--357 days. (with only a couple hours to spare!)

--There's no stopping Gardener Andy. You can only hope to container him. I be here all de veek. I drove down to Bolingbrook to drop off a check and "save" some of the flowers I planted in the garden out there years ago. They've spread nicely, to where I could dig up a couple sections and bring them back here to put in my big containers for my balcony. That saves me about $40, truthfully. I also bought some new pepper plants, because I believe my old plant isn't making it. But we'll see. And I bought a cherry tomato plant. Never grew tomatoes, so we'll see how it goes.

--Heading to the Sox game tomorrow, as well, with my brother. If you're gonna be there, keep an eye out for me and Tim. It'll be my first Sox (and baseball) game of the year.

--Softball yesterday sucked. We got killed, and it just wasn't much fun, getting killed like that. Though I did find out that our friends that are getting married in June of next year are also having their reception at Meridian Banquets, which is pretty funny. :)

--Have I mentioned that I have five weddings to go to, all pretty primary folks, next year? Mine's in May, a friend's in June, my bro in July, and two of Gina's friends (including one of my friends, the groom) in Sept. Of course, Gina has to stand up to three of those plus be a bride in ours, so it's tougher on her. :) Lucky me.

--Have a good rest of Saturday!

--358 days, and, if you didn't notice, still counting. :)

--Strange...my birthday's coming up, and when Gina asked me the other day if I wanted to do anything, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, "I don't know...maybe." I suppose I miss my grill more than I thought. It just seems silly to invite people over but not grill. Don't ask me why that is, it just does. Maybe some of you can relate, maybe you can't. I don't know. It just would seem really weird to me.

--Softball yesterday was good--my work team won 8-7 in the final at-bat--our guy was walked, and per the rule, all runners (including him) advance two bases (to prevent teams from intentionally walking guys to get to girls--makes sense). That drove in the runner on second for the win. I've now pitched in three different softball games, giving up 14, 3 and 7 runs. Tailored to a seven-inning softball game, that gives me an RA (not ERA--rarely are runs EARNED in softball) of 8.00, which, in slow-pitch softball is a nice RA to have, I might say. :)

--Speaking of baseball, I'll be at the Sox game this Sunday, if anyone else is going to be there. Should be fun. It'll be my first Sox game this year, believe it or not. So I'm looking forward to it, for sure.

--Oh, and despite the bad news yesterday, the day had started out fantastically. The W hotel chain had sent me a survey on my stay at the W San Francisco. NEVER in the history of survey-taking, have I ever, ever, ever given as many "1s" on a scale of 1-10. Oh, I was feeling really, really, really good. :) Ha ha ha ha! I don't even care if they acknowledge it...it just felt good to rip them a new one.

--359 days.

--2 weeks, apparently to Voluptuous Voracious Vegas Vaccu-suck.

--In other more important news, anyone know of any good teacher openings? Gina's being let go at the end of this year. She was just informed today. Obviously, this is a big deal, but, much like my layoff, hopefully it will result in a better situation. The reason she was given was pure bullshit too...

I just hope she gets the hell out of CPS. And the union too. Both pieces of shit.

--Otherwise, I'm off to lunch. I'm starving.

To answer Kim's question: 360 days. (If I remember to do it every day. I figure, maybe it'll stir my brain to post something each day...even piddly and small, but thought-provoking or conversational.)

Yeeeeeee-haw!!!!

I should say, there are some disappointments in this trailer alone...but, I'll probably still fork out the $9.50 to see it, just to say I did.

--361 days.

--Today, softball went much better than it did last week. We slaughter-ruled our opponent after 4.5 innings, 14-3. Pitching was tough, because of the wind, but I did OK.

--Hmmm, otherwise, I don't think there's much else that's new. I am still eating almonds out of a giant plastic California. Sorry to disappoint. :)

--THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS: 362 days. It's a long road, my friends...but I'm told that the year typically flies by. We shall see. :)

--Man, Laz is right...Blogger has been sucking lately, in terms of speed of use. It's getting to be a chore to post, almost, simply because, even on my quite-reliable DSL, it takes really long to load up...ah well. I'll keep trying. :)

--Is there anything better than eating chocolate-covered almonds? Sure, but eating them out of a clear plastic container that is a pretty accurate shape of California? I submit there is not.

--Austin is really cool. Even though I was saddled in the hotel during most of my free time fighting off a cold. That then rendered me temporarily partially deaf upon landing at O'Hare...my stupid ears wouldn't pop. By this morning though, it had cleared up.

--Norine's wedding also was really cool, again, even though I fought through it with the worst of the cold.

--We got home around 9pm yesterday, and I was so sore and tired and generally out of it from flying with the remnants of the cold that I went pretty much straight to bed. Got up at 7 this morning stunned that I felt much better and good enough to go to work. Good thing, because there was more than enough to do.