Living Reflections from a Dream

Can you pass this Third Grade Test?

I got a 37/48. I'm officially a cliche... I know all around the edges, but all those square states in the midde confuse me.-----
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because: The Sponge is Coming Back!

Dare I say this is the perfect excuse for a Seinfeld reunion show? Come on, Jerry!
TV SUCKS these days... we need you!-----
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Recently, I returned something to The Sports Authority. Although I had the receipt and the same credit card the item was charged to, I was asked to show my drivers license "to help prevent fraudulent returns". It seemed odd to me that if my Sports Authority bag and wallet had been stolen, that the theif would bother returning things, but that's just me. When asked what they needed to see the license for, the rude response was "it's our policy", followed by her pointing to a sign. Fine, if you want to make sure the name on the license matches the drivers license, whatever. I show it to her. She pulls it out of my hand and types my drivers license into the computer. I find this an alarming privacy violation and needless to say, they are now just another store I won't be shopping at. Someday, I won't have any place to shop.

When stores ask you for your phone number or zip code: just say no. They don't need that information. I once did this and the woman behind me exclaimed: you can do that! To which I replied: they will always be willing to take your money.

What are companies doing with this information? It's frightening to think what they could do. Think I'm paranoid?

Check this out

Makes me want to pay cash for everything.-----
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and I'm just not that into working. Sometimes when I'm in this mood I flip through our helpdesk ticket database for amusement. Here is an actual ticket and resolution:

getting a keyboard 304 error (keyboard or controller failure).

4/13: her keyboard was unplugged from her computer

it's so pathetic, it's not even funny. sigh.-----
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where #1 is Roger Clemens, #2 is Pedro and #4 is Cy Young (not to mention being a certified Yankee killer), you do what the Red Sox did: you extend his contract.

At least 2 more years of Timmay! yeah..-----
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I have a million things to do at work, but I'm frantically watching MLB gameday online because the score is 3 to 3 Yankees in the top of the 9th. Bases loaded, Mariano Rivera on the mound. Imagine my glee as the following unfolds:

Manny Ramirez reaches on fielding error by third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Bill Mueller scores. Mark Bellhorn to 3rd. Johnny Damon to 2nd. {tee hee!}

Score: 4 - 3

Due up: David Ortiz

Ball
Ball in play. Run scoring play.

David Ortiz grounds out, pitcher Mariano Rivera to first baseman Tino Martinez. Mark Bellhorn scores. Johnny Damon to 3rd. Manny Ramirez to 2nd.

Score 5 - 3.

Due Up: David McCarty
Ball
Ball
Ball
Ball
David McCarty walks

Due up: Edgar Renteria {why do I feel nervous?}
Pitch 1 - In play, run-scoring play

Edgar Renteria singles on a line drive to left fielder Hideki Matsui. Johnny Damon scores. Manny Ramirez scores. David McCarty to 2nd.

Score: 7 - 3.

Due Up: Doug Mirabelli
Pitch 1 - Ball
Pitch 2 - Ball
Pitch 3 - Ball {ahem, that's 7 balls in a row, Mariano!}
Pitch 4 - Called Strike
Pitch 5 - ball

Doug Mirabelli walks

Coaching visit to the mound {about time}

Due Up: Bill Mueller {Mariano killer!}

Pitcher Change: Felix Rodriguez replaces Mariano Rivera. {shocker}

Pitch 1 - Foul
Pitch 2 - Ball
Pitch 3 - Foul
Pitch 4 - Blocked Ball in Dirt
With Bill Mueller batting, wild pitch by Felix Rodriguez, David McCarty scores. Edgar Renteria to 3rd. Doug Mirabelli to 2nd. ( HA! )
Pitch 5 - Ball
Pitch 6 - Called Strike

Bill Mueller called out on strikes. {well, he can't do it every time}

In the bottom of the 9th, the Yankees can do nothing - 3 flyouts in a row and the Red Sox win!! yeah!! Well worth the time I'm going to have to spend working late to make up my work on a beautiful day.

I can't wait to get home and watch this on Tivo!

Get well soon, Terry!-----
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It's a very big sports day!

First, it's Opening Day for baseball. Game 1 of 19 between the World Champion Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees (see how I didn't make any choke jokes there?). Let's review:

Before	After

Next, tomorrow it will be officially announced that Jim Boeheim and fellow 700+ win Big East coach, Jim Calhoun, will be inducted into the basketball hall of fame. Congrats Jims!

This morning one of my roommates from the fine school called Syracuse ran a 10 mile race. She also recently had her picture in the Washington Post. You go!

Finally, I ran my best time in a 10k today - on a so called flat course "with rolling hills". Rolling hills my ass - one of those hills was at approximately a 45 degree angle and I went about 2 miles an hour up it. But I did it and that is what counts.

Once again.. Red Sox - Yankees: tonight, 8pm, nationally televised on ESPN2.-----
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I am looking at snow flurries out of my office window.

