OK, so my Ryan Adam's Reviews are ready to roll. And I even had time to run out and pick up 29 today hot off the shelf.... granted I should have left it on the shelf.
I'll start off with a critique of Demolition. Crabby had said this was his favorite Ryan Adams... frankly it might be his only ryan adams cd. My history with Adams began with me picking up Gold at unclaimed baggage for 2.50 and loving it from first listen. I then picked up the Love is Hell series and thought it was pretty good. Then with the whole tripple play this year I was basking in some serious ryan adams. I'd heard Demolition before, almost bought it a few times, but never did.
Well I've given it a few listens and I can see why its Crabb's favorite. Crabb seems to be a different music fan than me, I'm a fan of bands; through good cds and bad. Crabb's music tastes have a definate style that can almost be traced from band to band. Its almost all his CDs make sense as a group. Me I have tons of CDs by a few bands and very few in far between. I have most of the REM collection, most of the U2 collection, Most of the Tom Petty Collection, the three best INXS albums, I used to have most of the Dave Matthews collection but got rid of it as I got tired of it. I used to have oddly enough a couple of Rusted Root cds. I have a good number of smashing pumpkins cds, Eve 6... anyway I usually find a few bands and stick to them and ride their rise and fall of music popularity. Adams is no different, though I still lack a few key albums.
Well Demolition is now mine. Nuclear is a great song to start a CD off with. It reminds me of Gold and New York and oddly enough U2's Vertigo all three start of with these great more up beat songs that sort of stand out among the rest of the record. Desire, Cry on Demand, and Starting to Hurt... might be the best three songs in a row on an album ever... I'm not sure but man that's a powerful three songs that hit you one after another.
And you know I think he might be right... Tennessee does Suck sometimes. An interesting song with some great imagery and a kind of a funny chorus.
Dear Chicago is so much like a Boss song that its erie. You can close your eyes and see the Boss singing it, its such a Bosslike song that it could almost be seen as a rip off. But its great.
Gimme A Sign starts off like a Bon Jovi song or something, its weird, but a cool song.
But all the songs are good, a perfect CD of sorts, no real skippers. Though I think Gold is just as good and can't really differentiate which I think might be better, and Cold Roses is actually up there. I may never have a favorite, I still struggle with picking a favorite U2 cd.
Well all that accolade said about one of his CDs.... now we turn to 29....
Wow this CD was pretty awful, I was pretty ticked off the first time I listened to it. I had read a ton of reviews and a lot of people likened it to Demolition... these people must have been listening to Demolition because it really doesn't have many similarities. Its a rather short CD, only 9 songs.
29 seems like a variation of Beautiful Sorta from Cold Roses. It has the same tone and sound to it... has he gotten to ripping his own material off?
Strawberry Wine (the next song) is a long 8 minute song that pretty much sounds like Ryan on a ucilelee (its a guitar but it sounds bad) just sort of slowly lullabying his way through a song, its pretty long and dull.
Night Bird seems like a reject from Love is Hell and does some funky echo stuff towards the end. It wakes you up, which is good because this song will bore you and put you to sleep up to the echo part.
Then there's Blue Sky Blues, a piano medly that is quiet and slow but a little sleepy.
Carolina Rain... this is supposed to be the Demolitionesque song... its not. It lacks anything to make it stand out, it'd be a filler song on any other cd.
Starlite Diner... boring
The Sadness... has almost a Desperado feel to it, but alas its long 6:43 and is not all that great. It needs something to kick it up a notch.
And yeah the rest of it sucks as well.
I was listening to it while gaming today and finally a song came on that I was really like, "Finally a great song on this blasted CD..." It was Nuclear on Demolition... whoops, looks like no great songs on 29.
Its sad really it just comes across as a real weak performance and songs that lack true depth and emotion. The Lyrics might have it but the music is so bad that the lyrics are really lost. I mean people will be bored if they listen to this CD. It might find its way to Mckay's very fast. Not sure. I might keep it just for the sake of keeping it but unless it pops on my shuffle I won't be pulling it off the self for a spin.
Well, if you read the prior postings about christmas you'll know whats going on. If you didn't and are too lazy to read them here's a recap: I got a lot of double gifts and gifts I had already owned due in part to me shopping for myself in december.
