Thursday Quick Hits

• The boy is doing well after the first day of school No complaints so far and he actually had homework...
• Diet still going strong. Feels much better since moving to Phase II, a bit more selection to eat and I am making right choices outside of the home. I am not eating out at all (ie fast food) but we have had 2 different situations at cookouts and I did very well, eating right.
• Rescue Me gets better and better every week. Please be watching it! Last night was fantastic!
• If you like baseball, baseball cards or autographs; go see my new site at Waiting For The Mailman, my son and I send baseball players baseball cards, a nice note and a SASE and lots of them will send them back signed. We might do some baseballs this winter. Check it out, we are having a blast!!!
• Speaking of baseball, man my Yankees are turning it on. 14.5 games back, now 5 behind the Red Sox and tied for the Wild Card. I love this game!!!!!
  

Sanity Returns...

We made it through the first phase of south beach. Two weeks without any carbs or fruit got to me at the end. We are now on Phase II and the menu is a bit better. I feel good and the clothes are fitting better. Let us see where this takes us.

It was the final weekend for the boy. School starts on Wednesday. He is ready and able to make it a great year. We will ride him hard until he shows he can continue where he left off last year. It will be hard the first few weeks but we will get through it. We had our summer Court of Honor with the Scouts last night. The boy said like 20 people came up and told him how much he matured this summer. "Looks like a man" was said several times. I also let him pull the car into and out of the garage yesterday, gave the wife a heart attack.

Two TV updates:

Watched the John From Cincinnati finale last night. WHAT THE FUDGE?!?!?!?!?!? I gave it a shot but man oh man did that thing jump over my head. It was an interesting show but for the love of Pete dump it and get back to Deadwood, now that was a show!!!!

On the other hand if you have BBC America and are not watching Jekyll you are missing out on FANTASTIC television. Incredible acting by James Nesbitt (sp?) and the story is awesome. Yes it is a modern retelling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but man oh man is it good. Do yourself a favor and find it and watch it. They are on episode 3 so you have not missed too much.

Final note: when you stop by please leave a comment. I know it is selfish but I like to see who is visiting and what they have to say. Have a great Monday!!!

Summer Time Blues...

The boy is out of school and now sleeping in the next room. It will be a long summer for him so I figured he could use some rest.....

Some quick hits:

Lost our first playoff game last night. The boy caught the entire game and started us up with a 2 out 2rbi single to put us on the board. He also caught 4 stealing and tagged out 2 at home. When we got home he cried because his 2nd at bat was an out and if he got on base, he said, he could have scored on the next hit and helped start a rally. We had a good talk and he realized that he did his part and that is all one can ask...

The Sopranos made it's final case Sunday night. Good thing we watched it or else we would have been spoiled rotten as it was even on SportsCenter!!!!! I am still processing it. I was annoyed at first but have been really thinking on it. And then realized what a great show it was and that even after it is done it leaves one thinking...

Went to buy a sprinkler on Sunday and came back with a 50' Plasma TV. I do not know how it happened but there we were in the store looking at the TV's and then we were loading it into the car. WOW, now I need to contact our satellite people and get a High Def receiver in here. So far even with regular satellite AND a High Def antenna for local channels it is AWESOME!!! Can not wait for DiscoveryHD and ESPNHD and HBOHD...

Who's That Knocking....

The men are here to replace the roof and when I got back from working out they were in place and working hard. Now I am sitting on the PC for a few minutes and all I hear is someone knocking on the roof. BANG BANG BANG BANG, the dog is going crazy thinking someone is at the door. She finally calmed down, thank God!

Heroes ended last night. Since you might not have watched it, no spoilers. I will say however that this was one of the best shows in a long time. Fantastic writing, great acting and a story that, while the whole family can follow it, did not dumb it down like so many other shows. STICK AROUND to the very end. The show ends and then they start Season Two so beware! We will be getting the DVD on this one and following it during the off season on line. IF you missed it, you missed the best show of the year, so pick it up when the DVD comes out or look for it on SciFi Channel. Great stuff!

