ELAINA GABRIELLE IS HERE!

Yes, on Monday at 10:56AM, our second child was born. 8 pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches long. A more detailed diary of the day will be coming soon.

Down to the Wire on Both Fronts

Here I am typing this on Sunday morning as my 2 year old sleeps and I'm torn.

Last night, the Indians lost game 6 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) 12 to 2 and honestly, it was over after the first inning. Also, we (my wife and I) are inside 24 hours until her scheduled C-Section. Suffice it to say, I'm a little shaky right about now.

Back to the ALCS. I thought if the Tribe didn't win this thing at home in game 5, the series was over for a variety of reasons. The main one being 40+ year old Curt Schilling lives for pressure situations and the other is that in the pressure-cooker environment of Fenway Park, the Indians' lineup would be less patient. All of this has happened. Carmona, the Indians' starter walked a bunch of guys and surrendered a grand slam in the 1st inning. By the third, it was 8 to 1 and I went to bed. Now in game 7, each team pulls out all of the stops. Starting pitchers become relievers, the popcorn vendor might have to pinch-run if need be. The Indians will lose tonight and I'll be once again, looking at the World Series from the outside realizing that will have been almost 60 years since they won the Series. You can see why I'm a bit shakey--maybe uneasy is a better descriptor. So let the snow fall...for me, summer is over.

Now the main reason why I am skakey. Tomorrow morning at this time, my wife and I will be at the hospital prepping for her C-Section surgery. Its like the day or night before a final exam. The butterflies are relentless, you can't eat and nothing can ramp down your gitters. Except this time, I have a headache. This is nothing compared to my wife whose mid-section is stretched beyond capacity, her carpultunnel problems aren't getting better and she is more nervous than me. Its hard to fathom that in a few days, we will have ANOTHER child to take care of. Like with everything, you just do it and in retrospect years later, you'll ask yourself, "How did we do that?"

Unknown newborn pic I found on the web. No relation.

So you see that my nervousness is coming from multiple directions today. The ballgame pails in comparison to the birth of my second child but its still, as my dad would say, "a psychosocial stressor regardless.".

At least tonight, I will have some resolution on the baseball front. And 11 hours after that, my daughter will be born and all will be good in the world...until those late night feedings.

Where Have I Been?

...Good question. And I wish I had a better answer than "no where, really."

In fact, I could have written a bunch of stuff over the last several weeks but the spirit really didn't move me. Call it a combination of apathy and general laziness.

Let's catch up on a few items. First, my wife HAS NOT given birth yet. Her schedule C-Section is next Monday. While she is ready to pop--her words, not mine--she feels pretty good all things considered.

The Cleveland Indians are one game away from their 6th trip to the World Series which will start next Wednesday. This gives me a great excuse to show up to work at 3:30AM in a fog, incoherent and slow on the uptake. All of which has happened twice this week accompanied by that achy, sick feeling you get when you are sleep deprived. Basically, my body wanted me to throw up but I didn't have the energy to so I just stumbled around slowly as if I had 7 martinis.

A friend of mine decided to go to Dubai for vacation. Now that you're jaw is resting on the floor comfortably after the long fall from you face, an explanation is in order. He did it for "something to do". Fair enough. His blog that he updates daily chronicling his trip is definitely worth your time.

http://davestriptodubai.blogspot.com/

Also, have you seen the video of Miss Teen South Carolina answering a question during the pageant? Frankly, I could put this into heavy rotation on my mp3 player and it wouldn't get old.

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...and the follow up interview on The Today Show which verified what we all were thinking when we saw the first video.




Now some random pictures that I've been accumulated recently.

My brother-in-law and my nephew Evan

My sister, her husband and their son Evan

Highest Paid Television Celebrities

Financial magazine Forbes on Thursday published a list of the highest-paid TV celebrities.
The people on the list that really don't do anything the best I can figure are highlighted in boldface.

Hey, getting paid for little or no work is good thing. Feel free to add anyone to the "do nothing" list as you see appropriate.

1. Oprah $260
2. Jerry Seinfeld $60
3. Simon Cowell $45
4. David Letterman $35
5. Donald Trump $32
6. Jay Leno, $32 million
7. Dr. Phil McGraw, $30 million
8. "Judge" Judy Sheindlin, $30 million
9. George Lopez, $26 million
10. Kiefer Sutherland, $22 million
11. Regis Philbin, $21 million
12. Tyra Banks, $18 million
13. Rachael Ray, $16 million
14. Katie Couric, $15 million
15. Ellen DeGeneres, $15 million
16. Ryan Seacrest, $14 million
17. Matt Lauer, $13 million
18, Barbara Walters, $12 million
19. Diane Sawyer, $12 million
20. Meredith Vieira, $10 million

Top Earning Athletes in each sport. Numbers also include endorsements.

Basketball: Shaq O'Neill $35 million
Baseball: Derek Jeter $29 million
Football: Peyton Manning $29 million
Golf: Tiger Woods $111 million
Nascar: Dale Earnhardt, Jr $29 million

Antimatter Lasers...Hell Yes!

I've had this blog for almost 2 years and I have yet to incorporate the word "antimatter" in any posting. Rather than force the issue in some stream-of-consciousness rant, I feel better just cutting and pasting this article about not only antimatter but antimatter AND lasers!

I have no idea what the science means and frankly, nor do I care. All I know is if this appears at Radio Shack in the near future, I'm scoring one.

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Antimatter molecule could lead to ultra-powerful laser

18 September 2007
NewScientist.com news service

An exotic molecule built from electrons and antimatter is being touted as a route to powerful gamma-ray lasers.