So I had a pair of sneaks to return and a few cds to try to coax Best Buy into taking back.
I first headed to BB because well its my second home. I had two cds that I knew were bought there by my dear sweet grandmother in law. Ryan Adams Demolition and Franz Ferdinand. But I also had Ryan Adams Jacksonville to return however it was not purchased at BB so I was going to gamble and see if they'd take it back... all of this of course with no recipt to be found. To my astonishment they took all three with no questions asked and gave me store credit. To recap again: I took Demolition back because I got two copies for Christmas, Jacksonville I already owned, and Franz I just wasn't sure I wanted it that much.
Well with store credit in hand I had some CDs to buy...I shopped for a good long while for cds. I tried to find some Sufjan... alas they were out. Not much was out, and I always have cd buyers block when I got to actually purchase music. Months of wanting certain cds seems to be waxed over with..."Oooh Nsync I hear they are good....Lenny Kravitz has another greatest hits!!! I gotta get that so I can hear his 2 minute songs that keep repeating the same words over and over again. Blink 182 has a greatest hits!!! Wow... from only 3 cds they got greatest hits? It must be good. What was it the radio was telling me to buy again? Jason Mraz he's good right? Oh yeah he wears his hat sideways so he's got to be good. Ooh that 13 year old picked up a copy of Ryan Cabrera... oooh he's the guy that dated Ashlee Simpson and is promoted by her dad... I bet he's good."
Seriously I have to really concentrate and ensure that I don't buy crap. I wanted to get 29... yes I'm on the Ryan Adams kick still. But it wasn't out yet, it is on Itunes, maybe it came out on tuesday. I've heard you either love it or hate it, a lot of folks are likening it to Heartbreaker and Demolition somewhat.
But they didn't have it. So I picked up White Stripes new one and searched for anything else... couldnt' find anything though and too keep myself from making a mistake I went to the checkout line. Sidenote: I even looked at games, nothing appeals to me anymore in the gaming department, just not interested anymore... still play but not interested in anything new.
I was in line and about to check out when I saw John Mayer's the Heavier Things for 7 bucks... I figure that's worth 7$. So I picked that up as well. A little GA pop to go with my rockin White Stripes. I may go back for the Ferdinand I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I want to be a fan of theirs yet.
But I then headed to the MFOB (Macon Forward Operating Base) and stopped at Kohls to return the shoes my mother in law gave to me. I was just simply going to get another pair of new balance sneaks in a different color but they either had ones that looked just like the ones I had or were too much moolah. So I found a pair of brown slip on shoes that were and are the most comfortable shoes I've ever put on my feet. GBX, brown slip on dress shoes, quite comf. But I had some store credit left over so I picked up a new coffee grinder. Ours was my parents old one and I believe the blade was both dull and broken as it didn't grind coffee very well. So I went in with one present and came out with two. Not too shabby for a day of returning.
This is a little side note that happened before i bought the cds... beware its about number 2... as in poo.
I was holding my store credit when all of a sudden nature called. Now have you seen Dumb and Dumber? The scene where Loyd (Jim Carrey) puts Super Exlaxative into Harry's (Jeff Danials) coffee just before his big date with Loyd's crush/love? Well Harry arrives at her house and promptly hear's his stomach make more noises than a beached whale and runs to the john. Well something similar happened to me at Best Buy. I go to use their facility... all toilets clogged. I go to the store next door... no bano, I go next door, no bano, I go to the store next door... a Life Way Christian store... surely I think they will help a fellow brother in Christ out and lend me the use of their facility... they did... but alas it was out of order.
However....
I look at the women's bano door... hmmmm... look around to see if the coast is clear.... No one's looking... my stomach churns and bellows....but its a ladies room.... no one's looking... I kick the door a bit almost to see if any women might scamper out.... Hmm not sure if its a one staller or a mulit staller.... to be caught using a women's bathroom in a lifeway christian book store.... that has scandal written all over it....I invision the Macon Telegraph Headline now, "Pervert caught 2-ing in a Women's Bathroom in a Store of Christianity...." no thanks.... I chicken out....
Next store, no good no bathroom....It was starting to feel like the Christmas story, no room at the inn so to speak....
