Well, more storms this evening. I've never seen such frequent lightning as I saw this evening out here in Bolingbrook. The main storms went southwest of my house, and I watched them go by...it looked, seriously, like someone put a gigantic strobe light in the sky and turned it on. I mean, it was relentless, and I'm not exaggerating here. Fortunately, the creek did not flood, nor did we get any hail or wind, really. Just a lot of rain and lightning.

Tomorrow I have a decent amount of work to do, and then softball at 9:30pm. It's our last game of the regular season, and we actually have a shot at the playoffs, I think. Then Saturday is Eddie's graduation party. So I'll have to find a gift or something for him. Thankfully, I get paid tomorrow, so I can afford to get him something. Sunday I have a Sox game in the afternoon. So it should be a fun and exciting kind of weekend, as they say. Here's hoping I don't spend way too much money. :)

This sure snuck up on me...it's coming out in two weeks. Now I'll have to try and ignore the trailers so nothing is given away. Yay.

Ya know, the more I think of it, the more I like the idea of moving to Antarctica.

Well, thankfully, it's a busy day. There's nothing I hate more than sitting here on my ass pretending to work when I'm not really doing so. So, I'm off to lunch soon and then back to work. just thought I'd let you all know.

I noticed something tonight that I never really gave THAT much thought to, after the All-Star Game when I stopped at my parents' house to get my car. There is nothing more soothing to me than my parents' frontroom at night when the window air conditioner is on. It immediately comforts me, because it sets off some signals in my brain. I mean, it works so well as a trigger in my brain that I very much will consider window air conditioning over central air whenever I get to make such a decision. First, it's loud and steady, and thus easy to sleep through. When I was younger, my bro and I used to "sneak" into the frontroom to sleep because our room never really got cool enough. I say "sneak" because even though my parents had gone to bed (their room is right off the frontroom), they knew we would be out there on the couch or floor within 15 minutes of them turning off the lights. It was especially nice during thunderstorms when I was little, because it often drowned out a lot of the thunder, which I was afraid of when I was little. I never had to run into my parents' room scared and sleep with them because I was always in the frontroom, which was right there. And it was comforting. Plus, I think it also signals summertime to me, which of course was always my favorite season because of summer vacation. Of course, I don't get that now, but hey, the triggers are all still there I guess.

Anyway, the All-Star Game was awesome...no mascots today, sadly, so I failed miserably in my attempts to get as many as possible. But oh well. I got some pictures, but they're no huge deal. Great game, of course, and that's all that matters. It was well worth the money. Now, back to the daily grind tomorrow. Yippie. :)

Wow yesterday was busy.

Originally I was going to hit Fanfest at McCormick Place at 9am, then go to the dentist at 11:45, then head to the ballpark. But I decided that wouldn't work. So I tried to call the dentist to see if I could push the time to an earlier appointment, to get me out of there earlier. No dice...they didn't open until who knows when. So I slept in and went to the dentist at 11:45. It was painless, until the numbness wore off. My teeth are sparkly clean now (though I can't tell the difference, really) and I have one filling done. Problem is, the cavity was on a wisdom tooth, so he had to tug and tug on my cheek to get to it. I guess he tugged too much. Today I have an unsightly injury over the right corner of my mouth...it looks like a huge scrape, like when you scrape your knee. But it's on my lip and cheek. It's pretty ugly, and I hope it goes away very soon.

I then rushed to McCormick Place for Fanfest, stayed there about 2 hours and did nothing, really, because I didn't have time. I took the El to my parents house after that to drop off the Limited Edition McFarlane Frank Thomas and Sammy Sosa figures, because I wasn't going to carry them around at the game, and I needed some Advil, because my mouth was in pain (because the numbness was gone). I did that, got back on the El and went to the Home Run Derby. That was cool to be at, but it was disappointing overall because of the contestants. Not a single true POWER hitter in the bunch. At least none along the lines of a Sammy Sosa or Barry Bonds. But, hey, I was happy to be there. Sadly, I did not get any more pictures with mascots, as I got there too late. I then went to Hawkeye's for 10-cent wings, though I couldn't have them because of my mouth injury...boy that would have hurt. :)

Today I was going to take a half day at work to get to the All-Star Game nice and early, but I woke up this morning and decided that I'd just take a full day off instead of messing with the commute for nothing. So here I am at home, relaxing and waiting to head into the city for the All-Star Game. Maybe I'll get there early enough to secure more mascot photos. Yesterday there were more mascots there (as they introduced them again), including Billy Brewer and the Philly Fanatic. So that's cool.

For the first time ever, I was able to get out of work on Sunday ass-early. I left at 2:30, headed for U.S. Cellular Field to watch the Futures game and the Legends/Celebrities Softball Game, with the band Live wedged in between. It was cool, yet somewhat boring. It would have been better if I were closer and could see some of the great players there, such as my all-time favorite, Ozzie Smith, or Sox favorites Bo Jackson, Jack McDowell and Harold Baines. I also then would have gotten a better look at Shannon Elizabeth and Sarah Silverman (who is underrated in my opinion), so I wouldn't be complaining. Didn't pay all THAT close attention to the Futures game, but kinda did. Live sounded pretty good, for as good as they can sound on a two-song set from the outfield with some echo.

