Ups and Downs of the week.

 Long weekend – I need it. Starting Thursday we’ll be gone for most of the next three weeks. Thursday we’re off to NYC to BookExpo. We come back on Monday and leave again on Thursday for London, Ontario for Sarah’s cousin’s wedding. We’re back on that Sunday and gone again on Wednesday to Chicago for the HNS conference, finally coming home the following Monday. Lots of travel and not much rest.

   Dad – Back in the hospital again. Nothing too serious; just the same buildup of fluids that makes it hard for him to breathe. Thing is, this is exactly what convinced the docs he needed heart valve replacement way back in October. Now after 7 months of recovery from that, he’s having the same symptoms. Modern medicine is still a lot of guesswork. Dad should be home again on tomorrow, though.

 Red Sox - Despite tonight’s loss to the Mets (they got outpitched and Lugo was playing, so there you go), they still swept the Jays this week and are a half game out of first. Jays and Yankmees both lost tonight as well, so no ground lost.

 Weather – What a great week for weather. Got a bit of a sunburn from all the top-down driving, though.

  Illinois government – What a joke. The whole bunch of them need to be fired. Start over fresh. Maybe if the job paid better and was full-time we’d get some intelligent people to run for office.

 Bob Marley - What a shame he died so young. Incredible music.

 Grand Prix of Monaco – The premier race of this weekend. True racing talent on display here. High speed racing between Armco barriers through the streets of Monte Carlo. Much better than a couple hundred identical laps around an oval track like that other race this weekend.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Dad – Home at last. He came home Tuesday and has been doing well. My sister is staying with my folks now to help out for a bit. Welcome home, Dad.

  Celtics/Bruins/Red Sox - All three teams lost last night. Bruins are done for the season. Celts now face a Game 7. Sox again fail to capitalize on a Toronto loss. Big Papi went 0-7 and left 12 men stranded. Something needs to be done to move him out of the number 3 slot.

   Weather – Some nice days this week but lots of rain as well. More nastiness in store for us tonight, but starting tomorrow we should be entering a dry spell. Good news for the farmers.

 Graduation weekend - It’ll be nice going to work next week with the students all gone.

  Emergency Alert System – While the system itself can be useful, this cable company goes way overboard with it. I’ve been watching TV for about 90 minutes now and these messages have interrupted 9 times (so far). Sooner or later you just stop watching them.

 The Wall – Never know what you’re going to see. Our newest resident bird, The Redhead, or Mama Coonie cooling herself on the concrete.

Finally caught him up close.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Red Sox – Looking much better again. They swept the Yankmees and won game one against TB tonight at Fenway.

  Celtics/Bruins – Both teams struggling. Both lost tonight.

 New Toy – ASUS EEE-PC 10.1 inch mini-laptop. Intel Atom processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive. 9.5 hours (claimed) battery life. Just under 3-lbs. Right about $350. Nice color on the screen (picture doesn’t do it justice). Got it running MLB.com’s player with the Sox game on.

 Weather – Some nice days this week. Sunny and warm. Perfect weather to go topless. (The car, not me.)

  Virus/malware writers – Scum of the earth.

 Dad – Went home today with the advisors from the nursing home to check for possible issues with the apartment vis-à-vis his home recuperation. Everything looked good. He’s slated to go home for good this coming Tuesday.

I seem to be collecting woodpeckers in the backyard. Busy out there this morning.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Red Sox – Despite the last two losses against Tampa Bay, the Sox have turned it around and have been flirting with first place in the AL East.  

  Celtics – Struggling against the Bulls. Doesn’t bode well for the rest of the playoffs, if they even get to the rest of the playoffs. Although I seem to remember this same path last year. UPDATE:  Celts won tonight. They move on. Bulls go home.

  Weather – Typical Illinois Spring. Lots of rain and cool days.

  Hysteria – Swine flu. Not even that bad if, by some exceedingly slim chance, you do happen to catch it. What’s with all the hysteria?

 Dad – Going home in a week or so.

What a turn of events. Good to be back at Fenway, too.

UPDATE: Now 11 straight wins. Close tonight with Paps giving up a run and letting the winning run get to the plate. Still, a win is a win.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Red Sox – They’ve come back from the basement and are looking like their old selves. Even got a walkoff win tonight thanks to Youk (who else?). UPDATE: They swept the Yankmees and are now 10-0. On to Cleveland and the hapless Indians. 🙂

 Bruins – They’ve swept away the lowly Habs.

 Celtics – After a couple of close games, they kicked Bullbutt in Chicago.

 Weather – Awesome today. My hour-long commute is actually very enjoyable lately with the Z4.

 Dad – Home in May is the goal.

 Note that this was a very good week. First in a long, long time. 🙂

Ups and Downs of the week.

 FIA - The governing body of Formula One finally makes a good decision and lets the results of the season so far stand as they are and allows the diffuser design used by three of the teams. In years past they would have caved in to pressure from Ferrari and the other teams. 

  Red Sox – Their bullpen is looking great and the offense is showing some signs of life, but they’re still in the basement and unable to get clutch hits. UPDATE: They’ve won 4 in a row now and are back at .500. Tampa Bay is in the basement and the Sox are moving up. What a difference a couple of days can make.

 Weather – Mid-70s today. Finally got to drive all the way home with the top down. Spring is here at last.

  Run-flat tires – Good in theory, lousy in practice.

 Dad – Still making progress.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 MLB.com – Despite technical difficulties on Opening Day (inexcusable), the picture quality this year is awesome, although the delay of nearly a minute makes it difficult to read posts on Sawxheads.com without reading spoilers. And the Nexdef app really ramps up the CPU usage. 

  Red Sox – Not a promising start to the season.

  Weather – Supposed to be cracking into the 60’s this coming week.

  Weather- It was in the 40’s today. It’s April, for Pete’s sake!!!!

 Dad – The man is a born fighter. So hard to gain that last bit of confidence and strength, though. Still, he’s toughing it out and will prevail, I’m sure. 

 Ramsau – I know I post about this a lot, but this has to be one of the most awe-inspiring webcams on the internet.