How I feel about canned beets.

It really depends on why they were canned. If they were chronically late, incompetent, and generally bad for business and morale they should have been canned.

If they were let go because upper management wanted to make room in the organization for his wife's cousin's kid, that's a different story. I personally can't abide that brand of office politics.

Happy Birthday (on Sunday)

Happy Birthday Dave! You're a star!!

Every 9 years or so.

Every nine years or so when the White Sox are playing poorly and the Cubs are coming out of a several year hibernation in the cellar, I switch baseball allegiances. Sort of. I will Love Frank Thomas, Tadahito Iguchi, Joe Crede and the rest of the White Sox both erstwhile, inactive and otherwise to the day I die. I mean the day I Jermaine Dye. I have loved the White Sox since that fateful day in 1973 or 1974 (work with me, I was much younger and did not think I'd have to remember the exact year) that I garnered free tickets for perfect attendance at school and wen to my first White Sox game with my father. If memory serves Dick Allen hit one of his vaunted roof shots and the palehose (one of several ways of saying White Sox, when you just don't want to say White Sox every 3 words) prevailed over the Baltimore Orioles (also known as the birds when you live in Baltimore and don't want to say Orioles every 3 words). I hopped on the Southbound express of Allen, Jorge Orta, Ed Hermann (not the same one who plays the grandpa on Gilmore girls but by now he's about the same age) Beltin' Bill Melton (named that way for his hitting prowess. Amy's convinced he'a a wife beater but wife beaters generally are not given nick names.) and have not hopped off in the 3+ decades that have followed.

So what is all this then about switching allegiances? Well the truth is that the pale hose weren't my first baseball love. I was born and raised and nurtured in a Cubs family. Before 35th and Shields became my home away from home, I had a familial association with the friendly confines of Clark and Addison. I was a firm follower of Ron Santo, Don Kessinger, Jose Cardenal and other 70's Cubs. But on that fateful day of 1973 or 1974 I switched allegiance to the Sox for good. Why? Why, you ask me. Because of one incontrovertible fact. The Cubs stank and the White Sox, well they did not stink as much. Now I could bore with you statistics showing how bad in the course of my life time the Cubs have been in comparison to the Sox. But I figure if there is anyone still reading this that I am boring you without statistics so why work harder?

My parents also think I just did things to be different. That may be true for food. When you live in a family of 7 people and you have a voracious appetite, you keep things in the pantry or the refrigerator that no one else will want. I mean what good is your favorite snack being nutty bars when they have a shelf life of 3.2 seconds? But Sardines, prunes, Pork rinds who's going to eat those? Well, me.

So, every year I attempt to do the impossible, love the Sox and not hate the Cubs. My wife, Amy (maybe you've heard of her) does not even believe I like the Cubs. She hears me make fun of the players and make jokes about the teams ineptitude (such as the old standard, anyone could have a bad century) and think I can't possible like them. What she fails to grasp is that this is precisely how Cub fans act. I, unlike almost every other White Sox fan on the planet, cannot take joy out of the Cubs' futility. I ache with every Sox loss. With every Cubs loss it's more like a sigh of resignation that the team I dropped like a hot potato is no nearer to respectability then when I dumped 'em.

So this year, as in 1998, when the Cubs are playing well enough to win their division and the Sox aren't playing well enough to do division. (I mean simple division like Tadahito had 10 apples and wanted to give them out to the 5 staring pitchers. how many would he give to each one so each pitcher had the same amount. I am serious! That's why he was traded!) I start to live and die with the Cubs. Maybe this will finally be their year! After all, this is a new century.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Here's Emma after she shopped w/a gift card from Grandma & Grandpa Fish (aka Roller) Happy 8th birthday Emma!!

Cool site for recipes

http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/
This is an awesome site for folks like MOI who need to SEE things to "GET" them. Her photos and directions are SO easy, plus she's funny too. So far, I've made the chicken spaghetti, olive cheese bread, lasagne, and chicken sandwiches, and everything has been GREAT!!!

do you has?

I am no doubt a dog person, albeit newly minted. But there are times when I miss a good cat.

Pinkface, extraordinaire

We call him Charla-hito (After Tadahito Iguchi)

Photos, a day in the life of a Lucy

Chicken Pox

BiPolar

Found this online on a tv series on peeps with bi-polar disease. You can view some clips online (or check it out on actual tv). Thought it might be useful or interesting. But not smelly.

hey oh my gosh you just won't believe it, I bet

(Sing to the tune of: 'Mary had a little Lamb') David Roller cheats at cards cheats at cards cheats at cards. (Okay, stop singing.)

Joe got a job cleaning out a bookstore so I drove to Madison and filled a big crate full of books and took them home. Got a lotta good fiction and some baseball books. Just found out that humidity is real bad for a guitar; had to pull it up from the basement, permanent style, and put the kibosh on the capo. Talked to FiveCan the other day; says he'll be in Chicago in midseptember for almost a couple of weeks this time, en route and back to/from New York and Boston with his insane samba band. Fiver also says 'No' to Antarctica this year, and swears he'll be in the midwest for Xmas. Got another shift at the hot dog stand; now I'm gonna be rich, but quick. New shoes, here I come! Car insurance? No problem. Shirts that don't have cigarette burn holes in them? I'm there. Get my latest roll of film developed? Priceless.

Better Dreams

Because it's pretty and I like it, here's a little birthday offering for KT. Sorry for the no show for the big blow out extravaganza.

They took to my father during the period of the lion

Not that he ever reads this blog, but Happy Birthday, Pops. Belatedly.

I had a sentence about Dad put through a multiplying translator....for important study and deep contemplation.

My Favorite Funny

I LOVE the comic "Pearls Before Swine" Check out two funny strips...












This is the website where I find them

Dear Sheila

Yes, I can send you the picture. While I'm away from home *shhhh!* the stupid comment pop up window doesn't work. So I only got to read the top half of your corner gas thing. I basically got the idea that Maria doesn't like sitcoms, and your teeth are more important than sitcoms. Or something. It's all good. I'll read it when I get home. And I'll send the picture to you when I get home.
Yup.

Dear Katie

Since you apparently do not read comments from older posts - though they're still on the front page - I shall post it here front and centah.

KT -- can you please send me the full file of the pic of you, dad, joe and mike in front of the train engine?

As ever,

Not drinking Coke in a can any longer

Corner Gas

Sheila- Have you seen the Canadian tv show Corner Gas?
Danny's very social uncle works for the railroad CN and is in Canadia a lot. He was in Saskatchewan at a bar and a loud group of people was sitting at the table behind him. They asked him to join (B/c he's American and they thought that was cool), bought him a few beers and told him about the show. They also like Chicago b/c WGN will soon be airing the show. The Policewoman on the show was sitting with them. So before he left, he asked again, "What is it called again?" They told him, and then asked what hotel he was staying at. The next day he came back to his hotel room and a hotel employee had left a package in his room- 2 or 3 (I forgot) seasons of the show on dvd. Just free. Just to watch. So we watched it last night. It was pretty funny. Very sarcastic and kinda goofy. They said it's huge in Canadia and I thought you guys may have seen it. Dunno.

Lucy loves hats

It's kind of fun around here, when Lucy disappears for a while, you KNOW she's coming back with a hat on. Could be a baseball hat, a firehat, a hard hat, anything. I rarely have a camera ready.

oh danny boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

I had forgotten how much I loved the Muppet Show. I'm still giggling a few days after seeing this fine rendition of Danny Boy.

pancake, anyone?

Seriously, does anyone want a pancake? Syrup not included.