Who knew veggies could act?

The story of Oedipus, in eight minutes, performed by vegetables.

From Oedipusthemovie.com.

Opening Day ...

... for the Cubs is only 11 days, 23 hours, 28 minutes away.

Lots to do ...

We're getting to the time of year where it's all about being busy, busy, busy. To wit:

*I have a live Fantasy Baseball draft this Friday at noon. Six teams this year. I swore I'd never do that again. But I just can't help it. And get this -- because my sister Cheryl and friend K.C. will be working, I'll be drafting for them, too.
*Saturday is the spring meeting for the Metropolitan Media Softball League. To me, this meeting always signals the beginning of softball season. I just hope the weather starts cooperating. It's really been kind of sucky around here lately.
*Next Friday, I have my first-ever colonoscopy. Oh yea for me! I'm sure I'll be in good spirits, so to speak, later Friday when one of my other Fantasy teams has it's get together at The Brickskeller in D.C. I hope I am in good shape for that -- love The Brickskeller. They have more than 1,500 beers from around the world. And the atmosphere is unmatched.
*Friday's night's festivities are followed Saturday by the league's draft in Baltimore, which I hope will be done in time to get back for the Nationals-Orioles game that night at the new ballpark. I'm not counting on that though. Last year's draft was an all-day affair.
*Sunday night finds the baseball opener between the Braves and Nats at the new park. Never been to an opener, and never been to an opener at a new ballpark. Can't wait.
*After that, it's softball practice every weekend until the season opener April 19. Cheryl and Val come in the following weekend for the Cubs series.

Whew! As you can see, lots of places to go, people to see and things to do. I just hope everybody else can keep up...

Happy St. Patrick's Day ...

... to me!

A little late, but I wouldn't be able to celebrate it until I get off of work anyway. Still a couple of hours before I can celebrate what little bit of Irish heritage/blood I have.

I just wish I could have been in Chicago to see city officials continue the tradition of turning the Chicago River green.

Down the hatch!

It's NCAA tournament time

This is really about the only time of the year where I pay any attention at all to college basketball.

The NCAA bracket was announced yesterday, and really there are no big surprises. Arkansas got a No. 9 seed, which I think might be a little low considering they beat Vanderbilt and Tennessee in the SEC tournament. But losing Sunday's final to Georgia, which had to win just to get in, may have hurt them just a bit. Probably doesn't matter anyway. Assuming the Razorbacks beat Indiana, they get No. 1 seed North Carolina in the second round. Nice seein' ya Hogs!

My Final Four is pretty much Memphis, North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas. My pick to win the whole thing, and I've done two brackets so far, is Memphis. The Tigers have only one loss, and while Conference-USA may not be the strongest league in the world, going 32-1 or 33-1 is quite an accomplishment.

I'd love to say that I think Drake will go far, but my favorite team from Des Moines is likely to go out after two games, just like Arkansas. Would have been kind of cool if somehow they had been paired up in the same bracket.

Games tip-off Thursday, so make sure you get your brackets in on time. I know I will. When thousands of dollars are at stake, especially in this time of recession, every little bit helps.

Sister Sue update

It hasn't been a very good few days for Sue. Sammy called this morning to say that she was taken to the hospital and is currently in TCU, a minor version of ICU. She's been having seizures, which apparently can be traced to low potassium.

Anyway, I think it might be a good thing that she's in the hospital for a couple of days so she can get some fluids and food into her body. Until she gets her weight back above 80 there's not going to be a whole lot that she's going to be able to do for herself. And sitting around at home, I think, helped to get her in somewhat of a rundown condition.

It does look like she's done with the chemo, which is fine. She needs to do what she needs to do. And we need to accept it, no matter how hard it might be ...

The secret life of Peeps ...

... Who knew?

Funny

Oh, yippee

As if Opening Day of the Washington Nationals new ballpark won't be enough of a zoo comes word that the first pitch will be thrown out by none other than President George W. Bush.

