I have a few things to say...

I've taken what I can only call a 'vacation' from blogging.

Real vacation: The first few days you spend relaxing... LOVING the freedom, and enjoying the absence of schedule and pressure. You wonder why you ever worked in the first place. This shit is sweet!

Then, toward the end, you begin looking forward to going home... you start thinking of what you miss about your neighborhood, your friends and your routine.

Then, it's over. At long last, you are home... and you remember why you love where you live and what you do, you anticipate getting back to work, to your routine... to life.

The past ten days have... been nothing like that at all. But it sure sounded good.

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The St. Louis Cardinals have surprised, amazed and dumfounded the experts. As for the fans... I'd love to say we expected it all along, but we're pretty freaking amazed and dumfounded too.

Situation: A few guys that had been thrown onto the scrap heap... several first-year rookies... a couple of geriatric near-retirees... and numerous injured and hurting players... have stunned the world. In a fit of determination and grit, an unlikely group of heroes have dragged the team into the FALL CLASSIC, and nobody has an explanation as to how ANY of it happened.

It just did.

And now, the Cardinals will take their scrappy group of talented but injured, green, left-for-dead guys to the field once again for seven games that promise to be as exciting as Game 7 was against the Mets.

And it will be against another unlikely team. With 119 losses last season, the Detroit Tigers have surprised almost as many experts. I can think of no more deserving team than the Tigers to go to the world series...

... and lose.

But this is what baseball is really about. No 25-million-a-year Yankees, no Bonds-esque assholes, nothing even close to what the experts predicted.

But it's real. It's American. It's baseball. And it's sweeeeet.

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After this week, I will have jumped several hurdles in life and settled back into some sort of routine... almost like coming back from vacation. And, just like vacation, I am tired and broke, but I have all kinds of pictures to show ya!

Just kiddin'.

Mini Sabbatical

I have a stress-filled week. Deadlines, work, family, medical issues, personal issues... all on my mind right now. These issues have temporarily removed the fun, and I am left with what remains.

I have no time to blog at the moment, so I will leave this simple message to let you know I am here and okay. When I am in the right mindset again, I will be back. It shouldn't be long, I have a big mouth and lots of things to say.

Just not right now.

Blah blah blah says Dave

Rep. Mark Foley is in trouble. After being caught flirting with underage congressional pages, he has announced that he was molested by clergy as a child. Also, it now appears he needs rehab, instead of your vote.

Frankly, I'm pretty sick of the "elect me" mentality one day, and the "forgive me" mentality the next. The only difference between last week and this week is, he got caught.

Getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar (or a page's pants) seems to be the motivation for much apology (and rehab) these days. If you were really sorry, wouldn't you have stopped the activity a long time ago? If you really thought you had problems, wouldn't you have ALREADY checked yourself into rehab?

It's all bullshit.

And the funniest thing I've heard today is from another of the indignant, hypocritical bastards (er... I mean 'pubic servants') on capitol hill, who suggest that they should stop utilizing teen-aged congressional pages because of the possibility they might be abused.

You're kidding, right? Can't you guys just... you know, stop abusing them? Are you so unsure of yourself that you have to remove the 'temptation?'

"Family values." Sheesh. Clearly, it's time to de-politicize sexuality, morals and family values.

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Overnight, gas prices went from 1.94 per gallon to 2.17. One night, 23 cents... and yet the price of a barrel of oil is at its lowest level in 7 months.

For a couple of reasons, I have personally boycotted Exxon/Mobil.

First, frankly, is because of its size.

Second, it paid CEO Lee Raymond 400 MILLION in retirement. Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion. They made that profit on the backs of Americans, primarily... many of whom could barely afford to drive to work.

I simply cannot support that. The free market system is great - especially when it allows me as a consumer to make decisions such as this one.

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Hey North Korea. Sit down and shut up.*



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Yankees beat Detroit in game one of the playoffs - anybody shocked? Their lineup is the best 200 million per year can buy, so if the Yankees DON'T win, they should be ashamed.

Damn Yankees. Hey MLB, get a real salary cap.

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That's all I got right now. I feel better though, thanks for reading.



*although there would be nothing we could do about it, since our military is currently busy. A little over two million in active duty and reserves, many based in Korea, Japan, Germany and other parts of the world. Here's an idea - double the size of our military... and do it today. We need the power to back up what our cowboy president is doing.

You Ol' Indian Summer

Native American Summer, to be PC.

Today in St. Louis, we will reach a high (if the weather guys are correct) of near 95. Our record high here is 92.

Last week, it was cold here... like 15 degrees below normal. This week, the A/C is back on, the bugs are busy again... the trees don't know what the hell to do, drop leaves or bud new ones. Rainfall has been down this year, so again the colors won't be as vibrant as usual.

The seasons feel different now. When I was a kid, this area got TONS of snow. Twelve inch snowfalls were fairly routine... we'd get two or three a year. For the past several years, we've gotten no snowfalls over five or six inches. In fact, last year, I received a TOTAL of about six inches at my house all winter.

Even now, when pretty much everyone agrees the global climate is changing, it's weird to actually SEE it. Although a few local temperature fluctuations aren't 'proof' of change, the melting of the ice caps and rising of overall average temps across the past few decades are.

Is the weather changing where you are? Now that we have hard evidence, do you believe global climate change is occurring, or do you still think it's bunk?

Lucky there's a family guy...

If you love Family Guy like I love Family Guy - (and voice over stuff) you will get into this "behind the scenes" thing showing the characters doing their voice overs.

Seth Macfarlane is a freakin' genius.