Year In Review

Unlike most, I like to do my year ender at my birthday and not January 1st.  Since the former is tomorrow but I am out of town I figured I'd take a moment to reflect.

 

Travel:

After getting back from Cooperstown in March we spent a quiet summer at camp and at home enjoying the backyard BBQ.  Come Fall Break we headed east and visited our Nation's Capital, Washington, DC.  After an awesome 5 day trip there we again stayed home for the holidays.  After the new year we went west and hit Arizona and the Grand Canyon.  At the end of March I went back to New York to see friends and draft a baseball team.  It was an awesome year for travel  we were able to see some things that are once in a lifetime events with the whole family.  Memories were made and great times had.

 

Business:

Work worked out this year.  I was given more responsibilities (little to no money) but got into a nice comfortable groove.  I have a new shared office and a real desk at which I have family pics and my own PC...something I never thought I would have working in television.

 

Family:

The family is great.  The wife and I have been getting along real well this year.  We look forward to a time when the boy leaves the nest and moves on to college and we want to move to a smaller home.  The boy was in a little trouble but overall he is developing into a great young man.  Everyone trips up and we hope that it is all behind us now!!!  The dog is the same, she is so much a part of our family that she is always included in big decisions...could be good could be bad but I will never call her my 'kid'...

 

Personal:

I've done a lot of things I wanted to do this past year.  I also did a lot I did not.  I worked out pretty well and continue to do so.  I had a bad stretch of January, February, March; but over the entire year I did a great job!  Clothes fit better and I feel better outside doing things like coaching, or just tossing the ball around, hiking in the Grand Canyon or walking Monuments in Washington DC.

 

All in all it has been a great year.  I look forward to this new one and hope to expand on my shaping up with better eating and lifestyle choices.  As well as doing more family things and maybe even getting a motorcycle.  The way gas prices are going I think I might not have that much of an argument from the wife......

 

Till Next Time!

April 29th

So I decided to check out what happened on my birthday, who was born, who died and any major events, battles, etc....

I already knew Duke Ellington and I shared the day. As well as Andre Aggassi and Uma Thurman and I were all born on the same EXACT day in 1970, but here are some others:

1967 - Master P, American rapper, composer, actor, athlete, and sports agent
1968 - Carnie Wilson, American singer
1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis, Irish actor
1958 - Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
1958 - Eve Plumb, American actress
1951 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)
1952 - Nora Dunn, American actress
1954 - Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian
1955 - Kate Mulgrew, American actress
1944 - Richard Kline, American actor and television director
1946 - John Waters, American film director and writer
1899 - Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist and bandleader (d. 1974)
1901 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (d. 1989)
1863 - William Randolph Hearst, American publisher (d. 1951)

Deaths:
1980 - Alfred Hitchcock, English film director (b. 1899)
1380 - Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (b. 1347)

Events:
1986 - Roger Clemens sets a major league baseball record with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners.

1992 - 1992 Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, California, follow the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 54 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.

1945 - Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates
Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.

1916 - Easter Rebellion: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.

Lazy Blogger

It is Thursday and I have hardly written a thing. We have been very busy this week. Monday we had a baseball game (we won) then Tuesday we had a late Scout meeting, then last night we had another Baseball game (we won again). And tomorrow we leave for a campout till Sunday.

Also this weekend I begin the downslide to 40. I got an early gift from my parents, MLB Extra Innings!!!!! Yippee, I now get over 60 major league baseball games a week!!! Mostly for me it will be the Yankees but I will watch Toronto, Angels, Cleveland and Oakland as well for some great baseball!!!

I worked out all week and will head into the end of the month with over 4000 FitLinx points which means I worked out very well this month!!!

Well now I am off to Sam's Club to get cheap gas ($2.89) and maybe some raingear for the weekend.

Till Next Time

In This Corner

The boy and I had a knock down, drag out fight this weekend!! He had homework and when I asked him if he had any he said no, when I ask him why he lied to me he had no reason. It was painful with a lot of yelling, screaming and crying and at one point I gave him the option of dropping Scouts or Baseball and I was serious. In the end we had a compromise.

It was a hard weekend, with more to tell but I am drained right now and late for work....

