The week that was

It is official, the Cubs have made the playoffs by winning their division today. The Tampa Rays will probably clinch a playoff spot tonight also or at least by the weekend. How sad would it be if the Cubs met the Rays in the World Series and beat the Cubs when they have only existed for 11 years? Nevermind, we cannot think that way.

Eddie Vedder put out a song called "All The Way" which is a song about our beloved Cubs.



I received my ticket to see Metallica in Moline, IL in November. I have a floor seat which means I can get as close as I want to the stage. I would like to apologize for all the small folks who will be standing behind me in advance.

In other music news, Rick Wright, keyboardist and founding memeber of Pink Floud back when they were called the Pink Floyd Sound, passed away on Monday from cancer. He was at one point forced to quit Pink Floyd by Roger Waters before the release of The Wall. He was hired to play with the band, but was on a contract and did not receive a percentage from The Wall tour. He continued to play with Pink after Roger left, but legally was not allowed to be part of any decisions of the band which was enforced by Waters and all his suits he had against the band in the 80's. So, I would have to say, Live 8 could be the last time the name Pink Floyd will not be used again by Gilmour or Waters on a tour. Wright continued to play with Gilmour on his solo albums and the last tour.

Now, I need to figure out a system of sleeping which will allow me to stay awake for the playoffs but not cause me to be too tired for work at 4 in the morning. This could be a long October.

Happy belated gift from Karen

The Metallica album finally arrived yesterday and it sounds good. It is better than any of the other cds they put out in the past 15 years. I think subtracting Bob Rock as producer and adding Rick Rueben (produced Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys albums) was needed.
They are playing fast again and they added guitar solos to the songs. And, an instrumental is also played. Finally, some old Metallica influences added into this record.
It is good enough for me to buy a $100 ticket to see them play in Moline, IL in 2 months. The promos for their tour are pretty pathetic. James and Lars were recorded talking about coming out on tour and when they are to name the city and the venue, a voice over is put in saying what city they are playing in. It is sad and funny. Like a bad Japanese movie without the picture.

I also went out and bought a new book called Watch you Bleed which is about the Guns N Roses history, breakup, and the new record Chinese Democracy which has been in production for only 12 short years. But nothing has been released. I guess one song was put online and the guy was arrested for doing it and another song will be on Rock Band.

Check out some of the new Metallica songs

The new Metallica album is coming out in 6 short days. Tickets go on sale beginning on Monday (somehow, not sure if I can get them then or not). The album sounds like old Met. It is fast, full of multiple riffs in each song, and fast solos. And James decided to actually sing songs during speed parts of the songs instead of slowing them down to sing.
I am excited to hear it and see them play live again. It has been a long 5 years since I was bored listening to them, but I think this year will be different. This will be 11th show live.

Football Season is here and with it.......

I have to deal with these guys more and more. And I have had to watch these guys talk football from the end of the Super Bowl all the way through until the season opener. Maybe not all together, but why is ESPN thinking we need to know about fantasy football players in March and who is going to win the Super Bowl in April? Seriously. Baseball season is not even a month into the seaon and they run a half hour show where they talk about the NFL and another half hour show to talk about college football. Everyday of the week during the day. Why not carry a baseball game?
It is not wonder no one is watching baseball anymore.
And, ESPN puts the baseball Hall of Fame speeches and presentations on ESPN Classic. But, the NFL gets theirs on a Saturday night or Sunday on ESPN.
I used to watch ESPN for hours when in high school and in college. But these days, I can watch PTI and maybe Around the Horn and then I have to watch something else. And I only watch these because if they are going to talk about football, I can see how long they will talk about it since they put a stop watch in the corner.

At this point I have probably made Dave angry with my commentary and Dave could be explaining to Neil how his Uncle Chris is wrong and doesn't know what he is talking about. I can see Neil telling his dad when I walk into the house, "That's your big brother, the crazy one!"

Just a thought. GO CUBS!! Baseball season is not over until the end of October, but as far as ESPN is concerned, it might as well be Spring Training at this point.

It died......

Ivan Drago was right (Rocky IV for those scoring at home), it died. I cannot believe it, Swanson said it was a piece of cake to move it and he accidentally took one nail out, and everything fell down. I was getting everyone a bottle of water at the time and come back to this.
Crazy.

As far as the fridge is concerned, I had a small gathering of people to discuss probabilities and odds of which card would be dealt next at my house on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. We had 13 people total come over and it was a good time. At the end of it, we finished off about 20 beers, a half case of Diet and regular Coke, and 18 bottles of water plus 9 pizzas and a couple bags of chips total. At least now I have room to go to the grocery store and fill it back up with things to eat instead of drink.

Before I forget, anyone need any wood or used nails??

If the playhouse, dies..........

It dies.
My buddy came over two days ago to try to move my playhouse out of my backyard with a forklift owned by his father in law. We had the trailer, part of the fence removed, strapping, and plywood so we could keep screwing up the lawn to a minimum.
After trying for a little over an hour, the only way it seemed it would move is if we dragged along the lawn and possibly risk tearing up the lawn.
The forks were just too short (only 4 feet long) while the house was 13 feet long. It could not get the leverage needed to remove it. We were able to rotate the playhouse 45 degrees from where it sat before. Today is the day it will go bye bye, at least being torn apart. Still need to figure out where to go with all the scrap afterwards. I figure I could always throw a little away every week until it is finally gone.