Snow Flurries!!

The day after the home opener. It's fucking April. Enough already!-----
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well... now there is the Curt Schilling Bobble Ankle.

I don't think I've laughed this hard is quite a while, but it's all good.

Also, half of every purchase goes to Curts Pitch for ALS and the Shade Foundation.-----
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The City of Boston is abuzz with excitement because today is the very first game at Fenway this year for the World Champion Boston Red Sox. Today the flags are hoisted, the rings are distributed, Terry Francona returns to the tean, D-Lo returns to Fenway (after getting hit by a ball yesterday, I hope he is ok!) and Yawkey way comes to life, once again.

Yes, baseball is back in Boston. Wo-ho!

See, I could write about how sad it is that I can Tivo todays game (2pm ring ceremony, 3pm game start), but I can't watch it because I had to move out of my house and thus, will have no access to my Tivo. I could write about how depressing it is to see your home wrapped in plastic while men in what appear to be biohazard suits work in there, but I won't. I chose to be positive. I chose to obsess over baseball, just like millions of other people, to avoid thinking about the problems in my own life.-----
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There was a bit of a hubbub around these parts last week when Bank of America attempted to reclaim overpaid severance from about 70 severed employees generally along the lines of: big bad company is so mean, they made the mistake, they should let these poor laid off people keep the money (after all, they gave Gifford $16 mil. in severance to retire, and I think he gets use of a company pland AND Red Sox tickets - which are probably worth more than most people's severance packages) and these people have a point. However, if you're overpaid money - friggin give it back and don't bitch about it.

The real question in my mind is:

if they can't maintain their own payroll correctly, why on earth would you want your money with them??

Let's see - they laid off 1400 in MA and overpaid 70. That is a 5% error rate. Does your company make mistakes on 5% of staff payroll? If they did, would you have confidence in them?

I imagine the defense may be: well, we outsourced payroll to Fidelity and they messed it up. Well, if you're going to count outsourced jobs toward the number of jobs you agreed with regulators to maintain in the region in order to get the merger approved, you need to take responsibility for those employees. You can't have it both ways. So, they are a big, bad company.

Higher Standards - higher than what, exactly, is what I want to know.-----
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and it's a honor...

Check it out:

The men in the photo below have won between them:
- 3 Superbowls (x2!)
- 11 NBA Championships
- 2 Stanley Cups

All this and Johnny Pesky finally gets a ring...-----
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Last night, on a crowded T train, a man stares intently into his cellphone screen and in an animated, happy tone announces to no one in particular: it's 6 - 5 in the bottom of the 8th! No mention of what game, no need to say who is ahead. Wo! go the people on the train, smiles all around. "Who hit it?" the question comes from somewhere in the train. Unfortunately, our cellphone reporter has lost his signal, but later it will be determined to be our new man, Edgah. Of course, the Yankees never should have had 5 runs. They were given a gift of
a horrific ball call that even I, who only saw it out of the corner of my eye, could see was a strike - right over the middle of the plate.

Last night I watched the game at new Fenway hotspot (just opened on Monday): Game On! A place where at 7pm, the music turns off and all 90** tv's turn to NESN to watch the game. A place where in the downstairs bar, the walls are green and bar is red. I have to say: 2 thumbs up, though it's a bit pricey (yet a deal compared to the park). The only negative thing was the idiot who wouldn't leave me and my friend alone. A guy who claimed to be such a big fan, yet upon seeing the starting line up asked me in a very agitated manner: WHY is Jay Payton starting? Are they nuts?
My answer: Because Randy Johnson is pitching. (with tone implying: duh!) ***. Anyone who has listened to 'EEI for more than 30 minutes would know this. But I resent the question in the first place. As Nomah's roommate and Tek's teammate in college, Jay is alright with me. Of course, he also had a 2 run homer last night, so that shut this moron up. All this AND Doug Flutie catches a foul ball in the stands..

How are you enjoying my rambling, no focus post so far? Think I'll stop here.
Happy Friday!

*despite the morons in the group - people who sell and wear "Yankees Suck" t-shirts or the plethora of shirts about Jeter and A-Rod. Get a life. And I know everyone will be in uproar about the fan last night, the guy is a moron, but I really doubt he was trying to hit Sheffield. What possible good could come of that? If you look at the replay, he's not even looking at Gary hothead (whose lip
looked nothing closed to split). On the other hand, what good could come from going for the ball.. trying to take a triple away from Tek?? Unless.. he was a secret Yankee plant, you know, like David Wells. ;)

** according to them

*** for those less Red Sox baseball savvy: Trot Nixon, the usual starter, doesn't hit lefties well, and Randy Johnson is left handed.-----
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danger, will robinson!

