer and, when deployed, used his separate photoblog to post pictures so friends and family could catch a glimpse of their Marine. I do not remember how, but I somehow stumbled across his blog on his first deployment and followed his unit all the way through both deployments. The pictures were excellent and showed their lives in a way you will never see on any news program. Anyway, I noticed some military support links on his blog today that interested me, so I though I would share. Support your troops!

Soldier's Angels
List of Support Sites

And while I'm on doing good deeds, if anyone is actually reading this, and has yet to donate, I encourage you to please do something to help the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. It might sound trite, but no gift is too small and every little bit helps. I work in philanthropy and we know that if each person in our constituency pool gave just $10, we would far exceed our monetary goal. Just goes to show that every little bit does count. Do what you can; it's needed.

The Cardinals beat up on the Pond Scum, err, I mean the Mets tonight. Pujols went yard twice and John Gall got his first major league dinger. That was awesome. I've had the pleasure of seeing Gall play in AAA a few times and it's fun to see those guys get a chance to shine for a month on their call up. Been watching the Pats/Raiders game too. Brady is looking as good as expected; 282 yards and two TDs with 9:23 left in 4th quarter. I'd say that's a pretty good start for my fantasy team! And Jimmy Kimmel told me, during the half time show, that Matt Leinart will be on his show tonight. Looks like I'll be staying up and watching Kimmel tonight. :-D

Who Does That?

You know how sometimes you forget to bring your lunch, but don't really feel like walking all they way across campus, playing a game of Frogger trying to cross the street, just to get your car parked in that ridiculously small parking lot, so you choose to stay, turn off the light, lock the door and eat in your office? Well that was me today.

I walked over to the campus eatery (no, not the cafeteria; the decent, edible one) to get some lunch and bring it back to my office. I ordered my Parmesan Chicken Wrap, fries and fountain drink to which the little girl behind the counter said, "That will be $4.53". That's fine; it's cheap enough and it's decent, edible food. I hand the little girl my $5 and she returns my change. Awe, but then I added those three fateful litte words, "to go please". Little girl behind the counter's response, "Oh, we're out of to go boxes. We just have the regular paper plates we serve in the dining room. I hope that's okay". Well, you already have my money, I'm hungry and I only have to walk to the building next door with my plate of food, so I guess it's okay.

I waited for my number to be called, picked up my food, carried the plate of uncovered food to my office and proceeded to turn off the lights and lock the door. If only I could leave it like that all day. :)

But I must ask myself, what kind of restaurant, that serves food to go, runs out of to go boxes? I mean it's not like you couldn't see the stack of little styrofoam boxes dwindling. It seems to me that when you see the stack reach a size less than, oh say, 200 or so, you would pick up the phone and order some more little styrofoam boxes. This doesn't just happen in a matter of minutes, it happens over a matter of days! You have the time to see the need for little styrofoam boxes, so order some more!

Who does that?

Football? Really?

I signed up here almost a year ago, when I was attempting to leave a comment on my friend Whitney's Blog, with the intentions of starting my own blog but never started posting. So here we are eleven months later and, having been inspired by my CCH counterparts (C70, NJ, and Brew), I've finally decided I'm going to give it a go. Hopefully, I'll keep it up.

I'm watching the Miami/Florida State game. Right now FSU is on top 10-7 with five minutes to go in the third quarter. I'm rooting for the Noles in this one.

I've spent a good deal of time watching football this weekend, albeit with mixed emotions. I love football, especially college football, so I am uber excited for the start of another season on the gridiron. But at the same time, it's still 90 degrees outside. That's not football weather! I so wish football would start at the beginning of October. Then it would go all the way through February, thus completely eliminating that torturous month between the end of football and the start of MLB Spring Training. Alas, we are stuck with the schedule the way it is, so I take it and enjoy the football when it comes.

Stay tuned. This blog will be continued ... hopefully.