The boy is turning into the man. He is becoming what we thought he would be. He has his hiccups but who didn't at that age. We are keeping the fingers crossed for a good summer. I can see my wife's heart break every time he does something "grown up" and she realizes he is not that 9 year old who would come back to mommy for everything.

PS David Bowie fans check THIS out.....

The Yau Experience.

Survivor is done for another season. My 2nd favorite won and my favorite Survivor got screwed!!! I am a big Yau-man fan. I thought he played the game incredibly! This was hands down one of the best Survivor seasons EVER!!! Yau absolutely dominated the season. In the car challenge he made a deal with "Dreamz", the truck for the immunity idol IF he wins it in the final four. He did but did not hand it over. And then lost the million. Earl did a bang up job all season and not once did someone vote for him. Congrats!

An open letter to Dreamz,

Dear Dreamz,

You had a chance to make a difference. You made a deal, shook on it, even swore to God you would honor it. When then time came you folded. You went back on your word and claimed you were playing a game. Watching you weep after that decision showed me you were not "playing the game". The moment you kept the idol for yourself you had NO CHANCE of winning the jury, could you nit see that or did the shot at a million blind you. Boo was right in going after you and then Jeff at the reunion did the same but you stuck to your lame story.

You had a chance to make a difference. You could have been the Survivor guy who gave up a shot at a million to honor his word. You could have been on tour, on book shelves and Oprah as an example of honor and integrity. You could have been a roll model for others outside your sphere of life. You could have done the circuit and talked to schools and troubled kids, making a difference. But you didn't do what was right.

I am sure your son looks up to you and I am sure you explained the situation and he understands and looks at you like all sons should look at their fathers. But how would he look at you if you made the right choice and honored you deal and stood up like a man and put that idol on Yau's neck. THAT would have been something to be proud of. Too bad.

Contune Yesterday's Rant and Good Bye to Trash

I will start with this, Rosie O'Donnell is leaving The View...I supported her in her stand up career (yes I saw her), I supported her in her TV show. I was still with her when she came out of the closet and changed the focus of her original show. Now she is a bitter, mean, ugly hag, and I am happy she is finally off the television. I have never watched an episode of The View but several co-workers have it on while we work and I get to hear her often. She is ALL that is wrong with TV commentaries. Uninformed, unintelligent and unbearable. In Italian she would be a "faccia brutte". Good bye to bad trash...

I want to follow up yesterday's post with this. One man stood up to save the lives of others. This man survived the Holucost. THis man knew the meaning of sacrafice. This man stood up when called and faced sure death like a hero I am sure he would not want to be called. This man was from a different generation. A generation that is slowing disappearing from our great country. From the Greatest Generation to the Me Generation in 40 short years. No wonder Islamic Extremists and the rest of the world feel they can mess with us. We are losing our balls. Like the bully who points his finger at the little kid standing near his big brother. That bully knows that at some point big brother will be gone and then the little kid, who has depended on the big brother all his life will be on his own. Will he remember the lessons his big brother tried to teach him or will he fall like a house of cards...

Update....

All is well in the back yard. I bought some fence building material yesterday and will be putting it up this week for the neighbors. They were very cool about it. The dog is fine and the tractor will live. I got a good story out of it. The wife has already told several of her clients (2 that I know) and the guys at work are already riding me (ha ha, riding, get it).

I blew some steam right at the top but now I laugh. Coulda won the 10K but nobody was around, oh well!!!!!!!

PS

Watching Spin City this morning getting ready for work with the wife. I noticed MJ Fox was keeping that left hand always out of view. Upon further thought I remember him doing that in Family Ties too. The man was dealing with/hiding his MS and acting. WOW, he deserves much more credit then I gave him. I always liked him (not his politics) and was sad to see him disappear from TV and film. But know I see what he had to deal with for all those years, WOW!