Ups and downs of the week. 

  Red Sox – Time to play ball! 

   The Trop – The major league’s crappiest stadium.

  Modern Medicine – Dad is going to be ok. Docs are optimistic. I’m the first one to complain about high medical bills, but my Dad’s doc and the hospital he’s in are worth every last dime.

    Debates – They’re really just an opportunity for a candidate to feast on his/her own foot.

  Margaritas – Last ones of the summer (ok, it’s autumn, but it’s going to be 80F this weekend).

   McCain’s Homeowner Bailout Plan – Both guilty parties get a break, the rest of us foot the bill. What’s wrong with this picture?  

  O’zapft ist!- The annual rite of Oktoberfest starts in Germany this weekend. What I wouldn’t give to be there. Webcam here.

  Stock market – I hate having my retirement future subjected to the whims of the greedy slime that run amok in the NYSE.

  Red Sox – They’ll make it to the post-season, but will they get past the Angels or the Rays?

  Politics – I’m getting so sick of it.

  Fall weather – Cool at night, warm during the day. I love it.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox - Still looking pretty good, although two tough losses to the Rays have us still 2 games back. 

  Hurricane Ike - This one is going to wreak havok on Galveston and then come up and smack us.

 

 Modern medicine – It really is miraculous how the doctors can spot developing problems and solve them before they become life threatening. 

  Cancer – It’s wrought havoc on my family in the past and has struck again. Luckily, modern medicine will most likely make this a mere inconvenience. See above.

  Formula One – Tight race this year. Best season in a long time.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Shula’s Steakhouse – Sent my sister and her husband there for an anniversary meal and they were treated like royalty. Glad good service is still in style. 

  Hurricane season – Looks like a bad one this year. 

 Red Sox – Playing better all the time. And now they have several veterans back in the lineup. Lowell was awesome tonight in his first game back, as was Beckett.

  Presidential race – When will they focus on the ISSUES???

  Mark Kotsay – Another valuable addition to the Red Sox. Welcome to Boston, Mark. 

  Kitties – Does it get any cuter than this?

Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox – Looking good lately, a few bad games notwithstanding. Their chances of taking the AL East are slim, but I’m more confident now that they’ll get the wildcard spot and then shine in post-season as they are able to do.

  Hurricane Gustav - New Orleans in the crossshairs again.

 Learning to hunt – Little guy gets a lesson in hunting.

  John McCain – I try to stay away from politics here, but his choice as VP candidate is so ridiculous that it’s terrifying. ‘Nuff said.

Ups and downs of the week.

 US Olympic Team – Doing well, as always. Although I do wish they’d go back to amateur athletes only.

  Olympic cheaters - When will they learn?

 Red Sox – Looking pretty good in August. Still, they can’t gain ground if they don’t win when TB loses. And TB doesn’t lose very often.

  Tropical Storm Fay – Almost a week after first making landfall in Florida, this storm is still dumping misery on that state. By the time it’s done, it will have touched every square inch of that state.

  Kitties – Cute bunch.

 Microsoft’s maps.live.com – Finally caught up with the University of Illinois with some decent hi-res images. They’re about a year old, but it’s better than what has been available until now.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Celtics – Ok, I’m a bit late on this one. But we were traveling last week.

  Red Sox - Looking pretty good lately. I’m hoping for a sweep of Houston, but I’ll settle for winning the series.

  Gas prices – I still think we’re being robbed blind. Time will tell, though.

 Gas prices – The silver lining was the absence of the normal summertime traffic madness. We encountered no heavy traffic at all in almost 2,000 miles of driving the past two weeks. 

  Weather – These heavy rain producing thunderstorms are wreaking havoc with the levees and the farm fields. Food prices are skyrocketing because of the fuel prices. Now this rain is really going to hurt crop production, which will only make the food price crisis worse.

 Garmin Nuvi 660 – Ok, this is a repeat. But it is a very cool toy.

We had a nasty storm blow through here yesterday that took out some trees in our neighborhood. The view out our back windows has certainly changed, as has the view of the front of the house. A big tree on my neighbor’s property got hit by lightning and several trees around it were either blown over by wind, or fell when they were struck by the section of the big tree as it fell. I’m just glad they all missed the house.

My yard looks best this time of year. The cherry trees blossom nicely and the peonies haven’t yet bloomed and the grass is very green. Shame that the daffodils have bloomed and died already. They’d have added some nice color here.

Ups and downs of the week.

    Red Sox – First the pitching was bad and the bats were hot. Now the pitching is hot and the bats are cold. It’d be nice if they could get together. On the good side, of course.

  End of Semester – Nice to have no homework or projects to think about.

   Grass growing season – I’ll be glad when it doesn’t grow 6 inches in a week.

    Celtics – Not as easy as it they thought it would be apparently.

UPDATE: So the bats finally came alive (except for Manny’s). Good thing, too, because the pitching was only so-so.