It's amazing what I can do when properly motivated.

In all of 1 hour, 45 minutes, I've written five short (300-400 words) fantasy football columns for our pay site coming up this summer. That's after struggling to come up with ideas for columns earlier this week. I flew, and they're all pretty solid, for what it's worth. The reason is, I plan to leave work at 12:30 (half an hour) to go see Eddie play in the state volleyball tournament down the road in Hoffman Estates at 1:00pm. Should be pretty cool, I'd guess. Then it's off to Boogie Nights in Schaumburg, where Butch has some sort of discounted party that he got hooked up via work, I guess. Anyway, that mysteriously starts at 4:30 and goes until I don't know when...we don't have softball tonight--bye week. So I'll enjoy myself. :)

hey all...
Well, I took the day off work today, because I didn't feel too spectacular this morning (hay fever kicking in a bit, now that it's getting warmer), plus I guess beach volleyball made me more tired than I thought. I don't even remember my alarm going off at 7:30am, and when I did wake up, it was 9:50am. Thankfully, it's a slow time at work and I can afford missing work for a day. Unfortunately, it costs me a sick day or whatever, not that I plan on using all those over the course of a year anyway.

Beach volleyball wasn't a very good debut. The sand (and air, for that matter) was freezing cold and my feet went numb until about 30-45 minutes after the game was over. My hands and arms are bruised internally (no mark, just hurt to the touch) because the volleyball wasn't inflated enough, making every single hit hurt like hell. I forgot about my feet really quickly because of that. I pretty much sucked too, but I blame the deflated ball. I couldn't overhand serve at all, and I had to really, really swing at the ball to underhand serve well. It really sucked and I know I'm better. It just better be warmer next week, dammit. :)

Oops. I stayed up until 4am playing Civilization III last night. So now my eyes are watery, bloodshot and they itch and are a bit sore. This doesn't bode well for beach volleyball later...sand, sand, sand, sand.

Oh yeah...and sorry about the rant yesterday. I just hate most of the Chicago media.

Off to lunch.

GOD DO I HATE FOX!!!!! Walter Jacobson particularly. "Major story for Chicago sports" my ass, Walter. They just broke into the Simpsons for Sammy "Cheater" Sosa's life-changing postgame press conference on his freakin' corked bat. (When I say life-changing, I'm being facetious.) For freakin' Christ's Sake! Yes, it's a story, but it's NOT WORTH BREAKING INTO PROGRAMMING FOR THIS CRAP! It's not like Sosa was shot or punched somebody or came barreling out of the dugout like a madman ready to kill anyone in the way a la George Brett here...he admitted to picking the wrong damn bat. Jesus I hate this town's media outlets, TV especially. I'm soooooo glad I didn't go into broadcast journalism. I expect this from ESPN, and they're SUPPOSED to do that, sure. But not the freakin' networks. God DAMN! Oh God, the asshole reporter who is at Bears games all the time and asks the stupidest questions just asked a question...I recognized his voice--it's very distinguishable. He's also in the PFWA (Professional Football Writers of America) and was a complete and total prick at the annual PFWA meeting at the Super Bowl. Jackass. Sadly, I forget his name or even where he works, exactly. But I missed his question...it probably was stupid and worthless...he asked Baker a stupid question too. God. Oh, brainiac Telander just asked Dusty Baker if he believes Sosa that none of his other bats are corked. Please, please, please make it stop. What's Dusty going to say? "No, Rick, I don't believe my superstar player, let's go check his bats now. In fact, I'm benching him for the rest of the season for being stupid." And don't give me the "they were fishing for quotes to use in their story" excuse. Do reporters have brains anymore? Ugh. Here's another winner: "Dusty, is it common for players to use corked bats?" Please...I'm sure Dusty's ready to start the expose right here and right now. While he's at it, here's another cheapy quote that every ballplayer uses steroids...man. Now the freakin' analysis from Corey McPherrin, who usually is pretty good...but he just said, "I want to believe him, but we HAVE TO be cynical." Ahhhh...I hate these people. Oh thank God, Walter just told us they're going to "stay on top of this story." Damn good thing...phew...I was worried.

Anyway, happier news. So how does a 17-6 five-inning slaughter rule win sound for ya? The PFW Maulers are rolling right now, and hopefully it continues. We've now won three straight games and have looked better every time out. How does a six-strikeout performance in my first real start sound? For softball? Pretty damned good. I pitched lights out today. I didn't hit all that well, but I got on base twice and scored both times. I'm now 3-0 as a pitcher, by the way, but who's counting? :) I flat-out dominated on the mound tonight, and I'm thrilled to death about it. I hope it continues. This league is so much better than the previous leagues we were in, and not because the teams are better, per se, but more so that they're worse, and thus we're competitive. There are no undefeated teams or winless teams, and we're 3-2 now. This is great. :)

Let's see if beach volleyball tomorrow goes as well as softball did today.

