The Colts played their first exhibition game last friday and of course they lost. Training camp ends Wednesday so the season is less than a month away. I believe they are looking at an 8-8 record. Nothing against Coach Caldwell but rarely does one successful coach follow another. I am also going to miss the guy pictured. Marvin Harrison was fun to watch. Why don't the Colts sign him for one more year, he is still unemployed. Sue is finally getting her carpet installed this week. On the 21st we take my Dad to the eye doctor. I think his eyes are a little worse, sorry to say. Well Shawn tells me that Austin crawled about four steps this week so Hurrah for him. I really enjoy watching the little booger as he is so entertaining. This post seems to be a mish mash of stuff on my little brain. Went to the Shelbyville casion and race track. Typical of that town it was small, smokey, and overpriced. Believe me I did not feel that way about any other casino until now. I have been working on my facebook as it has some neat features. One is listing and keeping track of books,albums, and movies that I have. Listing them is a daunting task. So far it has been fun. I watched Family Guy last night and Stewie and Brian went back in time to Nazi Germany. They needed so uranium to get back to the future (get the refrence?) Well of course they met up with Adolf Hitler and under on lapel he had a McCain/Palin campaign pin. I gassed out about that. By the way that means laugh not fart. We have been shopping so much that Susan ordered me to stay home, and then my "friend" Russ accused me of being a Shopaholic. Nice people my friends. Tonight we are celebratin not back to school night. Susan's school for the last 34 years is back in session today and Sue is not there cause she is retired. Good for her. I never thought being 60 (at least for 11 more days) woulld be so much fun. Pat,Suzzanne,Devin, Tom and Mike finished off Gencom this year. It marks the second time that I havenot gone. I enjoy it but its so crowed and less meaningful to me every time. I'm sneezing my head off so I better go.

FACEBOOK

Well how's that for eye candy. this is my 98th blog so we are counting down to 100 wonderful posts on Hello. I have been messin aroung with a new toy. Facebook. I have an account and have friends (Suzanne,Pat,Mike,Tim,Richelle,Robb,Devin) and stuff to do like Pirates of the Carribean, plus I took a personality test that said I was introverted, sensing, feeling and perceptive. Its kinda like a way to get in touch with family and friends without usin the phone. So far its neat plus Suzanne has a book listing I want to copy. Our house makeover is in the carpet stage and should be done in less than a week. Mike,Shawn,Devin, and Tiffany are getting ready for another Ivy Tech semester. Susan is settling into retirement which for her is quasi work. Austin was over yesterday and he is 9 mos old but looks 2. He can get up on his legs and arms and rock back and forth but not crawl yet. He does flop, roll over, and backflop to get where he wants but no crawl yet. He kinda says words like Mammamama, and Babababa,plus no and shakes his head. He is cute. My Reds have the worst record in baseball since the all-star break 6-17 plus they traded David Weathers which leaves only 1 guy from their 05 team. Can someone say rebuilding? Slowly but surely I am taking over Pat's old Dell 8200 laptop. Its heavy clunky,slow, and only 20mb of storage but its available and that makes all the difference. I am thinking of trying to ad a game like Sims to play. Now that I'm an old man (will be 61 in 16 days I can do what ever I want and not feel like its gay because a. I don't give a crap, and b. I'm old. If I like it I'm doing it. Carl Reiner who is 87 said the other night that when he was 60 he talked to George Burns and asked him about sex at that age and George said it was like "putting an oyster in a slot machine". Later Gator.

I've got the FEVER

Well after over 2 years of no sports games, I am finally back in action. I am not handicapped but I do not get around easily. Back pain, knee pain, and hip pain are the trifecta that limits my mobility. So Wonderful Susan and Shawn arranged for me to acquire a scooter. It makes all the difference. Many thanks to them. Anyway I was offered the opportunity to go to an Indiana Fever game. Shawn talked to a Pacer office person named AAlysa. She set him up with family night tickets that included game, drink, chips, hot dog and a T-Shirt. The shirt goes to Taylor as her girl scout troop has gone to see the Fever a couple of times so I think she earned it. The game was uncommonly fun. Canseco Fieldhouse is a nice place to be for a game. What is more the club level which is where we sat made me feel like a VIP. So far we free stuff a cool seat and I'm just getting started. The Fever are a wonderful team. They rely on quickness, ball movement, and outside shooting. They pick and roll, penetrate and dish out, and are fun to watch. Further they play nice. By that I mean there is no trash talk, no down and dirty, no trying to kill the opponet, and no dunks. you can't imagine how nice it is to watch. These players play hard and leave it on the floor. I barely noticed that this was the womens professional league. Shawn Tiffany and Susan were with me. One other was there and he had a ball. That would be Austin J. Tidrow. He was at his first game at 9 mos old and he rocked, danced, smiled and laughed thruout the game. He literally wore himself out. It was very cool. The noted attendance was 6,000 plus but I counted about 500 for a quarter of the gymn so my estimate was around 2,000 fans. It was like a private screening which is great for us but not good for the Fever. I would recommend it to anyone who might be interested. Oh the Fever won 76-67 over the Chicago Sky. my 1st star was Tully Bevilaqua, 2nd Tamika Catchings, and 3rd star was Katie Douglas from Purdue, and Perry Meridian HS. She is a sharpshooter who was not on her game but still scored 14. The Fever are now 16-4. Dad and I had nice chat about them as he listens to them every game.

