Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox – Riding a 7 game winning streak, albeit against NL teams. Still, I’m enjoying the ride.

 Celtics – They barely beat Atlanta and now they’ve lost their first home game and still have not won on the road.

 Jason Varitek – He was catching for Jon Lester’s no-hitter this past week. He’s been the catcher for 4 no-hitters in his career. During that time, there have only been 11 no-no’s in all of baseball, and Tek has been behind the plate for 4 of them. I think he’s the best catcher in major league baseball.

 National 55 MPH speed limit -  Please. Did we learn nothing from that farce the first time around?

 MacBook Pro – Got one this week. Not too impressed so far. The trackpad is lousy and the machine itself is uncomfortable to work with. The edges are too sharp.

 Garden Ramble – Is this weekend. I wrote about the last one. Should be a perfect weekend for it.

Ups and downs of the week.

Red Sox – Looking much better. 8-2 in their last 10. They should be riding a seven game streak now, but…

UPDATE and CHANGE OF STATUS: Papelbon blows his second save in a row. Sox are now 7-3 in their last 10. They had sooooooo many opportunities tonight to put this game away and couldn’t come up with the clutch hits. Manny looks like he’s going into a slump. Only bright spot: Yankmees lost again.

Julio Lugo – The Sox as a team have 20 errors this year and 10 of them belong to Lugo. His fumbling of a double play ball on Wednesday night cost them a game they fought hard to win and broke their winning streak.

UPDATE: Make that 11 errors. This one cost the Sox 2 runs and essentially this game.

Celtics – Looking more like the championship team they are.

Spygate coverage – Enough already. It’s over.

School’s out – Summers are so relaxed when all the kids are gone.

Ups and downs of the week.

    Red Sox – Three losses in a row, but still atop the AL East.

  Yankmees are also losing – So not gaining ground on the Sox.

   Mediacom Cable – Between the idiotic Emergency Alert System they over use and the useless DVR that resets itself every time they use EAS, I can’t dependably record anything. This is the 21st century, right?

  Celtics – Having an easy time of it so far.

    John Adams on HBO - I added HBO just to watch this mini-series and it was just ok. Now I need to dump HBO again.

  New lawn mower – Toro knows how to make these things right. 

Justin Masterson, in his major league debut, pitched 6 stellar innings and left the game with a 3-1 lead. Enter the Sox’s pathetic bullpen. Wavy Lopez and Manny Del Carwreck faced four hitters, all of whom got on base and eventually scored. They even walked in a run, which is inexcusable. Del Car Wreck couldn’t throw a strike if his life depended on it. In comes Okajima, who gives up a couple of hits, one of which Coco Crisp completely muffed, and now the 3-1 lead is gone and it’s 5-3 Angels. Masterson should punch Lopez and Del Car Wreck in their useless noses.

UPDATE: So four major league veterans could not do what a kid just up from the minors could and they ruined what should have been a memorable win in his debut. Final score, 7-5, and it wasn’t even that close. If the bullpen doesn’t improve or get some talent, it’s going to be a tough season.

Ups and downs of the week.

  Red Sox – Playing a little better now. Some good production from the bottom of the lineup and Manny is looking to have a great year.

  Gas prices – It all comes down to greed. Plain and simple.

  Spring is here – Finally into steady 70’s. Hope it lasts.

  School – Just doesn’t have the allure it did during my undergrad. 

 Big Papi – Breaks out of the slump in a big way. Grand slam over the Green Monster.

Ups and downs of the week.

  Veterinarians – Tough job with lots of sad duties, but when they can heal an injured animal, it must make it all worthwhile. Big thanks to Dr. Christie Stone at Crestline Veterinary Clinic for a job well done on our Max.

  Red Sox Season thus far – Although to be fair, no one was going to beat Chien-Ming Wang tonight. He was virtually perfect. 

  J.D Drew – Still hitting every game.

  American Airlines and the FAA – Two incompetent entities team up to screw thousands of travelers. This summer is going to be tough on all travelers thanks to the outrageous price of gas and the pathetic air travel system. Amtrak, anyone? 

 Gift cards – Bought a new lawn mower this past weekend for $37 out of pocket.

  Government stupidity – I know, that’s redundant. I had hoped Massachusetts was smarter than Illinois, but I was wrong. They also passed a really dumb booster seat law requiring children to ride in booster seats until they turn 8 years old.  It’s virtually impossible to enforce if a child is older than 6. How are you supposed to prove your kid is older than 8? Carry his or her birth certificate around? And what if your kid is short and still is not 4′ 9″ at 8 years old? Instead of booster seats, why isn’t the gummint forcing auto makers to install adjustable seat belt anchors?

Ups and downs of the week.

  Baseball Season – Here at last. Well, almost. The Red Sox have played two games in Japan, but now have to wait until the official opening day on Tuesday.

  Friday classes – Last one tonight. It’s good to finish up a course with only 6 meetings, but spending Friday night and all day Saturday in class is no fun.

   Open access spectrum – Finally the government does something right. Of course it remains to be seen if it really happens.

  Construction noise – It’s going to be a noisy summer as they dig up the street in front of my office. I’ve been listening to idling dump trucks and backup beepers all day.

  Earth Hour – The idea is for everyone to turn off their lights at 8PM on Saturday for one hour. What happens when the entire population of a timezone turns the lights on right at 9PM? I bet the power grid folks just love this idea. Luckily the promotion of the idea is practically non-existent, so it shouldn’t be a big deal in any respect.

Update: Now Google has picked up the Earth Hour flag and is running with it. It’ll be interesting to see how widespread the effort becomes in the U.S.

Ups and downs of the week.

 New Haze Cam – Double-camera view of Acadia.

  CNN – Stories about gas prices reaching $4/gal are getting old. How about reporting it when it actually does happen.

  Formula One – New season is two weeks away. Can’t wait 

  “Unofficial” St. Patrick’s Day - A few bar owners make up a fake holiday so they can bring in more bucks. The fact that it involves getting thousands of students drunk before noon doesn’t seem to bother them.

 Irish Soda Bread – Good stuff.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Microsoft’s maps.live.com – New “bird’s eye view” images make it addicting. 

  Winter driving – Bad weather really separates good drivers from bad. Unfortunately, the good drivers still have to deal with the bad.

  Red Sox – Virtually the whole team is back. Gagne is gone, but that’s a good thing. 🙂

  Winter - I’ve had enough.

 Radeberger Pilsner – Tried one at dinner last night. Excellent beer.

 ‘Nuff said.