Happy Halloween!!!

So we got a late start with decorating this year. We've been busy. And Rachel took Jake over the hill for a doctor's appointment and visited dear sister. And they didn't get home until 5:30 or so.

But we did the floating head in the window thing. And set up the fog machine and strobe lights. It looked good - 90th percentile and all that. Had about maybe 50 kids or so. It was a little weird - this is the first year Jake didn't go Trick-or-Treating. A few of his friends came to the door. But he just wasn't in to it this year.

Lauren and Paul came up after work. And we played dress up a little.

And we ate pizza and answered the door and around 9:00 when kids stopped showing up, we played some pool.

Chris once said to me, "Cuz, for someone who owns a pool table, you aren't very good at pool." So I've been practicing. Mostly because Paul is really good, and it's got to get pretty boring for him. And I made some good shots tonight. And I kept leaving him "buggered." Like this...

Here's what happened...

Then we all watched the last 20 or so scariest movies of all time on VH1 or something. And then we all went to bed. But since I worked until 3:00 AM last night, I am not at all tired.

So I'm blogging.

Earlier this week, I did something pretty geeky. I hooked my laptop up to our TV and stereo so we could stream movies from NetFlix. That was pretty cool.

And I also made a grubbin' vegetarian dinner on Wednesday. Cheese ravioli tossed with chard. I stir fried the chard with some fresh rosemary a neighbor, Elva, gave me, some sage and pine nuts and garlic. I added some butter and some of the pasta water to make a sauce and then tossed in the raviolis.

It was really good. the only thing I didn't like was the chard made the sauce sort of greenish brown - not very appealing. Next time, on Tim my co-workers advice I might try blanching the chard instead.

That's it. I'm gonna go surf the internet to reassure myself that Obama is going to win. It occurs to me that this is the first election in my lifetime that either candidate winning could trigger riots.

Not Ready Yet?

Last night after Obama's 1/2 hour special, McCain ran a misleading ad that offended me. I mean it offended me more than most. Aside from saying that Obama would "tax our economy deeper in to recession," it ended by saying that Barack is "NOT READY...YET."

My thoughts are still forming as to why this offends me so strongly. In part, I know it has to do with the history of the Civil Rights movement. And I think the ad is trying to bring up racial issues in addition to the experience issues they have been trying to raise for months. I immediately thought of the phrase, "Justice delayed is justice denied," spoken, I believe first, by Martin Luther King.

Sadly, I think this is one more lame excuse for racist people to cling to so they can justify their unwillingness to vote for a black man without admitting to themselves that they are, in fact, racists. Through his words and actions, Obama has demonstrated that he does have the experience to lead our nation. And the Palin selection took a lot of the air out of that ballon for the McCain campaign. So they have shifted the message slightly to lead people to think, "Yeah, I'm not racist, he's not ready yet, and I will vote for him in 4 or 8 years when he is ready."

Add to that Obama, once again, looks suspiciously darker (and angrier) in the McCain ad than he does just about anywhere else.

The obvious response, I think is an ad showing McCain falling asleep during the State of the Union address with text that reads "NOT READY...ANYMORE."

We'll bring you more as the story develops...

Thanks Joe, for the prodding. This is me lately...


No need to rub it in, man. I feel bad enough.

I did everything I could to help. I wore my lucky shirt and cap - and the shirt was getting pretty stinky because it worked in the ALDS and I refused to wash it. I even shaved my head and not my beard.

Rachel said, "Who are you supposed to be? Kevin Youkilis?" And I think I'm a lucky man to have a wife that would make that connection. And then she added, "Well you're going to have to dye it red."

Maybe if I shave my head and my goatee and get a really good tan she will start calling me "Big Papi."

Anyway - I will try to find some time for blogging this weekend.

I did it...

You might remember a little over two years ago when I had my MRI Freakout.

Well, I finally got around to getting it done today. I've been practicing lying still for a while. My doctor prescribed 4 mg of valium to help me relax. Which is just about enough to take the edge off my first cup of coffee. I took my Bucky eye shades, and spritzed them with lavender. And I had them play my Jean-Michele Jarre Oxygene album. I couldn't find Magnetic Fields which would have been more appropriate.

And best of all, Rachel sat in the room with me with her hand on my arm. That made it all OK.

So hopefully with these new pictures, my new doctor will be able to figure out what is wrong with my shoulder.

I love Heroes...

But I HATE time travel.

We loved every second of Season 1. And we made excuses for the abbreviated Season 2 because of the writer's strike. Season 3, well, gee, it's time travel. And like a said a minute ago, I hate time travel. And stepping on butterflies and all of that. I hate, hate, hate it.

So my love of Heroes Season 3 is being offset by my hatred of time travel. So I'm just sort of watching ambivalently. But there are WAY too many commercials, too. So I don't know if I am going to make it through the season, even with Tivo and commercial skipping.

My resume in Wordle...

Wordle is cool.

This is my resume in Wordle...

http://wordle.net/create

Manny Who?

I mean, sure, he's doing well, and good for him and all. But I think we did just fine in that trade.

Tonight it was a tight game late. And I got that great feeling of watching a game that really matters to me. Where you get butterflies on every pitch. And it reminded me of '86 a little.

And I realized that I will never feel again like I did in '86. It's taken me two World Series wins and another post season to realize this. Whether they win or lose, it will never matter as much to me as it did then. The curse is behind us, and a part of me misses it.

It used to be that if you were wearing a Red Sox hat, the fact that you liked them genuinely and passionately was a given. There are a lot of Red Sox Nation immigrants that never went through what I and my father before me went through. I guess the only people that can still feel the way we did are Cubs fans.

Sorry Ted.