But finally i come to a store all the way at the other end of the strip mall, my stomach is churning, bellowing. I whipe the sweat off my brow... a hallmark store... hmmm never seen a bathroom in one of these before....I go in determined and very uneasy....with a hint of desperation in my voice ask the attendent to use the bathroom, Sidenote: I usually try to make it look like I'm shopping before i ask for the bathroom but alas we had passed the time for pleasantries... she gives me a glance over and can tell its a Defcon 5 emergency, we are at Terror Alert RED!!! She shows me the employee's bathroom which is also used as extra storage for greeting cards. Well to end the story before I get any more indecent everything was fine. Plus it was nice to be able to read those boxes of greeting cards while.... well you know...
Well, That will I'm sure draw some criticism... and I thought the Benny Hinn thing was contraversial.
Being the selfish runt I am I forgot to mention what wonderful gifts my wife got and our daughter in the womb received. Wifey got some maternity clothes from myself and also oddly enough lots of cooking supplies... trust me she wanted it.
She also got a sewing tackle box for lack of a better word, some books on child rearing, gift certificates to the mtn massage parlor--maternity ones, and Cinderella on DVD.
Our darling daughter received numerous pink dresses of all sorts, a frog blanket that is made of the finest material known to man{not velvet but, I'd drape myself in it if it was socially acceptable}, and a few toys (unfortunately one makes noise but I will take care of that with a screw driver and a hammer).
Money was tight so we relied on the wife's baking skills for a lot of our gifts. Lots of fudge, chocolate covered pretzles, nut clusters, and what not was given as gifts. But the mother in law received a nice sweater, pappy in law got a cd alarm clock, and a few other ins and outs from us.
I made mention in the prior post about a pocket chain saw. Well my pappy in law received such a gift from his brother. This pocket saw consisted of a chain saw chain and two handles and directions on how to use it to cut down 4 inch diameter trees. It was an odd gift but kind of funny and good for exercise i guess. He also got a palm pilot which was kind of cool, I tried to play around with it but didn't want to break it so I promptly put it down.
So on to the next entry... the returns day.
...man that title is so witty...
Going to macon to see the inlaws is like checking out of reality for a few days. I watch no tv, hardly use the internet, and generally stick to catching up on sleep and reading.
We had a wonderful christmas of food and gifts and churching it twice! I must say to speak in a manner very non christianlike for a few seconds that I thought when I left Catholicism i was done with the Church on Christmas stuff. Then I get married and come to find out they have this Christmas Eve service thing. I grumbled the first time I went, as I'm a bad person in general, but went nevertheless and found the 30 minute singing and reflection to be nice and as it beat the catholic alternative of having to wake up on Christmas day and attend Mass (regardless of what day of the week it was). Well this year was the double whammy, Christmas eve service and Christmas day. Now if I were a single man living in sin and TV dinners I would have just done one service, Christmas day service or Eve service and called it day and went about with my merriment and commercialism. But as I have married someone who pushes me to be a better person than I truly am I went to both services. What happens next year I wonder? Do we have to go to Church, then come back at 5:00PM for a christmas eve service? What if some how we get stuck in a worm hole where Church is a never ending cycle of the Christmas story and Joy to the World? Will I ever get to open those presents? Will I get the U2 DVD my heart aches for? Will I ever be a better person???? And what the heck is a pocket chainsaw anyway?????
But I digress...and get ahead of myself all in one stroke...
We made it down to Macon after a short stop in atlanta to dine with the Grandparentals of my wife's mom's side. We then made it down to Macon and went to Applebees and a movie with the inlaws Thursday night.
We went to see Chronicles of Narnia. The movie was overall good, but I've found that my imagination is far superior to that of the Shrek Director's. With Lord of Dem Rings I conceed that Peter Jackson's imagination in a lot of areas far exceeded my complex imagination. For you see I am quite certain that I have a wonderfully splendid imagination, this is why I so often day dream that I'm anywhere than where I am.... especially at work because frankly anywhere is better than there. But what the Narnia Shrek Director dreamed up was not too shabby but Aslan does not impress as he should, the talking animals are rather small in stature (They are usually larger than their non talking counterparts), the Rhino for instance was only about the size of a cow, which granted I've not wrestled many Rhinos recently but I am fairly certain that a normal non talking Rhino is larger than a cow, therefore the talking variety should be far larger in my imagination. The Queen was not very striking either, she's supposed to be of an odd beauty that mistified men. The beavers were cute, the children were quite good in their roles, and the professor was good too. But Narnia lacked the immense beauty and awe inspiring "Eden-esqueness" that I had invisioned. In a lot of ways where LOTR shattered my imagination by surpassing it in a lot of ways, this movie has entrenched my imagination and strengthed it making the movie look weak in comparrison. When I read LOTR I can't help conjure Peter Jackson images from the movies in certain parts, almost as if my mind is polluted by his vision. Whereas Shrek Directors Narnia has had little to no effect on my reading or imagination of Narnia. Even the cute Lucy that is wonderfully portrayed in the movie still appears quite different in my head than the Lucy on the screen.