He did the same when baseball return to the District in 2005. Ed and I were at that game too. Luckily we were there a couple of hours early because many people didn't get into the ballpark until the third inning.

So now Ed and Josh and I will have to figure out what time we'll leave for the game that day. Game starts at 8, but the park opens at 3:30 for people to just mill around have a looksy. Hopefully the Navy Yard Metro is done by then too. Trying to get 41,000 people off of South Capitol Street and into the ballpark by first pitch is going to be tough.

And now with "Mr. Mission Accomplished" paying a visit, it's going to be that much tougher.

Thanks W. For nothing.

Spring around the house

Ed and I have gotten a lot done around the outside of the house. He's been planting and doing stuff of that nature (he's also the resident firebuilder) while I've been cleaning the gutters, doing poop patrol and raking leaves.

We put the deck table out and cleaned the umbrella, though in some places you really can't tell. The birds around here eat a lot of red berries, and when they poop they poop red. And it stains just about everything it falls on.

Our neighbor Phyllis gave me another lighthouse, too. This one also seems to be an antique, and it came in four pieces that we had to glue together.

Josh and I got out and threw the softball around and went to the batting cages. A little sore today, but it's a good sore that I expected after getting in my first softball action of the spring. I'd like to be able to get out and at least throw the ball around as much as possible in the next few weeks.

And we're only two weeks away from the start of baseball, less than that for the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. Let the games begin.

Big Idol Survivor Brother

*I will start by saying that I was very disappointed cutie boy/male stripper David Hernandez was voted off of American Idol last week. What was America thinking by keeping Kristy Lee Cook? Her bad Dolly Parton take on the Beatles' Eight Days a Week was like listening to somebody scratching their fingernails on a chalk board.

Oh well. I guess David's past really did come back to bite him in the ass, so to speak.

Favorite David Archuleta had another forgettable night, forgetting the words to We Can Work It Out. And I have to say that Carly Smithson might be my favorite now.

*James is back in the house on Big Brother after having been voted off 10 minutes before. After America voted to have Alex possibly return to the house, the Houseguests voted instead to bring back what they already know best, and that would be the freak with the pink mohawk. The Head of Household competition went well into the night, so tonight's episode should be a good one.

*Chet's gone from Survivor, which is probably a good thing. I have to say that in all the years I've been watching Survivor, he's the first that I thought just didn't belong. He was hurt, true, but he just seemed out of place and didn't perform very well in challenges.

Jonathan Penner is gone too, and that's just too bad. He had an injury that had gotten infected, and in fact had to have surgery when he left the show to clean the infection and possibly avoid losing his leg and even his life. I think he had a good chance of winning.

My favorite continues to be Ozzie. But Oz, here's some advice -- don't get too comfortable, and don't get too full of yourself or you could be the next voted off.

Jonathan Penner photo courtesy CBS

Sister Sue update

Well, she didn't have her third chemo treatment last Thursday, and the way things are looking now she just may skip the rest altogether.

She had another panic attack before her appointment, and on Friday had to go to the emergency room because she had a couple of seizures. When they did an MRI of her brain, the two lesions that had been there -- thus, the chemo -- were gone. Don't know what the liver looks like, but that has to be good news, right?

At least that's the way Sue and Sammie are taking it. Like my sister Cheryl said, I don't walk in their shoes, so it's not for me to judge what they do. Sometimes quality really does mean more than quantity.

And in this case, there's probably nothing farther from the truth...

The scoop on poop

I know, you are all sitting there with all kinds of questions about something that everybody does once or twice a day. At least I hope you are. If not, then maybe this site is just for you.

Here are all the answers to all your questions about poop (ain't poop a funny word?).

AND, it includes a small photo gallery.

Bon appetite.

Life is just a fantasy ...

It's that time of year again, Fantasy Baseball. Love it. Live for it. It's better than any other Fantasy sport out there, though the NFL is a close second.