Baseball Dog Days Contd.

This is about baseball so for you non-baseball fans c-ya-later. Well August also means baseball is winding down and our (ya hear me Tom) Reds are stinking up the joint. Up to today they have lost 8 in a row. They are 45-61 and last in the NL Central. They have lost fourteen of their last fifteen games and are tied with putrific Pittsburgh for last. One year ago they had a modest lineup of Freel,Keppinger,Phillips,Encarnacion,Dunn,Griffey,Votto,Ross,Volquez in their lineup. Now all are gone except Phillips and Votto. Yesterday new pickup Tom Gorzelany stopped the Reds. He was just acquired from the Pirates by the Cubs. The injured list is prodigious. It includes Volquez who is out for a year with Tom John surgery. By the way there is a pattern to Dusty Baker doing this to young arms (see Schmidt,Wood,Prior). Cueto has lost and so has Aroyyo and Harrang. Micah Owings another pitcher is out. So is Jay Bruce a RF, newly acquired Scott Rolen is out after being beaned. Hernandez the cather is out. also out are Chris Dickerson,Danny Richar,and Mike Lincoln, as well as Bill Bray and Jared Burton. Whew call the doctor. Further they aren't hitting can't pitch and generally look like do do. Their current lineup won't scare anyone (Hanigan,Votto,Phillips,Gonzalez,Rosales,Nix,Taveras, and Gomes. I have been playing the Reds in my micro-leaugue for 10 years and they are 69-71 so this has been a down decade. I certainly don't look foward to playing those guys next season.Whats the answer? well you can't change the players overnight so its time Dusty Baker went and Walt Jocketty too. They are manager and GM who are not getting it done. I havenot been to Cincy this year or last. It does not look like I'm going anytime soon. Too far to go for a hot dog. Oh well Shawn said he wanted to go see the Fever tonight, maybe they will be fun?

Dog Days of August

It used to be the time when I would tell my self don't start any new projects because they would never get finished. Now with year round Strato baseball leagues that isn't important. It used to be that now my family would be on vacation. We went to such exotic places like Indiana Dunes State Park, Gettysburg Military battlefield, and Florida. Those are the places we traveled to most often. Dad would drive and drive and drive. Afterword he would slow down znd say well there's such and such place, enjoy and then he's speed up to another location. It also used to be the time when Susan would begin to prep her room for school. Like this year I think school starts on th 13th of August. It also was the time when football practice started. I could lose 10 lbs per day sweating the beautiful drills
like the "meat chopper" which I excelled at. It also was the time of back to school fees which practically crippled us with 4 boys in school. It used to be the time of many birthdays (which it still is ) Well no more. Now with Susan and I retired it all different. And I like it. Although all the recent changes are messing with my head. Anyway Susan is not getting ready for school rather she is getting the house ready for her specification which I touched on it a previous blog. Strato is taking care of itself and Replay games has returned with a neato (did I just say neato?) computer game. The trips are either done or coming. We were in Memphis Tn for three days last month. No school fees all the boys are growed. Olf course no football but I still get leg cramps like I did then. The birthdays stay the same with some additions. Me I'm turning 61, Russ will be 64 on the 26th, Taylor will be 9 on the 14th,Pat is 33 on the 15th, Grandad and Lauren claim September. When next August comes I've been assured of spending my first retirement check. I already have the pictured ship in mind along with a non-firing Civil War Naval pistol already mounted from Collector's Armmoury. Maybe by then I can add a couple more things to my list. I'm also looking for a movie "Ride with the Devil" staring Toby McGwire and a game World Championship Poker 2 which is cheap from meijer. Oh well I love to shop. I got my first pack of 09 football cards another August thing. Its cool to see my fantasy QB of the last 2 years on the package(Ben Rothlesberger). Well my point is that August is not the Dog Days anymore and I like it.