An electron can hook up with its antiparticle, the positron, to form a hydrogen-like atom called positronium (Ps). It survives for less than 150 nanoseconds before it is annihilated in a puff of gamma radiation. It was known that two positronium atoms should be able to bind together to form a molecule, called Ps2, and now David Cassidy and Allen Mills from the University of California, Riverside, have made that happen. First, they trapped positrons in a thin film of porous silica. Those positrons captured electrons to form positronium atoms, and the pattern of decay rates signalled that some of these atoms had teamed up to form Ps2 (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06094).

If positronium atoms could be forced to merge into a kind of "super-atom" condensate, it would decay in bursts of identical gamma rays, which could lead to gamma-ray lasers a million times more powerful than standard lasers. "It's like comparing a chemical explosion with a nuclear explosion," Cassidy says

Red Meat and Global Warming?

Remember back in 1997 when El Nino was the catch phrase and it was common to link EVERYTHING to El Nino? "Boy, my arthritis is acting up. Must be El Nino. Man, that chicken soup didn't turn out like I wanted it. yep, must be El Nino." And the list went on and on...

Global Warming is now getting the same treatment like the El Nino fad 10 years ago. Yes, red Meat consumption and Global Warming are linked according to the latest article in the medical journal The Lancet.

Here is an exerpt from the original Associated Press story:

"...Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming...If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," said Geni Brewster, nutritianist.

Are you freaking kidding me!

I am all for protecting the environment. While I don't subscribe to the notion that the earth will heat up and boil away in 200 years (the science for my conclusion is reserved for another time), I realize that economically, we must rely on other forms of fuel and curb others. Going green shouldn't be something that is pushed for by politicans, it is just plain common sense. I get that. I really do.

But now, we have to stop cows from farting to save the planet? The next

Sure, eatting less red meat is good for your diet. And yes, methane from cows is a source of methane emissions in the atmosphere. But I'll be damned if I'm quitting my weekly steak.

(Oh yes, just because I mentioned the economical aspect of environmental change, don't label me a super-conservative republican. Regardless of your political persuasion, I think we all want to save a buck so leave political stereotypes out of it.)

New Family Guy Episodes Coming

This might not be worthy of a first posting for the month but its information that I've been jonesing for. The Family Guy is back on the air September 23rd with episode 99 titled "Blue Harvest". The show synopsis:

With the Griffins stuck at home during a blackout, Peter begins to tell a story, which leads to a Star Wars flashback. Acting out scenes from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Peter plays Han Solo, Lois is Princess Leia, Stewie becomes Darth Vader, Brian plays Chewbacca, and Chris is Luke Skywalker. Cleveland and Quagmire will play the parts of R2-D2 and C-3PO, while Herbert is the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Personally, I await the episode titled "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" named from the super popular Judy Blume book or the episode titled "Believe it or not, Joe's walking on air". Will William Katt make a guest appearance?

Random Stuff

Before I forget any longer, my son just went number 2 on the potty for the first time last month. Of course, i got a picture of him showing all of us his excrement.


Forget steroids. Forget HGH. Forget greenies. Did you happen to hear about the ballgame last week between the Orioles and the Rangers? The final was.....30 to 3. This marked the first time in 110 years that a team scored 30 runs in a game. Amazingly, only 4 pitches were used.

Eric Estrada Gets Tasered

Can you beat this? I think not.

Eric Estrada, in his failed attempt at a "comeback" in this new show on CBS called Armed and Famous earlier this year which lasted all of five episodes (Estrada only in 2 of them), decided to get tasered in episode one. Listen to his description of what after effects he noticed.

What I want to know is where is Larry Wilcox?

New Homerun Record Holder!

Barry Bonds has done it. He is the new homerun champion....

.....and no one cares.

Of any record in sports, this is at the top of the list. Networks should have broken into programming to air each at bat leading up to it. Bonds should have been on every national morning show talking about the long trek leading to the record. How he was thinking of his dad every step of the way. He should be bombarded with questions with what it feels like to have hit more homeruns than any baseball player in major league baseball's illustrious history. A parade in his honor should be in the works at the end of the season. Kids should be playing ball in their backyards mimicking his swing imagining that they were the ones who were circling the bases on Wednesday night in San Diego at Petco Park at 11:51 E.S.T.

Instead, a cloud of suspicion hovers over this and many of his offensive feats like a perpetual fog.

Let me first begin here: Before I sat down to write this entry, I made a point not to incorporate the words "steroids" or "performance enhancing drugs" at any time aside from this sentence mentioning that I wouldn't do it. So to keep with the promise I made five minutes ago, the "s word" remains off limits.

I don't need to use those words to describe the feeling that I along with other baseball fans are experiencing right now. Whether your a baseball purist or a baseball progressive (whatever you call the opposite of purist), its real tough to get on board with this event that should have "feel good" written all over it. This should make Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's chase back in '98 seem like a typical day. Instead, the word "suspicion" is the adjective that encapsulates this achievement. That speaks volumes.

Trust me, I want to embrace this. I really do. I'm the first one to say that the players are not the only ones at fault in this era of "larger" than life players. Team Management, front offices, the players' union, the media and major league baseball from the commissioner on down are equally guilty of looking the other way. Everyone was making tons of money (in the billions according to some estimates), the game was flourishing after the '94 strike, Ripken just broke the consecutive games record and attendance was up. Hell, baseball couldn't have been better back then.

Here we are around ten years later. The homerun record was just broken and its just an afterthought in the media. What a travesty.

I am here to strip away the emotion of it all. Let's look at the history of all 756 homeruns in a vacuum without speculation.

3 Inside the park homers

10 game ending homers

11 grand slams

36 ballparks homered in

71 multi-homer games

157 homers hit at home in San Francisco

375 homers at home, 380 homers away

447 pitchers homered against

Scatter diagram of Bonds' 2006 homers:

Didn't that feel better?