I'm kind of a nut about it. I have four Yahoo! teams and one NL-only auction league team with some guys at work (that one is an homage to former Tigers' pitcher/nut Mark Fidrych).

I've got a couple of live drafts coming up, but one of my Yahoo! teams had its draft last week (in a league titled "Organized Kaos." Funny). I really like this team, for several reasons:

*I have several Cubs, including new Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome. Appropriate considering my team is named "Got Fuku?" Other Cubs include catcher Geovany Soto, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly.
*I also have two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, closers Mariano Rivera and Jason Isringhausen.
*My position players include Ichiro Suzuki, Nick Markakis, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Miguel Tejada and Shane Victorino.

Ah, I can already taste the champagne ...

Space, the final frontier ...

I love everything that has to do with the Space Shuttle. Last night, Endeavour blasted off for the International Space Station. The nighttime launch was quite a sight.

I think it's too bad they're going to retire the Shuttle program in 2010. I know it would probably be costly, but it seems to me we should have a way to fly back and forth to the ISS until the new orbiter is ready to fly in 2015.

Not a sermon, just a thought.

You don't see this headline every day ...

I'm just a rambler ...

*My neighbor in back of us, Phylis, gave us an old lighthouse that looks like an antique. I love lighthouses -- we have two in the front yard, one being a bird feeder. Phylis is very nice. She and Ed and have bonded in the past over plants.

*I want to go bowling, but nobody wants to go with me. Maybe Josh does. Ed doesn't seem to want to. We used to be in a league, for several years actually. But now it's kind of pain, considering where we live and all. I've got about a 160 average. Which doesn't compare to my softball friend Bobby's 200 or sister Cheryl, who probably comes in close to that. Bitches.

*Ed doesn't want to see 2007 Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men either. That's OK. I pre-ordered it on iTunes, and it is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Josh and I will give it a look this weekend probably. Ed will probably watch too, though he says only because it'll be on in the same room. He likes the Coen Brothers, so I think he'll like this too. I just hope I'm not in for a big disappointment.

*Is the weather ever going to change? After last week's near-Tornado, we had more heavy rain and winds this weekend. And it's snowing everywhere in the country but here. I like winter, but even I'm getting tired of this crap. Bring on spring for God's sake.

*Softball is just around the corner. I'll continue to coach my work team that plays on Saturday mornings for as long as they'll have me, but this will probably be the last year I play for my gay team NITRO, which plays on Sunday afternoons. Believe it or not, I've decided there are other things to do with my weekends.

Did I just say that? I must be feverish ...

Maybe I panicked too soon ...

... Well, my Cubs are actually playing pretty well right now, though you wouldn't know it by their 5-7 record.

But they did beat up the Royals 13-1 yesterday. Ryan Dempster is looking good as he makes the move back to starter from closer. And it's too bad Daryle Ward doesn't play very good defense because the guy is hitting a ton. He was 4-for-4 yesterday and is hitting .692 this spring.

I had been worried because a slew of injuries had suddenly taken down guys like Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa, Aramis Ramirez and Felix Pie. But all those guys are back in the lineup, or will be shortly. And the pitching staff is coming together nicely.

I still say the Cubs should get Brian Roberts from the Orioles, but DeRosa would become a super-utility guy and his at-bats would suffer. I really like both players. I'm sure the Cubs can make it work if it happens.

About the only thing Lou Piniella has to worry about now is what to do with Jason Marquis if he doesn't make the starting five. Rumors have had him going to the Tigers and Red Sox, but who knows? The guy does carry a little bit of baggage (a HUGE ego).

So, with opening day a little more than 21 days away, things are looking good. I'm feeling as good about this team as I have in a LONG time -- thus, the tattoo. My neighbor said something to the effect of "they haven't won the World Series. Now you've jinxed them." Whatever Mary.

No matter what happens this season, I'm a Cub fan for life. And with the tattoo, the afterlife too.

Talk about a bad hair day ...

This guy needs more than a shampoo & cut, I'd say.

Those funny Canadians ...