Christmas Day arrived and it was very surreal. Waking up we opened our stockings mostly ins and outs: Cashews, Shaving Gel, Biscotti, Candy, Socks, etc. Then we had to rush out to get to church in time. Then we came back and prepared for the cousin in laws and uncle and aunt in law to arrive. We tried to open a few presents as things had pretty much been finished as far as dinner's preparation, but we were interrupted by the fam's arrival, which was fine because it meant dinner could commence. Dinner was wonderfully delicious: Flank Steak grilled to perfection (this can be done in Mid-Georgia as it was 60+ degrees outside), in and out potatos, brocoli caserole, rolls, and salad. Candied apples were also prepared but I'm not much of an apple guy so I didn't partake in this family tradition. We then had presents in which I received many wonderful gifts of a wide variety. Here's a list, not to brag and if it sounds braggy or rude then stop reading and check out yahoo.com or something...
Ryan Adams Demolition: I received two copies of this wonderful CD, this is what happens when you provide your inlaws with a short list of gifts, i'll have a review of this later.
Franz Ferdinand's newer album...sadly I returned it, I was not sure if I truly wanted this CD and wanted to preview it more before I owned it for life.
Nickel Creek's Why Should the Fire Die: This is their newest CD, which I received from the wife. Its very good, and similar to their other CDs. This is one of the bands my wife and I both like, there are very few of those.
John Piper's Stop Wasting Your Life. I've heard this book recommended by many friends of mine, and as I tend to waste my life with worthless pursuits on John Madden's football field on my TV I figure this book might apply to me.
An outside Temperature Guage: Very handy, now when the wife asks what the temp outside is I don't have to press my hand to the window and say, "Cold."
Ryan Adam's Jacksonville City Nights: Yes I already own this, this was my bad, and the result of me violating the rule of don't buy stuff for yourself in December. Oddly enough my mother in law bought it from Media Play as well and I was very worried I wasn't going to be able to get rid of it, luckily Best Buy took it and gave me store credit.
New Sneaks: Oddly enough again, I got something I already have. I was in desperate need of some new sneaks as my old ones had no tred, literally it had fallen off. So wife and I agreed that I could purchase some from Kohls, New Balance, nothing special but they're good for running. We also agreed that I needed another pair to just wear around town, one for run one for walk. Well My mother in law in another streak of irony went to the exact same store, and bought the exact same pair of new balance shoes in the exact same color. That was pretty odd. Out of the some 50 pairs of sneaks they have their she bought the same ones. I took those back and will get to what I got in the returns blog.
Ace Ventura When Nature Calls... the wife said, "eh it was cheap" and I'll get a good laugh for cheap when he says, "Nobody wants to play with me," or "Bubblebee tuna?"
The Cost Of Discipleship by Dietric Bonhoffer, always wanted to read it.
Then the Most needed gift of all... Coffee Travel Mug from Starshmucks. I had broken my old one and was dying for one for the past few months. The wife obliged and purchased one, this was my big gift as starbucks seems to find it funny to charge 25 bucks for a to go mug. But It will be used and is the same one I had before with some key upgrades made to it. This time I'll try not to drop kick it across the lawn like the old one, this drop kick ultimately spelled the last one's doom.
So all in all a wonderful Christmas but wait, there was one more gift under the tree for little old me. Could it be? A U2 DVD? Oh wait it might be too heavy. It is quite a box that is largely (I'm struggling). No it was too big of a box to be a DVD, and too heavy to be anything of that sortie. In fact it felt like a statue or possibly a bowly. I opened up thinking, U2 would have to wait for the 26th of December or to my next birthday. (I quit the rhyme) I open the box and out plops a giant brick wrapped in newspaper. I puzzle for a second, look at my wife and mother in law with large grins on their faces, look deeper into the massive box and see what can only be the signs of a Vertigo laced DVD. Santa had remembered! Or my mother in law.