I am embarassed to tell you how much time I have spent listening and watching to people pontificiate over this ridiculous Shefield vs. The Fan incident. 'EEI was slaying me Sat. with how seriously people were taking this (at least it got them off discussing how bad that stupid song was at the ring ceremony). I have only one point to add: it's beyond hypocritical of the Red Sox and MLB in general to liquor people (up at exhorbitant prices) to maximize revenue and then act shocked (shocked!) that there is bad behavior at the ball park. Sure, people have to be responsible for their own behavior, but if you really want control the crowd, you can cut off people who are drunk. I know I was once cut off at a wedding for ordering a "Crodka Vanberry" and that is probably a good thing because I think we all know, it's easy to think something dumb is a good idea when wasted. If you knew how close I came to reaching out to touch Mike Sweeney's butt the one time I sat in front row seats at Fenway. I was close enough to do it, too.. check out the evidence (now this is 2 years ago, on my crappy camera without zoom):

I refrained, but it really did seem like a good idea at the time, as did a pathetic rendition of a new version of a Barry Manilow classic:

"oh, Manny, you came and you came without taking... "

not in the park, but still in public! Manny had 4 homeruns this weekend, I think he deserved it.-----
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I've had a somewhat conflicted relationship with the holy father. I remember when he was elected and how big a deal it was that he wasn't italian. I remember my parents taking us to try to see him when he came to Boston in 1979 and being so excited about it. I had been a parochial school girl and here was the man entrusted by God to lead us. I was in awe of him.

However, over time I grew disenchanted. His and church's views on birth control, women in the church and later his almost non-response to the priests pedophilia scandal (I have to believe he was already sick and didn't really understand this issue. There is no other real explanation to me) made me angry with him. Then sometime in the early 90's he was named Time's Man of the Year. In the accompanying article, he said something to the effect of: I知 the leader of a 2000 year old religion and it's my job to share those teachings, not adapt them. And I thought: as it should be. Where would be if we didn't have something to mark ourselves against, to rebel against, to help us form a way of looking at the world? I realized that even though I disagreed with him on many things, that I still respected and admired him for all the great things he did and his willingness to do what he believes is right, even when opposed by many, which is an important lesson in life.

So, rest in peace, Karol. You will be sorely missed.-----
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I wish this whole week was an April Fool's joke. You see, after becoming a completely pathetic person excited about mold remediation, the word came down that "the mold remediation is a big deal" and couldn't be done quiet as easily or quickly as originally thought. No, now they want to seal off the area. and no one can live during the process which will take weeks. WEEKS!

Yesterday, I got in the shower and: no hot water. No hot water. Yes, the hot water heater seems to have shit the bed. Now the big dilemna is: deal with the hot water heater now or after mold remediation (which is now scheduled to start next Thurs.) See, the laundry room is one of the rooms that is crawling with mold and think they are going to have to remove the water heater to get to the walls anyway.

Have I mentioned that the contractor who brought in the original dehumidifier scratched the marble in my entry way and according to the marble guy I talked to can't be buffed out, thus to fix this the marble will have to be ripped up and replaced. Do you realize that means dealing with yet another insurance company to get that taken care of?

Ok, and I somehow managed to break the filter to my fish tank. The water is all cloudy and I'm convinced the fish* are going to die. And even if they live.. what are you supossed to do with fish when you kicked out of your house for weeks due to mold? Move them and their assorted equipment along with you as you stay at different friends houses for a few days here and there? As far as I know, there are no kennels for fish.

And I really like to thank the woman from Home Depot who said "it's like your a tsumani victim". A. So bogus to put my problems in the same category as those poor souls and B. Not helping! Not making me feel better. No one bit.
Only to be topped by the guy who came to measure the floors who looked at the moldy walls sealed in plastic and exclaimed: wow! I can't believe they are letting you live here! Mold is a health hazard..ever hear of Legionaires Disease.
So, let me be clear: if I'm in the hospital on a ventilator in a permanent vegitative state from this mold... pull the plug! Because if become some side show issue for Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham to get worked up about, I WILL be coming back to haunt everyone who allowed that to happen. I mean this!

Clearly, I'm a woman on the edge... beware!!

* Trot and Tek, the Dirt Dog twins-----
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Last week, after sweeping Baltimore in a 2 game series, after Wells and Clement pitched masterfully back to back, I had a thought: The Red Sox look really good! Weeeee.... and the Yankees are in last place, tied with Tampa Bay - hahahahahahah. I was going to write a whole post on the masterfullness of the World Champion Boston Red Sox (had to get that in), but then the Red Sox fan in me said: NO, you'll jinx it! So I didn't, but apparently just thinking it is jinx enough because since then: pitching implosion! 2 starters go on the DL! Trot almost gets his eye polked out! Keith Foulke clearly has been abducted by aliens and replaced with a poor substitute. Lenny DiNardo is going to be our saviour? And A-Rod hits 3 fuckin' home runs in one game?? Stop the insanity!!

Makes me want to put my head on the desk and not move. Makes me hope todays game is rained out and the rain washes away all this mess.

I'm sorry, Red Sox Nation.. it's all my fault.-----
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