I finally got the new "Weird" Al Yankovic album. Overall, on the first couple listens, it's average (compared to previous albums) at best. However, there's a good style parody of Bob Dylan called, simply, "Bob," that uses ALL palindromes. I find it quite funny and damn intelligent. There's also a parody of the Backstreet Boys (ick) "I want it that way" called "Ebay" that's pretty damned witty. He even has a song that has some moral message to it, which is pretty damned unusual for him. It's not bad, just kind of unexpected. But overall, it's about average at this point. Even the polka compilation he does isn't up to snuff, really...there's some weird trumpeting in there instead of accordian playing...it's odd. But, hey, I'll still buy his albums, no doubt. :)

Man, yesterday was taxing, though in a good way.

First I drove downtown to the Hyatt to meet Troy and Eulalia to perform my second wedding-related duty, taste-testing the planned menu for the wedding's meal. Let me tell you, for those of you who are coming, it is FANTASTIC. Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious, as my grandpa used to always say. Wow...I haven't heard or said that in ages...whoa.

After the meal, we decided to try to find things to kill time until 10-cent wings at Hawkeye's. So around 3:30, we drove over to a store called Papersource on Chicago and Franklin. Eulalia and I had to go to the bathroom, so while Troy meandered through Papersource, we tried Starbucks...no luck. So we went to Bar Louie a couple doors down. I never feel comfy just walking into a place, using the bathroom and leaving, so we got a beer and relaxed a bit. Troy then called us, wondering where we were. We finished the beer and went back to Papersource to finish up. Some chick actually asked me, "Can I get your opinion on something?"
I'm like, um, yeah, I guess, though I may not be the best person to ask.
Chick: "I'm trying to put together invitations for a baby shower (? I think that's what she said), and I like these colors, but I don't want it to look girlie. Does this look too girlie to you?"
Me: Um, hmmmm.
Eulalia: "Hi, Andy, what's the question?"
Chick: "Well, I'm putting together...does this look too girlie?"
Me: I don't know...I don't think it looks TOO girlie. Maybe this one color is girlie, but not these other ones.

And it went on, with Eulalia helping probably more than I was, and the chick explaining her life story as to how she got thrown into this at the last minute and her parents were stationery manufacturers and they sold the business or something like that and that she would rather have a different shade of red than one of the reds she had, but there were no other alternatives. And then we left the store. Quite interesting.

As we approached the car, I noticed it was the only one on the street. I knew I had a ticket, and I ran to the car, just in case a tow truck was approaching somewhere. I discovered I had a ticket indeed. $50 for rush-hour parking. Damn. We did not notice the sign right in front of the car that said no parking 4pm-6pm, which is unusual, because I always look in the city. I guess it felt like it was much earlier in the day when we got there, so I thought nothing of it, fed the meter and that was that. Thankfully it wasn't towed.

We then stopped at AlphaGraphics on Irving Park Road and then Kim and Nick's to see what was up there. It was the first time I've ever been in their apartment, and it was nice. :) I'm just saying that...no, really, it was nice.

By then, it was time to meet Luis at Hawkeye's for wings and beer. We did so. Luis talked to one of the bartenders who'd typically given us more or less a cold shoulder most of the time. She just started talking to us about how she went white-water rafting on the New (sp?) River in West Virginia and nearly died when the raft flipped completely over. She also talked about how much fun it was, but she'd never go again. And then how she watched "Deliverance" the day after she got back and couldn't believe how accurate it was on the rafting stuff or something...whatever. It was cool, as it always is.

So now, I'm back at work. I hate that. :)

Well, I've been here at work since noon or so, and it seems likely that we'll get out of here relatively soon. Or at least I hope so. Maybe not. Maybe I'm always hoping for something that isn't going to happen, particularly on Sundays here at work.

I need a haircut. I was going to go to Luis' "stylist" just to see what this chick does with my hair, but I don't think I'll have the time to do it, simply because I want Luis to go with me so this chick doesn't think I'm just some Joe Schmo walking in off the street and treats me with "respect," or something. But if I don't have time, I'll just hit Supercuts, like I always do. Whatever works.

It will be nice to have the day off tomorrow. I wish I had more. But aside from being unemployed, that's not possible. And I can't even afford to be employed right now. That's the funniest thing...if I were to get fired or laid off, it might actually SAVE me money at the point I'm in right now, what with my commute and all. Not that I'm hoping or looking for that to happen. But this makes me wonder...it also doesn't bode well for you folks out there looking for sports-journalism jobs, as it makes the pool of candidates bigger.