I told wifey, I got what I most wanted: U2 DVD, and what I most needed: Coffee Mug. All was well. Yes I realize its sad that my greatest need was a coffee mug.
But all in all a wonderful Christmas. The 26th was filled with the crazy returns that are come to be expected with the holidays and I will write about that in the next blog entry.
Tuesday night a spectacular festivus miracle happened: I beat Roe in Madden 2002. He was the lauded Philadelphia Eagles, with a strong defense and a young Donovan Mcnabb looking to prove he was no slouch. I was the Pittsburgh Stealers, strong in defense and with a somewhat easily confused Kordell Stewart at quarterback. It was a rough first half for Holton's Steelers. A ineffective first drive, Roe scoring on his first drive, then returning a kick off for a touch down, it was not looking good. But Kordell and Holton stuck together. They were only down 16 to 10 at the half. Thanks in part to some key interceptions I was able to pull off the upset and beat roe 26 to 16. It was a glorious moment in football history.
I found the reason I won: hit the open man when throwing, stuck with the running game (get on the Bus), and a few key interceptions thanks to wisely chosen defensive plays.... that and some clock management.
Well wifey's gift finally arrived, unfortunately it had the store name on the envelop and i ordered it wrapped... and it didn't come wrapped, so I'm pretty ticked because now I have to wrap it and I hate wrapping. So I'm going to have to go take care of that.
I failed to mention I saw the Kinged Kong last friday with a Mr. Nelson of Jay. We both were sort of "eh.." to the movie. I mean to me its a great special effects wonderment with adventure and interesting themes and subplots much like the original, but its so frusterating. Its like titanic, you know how its going to end and its this freight train rushing to its ultimate demise at the end of the tracks.
I kept thinking to myself, "Ok maybe Kong wins out on Skull island bashes his way to freedom." Nope... Then I thought, as the big opening night of King Kong in 1930s NY, "Maybe there's a way he can get back on the boat and take it back to skull island?" Nope map was lost... "Maybe he could go hide out in Kansas... nobody lives there?" Nope... "Canada? He could be a snow ape..." Nope, he climbed, he fell, he died.
Pretty tragic overall. But its interesting, you have skull island which in my interpretation is pre-historic, pre industrial world. The king of the pre-industrial world is in chains in the industrial world. Plus you have the whole idea of the inability to go back to the past, once Kong was pulled out of skull island he can't go back, much like we can't go back to a pre industrial world. Bit of a stretch? Eh, its what I was seeing in the movie at least.
I tried watching a chick flick with the wife the other day as well, The Perfect Man, I pretty much left as soon as I realized Hillary Duff was in it.
I also watched Limeny Snickets Series of Unfortunate Events... and man that was a pretty overall pointless movie. I could figure out what the point of the movie was. It was one of those they don't tell you the point till the end and you're like, "Thats it??? That's weak." Plus they never really explained who this Lemony Snicker was, I mean it was jude law but what does he have to with the price of tea in china? Again I couldn't figure it out... and it was a kids movie, so either I'm dumber than a child or it was lost on most children as well.
I read a review of 29 the new Ryan Adams, the third one of the year. Entertainment Weekly gave it luke warm reviews but they apparently didn't like the other two so I don't put much stock in what they say, they tend to be a little too much like crack pushers/dealers. They seem to push what sells not what is inherently good. Granted if it sells is it not good? Ooh the age old debate. Anyway they said 29 was pretty much the darkest cd of the year, so take that for what its worth.
We're gearing up for the christmas holidays. My wife's present still isn't here. I'm pretty ticked at the place I bought it from. apprently they plan on using the 9 days instead of the 5 (It was 5 to 9 days shipping). UPS says it will be here tomorrow which is good because we're leaving tomorrow or the next day for the inlaws.
Copper's hanging out on my lap. The old time I let him up is when I'm on the computer and he knows that when I sit in my computer chair is the only time he's allowed to be a lap dog.
Roes are coming better prepare...
