Odds and Ends and Stuff in Between

Saw Jay Black in concert at Westbury Saturday night. Whenever Jay is in Westbury, and probably performing anywhere in the area, his concert has an "Adult Material" label. Mainly, Jay says fuck. A lot. No, not a lot. More like everytime he opens his mouth. He's also wickedly funny. If you go to the website, you'll see a fairly old photo. He's in his late-'60s now and has white hair and an enormous gut. But he can still sing. He might not hit all the high notes he used to, especially on "Cara Mia," but he gives a great show. Hubby and I try to not miss his Westbury performances. His son Beau sings as part of the act, too, and plays guitar. He's 22 and quite good.

Finally got back to doing some decoupage last weekend and continued with it yesterday. I've been working on an unfinished, fairly large wood trunk. It looks good so far, but the pressdown sheets I was using for the interior must've lost some of their stick, because they're coming up even with the decoupage paste over them. Right now, the inside is a mess. Nothing is ever easy. Remember that.

Since the Islanders' season is pretty much over pending the final game, it's great to have baseball back. In checking on this afternoon's game on CBS Sportsline, I discovered a new internet creature called a "glog."

"What's a Glog?A Glogsm, short for a "game log," is the latest way for you to
follow games on CBS SportsLine.com. It's an expert color commentary of the
contest at hand - not just what happened but why and how it affects the rest
of the game. The aim of CBS SportsLine Glogs is to bring the bleacher seat
experience to the web. Glogs are an honest look at what's going on in the
game - by a fan for fans.

And there you have it, folks. New words being coined right and left, as well as center (field). It is a bit more interesting to follow a game this way than the dry just the facts style play-by-play we usually get online. There is a bit of a delay though between the actual scoreboard update and the glogging.

Icing on the cake: Mets beat the Nationals at Shea, 3-2, with a win for Tom Glavine and a save for new Mets closer Billy Wagner, with Aaron Heilman pitching 2 strong innings in middle relief. Great start for a promising season.

Amano Artisan Chocolate sounds yummy, but it's not available yet. I found the link on The Candy Addict.

I had some other randomness to blog about, but it all went right out of my head. Ah well, there's always next post.

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
Technorati Tags: baseball jay black concert personal

Those Groundhogs Don't Know Nothin'

Forget the groundhogs. The true signs of spring:

Days are getting longer. It is now still light when I leave work at 5 p.m. (Yeeha!)

Pitchers and Catchers report in 10 days!!! Is it a coincidence that P&C is always (well, it can vary a day here and there by team, but still...) February 15th, one day after Valentine's Day? I think not. (I have no idea why that's related. Humor me, okay?)

The rest of the baseball teams report on 2/21, thereabouts.

Football season officially ends with the Super Bowl — TODAY!!! I'm not a big football fan, but this year seemed especially long, mostly because I'm a Jets fan and well, it's just not good for one's mental health to be a Jets fan these days.

So what are your signs of spring?

Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
spring

Nightly Wrap Up

When I heard the news this morning that NYC didn't get the 2012 Olympics, after a momentary disappointment, I felt profound relief that we won't have all the hassle of feeling like we're under seige. Last year's Republican Convention was enough of a mess with streets blocked off and more congestion than usual. That wasn't even a full week. The Olympics go on for 2 weeks and security would've been a nightmare for those of us trying to just go about our business. I was figuring that since I'd be retired by then (though I do plan to get a part-time job), I could've just stayed home the entire time, but now I don't have to worry about it. Hope the Mets still go ahead with replacing Shea Stadium, though. They really need to do that.

Cleaned out a lot of shoes. Got rid of a pair of black shoes I love but hardly have worn, but salvaged the cotton laces to use on a pair of black sneakers that had those annoying nylon laces that keep coming undone if I don't double knot them.

Friday Ramblings

TV Spoilers Coming Up:

Stargate SG-1 sure didn't pull any punches tonight. After all these years of ignoring the Jack/Sam chemistry following the sexual tension of the early years, it was back on the table, which meant Sam's fiance, Pete, is gone. Which is a shame because he was played by David DeLuise, a real cutie. I loved the chance to see him now and then. And Sam's father was killed off, which, along with Anubis' demise (?) changes the dynamic for next season, which of course, will feature Ben Browder, perhaps the biggest change in the show's dynamic.

Stargate: Atlantis continues to provide a nice mix of humor and tension as Stargate SG-1 does, but here, the tension is stronger with the Wraithe (however that's spelled) breathing down the team's necks.

But when it comes to tension, nothing beats Battlestar Galactica these days when they're on their game and they were on tonight. In fact, that show rarely misses the mark.

Did a book meme (or what's called a "stick"; this internet lingo is like a foreign language for me sometimes) over on Shelly's Book Shelf and wanted to leave a comment on Sweet Memes where I found it (well, was tagged), but Haloscan wouldn't open. I wish I could figure out if it's Haloscan on that site or my PC, but on some sites, it's fine; on others, not; and on still others, it's a hit or miss operation. So I just tried again and it opened right up. Weird. I just don't get it. My knowledge of things blog is more than most people I know, but it's a fraction of what I wish I knew.

According to the NY Daily News, Chad Pennington, the NY Jets quarterback, offered to give up $2 million of his salary if it meant the Jets would reacquire receiver Laveranues Coles. Now Chad's said and done some stupid things over the past year (well, mostly his stupidity was verbal), but this was pretty classy. How often do you know of athletes offering to give up money so a team could meet a salary cap? I hope it's true because it's nice to hear that someone isn't looking to take the system for all he can get.

Speaking of which, supposedly, the NHL and the hockey players union are talking again. I won't believe it's actually about resolving the lockout and saving next season until I read that a contract's been signed by both sides.

And again speaking of greed, I might not get to watch many Mets games this season as the owner of Cablevision and the sports networks Fox Sports and MSG which broadcast most of the Mets games each season, wants TimeWarner, my cable system, to pay more for the privilege of broadcasting those networks. TimeWarner said no. This mini-blackout lasted a week or so last season until a temporary agreement was reached, but now that the Mets have announced they'll have their own network next year a la the Yankees' YES network, and have a team worth watching, Mr. Greedy Dolan of Cablevision has decided he needs yet more money. Oh, those networks carry the Knicks, too, but no one seems to care if they don't get to watch the rest of the Knicks' season, because they basically suck right now. But the baseball season will start soon and I'll have to get my game fix each night by radio except for the few games on local TV (usually on the weekend). I'm bummed and very tired with these sports standoffs.

On a more cheerful note, I came to a decision re: my dueling writing blogs, Presto Speaks! and The Write Stuff, and The Write Stuff won. I'll be posting there, but keeping Presto Speaks! for the links.

And finally, a fun link to round out the night:
Nobodyhere.com is one weird, fascinating site. Found on Mad Baggage Rambling.