Friday Night Lights

For the first time in a month we are not having severe weather here in Indianapolis.  For the past 4 Fridays we have been balls to the wall coverage of some terrific storms!!!  Lightening, hail, high winds, straight line winds and tornados.  All of this making us cover up regular programming with special weather coverage.  It will be nice tonight to just do the news and then go home and not freak out when hail starts breaking windows, or the tornado sirens start going off.  It will be fun night with the family, a game, maybe a movie and then early to bed...

 

Survivor last night was a let down.  I am so sorry that Bruce had to leave.  We really liked him and although I did not have him pegged for the final four, I think he might have made a difference if he went over to Terry and his crew early.  Shane is a psycho, that man is crazy and Courtney is just as weird!!!  Terry now has a huge chance of making the Final Four and could go all the way!  I love Thursday Nights!!!!!

 

The boy is back today from his school trip.  I missed him and it was nice to have some time to cool down after the past 2 weeks of frustration.  He promises a big change and I will hold him to it.  He has a report due on Tuesday and he already started working on it, so we are off to a good start!  We also have Opening Day for little league tomorrow, it is just pictures adn such but it will be nice to be back in season.

 

Speaking of which, my past two books have been Baseball books, the first was The Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle.  It is the story of the 1979 Yankees, the first team I really followed, Munson, Lyle, Goose, Reggie, Guidry, Randolph, Bucky and Nettles.  Now I am reading The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty by Buster Olney.  This is the 1994-2001 Yankees, when my son first started following baseball, Jeter, O'Neill, Clemens, Williams, Giardi, Posada, Cone, Wells, Riveria, and Tino.  Quite the insight to baseball and my favorite team, the Yankees.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend and find the time to hang with family, read or watch a game or two.....

Random Shots

Been working out and driving the boy to school so little to no time to blog.....

- Work is nice and slow right now and that is good. After the past month of NCAA and Spring Storms and next month of MAY (Ratings, Indy 500, Mini Marathon, 500 Parade), it is nice to just take a breathe before the storm.

- We have been working on a new close for the boy show. The art department came up with it and gave it to us. Unfortunately they do not really know TV and had to redo it. While we were waiting on them we built the skeleton for the effect and waited for the final animation. After 2 weeks I went to Art and asked if they finished the new animation yet. I was told they did it the day we handed it back to them, THANKS...... Now management is on my ass to get this done while I could have had it done 2 weeks ago but fu**ing Art was sitting on their hands the whole time. A co-worker has a saying: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for me! Damn Straight!!!!

- The boy is getting his shit together, saw some grades, A's...then he misses a homework. He swears he did it, so I called the teacher and left a voice mail. They are all at some camp the school goes to for Science for 3 days, so we will see when he gets back. I have pre-emtively hid all his XBox 360 games...just in case.

- This week's Library music mix: Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Eagles, AC/DC, The Who, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I love my Ipod!!!!!

- Got new sneakers the other day and finally laced them up and strapped them on. They are so white, EVERYONE had a comment yesterday about them...it'll take a week to break them in but I have been buying the same pair for some time now. Some call it a rut, I just say I know what I like.......

Till Next Time

Happy Easter

Yes I know it is a day late, but still the feeling is there.

Spent the weekend with family. My brothers, their wives, my sister, the niece and nephew, my grandmother all came together Saturday night for dinner (by my wife) and mass. Then Sunday morning for an egg hunt, breakfast, hanging out, dinner at 2pm, more lounging and then finally home again... It was a great weekend with tons of food and fun and good times. The kids were mostly good (as good as 1 and 2 can be over 48 hours) and the boy had a great time with his Aunts and Uncles.

Me I worked my ass off Saturday to get the painting done and the new light hung. After the railing were put back on the stairs and the mess cleaned I felt tons better. The house looked great, my brother and sister-in-law enjoyed the stay and everyone had a great time.

Hope your Easter was fun and family filled!!

On the School front the boy finished his project and turned it in last week. This weekend he was supposed to work on his book report but we find he does not remember most of the book he finished on Friday...so we are having him 'reread' it (if he even read it in the first place) all weekend. So while he did play with his uncles this weekend several times I had him stop and go to a quiet room to reread the book. He should be finished today......aarrrggg!!!!