Well as I mentioned in the previous blog (which was about our new baby girl, read it if you missed it), I bought the newer Ryan Adams Jacksonville City Nights cd. Its a pretty darn good CD.
This CD is quite a good one. Cold Roses was i think phenomenal and pretty upbeat, better and more for your money (its a 2 disc-er). This one is more slow, a good duet with Nora Jones called "Dear John" and a few other just really amazing songs. Though it has one of the dumbest lines, "The waitress tries to give me change and I say that's cool just keep it..." To hear it in the song is just laughable because it really doesn't work at all, but the rest of the song is great. I recommend it if you're looking for a good balanced ryan adam's cd. The Hardest Part is a good song on it too, upbeat tune. He amazes me and reminds me of a good blend of Dylan and Cash in a lot of ways. He has the lyric poetry that Dylan has, not to the same level, but still its there. Then he has the tortured soul of Cash down pretty well. Almost like a person that knows they're a sinner, knows Christ died for them, but doesn't know what to do next.
Trains is a great song as well, it reminds me of my brother Pete, he likes trains.
Anyway its got a country influence... well a slide guitar, but I wouldn't call it country or even alt country. Buy it, buy cold roses too, and don't burn or get it from a friend because frankly that's weak and illegal in the grand scheme of things. I'd buy it for everyone i know if i could afford to.
But my fanage to Ryan remains strong. Love is Hell and Rock n Roll was a bit of a low point but he's back and possibly a little bit wiser in the end.
Sorry about the no blogging thing, what can i say dial up is not so reliable. Well to spread the good news we are having a little BABY GIRL!!!
It was reallly exciting, and now I'm expecting to have all girls. I just feel like I'm the type of guy who would have 3 or four girls. Mostly due to God's irony. Of course I would have girls, me a man who can't communicate with women would have all girls, myself who when a girl said "Hi" to him in college thought she was hitting on him would have all girls. It makes sense. I've seen pride and predjudice (the original) a few times so I plan on following that guys example: drink brandy in my study, read books, and watch my money go out the window.
So wifey celebrated by buying a little pink dress for Anna Kate Ruth Holton (that's her name by the way). She'll go by Anna-Kate... or Anna Kate we haven't figured out if its hyphenated yet. I celebrated by buying the new Ryan Adams cd Jacksonville City Nights (a review will be in the next blog).
So Anna Kate is just rockin our world, in a good way. The nursery is sort of in flux right now. After my dad saw the sanded floors and said, "Man those look terrible" it was so brutally honest and at first I took it personally as everyone tends to do when someone criticized their work but then I realized he was right. I had thought it looked terrible as well but everyone kept telling me it looked great so I just thought, "eh i must be wrong, it must look good." So I'm convinced it looks bad now. So we might try carpeting it now. Which might be better in the long run as it is freakin cold in that room and I've noticed in our room that even the nasty carpet we have keeps that room warm. Thus I'm thinking to keep Anna Kate warm at night we might just need to put some cheap-o carpet down. Obviously it'd be nice to put hard wood down but not sure if that's in the cards. Painting won't commence till it gets a little warmer, its just too cold that and we don't have a color yet. But it will be a nice pink room.
Anyway, hope all is well. Call me, write me, kiss me, thrill me. Oh sorry started singing a u2 song there.
Good Ole dial up... a quick internet shop for the wife for christmas turns into a hour and a half ordeal. I have problems with "Smart" address thingy's when shopping online. They try to tell you the address you type in to ship something to is not an address. Well consider I know it is I think the computer might be wrong on this one.
I should be done with the wife, at least $$ I'm way done.
My pappy is rolling into town tomorrow night. He's a travelin man and travels tons for business. Just when most men might be slowing down and slipping into retirement I think my dad is speeding up. Granted he's of the type that never wants to retire so all the power to him to keep on chuggin.
I attempted to rake the backyard today... big mistake. For one I have a huge back yard with no ryme or reason to it. I mean I have no garden in the mass grass. Its just really a big yard with trees. I need to create some sense of sanity by establishing some boundaries but that costs money. So anyway I attempted with the blower to blow them away from the house back to the woods. BACK YOU!! BACK YOU VILE LEAVES!! Taking them down to the street is just far too far too far too far too far. But pushing them back was a chore due to them being wet and big walnuts still lingering in the yard. I got about half way in a few hours and just was exhausted. I threw in the towel and told the wife that I'd never attempt to rake the back again. I figure I didn't do it last year and the grass/weeds came back.
