Friday, June 30, 2006

Did I miss something?

I think I'm really beginning to despise election years. Say what you will about the New York Times' decision to run a story exposing that the government was using broad-based subpoenas to track financial transactions, but the House passing a resolution condemning it was strictly election year politics. Is the Republican Party that desparate that they are going to lash out at one of the most historically journalistically-responsible organizations? And if you aren't doing anything wrong, why hide it? Yes, the Times is probably one of the most liberal mainstream newspapers, but still.

We have real problems in this country. Don't waste taxpayers time with silly resolutions!

Monday, June 26, 2006

Unexpected surprises

I love Capriotti's Sandwich Shop. Period. End of story. They put things together on sandwiches that you would just never think of. Don't get me wrong, their old stand-bys are good. They have ham, turkey and cheesesteaks, and they are all fine. Their turkey is awesome - it's real off the bird turkey - not that processed stuff you get at the deli counter. It's their original creations that always grab my attention. Take, for instance my personal favorite - the Bobbie. So yummy. It's basically Thanksgiving dinner, minus the gravy. Turkey, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce and Mayo on a hoagy roll. My friend Maria calls it "sugar on a bun." Not sure I agree, but it's fantastic. Today, I sampled a new sandwich (thanks to Lora, who forgot her leftovers on Saturday - sorry Loo. Didn't want it to go to waste!) - the Slaw be Joe. It was Roast Beef, Cole Slaw, Provolone Cheese and I think Russian Dressing (but I could be wrong there). Very, very tasty. Amy occasionally gets the Capestrami, which is basically the same thing, but with Pastrami. That's good too, I'm just not a pastrami fan.

The only complaint I have is the Capriotti's near our new house doesn't stock the little bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. That makes me sad, but I really don't need to extra carbs after eating one of their sandwiches, so it's really not that big of a deal.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Take me out to the ballgame...

In reading a lot of the other blogs there out in blogland, it appears that a lot of people (OK - me included) are going through a lot of change. Moving, changing jobs, having kids and getting married are all part of life and can be good. My life is no different. Not only have Amy and I decided to get married, we bought a house, sold mine and moved twice. But that's not the point of this post.

The point is that while change may be the only real constant in life, there are some things that are constant as well. As an example, baseball season is really just heating up. We are about two months into the Major League Baseball season. And like clockwork, the Oakland A's are starting to heat up. They have recently had a 10 game winning streak and after a better April and May than they've had in recent years, they are well positioned for another pennant run.

For my birthday, Amy got me a 10 game pack of seats to the 51s, which is pretty cool. I've got tickets to four games in July, so I'll get to see a lot of baseball.

Our pool should be ready to swim in by this weekend, which is freakin' awesome. Can't wait. It's over 100 like everyday, so the pool will be nice and refreshing.

Anyway, a little disjointed, but all I can say is Go A's.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Is it really that important?

OK. So I haven't blogged in a week and a half because I didn't have anything good to say, and now I have two in one day. So anyhow.

I am really getting sick of news outlets. And politicians. No doubt you have seen the accusations of the mis-spending of FEMA relief cards. What was supposed to help people get back on their feet is being spent by, what I am sure is a very small minority, on things that may be wasteful. My retort is - what the heck do you expect? You give people free money to spend and they are going to do just that - spend it. So what if they used it to buy football tickets, porn or a sex change operation. A knee-jerk federal reaction to help over-compensate for their piss-poor response to Hurricane Katrina has caused this. I guess my point is, who really cares? Is it really anybody's business?

For the second time, the Senate has failed to pass a "Protect Marriage" amendment. In my opinion, big deal. While Same-Sex Marriage is an important issue to some, it isn't the most pressing issue facing the country today. Neither is a flag burning. The only people who care about flag burning are in Washington, DC. Of course it's popular to support a "Don't burn the flag" amendment. However, do you know how many instances there have been of flag burning in the past year? Two, that we know of. That's it. Two. It's not a real issue facing this country.

My point is, we have very real problems in this country today. I just don't think these are among the top 10. It's just it's easier to excite a political base with these issues and the special interest groups are well funded...

Are we there yet?

Sorry about the prolonged absence. Really haven't had much to post about lately, and I've been really bad about posting on other blogs. I'm sure I'll snap out of it soon, it's just been a rough two weeks.

One of the down sides of the new house is how far we are from certain things. Like the Airport. Having taken two day-trips in the last two weeks, the new distance is not really all that fun. I got spoiled living in Green Valley, I guess. The second thing is nice restaurants are far too. Now, it was nice to meet David out for Indian food, but the trek from Aliante to the corner of Flamingo and Paradise is a bit far for it to become a regular thing. My boss asked if we found any nice restaurants, and the unfortunate answer is no. Maybe we need to take advantage of the concierge service we got with this house and start finding those "hidden gems."

Other than that, just waiting on the pool to be done. It should be plastered and filled on Friday which is pretty cool. Still unpacking. Feels like it will never end, but would like everything done by July 4th. It's always nice to set goals...

Until next time,

Monday, June 05, 2006

Sports and Old TV Shows

As we move into what a former boss once called the void between the end of hockey and the beginning of football (clearly not a baseball fan), I have a couple of observations.

First, I am very, very proud of this year's Buffalo Sabres. For a team that wasn't supposed to do much of anything much less make it to the Conference Finals. In the end, they had too many injuries to their defensemen and frankly looked tired. Oh, and that delay of game penalty that led to go-ahead goal was a little lame, but oh well.

Second, now that all is left of hockey are the Stanley Cup finals, time to turn my attention to baseball full-board. It's time to vote for the starters in the MLB All Star game. Now, I'm all for making sure the best players get in, but I'm sick of the starting line up look like the best of the Yankees and Red Sox lineups, so I'm asking all of you in Blog-land to vote. Specifically, for Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher of the Oakland A's. Both are off to the best starts ever. You may have to write-in Nick as an outfielder, but Chavez in the Third Baseman. You can access the ballot from mlb.com.

Finally, on a completely different topic, TV Land ran a 48 hour Benson marathon. I remember loving that show as a kid. Not so much now. I mean, I appreciate that the butler from Soap was able to work himself up to Lt. Governor, but still. Are there any shows you used to watch that aren't quite what you remembered them to be?

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Politics as usual...

As many of you out there know, I am somewhat a political animal and am strongly considering a bid for Nevada State Assembly in the next 4-8 years. Those who know me well, know my positions on most of the current issues. However, the recent hub-bub about Harry Reid taking free boxing tickets is bordering on the absurd. It's low-level gossip. I'm also annoyed with his dodging of the issue. It's not that big of a deal. Write a check for the tickets, and move on. Saying it was necessary for him to defend local interests, saying it was necessary for him to go to the boxing matches is pretty lame.

Anyhoo. Like I said, this looks like petty partisan bickering to me. This gossip is worse than high school. In the grand scheme of things, free boxing tickets is small potatoes compared to the other corruption scandals to hit Washington this year. It's already fallen off the national stage. Let's hope it falls off the radar locally as well in the near future.