Working For The Weekend

Thank God It's Friday!!!!!  Good Friday at that!!  This Lent I gave up certain things, some I will not be going back to!!  The major one was the Vending Machine...I have not used one (except for water) in some time.  I feel better about it and there is more cash and less change in my pocket!!!

 

The boy did it again this week.  He had a project due on Monday for the same teacher as the Poem Book he failed.  This break I made him do the Poem Book and hand it in and the teacher loved it.  I get an e-mail from him saying this is the type of work Nate is capable of doing and hopes he turns in the late report he said was stuck in his Grandmother's computer.  I was floored and called the boy and chewed his ass out.  Seems he had all break to do it and did not, then got caught (yet again) when I was talking to his teacher.  Once again he is grounded this weekend and the wife actually thought to pull him from Baseball.  I thought he needed a good beating, but since we do not do that and he has a chance, if he keeps it up, to get some sort of ride to college on a baseball scholarship, so he is grounded.  But I had a long talk (the trip home last night) with him one on one and I hope and pray I got my point across.  I think so because he talked to me this morning before he left for school about it.  Either way I am on his ass like white on rice!!!!!

 

Side Note:  I am sitting here captioning some programs for the station, and one of them is a motorcycle show.  I was wondering if there are any riders who stop here and what they think of me getting a bike....thanks in advance!!

 

If I do not come back, Happy Easter!!!

What To Do...

Nothing to do, nothing to say...

Went out to dinner last night with my Troop Committee to celebrate the success at the Winter Camporee. The wife came and we went to a very nice restaurant. We had a good time, with good company but got home late and I slept in (bad me). The boy stayed at Granny's overnight and they had fun. He was a bit upset that he had to stay there, just the beginnings of that "I'm a teenager now and can take care of myself" stage.

Work, baseball, reading all going along fine..so nothing to report, sorry.

Hump Day

Missed Tuesday's With Bryan yesterday, sorry, I had 4 days of dishes to do and I worked out for the 2nd day in a row, man I am sore!!!! We have another storm on the way as I speak, I can hear the thunder in the distance and will eventually turn the PC off to avoid any surges during the day.

Nothing major going on this week, which is fine. The boy has his act together these first few days back and is also very busy...the schedule is like this:
Monday Baseball Practice
Tuesday Scouts
Wednesday Baseball Practice
Thursday Survivor Night (our one night a week dinner at the parents and a little TV)

We need to add Guitar Lessons to that as well as the 30 minutes a day he practices drums and he is starting to run on a treadmill to get into Baseball Shape..... he's a busy lad!!

Well off to work early as I am sure we are balls to the wall on weather coverage the way this storm is playing out....

Till Next Time.

Hate-monger

Today at 5pm there will be an Immigration Rally in downtown Indianapolis.  Apparently I am a Hate-monger and Bigot because I am against these Illegal Immigrants.

• Why is it that I want people to obey the laws of the land and I am a bigot?
• Why is it that I want people to come to this great country but do so legally and I am a bigot?
• Why is it that I see these people who want to be citizens gather but they are waving Mexican flags and holding signs and chanting in Spanish about their rights and I am a bigot?
• Why is it that I want people who live and work in this country to speak and read English just like my Grandparents from Italy and Ireland had to do and I am a bigot? 
• Why is it that I am concerned about what is coming across our unsecured borders in way of terrorist, bombs and drugs but I am the bigot?
• Why is it that I get frustrated that it now takes 2 hours to get onto your flight and you might have to go through a strip search but someone can swim across a river and within 24 hours be getting free health care and welfare and I am a bigot?
• Why is it that gas prices are soaring, America is outsourcing, we still are not secure from terrorists and 5 years later Ground Zero is still a giant hole but our Government is more concerned with granting immunity to 15 million criminals and I am the bigot?

Back To Normal

The wife is at work and the boy at school and everything is right in the world (or at least mine)! Woke up early and hit the gym and worked out, man am I sore!!!! But it was well worth it.