I did come to the conclusion that for the sake of my yard I need to cut down one of the black walnut trees. They dump walnuts all over my yard and it tore up my new lawn mower something fierce this year. The drive train thingy still isn't fixed due to the nuts. I think if I got a chain saw I could take it down... though I probably won't due to the fact that I've never done that before and have no chain saw.
Hot Stove Note:
I read on STLTODAY.com that Walt Jocketty had a news conference to quiet the masses in st. louis that were calling for the owners head for wasting time and failing to get Gruz, Burnett, and Reggie. Jocketty brought up the fact that last year they let Renteria, Womack, and Matheny walk and failed to get Hudson at the winter meetings but then got Mulder and Eckstein and Gruz. Granted that sort of second option is not out there this year. Unless he trades more of the birds future away. But I found it funny he had to go to the press to sort of quell the rioters.
OK, Hot Stove talk time.
I'm very annoyed and mad with my cardinals. Mostly the cheapy owners. I'm sorry but when you get so close to the WS you take the next year to get anything you need to get over the hump. Thats what the Red Sox did the year before they got beat by the Yanks, they went out and loaded up with some extra beef.
Now when the birds got swept in the WS I understand not bringing back renteria, especially in retrospect, but even then it was sensical to let an overpriced shortstop go.
But I'm sorry right now we have one outfielder... one. I mean is edmonds going to be the lone outfielder? We don't have a second baseman. Gruz was happy in St. Louis and really enjoyed playing in one of the best baseball cities in the U.S. and frankly after last year he's worth what he's asking or possibly something close to that. Maybe a little less and just do a bunch of incentives.
And whats with letting Reggie walk? I mean he's a fan favorite and has been a work horse for the team since day one. That's just poor management in my opinion.
The whole Burnett thing was over before it started. If you want to go after the biggest free agent on the market you have to be able to put the most money on the table. Frankly I don't care too much about not getting burnett. But now its a matter of getting something to get Marquis out. Marquis is a goof ball who doesn't seem to want to work hard or have much focus and control.
Frankly what I would love... LOVE... is if the cards went after Manny. I mean we need an outfielder, in my opinion we need an outfielder more than a pitcher. Jocketty seems to think we need another pitcher... well we could use a speed pitcher but if we had more offense then Mulder, Carp, Supp and whoever else should be able to cut it. But if some pressue could be pulled off Pujols it would help the offense immensly. I'm not expecting too much from Edmonds anymore than solid defense. His hitting seems to digress more every year. I say still keep him don't get me wrong he's the second greatest defense center fielder in the NL right now, Andruw's first. Rolen's coming back from a season that wasn't and might have trouble coming back. To have instant offense from manny would be great.
Plus I think Manny might like STL. He's a guy that seems to not be happy whereever he is but the low key STL city and supportive no matter what fans might be a nice change to the cut throat Boston ones.
Another annoyance is I've heard Jocketty offer Wainwright as trade bait... don't use our best farm guys for bait to get something. I'm not turning on jocketty he still does magic that I can't even fathom, but I'm still conviced that trading Harren was a mistake. I like Mulder but not for the price of the future, send something else. Because basically they traded a fast ball pitcher for a ground out pitcher (a great one no doubt) but now we have no relief, and no fast ball pitchers. A harren would have come in handy last year to groom for a starting fastballer.
And the Whole Florida Fire sale thing is rediculous and ticks me off how the cardinals didn't jump on any of it. Frankly its all Florida and for some fishy reason they're trading/sending things to the Mets... i'm sorry but that makes zero sense. You don't trade of your best players to a division rival regardless of your financials or moving possibilities. I think something behind the scenes went on there, maybe the marlins dude is a closet met fan.
Well I didn't get home at a decent hour last night. Traveling yesterday from the Northeast was horrendous. First of all me and my coworkers couldn't really get on an earlier flight, we thought about standby but its always a gamble and we figured with our scheduled flight we could have lunch and then take off and get home only an hour and a half later than the earlier flight plus it was a blizzard up in new england and trying to "rush" out to the airport early was out of the question. So we got to the airport about three hours early for our flight and the flight got cancelled.
