--164 days.

--Does anyone understand why THIS makes any kind of sense whatsoever? Regardless of the White Sox needing a DH and lefty power, why Thome? At this stage in his career, that is? For a guy who's tough as nails and costs nearly $10 million less? Oh, and not to mention that is a HUGE fan favorite? I honest to God just don't understand how the White Sox front office works sometimes.

You know, they'll come out and say, "Now that we won the World Series, we can go out and spend money on big-name players, so we can finally make the fans happy and bring in people they want to see." But the problem is, White Sox fans don't want you to get rid of their fan favorites just to bring in big-name guys. We want comfort. We want OUR superstars. Hell, they took us to the championship last year, so it's not as though we have to make drastic freakin' changes. We wanted you to trade the likes of Royce Clayton, Jose Valentin, etc., etc., and use their money to sign big-name guys like A-Rod years ago, just to name one. Don't get rid of the guys we like and are, by the way, pretty good value.

Plus, now where are we going to get the money to sign Konerko, unless the Phillies take on most of Thome's remaining contract? Or, is it just another attempt to make the fans feel better about the offseason, with the front office thinking there's no way we're getting Konerko? If so, that only PISSES ME OFF to no end...if they lose Konerko and try to pass off Thome as the "at least we got him" answer...ugh. The problem is that Rowand and Konerko are/were HUGE FAN FAVORITES, and Thome is not. The Sox don't seem to understand that fans would much rather they spent the money on Konerko and a mid-level DH/lefty and kept Rowand than brought in Thome.

Now, I'm not saying, mind you, that I won't root for Thome or anything silly like that. I just really don't get the Sox all that much. They really don't seem to understand their fans much--and that's aside from their customer service. They just seem to be out of touch with the fans much of the time...

--165 days.

--Nothing like a little lunchtime natural gas leak, leading to a one-hour, 45-minute rebound lunch to suck away much of the afternoon's work motivation.

--That's right, sitting at Cubby Bear North this afternoon with several of the former coworkers at PFW, while waiting (unbelievably long) to order our food from the waitress, who works for the asshole manager, who made a snide remark about us "rearranging his dining room" when the 10 of us walked in (though the place wasn't even close to capacity), we began to smell gas. Five minutes later, it hadn't gotten better, two of our group was queasy (one already was standing outside), and the asshole manager was fast-walking around, ducking behind curtains, trying to find the source of the leak. Did he call the fire department? Who knows, but I doubt it. So, we decided to drop $2 apiece on the table for the drinks and bail out. Why wait to blow up when we could go to Champps? This, mind you, was already 40 minutes into the lunch "period." So I had to basically wolf down my meal at Champps and bail out before everyone else. But, hey, it's always good to see folks...especially folks like Kenny and K-mac, fellow former PFWers who I hadn't seen in a long time. Now, it wasn't as bad as the Great Gas Leak of 2003 on Jan. 28 in The Brook. That was suffocatingly bad. This was as though a pilot light went out...but still, why chance it, right? Plus, they treated us like shit anyway, so it was a couple of things that added up.

--Ah well...I go home in an hour, and then I get to work from home for a half day tomorrow. That's nice. I'll get some real work done and then have the rest of the day and weekend to relax and get other personal things done. Always, always a nice thing.

--So that's that for now. If I don't get to post between now and then, have a Happy Thanksgiving!