The "coolest" thing was that there were about a dozen of the league's mascots walking around entertaining fans. So I decided that I'd make it a personal goal to get my picture taken with as many as I could. Tim said they were all in our section before I arrived, which is too bad, but I didn't do terribly, I guess. I still gotta get a picture with the Baltimore Oriole. That one's cool. But not all of them were there. I would expect the Philly Fanatic, the all-star of MLB mascots to be there, but it wasn't, at least not today. We'll see. So I decided this while my brother and I were eating Super Tacos (1 big, by taco standards, taco for $2.25). The first one to come up was Stomper (Athletics), so I was going to try to feed him the taco in the photo, but he was in a hurry--that's what I'm holding in the photo. I then got (they're all on the same page, actually, because Geocities is crap) Billy the Marlin, Junction Jack Rabbit (Astros)--Tim is in the background, enjoying his Super Taco--and Slider (Indians), who is giving me a kiss on the side of the head--hopefully it was a female inside, since I'd rather not have a big pink male animal of some sort kissing me. :) Everytime I see Junction Jack, I can't help but think he's the Quik Rabbit's hillbilly cousin hopped up on caffeine or speed or something.

Anyway, it was obvious that the Pirates mascot (a parrot, which I didn't get a picture with...yet) was a huge Live fan (them being from southwestern PA somewhere), because he/she was out on the field ROCKIN' OUT, baby! He even dragged almost all of the other mascots out by the stage, where they jumped up and down and danced during the entire two-song set. It was pretty cool to see, and probably a bit surreal for the band. :)

So tomorrow is a long day, starting with FanFest at McCormick Place, then the dentist, then the teams practice and then the Home Run Derby. Ourt seats are in the very top row and on the aisle, which is nice in that we have the versatility of running onto the concourse if there's a homer hit back there (and if there's room), but it also means there will be 50-bazillion people right behind us. That kind of sucks. But we'll be there, which doesn't suck one bit.

I managed to stay home tonight. How about that? I could have gone to see "Matrix Reloaded" at the IMAX up in Lincolnshire with Donna and her friends, or I could have gone with my bro and our friend Butch to a bar called "Quigley's" that we used to go to before it closed and was renovated and turned into this "Quigley's" bar. Used to be the "famous" (around town, at least) "Reilly's Daughter." You may have heard of it. But I didn't do either of those things. And that's good, because I have no money to spend and three days of time ahead at U.S. Cellular Field at the All-Star Game. Plus, I have to pay the dentist $115 on Monday. And I don't get paid until Friday. So, I'll pretty much have to take most of the week off in terms of going out and spending tons of money on lunch and dinner and stuff like that. And still dip into my savings account, which I HATE doing, because my "saving" has kind of leveled off. Maybe going to the dentist wasn't all that great an idea just yet. We'll see. But I need to cut corners this week because my little brother's graduation party is Saturday, and I suppose I should probably get him some sort of gift. Guess it'll be small. But I did spend a decent amount for his birthday, so that should help cancel it out, shouldn't it?

Anyway, my point is, I'm truly worried about my finances this week. So much so that I might just wander over to the Home Depot or some restaurant or bar or something near work and see what's what there. If that happens, well, those of you on here who do see me somewhat often will see me even less. I know it sucks. It also sucks for my dog. But, I have no choice. This is ridiculous and I need to straighten it all out. Somehow.

At any rate, on a happy note, or at least one that's not so depressing. I spent the evening working on a CD for my little brother. A "Best of Soundgarden Unreleased" CD. He, like me, loves the Audioslave album, so I figured I'd give him a little background stuff, since he has no Soundgarden in his collection. So on this compilation, I put none of their hits, or even minor hits. Here's my track list (album in parentheses)...for those of you who know Soundgarden, see if you agree. Others, well, come back some other day. (I don't know if there are even any Soundgarden fans reading this.)

1. Rusty Cage (Badmotorfinger)
2. Let Me Drown (Superunknown)
3. Kyle Petty, Son of Richard (Fell on Black Days Import)
4. Ty Cobb (Down on the Upside)
5. 4th of July (Superunknown)
6. Loud Love (Louder Than Love)
7. Show Me (No Alternative compilation)
8. Flower (Ultramega OK)
9. She Likes Surprises (Alive in the Superunknown enhanced EP)
10. Limo Wreck (Superunknown)
11. Girl U Want (Fell on Black Days Import)
12. Fresh Tendrils (Superunknown)
13. All Your Lies (Ultramega OK)
14. Mailman (Superunknown)
15. Rhinosaur (Down on the Upside)
16. Superunknown (Superunknown)
17. Jesus Christ Pose (Badmotorfinger)
18. Right Turn (on Alice in Chains' "Sap" EP--performed by "Alice Mudgarden")

There you go. Whatever. :) Good night, eventually.