So we go out of the terminal and try to get another flight. The next one isn't till 6PM. So we take it with little decision. Well Hartford BDL is possibly the worst airport in history. I mean Chatty has a pretty laughable airport, but you'd expect a laughable airport, BDL sees too much action to be as small as it is. Plus they have two terminals, one for delta and south west and the other for US Air. Well the Delta and Southwest has a nice bar and a few places to eat. The US Air one has just about nothing with a side of the shabbiest bar you'd ever see.
I just started to get cabin fever in teh airport. And of course the flight was delayed an hour, making catching my connecting flight in Charlotte a nice race from one side of the airport to the other.
Anyway, its good to be back. I feel like i haven't seen this little house in so long. I might just do absolutely nothing today, who knows. I do have some laundry to do, two weeks worth.
Being in the airport yesterday was a weird experience. It took me back to being a child where you only want one thing and nothing else will do. I only wanted to get out of the blasted state of Conneticut. I had tons of gameboy games, good books, a magazine... none of it calmed my nerves. I was halfway serious when I said to my coworkers "if we don't fly out of this place I'm walking out of this state." But That's about it. I have more to blog about but I want to start afresh and get the negative traveling vibe out of my body.
I usually refrain from bloggin at work but right now i'm technically not working so i figure i can. I've been in training for the past two weeks in Conneticut at the headquarters of my company. The training's been good, learned a lot of stuff and gained a lot of practical and technical training.
We're heading back today but i'm in the middle of this crazy north east blizzard. It snowed a good 4 inches by the time i left to go to work this morning. We show up and the trainers tell us we can pretty much leave whenever, which kind of stinks because we would have all stayed in our beds and slept in instead of busting it out in the snow to get here on time. '
Our flight doesn't leave till 4PM and I'm just hoping it makes it out on time.
Well the wife and I traversed the mean streets of Boston today. On our way into Boston we passed Fenway and I gave it the old "up yours" from all the cards fans back home. Stinkin Sox.... oh and the fact they cashed in on the Marlin's firesale is irritating the crap out of me. In fact the fact that everyone is cashing in on the Marlins but the cards is irritating me. I mean the Marlins are just flushing themselves down the tubes... i mean otherwise why trade Delgado to the mets? Send him elsewhere out of divison out of league. It just shows their desperation and the fact they want out Florida and out of a lot of high priced players.
But anyway Boston was very confusing. For one the Mapquest directions sent us to South Boston... not Boston. So that was hard, plus the entire city is a mess due to the never ending project of the "Big Dig." Plus that Boston is a dump... I've never seen a dirtier grungier city. We we so lost, I was mad, wifey was upset with me being angry and yelling at her and loosing my temper. I'm so frusterated and we're looking for the Boston Commons and can't find them and I yell at wifey, "Where are the dang blasted commons!!!"
She quips back, "I don't know, you want me to fart out a map for you...." Then proceeds to make a brrrrt farting noise.... "Here you go!!!"
It was hilarious and prefectly timed to cool me off. Though i was still angry because Boston is a dump and impossible to navigate. Its like St. Louis in that... well its a dump... and all the streets are one way so you have to work around the city. Plus I don't think they realize that you usually have to paint lines on the road so people can know what lane they're in... not that it matters because people don't drive in lanes anyway in boston.
But we met up with the Bintzs which was great to see them. And then ate at the oldest tavern in America... though i can't remember the name. We saw Paul Revere's old hood and home and walked the market where the dirty northern market boys hit on my wife. She gave them what for. It was a pretty histarical conversation they had.
We stopped at Dunkin Donuts which are on every block up here, something unique as chatty has zero dunkin's anymore which is a true travesty.
So we drove back to CT and I gave the old Fenway the "DROP DEAD" as we passed.
Having the wife up here has been nice and its been nice to just have a mini vacation even though the destination would not be my first choice.
Work/training's ok its sort of slow at times but the people in the class are cool and fun to hang out with. We've played our fair share of pool after work and I've done my fair share of trying to embarras them with my renditions of Duran Duran's Rio and doing my Robert Goulet impression....well my Will Ferrell doing Robert Goulet impression.
All is good. I have a long night of back rubbing the wife as 4 hours in the car and all day of walking has taken its toll on the wife.