The weekend was great. The boy and I went to a card show (baseball) and picked up a box of cards and he is trying a hand at collecting cards with his old man, I think it will be fun. Cards are expensive these days but I think if we go simple we could have some fun and maybe work our way up to the bigs some day!

We painted the upstairs hallway and are working on the stairwell, it is very high so we need an extention pole and then the wife picked out a new light for the stairs as well. That is going to be a pain in the ass to put up but will look really nice in the end.

The big story this weekend was the first mow of the season. I got the front yard done but it got too dark to get the back. The mower battery was dead and I had to charge it for 2 hours (painted in that time) before I could use it and then time ran out. Just getting out there and smelling the cut grass and the gas in the jug and the hum of the mower behind my ipod playing on shuffle. SPRING!!!!!!

Tonight is our first Full Team Practice for Little League. We went to some last week but most people were on vacation as it was spring break, we did not go anywhere and that's OK. We're saving it up for several small 3 day weekend trips and such. I would like to take the family to a few baseball games around here. Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis are all under 4 hours from here and Cleveland, Denver, Milawalkee under 5....so we shall see.

Yankees pulled out of a slump and took 1 from the Angles. Thank God.

TV Watchlist:

• Prison Break
• How I Met Your Mother
• 24
• CSI: Miami

Friday On My Mind

Man I have been busy this week.  Work, work, work and family.  Seems I cannot get up in the morning and I am tired when I come home.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I have not worked out in almost 2 weeks.  How easy it was to get out of the habit.  I think that the family (and me) being sick and then the boy not going to school this week ended the need to wake early.  Bad me, bad me!!!!

 

Baseball is upon us and between Fantasy, Major League and Little League I am thinking of getting back into card collecting.  I have visited a few sites and want to get the boy and me into Fun Collecting, not pull chasing and big bucks no whammies but just nice looking cards with the chance to get a Game Used Bat or Jersey or Autograph.  Then maybe if he enjoys it he can start going after his favorite players and such.  There is a Card Show here this weekend so we might head out early and check it out!

 

Survivor last night, AARRGGG!!!!  I understand Terry is playing for $1 million bucks but the numbers do not lie and the individual immunity secret idol only works once.  Then he will find himself out numbered and out played.  Too little too late for him and his 'tribe' I think...just my 2 cents. 

 

Is there a slowing in the Blog-o-verse?  I go to regular visits and nothing new is written.  I understand time and motivation but it seems like some of my regular reads are petering off.  Anyone got a good new blog for me to read???

 

Well that is all for now from Lunch.  Back to the Control Room to monitor the wild weather bearing down on us!!!!!!

 

Till Next Time

The Return of Bruno

I drove back to New York this weekend for my annual Fantasy Baseball Draft. Most people said I was crazy (co-workers, old friends, family) but I had a blast!!!!! From Friday at 8pm till Sunday at 6:30pm I put 1300 miles on the car and spent about 18 hours driving. The trip out on Friday night was a split, I stopped around 2:30am in Cleveland then was up early and in Rochester by Noon. Checked out the old homestead, went to the old job, talking with good friends then hit the draft. It was fun, something I look forward to every year. Afterwards we start the grill, shoot the shit, play cards and pool and just hang out. Woke up early on Sunday morning (lost an hour to DST) and hit the local grocery to get those things we love but cannot get in Indianapolis (a certain salsa, Boss Sauce, Sal's Birdland Wing Sauce). Then home again, home again....about 8 hours later.

All in all a great weekend. The wife and boy had some quality time and I cannot wait till next year!!!

Not much changed in NY. I did see that the deck we put on the front of the house before we left was torn down and that the new owners have not done anything to the house since we left 2 years ago. I can understand why the neighbors are upset. There were no new buildings, new houses or visible growth, one of the reasons we love Indiana...Although I came home to a tornado warning and one going through downtown Indy and hitting a building and tearing the side off of it. Pretty scary stuff!!!!!

Anyway, now it is back to reality, work, home and family....

Till Next Time

Opening Day

Casey at the Bat
by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that—
We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat.

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despisèd, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt;
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;
But Casey still ignored it and the umpire said, "Strike two!"

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate;
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.