Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Ok, the season is just about over. Barring a complete collapse by the Yankmees and the Rays, the Sox won’t be playing October baseball. But they’ve done well considering the appalling number of injuries to their starting players. The folks brought in to fill the gaps have done well for the most part. And in any other division, the Sox would be in the hunt. Hats off to them.

Photoshop CS5 – This is really getting to be fun. Here we have a couple of pics that have nice skies. The first is Amelia Island, FL at sunrise. The second is Cadillac Lake, MI. Then we have a dull gray day in Roth, Germany. By merging the skies with the dull pic of Roth, we can have a nice sunset in Roth or a sunny day. Good fun. And goodbye to bad pictures.

Weather – Very cool days and nights this weekend. And no humidity. Again, I love this time of year.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox – They beat the Rays tonight and the Yankmees lost, so they gained a game on both teams. Good stuff. But it looks like Pedroia is gone for the season, which is very bad news indeed.

Dumb luck – I badly gashed my right index finger today. Now it’s all bandaged up and it makes typing difficult. Right when I need to be finishing up my paper for school. Argh.

Weather – Finally, some tolerable daytime temps and cool nights. I love this time of year.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Stelllarium - I’ve talked about it before, but it keeps getting better. We were trying to figure out what the bright object in the western sky was. We thought it had to be a planet. A quick check of Stellarium showed it was the star Arcturus. One of these nights I’ll go outside with the laptop, binos, and a camera and try to grab some decent night sky pics.

Red Sox – Embarrassing game tonight. 16-2. Lester’s mind was somewhere else and the offense was pathetic. Time is running out and the Sox keep falling behind. Looks like 2006 all over again.

New England Patriots – So far, so good. It is still pre-season, though.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Roku HD Player – This thing is great. It streams Netflix movies and MLB.TV, so now I can watch the Sox on the big screen. Bit of a Thumbs Down to Amazon.com, though. A day or two after I ordered mine, they dropped the price $20. They had to know the price was going to drop.

Red Sox – Papelbon blew yet another game Thursday afternoon, this time a 5-3 lead against the Blue Jays. Tonight they blew an 8-2 lead and ended up losing against the Rangers. Second walk-off loss in two days. Plus they burned through the entire bullpen tonight, although Wakefield only threw one pitch. That one went into the stands for the game winner.

Writer’s Block – All I need to do to finish my degree program is to write this final paper. Yet I’m having the hardest time devoting energy to it. I’m sick of school.

Here we go again –  Another batch of kittens have found their way into our home. We need to find other homes for these guys.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox – They’ve been coming on lately and the return of Mike Lowell, one of the classiest players to ever grace the field, could not have come at a better time. In his first at bat after returning from rehab, he hit the first pitch into the Monster seats at Fenway. He’s made some great plays at 1st base, too. With Youkilis out for the season now, the Red Sox front office has no choice but to play Lowell at 1st for most games. The Sox will be better for it. Tonight they beat the Yankees in their own park. A very good Friday night.

Photoshop CS5 – “Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah.” Ok, this isn’t perfect, but it took less than 3 minutes. Think what you could do if you really devoted some time to it.

Weather – Man, it’s been a brutal summer. We had a decent day today and tomorrow is supposed to be ok, but starting Sunday and all the way through next week we’re expecting temps in the mid- to upper-90s with killer humidity. Bring on autumn, already.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox – They keep blowing games they should win. Tonight, Mike Cameron, who should just bag the rest of the season and get his surgery, missed a catch in the outfield and blew two great chances at the plate to drive in runs, including a pathetic final at-bat of the game when he watched a pitch right over the center of the plate go by to strike out with bases loaded in a one run game. Sox left 13 men on base. Just pitiful.

Dem. Rep. Anthony Weiner – While I normally do not condone hysteria in public speaking, it was refreshing to see someone in Congress put the GOP morons in their place. Weiner said, in effect, “Sit down, shut up, and vote yes or no.” Which brings me to…

The GOP – Who should be deeply ashamed for trying to side-step a vote to aid those who responded to the 9/11 attacks.

Amendments – While I’m on a rant about politics, it’s time to do away with the practice of adding pork barrel amendments to every damn piece of legislation that comes up. Make the bill focus on one thing only. If you want money for something else, start a new bill. Think of the money we’ll save when idiotic, pork barrel expenditures are forced to stand on their own merit (or lack thereof).

Ups and Downs of the week.

Anniversary – Seven years ago today.

Red Sox – Before the All-Star Break, they found ways to win. Since the ASB, they’ve been finding ways to lose.

Shirley Sherrod Fiasco – Plenty of fail to go around on this one, except for Sherrod herself. You’d think after the Henry Louis Gates screwup that Obama’s administration would have learned to get all the facts before passing judgment.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox Management – Enough with the AAA guys and trying to reclaim has-beens. Get some real pitching, please.

Cadillac, MI – We’ve been here several times before, but this is my first visit in the summer. The town is totally different. All decked out with flowers and very much alive with festivals and folks walking around and lots going on at the lake. The weather has been perfect, too.

Tea Party – The sooner they crash and burn, the better. Just hope they don’t cause too much damage on the way down.

GOP Whiners – Ok, I know it’s just childish tit-for-tat because the Dems blasted W for his excessive time away from the Oval Office. But c’mon, Obama deserves a bit of time away and it’s not like he’s completely isolated. Someday maybe the GOP will find something constructive to say. Maybe.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox -Despite the drubbing they gave Toronto tonight, they’re showing the effects of the SRO Disabled List. Four straight losses, including a sweep in Tampa Bay, have the Sox back in 3rd place. Still, considering that they’re playing with half a team of AAA players, they’re not doing too bad.

LeBron James – The King of Ego.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 – What a piece of programming. Soon there will be no such thing as photographic evidence because it is so easy to manipulate images. You can make whole castles disappear, or tidy up a poorly exposed shot like the cafe in Salzburg with the ugly umbrella and annoying railing.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Red Sox -The injuries continue. The Captain, Jason Varitek, is out with virtually the same injury that took out Pedroia; a broken bone in the foot as a result of a foul hit. It’s surreal how many injuries have plagued this team this year. And still they continue winning and are a half game out of first place. Amazing.

Michael Steele – The man is a textbook psychological nutcase. And he leads the GOP. Somehow fitting.

GoDaddy – So easy to set up new URLs and websites.

Facebook – I really have a love/hate relationship with it. But it is cool how it brings you into contact with old friends.